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Terrible Lizard: Human League’s ‘heavy metal on 45’ offshoot band
09.11.2020
01:40 pm
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The other day I pulled out my copy of Human League’s classic 1981 album Dare and played it all the way through twice. I haven’t heard it in a while, and it sounded really good to me. 

Then I listened to a bootleg of Dare demos that I’d downloaded a long time ago, but had never actually played before that. The legend of that album, of course, is that after Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh (the musical ones) left Human League to form Heaven 17, this led frontman Phil Oakey and Philip Adrian Wright (who been doing the band’s lighting and projecting slides while they played) to recruit two teenage backing vocalists named Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley and to hire Ian Burden (who had toured with Human League Mk 1). Later Jo Callis, the former guitarist for Scottish new wavers, the Rezillos—who had to learn how to play a synthesizer sharpish—was brought in. Virgin insisted that Oakey’s new League needed a professional hand in the studio and paired them with producer Martin Rushent, who’d previously worked with the Stranglers, Buzzocks and on Pete Shelley’s “Homosapian” single, which is undoubtedly what sealed the deal. It was an inspired partnership, obviously, but I will say that I was surprised at just how far along—quite far indeed—most of the songs were before Martin Rushent became involved.

Continuing down that same rabbit hole, I read a (really great) article about the making of Dare on Electronic Sound magazine’s website and as a sort of coda at the end of the piece, mention is made of an obscure single that was recorded during Dare‘s downtime by the album’s engineer, Dave Allen and Jo Callis:

“We’d often finish sessions late and everyone would go home – apart from Jo,” recalls Dave Allen. “Jo was staying at the studio because he didn’t have anywhere else to go and after a while we had this idea to make a heavy metal ‘Stars On 45’ record. The beat isn’t difficult, is it? That took 10 minutes. And then it was, ‘OK, what songs have we got to do?’. ‘Smoke On The Water’, ‘Alright Now’, ‘Silver Machine’, ‘School’s Out’… It was a joy to get a guitar out and do a really terrible version of ‘Purple Haze’ over a ‘Stars On 45’ beat. It was relaxation.

“Martin came home very drunk one night when we were trying to do the middle eight of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and we said,’C’mon Martin, we need a mad toms solo like that Led Zeppelin song’, and so he played this brilliant freestyle Linn Drum tom tom solo. In the end, the medley was called ‘Bang Your Head’ and released as a single on Island. The band was called Terrible Lizard. We had a meeting with a guy who said, ‘How are we going to do the promo for this?’. Andy Peebles called it the worst record ever made when he played it on his lunchtime [Radio 1] show. I was very proud.”

Now obviously as soon as I read that, I searched to see if it was on YouTube and naturally it was, but other than a Discogs listing, just about the only information to be found about this zany heavy metal medley—which includes Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine,” Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and other headbanging classics—is what’s in the Electronic Sounds article.
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.11.2020
01:40 pm
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Power Trip: The fantastic blasphemy of heavy metal artist Paolo Girardi
01.14.2020
10:57 am
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A painting by Paolo Girardi.
 
The subject of this post, Italian artist Paolo Girardi, is also a survivor, if not a warrior.

In a lengthy interview with the rock/metal oriented Bardo Methodology (#3), Girardi spoke about his childhood and the abuse he was subjected to at the hand of his own father, who would punch and kick his son. He would force Paolo into the sport of wrestling, and the experience initially had Girardi reliving his father’s systematic abuse. According to Girardi, as his father lay dying in 2007 he took the opportunity to tell his son he had “never done anything good in his life.” This final interaction would send Girardi off to prove his not-so-dear-old-Dad wrong. Later that same year, he would win a Bronze medal in the Freestyle Wrestling Nationals in Naples, Italy. His dedication to wrestling would work in tandem with his commitment to painting, a pursuit he had invested himself in during the 1990s, painting and creating artwork for local metal bands. By 2011 he was able to sustain himself financially with his art.

As of 2018, the self-taught Girardi has churned out delightfully blasphemous artwork for more than 100 albums, including Washington State bands Black Breath and Bell Witch, Power Trip (Dallas, Texas), and Italian black/death metal band Blasphemophagher. Aside from Girardi’s contributions to their music catalogs, his clients also have another thing in common; they are all completely fucking metal. And metal bands are the only clients Girardi, a former fresco builder, takes on. Girardi himself is the epitome of old-school heavy metal—he still wears t-shirts from his favorite bands (when he isn’t shirtless of course), has a few tattoos, drinks beer, and lives by the mantra that (the band) Manowar is his “religion.” Which, as long as wearing loincloths isn’t mandatory, seems like a lot more fun than swallowing the bilge of conventional religion.

If you’re a dedicated headbanger, you’ve likely seen Girardi’s work before. If not, then please prepare your eyes for the NSFW, super satanic work of Paolo Girardi.
 

Girardi’s cover artwork for ‘Slaves Beyond Death’ from Seattle band Black Breath (2005).
 

