Tag Archives: American

Album Reviews, Genre, Heavy Metal

Manowar – Sign Of The Hammer (Album Review)

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Manowar – Sign Of The Hammer (1984)

Finding their label Music For Nations wanting, presumably puny, Manowar used the budget they were given to record their third album, 1984’s Hail to England, but used it sparingly: covertly working up an additional batch of tracks which they then used to win a record deal with Virgin/Ten Records. Sneakiness aside, Manowar achieved a heroic feat. They had recorded two of the very greatest albums in the history of heavy metal… at the same time.

So here’s the second of those peerless works, Sign Of The Hammer. It’s pure heavy metal, but Manowar’s explosive and idiosyncratic idea of what that might be. Joey DeMaio leads from the front with his humungous bass riffs and leads but the whole band is on stellar form. Eric Adams sings with absolute authority and commitment, Ross The Boss’ wild, off-the-cuff guitar solos are impossibly exciting and Scott Columbus pounds out the drum equivalent of shouting “FRESH HORSES” at the top of your voice. The songwriting is also godly, with opening lines like “black clouds on the horizon” and “burning embers of the second death will come in the night” 100% guaranteed to give all but the false true metal stirrings.

The album is near flawless. All Men Play On Ten and Animals kick the album off like KISS-on-steroids. Thor (The Power Head) is as thunderous and warring as its title suggests. Mountains is elemental in its epic scope and the black wind conjured up in The Oath and the Sign Of The Hammer tips the album into sheer aural chaos. There’s only one chink in the armour here and that’s the bass noodling of Thunderpick. It’s extremely skippable but, as always with Manowar, there’s mad genius at work as the workout proves to be an effective overture to the sublime album closer Guyana (Cult Of The Damned). Eric Adams excels here, delivering an account of mass suicide with chilling and heartbreaking sincerity.

This album has hopped around the top spot of my favourite albums of all time for decades now, vying with that other work of genius Hail To England. There are times when I seriously wonder if I’ve wasted my time listening to other music when I could have been listening to this and, listening to it again now, I reckon I probably was.

Album Reviews, Genre, Hard Rock

Samhain – Initium (Album Review)

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Samhain – Initium (1984)

Stylistically caught between the fun-filled horror punk of The Misfits and the seductive darkness of Danzig, Glenn Danzig’s second band Samhain are easy to overlook. While I regularly find myself in the mood for the more-renowned acts on either side, I often have to remind myself to forego their obvious joys and spend some time with his “other” band. So this week I’ve been listening to Samhain’s debut Initium.

It’s an album that I’ve liked in the past but not loved. I appreciated the Misfits-style catchiness in tracks like All Murder, All Guts, All Fun and He-Who-Can-Not-Be-Named but didn’t regard the tracks as top-tier classics. And I found the rest of the album to be leaden, lo-fi and lacking in cohesion. But recently, I’ve warmed to the occult darkness of tracks like Initium/Samhain and Macabre and I’m finding hitherto overlooked gems here. The “cause I want it, and I need it” chorus of Black Dream is a classic Danzig hook, Archangel closes the album with some catchy 50s swoon and the raging and bloodthirsty The Howl has become a new Danzig favourite.

There’s no doubt that this is a transitional album but its underground horror, dank atmosphere and murderous intent has a charm and (for me) a growing fascination of its own. In the future, I won’t need to remind myself to listen to Initium. Cause now I want it, and I need it.

[Samhain – The Howl]

 

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

The Obsessed – Punk Crusher (Song Review)

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The European edition – 2LPs (Blue and Red) with bonus tracks

“Steal and lie to get your fix”

Here’s a fantastic track from Sacred, the new album from The Obsessed. I mentioned the other day that hearing just 30 seconds of this song was enough to sell this album to me, and I’ve not been disappointed. It’s mostly built around an irresistible wind-in-the-hair Motorhead riff but the song peaks with its pounding bar-fight of a chorus. From the lyrics I gather the victim of the crushing is more likely to be a punk of the “worthless person” variety than a punk of the musical persuasion. Either way, this songs deals out a no-nonsense crushing, pure and simple… and that’s why it’s song of the week. Enjoy.

