Throwback Thursday: Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?, by Megadeth

In 1986 Big Four thrash legend Megadeth put out its second studio album Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?; the last with its original line-up of Dave Mustaine on rhythm guitar and vocals, David Ellefson on bass, Chris Poland on lead guitar, and Gar Samuelson on drums. This was the band's first album to make a real impact and get the band's name out there, boosting them out from the woodwork that their debut album had kind of kept them in in the underground thrash community.

Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? has much better studio production than its predecessor Killing is My Business...and Business is Good!. This time around there is a lot less murkiness to the sound. Everything (the guitars especially) packs a lot more punch and sounds a great deal more crisp and defined. The lyrics in this record are also very aware of the great multitude of social issues going on in the world at the time, making it that much more relevant and poignant of a record.

The title track Peace Sells has one of the most iconic intros in all of heavy metal with that bass line and that simple stomping bass drum. Hell, MTV even used that intro as their intro for their news program for a while. Aside from that though, it talks about Mustaine's personal political/social beliefs and how the American political system needs a new structure. Even if politics aren't really your shindig though, it has some formidable riffs and some absolute killer guitar solos with hints of jazz scales here and there from Poland.

Wake Up Dead is another one of my personal favorite Megadeth tracks. Although the lyrics are less political, it's made up for in the riffage department. Mustaine uses a guitar technique called spider chords where he plays a power chord on one set of strings but has fingers free to play the lower ones, thus giving him more range and ability to play the harder stuff. As a guitarist myself I really admire it sheerly for its technical aspects, though aside from that it's one powerhouse of a tune that grabs you by the balls and won't let go.

Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? is definitely a Megadeth hallmark classic for a reason. From start to finish it is packed full of young Dave Mustaine's rage fueled riffs and lyrics while also featuring the astounding talents of three other hungry musicians. If you were to want to get started with Megadeth, this would be the record I would recommend going to as much as I love its predecessor. Plus, if you love blues it also has a Willie Dixon cover on it that the man himself actually liked.

Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? receives 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1. Wake Up Dead
2. The Conjuring
3. Peace Sells
4. Devils Island
5. Good Mourning/Black Friday
6. Bad Omen
7. I Ain't Superstitious
8. My Last Words

Buy the album on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Peace-Sells-But-Whos-Buying/dp/B000TGZRUS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475222847&sr=8-1&keywords=peace+sells+but+who%27s+buying

Rainbow to Release "Memories in Rock" Concert CD/DVD Set of 2016 Shows

Fans of guitar legend Ritchie Blackmore will be getting a real treat just in time for the holidays. Those who weren't able to make it to the man in black's first rock shows in two decades will be getting a CD/DVD set of the shows performed this past summer in Germany and England by Rainbow with a new line-up of vocalist Ronnie Romero, bassist Bob Nouveau, drummer David Keith, keyboardist Jens Johanssen, and a couple of backing vocalists.

The set titled Memories in Rock will be available to the public on November 18th as a DVD/2 CD and Blu-ray/2 CD sets and will also be available in digital formats. The deluxe version of the set which will include the DVD, Blu-ray, and 2 CDs as well as a 48 page hardback book and a triple LP version will come as an import on December 2nd.

 In a BraveWords interview back in July, Blackmore talks about the set, saying:

“I noticed when they clapped, they weren’t clapping so hard for Deep Purple. They said, ‘We hear that every year,’ because Purple goes around. So the next time, if we go out and we do anything, I would do probably 95 percent Rainbow songs. That’s what they seem to want to hear. And it didn’t occur to me. I just naturally assumed they wanted to hear everything.”

Somehow I'm not surprised by this. When people go to a Rainbow show they primarily want to hear Rainbow songs. Who'da thunk it, right? I love Deep Purple songs as much as the next Ritchie Blackmore fan, but in a Rainbow setting I would want to see him do primarily Rainbow stuff too. All that aside, I'm excited to get my hands on this new line-up of Rainbow's first and probably last release.

