Still Spinning: Cinderella, "Long Cold Winter"

When Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer, who has been plagued with performance problems for many years due to paralysis of one of his vocal cords, posted samples from his long-awaited upcoming solo album, I had to hear them.

Though it’s hard to judge from the brief snippets, it appears the album will be an eclectic mix ranging from the hard rock of his former band to some country, blues and pop flavored songs. Listening to those samples, though, sent me to my CD shelf to revisit what is, in my opinion, Cinderella’s finest moment and one of the must-have records of 1980s hard rock.

Review: Ancient VVisdom, "Deathlike"

This is not your father’s metal band.

Oh, there are guys in leather and denim. There are skull motifs and maybe the occasional spike. There’s all the darkness that you could ask for from the gloomiest of doom metal bands. There are the grinding electric guitars … oh, um, wait a minute.

I’m not sure if Ancient VVisdom is technically the first acoustic metal band, but I’m thinking it’s a very small subgenre. They do occasionally crank up the distortion, but it’s used more as window dressing for their music rather than the focus as with most metal bands. Instead, bandleader Nathan Opposition puts his focus on the crafting of the song, and that’s where Ancient VVisdom excels.

Saturday Shuffle: Danzig, Alice Cooper, Sentenced, Slayer, Doctor Butcher

Time to shuffle again: 

“Brand New God,” Danzig. From the album IV (1994). IV is definitely not my favorite Danzig album, but this is one of the songs I do like. I love those sparse power chords of the beginning as Glenn Danzig wails out the first line. Then we get into more of a bashing metal-type song, then there’s that bendy guitar riff and slower part in the middle that reminds me of something off the first record. It’s definitely one of the high points of this record.

Saturday Shuffle: Savatage, Dangerous Toys, Disturbed, Pride & Glory, Dimmu Borgir

It's Saturday, time for more shuffling fun:

“Alone You Breathe,” Savatage. From the album Handful of Rain (1994). While good, this was a strange Savatage album. Criss Oliva had been killed by drunk driver and his brother Jon threw himself into this album, writing and performing most of the instruments, though he’s not credited. This song is something of a tribute to Criss, and it’s one of the most powerful in the band’s catalog. There’s a nice interplay between Zachary Stevens and Jon (again uncredited, but unmistakable) in the harmonies of this song, and it also borrows from the band’s greatest song (and one of music’s greatest songs) “Believe.”

Review: Pinnick Gales Pridgen, "Pinnick Gales Pridgen"

These days, it seems “supergroups” are a dime a dozen, but occasionally the combination works.

A new group with Dug Pinnick (King’s X, Poundhound), Eric Gales (Eric Gales Band, Lauryn Hill) and Thomas Pridgen (Mars Volta) is one of those occasions.

I’m an admitted King’s X fanboy. I’m familiar with the other two, but not a big fan of either’s previous work. Together, though, they create a dense soundscape for a three-piece that delivers slabs of grooving, electric blues-laced, funky hard rock.

Review: Holy Grail, "Ride the Void"

When one of the early lineups of White Wizzard split in 2008, it gave the rock world two of the best traditional metal acts out there.

Holy Grail, which originally featured former White Wizzard vocalist James Paul Luna, guitarist James J. LaRue and drummer Tyler Meahl, took a more serious and modern approach to the style, compared to the retro campiness that their former band does well. Their debut, 2010’s Crisis in Utopia, was one of my favorites of the year, and to this day, I think I like it more and more every time I hear it.

The biggest question about Ride the Void for me was whether or not Holy Grail could avoid the sophomore slump. The answer is that they absolutely do.

Saturday Shuffle: Aerosmith, Mojo Gurus, Ozzy, Savatage, Dio

And off we go on another round of the shuffle:

“Come Together,” Aerosmith. From the album Greatest Hits (1980). Originally recorded for the film “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” this cover of the Beatles’ classic might have been the best thing about the project. For me, it’s hands-down, the best Beatles cover ever, though I do admit to being an early Aerosmith fanboy.

Review: 4ARM, "Submission for Liberty"

I grew up in the golden age of thrash, and I loved it from the first time I heard it. The precise riffs, the often-complex arrangements and all the power and aggression I needed while still retaining melody and musicality. It was, and still is, my preferred subgenre of metal.

I had the Big 4 – Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax – all in their prime. I had Testament, Exodus, Overkill, D.R.I., Flotsam and Jetsam and several others that I know I’m forgetting at the moment. From the German variant, I had Kreator and Sodom. Out of Canada, I had Annihilator doing their own thing.

Against that lineup of bands, it’s hard for any of the young bands of the recent thrash resurgence to compete.

Saturday Shuffle: Soil, Jackyl, Brand New Sin, Iron Maiden, Megadeth

Today I launch a new weekly feature here that serves little point other than maybe occasionally embarrassing me or making me remember a record I’ve forgotten about.

I call it the Saturday Shuffle, and it goes like this: I’ll put my music collection on shuffle and comment each week on the first five songs that come blasting out of the speakers. No skips, no hedging over potentially embarrassing tunes that might pop up. The only songs that I’ll skip are duplicates that I’ve covered before. I hope you enjoy it, maybe find something that you’ve not heard or forgotten or possibly get an occasional laugh.

And away we go: