Lita Ford ~ Living Like A Runaway

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Style: heavy metal
Label: SPV
Year: 2012
Home: n/a

Members: Lita Ford ~ vocals/guitars/keyboards
Gary Hoey ~ guitars/bass/keyboards/b. vocals
Matt Scurfield ~ drums

Additional: Crispin Cioe, Arno Hecht ~ sax
Larry Etkin ~ trumpet
Mickey Kanan, Tayla Lemieux ~ b. vocals

Guest: Doug Aldrich ~ guitar


Harsh, heavy, angry & everything but the heavily commercialized hard rock sex-diva we remember from 80's MTV is how I briefly & maybe unfairly describe the latest album by former Runaway turned sex symbol rock chick LF. Okay, to be fair, LF hasn't been that sex symbol since she faded from the charts a long time ago, but ... she's never been this angry, emotional, raw or honest or even close to it. Her love songs were always I want you or miss you or I can't have you, not I hate you, I don't want to be with you, you hurt me, you've damaged me. Her songs were shallow, much like a lot of her 80's big hair peers so I'm not picking on her, but now she's turned the tables around & penned an album that puts on the table in bitter honesty all the anguish following the messy break-up of her marriage & loss of her life as she knew it. For example, "Branded" opens the album with "I don't want to fight you you no more/I watched you put your fist through the wall/I don't want to hear you screaming my name/I'm so tired of playing the same old game/yeah, you left you're mark on me". The album just takes off from here. No happy mask over what this album is about. I feel embarrassed to even listen in at times as she's so lyrically raw. Music isn't supposed to be this honest or if it is then it's posing as such or black metal that's expected to be like this. Only Lou Reed comes to mind as having this honesty, though he's a bit more poetic. On first listen this is a heavy album to digest, maybe too heavy, particularly as its just so far from what we know LF for. The songs are stronger, harder edged with striped back riff oriented grooving, the lyrics right up front & her singing some of her best aiming for emotion over technique or typical rock hollers. If you're feeling afraid that the LF you love has been thrown under the carpet, I would ask you to give this new album a chance. If you listened once & weren't sure I would also say listen again. I put it away after a first listen as I found it too challenging, but later listens brought out more & more depth & I now honestly call this her greatest moment as a songwriter. What I noticed on later listens is how LF's anger is digested through different lenses. "Branded" is about lovers relationships turned bitter, while "Hate" is about hate kids feel from their peers for being different. Then there's "Mother" which is a cry that is far too autobiographical to be comfortable, as she sings about a mother to her son who is obviously distant with the lines "please understand why I had to leave/the pain was deep/he was hurting me". It's one of the most gut-wrenching moments on the album. In a similar thematic vein is the Jekyll/Hyde themed "The Mask." "Aslyum" is looking back on memories & being alone with the line "I don't want to die in the asylum", while on the other hand "Relentless" looks into the future & is a driving song about pushing forward with lyrics drawing comparisons with freight trains & fighters in the ring. "Relentless" might also be one of the best songs musically. The only songs not laced with anger might be the title track, a softer ballad with a potentially autobiographical slant about a youth with a guitar leaving town to do something in life. In many ways it reminds me of Reba McIntire's "Fancy" with mom saying go & do it. "Devil In My Head" is more a poetic romp about "love don't come easy for a lonely soul like me" & screams wannabe commercial hit but pales in comparison to the other more personal songs. Twenty years ago for LF this might have been a hit, but she's upped her own bar & thus it loses it's potency. "Luv 2 Hate You" is one of the non-personal tracks that keeps the album lighter & not tilting into murderous regret & anger. Album starts with "Branded" & ends with "A Song To Slit Your Wrists By" if one had any question on the intention of this album. Though the later is the one song that should be missing as it's a strange affair of cold electronic beats & industrial guitars. Though, sadly I only want to slit my wrists out of boredom with the song. Would have been better on the previous album Winter Wonderland, but its the only one moment in the biggest jewel in LF's crown.

