Archive for the ‘1984’ Category
Nektar Concert Review, Austin, TX 7/4/2013
Nektar was in town last night at a little place on the east side of Austin called Cheer Up Charlies. Little is the understatement of the century. This place was tiny. 20 people inside and you’re uncomfortable, I kid you not. No matter, they were playing there and I had to see them. And it was FREE! There was a suggested donation at the door and I dropped in $5.
I was introduced to Nektar’s music through Iron Maiden. They covered King of Twilight as the B-side of the Aces High single. Because of that I picked up their albums A Tab In The Ocean and Remember The Future. While not my favorite prog rock stuff from that era, it was enjoyable. And if Maiden liked them, that was good enough for me back in those days.
Prior to the band hitting the stage, I met their current bassist, Lux, and merch guy, Nicky. A friend had conversed with Nicky earlier and discovered that he was in the seminal British punk band UK Subs. An original member even. Weird world, eh?
Any way, Nektar takes the “stage” (read: the floor) and the room was filled with quite a few folks who were there specifically to see them. I was pleasantly surprised by that. The band seemed a little annoyed by the venue and understandably so. It was a Wednesday night in Austin and this show could have been booked easily at a more suitable venue. Again, no matter. They sounded really good. The band features original signer/guitarist and drummer Roy Albrighton and Ron Howden, respectively. The keyboardist was a German named Klaus Henatsch and on bass was Lux Vibratus, an American. He was a fantastic bassist.
I stayed for just under half of the set as there was another show that I had already paid admission to see. Not to mention that it was completely uncomfortable in there. Glad I got to see some legends last night.
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- Nicky Garratt of UK Subs
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- Up close and personal with Nektar
Warlord – Deliver Us re-released
Warlord’s famed 1983 album Deliver Us has been re-released digitally via iTunes and Amazon a few weeks ago. According to Bill Tsamis and Mark Zonder, this version is how they heard it in the mixing room. It’s only $6.93 on iTunes!
Later this week, a reissue of the Lost and Lonely Days/Aliens EP will be ready for purchase. This will include a “special surprise” as official Warlord management puts it.
Both releases will be coming out on vinyl and CD soon, too.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Warlord is playing Keep It True 2013 and doing 2 shows in Greece. There are talks of a USA show as well. I hope that happens, I will be there!
Many Have Tried and Many Have Died…
Omen never really got their due. Three brilliant albums and one EP between 84 and 86 and when you hear people talk 
about classic metal, especially when mentioning the early Metal Blade stuff, it seems that so few people talk about them. It’s a bit of a shame. It was nice to see that metal Blade did do the Omen box set a few years ago. The live footage is enjoyable.
Omen had a very unique style and sound, especially in the vocal department. There was something in the way that JD Kimball could wail…like you could really hear the desperation in his voice. I remember the first time I heard them. Daniel had ordered Battle Cry through Metal Blade. I was blown away by the whole band. Kelz had made me a dub tape of Battle Cry and Warning of Danger. I can still see that tape sitting on the seat of my old Nova. I believe there was some Metal Church at the end of one of the sides.
But there was something special about Omen but I don’t think it was just any one thing. The sum of the parts just made them perfect. The music was great, the vocals were great and overall they had good lyrics. That was difficult to do back in those days. Even Be My Wench and Bring Out the Beast are great.
For as much as I love Battle Cry and Warning of Danger, in recent years I find myself listening to the Curse more often than the other 2. Teeth of the Hydra is one of my favorite songs of all time by any band.
Then 2 years after The Curse they released Escape To Nowhere with Coburn Pharr (Annihilator). My god what an awful album that was. I revisited it a few years ago and it still sucked.
All in all, you can’t go wrong with any of the first 3 albums. I listened to Reopening the Gates when it came out as well…it just didn’t work for me. Omen was more about JD’s vocals than anything else for me. RIP.
These winter tears I’ll cry for you…
So back in 1983 (or 84?) Kelz called me and told me of some tape he picked up at the Record Bar at Tower Mall by a band called Warlord. The album was called Deliver Us. It had a colorful little cover and was on Metal Blade Records, which we were discovering at the time seemed to have the greatest bands ever. He just kept going on and on about how great it was. So finally on a Sunday during church or sunday school, he slipped it to me for listening.
wow.
WOW.
This was one of those life changers. Seriously. The voice. The guitar work. This beast on the drums. Obviously this was pre-Internet so we had no way of knowing anything about these guys.
Now I’ve mentioned plenty of times before how some of us had parents who thought that metal was evil and was going to make us kids want to sacrifice goats and paints walls with the blood and such…ok, well there was that one time, but I digress. But this album wasn’t really one of those. Sure it has a song called Lucifer’s Hammer which is about nuclear war. And sure there’s a song called Black Mass which talks about the events of a black mass, but not in a way that made us want to become Satan worshippers. Such silliness. Unfortunately our parents were more brainwashed by this stuff than we were. I guess they meant well. Whatever. My mom found Kelz’ tape that I had hidden under my mattress and threw it away. So ultimately I had to buy him another one. I bought one for me too and just learned how to hide things better. It was tough being a metal kid in my house sometimes.
So in 1984 Warlord releases “…And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun”. It was a bit of a let down as they had a new singer and they rerecorded most of Deliver Us. The new singer just didn’t have the feel as the original guy. The upside was that there were a few new tracks with the new singer and he sounded GREAT on those. Soliloquy, Lost and Lonely Days and Aliens were all fine songs, albeit played a little sloppily.
