I bought this because I really like American Way by this band. I’m not sure I’ve listened to this particular album all the way through. I have nothing else to say about it.
Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds – White Zombie
This album is, I think, a remix of Astro Creep 2000. It’s got a lovely industrial feel to it. I wonder if this along with some Nine Inch Nails got me into aggrotech. It has a real mix of styles and I like it. Rob Zombie has made some excellent music and this album does not disappoint. This is well worth getting.
Suicide Pact: You First – Therapy?
This is one of those albums which I like and think is pretty good. But when it comes to trying to name a song from it I would not be able to tell you one. This is a “me” problem rather than an album problem. I’ve got it playing as I type this and the first song is pretty good. This album would have been recommended by Smith. He was really into Therapy? in the early 90s. All I know about them is that they are from the island of Ireland (I’m not sure which side) and they have some excellently political songs. As an album this is worth owning.
Studio Tan – Frank Zappa
I listened to this a few times after recommendations by Shredder. At this moment I could not tell you what I thought of the album. I know I didn’t hate it. But I also have no recollection of any of the songs. Looks like I’m going to have to play it while I write my next communication.
Strong Arm Of The Law – Saxon
I think I have a live album by Saxon and it’s great. OK, I’ve just checked and it wasn’t a live album it was a “best of” which is really the same thing. I have no idea if I’ve played this album. Probably at some point but I couldn’t tell you what’s on it. But that’s not to say it’s a bad album. It’s that you know what you are getting when you select Saxon to play.
Strays – Jane’s Addiction
Jane’s Addiction was a band that I kinda missed the first time around. I was aware of the name and knew people liked them but I couldn’t tell you anything about them. Then there was a reality singer competition show on TV and Dave Navarro was one of the judges. I think I first saw this show when I was in Melbourne, Australia. EW introduced him to me as the replacement guitarist from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers but I was more impressed he was in Jane’s Addiction – music from whom I still didn’t know.
I bought this album as an attempt to get into Jane’s Addiction and while the songs are OK there’s something about their style that just doesn’t do it for me. It’s a bit like Pearl Jam – some people absolutely rave and love them totally but for me I’m left a little cold. It’s not their fault, obviously, but I can’t explain it.
Strange Little Girls – Tori Amos
I think I’ve listened to this album twice and both times it made me feel unwell. I remember buying it because it seemed a really neat concept. But I can’t listen to it. It’s a bit like White Wine In The Sun by Tim Minchin – I can’t listen to that song either but for very different emotional reasons.
Stiff Upper Lip – AC/DC
Yes, I own a copy of this album but I’m not convinced I’ve ever played it. I’ve got it on now as I write this and I know not of these songs. It doesn’t matter. It’s an AC/DC album and you know how they go.
State Of Euphoria – Anthrax
From the opening cello to the finale this is a great album. It was the first Anthrax album I owned and to me it is a complete summation of their style. They are the only band of the big four that I haven’t seen live and I do hope that changes one day.
Be All, End All – great riffs, fast pace, tuneful vocals and changes of pace. Such an excellent song.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind – the second song with a comma in the title and another where the opening riff changes to fast paced melodic riffage. I think Anthrax manage to make excellent pace and riff style changes really well, a great band.
Make Me Laugh – some superb reverse drumming in this and while I know what I mean I’m not sure you will. Doesn’t matter. Pretty sure this song is about evangelical christians screwing money out of people.
Antisocial – not written by Anthrax but by Trust, a French metal band whose music is pretty cool. I think the original is better but this is a great version and brings obscure French rock to the masses.
Who Cares Wins – a lovely acoustic opening heading into lovely ringing chords and finally thrash riffs.
Now It’s Dark – I love this riff. Bouncy and excellent for the pit. The vocals are really melodic and overall this is great. A little bit of swearing too which is always excellent. The change of pace half way is brilliant.
Schism – a great song.
Misery Loves Company – I’m pretty sure this is about the Stephen King book but I’m not really a lyrics man so maybe it’s about something else completely but the book hypothesis seems to work well.
13 -spooky opening, strange sounds, lovely short instrumental.
Finale – The opening sends shivers down my spine, that echoing guitar blat. Lovely. Over, finished, done, gone, out.
Start Something – Lostprophets
How do you review an album you really liked and has great music but the lead singer was convicted of many sexual offences involving children?
