Tag: album

Posted on

Powerslave – Iron Maiden

Well, what can I say? I’m pretty sure I first listened to this after I had poured over the detail in Live After Death. There’s something remarkably clean about a studio album once you’ve digested the live version. My experience with Megadeth recently went the other way, the live version from Argentina made me revisit all the songs with a fresh perspective.

I used to spend time as a teenager lovingly looking over the album covers of the Iron Maiden albums trying to memorise every detail. The Powerslave album is one of the best covers I have ever seen, maybe Somewhere In Time comes close but I really enjoy the colours of the Powerslave cover.


The body bags and little rags of children torn in two,
And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you

Adrian Smith & Bruce Dickinson
  • Aces High – continuing the theme of Empire and the greatness of Britain this song extolls the virtues of the Few who defended our island whatever the cost may be. A great song even if the over-arching themes of this East End band are tired and colonial.
  • Two Minutes To Midnight – well crafted and one of the best. It’s written by Adrian Smith you see and that adds a certain level of clever to it. I’ve been fortunate enough to play this on stage with a bunch of better musicians.
  • Losfer Words – it’s an instrumental. It’s ok.
  • Flash Of The Blade – I guess it’s Bruce harking back to his upper class hobby of fencing. To be honest it’s a good song. Proper Maiden.
  • The Duellists – is an OK song over-shadowed by the rest of the album. Another Maiden song about fighting for things I don’t understand.
  • Back In The Village – The opening riff of this is amazing and I love it. The whole song is a return the the Prisoner theme of earlier tunes. It’s pretty good.
  • Powerslave – Everything about this song is amazing but [oddly] my favourite bit is the end. THIS is how you write the end to a song. Fuck all you who use fade out. Write a proper ending.
  • Rime Of The Ancient Mariner – It’s over thirteen minutes long but doesn’t really feel like it. I mean the opening riff sounds like The Flight Of Icarus but the rest of it chugs along giving all the time.

The top songs on this album are: 2 Minutes and Powerslave followed by Aces High and Back In The Village, although the field is crowded. Go and listen to this album. It’ll burn your soul [well, it won’t will it but you can claim such].

Posted on

Powerage – AC/DC

“You say that you want respect. Honey, for what?”

That sums up a lot of how I feel at the moment. Anyway, these communications are meant to be about the albums and what I think of them. I don’t think you can go wrong with ANY Bon Scott album. The way he sings, the lyrics he writes. You can feel the pain and love behind every song. I’ve been a pretty big fan of AC/DC since I was around sixteen years old. There’s something about that crunchy guitar sound and the delightfulness of Bon’s voice and cheek.

There were two of us at school who were really into AC/DC. We’d buy an album and then discuss it for ages. It was a common bond between us and none of the others. I shed a tear at the end of the Let There Be Rock video where the words “To Bon” come up on the screen at the end of the Paris show.

This is an excellent summer album. It has that lovely jauntiness where you can have this playing in the garden while drinking a large rosé. I can imagine the air around me warming my body as the sun dips below the horizon and Bon sings out about that Sin City and I slowly get drunk to remove myself from thoughts about anything specific. It’d be lovely. If I like sitting outside in the garden, which I don’t. Not sure why, I just don’t like it.

  • Rock and Roll Damnation
  • Down Payment Blues
  • Gimme A Bullet
  • Riff Raff
  • Sin City
  • What’s Next To The Moon
  • Gone Shootin’
  • Up To My Neck In You
  • Kicked In The Teeth

I love that plodding bass of AC/DC. The way the bassist and drummer work to ensure the song gets where it needs to. Malcolm riffing away in the background making all the songs work well to compliment Angus being over the top.

Then there’s Bon. Such a cheeky, tortured chap. He was amazing. I wish I’d had the chance to see him sing live, to see AC/DC in those early days. But, I couldn’t do much about when I was born.

Posted on

Power Of Lard – Lard

Strictly speaking this is an EP rather than an album and as such it doesn’t really belong in this section of the website, but who could resist? There are three songs on this EP and they are:

  • The Power Of Lard
  • Hellfudge
  • Time To Melt

For some reason, and probably racist ones, I had thought that this band was a quirky north England piss take punk band. But, after looking it up it turns out to be almost a superband! The first song comes in at over seven minutes and is really well constructed. Hellfudge is a good little rock song.

