Blue Öyster Cult – Spectres (Columbia Records – 1977)
The main feature here is Godzilla, one of Blue Öyster Cult’s most classic and fun tunes with its lumbering monster riff and witty lyrics but the songs I love most on Spectres are the ones that evoke hot, summer nights. Hells Angels ride out in the desert to a backdrop of ethereal harmonies on the elegaic Golden Age Of Leather, Death Valley Nights is sozzled noir, Fireworks is full of innocence and wonder and the vampiric masterpiece I Love The Night is dreamy and seductive. On a sweltering night, like it is tonight here in Scotland, Spectres is the perfect soundtrack. Now if only the backs of my knees weren’t so sweaty.
The big news at HMO Mission Control recently is that, at the tender age of 48, I got my first car! At the moment I’m too busy trying to figure out what gear I’m in to want the added distraction of music but I can’t wait to get some Yngwie on.
Bon (and on and on) Jovi
Last weekend I binge-watched Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. It was a bit like their career: really good fun in the early stages but then increasingly dull as it wore on. It doesn’t help that, with the possible exception of Richie Sambora, nobody in the band seems particularly compelling. Top marks for being so thorough and candid though.
HMO Charts
Darkthrone move up 666 places on the strength of their excellent new album It Beckons Us All…
Coffin Storm are a new entry with their debut album Arcana Rising. Quality doom-laden cult metal.
Mötley Crüe go down, down (and hopefully will just go away) following their wretched new song Dogs Of War.
The only way is up for Bulletboys, as they grant fans the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in classic tracks such as Smooth Up In Ya. Buy, buy, buy!
HMO Salutes
HMO salutes Mike Pinder of The Moody Blues fame who has recently died aged 82 and ex-Scorpions drummer James Kottak who died, aged 61, back in January. I’ve always been a big fan of The Allman Brothers Band so the passing of guitarist/singer Dickey Betts, at the age of 80, was very sad news. But the worst news of all was the death of Magnum founder, the wonderful Tony Clarkin, whose death at the age of 77 basically signals the end of music as we know it.
Recent Purchases
Judas Priest’s Invincible Shield and Saxon’s Hell, Fire And Damnation haven’t particularly blew me away but are both enjoyable late-career outings. Bruce Dickinson’s more creative and revelatory The Mandrake Project fares better. I also picked up a lovely vinyl reissue of Reverend Bizarre’s II: Crush The Insects and a wonderfully compiled NWOBHM set All Systems Go: The Neat Singles Vol One.
You Won’t Get Out Of Here Alive: Waysted Volume One (1983-1986) compiles three albums and two EPS from Waysted’s initial run and UFO’s Lights Out is now more essential than ever, with the addition of a brilliant live show. I haven’t quite got to grips with the (two!) new Ihsahn CDs and Midnight’s Hellish Expectations yet but initial impressions are positive. And the previously mentioned Darkthrone and Coffin Storm albums are two of the year’s best so far.
Upcoming Releases
Anno Domini 1989-1995, the new Tony ‘The Cat’ Martin era Black Sabbath box set is the one I’m looking forward to the most but it looks like it’s been pushed back a bit so that should free up some cash to buy the new John Entwistle The Ox box set and the reissue of Heavy Load’s Metal Conquest instead.
That’s all for this digest. Until next time… mind the roads!
In a tale as old as time, mismanagement and a shite label almost ensured that The Burning Of Rome (Cry For Pompeii) and its parent album, 1988’s Age Of Consent, were lost to history. But, by the Gods and Godesses, Virgin Steele were able to re-release the album in 1997, by which point they were hitting their stride as purveyors of peerless barbaric-romantic metal and their fans could finally rejoice in this mighty masterpiece. Bombastic and grandiose, it’s a totemic moment in the band’s career and frontman David DeFeis delivers the tale of a fallen warrior with heroic levels of nobility and passion. The Burning Of Rome (Cry For Pompeii) is easily one of the best metal songs of all time. I don’t just get goosebumps listening to it, I get them even just thinking about it.
Big Trouble‘s magical “I bet if you asked them, our heroes would say…” hook alone is enough to make it one of my favourite songs ever. But the track, from David Lee Roth’s 1986 album Eat ‘Em And Smile, also has a hypnotically groovy and sexy riff running all the way through it, a dazzling career-peak performance from guitarist Steve Vai, and Dave Lee Roth rapping away at his witty, quirky and evocative best. As always, he ain’t talking ’bout love, but Big Trouble is romantic and profound. Like a glimpse into Diamond Dave’s philosophy of life. Because Roth knows what our heroes would say. Somehow, he knows.
