Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation

The only CD I still own, that I've had as long as Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction, is Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation. The 1987, big come back album, from the now clean and sober Boston bad boys. This album is not as good as the classic Toxic Twins material from the mid 70's.

The first release from Aerosmith on Geffen records marked the beginning of Aerosmith's most commercial period. However, this album was more like the classic material than the follow ups Pump and Get A Grip ended up being. It took until Nine Lives before I liked an Aerosmith album as much as this one, and I actually listen to Nine Lives more than this album. Heart's Done Time starts the album off with a romp and ruckus, it might even be considered to have a slight country edge. It's a great lead off, but not exactly the most memorable song. It's a stock Aerosmith song. Thankfully their stock is worth listening to. I think I would have cut the song around the 3:30 marker as well. The extra minute or so of Steven's caterwauling wasn't really needed.

The next track on the album is a very typical Rock song from the time period. Magic Touch is your basic run of the mill blah, not worthy of the Aerosmith name. It sounds like Aerosmith trying to sound like Great White, or Damn Yankees. Much like the track before, this one runs on too long as well.

Rag Doll is another countryesque romp. The video makes it look like a New Orleans cat house, but the reality is that it should have been shot out on a farm, with Besty Sue in some Daisy Dukes milking a cow. I know the censors would have had a field day, but it would have seemed more authentic. I do like the drawn out Scat style signing at the end of this one.

There's a little of that old shuffle in Simoriah. It has a feel that reminds me of something from Draw The Line. It's good, but not the quality you might expect from Aerosmith, especially in the A-typical mid song breakdown with reverb.

You know the next song. It was the big comeback video, and radio single. Dude (Looks Like A Lady) is the most classic sounding song on the album. There's Rock, horns, a great beat, and a solo worth listening to, without it seeming forced. However, like most songs on Permanent Vacation the song runs about a minute too long.

St. John is a song I fell in love with the first time I heard it. It's simple, has a hard edge, and has the stink of stale beer and cigarettes in a biker bar blues. All that mixed with the Christian symbolism makes for a brutal underdog of a song, and I always root for the underdog.

The next song moves from the biker bars to the swamps. Hangman Jury is some old school, I mean real old school, Mississippi/Delta Blues mixed with 80's rock sounds. It's a great song and I don't mind the 5:33 running time on it either. Girl Keeps Coming Apart is next up. It's fast, bouncy and has a Soul kind of sound. I love Aerosmith with horns. I don't care for the silly shredding solo, that's not what Joe Perry does. He does it well, but it's not right. This is another one where I don't mind it dragging on at the end.

Which brings us to the 5:10 power ballad Angel. Oh, how the girls fell in love, and the guys sang this in the mirror, hoping to fool themselves into thinking that this song would get them chicks. This chick got Steve Tyler chicks, no one else, because they don't sound cool in this song. It's not like Dream On. This is all about selling out, and getting on MTV, back when all they played was videos.

The title track pops up in the tenth position, and is eight seconds shy of five minutes. Is that a problem for Permanent Vacation? I don't think so, at least not too much.

The song is a mix of Kokomo from The Beach Boys, and the later Eat The Rich from Aerosmith's Get A Grip. I've always liked this tune.

I'm Down is just like Girl Keeps Coming Apart, but has piano instead of horns.

The album finishes with The Movie, a fantastic instrumental from a band that really knows how to play, when you let them. It's like Kings and Queens, but without the vocals, unless you include the sound bites on the track. In my opinion this is the best song on the album, and only one of two I'm willing to go out of my way to listen to.

Permanent Vacation is not a great album, if you are an older fan. If this is the album that introduced you to Aerosmith it's pretty good. For me it just kind of falls in the middle. Acceptable to listen to, but far from a first choice.

6/10 - content

8/10 - production

6/10 - personal bias

Metallica - Death Magnetic

* - This article is composed mainly from an article I published September 15, 2008 on facebook. The article was a comparative between two different albums that came out around the same time. I've now crafted it into a review of just one album.

Metallica's Death Magnetic has left me kind of on the fence. I heard somewhere along the line that Metallica said this album is the album that should have been between ...And Justice For All and The Black Album. This is a very accurate description for this album. So, if you love those albums this is a good album for you to pick up. It's a million miles an hour, with riff after riff crashing down, and blindingly fast solos, as well as all that other fun stuff. All this and it still is somewhat commercial sounding. Total fucking head banger music for the masses.

