Ace Frehley - Remembering the 'Space-Ace'

 Post #408

Ace Frehley, the founding lead guitarist from KISS, and most prolific ex-member in terms of a solo recording career, passed away in October of 2025. His death shocked the rock music world. He was in the process of recording anew album of cover songs: Origins Vol.3. Whether any recordings from this project will ever be released is unknown. 

Ace Frehley leaves behind a legacy of a legendary rock musician. Firstly as a founding member of the theatrical rock group KISS, and secondly as a persistent, prolific solo artist. Most people will probably know him as the lead guitarist, and occasional vocalist, of KISS. 

During his tenure in KISS, Ace provided all the lead guitar solos and was a contributing songwriter on almost every KISS album from 1974 until 1981. In 1978 KISS made history as the first band to have all 4 members release solo albums simultaneously. Ace's solo album was the most successful, and can be seen as the true start of his solo career, which he began in earnest following his departure from KISS in 1982.

He released 3 albums from 1987 -1989, then had a hiatus until reuniting with KISS in 1996. He recorded and toured with KISS until 2002, when he again left the band and resumed his career as a solo artist. From 2009 through 2024 he would release 6 more albums: 4 original albums and 2 albums of cover songs: Origins Vol 1 & 2. It is worth noting that on the 'Origins' albums he re-recorded several KISS songs, singing the lead vocals on each. Several of these selections are songs he wrote in their early days, but would let the other 3 members of KISS sing vocals on the official recordings. Ace was not confident in his vocal abilities until later years.

For a thorough overview of Ace's best songs, from those he sang lead vocals on in KISS to each of his solo albums from 1987- 2024, check out this playlist on Spotify: Ace Frehley- The Space-Ace's Best.

If you are a collector of rare music, then you may want to track down the following songs by Ace:

-Cherokee Boogie

-One Plus One

-Take me to the City

Rest in peace, Ace.

Helloween with Beast In Black - 40th Anniversary Tour (4/21/26)

Post #407

On Tuesday, the 21st of April, 2026, a friend invited me to see their favorite new band, Beast In Black. They happened to be opening for the mighty founders of power metal: Helloween. I couldn't say no! Prior to this invite I had only peripheral familiarity with the music of Helloween. I knew the hits, of course. I had collected a couple compilations over the years: The Best, The Rest, The Rare and Unarmed: Best of 25th Anniversary. Additionally, I was completely new to the music of Beast in Black, a fusion of power metal and dance-metal. In the weeks leading up to the show I did a deep-dive into streaming the back-catalogs of both bands.

As the show opened up, Beast in Black gave us "Power of the Beast" to kick off their set, and it was non-stop from there on...

Their set included tracks from each of their 3 albums, and a few non-album singles. Their newest track, "Enter the Behelit", a collaboration with DIABLO video game franchise and inspired by the Berserk manga series, was featured in their set. It was an adrenaline-fused set of power metal from start to finish. They closed with "No Surrender".

Then the stage was changed over and the crowd prepared for Helloween...

Helloween opened their set with a video montage, playing on the gigantic video screen serving as a backdrop to their stage set, that showcased the album covers of their entire discography. As the montage ended they launched into the track, "March of Time" off of their landmark album, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2.

After that they proceeded to deliver an excellent setlist of songs from their debut album to their newest with a sampling of everything in between. At a couple places there was an interlude where 'The Keeper', their on-again, off-again mascot, narrated segments of the band's history as an introduction to the next song. You'll find the full setlist at the end of this post with a link to a Spotify playlist.

They featured several songs from their latest album, Giants & Monsters, my favorite of which was "Universe (Gravity for Hearts)", an epic song about space, time, life, love and eternity. I had only played this album a couple times a couple of times, so had not yet established my personal favorites from it. "Universe" is certainly at the top of my list after seeing and hearing it performed live.

Near the end they closed their main set with the epic classic "Halloween". A few minutes later they returned for an encore where they played "Eagle Fly Free", "Power" and "Dr. Stein" with the added bonus of the final chorus from 'Keeper of the Seven Keys".

All in all it was a fantastic night of power metal, from the pioneers of the genre to the new generation that will carry it forward for many more years to come. Please enjoy the setlists for each band. Click the links to save the playlist in spotify.com.

