Category Archives: HMO Blog

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

Vinyl Haul At Veneno

1 Comment
I knew it was going to be a great shop cause it had Scorpions’ In Trance in the window

The big story round these parts is that I’ve got the vinyl bug back – big time. In February I noticed on Facebook that a new record shop, Veneno Music Store (Spanish for “poison” or “venom”) had opened in Dunfermline. I hadn’t been buying a lot of used vinyl lately so I wasn’t too excited about it. But Dunfermline is a quick drive from where I live and it’s a place I like going to anyway so I decided to visit for a wee nosey. I’ve now been back three times in the last month. Check out what I’ve been buying in the pictures below, it’s like he’s been using my Discogs wish-list to stock his shelves or something.

I’m really chuffed to finally have such a great record shop in my neck of the woods. The chap that runs it is very friendly and he’s getting in great stuff every week. It’s not all rock and metal, there’s quite a range of genres. All the things I’ve bought were conservatively graded, reasonably priced and have played like a dream. If you’re in the area please make sure to pop in. And tell them that HMO sent you.

The best Yngwie album
Worth it just for the cover surely?
OK, not vinyl but new/sealed for just £30. A must buy.
Black Metal, Classic Rock, Death Metal, Genre, Hard Rock, HMO Blog, Progressive Rock

HMO Diary: 12th January 2025

13 Comments

I had me a real good time recently, getting 2025 off to fun start by listening to lots of The Faces and Van Halen.

The Faces At The BBC is one of the best box sets I’ve bought for a while, I’ve been enjoying it immensely. The fact that The Faces were ace live isn’t exactly news because the Five Guys Walk Into A Bar… box set already did a great job of documenting that, but these BBC recordings are a soulful, rocking revelation all the same.

You don’t need me to tell you how good the first two Van Halen albums are, but I’ve been listening to them cause I’ve been enjoying Alex Van Halen’s Brothers book. Actually it’s the audiobook I’ve been enjoying because I liked the idea of hearing him reading it. It’s a thoughtful, detailed and moving memoir and Alex hasn’t been an outspoken figure for many years so it’s a treat to hear him reading the story.

All this brings me to the topic of my plan for 2025: I want to read more.
Continue reading HMO Diary: 12th January 2025 →

Black Metal, Classic Rock, Death Metal, Genre, HMO Blog, Progressive Rock

HMO Diary: 24th December 2024

9 Comments

I’ve not had my typical run up to Christmas this year. Usually I’d be enjoying wintery walks to and from work while listening to all my favourite Christmassy rock: 80s stuff from bands like KISS, Whitesnake, Magnum, Van Halen etc… but my knee has been knackered for a couple of weeks so I’ve been using the car. This has disrupted my Christmas listening mojo quite dramatically and I’ve ended up more in the mood to revisit my favourites of 2024. Great stuff, but not very Christmassy! Bah humbug.

So, what are my top five of 2024?

Continue reading HMO Diary: 24th December 2024 →

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

HMO Diary: 1st December 2024

16 Comments

It seems like I buy more box sets these days than anything else. Especially as we get nearer to Christmas there seems to be a tempting set or two released every week. Just yesterday I got the new box set reissue of Porcupine Tree’s 2007 career-peak Fear Of A Blank Planet. Loads to take in here: the album, documentary, bonus tracks, radio sessions, live stuff etc… So far, I can say that the album sounds superb, the documentary is very interesting and the packaging is very deluxe.

But all this box set activity has got me casting my mind back to a time when a box set purchase was just an annual treat, if that, and what my earliest box set purchases were.


Might as well start at the beginning so I looked out the oldest one I’ve got: Iron Maiden’s The First Ten Years. Released in 1990, my copy is not much to look at any more as it’s missing the lid but it’s still a worthwhile 10CD set of the band’s classic singles. And as a bonus it has the entertaining Listen With Nicko spoken word series from the band’s drummer Nicko McBrain. Possibly the first metal podcast ever? Anyway, I stuck on the first disc which features the Running Free and Sanctuary singles, the highlight of which was a barnstorming live version of Drifter.

The Maiden set is sadly bereft of any reading material which is a shame as one of my favourite features of a box set is a good book. That got me rummaging around for my copy of Free’s Songs Of Yesterday box from 2000. This was a very good box set for the time, comprised almost entirely of unreleased recordings and alternate versions. But it sprang to mind because it also had a particularly good book and I’ve had a great time today reading that and listening to the first two discs of the set. Phil Sutcliffe had written an excellent history of the band for Mojo magazine in the late 90s and expanded it here for the box set. It’s a fascinating read about a talented, tortured band.

It’s been a fun weekend of listening and reading with a wee bit of nostalgia too. I think I’ll be giving Cheap Trick’s Sex, America, Cheap Trick from 1996 a whirl next. Got any recent box set purchases or any memories of your first ones? Pandora’s Box? Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B? The Misfits? All belters.

Black Metal, Genre, HMO Blog

HMO Diary: 23rd November 2024

3 Comments

Recently the onset of winter’s grim permafrost has put me in a right old black metal mood. So I’ve been mainly listening to Mayhem’s Live At Leipzig and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, which are two of the most indispensable and definitive albums of the whole genre.