At this point I'd like to mention that I have no use for the black album, except for maybe four songs. Justice on the other hand is a great album, but leaves me wanting to slit my wrists after one too many listenings. I've also kind of grown out of my angry youth, so banging my head doesn't mean as much as it once did. At least not banging my head that fast anymore.

However, after a couple listenings, the album has kind of grown on me. Sadly, I do like The Day That Never Comes, the lightest and most commercially friendly song on the album. It grew on me like a bad fungus.

Cyanide and Broken, Beat & Scarred both hooked me right away although I find the songs ran a little longer than they needed to, but that's due to the million different riffs jammed into one song. Just a little on the excess side I think.

The Unforgiven III was another great song and nothing like the other two previous songs sharing the same name. This one felt like it had more depth than the others, and went on more of a journey.

The Judas Kiss had me almost turning off the CD. Sorry guys but that was a steaming pile, and an early indication of what was coming with Lulu. All though I would still listen to it before Nothing Else Matters, which is the biggest pile of shit ever written by Metallica. I will go to my grave swearing Mama Said is still fucking cooler.

After years and many listenings All Nightmare Long has probably turned into my favourite song. Or at least the one that I listen to the most. I love the animalistic chasing vibe. I find myself dreaming of hunting as a werewolf.

My Apocalypse, the last track on the album, and is okay too. But this album does contains a song that I do believe should be in the Top Five Metallica songs of all time.

Sandwiched between The Judas Kiss (steaming pile of shit) and My Apocalypse (pretty fucking cool) is the most ballsy, in your face, heavy as hell, mother fucker Metallica has released in years. Well, that might be slightly over stated.

Suicide & Redemption is not only the longest song on the album, but it's also an Instrumental. It can come off sounding a bit like a jam session, but that only makes it that much fucking better, in my opinion. This song saved the album for me, originally, just based on it being so mesmerizing.

I no longer consider it the best song on the album, I save that for Cyanide and All Nightmare Long to duke out. Suicide & Redemption is still a top three for me. In fact those three songs plus The Day That Never Comes are the only ones I still listen to on their own, without being mixed in my CD player on random.

7/10 - content

8/10 - production

6/10 - personal bias

Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare

* - Another version of this review was originally published September 13, 2011, on facebook. Updates were made May 23, 2012.

This was the album my friends were waiting to read about what I thought, because this was the album the fans were waiting for. However, the same thing I said then applies now. If you're waiting for me to rave about Alice Cooper's Welcome 2 My Nightmare, you're not going to be happy, or maybe you will. But, the most important thing to remember is that this is an album, not a collection of songs. Although it has some good singles in it.

If you look at this album as a follow up to Welcome To My Nightmare, as the title, album art and presence of Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner and Bob Ezrin would indicate, it's almost as disappointing as the aforementioned cover art. If you look at the album as a follow up to Along Came A Spider, it's a bit of a let down, all be it, a well thought out one that will grow on you with multiple listenings. In fact after almost nine months since I originally wrote the review I find I mainly start the album on what would most likely be the second side in the days of vinyl.

The album starts off with the dark ominous sound that nightmares have, including the air of familuarity needed to set the mood with I Am Made Of You. A song clearly meant to set up the album much like the title track of the original. This one doesn't have the swing or deep laced groove, it has frightening ambience instead. However, it's on the second listen that you truly get what it's all about.

Caffeine, it's fun and bouncy while conjuring images of the kids in Nightmare on Elm Street 3 to mind, O.D.ing on Red Bull and cappaccinos. If those things had been around then. I'm not sure how serious to take this song, because it comes off as a teenagers hyped up on caffeine and that is sometimes just a little too much for me.

The third track, The Nightmare Returns, is a sound bite to let you know that you are now asleep. Then you find yourself on A Runaway Train. Being carried away with the baddest of the bad. The best part about this song is that Dennis Dunaway, Neil Smith and Micheal Bruce can still play like it's 1973. The down side is they chose to sound like Slick Black Limosine on this track, which isn't a bad thing when you're reflecting what it's like barrelling down the train tracks to your doom.