 

The cover of ‘Meditate to Kill,’ the 2013 album from French band Stav.
 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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01.14.2020
10:57 am
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‘Helltown’: The rawkus return of Electric Citizen
10.09.2018
01:54 pm
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After last year’s tour with the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, the members of Electric Citizen—vocalist Laura Dolan, guitarist Ross Dolan, drummer Nate Wagner and returning original bassist Nick Vogelpohl—went back into the studio to record the follow-up to 2016’s Higher Time, emerging with their new dirty rock and roll longplayer, Helltown. Named after the gritty Cincinnati neighborhood where the band live, rehearse and recorded the album, the album represents a back-to-the-basics return to their raunchier roots. Helltown was recorded at Mount Saturn studio in Cincinnati and produced by Brian Olive (The Greenhornes, Dan Auerbach, Dr. John, etc.)

In past years Electric Citizen have toured with Pentagram, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fu Manchu, Budos Band, Wolfmother and played festivals like Psycho Las Vegas, Psycho California and Desertfest Belgium. They are currently on tour with the mighty Monster Magnet and will be playing tonight at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC.

Helltown is released by stoner/psych label RidingEasy Records
 

 

“Hide it in the Night” music video directed, shot and edited by Grant Meeker and Alex Constante.
 
Remaining tour dates:
10/10 Seattle, WA at the El Corazon
10/12 San Francisco, CA at Thee Parkside
10/15 Santa Ana, CA at The Observatory Orange County
10/16 San Diego, CA at Brick By Brick
10/17 Phoenix, AZ at The Rebel Lounge
10/19 San Antonio, TX at the Paper Tiger
10/20 Dallas, TX at Canton Hall
10/21 Houston, TX at the White Oak Music Hall
10/22 New Orleans, LA at the Santos Bar (EC only)
10/23 Atlanta, GA at The Masquerade
10/24 Nashville, TN at The Basement East
10/26 Baltimore, MD Baltimore at the Soundstage
10/27 New York, NY at The Gramercy Theatre
10/28 Cambridge, MA at The Sinclair

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.09.2018
01:54 pm
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Total Thrash & Whiplash: A sick collection of heavy & black metal fanzines from around the globe
08.08.2018
08:53 am
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The cover of Finnish black metal fanzine Hammer of Damnation, February 1993. Read it in its entirety here.
 
After being inspired by coming across the cover of a 1986 edition of Danish metal fanzine Metallic Beast, I went on a long vision quest in search of other fanzines in the black metal and heavy metal arena. Fanzines were the custodians and keepers of artifacts produced by counter-culture heroes and artists on the fringe before the Internet showed up. Bands would often create their own, but the true heroes behind this pop-culture staple are, of course, the fans who tirelessly self-published the zines because they lived and breathed (in this case) all things heavy and metal.

Heavy metal fanzines were incredibly popular in Portugal during the 80s and 90s. Beautifully cataloged here, you can see the grim covers of many of the zines published there such as Abismo, and one referred to as the “most prestigious” metal fanzine in the country, Renascimento Do Metal, or Metal’s Rebirth. Some fanzines have been painstakingly scanned and posted online such as Finnish black metal magazine Hammer of Damnation (pictured at the top of this post), and early-80s napalm nugget, The Headbanger. Launched in Los Angeles by then-teenager Bob Nalbandian, the first issue of The Headbanger came to be in 1982. Nalbandian witnessed the birth of heavy metal in that city, and his fanzine, one of the first dedicated to getting the good word about LA bands like Armored Saint and Malice, was an instant hit. In 2012, Nalbandian and Japanime Publishing (Tokyo) joined forces to create an ebook for The Headbanger in all its DIY glory. Early 80s Brazilian fanzine Rock Brigade would go on to become a fully-realized metal publication by the mid-80s and has since earned the distinction of being the longest-running music magazine in Brazil’s history.

Was it possible for me to post images from all the great fanzines out there praising all things metal and darker? Nope. Not by a long shot. Nonetheless, what follows is a pretty deep dive into the world of metal fanzines from across the globe, some of which you’ve likely never seen before.

Devil horns OUT.
 

Issue #2 of Bob Nalbandian’s The Headbanger fanzine. The table of contents is pictured below.
 

 
More metal mayhem after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
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08.08.2018
08:53 am
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BANG: Proto-doom metal cult band of the early 1970s return!
04.19.2018
01:52 pm
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BANG (L to R): Frank Gilcken (guitar), Tony Diorio (drums), Frank Ferrara (bass)

If you’re a fan of the druggy, pimply, riff-laden hesher rock as heard on the very very wonderful Brown Acid and Acid Nightmares compilations, then you might want to check out the unsung proto-doom metal group BANG, who released three full-length albums for Capitol Records in the early 1970s. Originally formed in Philadelphia in late 1969 by 16-year-old high school dropouts Frank Ferrara (vocals, bass) and Frank Gilcken (guitar), the duo added 26-year-old Tony Diorio on drums when he answered their “help wanted” ad in a local newspaper. After a year and a half of practicing in a basement, the lads took a road trip to Florida to see what might happen. Hearing about a Rod Stewart & the Faces/Deep Purple double bill in Orlando, they went to the venue and auditioned for the promoter, earning them an immediate opening slot. Soon they’d open for Steppenwolf, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Deep Purple, Three Dog Night, Yes, The Byrds, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, J Geils Band, The Kinks, Ike and Tina Turner, Allman Brothers, Dr. John, Joe Cocker, The Doobie Brothers, BB King, Chuck Berry, The James Gang, Mountain, Guess Who, Alice Cooper, Peter Frampton, Nazareth, Jethro Tull, Billy Preston, Funkadelic and Black Sabbath, a group BANG idolized and was often compared to. Fleetwood Mac even opened for them!

