"Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other." --H.P. Lovecraft, The Silver Key
Friday, July 11, 2025
Goodbye to Romance: Reflections on Black Sabbath, Back to the Beginning, and the end of the road
Friday, July 4, 2025
War Pigs, Judas Priest
Friday, June 20, 2025
"Powerslave," Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden is so damned good and has so many damned good songs that I can't listen to them neutrally. I've lost track of the number of times I've found myself sitting next to a friend with a cold beer, and had to stop our conversation mid-sentence.
"So man I've always wanted to tell you something. And never had the courage. It's just that..."
"Wait, hold that thought--you need to hear this. Wait for it..."
And then I launch into how awesome this bit of Maiden-ness is.
The guitar solo in "Powerslave" is one of those moments. Stops me cold every time. Easily in my top 5 Maiden solos, and that's saying something. I'm proud of the work I did capturing the fantastic work of Nikki Stringfield of the Iron Maidens absolutely killing it at Wallys on Hampton Beach.
I mean, just beautiful. So is the guitar solo.
"Powerslave" brings dry and dessicated ancient Egypt to vivid visceral life through the power of heavy metal. When Bruce Dickinson dons his owl Horus mask (as I saw him do in 2008) the effect is complete. We're hearing the words of an ancient Pharoah, believing he is a god but finding out he is all too mortal, subject to the eternal law of death.
Tell me why I had to be a Powerslave
I don't wanna die, I'm a God, why can't I live on?
When the Life Giver dies, all around is laid waste
And in my last hour, I'm a slave to the Power of Death.
Have a very metal weekend.
Friday, May 30, 2025
Gods of War, Def Leppard
Friday, May 16, 2025
Sixteenth Century Greensleeves, Rainbow (RIP Ronnie James Dio)
Fifteen years ago today we lost the great Ronnie James Dio. As time passes my appreciation of his music only grows.
Here’s a deep cut from his Rainbow days on this Metal Friday. Listen to the lyrics of this one, S&S fans. This is where Dio fully tapped the vein of fantastic source material that would be the hallmark of his career.
Meet me when the sun is in the western sky
The fighting must begin before another someone dies
Crossbows in the firelight
Greensleeves waving
Mad men raving
Through the shattered night
Flames are getting higher
Make it leap unto the spire
Drawbridge down
Cut it to the ground
We shall dance around the fire
Also, if anyone happens to be in Dracut tonight (obscure MA town/what are the odds? But you never know if you don’t ask), I’ll be at The Boat to take in Wildside, an 80s tribute band fronted by Ron Finn. I’ve known for Ron some years now and he’s twice played live in my home. In addition to a great Rob Halford he can do David Coverdale, too.
Friday, April 18, 2025
Cauldron Born: Born of the Cauldron
Friday, March 21, 2025
The Rage, Judas Priest
It's a testament to the greatness of British Steel that a song as good as "The Rage" is buried deep on side 2. Wait, do people still refer to albums, and sides? I do.
There is a reason this album is a stone-cold classic. To use a sports analogy its bench is deep ... I don't think it has one weak track and it all sounds awesome, songs stripped down to bare steel. You will find an album "none more metal," to paraphrase one Nigel Tufnel.
The start of "The Rage" is quite unexpected, a funky solo bass intro followed by a jazzy, swinging drum beat that lulls you in to a false sense of security. Where's the rage?
But wait, it's coming. An angry, fist-thrusting metal assault, pounding beat and heavy guitar backed by Rob Halford's soaring vocals.
The breakdown at the end with the rapid fire (snare? I'm not a musician) is divine. It sounds like a machine gun. See 4:06 of the below video.
Maybe it is. Happy Metal Friday.
When we talk with other men
We see red and then
Deep inside our blood begins to boil
Like a tiger
In the cage
We begin to shake with rage
Friday, March 7, 2025
Friday, February 7, 2025
Cold Sweat, Thin Lizzy
Friday, December 13, 2024
Where Eagles Dare, Iron Maiden (for Nicko)
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Job well done. |
When Nicko joined Iron Maiden in 1982 there were skeptics. He was replacing Clive Burr, a terrific player who had been there since Maiden’s debut album, and joining a well-established band that had just put out the wildly popular Number of the Beast.
Nicko had to make an impression. And he did, on the very first song of his first studio album with the band, “Where Eagles Dare.” An awesome, driving tune kicking off side A of Piece of Mind (1983).
It’s telling that the first sounds you hear on this classic album are Nicko’s thunderous drums. He brought a new level of heaviness and intensity to the band, and remained Maiden’s drummer for 42 years, until age and the residual effects of a 2023 stroke forced him to hang up the drumsticks.
At 72 Nicko has more than earned his retirement.
I’m glad I got to see Maiden and Nicko one last time earlier this year. Our metal heroes are aging, no guarantees of tomorrow.
