There was a period of time when The Almighty were the best british metal band out there. I thought they were great. I saw them three times. The best was probably when they supported Megadeth at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Also I saw them when they supported Iron Maiden at the Cambridge Corn Exchange and they also supported Metallica and Megadeth at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1993 (ish).
I don’t think I owned an Almighty album before this one. I have since bought a couple of extras but this one is very good. I bought it on CD back in the day and was pleased as there was a bonus disk of the band playing at Donington in 1992. This whole album is a good one. Well worth it. A good mix of acoustic and rock along with a few parts of thrash. The main riff in “Addiction” is super.
Favourites of mine are:
Jesus Loves You But I Don’t – a good break up song.
Powertrippin’ – (Hear the drummer get wicked)
Addiction
Takin’ Hold – (I watched a snail . . . . )
The bonus disc has a great short set from this band live at the Monsters Of Rock concert in 1992. The intro says enough:
Donington – Would you please welcome, from Glasgow, Scotland, the all-loud the all-wild the all-fucking-mighty.
Mr Announcer
The tracks from this make one of the best short live EPs I’ve heard. Decent rock and good crowd interaction.
Time to admit that although I have listened to this album quite a bit since owning it on a copied tape since I was about 18 there are only two songs that I can really remember. “Practice What You Preach” and “The Greenhouse Effect”. Sure, I’ve listened to the whole thing and I’ve enjoyed the album for many years but if you asked me which songs are on here those two would be your answer with some unqualified hand waving about the others.
I’ve seen Testament twice. Both times was pretty good. The first was alongside other greats of the 80s thrash revolution:
Suicidal Tendencies
Testament
Megadeth
Slayer
These four bands played a “Clash Of The Titans” tour and I saw them at Wembley Arena. I can still remember watching Testament and being excited at recognising the song “Practice What You Preach”. The other time I saw them was at Koko. Both times I was impressed.
This is one of those important albums where it helped forge the sounds in my head. It gave me breathing space and helped build the future mix of what I would like.
This album also contains a song about how humans are messing up the environment. This album was released in 1989. Climate change isn’t a new thing. It’s just been ignored by politicians for as long as we’ve known about it.
I was given this album by a friend, Vince, in the early 2000s. Curiously it was Vince’s wife who gave me two CDs by Rammstein around the same time! Pure Devotion is a compilation album by various artists attached to the Pure Devotion record label. This addition to my collection was worrying. Having been a metal fan for all this time and only really liking guitars, drums and vocals this album started to bring in electronic sounds with an industrial vibe. Along with the bands Senser, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails this was the start of exploring another music genre.
This album is a great starter into industrial-electronic music.
Beers, Steers and Queers – Revolting Cocks – you know it’s probably good when you can’t tell which is the band name and which is the title. This is a brilliant song from the Revolting Cocks. Everyone should experience this at some point in their life.
Supernaut – 1000 Homo DJs – this band come up first on my list of iPhone music. I think people find it amusing. This is a cover of the Black Sabbath song and it’s great. They’ve given it that industrial twist.
No Name, No Slogan – Acid Horse – A classic beat and haunting melodies in the background. A deceivingly simple song.
Murder Inc. – Murder Inc. – A heavier guitar based song with excellent lyrics. Funny how so much music is written to protest the state of the world.
Teenage Mind – Hyperhead – This is a spooky early 90s sounding track with steady beats and a trance like quality. Delightful.
July – Chris Connelly – This is a great song with a simple but working chorus. This man has been involved with so many greats, he’s instrumental to the whole scene: Acid Horse, KMFDM, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Murder Inc., PTP.
Faster Than Light – Lead Into Gold – Simple beats with sounds building up along with guitars and excellent vocals. What isn’t to like?
Rubber Glove Seduction – PTP – Samples, steady beats, an almost “Relax” vibe to it. You can feel the early beginnings of industrial and how it would move music on creating newer metal bands in the late 1990s.
Re-Release – Malhavoc – Speedy with a certain level of dischord and snarly vocals. This would get the pit going.
Conquer Your House – Excessive Force – More dance like than most of the others but with distorted vocals. This is good enough for me to buy one of their albums.
White King – Crow Force – A bit more rock with a rolling riff and faster beat.
