5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #133

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. Bones of Saints, by Robert Plant

By surprise to some, former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant is putting out a new solo album soon even though he was strongly hinting that his previous one was going to be the final one before he hung up his mic and called it a day. This song isn't too shabby at all. While it doesn't sound very Zeppelin-ish, it still has a bit more of a rock n' roll vibe than a lot of his other more recent stuff. Definitely nothing to complain about at all.

2. Crimson Crown, by Vorbid

Want some new thrash metal in your life? Check out this unsigned band Vorbid. They just put out their debut EP and it's pretty damn solid. The guitar work is impeccable and the vocals aren't just growls or whatever other crap like that they do in a lot of modern metal. This actually has at least a little bit of melody to it. It's still pretty rough and brazen, but this in my opinion is the way thrash metal SHOULD sound if you're doing it right.

3. Zetsubo Billy, by Maximum the Hormone

If you're willing to listen to something that isn't sung in English for a few minutes, this is another solid metal track from a Japanese band called Maximum the Hormone. Don't let their wild, flamboyant appearance fool you. They're just as heavy and dark as the best of the English speaking bands. I've enjoyed headbanging to their stuff quite a bit and would be more than happy to go see them in concert if they're ever in the U.S.

4. Strange Kind of Woman, by Deep Purple

If something bluesy is more your jive, then this staple from Deep Purple should be right up your alley. It's a tragic song of trying hard to win a woman over and then her dying shortly after you do. It's got a lot of solid guitar work from Ritchie Blackmore and the rest of the band grooves away as a solid cohesive unit like Deep Purple always has and always will. It's definitely some real heartfelt music with soul and punch to it.

5. Love Man, by Whitesnake

If you're wanting blues that's just a little more laid back and traditional, then I would suggest this tune for you by Whitesnake. If you've been following this blog for a while you'll know that before Whitesnake started putting out MTV hair metal hits, they were a very reputable blues rock band who could hold their own with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, and other similar groups. This tune has a really cool shuffle to it with some real swagger. Singer David Coverdale definitely puts a lot of charisma into this performance.