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

Dokken – When Heaven Comes Down (Song Review)

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“I don’t know who to believe”

Been on a proper Dokken kick lately so here’s the ace moody rokker When Heaven Comes Down, taken from their classic second album Tooth And Nail. Don’t really need to say much about this one do I? It’s all there: epic Kashmir-esque drama, big riffs, classy and tasteful vocals from Don Dokken and a guitar solo from George Lynch that is equally classy and tasteful too (with a smidgen of widdly thrown in for good measure). Shokkenly good.

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

Omen – Be My Wench (Song Review)

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“Bearing the gifts of sex and wine”

Tired of crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you and all that? Why not let off some steam with Omen’s Be My Wench? This is top metal cobblers, it’s got a chorus that you’ll never get out of your head and it’s also got the kind of raunchy lyrics that most po-faced modern bands wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. But if you’re going to do Conan metal there needs to be some shagging in there. It’s the barbarian way.

Death Metal, Genre, Song Reviews, Thrash Metal

Nocturnus – Destroying the Manger (Song Review)

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640

“Chronometer reading 0 B.C.”

As my Top 10 Albums of the Year proved, “death metal in space” was a big thing in 2016. So let’s travel back in time to 1990 and the album that started it all: Nocturnus’ The Key and this excellent blast of sci-fi horror. Some sort of evil cyborg has invented a time machine and set a course for the date 0 B.C. He has only one goal: kill the baby Jesus!

“Blasting away Father, Mother, and Child/laughing hysterically all of the while” the cyborg proves to be devastatingly successful in his mission. And Destroying the Manger proves devastatingly successful too: a wild shred-fest of riffs and solos that gets down to serious moshing business at 4:10. And check out the prominent keyboards too… Nocturnus going where no death metal band had gone before.

Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

Virgin Steele – Lion in Winter (Song Review)

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693
Virgin Steele – Age of Consent (1988)

“Never set the sun on me”

Welcome to a new feature: The HMO Song of the Week! Each Sunday I’ll be posting up the song that’s been lighting up my life the most in the past week: could be a new song or an old classic.

So let’s get this series off to the best possible start with one of the best possible songs: Virgin Steele’s Lion in Winter from their terrific album Age of Consent. It’s a fine example of their patented and thrilling barbaric romanticism. The Manowarring and galloping guitars provide the barbarism while the instrumental flourishes, melodic pomp and David DeFies’ impassioned vocals provide the romanticism. Here’s a man that can sing a line like “And I’ll rage against this wind” and sound like he really means it. Wonderful.

[Virgin Steele – Lion in Winter]

Album Reviews, Doom Metal, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

Danzig – Skeletons (Album Review)

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Glenn sees your "Dad-bod" and raises you a "Danz-bod"
Glenn sees your “Dad-bod” and raises you a “Danz-bod”

The covers albums is almost always a dodgy proposition but I couldn’t help but hold out some hope for Danzig’s Skeletons. Partly because… Glenn F. Danzig! But also cause I knew the Evil Elvis was going to choose some interesting material to put through the metal wringer. And it’s the choice of material that saves Skeletons from being a total stinker. The performances are pretty ropey: flat vocals, lifeless drums and relentless guitar squealies along with a flabby sound that’s devoid of dynamics. There are dicey renditions of Sabbath’s N.I.B, Aerosmith’s Lord of the Thighs and ZZ Top’s Rough Boy, while a surprising choice, sounds like your drunken Dad commandeering the microphone at a wedding. Dad, stop! But Danzig gets bonus points for doing all these tracks his own way and, when you’ve got Glenn M. F. Danzig doing The Everly Brothers’ Crying in the Rain, it’s hard not to get a kick out of that… however much it sounds like the karaoke of your darkest fears. It’s worth having Skeletons just for that and its opening trio of tunes: Dave Allan and the Arrows’ Devil’s Angels is bashed out in delightfully Misfits-y style; the obscure soundtrack curio Satan (Theme from Satan’s Sadists) is brilliant and tailor-made for Glenn – “I was born mean, by the time I was 12 I was killing, killing for Satan”; and his cover of Elvis’ Let Yourself Go is a stomping taster for his planned Elvis EP. It’s definitely for fans-only but, for them, it’s a flawed-but-loveable glimpse into the great Fonzig’s interesting and eclectic influences. And if you’re not singing “I was borrrrn mean…” in the shower every day after hearing this, you’re a better man than me.

