The second studio CD packaged inside the new KISS – Sonic Boom is KISS Klassics. I am not holding back on this – Whoa. Whoa does KISS rock harder than ever on these re-recorded KISS “greatest hits” – (oops), Klassics that is. I slapped in the Klassics CD, preparing to hear some subtle differences in these re-recorded songs, instead I opened up my mind and ears to a can of KISS whoop ass! Metal be damned, Tommy Thayer can play his Metal heart out – Black Diamond is unreal heavy and good. After just one listen to Lick It Up and I was re-enrolled into KISS Rock and Roll 101 – all over again. Lick It Up has a ton more KISS attitude now, (sounds unreal, understand it is holy crap good). Harder, heavier, with heaping Metal waves of relevance crashing all around is this KISS Klassics. For many KISS fans, Animalize was an album that, well, was very much a commercial Hair Metal phase for this band. Let KISS introduce you to their re-recorded – 2009 version of Heaven’s On Fire… I really, really, really, like this song a Metal ton now.
In my most honest Metal opinion, Paul Stanley sings like he has been reincarnated into his 1977 body. Gene Simmons vocally sounds like a man who has been reborn himself. Metal be my witness, this KISS Klassics has done to me, what it was probably intended to do by KISS in the first place… realize that this band is age defying and generation fusing and yes, damn great at playing these songs that are decades old. The last thing I want to sound here is as a biased, middle aged KISS fan… hell, if KISS was to have dropped the Metal ball on this one, I would be the first one screaming NO! What once was old is new again, for Metal sakes, KISS is new again! There are subtle differences in guitar leads, solo’s, riffs, yet Tommy Thayer plays each and every song like a Metal pro. Ace Frehley is legend, no question, yet Tommy Thayer has taken these songs from the master and has put his very own KISS signature on them. Eric Singer is just an excellent drummer period. His years with KISS alone, has established his icon status for me.
Back to more of these Klassics… I Was Made For Lovin’ You still holds that melodic extremity to it that some misguided folks confused with – disco. I will fight till the end of Metal time and refute any damn comparison of this song to disco. Hotter Than Hell is just that… this 2009 version has given me a brand new, psyche me out song to crank up LOUD. I Love It Loud is cool, yet this re-recorded version does not beat out the original, thank you very Metal much. Don’t get me wrong now, I will still raise my Metal fist in the air to this 2009 version of I Love It Loud – hell yeah. Christine Sixteen has always been a genius of a KISS song, Gene Simmons gives it a robust Metal boost in this 2009 recording, his vocals this time around has re-energized this Klassic. I always get a Metal kick out of the piano intro to Christine Sixteen. What would a KISS Klassics be without Rock And Roll All Nite? It is here on this Klassics CD, more emboldened by KISS than ever before. Forever is the lone KISS ballad to be found on Klassics… since I belong to the KISS Army, I will listen to this ballad. Forever is a good song, Paul Stanley and KISS bring it back for this Klassics curtain call for that same reason. There are throngs of fans who emotionally relate to this KISS song, heck, that is what ballads do.
In closing Metal summary, if you are a KISS fan, (no matter for how long), you NEED to buy Sonic Boom with this KISS Klassics included. The time to re-enlist into the KISS Army is NOW. If you never have been a fan of KISS, do not buy Sonic Boom with KISS Klassics… hell, the KISS Army is looking for Rock and Roll warriors anyway – so critics can stay away.
