The milestone anniversaries of albums is really getting under way for 2014 as I present numerous milestones for the albums I have enjoyed for a great number of years and that brings us to Marillion’s “Fugazi” which was released thirty years ago today. Now I’ve admitted in other blog posts that I was NOT the biggest Marillion fan until many months after the “Misplaced Childhood” album had been released and I kind of went backwards after I first heard them since this was later in the Fish era of the group. That being said I had heard about the band and liked the tune “Assassing” which I heard on a Metal compilation release that Kerrang! had issued but I will admit that I never looked deeper into them at the time which would have been smart to do but oh well. “Fugazi” is Marillion’s second album and most of the tunes on the release were epic in length with two of the songs stopping short of seven minutes and another pair surpassing the eight minute mark. My indulgence of “Assassing” was often as I really liked the feel and vibe of its composition and how it appeared to tell a story. I would later learn that so much of the Fish works were tales that brought you to different places and emotions. Thinking back on the album I would say that “Punch and Judy” was another favorite and the albums closing two monsters of “Incubus” and the title track. All words were penned by Fish and the music appeared to have contributions from just about everyone. According to the written history of the release its title was based on the dramas that it took to put together. It was the first with drummer Ian Mosely who had previously been a member of Steve Hackett’s band. The original track listing is below.
Continue reading Marillion’s “Fugazi” Hits 30th Anniversary (1984-2014)
Tag Archives: emi music
Mike Portnoy Is Leaving The Adrenaline Mob!!!
Wow. According to his own Official Facebook page, it seems as though master drummer Mike Portnoy is leaving the Adrenaline Mob after some upcoming appearances and I have to admit that I didn’t see this one coming. Please stop shaking your head at me because you know you didn’t expect this one either. Mike’s statement follows the photograph that I took in 2012.

Continue reading Mike Portnoy Is Leaving The Adrenaline Mob!!!
The Ryche Empire Asunder: Queensryche Fires Geoff Tate!!!
Back at the beginning of the month I posted a blog narrative which spoke to the developments that had been going on within the Queensryche camp and touched upon the issues that were brewing with their founding member, vocalist Geoff Tate. You can read HERE first if you need a little bit of refresher. It was not a pleasant set of circumstances to say the least. Here are the latest developments….
Queensryche members have announced that Todd LaTorre is their new singer after officially parting ways with Geoff Tate. I’m really of mixed opinion on all of this because I love Geoff as a legendary Metal vocalist and really enjoy what I have heard Todd bring to the table as a member of Crimson Glory and in his samples of the classic Queensryche tunes. I really never wanted to see it come down to this because it also divides the fans in some sense. One has to envision this as similar to the time when the world saw Tim “Ripper” Owens taking over the vocals in Priest. The band did record some solid tunes but they really suffered as far as attendance and album sales.
As a fan of Geoff’s overall creativity and legacy I wish him well, and as a very longtime fan of what Queensryche has meant to the Heavy Metal music scene I wish the guys well in this interesting new chapter. I don’t think I ever mentioned to my readers that I first saw Queensryche when they had opened up for KISS on the “Animalize” tour back in 1984 or 85. They were brand new to the larger Metal audiences back then for sure.
Read more on the Bravewords report from Billboard.com HERE; Let’s see what happens. I expect a veritable shit storm of postings on all of the news sites and many already feel we shall find more postings on these resources than we found happening when Mike Portnoy decided to leave Dream Theater. Only time will tell right?
Official Website: http://www.queensryche.com
“Why Pink Floyd?” Because EMI Music Said So Is Why…….
Before you continue deeper into this posting let me ask you a question. How many Pink Floyd song’s can you name right now off the top of your head? Now my hope is that you just rattled off about five or six of the main tunes with an additional two rarities for good measure. If you didn’t then you are not really a worthy study of one of the true legends of Rock music and I feel just a little bit bad for you about it. Oh well, let’s continue along shall we.
Having grown up on Pink Floyd and remembering “Dark Side Of The Moon” as one of the earliest albums that I actually ever heard as a growing boy makes this a really exciting post for me to make on the Musings blog. I don’t know about the rest of you but to me this is some seriously cool news. Check it out…..It seems as though the legendary group is offering up remastered editions of their complete catalog (well, almost complete since it seems as though “Is There Anybody Out There”, “Pulse” and I think one other more recent live issue are not a part of the presentation) will be coming out. There are also a number of different configurations of them. I copied the press words right from the mailer that their representatives send to me so you can absorb it in full. Read on.
Continue reading “Why Pink Floyd?” Because EMI Music Said So Is Why…….
PiercingMetal Spotlights: Queensryche
My interest in Queensryche goes a pretty long way back and I can say to the readers that the first time I ever caught them in concert was when they were opening up for KISS on the bands “Animalize” tour. They were supporting their soon to be released masterpiece “Warning” and believe it or not, I couldn’t have cared less that night. This was based on the KISS mania setting in and my not being open to this obviously rising star in the Metal world. I was not alone in this view and that was just how a KISS show worked. You often were bored at any opening band while you waited for the Kings Of The Nighttime World to come out and dominate the stage. Moving ahead a couple of years in time, the chance to see Queensryche again happened when Iron Maiden was on their legendary “Powerslave” tour and for me this was a match made in heaven. I say it like this because the band was winning me over note after note and had the many thousands of fans in Radio City Music Hall pushing their fists into the air as singer Geoff Tate told us to “Take Hold Of The Flame” with a soaring and commanding register. I’ve been a fan ever since that time and have followed them as a band in both my personal life and as that of a music journalist. They pushed the envelope a number of times in their releases and we have reviewed many of their recordings and video films on the site as well as supported their touring efforts. To see any contest that features Queensryche just click their TAG to launch the query that will present all that is resident on the PiercingMetal.com website.
Here’s to many more years of activity for an ever-changing band. Feel free to let me know what you think about the band or how they affected your own musical interests in the comments section below. All topical views are welcome. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in the Queensryche releases and you can check it out for yourself by using some of these Amazon.com links. Enjoy.
Official Website: www.queensryche.com