From there Alice finds himself as The Last Man On Earth, and discovering that it's actually not a bad thing. This is a good track if you enjoy some old time tuba and violin feel. As time has gone on, this is one track that I enjoy singing along with more and more. Not due to the content, but because it just sounds so fun.

The first song to sound like some real classic Alice Rock, is also the track that features Rob Zombie. The Congregation is this albums Department of Youth, but rips it up more like a track from Billion Dollar Babies. Also, it should be mentioned that Rob does not play "Rob Zombie" in his performance as The Guide. Instead he plays The Guide which makes it so much better. It would have made a great Rock single, if it wasn't being made by a man that has been making music since the mid 60's.

I'll Bite Your Face Off is the bad fungus that grows on you for this album, because every album needs to have one. I mean every single album, I have ever come across has one of these songs. It's also the second song to feature the remaining orignal band and they kick it out like 1974. I wasn't happy with it as a lead off single, but hey, it's real rock by real rockers and there just isn't enough of that, even though I didn't care for it the first few times I heard it.

It's scary that this album has a second bad fungus, Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever. On first play, it's a WTF? On second play, it's not too bad. By the third play you're able to overlook the fact, that the first time you heard it, you thought this was the song that Ke$ha helped write, and you were ready to put a bullet into Alice's head for, especially during the parts where it sounds like Weird Al is doing vocals on this album as well. However, around the 2:30 marker, all of a sudden, the monster that is Alice crushes the nightmarish disco sound under it's guitar shredding heels. A style I wish he would have left back on the Goes To Hell album.

Then it's on to Ghouls Gone Wild. If it had been done in the same way that Rob Zombie did his last two albums, it may have sounded awesome. The way it was done on here instead sounds like a steaming pile left over from the demos that became The Who's Summertime Blues. It's a cliche surfer sounding track that is better suited in a Scooby-doo episode than hurting this album. Something To Remember Me By is a filler ballad forgetable five seconds after When Hell Comes Home starts. Truly the most Nightmarish sinister sounding song on this album, dealing with the very real horror of abusive drunk parents. This is the third and final track recorded with original band and is The Alice Cooper Group's last great fear pumping, fright factory. It breathes the same breath as I Love The Dead, conjuring the same dark depths of Black Juju and then leaves you as spellbound as My Stars. And, that's the simplified description.

"Dear God, what the fuck is Ke$ha doing on an Alice album?!" I'm eating those words now. What Baby Wants may honestly be one of the best songs on the album, and should have been the second single, if there had been one. Not because Ke$ha is on it and it will become super popular for that stupid reason. It's due to the fact that you don't realize that it's the blonde, white trash, space cadet that gave us all those lovely and charming ditties about partying like Mick Jagger. Instead we get The Lady In Red leading Alice around by the nose, because what baby wants, baby gets. We also get a great groove that you can get it on to, while still dueting.

The vocal part of the album finishes up with a country-esque, show tune styled summary of the nightmares in a kind of "spelling it out for the simple" way, until it hits you with a monster right hook. I won't wreck the surprise that will have you laughing when you hear it. It's not a bad laugh either. The joke is totally intentional and actually solidifies the album in a way that makes subsequent listenings more interesting.

The album then rolls credits with a score of signature Nightmare instrumentation that is literally orchestrated to bring the nightmare to a final end. Not a word is spoken and you can feel that somehow it's all finally over. This time the monster won't come back.

The bottom line, you can't just listen to this album once. If you do you won't like it, as it comes off as a mix of Special Forces, Lace And Whiskey, Muscle Of Love, Constictor and Trash. Which isn't exactly a great image if you understand the references.

Instead give it a couple listenings. You'll quickly discover that it actually belongs mixed in with any album released between 1973 and 1980. Which is to say that it has elements from Billion Dollar Babies to Flush the Fashion, good and bad. An album for the fans.

Since I originally wrote this review my opinion on the album has slightly changed. Because it is an album for the fans, and Alice has pretty much said that it's the last one, I have a more nostalgic view towards it, but I only truly like a little over half of the album. A few of the songs are filler that I think would have hurt Alice's career if they had been part of the original Nightmare.