Time To Melt is a thirty minute tour de force. I’m not even sure I’ve ever listened to it all the way through.

Look, Al Jourgensen is on this album. That’s all you need to know.

Posted on

Pornograffitti – Extreme

Much like some smells this album, when I think about it , takes me back to a specific time and era of my life. This one takes me to around 1990 and Thornbera Road in Bishop’s Stortford. I can’t remember when I first heard of Extreme but this album made them big. It’s got some massive songs on it, probably ones I’ve over-played and so now just can’t be bothered with. I do remember them playing “Get The Funk Out” on TOTP and me being quite excited at how racy it was.

The massive songs on this were:

  • Get The Funk Out
  • More Than Words
  • Hole Hearted

Looking over the track listing I think it’s fair enough to say that this is a pretty good album but just one I don’t think I’ve listened to for twenty years.

Posted on

Piece Of Mind – Iron Maiden

I’m pretty sure I got this album after I had listened to a taped version of Live After Death. I don’t think I actually owned the live album, just a version that Mark Hodges had taped for me. I’ve bought it many times over since then though, on vinyl, on VHS and CD. But, we are here to talk about this album: Piece Of Mind.

You can’t help but love Iron Maiden. There’s that cheeky photograph on the back of the album with the band about to tuck into a medieval banquet of brains, there’s the “Britishness” [which those who know me will understand I struggle with] and there’s the public school boy humour from Bruce.

The rock and roll rules mean that if you change a band member they get to start the next release with an intro part. And thus begins Piece Of Mind with Nicko McBrain blatting out a drumming introduction to the rocking along “Where Eagles Dare”, which if I had ever really listened to the lyrics is probably a song about the second world war film about something or another.

“Revelations” is a fucking great song, so beautiful and lyrical. The worst thing is that stupid “Go” that Bruce shouts in the middle and when I first heard this song from the album I laughed at that point and I still do chuckle to myself. This song is better on Live After Death, it has a little more speed and a roughness to it. The album version is a little over-produced. I’ve just read that it was influenced by Aleister Crowley which is pretty annoying but I still like the song.

“The Flight Of Icarus” is boring and I don’t really like it. I mean, it’s a good song, I just don’t like it. The live version is a little drab too. The riff structure feels a lot like Mariner from the Powerslave album, it’s just the opening couple of beats that tell them apart!

“Die With Your Boots On” is a good song, well done live. But in reality this middle aged man struggles with the message of jolly good old bashing the enemy and dying on the field.

“The Trooper” a tour de force about another bloody battle the Brits got tangled up in. Nothing like bashing on about the glorious times. It’s a good song though. I think I’m just struggling with the jingoism and battle cry of it all.

“Still Life” has some excellent hi-hat action and it makes me excited.

“Quest For Fire” is ok.

“Sun and Steel” I like the riff and chorus structure. I like it all. It’s quite pop like in structure but I do enjoy it.

“To Tame A Land” is a good song but I think it struggles from being the last track on side two of the album and so I’ve played it little. It might be something to do with those pesky books by Frank Herbert.

Go and buy Live After Death rather than this. It’s a more powerful statement.

Posted on

Permission To Land – Darkness

This is a massive album. When the Darkness pounced onto the scene it was hilariously camp, 80s and rock. This small band from Ipswitch (?) made it big with their cheeky falsetto metal. But, what they did was make those sounds fashionable again. Of course I bought the album. I even went to see them play at Wembley Arena and for most of the gig the band seemed amazed that they were playing Wembley Arena.

I like the opening song “Black Shuck”. There’s one of those crappy mythical stories about a massive black dog roaming around the countryside of Anglia. As far as I know Anglia is that bit that sticks out to the north east of London. If you draw a line from Dartford Bridge to the Wash everything to the east of that is Anglia, I think. The big black dog is called the Black Shuck. It’s a really good shout out to the stories of my homeland.