Capitol Records released their eponymous debut album BANG in 1972, which made it to #164 on Billboard’s Top 200, with a reviewer at the publication commenting that the band “on first listen sound incredibly like Led Zeppelin…they play at the same frenetic pace as Zeppelin, and Frank Ferrara’s vocals are so similar to those of Robert Plant’s as to be downright amazing.” Ah, if only talent, hard work and ambition were enough!.

In rapid succession came the albums Mother/Bow to the King (1972), and Music (1973), but all three of them basically flopped as Capitol’s A&R people sadly had no idea what to do with BANG. The three moved on to other things after Music failed to gain any traction in the charts, but they reunited in 1996 and continue to perform live. Their tale is told in The BANG Story: From the Basement to the Bright Lights written by the band with Lawrence Knorr and published earlier this year.

Via email, BANG told Dangerous Minds:

“The Sound of BANG is our own; big and powerful, guitar driven. Melodic and dynamic. Many notable shows stand out from over the years, but one of coolest was opening a show for Black Sabbath, a band we loved. As we were leaving town the next morning, we were listening to the radio and the host brought up the fact that BANG had stolen the show…that’s when we realized we really belonged with the “big boys”. It was the three of us against the world and music was our lives. No TV, no news, just playing, writing and recording.”

“The BANG story is so unique, in just what happened. It was 1971, seven years after The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. Rehearsing every night for eighteen months got us so tight…not just musically, but as people and friends. I really believe that if you work hard enough for something, you can inflict your will and make things happen. The fact that we just decided on a whim to go to Florida, walked into a music store at five minutes to nine because we needed rolling papers, and ended opening up for Rod Stewart and Deep Purple was awesome.  I believe that break came to us because of all the hard work and the eighteen months that we put into it.”

“More than anything, that the biggest takeaway is the fact that three guys from a small little town were able to craft a destiny for ourselves and the fact that we were contemporaries to all the great bands of that era makes us extremely proud and humble.”

Preorder The Best of BANG here.

If you’d like more of the BANG story, here’s video bio of the group:
 

 
Stream ‘The Best of BANG’ after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.19.2018
01:52 pm
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Holy Diver: Pat Boone goes metal, Christians go berserk


Pat Boone and Alice Cooper on stage at the American Music Awards on January 27th, 1997.
 

“I describe myself as the midwife at the birth of rock & roll.”

—Pat Boone on his decision to record an album full of heavy metal covers in 1997

On January 27th, 1997, ABC aired the 24th Annual American Music Awards—an early 70s creation of the Dick Clark which determines its winners by tabulating votes from the public and album sales. Contrary to the less-than-riveting nominee list the ‘97 AMAs had a few cool moments such as Tupac Shakur’s posthumous win for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist and D’Angelo scoring an award for Favorite Soul/R&B Artist. The most memorable moment of the show, and perhaps the year, depending on how riveting your own life was in 1997, was the appearance of conservative Christian crusader, actor, writer, and musician Pat Boone. Boone was about to release his latest record In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy. The album was full of swing/big band-style covers featuring the vintage crooner’s adaptations of Dio’s “Holy Diver,” Judas Priest’s “You Got Another Thing Comin’,” “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll)” by AC/DC among other metal classics. Boone also procured musical contributions from Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow), Dweezil Zappa, and drummer Sheila E. Ronnie James Dio even provided backing vocals on Boone’s cover of “Holy Diver” calling Boone “a really cool guy who really loves metal music.”

To help promote the album set for release the following day, Boone walked the red carpet of the AMAs looking super buff in a leather vest and pants, no shirt, covered in fake tattoos which he accessorized with a studded leather dog collar around his neck, and a dangling silver earring. Later on the show, Boone would show up on stage with Alice Cooper to present the award for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist. People in the audience went fucking NUTS at the sight of Boone looking like he would now be worshiping exclusively at the altar of Satan. At least that’s what Boone’s rather devout followers thought when they saw photos of their squeaky-clean idol looking like he had run away with Mötley Crüe or worse (if there is something worse than that). Perhaps the best part of the very un-Christian caper is that it sprang from the imagination of Dick Clark himself who proposed that Boone and Alice Cooper “switch images” for their award presentation moment. Initially, Cooper was all for it but shortly before the show decided that it was too corny and showed up looking exactly like Alice Cooper. To his credit, Boone kept his side of the Clark-brokered bargain and his seeming transformation into a heavy metal heathen would become a huge media story.  Unless you didn’t have a television in 1997, you most likely saw the then 63-year-old shirtless Boone and probably wondered “WTF” yourself. Which is precisely what Boone’s employers over at the Trinity Broadcasting Network thought—minus the F-bomb naturally.
 

