All yesterday, I faked that I was in a good mood.
I’m pretty good at it. I have 12 years of retail experience under my belt.
Not everything is going according to plan. We have water and mold in our storage locker. All my books…all my action figures…all my treasures.
Good thing I’m good at faking it.
Other things have not been working out as I envisioned either. But hey, a new Metallica is coming. I guess I can file that with the last two that I can’t remember the songs from!
Today’s the day. I’ve never been put under in my life, so mark this date on your calendar, readers! If all goes well, I’ll update you on how it went! In the meantime we’re on the third and most important song for Teeth Week. It had to be “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth” by Metallica today. No other song would do it.
Today’s song was suggested by good friend Married And Heels. Go ahead and check out her Instagram and give her a follow if you enjoy the coolest of high heeled shoes (and who doesn’t?). Thanks for today’s song!
This track is an instrumental composed and performed by the late Cliff Burton for Metallica’s debut LP Kill ‘Em All. Surely it has to be one of the most famous bass instrumentals in the history of rock. The fuzzy bass sound is absolutely perfect, as Cliff plays a rhythm melody with tasty bass licks. His technique is insane, with fingers flying and tapping over the fretboard. Lars Ulrich and the rest of Metallica don’t even come in until the halfway point, leaving Cliff to lay down the most awesome of bass songs.
Check out the 1983 studio original, and a live version recorded in Chicago the same year. If I could play bass a fraction as well as Cliff Burton, I’d be happy!
Bring on the anesthesia — here I go. Wish me luck!
Here We Go Again: End of Year Lists 2021
2021: the year of the hamster wheel. It sure felt like we were spinning our tires all year! Sometimes inching a little forward in the mud, only to slide right back. What a year. But we did get some great music out of it.
Here at LeBrain HQ, if you go strictly by the numbers, there were two bands that dominated the year, both oldies acts from the 1980s: Coney Hatch and Iron Maiden! They (or members thereof) appear numerous times in the lists you’re about to read. Not so “oldies” after all eh? Five appearances for Iron Maiden, and a whopping seven for Coney and its members!
Even I was surprised by the lists this year! All my favourite things, and the stats of 2021, are curated below.
Top 11 Albums of 2021
11. Polychuck – Shadows Exposed EP
10. Suicide Star – Isolation
9. Max the Axe – Oktoberfest Cheer EP
8. Mammoth WVH – Mammoth WVH
7. Danko Jones – Power Trio
6. Accept – Too Mean to Die
5. Smith/Kotzen – Smith/Kotzen
4. Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
3. Lee Aaron – Radio On
2. Coney Hatch – Live at the El Mocambo
1. Styx – Crash of the Crown
Top Five Box Sets of 2021
5. Kiss – Destroyer
4. Whitsnake – Restless Heart
3. Def Leppard – CD Collection Vol 3
2. Triumph – Allied Forces
1. Metallica – Metallica
My Favourite Movies of 2021
5. Black Widow
4. Eternals
3. Free Guy
2. The Suicide Squad
1. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
(placeholder) Spider-Man: No Way Home – you have to assume it’ll be my new #1 when I see it!
Top 11 Interviews / Unboxings of 2021 (by YouTube views)
11. Robert Lawson interview
10. Sean Kelly interview
9. Suicide Star interview
8. Coney Hatch live LP unboxing
7. Andy Curran round three
6. Andy Curran part one
5. Paul Laine interview
4. Mike Fraser interview
3. Martin Popoff interview
2. Andy Curran + Mike Fraser interview
1. Iron Maiden Super7 figure blind box unboxing
Top Five List Shows / Deep Dives 2021 (by YouTube Views)
5. Top Concept Albums
4. 5150 Deep Dive with Tee Bone
3. Desert Island Discs
2. Top Maiden Art
1. Top Five King’s X with Martin Popoff
Top Reviews of 2021 by Hits
5. GUNS N’ ROSES – “ABSUЯD”
4. STYX – Crash of the Crown
3. PAUL STANLEY’S SOUL STATION – Now and Then
2. IRON MAIDEN – Senjutsu
1. 
