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

I'm like you Freddy; I loved Gutter Ballet so I went right out to buy Streets as soon as it was released.  But when I saw "A rock opera" i thought, "What the hell is this?" and with a track title like "Jesus Saves" I half-expected a Godspell redux.  But I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to the album and like you I followed along in the liner notes.  When my first listen finished I thought "OK, it's not like Gutter Ballet and it's kind of 'Broadway sounding' but damn, I really dig this album!"  And I still do.

When you listen to this album you can really hear the beginnings of what was to come and even how the band morphed into TSO.

I need to give Savatage a proper discorgraphy listen. My first exposure to them was picking up The Wake of Magellan at Goodwill and I was not into it at all. Since that was a later album, I was still willing to look into earlier stuff and picked up Gutter Ballet used one day, and it was better, but I still did not really get into it.

Since that time, I've grown pretty fond of their earlier stuff, more straight forward stuff, up through Fight for the Rock (which I love, despite the general consensus).

I have still not really gotten into the albums that most people point to as the classics though.

They are almost two different bands so that makes sense. Their sound change was pretty huge.

Banged out two new album reviews during the past cold, clammy, rainy weekend:

Crow's Flight, "The Storm" -- Finnish power/prog metal, for fans of Evergrey/Tad Morose/Stratovarius



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Crows-Flight-The-Storm-Album-Review

Haunted by Silhouettes - "The Last Day on Earth"
...about a year ago a Norwegian melo-death band called "Hunting the Hidden" sent me their album to review. I don't particularly care for (or know much about) that genre, but I guess they must have liked what I wrote, cuz now their guitarist sent me the album from one of his other projects, which is also melo-death.  Go figure (shrugs).


https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Haunted-By-Silhouettes-The-Last-Day-on-Earth-Album-Review

Snowy day off from work - good time to get caught up on some backlogged reviews

New "Forgotten Hard Rock Albums" examination of Dokken's grunge-era disaster, Shadowlife:

https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Dokken-Shadowlife

Timeless Haunt, "Haunted Symphony" EP
...new release from our buddy Stormspell, five tracks of melodic, spooky, theatrical metal ala Savatage, King Diamond, and Van Helsing's Curse.

https://spinditty.com/genres/Timeless-Haunt-Haunted-Symphony-EP-Review

...but wait, there's one more! (Snowy days are great for my productivity)...



Kairos "Queen of the Hill" out now on Stormspell Records.
Melodic power/shred metal for fans of "Painkiller"-era Judas Priest, "Thundersteel"-era Riot, Vicious Rumors, Leatherwolf, and Steeler.

https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Kairos-Queen-of-the-Hill-Album-Review

Shadowlife was brutally bad but Brother Cane wasn't dull.

More snowy weather, more time to write stuff:

Motley Crue was my favorite band when I was in junior high, but I felt so betrayed when they released the "sellout" album Theatre of Pain in 1985 that I walked away and haven't been back since.

...until recently, when I found Theatre on CD for a buck in a thrift shop and thought it might be interesting to revisit it and see if my opinion might be different after so many years.



https://spinditty.com/genres/Revisiting-Motley-Crues-Theater-of-Pain

Like you, I thought Shout At The Devil was one of the best albums I had heard up to that point. After Theater came out, I was less impressed but didn't outright hate it. I thought each progressive release got a little weaker and could never understand how they remained so popular. I owned their releases on cassette up to Dr. Feelgood but had gotten rid of them quite some time ago. When I was starting to build up my cd collection, I never felt the urge to replace those albums. I only own a comp (Decade Of Decadence) on cd now. That said, I think I will be going to their stadium tour with Def Leppard next summer since that whole bill is filled with bands I had never seen in concert.

I was shipping out of the Air Force and Home Sweet Home was played a lot so it's more nostalgia then anything for me. The problem with this album is they didn't know what they wanted to be.

First entry of 2020.
Wanna feel old? Check out how many classic hard rock & metal albums are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year:


https://spinditty.com/genres/These-Classic-Hard-Rock-and-Metal-Albums-Turn-30-in

Dreary, drizzly Saturday morning = good time to finish a new entry.
Taking a look back at the strange saga of Motorhead's On Parole...


https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Motorhead-on-Parole-Album-Review

Three day weekend = enough time to whip up a new "Forgotten Hard Rock Albums" installment.


https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Dokken-One-Live-Night

New one!
Forty years ago today (Feb. 4), the Ramones released End of the Century - their attempt at a slicker, more, "mainstream" rock sound, produced by Sixties girl group producer, "Wall of Sound" inventor, and all around nut job Phil Spector.
The constant battles between the stubborn, set-in-their-ways Ramones and the notoriously compulsive Spector have beome the stuff of rock n roll legend.



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Revisiting-the-Ramones-End-of-the-Century

I have been reading a lot of your Hub pages the last week, Keith. Killer stuff brother!!!

the sentinel wrote:

I have been reading a lot of your Hub pages the last week, Keith. Killer stuff brother!!!

Thanx! Appreciate it! Always nice to.know someone is reading em besides me.

You are killing it, bro. I am heading over now to read a few more. Whenever you write about the Ramones your love for them and their music shines through. There is a very personal connection there.

Weather's been crappy, so I've had time to write up some new stuff...

A run down of Motorhead's '90s catalog



https://spinditty.com/genres/Bastards-Snake-Bites-and-Sacrifice-Motrhead-in-the-1990s

Another new one (I'm on a roll this week)

The latest installment of "Forgotten Hard Rock Albums" investigates Rob Halford's short lived "Two" project



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Two-Voyeurs

^^^^ God, does that thing suck.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Weather's been crappy, so I've had time to write up some new stuff...

A run down of Motorhead's '90s catalog



https://spinditty.com/genres/Bastards-Snake-Bites-and-Sacrifice-Motrhead-in-the-1990s

Nice one, brother. I had forgotten about the Tommy Aldridge connection March ör Die.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Another new one (I'm on a roll this week)

The latest installment of "Forgotten Hard Rock Albums" investigates Rob Halford's short lived "Two" project



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Two-Voyeurs

I like your Hub far more than I would ever like this album.

I actually own that Two album.  Haven't listened to it in forever but as I remember it the music has an industrial edge that I was really into at the time.  I haven't read your Hub post so I'm going from memory but I remember liking that album a bit.

tohostudios wrote:

I actually own that Two album.  Haven't listened to it in forever but as I remember it the music has an industrial edge that I was really into at the time.  I haven't read your Hub post so I'm going from memory but I remember liking that album a bit.

Industrial just never appealed to me. Neither did rap core stuff like Limp B. I gig like a few Nu Metal bands like Godsmack or Disturbed' but like a typical '80's Metal head I never strayed too far from the farm.