Iron Maiden – Piece Of Mind (1983 – EMI, 2014 Reissue)
When you’re in a “back to basics” metal mood, like I am today, classic Maiden is just a no-brainer. For the first six songs, 1983’s Piece Of Mind is basically metal perfection with rousing boy’s-own stuff like Where Eagles Dare and The Trooper, the soaring Flight Of Icarus and more progressive fare like Still Life and Revelations which lend the album a dark, gothic aspect. Maiden were hitting the tour/record cycle hard in the 80s so, inevitably, the quality starts to get inconsistent towards the end but it would take more than a slightly silly song about cavemen to take down a beast like this.
Dio – Holy Diver: Super Deluxe Edition (Warner Records 2022)
I can’t say that Joe Barresi’s 2022 remix of Dio’s Holy Diver is a revelation exactly but it’s a tasteful update. It loses a bit of ambience but adds punch and it’s great to hear a fresh new version of an album I’ve listened to a gazillion times. And because the remix lets us hear beyond the original’s fade-outs we get to hear more of Vivian Campbell’s inspired guitar playing. Holy Diver was always one of my favourite-sounding metal albums though, so when I find myself thinking “this sounds fucking great” I also remember… it always did.
Blue Murder – Nothin But Trouble (Geffen Records 1993)
Blue Murder were starting to sounding hopelessly outdated on their second album, 1993’s Nothin’ But Trouble. But in 1993 my taste in music was hopelessly outdated so I gobbled it right up. Compared to their bold debut album, Nothin’ But Trouble is a more calculated, commercial effort and there’s some rote wimphem here like Love Child and Save My Love. But I didn’t mind… back then I would have listened to Mr. Blobby if John Sykes was his guitarist. And there are some blazing rockers here like We All Fall Down and Cry For Love that took me right back to the glory days of Whitesnake’s 1987 and Thin Lizzy’s Thunder And Lightning.
I’ve always been a sucker for a bit of folk and fantasy in my rock so I instantly fell in love with The Witch’s Promise the moment I saw Jethro Tull’s 1970 performance of it on Top Of The Pops (as part of the 1993 BBC series Sounds Of The Seventies). It took me years to find it on an album but luckily I videotaped the show so I could continue to partake of the song’s wonderful vocal melodies and lush layers of acoustic guitars, flute and keyboards. It had the swinging, hippy pop style of the band’s early material but The Witch’s Promise also pointed the way forward to the folkier, singer/songwriter focus and lush orchestrations of Jethro Tull’s future work. It was a watershed track that introduced me to one of my favourite bands and, by extension, the wider world of folk and prog rock. And it still bewitches me to this day.
Hawkwind – Hall Of The Mountain Grill (United Artists Records 1974)
Despite being a mellower and more conventionally “prog” album, with a soundscape reminiscent of Pink Floyd and mellotron-laden King Crimson, 1974’s Hall Of The Mountain Grill is one of my favourite Hawkwind albums and a great place to start if you’re new to these dystopian space rockers. Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke) is worth the price of admission alone: the band at their anarchic, street-level best. And Lemmy fans will enjoy hearing an early, pub-rocking take on future Motörhead tune Lost Johnny.
Gary Moore had a good voice but never quite at the same level as his fiery guitar playing so on 1985’s Run For Cover he enlists two legendary, but troubled, vocalists to help out. “Voice Of Rock” Glenn Hughes lends his powerful, soulful singing to four songs, most notably the classy Reach For The Sky which could have fit right in on his superb 1982 album Hughes/Thrall. And then Moore’s old Lizzy pal Phil Lynott basically steals the show with his larger-than-life presence: duetting on bullet-strewn hit Out In The Fields and contributing his own thumpingly macho, but characteristically vulnerable, Military Man. I enjoy the whole album but it’s these guest appearances that make Run For Cover a favourite.
My copy is from this box set. Good music, crappy packaging!
![Album Of The Day: Dio – Holy Diver [Joe Barresi Remix]](https://heavymetaloverload.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/img_20240307_182557360_hdr7e25301399329513880485.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
HEAVY METAL OVERLOAD 