Posts Tagged ‘heavy metal’
Christian Mistress – Agony and Opium EP
I caught Christian Mistress (Olympia, WA) live last night at Red 7 in Austin. I saw someone mention that they had a 
NWOBHM feel about them so I went to YouTube to see if there were any clips and lo and behold, the whole new EP was up there. I liked it enough to go see ’em.
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of most metal bands fronted by women, but there are always exceptions and Christian Mistress is one of them.
This band does have a bit of NWOBHM to them and the songs on the EP sounds pretty good and have some good hooks. Her voice is a bit raspy but it works well. You can download it from iTunes for $6! I did.
Their live show left me with a bit to be desired. I don’t know if it was because of the sound at Red 7 or what, but they were not very tight at all. They’ve been on the road for a few weeks as well and typically bands that are playing out a lot get tighter live. But this matched some of the live clips I watched on YouTube. That being said, I’d certainly go see them live again.
Check ’em out (click fotos to enlarge).
Catching up with Metal Church’s Craig Wells
I love Metal Church. Well, I love the David Wayne/Mike Howe eras. Seeing them in 89 was an awesome experience. When Mike Howe left the band, only the return of David Wayne could have kept me interested in them. Well, he rejoined the band and they put out Masterpeace which
Craig Wells, some happy kid (me!) and Mike Howe 1989
unfortunately did not have Craig Wells on it. Fortunately though, Craig did play on David Wayne’s solo album which was called Metal Church. It was a good album overall!
Thanks to the internetz, I was able to catch up with Craig and he graciously agreed to answer some questions.
What/who was your main inspiration to pick up a guitar and what was your first guitar?
“When I was about ten my Father bought me a semi hollow body red Sears Silvertone guitar at a pawn shop in Seattle. I asked for it because I listened to records all the time, mostly Beatles songs..I just liked anything really, Smokey Robinson , Temptations, anything on the radio and available on vinyl…”
How did you end up in Metal Church? Did you know those guys beforehand and just decided to put a band together?
“Metal Church coming together is kind of complicated…We were school friends but I had moved away from the home town to Kent, which was not far from Seattle so to get together I had to drive 100 miles to rehearse. I knew everyone from school bands and after being a band then not being a band a few times, eventually it all came together. I saw Dave Wayne’s phone number on the wall in Guitar Center of Seattle, it was an ad he posted claiming he was the best singer in the North West! It said “I can sing Whole Lotta Love and hold the end note longer than any living being”.
Sounded good to me…. I called Dave and soon met up with him and we began writing some music in my families home. We wanted to get a band going but he was in work release from jail so every weekend he had to go back in or violate his parole so everything took a while to get going….soon Dave’s time was over and I convinced him to go with me to a rehearsal with the rest of the future MC members and it became MC soon after that. That was with David, Duke , Kirk , Kurdt and myself…David and I lived in the Kent area and the band was 100 miles away in Aberdeen so rehearsal was minimal in the beginning till the rest of the band came to the Kent area [or closer] and we then rehearsed in my Grandmothers garage, we rehearsed there for about five years, coming and going on tour …”
What are some of your favorite memories of those early days in the northwest metal scene?
“Many memories but we never had a whole lot of a club scene or metal scene, all of us in the band lived and worked far from the city in the early days, I drove delivery, Duke and Kirk worked in a shake mill, Dave was a nurse, and Kurdt still lived a hundred miles away in Aberdeen. We played our first Seattle gig at the Moore Theater it was the Headbangers Ball and not till after we had toured a couple years did anybody in Seattle even really know us…then we had many friends in our home base of Kent, they all lived close and they were the Kent Bangers, they were awesome friends, and of course we had a great time..We were outsiders all growing up in a logging town on the coast of Washington state called Aberdeen and Hoquiam.. so nobody in Seattle knew us.”
What Metal Church album are you most proud of?
“It is very hard to say I am most proud of one album over the other but I can say that the first album period was the most fun time in MC because we were making music as a band effort with us writing stuff that was inspiring to us and we worked together and everybody had input. I guess I pick the first MC album…It was recorded in only a couple weeks of overnight sessions.”
How did you end up on Sir Mix*A*Lot’s song Iron Man? (see video below)
“I ended up on playing Iron Man for Sir Mixalot solely because of Terry Date our joint producer…it was his idea and he asked me to track the guitar so I said sure, pay me with a bag of Dicks Cheese Burgers, and he said yes, so we did it! That`s all…nothing more to it than that, just a great time at the studio.”
What led to your departure from the band?