Feel the BOONE!
 
As it turns out, Trinity Broadcasting Network—the massive Christian faith-based television company, considered Boone’s appearance on the AMAs a pretty serious misstep, and after fielding thousands of complaints from their viewers, they pulled the plug on Boone’s popular weekly show, Gospel America. Did this send Boone off to work on his hysterical crying game to ensure his apology to his fans would be as dramatic as hooker-loving Jimmy Swaggart’s 1988 “I have sinned!” sob-fest? Nope. Sure, Boone apologized but was also quick to say that Christians needed to “lighten up.” Here are a few more words from Boone on the death-rock debacle that cost him his show:

“Little did I dream that the media and a lot of Christians would take it seriously. I was really stunned that Christians, evidently by the thousands, having known me for 35 to 40 years, would think that overnight I just radically changed my orientation and all my priorities. Just because I wore some leather pants and fake tattoos and non-piercing earrings doesn’t mean that I’m a fundamentally different person.”

Now that you know all you ever wanted to know about Pat Boone (or read this to sum up his last few decades), let’s take a listen to a few sweet jams from In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy.
 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
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03.19.2018
11:04 am
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Big hair, boobs, & bikinis: All hail the heavy metal groupies of the 80s (plus a Bon Jovi orgy!)


Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe and a few ‘friends.’
 
As we close out 2017, I’d like to invite you to take a quick trip back to the 1980s with me to gawk at images of hair metal gods and their adoring female groupies and hangers-on. C’mon, you know you want to.

I was a dedicated headbanger during the indulgent decade and attended my fair share of metal shows with my huge blonde hair blocking your view of the stage if you found yourself standing behind me. But my cultivated heavy metal style couldn’t hold a candle to girls who showed up at all the metal shows in town looking exactly like the boys in Poison or Mötley Crüe only with boobs. I can’t lie—I wanted to be like them but could never really bring myself to leave the house looking like a heavy metal hooker-in-high-heels. This is not meant to insinuate there is anything remotely wrong with looking like the 80’s girls I’ve featured in this post; do your thing ladies and don’t let anyone tell you not to.

Now, let’s get back to the playful subject at hand—checking out some fantastically NSFW images from the decade of heavy metal decadence and the girls who were right there with bands like Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, Motörhead, and Poison. I do feel compelled to give you a heads up about a few things before we proceed. First, there are a lot of photos of the members of Mötley Crüe in this post which makes sense because DUH. Secondly, as the title of this post indicated rather directly, I have also included photos taken by Bon Jovi’s original tour manager, Rich Bozzett of the band participating in an orgy of sorts with a bunch of naked chicks. Bozzett published the porny photos in his 2010 book, Sex, Drugs and Bon Jovi. Lastly, not all of the girls in this post are groupies, some are models or perhaps strippers who were used in various photo shoots that still fit the profile for this post. Happy New Year!
 

Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses.
 

David Lee Roth of Van Halen.
 

Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P.
 
More hair metal mayhem after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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12.29.2017
11:09 am
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The apocalyptic work of ‘The King of Thrash Metal Art’ Ed Repka
10.23.2017
10:10 am
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An iconic image of “Vic Rattlehead” created by artist Ed Repka for the cover of Megadeth’s 1986 album, ‘Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?’
 
Although artist Ed Repka‘s artwork has graced the covers of at least 100 metal and thrash metal records, the man himself isn’t such a huge fan of the genre and much prefers the angst of classic punk rock when it comes to his listening habits. Repka started making waves in the realm of thrash back in the 80s with artwork he created for bands like Venom, Nuclear Assault, and Megadeth. In fact, Repka’s second commissioned work appeared on the cover of Megadeth’s 1986 album, Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? which featured an image of “Vic Rattlehead,” the band’s notorious apocalyptic mascot that Repka created and owns the copyright for. Repka would collaborate with the band again in 1989 for the cover of No More Mr. Nice Guy, and later in 1990 for Rust In Peace. Unfortunately, since Megadeth vocalist Dave Mustaine is a giant dick, he continued to utilize Vic without Repka’s okay and the artist dissolved his relationship with the band that had brought him well deserved, worldwide acclaim. For many thrash and metal fans, Repka’s artwork is as important and influential as the music of their beloved headbanging, mosh pit-loving bands.

