In memory of Gary Moore

I just want to pay my tribute to a great guitarist GARY MOORE... He passed away last sunday in Spain while he was asleep. I love his music and he was a nice bloke. His gig Wild Frontier 1987 tour was my first ever gig and I will never forget it. He was a fantastic guitarist who can express emotion and feelings to guitar and I've never heard anyone sounding like his trademark clean and high tone guitar. Last year we've lost DIO battling with cancer but with Gary he just left us suddenly.

I hope he'll be gigging up there with DIO, Cozy Powell, Randy Rhodes and his best mate the mighty Phil Lynott.

I also want to say good bye to Phil Kennemore who played bass with Y&T... I didn't know he was gone!

I want to say belated Happy New Year!! Chinese one that is... 3rd of February, the year of the Rabbit!!

It's sad but their legacy will stay forever!!

Lamb to the Slaughter

Okay another music review. It's less known band... teN. teN is formed in mid 90's in Manchester by Gary Hughes. This Gary Hughes guy started his career with his own solo more like soft AOR ish rock music which I'm not so keen of. Then he gathered Dare (Thin Lizzy's keyboardist Darren Wharton's band) musicians like Vinny Burns and Greg Morgan. Then more people were added like guitarist, bass player and keyboardist.
I found this band on Classic Rock magazine. When I lived in Cambridge I started to buy this mag because they have coverage and articles about my sort of music. Old rock music. Review says they've got some influences from Whitesnake, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden etc. That can't go wrong!! I thought their music was great and hooked. I like Vinny Burns play. His play reminds me a lot of Gary Moore. Their music has lot's of contrast like hard rockin' songs and ballads mixed. I don't really like ballads so I often skip 'em and never listen but harder stuff they are really good and I like it a lot. I decided to review because just recently they released new album called "Stormwaning". Most of members are gone but still no different to older stuff cos it's all written by Gary Hughes. His hair is now receded and hair line has gone up. Like Alan Shearer!! lol

If I'm going to let people listen to teN then it's got to be "The Robe" and "Babylon". These two are awesome and I always listen to it over and over. Other stuff has too much ballads and not so much killer rocker songs so I'll strongly recommend these two. I think you don't need to listen.

Notable note... Apparently they sold lot's of records in Japan.

Light and Space

Okay so it's nearly end of January... I've moved to a new home in Hackney from Stoke Newington since my 32nd birthday in 2nd of January 2011...

We all like the new home and like the area. We've been without a telephone and internet but now back on line since 26th of Jan.

I am now working and earning some money as well but to be honest I want to change it ASAP because I am not happy with current work and move onto better things.

Anyways today I will resume review and going to review a band called Threshold from Surrey, UK. They are progressive metal band and just simply brilliant. In my opinion they are the best progressive metal band and better than Dream Theater. I don't know too much about Their earlier career from 1989 because I can't judge not owning any albums with Damian Wilson etc. I only have the compilation album called "The Ravages Of Time"and on this compilation very few songs from old albums.

So I'll write about Mac (Vocalist) era. So progressive rock is long, complexed and atmospheric rock music. And metal is just fast and furious heavy rock music. So if you combine these two you'll get Progressive Metal music. Let's say Emerson Lake & Palmer + Metallica = Threshold. If you know what I mean. This band's main leader is Karl Groom who plays guitars and also produce other bands albums not just his own Threshold. Mac is longest and most successful vocalist in this band and he has simple and plain vocal style but can stretch it well. Bit like Peter Gabriel from Genesis. Typical progressive rock singer. But it's clear. Guitars are very technical, heavy, tempo change, aggressiveness and lot of complex melody. Bass is bass you don't hear it much in metal!! lol Keyboards creates atmosphere and add colours to their music. Drums are played by this short black guy who is just brilliant. Well timed and does lot of double bass drumming.

Production is top notch. Crystal clear modern sound. No one do better jobs than Karl Groom. I would strongly recommend "Hypothetical" album and "Subsurface". "Clone" and "Critical Mass" are alright but it hasn't got much killer tunes. After "Dead Reckoning" Mac left and old vocalist Damian Wilson returned and they've been pretty quiet but I think they are still active. They should stay active because if they don't it'll be waste of talents. These guys makes me feel worth following metal and progressive music.

If you are going to listen to Progressive Metal then you better listen to Threshold first then maybe Queensrÿche, Dream Theater or Fates Warning or whoever.

Seven Hours...