“The main thing that lead to my departure from MC was a lack of vision and the desire to choose to solder on from everybody…my opinion was if we are going to agree to make a new album then we are going to do it and continue making albums and not stop, We agree to make the band again and it be our livelihood, I can not go back and forth…. no matter what happens we are not turning back and we will expect to tour and live it out. Nobody else wanted to see it that way…they wanted to make a test album and just throw something out and see if it gets some bites and maybe do something later…I realized that I was at a cross road it was either music and touring or stay with my family and the band members were not concrete in choosing the band, so I chose to go my own way…”
Did you join another band after?
“I have never been with any other band…why should I?… I did not need anything beyond that…because MC was my blessing, all we had to do was SHOW UP and we could make music and we rocked…who would want anything else?”
Do you miss touring?
“Sure, I miss touring, who wouldn’t? fortunately now I have a life with my family that I value very dearly so I can just look back and smile at the old days..It was great!”
Losing David Wayne was a pretty devastating blow to the fans and especially to his family and former bandmates. What impact did his sudden death have on you?
“Dave’s passing was very sudden as you said…we had some rocky times, we kicked him out of the band and then years later I became friends with him again and he was back with us all again so all I can say is that I am glad that we became friends again prior to him leaving but I am sad I did not get to say good bye.”
Are you still playing music? What’s going on with Craig Wells these days?
“Yes I still play music at home in my free time purely for enjoyment…I work as a broadcast engineer for FOX and that keeps me busy and my plate is full with my family. Maybe we will jam again sometime and if we don’t, I will always look back on the day with a smile!”
Thanks Craig for taking the time to do this. Metal Church helped provide the soundtrack to my life and I’ll always regard them as one of the best metal bands ever. I’ve asked Mike Howe and Kirk Arrington to do interviews, but to date they have not responded to my requests.
Metal Massacre VII
For many, Metal Massacre VII (MM VII) is considered the holy grail of the series put out by Metal Blade 
between 1982 and 2006. Did anyone really care about any of these after maybe Metal Massacre XI?
This one has some awesome tunes on it. Here’s the quick breakdown.
1. Heretic – Impulse: Pre-Mike Howe Heretic. This one has Mike Torres from the mighty Abattoir! Awesome song all the way around. Heretic was great from beginning to end. For as much as I liked the album with Mike Howe, I loved him in Metal Church.
2. Sentinel Beast – Sentinel Beast: Thrash! I’ve tried and tried to like this band and could never really get into them. The music is fine on this track but her vocals don’t do much for me at all.
3. Flotsam & Jetsam – I Live, You Die: Doomsday for the Deceiver, ’nuff said! This is really an awesome song. and you can actually hear Newstead playing, something that didn’t happen with Metallica. Love this song, love Doomsday. Saw them live a few times in the late 80s and early 90s and they always ruled.
4. Krank – Rented Heat: Wow. This was an awesome song. Absolutely love it. Krank’s debut album was called Hideous. Very fitting. This was the only listenable song on it. This one always reminded me of Accept to a degree. Rented Heat seems to be about a renta-cop. haha. Still awesome .
Krank. Hideous!
5. Mad Man – Backstabber: Mid-paced metal. Nothing really stands out for me on this at all.
6. Detente – Widow’s Walk: RIP Dawn Crosby. Great thrash from a highly underrated band. It’s pretty rare that I like female fronted metal bands, but this was one of them. Dawn was the real deal. Total hard luck woman who literally grew up on the streets and drank herself to death in the end. Detente re-released Recognize No Authority a few years back. Buy it.
7. Commander – High N Mighty: Another track that I love. I think the vocals are what hooked me on this one. The whole album is pretty good. I’ll upload it one of these days.
8. Juggernaut – In The Blood Of Virgins: I love Juggernaut but not this song so much. Features Bobby Jarzombek on drums.
9. Cryptic Slaughter – Reich of Torture: Blech. Awful. Some early forms of blast beats, sloppy as hell.
10. Have Mercy – The Omen: Great thrash! Great vocals! Great great!
11. Titanic – The Awakening: Not a bad song at all. The intro is way too long and the production was pretty crappy. But most songs sent to Metal Blade for this series were demos. I’d like to hear more by these guys. Some good progressive tendencies.
12. Lost Horizon – Troubled Ways: Great NWOBHM influenced song. Reminds me a bit of Tokyo Blade. Another band I’d like to hear a full album from.
More bloggen on Dokken!
On my way back from Louisiana this past weekend I was flipping through my iPod to find some stuff to listen to. I had recently added a ton of 
albums to it and had gone though most of the new additions on my way there (7.5 hours). As I was scrolling through I saw the Dokken. Woot! Haven’t listened to them in a while.
