Last time out, I did the first two Maiden albums, and now I've had enough time to finish them all.  Except Book of Souls.  Turns out I don't have that on my music device, so I had to go to Senjetsu before BOS.  I have BOS on CD, but I've never ripped it to add it to my portable music device.  Not a good sign.  I got the rest of the albums in one digital dump, so that explains why I've gotten the rest, but not the newer ones as they trickle out.
And since this an all honestly blog, I'm a little worried about BOS.  I remember not liking it at all, like worse album by them style of at all, but I'm not sure I was giving it a fair shake.  Take Final Frontier for example.  That album gets all over the place before settling into the back 8 where they all are in a range.  Lilting intro, rambling lyrics, amazing musicianship, pretty standard stuff.  But FF starts AMAZING.  I'll save that for the full review.  But the reason I do FL:UFR (First Listen, Upon Further Review) is because we don't always like things the first time around.  Sometimes we aren't ready for the band to change, sometimes they have a new singer, a new tone, a new direction.  Sometimes it's literally the mood we are in that moment.  I could have been in a bad mood when BOS first hit the laser, maybe the single off of it wasn't that good.  What was the single?  The only two songs I think I can remember are the Black and the Red and Empire of The Sky.  (Having looked it up now, it's The Red and The Black, and Empire of the Clouds).  Oof.  Not good for a self described Maiden fan!  Without it being in my media device, I haven't heard ANY of it probably since it came out.  That's a long time.  So this will be new start for the BOS, and I think it deserves it.
So I'll be hitting my CD stash this weekend to find the missing Book of Souls.  If I can't find it, I'll purchase the e-version from my normal source.  The boys could use the cash.  They certainly deserve it after all these years of amazing music and memories.
Up the Irons, (Even I don't remember their works)

Got any favorite bands, hate an album stories?  Share below!
​

In these days of streaming services, playlists and just being able to buy single songs, its easy to forget that the album and it's order of songs can be part of the artistic expression of the band.  Not just for concept albums, it's not unusual for bands to weave the songs with an intent:  a soft ballad to cleans the palette after a heavy hitter.  Sometimes they are intros or combo tracks, like Hall of the Mountain King with the lead in of Prelude to Madness by Savatage, or the way Revelations (Mother Earth) blends into Steal Away (The Night) by Ozzy. 
Maiden is a thinking band, and Steve isn't one to just let things like order go to chance.   So I decided to do all the Maiden Albums, in order, in order.  Starting with Iron Maiden, then going to Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, you get the point.  And listening to it from back to front, being mindful of the "flip" where an LP would stop and have to be flipped over.  I've really enjoyed the journey so far, and it's really been fun to get into the some of the deeper tracks and hit some of the earlier stuff.  Here's my thoughts from each so far.

Iron Maiden
It's easy to forget how polished they were straight out of the box.  Adjusting for late 70s recording tech, they have a layered and complex sound right out of the box with Prowler.  The lyrics are at times raw and under developed, but this is a great beginning.  Remember Tomorrow could easily be from Brave New World or some later album, it's complex, layered and complex in structure.  Great live, I think the Anthrax cover of it is an AMAZING tune.  Running Free is a concert stable, but this is from their punk adjacent roots and isn't prog metal that is their hall mark.  If I played you Blaize or Paul doing Running Free and Bruce doing Remember Tomorrow you would say they are different bands altogether, that's how different RF is from RT.  (Yeah, I'm shorting them, it's a typing handful to keep up with the names).  It's not that I don't like RF, its just not my favorite.  Maybe because it means the show is almost over when seeing them live, but clearly it doesn't exactly fit into their future directions.  Phantom, of the Opera and Strange World are more progy fit into the RT vibe of the album.  Santuary, Charlotte and Iron Maiden are all raw, punk like and if the latter wasn't the name of the band, I doubt they would play it that much.  Perhaps they love a simpler song at the end of the set, but Iron Maiden isn't anything special and makes this end on kind of an odd note.  All the lyric complexity of RT is gone here, the music isn't dynamic either.   No I didn't forget to listen to Transylvania, its a good song, I appreciate the musicianship, but long term like most bands, they will out grow the instrumental songs, for better or worse.  9 Songs 41 minutes.  Knowing that Mariner and Empire are 20 minutes each, it's fun how short some of these are.