It's still quite chilly here in London... I'm having really stressful time (Around mid November to now) and always, every seconds is very frustrating... Anyways I found this band while I was reading ICON reviews on heavyharmonies and I immediately checked their music and I thought wow, bloody good for an Americans. I thought Americans can't really do this kind of sophisticated and sensitive rock/metal music. Usually most their 80's stuff is really upbeat and simple and not too technical rock/metal music and boring but this is one of rare gem from USA!! They've got this neo classical influence from Europe and vocalist has good rock voice. This band only released 2 albums in 86 and 89. 1st self titled album is more simple traditional metal and similar to Pretty Maids. 2nd album is little bit commercial with promo video it's called "Time Will Tell". Shame they disappeared so quickly. Short lived...

Apparently they are active again so if you are interested check FIFTH ANGEL!!

War Machine

I met my great friend and employer from Tokyo Mr. Habu last week and also I met the TANK and KILLERS (Paul Di'Anno) legendary guitarist Cliff Evans. I'm honoured and made me happy!!

No Stranger to Danger

Okay and here's the 2nd Thrash Metal review!! It's Lääz Rockit!! I heard some of their stuff on "Leatherface" Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 soundtrack and most recent album "Left for Dead". I quite liked their music so I decided to check older materials. I'd say from "Know Your Enemy", "Annihilation Principle" and "Nothing$ $acred" is great. Probably their peak in career. On these albums this mascot character appears on it. Chip Hazard look alike from Small Soldiers movie!! Maybe Chip Hazard was copied/inspired from Lääz Rockit album sleeves?! Who knows. They always had this war theme songs. I'd say this band has little melodic edge. Not melodic as Megadeth but can be little bit thrashy rock 'n roll. In my opinion they are better than well known bands like Slayer but most metal fan would probably disagree but I'm entitled to my opinion!! lol I'd say "Nothing$ $acred" is the best album. Also they had secret album just in Japan. They changed their name to GACK and released "Fix". Good 90's thrash metal. Listen to the blood splashing "Leatherface"!!

Over the Wall

I'm going to do quick thrash metal double bill... First... Testament!!

Dunno too much about them but all I can say is very good crunchy technical thrash metal with good rough vocal. This band has famous singer called Chuck Billy. He's easy to identify because of his large stature. Big fat mean looking native American dude. He looks like wrestler from telly. He's got good vocal. I think his presence in this band is big. Also they've got relatively well known guitarist called Alex Skolnick. He used to be in Savatage as well. I think he was also a big part in this band's creativity. I haven't listened to this band's music properly but I would like to listen more and get into it. I would recommend their debut and latest "The Formation Of Damnation". 

Blind Guardian

I've got so much music in iTunes I've decided to give a listen to old Blind Guardian catalogue. It's not bad really. They have distinctive style. First two albums were just simple plain thrash metal then they added some of their Uriah Heep and Queen also some progressive rock influence to their thrash metal sounds. Their music definitely improved and more grandiose. They are from Germany and they are now known as power metal band. But I would say first and second album is definitely thrash metal. They had stable line up till their 8th "A Twist in the Myth" album. Their classic line up is Hansi Kürsch on vocals (ex-bass), André Olbrich, Marcus Siepen both on guitars and Thomas Stauch on drums. Stauch left the band in 2005 and joined other bands. I'd say their albums are cheesy but interesting and probably best on will be "Imaginations from the other side". Really thrash yet grandiose. So that's it. Latter albums are kinda machine like because over dubbed recording style and it's not raw enough. I known this band in early 2000s and they were rather well known in continental europe and south america as well as far east, Japan. This kind of genre "power metal" was rather over looked and weren't that popular in north america and in the U.K.

Being a band from Germany wouldn't help either. In music business you need to be either British or Yank otherwise music will be seen as crap or not get any attention for not being a native English speakers. Anyways they are good band and I think they should never be over looked. Now they are relatively known band in metal market.

The war drags ever on!!

I've been listening to Tank the NWOBHM band a lot. I only had their debut album "Filth Hounds of Hades" and it sounds like poor version of Motörhead but from the 3rd "This Means War" they become more Metal and faster and heavier. I really like their 4th "Honour & Blood" and it's bloody good!! I love it. They were rather on and off but now they are active again without their main man singer/bassist Algy Ward. They are back with Scottish singer Dougie White (ex-Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen etc).
New album is good but it's kinda reminds me of Saxon. Dougie's voice is similar to Biff at times and music is also bit like recent modern Saxon albums but it's a great comparison to have. I hope they carry on cos they are great band!!

Run For Cover!!

OK so last time I wrote about John Sykes so this time I'm going to write about Gary Moore the guitarist from Northern Ireland. He's often to mistaken to Irish. He probably is Irish but he was born in UK so I'd say he's British guitarist. He's been around for quite long time. His first recording were called "Grind Stone" in 1973. He's a close friend of legendary Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy and he had few stint with Thin Lizzy too like "Black Rose" album. Then he did another solo "Back To The Streets". Some weird compilation called "Spanish Guitar" with original song "Spanish Guitar". Then he formed G-Force. After G-Force he had relatively stable solo band. What can I say about this guy. Jaw-droppingly good! Deserve the knighthood title, SIR GARY MOORE! His guitar play is just awesome really. Brilliant! Super technique! Not just the guitarist but also a great singer. Very very talented and influential musician. I think he's also very versatile as musician too. His style is very varied. Not necessary hard rock/metal. Nowadays he's known for Blues (since the beginning of 90s) but before he changed he was a great rock musician. My mum's friend Bob Daisley played bass with Gary Moore! His guitar tone hits really high and sounds very clean, heavy and fast yet very melodic and emotional. Some war themed lyrics make you think that peace is necessary. Even to this day PEACE is needed/wanted!! I did compare him with John Sykes and I'd say John and Gary are sometimes similar but I don't really think they are the same. Gary's been around so much longer and John admires and influenced by Gary so no surprise there. They are both great guitarists and they are in my top 5 really. I'd recommend his albums "Run For Cover", "Wild Frontier" and "After The War" trilogy. Best 80's Hard Rock. No doubt about it. If you like guitar music or traditional hard rock/heavy metal then I'd strongly recommend his music to you!!

Bless!!

We All Fall Down!

It's into middle of September 2010... Hot weather is fading slowly but still pretty hot here in Japan. August and September so far only few rainfall in Tokyo. Anyways I've been watching films a lot but I'll write about music here. I'm going to say something about John Sykes the English rock/metal guitarist. He's 51 now! Time flies... He's 20 years older than me! Lets go back to main subject, he's often compared to Gary Moore, in a good way or bad way. I like both just as much and can't pick who's better. It's like McDonald's and KFC?! He started his career just after I was born (1979) and played in a NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) band called Street Fighter but they've never recorded any materials I think. Then he joined famous NWOBHM band called Tygers of Pan Tang from Newcastle, North East of England. Then he left his mark with great guitar play and they also had good singer Jon Deverill. I think Tygers of Pan Tang peaked after "Spellbound", because their music wasn't good anymore. Then Phil Lynott asked John to join legendary Thin Lizzy band to record mega heavy "Thunder and Lightning" album. He revitalised lethargic group like them and beafed up the music to more hard and tough, metal sound rather than good hard rock music for what they were known for, then he joined David Coverdale's (ex-Deep Purple vocalist) Whitesnake. Coverdale wanted to hire Sykes to break into US market. Whitesnake had orthodox and subtle blues/hard rock feel to their music but with Sykes they can toughen their image as well as music and he eventually joined. I think somewhere between Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake, John played for John Sloman's (Lone Star/Uriah Heep) band called Badlands (He also did some solo called "Please Don't Leave Me" and one instrumental for a Xmas album - "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"). I got the demo tape on mp3 format but not very good really. Whitesnake released "Slide It In" and "1987" with John Sykes on guitar and I'd say it's there best material. "1987" is one of the all time best hard rock/heavy metal really. Sykes left the band after a row  with Coverdale. Not just Sykes but all recording member had left the band. Coverdale is a great singer but he's a egomaniac, dictator and control freak and he only care about image and money!

So he formed Blue Murder with Tony Franklin (The Firm) on bass and Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, King Kobra etc) on drums. "Blue Murder" self titled album and "Nothin' But Trouble" both great albums. Latter album had unknown Marco Mendoza on bass and Tommy O'Steen on drums. But the band didn't get enough recognition and John dropped the band name to simple Sykes.

With Sykes more or less same line-up from above mentioned musicians and some guest and he released "Out of my Tree", "Loveland", "20th Century" and "Nuclear Cowboy".  And then he hasn't released anything for a decade now! He does occasional live gigs but only play Thin Lizzy tribute stuff with main members from original Thin Lizzy members but really bit dull to be honest. I prefer his solo stuff.

I really love John Sykes and he's one of my all time favourite guitarist ever. Not just the way he plays his trademark old and battered Black Beauty Gibson Les Paul guitar but he's a great singer as well as song writer and music is great. Melodic yet fast and aggressive. It's really rare to find such talented musicians really. He deserve a knighthood really. He should be called Sir Sykes!! He's often under rated but I would put him very high. And great thing is that every time you listen to him live music sound different but each one is great. He has released quite a few live albums too but it's all brilliant. I can't praise him more.