I first spun Under Lock and Key then Back for the Attack.
If you’ve been paying attention, you know how much I love Tooth and Nail. The album is perfect in my eyes/ears. But I was truly blown away by these 2 albums. Even though the songs got a little more radio friendly, Lynch’s playing on them was over the top in the best of ways. George had a reputation in L.A. long before Dokken became a household name. In talking to people from that early 80s Hollywood scene, they’ve all said the same thing…George was better than everyone around there.
Listening to his solos on these 2 albums I really can hear it. It’s not too often that I get over excited about music these days, but hearing this stuff, remembering the hits (some of which we attempted to play in bands back then) and listening to the deeper cuts that I had long forgotten, I really felt that Dokken probably should have been a lot bigger, if anything based on George’s guitar work alone. He did get a lot of press in the metal and guitar mags back then and deservedly so.
It was too bad they broke up in 1988. I think they could have squeezed out one more decent album. By the time Dysfunctional came out in 1995, who cared? I certainly didn’t. What I remember hearing from it sounded very “90s”. Pass. 
I got to see George a few months ago in Austin with his solo band. Dude can still hang.
If you’ve ever liked Dokken and haven’t listened to them in a while, I highly recommend popping in these 2 albums again. You won’t be disappointed.
Pantera – Cowboys From Hell – 20 Years Later
Twenty years has passed since Pantera’s seminal album Cowboys From Hell was released. This album is what I like to call a game changer. Metal 
got a swift kick in the ass when this came out and it influenced a new wave of metal, appropriately dubbed “nu-metal”. It even spawned some clones…Fight anyone?
This was the beginning of the chugga-chugga era. People from around the world started to take notice of this little band from the Dallas/Ft Worth area of Texas. I remember hearing them several times a day on Z-Rock and even liked it when Diamond Darrell, as he was still called at the time, would come into the Z-Rock studios and let callers try and stump him on metal riffs. I don’t think I ever heard him get stumped, even when someone called in and asked for Omen and fates Warning riffs.
This album was huge for them and launched them into being the 2nd biggest metal band of the 90s behind Metallica, and rightfully so for the times.
This album deserves every bit of praise that it ever got. Too bad that I can’t stand this album. I think it’s awful. When I first heard Cemetery Gates I wanted to hurl. That riff in the chorus with the pinch harmonics drives me nuts. Then Cowboys From Hell? Blech!
So please allow me to drop back and punt a little. I had been listening to Pantera since 1986. Projects in the Jungle was my introduction to them thanks to a former friend from high school. I love that album, as cheesy as it may be. I Am the Night is damned good too. OK, Metal Magic isn’t so good, but it has some 
gems on it as well. I remember buying their Power Metal album, with Phil Anselmo on vocals, and thought, “Man, these guys really kick ass!” even with the dumb lyrics. Phil could wail. I loved this band a lot.
I can’t iterate enough how coarse CFH was to my ears. The band wasn’t recognizable to me any longer. Granted they weren’t even close to being one of my favorite bands at the time but I still enjoyed spinning their albums.
I remember when they were coming to Virginia Beach to play the Peppermint Beach Club. Some of my friends bought tickets and showed up at the venue early. The band was hanging out and meeting with people outside the venue. My buddies showed up with their pre-CFH record covers and Darrell and the rest of the band refused to sign them. I’ll never forget some friends recounting Diamond Darrell saying, “Get that shit out of here. That’s not us. We’re not fucking signing that!” Absolutely true story. They were all acting like dicks. I know a lot of people here in Texas who know/knew them and they are a bit surprised when I tell them the story. Darrell always struck me as a nice, genuine soul from interviews and such. Anselmo’s resume’ speaks for itself. Pity.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is to never diss your fans. Of course I’ve never had success like Pantera’s, but even in my little world of playing small gigs, garage bands that never even played out, making self-produced and financed records and going on the road for weekend gigs and such, no matter what, I would never talk shit to someone who took the time to come see my band play. NEVER. How shitty. It really killed any future interest I could have ever had in that band after that point.
I listened to this album in its entirety again recently to see if maybe my mind could be changed after all these years. Epic fail. While there are a few good riffs here and there and Phil showed a few flashes of still being able to sing, the album still did nothing for me.
I know I’m in the minority on this one and I am OK with that. A few months ago while at a show, 2 of the girls that were with us turned me on to the word Panterrible. It’s how I have referred to them since.
RIP Diamond Darrell. You surely didn’t deserve to go out like that.
The Metal Files 
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