RED FANG – released their debut, self titled and full length studio album on March 31, 2009. Red Fang plays meat & potato’s Heavy Metal… they are for all Metal intents and purposes – Stoner Metal. It’s been essentially a year since this Red Fang album was released, amidst the ever growing and popular Stone Metal crowd of bands. Where Red Fang takes a different approach is in the grooves… instead of just laying down the heavy riffs and thunder thump rhythm, these songs really groove along very effectively. A solid example is Bird On Fire, if this song can’t make you move then something is terribly wrong. Red Fang is a giant riff party, with all the retro heaviness to go along with it.
On Good To Die, the guitar leads jump out at me with the celebration of old school vibes. The tempo changes on this song gel together very well, a standout song that harkens back to the day when Hard Rock was transforming into Heavy Metal. Humans Remain Human Remains begins with a simple riff, this opens the door to the molasses thick rhythm section that embodies all the brooding beats I come to expect from quality Stoner Metal. The vocals never get lost in the background, nor do they ever fade off during any verses. What is admirable about the vocals on Red Fang is the lack of shouting or incoherentness. Red Fang seems to take the vocals just as seriously as the heavy music… both definitely compliment each other.
When I first heard the opening track, Prehistoric Dog, the realization set in that Red Fang is serious about their Metal craft. Prehistoric Dog is one of the finest Metal songs I have heard, that would be considered recent. Sharks and Wings Of Fang are two songs that are really standout, with their fired up tempos and borderline punkness it’s a reminder as to what the Bon Scott era AC/DC had accomplished so damn well. Yes, the heavy is woven within the songs on Red Fang, still it is the attitude that gives these same songs the hard smack and personality, that comes across as original.
Fans of High On Fire, The Sword, Saviours and early era (1970’s) Heavy Metal should grin and raise their fist to the air upon listening to Red Fang. The Metal word needs to get out about Red Fang… and this album needs to be played loud for your cranky neighbors to hear. Upon listening to the remainder of Red Fang, I realized this is a Heavy Stoner Band that won’t be flying under the Metal radar for too much longer.
RED FANG IS:
Maurice Bryan Giles – guitar/vocals
David Sullivan – guitar/vocals
John Sherman – drums
Aaron Beam – bass/vocals
Track Listing For RED FANG:
Prehistoric Dog
Reverse Thunder
Night Destroyer
Humans Remain Human Remains
Good To Die
Bird On Fire
Wings Of Fang
Sharks
Whales And Leeches
Witness
* Red Fang was released on Sargent House – (an Indie label)
* Red Fang formed in 2005 and hail from the cool U.S. city of Portland, Oregon.
* Red Fang did self-release an EP, in 2007 – Red Fang Tour EP 2, 5 songs are on it, four of which appear on their full length. Suicide is the only song from this EP, that does not show up on the debut full length album. The songs on the Red Fang EP are: Prehistoric Dog, Reverse Thunder, Night Destroyer, Suicide, Humans Remain Human Remains.
It was this RED FANG album cover that caught my Metal attention at first. I gave it a very brief listen at my neighborhood fye, liked what I heard immediately and the rest is Metal history.
Stone.
W.A.S.P. has brought the Chuck Berry 1964 Rock and Roll Classic Promised Land to the Heavy Metal forefront. Promised Land is from the Chuck Berry album from 1964, St. Louis To Liverpool. Appearing on their new studio album Babylon, Promised Land is the last song, closing out a tremendously catchy and hook laden, Old School Heavy Metal album. W.A.S.P.’s Heavy Metal lays down the riffs, leads and solos that resonates power and electrifies this song. The rhythm section of W.A.S.P. sets and maintains the Metal pulse of Promised Land, balancing out a groovy ride. When an early 1960’s Rock and Roll Classic like Promised Land can be covered with the passion and intensity that W.A.S.P. brings, it is the Old School Heavy Metal balance and basics that makes this song come to life. W.A.S.P. makes this song crush with heaviness without sacrificing any early 1960’s Rock guitar sound and energy.
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.
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.
ANVIL. Blue collar Heavy Metal personified. No pretentious attitude or pompousness with this band, just a working man’s ethic and never say die mantra that has led them up to 2009, with VH1 Classic Records picking up and reissuing their self funded album This Is Thirteen. (Good Metal move there, VH1 Classic Records). Unless you have been living underneath the remnants of a crashed UFO for the last six months, Anvil is back. Well, they never really went away for any real measurable length of time. Unlike a throng of prima donna Heavy Metal Bands out there who have taken the sabbatical and returned, expecting rose petals to be thrown everywhere they walk, Anvil is just doing what they always have done… play damn good Heavy Metal Music for anyone who will listen. I am listening, I listened to Anvil in the early ’80’s, their Metal has never left my collection since. Hell, I still have Anvil’s first three – Hard N’ Heavy, Metal On Metal and Forged In Fire on cassette – I could never bring myself to part with them. Anvil has stayed true to themselves and cool Metal things come to those Metal bands who wait. Without getting too deep into this bands history… the best way for anyone unfamiliar with Anvil is to watch or buy their newly released DVD – ANVIL – The Story of ANVIL.
As a life long Metalhead, whenever you see a Heavy Metal Band crack the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart it is cause for Metal celebration. With that said, whenever I witness an Extreme Metal Band crack this same album chart, well, the world suddenly becomes a better place indeed. Step in The Black Dahlia Murder… please. Their newest album – Deflorate, (Metal Blade Records), debuted at #43 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart the week of September 15, 2009. (12,000 units were sold in the first week of this albums release). YEAH! In the midst of dozens of bubble gum – Pop Music new releases, there arises… The Black Dahlia Murder. Let this debut week showing of this incredible band and album, be a Metal reminder to the commercial Pop/Elevator Music world, that Extreme Music lurks around every corner, back road, corn field, city street and CD aisle. Earlier this year, Cannibal Corpse cracked this same Billboard Top 200 Album Chart as well, I see an Extreme Metal pattern of awareness starting to develop here in 2009. Metal Odyssey is Extreme Metal proud of The Black Dahlia Murder, (and still damn Metal proud of Cannibal Corpse too). Real music… Metal Music. All of us Metalheads and the Metal Bands we follow are not going away anytime soon… METAL RULES.
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.
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