Rod Stewart ~ Unplugged ... And Seated (live)

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Style: pop rock, blues-rock, acoustic, classic rock, live
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1993
Home: n/a

Members: Rod Stewart ~ vocals/banjo
Jeff Golub, Jim Creagan ~ guitar
Don Teschner ~ guitar/mandolin/violin
Carmine Rojas ~ bass
Charles Kentiss III ~ piano
Kevin Savigar ~ piano/accordian
Phil Parlapiano ~ accordian/mandolin
Dorian Holley, Darryl Phinnessee, Fred White ~ backing vocals
Marilyn Baker, Haim Shtrum, Mari Tsumura, Jay Rosen, Kwihee Shamban, Miran Kojian, Brian Leonard, Jean Hugo, Joel Derouin, Bruce Dukov, Joseph Meyer, Ronald Clark, Joan Elardo, David Shostac, Norman Ludwin, Drew Dembowski, David Shamban, Suzie Katayama, James Ross, Larry Corbett ~ strings

Guest: Ron Wood ~ guitar

Pumping bass, acoustic guitars of every shape, steady unelaborate drums kick off the show with the classic romp "Hot Legs". It's classic 70's RS time! But, then things move right into a more somber mood with the slow bluesy "Tonight's The Night". It's classic rock RS but expect there's also going to be a lot of crooning more in line with the 80's Vegabond Heart "Forever Young" RS. The result is a fusion of the 70's energized rocker with the 80's soft rocker, of mixed reviews, into a new 90's vibrant RS that isn't trying to recreate the past  nor defy his age but create a loose & fun evening rediscovering old songs & largely ignoring the less memorable 80's hits. Thus comes one of the best MTV Unplugged concerts in my opinion right alongside Eric Clapton & Nirvana. I'd always heard about the vibrant 70's RS who had an amazing live presence, but the 80's soft rock crooner presented a shadow of that reputation. This was the first live album I heard by RS & it introduced me to the RS of my parents generation. Though, unlike Clapton & Nirvana whose acoustic forays became accidental climaxes, RS needs a career boost after disaster album after disaster album & always having an eye for trends jumped right on board. He's doing his best to show the name RS still matters, even hamming it up at times with his banter, but yet it's hard to see this as totally acting but that he really has gotten into the moment & enjoying the nostalgic romp honestly as much as the audience is. It helps that former Faces bandmate Ronnie Wood comes out after the fourth song to man the guitar, which helps keep the vibrant 70's energy upfront & the weak 80's commercialism at bay, let alone its rare to see RS have someone to bounce off of. Yes, RS knew what he was doing inviting back his old bandmate from the Faces, he knew this would reinvent his career the way he needed. Particularly as they hadn't played together in twenty years. Excuse the deliberate nature, the well-planned set list, the backing strings, because it works & is a necessary album for anyone who wants to hear RS at his best. Oh, & excuse the fact that many of these songs originally were heavily acoustic so he's not taken to reinventing himself. But, many of the songs almost sound better here & certainly looser & his voice is raspier. Personally, I consider this the last album of classic RS as he'd never be this nostalgic nor vibrant again. This was also the formal goodbye to the slick RS that is full of RS's worst albums, the most uninspired music & one might be surprised how many albums he put out in the 80's that have gone intentionally forgotten by all parties sans a few songs that survived the garbage heap. What would follow Unplugged ... & Seated was the the under-rated Spanner In The Works, the brit-pop covers album When We Were The New Boys & the dance album Human. These would be would be nice codas, somewhat unmemorable but aging better than one might expect, but music of an artist unable to find a new direction after the high of his acoustic comeback & not wanting to return to the previous music. The later release also suffer from throat troubles that softened his vocal rasp, which some have said made him a better singer technically. Then RS would reinvent himself as the aging jazz & pop singer & cover artist to commercial success but critical failure. It might be one of the greatest facelifts in music become a torchsong balladeer, but the music lacks the vibrancy that made RS famous, let alone might be a pleasant collection of albums for a middle aged man but a lightweight listening that's too contrived & lacking depth. But, for one wonderful minute we have RS sitting in a transition stage & he turned in a classic album that was everything RS wanted & needed & maybe a bit more. He wanted a successful album but got a legacy maker.