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

Virgin Steele – The Black Light Bacchanalia (Album Review)

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Ruff!
Ruff!

Wrrrow! Look out! Eeee eeee… From the top of the mountain, yeah! Yow! Fire! Owww. Ruff. Oooh… Look out! Rowf! Yeah! Oooh yeah!

And so David DeFeis kicks off Virgin Steele’s 13th album The Black Light Bacchanalia with every vocal exclamation known to man.

He sounds excited and so he should: the opening track By the Hammer of Zeus (and the Wrecking Ball of Thor) is pure awesomeness. It delivers on the promise of its ridiculously mighty title. I’ve become obsessed with this song and have been listening to it thrice daily for many moons now. Ruff!

From the top of the mountain, yeah!
From the top of the mountain, yeah!

Unfortunately, the rest of the album isn’t as instantly appealing . Exclamations aside, DeFeis spends most of The Black Light Bacchanalia singing in an oddly soft voice. It’s an interesting experiment, making it seem like he’s whispering sweet nothings into your ear or he’s inside your head. Look out! But it doesn’t do much for the album’s dynamics, especially when many of the songs are meandering and forgettable.

But my hopeless addiction to that opening track keeps me coming back for more and moments of greatness keeping popping out with each listen. Weirdly, considering the laid-back vocals on the heavier tracks, DeFeis sings the excellent piano-ballad The Tortures of the Damned with raging passion. Fire! And the softer vocal approach works dreamily on To Crown Them With Halos (Parts 1 & 2) and Necropolis (He Answers Them With Death), bringing out all the drama and the melody. I’m finding that there’s nothing in my collection quite like this so I’m seduced into giving it another spin. It’s flawed but fascinating. And even if it doesn’t quite live up to its exclamatory opening there’s still plenty to get excited about here. Ooohh yeah!

Look out!
Look out!
Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock

The Dictators – The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! (Album Review)

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Crazy
Crazy

Do you ever want to write about or review an album and just feel unequal to the task? I feel that way about The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! The New Yorkers’ 1975 debut album has got so much going on. It was a critical success and commercial failure and manages to be classic and overlooked at the same time.

I’m not really comfortable talking about its supposed punk influence either, given I’m not a big punk fan. This always just sounded like fun, back-to-basics rock n’ roll to me: Louie Louie riffs, The Who and The Beach Boys with teenage, street level attitude and a ton of pop culture references thrown in. It’s an album that I love but I’m reluctant to recommend. Especially if, like me, you came at this from a Manowar direction and want to hear where guitarist Ross the Boss started out. After hearing the lamentable cover of I Got You Babe and the silly Back to Africa you’re going to wonder what the hell is going on. (Anyone reading this for Manoreasons should probably check out The Dictators’ third album Bloodbrothers first. It’s quality muscle rock!)

But from the “let’s go” of the fourth track Master Race Rock on, this album is a veritable blast. Two Tub Man, (I Live For) Cars and Girls and Weekend all put such a joyous spring in your step that you wish every rock album was like this. It’s so quirky, arch and fresh. The occasional vocal interjections of “secret weapon” Handsome Dick Manitoba add to the fun too. The album’s second side is so perfect it makes you forget the first one ever happened.

And… Ross the Boss. Fingers and steel, baby! The man is a legend.

So, like I said. I’m not equal to the task of covering this great and weird album. But never mind… with my financial holdings I could be basking in the sun in Florida. This music-writing lark is just a hobby for me! Nothing, ya hear? A HOBBY!