In 1986 when I met Big Bill, I turned him onto Warlord and he flipped out over them much like we did. He ultimately ordered the video that went with the …”Cannons” LP. We watched thiat thing practically every week. When he got the video and other merch that he ordered from them, there was a handwritten note that said “Call me if there are any problems…Thanks…Mark.” and had a phone number attached to it. So one day when we were hanging out, Bill called and it ended up being the number to Mark Zonder’s house in LA. We freaked out. I got to talk to the guy a few times and he was always super cool. He told us of the final split of Warlord and how he was making some extra cash doing studio work and touring with the dance band Animotion. I remember specifically one of the phone calls that we made to him. He was in his home studio and the guys from Fates Warning were over there. Granted this is before Mark joined the band but apparently he was already good friends with those guys. Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to the FW guys but I could hear them in the background talking and playing a little bit of music. Trippy stuff.
Warlord had a penchant for writing good ballad style songs, sad songs…Winter Tears, Soliloquy, Ms. Victoria, Lost and Loney Days. Even their upbeat songs always seems to have a tinge of sadness to them. Maybe it was in the chords that Bill Tsamis used when he was writing, maybe in the vocal delivery…but it was there.
I really don’t know how to say it in any other way than “I LOVE WARLORD”. For a band that really only had on true studio album, it had such a major impact on me. OK, sure they did a “new album” a while back with Mr. Cans from Hammerfall on vocals, but it just wasn’t quite “Warlord-ish” enough for me. That’s not to say that’s it not a good album, because it is, but it’s not…ugh…I don’t know how to say it. I think you understand.
Winter Tear’s lyrics:
The morning woke, the day was breakin’ . . . she left me far behind
She was gone, I couldn’t take it . . . no more tears to cry.
We gathered ’round her place of resting, for the last goodbye
She lay in white like a dream unending, the saddened clouds they cried . . .
Tears for all the joy we had
Tears for all the pain
All the years I have to live
These Winter Tears, I’ll cry for you until we meet again
You gave me life, you gave me lovin’
Showed me what love could bring
And every night when I think about you
I begin to sing . . .
Tears for all the joy we had
Tears for all the pain
All the years I have to live
These Winter Tears, I’ll cry for you until we meet again
Tears for all the joy we had
Tears for all the pain
These Winter Tears I have inside
Will always cry your name.
The years I have to live . . .
These Winter Tears, I’ll cry for you until we meet again
Tell me why I have to be a Powerslave…
Yes, by Iron Maiden…like that needed to be said. I guess there are some folks out there who don’t know. Well you do now.
I’ll never forget when I first bought this. It was 1984 and my mom and I were flying into Pittsburgh to visit family for a week. The airport there had a little music store so with some of the spending money I had I bought Powerslave and Bark at the Moon. I had heard some of the Ozzy album on the radio and at that time, Ozzy was still making quality records. Prior to buying Powerslave, Run To the Hills was the only Iron Maiden that I had ever heard. I always loved their album covers but never checked ‘em out. I even remember having the old Hit Parader special edition “Iron Maiden vs. Quiet Riot.” Of course I covered my walls with the QR posters that came with it. Duh. Children!
OK, back to Pittsburgh. For whatever reason, NO ONE in my large family up there had a working cassette player and I didn’t bring my Sony Walkman. Of course their record players and 8-track players worked fine. D’oh. So I ended up having to wait a whole week before I actually heard the damned thing. But once I got back to Virginia, oh man, it was on.
I remember calling Kelz and saying, “Dude, I just got the new Iron Maiden…it’s so fast!” It was also one of the inspirations for me to want to play drums which I started later that year. Now realize that I already considered myself a metalhead and was already into KISS, Crue, Metallica, Sabbath, DIO, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, RUSH, Triumph and a slew of other heavy bands, but Maiden was my missing link.
I wore out at least 6 copies on cassette. A few vinyl copies and have owned 3 versions on CD. The OCD in my head turns on sometimes and says, “Doofus, you must go and find every version of this on CD and have one whole rack dedicated to Powerslave.” You know, it really doesn’t sound that silly, does it? Hmmm…
The album is just brilliant, beginning to end. Every time I play it, I still get goose bumps when I hear the opening riff to Aces High. The transition in to 2 Minutes to Midnight is perfect. I’m not even bothered by the instrumental…and I rarely like Maiden’s instrumentals. I always found it odd that there were 2 songs on there about swords. Sure, Bruce Bruce was a fencer and all, but whatever. Both songs are great. I guess when Dickinson wrote Flash of the Blade, Harris had to get his say and write The Duellists. OK, side 2. I can remember flipping it over in my old tiny boombox that had one 4” speaker. Good times. So now, Back In the Village. Great tune…duh. I’m not sure why I am even mentioning each of these songs since we all know that the album is perfect. But since I am near the end, Powerslave is one of my faves on this record. Just a great groove. Nicko is god. Finally we get to the epic Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Simply brilliant and very well done.
I’ll never forget Mr. Gordon’s 11th grade English class. We were studying Rime in its entirety and of course I was already very familiar with it. When we were starting to break the long ass poem down, I mentioned that I had a shorter version that still captured the essence of the story and asked me to read it to the class. Read it? Shit, g, I had that junk memorized. So I stood up and recited the entire song to the class. I’d pause now and then and Mr. Gordon would ask if I was done. “No sir, just getting through a guitar solo.” So after I completed it, Mr. G thought it was pretty cool. he said something to the effect of “Wow Sean. Good job. But how is it that you can memorize that entire song but you can’t seem to remember to do your homework?” My reply was simple…”That’s easy, Mr. Gordon. I have my priorities.” He just shook his head and the class laughed. Ha! I ruled the wasteland that day.
1984 was a good year. A damned good year.
The Metal Files 
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