Then you get “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” which, apart from the consent issues within that statement, is a great song. You haven’t heard the word motherfucker sung in a more beautiful way. If “your woman” has consented to have another person touch them then I am afraid there’s nothing you can or should do about it. She isn’t “your woman” she’s a person and if that’s what she wants to do then good for her. It’s probably time for you to have a discussion about your expectations of the relationship.

“I Believe In A Thing Called Love” is tremendous. Well worth the listen and a very well constructed song. It’s got some of my favourite types of song structures including lines with just the rhythm section playing – I do like that. That sound is a bit like why I like Dokken live, the bass and drummer belting out the riff while the solo goes on in the background.

The rest of the album is good and strikes a cheeky AC/DC vibe with the theatrics of Queen in the videos. It’s good holiday music I think. Not to be taken seriously but written with the style and panache of a grown up rock band who are having fun and making music that they enjoy. It’s a happy album.

During my visit to Washington DC in 2013 Rich and I listened to this album as we drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Great tracks for a great day.

Posted on

Peace Sells . . . But Who’s Buying? – Megadeth

This is a monster of an album.

Vic Rattlehead

A long time ago there was a documentary on BBC2 called “Heavy Metal”. In it they tried to explain heavy metal music. They had a clip of the comical Napalm Death along with some clips of Motorhead and, I seem to remember, a clip of Megadeth playing “Peace Sells But Who’s Buying” open air in Northern Ireland [at a time when there definitely wasn’t peace]. For a long while that opening riff stuck in my head and one day I bit the bullet and bought the vinyl album.

My initial reaction was one of disappointment. I loved the pop-like qualities of the title song but the opening made me think “oh, this is another thrash band”. How wrong I was.

After a few listens the genius of this album started to creep out and grab hold of me. It’s a gorgeous complete piece of art [although “I ain’t superstitious” is a bit shit].

If you know me then you know that I consider “Wake Up Dead” to be the best song ever. It contains THREE of the best metal riffs ever and they occur in the last half of the song. Being in the pit with this playing and the whole crowd bouncing in time with the riffs is an amazing memory.

This album was written while Mustaine was heavily into drugs and you can tell. It’s probably why it’s so good. He got cleaned up at some time later and found religion. Mind you, religion is a part of the 12 step process, and just to point out that AA or even NA is only ONE way of getting clean and the evidence shows it’s not the best way of doing it. Because one of the Daves found religion he refuses to play THE CONJURING live any more. Which is a fucking shame because it’s a great song.

The above video shows Nick Menza [just one of Megadeth’s many drummers] playing his part of The Conjuring during the same tour when I first saw Megadeth. It was the Clash Of The Titans tour. Amazing.

The title song of this album is amazing.

Devil’s Island rocks with its fast riffs and high paced beats.

Good Mourning/Black Friday – more classic Megadeth with proper fast complex riffs. Clearly showing why they are better than Metallica.

Bad Omens – sends shivers down my spine. These songs are so well crafted.

[I Ain’t Superstitious – terrible song] every band gets one free pass on every album as far as I’m concerned. With this album it’s this song. It’s shit.

My Last Words – weren’t the last words of the Daves and the next album is an almost complete and perfect selection but the raw power and speed of this album is amazing. You can feel the anger, the rage, the fighting. It speaks volumes, if you want to listen.

Posted on

Passion and Warfare – Steve Vai

Steve Vai? He’s a metal guitarist isn’t he? I’m pretty sure he played with Whitesnake and then some others. I should get this album. I think that was my thought process a long time ago when I bought this album on music cassette.

SteveVaiPassionAndWarfare.jpg
By Source, Fair use, Link

This album had problems with the record on the music cassette. I liked it, even though it was instrumental all the way, but the tape had some problems. When I finally got this on download or CD the sound was so much better. I didn’t take the tape to be replaced at the shop because that would require human interaction and I don’t enjoy that at all. This album and Back In Black both had problems which I never resolved.

I’d definitely recommend streaming this album. I know I’ve enjoyed it but I think the mood has to be correct. Give it a go yourself.

