My blog on HubPages.com - Reviews of Music, Movies, etc.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I can listen to good melodeath like Dark Tranquillity and old In Flames before they morphed into something unlistenable. This is mediocre at best and the cleans sound like some early 2000's emocore crap. Sorry, just my opinion.

Ha! All good, it ain't like these guys are personal friends of mine. Honestly, while writing this one I was trying not to sound like "Ehh, all this growly stuff sounds the same to me," haha

You sound like my Mom.

Dark Horseman wrote:

You sound like my Mom.

You kids and your devil music! Get off my lawn!

...but seriously, I honestly don't know enough about the melo-death genre to tell good from bad. Dude seemed like a nice guy so I'm not gonna shred his band just cuz it's not in my musical wheelhouse.

It's not the first time a band has hit me up from a genre I'm unfamiliar with -- awhile ago some dude sent me his one-man death/black metal project (!) to review, and I know absolutely *nothing* about black metal -- I even emailed him like "Dude, are you *sure* you sent this to the right guy? I usually write about hair metal bands," haha, but he was like "that's fine, write whatever you want, I'm just trying to get my name out there. "

So that's when I fall back on the "It's not my thing personally but if you like (various band names) maybe you'll dig this."

Well, it's nice of them, it's just very mediocre. On to the next review.

Two new ones! I've been on a Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath kick, so I reviewed two of my favorite Sabbath albums from that era.


"Headless Cross"
https://spinditty.com/genres/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Black-Sabbath-Headless-Cross


"Cross Purposes"
https://spinditty.com/genres/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Black-Sabbath-Cross-Purposes

Headless Cross is a great album, Cozy is the best drummer they had imo. The rest of the Martin stuff isn't up to par with this album

Dark Horseman wrote:

Headless Cross is a great album, Cozy is the best drummer they had imo. The rest of the Martin stuff isn't up to par with this album

Yep, H.C. is my favorite from that era.

Someone on Facebook asked me if I was gonna do columns on "Tyr" and or "Forbidden" next ... I told'em Tyr might be a possibility down the road somewhere, but I wouldn't be much to say about Forbidden other than "...Meh." Haha.

Two new entries this week:

This thrash/crossover band from Va. was nice enough to send me their CD... check em out if ya like GWAR, Municipal Waste, D.R.I. or the DK's.

https://spinditty.com/genres/Stuck-Backwards-Fear-of-a-Prison-Planet-Album-Review

...and just in time for the holidays, "Forgotten Hard Rock Albums" looks back at Halford''s Winter Songs"...

https://spinditty.com/genres/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Halford-Winter-Songs

Agreed on the Halford Christmas album, I didn't expect to like it as much as I do.

I used the long holiday weekend to bang out my first three entries of 2019:

A look back at Bruce Dickinson's Accident of Birth:

https://spinditty.com/genres/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Bruce-Dickinson-Accident-Of-Birth-1997

Revisiting KISS' Animalize:

https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Revisiting-KISS-Animalize

The strange saga of Warrior Soul's Chill Pill:

https://spinditty.com/genres/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Warrior-Soul-Chill-Pill

Accident was a good album but Chemical Wedding was amazing.

I'm not a huge Kiss fan, mostly like the singles except for Creatures and Destroyer.


Not into WS but Korey seemed as big an ass as Axl without the fame.

Quote :

Not into WS but Korey seemed as big an ass as Axl without the fame.

That's a pretty damn accurate assessment.

New entry: A review of Raven's Screaming Murder Death From Above...



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Raven-Screaming-Murder-Death-From-Above-Live-in-Aalborg-Album-Review

Reviews of Peacemaker's Concrete & Terror and the new Overkill should be up & running in the next few days!

Review of Peacemaker's Concrete & Terror, featuring Ronny Munroe (ex-Metal Church) on vox.



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Peacemaker-Concrete-and-Terror-Album-Review

Duly read.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Duly read.

...and I thank ya.

I'm going to have to add the Raven and the Peacemaker to my ever growing wants list.

Snowy, damp, sloppy weekend means lots of time to post new stuff... banged out three more:

Overkill "The Wings of War" review:


https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Overkill-The-Wings-of-War-Album-Review

Belated review of Metal Church's "Damned If You Do"

https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Metal-Church-Damned-If-You-Do-Album-Review

And my first movie review in a while, of the cheesy '80s horror flick "Frightmare"

https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Great-Bad-Movies-Frightmare-1983

Excellent reviews on the albums. I couldn't agree more on both of them.

Luke Perry's recent passing prompted me to revisit this Dollar-Store-DVD goodie with him and Martin Sheen, from 1999:



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Dollar-DVD-Review-Luke-Perry-in-Storm-Trackers

It's a tr00 grimm kvlt new entry!

I haven't seen the "black metal" movie "Lords Of Chaos" yet, but this documentary which examines the same events is available via Amazon Prime.

https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Until-The-Light-Takes-Us-Documentary-Review

I recently picked up the first Metal Massacre compilation album on CD and I've been havin' a good time goin' down metal memory lane with it...



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Revisiting-Metal-Massacre

I remember looking for these used at the time so I could check out new bands. The internet has made hearing new bands easier but somehow it's not as exciting as it was. But i'm old.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I remember looking for these used at the time so I could check out new bands. The internet has made hearing new bands easier but somehow it's not as exciting as it was. But i'm old.

I pick them up whenever I find them now, but back when albums like these were current, it was too risky for me to buy an album full of no-names. I was afraid I'd only like one or two bands and the rest would be duds.  

Some people liked gambling their allowance money that way, but I tended to stick with the known quantities. Looking back, I wish I'd been more adventurous, I could've been O.G. Tr00.

That's why I looked for used ones but I was never O.G., just poor.