Setlist for Beast in Black:
-Power of the Beast
-Hardcore
-Sweet True Lies
-Born Again
-From Hell With Love
-Enter the Behelit
-Die By The Blade
-One Night in Tokyo
-Blind And Frozen
-No Surrender

Setlist for HELLOWEEN:

-March of Time

-The King for 1000 Years

-Future World

-This Is Tokyo

-We Burn

-Walls of Jericho/Ride the Sky

-Into The Sun

-Hey Lord!

-Universe (Gravity For Hearts)

-Hell Was Made in Heaven

-I Want Out

-In the Middle of a Heartbeat

-A Tale That Wasn't Right

-A Little Is A Little Too Much

-Heavy Metal (Is the Law)

-Halloween

-Eagle Fly Free

-Power

-Dr. Stein

-Keeper of the Seven Keys (last chorus only)

Happy Headbanging!

Back to the Beginning... Ozzy Osbourne's Final Show (July 5th, 2025)

 Post #406

On July 5th, 2025, from Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Ozzy Osbourne- the proverbial "Prince of Darkness", gave a memorable and unforgettable final performance. Ozzy, struggling for years with Parkinson's disease and unable to walk, fulfilled a long-standing dream of playing one final show* with the original Black Sabbath lineup in front of a hometown stadium crowd. What's even more- the entire, day-long celebration of all things Ozzy & Black Sabbath was live-streamed so that fans around the world could watch this momentous farewell performance. I was one of those fans, and while I could not watch the entire show in a single sitting, the live-stream ticket gave me a few days to re-watch the event, and I managed to see every band's set.

Part of the theme was to have each band that performed include a cover of a song by either Black Sabbath or from Ozzy's solo career. This is the element I will focus on for this post. To review every band's set completely would take forever. Besides, they'll probably release the whole concert on DVD or Streaming platforms eventually, right? We can hope!

So then, I will review each Sabbath/Ozzy cover song, and therefor build the most memorable send-off for the ultimate heavy metal icon in a setlist-to-end-all-setlists. Here goes nothing...

As the event began, our opening band was Mastadon. Their choice of a cover song was ‘Supernaut’ from the Volume 4 album. Drummer Brann Dailor sang lead vocals.

The next band was Rival Sons. I was not surprised to see them in the lineup, as they had opened for Black Sabbath on their 2016 The End Tour. They covered ‘Electric Funeral’ from Paranoid.

Big-Four thrash titans Anthrax were next, and they delivered an awesome version of ‘Into The Void’ off of the Master of Reality album.

Halestorm kept the show rolling and delivered the first cover song from Ozzy’s solo material with ‘Perry Mason’ from the Ozzmosis album.

Then came Lamb of God. Before launching into their Sabbath cover, vocalist Randy Blythe talked about how the world is a divisive place, as it was in 1971, and said how this song was a call to love ourselves and love our brothers and neighbors. The song was ‘Children of the Grave’.

As much as the A-list bands were doing an amazing job of showing the love and respect for Ozzy and Black Sabbath, what came next would raise the bar. A rotating lineup of a Supergroup, dubbed ‘Tom Morello’s All-Stars' took the stage and their set was primarily filled with cover songs. During this first set, here are the Ozzy & Sabbath cover tunes, with lead vocals credited:

-'The Ultimate Sin' (Lizzy Hale of Halestorm)

-'Shot In The Dark' (David Draiman of Disturbed)

-'Sweet Leaf' (David Draiman of Disturbed)

-'Believer' (Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe)

-'Changes' (YUNGBLUD)

During the intermission between the Supergroup and the next band, they played a video of a pre-recorded song by Jack Black and some School of Rock musicians: ‘Mr. Crowley’.

The next band was Alice In Chains and their choice of cover song was ‘Faeries Wear Boots’ from the Paranoid album.

Gojira came next, playing a short set that concluded with a cover of ‘Under the Sun’ from Volume 4. It was good to see a European band in the lineup, because otherwise, aside from Black Sabbath & Ozzy, all the other bands were American.

The next act was really more of a jam session that featured a drum-off between several drummers. They jammed to the riff from ‘Symptom of the Universe’. The drummers featured: Travis Barker, Danny Carey and Chad Smith.

The Supergroup returned for a flurry of more Sabbath and Ozzy covers mixed into their set of several other classic rock and metal songs. They included:

-'Snowblind' (Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins)

-'Flying High Again' (Sammy Hagar)

-'Bark at the Moon' (Papa V Perpetua from Ghost)

Pantera were up next. Their ‘legacy lineup’ features Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown as original members, while Charlie Benante of Anthrax and Zakk Wylde are playing drums and guitar respectively. Giving credit where credit is due, Pantera raised the bar, being the first original band to perform 2 Sabbath covers in their limited set time. They played ‘Planet Caravan’ and ‘Electric Funeral’, both from the Paranoid album, and both songs they had covered before.

