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

Fat Freddy wrote:

Until I get around to Metal Disease Songs Part II, here's another new one (working from home has increased my productivity, haha)

I picked up this Styx CD on a whim at a thrift shop a few weeks ago, not expecting much out of it, to be honest, but surprisingly enough it's been a fairly frequent spinner:



https://spinditty.com/genres/Classic-Rockers-Styx-Shine-on-Return-to-Paradise

Good Hub, FF! I have this one, but couldn't tell ya the last time I spun it. I do remember liking it, though, and in fact saw them a few years later but without De Young at the helm. I'm in the midst of spinning the new Black Swan disc, Ozzy, and the Helloween box set I got from the wife for my birthday a few weeks back, but I will try to bust this one out for a freshie!!

the sentinel wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

the sentinel wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I got to the part about the "rapidly dwindling beer supply" and instantly had to comment.

I will run through the 70+ rolls of toilet paper I already had on hand before this madness struck before I run out of beer.  I think I could literally survive for at least 2 years on all the beer I have stockpiled.  There's an advantage to having a "beer cellar" in which to age beers. 

I just wish I had a TP cellar...

Hell yeah. I have 11 bottles of wine to see me through. I have been drinking more wine at home and more beer away from the house.

I'm enjoying a Goose Island Bourbon County Stout right now.

In the past this stuff has been as rare as hen's teeth; you used to have to reserve your 2 bottle limit at your favorite beer store.  This year AB took over the distribution and for the first time in recorded history Anheuser Busch/inBev actually did something good.

This year's batch is great and was readily available even in common grocery stores for about 3 or 4 months.  I must have 50 or 60 of these 1pt.6oz bottles in "The Cellar".  At a hefty 14.7 ABV I'm sure these will age well.

Sounds awesome, brother Toho. You are in St. Louis right?

 Yep!  Why, you planning to visit???

the sentinel wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Until I get around to Metal Disease Songs Part II, here's another new one (working from home has increased my productivity, haha)

I picked up this Styx CD on a whim at a thrift shop a few weeks ago, not expecting much out of it, to be honest, but surprisingly enough it's been a fairly frequent spinner:



https://spinditty.com/genres/Classic-Rockers-Styx-Shine-on-Return-to-Paradise

Good Hub, FF! I have this one, but couldn't tell ya the last time I spun it. I do remember liking it, though, and in fact saw them a few years later but without De Young at the helm. I'm in the midst of spinning the new Black Swan disc, Ozzy, and the Helloween box set I got from the wife for my birthday a few weeks back, but I will try to bust this one out for a freshie!!

I have the DVD for "Return To Paradise". I bought that probably some time in 2000 or 2001, I think? I remember really enjoying it and watching it sporadically at first. It's been a LONG time since I've watched it. I might have to pull that out again at some point.

tohostudios wrote:

the sentinel wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

the sentinel wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I got to the part about the "rapidly dwindling beer supply" and instantly had to comment.

I will run through the 70+ rolls of toilet paper I already had on hand before this madness struck before I run out of beer.  I think I could literally survive for at least 2 years on all the beer I have stockpiled.  There's an advantage to having a "beer cellar" in which to age beers. 

I just wish I had a TP cellar...

Hell yeah. I have 11 bottles of wine to see me through. I have been drinking more wine at home and more beer away from the house.

I'm enjoying a Goose Island Bourbon County Stout right now.

In the past this stuff has been as rare as hen's teeth; you used to have to reserve your 2 bottle limit at your favorite beer store.  This year AB took over the distribution and for the first time in recorded history Anheuser Busch/inBev actually did something good.

This year's batch is great and was readily available even in common grocery stores for about 3 or 4 months.  I must have 50 or 60 of these 1pt.6oz bottles in "The Cellar".  At a hefty 14.7 ABV I'm sure these will age well.

Sounds awesome, brother Toho. You are in St. Louis right?

 Yep!  Why, you planning to visit???

Not at the moment. Travel restrictions, some sort of virus happening. But I promise to look you up, brother if I am in town.

On a somewhat related note, DD is doing a 40th Anniversary "Grand Illusion" tour. Good luck with that, sir.

Fat Freddy wrote:

The "Metal Songs about Viruses and Disease" entry is doing so well right now (300+ views so far) that I might do a second one.

My "Disease Songs" entry has had more than 1200 views since it was first posted a week ago.

For comparison's sake, the other three articles I've put up in the past week (Shadowkiller, Styx, etc.) each have less than 100.  

So yea, I am definitely doing a Part II ASAP...