Joel Grind ~ The Yellowgoat Sessions

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Style: black metal, heavy metal
Label: Acid Rat
Year: 2013
Home: Portland, Oregon

Members ~ Joel Grind ~ guitars/drums/bass


Some may know JG as the frontman & founder of Toxic Holocaust. This solo album will be welcomed by those familiar with the earlier days of Toxic Holocaust as on one hand JG has pulled some of the same primitive soul & drive from those days into The Yellowgoat Sessions. On the other hand, this is far more dark & carnal that reaches beyond rediscovering Toxic Holocaust to its roots & the fathers of black metal. Early Motorhead & Bathory have been thrown out as comparisons & they are quite accurate. But, other bands could be used as comparisons as JG has created an album, recorded over two days no less, that is anything but slick commercial metal, but instead recalls the early days of raw, heavily distorted & reverbed, not the most technically challenging but solid heavy metal. That's not to say that it was recorded over a tape player & suffers from bad production, not at all, only that you'll find a lot of comparisons here with the underground metal that was coming out in the early 1980's before thrash became the norm. Actually, it's less of a comparison & more of an absolute flashback. This has those trademarkable driving distorted guitar rhythms that marked early Motorhead, W.A.S.P. & countless other bands, though the former is a pretty solid comparison, while every so often a guitar solo briefly appears. It's not the most musically diverse album, but that does little to remove any enjoyment from this great release. While even the nostalgia aspect doesn't hurt or making it sound too imitative, probably because this particular sound hasn't been nostalgia to death & still remains fresh ... or maybe JG just has a great hand on what makes good metal. One secret is it isn't overly cluttered, technically complicated nor mind-numbing fast & the lyrics are understandable. The album doesn't do a mind-numbing onslaught of careening guitars but just drives with a metal reverbed groove that isn't heard much anymore. This is retro metal album recorded in a spurt of creativity & JG had enough sense, more than a lot of bands, to keep the kitchen sink at home. His lesson of simplicity should be studied. Some folks may know that Toxic Holocaust started as a solo project so why is this not under that band name, as what's the difference? The difference is that Toxic Holocaust has now become a band, while this is truly a solo album & JG doesn't want to disregard the band that has formed making it into a solo gig with session players. Check this release out. You won't be disappointed.

Burzum ~ Dauthi Baldrs

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Style: instrumental, symphonic metal, dark ambient, Norwegian
Label: Dead Ringer
Year: 1997
Home: Norway

Members: Varg Vikernes ~ synthesizers


1996's Filosofem is a fascinating Burzum album. It was composed over time but recorded in one final sweep before it's composer, Varg Vikernes aka Count Grishnackh, went to prison for fifteen years & was banned from using real instruments, though not released until after his incarceration. The album was a big unpredictable step forward from Burzum's roots. It was not a harsh listen with heavily distorted guitars & rough vocals but a droning quasi-symphonic landscape more in common with industrial than black metal. What was recorded next would be a bigger surprise, yet at the same time picked up what was put into place with Filosofem. The resulting Dauthi Baldrs ranks up there with Filosofem as two of the most fascinating albums under the name Burzum & maybe in the early black metal world as a whole. Dauthi Baldrs might even be just as influential to later bands as the early Burzum albums considering the amount of later black metal that sounds like this. If it wasn't influential in a strict timeline sense it certainly helped to build bridges between death metal, industrial & dark ambient genres. Vikernes recorded & released two albums in prison that utilized only a synthesizer dubbed into a standard tape recorder, the only equipment he was allowed. This meant a complete facelift of the Burzum sound with the result being symphonic death metal before the genre existed & industrial & dark ambient when the genres were still more underground than not. It's the best of the droning emotive notes of Filosofem but now with a heavy melodic development that moves like gentle waves painting lonely landscapes with simple minimalist lines. Perhaps early Burzum included all of this, but it was lost under the distorted guitars. While the instrumental approach means the focus, or distraction depending on what you hear, of the vocals now gives way to the melody which is far more developed out. It's such a hypnotic outcome I was disappointed when Vikernes got out the jail & went back to the jagged distorted guitars. "Dauthi Baldrs" or "The Death Of Baldr" includes crashing percussion with sounds emulating violins. Vikernes pulls a lot out of his limited palette & the percussion aspect is particularly exciting. "Hermothr A Helferth" ("Hermothr An A Journey to Hel") feels like a harpsichord, whereas both "Balferth Baldrs" ("Baldr's Balefire") & "Moti Ragnarokum" ("Towards Ragnarok") feel like symphonic ensenbles with the later having piano interludes. "I Heimr Heljar" ("In Hel's Home") has an interesting percussive aspect. "Illa Tithandi" ("Ill Tidings") is a ten minute meditation that feels like classical composer John Adams or industrial a la early Nine Inch Nails. One could talk about the classical strains, the folk motifs, the connection to traditional music forms contained here. One could even discuss the psychological aspects of the music given how far away this is from early Burzum. But, for this blog, that might be missing the point of how enjoyable this is. What could be a strange experimental album sacrificing enjoyment for the art, this straddles both worlds pleasurably. There is a simplicity here in the simple lines, but at the same time complex arrangements that are anything but haphazardly thrown together. The album tells the story of Baldr, the son of Odin in Norse mythology, but without lyrics or English liner notes, most will neither hear nor perceive the story. "Hermothr A Helferth" ("Hermothr An A Journey to Hel") feels like a harpsichord, whereas both ("Baldr's Balefire") & "Moti Ragnarokum" ("Towards Ragnarok") feel like symphonic ensenbles with the later having piano interludes. "I Heimr Heljar" ("In Hel's Home") has an interesting percussive aspect. "Illa Tithandi" is an alternative version of "Decrepitude I" & "Balferth Baldrs" is an ambiant version of the main riff from "Jesu Dod", which both appeared on Filosofem. The title track would be remade as "Belus Dod" on 2010's Belus, the first post-prison album.

