Monthly Archives: May 2020

Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

KISS – Nowhere To Run (Song Review)

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“I was there with a shoulder to lean on”

HMO salutes Bob Kulick who recently passed away, aged 70. He was a veteran session musician who played with tons of great artists and was also known as a producer of star-studded tribute albums. But my main knowledge of him comes from his stint in the short-lived Blackthorne (with vocalist Graham Bonnet) and his involvement with KISS.

Bob was almost recruited to be the original KISS guitarist in 1973 before a certain Ace Frehley staggered in and snatched the job from him. But due to Ace’s rock n’ roll unreliability and wavering levels of commitment to the band, KISS occasionally invited Bob into the studio to replace Ace. Kulick was talented enough to not just mimic Frehley’s playing but also make it sound like Ace was at the top of his game!

Nowhere To Run is my favourite KISS song Bob appeared on. And one of my favourite KISS songs full stop. One of four new songs recorded for the 1982 compilation album Killers, it’s a classic example of Paul Stanley at his rocking and romantic best. The main riff and chorus is totally anthemic, the verses are heroic and impassioned and Stanley sings at the top of his range, giving his voice a cracked sound and vibrato that is just one of my favourite sounds ever. And Bob Kulick helps put the song right over the edge into absolute bliss with his lead playing. By now he was being given more freedom to play his own way but he still attacks this song like Ace would: with tasty, cool, exciting and unforgettable guitar playing.

KISS always said “you wanted the best, and you got the best”. Well, Bob was one of the best.

Black Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, Song Reviews, Thrash Metal

Bathory – Sacrifice: 1st Version (Song Review)

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“I spread eternal dark on Earth”

Taken from the 1984 compilation album Scandinavian Metal Attack, Sacrifice is the first recorded release from one of metal’s most revered and influential acts: Bathory.

It’s the first of two songs the Swedish band (led by mythic mastermind Quorthon) recorded for the compilation. And compared to the enjoyable trad metal performed by the other four Swedish and Finnish acts on the album, Sacrifice sounds like the next level in extremity. It’s a ballsy and chaotic rager in the style of Motorhead, Venom etc… with cavernous, noisy vocals and a catchy, evil ascending chorus riff. The label were inundated with letters demanding more from Bathory. And rightly so. This is great stuff for fans of the more punky, violent end of the NWOBHM and fans of early, primitive thrash.

But the song would go on to have a second, and even more important moment in history. The early version sounds positively conventional compared to the version that appeared later that same year when Sacrifice was re-recorded for Bathory’s seminal self-titled debut album. By that point the band were delivering all their music with grim, frostbitten harshness that was like nothing before it. The black metal sound was born.

Black Metal, Death Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews, Thrash Metal

Sepultura – Necromancer (Song Review)

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“Can feel the presence of death”

It’s almost unrecognisable as the band that became a major force in metal years later but the early Sepultura stuff is still pretty remarkable. Brazil wasn’t a corner of the globe where anyone was expecting a metal scene to pop up and when the band recorded their 1985 debut EP Bestial Devastation (a split release with fellow countrymen Overdose) it was just emerging from decades as a military dictatorship. Musically it’s not the most amazing stuff you’ll hear from the era but the band were pretty impressive considering they were all still in their mid-teens. And they got in early enough and extreme enough that their raw, filthy undergound thrash was also a primordial stew of nascent black and death metal.

My favourite track from the EP is Necromancer, with its naive evil lyrics, grinding Celtic Frost riffs, blasts of Discharge-like speed and a wild “all notes matter” guitar solo right out of Slayer. Fun stuff. Unfortunately, my favourite part of the song is a bit that I always mishear and misremember. One of the great metal mondegreens. After the chaotic solo the song returns to a slow sludge as vocalist Max “Possessed” Cavalera sings “necromancer, dead’s invoker”. But in my world this line has always been “necromancer, dirty fucker”. And it always will be! And it’s about time they just ‘fess up and admit that’s what the lyrics really were all along.

Classic Rock, Genre, Song Reviews

Little Richard – Tutti Frutti (Song Review)

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“Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom”

HMO salutes the pioneer and architect of rock n’ roll Little Richard. I found it almost impossible to decide which song to select for a tribute, since to pick one is to imply that it’s the greatest. But in the mid-to-late 50s Speciality Records era, he released so many classic songs it’s ridiculous. Even narrowing down the selection to songs from his debut album Here’s Little Richard, I’d still have to choose between Ready Teddy, Rip It Up, Slippin’ And Slidin’, Long Tall Sally, Jenny Jenny, and She’s Got It.

What if I narrowed it down to songs with a link with hard rock and metal? There’s the lyrics from Rip It Up and Good Golly Miss Molly winding up in Deep Purple’s seminal Speed King; the drum intro from Keep A Knockin’ that kicks off Led Zep’s Rock N’ Roll; and the cover of Get Down And Get With It that launched Slade’s run of UK hits. “Little Richard,” Lemmy said in a 1994 interview. “That was the first guy I saw where I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

So let’s just start at the beginning of everything: Tutti Frutti. As AC/DC’s Brian Johnson said “there was nothing, and then there was this”. The big bang of rock n’ roll. Souped-up twelve bar boogie woogie, energy, hollering, sex, excitement, outrageousness. It’s timeless. But I could say that about any of the other songs I’ve mentioned in this post.