My Jack Russell Curse...

It seems that I am cursed by Great White frontman Jack Russell...

Jack Russell of Great White

In 2012 I bought a ticket to see Great White perform at a biker bar in SLC. When I arrived I waited and waited and waited at the outdoor stage that was just a platform sticking out of the cut out side of an old semi trailer. Finally a band came out, and they were doing a sound check by playing Great White tunes. I thought, "Why would the opening act play songs by the main act?" That's when I noticed that the guitarist and keyboardist on stage looked like the guitarist and keyboardist that were pictured in the "...Twice Shy" CD liner notes I had with me. Well who is that dude singing with them? That sure isn't Jack Russell.

A quick wiki search revealed that the band had split and there were now two Great Whites in the world, unbeknownst to me, and apparently I was seeing the one with original members Mark Kendall (guitar) and Michael Lardie (keyboard). Well that didn't set well with me. At all. With me the bands I enjoy are really for the singers. Every other person in the band can be replaced but the singer (excluding Van Halen, in which only the singer can be replaced), when they are replaced its a whole different band. So therefore I was pretty upset seeing someone other than Jack Russell singing for Great White. I decided I wasn't going to stay to see fake Great White, but I went to the side of the stage and waited for them to finish their sound check. As they came off stage I was able to meet Mark and Michael and get them to sign the liner notes I had and then left. The show was only $10, so I figured I hadn't lost that much; I mean I did get to meet some members of the Great White I've known and loved for most my life, and I got to be terrified by some pretty hardcore bikers. Win/Win. Except no Jack Russell.



Jack Russell's Great White



Fast forward to July 2014, I see Jack Russell's Great White is going to be playing at a charity event/biker rally for the Children and the Earth organization (childrenandtheearth.com) and I knew I had to be there. Ever since I recieved Great White's greatest hits for my 14th birthday I have been a huge fan (I also recieved L.A. Guns' self-titled and the greatest hits of Winger, Night Ranger, and Faster Pussycat. It was a life changing birthday gift, from my dad. Thanks dad!). Those albums helped shape my musical tastes, which ultimately shaped who I am today. There was no way I was missing out on this show! Everything was planned out, I'd go to work, hit up a family BBQ, and head to the show. Apparently I am cursed when it comes to seeing Jack Russell. I got off work late, my car broke down on the freeway on my way to the BBQ and I had to be towed, luckily I was able to borrow a vehicle but then had to go back to work to resolve an issue. So hell, first I go to see the band and they're fake, now everything is conspiring against me to prevent me from seeing this show! But against all odds I made it, I got there just early enough to meet Jack next to the stage when the sound check was happening and he signed the liner notes from one of his solo albums, and he also signed the same liner notes that the other members of fake Great White had signed in 2012. I was so excited to meet him, and he is such a cool guy to talk to. I also was able to get original bassist Tony Montana's signature on the liner notes that night, which makes 4 out of 5 of the musicians that recorded that album who have signed it. Even though I may have bad luck when it comes to this band, it didn't affect the performance, it was amazing. It was exactly how I wanted Great White to sound, and exactly what I needed after the wrath I got from the curse that day. Hearing him sing songs like "Desert Moon," and "Rock Me," which were such a part of my teenage years was very special for me. If you ever have a chance to see Jack Russell's Great White I highly recommend it! But I wouldn't bother with fake Great White...

Silver signatures: Top Left - Michael Lardie, Bottom Right - Mark Kendall from the 2012 (fake) Great White show. Black signatures: Bottom Left - Tony Montana, Top Right - Jack Russell from 2014 Jack Russell's Great White show.

Goatwhore album review

One of the last posts I did in 2012, before my two year hiatus, was about a Goatwhore show I went to here in SLC. At that time the tour was in support of their album "Blood For The Master." Well that was 2012, but today (7/8/14) their new album "Constricting Rage Of The Merciless" was released and let me tell ya, its pretty great.

This New Orleans based Blackened Death Metal band has given a steady stream of brutal, yet strangely melodic, albums. The song structure this band has really makes them stand out to me in the heavily saturated genre (other Death Metal based standouts include Whitechapel and The Black Dahlia Murder). And this album keeps me wanting more new tunes from Goatwhore. If you are into Extreme Metal and have not heard of them then 1) you've been under a rock, and 2) check them out.

Mushroomhead

Oh Mushroomhead. Hands down one of the best live bands around. They stopped by SLC July 2nd, on their way to join up with the 2014 Mayhem Fest tour, to support their new album "The Righteous & The Butterfly." The album is amazing, with the return of J Mann to the vocals alongside his replacement Waylon Reavis and front man Jeffery Nothing, the three of them create an amazing vocal performance. The guttural yells of J Mann, the clean vocals of Jeffery Nothing, and Waylon doing both adds so many layers to the sound of the album. It is a great change and a great sound. This band is too underrated anymore, which is a shame. They are a band I recommend a lot, I always describe them as if Pantera and The Cult had a baby that was raised by Nine Inch Nails. So seriously check them out.

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Why Linkin Park's New Album Is Important...

First of all, it's been over 2 years since I've blogged here! I just got distracted and kept meaning to start up again. Well I've decided to continue this music journal.

