I'm not just a Metal fan, I'm a MUSIC fan!

OK, this may surprise some of you, but I love more kinds of music than just metal. For others this will will be no shocker. It will shock most though some of the music I would say I like....and I'm not talking B*Witched!

At the end of the day, yes, Metal is my favourite style of music. I won't go in to specific sub-genres ... there's a rant coming about that at a later date. For me, metal is metal. Done.


The point I want to make is that I would never judge a song on it's source, believe it or not. There are songs/tunes I like for different reasons, but they all boil down to music and the sound of the music. I'll bet no one can guess my number one favourite musical moment, which will be the last thing in this post.


For one thing, if it has a great harmony sound then I'm hooked straight away. Bring that with a beautiful melody and I'm having it played at my funeral. The masters of this? The Bee Gees. No question. The first time I heard them do Massachusetts I was stunned and in awe. I'm sure more than one person would be surprised this is one of my all time favourite songs. The video below doesn't demonstrate what I just said the best, but I remember the first time I saw it and it's still my favourite version ....

Something else that always grabs me is a hook, or just a moment that gives a special moment or sound. Another track that I wouldn't turn off or skip is Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders. I'm not joking. There are some moments in there that just GRAB me! Right from the start, there are some great sounds in there. The vocal effect on "Baby, Baby, Baby" and the slight vocoder on the second "my voodoo child" ... it's a great sound. Yeah I know that it's a lot of production, but who cares! It sound great. When you hit the chorus section it works for me. The "Here come the drums here come the drums", the vocoder stuff, the "oooweee-ooo" bit.....it's all just sonically interesting an makes me listen. I can't get enough of the vocoder part that says "It's supernatural, coming undone". Then you get the Wah guitar part that just talks to the tune. You get the idea.

Another thing I love is counter points / counter melodies / counter singing. Seriously, I am constantly amazed when someone can have two different vocal lines that should clash, but work. The best example for me is Warren Zevon's Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner. Listen to the song/video below. At 1:39 is exactly what I'm talking about. The strong bass behind a main vocal with a counter melody vocal that harmonises at the end .... just wow. If I could be even a quarter musically clever as Warren Zevon was I'd be loaded ... or an obscure artist watching X-Factor thinking "F*** you!".

I'm guessing you can see where I'm coming from. I like a lot f music. I love music. I could put up videos from Queen to Stevie Ray Vaughan, to ZZ Top via Testament and Napalm Death. Then you could come see me and I'll be listening to Classical music or Native American chants.

A great song to highlight a lot going on in a track that grabs me is a Weird Al track. There are so many Weird Al tracks I could have picked, but this one is just phenomenal. From the first chorus part (at (0:54) to the vocal crescendo (2:30 - 3:01). That vocal harmony alone is worth listening to the whole track!

I used to hear a guy in the village I grew up in playing a dance/rave tune that had this Amazon type flute part that made me want to listen to the whole thing. This is someone I would never talk to or want anything to do with, but I went and asked him about it. I wish I could remember what it was.

One thing I'm going to throw in because I can't hear enough of it is Con Te Partirò done by Andrea Bocelli.

I'm not going to explain it or why I love it. Here it is. And it doesn't get better than this!

Like I said, I will never say anything sucks just because of where it comes from. I will always judge any song or tune on it's own merits, even if it comes from an artist/band I really don't like.

I'll bet a years wages that my iPod/iPhone has more divers tunes than yours!
I have to give mention to another thing that gets me going ... live music! I don't mind the use of post production and auto-tune in places, but I really love to see it live. Some bands over complicate things in the studio, which ends up with the live show seeming a bit flat. Others keep it simple in the studio then go hell bent for leather live which makes it seem too much live and it doesn't work.

Other bands get it spot on. Noteable mentions go to Oasis, KISS, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica, Paul Weller....even Chas 'n' Dave. For me though, top drawer and gold star go to Trivium. The band consistently knock it out the park in the studio. The amazing thing is the quality of their live performances. The have the main front man, Matt, who sings growls and plays. The you've got Paulo, the bass player, who can sing the nice parts/harmonies. You then have Corey, the leas guitarist who can growl with the best of them. This vocal cross over gives you the best live representation of some great great songs.

Trivium had to get a mention as they were the first band in years to get me excited about new music. For a while I was very much stuck within the circle of a few bands, but when I heard Trivium it made me sit up and listen again. They opened me up to cool new things in metal.

