Something occurred to me the other day. I can't remember the last time I listened to Motley Crue. Or Poison. I think I've spun Def Leppard once in the last year or so. I don't even remember the last time I listened to Ozzy (before the new Black Sabbath CD came out).
Don't get me wrong, of the 4000+ CDs in my collection, most of them came out before 'Nevermind' did. I love all that stuff. If it comes on the radio, I'd turn it up and sing along. But there is so much great new music happening today, that I struggle to find the time to listen to it all, without going back to the songs of my teen years. And I work from home, I listen to music ALL DAY.
Part of this is that, as a guitar player, I've started to discover some of the amazing pickers in the realm of country guitar. Brad Paisely may be mainstream and have some pretty awful songs, but when he starts shredding, he leaves a lot of rock players in his dust. John 5's solo albums have a lot of amazing country picking in them, and Johnny Hiland is just flat out amazing ( he is an instrumental country player whose albums feature Stu Hamm ( who played on "Surfin with the Alien") and Billy Sheehan ( do I need to tell you who he is ?) on bass. But, this is BBG!, so I don't expect many of you want to hear about that...
As far as rock and metal is concerned, for me I think it started with 'Nightmare', that's the album when I went back and realised how brilliant Avenged Sevenfold are. They have a new album coming this year. From there I had another listen and realised I really love Rob Zombie. He has a new album out, called 'Venomous Rat Regeneration Machine.' It's really, really good. Of course everyone hear knows that I think Stone Sour's 'House of Gold and Bones' part 1 and 2 are some of the best music I've ever heard. They are only recently falling off my play list, because I have so many other things I want to listen to.
Of course, everyone knows that Black Sabbath have a new CD. I bought the deluxe edition box set, but I admit, I expected nothing but glowing reviews for a lacklustre product. Thankfully, I was wrong. I preferred Dio in Black Sabbath in the past, but, I think 13 is way better than 'The Devil You Know'. I've been listening to it a lot. On top of that, Black Star Riders CD is finally out ( for those who don't know, this is the band that contains Scott Gorman and has been touring as Thin Lizzy ). It's fantastic. If you like Thin Lizzy, then you'll love all of this. Not to mention the new Deep Purple (which I only bought because Bob Ezrin produced it, and it's their best in decades ), the new Avantasia (a band created by Tobias from Edguy. They do only concept albums, they are Euro metal with a lot of guests), and so on.
The new Megadeth was not great to my ears but I admit, I have so much to listen to, it's still in my pile for me to give it a better chance than it's had so far. Of course, Tom Keifer has finally released new music, and it's excellent. On top of that, Five Finger Death Punch are on the verge of a new CD (in fact, they are copying Stone Sour and releasing two with a gap between), and I've just discovered 'Burning Rain', a band started by Doug Aldrich in 1999, they have a new CD and the two older ones have just been reissued.
And then there is Airbourne. My first intention was to write a review of their new CD,' Black Dog Barking.' A lot of people have written to compare this band to AC/DC, which is not an invalid comparison. I've seen newer reviews trying to compare the new CD to other bands, like Def Leppard. I don't hear that at all. I don't think Airbourne were ever just ripping off AC/DC, they are simply starting from the same tradition, Aussie pub rock. They are still in that tradition, they are just growing within that framework, the same as AC/DC did, and I still don't hear anything that I think would be out of place on a Bon Scott era AC/DC album. That doesn't mean they don't have their own sound, they do, and it gets better with every CD. The song 'Black Dog Barking' is a predictable stab at 'Idol' type competition winners, who have 'nothing on the inside' and 'never learned to play'. I'm not sure I agree, but, they sure know who their audience is, and know how to please. I'm very much looking forward to seeing them in Canberra later this month. The deluxe edition has a handful of extra songs (all good) and a live CD (to my ears, not a good mix, I doubt I'd play it again ). If you really want to 'Bring Back Glam!', I recommend buying some of the CDs I've mentioned, and seeing these bands when you get a chance.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 at 12:01AM 