Track Listing For KISS Klassics:
* Deuce
* Detroit Rock City
* Shout It Out Loud
* Hotter Than Hell
* Calling Dr. Love
* Love Gun
* I Was Made For Lovin’ You
* Heaven’s On Fire
* Lick It Up
* I Love It Loud
* Forever
* Christine Sixteen
* Do You Love Me
* Black Diamond
* Rock And Roll All Nite
I have owned the vinyl album of No Mean City by Nazareth since 1983. No, I could never part with this album at all over the years, never. For years I could never find No Mean City on CD, it most likely had been out of print for some time. To this day, No Mean City does not seem to be that readily available anywhere, on CD and especially on vinyl. Who knows, maybe there is an independent record store somewhere that has dozens of copies in their inventory… I just never come across this Nazareth classic myself. With the brilliant, Old School, Classic Hard Rock heard on this album, combined with the album cover artwork, makes for a keeper. I actually bought this album as a cut-out, back when Strawberries Records & Tapes was around. Back in the early 1980’s, cut-out bins found in any record store was Rock and Roll Heaven! You could always find cool albums in these cut-out bins at real discounted prices, many times there were hidden heavy gems in them. My copy of No Mean City has a cut in the top right corner of the album jacket – this never bothered me one bit. The enjoyment this album’s music has given me all these years more than makes up for any cosmetic defect on it’s exterior.
It’s always great to vent. Vent I did in my last post – where I needed over 1,100 words to express my disappointment in not being able to purchase the new KISS CD – Sonic Boom at my local Super Walmart on October 6, 2009, (the release date for it). Just as I hoped for and predicted, at 4:00 p.m. EST, I entered the Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, Super Walmart and took hold of my very own copy of Sonic Boom. (Phew). I can now say I bought this new KISS CD on it’s release date… yes, it means something to me. I have my core Heavy Metal and Hard Rock Bands that I have followed for decades, when they release a new album I try my very best to buy it on the release day. Metal case closed. I went to this Super Walmart twice during the morning of October 6, (the release date), my last visit was at 9;30 a.m. EST, as I left empty handed. I will say this much… the packaging for this Sonic Boom CD is INCREDIBLE! Once I get to crank up Sonic Boom for a couple of listens, I will post my Metal jubilation. Here are some quick tidbits about my Sonic Boom shopping experience at Super Walmart, plus other related notes:
Way to go Super Walmart. With all of the hoopla leading up to the new KISS album in well over a decade, throw in an “Only at Walmart” exclusive for this KISS album, then… do NOT HAVE Sonic Boom out on the shelves for sale at 8:00 a.m. EST, on it’s release date of October 6, 2009!! I went to the Super Walmart located in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, first thing at 8:00 a.m. EST this morning… with my twin daughters who were very excited about getting the new KISS CD with their daddy. The disappointment was even greater for them, for they love KISS and wanted to hear a few new songs before they went to school. To make matters even more somber, Sonic Boom was playing extremely loud in the CD/electronics department at this Super Walmart too… obviously a Super Walmart employee had a copy of it – forget about the customers!! I thought for certain, my daughters as well, that by hearing the new KISS being played, that there would have been the great KISS KORNER awaiting us – no such luck. Why advertise a release date and then not honor it? Why advertise a KISS KORNER and then not have one? Oh, Super Walmart with their trillions of dollars in profits could care in the least.
The Kinks – another legendary Rock and Roll Band, (and Hard Rock Band too), that I have never forgotten about… no Metal way. I first caught on to this great band upon their Low Budget album being released – back on September 7, 1979. The Kinks were huge back in the day… I specifically remember the late 1970’s into the 1980’s version of The Kinks. This band had one hell of a work ethic – always touring. There used to be a horde of kids wearing The Kinks concert shirts to High School back in the early ’80’s… as a Metalhead back then, I thought that was cool, due to my fondness for this band. I never was lucky enough to catch The Kinks in concert… back in the early 80’s would have been the choice time too. That is alright, I can always Rock out to The Kinks by listening to their songs whenever I want, like I have been doing since 1979. The Kinks were rightfully inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1990. I could not endorse a band like The Kinks any louder to the younger generation of Rock/Classic Rock fans… they really put out some incredible music spanning four decades.