Ten more hard rock songs about viruses and disease to add to your Covid-19 lockdown playlist...

http://hub.me/anoNu

Nice job, brother Fredo! I have all those songs except for Gwar, and have 9 out of 10 from the first Hub, so I could make a little comp here. Thanks!

All the way from Australia, a band called ILIUM was kind enough to hook me up with their new album Carcinogeist and its companion EP, Enviro-Metal.

The album cover looks like a death metal release but they're pretty sweet melodic speed/power metal ala Gamma Ray, Keepers-era Helloween, Blind Guardian, and Iced Earth

https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Ilium-Carcinogeist-Album-Review-Australian-Power-Metal

Good review, Keith. I will look these dudes up soon. Due to my wife's job as an OT, I knew what the word Ilium was, as she throws medical terms around sometimes; but I have no idea what a Carcinogeist is? Maybe a chain smoking ghost?

the sentinel wrote:

I have no idea what a Carcinogeist is? Maybe a chain smoking ghost?

Maybe a ghost with cancer? Haha

Fat Freddy wrote:

the sentinel wrote:

I have no idea what a Carcinogeist is? Maybe a chain smoking ghost?

Maybe a ghost with cancer? Haha

Why do I have the feeling it's something Agents Mulder and Scully would be tracking down ?

I'm pretty good with medical terms (I had 2 years of pre-med courses in college before I changed majors).  I'm pretty sure "carcinogeist" is a made-up word.


Although you guys took it in a completely different direction from where I was going with it.  I was trying to combine cancer-causing with the word "zeitgeist".

Banged out a couple of new entries, fueled by furlough-induced boredom:

"The Best of Lita Ford" album review



https://spinditty.com/genres/The-Best-of-Lita-Ford-CD-Review


Ranking the Debut Albums of "The Big 4" of Thrash:



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Ranking-the-Debut-Albums-of-the-Big-4

All the debuts by the Big 4 are definitely classics, but for me, the stuff they all subsequently released blew the debuts out of the water. All are great listens, though.

FF wrote:

... and "Back To The Cave" (the unsuccessful third single from Lita) is just dull. (True story: I bought a 45 RPM single of "Back to the Cave" when I was a kid, strictly for the smokin' hot photo of Lita on the cover. Even then I thought the song was terrible, so I tossed the record and hung the sleeve on my bedroom wall.)

I didn't throw out my 45 but the only reason I bought it was for the picture of Lita on the sleeve. As much as I wanted to proudly display it at the top of the pile, I always kept it at the back of my 45 stack for fear of my Mom seeing it and tossing it in the trash.

007 wrote:

All the debuts by the Big 4 are definitely classics, but for me, the stuff they all subsequently released blew the debuts out of the water. All are great listens, though.

100% agree!

Nice job Freddy. Both entries were interesting.

Early on when I first got a CD player, I grabbed up any used cd I could get my hands on for cheap. One of them was that Lita Ford disc. I never owned anything by her previously, so that seemed liked a good grab. Like you however I found it to be kinda lame and got rid of it.

As for the Big 4 debuts, Megadeth and Metallica’s still get regular spins from me. Slayer and Anthrax just weren’t there yet and I find myself reaching for their later output when I want a fix. Not bad albums but better things were on the way.

The longer I'm locked down, the more random album reviews I'm gonna write. Here's my belated take on the new Crashdiet.



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Crashdiet-Rust-Album-Review

A conversation about this album on Facebook with our pal Manny inspired me to dust off this CD, which then inspired this look back on it.



https://spinditty.com/genres/Revisiting-Dave-Grohls-Probot

Nice job as always, Freddo.

I think the thing I love most about the whole Probot project is that Dave could've taken the easy way out and just did an album full of radio-friendly covers (back when folks still paid attention to radio). Instead he picked decidedly un-friendly bands to write songs that could've easily fit into their own catalog. And brought in members of said bands to participate.

This album still gets regular spins from me. Love it. Wish he'd do it again.

The rainy weather this past week gave me plenty o' time to bash out a new entry:



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Refuge-Solitary-Men-Album-Review

First movie-related entry in a while:
Shelter-in-place induced boredom can make a man do strange things, like binge-watch all four movies in "The Substitute" saga:



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/I-Watched-All-Four-Substitute-Movies-So-You-Dont-Have-To

New one:
This is an Omaha, Nebraska (!) based glam/sleaze metal band who were kind enough to send me their album for review. Pretty good stuff.



https://hubpages.com/entertainment/The-Midnight-Devils-Bring-the-Sleaze-on-Something-Bigger

That sounds right up my alley!  I'll definitely check them out.