I grew up in the cross over age between analogue and digital recordings. My early memories of music was either vinyl or music cassette. At home there was a record player and I have owned two in my time. There was also a small “portable” music cassette player which was my mum’s and she had ABBA albums mostly to play on that. I do remember my dad having Oxygene by Jean Michele Jarre on tape but I don’t ever really remember them playing and enjoying the music. Strange that.

My first album was bought on vinyl. It was a big decision and my mum was quite insistent that I really wanted that album. The Ghostbusters OST is still considered a classic by those who grew up in the 80s. I don’t recall what my first music cassette was, it’s been a long time. I do know that the “purist” in me preferred vinyl to cassette and I would buy on vinyl and then self record the music to cassette for portability.

Compactcassette.jpg
By Thegreenj – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Both vinyl and cassette have issues with reproduction of sound. When Phillips and Sony announced the standards for the Compact Disk it seemed an exciting world. To me it seemed strange that we would soon have to adopt new music systems and spend more money. I think I often fall into the trap of thinking that the current life we lead should be static and things shouldn’t change, but change they do. Music reproduction had been improving for all the time music had existed and the five-track had been and died, the phonograph was being improved, digital was on the way.

There were digital tapes and mini-disks but the CD has proven to be true to time and works well. I can remember watching Tomorrow’s World when they described a CD and played one in the studio. I can remember thinking that the sound quality wouldn’t work over the analogue broadcast just before the presenter said that us at home wouldn’t be able to tell the difference because of the analogue transmission system.

Television is now digital and 5.1 sound is transmitted on many channels. Sound quality is improving all the time. New standards are developed and the march forwards continues. I doubt the file sizes can get any smaller because there’s a lower limit on compression of information but I do think that we are now heading the other way and some people will start moaning that all music should be stored at a lossless CD quality.

When I was a teenager my pocket device carried ninety minutes of music. My current device carries over six thousand songs and I’m not even halfway full of the capacity. It’s quite remarkable.

Posted on

Pandemonium – Killing Joke

Killing Joke? They wrote “The Wait” didn’t they? That song from Garage Days Re-Revisited by Metallica. Yes they did.

I’m still not sure about Killing Joke. Some of their stuff is amazing and some of it leaves me cold. There’s something about the wishy-washy guitar sound that doesn’t always work. Perhaps they inhabit the mysterious wastelands between metal and indie?

This album though is five stars [out of five]. The guitar work is heavy and decent, possibly grungy, while the song structures along with style all make this feel like a decent album. I played this over and over when I first discovered it. The songs have a dreamy, calming feel, leading to relaxation and enjoyment.

This album comes recommended to all.

Posted on

Out Of Exile – Audioslave

This is one of three albums by Audioslave that I own. I can’t tell you specifically about this particular album but I can tell you that all three are good and were played very regularly around fourteen years ago.

I’m not sure how I discovered Audioslave, I think I have these on CD so I had to physically buy them at some point. When I started listening to the band I don’t think I was aware of their pedigree. I did notice that some of the guitar work is quite innovative and the solos seemed out of place compared to the easy rock listening of the rest of the songs.

Audioslave is:

  • Chris Cornell [Soundgarden]
  • Tom Morello [Rage Against The Machine]
  • Tim Commerford [Rage Against The Machine]
  • Brad Wilk [Rage Against The Machine]

This band is a fusion of the Seattle sound and L.A. influences and it shows. It’s well worth getting. But, here’s the rub: I haven’t listened to this album for a long time so I can’t do a list of which songs are best and which ones make me shiver but I do know that I enjoy listening to every Audioslave album. Maybe I’ll write more about the Revelations album when I get there.

This is the last “O” album in the current round of album reviews.

Posted on

Origin Of Symmetry – Muse

I have tried Muse. I’ve tried really hard. The problem is I hate it. About eight years ago I borrowed three albums from a student at work. I listened to them and I tried really hard to like it. I wanted to like it. I can hear it and appreciate the cleverness and the writing, I can see why people love them, I know they are a very technological wary band – they produced a VR music video. I’ve had it explained to me that the shows are amazing. But you know what?

I still hate it.

I think it’s his voice. It could be the melody. I don’t know. It leaves me cold. Almost sick.