– Off the Soundboard – Tokyo 2001
What’s in store for 2022?
Friday December 31, 9:00 PM E.S.T. on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!
RECORD STORE TALES #942: My Brushes With Metallica
I don’t mind admitting that my first Metallica was Load. Yeah, I was one of them. Hate on if you gotta.
Like many my age, the first exposure came in 1988 via their first music video: “One”. To say the visuals were disturbing would be accurate. Although I did enjoy the song, I didn’t feel the need to hit “record” on my VCR when it come on. Other kids at school sure liked it, and copies of Johnny Got His Gun were claimed to have been read by some of them. I figured I could continue to live without Metallica.
The Black album was released in 1991. I was watching live when Lars Ulrich called in to the Pepsi Power Hour to debut the new music video for “Enter Sandman”. The new, streamlined and uber-produced Metallica looked and sounded good to me. I loved when James said “BOOM!” and thought that hooking up with Bob Rock had worked out brilliantly. The sonics were outstanding. While I enjoyed the singles Metallica released through the next couple years, I never took a dive and bought the album. Why?
Three main reasons. The key one was that I knew, even before I knew I had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, that I would feel compelled to collect all the Metallica singles that I had missed over the years. That was, as yet, a bridge too far. Second reason was that I satisfied my craving for that style of Metallica in 1992 when Testament came out with The Ritual. It had a track like “Sandman” called “Electric Crown”. It had a song like “Sad But True” called “So Many Lies”. It was perfect for my needs. Thirdly, for whatever reason I didn’t think I was going to enjoy “old” Metallica, which again, I would feel compelled to collect.
When I started working at the Record Store in 1994, I had the night shifts alone. I could play whatever I wanted and sometimes I gave Metallica a spin. I can remember “Enter Sandman” coming on while I was cleaning, and saying to a customer, “Man I love this song!” He nodded awkwardly and wondered why I was telling him.
A bit later I was hanging out with this guy Chris. He was extolling the virtues of thrash metal, and put on Kill ‘Em All. I was astonished when “Blitzkrieg” came on. “I know this song! I love this song!” I exclaimed as I jumped up. Air guitar in hand, I started bangin’ to the riff. “This is a song by Blitzkrieg,” I explained to Chris. “It’s on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal CD that Lars Ulrich produced. I didn’t know he covered it.”
This is the point at which I like to say I became a Metallica fan. Collecting the older stuff was still daunting, and a lot of it was expensive because it was out of print. Which is really why it took Load for me to finally buy a Metallica CD.
1996 was a glorious but so stressing summer! I was managing my own Record Store for the first time. The weather was gorgeous. The stock we had was incredible. The stress came from staff, which turned over faster than a dog begging for belly rubs! There was “Sally” who was caught paying herself excessive amounts of cash for the used CDs she was selling to the store. There was The Boy Who Killed Pink Floyd who came to work hungover and worse. And, most trying of all, music sucked for people like me who missed the great rock of the 70s and 80s.
On June 4, Metallica released Load to great anticipation. Their new short-haired look (a Lars and Kirk innovation) turned heads and it was said that Metallica had abandoned metal and gone alternative. Of course this was stretching the truth a tad. Metallica had certainly abandoned thrash metal on Load, and arguably earlier. Alternative? Only in appearance (particularly Kirk Hammett with eye makeup and new labret piercing).
Load was the kind of rock I liked. The kind of rock I missed through the recent alterna-years. I had been buying Oasis CDs just to get some kind of new rock in my ears. Finally here comes Metallica, with the exact kind of music that I liked, and at the exact time I needed it.
And yes, I did immediately start collecting the rarities and back catalogue. Garage Days and Kill ‘Em All (with “Blitzkrieg” and “Am I Evil?”) were both out of print at that time. I snapped up the first copies I could get my hands on, when they came in used inventory. We were selling them for $25 each, no discount. I later found a copy of a “Sad But True” single featuring the coveted “So What” at Encore Records for $20. The new Load singles were added to my collection upon release. The truth is, I picked the best possible time to get into Metallica collecting: when I was managing my own used CD store! I soon had the “Creeping Death” / “Jump In the Fire” CD. A Japanese import “One” CD single only cemented what a lucky bastard I was to be working there.