Lucky I've seen him once live in London! I hope he'll release more solo albums!

His best albums are... "Spellbound", "Thunder and Lightning", "1987", "Blue Murder",  "Nothin' But Trouble" and "Out of my Tree". I think these albums should be enough!

Easy Livin'

Yes this is a famous song title by Uriah Heep. Amazingly their career has lasted for over 40 YEARS! This year the band has been active for 41 years under control of Sir Mick Box! There career started from late 60's under name of "Spice" then changed the band name to Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens novel. Their musical style is heavy hard rock with progressive rock twist with folklore based theme. Their album covers always had folklore based children's book look. Very arty. I forgot to mention it but Uriah Heep are one of the pioneers of hard rock/heavy metal genre with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. They are like deities of Metal. They had distinctive high pitched, charismatic singer called David Byron, keyboardist/guitarist, the main songwriter Ken Hensley and main man Mick Box on guitar. They were quite successful at beginning of their career but by the end of 70's there popularity kinda declined. They also had many line-up changes but the classic line-up was above three and Gary Thain on bass and Lee Kerslake on drums. Best albums would be difficult to choose because they released 22 studio albums to date. I think "Demons & Wizards" and "The Magician's Birthday" are great David Byron era albums and "Firefly" is good for John Lawton era and I think "Abominog" is great. Pete Goalby is great singer. The band nearly disbanded in 1980 after the release of "Conquest". Everyone has left the band apart from Mick Box and he decided to carry on. What a WILL!! Since then he managed to keep very stable line up. I should mention current members: Barnie Shaw on vocals, Trevor Bolder on bass, Phil Lanzon on keyboard and Russell Gilbrook on drums.

Rebel Yell

This is the last one for today! Blond, spiky haired, twitching mouthed, leather clad punk called Billy Idol! Despite his intimidating looks his music is quite pop. Popular new wave from the 80s. He sometime sings hard rock and some punk. He's a Englishman and started his career with a band called Generation X and then he went solo and cracked the big time and popular and famous in the 80s. He disappeared for while and made a comeback around mid 2000s and he's old but more powerful masculine physique. I first discovered him on TV or radio I think. Can't really remember but liked his old promo videos like "White Wedding" and "Rebel Yell". His partner is called Steve Stevens. I think he's been good with creative side and fun guitar play. I think his first couple albums were good but I think late 80s and 90s materials are s**t.
His Greatest Hits albums were really good in beginning but mid to late tracks were awful. But overall he's good musician!

Under The Gun!!

I'm going to write about the band called ICON. This band is my recent favourite and it's rather obscure band. People knows their metal knows about them. This band is from Phoenix, Arizona USA. Having listened to their 1st and 2nd album I liked it a lot. Especially the 1st album. They follow the text book from Judas Priest especially the "Screaming for Vengeance" and "Defender of the Faith". Their 1st self titled debut album is a basic in your face traditional 80's metal and most of their songs are slow but chest thumping, anthem-ish yet very heavy. Good bass and drum beats with great harmonised riffs. Their singer Stephen Clifford has very powerful voice. Vocals are very tough, rough and raw and it does fit into this kinda rock/metal music like a glove. Very similar to Surgical Steel and Racer X's Jeff Martin. Reminiscent of Jeff Martin is there but Clifford's career is before Jeff Martin. In my opinion Clifford is slightly better. He makes me want to scream and sing! The leader of the band Dan Wexler is very talented guitar player also, him and his partner John Aquilino the skinny black hair dude is just like K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton from Judas Priest. They don't play rock/metal like most of Americans do. They have British style of play. They have great harmonised twin guitar melody and it's beautiful. Reminds me of Thin Lizzy or something like that. Bass and Drums are very good. Especially the drums. Good beat and rhythm. After the 1st album they changed the direction to slightly pop and more acceptable to mass of people. They've been labeled as glam but not with 1st and 2nd albums. Music are  catchy and cheesy. I mean cheesy in a good way. Some of the songs they wrote it with Bob Halligan Jr. They released 2nd album called "The Night of the Crime". Best songs from 1st album I'd choose "(Rock On) Through The Night", "Killer Machine", "On Your Feet", "World War", "Hot Desert Night" and "Under the Gun". 2nd album I'd pick "Naked Eyes", "Missing", "Danger Calling" and "Raise the Hammer". Under the Gun is really heavy and mid tempo hard rock/metal tune and Danger Calling is really catchy and sweet rock/metal song. Brilliant stuff. The "1984: Live Bootleg" is not bad and this live album contains some of the songs that didn't end up on actual albums. After the 2nd album Clifford left the band with not too clear reason and band declined. I didn't even bother listening to last 2 studio albums cos it was S**T! It's unfortunate they end up getting covered in dust because this band was really talented. If Clifford had stayed I think they'd be very big or had potential to be big. I swear. I just love the 1st and 2nd and live albums. If you like it just dig it. I'd strongly recommend the 1st and 2nd albums. ROCK ON!! THROUGH THE NIGHT!!

