The Details: The Black Star Riders are the next step in the musical legacy that was the great Thin Lizzy and the band features members of that legendary band in their lineup including Scott Gorham. Their debut album is called “All Hell Breaks Loose” and it’s on one of our favorite labels of them all (Nuclear Blast Records) so I think that it’s a good thing. I’ve heard the album before and it really rocks and that makes it all the more awesome to offer up a contest for our readers to attend their NYC show at B.B. King Blues Club. I love free stuff, don’t you?
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Artist: Y&T
Title: “Yesterday and Today – Live” (re-issue)
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release Date: 8/11/1998
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 4.5/5
If you are one of the smart legacy Hard Rockers out there then you already know about the powerhouse outfit that goes by the name of Y&T and if not, this particular live recording is a release that amounts to a great education in their material. Originally released in 1991 and re-issued in 1998, the live recording of “Yesterday and Today Live” presents the bands “final” roster of Dave Meniketti, Phil Kennemore, Stef Burns and Jimmy DeGrasso as they tour the world one last time and support their album “Ten” together before choosing to call it a day. The bands original fan base knows full well how the group was once rounded out by Leonard Haze on drums and Joey Alves on guitar but those members had been replaced for a few years by DeGrasso and Burns who really do a commendable job at the end of the day. The album starts of strong with “Meanstreak” and right into “Hurricane” but absent is the often incendiary “Open Fire”. Oh well, I guess you have to change the set list around every once in awhile. There is only one tune from the bands “Contagious” which is an instrumental and only one from the “Ten” album with “Hard Times”. Even though we get some standards like “Black Tiger” and “Forever”, I did find a little surprise that songs like “Lipstick And Leather” and “Summertime Girls” were omitted from this particular live set. The latter song most of all since this was effectively the biggest song Y&T ever had in the larger public eye.
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Artist: Megadeth
Title: “Anthology: Set The World Afire”
Label: Capitol Records/EMI Music
Release Date: 9/30/2008
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4.5/5
It seemed like only yesterday that we found this very label releasing a “Greatest Hits” compilation by those stalwarts of the Heavy Metal way Megadeth and while it was true that the release would deliver the goods when it came down to pure and intelligent Metal, the time had clearly come for the game to be upgraded and for this idea to be visited once again. That Greatest Hits package was a single disc seventeen track affair and it managed to cover a lot of ground which definitely served the needs of the bands fan base but now with the labeling being that of an Anthology, we would now get two discs and the material would span some thirty three tracks. From top to bottom, everything that you expect to find on such a release is here to be enjoyed and examined from an early career to most recent viewpoint. Of course with the band now being on Roadrunner Records, we don’t find anything from their latest album “United Abominations” but we do go up as far as “Risk” and “Cryptic Writings”. All of the staple tracks from the bands beginnings are here and while it seems as though every song that we found on “Greatest Hits” is made available here, we do find that “Symphony Of Destruction” is a live version and “Mechanix” this time around is the original for on the hits release a couple of years ago gave us a remix from 2002. A second live track is offered up with a rousing version of “Peace Sells” from 1992 and if that doesn’t please you enough there is a demo track called “High Speed Dirt” from a 1992 session to enjoy. The bonus content was good enough in my opinion but with a release like this I lean towards the classic tracks that made me a fan of the band in the first place. They provide a several page booklet but it really doesn’t offer much to that kind of fan who loves to read something while the album is playing. It just lines out the individual tracks and lets you know what album they have originally come from. There are a few but not a lot of photos between these pages to enjoy as well and these depict four different lineups of the band from across the years.
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Artist: David Lee Roth
Venue: Nokia Theatre Times Square (New York, NY)
Opener: n/a
Date: 7/13/2006
Label: Magna Carta Records
David Lee Roth set the world of Hard Rock music on fire with the debut of Van Halen’s self-titled album back in 1978. Since that time he has proven over and over to be one of the most exciting personalities in the Music business and showed very early what a Rock Star truly was. After his well publicized split from Van Halen, Roth went on a solo career that while it had its ups and downs – you could always count on Dave bringing the goods to the table when the shows were on. Recently, Dave was more in the news for his failed attempt at replacing radio host Howard Stern than for his music so it was a treat to find him getting back to business on stage. The last time I recall Dave playing in our vicinity was for his “Sam and Dave” tour, which was a several week adventure with then former Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar. The pair delivered a night of classic Van Halen, Sammy Hagar and DLR material and was truly one of the best concerts I had seen that year. Sadly, it was a short run and not a lot of people caught onto the special nature of the appearances. It was their loss, not mine. Dave’s last full solo album was “Diamond Dave”, a Magna Carta Records release and for any folks looking for new Dave they would have to pick up a copy of “Strummin’ With The Devil”. The CD is an album of Van Halen classics being given the Country and Bluegrass treatment and Dave does two tracks on the record. Since I don’t own a copy I am not too sure about what else is on it to comment further.
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Where Heavy Music & Pop Culture Collide