Posted on

Open Up And Say Ahh! – Poison

I was in the sixth form at school when my metal and rock awakening truly happened. I saw Iron Maiden in December 1988 during that academic year. I’d spent a few years learning my stuff. Metallica played regularly in the common room and pretty much the whole sixth form liked its metal. There wasn’t really any other type of music played as far as I can remember – but this could be just confirmation bias. We had study booths and in and around them we decorated them with pictures of bands and singers.

Brett Michaels is the singer in the band Poison, his picture was up on the wall. I found this picture confusing. I wasn’t sure if it was a man or a woman. It amused me the idea that this hard, heavy, macho, sexist genre of music produced so many stars who were sexually dubious. When someone told me it was Brett Michaels I was very much, “Oh, ok then”. Whether a man or a woman wore make-up didn’t bother me either way. Do what you want was in my mind. I don’t think it was a rule to be explained to people as it is now but it was there in my conscious.

Brett Michaels

These days I feel I have to explain to the world that people can do what they want [within the realms of the current socially-liberal laws] that makes them happy as long as it’s consensual. Two men, two women, four men, any combination, dress how you want, wear make up, do whatever. As long as it is consensual then feel free. I reckon that poster of Brett Michaels helped me start to build my ideas of society and its rules. Another time was the first Red Nose Day when I wore make up around the school for a laugh, I liked it.

I should probably talk about the music as that what these communications are about. I have had the album playing while I’ve been working at the computer and also writing this. I’m four songs in and haven’t had a bad song yet. It’s all good natured lovely rock songs. Brilliant stuff. Now to skip the songs a little to jog my memory.

Look But Can’t Touch has an amazing opening riff and I reckon it would make an amazing thrash song or even some decent aggrotech. I wonder if I can make the other half of my art collektiv give this a working over?

  • Love On The Rocks
  • Nothin’ But A Good Time
  • Back To The Rocking Horse
  • Good Love
  • Tearin’ Down The Walls
  • Look But You Can’t Touch
  • Fallen Angel
  • Every Rose Has Its Thorn
  • Your Mama Don’t Dance
  • Livin’ For The Minute

I’m going to put my neck out and state that Your Mama Don’t Dance is the weakest song with it’s bullshit rock ‘n’ roll riff. It’s a popular song but it misses the mark as far as I am concerned. Then there’s “Every Rose”; It’s an amazing song but I think it’s been over done in my head, slightly over cooked, it’s too big, it’s so well known. “Rose” is a great song, it’s just too much now.

Every song on this album is excellent and it’s a very good BBQ summer, outdoors album where no one would dare be offended. I do love my 80s cock-rock and I love this album.

Posted on

Once More ‘Round The Sun – Mastodon

I got this album because I went to see Mastodon play at the Brixton Academy. I was quite impressed with the album, it’s complex and has a unique style. I don’t think I’ve really listened to it since I went to the gig though.

A strange thing popped out of this for me, I think the drummer sounds a lot like Nicko McBrain when he drums. I’m not wordy enough to be able to explain but there’s something in the complexity of the fills and rolling beats that reminds me of Iron Maiden.

This album is worth listening to. I’m not sure I’d buy any more from this band though.

Posted on

On Through The Night – Def Leppard

I had this album copied on music cassette at first. I can’t quite remember who I got it from but it was possibly the chap who I had planned to see Def Leppard with in 1988. There were two of us at school who liked the band and I was meant to go and see them play at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Hysteria tour. I didn’t go to that in the end as I secured a place on the Cyprus camp and that seemed more worthwhile.

This is the first album by this band. IT is a monster album musically. I don’t know if it was a numerical success [checks Wikipedia], it did OK for a debut. I reckon it did well ultimately because fans went back and bought the back catalogue. I know that Def Leppard were disappointed at being lumped in with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal which was a mostly London thing. Def Leppard were from [checks Wikipedia, wants to write Sheffield] Sheffield and didn’t really like all that London stuff.

I love this album.

What gets me most is how well all the songs are crafted so well for such a young band. You could swap this and their second album and it would make more sense. In my mid to late teens I found High n Dry a little too-samey and this, the first album, was interesting all the way through. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in that early 80s sound of rolling bass lines and proper sounding guitars.