Memories in Rock - Live in Germany Track Listing:

1. Highway Star 
2. Spotlight Kid 
3. Mistreated 
4. 16th Century Greensleeves 
5. Since You Been Gone 
6. Man on the Silver Mountain 
7. Catch the Rainbow 
8. Difficult to Cure (Beethoven’s Ninth)
9. Perfect Strangers
10. Stargazer
11. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll
12. Child in Time / Woman From Tokyo
13. Black Night
14. Smoke on the Water

Metallica Premieres Music Video for Second Single from Upcoming Album: "Moth into Flame"

With the release of Metallica's first new album in eight years Hardwired...To Self-Destruct coming up quickly on November 18th the fans are getting more and more pumped. Already having a taste of what is coming with the recent release of the single Hardwired the band has decided to give the fans even more by releasing a music video for another single: Moth into Flame (which can be viewed below).

The video for Moth into Flame is rather simplistic, as was the one for Hard Wired. The only thing that is really any difference is in addition to clips of the band playing there are occasionally clips of moths gradually gathering around an old fashioned TV set with the clips of the band playing. In a way I can see how it's a commentary on how we are all like moths gathered around the TV/media and getting burned by how controlled we are by it. At least that's my interpretation of it anyway.

The song itself has a Master of Puppets vibe to it in some respects. The guitar dual harmonies and the big thunderous bass and drum rhythms kind of give it that. I don't feel it's any of Metallica's more memorable work, but maybe I just need to give it a few more listens and some time to set in. After all, I'm sure that was the case for all of their good songs when they were new. I do like that it switches between fast picked riffs to more beefy ones. The chorus definitely has a slightly poppy melodic feel to it, but not overly so.

Overall I liked Hard Wired a little better but I'm still excited for the whole album to come out. I like what I've heard so far. I just hope it doesn't sound too much like Metallica trying to imitate Metallica, if you know what I mean. Some times older bands try to recapture their old sound to please their fans and sell more albums but end up just sound like cheap imitating cover bands of themselves. We'll just hope for the best.

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #90

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. Hybrid Moments, by The Misfits

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Glenn Danzig is the best at being Evil Elvis. This sounds a lot like a 50's croon, but the band sounds so incredibly heavy that it takes the type of fun music we remember from that time period and just blasts it to a whole other level. I won't lie, if there was a sock hop and they were playing tunes like this I would actually put on my leather jacket, go, dance, and have a good time.

2. Heavy, by Glenn Hughes

Vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes is about to put out his first solo album in 8 years Resonate on November 4th. To get us all revved and ready for this release he has dropped a music video for the first single titled Heavy. It definitely lives up to its name. It's not the heaviest piece of music I've heard in my whole life, but it's the heaviest rock song I have ever heard him get behind the mic on if you don't count any of his work with Tony Iommi.

3. Into the Night, by Graham Bonnet Band

Former Rainbow and Michael Schenker Group vocalist Graham Bonnet has been rather busy lately too. He is also about ready to put out a new album with a brand new band he has put together. This definitely has some tones of his older work, but with a bit of a more modern edge to it. I like the video because it's one of those 360 videos that have been slowly working there way into the spotlight where you can click on the video, drag it, and see what's going on in a circle.

4.  Fool For Your Loving, by Whitesnake

Ever have a woman/man who has treated you just so crappy but always managed to somehow bring you back in until it got to a point where you were fed up with at all and were a fool for their loving no more? There are others who have felt your pain and this song is just for you and those other folks. There is a more metal version with Steve Vai playing guitar on it, but personally I think this original version is more warm, soulful, and organic.

5.  Clint Eastwood, by Gorillaz

This song is what got me into Gorillaz in the first place about 10 years ago. Rap usually isn't my style, but the lyrics are introspective and clever and I'm quite fond of the melodic vocal hook that acts as the chorus. There is a bit of a foreboding atmosphere to the song, but at the same time you can't help but have your spirits lifted a bit as the backing rhythm and synth kicks in. It's the good kind of cognitive distortion.

 

Windshield Wipers Sound Like Queen's "We Will Rock You"

It's a slow news day/night in the world of rock n' roll, but fortunately I still found something somewhat entertaining to tide you over till I have something a bit more newsworthy to write about for you. There exists a video (which is posted below) of a pair of windshield wipers making sound almost perfectly to Queen's classic We Will Rock You.