Sympathy For The Devil – Skrew – A delightfully heavy version of the ‘Stones classic. Makes the song darker and more sinister.
Hoeda, Hoeda – Bomb Everything – A metal song with samples.
Ten Ground & Down – Pigface – Feels a bit 70s experimental.
This whole album is a great starter into electro-industrial.
Smith and I travelled to attend the Beat Cancer 2.0 festival last night. Last year we saw Freakangel play somewhere in east London and now the fund raising jaunt returned in a bigger venue and with eight bands. The gig was based in the large room downstairs at Electrowerkz and there was a small bar set up but there wasn’t really a lot of space. It looked like there was a wedding going on in the Tube Train room – you’ll know what I mean if you’ve been there.
So the music started about ninety minutes late. The organiser blamed Lufthansa as the headline band, iVardensphere, were in Germany at the beginning of the day and without planes had to get to London. They managed this and set up but the running order was late by a long way. I had an important event to attend the next morning and so while the event was scheduled to finish at midnight I didn’t mind that once the delay was announced it made seeing all the bands rather problematic. I guess most people attending didn’t have to march through a town in a Remembrance Parade eight hours later.
First band up were Drakenwerks who I had missed by turning up late to another gig when they supported Nachtmahr. My notes say that the band was made of a man and woman, they were OK and played upbeat electronics with a hint of EBM.
Drakenwerks – Electrowerkz
The lighting rig seemed to consist of single colour washes for each song. In the above I caught a “green” song.
Then there was Vain Machine. Two chaps from the USA and it was their first time in London. It was a bit too goth for me. They even played a terrible cover version of “I was made for loving you” by Kiss.
Vain Machine – Electrowerkz
Then there was the band of the organisers. The people who run this charity gig had a band and they played. It was experimental bullshit. A wall of noise. It was terrible. They were called Bein-E. Their full name was a massive German word but I only saw it on one piece of literature and didn’t make a note of it.
Bein-E – Electrowerkz
Then there was Cygnosic. This band was much more upbeat. The vocals were “growly” and while I didn’t understand what they were saying it was an improvement on most of the previous bands. The only problem was that their songs had no variation within. The structure was a single unit and lasted three minutes and stopped. I needed some form of difference as the song progressed. Judging by the accent of the singer when he spoke the band were from Spain or maybe Italy or similar [if they are Portuguese then I’ve probably offended a whole country!].
Cygnosic – Electrowerkz
It was now 23:00 and there were three bands to go. iVardensphere wouldn’t finish until around 01:30 and I had stuff I was required to do the next morning. I had to call it a day and drive home. I’m gutted, but at least I have seen the Sphere before. They were really good both previous times but I can’t change my schedule. I’ll see them again one day soon I expect.
I missed:
Nature Of Wires
C-Lekktor
iVardensphere
So, after all that I saw five bands of varying degrees of not-good and the one band I really wanted to see I couldn’t as I had to get home to parade the next morning in Maidstone. I was gutted but also aware of my commitments and limitations. It was good to see the Smith.
I bought this album, a massive two LP disk set in a box, back when I still had a record player. I suspect I got this while at university. I remembered The Cult from school where there were one or two songs that were pretty good, if a little pop. As this collection was meant to be the best of all worlds I chose to get it. I think they had a massive album called “Electric” or “Blue” or a combination of those, I’m not going to check.
Apart from listening to the more pop side of this album I don’t think I’ve really listened to the rest. This is possibly a failing on my side of the bargain but I guess they’ve already had my money, the failure is mine.
For the last few years I’ve really enjoyed the music of Faderhead. I was him/them play once at M’era Luna and it was an excellent show, a lot better than I was expecting, and I can’t wait to see them again some time. Because I enjoy the music and hope that Faderhead gets more success I’ve been contributing via Patreon to help out. I’ve also donated to Aesthetic Perfection over the years. I guess I’m in the fortunate position that I can offer a little bit and hope to enjoy the pay-off.
I donated some cash to help out with the costs of producing Faderhead’s latest album and my Patreon reward arrived yesterday:
Faderhead Asteria
This is a lovely touch and I’m happy to own a CD. This is probably my first CD in about four years as I download most of my music. Physical objects are good. Anyway, thanks to Faderhead.
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].
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.
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.
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.
