Archive for April 30, 2011

HAVOK – Denver Thrashers To Kick Off Tour With Thrash Legends Forbidden

Posted in concerts, Heavy Metal, metal music, metal odyssey, Music, rock music, rock music news, Thrash Metal, thrash metal bands with tags , , , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2011 by Metal Odyssey

Young Denver Thrash battalion, HAVOK, who recently wrapped up a tour supporting Florida Death Metal legends Malevolent Creation, are gearing up for two very special treks. The first is a short run of headlining dates that will commence in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 3 and run through to Amarillo, Texas on May 12. From there, the band will head home for a short break before joining Bay Area Thrash Legends, Forbidden, for a near month-long journey that will kick off in West Hollywood, California and level 22 North American cities before drawing to a close in Escondido, California. Also joining the tour will be Revocation and White Wizzard.

Commented vocalist/guitarist David Sanchez: “Starting May 3, we’ll be heading out for a west coast run.  Touring the west coast was how we got our start, so it always feels like home. It will be great to return for some head-smashing headline shows. Then in June, we’ll be doing a US/Canada run, coast to coast, with Forbidden, Revocation and White Wizzard! I am so psyched to be touring with all of these great bands!  Forbidden is one of my favorite Thrash Metal bands and I really hope to hear some songs from their first two albums. Revocation is one of my favorite bands to have come out in the last 10 years and they’re all friends of ours, so I’m super pumped to get to hang out with them every night! I anticipate White Wizzard to be epic-as-fuck every night as well. I’m very excited to be a part of this tour because I feel that it will be one of the best Metal packages of the 2011. Metal fans definitely won’t want to miss this tour. Prepare for some massive amounts of headbanging. Looking forward to seeing you all on the road!”

HAVOK Headlining Dates:

5/03/11 – Club Vegas – Salt Lake City, UT

5/04/11 – Metalheads – Las Vegas, NV

5/07/11 – Lost On Main – Chico, CA

5/10/11 – Big Fish Pub – Tempe, AZ

5/11/11 – Juggernaut – Gallup, NM

5/12/11 – Sorority House – Amarillo, TX

HAVOK w/ Forbidden, Revocation & White Wizzard:

6/09/11 – Whiskey A Go-Go – W. Hollywood, CA

6/11/11 – The Alley – Sparks, NV

6/12/11 – Hawthorne Theater – Portland, OR

6/13/11 – Studio Seven – Seattle, WA

6/14/11 – Rickshaw Theater – Vancouver, BC

6/15/11 – Sapphire Nightclub – Kelowna, BC

6/16/11 – Pawn Shop – Edmonton, AB

6/17/11 – Riddell Centre – Regina, SK

6/18/11 – Royal Albert Arms – Winnipeg, MB

6/19/11 – Station – St. Paul, MN

6/20/11 – Mad Planet – Milwaukee, WI

6/21/11 – Reggie’s Rock Club – Chicago, IL

6/22/11 – Peabody’s – Cleveland, OH

6/23/11 – Montage Music Hall – Rochester, NY

6/24/11 – Championship Bar – Trenton, NJ

6/25/11 – Alrosa Villa – Columbus, OH

6/26/11 – Fubar – St. Louis, MO

6/27/11 – Beaumont Club – Kansas City, MO

6/29/11 – Marquis Theatre – Denver, CO

6/30/11 – Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM

7/01/11 – Clubhouse – Tempe, AZ

7/02/11 – JT’s Limelight – Escondido, CA

HAVOK will be touring in support of their critically acclaimed Time Is Up full-length released via Candlelight Records late last month.The  follow-up to the band’s pummeling Burn debut, Time Is Up features ten tracks of meticulously crafted Thrash Metal anthems that have been garnering praise from critics nationwide.

(Source: Earsplit PR)

* For more info on HAVOK, click the links below:

http://www.myspace.com/havok

http://www.facebook.com/HavokOfficial

http://www.candlelightrecordsusa.com

LONG LIVE HAVOK.

