Ian "Lemmy" Killmister: 1945-2015

Post # 319

On December 28th, 2015 Motorhead frontman Lemmy Killmister passed away from "an extremely aggressive cancer". This comes as a shock to the entire subculture of heavy metal music. Other notable iconic artists have been sharing their life experiences through their independent websites and social media pages. I'm sure by now many of you have already read several of those posts, so I won't bother posting links here- they'll be easy enough to find with simple google searching. I just want to take a moment to reflect on Lemmy's body of work, influence, and legacy in heavy metal.

What I will share with you are my previous reviews, suggested songs and albums from Lemmy's bands Motorhead and Hawkwind. (Yes, for the casual follower of Lemmy and Motorhead, he was in another band, Hawkwind, before he formed Motorhead, from 1972-1975!) Although I may never have considered myself a 'Die-hard' fan of Motorhead, it was impossible to get as deep into heavy metal music as I have without knowing a lot of Motorhead music. Lemmy is also well known as an amicable collaborator within the industry, as I have been reading over and over again in memoirs of rock and metal musicians in addition to the previously mentioned social media updates. To name a very underrepresented few of those who cite Lemmy and Motorhead as a significant influence are Twisted Sister, Metallica, and Ozzy Osbourne. Many of the independent bands I have reviewed on this blog also consider Motorhead a significant influence. There really are too many to name. Even as an artist who never cared what others thought of his music, Lemmy's dedication to the fans was undeniable. Motorhead was constantly on tour for the better part of 5 decades.

I count myself fortunate enough to have had the chance to see Motorhead in concert twice. In each case, they were not the main draw for me personally, but each time I walked away impressed, satisfied, and more a fan than I was before. The first time I saw them as part of The Metal Masters Tour in 2008. Judas Priest was the headliner in support of their Nostradamus album. Several years later I attended Megadeth's Gigantour in 2012. I recall I enjoyed this performance by Motorhead better than the first time. Click the links for my full reviews of those shows.

Before I go into my recommended Motorhead music I'm first going to suggest you find some early music by Hawkwind and listen to it. Lemmy started out in this psychedelic space-rock band and their early work is considered a key influence on the early years of heavy metal. He even performed with them occasionally as a guest through the years. See him singing lead vocals on the Hawkwind classic 'Silver Machine' here. Hawkwind are still around, you can like their facebook page to keep up on their music. Other famous songs from their early years that feature Lemmy include 'Lost Johnny' and of course 'Motorhead'. 'Lost Johnny' was included in The Heavy Metal Box (box set of significant Heavy Metal music from the late 60's to the mid 90's).

Their newest album, Bad Magic, was just released on August 28th of 2015. The band had planned a 40th anniversary tour, but some things are just not in the cards... Bad Magic is also available in a number of special packages through Motorhead's main website. Shop for one of them here.

I'll leave you with some of my personal favorites from Motorhead, but whatever you do to honor Lemmy and his legacy to music, do it loud, and without a care for what others may think of you. Be true. Be loud. Be a motherfuckin' bastard!

My recommended Motorhead ALBUMS:
-Ace of Spades ('80)
-Orgasmatron ('86)
-1916 ('91)
-Inferno ('04)
-The World is Yours ('10)

My favorite Motorhead Songs:
-Ace of Spades
-Get Back in Line
-Just 'Cos You Got the Power
-Kingdom of the Worm
-No Voices in the Sky
-Going to Brazil
-Overkill
-God Was Never On Your Side
-I Know How to Die
-R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
-Killed By Death
-Deaf Forever
-In The Name of Tragedy
-The Game
-Hellraiser

And don't forget (from Dave Grohl's Probot album...)
-Shake Your Blood

GIGANTOUR 2012: Lacuna Coil, Volbeat, Motorhead, Megadeth

Post # 217
On February 12, 2012, it was time to hit the road for another great rock n' roll/heavy metal show... Our destination this time: Milwaukee's Rave/Eagles Club for Megadeth's GIGANTOUR!