Repka starting drawing things like monsters and horror-themed comics as a child, unaware that his youthful obsession would one day be viewed by millions of metalheads around the globe. After he graduated from high school, Repka enrolled in the prestigious Parsons School of Design in lower Manhattan where he received his BFA in Illustration. According to Repka, he was also one of the first artists to use computer-generated images for album covers—specifically the 1989 album by New York thrash band Napalm and their second full-length Zero to Black. These days Repka says he uses all kind of mediums for his gory, often politically-charged artwork including airbrushing, classic painting techniques as well as digital illustration. In addition to his album art, Repka also worked as an art director for toy/action figure giant NECA and had a hand in the character design for the horror film series Hellraiser. Repka celebrated his 57th birthday yesterday, and I can’t think of a better way to acknowledge that milestone than taking a look at his groundbreakingly savage artwork below, some of which is sort of NSFW. 

Bow down to the King of Thrash Metal Art, baby.
 

Artwork by Repka for the cover of Florida-based death metal band Death and their 1990 album, ‘Spiritual Healing.’
 

The cover of ‘Visual Violence’ the 2008 album by English metal band, Pitiful Reign.
 
More Ed Repka after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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10.23.2017
10:10 am
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A Heavy Metal MONSTER: Obscure German band Night Sun and their 1972 vinyl bombshell
09.01.2017
08:32 am
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Night Sun cover
 
The little-known German band, Night Sun, is one of the earliest groups to blend heavy metal with progressive rock—and they did it really well. They were around for just a few short years, and released only one record, but it’s a MONSTER.

Night Sun were based out of Mannheim, and though many members passed through the Night Sun ranks—including former servicemen of the British army stationed in Germany—their identities are largely unknown. But we do know the lineup that appears on their lone album, Mournin’: Walter Kirchgässner played guitar; Ulrich Staudt was the drummer; multi-instrumentalist Knut Rössler took on piano, organ, saxophone, trumpet, and trombone; bassist Bruno Schaab was also the singer, voicing all of the lyrics in English.
 
Night Sun back
 
The most famous individual to orbit the Night Sun universe was the producer/engineer of Mournin’, the great Conny Plank (Krafterwerk, Neu!, etc, etc). In the LP credits, the producer is listed as “Aamok Musikproducktion,” which was the name of Plank’s company. The album was released by Zebra Records, a German label, and was distributed by Polydor International.

Night Sun comes out blazing with the opening track on Mournin’, “Plastic Shotgun.” The mix of Deep Purple’s organ-driven hard rock and heavy metal masters Black Sabbath, executed with the speed and precision of prog rock, is startlingly great. Get ready, ‘cause “Plastic Shotgun” is gonna blow your head off.
 

 
Other groups that come to mind while listening to Mournin’ include King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, and Billy Joel’s wild, pre-fame two-piece, Attila. After the jump, we’ll embed a few more of our favorites from the Night Sun record, but if you like what you hear—and we assume you will—check out the entire LP here.

DIG IT, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Bart Bealmear
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09.01.2017
08:32 am
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Terrible, awful, no good, really bad heavy metal album covers from all over the world


The cover of the 1998 album by Blue Öyster Cult, ‘Heaven Forbid.’
 
I know that any and every kinda blog post about album covers has been done before, including, of course, ones that choose to focus on the world of heavy metal album art. But here’s the thing—the genre really brings it when it comes to awful execution to say nothing of the bizarre concepts that somehow got to adorn the various covers you’re about to see, such as scantily clad girls with big hair, muscle-bound men with swords and/or angry animals. And I’m merely scratching the surface of what can be seen on the cover of a heavy metal album because, as I’ve come to find out, pretty much anything from vampires to fucking ostriches shooting laser beams out of their eyes goes

While there are a plethora of obscure metal bands featured in this post from Spain to Germany, there are also a number of high-profile bands that put out records with shitty covers like the Scorpions, Blue Öyster Cult, Iron Maiden, and Pantera. As a matter of fact, there are no less than three perfectly awful Pantera album covers in this post that I’m sure alledgedly aspiring bootboy Phil Anselmo will somehow blame on too much “white wine.” (I think he means “white whine”?) Racists are so hilarious when they’re drunk, aren’t they?

Some of the images in this post are perplexingly NSFW.
 

The cover of the 2013 album by Adema, ‘Topple the Giants.’
 

Fastway ‘Bad Bad Girls’ 1990.
 
More entirely questionable metal mayhem, after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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03.09.2017
08:28 am
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Meet Aria, the band known as ‘the Russian Iron Maiden’
02.20.2017
12:16 pm
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An early shot of Soviet-era heavy metal band Aria, “the Russian Iron Maiden,” (looking here very much like the actual Iron Maiden)

Born during a tumultuous time in Russia where the Communist government was still routinely attempting to repress musical expression—metal band Aria became one of the first Russian bands in the genre to rise up and achieve commercial success in the 80s.

Aria (or if you prefer Ария) came to be around 1985 and if vocalist Valery Kipelov didn’t perform his vocals in his native tongue, the casual metalhead might be inclined to believe that Aria was some undiscovered gem that was a part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands (or “NWOBHM” as I like to abbreviate it) that included heavy hitters such as Motörhead, Def Leppard, Venom, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. After releasing their debut Megalomania in 1985 the Russian music press and metal fans quickly bestowed the band with a weighty comparison, calling the group “the Russian Iron Maiden.” Which begs the question—did Aria deserve to be compared with a band that is as synonymous with heavy metal as leather pants, ear-piercing vocals, and sweaty, bare-chested hedonism? The answer is Da my devil-horn throwing friends.