Laro Shiflin

Laro Shiflin is a famous film music composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He composed music for classic films like Bullitt, Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, The Amityville Horror and Rush Hour. Also for TV series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible and Starsky and Hutch. According to Wikipedia he compose Spy music (Don't know what a hell it means...), Bebop and Rock. I quite like these 60's and 70's Bebop (Faster jazz music) and I often listen to his music. Really good stuff. I don't know any musician from Argentina apart from him and he's probably one of the most famous musician from South America. I'd recommend people to get hold of "Most Wanted 1968-1979" compilation album. Or just watch above mentioned films and see if you like it or not.

Kenny G

I'm not a huge Smooth Jazz fan but I quite like his music. I know nothing about Jazz music. He plays Saxophone. His music reminds me of dentist, restaurant, department store in Japan. Because these places plays a lot of Smooth Jazz.  It's good music to calm and chill if you know what I mean. He's a Jewish American.

Screaming for Vengeance!!

I'm going to write about the METAL GODS known as JUDAS PRIEST. They are LEGENDS! They just come right on TOP of pile of METAL. Like Black Sabbath this band is also from Birmingham, England and highly influential. I think Judas Priest definitely defined the style of music. They also added speed to music and made it more faster than slightly older metal band's music. They have a charismatic vocalist Rob Halford who has extremely high pitched voice could shatter a glass. Very talented. Also great two guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. Their aggressive guitar play with harmonisation are great. And you have quiet Ian Hill on bass and various drummers. Since 1990 Scott Travis kept his position and it has been stable. Judas Priest released their first album "Rocka Rolla" in 1974 and gradually with time they progressed more and more heavier music direction as well as their image. Back in the 70's all rock bands had same image. Typical long hair, a shirt and flare jeans! But after the release of "Stained Class" in 1978 they adopted to motorcycle gang image with leather, chains and studs. This image gave them more hard edge and since then every metal bands copied. The band also adopted permanent new logo with "Stained Class" album. In 1980 they released epic "British Steel" and more great albums were released such as "Screaming for Vengeance",  "Defender of the Faith" and "Painkiller". In mid 90's Rob Halford already had left the band and replaced with young talented singer called Ripper Owens. In 1997 they released "Jugulator". This is my first Judas Priest album and this album had elements of old skool metal, modern death metal and thrash metal influence. The guitar sound was down tuned, distorted, fuzzy, so heavy, so low, so razor sharp could cut anything! Great stuff and listening to Ripper Owens voice was absolute pleasure. I got into Jugulator album a lot and obviously listened to that album. Great thing about Judas Priest is that they are very flexible as musicians and do take little bit of an influence from what's in from time. They don't sound the same like some bands tend to do i.e. AC/DC, Iron Maiden to name but a few. In 2003 Halford returned to the band after some solo materials and decade of absence and rather controversial court case about subliminal message James Vance and Raymond Belknap in early 90's.  Most recommended recordings are "British Steel", "Screaming for Vengeance", "Defender of the Faith", "Painkiller" and "Jugulator". These five albums are essential for all metal fans all over the world. They deserve to have a title of Metal Gods because they play the major role in this genre of music! Defender of the Faith!

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath!!

I'm going to write about Black Sabbath. This is the band who pioneered the genre of Metal along with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep around the late 60's to beginning of 70's. And they were all British. Without this band Metal wouldn't exist. The famous four is from Birmingham England. Their lyrical theme was things about occult and their sound was heavy with heavy guitar tones. They took a name from a horror film called the Black Sabbath.  Vocalist Ozzy Osbourne is a crazy man and great entertainer if not good vocalist, Tony Iommi the master of Metal came up with great riff and Geezer Butler played bass and Bill Ward on drums. Famous songs were like Paranoid, Iron Man, War Pigs, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Symptom of Universe etc. They ruled the 70's all over the world and in the end of 70's Ozzy left the band and Black Sabbath declined little... Replacement for Ozzy was Dio the American singer and brilliant comeback with Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules and Live Evil albums. Then Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple fronted the band also Tony Martin and various musicians came and went... They are very very important part of music history.