Right, my all time favourite/top piece of music is below. For me the Bagpipes are so limited that it forces people to be creative and I get goosebumps every time I hear this!

Please note: this ISN'T The version I wanted to put up, but I couldn't find a streaming link for the one I wanted to use.

I hope you get what I'm trying to get across.

There's more to me than metal.

Take it easy!

Ross

Great metal cover songs ... part 1

Instead of flooding my Facebook with YouTube videos, here's the first of a few posts like this ... listing YouTube videos.

I love cover versions! You may or may not know this :) Certainly, if you've heard about my project "Top Secret" then you know that! lol

Anyway, here are some of my favourite metal related cover songs:


Judas Priest - Cover of "The Green Manalishi (with the Two Pronged Crown)". Originally done by Fleetwood Mac.

This is a prime example of when a band takes a song and makes it their own. It keeps the essence of the original while owning it. They had enough respect for where the song was coming from to turn it towards their fans in a way that they would love and accept, so much so that many people don't realise it's a cover and can slip in to a Judas Priest live set at any time.

Please note ... this is a track by Fleetwood Mac when they were an amazing bluesy band and not commercial whores ;0)

Five Finger Death Punch - Cover of "Bad Company". Originally done by Bad Company


This is almost the polar opposite of the Judas Priest cover above, while still sticking to the same reasons I like it. They haven't really changed the arrangement/feel in any great way, but did it in their tone/sounds ... and for this song it works perfectly! It's still very much recognisable and the Bad Company original, but the version just works!

Kurt Nilsen - Cover of "Crazy Crazy Nights". Originally done by KISS


This is one of my all time favourite covers! It takes a great song, turns it on it's head ans makes it sound more than the original composers could have imagined. If I could do a cover half as good as this I wouldn't be sitting here giving my opinion on someone else doing it!

Skindred - Cover of "Electric Avenue". Originally done by Eddy Grant.


One of my newest favourite bands is Skindred! Brilliant stuff coming from them!

I remember growing up and my mum had a 7" of Eddy Grant's "Gimme Hope Jo'anna". I can't remember if the b-side was this or "Say Hello to Fidel", but I just remember loving his voice. "Electric Avenue" has always been one of the songs I can't skip.

Again, this is a straight cover but in the style of the covering band. I would love to hear Eddy's opinion on it. Benjis swagger comes though in this so well :0)

Killswitch Engage - Cover of "Holy Diver". Originally done by Dio.


This was a tough one. Not that the cover was tough to put in, but because there is more than one really good cover of this song. With this list I have taken the rule of mix tapes that my mate Wob drilled in to me. No mix tape should have more than one song by the same artist. For me, this list should have no more that one version of the same song. Ryan Adams almost made it, but the Killswitch Engage version just has so many memories for me and had such an immediate impact that I'm sure Ronnie loved it.

There's 5 for you. I'll post more another time :0)

Ross

Lost live songs. Dismissed Band Eras.

With the introduction of Dragon Force's new singer (which gets more and more impressive the more I listen to it) it got me thinking about one of my biggest band peeves .... new and old singers who refuse to sing other singers songs AND bands who won't acknowledge another singers era.

Why will some singers not sing the songs from the era when they were not in the band?
Why do some bands seem to pretend that a period in their history didn't happen?

The following is based on my opinion and comes from interviews/articles I have read. I obviously have no idea  what went on with the bands internally.

I'm going to start with a band who seems to be an exception to the rule. It's not just because they are one of my favourite bands, but Iron Maiden seemed to get the mix right with Blaze. I'm not going to go in to the transition, just the subsequent influence.

The first tour with Bruce and Adrian back was the Ed Hunter tour. A greatest hits tour. They played Blaze songs. They didn't just give a nod to them. They didn't do a medly. They properly performed these songs to the level they deserved! It has to be said, they went down a storm.

Next up, the tour for Brave New World ... the big event ... the first album since Bruce and Adrian's return .... they play "The Sign Of The Cross" and "The Clansman". They openly talk about Blaze and the contribution he made. It wasn't a black spot in their history, it was just another era. It helped make them they band they were at that point.

Other bands just want to blank certain personnel or periods. They want to pretend certain things didn't happen. Sometimes it's justified for legal/ethical reasons ( Tripp Eisen I'm looking at you. Even though they still acknowledge the music.... just not him) .... sometimes it's not.... maybe for personal reasons? My problem is that they will ignore great classic songs. Why?