As I mentioned previously, it wasn’t easy to get a band going as scrutiny by the Soviet government not only made it difficult for bands to do their thing, it also made their ability to procure the things they needed to do their thing difficult. Like instruments and amps and tape recorders. So repressive was the environment in Russia that it was conceivable that it might take more than a decade for a band to go from forming to actually releasing music as even acquiring basic necessities like guitars and drum kits could be next to impossible. Despite these challenges, Aria would thrive much in part to the death of Russian rock and roll’s worst enemy, Konstantin Chernenko, and the appointment of his successor Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. They would also seemingly pepper their music with anti-US propaganda, which is especially apparent in the title of a song from their debut “America is Behind.”
 

A vintage shot of Aria.

The band’s heavy, melodic sound and use of synth has also been compared to the work of Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner soundtrack composer, Greek electronic wizard Vangelis. I’ve included a number of selections from Aria’s massive catalog that spans over 30 years as well as some live footage, below. If the existence of Aria—who are still active and currently on tour with a 40 piece orchestra—is news to you, I’d highly recommend adding Megalomania to your vinyl collection as a start.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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02.20.2017
12:16 pm
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‘Sex rained on my head’: The hair metal wit and wisdom of Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy
01.17.2017
04:13 pm
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There are reports, rumors and wild speculations popping up everywhere that the undisputed kings of bedraggled pop metal Ratt are reuniting and touring in 2017.  That’s good news, maybe the first good news in months. After the woeful year we’ve just had, we deserve a little Ratt n’ Roll, man. Let us not forget the plastic-fantastic majesty of mid-80’s Ratt: “Round and Round,” “Lay It Down.” “Wanted Man,” “Way Cool Jr.,” “Body Talk,” “Slip of the Lip,”  “Shame Shame Shame,” “Lack of Communication,” I mean it’s endless, this parade of big dumb hits these cats laid on us. And like many survivors of the glam wars, times have not always been easy for Ratt. They barreled headfirst into the grunge era and became one of its first victims. The hits dried up, the audiences shrank, and the kids found cooler, mopier ego stars to worship. In 2001, classic-era guitarist Robbin Crosby—the preening blonde golden-god of the gang—died of a heroin overdose, after wrestling with addiction and HIV for years. The rest of the band succumbed to infighting, forming half-assed versions of Ratt and scrambling for the last scraps of faded glory as they toured dismal suburban rock dives playing the hits for wistful, middle-aged Gen X-ers. Everyone had lost the goddamn plot.

Well, fuck all that. The band (plus or minus contentious drummer Bobby Blotzer, jury’s still out) are back, presumably better than ever. They even plan on recording a new album. I am 100% sure it will be chock full of tasty, fishnetty hard rock jams. We’re all gonna get laid. Maybe your hair will even grow back.

To celebrate the impending invasion of your privacy, here are some of the best/worst moments of Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy’s 2013 autobiography, Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock. I interviewed Pearcy for Classic Rock a few years ago and found him to be level-headed, enlightened, and even a little humble. None of those traits are evidenced in the book, which is all sex and mayhem, all the time. A stone-cold classic, in other words. Honestly, it might be the best (genital) warts n’ all rock bio you ever read.

Page 33, after ending up in the hospital with two broken legs at age 15 and banging the nurse who was giving him a sponge bath: “I discovered a crucial law that afternoon: Women adore broken men. They cannot resist the urge to fuck you back to health. I would use this secret off and on for the rest of my life.” Tuck that advice into your back pocket, boys

Some fashion advice (page 50): “Vests covered with pins and buttons, worn without a shirt, could always get you in the door, but on wilder, drunker occasions, bathrobes and open-necked karate uniforms were good choices.” Admittedly this sartorial advice might work best for skinny guys in hair metal bands.

Stephen Pearcy in therapy, talking about the time he partied with Ron Jeremy: “He was all sweaty and hairy, and his chick had these tits that were so fake it looked like if you grabbed them you could feel the plastic wrinkling under her skin. It was awesome.” Therapist: “Why did you want to watch?” Stephen: “Because it was cool. Because it was weird, and really gross. I’m into that kind of thing.”

On 1981: “It was a very good time to be young and in heat.”

Page 113: “Ratt had a new philosophy of heavy metal. Slay, steal, pillage, fuck, inspire twenty-chick orgies, all that good stuff. But in a classy sort of way, no devil worship.”

“You smell ridiculous, bro.” - Tommy Lee, after finding Pearcy on his living room floor.
 

 
While Pearcy rarely gets around to talking about Ratt’s music, he did write at length about shooting the cover of the first EP, which features rats crawling up model Tawny Kitaen’s legs.
Page 149: “Tawny flounced off to the dressing room, and Neil waited until she was out of earshot. “I want to throw some live rats at her,” he said. “Perfect,” I said.”