7/10 - content

9/10 - production

8/10 - personal bias

Nativity In Black - a Tribute To Black Sabbath

In 1994 the Tribute Album all of a sudden became a huge thing, the reason was the amazing collection put together for Nativity In Black. A tribute to Black Sabbath featuring 12 classic Sabbath songs re-done by some of the biggest names in music at the time.

This was the best tribute album to come out in that time period, some of the other albums were so bad that the original artists ended up suing (Rush with the Working Men CD). This one on the other hand not only had the original band members permission, but everyone from that line-up except for Tony Iommi is on this album.

Most tribute albums suck for two major reasons. Instead of being a collection of bands performing songs as a unit, it's a bunch of individual artists recording different parts at completely different times, and something is lost in the lack of unity. The other is that most of the time the covers are either too much like the original that it sounds copycat, or way too different to be recognized.

Nativity in Black does have some thrown together combinations, but most of the time it's actual bands, playing Black Sabbath songs as those bands would play them. When it isn't a group/band playing, it's a vocalist mixed with a band. For example Ozzy is with Therapy? and Bruce Dickinson is with Godspeed. The only exception is Bullring Brummies which was made up of Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Rob Halford, Brian Tilse, Wino and Jimmy Wood, but that was due to label disputes that prevented what was supposed to be an original Sabbath reunion.

The album opens with Biohazard's version of After Forever. It's my sesond least enjoyed song on the album. It's a great copy, that reeks of Biohazard, which is why it does nothing for me. I've never been a fan of Biohazard, and over the years I've discovered that there aren't many bands from the New York area I like. They all share a sound, that always seems off. A little too thin, especially since in this case there is so much noticable bass.

The next track on the album is Children Of the Grave as performed by White Zombie. This is my favourite Black Sabbath song, especially with the Embryo opening. I think this was also one of the last songs released by White Zombie, before the break-up. This version is clearly Zombie's take on a spectacular song. Is it as good as the original? I don't think so, but it's still really good. This was the song that introduced me to this album, and lead me to buy it. The samples, and musical changes all work in ways that are completely acceptable.

Paranoid is the most overplayed Sabbath song ever. It's been covered non-stop by any band thinking they are Hard Rock or Metal, Ozzy performs it in every show, and I'm sure that Black Sabbath without Ozzy also performed this song constantly. Megadeth, did a great job Thrash Metalling the shit out of this song. It's faster, more furious, and pierces with a shrapnel that the original version wanted to do, but couldn't back during the original recording.

The cover of Supernaut on this album is pretty much the biggest song 1,000 Homo Dj's ever released. they are a band that is better know by the name of Ministry. It's a good cover of a song that I don't mind, but could live without. The only Black Sabbath song more common than Paranoid is Iron Man. Hearing Ozzy perform it with another band is no different than listening to Ozzy do it solo. It's basically an updated version of the original.

Lord Of This World is performed by Corrosion Of Conformity, a band that at the time I had no use for due to overplay by one specific friend I shall call Varg. He played Clean My Wounds over and over to the point where I wanted to clean my ears with a revolver. I often skipped this track for that silly reason alone. However, this is a good cover, but I would have liked to have heard more of that Sounthern Rock sound that COC normally have.

The only song I can say I have ever remotely liked from Sepultura is their cover of Symptom Of The Universe, on this album. First off, they are too angry for me, and there's no need for all that yelling. Though they do a fantastic performance of this song. They play it in their own way, and it's really well done, but I could still do without all the yelling. Also the instrumental breakdown at the end is beautifully spot on to the original, but showcasing Sepultura showing some accoustic flare.

I already mentioned the group of guys that make up Bullring Brummies, and they perform one of my top ten favourite Sabbath songs. The Wizard, has always amazed me since I first heard it's awesome harmonica opening. This cover has a harmonica opening too, but it's not quite the same as the original. Except for that, this version's just as good as the original. If Halford had been able to open up vocally, producing those mighty wails of his, this song could have been better than the original.

It's hard to believe that the vocalist that got Iron Maiden kicked off Ozzfest for making fun of Sabbath, would be on a cover album for said band. This was recorded only a of couple years after Bruce left Maiden, and years before the incident. His vocals are Operatic performance genius as always, and Therapy?'s musical performance is spot on. I don't know the musicians at all, so I don't know how much of them are honestly in the song. It is a top notch song, and it's performed so well.

