PHARAOH: TEN YEARS EP – American Power Metal is well represented when a band such as Pharoah exists. Seriously. The six songs on the Ten Years EP are a strong representation of just how excellent the musicianship of Pharaoh is. Metal truth be told, I wish this was a 12 song album, Pharaoh hammers out their one-of-a-kind Metal sound that well. This is a durable band with mighty Metal experience (see band lineup below) and this experience comes through remarkably well on each song.
The Classic Heavy Metal feel and vibes are unmistakable as I listen to Ten Years. Pharaoh plays their American-made Power Metal with relevant muscularity, with melodic moments flourishing throughout their sound. One Metal constant about Pharaoh is their ability to sound raw and tough, with an old school sensibility. It’s this raw toughness in the Metal mix that adds to Pharaoh’s mystique, for me.
Ten Years will be released on June 7th, 2011, on Cruz Del Sur. This EP contains two unreleased songs from the Be Gone (2008) recording sessions, two tracks previously released only as a bonus 7″ and two cover songs: Slayer’s Tormentor and New Model Army’s White Light. Ten Years sets the Metal stage for the forthcoming and fourth studio album from Pharaoh, which is scheduled for release later in 2011.
Pharaoh does a standup job at covering Slayer’s Tormentor, with no slippage on the speed factor on both guitar and the rhythm section. Tim Aymar may not be Tom Araya on vocals, still he embellishes this song with the necessary searing notes, leathery vocals and pissed-off attitude. Tim Aymar can hit the high notes with ease as well as delivering gritty, old school tones. A great example of just how diverse Tim’s vocals are is the title track Ten Years. This song is a Metal showcase for Tim’s vocals, there’s no doubt to my ears about that.
The thick and melodic sounds of Matt Johnsen’s guitar are totally enjoyable. Matt’s flirtation’s and nod’s to Classic Speed Metal are apparent and very welcomed to my Metal lovin’ ears. Matt Johnsen has his own signature tone happening on guitar and perhaps should be looked upon as one of Metal’s best kept secrets.
Pharaoh has always been a dynamite Power Metal band, it’s time for scores of Metal fans out there to realize just how excellent a band they truly are. I highly recommend all of Pharaoh’s works from the past and this Ten Years EP. Pharaoh was formed back in 1997 and there hasn’t been a better time than now to be catching onto their sound. Classic Heavy Metal and American Power Metal lives… and Pharaoh carries these two sub-genre’s torches with Metal pride.
PHARAOH on Ten Years EP:
Tim Aymar – vocals (Control Denied)
Matt Johnsen – guitar (Fool’s Game, Dawnbringer)
Chris Kerns – bass
Chris Black – drums (Dawnbringer, Superchrist, High Spirits, ex-Nachtmystium)
Ten Years – Track List:
Ten Years
When We Fly
White Light
Reflection and the Inevitable Future
Nothing I Can Say
Tormentor
* For more info on PHARAOH, click on the links below:
http://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com
LONG LIVE PHARAOH.
Stone.
Thank you Blackie Lawless. Thank you for not going away, taking an extended leave of absence or selling out. There are too many 1980’s Heavy Metal Bands that did just those things, now they are scrambling to make their triumphant comeback or best album ever. Some are doing just that, only Blackie Lawless does not belong to that club. The Heavy Metal membership card that Blackie Lawless holds says two words… for life. Why shouldn’t it say just that? The true fans of Heavy Metal and/or W.A.S.P. are in it for life. While the 1990’s ushered in the Grunge genre and scores of pretentious bands (being mistakenly labeled) Heavy Metal, all the while lining up at Hollywood’s red carpet gala’s for accolades, W.A.S.P. was too busy making real Heavy Metal albums of integrity. The politically correct mainstream press was not a necessity for W.A.S.P.’s survival then, it certainly is not now. There is no return of or part ll theme happening with W.A.S.P., just a band that is a Heavy Metal mainstay, due to the perseverance and creativity of Blackie Lawless. To take a quote from Blackie Lawless, (as stated in the liner notes from Babylon)… If it is not the truth, it will not stand.
