This is one clean sounding live album. Yes it’s live, and you can tell, but there’s not a lot of crowd noise or wasted time. Opening with a full-on “Buzzards”, The Sword sound made for the stage. The Sword may not have invented the guitar riff, but they have certainly mastered the art of creating them.
“The Chronomancer I: Hubris” (from Warp Riders) has a slower Sabbathy groove circa Ozzy, but rendered heavier on the metal scale. They’re tight live, but there’s a certain rock n’ roll loosey-goosey vibe on this album as well. “Maiden, Mother & Crone” is another hot riff, amplified by the live environment.
New material is rolled out, with “Tears Like Diamonds”, “Mist & Shadow”, and “Agartha” presented in sequence. “Tears Like Diamonds” combines hook and groove into one steamrolling song. The heaviest track could be “Tres Brujas” from the third album which flies at Warp speed. Then they go into a cover of “John the Revelator” which works amazingly well as a heavy metal celebration.
The only track to appear from the debut Sword LP is “The Horned Goddess”. It ends a pretty steady onslaught of riffs with…even more riffs. If you’ve endured it, congratulations — you just might be a rocker!
No fluff, no filler. Greetings From… flies by just as fast as the spaceship on the awesome cover art.
Dr. Kathryn saw Cheap Trick at the Centre in the Square and has returned with photographic proof.
Comments:
“Cheap Trick were great! They played for about an hour and a half straight with no encore. It was a good mix of old songs and new. There were a bunch in the middle I didn’t know. Robin Zander can still sing pretty well, but his shortcomings were very obvious when he started to sing ‘The Flame’ with just himself on guitar. When he has all the other players behind him, his voice sounds much better and you can’t hear where he’s lacking. There was an extra guitar player (Robin Zander’s son Robin Taylor Zander) in the back and Tom Petersson played a twelve string bass. Rick Nielsen threw picks into the audience and I caught three! Looking back, I didn’t get any close ups of Robin Zander! He was right in front of me plenty.”
Setlist:
Hello There
Way of the World
Oh, Candy
Big Eyes
California Man (The Move cover)
On Top of the World
Stiff Competition
Downed
Ain’t That a Shame (Fats Domino cover)
High Roller
Lookin’ Out for Number One
Stop This Game
I’m Waiting for the Man (The Velvet Underground cover)
It took a while to be able to review this CD for technical reasons. From day one, this disc would not play smoothly in any computer. Most CD players could handle it, but no PC could without skipping horribly. Independent CD production had iffy quality in the early 90s. Now using external components I’ve finally been able to rip the album to PC. I have not played some of these songs in decades!
Raw M.E.A.T 3 was different from the first two volumes. The first focused on hard rock, the second on thrash. One band from Raw M.E.A.T 2 went on to big things, that being Varga. Volume 3 combined all genres of heavy music together on one disc. From the heaviest of bands (Mindrape, Sinister Fiend, Hanker, Vertical After) to pop rock hooks (Deadline, Raw Trixx, Tryton) and progressive (Destiny, Justin Sane), all bases are covered. The bands span several provinces from British Columbia to Quebec, whereas the first CD only had groups from southern Ontario.
Highlights are numerous. Perhaps Russian Blue came in strongest with opener “Mama’s Love”, a modern twist on hard rock. Deadline were right up there too, with a re-recording of “Friction Addiction” from their excellent first CD. Raw M.E.A.T 3 is the only place you can get the re-recording, which is slicker and punchier than the original. Tryton, the only female-fronted band, kicks serious ass on “Burning the Cradle”. Singer Nina Zzo had the lungs for it! (They later made an album as Loudshine.) “A Wonderful Day” by Tempted Fate is another genius track, sounding a bit like “When Death Calls” by Black Sabbath before exploding into a punk rock chorus.
It’s a very diverse CD. The bands Raw Trixx and Stone Valley both put in strong entries with “Time” and “Forever Gone” respectively. These groups employ older hard rock sounds in spite of the changing tides of rock. Slam Glory’s “Say It Like You Mean It” also fits that mold. Fans of early Queensryche and Scorpions might enjoy Destiny’s “Man Alone” which brings to mind the trademark sounds of those bands. Old-school thrash fans will dig the traditional speedy chug of Hanker and Vertical After. The Cult-like No Morals had an enjoyable, unconventional 90s edge. For Faith No More funkiness, it’s Sinister Fiend. Overlord’s “Never Enough” has a tough metal punch but with punk-like recklessness. “And if I sound bitter, it’s because I am!” Even Christian rock makes an appearance. Thunder Rider’s “For Christ’s Sake” isn’t bad, but the Quebec band had an early unfortunate image including swords, shields and hammers.
My favourite track of them all is “Illusion” by Justin Sane, which should have become a massive hit in 1992. The four piece band combined modern metal grooves with quality lead vocals and musicianship to create a nearly seven-minute behemoth of a song. It was recorded (like several of the songs here) at the renowned Metalworks Studios in Mississauga. Shame the band had a jokey name, as it does not accurately depict their music. There is a Justin Sane EP out there, reissued in 2006 as a split album with a band called Native Tongue, but it’s impossible to find.
I also approve of the names of the members of Vertical After: Kick, Stu, Rhys and Odd. I definitely want to be friends with anyone named Odd.
For the variety of quality hard rock, heavy metal and miscellaneous good stuff, Raw M.E.A.T 3 serves as an enjoyable listen and gateway to some bands you’ve never heard of before. Off to Discogs to look for more!
Didn’t get much writing done this weekend — sorry about that. It’s the time of year when the annual Sausagefest begins to dominate my creative time.
I finished all my recordings this weekend, though I’m going to sit on them a few days before I submit them to Uncle Meat. I want to make sure they’re perfect and I’m happy. Nine songs/nine intros plus associated sketches and bits. 63 meg; over an hour of play time. Several months of recording dating back to last year, with one track having over 100 layers of audio!
I say this every year, but I think these are my best Sausagefest intros and bits yet. Next task: new tent and new camping equipment. 2019 is gonna rock. Less than a month to go!
WHITESNAKE – Flesh & Blood (2019 Cynjas Japanese import CD)
So you got the new Whitesnake. Think you got all the songs just because you got the deluxe version on CD or iTunes? Naw! Think again! Once again, it’s Japan with the hardest to find bonus tracks.
To be fair, it’s a give and take. While Japan often gets their own exclusive songs, they also miss out on others. In North America, we got a deluxe edition with “Can’t Do Right For Doing Wrong”, “If I Can’t Have You”, and three remixes of album tracks. The Japanese CD has none of those, but instead has its own exclusive remix.
The ballad “After All” is surely one of the highlights on Flesh & Blood. As a simple, fairly unadorned acoustic love song, it’s right in the wheelhouse of more recent “unzipped” ‘Snake. Well, the Japanese bonus remix is even more stripped down. The “Unzipped” mix is the same recording, just with less stuff in the mix — no electric guitars, no keyboards. An insignificant difference? Absolutely. But with an acoustic song this fucking good, you may enjoy the purity of the unembellished version. Up to you really, but if you’re the kind of collector that needs “all the tracks”, then you do need this, don’t you?
“I don’t care about bonus tracks,” you say. “Just tell me if the album is any good!”
Flesh & Blood is being described by enthusiastic fans as “the best album since Slip of the Tongue. They are probably correct in that declaration. It’s stunningly good: diverse, well written and well played. It draws from a broader palette of sound than many of the past albums, and even dips back into the 1970s on “Can’t Do Right For Doing Wrong” (which isn’t on the Japanese CD). There are no songs to skip through, and while not all are equally strong, none suck. It has a high ratio of songs that could become future classics, like “Gonna Be Alright”, “Good To See You Again”, and “Sands of Time”. So yes, to answer your questions, it’s a bloody good album no matter what version you can afford.
The domestic CD is the best buy for its songs-per-dollar value (18 tracks on the deluxe), over the Japanese (14 tracks). Rating this purely as an album with its bonus track, it’s still a solid:
I was browsing local news stories, and one came up that had me choking on my coffee a little bit.
It was an interview with the owner of the old Record Store, who had opened up a new location. In the interests of keeping everyone anonymous, I’ll paraphrase instead of quoting the portion that had me shocked and annoyed.
“We want to appeal to the hardcore music fan, the kind that just want to come in and talk about and listen to music. Hopefully one day we can have chairs and make it a hangout atmosphere.”