When I saw Ugly Kid Joe was on the album I started shaking my head a bit. Sure, I like Everything About You, it's fun, but I didn't think they could do such a complex song any justice. I was wrong. N.I.B. was not only well played, it was spot on. If it were not for the slightly modern sound and clearly different vocalist, it could easily be mistaken for the original group.

War Pigs (live) is the only song on this album that had been released elsewhere first. Oringially off Faith No More's Live at the Brixton Academy, this track is faithful to the original, right down to the siren. However, I don't care for the vocal performance at all. It sounds more like a mocking of Ozzy and less like a tribute.

The first time I heard Type O Negative's version of Black Sabbath, I pretty much cursed them out. I thought they had totally ruined a marvelous piece of audio culture. It took until the keyboard kicks in soloing around the six minute marker beore I could start enjoying the song. It didn't help that at the time I had no clue who Type O Negative was. This was the first song I heard from them. I don't think Christian Woman or Black Number One had recieved much, if any, airplay at this point yet. Once I discovered Type O, I discovered I liked this song a lot more. It's the bad fungus song of this album.

All in all this is still one of my favourite albums. It's the best tribute album I've heard, still to this day. The tracks on this album, although a bit typical, are great selections and amazingly done. I would suggest this album to anyone that likes Black Sabbath and 90's Metal.

8/10 - content

8/10 - production

9/10 - personal bias

City And Colour - Little Hell

Let me start with I think Alexis On Fire is annoying Screamo crap. It's no better than the Metal everyone bitched was a bunch of screaming. I'm talking about you Death Metal.

As a teen I had a general rule about vocals. I had to be able to understand a minimum of 50% of the lyrics without looking at the liner notes. AC/DC and Pantera were exceptions to the rule. International acts that sing in another language are completely a different story all on their own, because I love Rammstein.

That being said, I discovered City And Colour not knowing that the vocalist was the same one as Alexis On Fire. Wow, was that a bit of a surprise, especially since I really like City And Colour.

The first song that caught my attention was Fragile Bird. It was a video on Much More (Remember when the word Music was there?). And it's one of those things that makes me thankful for CanCom.

I don't remember the video at all. I think I've only seen it twice and it clearly didn't leave a lasting memory, but the song did. I couldn't remember the name, except to see it, so I had to quest through the CD bins to find it. I came up with the album Little Hell.

We Found Each Other In The Dark starts the album off on a nice sunny day. It's one of those happy love songs that is sweetly sickening. It's cotton candy at the fair, with your love for your audio pleasure.

I find that this album likes to counterpoint itself from track to track, which is genius from my stand point. When Natural Disaster kicks in you are safely assured that this is not going to just be some sissy Jewel Folk Pop album. (I liked Jewel's first two albums, just so we are clear.) I love slide guitar and there's a bunch all over this song. Plus, it's quick, vibrant and not overly happy lyrically.

The Grand Optimist instills the fact that this album will just continue to counter point itself. Talk about soft, light, and mellow, mixed with thick, heavy and strong all in one song. It's just so rich and full, but simple.

The title track is the fourth song on the album. It's slow melodic and really strikes that heavy innner core. It's the albums slow song for the High School dance, but a lot better than most of the crap you hear. This song has soul.

That leads into Fragile Bird. I can't stress how much I like this song. It's slowly quick, complicatedly simple, and the vocals are just astounding. This song is the pinnacle of great music writing to go with the lyrical content. Maybe I'm over reaching and giving the band too much credit, but I don't think so. This album is very intelligently written.

Northern Wind is much like the title track in the style and vibe. This song relies more on a string accompaniment to help set the mood and feeling. This may be the most mellow and kind of boring song on the album. Still very nice.

O'Sister is probably my second favourite song on the album. First off, the guitar work is fantastic. Top notch finger picking, with those eccentric little finger slide squeeks left in. It's beautiful, and that's without taking into consideration the actual arrangements and layer to the song. Oh yeah, the lyrics are a bit typical, like the title implies, but the way Dallas Green sings them mixed with the guitar is hypnotic.

Another prime example of intelligence on this album is found in Weightless. The song floats, swoops, dives, glides, drifts, all with a sense of personal mass.