So, the singer has a classic high voice, but that was a part of its time. The bass is lovely and loud, the guitars work together in harmony and each song has tempo breaks and fits together in a Coca Cola contour-bottle shaped audio-scape [that last metaphor is either amazing or bullshit].

When writing these reviews I tend to have that album on in the background, jogging my memory as I write. The sounds for this album have made me stop and listen a number of times. This is a good thing, I normally don’t pay attention to the music, or at times I don’t have the songs playing as it is an album I know intimately.

  • Rock Brigade – lovely
  • Hello America – a little bit bullshitty
  • Sorrow Is A Woman – great guitars, lovely lyrics, good riff
  • It Could Be You – look, all these songs are
  • Satellite – really good, except for the “ooh yeah”s in this one
  • When The Walls Come Tumbling Down – a post apocalyptic wonder
  • Wasted – Excellent opening riff, the beat keeps going, excellent
  • Rocks Off – classic high speed riffage (possibly live but I think the crowd sounds were a post production issue
  • It Don’t Matter – Lovely
  • Answer To The Master – to be said with an American accent, also has a classic starty-stop solo section with some awesome bass work [I guess the guitars are good too]
  • Overture – this is an amazing piece of writing that still shakes me

Look metal fans. Go and buy this. Listen and enjoy. Play it to your family telling them it’s one of the best. They won’t understand.

Posted on

O.G. Original Gangster – Ice-T

This is a slightly unexpected sight in these pages I guess. what happened is that Ice-T released a heavy metal album called Body Count. It made me wonder if I would like his more “traditional” stuff. So, I bought this CD.

Here’s the shocker – I didn’t mind it. I liked the beats and most of the lyrics. It seemed a good fun album to own.

This album did consort with controversy because the second track was meant to be Princess Diana speaking about being completely on Ice-T’s dick. I mean it sounds like a well spoken British person but if it really was Di that would have been the absolute best.

Don’t play this with the kids around.

Posted on

Not Fragile – Bachman-Turner Overdrive

This album is so very important to me. I’m not sure I’ll be able to get across why but I’ll give it a go. The most talented writer I am not.

My earliest memory of rock music is being in the back of the Smith’s car and they decided to play this via a music cassette. I can remember being driven in a Ford Granada along Gilden Way in Harlow and all the members of the Smith family banging their heads up and down. I’m not sure I understood what was going on. I was young, somewhere around ten. This whole event seemed strange. I form of loud guitar music when you move your head.

I’d only been exposed to Abba and Jean Michel Jarre at home. I don’t think there was any rock in the house. There might have been some of The Shadows but nothing particularly heavy. We have to skip a bit after that and it’s worth reading this communication about my descent into metal music. Music back in those days was hard to find, it was exciting to be able to listen to something you had search for, something others hadn’t heard, something that was your own. It’s like finding that one book that really affects you but no-one else has read.

I don’t know when I bought this album. I expect I had a taped copy for a long time. I’m pretty sure I have a CD version somewhere now but, of course, it’s all digital and on a NAS now.

What amazes me about this album is that it is a complete and fully-rounded rock album and it was released in 1974! I probably expect that rock started around 1980, when I became music-conscious, of course every generation likes to think they invented sex (or music).

Bachman–Turner Overdrive.png
By Mercury Records – Billboard, page 27, 7 September 1974, Public Domain, Link

I have loved this album for over thirty years and I expect I will continue to do so. There isn’t a song that is fast or crazy. Just a complete album of well-crafted songs that make you want to dance, or smash your head on something. I’ve always been amazed at just how beautiful the two lead guitars sound when they solo together.