Killers
Speaking of instrumentals, this album starts right out the box with one.  Ides of March, I like how this builds like Without Warning from Dokken or the start of Blackened by Metallica.  Wrathchild is a proto punk outing, and seems oddly put next to Murders in the Rue Morgue.  Murders is sweeping in scope, Paul's voice has the perfect timber for this song, even the mighty Bruce when doing this live doesn't seem to have the same fullness as the Paul album version.  Another Life is odd one, time changes, soaring speedy solos, lyrically a little more punkish, but this points off in the direction of some of the stuff we will hear in later albums for sure.  Genghis Khan as an instrumental feels out of place here.  It seems like Steve wanted to put lyrics on it, but didn't have the skills to make something work.  The title suggests something deeper, but its a fun little galloping jaunt.  This "galloping" sound will be heard later.  Innocent Exile has similar themes to Killers, making me think that Steve was reading some murder books and layering those themes onto their jam music.  Killers is a cracker song, I actually like Paul's more strained "Yow!" versus when Bruce does it live (since Bruce has such a larger range).  Twilight Zone is one of those songs that you can forget they've done.  I know I did, I love the speed change at "go" at 40 seconds in.  This song is up there for Paul, this song if done on the album by Bruce would have hit better.  Prodigal Son is Steve showing his emotional side, which I love it when bands do personal stuff.  Blood Brothers is another. (As much as Metallica gets grief for the Unforgiven tracks, I appreciate the honesty).  PS with it's starts and stops doesn't really work for me, it takes me out of the flow of the moment.  I think they can do emotional song way better in later albums (Paschendale comes to mind) but I like they are exploring.  The backend of PS is way better than the first half.  Purgatory shows Paul's limitations, I think Steve is feeling like he cant' hit his full vision with Paul about this time in the album.  The "another time, another place" part of the song works for me, I love that rift change.  The "Take me away" part repeats a little too much, and the Paul can't really hit that screech in way that builds the song.   Last up Drifter.  It's funny how the last song of their albums are so often the statement songs "Hallowed be Thy Name", or something they are really exploring with  Journeyman, Empire of the Clouds, but this doesn't feel like either.  I think drifter ties into Running Free thematically, but just ends the album on an odd note.  I get the "sing along" part is aimed at ending shows with, and he's treating the album as live event, but Drifter doesn't' hit the mark, which makes the album end on an off note.

Reviewing the Paul years, I can see how the band ended up splitting from him.  There is a lot of Punk (Pauls' supposed wanted direction) and lots of Prog (Steve's want) and you can hear that more range is required to hit what Steve is thinking. These two albums are a treat, and do show flashes of what is to come.  The keepers for me are Remember Tomorrow, Murders, Phantom, Prowler, Killers and frankly not much else.  The rest are good songs, but not listen to daily like those five.  I didn't really hear any running threads or structure to the order, except Drifter clearly being a "get the crowd chanting" song that would end a show, except it fell a bit flat to do that.  I would say Killers is the worse of the two, seems like it was "Back to the studio" that the suits would demand from a freshman hit.  I wouldn't call it a sophomore slump album, but Maiden is a band that needs time between albums.

Next up features a guy from Sampson, and then the drummer from Trust.  Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind.
Let me know what you think down below.

After a huge break, I'm back to putting up my thoughts on things metal and music.  Here is what I've been doing since life got a lot sideways.  I've been enjoying the new Beatles documentary from Disney+ (If you don't think the Beatles had a hand in metal, don't tell me Helter Skelter and She's So Heavy don't have some serious metal licks in them) and of course the new Iron Maiden album, Senjetsu.  I'll be doing a "First Listen, Upon Further Review" on that in a bit.  Better than Book of Souls (as usual all my comments are just my opinion) it's good edition to the family.