Crazy is the opening song on Babylon. The weight of the world always seems to be put on the opening track of any album. The first song sets the table for the remainder of the album, good or bad, this all important track can either be the demise or exclamation point for the songs that follow. With Crazy, this song kicks and extends it’s Heavy Metal tentacles like a giant sea squid on a caffeine rush. Crazy is the prelude to nine Heavy Metal songs of substance, this song alone foretells that W.A.S.P. connects in 2009. Blackie Lawless borrowed some of his Old School Heavy Metal and fused it with a more mature presentation, both with lyrics and tempo. Sure, Crazy is a fast moving song, only it’s the streamlined sound of it’s speed that makes it so appreciable. The consistency of Heavy Metal muscle is what I have come to expect from W.A.S.P., Crazy illuminates and flexes it from the opening note. My best Metal buddy Scott cued me into the comparison of Crazy to Wild Child, from the 1985 W.A.S.P. classic, The Last Command. (This was well before I owned a copy of Babylon, Scott was a lucky one who nailed Babylon on it’s import release date of October 13th). The opening guitar intro to both Crazy and Wild Child are very similar, still not a mirror image note for note.
Ah, the weekend is here. Time to clean up the house, tidy the garage, finish some yard work and maybe wash and vacuum the car. Watch some College and/or NFL Football this weekend too. What are some music listening suggestions I may have for the weekend? Thank you for asking. Heavy Metal and/or all the other Metal Music genres that exist is first and foremost. Oh, may I also suggest some Punk Rock as well? Thank you for allowing me to do so. What was that? Did someone just ask me to name specifically which bands and/or albums to delve into this weekend? Gee, I feel rather honored to be suggesting to the entire world , a tidy list of great heavy bands and/or albums to choose from… uh, here it is:
Back on October 4, 1983, Black Sabbath released their eleventh studio album – Born Again. I was serving time in high school as a senior in 1983, I also became a born again Metalhead that same year, thanks to this most underrated Black Sabbath album. I am not kidding or trying to sound like a yahoo by stating that. Born Again was a match made in Metal heaven for me… the prolific vocals of Ian Gillan uniting with the ultra legendary Black Sabbath. I have to admit, with Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio not fronting Black Sabbath, it was common place for professionally paid Rock Music critics to easily overlook the other lead singers this Rock And Roll Hall of Fame band has bestowed over the decades. I never overlooked a damned thing Black Sabbath had done, especially when they joined forces with Ian Gillan. From the front album cover artwork of the demon baby, to the down right eerie and chilling Metal Music heard on Born Again, this album is a must listen and own in Metal Music 101.
I can remember the moment like it was yesterday. The moment in time of buying my first Michael Schenker Group album, at Caldor department store, back in 1982. It was the second studio album from Michael Schenker Group, it is often referred to as MSG ll, yet no where on my original album that I bought does it have the marking of “ll” on it. I guess the mystery of “ll” shall stay in my Metal mystery files for now. You can see, as proof, on the image below this post, that the front cover does not have “ll” on it. This image depicts the original album cover, the copy that I still own to this day. I have kept this Michael Schenker Group album in pristine condition for 28 years, this is an album that I extremely admire and highly recommend. The eight songs on this album are best described as Hard Rock, I find it difficult to label this album as straight forward Heavy Metal. There is one exception, Attack of the Mad Axeman is the one song from this album that I would label as an early 1980’s Heavy Metal song, in my Metal opinion.
U.D.O. is another justified example as to why I consider Germany the worlds greatest exporter of Metal Music outside of the great United States. U.D.O. does not stray from their Heavy Metal norm on Dominator, (released on October 6, 2009 in the U.S.A., on AFM Records). The first two songs on Dominator are like smash mouth football… Old School and punishing. The lyrics are not meant for NASA academics, they are meant for the Metalheads of the world who take pride in their Heavy Metal Music and bands. The Bogeyman and Dominator are song titles with lyrical content that follow a simple rule of Heavy Metal… thou shall not conform. Vintage Heavy Metal, baby. No political statements or hard to decipher words to be found. I love this stuff. I live for this stuff. Black and White is song three and glorifies the elegance of Heavy Metal guitar, not to forget Heavy Metal chorus as well. Udo Dirkschneider on lead vocals sounds as great as ever, anyone who states otherwise is simply jealous of this ageless Metal icon. Udo Dirkschneider has forever forged his legacy twice in Heavy Metal history, both with U.D.O. and Accept. Heavy Metal lightning does strike twice, Udo Dirkschneider is living proof of that.