Sounds good. Sounds a bit like Sonic Boom in Toronto. Nothing wrong with that. Except it contradicts the very first lesson he taught me at the Record Store! In Getting More Tale #575, I described a scenario where he set me up, in order to teach me something valuable about customer service.
He knowingly asked me to go help an annoying, very talky lady. After a chat that lasted longer than I care to remember, he said to me “That’s your first lesson. Don’t get into conversations with customers.”
I realise that times change, and with them so do business strategies. I’m sure somebody will say, “Well that was different.” I can’t help but think of all the times I got scolded or received dirty looks for talking “too much” about music with customers. The impression I got was they would have preferred an impersonal assembly line. Serve the customer, plug the CD wipes for $5.99, get the sale, and move on to the next one. Don’t encourage extended conversation. The handful of customers I created relationships with ended up being long-termers, however. My dad tells me I have the gift of gab like my grandfather. My regulars enjoyed our chats, though the bosses didn’t.
Now he’s talking about making conversation a main feature of the store. Does that mean he was wrong and I was right all along?
In the early 2000s, the best way to “share” music (note the quotations) was to burn a CD for your friends.
I had a customer, now friend, named Len. I knew him originally via some mutual highschool pals. I recognised him because he was in a Kiss air band when I was in grade 10. I befriended him later on as a customer at the Record Store, and I learned more about his taste in music and his collection. We were on the same page in virtually every way musically.
Len had a neat way of tracking his music, in the days before computers made this easy. He made a black and white photocopy of every CD cover, and filed them all in order, in a huge binder with title, year and tracklist. A work intensive process I’m sure, but it benefited me tremendously as you’ll soon see.
Len loaned me the book and said “pick anything you want me to burn for you.”
I still have all the CDs Len burned for me! One was a Kiss rarities disc (we’ll look at that another time), and another was all Bon Jovi B-sides. He made me a CD copy of the first Hurricane EP with a non-vinyl bonus track. And he put a whole ton of miscellaneous songs on two CDs that I titled, obviously, Len Mix!
The title confused a few people. I remember I had a girl over and she saw the CDs. “Are those all songs by the band Len?” At that point I may have realised I should have picked another title.
I made a list of songs that Len had that I wanted. They were generally big singles from bands I liked, that I didn’t own the album. A lot of songs I was exposed to on the Pepsi Power Hour in the 80s.
Let’s have a listen then, shall we?
LEN MIX Vol. I
Autograph’s “Loud and Clear” is a killer rocker, far less commercial than “Turn Up the Radio”. I do have the album today (on CD), but I don’t own the Krokus that follows. “Midnite Maniac” is still enjoyable, especially since I haven’t played it in over 10 years. Kingdom Come’s “Get It On” is one I own a couple times over now, and I think I like it more today than I did in the beginning. Y&T’s “Summertime Girls” is horribly cheesy, and yet so much guilty fun. It’s bright, it’s catchy and I don’t give a fuck! I still don’t own it properly on album. Nor do I own “Run Runaway” by Slade, a song I have liked since I was a little kid. I should pick up a Slade compilation, shouldn’t I?
According to MSG, “Love Is Not a Game”. I have this one on vinyl today, but Len Mix is still my only CD copy. Next, a very important song for your Ozzy collection. “Close My Eyes Forever” is by Lita Ford, featuring Ozzy in a stunning duet. Yet it may as well be an Ozzy song featuring Lita if that’s what you prefer. You can’t get it on any of the Ozzman’s albums. Today I have it on a Lita CD. Then King Kobra advise us to “Never Say Die”…”Iron Eagle”, baby! I still don’t have this album, and the song is a guilty pleasure. Not one of King Kobra’s proudest moments. You gotta admire that they all cut their hair for the music video, though.
I was always jealous that Len owned a four track copy of Def Leppard’s “When Love and Hate Collide” CD single. Mine only had two tracks! So I requested that Len burn me the demo version of the song that I did not yet own.
“Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?” asked Love/Hate. I ask myself why I still do not own Blackout in the Red Room! It was rare back then, but there is no excuse today in the age of Discogs. The Blink 182 song that follows it sticks out like a sore thumb, but I still like a lot of Blink. Travis Barker is a tremendous drummer, and these guys wrote some great pop punk. Then Kingdom Come are back with their tremendous ballad “What Love Can Be”, followed by the incredible British band Thunder. They had a number of great tracks on hard to find albums. “Low Life in High Places ” classes up the CD by several increments, but then Y&T are back to crash the party. “Contagious”, like “Summertime Girls”, sounds a bit dated today. Yet it’s just so damn catchy.