I've also been enjoying "The Professor of Rock" who does a lot of min-documentaries on various bands of the non-today rock bands.  He does the occasional metal or hard rock band, when he does so, I'll point them out here.  I wish Eddie Trunk would do something like this for metal bands, but I'm not seen much from him on the places of the internet I've been lurking.  I've also been really enjoying Leo Moracchioli and his "metalized" covers of various modern and recent pop standards.  Songs like "Dance Monkey" can kick ass if you let the inner metal out.  Or at least give it a good dose of thrash metal straight to the head.  

But the most metal thing I've been watching on my hiatus was the story of Anthrax.  A full eyes wide open, very little whitewashing and some very honest hard talk from the band about themselves, it is a must watch for anybody who has heard of the band, like them or not.  Here is the first of the series.  I couldn't wait for the episodes to come out, and I highly recommend a good binge of it.

Anyway, aiming for weekly updates, so gotta topic?  Leave a comment.  Get the Vacc, Up the Irons, and see you soon.

Today the metal world was hit with the news that Dave Mustaine, aka Mega-Dave, has been diagnosed with throat cancer.  This is the same beast that came at Bruce, and I bet like Bruce, Dave will slay this dragon.  Dave's had a busy and hard life, and if you haven't read his auto-biography, I recommend it.  The A1 story alone is worth the price of admission.
I've had a love, not so love relationship with Megadeth.  Some of their songs are just amazing, reaching me at an emotional level, or making me think, and definitely making me headbang.  But so much of his stuff is pretty wash rinse repeat.  So many albums have what feels like filler, and his last couple of albums are very formulaic and lack that touch of magic that haunt so many of his jams.  I don't the man, he's just trying to get paid, but stuff like 1320 is just trying to get that stadium airplay royalty money.  But like I said, I can't fault him for trying.
So in tribute of his soon to be victory over cancer, here is my top five Megadeth albums. They won't match yours, and that's awesome because everyone loves something a little bit different.

1) Symphony of Destruction
Full disclosure:  My first Megadeth album I bought with my own money.  Skin o' My Teeth Kicks this into an amazing gear, and it keeps building.   Favorites are Sweating Bullets, Skin, and my hidden favorite, Captive Honor.  It gave me a story idea for a movie that I still haven't finished.  When you start other creative fires, you know it's a good song.  Sweating Bullets gets quoted in my life pretty often "Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back, it's still a bit fuzzy".  That that has gotten a few people to give know nods.  The other? "How Soon is Now".  Go figure.

2) Youthenasia
The first side of this is all money.  Train of Consequences and Addicted to the Chaos are my favorites off this one, and while A Toute Le Monde is pretty good here, the later release version is WAY better.  I know it will be playing at my funeral.  Haunting lyrics to be sure.   Bad Jimmy gave me his CD since he wasn't really feeling them any more and just about wore the dang thing out.   Elysium Fields is another sneaky good tune, evoking images of heaven, hell and all the battles that we all face in our lives.   Yes a harmonica can be metal.  Dave makes it so.

3) Peace Sells
REALLY hitting their stride after Killing, this album fully announce Megadeth as a contender for the Thrash Metal throne. Peace Sells, Black Friday and Wake up Dead are all very different songs, but some how mesh together in this style defining album.  Dave tries more things when he gets into the mood, and the defining bass line of Peace Sells and the pacing of Friday and Dead show the creative moxie that will pay more fruit in other albums in the list.  While the band <cough> Metallica <cough> got kinda stuck in the post Cliff days, Megadeth sure took chances.

4) Cryptic Writings
Speaking of chances, this is all about that.  Not as crazy and pseudo Grunge as Risk, this is still a part of their early nineties peak.  The first two songs off this are the best, Trust and Almost Honest open wound songs about relationships.  I'd buy this album for these two songs alone.  In fact I did.  I don't know if I still have the rest of the album, but these two are a permanent part of my Mega-Dave and The Deth Boys collection.