I know that when Blaze sang with Maiden certain songs weren't played live (Like Bring Your Daughter ... ) as they were seen as signature tunes, and that's fair enough. There was a rational reason.

Sometimes it makes no sense to me though. I LOVE Ian Gillan, but I can't understand why he won't sing songs from the Deep Purple, Coverdale era. If anyone knows, can you fill me in? I would have given my right arm to see the reunited Mark II line up perform "Burn" or "Stormbringer". To be honest I would still give my right arm (or maybe just my left) to see the Mark VIII play "Burn".

Van Halen. The non-sense between Hagar and Roth and the attitude to each others songs is such a pain when you look at the set lists. You can't tell me Roth doing "Why Can't This Be Love" or "Best of Both Worlds" wouldn't be amazing live. The same goes for Hagar only wanting to play a few Roth "hits". The hits aren't always the best songs!

What if a guitarist turned round and refused to play another guitarists parts? Just sayin'.


My personal worst one is Judas Priest. They seemed to be fair with Ripper when Halford came back, then proceeded to wipe him from their collective memories.

I remember hearing an interview with Ripper (I think with Eddie Trunk or Boneyard. I'll try and find it) where he talked about the difference between what happened with Priest and Iced Earth. I listened to it thinking, fair play to Priest. They seemed to treat Ripper quite fairly in terms of how it was done and how he was treated. That seems to be where the fair play ended though.

I'll take this chance to reiterate that this is all based on reading interviews and other articles. I have NO first hand knowledge. It's all a fans opinion of a fans perspective.

The first time I saw Priest post-Ripper I hoped and hoped that we might get "One on One", "Burn In Hell" or even "Machine Man". It didn't happen. "Subterfuge" would have been epic

Fair enough I thought at the time. But as time went on I looked back  it was as if the Ripper era never happened. .

For me there were two glaring incidents of middle fingers being raised towards Ripper, and indeed the fans.

The first big one was the Epitaph World Tour, with a supposed career spanning set list. Brilliant thinks I! I am going to get to see what Rob will do with the Ripper songs. It won't be better, but it will be interesting. I avoided the set list for the most part. I heard of a few songs being played,  but only three or four. No mention of a Ripper song. I thought if it had happened it might be harder to avoid. (Even Iced Earth played a Ripper song on the new tour!)

There were no Ripper songs. Even during the gig Halford said they were going right from the start to the present day. What an insult! Ripper performed on some amazing Priest songs. I saw Judas Priest live (in fact the first time I saw Priest, Ripper was front and center!) and they performed "One on One" before I'd heard Demolition (I think it have been before Demolition was released). It's one of the few times I've come out of a gig and was singing and could remember a new song. Still a top track of mine.

The second middle finger was the worst. Judas Priest released the Complete Albums collection. There was 4 things missing. Neither the two studio albums or the two criminally underrated live albums were included. Not even a compilation CD as a nod to Ripper and the contribution he made to keeping the band going while Halford was out of the picture.

I understand that there may have been issues between labels, or maybe some other legalities. My problem is that it was brushed over. The least the band could have done is make a statement regarding the fact that there was no Ripper inclusions in the "Complete" collection.

So .... why?

Is it ego? Do the singers not want to acknowledge that the band may have gone on without them. Was there a thing in the back of their head that was telling them "If I leave, they can't go on"? Would singing the songs of their replacement be an acknowledgement of their replace-ability?

Pride? Too closely linked with ego, but the point still stands. Do they feel like if they sings the replacements songs that they are showing they had to come back? Do they feel like they wouldn't be able to perform them to the same quality that the "other guy" could?

Money? I don't know how this works, but is there a line in a contract that means "the other guy" gets money for their songs being sung (whether written by or not) therefore reducing the cut?


What if Brian Johnson had refused to sing Dog Eat Dog or Dirty Deeds ... ?

Anyway, I just don't get it.

Why pass up the chance to play a great song live? Why pass up the chance to whip up the crowd with a rousing rendition of a classic track? Why not give a nod to someone who kept a band alive when you wanted to "do something different"?

Any thoughts?

All the best.
Ross

By the way, I thought I'd put this on as .... well, I love it and it deserves to be put out there: