Monday, August 24, 2015 at 12:01AM
Sunday, August 23, 2015 at 12:01AM
Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 12:01AM According to Entertainment Tonight, police searched the home of Gene Simmons for a possible Internet crime, but Gene and his family are not suspects.
The LAPD Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force searched Simmons home Thursday night. The family cooperated with police. Police think the alleged crime happened while KISS was on tour last summer - and therefore Gene and his family weren't even home. It is definitely scary to think someone was in Gene's home and searching for child porn. People are sick.
I went back and forth over whether I should even post about this but I decided I needed to just so I could reinforce Gene's innocence - because every headline I saw basically insinuated Gene's guilt. Ridiculous.
Friday, August 21, 2015 at 12:01AM
Thursday, August 20, 2015 at 12:01AM Heavy metal band Anvil want to release a new album... and they are using PledgeMusic to fund the project. If you're interested, you can check out the link below. There are various levels of funding options - starting at $10 and up to several hundreds of dollars. The campaign has just over a month remaining.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 12:01AM On Monday night, Eric and I headed down to Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati to see Tesla, Styx and Def Leppard. It was a packed house and very humid. Basically, a summer show at Riverbend! Tesla was good - played all the usuals like "Love Song" and "Modern Day Cowboy." Nothing much new - just a solid rock show.
Styx were really good. I've never seen them live before, so it was cool to check another band off my list. "Renegade" is just a killer song and awesome live. Even though they played before Def Leppard, they left the stage and came back for an encore. I thought that was weird. Still, a ton of people in the crowd were wearing Styx shirts. I'm sure they are helping move tickets on this tour.
Def Leppard remain one of my all time faves. That said, I've seen better live shows from them. There wasn't anything wrong with them Monday night... things just seemed a little sluggish. Vivian Campbell was with the band, which was great. He sure seemed happy! Phil Collen walked out on stage and was completely oiled up. Like, which poor guitar tech has to pour baby oil on him before show time? Ridiculous. Highlights include hearing "Animal" at the top of the set and "Paper Sun" which I don't remember hearing live the last time the band toured. I didn't buy any merch because 1) I already have a Lep shirt and 2) my days of spending $50 on a band shirt are way over, thanks. Still, the booths were crowded and people were forking over their hard earned cash for those shirts (and $8 beers too, but don't get me started).
After "Pour Some Sugar On Me" we made a beeline for the car so we didn't get stuck in the lot for an hour. After all, we had an hour drive home and work was calling early the next morning. We heard encore songs "Rock of Ages" and "Photograph" while walking to the car. All in all, a fun night. Both our seats were $85 total and that includes the Ticketmaster rip off fees - which was enough. We were pretty close to the stage, so I have no complaints. The full setlist is below.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 12:01AM Today, another post from our friend HIM!
It was one of those rarer and rarer weeks in metal: two recognized “heritage” metal bands; two new releases. But, in some ways, the two bands couldn’t be more different.
First up, Iron Maiden and the new song “Speed of Light” off the forthcoming The Book of Souls album:
Next up, W.A.S.P.’s “Last Runaway” off of the forthcoming album Golgotha:
The former has continued to blaze a trail sold-out stadiums (in South America and elsewhere), recovering some of the luster they lost after Bruce Dickinson left the band . . . by welcoming him and Adrian Smith back into the fold in 1999. The latter has experienced numerous lineup changes and shrinking fortunes in the years since their 80’s heyday, none more apparent than the loss (and then loss again) of Chris Holmes in 2001.
Both songs find both bands in good form considering their years in the game. Maiden was formed in 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, who is 59. W.A.S.P. was formed in 1982 and Blackie Lawless is a well-worn 58, having suffered in recent years from some health issues. They both belong to an increasingly shrinking club of bands who made their names in the golden years of metal and still continue to ply their trade, regardless the divergent paths they find themselves on. In an age where the once indestructible Lemmy—pale, drawn, and frail—can barely recall the right song to sing, that matters.
The initial reactions from the keyboard quarterbacks are as one would expect. On the one hand, some claim that Maiden is just repeating past glories and Dickinson’s holy orifice—his mouth, and those vocals which lifted the band past its punkish/NWBHM origins in the hands of singer Paul Di’Anno—is starting to show signs of age. On the other, this is the best thing ever released and shows fans of watered down contemporary metal how it is done. On the one hand, W.A.S.P. sound far too upbeat and really need to get back to the glories of their self-titled debut and The Last Command. On the other, this is perfectly in keeping with some of their lesser known but well-regarded songs, such as “Inside the Electric Circus” off the album of the same name or “Forever Free” off of The Headless Children.
Personally, I find the release by W.A.S.P. the more tantalizing of the two. W.A.S.P. are, and will continue to be, a guilty pleasure for me for one signal reason (not the raw meat of the past, or the puerile lyrics of their most shock-provoking songs): Blackie’s voice. He can still sing. He can still write songs that play to his strengths. Now if he can only keep the fans happy while also navigating his new-ish calling to bring a religious element into a catalog that was once so thoroughly bereft of any.
Though I still enjoy Maiden, I occasionally fall into the first camp of interweb reactionaries: more of the same, even if it is—in some ways, like a lesser AC/DC—comforting to hear one of the bands of my youth consistently releasing solid songs (and fun to watch videos). I don’t fault Dickinson his voice, for the same reasons I don’t moan about Halford’s.
I am just glad both bands are around and will see them if I get the chance. So, where do you stand? Take one, take ‘em both, or leave them?