5) The System Has Failed.
After his arm injury, Dave had a lot of time to think and get creative.  Basically a solo album in the Megadeth name, Die Dead Enough, Mice and Men, Something I'm Not and The Scorpion really sell this album.  Better stories, more texture that some of the other stuff, these four songs power through a bunch of a little bit standard thrash songs (but I secretly love I Know Jack).  Introspective, aggressive, emotionally raw at times, this is Dave at his best.  Admitting the world is flawed, and him with it.  The last of his "sane" albums, this the last one I laid out money for without regret (looks at Endgame, United Abominations and 13 and frowns).  His send up of Metallica with "Something I'm Not" is sublime, but the "yet" admits his own desires.  While Hetfield used his lyrics to figure out his fights with his parents, Dave seems to wrestle with his own place in the universe, admitting his sins while boasting about them, crying about open wounds of his life, while admitting his role in it. 

BONUS:
The Hidden Tracks EP is a great little addition to the family of must have Megadeth albums.

So that's my list.  What's in yours?  Put into the comments!!

​Proud to say I got to see One For The Wolves with our very own Sam J on bass (and singing!) perform live a prestigious dive bar near MBC HQ.  I have never been to a live performance at a dive bar, and it was GLORIOUS.
 
The set was a short but sweet:
 
Fuel – Metallica Cover
The Pretender  - Foo Fighter Cover
Breakdown – Tom Petty cover
Man in the Box – Alice in Chains cover, performed with special guest singer lady from another band
The Breakdown  - One for the Wolves original (available on iTunes)
<Forgot the name>  - One for the Wolves original (unreleased)
 
I did a shout out at the end of some training at the Salt Mine that Sam and I did on Thursday and actually talked two engineers from Taiwan to come listen too!! :D  So happy that worked!! 
 
They took the stage in front of a fairly full room and when the room exploded with the angry Metallica tune they announced the 70/80/90s soft rock wuss stuff was OVER.  Venue wasn’t sound oriented, but it was good enough and it was loud.  The next song I didn’t recognize (I hadn’t heard it before) but after watching the video for the original, I like their cover better than the original.  More raw emotion from the Wolves’; Dave and the Foo boys might have over produced that one.  Three Wolves took part as singers in their version, with Sam handling the end parts.  They had it going.  They slowed it down into a loving rendition into one of Petty’s best numbers, and the whole crowd (including one retired fried PEte) was singing “Breakdowwwwwwwnnnnnn”.  It was cool to see the crowd get into it.  Slight delay as the new singer joined the band.  Her whole band tried to join on stage but they figure it out quickly and took off into the AIC number.  Her voice just didn’t work for me with this song until one of the Wolves singers combo’ed with her to give it more depth like Lane’s voice gives this song.  She has talent, don’t get me wrong, she’s got LOADS of it, I just felt that song takes more gravel than her voice could give, but it was still a great job by the team.  During this song, the drum kit failed so there was a delay while a drum key was found (from old co-worker Randy in fact) and they got the kit straightened out.  They jammed into the whole reason I was there, The Breakdown.  I LOVE this song.  My wife asked me after the show what band did the original, and I laughed and told her it was THEIR original.  She thought it was a Foo Fighters or 3 Door Down cover!  If you don’t know the song, it starts with a dreamy guitar lick that evokes the image of an alarm clock.  The dreaminess cuts and the song jumps into gear.  I loved seeing it live, it’s a favorite song of mine, and I just love the imagery the dreamy alarm clock guitar gives.  It was the whole reason I was there, and they delivered.  Funny enough, part way through the song, one of the largest cymbals fell over and Sam had to help put it into a safe space. They were so in the zone (or drunk ;)) that nothing would throw off their fun.  And fun music is great music.   Another pause hit while AGAIN repairs are made to the drum kit, and everyone was now awaiting a full Spinal Tap moment, and we started to fear for the drummers life J.  They hit into the last number, another original, and this was one was new to me.  More complex, with more layered arrangement (and a bass solo!) it’s another solid outing from the Wolves.  If they had this 10 years ago, I could see them going full commercial, but at this age of the band, I’m not sure they would have the time and energy to really commit to the life.  Set over, it was special to meet and thank the band  members individually, and see the joy on their faces when I fanboy’ed on them :)  I hoped I didn’t embarrass Sam! Super nice guys, we hung out and chatted about the set while the next band started to set up. 
But it was almost 10:30pm and I had 4 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours (longer story but tl;dr overnight grad party chaperone) so we didn’t stay for the last band.  But since we just wanted a slice of the Wolves, it was a happy evening.  
 
Kudos to Sam, and the rest of the band, and if you get a chance, GO SEE ONE FOR THE WOLVES!!

Greetings Metalheads!
Yes, It has been a while.  Life gets a hold of you some times, and frankly, you just have to go back to what you love.  I've been meaning to get the club back together, but one of the fun people behind the club has been under the weather.  CP \m/ we love you brother, where ever you are.  
Things have been happening these two years.  That Metal Show finally died, and Eddie Trunk's attempts to get back onto TV have faltered.   Dave Holland, Fast Eddie Clark, Vinnie Paul, and many more in the touching tribute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIeGWpHwKw4  (warning may get very dusty at your pad, like it did in mine, so many so young, so talented, and sadly so dead :(  )
Rest in Power indeed.
But now we must look forwards.  You can't kill the Metal.  Metal will live on.
So I've gotten the Book Band back together.  C-Note, Scott2hotty, the Hawaiian Surprise, the Kid, Jef with one F, we've returned together to chat about things.  Yes, I've got to come up with new nicknames, we'll see what comes out of our new meeting.  Four new Metal masters, ready to join and discuss the thing that is Metal.  So we start again, like all those Metal musicians before.  Yes, we'll end up like Rainbow, or Deep Purple, eleventy billion line ups, but you know what, that's metal.  Metal will live on.  So the MBC lives on.

Check this space, I'll be making more postings.  You've been warned.

Where have I been?  Doing life, I admit.  Time and life, Life and Time!  One day I'll get what's mine through the Persistence of Time!
Okay this isn't that album.  And what the heck is a FL-UFR?  First Listen - Upon Further Review.  I take a new album and listen to it once, and jot down my thoughts as it crashes into my brain for the first time.  Then I let it simmer, take it in slowly and contemplate the meaning of life with it.  Let it walk around a little bit inside my head, let it rearrange the furniture.
Without further ado (or boring exploratory dialogue),
For All Kings
1. "You Gotta Believe"   7:32
FL - I like Cellos.  This is what I love about Anthrax. The blend in various themes and out of music sounds to help build a soundscape... and BAM we're in Thrash mode.  A nice start, very good thrash metal, and Joey sounds good.  (Scotty, Franky and Charlie sound awesome as always).  Oh, new boy Jon Donais for the first time.  Not a big production for the solo.  Nice Frank work and Jon is back.. a nice groove solo going on.  Fusion!  I like the speed change, you know the Thrash button is coming soon, I like how it builds the tension.
UFR - A good solid metal song.  The time changes work, stops it from being a one trick pony.   A complex song, great start to the album, showing that this album will have layers, and still fit nicely into your Anthrax collection.

2. "Monster at the End"   3:55
FL - Starts off right away, jumps into the meat of the song.  A slower song but still aggressive and pulls you in.  The starting rifts work for me.  Very catchy chorus.   Time change again, are these guys on tour with Iron Maiden again?  Oh yes they are.   Faster solo this time, fits into the song well. 
UFR - The band has moved on from Zombies and are now into Game of Thrones.  I like this one.  You can see how other bands would have let this one go on, but they got out of the song before it turned into a chorus fest and end up sucking some life out.

3. "For All Kings"   5:00
FL - JOEY!  Then we hit the thrash.  Not turbo, but solid purposeful Metal.  Charlie's drum really shines in this one.  He's got a lot going on in the little slow parts.  Nice mix of speed, tempo changes.  Very nice.  Not 5 stars, but very nice.
UFR- A very Anthrax song.  Reminds me a lot of the songs on State of Euphoria.  And I mean that as a complement.  I LOVE that album. 

4. "Breathing Lightning"   6:33
FL - An unplugged intro? Jaw drop.  Wow love this rift.  Now into the metal part of the show.  Digging the two guitar sound, and we're into a cool chorus.  This is a good one.   Digging the lyrics.  "You always have the chance to do the right thing".  "Is this the right thing?  I don't know..."  ooooohhh... chorus singing!  The NOT! boys are showing some deft touches.  Nice solo, good speed.  This new guy is showing talent without needing to jump on the amp and scream LOOK AT ME.  Dan and Rob got that (haven't heard much Paul.  YET).  More awesomeness ensues until the ahhhhhhh outro.  Love at first listen.  5 Golden stars, already.
UFR - This is an all time great Metal song.   Not just a great Anthrax song, a great Metal song.  I would pay the full cost of this album for this song alone.  It speaks to me on so many levels, I love the structure, the way it builds, the lyrical content, the intro and outro.  This is clearly my favorite song of the album and sits at the Pantheon level for me with Anti-Social, I'm the Man, In the End, Indians, I am the Law, Caught in a Mosh, Howling Furies and my one of my favorites, sneaky good "Intro to Reality"

5. "Suzerain"   4:53
FL- The Lightning lingers.  This song suffers from following a great song.  Very straight forwards thrash song.  It has good depth of feeling, good solid riffs and drum work.  TIME CHANGE.  Very sudden but not to harsh.  I like that it isn't just all one flavor, but a good solid mix.  A solid end to the first side.
UFR -  In longer term listening the chorus gets a tad repetitive, a little more to work there would have been nice.  I think if they had ended the first side with Lightning instead of this one, it would be scoring better.  But in the shadow of the big song, honestly I get to about the second "Nothing is over" and I can't take it anymore and have to go back to Breathing Lightning.  And that makes me feel sad for Suzerain, because it's a good song by itself, but Lightning is just so darn good!

So far this is a worthy follow-on for Worship Music and they really haven't lost a step.  "Breathing Lightning" is the standout for me, a sure fire drop into my "play at all times" playlist.  Second half coming up soon.

Feeling the need for a little Friday night pizza, I roll down to the local pizza place and I'm waiting for my order to be ready to rock back to my metal hovel in the burbs, when this nice guy says, "Hey nice shirt".  I was playing a game on my phone, and totally spaced what I pulled out of my closet that AM.
It was my That Metal Show t-shirt.  The dude continued, "We love that show."  The 'we' was his friendly companion, a lovely woman who then gently chimed in.  "I love the music, I talked him into watching it and now he loves the show."  If they hadn't said anything, I would have never guessed they were fans of Metal.  Just two everyday people, wearing every day clothes.  Kinda proves my point. 
But somehow, there in a random suburban pizzeria, fans of the best music found each other and swapped stories.  Behold the  power of Metal. 
Her first show?  Maiden during the Number of the Beast tour.  LUCKY!!!  Although I've caught Maiden the last couple of times out, seeing them at their world conquering prime would have been AMAZING.  She's very luck, and so I am I for getting to meet this  bunch of nice very metal heads(no that isn't an oxymoron), just like me, out for pizza on a Friday night.
So if see someone rocking a metal shirt, throw'em some Dio horns, says nice shirt, or if you were lucky enough to see the shirt band live, tell'em "I loved seeing them in Vancouver in 2010."  Whatever it is, spread the metal, spread the disease. 

We've added a couple of new recruits to our merry band of Metalheads.  Big Wave (he's from Hawaii and his initials would make you think he's from Kansas), joined a while back.  He's into Evergrey and being awesome.
Also Metal Jef joined, just last week.  Jef is the physical embodiment of metal. You look at Jef and you go wow.  Metal.  But like most Metal fans, he's totally chill. Plus he likes K-Pop, too.  We like what we like, and you NEVER have to be sorry about that.  One the metal side of the ledger, Jef likes Death Metal, operatic Metal, his name spelled with just one f and a Spainish band called Flesh or something who's name escapes me.  (I shouldn't type early after a late Saturday night if you know what I mean).
We welcome our two new members, and getting more people into your MBC is as easy as just asking.  CP brought in Jef, and Bad Jimmy and Connor brought in Big Wave.
Having more people is cool because if some regular can't make it, you'll always have enough for a good party. Just make sure people do the homework ;)