Stand In Line – Impellitteri
I have spent ages trying to remember who lent me the tape of this band back in around 1990. I know it was a friend of SR and I also know which shop this person’s mother ran but I just can’t remember her name. I’m genuinely not sure why this was leant to me but I do know that I really liked it. It’s got a particular 70s rock fantastic feel to it especially with the vocals. There’s a cover of Since You’ve Been Gone which wasn’t really needed but it’s ok and rocked-up quite a bit. There’s also the “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” which, I think, annoys the shit out of me. This album is kinda what would happen if Yngwie J Malmsteen got hold of some of your favourites.
The album opens with an ominous bell tolling introduction to “Stand In Line” which contains the lyrics “in front of the cigarette vendor”, who does that? “Secret Lover” is a speed assault on melodic rock and works, I think. I like the bass sounds. “Tonight I Fly” chucks along and hits all the right early 80s sound points, the verse sounds slightly discordant but over this is a good song. “White and Perfect”, is this about cocaine, Jesus, white people? Oh, it’s about British colonialisation of Africa and India, but the bad bits. “Leviathan” I do like the operatic feel to this one. “Goodnight and Goodbye” doesn’t really stand out and along with “Playing With Fire” closes out the album.
This is the last, alphabetically, of the three Impellitteri albums I have. It is the best of those as the others are, amusingly, incredibly religious and while that doesn’t necessarily make an album bad it does not make it any better.
Stacked Up – Senser
Holy Shit – This Album!
This album changed my views on music. Most of the music I have ever listened to has been recommended by Smith. He says stuff, I listen and then I like. Our journey through music together has been one of the defining relationships of my life. Without him I wouldn’t have discovered or even felt comfortable liking most of the music I do. I was in the second year at university when this recommendation came through to me. I think the thing that this album had was raging guitars along with some electronica songs and sampling etc. It’s a complete and utter game changer for me and stunning. I have loved this album since then. Why is it that the best albums are written by musicians with a left-leaning political bent?
So, the lead singer rap/sings his way through the songs. There’s another vocalist who is female and sounds amazing. Heavy guitars. Superb bass work. Drums that sound a little “Manchester” but that’s forgivable. Flutes! Sampling. Everything is here. This album is a real good one for chilling out and laying on the floor in the dark with sunglasses on.
I’ve seen this band twice and I think I wish it was more than that. I saw them in Southsea and also at The Underworld. Both times I really enjoyed it.
I might have been obsessed with some of the Eject remixes and I’ll mention them later.
States Of Mind – Electronica opening to a heavy wavy riff with rap singing over the top. The chorus swaps things around to calm glow. The band use bass only and guitar only well. Even the change of key does not make me cringe as it does in most other songs. I guess this song is about how we should change our programmed prejudices. Brilliant.
The Key – This song canters along with a rolling bass line and power chords ringing out. It has all the elements of Senser here with samples, scratching, funky sounds at points, haunting vocals from Kerstin.
Switch – The metal feel softens with this song as the guitars are mostly high pitched and wavy. Lots of programming used in this one with a rolling bass line as the main feature for me.
Age Of Panic – Straight from the start you know this is high tempo. Great build up to the main part of the song, another one with screamy high pitched guitar lines. The chorus for this one increases the bass line to assault your ears. It’s great.
What’s Going On – Heavy opening riff that dissolves into a beat with flute. The production on this one focuses less on the guitars and hits home with bass and electronic sounds.
One Touch One Bounce – This almost seems a non-song and comes over as the first attempt at calming electronica. This allows you to breathe in the centre of this album.
Stubborn – more rolling bass lines [I’m very jealous] then the guitars and vocals join a great riff. This song has a gorgeous bit in the middle with a mixture of sounds to set the ears afire.
Door game – The flute opens to a decent beat with different sounds and structure. There’s an off-beat hi-hat which is lovely. No heavy guitars in this one so a change of pace.
Peanut Head – Another excellent bass line with a cantor gait. This song has a more funky feel. The structure of the songs starts to feel “Senser” by this song. Middle sections with drums and samples, build up with bass and guitar intros building to the last section of the song.
Peace – This is an important song because it calms you before the next. It soothes you into careful breathing, such loveliness.
Eject – This song. This MF song. Upbeat. Rattling guitars. Galloping through the verses and I can imagine the crowds bouncing together and then moshing as the chaos increases. This song feels just as relevant to me today as it did twenty five years ago. We are all conditioned to to this thing, to work, to accept what we have. It’s time to Eject the power.
No Comply – Thrash speed and a massive antifa anthem. This song links more politics with lyrics and hits home with explanations of how racism is created in people. Fantastic song.
