Month: October 2022

Friday New Releases – October 21, 2022

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Happy Friday! We have another batch of over 40 releases for you this week, but will any of them be talked about more than Taylor Swift’s new one? Probably not. However, that doesn’t mean she has the only important release because there is another one I will listen to probably more than hers. Yes, I will listen to hers as my girls are fans and I won’t be able to escape it. Let me know what you want to hear this week and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!\

  • 61wEzfjZeGL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Taylor Swift – Midnights – (Taylor Swift): She’s BACK!!! Taylor is knocking out albums faster than Aaron Judge was hitting homeruns. This one is supposed to be about dreams or nightmares she has had…or something like that. All I know are my kids are excited. And Taylor will sell more albums than anyone and she hasn’t even released one single for this album yet…as a result, no video to show. If I get up in this morning and there is one, I will update.

  • 91zottV8HJL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Stryper – The Final Battle – (Frontiers Records): Micheal Sweet and company are back again. Talk about putting out a lot of albums. Michael Sweet is a freaking machine. And I think the quality has been there so I am on board for another one. Bring it Mr. Sweet!!
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FireHouse – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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FireHouse was actually a band way back in 1984 when they were called White Heat. Well, that name was taken so they had to change their name and they came up with FireHouse. The band moved from Virginia to my current hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. And it was there in 1989 they were signed to Epic Records. And the next year, they delivered their monster self-titled debut album. The band was one of dozens of glam rock/hard rock bands coming out of the woodworks at that time, but the big difference is they saw some pretty dang good success.

The debut went 2X platinum and the follow-up, ‘Hold Your Fire’, in 1992 went Gold. That is pretty good for a genre that was dying a pretty quick death. They were one of the few bands that had success during this time. Even after the 80’s Rock/Glam Rock scene died, they were still killing it across Asia as they were a huge draw.

The band consisted of CJ Snare, Bill Leverty, Michael Foster and Perry Richardson. Perry is the only member no longer in the band, but don’t worry, he is with Stryper now and doing well. After over 30 years together as FireHouse, they are still going strong. Let’s go back and rank their albums from the Worst to the First. I hope you enjoy!

THE WORST – FULL CIRCLE (2011):

Full Circle is a re-recording of the band’s material from previous albums. It has some of their best song and sounds fantastic. The Original boys are back and thus the name of the album Full Circle. The only problem, bassist Perry Richardson was not back so all the original boys weren’t back. He is working with Stryper now, but wasn’t at this time. And the real big problem with this is…why? What is the point? There was nothing wrong with the original versions. If I want to hear these songs, I won’t be playing this.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘JSS: Live at the Gods 2002’ (2003) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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2002 was a big year for Jeff Scott Soto. It was the year of his coming out as a solo artist. Yes, he released a solo album back in 1994, but the intent was not to tour and showcase as a solo artist. He had signed with Frontiers Records and was getting ready to release his 2nd solo album ‘Prism’, but before that Frontiers’ promotional crew were in high gear. With press releases and having Jeff involved in the 10th Anniversary of The Gods Festival. The festival consists of artists/bands from the Frontiers Records label as well as Now & Then label.

The festival occurred on June 2, 2002 and was to be released as a live album and a DVD. I only have the live album, I need to get the DVD still. The line-up was pretty impressive as it had Eric Martin, Hardline, Harem Scarem, Honeymoon Suite, Ten, Soto and several other bands. It took place at Pennington’s in Bradford, England and what I’ve read, it was a helluva show by all.

Jeff’s band that night consisted of some old familiar friends including Alex Papa on drums, Gary Schutt on bass & acoustic guitar (did an album review of his for this series) and on guitar, Howie Simon. JSS is listed as “Top Dog” and he is right. It is his show, his songs, his voice everyone came to hear. He proved that when he came out on stage, alone, dressed all in black and did “2 Your Heart” a cappella. The song is from the debut Human Clay album. Jeff proved that voice is for real. The band comes in full force as the race through the Queen cover “Let Me Entertain You” which is appropriate because Soto does just that.