Tool performed next. They covered ‘Hand of Doom’, another track from Paranoid. It was a fitting choice as it is a ‘prog-rock’ type of song that moves into different sections from beginning to end.

Another Big-4 thrash titan, Slayer, were next up. When it came time for their cover, they played ‘Wicked World’ from Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album. I loved this choice on so many levels. One: the lyrical themes are right on par with Slayer classics like ‘World Painted Blood’. Two: it was great to see Sabbath’s first album represented it the choice of covers. I’ve often thought that album is unfairly underrated.

There was another prerecorded video played between set-changes, this time by Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. He performed ‘Changes’ from the Volume 4 album.

Side note: I was aware by this point that more than one song was performed twice. I was slightly annoyed that the bands seemingly didn’t coordinate their song choices for the sake of avoiding repeats such as this, but under the circumstances I tried not to hold it against them. However, in this case I happened to prefer Yungblud’s version.

By this point the show was escalating towards the inevitable climax, as the performers were now clearly at the A-list level. The next band was Guns N’ Roses. GN'R raised the bar with their song selection, opening with not just one, not two, not even 3, but 4 Black Sabbath covers! Those were: 'It's Alright', 'Never Say Die', 'Junior's Eyes' and 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. With their selections, GN'R went deeper into the Sabbath catalog than we had heard up to this point. They were the first band to play selections from Black Sabbath's 7th and 8th albums with Ozzy: Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! Three of their four covers came from these albums, and one of those tracks ('It's Alright') was originally sung by original Sabbath drummer, Bill Ward!

The final "opener" before Ozzy would take the stage was Metallica. Arguably the world's most popular heavy metal band, Metallica got the final opening slot, and were beyond honored to be able to be a part of this finale to the Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne legacy. With Guns N' Roses' honorable inclusion of several deep-tracks from often-overlooked albums, could Metallica do anything to top that? Arguably, they did just as well. They opened with 'Hole in the Sky' from the Sabotage album, the only other track from this album performed on this day was the 'Symptom of the Universe' drum-off (which didn't feature any of the lyrics!). Then, before their set was finished, they also honored the Never Say Die! album with a performance of 'Johnny Blade'!

At long last it was time for the living legend himself: OZZY FUCKING OSBOURNE!

Performing his set seated in a bat-shaped throne, The Prince of Darkness rose from the stage, called for the crowd to scream, and began a set for the ages...

Giving it his all, one last time Ozzy performed his most iconic tracks:

'I Don't Know'

'Mr. Crowley'

'Suicide Solution'

'Mama, I'm Coming Home'

'Crazy Train'

Easily the most emotional moment of his set was his performance of 'Mama, I'm Coming Home'. Ringing with a symbolism never felt before, the lyrics and melody of this legendary ballad left no dry eyes in the audience, either in Villa Park, or anywhere in the world where fans were viewing it. I can vouch for this, personally. The track may be from the album No More Tears, but make no mistake, there were tears on this historic day.

One final set change-over, and before you knew it, Ozzy's original Sabbath bandmates, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward were on the stage with Ozzy Osbourne, and they delivered the most classic of Black Sabbath songs:

'War Pigs'

'N.I.B.'

'Iron Man'

and of course, 'Paranoid'!

As fireworks closed this evening of legacy, tribute, love, and respect for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, the original members presented Ozzy with a congratulatory cake.

24 Black Sabbath tracks spanning all 8 original albums with Ozzy.

12 Ozzy Osbourne songs from 5 of his albums.

36 total tacks performed to honor a single, iconic legend of heavy metal music...

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne.

Enjoy this playlist of those tracks. If possible, the covers by the performing artists are included. If the cover version has not been recorded for streaming, I used the original Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne recording.

Back to the Beginning: A Black Sabbath & Ozzy Osbourne Playlist.

Happy Headbanging to all!

(* Ozzy passed away just weeks after this performance. Ozzy has often sang about his love of performing music, as the lyrics of songs like 'I Don't Wanna Stop' or 'Not Going Away' have depicted. The timing of his death makes these and so many more of his songs all the more prophetic. I will have much more to write on Ozzy, Black Sabbath, and his bandmates in other upcoming posts very soon...)