With pesky January out of the way, it seems like a good time to have a wee catch-up on all things HMO.

Recent Posts

2023 got off to a galloping good start with Tyrant and their righteous NWOBHM single Hold Back The Lightning. On the softer rock side, I’ve been talking about Marillion and Journey. Marillion’s Holidays In Eden got me wondering about albums with shite title tracks… can you think of any? And the comment scuttlebutt seems to be that Wheel In The Sky is the best Journey song. It’s official!

On the more extreme end of things I’ve selected songs from Napalm Death and Testament and I’ve talked about a couple of my favourite tracks from 2022 as well: Artificial Brain’s Celestial Cyst and Avatarium’s Death, Where Is Your Sting.

HMO Salutes

Jeff Beck – the legendary and innovative guitarist, who has died aged 78.

Dan McCafferty – the leather-lunged Nazareth vocalist, who has died aged 76. And so soon after the death of Manny Charlton too!

Bob Nalbandian has died aged just 58. He was a crucial figure in the US metal scene but has a special place in my heart due to his old podcast ‘The Shockwaves Skullsessions’. As I was writing this, it was announced that a special tribute run of ‘The Shockwave Skullsessions’ is in the works along with uploads of the original episodes! Great news because I had them all on a hard drive but can’t seem to find them anymore. Follow their FB Page for info/updates. His podcast was a big inspiration to me in the early days of starting this blog so a big thank you to Bob for being such an absolute legend.

New Stuff

Following the usual Christmas spendathon, it’s quietened down a bit in January. The big purchase has been the excellent new Thin Lizzy Live And Dangerous box set. And I’ve also picked up the reissue of UFO’s overlooked No Heavy Petting album, a cool Deicide reissue and the purchase of Smear Campaign and Inside The Torn Apart completes my collection of Napalm Death studio releases! I bet you’re well jell.

What I Was Listening To While I Wrote This Post

Svart Records have done superb work with Slice Of Doom, the recent box set of Reverend Bizarre’s early demos and recordings. I was listening to the first disc and it’s brilliant: the Finnish doom upstarts at the top of their game. How can you not love a band that started their career with a cover of the Dr. Who theme tune and have a song called Fucking Wizard?

Coming Up

I’ve got posts about top tunes from the likes of Opeth, Iron Maiden and Whitesnake on the way. As far as new releases: I’m looking forward to IX, the new album from Paradise Lost side-project Host; Circle Of Snakes is one of the few Danzig albums I don’t have so I’m pleased to see that getting reissued; and I already have two versions of Darkthrone’s Goatlord but… OK, let’s make it three!

And that’s about enough for now. I think the plan will be to do this at the start of every month from now on so… see you in March!