Words of wisdom from a big thinker. I hope to share my thoughts and maybe after it is all over we might have had some fun and learned a little something at the same time.
There are two bands that I have been introduced to in the last year that I absolutely love. I love sitting down in my chair throwing on the headphones and letting them rip and they are two great tastes that go great together. One band is from Portland Oregon and they are called Red Fang the other is from the UK and are called Orange Goblin. Basically all I can say is that I hope you enjoy the rockin, because I am about to blow your doors off.
Shine - Orange Goblin - One of the things that I love about Orange Goblin is how their music can change so much from song to song and even during the song itself. I love how in some songs they can sound like early Black Sabbath.
Prehistoric Dog - Red Fang
Jesus Beater - Orange Goblin
Dirt Wizard - Red Fang
Death of Aquarius - Orange Goblin
That is all for today, but something tells me that you guys are going to be hearing and seeing more and more of Orange Goblin from me. These guys are just bringing the metal so hard and it kind of blows my mind that after rocking so hard for 10 years they are not more popular. As I go I leave you with this!
Today feels like a good day for some heavy metal. It started when my friend Eric sent me a link to this video by the band Clutch. The song is called "Earth Rocker"
I need to follow that up with this one called "Subtle Hustle"
Now, I enjoyed that little metal excursion very much and their sound reminded me of one of my favorites Red Fang. Now, I have no idea who came first and I do not really care. I am in the midst of enjoying both of their sounds and I look forward to exploring more of Clutch as things go on.
One of the things that I love about Red Fang is that I can listen to and really enjoy their albums but I also am able to watch their videos and that is what I decided to bring you today. So get ready to bang your head and pump your fists because as Dewey Finn said in School of Rock "Lets get rockin"
Red Fang - Prehistoric Dog
Red Fang - Wires
Red Fang - Hank is dead
and finally and only because it popped into my head and if I have to deal with it then so do you. I leave you with this classic number.
Wow, nothing says rocking like three, count them, three synthesizers.
Well you folks are in for a real treat today. Some modern American metal the likes of which we are really only getting out of Europe these days. This band is called Manowar and they were formed in 1980 and came out of New York. It is hilariously epic and loves to sing about mythological subjects. I also love their album covers. Those are just plain amazing to look at. They are not big in America but like a lot of bands they are huge in Europe. I am going to do my best to choose carefully but some of these songs may have so swears. So do not say I didn't warn you.
In 1970 an album was released that shook the very earth. This album changed the face of music and I think was probably what started Heavy Metal. Sure, other bands rocked hard in the late 60's and through the 70's but no band rocked as hard as Black Sabbath.
As a teenager I was only aware of Ozzy Osbourne as a solo act and being a young man raised within the Protestant church it often seemed to me that Ozzy was the very devil that I had been so often warned about. Of course it didn't help matters when his solo albums looked like this.
That album came out in 1980 and I was pretty much scared to death of it. I had not yet really began to like music like I do now. Do not get my wrong. I enjoyed it but I went to a private christian school for most of grade school and my parents car had an AM radio so all I really listened to was the local 50's station. So I did not have a real understanding of rock music and what started with the 50's then shifted into the 60's with the Door's and Jimmy Hendrix and the Who but I still never listened to or had even heard of Black Sabbath. At some point in the late 90's I stumbled across a remix of the Sabbath Classic "After Forever". I believe it was on a film soundtrack. After listening to it a few times I started to realize that the lyrics did not seem to be in praise of Satan at all.
Being an inquisitive young man I decided to check out the original version of the song and I was really surprised by both the music and the lyrics. It is also interesting to note that the song just before "After Forever" is "Sweet Leaf" a song all about how good marijuana is. So really all of that is to say that Black Sabbath was a far more complex band then the Christian Anti-Rock Media really realized.
Enough of my theorizing. On to the music. I am going to throw up some stuff when Ozzy was in Sabbath and then I will put up some stuff from when Ozzy was kicked out and Ronnie James Dio joined the band. I prefer the Ozzy years better but there is some good stuff from when Dio was there.
So without further adieu I bring you track 2 off of their first album "The Wizard". They get extra special bonus points for use of the rockin harmonica. I also really love the drums in this track and the secret cowbell.
Their second album was called Paranoid and I bring you the 8th track "Fairies Wear Boots". Another song that just has an amazing drum and bass line with some tasty guitar licks and the lyrics just make me laugh. I love it. 6:30 of awesome.
Their third album, Master of Reality, was also an epic one and I think my favorite off of it is the one I mentioned earlier "After Forever".
I really think that the first three Black Sabbath albums are the best ones. But they did have a few good songs here and there after those their fourth album was called Black Sabbath Vol 4. One of the songs is called "Supernaut". Want to hear it? Here it is.
Actually I am going to stop there. Ronnie James Dio can get his own post when I get to him. Black Sabbath was and always will be Ozzy's band. No offense to Dio fans out there because I own some Dio and I like his work but I like his solo stuff. Frankly, I think his work with Black Sabbath was not that good.
So there you go. A little bit of heavy metal for you.
Tomorrow we are moving away from the metal and more into pop punk.