Because Metallica came to me relatively later in life, today they never provoke the kind of golden memories that Kiss or Iron Maiden do. However the summer of ’96 was defined by Metallica. Driving the car, buddy T-Rev next to me, playing drums on his lap. His hands and thighs got sore from playing car-drums so hard. Load was our album of the summer and it sounded brilliant in the car. Hate if you hafta, but that’s the way it went down for this guy in the dreary 90s.
RECORD STORE TALES #940: My Friend of Misery
“You insist that the weight of the world,
Should be on your shoulders,
There’s much more to life than what you see,
My friend of misery.”
James Hetfield may as well have been talking about me. But it’s not that simple. I don’t insist the weight of the world should be on my shoulders. I’d give anything to take some of the weight off. But I have a lot of responsibility.
Having somebody’s dirty bathwater leaking all over my floor and carpet the last two weeks has pushed me to the breaking point.
“These times are sent to try men’s souls,
But something’s wrong with all you see,
You, you’ll take it on all yourself,
Remember, misery loves company.”
Trying to be proactive about my health, I took a hiatus from writing. We now have the plumbing fixed. There’s plenty of damage to repair and lots of stress. But I think maybe it’ll be OK dipping my toe back into writing. A little bit. Cross fingers, knock wood that nothing else gets fucked up.
Metallica has been a soothing remedy. I haven’t listened to old Metallica in a long time. This 14 CD / 6 DVD / 6 LP box set is something else. I’ve played all the LPs and now I’m into the CDs. James’ riffs tapes range from startling to suck! The initial “Sad But True” riff is painfully badly recorded. But a 22 second snippet of a punk rock “Unforgiven” is a truly cool moment. There’s a lot to go through here. Metallica have been taking my mind off things.
I did discover something interesting about my car stereo. It seems to be able to read files that have been deleted. When you “delete” something off a hard drive, it doesn’t necessarily go away unless you overwrite it. My car appears to be able to read tracks like this. This weekend I ripped the massive Metallica box set, and replaced the old album on my hard drive with the newly remastered one. I also took the time to rip all my Load, Reload and Garage Inc. CD singles to the hard drive. A complete set of singles, I might add. Up until St. Anger, the only Metallica release I was only missing was The 6½ Year Anniversary 12″ EP and a “Neckbrace” remix of “Whiplash” (still need both).
On to the car. The easiest way for me to clean up the car’s hard drive was to completely delete the Metallica folder and then copy over a new one. What I discovered when I jumped in the fire…I mean car…was that the car drive now had two copies of Kill ‘Em All, Master of Puppets, etc. My original rip of the Metallica CD was still there, even though I deleted it. So it seems my car can read deleted files, at least until they are eventually overwritten.
The annoying thing about this is that because of the way the car reads the ID3 tags, each song gets played twice in a row. So when I play Kill ‘Em All, I get “Hit the Lights”, then “Hit the Lights”, “The Four Horsemen”, “The Four Horsemen”, and so on. I can fix this but it’s annoying.
So much to fix. And I haven’t touched on the family health challenges of late. Some things should stay private.
So let’s try a little writing again. Because I want to give this Metallica box set a good solid listen, and I’m only about 1/6th of the way through, I won’t be writing up reviews for a little while. Instead I’ll be focusing on Record Store Tales, a real WTF of a comment, and a new feature. Now that I’m not trying to constantly keep my floors dry, I can try to be creative again.
I can try. Yoda says “Do, or do not, there is no try.”
I say “Fucked, you must get, Yoda.” I’m doing the best I can here!
I’m sorry for “vaguebooking”. I can tell by the number of concerned messages that it wasn’t a good idea.
We have a couple problems to deal with, some health related, and one plumbing disaster. It is taking maddenly long to resolve. Until it’s fixed I can’t do this site. It’s taking up all my energy, and also the time that I normally would spend doing creative stuff. The third plumber cancelled today because somebody else had a more dire emergency, which is fine. But it has been over a week since we first reported this issue to the condo management. We have to replace the carpet, the drywall and redo some tiles. But the plumbing has to be fixed first and that’s condo responsibility.
Deke will be taking over the Storm Force interview, with me riding shotgun. He’s just getting everything set up to stream, so keep an eye on Superdekes for updates. I’ve cancelled the Jack Frost interview, but hope to reschedule when this is all resolved.
As Deke would say though, it’s not all bad. Yesterday Mark from Encore Records stopped by to deliver a whole bunch of music that I ordered. Yes, that’s what you think it is. It’s the massive Metallica 2021 box set. 24 hours of music. Also Permanent Waves box set by Rush, and a Kiss radio broadcast of the same Tokyo show that was recently released officially. I ordered this a long time ago, before that official bootleg was even announced. I just forgot about it and never picked it up. Fortunately Mark kept it and brought it with him! I have a weekend of music, at least.
Hoping to be back soon. Sorry for worrying you.
Mike
METALLICA – “Enter Sandman” (Remastered 2021 German CD singles – 5″ Maxi CD and 3″ Pockit-CD)
The Black Album box set is coming! Batten down your wallet because it looks absolutely incredible. Yet on the 14 CDs and 6 DVDs, you won’t find the specific live tracks released only in Germany on the new set of “Enter Sandman” CD singles. (There is also a glow-in-the-dark vinyl single, but it is missing the live tracks.) All the discs maintain the style and design of Metallica’s original 1991-1992 singles. This is an appetiser for what is to come, including two of the newly remastered Metallica tracks. Proceeds went to German charity.
“Enter Sandman” and “Sad But True” are the two remastered studio cuts included. The remastering sounds good and the tracks are not brickwalled. Fans will be pleased to know that Metallica opted out of the Loudness Wars this time. Good thumping bass, nice and prominent. Crisp, clear, and loud enough. “Sad But True” is really punchy.
The live tracks are all taken from Frankfurt or Stuttgart, shows not included in the box set. The 5″ Maxi-CD and 3″ Pockit-CD each contain two exclusives. Just like in the days of old, you have to buy both formats to get all the tracks.
“Through the Never” is one of the thrashiest songs from the Black era, and the very dry recording here is evidence of non-tampering. Tasty wah-wah from Kirk Hammett. “Damage, Inc.” brings thrash the old school way, Metallica as frantic as ever, barely holding it all together, but making the heads bang no matter what. By the end it’s a total steamroller.
The teeny little 3″ CD is no less mighty. “Of Wolf and Man” is choppy and heavy. Hunting relentlessly like the titular wolf, Metallica are out for blood. What’s really wild is the long jammy section at the end which contains a surprise. Finally the Budgie cover of “Breadfan” ends the whole series of tracks with an explosive go-for-the-throat attitude. Sloppy but foot on the gas the whole way.
What’s better than a wicked set of Metallica CD singles, including a 3″? What could beat that? How about if both discs were pressed in black plastic? Would that do anything for ya? These limited singles are sure to be collectible for their exclusive tracks and unique traits. Try the German Amazon site for international shipping. Contrary to a report in Bravewords, these singles do ship worldwide.
4/5 stars
2020 may have sucked, but the music didn’t. This year I bought and reviewed more new releases than ever before, which I narrowed down to the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten studio albums of 2020 listed below.
I would like to dedicate this list to my good pal Uncle Meat who originated the concept of a “Nigen Tufnel Top Ten” earlier this year. It has become our thing.
BEST ALBUMS OF 2020
11. Now or Never – III
10. Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo
8. Kim Mitchel – The Big Fantasize
6. Stryper – Even the Devil Believes
5. Harem Scarem – Change the World
4. Dennis DeYoung – 26 East Vol 1
Storm Force’s debut album goes straight to #1 on their very first appearance! No surprise here. I’ve been raving about this disc since February and I owe it to Superdekes for putting these guys on my radar in the first place. This is a well-deserved #1. Age of Fear is an uplifting album with depth. It’s a thoughtful, heart-pounding blast of classic hard rock.