We were cutting it a little close for our arrival time, rushing into the venue as we heard music blaring already. Lacuna Coil had already taken the stage! We arrived in the actual music hall in time to catch most of their set. My favorite part of their set came between Fragile and Kill the Light, as Cristina looked up the the lighting tech-booth and said, "I think it's time we Kill the Light..." She likes making plays on the words of their song titles. I thought it was clever, and the song was awesome!

Lacuna Coil delivered an excellent set, culminating with their hit 'Spellbound' from their Shallow Life album a couple years ago. During the intermission, we edged our way in a little closer, and segments of the crowd shifted either for drinks or the rest rooms. We agreed to repeat this practice between each band through the evening to see how close we could get by the time Megadeth came on.

But next up was Volbeat! From Denmark, Volbeat are a metal band not quite like any other. They are heavy, sure, but they blend in a lot of old-school rock n' roll (almost the likes of Elvis Presley), resulting in a heavy, melodic, and catchy style of metal that's almost impossible not to dig. Currently they are getting a lot of air-play on hard rock radio with their hit 'A Warrior's Call'.

It may be no surprise, then, to hear that they opened with that very song. The opening lyric, "Let's get ready to rumble!!" almost made it feel like we were at a WWF event, but the music was much louder and heavier! Volbeat had it cranked up pretty loud, and their choice of songs displayed their versatility. Their softer side came across best on the tune 'Fallen', which has since become a frequent radio hit for them as well. Check that one out if you haven't... it's a great song!

Just as they were about to wrap things up, in the middle of their last song, they broke into the main riff from Slayer's 'Raining Blood'. So the crowd whipped back up into a true frenzy just as they closed their set. Now we were totally amped for Motorhead...

During the intermission, my buddy and I again crept slightly closer to the stage. Better view, more centrally located within the venue, alright!

Motorhead came out to the stage in a nonchalant sort of mood. Lemmy Kilmister simply walked up to the mic and asked if we were ready for some rock and roll. Then he let us have it, Motorhead were off and rolling... or perhaps rumbling is the better word. Drummer Mickey Dee was like a machine, driving the locomotor-sized engine of the rock'n'roll-meets-metal beast that is Motorhead. Their set was mostly composed of older songs that are fan-favorites, but they did play 'I Know How To Die' from their most recent album, The World Is Yours.

Lemmy was the classic business-like front man, keeping any intros between songs very short in favor of getting to the music quickly. The only down side may be that their set flew by pretty quickly, with the exception of Mickey's drum solo. They closed with two of their best-known songs, 'Ace of Spades' and 'Overkill' before leaving us to gather out breath for Megadeth...

Megadeth took the stage to near-deafening cheers. By this point we had secured a spot on the floor much closer to the stage. We braced for some furious thrash-metal... and once the drums started to thunder, indicating the beginning of the first song, 'Trust', we became engulfed in a throng of moshers. The mosh pit had started in earnest now, and we to a few minutes to fight our war into a spot to stand. Cramped and sweating with the raw energy, we locked in and pumped our fists to some of Megadeth's classics, like 'Hangar 18' and 'Wake Up Dead'.

Unlike the last time I saw Megadeth, back on American Carnage, this time they mixed up their set with several of their more melodic-metal songs. As the opportunity was here, Dave Mustaine invited Cristina Scabbia to join him to sing the duet-version of 'A Tout Le Monde'. The more obscure song 'Foreclosure of a Dream' was played as well. They also performed a string of 3 tracks from their new album 13 before closing with the encores 'Peace Sells' and 'Holy Wars'.

What an incredible night of metal mayhem!
The set lists for each band were...