The next two songs are ones I have happily acquired on CD. Actually, Keel’s “The Right to Rock” is here on LP and CD. It’s an old classic I grew up with, and so very 1980s. So is Aldo Nova’s “Fantasy” but in a completely different way.
Len had some extra space on the end of this CD and so threw on Axel Rudi Pell’s “Tear Down the Walls”. I have not played this song in over a decade, but it sounds great! Far more modern than anything else on this disc, but Len was right to add it! Discogs tells me that the stunning lead vocal is by Johnny Gioeli of Neal Schon’s band Hardline. Of course!
LEN MIX Vol. II
That’s it for Len Mix Vol. I. The rest of the songs went onto Vol. II, which like Vol. I, begins explosively. Kingdom Come had a few bangers, and “Do You Like It” is the best of them. This one comes from their underappreciated second album In Your Face. (Legend has it that some stores thought the band was called “Kingdom” and the album Come In Your Face, and refused to stock it.)
The next three songs in a row are ones I still need to own on CD or LP: More Y&T, Autograph and Krokus. So far, all the Y&T songs have been pretty weak (though catchy and fun). “Mean Streak” is anything but weak! Y&T’s heavy metal roots are on full display with a riffy blast. Then it’s Autograph’s return, with the previously mentioned “Turn Up the Radio”! This song is probably better known today then it was in the early 2000s, thanks to video games and radio nostalgia. Krokus’ “Ballroom Blitz” cover was one that, like “School’s Out”, I grew up thinking was a Krokus original! Fortunately in time I learned the truth.
House of Lords albums were hard to come by at the time, and back then I didn’t own any but their first. On this CD is the ballad “Remember My Name”. This is from the second album Sahara which I now happily have. I don’t particularly care for this one, as it has that overly saccharine faux-romantic sound that was too common in the late 80s into 1990. But then like a kick in the face, it’s an Udo-less Accept with “Generation Clash”! Though David Reese’s tenure in the band was brief, this song is a triumph. I am happy to own the oddly titled album Eat the Heat today, because this darkly sparse prowl is still ace. What a voice on Reese, who could reach for those Udo screams when necessary.
Hey mom, Have you always followed the golden rule? Cause this just happens to be my first love. And that being a must – a must. That being playin’ my guitar!
It’s hard to come down from such a peak, and unfortunately the fall is broken by an out-of-place Blink 182 song. “All the Small Things” is such a diametrically opposed song, it’s like cold water dumped on your head! Two older goodies are not far behind: “Blackout in the Red Room” by Love/Hate, and the amazing acoustic ballad “Loving You” by Kingdom Come. It’s oh-so-very Zep, but what the hell. Zep weren’t making that sound in 1989 and there was obviously a demand for it.
The aforementioned “School’s Out” by Krokus marks their last song on this set, meaning that via Len Mix I got all the Krokus songs that I knew as a kid. Then it’s Y&T’s final song, the ballad “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”. It’s not one of their finest moments, but I would have requested this one because I had it on VHS but nothing else. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, Y&T were obviously aiming to score that “hit ballad”, but Meniketi’s always perfect voice is still a pleasure to listen to.
Thunder’s “Dirty Love” from their first album reminds me that I really need to buy some Thunder. Then comes a band from whom I only know one song. It’s a good’un called “You’re So Strange”, though the band had a silly name: Kik Tracee. Their ace in the hole was singer Stephen Shareaux. What a set of lungs on this guy! He was one of many who auditioned for the vacant vocalist role in Motley Crue in 1992. Gotta wonder what kind of music they could have made with a pair of lungs like Stephen Shareaux’s.
Moving on to the end, it’s the final Autograph song “Blondes in Black Cars”. I don’t think it’s their best moment, but I sure have a lot of childhood memories associated with the music video. I pretty much discovered what puberty was all about thanks to that video. I must have worn out that pause button.