Deep Purple’s Whoosh! and AC/DC’s PWRUP prove two things: old dogs that both learn and don’t learn new tricks can all be champions. (I call this theory “Schrödinger’s Dog”.) Deep Purple’s growth continues while AC/DC managed to tap into the vein of success that always worked for them. Both records deserve their spots in the Top 3.
It was a thrill for me to learn that Dennis DeYoung both read and enjoyed my review of his newest album 26 East Vol 1. It’s a terrific, Styx-like conceptual work that will please the old fans. As will the new albums by Harem Scarem and Stryper, who didn’t stray far from their successful classic hard rock formulas. Kim Mitchell and Sven Gali on the other hand dared to be different. Kim went laid back and acoustic, while Sven Gali went with their heaviest uninhibited inclinations. As for Mr. Bungle, it has been 21 years since their last album California. All four Bungle studio albums are completely different from one another — four different genres. For The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, they teamed up with Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo to re-record their first thrash metal demo tape. And it could be their best album since the self-titled debut in 1991. Not bad for a bunch of songs they wrote in highschool.
Corey “Mother Fuckin'” Taylor makes his debut on any list of mine with his solo album CMFT. It’s a surprising collection of commercial hard rockin’ tunes. Also appearing for the first time is Now Or Never (NoN) with their third album called III, featuring singer Steph Honde. It’s an excellent, dramatic metal album with light and shade.
BONUS LISTS
Most disappointing: Ozzy Osbourne – Ordinary Man
Song of the year: “LeBrain Train“ by T-Bone Erickson
Single of the Year: Mammoth WVH – “Distance”
Ultimately whether or not you liked the new Ozzy, its success or failure falls at the feet of producer/guitarist Andrew Watt. He is already working on the next Ozzy album, so….
Huge thanks to T-Bone Erickson for the “LeBrain Train” theme song, which amazingly and unexpectedly became the song of the year in 2020! Weird how that happened. No bias here I assure you.
Finally, Wolfgang Van Halen finally released his first solo music under the name Mammoth WVH. The non-album single “Distance” is dedicated to his late father Eddie. Though musically it’s a modern power ballad, the lyrics and especially the music video evoke serious emotion. Well done Wolfgang. Can’t wait to check out his album in 2021.
TOP FIVE LIVE OR COMPILATION ALBUMS IN 2020
5. Metallica – S&M2
4. Thin Lizzy – Rock Legends
3. Sloan – B Sides Win Vol. 1 1992-1997
2. Def Leppard – The Early Years 78-81
1. Iron Maiden – Nights of the Dead – Legacy of the Beast
There were a lot of cool rock releases in 2020, so we need more lists! Of course the brilliant new live Maiden deserved some loving attention. Meanwhile, Sloan, Def Leppard and Thin Lizzy have continued to put out quality collections of rarities & unreleased material, well worth the time and money you’ll spend on them. The Sloan collection is a vinyl exclusive and the first in a series of LPs re-releasing some of their B-sides and non-album and bonus tracks. Finally, Metallica delivered the goods even without Michael Kamen on S&M2, a very different live set than the first S&M. That’s the way to do it!
BEST LOCKDOWN SINGLE
5. Queen + Adam Lambert – “You Are the Champions”
3. Marillion – “Made Again 2020”
1. Alice Cooper – “Don’t Give Up”
A LOOK AHEAD AT 2021
It’s naive to assume that major touring and concerts will return in 2021. This appears highly optimistic at present, with Covid still ravaging the landscape and vaccinations only just beginning. Instead of looking ahead at things like the resuming Kiss tour, or the Motley Crue reunion, we should continue to put our faith in new music.
Accept have a new album due January 15 intriguingly titled Too Mean to Die. It is their first without bassist Peter Baltes. Steven Wilson has a new record out at the end of that month. In February we get new Foo Fighters, The Pretty Reckless, Willie Nelson and Alice Cooper. Greta Van Fleet, Weezer, Rob Zombie, Ringo Starr, and Thunder will be back soon too. Many other bands are writing and recording without an announced due date. Ghost, Marillion, Scorpions, Megadeth and even Ratt are hard at work to make next year suck a little less. Support the bands by buying the music.
METALLICA – Death Magnetic (2008 Vertigo Coffin Box)
“What don’t kill ya, make ya more strong!”