Lacuna Coil
-Our Truth
-Upsidedown
-Fragile
-Kill the Light
-Trip The Darkness
-Spellbound

VolBeat
-A Warrior's Call
-Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood
-The Human Instrument
-Sad Man's Tongue
-Hallelujah Goat
-Who They Are
-Fallen
-The Mirror and the Ripper
-Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza
-Still Counting (Raining Blood)

Motorhead
-Bomber
-Damaged Case
-I Know How To Die
-Stay Clean
-Over The Top
-The Chase is Better Than the Catch
-The One to Sing the Blues
-Going to Brazil
-Killed by Death
-Ace of Spades
-Overkill

Megadeth
-Trust
-Wake Up Dead
-A Tout Le Monde (w/ Cristina Scabbia)
-Hangar 18
-She-Wolf
-Foreclosure of a Dream
-Dawn Patrol
-Poison Was The Cure
-Head Crusher
-Public Enemy No.1
-Who's Life (Is It Anyway?)
-Guns, Drugs, and Money
-Symphony of Destruction
-Peace Sells
-Holy Wars... The Punishment Due

Heavy Metal Madness: Second Round Summary, part 2!

Post #208

Back on July 20th, the Heavy Metal Madness 2012 Tournament officially reached the 'Sweet Sixteen', as 8 more bands were eliminated as the second round polls closed. The results for last month's voting were as follows...

Megadeth beat Motorhead 25-11,
Judas Priest upset the #2 seed Slayer 21-14,

Nirvana beat Rob Zombie 21-15,
Alice In Chains dominated Lacuna Coil 30-7,

AC/DC beat Queen 23-14,
Led Zeppelin edged out a close match with Ozzy Osbourne 20-17,

Tool came from behind to beat Bullet for My Valentine 23-12,
and System of a Down won a close match with Korn 18-15.

With these results in the bag, it is now on to the Sweet Sixteen! The first half of this round is now open for voting through August 19th. Cast your votes in the right hand column before then. >>>>>>>>

Now let's reflect a moment on the bands who were just eliminated. Here's a recommended song from each of them:

Motorhead-Overkill

Slayer-South of Heaven

Rob Zombie-American Witch

Lacuna Coil-Trip the Darkness

Queen-Bohemian Rhapsody

Ozzy Osbourne-No More Tears

Bullet for My Valentine-Scream, Aim, Fire

Korn-Another Brick in the Wall

Until the next round summary... Happy Headbanging!

Remember to keep voting....

HEAVY METAL MADNESS: First Round Summary, Part 3

Post #193
The March-April segment of the ongoing Heavy Metal Madness tournament again featured some exciting match-ups between some of the best bands in rock and metal music. While some heavily favored bands went on to comfortable victories, there were a couple surprises. Let me summarize the upsets first, then I'll give the full list of results.

In the #8 vs #9 match of the Alternative/Punk/Gothic Metal block, Rob Zombie (#9) pulled off the upset over Godsmack (#8) by the narrow margin of 35-29. In a bigger surprise, the #13 seed Lacuna Coil upset #4 Green Day in dominant fashion, doubling the vote-count 42-21!


The remaining results for this block were as follows:
Nirvana (#1) topped Stone Temple Pilots (#16) 48-19.
Alice In Chains (#5) beat Faith No More (#12) 50-12.

Meanwhile, in the Classic Metal/Thrash/Progressive Metal block, the results were a little more predictable, as each favored seed advanced.
Motorhead (#6) beat Dream Theater (#11) 42-18.
Megadeth (#3) dominated Testament (#14) 59-5.
Judas Priest (#7) beat Sepultura (#10) 52-11.
Slayer (#2) comfortably eliminated Exodus (#15) 53-8.

Vote results have been steady over the first 3 months of this contest. I hope this pattern can continue over the summer. Keep the votes coming! Keep sharing this blog and the polling contest with your friends and on your favorite social networks...