LONG LIVE FORBIDDEN.

LONG LIVE REVOCATION & WHITE WIZZARD.

Stone.

FOREIGNER – Revisiting Their 1979 Album: Head Games

Posted in classic rock, classic rock albums, Hard Rock, metal odyssey, Music, rock music, rock music news with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2011 by Metal Odyssey

FOREIGNER – Back in 1979, I was exiting seventh grade in the Spring and entering eighth grade for the coming Fall season. I turned thirteen years of age in January of 1979, kicking off this memorable year as a teen. I used to think the world was mine for the pickings back then… I know much better now. One album that was released back in 1979 was definitely mine for the pickings though, it was Head Games by the forever steady and legendary Foreigner. Head Games was the third studio album from Foreigner, released on Atlantic Records.

When I realized my mother was going to buy me this album, as a reward for doing yard work and other chores, I was ecstatic. You see, Foreigner would be the very first band where I owned every one of their albums! Fortunately for me, Foreigner did not have an extensive catalog of albums back then, so corralling their first three releases was not a difficult task… I just had to earn these albums. Let me tell you this much, I did feel like a big shot and a tad cocky among my school buddies back then, due to my Foreigner loyalty in owning all three of their albums. I chuckle about it now for did it really matter? I guess it did matter at that age.

With albums being such a rare gift or reward for me, (back in 1979 that is), I kept this Head Games album in ultra mint condition. Yes, I did play Head Games like the cows were coming home to fart. I played this album and made certain that my favorite song Dirty White Boy was cranked up the loudest. Being thirteen and turning up the volume to Dirty White Boy, with my bedroom windows open during the warm days, so the neighbors could hear it, was my big idea of rebellion. Yes, I thought I was a rebel by doing that. Metal be thy name.

The big hit was the title track of course and Head Games was played on FM radio all the time back in ’79. I remember like it was yesterday, the ostrich bumps I would get up and down my arms and face whenever I played this song loud… or heard it on the FM dial. Um, I still kinda get ostrich bumps from this song… kinda. Rev on the Red Line is another song on Head Games that never lost it’s Classic Rock cool to my ears… it plays out so smooth and flows so well, while holding it’s hard edge.

Back in ’79, I considered Head Games to be my third favorite Foreigner album, behind their debut/self-titled from 1977 and Double Vision from 1978. I still feel this way. (Double Vision is hands down, my favorite Foreigner album ever). Yes, I do hold fond memories for this Foreigner album. I can remember the album cover giving off the “wow factor” to us kids back then, now I can only shrug and chuckle at it’s classic innocence.

I was into Lou Gramm’s vocals before I ever knew who Joe Lynn Turner was. I was into Foreigner before I can honestly say I was really into Black Sabbath. In reality, thirteen was the age I was during this year of ’79, which was part of the beginning years of my journey, a Rock music journey toward discovering more bands and albums that I could ever dream of. Head Games is an album I will always consider to be a building block of my lifetime infatuation with Hard Rock and yes… Metal.

FOREIGNER as they appeared on Head Games:

Lou Gramm – vocals

Mick Jones – guitar

Rick Wills – bass

Ian McDonald – guitar

Al Greenwood – keyboards

Dennis Elliott – drums

Track Listing For Head Games:

Dirty White Boy

Love on the Telephone

I’ll Get Even With You

Seventeen

Head Games

The Modern Day

Blinded By Science

Do What You Like

Rev on the Red Line

* One nifty fact about Foreigner:  Guitarist (multi-instrumentalist) Ian McDonald was a founding member of the legendary Progressive Rock band: King Crimson.

* For more info on FOREIGNER, click on this link: FOREIGNER

The word “nifty” was used in this Metal Odyssey post. Um, yup.

LONG LIVE FOREIGNER.

Stone.