Like many bands these days, Metallica decided to release a boxed special edition of Death Magnetic to make a little extra cash. And also like a lot of other bands, this “coffin box” edition was crazy expensive. To me the deciding factor wasn’t all the bells and whistles (and there are a lot of them) it was the inclusion of the exclusive CD Demo Magnetic. This disc includes 10 demo tracks, unfinished and otherwise unreleased versions of the final Death Magnetic songs.
There were only 2000 copies of this made, so if you didn’t pre-order, chances are you gotta pay the late tax.
Contents:
Death Magnetic is, unfortunately, one of the most famous victims of the Loudness Wars. Why put time and effort into production only to drown it all out in the mastering? Apparently the version of Death Magnetic that was used in the video game Rock Band 3 was mastered “normally”, and is far better. This CD has punch though, I’ll give it that.
On its own the album is worth 4 stars. Mastering aside, It is an above-average collection of typical Metallica rockers. Gone are the nu-metal tendencies of St. Anger and that was the correct move. Clearly, Metallica were reaching back and trying to write riffs that sound like the late 80s and that’s also fine. Metallica are not Dream Theater. They do what they do, and they do it quite well.
Expect typical Metallica riffage, barking Hetfield vocals, the usual Lars drumming, some tasty solos from Kirk, and slamming bass from Robert. That is what Metallica do. It’s not a bad album and some of these songs are damned near as good as the old days. You’ll love “Broke, Beaten & Scarred”, “That Was Just Your Life”, and “The End of the Line”. A favourite song for sheer chorus reasons is “All Nightmare Long”. The demo version (called “Flamingo”) is also really decent.
If you’re a diehard Metallica fan, the kind who owns Fan Cans, then you’ll want this box set for the exclusive music. It’s sure to become a rare collectible.
4/5 stars
Part Two of a two-part “Mama Said” review
METALLICA – “Mama Said” (1996 Vertigo CD singles parts one and two)
In order to get all the songs, you had to buy three separate singles. You needed the 7″ vinyl (reviewed yesterday) and two CD singles. The total payoff was seven B-sides: five live, one demo, one single edit. The 7″ picture disc included “Ain’t My Bitch” live from Irvine Meadows in ’96, and the rest are on the two CDs each sold separately.
The first single ignites the live feast with “King Nothing”, which finds Metallica in an informal mood before kicking into the track. Though “King Nothing” was eventually released on its own as the fourth single from Load, it was never really one of the best songs from that album. It slams heavy enough and would have been fun to mosh to. They go old school on “Whiplash” which has that energy you want out of live Metallica. The old fans boo the new fans, but everybody gets what they want. Lars is sloppy as fuck; what do you expect? When Metallica play stuff like “Whiplash” live it’s not about precision, it’s about energy and this version delivers.
The first CD ends with just a single edit of “Mama Said”, a good ballad with a country twang that some fans might have found unpalatable. It’s shorter by 40 seconds, starting immediately with James’ lead vocal. 15 seconds chopped at the start and 20 more at the end. Do Metallica fans need single edits? No; Metallica was always resistant to compromises like that. Paul DeCarli was given the job of the edit, presumably being told to get it safely under five minutes for radio.
“Mama Said” album version (top) and single edit (bottom) waveforms
The second CD in the set wastes no time going for the throat. It’s “So What”, the infamously vulgar Anti-Nowhere League cover that was a B-side for Metallica once upon a time before. It was so notorious that it became a live favourite unto itself, often turning up in the encores. That’s followed by “Creeping Death”, an epic way to cap off the live tracks. That mountainously heavy rock just never lets up until it gives way to another massive one.
The last and most interesting track among the B-sides is the original “Mama Said” demo recorded solely by James and Lars in Ulrich’s basement. Electric guitar at first instead of acoustic, but beautiful. The purity of this version, unadorned as it may be, is the reason to seek it out. The twangy guitar part is in place, as are the lyrics (not always the case with James’ songs). Metallica could easily release an album of their demo versions, but they haven’t so you gotta get the singles.
Seek these out.
4/5 stars
mikeladano.com 