Category Archives: Hard Rock

Black Metal, Death Metal, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, HMO Blog, NWOBHM

HO HO HMO Digest – 25th December 2023

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It’s a time for giving, a time for getting, a time for forgiving and time for another HMO Digest.

Blog Shenanigans

Since the last digest, I’ve been having fun with the new “Album Of The Day” posts. It’s giving me the opportunity to post photos from my collection and talk about albums again but without having to “review” the albums. I used to do posts like these on Facebook and I don’t see why they should have all the fun. Especially when they tried to ban me for posting a picture of boobs (the cover of Akercocke’s The Goat Of Mendes album). I photoshopped a goat over the nipples but that wasn’t enough apparently!

Looking forward to 2024…I’ve been thinking that a lot of my gaps in posting are because I often listen to a lot of one band, for example Black Sabbath, and I’ll post about them and then feel like I can’t post about them again for ages. So from now on, I’m just going to post about whatever I like, whenever I like. So if that means 12 posts in a row about Virgin Steele then you’ll just have to put up with it.

Best Album Of 2023

I called it pretty early in my July post about their song Tankespinnerens Smerte. Dødheimsgard’s Black Medium Current was my top album of 2023. Excellent, eclectic and moving black metal.

The runner up was Primordial with How It Ends which finds the Irish band, ten albums in, at their soaring, defiant best.

New Stuff

Usually at the end of year I end up having a blow out on some ridiculous deluxe box set but that hasn’t happened this year, despite the best efforts of Camel and Mott The Hoople to tempt me. I did have a rare wander round the music shops in both Edinburgh and Glasgow and picked up some goodies though!

Incantation – Onward To Golgotha (Relapse Records 1992)

The last couple of months have been unusually good on the live album front too, with excellent new live releases from Cradle Of Filth with Trouble And Their Double Lives, Mayhem with Daemonic Rites and Tom G. Warrior’s Triumph Of Death with Resurrection Of The Flesh, a live set of classic Hellhammer tunes. UGH!

I also bought the absolutely stunning new revised and expanded edition of Dayal Patterson’s book Black Metal: Evolution Of The Cult. The original version was already (easily) the best book on the subject and essential reading for anyone interested in the genre. But the new edition has an improved layout, additional material and bands added that weren’t included in the original due to length restrictions. I’m going to love getting tore into this over the Xmas holidays.

HMO Salutes

Steve Riley – (died aged 67) drummer in many bands but is most known round these parts for his stint in W.A.S.P.

Charlie Dominici – (died aged 72) the former singer in Dream Theater, having appreared on their under-rated debut album When Dream And Day Unite from 1988.

Torben Ulrich  – (died aged 95) I normally only do these about people that are in my CD collection but Torben (father of Metallica’s Lars Ulrich) won the hearts of all in the metal scene when he uttered the immortal words: “delete that”.

What I Was Listening To While I Wrote This Post

Malokarpatan’s Vertumnus Caesar is another highlight from 2023. Excellent blackened, proggy heavy metal from Slovakia that takes you back to the era of formative black metal influences like Master’s Hammer, Tormentor (Hun) and Mercyful Fate.

Upcoming Stuff

2024 is already shaping up nicely, with the likes of Saxon, Ihsahn, The Obsessed, Ace Frehley, Bruce Dickinson and Judas Priest all having new albums scheduled for release. And there are so many great bands like the BulletBoys working on new albums (BulletBoys!) that I can’t even be bothered listing them. Although I will say that one of them is the BulletBoys.