Now some recommended songs from those bands eliminated last month:
Stone Temple Pilots-Plush
Godsmack-Shine Down
Faith No More-Epic
Green Day-American Idiot
Dream Theater-Pull Me Under
Testament-Three Days In Darkness
Sepultura-Roots Bloody Roots
Exodus-Toxic Waltz

The Metal Masters Tour

Post #67
[This is a concert review of the perfomance in Tinley Park, IL on August 19th 2008]

In recent years I've taken up the tradition of attending at least one concert a year, usually in the summer, and often it is one of the multiple-band festival tours I manage to see. Since I'm also very budget conscious, I usually get Lawn Admission and save a few bucks, unless one of bands on the bill includes complimentary tickets with their new album (as many artists have done in recent years). Either way, these summer "fest" tours are a great deal; you get to see a dozen or so bands for about the same price you would pay to see 2 or 3 bands on a regular tour.

In the summer of 2008, I was lucky enough to see 2 shows. The first one (which I reviewed in a previous post), was Poison on their Live, Raw, & Uncut Tour. However, the one I looked forward to the most was The Metal Masters Tour. This show was on the smaller side for a "fest" format, only featuring 4 bands, but it was a powerful quartet: Testament, Motorhead, Heaven & Hell, and Judas Priest! Judas Priest included a code for a free ticket in their Nostradamus album, and I bought 2 copies so I'd have a pair of tickets to the show.

As with the Poison show, I attended this concert with my brother. He was familiar enough with some of the music of Motorhead & Judas Priest that he didn't mind going, although he didn't consider himself a huge fan of any of the bands. Hopefully the concert experience has swayed his opinion a bit, but that remains to be seen...

Upon our arrival, an interesting scenario developed. It seemed that the concert was undersold, and the venue staff were keeping the gates to the lawn area closed. A little aggravated, I asked one of them what was up. They replied that since the pavilion seating was severely undersold that anyone with lawn tickets could trade their ticket in for a free upgrade to pavilion seating!

So my brother & I got our upgraded tickets and got a bit of a closer view of the show. I was a little disappointed that the turnout wasn't better, but to see this show for the cost of Judas Priest's new album was well worth it. Before we even found our way to the upgraded seats, Testament came on-stage...

The 80's bay-area thrash movement went much deeper than some of today's new heavy metal fans realize. Sure almost everyone knows about Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, but there were plenty more bands where those came from. Testament was one of those lesser-know, but just as heavy, old-school thrashers. I couldn't tell what a few of their songs were (mostly because I hadn't yet heard their newest CD- The Formation of Damnation), but it was easy to jump right into the frenzied headbangin' madness that had ensued! After a couple songs, I finally recognized "Practice What You Preach", and the crowd got totally into it at that point. Clumps of fans could be seen shaking their long manes of headbangers' hair like it was still 1989!

Being the opening band, they had the shortest set. They focused on playing material from their new album, and were finished all too soon if you ask me. But the songs they played were great, and they got the crowd pumped for the next act... Motorhead!

Truthfully, neither of us had heard much of Motorhead's music. I knew some of their better known songs like Ace of Spades, and Damaged Case (thanks to Metallica covering it on Garage Inc.). My brother said he'd heard a couple songs on Monday Night Raw, since one wrestler always had a Motorhead song played for a theme song. However for the most part the majority of their set was a totally new experience for us.

Not being familiar with most of the lyrics, I found most songs difficult to follow. Lemmy Killmister's thick English accent didn't help much either, and his interludes between numbers wasn't any easier. However the one thing I have to give Motorhead credit for is their attitude and delivery. They really played with a 'go-for-the-kill' attitude. The vibe of their live set was like metal-meets-punk brawl. My personal favorite part of their show had to be the drum solo. That dude can drum fast!

Next up was Heaven And Hell, the Black Sabbath line-up that features Ronnie James Dio on vocals with Vinnie Appice on drums. This time around they are calling themselves Heaven And Hell and their set list was composed entirely from material on the Dio-recorded Black Sabbath albums. I knew this was their approach ahead of time, so I was hyped to hear such an era-focused collection of songs. Some may have been disappointed by the absence of any "classic" Black Sabbath songs, but beggars can't be choosers.