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Halestorm – “Buzz” – 7″ Single (Record Store Day Release)

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While out digging in those crates, I came across another 7″ Single, but this one was from a newer artist not one from the 80’s that I normally collect. I really dig Halestorm and not sure how I missed this one. It is a Record Store Day Release back from 2019. The song was “Buzz” off their album 2018 album ‘Vicious’. The song was never officially released as a radio single, but they did do an exclusive release for Record Store Day.

And why do you want to get this when you can just buy the album…well…the B-Side is exclusive to this release. A song called ‘Chemicals’. The song isn’t anywhere else. And to top that off, you get a beautiful Green vinyl to go with it. A really nice little package and one I was glad to pick up.

A-SIDE:

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Scorpions – ‘Hot & Heavy’ (1982) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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With the album ‘Blackout’, the Scorpions were starting to break big and it looks like the record company wanted to promote more of the band’s 70’s material, especially with Uli Jon Roth. This is the band’s second compilation and like the first one, only features songs with Uli. Released on May 4, 1982, ‘Hot & Heavy’ is released under the RCA banner of “Takeoff” series. The album, as the title suggests, features the heavier songs by the band and even has 3 Uli sung songs. The songs cover the years 1974-1977.

Admittedly, this is not really necessary as a release, but it is a good showcase of the band’s more rocking material. Sadly, there are 6 repeats on this compilation that are on the ‘Best of Scorpions’ released a few years back. My version is the German release of the album and the back cover has a brief history of the band in both German and English. The back cover also highlights a few other albums under the “Takeoff” series umbrella.

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My Sunday Song – “45” by Shinedown

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For My Sunday Song #321, we are starting our 10 song run with 10 songs from the band Shinedown. First up is the song “45” from their debut album ‘Leave a Whisper’ which was released on May 27, 2003. “45” is the second single on the album and was released on July 29th of that same year. It is a platinum selling single with over 1,000,000 in sales and it reached #3 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

The song was written by Brent Smith and Tony Battaglia and was a little controversial for its lyrics. However, it wasn’t supposed to be a literal interpretation of the lyrics. The whole gun scenario was a metaphor. The song is really about that point in your life where you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror and decide that it is time to be you and make yourself happy. A coming of age story that sees you stepping in to adulthood. When you are looking in the mirror, you are forced to see yourself in the same way looking down a barrel of a gun makes you see who you really are.

People took it literal and as a result, MTV wanted to edit the video to remove a few of the lyrics from the video and they actually aired an edited version of the video without the bands consent. Brent Smith didn’t want it played because he felt the edit took away from the meaning of the song. The video was apparently removed, but it didn’t seem to harm the success of the song.

The song isn’t a ballad, but it is a slow tempo and the chorus does get all powerful. Brent’s vocals are sympathetic to the plight of figuring out who you are. You can feel the pain and struggle the person is going through during this critical time. There is such a serious tone to the music, yet it is empathetic sounding. The song builds to the chorus where Brent’s vocals soar and the music matches the intensity. Barry Kerch’s drums are so powerful and make you feel every ounce of struggle with every drum beat. It is a beautiful battle of the mind played through the music. Really well done.

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You Pick It! – What to Review in November?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

There are no longer rules for my selections.  I’m just picking albums in my collection. Well, I guess that is a rule. And maybe a theme on the five. This time they are all from the same genre I guess. And what are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

   White Lion – ‘Mane Attraction’

   Winger – ‘Pull’

    Cinderella – ‘Long Cold Winter’

   Poison – ‘Look What the Cat Dragged In’

   Night Ranger – ‘Man in Motion’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in November, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – October 14, 2022

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Welcome to another Friday New Releases. We have a bunch here for you this week, I mean a ton…over 50 coming your way. I am sure there will be something for everyone on this one. Have a few I want to hear and I will mark those in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear this week and what we may have missed as that does happen believe it or not. I’m not as perfect as you think I am…really!! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

And this one won’t have videos for all them as the time I’m writing, I’m still recuperating and still uncomfortable.