“We drank for an hour, smoking weed and listening to Black Sabbath, until a man in dented Toyota van bearing the inscription Rent-A-Rat arrived.”

“For one amazing hour, Robbin and I tossed rats at the hottest chick in Los Angeles.”

Page 167: “My doctor gave me the best advice: ‘Always look in the mouth,’ he said. ‘If the mouth’s filthy, then you’ve got a filthy snatch.’”

Page 174: “I pulled my pants down around my ankles and received the blowjob of my life while losing to Blotzer at Pong. And yet, part of me feels like I won.”

Page 183: “In a parking lot, true sluttiness knows no bounds.”

Page 206: “Connie,” I said, “You don’t want what I have.” “Oh,” she said seductively. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that, what is it?” “Diarrhea dick,” I said chummily.

Page 221: “Robbin and I became permanent fixtures at the Sunset Marquis, the bull-goose lunatics of the insane asylum. Often Robbin walked around the halls fully nude in the middle of the day. “Cover yourself, sir!” a surprised clerk yelled. Robbin just looked down at his belly, shocked to find he had no pants on. “Hey, right. I’ll go do that.”

“I got trim in here that would make you sick to your stomach.” - Rodney Dangerfield, another permanent fixture of the Sunset Marquis.

Page 226: “You know, Joe, I almost died last night. Drank some weird alcohol out of a jar with cow balls in it.”

Page 232: “And then the cup was full, on the table, yellow and stinking - seventy-two ounces of tour piss. You could smell it from a mile away. “Well,” said Joe, “who’s gonna drink it?”

“Fuck, I just got a threatening phone call from OJ Simpson.” “What the hell for?” “He says if I don’t stop seeing Tawny, he’ll cut my hands off.”

More from Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy after the jump…

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Posted by Ken McIntyre
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01.17.2017
04:13 pm
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Handy list of the 20 most (and least) Metal words
08.03.2016
09:29 am
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Here’s a handy list of the most and least metal words according to ex-physicist and current data scientist Iain of Degenerate State. To get the lyrics, Iain scraped www.darklyrics.com. After “cleaning the data up, identifying the languages and splitting albums into songs,” Iain was left with a dataset containing lyrics to “222,623 songs from 7,364 bands spread over 22,314 albums.”

Iain did post a disclaimer on his website:

In this post I refer to lyrics of certain bands as being “Metal”. I know some people have strong feelings about how genres are defined, and would probably disagree with me about some of the bands I call metal in this post. I call these band “Metal” here for the sake of brevity only, and I apologise in advance.

While the most metal words are pretty obvious, it’s the least metal words that had me laughing. I’d have to agree that “committee” and “approximately” are some of the least metal words out there.

You can read about his detailed methods and process here.


Click on the image to enlarge it.
 
via Geekologie

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.03.2016
09:29 am
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Slayer, Maiden, Metallica and more in an amazing trove of ‘80s heavy metal shirts
05.25.2016
10:10 am
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God bless the human magpies, for without them, finds like this wouldn’t come to light: Erna “Shelly” Hammer, an erstwhile DJ for the once-mighty Z Rock chain of heavy metal radio stations (under the name “Shelly Steel,” because evidently “Hammer” was somehow an insufficiently metal surname on its own…?), is exhibiting her collection of metal and alt-rock t-shirts, ranging in vintage from the early ‘80s to the mid ‘90s. In her lifetime of collecting, she’s discarded very little—what’s on display is a fraction of what she’s kept from her many years as an avid concertgoer, and from her time on the promo gravy train.

This is a good place to mention that this has been been a good week for vintage metal tees—Craig “The Human Clock” Giffen posted an amazing bit of pop culture archaeology (formatted in an amazingly archaic HTML style) endeavoring to catalog all the t-shirts spotted in Jeff Krulik’s classic short documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot. By all means, take a minute to check it out, this post’ll still be here when you get back.

If you happen to be in Northeast Ohio, you can see these shirts on display in a show called “You Are What You Wear” at poster artist Derek Hess’ eponymous gallery through mid-summer. They aren’t being offered for sale piece-by-piece, but when she talked with us about her, um, wardrobe archive, Hammer implied that selling them off in a single lot for the right sum wouldn’t be out of the question.
 

 
Hammer: The first real rock shows I went to, I was 15, and this guy I worked with at this diner first took me with him and his friends to see Aerosmith, and then a few months later, Kiss. I was in awe. I didn’t really get to go to too many more shows until I was driving, so I mail ordered shirts, whatever I could get.
 

 
Hammer: I had an awful lot, but I wore them—you can see some of them are pretty beat up, stretched, over-laundered. I bought them to wear, there was no intention of collecting. The only ones I got rid of were when I moved, I got rid of a bunch that were promo when I worked in radio, for bands I didn’t really care about. I got rid of a whole crate! All of the shirts from bands that meant something to me, I hung on to.
 