Lynyrd Skynyrd are Southern Rock Legends and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. What more does Lynyrd Skynyrd have to prove? What keeps the motivation meter running with this band? In my Metal opinion, it is a combination of many things… the Skynyrd Nation and the fact that this band has never lost touch with their roots are two quick examples. Southern Music roots… family roots… old school values, these three attributes come out Southern Rockin’ loud and clear on God & Guns
Meat L
I am going to embark on a topic that may be sensitive to some people… what really happens when a grocery store song gets you, well, psyched? I have decided tonight, to come out of the grocery store song closet. Yup. Please note, that department store chains also play songs over their central speaker system as well… I will refer to grocery store songs to simplify things. Be honest with yourself, there just had to be at least one moment in your life, where you were innocently shopping in a grocery store and then… that song was played. For me, I have had numerous experiences while grocery shopping and suddenly a song begins that just touches my Rock and Roll nerve. How do you act when this situation arises? Do you show emotion? Maybe you hide your psyched out – inner feelings and pretend that nothing is going on at all, you are in a public setting… a damn grocery store for Metal sakes. Let’s explore this incredibly taboo subject together now, shall we?
It is really senseless to ignore that this grocery store song phenomenon exists… it is o.k. to hear a song playing in a grocery store that psyches you out. My top three grocery store songs ever are: Lido Shuffle by Boz Skaggs, Sweet Talkin’ Woman by The Electric Light Orchestra and Call Me by Blondie. Seriously, I really strain to hold back my psyched out feelings when Lido Shuffle gets played at the grocery store – really. I can remember each moment when I heard these three songs in the grocery store… I felt so good I wanted to run up and down the aisles, high five strangers while shouting yeah! I have been fortunate enough to have heard Sweet Talkin’ Woman several times at the grocery store now, each time is a psyched out charm. Now, for the truth… when I do hear a grocery store song that gets me riveted, I stay cool and collected. My face may show signs of Rock Music satisfaction, a semi-grin if you will, however, staying cool is the best advice I can give anyone who hears a song they like in the grocery store. Just this evening, I was meandering about in an antiques mall, my wife and one half of my twin daughters were close by. Anyhow, inside this antiques mall, Old School Country Music was being played through the stores speaker system. No songs were psyching me out… no problem, until… Carly Simon came on with Your So Vain.
Uh, Carly Simon did get me semi-psyched out at the antiques mall tonight. Maybe it was due to my surroundings… all of this old stuff… antiques everywhere, the ambiance within the framework of this store is quite calm and somewhat like a rerun of The Walton’s. With all of this mellow and old fashioned stimulus around me, hearing Carly Simon sing Your So Vain in the midst of all the Old School Country Music just did it for me. Honestly, I now understand why Faster Pussycat did a cover of Your So Vain… this song most likely struck a chord with Taime Downe (lead singer of Faster Pussycat), like it did me tonight. Weird stuff. Remember, we as a society, are most likely 35 years away from hearing Megadeth and Obituary songs being played as grocery store songs. This is a shame. I have to take what is given to me here, then my Rock and Roll mind filters out the very best of what I do hear with these current grocery store songs that are being played… the psyche me out ones. Now, before you ever step foot into a grocery store again, please take some solid Metal advice in regards to getting psyched out by a song you may hear once there…
Foghat Live was released in the Summer of 1977. I did not own this album in 1977, instead I got my ears tuned into this Hard Rock Classic right when I was entering High School, just a few short years ago in 1980. Yeah, yeah, yeah… I bought this Classic Hard Rock gem on 8-track as well in 1980. I played it until all you could eventually hear was – hiiiisssssss. This Foghat Live album introduced to me back then, an unreal good sound of live and powerful Hard Rock Music. Being fourteen years old at the time, I was not yet the concert goer, no adult in my young life was into Rock concerts, plus I obviously was not old enough to drive a set of wheels just yet. Therefore, Foghat Live was the Hard Rock concert that entertained me for hours and nights on end. As a young teen, this album was my Hard Rock concert, it took me right there… I imagined seeing Foghat live, center stage in a middle row, on the floor. I will forever look back upon Foghat Live as an album that enriched my Hard Rock soul… an album that was a stepping stone or prelude, if you will, to the incredible world of Metal Music. This album helped soften me up and navigate me towards even heavier music. Hearing the Hard Rock – live power of Foghat made me hunger for more, to hear more heavier bands that were out there. Fast forward to 2009 and I still reach out for some classic Foghat – Hard Rock boogie… it will never grow old on me.
Ace Frehley has waited a long time to create and produce a new album, Anomaly is so incredibly worth the wait. I finally bought Anomaly today, (September 23, ’09, yeah, I am a week late from it’s release date), what an album of 12 songs. An unreal good album, a can’t miss for any fan of any Rock genre. I cannot stop listening to this new Ace Frehley album, oh darn. Anomaly for me, is one of those albums that I get contagious about and addicted to… oh darn. Before buying this album, I had not a clue as to what any of the songs sounded like. Man, what an incredible surprise to hear these songs for the first time… this album leans more towards Ace Frehley’s 1978 KISS solo album – not towards the sound of his Frehley’s Comet band from the late 1980’s. The Metal kicker is this… Anomaly rocks harder and heavier than the Ace Frehley 1978 KISS solo album, my ears cannot tell a lie. Where Anomaly gives a nod to 1978 is this: Old School Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. With that being said, Anomaly definitely embodies the grooves and heaviness of today’s Heavy Metal sound, while veering away from any resemblance of late 1980’s commercial heavy sound that was so popular in it’s day.
As I listen to Ace Frehley play guitar throughout Anomaly, all I can say to those who want to listen is this – Ace Frehley is back!! Ace Frehley shall remind the Rock and Roll world with all of it’s genres that yes, he can play guitar very well… and sing too. Ace Frehley’s vocals do not sound like a man who has been out of the recording studio for so many years, instead, it is my Metal opinion that Ace Frehley’s vocals are damn good and cool. Just listening to Anomaly takes me back to the days when quality songs were an important staple to Hard Rock and Heavy Metal bands. A sense of urgency to be real, is what I hear through the entirety of Anomaly, Ace Frehley has fused his very own Hard Rock and Heavy Metal sound with a nod to yesteryear, making Anomaly an album that far extends any relevance factor. From the song writing to the band backing up Ace Frehley here, this is a total album package. Ace Frehley has plenty of cool and damn good solo’s throughout this entire album, one of the many quality points of Anomaly.
Back in October of 1991, Ugly Kid Joe released their debut EP – As Ugly As They Wanna Be. 1991 was a year smack in the middle of the Grunge Music invasion… Ugly Kid Joe didn’t seem to care in the least. The mix of Hard Rock, Funk Metal and Heavy Metal had me more than interested in Ugly Kid Joe, I bought As Ugly As They Wanna Be and it served me right – back in 1991. Parodies aside, I could care less about what the titles of Ugly Kid Joe’s albums were making fun of… it was the funky heavy grooves of their songs that mattered most to me. Everything About You was a song that sounded unlike anything I was into back then, (Thrash, Death, Speed and mainstream Heavy Metal was what I was used to). When I first heard Everything About You, the first bands that came to mind that I was familiar with, in the Funk Metal genre, was Living Colour and Anthrax when they did I‘m The Man. White Zombie for certain had some Funk happening in their Metal back then too, yet this Ugly Kid Joe was not the dark side of heavy Funk either. This band was not as flamboyant as Faith No More, there seemed to be more of a street level accessibility to Ugly Kid Joe back in 1991-92.
Obviously the freshness of Ugly Kid Joe caught on with MTV and FM radio, it had to. Ugly As They Wanna Be and America’s Least Wanted 
I think about Heavy Metal a lot. I listen to Heavy Metal… a lot. I buy Heavy Metal Music… very often. (Alright, that is a down right lie, I buy Heavy Metal Music – constantly). When I refer to Heavy Metal, just to simplify things here, I am incorporating all the Metal Music Genres in one. Heavy Metal… all things Metal Music. As I sit around towards midnight on this, September 17th going on the 18th… many Heavy Metal thoughts have crossed my Metal mind. Heavy Metal favorites have drifted around my head this late evening, uh, early morning, some unusual ones at that… here they are, enjoy:
My favorite Saxon song ever created is Denim And Leather, found on their 1981 album Denim And Leather. The riff that repeats throughout this entire song is so addicting and memorable for me. I swear that this song could never lose it’s Metal appeal, ever. Each time I listen to Denim And Leather, this song just resonates with Old School Heavy Metal swagger, pride and power. The power is in the Heavy Metal music, the pride is in the lyrics and the swagger is Biff Byford on lead vocals. Denim And Leather is probably one of the very first in a long line of Heavy Metal anthems. (I would not want to take on the task of actually researching which song was the very first Heavy Metal anthem … it does sound like a cool thing to do if I have the spare time in the future though). If I ever make a list of my top 25 favorite Heavy Metal songs of all time, man, Denim And Leather would be right up there. If someone who has never listened to Saxon before, asked me to play them a song from Saxon, Denim And Leather would be choice #1. When this song gets cranked up really loud, it makes for the Metal maximum enjoyable listen.
I really, really, really like In This Moment… especially the vocal talent of Maria Brink. I bought The Dream last September of 2008, man, what an album. Collectively speaking, In This Moment put out one incredibly melodic Heavy Metal album of songs, with The Dream. Sure, In This Moment took on a more mainstream Heavy Metal sound, yet it hooked me line and Metal sinker. On June 30, 2009, In This Moment released The Ultra Violet Edition of The Dream
On Saturday, of this 2009 Labor Day Weekend, I set out on a trip to buy back to school necessities for my daughters. The local mall, which is only minutes away, provides for a cool stroll… an f.y.e. is located inside. (Yessssss!). As my daughters and wife are perusing the kids sneakers, all I kept thinking was… what is currently hiding in the batch of used CD’s over at f.y.e.? The trip to this particular mall proved to be very worthwhile, no sneakers were found that my daughter liked, however, we had some fine pizza slices for lunch while we were there, plus I found The Law. The debut album The Law 
Masters Of Reality – Sunrise On The Sufferbus was released back in 1992, on Chrysalis Records. I already owned the 1988 debut album, (self titled), from Masters Of Reality when I jumped on this album back in 1992. The best way I can describe this band is Old School Stoner Rock/Hard Rock, in my Metal opinion. This is a grossly underrated Rock album, the musicianship, songs and total grooviness on Sunrise On The Sufferbus makes this a lifetime keeper, for me. My favorite song on this album is J.B. Witchdance, a non stop bass groove with a semi-haunting overall sound, always seems to put me in a cool mood. My second choice pick from Sunrise On The Sufferbus is She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On) – this song as with the entire album, is unbelievably unique, I just never heard a band sound like Masters Of Reality back then, nor do I now. This album is the closest thing to heavy without being so… I know that sounds crazy, I just cannot explain this music any better than that. O.K., maybe I’ll try this… cool under heavy… now that might work. (If you are wincing at the use of words here, just go with Stoner Rock).
On October 28, 1977, Queen – News Of The World was released. I was eleven years old, not interested very much at the time about owning this album. Sometime within the first year of this albums release, I ventured into the local Bradlees department store, took one look at the 45 rpm sleeve of the Queen – We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You, (double A single), the very large head of that somber, yet spooked out robot head had me hooked and intrigued. I was just as enthralled by the artwork of this robot head as I was the two songs on the 45 record. I treated this 45 record and sleeve like it was pure gold… staring into the eyes of this nightmarish robot head, becoming transfixed by this image. Of course, I listened to this 45 record like there was no tomorrow, as an eleven year old in 1978, just owning this stuff was bragging material at the Parochial School I was enrolled at. I no longer have this memorable 45 record with it’s alluring sleeve, I positively do not remember how I let it go. Fast forward to 2009, I now am the proud owner of two album copies of this incredible Hard Rock masterpiece, both copies are vinyl too, not CD. I have spent fifty cents on each album, for one dollar… two copies of the Queen album News Of The World. I will never buy the third copy of this album I find, I’d rather leave it to the next collector or fan of exceptional Hard Rock Music and/or Queen, to be just as thrilled as I am of it’s artistic and musical importance.
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