Sorrowing Man is really cool, with it's Nick Cave meets Johnny Cash swagger and depth. It even has this real sense of despondancy that can be found in songs like David Bowie's Rock N' Roll Suicide.

The album get's a little light and fluffy, and it is a very good break from the heavy stuff, when Silver And Gold kicks in. It's a silly little song like we came to love and enjoy from Jewel, before she went all musically stupid to try and stay relevant. Although lyrically, it's got a deeper meaning if you actually pay attention.

The album finishes up with Hope For Now. I personally spent the whole song waiting for the heavy part to kick in. It really sounds like a giant build up is coming. Then when the build up finally kicks in, it's this rich full minimalistic grand finale at the end of the album.

Let me start with Alex Newport's production makes this album. I don't know if it would have sounded as good as it did without the production. The music is awesome with it's heavy usage of folk, blues, soul, a little jazz, and basic rock, but the production is what keeps it so full and rich sounding.

It's like Led Zeppelin's first album in some ways, but without that heaviness associated with Hard Rock or Metal. The heavy on this album is about the spirit. A very, very heavy soul walking with very heavy steps.

8/10 - content

10/10 - production

9/10 - personal bias

Buddha/Lounge - Renditions of AC/DC

Mystical, Far Eastern versions of classic AC/DC songs including, Hell's Bells, Back In Black, Highway To Hell, Thunderstruck and more! Is what the cover of Buddha/Lounge - Renditions of AC/DC claims.

Let me start with it's club style drum samples mixed with a Cakewalk sounding collection of eastern instruments, namely a sitar. That means it only sounds Eastern and is in fact not Eastern. In the event I'm wrong and the instrumentation is actual live people, I do appologize.

Now once you get past there being no vocals at all, the music sounding like something you'd hear in you corner Eastern store, the fact starts to sink in that this is some mellow AC/DC knock off that is best enjoyed with some really good weed. This is not an AC/DC album for friends.

The entire track list is as follows: Hell's Bells, Back In Black, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, Have A Drink On Me, Highway To Hell, What Do You Do For Money, Honey, You Shook Me All Night Long, Sin City, Thunderstruck, T.N.T. and Who Made Who. A great collection of classic songs from one of the greatest Blues based Rock bands.

Each song sounds like the original, more or less. Like I mentioned before the drums have been changed. A sitar pretty much takes over the guitar lines, but no solos, a little bass-like keyboarding, and then extra sound effects and percussion intruments added for texture.

I picked up the album from a $4.99 rack, may have been as high as $8.99. I didn't have high hopes for it, but was dissapointed when it wasn't real instrumentation. I would love to hear these songs actually done by an Eastern band, which is what I thought I was getting.

Instead I end up with something that sounds like it was put together by Eiffel 65, and should be played in a rave somewhere in India, or in a shitty Bollywood version of The Matrix. Bollywood movies are in fact quite interesting, so when I say "shitty" I mean a B film.

The one positive thing I will say about this album, is that it does really bring down my blood pressure. I'm not sure if it's because of my laughing at the joke of an album, or the fact that it's soothingly mellow. Perhaps it's a bit of both.

4/10 - content

5/10 - production

3/10 - personal bias

Heavy Metal - Music from The Motion Picture

I had a really big thing for sondtracks in my early days of collecting (most of the 1990's). It was a great way to get exposure to bands I didn't know, as well as pick up rarities and hidden gems from various bands I loved. It was also a way to get a collection of popular songs from a variety of artists, without buying an album's worth of crap for one song from each artist.

Heavy Metal (not the music) started as a Graphic Novel for mature adults, and later spawned two movies. The first one was simply titled Heavy Metal, and had a soundtrack I started lusting after long before I saw the movie.

With names like Sammy Hagar, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath and Nazareth who could go wrong, was my thirteen year old belief. I liked Van Hagar, BOC was Classic Metal, Black Sabbath is Black Sabbath, and I was a greatest hits fan of Nazareth. Sounded pretty promising to me.

Let me start with Sammy Hagar's Heavy Metal. It's a fantastic party style song, which I don't think anyone does better than Sammy. I love and crank this song everytime I hear it. I'm sure my neighbours are very happy I don't put it in the CD player more often.

After that the album starts bouncing up and down. Riggs has two tracks on the album Heartbeat and Radar Rider. The first one I have no use for. The second one I find impressively intriguing.