And that’s about it. Hope you had an amazing 2023 and have an even better 2024. Thanks for reading and remember… FOLLOW THE MASTER.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

Winger – Purple Haze (Song Review)

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“Lately things don’t seem the same”

Winger’s glam metal re-imagining of Hendrix’s Purple Haze was doomed to fail, considering the relative positions of Hendrix and Winger on the Cool-o-meter Of Rock. I’ll give Kip and pals kudos for being brave/cocky enough to put their own spin on such an untouchable classic but the end result leaves me neither happy or in misery. It’s not so awful that I’m thinking “scuse me while I skip this shite” but in bringing the song in line with their own brand of 80s virtuoso sleaze, Winger also manage to bash out all of the dark, lysergic funk that made the original so intoxicating in the first place. Which is probably why…*points at Cool-o-meter* Winger down here, Hendrix up here.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Song Reviews

Sammy Hagar And The Waboritas – Things’ve Changed (Song Review)

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“Wondering, if you still got it in ya”

Here’s a feelgood classic rock song from a year that had very little of that going about. On Not 4 Sale Sammy Hagar And The Waboritas managed the rare feat (in 2002) of sounding like they were actually having a ton of fun bashing out songs like Things’ve Changed. It’s basic, familiar stuff but it’s also warm, catchy and delivered with infectiously easygoing charm. I love the mix of Who-like strummed acoustics and thick power chords and Hagar’s voice sounds great. Until this week I hadn’t listened to Things’ve Changed for over a decade so I can’t really say it’s essential but one listen was enough to have the song bouncing around happily in my head for days. It made me feel good. So no changes there.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Song Reviews

Enuff Z’Nuff – In Crowd (Song Review)

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“My favorite songs everybody says are lame”

In 1991, the rock “in crowd” was looking increasingly like a bunch of grunge numpties. So miserable. Much better to throw your lot in with glam outsiders Enuff Z’Nuff who released their pop metal masterpiece Strength that same year. It never scored the commercial breakthrough it was tipped to achieve but, never mind, it still holds up today. In fact, I listen to it and enjoy it more than ever. Here’s one of the album’s best tracks, In Crowd. It’s a brilliant sleazy rocker with a killer riff, Cheap Trick-grade hooks and smart, self-deprecating lyrics. Despite using the phrase “so miserable” seven times, In Crowd is a ton of fun.

Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Hard Rock

Magnum – Vigilante (Album Review)

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Magnum – Vigilante (1986 – Polydor)

The “My Little Unicorn” artwork isn’t the only thing about Magnum’s Vigilante that will have you exclaiming “ermagherd!” There’s a whole bunch of the band’s best tunes here: the hard-rocking title track; the passionate Midnight (You Won’t Be Sleeping); the sublime anti-war ballad Need A Lot Of Love; and When The World Comes Down, the winter warmer single that should have been a Xmas number one! Shame it was released in February. Queen’s Roger Taylor produced this 1986 album and his 80s pop sheen might not be for everyone, but the songs are pomp rock heaven.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

Aerosmith – Make It (Song Review)

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“What have you got to lose?”

I remember buying Aerosmith’s Columbia years compilation Box Of Fire back in the mid 90s. I didn’t know a lot of the band’s 70s stuff and I was worried I’d risked too much cash on 13 CDs worth of albums I might not like that much. But the moment I heard the first riff of Make It, the opening song on their 1973 debut album, I knew it was going to be ok. Make It is a great, gutsy opener and a decent song but it’s the guitars that really umm… make it. It’s chock full of dirty drop-D riffing and colourfully wonky soloing. And that intro riff, with its goosebump-inducing suspended chord and mini-gallop, still knocks me out as much today as it did back in 1994. Money well spent.

Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal

The Wildhearts – The Wildhearts (Album Review)

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The Wildhearts – The Wildhearts (Round Records – 2018 Deluxe 2CD Reissue)

The thing I enjoy the most about The Wildhearts is the thing they do where they’ll be playing a song but then take off in all sorts of directions, riffing all over the place until you wonder if they’ll ever find the song again. Other bands do this but The Wildhearts are just so good at it that I associate it with them. To be honest, I occasionally enjoy these mid-song rifferamas more than the songs that spawned them. But that’s not a problem on 2007’s gleefully aggressive The Wildhearts. My favourite albums of theirs since its release, every song is a gem and practically every song veers off into a roller coaster ride of riffs. Heartily recommended.

Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock

Budgie – Never Turn Your Back On A Friend (Album Review)

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Budgie – Never Turn Your Back On A Friend (MCA 1973)

Budgie’s third album is a classic of early metal, mostly on the strength of its bookending tracks. The speedy, rifftastic opener (and future Metallicover) Breadfan and the monumental closer Parents make Never Turn Your Back On A Friend a must-hear and a great gateway into the Welsh band. My main gripe is the shite album title. I reckon that with that artwork they should have called it “Smuggler”. A wasted opportunity.