Worth – After the last two songs of high intensity this one lets you down calmly. It’s a fantastic outro to a fantastic album. I still want to play the whole thing at incredible volume.
I wrote about Elect EP in 2014 and to me that feels quite recent! I must be getting on a bit. This album is a good one for the car Mr O.
Spreading The Disease – Anthrax
I think I bought this album for the song Armed and Dangerous. I haven’t really listened to it that often. For some reason the early Anthrax stuff doesn’t quite work for me! Not sure why. I think this is one I’m going to have to play over this week to get used to and observe properly.
South Of Heaven – Slayer
It has taken a while to get around to writing this particular album review. Mostly because I wanted to make sure I give an honest view and make sure I listen to the album before I write this. Some albums I know instantly what to write. Sometimes I need to listen to them. This one deserved time. My last album review was published on 25 December last year so it’s been a while.
This is the album that got me into Slayer.
There isn’t a bad song on here.
This is an amazing album and along with Seasons In The Abyss I consider them masterpieces.
Every song on this album is great. They all have moments of glory and should be listened to the world over.
Pretty much all the albums reviews have been written leading to this point where I quote the lyrics from a verse of South Of Heaven:
“Bastard sons beget your cunting daughters,
Promiscuous mothers with your incestuous fathers.
Engreat souls condemned for all eternity,
Sustained by immoral observance a domineering deity.”
Look at it. Amazing. Who writes this stuff for songs?
I don’t think I can write a review of each song because they will all use the same words. A wordsmith I am not. You should have realised that by now. Shout outs belong to South Of Heaven, Mandatory Suicide, Behind The Crooked Cross for the chugging intro – I love it.
Soul Destruction – Almighty
In the early 90s I saw The Almighty almost as many times as I had seen Wolfsbane. I think The Almighty supported Maiden, Megadeth and also Metallica at Milton Keynes so that’s a pretty good list of gigs. This album was one I played a lot. It’s very good british heavy metal [British spelt with a deliberate small “B” there]. Crucify is a good opening song and Free ‘N’ Easy is a classic one for the charts. It’s all good.
Somewhere In Time – Iron Maiden
This album is not among the list of Maiden albums I will play for enjoyment. The overall sound and production leaves me a little cold. I played it recently while planning to write this and I have to say, it’s not as bad as I remembered. That said, there are two songs which are good and the rest are iffy as far as I’m concerned. Wasted Years and Heaven Can Wait are pretty good, I even found myself singing Heaven Can Wait a few months ago out of nowhere.
Fuckin’ keyboards.
So Far, So Good . . . So What! – Megadeth
There are only eight songs on this album and two of those are arguably shit. But, this is still one of the greatest albums out there. It is stupendous. It goes to show what you can do with copious amounts of drugs and a creative bent.
Into The Lungs Of Hell – blasts you away with high speed melodic riffs, no voices, just upbeat metal forcing the blood from your ears.
Set The World Afire – A high speed riff leading into an amazing main riff with a “rolling” drum beat. Brilliant song.
Anarchy In The UK – shit. A shit version of a classic song. They even had Glen Matlock playing on the song, but it’s still rubbish. It doesn’t fit. I wasn’t aware that Megadave changed some of the lyrics until I came to sing this song on stage at a school event. Apparently the is a line about council tenancies, but this version has “cunt like tendencies”. Maybe the Pistols knew what they were doing with this just to get airtime.
Mary Jane – another shit song. At least the shit ones are next to each other so you can double skip. I don’t know why but I’ve never liked this one.
502 – Not sure there’s a better soundtrack for racing your car and driving like a twat. This is a great song.
In My Darkest Hour – I can’t count the number of times I listened to this laying on the floor in a darkened room. It’s a great song for any mood. If you are happy it will lift you. If you are sad it will fuck you over. This song was written after Mustaine heard about the death of Cliff and it shows. This is an absolute masterpiece of metal song writing and never fails to emote me. If you think you are bored of this song listen to the live version at the River Plate. You just laughed, ha ha, bitch.
Liar – if you want hateful and vindictive then this is great. Not only is it musically good but the lyrics in the middle [although slightly troublesome in this accepting age] are ingenious. I don’t have a problem if your brother is a gay singer in a stud leather band.
Start trouble, spread pain
Dave Mustaine
Piss and venom in your veins
Talk nasty, breathe fire
Smell rotten, you’re a liar
Sweat liquor, breathe snot
Eat garbage, spit blood
Diseased, health hazard
Scum bag, filthy bastard
Greasy face, teeth decay
Hair matted, drunk all day
Absessed, sunken veins
Rot gut, scrambled brain
Steal money, crash cars
Rob jewelry, hock guitars
Rot in Hell, it’s time you know
To your master, off you go
You’re a liar, a fucking liar!