Their stage set up was pretty elaborate; hulking gargoyles flanked both sides of the stage with eyes that glowed red, and wrought-iron fencing lined parts of the stage. The show began with the instrumental "E5150" as an intro, slow buzzing notes from distorted guitar with a bit of volume-swell effect... When Tony Iommi's scheaching guitar burst forth with heavy riffs, we were off and rocking with Heaven & Hell!

"Mob Rules" was the first song and it got the crowd rolling. The rest of the set was no disappointment either, as they mainly played numbers from their 1st album together, Heaven & Hell, balanced by selections from Mob Rules & Dehumanizer plus one of their new songs from the Black Sabbath: The Dio Years collection. Most memorable moment had to be when the gargoyles' heads pivoted and spewed smoke during the song "Heaven and Hell".

As great as that set was, the best was yet to come, for Judas Priest was about come on stage...

With stage lights swirling about the darkened stage, "Dawn of Creation", the intro to Judas Priest's Nostradamus album, set the tone for the show while the band took their positions on-stage among the shadows. When the lights came on the band jumped straight into "Prophecy", also from the Nostradamus album. I was transfixed.
Here I was, finally seeing the legendary Judas Priest unleashing the best of their heavy metal glory! Only one thing had me perplexed.... Where the hell was Rob-Frickin'-Halford!?!? Glen Tipton, KK Downing, & Ian Hill were all on stage, chugging out their heavy riffs, and Scott Travis behind the drum kit (obviously), and I was hearing the Metal God's unmistakable voice narrating the essence of Nostradamus.... but where was he?!? For the first entire verse of the song I couldn't have told you where he was singing from. But then the Nostradamus 'statue' (which I thought was part of the stage-set), high on a platform stage-left, moved its staff about one foot to the left!

Draped in a golden cloak, Rob Halford continued singing as he slowly descended from the platform to the main level of the stage. Once there, he removed his hood as he continued belting out the lyrics of the song. What a master of stage-presence!!! Halford's voice has always been one of my favorites in metal music. Now I can truly consider him as one of the greatest front-men of all time. As the band delivered an awe-inspiring performance of Priest classic after classic I was banging my head and pumping my fists as never before! Tipton & Downing exhibited some of the best guitar soloing I'd ever seen live in concert, especially during 'Painkiller'-one of my all-time favorite Priest songs. Judas Priest are ever-deserving of their nick-name; The Metal Gods. Even on this night of The Metal Masters, they shone the brightest of them all!

Here are the set lists from this show. For the most part they are from my own memory and/or jotted notes during the show. I could be mistaken on some of the songs from the Testament & Motorhead segments, but these should be pretty close...

Testament

-Over The Wall
-Electric Crown
-Practice What You Preach
-More Than Meets The Eye
-Henchmen Ride
-Formation of Damnation
-Dog-Faced Gods

Motorhead
-Dr. Rock
-Stay Clean
-Be My Baby
-Killers
-Metropolis
-Over the Top
-In The Name of Tragedy
(drum solo)
-Just Cos' You Got the Power
-Killed by Death
-Ace of Spades
-Overkill

Heaven & Hell
-E5150
-Mob Rules
-Children of the Sea
-I
-Sign of the Southern Cross
(drum solo)
-Time Machine
-Falling Off the Edge of the World
-Ear in the Wall
-Die Young
-Heaven and Hell
-Neon Knights

JUDAS PRIEST
-Dawn of Creation
-Prophecy
-Metal Gods
-Eat Me Alive
-Between the Hammer and the Anvil
-Devil's Child
-Breaking the Law
-Hell Patrol
-Dissident Aggressor
-Angel
-The Hellion
-Electric Eye
-Rock Hard, Ride Free
-Painkiller
(encores)
-Hell Bent for Leather
-The Green Manalishi (With Two-Pronged Crown)
-You've Got Another Thing Coming

(image references: Testament from www.cloomisfotos.com; Motorhead from www.rollingstone.com; Heaven & Hell from musicaenprogreso.blogspot.com; Judas Priest from juniors-eyes.blogspot.com)