Badlands was a Heavy Metal band that I caught onto the instant they released their debut/self titled album – Badlands
Ozzy Osbourne, the Heavy Metal Prince of Darkness. Ozzy Osbourne – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with Black Sabbath. Honestly, I revere the living hell out of this Heavy Metal legend. I did get to see Ozzy Osbourne live in concert twice during my lifetime. For me, those two concerts were unbelievable, with Metallica opening up for Ozzy in New Haven Connecticut, (at the spooky New Haven Coliseum) – it was The Ultimate Sin Tour for Ozzy and Metallica was promoting their legendary Master of Puppets album. The other Ozzy concert I saw had Queensryche open for Ozzy in Springfield, Massachusetts, (at the Springfield Civic Center), on this same Ultimate Sin Tour. Alright, so it is obvious I think the Metal world of Ozzy Osbourne… fine. However, by process of elimination, there has to be my least favorite Ozzy Osbourne song out there and there is one. I do not think much of the song, uh, ballad So Tired from Ozzy’s Bark At The Moon album. This song, ugh, ballad is responsible for my distaste of most Heavy Metal ballads ever released since, by any band. This album was released on December 10, 1983. Don’t get me wrong here, the Bark At The Moon album as a whole, is unreal good. Three songs on this album are incredible for me… Rock ‘n’ Roll Rebel, You’re No Different and of course – Bark At The Moon. These three Ozzy songs I can hold up on a Metal pedestal forever. Plus, Jake E. Lee on guitar is a Metal bonus to listen to.
Reign Fall lyrically expresses the ghastly imagery of what happens to those who cannot think for themselves, wasting away at the mercy of ones very own doing. Reign Fall, as well as every song on The End Of Tomorrow, is a throwback Metal feast of melodic speed crashing into riffs that are beyond run of the mill. Al Ravage reminds me thoroughly of a young Rob Halford, (Judas Priest), intertwined with a young Paul Dianno, (of early Iron Maiden). Hey, I am by no means putting Al Ravage in this heroic class of Heavy Metal vocalists… (not yet anyways), what I am pointing out is Al Ravage can sing Heavy Metal with marked influences and originality combined. Ravage knows they are Old School, using this phrase so much doing a review may sound very redundant, yet for any veteran fan of Heavy Metal from yesteryear, you know just how juicy it can get when a new album excretes all things good about the glory days of Metal… The End Of Tomorrow is an unleashed monster of what I am talking about here.
Motorhead is and always will be a core favorite Heavy Metal Band of mine, (a top 3 band without a doubt). I was first introduced to this prolific band back around 1983, a friend of mine in high school gave me an 8-track of a live Motorhead bootleg. (This dudes name was Rich, I am glad we had crossed paths back then). The sound was enormously awful, (the actual 8-track didn’t help), the lead vocals were beyond raspy and unclear and the Heavy Metal Music being played was raw, uncommercial and unlike anything I had ever heard before in my young life. I loved it. I was beyond thrilled at listening to this Motorhead 8-track. I was enamored by every unpolished intricacy that my rookie Metalhead ears heard. Here is this band, on a beat up 8-track, recorded as a live bootleg somewhere far away in the world, that only a dozen or so dudes in my high school even knew about at that time in 1983. All that was written on the blank white sticker on this 8-track was a barely legible – Motorhead Live. I’ll never forget that… an Old School Metal memory at it’s most innocent. I was awe struck by the unnatural vocals of Lemmy Kilmister and his bass was over powering to boot. Gimme some more Motorhead is what I said.
When I listen to 
I found IOMMI With Glenn Hughes – the 1996 Dep Sessions on the Century Media Records online store CM Distro.com. This CD set me back 3 bucks plus shipping. (I bought a few CD’s so the total shipping cost of 5 bucks was reasonable to me). This CD was in the clearance section at CM Distro.com, proving to be a cool Metal find for me. Tony Iommi is the lead guitarist for the ultra legendary/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – Black Sabbath. Glenn Hughes has had a stellar career of his own, most notably being a vocalist and bass guitarist for Deep Purple on their Burn and Stormbringer 
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
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