It's pretty amusing to see how spot on to the rhythm it is. Would have been cool though to have it synced up with the song itself rather than someone just mouthing out the vocal melody. Regardless, it's always cool when something from regular every day life sounds like something that reminds you of a song you love.

Megadeth is “Working Feverishly” on “Crazy Project”

Dave Mustaine and his brain child, the legendary thrash metal band Megadeth sure seem to be a busy bunch. It's only been nine months since they released their newest album Dystopia and already they have a big new project in the works according to Mustaine.

Mustaine recently sat down with Cry of the Wolf for an interview and Mustaine briefly went into the fact that the band is "working feverishly" on a "crazy project". In the interview Mustaine goes into a bit of detail, saying:

“We’re actually working feverishly with the hard drives to catalogue all the song ideas we have, to start working on separating them into new parts and so forth and so forth. We have a crazy opportunity of a project that I’m working on.

We have a lot of songs for that I’m working on. I can’t give you more details – but as soon as I can, I will start to record with these guys.”

I'm kind of wondering what this big secret project could be. If it were just another album it wouldn't be all that crazy aside from the fact that they did in fact just release a new album not all that long ago. Perhaps a soundtrack for a movie, TV show, or video game? Maybe a concept album? Perhaps a thrash metal opera? It could be virtually anything and quite frankly I'm intrigued to find out what it is asap.

Throwback Thursday: Burn, by Deep Purple

In late 1973 Deep Purple had really broken through as one of the major heavy rock acts in the entire world. They had produced classic album after classic album. However, things almost came to an end for the band when singer Ian Gillan quit the band for various reasons and bassist Roger Glover was let go shortly after. The three remaining band members had to come up with some new talent and quick if they were going to keep on the high rise. Fortunately, with the arrival of virtually unknown (at the time) vocalist David Coverdale (who would later form and front Whitesnake) and bassist/backing vocalist Glenn Hughes (more projects than I can list) and a change in their sound on their 8th studio album Burn the band managed to get even hotter.

During Deep Purple's Mark II line-up with Gillan and Glover the band had a rather straight up hard rock/borderline heavy metal feel to it. However, with Burn things took a more bluesy, funky, and soulful feel. The sound was still bold, out there, and larger than life but this time it had a new direction thanks to the new blood. You can definitely still hear the Ritchie Blackmore/Jon Lord guitar/organ power house just tearing it up and Ian Paice is just as much of an insane rhythm machine as ever.

Burn in my opinion is one of the single greatest tracks to ever open an album. It's uptempo, got a killer main guitar riff, blistering yet melodic guitar and organ solos, intense vocals, and much, much more. This is probably the closest to a Mark II song that was on the entire album. More importantly, it was basically a song to give Mark II the finger and let the whole world know that even though Deep Purple was changing it was still the best damn rock n' roll band on the entire planet and wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Sail Away is one of those tracks that in my opinion sadly gets often overlooked when people delve into and discuss the Deep Purple catalog. It has a lot of splendid funky synth work from Lord with some great back and forth lead vocals from Hughes and Coverdale. The guitar riff while rather repetitive is catchy and the slow mystical solos work into the mix absolutely great. It really does feel like you're being whisked away on a strange dark magical journey the moment you hear the first note of the song.

Burn is one of the most important and essential records of Deep Purple's entire career. It shows that the band was capable of doing so much more than just heavy or pop rock. Whatever they put their passion into they did absolutely phenomenal at. I personally love this record from start to finish, but most people will find at least a few tunes on here that stick with them in a good way. If you're the kind of person who likes genre fusions then this is definitely the album for you.

Burn, by Deep Purple receives 5 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1. Burn
2. Might Just Take Your Life
3. Lay Down, Stay Down
4. Sail Away
5. You Fool No One
6. What's Going On Here
7. Mistreated
8. "A" 200

Buy the album on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Burn-DEEP-PURPLE/dp/B00123KER8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1474619545&sr=8-2&keywords=burn+deep+purple

Writer's Moment:

Sorry about missing yesterday's post. Some personal stuff came up and I wasn't able to do it. I'll make up for it by doing the post Saturday instead when I would normally take the day off.