Hook In Mouth – God this song is great. I’ve seen this live and I love it. Such an excellent chugging riff along with a decent drum pattern. It’s everything that is great about a metal or thrash song. You can bounce to this, or stand and sing, you can shout out, you can accept this song to blast your body in whatever way you want. It’s brilliant.
Smells Like Children – Marilyn Manson
This will probably annoy some of the Manson fans out there but most of his stuff sounds the same to me and as much as I enjoy it I’ve never really spent the time to play a single album over and over. I’d like to see him live though.
Smash – Offspring
I’m not sure why I bought this album. I suspect it was for the lyric below. I’ve not really listened to it.
Drivers are rude
The Offspring
Such attitudes
But when I show my piece
Complaints cease
Something’s odd
I feel like I’m God
You stupid dumbshit goddam motherfucker!
Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi
I’m not really that sure where to start with this album. It has been such an influence on me since I bought it in the 80s sometime. I was about 14 or 15 when I got this. I guess I bought it after seeing something on Top Of The Pops or hearing one of the singles a lot on the radio. This was the beginning of my descent into metal. I will have played this album over and over again. There was a time period when I had this projecting from the speakers and I was using a rowing machine because I must have become self-conscious about my body. As I write this I’m getting the feels for around Brize Norton camp which was 1987 so let’s place this in summer the of ’87. My discovery of Iron Maiden and AC/DC would have been around this time too.
The keyboard opening of this album amazed and still amazes me. I love it. The way it links in with the main riff of Let It Rock is brilliant. The song itself is a slow and heavy celebration of everything about the genre.
I’m not that much of a fan of rock ballads and I think I pretty much tolerate them nowadays but historic me loved them and always wanted a decent ballad on every album. This album has them and they are good if disturbing. Without Love explains that “she” is not young, but still a child and also a prostitute – the 80s were troubling for lyrics and anything approaching female equality in movies and songs. If this communication gets read in Cornwall I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong about anything within these words. Never Say Goodbye makes me want to slowly bleed to death these days but it would have affected me emotionally when I was a moody teenager. It celebrates fucking in a car, I’m pretty sure.
Social Disease starts off with sound effects from a porn set and I always gave a wry smile at that point in this album. It felt rebellious and bad to be listening to something this rude. Nowadays who cares? I’m sure there are plenty of folk who will be shocked by what exists but now I’m older not a lot shocks me. Even stuff made to shock doesn’t shock me. Partly I think it is because “I’ve seen things” and so extreme stuff can get shrugged off but I also think it’s about my politics. There’s that idea that as you get older you become more conservative and selfish [although I could argue they are the same thing]. I find I become more and more left wing as I get older. Anyway, this song is a good’un.
Want a happy song? Then Wild In The Streets is for you. Such an upbeat and happy tune. I’m sure there’s some cowbell in there at the beginning. If it isn’t then it should be, I reckon I could write songs better than Jon. This is another song about fucking in a car. I guess that must have been a thing that happened.
Get the crowd going and waving their hands with Raise Your Hands. I have no idea if I’ve ever seen them play this live but it’s an upbeat song with a great chorus and obviously written to be played live and get the crowd going. Always include a list of all the places you want to visit so you can shout out to them on the world tour. It’s lovely.
I’ve played You Give Love A Bad Name on stage and it was great fun. A good song. We played it terribly. But it was still fun. Oh, do you remember those days? When people could gather in safety and enjoy something collectively. I so look forward to those days again but I will be sad that people will forget the pain and suffering that this government caused through inaction and incompetence. Don’t you go telling me that it must have been a tough job and they did their best – it is quite clear that their best isn’t up to the job of governing. They are a shit-show of people and should be replaced. A pandemic isn’t the time to push your petty ideas of social change. Fuck them.
I think I’ve played Living On A Prayer too. I seem to remember asking for a count in to the song from the drummer and then completely ignoring that count and playing at my own speed. There’ll be a version of it somewhere on my YouTube channel I guess. Everyone loves a song where they can pretend to sing the chorus. Just watch out for the key change. Oh, and fuck key changes. I’m convinced they are lazy writing and mean you could think of a way to change your song. I know people love them but to me they are like fade-endings. Lazy. Yes, I’m being critical of skills that are far ahead of mine and I should say anything but I have!
Go and get this album. Try not to worry about the 80s lyrics and learn the history of rock.