October draws to a close, so it is time for the monthly wrap-up so lets see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection this month. This is the October 2025 Wrap-Up and we have a little vinyl, a whole lot of CDs and even a book. Plus, I visited a record store…twice, ordered from Discogs, ordered from another record store online and went thrifting. So much to go through including a couple new Rock Candy CDs in the collection, Kiss and a Box Set rolled into one. Lots of great new and old stuff to go through and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!
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Welcome to the Friday New Releases. We have another batch of great releases for you. This week for me, it is Sammy Hagar and John 5. Those two are on pre-order and I hope they make it to me today so I can crank them on the stereo. What do you want to hear this week? Let us know and tells us what we may have left off so everyone knows. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!
Sammy Hagar – Sammy Hagar & The Best Of All Worlds Band: The Residency – (F.W.O. / Gebbia Media LLC / Big Machine Rock)
John 5 – Ghost – (60 Cycle Hum Records)
Testament – Para Bellum – (Nuclear Blast)
Yellowcard – Better Days – (Better Noise Music)
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (10th Anniversary Edition) – (Stax Records / Concord)
LANY – Soft – (Sunset Garden)
Perturbator – Age of Aquarius – (Nuclear Blast)
Frayle – Heretics And Lullabies – (Napalm Records)
For My Sunday Song #448, we are going to rock out to “In The Age Of The Consecrated Vampire We All Get High” by Rob Zombie. Now, that is a mouthful. The song was released as a single back on April 13, 2016 and I am not sure where I heard it, but the minute I did…I was hooked. I am sure I discovered because of John 5 who had joined Rob after performing with Marilyn Manson. I’m a big John 5 fan!! The song is from the 2016 album ‘The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser’…another mouthful. The album went to #1 on all the Hard Rock album charts and #6 on the Billboard 200.
The song was written by Rob Zombie and John 5 and the meaning is summed up in the first line…”Think For Yourself and Question Authority”. The song is about rebellion, defiance and exploring your darker side as well as your own mortality. The “Get High” is both doing drugs and escaping but could also be about getting high from standing up and letting your wild spirit fly. Either is fine! The lyrics do make you think the person speaking the words is as drugged out as can be with references to dead girls alive, ghouls picking at bones…but that imagery is what is also so cool about the track.
That isn’t the only thing cool about it though. The music is groovetastic. There are some funky elements, but mostly it is pure metal and John 5’s playing is devilishly good. His tones and sounds are simply stunning. The whole thing sounds as dark and eerie as the lyrics represent. Rob’s vocals are nasty and menacing and give life to the lyrics. There are some cool effects on the vocals at time for emphasis and it all works. At a little over 2 minutes, the song is a get it, get out and leave them wanting more type of song. And I love it. The other band members are Piggy D. on bass, Ginger Fish on drums and Zeuss on keyboards and without them, this song wouldn’t kick ass like it does. The bass is all over this thing, the drums are down right massive and the keyboards/programming effects are the secret sauce to making this all work. This thing is also great for cranking while driving down the road…road rage is a possibility and I’m okay with that!!
MNRK Records has been going a little overboard with the Ace Frehley collection in releasing so many different color variants of his vinyl that it borderlines on the ridiculous. How many copies do you really need. Me…one!! But they have a done a couple cool things with The Space Cassette Collection and now a Singles Collection. These are at least different formats and not the same vinyl with a different color or cover. I finally picked up the Singles Collection, but only because of a massive price drop. The set was way overpriced at $125 which I think is nuts for what you get. I saw someone post on Facebook that there was a huge sale on it and so I went and snatched a copy. The price had dropped to only $40 and now it is worth the price for what you get.
There are seven 7″ Singles all with picture sleeves and colored vinyl. You get at least one single from each album starting with his 2009 comeback album ‘Anomaly’ and going all the way up to his most recent album, the 2020 covers album, ‘Origins, Vol. 2’. Most of the albums get only one single, but ‘Origins, Vol. 1’ and ‘Spaceman’ get two singles. And I think those are two of the better albums so it makes sense to me.
We won’t go in to detail of each song, but we will post pictures of everything you are getting so you have an idea of what you are really getting in the box set in case you want to buy it. You also get a digital download card of the songs and I won’t post that picture because that is my card and I don’t want anyone using it before I do. I hope you enjoy the walk through the set.