 
Hammer:  I never thought about selling them. When I got asked to do the exhibit, I was even skeptical about that, I asked “do people really want to look at a bunch of shirts?” and they assured me it would be cool. But there’s always a price on everything, you know. And eventually, after turning 50, it’s normal to want to start downsizing. So they could be for sale. But there’d still be one or two I’d have to hang on to.
 

 
Hammer: The one thing I love about shirts, it’s kind of like a club. When you see someone in a concert shirt by a band you like somewhere, especially if it’s a remote place where you don’t expect it, you feel a brotherhood or sisterhood with that person you know saw the same show as you did—they’re conversation starters!
 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Ron Kretsch
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05.25.2016
10:10 am
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‘Monsterman’: The Rise and fall and rise of Lordi, the Monsterboy who never grew up


 
It all started out as a joke. A Finnish heavy metal band wearing Gwar-like costumes enters the cornball Eurovision Song Contest in order to freak the squares out. What happened was totally unexpected. They won! And Finland went apeshit. The band, Lordi, became national heroes, a source of enormous pride for the people of Finland. It may be about as hip as a Christmas-themed sweater, but the Eurovision Song Contest is taken very seriously with an estimated audience as high as 600 million people in 56 countries.
 

 
Lordi’s win made them a national treasure. The year was 2006. There was even a Lordi cola drink! By 2007 Finland was done with Lordi. Once the fanfare subsided, the home of the whooper swan and Hanoi Rocks banished Lordi to the “where are they now?” file, the dead zone where Spinal Tap, William Hung and The Singing Nun reside. The band that had once been Finland’s ticket to International glory had become an embarrassment.

The worst part of Lordi’s fall from grace is that it really was a case of a joke backfiring. What was intended as a subversive act was seen as a sellout by the audience Lordi really wanted to cultivate: the metalheads. Imagine if The Clash had appeared on Star Search. Lordi lost whatever credibility they had and the Eurovision Song Contest win killed their career while the cheers of millions faded into silence.
 

 
Filmmaker Antti Haase has made a terrific documentary about Lordi’s frontman Tomi Putaansuu called Monsterman. The film’s title refers to the title of Lordi’s biggest hit song. Putaansuu, who goes by the name “Mr. Lordi,” and Haase were childhood friends who had lost contact over the years. Mr. Lordi became a rocker. Haase made movies. When it came time for Putaansuu to stage his comeback he contacted Haase about the idea of documenting the rocker’s return to the limelight. Haase agreed and the resulting documentary is a touching, melancholic and deeply thoughtful look at the perils of fame and stardom.
 

 
Monsterman deservedly won the Jury Award at this year’s Austin Film Festival. Haase has directed a rock doc that has the cinematic touches one associates with narrative art films. This a beautifully shot movie that aspires to communicate not just by filming talking heads and concert footage but through a visual poetry that evokes feeling in ways that transcend mere reportage. Monsterman has soul.

Monsterman manages a level of intimacy with its subject without ever revealing Putaansuu’s face. In fact, we never see the faces of any of the members of Lordi until close to end of the film - and only one. The effect is quite dramatic because the person revealed is someone we’ve grown to care about. Putaansuu was furious that director Haase had betrayed an agreement they had to not unmask anyone in the band. As a result, Putaansuu has disowned Monsterman. Given the sympathetic depiction of Lordi and the overall excellence of the movie, I think Putaansuu will have a change of heart. In fact, according to Haase the healing has begun. As more accolades roll in, I expect Putaansuu to hit the talk show circuit. And why not? It’s all good theater.

Rock and roll is particularly cruel to its aging stars. For every Keith Richards or Patti Smith, there’s a dozen rockers who’ve fallen into irrelevancy or simply burned out. Does anyone take Axl Rose, Steven Tyler or Sinéad O’Connor seriously anymore? Some older rockers have taken to writing memoirs to keep their hand in the game. It’s a graceful way to keep creating without making a fool of yourself. Others, like Ted Nugent or Meatloaf, just go insane. Sometimes dying is they best way to keep your street cred. Putaansuu isn’t taking his fall from favor lying down. He’s the phoenix who’ll rise from the ashes. It’s the metal thing to do.

In Monsterman, Putaansuu is heroic in his efforts to pull himself up by his boot straps (which are enormous by the way) and resurrect his career. He knows no other world. In many ways, like most rockers I’ve known, myself included, he’s been in a state of arrested development since he was a teenager. He is still surrounded by his vast collection of action figures, masks and horror videos. He confesses that he’s too much of a child to have children himself. He lives alone in a snowbound cabin 50 miles from the Arctic Circle and is still doted upon by his loving mother. His strategy to return to the status of his glory days may actually work. The movie Monsterman is a damned good start.
 

 
Shortly after winning the Eurovision Song Contest, Putaansuu told the New York Times…

Being a hero is easy: you just have to win the Eurovision Song Contest, apparently. Until a few weeks ago the whole nation was against us totally — they did not want us to represent Finland. Now all the magazines in Finland are printing Lordi masks for children. There’s not much logic going on inside. But let’s face it, people are stupid.

Tomi Putaansuu is hoping they’ll get stupid again.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.06.2015
10:42 am
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