Friday, December 6, 2024
Season of the Witch, Grave Digger
Friday, November 15, 2024
Start the Fire, Metal Church
Friday, September 6, 2024
Resurrection, Rob Halford
Thursday, August 15, 2024
The Battle of Evermore and the timeless nature of fantasy
(early metal-ish Friday)
That it is told in the language of fantasy is not an accident, or because Tolkien was an escapist, or because he was writing for children. It is a fantasy because fantasy is the natural, the appropriate language for the recounting of the spiritual journey and the struggle of good and evil in the soul.
--Ursula LeGuin, “On Fantasy and Science Fiction”
The critics who have dismissed fantasy as juvenile escapism have failed to recognize that fantasy grapples with real and eternally pressing issues, albeit wrapped in metaphor and fantastic trappings.
The same critics who worship at the altar of realism and extol the virtues of novels about average people in familiar times cannot admit their darlings have rapidly aged and are fast losing their relevance. While the classics of fantasy remain as fresh today as the day they were written.
That’s because the language of fantasy is unbound by time, or place. It deals with the big issues—conflict within and without, love, sorrow, friendship, the inevitable march of time, pain, decay and death—in poetic abstraction, and in heroic meter and timbre. Modern novels that reference an author’s time and place will confuse the modern reader with surroundings that grow increasingly abstract and impenetrable with the passing years, while the Hyborian Age or Middle-Earth remain eternally familiar and inhabitable even as their authors slip further into the past. They are distanced from the ordinary, but close to the human heart.
The Battle of Evermore will still be played 100 years from now, though perhaps never as well as this version by Heart. Because we all grasp its emotional depths, and understand the meaning of the plaintive cries.
The apples turn to brown and black
The tyrant's face is red
Oh war is common cry
Pick up your swords and fly
We’re always trying to bring the balance back. It’s the eternal struggle never won, but once in a while we experience the blessed peace of equilibrium.
The Battle of Evermore will still be played 100 years from now, and remain as unspoiled as Lothlorien, because it is the timeless matter of fantasy.
Friday, July 26, 2024
Orion, Metallica
Friday, June 28, 2024
Force of a Storm, Sumerlands
Friday, May 31, 2024
Worms of the Earth, Eternal Champion
I found out last night that Eternal Champion bass player Brad Raub passed away, just 36 years old.
So on this Metal Friday I honor his memory with “Worms of the Earth,” off their wonderful album Ravening Iron. With its spectacular Ken Kelly album cover (now THAT would be an amazing original to hang on my man cave wall).
Beyond badass. |
Still feeling my way out with this band but I’m really starting to dig Ravening Iron. "Worms of the Earth" should be a hit with any red-blooded sword-and-sorcery/Robert E. Howard/Bran Mak Morn fan. Here’s a sample of the lyrics, which are basically a faithful retelling of the tale:
Upon a Roman cross there hangs a man I cannot save
For this, Rome will have to pay
I must find the door to ebon depths where they degenerate
There's nothing I would spare to see Rome howl in pain
Eyes like golden stars shining in the dark
In Dagon's Barrow I will take the stone they must obey
The King of Picts has forced his claim
One of the all-time greats in visual adaptation. Fight me if you think otherwise. |
The King of Picts has forced his claim... he certainly did. Love that.
I can’t express how glad I am to see a band like Eternal Champion lend their own artistic interpretation to REH. We’ve got pastiche novels, visual artists, comic adaptations, gaming supplements, and now heavy metal bands, all keeping Howard alive with their own inspiring visions of the greatest sword-and-sorcery author who ever lived.
Raub added his own verse to that roll-call, no doubt.
Rest in peace brother.
Friday, May 17, 2024
As heavy as I’ll go
Friday, May 10, 2024
Curse My Name, Blind Guardian
Friday, May 19, 2023
If Heaven is Hell, Tokyo Blade
I was too young to appreciate the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (aka., NWOBHM, love that fucking acronym) back when it washed up on American shores, circa 1975-83 or thereabouts.
The good part about this unfortunate time mismatch is that now I can explore its various bands. Though most have long since disbanded or faded into obscurity, they are new to me, and therefore as fresh and vital as they may have been whilst playing some dingy U.K. pub circa 1978. And yes I just said "whilst." I'm putting on my English cloak for this one.
The best band to come out of the NWOBHM movement, Iron Maiden, has passed into Godhood, but most of its acts sank into obscurity. This Metal Friday features a good one from one of the semi-lost, Tokyo Blade. Obscure but apparently they had a long career, go figure.
I won't claim "If Heaven is Hell" (1983) is the best song ever, but it's pretty darned good, possessed of that rough, unpolished, energetic, guitar-forward sound that I love from this era and region of the world. The U.K. birthed heavy metal from the foundries of Birmingham and they still do it the best, IMO.