For their 16th Studio album, Scorpions wanted to shake things up a bit. But before they could do that they needed to get a producer and that seemed like a daunting task. They had hoped to work with Dieter Dierks yet again, but that didn’t work out yet again due to contract issues. They brought a ton of producers to Germany to interview including Roy Thomas Baker, but the band wasn’t exactly pleased with those results. In the end they settled on two producers. They chose James Michael (lead singer of the band Sixx A.M.) and famed songwriter/producer Desmond Child. They each had their own specific expertise that was utilized on the production. James worked on the guitars, drums and bass while Desmond concentrated on the vocals.
So, Rudolf Schenker, Mathias Jabs, Pawel Maciwoda and James Kottak were in one studio with James while Klaus Meine was in another with Desmond. Desmond believes that if a singers vocals are in great shape, you will get a great performance so Desmond had Klaus basically take vocal lessons every day for an hour before they recorded the vocals. They brought in vocal coach to help Klaus warm up his vocals each and every day. The album is full of songwriters from outside the band as well, but the band still is on every song. You get Eric Bazilian (Hooters), Marty Frederiksen, Jason Paige, Russ Irwin, James Michael, Desmond Child and there are even more.
The band started recording in October 2006 and had about 30 songs and by the second recording process they had another 20 songs. The album was going to be a concept album that was developed by Desmond Child and futurist Liam Carl. It was based on a civil war between humans and robot, it is very apocalyptic in nature and at times very dark. Which is why a number of songs were thrown out because they were too dark. The album needed some more upbeat style songs and those were added, but they were all based around this concept and all tied together because the songs were about humanity. The album was called ‘Humanity: Hour 1′ and was released on May 14, 2007 in Europe and August 28, 2007 in the U.S. We were introduced to a very modern sounding Scorpions album, but at the same time, it still sounded like the Scorpions. All I know is that when I heard this album, I was back on board the Scorpions’ train and been riding it since. Sit back and get ready for the best Scorpions album in decades!!
A woman robot welcomes us to Humanity: Hour 1 as “Hour 1” is the start of the war. The earth-shattering drum beats, the Sabbathy guitar riffs and then Klaus comes in and sounds amazing as he introduces the reasons behind our downfall and that humans tried to play God with their machines causing all the problems we are now facing. It is a heavy, intense and rocking opening track. Very modern and very brutal and a solo that will rip your face off as the battle rages on. A killer opening track and one of their most aggressive tracks…ever!! And what is even cooler about this one is that the guest guitarist is none other than the mighty John 5.
Rob Zombie never does anything half-assed especially when it comes to his song titles and album titles. ‘The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy’ is a perfect example of this. The album is Rob’s seventh studio album as a solo artist and might be his opus, his masterpiece, his piece de resistance. The most badass album he has ever made and the fans might agree as it is his first album to reach #1 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart after its release on March 12, 2021. I think it is definitely his strongest and most accessible because his past albums usually have some strange shit, but this takes the strangest stuff and packages in a way that has more hooks, more melodies and more of everything that is great about him including more John 5 who is one of my favorite guitarist.
But before we get in to the music, let’s talk about this packaging of the album as it is nothing short of amazing. The back cover is hand-drawn space monster’s in the vein of Planet of the Apes I guess. And check out the names of the songs, nothing simple and straight forward here. The album is also a gatefold with what my one of the coolest pictures of Rob just relaxing with his arms behind his head and probably saying, “Yeah, I’m a cool mother-f’er”…okay he probably would have said the full word.
We are now in to 2006 and Kiss hasn’t put out a studio album in 8 years. 8 YEARS!!! That is insane. I figure Paul was getting a little restless and decided it was time for the follow-up to the 1978 first solo album. Heck, Gene finally did a solo album back a few years, so why not Paul. ‘Live to Win’ was finished and released on October 24, 2006 and yes, I was a release day buyer for this one. Come on, its Paul, why would I not be.
Paul brought in a lot of people to help with this album and the usual suspects are there including his long time collaborator, Desmond Child. We also see Marti Frederiksen, Holly Knight and even John 5 plus a few other writers. I believe there is only one song Paul wrote by himself. As far as musicians on the album, you do get John 5 on a couple and you get Kiss alum Bruce Kulick on bass…wait…what??? Bruce on bass? I’m sorry, Bruce is a bad ass guitar player, why is he mitigated to only the bass. Seems like a waste. And lastly, I noticed Tommy Denander who has played on it seems hundreds of albums. The rest of the musicians I am going to guess are studio guys and all very talented because all studio musicians are amazing.