In the Mayhem mode, I also watched the 2020 Norwegian TV documentary Helvete: The History Of Norwegian Black Metal. It was pretty enjoyable and fairly comprehensive in terms of the Mayhem story which meant it spent a bit more time than necessary on Mayhem’s Deathcrush era but had lengthy, compassionate coverage of Per “Dead” Ohlin’s story and a welcome focus on Snorre Ruch’s vital and often overlooked contribution. And it had a good overview of all the sensational stuff too. Be warned that the subtitles are a bit of a mess – hopefully someone will sort that out at some point.

Now we’re at the weekend and I’ve had to cancel a trip to the west coast of Scotland due to the arrival of Storm Bert. Sorry, Mum. So there’s nothing for it but to coorie in for a good blasting black metal session.

First up is Ulver’s Bergtatt: one of my absolute black metal favourites, it’s got all the hallmarks of the genre but is uniquely gentle and pastoral with wonderful monk-like vocals. After that I went back to the genre’s roots for Bathory’s hugely influential The Return….. which is a staggeringly primitive, caustic and evil classic. Emperor’s self-titled EP continues that mood but with a more musical and orchestral element lurking beneath the cacophony. I have a break for a shower and a toastie before bringing things up-to-date with Winterfylleth’s excellent new album The Imperious Horizon which finds the British band sounding vital and intense as well as including a show-stealing guest vocal from Primordial’s Alan Nemtheanga.

And that’s it for just now. I’ve been buying lots of box sets lately so I might report back on those once I’ve spent more time with them. But I’ve now realised I have lovely mince pies in the cupboard but no cream to put on them! An unacceptable state of affairs which means I must venture out and endure Bert’s windy passage.

Black Metal, Classic Rock, Death Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal, HMO Blog, NWOBHM, Progressive Rock

HMO Diary: 27th October 2024

9 Comments

I finally got my hands on the new Blood Incantation album Absolute Elsewhere yesterday. I had ordered the deluxe box set and the supplier I used kept putting the shipping date back so had to cancel and get one on eBay before they all vanished.

First few listens and it’s a pretty stupendous mix of Morbid Angel style death and spacey, melodic prog. And the production is wonderfully warm and natural. It’s also got the Luminescent Bridge EP, a documentary, the soundtrack to the documentary and a cool book too. Could be an album of the year contender although it would be up against another recent purchase: Doedsmaghird’s Omniverse Consciousness. An offshoot of avant black metallers Dødheimsgard, this is like a grimmer companion piece to that band’s excellent 2023 album Black Medium Current. But also quite similar too, so if you loved that album then you need this.

Ermaghird!

While I’m on the topic of album of the year contenders I have to mention Deep Purple’s =1 which continues the band’s remarkably creative and fresh late stage. It’s a bit overlong but emotionally it’s been the standout of the year and kicked off a huge Deep Purple binge and a reappraisal of some of their later albums that I’d not given enough time to. Now What?! in particular has become a new favourite, up there with the band’s very best work.

-1 for the artwork though

And I can’t sign off without saluting ex-Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno who has passed away aged 66. I never followed his career post-Maiden to be honest, but his work on those indispensable first two albums is more than enough to put him in the HMO Hall Of Fame.

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

HMO Digest – 1st May 2024

13 Comments

Demon Driver

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!

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

HO HO HMO Digest – 25th December 2023

4 Comments

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.

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

HMO Digest – 10th September 2023

9 Comments

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.

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

HMO Digest – 13th March 2023

21 Comments

I ended up moving house at the end of February. It’s been an exciting time in terms of getting a nice new place and loads of extra space, but it’s been a complete pain in the arse in terms of having to actually move. But it’s done now. Only one CD bit the dust during the move, the inlay torn in half by a tumbling shelf: the 2CD Ear Music reissue of Pride & Glory’s self-titled album. Luckily it was still available and easily replaced.

Yee Haw

My music collection is now unpacked, organised and looking sexier than ever so it’s time to get back to the old blogging shenanigans. Fresh horses!

Recent Posts

I only managed two posts in February before real life got in the way. Opeth’s twisty, turny The Twilight Is My Robe, which may well leave you wondering “where am I now?” and Love/Hate’s She’s An Angel, which features an extremely rare instance of strings being taken off a bass guitar! Surely not.

New Stuff

I mentioned three upcoming releases in February’s digest and those have all been bought. The excellent IX from Paradise Lost side-project Host, a reissue of Danzig’s Circle Of Snakes and a reissue (that I totally don’t need but bought anyway) of Darkthrone’s Goatlord. I also got a few box sets: Porcupine Tree’s deluxe reissue of their underrated Deadwing album; a set of Scottish NWOBHMers Holocaust; and the BBC Broadcasts set from Genesis. Oh yeah, and that copy of Pride & Glory… to replace the one damaged in the move.

What I Was Listening To While I Wrote This Post

T-Rex’s The Slider from 1972. For my money the best T-Rex album. It’s got some of his darkest, weightiest rockers (Buick Mackane is class), his best singles (Telegram Sam) and choice deep cuts like Spaceball Ricochet and Baby Strange. It’s a magical album of rock ‘n’ roll at its simple, inspired best.

Upcoming

March has some tantalising new stuff coming out: Hanoi Rocks are bringing out a re(al)mix of their Oriental Beat album to celebrate its 40th anniversary; Saxon are bringing out another covers album (still haven’t listened to the last one); Behemoth continue their plush reissues of their early albums with a deluxe edition of Grom and there is even more Danzig! The imminent reissue of the out-of-print 777: I Luciferi will give me the opportunity to finally own all the Danzig studio albums.

Other than that, normal blog service will be resumed shortly. Watch this space. And hopefully I won’t have to move house again for a very long time.