  • Not Fragile – the title track starts with a blistering bass line and continues to develop into a crushing riff. I love it. The duelling guitars is amazing.
  • Rock Is My Life, And This Is My Song – Lovely. A wonderful song.
  • Roll On Down The Highway – classic rock anthem with a wonderfully crafted solo.
  • You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – arguably the weakest song on this album but annoyingly the most well known.
  • Free Wheelin’ – An instrumental with some classic stop-start riffs. It’s built upon all the classic forms of rock/blues. It even has a bass solo. Love it.
  • Sledgehammer – another of my favourites. The opening riff slowly beats out and makes this song a calming beast.
  • Blue Moanin’ – I do think this is the second weakest song on this album. I mean it’s good but one of them has to be bottom of the list doesn’t it? I’m excluding You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet from the list.
  • Second Hand – you gotta love a cheeky muted cow-bell in this song. This is a great song.
  • Givin’ It All Away – an upbeat bluesy riffed beast of a song that would get a pit going (maybe, if we weren’t all so old).

This album isn’t metal. But it’s some of the finest blue-rock you can find. It still holds it own forty five years after release. If I had my way either everyone would know this or no-one. You aren’t good enough for this music.

Posted on

No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith – Motörhead

This is a monster of an album. Buy it. Play it. Love it.

I was meant to see Motörhead play in around 1990 with two friends, Smith and KH. That didn’t happen because of a falling out between me and KH. I didn’t go. I’ve heard the show was really good. Oh well. I had to wait until 2013 to see Motörhead live at Download Festival and they were OK but very much a product of their time. This album though captures them at their very best.

I bought this on tape [music cassette] waaay back. I can remember listening to it while I worked at Cossor Electronics in my “gap year”. I had an AIWA portable cassette player with bass-boost and this album was a great kick in the ears. Gap Year is in quotation marks there because I never intended to go to university but things happen, maybe I’ll write about it here.

I think the thing that this album surprised me the most was the elegance with which Lemmy plays the bass and how his rolling riffs and scales really fit the music. I’m not sure I’d be able to hear this subtlety live but in this album it shouts out.

  • Ace Of Spades – bloody marvellous.
  • Stay Clean – another great song.
  • Metropolis – not a bad song on this album.
  • The Hammer – it’s metal isn’t it.
  • Iron Horse – better than when Bon Jovi mentioned it.
  • No Class – say it with an American accent.
  • Overkill – Often imitated never bettered.
  • (We Are) The Roadcrew – Just listen to that scream.
  • Capricorn – Not a unicorn.
  • Bomber – I’ve not seen the video but I suspect this is when the lighting rig, shaped as a bomber, flies over the band.
  • Motörhead – This is the best.

Just before the band play Motörhead Lemmy says “Just In Case”. This phrase echoes through my brain, it’s there as a constant catch phrase, I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve written it on pupils’ leaving books in the past and referenced this album in the hope they listen to it. The bass playing explodes out of the speakers and knocks you flat. It’s an amazing song and the rhythm of the vocals makes me smile. I don’t really know what Lemmy sings, it’s not thing – vocals, I leave those to Smith.

Everyone should own this album, even if it’s to put on at the end of a party to get rid of everyone, or to celebrate a great night. Go and buy it.

Posted on

No More Tears – Ozzy Osbourne

It’s Ozzy isn’t it! You don’t need much more than that. This freaky person who once bit the head of a live bat during a concert. This man who took copious quantities of drugs and who invented Heavy Metal. This man who still writes great music. This god of metal.

And then you see him on a reality TV show and it shocks you just how fucked he is. His body is knackered and you can actually see him thinking. The show highlighted just how much his wife had managed him and got him clean, eventually.

Whoever your heroes are they will let you down eventually. This downfall will be quicker if you see or meet them in real life. Never meet your heroes. I used to think Ozzy was a god, now he’s a broken man.

I’m pretty sure this was the first Ozzy album I bought. There are a couple of others but I think I got this one on music cassette. It’s a brilliant album. It’s very well produced and has excellent songs on it. I’ve loved the rolling bass lines keeping the rhythm section going and the creepy sound clips over the top. There’s a certain beat to these songs that is a slow but heavy boom that means you can feel the urge to move and bounce along.

Mr Tinkertrain – excellent.
Mama, I’m Coming Home – tear jerker.
No More Tears – brilliant opening, the riffing is ace.
Hellraiser – damn good.
Zombie Stomp – written with the audience in mind.
A.V.H. – darn good.

I’ve enjoyed this album for many years and it still pleases me, which is no mean feat.

Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress