It was fifty years ago today that Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts first performed as The Rolling Stones and I just wanted to use our musical forum to say “Happy Anniversary to one of the greatest Rock and Roll bands of all time”. What a run it has been so far hasn’t it my friends. Such incredibly classic songs that are now imprinted in our respective musical psyche and for those who play any kind of instrument, don’t tell me that you didn’t jam out to a little bit of Stones when you were starting out. To me this was the ultimate bar band, even though they were so much more at the end of the day.
Wowza, wowza. Talk about a milestone and something that is definitely worthy of some congratulations and a heaping dose of kudos. Metal Blade Records is celebrating their 30th year of operation and one of the coolest aspect of this is more than just the tenure, its the fact that it has been a primarily Metal focused label since its inception way back when record store employee Brian Slagel decided to start up the label to support the local regions Heavy Metal bands. The first ever album that was released under the Metal Blade Records brand was a compilation release entitled “The New Heavy Metal Revue presents Metal Massacre”; this album featured Metallica, Ratt, Black and Blue and many others at a time when all of these groups were relative unknowns. I actually thought I had this on LP somewhere but was wrong. I have a different but still ancient compilation. Oh well. Perhaps they will re-release this on CD to celebrate the iconic 30th year. Historically speaking, I think this original album came out in June of 1982, so we are very likely close to the actual launch date of the record company at this point in time. With that being the case there is no better time to jump into the fray with our congratulatory toast. Continue reading Happy 30th Anniversary To Metal Blade Records (1982-2012)→
This is a great year of anniversaries for some truly awesome Rock and Metal bands as we find the big 25th for artists like Whitesnake, Anthrax, Testament and really far too many others to mention celebrating that milestone on a bit of some seminal recorded work. Stuff like Whitesnake’s self titled, and “Fighting The World” by Manowar and “Among The Living” by Anthrax. You get the point right? Well, in this narrative I wanted to raise a glass and a high pair of horns for the Earache Records label who are also celebrating their own 25th Year in the business.
If you love all things Extreme Metal then Earache Records is the place to be for your listening pleasure because they were the label to find bands like Napalm Death, Deicide, Decapitated and the mighty Carcass for many of their releases. Now I should admit that I wasn’t really following any of these bands before I decided to focus my creative time on being a music journalist but once I started I began studying from their books even though I am a huge latecomer to their offerings. I aim at supporting what I can when I can and there are honestly a lot of bands that I like on the label. It’s a true lesson in that which is heavy and not easily handled by those who refuse to step outside of their own Metal box. I know that I still have quite the investigative journey ahead based on their artist roster both past and present. You can learn what that roster is and a whole lot more about the company by clicking the Official Wiki entry below. I tend to just offer up my own thoughts in these Milestones as opposed to reprinting other peoples words. I am looking forward to hearing and witnessing in concert the next groups that the label will be dishing out and you should to. Happy 25th Earache Records, and here is to the next 25 🙂 Fans that enjoy the labels output already are encouraged to leave us some comments in the space below. It will be great to hear what you think about this one. To see our reviews of some releases that came to us under the Earache Records brand click HERE. The screen will showcase the whole batch. See you next time.
Wow. So apparently Revolver Magazine has just reached their 100th issue and with this being the case and I wanted to take a moment to say kudos on the achievement. I’m a long time fan of the comics medium, which I speak about in my Comics section on the site, and when you follow that kind of stuff you tend to realize that reaching 100 issues is not all that easy to do. When it happens in the comics there is often a big hoopla so why not do the same thing when a magazine that supports the same scene that I walk upon in the Metal Republic. Check out the cool cover.
The main feature of this particular issue is their picks for the “100 Greatest Living Rock Stars” and the segment runs for twenty nine pages and gives the reader a photo and some quick background on the artist. Some of them get a little more page space than others which I didn’t understand how one ranked against another and there was no numeric order to the listing to speak of. Despite this it was interesting to read. Continue reading Congrats To Revolver Magazine On Their 100th Issue→
Isn’t it amazing? I know that it makes my jaw drop when I realize that KISS’ legendary album “Destroyer” is officially 35 years old today. Released on March 15, 1976, “Destroyer” was the fourth KISS studio album and directly followed their seminal “Alive” double album live presentation. I’ve been a KISS fan for a very, very long time and while “Destroyer” is one of my very favorites of their catalog, it was not the first album that I ever purchased. I think that I bought “Alive II” when it first came out at The Record Factory and then ordered a whole bunch of the older studio albums via one of those music clubs where you bought one album at their club price but got five or six albums for a dollar apiece. I don’t remember exactly but I think it was something like that. I digress. Continue reading Happy 35th Anniversary To KISS “Destroyer”→
