Still Spinning: Motley Crue, "Theatre of Pain"

When talking about Motley Crue’s classic 1980s albums, Theatre of Pain usually gets ranked at or near the bottom of the list. Even bassist Nikki Sixx has gone so far as to call it “rubbish.” I was thinking about the record as I was being subjected to an awful country-pop version of “Home Sweet Home” in a restaurant recently and, looking back, I believe it might have gotten short shrift.

Theatre of Pain had a couple of things working against it at the time. First, it came on the heels of two really good albums. The debut Too Fast for Love was glitzy, raunchy, raw and energetic. They followed that up with the more metallic and angry Shout at the Devil — which is for my money, the band’s best outing. Those are a couple of tough acts to follow.

Review: Armored Saint, "Win Hands Down"

You may never know how long it’s going to take to get a new Armored Saint record, but you can be sure when it gets here that it will be quality. So it goes with their latest, Win Hands Down.

Armored Saint’s output has been sporadic since 1991’s Symbol of Salvation, arguably their best record. Faced with an uncertain future for Armored Saint following the death of guitarist Dave Prichard from leukemia, vocalist John Bush opted to accept an offer to join thrashers Anthrax following that record. We wouldn’t hear from Saint again until 2000, when the band reunited to record the, in my opinion, highly underrated Revelation.

It was another 10 years (not counting a compilation album) with a lot of ups and downs before La Raza arrived in 2010, but again, it was worth the wait. That brings us to the new record, only five years in the making, and the title track and lead single announces to start the record that this is the same, reliable Armored Saint we know and love.

Review: Bob Wayne, "Hits the Hits"

Gambling is a dangerous game. Just ask Bob Wayne. You could go from refusing to perform covers, to doing a silly cover song because you lost a bet, to doing a whole album of covers. It’s a slippery slope.

Wayne’s latest, Hits the Hits, all started with a lost bet that found him performing a cover of Meghan Trainor’s “All About that Bass,” his first ever. A few months later, and we have a 13-song collection of covers from the DIY country singer.

Don’t expect any Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings, even though they’d seem to fit his style more. On this collection, Bob Wayne puts his own spin on classic rockers like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy and Guns N’ Roses, along with some much stranger pop choices — like Adele, Rihanna and Gnarls Barkley. There’s even a Bob Marley tune in the mix.

Review: Savatage, "Return to Wacken"

As Savatage prepares to take the stage for the first time since 2001 today at Germany’s Wacken Open Air Festival, I finally received my copy of their latest release, Return to Wacken.

First off, I’ve got to say that I should have done my homework on this before paying the import price. The title of the album is a bit misleading. I was expecting, perhaps, some live performances from the band’s previous appearances at Wacken. Instead, we have studio versions of songs that the band has performed at Wacken. It’s a bit disappointing to pay a premium for songs I already have, but that said, it’s still a pretty nice collection, if a bit heavy on their later work.

Return to Wacken opens with three bonafide classics for Savatage fans – “Hall of the Mountain King,” “Gutter Ballet” and “Believe.”

Review: "The Decline of Western Civilization Collection"

A lot of years have passed since I’ve watched Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, but it was a staple of my teenage days. Thanks to the new Decline of Western Civilization Collection from Shout Factory!, I had a chance to relive at least a few hours of my misspent youth and look at it from a very different perspective.

The boxed set collects all three of Spheeris’ Decline of Western Civilization documentaries on Blu-ray, with an extra disc of outtakes and extended interviews. Coming into this viewing, I had seen the first film once or twice, Part II probably a dozen times or more, and I had never seen Part III, which was previously unreleased on video.

The first film focuses on the punk scene of Los Angeles in the late 1970s, with groups like Black Flag, X, and Fear. Penelope Spheeris documents a series of live performances from L.A. punk bands interspersed with interviews with the musicians and other punk fans. It’s the format that all three movies will follow. The focus of this first film is solidly on the music, the ideas behind it and the people who make it.

Review: Immortal Randy Rhoads: The Ultimate Tribute

What’s not to like about Immortal Randy Rhoads: The Ultimate Tribute? You’ve got the songs of one of the greatest metal guitarists of all time recorded by an all-star cast of hard rock and metal musicians with the blessing and participation of the Rhoads family.

Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit not to like about it.

While the song choices from the Ozzy catalog feature very few surprises, it is nice to see that they plucked a couple of tunes from Randy’s days in Quiet Riot, and they even get an assist from his brother Kelle on vocals for “Back to the Coast.”

Being a huge fan of Tim Owens, I was excited to see that he was singing on eight of the 11 tracks from Immortal Randy Rhoads: The Ultimate Tribute. After listening to it, though, I think we might have found a metal legend that “Ripper” can’t mimic. I remember him doing a great version of “Mr. Crowley” with Yngwie Malmsteen for an Ozzy tribute some years ago. Here, he sings some of the songs well, but most just don’t work. Though Owens is inarguably a more technically talented vocalist than Ozzy, there’s a quality in Ozzy’s voice that Owens just can’t recreate.

Saturday Shuffle: Alice in Chains, Warrel Dane, Grand Magus, Sebastian Bach, Sepultura

A pretty heavy lineup this week, though we do at least hit five different subgenres ...


Alice in Chains, “Frogs.” From the album Alice in Chains (1995). For some reason, Alice in Chains’ 1995 self-titled album never seems to really get its due. It produced its hits, but wasn’t quite as straightforward, perhaps, as Dirt or Facelift. This dark, moody number is a perfect example of that with a quirky melody and Layne Staley delivering the end of each verse line in a lilting, high tone. Not my favorite song from the record, but good stuff nonetheless.

Review: Sweet and Lynch, "Only to Rise"

I’ve debated this fairly often over the years with Stryper fans who think I’m absolutely crazy, but the one thing that always kept Stryper from being a favorite of mine was the vocals.

I don’t mean to imply that Michael Sweet is not a great vocalist. The guy can obviously wail, but his voice was always just too squeaky clean and, well, angelic for my tastes, particularly on the heavier tunes. Oz Fox would lay down this gnarly, heavy riff, and the soaring vocals just didn’t seem to match. I wanted something a little more down and dirty. In fact, to this day, Against the Law — though controversial among fans — remains one of my favorite Stryper recordings, and for just that reason.

So, I had a little trepidation going into Sweet and Lynch’s Only to Rise. Remarkably, though, former Dokken/current Lynch Mob guitarist George Lynch — Sweet’s partner in this enterprise — has done a terrific job of matching up with Sweet’s vocals. There are some rough spots here and there (like album opener “The Wish,” where I feel almost like Sweet is oversinging it a bit), but for the most part it really works.

Stuck in my Head: ARO, "Raining Gold"

Aimee Osbourne may prove herself to be the brightest of metal madman Ozzy Osbourne’s offspring in more ways than one.

First, Aimee opted out of all of the craziness that was The Osbournes reality show. While her siblings hammed up the spotlight, she quietly did her own thing. She continues that trend with her latest single, not using the Osbourne name, but rather going by ARO.

Her independent personality carries over into this first single from ARO’s upcoming EP. “Raining Gold” is light years away from the squawky, attention-hungry hot messes that her sister Kelly has unleashed on the music world. It’s subtle, smart — and, damn it, this girl can sing. At least on this first single, it seems that Aimee Osbourne knows where her vocal wheelhouse is (dusky, yet a bit sultry) and she sticks with the formula, using it very effectively.