Now let's get to the subject of this post, and bare in mind that this is all my personal opinion. How could Linkin Park's "The Hunting Party" possibly be important? Well to begin, it is an amazing album, and one that old Linkin Park fans have been craving so long! But I want to set a scene up for you, let's do a quick history lesson. Linkin Park came up with the Nu-Metal scene that started in the 90's and early 00's. With Grunge shattering the hold that Metal and AOR bands had on MTV and the music industry of the 80's, the melting pot of music genres began to boil. Anthrax's team up with Hip-Hop/Rap group Public Enemy, and bands like Faith No More, had shown that the mixture of different genres was accepted very well by fans. Bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry gave the influence of Goth and Industrial Rock, the aforementioned coupling of Rap-Rock/Metal, and the aggression of Punk and Grunge (and generation X itself) all came together in the new breed of bands to carry on the banner of Heavy Metal. This genre was cleverly called Nu-Metal. Dominated by bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, System of a Down, and Rage Against the Machine; Linkin Park's Diamond certified debut album "Hybrid Theory," launched the band to the forefront of the scene (arguably). At the time they came around they were one of the few Nu-Metal band (along with Limp Bizkit and Evanescense) that was known to me and my friends, because that's what was popular on MTV and VH1.

As happens in the music industry, the Nu Metal "fad" began to wane and crumble as fans started looking for the next hot thing. But bands like Korn and Linkin Park still stayed relevant and popular. As their career advanced, Linkin Park started adding more Rap and electronic elements to their new albums; enough to capture many new fans and mostly keep loyal ones, but alienating many others. But on their 2014 album "The Hunting Party," Linkin Park stripped away the electronic elements and went back to the roots of where they started.

So here is where we come back to my original point: Why this album is important. Recruiting Page Hamilton of Helmet, Daron Malakian of System of a Down, and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine for guitar/vocal work and suddenly going back to the Hard Rock and Metal elements of "Hybrid Theory," "Meteora," and "Minutes To Midnight," is going to be a real shock to the fans they earned with the electronic fueled albums "A Thousand Suns" and "Living Things." It shows these new fans a scene that they most likely have not been exposed to before, alienating some undoubtedly (as "A Thousand Suns" did to me), and making others look into this once popular music style. Asking some of their influences and Nu-Metal peers to perform with them, and going back to their original Nu-Metal sound will also bring back fans they lost, not only to Linkin Park themselves but to Nu-Metal as a whole. You may think I'm crazy for saying one album will start a movement of Nu-Metal bands coming back into the limelight, and you most likely are right, but I'm willing to bet that this album is strong enough and released at the right time to do just that. Let's just hope Limp Bizkit isn't one of those comeback bands...

Top Albums of 2012 (So Far)

I've been really impressed by some of the albums that have come out so far this year. So here's a quick list of my favorites so far. 

1. The Cult - Choice Of Weapon. Hands down the best album I've heard so far this year! The rest of these albums are interchangeable, but The Cult is tops...for now.

2. Overkill - The Electric Age

3. Marilyn Manson - Born Villain. A definite step back in my opinion after the huge albums Eat Me, Drink Me and The High End Of Low. But still a very strong and sharp album from this Goth Metal Diva.

 4. Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth. I wasn't expecting much from this after I heard the single "Tattoo" (as previously posted), but I was extremely blown away by how strong this album actually was!

5. Goatwhore - Blood For The Master

6. Epica - Requiem For The Indifferent

7. Job For A Cowboy - Demonocracy

Scorpions / Geoff Tate

On June 11th I went with my Padre to see the almighty Scorpions on their "The Final Sting" farewell tour... but I also saw them in 2010 on their "Get Your Sting & Blackout" farewell tour. I'm pretty positive that I'll see them again one day, I don't think it will be a long retirement.

It started around 8 with Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche. It was suppose to be the entire band, but apparently the other members up and started a new band, leaving Geoff behind. The new band is called Rising West and is fronted by the singer of Crimson Glory. But here's what I don't understand: the band Rising West only does covers songs from the first 5 Queensrÿche albums... why not just stay with Geoff and say, "Hey man, I wanna play more old stuff"? Anyways, Geoff did something pretty cool. He did an acoustic Queensrÿche set with his solo band. It was very bluesy and much slower paced, but his voice was amazing. That's all that really matters. I would pay big bucks to hear Geoff Tate sing even acapella, so acoustic was fine by me.

Around 9 Scorpions came out on stage. Their set was interesting, it was extremely different from their 2010 set, which is cool. They are such great musicians, they are one of my favorite bands. I just hope they make at LEAST one more amazing album, because (as I've posted before) I don't feel like "Sting In The Tail" was a good farewell album. It took a couple of songs for Klaus Meine's vocals to get warmed up to the range we all love, and for a man who is 64 at the time of this concert he is still an amazing Metal vocalist. They played for about 1.5 hours and did a 3 song encore. The only two things I didn't enjoy about the concert were that they didn't play long enough and they weren't loud enough!

So Scorpions, please enjoy a few years off, but at least one more album and tour before you get too old. That would be much appreciated, sincerely The Metal Missionary.

RJD Day

Two years ago today, May 16th, Ronnie James Dio passed away after a battle with stomach cancer. Last year and this year on the anniversary of his death I have taken the day off of work and for the entire 24 hours of May 16th I listen to every single Dio song. The Elves, Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and every solo album; its all playing all day.

His music really helped me define who I am as a person today. As soon as I heard "Rainbow In The Dark" when I was in the 7th grade (on the "The Very Beast Of Dio" album my dad had bought) I was a Metalhead. Yeah I had Van Halen's debut, Metallica's "Black Album", Def Leppard's "Vault", and Saigon Kick's "The Lizard" all memorized early in elementary school; but that was the first time that I really labelled myself as a Metalhead. Once I had something that defined me I really came out of my shell, I had something I was passionate about! A decade later I'm still as passionate, if not more so, about all of Ronnie James Dio's music and the entire genre of Heavy Metal that he helped spread. I'm very saddened that I never got to see him perform. But am very grateful for the career he had.

Long Live Rock And Roll.