MSG’s “Gimme Your Love” was their other single from Perfect Timing, an album I now have on LP but would like on CD for the bonus tracks. I’m getting the feeling an Amazon order order is forthcoming. Following MSG is a remix of “Armageddon It” by Def Leppard, from the same since-acquired single as “When Love and Hate Collide”. At 7:44 it’s a bit much, but I’m a Def Leppard completionist. Once again Len had a little bit of space at the end of a CD and so wisely included the brief Dokken instrumental “Without Warning”.
It’s important to note that these CDs would have taken Len a bit of time to put together for me. Few of us kept our music on computer. Len would have been painstakingly switching discs in and out of his computer to make these for me. The addition of bonus tracks shows how much care he put into it.
For Len Mix Vol. I and II, I’d say the verdict is clear. These were a blast to listen to again.
I don’t know if you’ve heard. There’s this newfangled audio format that’s all the rage. It’s called the “record”, or “long player”. “LP” for short. The technology is actually ancient. It’s based on a needle running over a groove, picking up the vibrations, and converting it into sound.
Certainly not as sophisticated as the digital music that most of us consume today. There are none of those pesky 1’s and 0’s being decoded. It’s simple tech and maybe that’s why the LP has become so popular in recent years. We’d never disparage the use of the LP. It’s a physical medium, and it’ll last a lifetime if properly cared for. Physical product is everything to the true music lover.
But what of the CD? The compact disc has been our friend and companion since 1982. Like many friendships, we have had our ups and downs. For many of us, the CD still reigns supreme. It’s smaller than an LP. It’s easier to keep in mint condition than LP. On a typical non-audiophile household setup, it sounds better than LP and is certainly superior to mp3. For convenience, you can convert the CD to mp3 files and take it with you in just one click. It’s a lot trickier to do that with an LP. For many of us, the CD is the perfect format. Plus they have all the bonus tracks, bonus discs, and musical extras that are rarely included on the LP versions.
Canadian comedian and rapper Tom Green recently announced his very first solo album. It is being produced by Ship to Shore Phono Co. It will be on green vinyl…but there will be no CD release.
Here we are in 2019, and Tom Green is releasing his solo debut…with no CD release. This isn’t some indi artist. This is a well known comedian who started in the CD age, made it big on MTV, and later became a fan favourite on Big Brother. No CD release, just LP! Cool, right? Sure, but what does this mean for the beloved compact disc?
I’m not entirely sure.
These things go in phases and there is always a chance that CD will experience a nostalgia phase like LP is right now. But it’s hard to get nostalgic about that little silver 5” disc. Kids of today know them as those quaint things their parents had lying around but they weren’t allowed to touch. Are these signals for the beginning of the end of CD? Will there ever be a special “CD Store Day” for those of us who still think the silver discs are superior?
If rock and roll is only about three things — girls, cars, and booze & drugs — then I took care of 1/3rd of my Rock N’ Roll Duty last night.
The new vehicle is as yet unnamed, but my new Chevy Equinox has arrived just in time for an oversized Sausagefest 2019. No sleeping in this car, Uncle Meat!
The only thing that really matters to you, of course, is what’s up with the stereo? A lot has changed in the 10 years since I bought ol’ blue, aka “Dougie Carmore”. USB ports in the dash were brand new back then. That car was a huge factor in my use of flash drives for all my music needs. Now every car has one. Funny thing though — the salesman who sold me the car had no idea you could just plug in a flash drive to listen to tunes. He was trying to convince me to stream music from my phone. Not necessary, my friend! I came prepared with a 32 gig flash drive. I plugged it in, and the stereo sounded great.
“I didn’t actually know you could do that,” he said. Well now you know! Am I the only guy who listens this way?
The first album played (in part) in the new car was Buddy Holly’s Millenium Collection. The dash doesn’t display album cover art like others do, but that’s not a big deal. The main thing is, I can play and access my music the way I am used to and equipped for. Needing to give the stereo more of a workout, I chose Van Halen’s Diver Down to play next. Both albums sounded terrific. My new car is quieter, so now I can hear the music better at lower volume.
Big thanks to Craig and Samantha at Bennett GM in Cambridge for making this my easiest car purchase yet. No pressure from them; nothing but courtesy and great service. In and Craig’s case, a mutual love of rock.
THE SWORD – Greetings From… (2017 Razor & Tie)
mikeladano.com 