  • 81jObf5RGOL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Skid Row – The Gang’s All Here – (earMusic / Edel Music & Entertainment): Skid Row is doing something they haven’t done since Sebastian Bach left the band and that is have people optimistically anticipating a new album. That is all because they now have Eric Gronwell (formerly of the band H.E.A.T.) as their lead singer. Hell, I want to hear it now as I love Eric. Can’t wait for this one.
  • 81v5MgKJ5XL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Alter Bridge – Pawns & Kings – (Napalm Records): Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy return with another album. I will admit, I have been a little bored lately with their releases. Now, I love Tremonti releases and Myles solo stuff, but Alter Bridge has left me with a feeling somethings missing. Hopefully this will recapture some of the early magic.
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Talisman – ‘Live at Sweden Rock Festival’ (2002) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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By 2001, Jeff Scott Soto and Marcel Jacob and had been playing together for a decade. The longest project Jeff had ever been with and probably the most fulfilling as he and Marcel were able to craft Talisman out of all the types of music they both liked. To celebrate that 10 years, a tour was needed and they wound up playing at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2001 on one of the smaller stages.

The place was packed up to an hour before the show. The crowd was chanting their name and was ready to hear some Talisman. Jeff Scott Soto, Marcel Jacob, Pontus Norgren and Jamie Borger were ready to take the stage and give the fans what they wanted…Talisman!! They played on the Rockklassiker stage with a 2000 crowd capacity. But it started off a little rough…two days prior to the show, Marcel’s gear was left in Stockholm where he, Jeff and Pontus were working on the new Humanimal album. So, Marcel had no bass. He wasn’t going to play, but when he heard the crowd chanting, he ran and found a bass from another band.

There was another band at the festival that had some recording gear and so they decided to record the show. Marcel and Pontus were a little unhappy with the recording as the bass sound wasn’t what Marcel really sounded like (remember, not his guitar), Jeff’s microphone had issues and the guitar sounded a little out of tune at times…they re-recorded a lot of the record in the studio and played as if it was the show to capture that essence…and honestly, you can’t tell. It all sounds fantastic.

This was 2001, so this was prior to Humanimal project and prior to the giant riff between Marcel and Pontus which forced the end of Humanimal and the end of Pontus in Talisman. So, if this is the last recording with Pontus on lead guitar, then we get a wonderful time capsule. The album was supposed to come out in April 2002, but the release was delayed (probably due to the Humanimal issues going on). It finally saw the light of day in December 2002 and thankfully it did as it is a fantastic show.

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Scorpions – ‘Blackout’ (1982) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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Shortly after the release of their previous album, ‘Animal Magnetism’, Klaus Meine started having vocal issues. It got so bad he had to have surgery on his vocal cords which left a lot of doubt if he was going to heal and be able to continue as lead singer of the band. Scorpions started working on this next album and brought in singer Don Dokken to do the guide vocals on the demos. None of Don’s demoes made the album, naturally, but one can hope they get released one day (if they’ve survived). Luckily for the band, Klaus’ vocal cords healed up nicely and he had no problem completing the album. The album would see its release on March 29, 1982 and would go all the way to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. going platinum with over 1,000,000 records sold.

The band’s line-up ended up unchanged thanks to Klaus’ recovery. It was still Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Mathias Jabs, Francis Buchholz and Herman Rarebell. Don Dokken is credited with background vocals as they did leave some of his work in tact. Producer was still Dieter Dierks and with all the same cast of characters, the band was really starting to find their way. They were gelling and put together one of the Top 100 Greatest Metal albums of all time according to Rolling Stones Magazine in 2017. I don’t know if I agree or disagree with that, but I do know it is one hell of a great album.

Continue reading “Scorpions – ‘Blackout’ (1982) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)” →