Iron Maiden ~ A Real Live One (live)

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Style: prog metal, heavy metal, NWOBHM, live, British
Label: Capitol
Year: 1993
Home: n/a

Members: Bruce Dickinson ~ vocals
Dave Murray, Janick Gers ~ guitar
Steve Harris ~ bass/b. vocals
Nicko McBrain ~ drums

Additional: Michael Kenney ~ keyboards


I'm not one of those great IM fans that know every album, has fond memories of the Powerslave tour & defends Bruce Dickinson's singing against the other IM frontmen. I enjoy some of their stuff & the hits, but am not that familiar with their music generally. By the time I was in my youthful musical prime (i.e. high school) they didn't have the impact on the charts as they once did. Like Kiss, I just missed their big moments & their last years are memories where I'm a distant observer, i.e. interested in other bands & only finding their music long after the fact. A Real Live One is the first of three live albums released in 1993. It consists of songs released after 1986, or more properly from the album Somewhere in Time through 1992's Fear of the Dark, performed on their latest tours. Later in 1993 came the companion album A Real Dead One of pre-1985 or classic songs from 1975 through 1984's classic Powerslave with the latest line-up. A month after this release came Live At Donington 1992 that duplicated A Real Dead One's track listing but with stronger performances. The pattern would now be set for a live album after every couple studio albums climaxed by the much publicized Flight 666 in 2009. Living in Donington 1992 was originally released only in selected countries but later made generally available, while the other two albums were reissued as a combined A Real Live Dead One. A Real Live One is the highlight of this trio of albums, it's companion album the low point. The criticism of its companion is that the older studio versions remain the superior versions, whereas on this first album the newer songs translate more smoothly to the stage with less arrangement changes to reflect a different band line-up & vocalist. Sadly, as a non-fan I don't find myself becoming a fan of the band. The problem for me is the half the songs I know I don't like these live versions. The issue really comes down to production quality. Maybe my ears are more adjusted to 2013 as the litmus test & I've forgotten that this hasn't always been the standard, but this is one of those live recordings where not everything comes through clean. IM is for me a band that has a textural element to their music & I feel it loses some of it here. For example, "Can I Play With Madness" has out of tune backing vocals, a cloud of guitar distortion the original doesn't have that wrecks havoc when the keyboards come in, & while Bruce Dickinson really might be a strong factor in IM's success having his voice not perfectly clean & out front in the mix does change some of the focus of the songs. I lose some of the detail in the IM live setting. But, on the other hand & where this album is good for fans, it paints an accurate picture of what a IM concert sounds like & that has a lot of value in itself. If you're a casual fan like myself I would recommend none of the above albums but instead go for a DVD. IM really must be seen live to be enjoyed fully, then you can venture into the audio only. I'm not at that point yet, so excuse me.