Black Metal, Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, HMO Blog, NWOBHM

HMO Digest – 10th September 2023

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It’s been aeons since the last HMO Digest! It’s time for another catch up on all things HMO.

Blog Recap

I don’t normally post in any sort of theme/series but I’m really enjoying doing my ongoing series of posts about instrumental songs. I’ll definitely be doing more stuff like this in the future. But, as far as instrumentals go, I’ve got plenty more to get through and you can expect some folk, prog and death metal over the next couple of weeks.

HMO Salutes

“Curse… the Gods! Too many people… have died.” Most recently, Bernie Marsden (died aged 72), most famous for his time in Whitesnake and co-writing all-time classic rock tunes like Here I Go Again and Fool For Your Loving.

The period since the last HMO Digest has also seen the passing of: Pete Brown (died aged 82) the poet, musician and co-writer of many extremely classic Cream cuts; Frehley’s Comet bassist John Regan (died aged 71); Mark Adams (died aged 64) – bassist and co-founder of doom pioneers Saint Vitus; Tank’s Algy Ward (died aged 63); and Metal Church drummer Kirk Arrington (died aged 61).


Up And Autumn

A weird September heatwave has just kicked in which is annoying as I was starting to get into a lovely Autumn vibe, listening to one of my go-to albums for this time of the year: Anathema’s Alternative 4. One of the best albums of the whole 90s British gloomy northerner scene, Alternative 4 is right at the sweet spot between the band’s metal beginnings and the emotional rock they’d become known for. And it’s being reissued on vinyl soon so if you don’t already own this classic… now’s the time.

New Stuff

Since it’s been a while since the previous digest, I’m just going to focus on some recent new albums I’ve bought (as opposed to reissues, box sets etc…). The biggest one is the new Virgin Steele album The Passion Of Dionysus. It still has all the idiosyncratic flaws of their other latter-day releases but I just find this band totally fascinating and this is their strongest release since The Black Light Bacchanalia (which, despite my muted review, has become one of my most listened to albums of the past few years). Yow!

There’s also the new Marduk album Memento Mori which is only just out. On first listen it sounds utterly caustic and hellish. These are compliments. There’s also been a “new” Akercocke live album Decades Of Devil Worship (actually an unreleased live recording from 2007) which is a complete blast, the band sound at the top of their game. And I’ve also posted my favourite songs from the new Albert Bouchard and DHG albums.


Upcoming Releases

September is looking pretty exciting in terms of new releases: to kick off there’s the eagerly-awaited return of Primordial with their new album How It Ends; Blood Incantation follow up their 2022 ambient release Timewave Zero with a new half brutal/half ambient EP Luminescent Bridge; Mayhem release a new live album Daemonic Rites; and space rockers Hawkwind celebrate the anniversary of their classic live album Space Ritual in super deluxe style with an 11-disc box set. Do not panic.

Thanks for reading! If you like seeing photos from my collection remember to check out the HMO Facebook page as there’s more of that stuff there. And if there’s any kind of topics you’d like to see me cover on these digest posts then let me know.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

Riot – Narita (Song Review)

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Riot’s Narita is a great example of an instrumental that just flat out rocks. None of your mellow interludes, atmospheric intros or virtuoso shredding here, just a brilliant band knocking out a banging tune. Named after a controversial Japanese airport, the construction of which provoked heated protests and riots from farmers and activists, 1979’s Narita is the title track of the band’s second album and also one of its most exciting songs: an energising mix of 70s US rock (Montrose, The Nuge) and the kind of charging attack and duelling guitars that would become synonymous with Maidenesque 80s metal. Presumably, vocalist Guy Speranza sat this one out because he couldn’t be arsed writing a song about an airport but his superb voice isn’t missed here as the music is so dynamic and catchy. The New Yorkers would become one of rock’s mythic coulda/shoulda bands, which is a shame. As you can hear from Narita, Riot deserved to take off.