It is time for another album ranking and this time around we are exploring Diamond Dave himself, David Lee Roth. We will not be doing any Van Halen albums that will come later, we are focusing strictly on the David Lee Roth solo catalog. I am not even going to cover his debut E.P. ‘Crazy From the Heat’ as that is only 4 songs and only covers…boo hiss!
David had a very successful career after leaving Van Halen and then that career faded away. But he came out of the gate a little limp with ‘Crazy From the Heat’ although the album sold well and the video was played a lot for ‘California Girls’, but it was so campy and awful. Then his debut came out and thanks to Steve Vai, David Lee Roth did a better Van Halen album than Van Halen did with Sammy on 5150. That didn’t last forever and Dave kind of fell to the wayside, but so did Van Halen when Sammy left. But that is a story for another time.
Nowadays, He is still as crazy as ever and his mouth still runs amok which is just classic Dave. He has recently toured with Kiss on their Farewell Tour so he has never really fallen far from the spotlight. He’s always there on the cusp waiting for another 15 minutes. So I will give him that as we celebrate the man, the myth, the mouth..David Lee Roth
As usual, we will start with the worst and work are way to the best and save the best for last. I hope you enjoy.
Are you kidding me? How is September already. This year is now flying by. The only thing slowing it down is there are so many damn political ads on TV and the web that it is making me physically ill. Ughh!! At least it is Friday and there are new music releases to help me make it through the day. It is not a huge week, but for me a very solid week of releases. I have 2 I want to hear and they are highlighted in Blue. Let me know what interests you and what I may have missed that came out as I know there are always a bunch. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Stryper – Even The Devil Believes – (Frontiers Music): Michael Sweet is a machine. Between solo albums, Stryper albums, Sweet & Lynch, the man is non-stop. He and the boys from Stryper have been putting out some of their best music in their 4 decade long career and now going in to their 5th decade (I think that is right…80’s, 90’s. 00’s, 10’s and 20’s…yep that is right). I am really looking forward to cranking this bad boy up.
John 5 & the Creatures – Live Invasion – (60 Cycle Hum Records): John 5 is one of the premiere guitarist in the industry and is so sought after for his writing as well as his playing. When not by Rob Zombie’s side, he has his solo gig and they recorded their last live tour for the album ‘Invasion’ so expect some riff-tastick guitar playing and some super talented musicians.
I can’t believe I have done 1,000 Posts. I never thought I would be able to keep up with the site let alone get this far. It all started on April 17th, 2016 with my very first post which was “Road Rage” Playlist!
And now, 1,304 days later here I am at my 1,000th post. Crazy!!
Since we are looking back, let’s take a look at the Top 5 Posts viewed and the Bottom 5 posts viewed. It is always curious to me which ones do well and which ones don’t. Sometimes I feel like I wrote a great post that was so witty and insightful, yet hardly any one sees it and then others I think I sucked at it and should have never posted and ends up getting a butt load of hits. There is no rhyme or reason for any of it I am sure.
Here are the Top 5 Posts viewed:
5. Top Rock Songs of 2018 – 4,103 views: This one only did well thanks to the one and only Michael Sweet of Stryper. I picked the Stryper song “Take it to the Cross” as the #7 song of the year and he tweeted about it and mentioned it on Facebook (and so did Stryper). As a result, this post took off!! Thanks Michael!!
4. Maroon 5 – The Albums Ranked Worst to First – 4,393 views: And this one did well thanks to Maroon 5 playing the Super Bowl half time show. That week before and after were huge on views.
3. The Original vs. The Cover – “The Sound of Silence” – 5,110 views: This is one I never realized would have done so well. Thanks to a first page result when you Google this song, I get a bunch of reviews everyday. I hope that continues.
Sammy Hagar – Sammy Hagar & The Best Of All Worlds Band: The Residency – (F.W.O. / Gebbia Media LLC / Big Machine Rock)
John 5 – Ghost – (60 Cycle Hum Records)
Testament – Para Bellum – (Nuclear Blast)
Yellowcard – Better Days – (Better Noise Music)
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (10th Anniversary Edition) – (Stax Records / Concord)
LANY – Soft – (Sunset Garden)
Perturbator – Age of Aquarius – (Nuclear Blast)
Frayle – Heretics And Lullabies – (Napalm Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 