When one thinks of Black Sabbath, names like Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio inevitably come to mind. Both contributed significantly to the success of the doom metal legend. The voices of both frontmen have influenced whole generations of metal singers.
Freddy is still a great singer after all these years and immidiately I am eager to play his 80s JAMES BYRD’s ATLANTIS RISING classic album after listening to this strong record. There are heavy faster pieces, slow epic tunes, a concept tune that is split in a trilogy, but there’s also time for a pure classic uptempo melodic hardrocksong in the style of FIFTH ANGEL or ROUGH CUTT, which is the superb Swallow My Pride and a beautiful power prog ballad in the shape of Candle In The Dark (featuring a lovely chorus like 80s QUEENSRYCHE meets ICON), and both of them bring you straight back to 1987. All together, a very enjoyable album that is a must-have for fans of classic 80s US Melodic Metal!.
As a longtime Iced Earth fan who always thought the band was at their absolute best with vocalist Matt Barlow, I was both disappointed when his second tenure with the band ended quickly, and excited to hear his new project Ashes of Ares when it started in 2012. Working with fellow former Iced Earth member Freddie Vidales and Nevermore drummer Van Williams, the trio released an excellent debut in 2013, to much fanfare. Williams left the band in 2017 while continuing to contribute as a session member, and the band released a solid follow-up in 2018 called The Well of Souls, which seemed to go by largely unnoticed due to coming at a busy time. Now, though, the duo of Barlow and Vidales is back and ready to release their third full-length album, Emperor and Fools, and it is every bit as good as either of their previous albums, with a couple of tracks, in particular, standing out as their best work to date.
It seems that time is only improving their approach and guile to their abilities. I am blown away by the musicianship on this album and I will say that this is a modern-day classic!
Unfortunately, Rob, Glenn, Ian, and management want the door to be closed for whatever reason. It’s not fair to me, the media, or the fans to close the door and not allow me to come out of retirement. I was certainly expecting a call when Glenn retired.
It’s becoming more and more common for a band to release a compilation album packaged with bits of new or previously unreleased material to keep longtime fans enticed. Usually, I’m not too interested in standard compilation albums, because I can easily just throw on any of a band’s previous releases if I want to hear a particular favorite, but this type of release holds extra interest, by offering up material that may be hard or impossible to find anywhere else, while still serving as a great introduction for new fans, by bringing a bunch of classic material together in one package.
After listening to the album several times, the insight arises that Accept has not lost any of their strength on this album. There are no real innovations, but all songs on ‘Too mean to Die’ are 100% Accept anthems with all the unique features the band has established over decades. This album fulfills all expectations. Not more but certainly not less.
During an interesting and rich of topics discussion with Joey Vera back in July 2019, the legendary bassist of Armored Saint and Fates Warning has promised me that the long awaited eighth album of Armored Saint will be amazing. After listening to “Punching The Sky”, I am extremely glad he has kept his word, even though I didn’t have any personal doubts on the matter. In a world that has been suffering from the tragic pandemic, the legendary five piece from Los Angeles, California has offered another great musical gift to the Heavy Metal world.
Encore comes at you with “No Sanctuary”, “Empire” and “Eyes of a Stranger” again if Tate had a little brother it would probably be Todd. But to be real here, I think Queensrÿche has managed to keep pushing forward in times of separation. We see it all the time when bands split, their famous vocalist leaves now what? You could call it quits, but to find a replacement, and start brewing your own ideas and just bring your sound more current is what was needed in the QR camp, I think most fans will agree with this.