The Press Release:
The 2020 installment of HEADBANGERS CON is back! 2020 tried but could not stop the next edition of Headbangers Con from happening. With live events shuttering worldwide due to the pandemic the masterminds behind this one of a kind music event, Chris 51 (Chris 51 Tattoos, Epic Ink on A&E) and Morgan Rose (Sevendust) decided to take this year’s event online in the first ever virtual edition of Headbangers Con called ‘CONLINE’.
CONLINE is a unique event that gives fans worldwide the ability to participate in intimate online events with their favorite artists. With the next round of artist announcements for the 2020 lineup, Morgan Rose (Sevendust), Shaun Foist (Breaking Benjamin), Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy, Whitesnake, Dio), David Ellefson (Megadeth) and Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth) have joined the guest lineup. Continue reading Headbangers Con Announce First-Ever Virtual “Conline” For December→
I don’t want any of you Metal Legions to tell me that you didn’t see this one coming. What’s that? You didn’t? Well okay, I guess I should believe you when you tell me that you never expected that Geoff Tate would eventually announce the formation of his own Queensryche and start to map out his touring plans after being fired as the singer for the original Queensryche. Maybe I am just still shocked about that particular case scenario.
Artist: Dio
Title: “Holy Diver Live” (Blu-ray)
Label: Eagle Vision Release Date: 10/12/2010 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: 4.25/5
What a year 2010 has been for the Metal Republic. From the beginning it was a tight one in terms of the ever fluctuating economy that seemed to strangle the very manner in which we do things but still the fans pressed on and supported the music that they loved so much. It was a year that first smacked us in the jaw when it took bassist Peter Steele from Type O Negative from us and then before we could catch our collective breath and move on, the cruel hand of fate would take Ronnie James Dio from this plane of existence and leave us all astonished, hurt and angry. The loss of such a powerful force for Metal’s good was bound to find the releases that celebrated better times being delivered to the fans and that is never a bad thing if it helps ease the pain of loss just a little bit. The first such issue that I found being released would be the Blu-ray edition of Dio’s “Holy Diver Live” DVD that originally hit the streets in 2006. Having reviewed that piece before I decided to re-present my words from that article and add a couple of other notes to make it a little more current. I’ll close out by citing any visible differences between that issue and the higher definition Blu-ray version. Read on. Continue reading “Holy Diver Live” [Blu-ray] by Dio→
Artist: Quiet Riot Title: “Setlist: The Very Best Of Quiet Riot – Live” Label: Sony Music Release Date: 7/13/2010 Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Rating: 4/5
Historically speaking Quiet Riot was one of the first bands that I was able to see in concert on my own and don’t laugh because you know that each and every one of you went to a show or two with your parents standing safely in the shadows to observe the shenanigans. While I know that I am dating myself, it was back around the time when they had just released their “Metal Health” album and they were appearing at the long shuttered L’Amour’s in Brooklyn. At the show I was blown away by the bands delivery and skill and overall catchy tunes and that made listening to their “Setlist” live CD an absolute treat since we don’t really have too much of a representation of the band during its early years in the live sense. Some music historians will remember easily how the band once found Randy Rhoads among its number but this release focuses on what was musically established by the classic lineup of Kevin DuBrow, Frankie Banali, Rudy Sarzo and Carlos Cavazo. After reviewing a couple of these releases so far, I was happy to find the “Setlist” collections offering up the occasional unreleased tune or two, but the Quiet Riot edition must be lauded for its presenting 50% unreleased tracks from the band in concert. The album also primarily focuses on two years in the bands life (1983 and 1984) and with that comes off as very vintage in their history. The younger generation of fans today might need to look into the album collections of their older siblings or parents to find a copy of “Metal Health” and its recommended action to better absorb a band that helped build a music scene at the time. “Metal Health” is strongly celebrated on this collection and presents us with six of the albums original ten tracks. We get the classic Slade tune “Cum On Feel The Noize” and the title track along with my long time favorite “Run For Cover”. I would have liked to hear “Thunderbird” or “Breathless” but I will not complain with what we did get here since it was so satisfying. The band shows themselves to be a hungry Metal machine and DuBrow screams over blistering Cavazo guitar riffs and thunderous Banali drumming. Continue reading “Setlist: The Very Best Of Quiet Riot – Live” by Quiet Riot→
All of the heavy shows that had been bombarding us on our adventures outside of PiercingMetal Headquarters this past week found us needing a dose of the classic stuff and in that we chose to brave the incredible rainstorm that was hitting the East Coast for a set of tunes by the one and only Blue Oyster Cult. The band now features Rudy Sarzo and that intrigued us all the more. Check out the full article below.
Artist: Blue Oyster Cult Venue: B.B. King Blues Club (New York, NY) Opener: n/a Date: 3/13/2010 Label: Sony Music
We started our March Metal Madness last Saturday in this very same vicinity in preparation for the mighty Kreator and continued along with Hammerfall on Sunday. Orphaned Land and Suidakra came up on Monday and the unexpected bump in the road by W.A.S.P. happened Thursday but this was fortunately washed away by the magic of Tragedy’s final show ever on Friday. It was surely one busy week for the Metal heads who saw those events and mind you Alice In Chains played two nights as well but we didn’t participate in those since we had other events to be a part of. All of the insanely heavy and astoundingly creative Metal and Rock energies that we absorbed all week found us seeking a little bit of solace with those legends of Hard Rock, Blue Oyster Cult, and in order to do that we needed to brave the absolutely torrential rainstorm that was hitting the city. I’m not against getting a little wet for the sake of a show, but let me tell you this, it was horrible outside and the winds were setting things over on their end to boot. You know it’s a bad storm when you are in the middle of Times Square and the region is barren of mass amounts of tourists. So down into the caverns of B.B. King’s we went to keep dry and to enjoy some surely inspirational Heavy Rock. The Blue Oyster Cult stops by B.B.’s usually a couple of times a year and does two shows, but tonight’s gig would be the first of two performances on the same night and that was pretty different for me. I opted for the earlier show and this one started pretty much on the mark of 7:30pm. Here is how it went. Continue reading Blue Oyster Cult @ B.B. King Blues Club (3/13/2010)→
![“Holy Diver Live” [Blu-ray] by Dio](https://i0.wp.com/www.piercingmetal.com/wp-content/uploads/2001/10/Bluray-Dio-Holy-Diver-Live-e1449980287501.jpg?resize=300%2C372&ssl=1)
