Archive for March 2013
Eternal Champion – The Last King of Pictdom
I’m going to do a little self-promotion here and let you faithful few readers know about my new band, Eternal Champion. Old school epic American metal featuring members of Venomous Maximous, Iron Age and me on bass.
You can check us out at our Facebook page or check out the vids below.
Satan – Siege Mentality
Court In The Act is one of the best of the NWOBHM albums ever made. Satan has a new album coming out with the Court lineup in tact called Life Sentence which comes out May 21, 2013 in the states.
Here’s the first released track fr the record. Maybe a bit overdone to sound like Court, but still enjoyable nonetheless.
Ignitor Mix Tape ’85 Review
My history with Ignitor isn’t that deep as I only picked up on them when Jason McMaster joined the band in 2009ish. That doesn’t detract from the Erika Tandy era at all, I just went backwards with their discography. Ignitor is quality metal, no matter which era you’re listening to.
Ignitor’s latest offering is a download only album of classic covers. It’s a great mix of classic metal covering some of my favorites bands.
McMaster was made to cover all of these bands giving them his unique vocal flair and Ignitor in general stayed pretty true to these songs without taking any real liberties in the music. The Stuart “Batlord” solos are all pretty incredible and the opening solo to Into the Coven gave me chills when I first heard it. He completely nailed the tone. While I admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Exodus’ Bonded By Blood or Exciter’s Violence and Force, these covers are well done. I’m especially impressed with their version of Anthrax’s Deathrider. Fistful of Metal often gets overlooked in Anthrax conversations. The cover of Highway Star has the proper intro like Deep Purple’s original and the heaviness of Metal Church’s version. I’m also a huge fan of Witching Hour. And you gotta love that album cover!
You can stream the album here and I recommend that you buy it from iTunes or Amazon ASAP! Both are under $8!
Quality metal covers from a quality metal band.
“DEATHRIDER” – Anthrax
“FAST AS A SHARK” – Accept
“VIOLENCE AND FORCE” – Exciter
“INTO THE COVEN” – Mercyful Fate
“WITCHING HOUR” – Venom
“HELL BENT FOR LEATHER” – Judas Priest
“A LESSON IN VIOLENCE” – Exodus
“HIGHWAY STAR” – Deep Purple
Yes Concert Review, Austin TX 3/20/2013
March 20, 1964. That’s my middle brother’s birthday. He died just over a year ago but he was a huge Yes fan and subsequently I became one. Yes played the Moody Theater at ACL Live last night and it would have been his 49th birthday. He especially loved Fragile and Close to the Edge and both of those albums are very special to me.
When I saw it announced that Yes was going to play The Yes Album, Close to the Edge and Going for the One in their entirety, I had to go. Especially since it was going to be at the fantastic Moody Theater. It’s my favorite venue in town.
I typically buy 2 tickets to most shows that I want to see, one for me and one to sell to a friend or to offer as a special gift. My friend Chuck is a huge Yes fan and a phenomenal bassist and he was the first I thought of when I scored front row center balcony seats. That’s my favorite spot in the theater. It was Chuck’s first time there and he liked it a lot.
The show started slightly after 8PM and they opened the show with the Close to the Edge album. I hadn’t yet seen/heard the new singer, Jon Davison. Now let me drop back and say that I’ve seen Yes twice before with Jon Anderson…one in 1998 with The Alan Parson Project(!!!) and again in 2000 with Kansas. That show in 1998 was incredible while the 2000 show left me pretty bored.
But last night I was not bored. They came out and nailed it for the most part. The new singer left me not really even noticing or even missing Anderson. Davison has the pipes and he sounded incredible. The band went right into Going for the One, and album of their that I love. I’ll admit that my 3 faves are Drama, Tormato and Going for the One. After getting through GftO, they took a 20 minute intermission.
The closed the set out with The Yes Album. It was great.
I’ll admit to getting a little verklempt during the song Close to the Edge. Memories of my brother flushed through me hard. During several songs throughout the set I got chills, mainly because of the awesomeness of the songs…mainly And You and I and Wondrous Stories.
Sound-wise, I thought the keyboards were a little overbearing and the bass was a little low in the mix. Even though it was a phenomenal show and probably the last time I’ll ever see them, they weren’t perfect. Compared to the previous shows I’ve seen, they’ve collectively lost a step. While Steve Howe is one of my favorite players, he’s always had a bit of a choppy style. Last night he was missing some notes and it even sounded like he missed his cue in a few solos. However, vocally he still sounded great. His acoustic piece, Clap, was pretty awesome. Chris Squire seemed spot on and his vocals were great, too. Finally, Alan White. He wasn’t playing with the power that I had seen before, but he is 63 and still touring, so there’s that. And again, Jon Davison’s vocals were stellar. That dude can flat out sing.
The encore was Roundabout (see below).
If they do end up touring again, I’d certainly go. Glad I got to see them again, for sure.
Eric Clapton and The Wallflowers Concert Review, Austin TX 3/17/2013
It was the tail end of SxSW 2013 and my ass was worn the hell out. Come show day I really didn’t want to go as I was just so damned tired and sore from the previous week’s festivities. Not to mention that I had trouble finding someone to go with me. Fortunately my friend Leah was in town and was able to accompany me.
Historically, I’ve always been a moderate Clapton fan. Cream and Blind Faith had some great songs and I like some of his solo and Derek and the Dominos songs. His 80s/90s ballads/MTV Unplugged stuff totally turned me off, though. Some of his 80s pop stuff was fantastic like Forever Man, It’s In The Way That You Use It, Rock and Roll Heart, She’s Waiting, Pretending etc. Lots of good stuff. Oddly enough, I never really paid attention to his guitar playing. Sure I know he’s considered a legend and a great blues player, but I just never noticed anything beyond taking in his songs as the whole and not in its parts. Add to the fact that in general I’m not much of a blues fan.
Last night changed my perception of him a bit. Watching him play his riffs and solos was pretty mind-blowing. The dude is almost 70 and still can play like a bad ass. Even the slow blues stuff he played, primarily with no pick, was pretty impressive to watch. His voice is still strong too. Am I going out and buying his back catalog? Absolutely not. I have the songs I need from him, but I do have a new appreciation for his playing. The setlist pretty much left out his 80s pop stuff altogether which was a bit disappointing, but it was enjoyable. Jimmy Vaughn came out and did a song. The one thing that made the night more special for me was that he had Paul Carrack on keyboards. Who is Paul Carrack? You may not know his name but you’ve certainly heard some of his music. I was pretty excited to see that Tempted (Squeeze) and How Long? (Ace) were on the setlist. They sounded great. Of course the rest of the band was killer, especially Steve Jordan on drums.
The Wallflowers opened the show and I was a-ok with that. Bringing Down the Horse is a fantastic album and last night’s show had 4 songs from that album. They sounded great in general and I’d been wanting to see them for quite a while.
Unfortunately I have no pictures to share. We had decent seats but my camera sucks. However, I will be uploading Tempted and How Long? to YouTube later this week.
Glad I went. I’m seeing YES later this week. Rock on!
The Metal Files 
You must be logged in to post a comment.