Radar Rider is just a really cool collection of simple music mixed with phasing, and minimal lyrics. By far the better of the two songs Riggs has on the album. In fact it's in my top five of songs from this collection.

Devo on a soundtrack called Heavy Metal? A bit oxymoronic I think, but I love Working In The Coal Mine. It's one of my favourite Devo tunes, for reasons that can not be rationally explained, no matter how many times I've tried. Which is exactly how I feel about Devo too.

America's answer to Black Sabbath was Blue Oyster Cult. They were just as heavy, not as well produced, and a hell of a lot more Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Just the title, Veteran Of The Psychic Wars, brings about images best kept in nightmares. Then the music starts and you find yourself in a situation that I've only felt when listening to Metallica's One. You want to kill the survivor of the war, just to make the suffering stop. Veteran was also eight years before One, and a lot creepier.

Cheap Trick also got two tracks on the album, Reach Out and I Must Be Dreamin'. Reach Out is a really good Rock song. It adds more to the movie sequence it's in than it does to the album, but as far as album filler goes, this is one of the better tracks. I Must Be Dreamin' is just really cool. It's not special in any way, except for it's minimalist attack mixed with ambience sounds. It also has a pretty good rhythm to get it on to.

Don Felder's Heavy Metal (Takin' A Ride) is okay. It has a bit of a Disco hangover feel, and reeks of groove because of it. That's pretty much it for the song. In fact I think having this song called Heavy Metal is a bit of a boner. Takin' A Ride (Heavy Metal) would have been much better. Also I think it hurt Sammy's Heavy Metal, through simple accidental confusion. This title is no where near as good as the album's lead track.

True Companion by Donald Fagen is a Smooth Jazz piece of shit, that was only put in the movie with the hope of attracting a female audience. The same reason it's wrecking the soundtrack. Even the guitar solo can't save this one.

Nazareth is a band that I really like. Those scratchy, yet screechy, King Diamond-like vocals without the ball crushing screams, mixed with heavy low end, driving drums and melodicly distorted guitars are just awesome. Crazy (A Suitable Case For Treatment) is everything I like about Nazareth, and fits right in on the soundtrack. It's a song I'd probably even like to cover in a band myself.

I have a love/hate relationship with Journey. Open Arms is why I have so much anger towards the band that helped pioneer the power ballad. I hate mushy power ballads, they only have one purpose, to weed out the pussy. If a person likes this song, they clearly are a weepy sissy-girl pussy and should be kept away from the people that like real music, so not to contaminate the real women, or men.

One band I have ignored buying albums from for years is Grand Funk Railroad. I don't know why. Even Queen Bee is an awesome, bong rattling (Thanks for that one Homer!), bass driven, masterpiece of awesomenss. It's a love song that I totally get, because I love my little queen bee too.

When I read the name Black Sabbath I think Iommi, Ozzy, Geezer and Ward. This is not Black Sabbath, it's Heaven and Hell, Iommi, Dio, Geezer and whoever is drumming instead of Ward (Vinnie Appice in this case). This is an awesomely wicked song from half of the guys from Black Sabbath and the killer vocalist from Rainbow.

I'm not sure about how Don Felder got two tracks on here as well. The second one, All Of You, is no better than the first, and is Smooth Jazz sounding enough to maybe say it's in fact worse. I do like the bass work, but sadly that's what causes most of the icky feel to the song.

Trust, is a French band I know best for having Nicko Mcbrain of Iron Maiden as a drummer at one point. This song didn't make me want to learn or discover anymore about them. In fact this song sounds a bit like a leftover from Maiden's first two studio albums.

Stevie Nicks Blue Lamp finishes the album. It's a bit slow, a tad drawn out, and little too soft for me. Which leaves me wondering why I kind of like this track with it's goat-like warbling vocals and simple sound. The simple answer is I like female vocalists when they rock it out, even if this song doesn't really rock out.

The Heavy Metal album on a whole is a good listening. It can easily be played through, with minor soft music annoyances. It harkens back to a simpler time, when music was confusing, and people still weren't sure what Metal really was. After all only three or four of the bands on the soundtrack are in fact actually related to metal, if not considered Metal.

7/10 - content

7/10 - production

8/10 - personal bias