Still Spinning: Fastway, "Trick or Treat Original Soundtrack"

When I was in junior high, I thought Trick or Treat just might be one of the greatest movies ever. I’d stay up to watch it in the wee hours on MTV, and on the rare occasion that I had a chance to rent a movie to watch by myself, it was often my choice. I even wrote a sequel to it at one point that, of course, featured a kid who totally wasn’t me in the lead role.

The movie tells the story of rocker Sammi Curr, who has died in a hotel fire, but his restless spirit has a plan to return to life during the playing of his unreleased album at midnight on Halloween. It features some pretty bad acting by Gene Simmons as the DJ who plans to play the album, and a hilarious but equally bad cameo by Ozzy Osbourne as a TV preacher.

Review: Marilyn Manson, "The Pale Emperor"

When Marilyn Manson’s latest, The Pale Emperor, hit shelves earlier this year, I dismissed it, as I have the many mediocre Manson records since Mechanical Animals. In fact, I even wrote a review of Mechanical Animals the week it was released instead.

Much to my surprise, though, The Pale Emperor has become one of my favorite records of 2015. Granted, this has been kind of a meh musical year for me, but this record would be a contender in any year.

The Pale Emperor features something that I’ve not heard from Manson in a while, and that’s the willingness to push himself and evolve a little. It’s an interesting blend of the Bowie-esque sounds of Mechanical Animals with some things that we haven’t heard from the shock rocker before, and while Marilyn Manson seemed to get lost a little after his third record, this one feels more like a natural progression from it than anything since.

Review: Slayer, "Repentless"

There are a handful of bands out there in the hard rock/metal world that make a writer wonder if there’s really any point to reviewing a new release — bands like AC/DC, Motorhead and, of course, Slayer. They’re bands that do what they do, and they have a rabid hardcore following who loves every single similar note.

One of my favorite quotes from AC/DC guitarist Angus Young came in a New York Daily News interview when he said, “I’m sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we’ve put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same.”

It’s a quote that perfectly fits Slayer, whose 12th album Repentless certainly doesn’t break from the mold of what they do. Though the thrashers have probably taken a few more chances with their music than AC/DC, reaching for a slightly more mainstream audience on 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss and incorporating some nu metal influence on 1998’s Diabolus in Musica, the basic musical elements on Repentless are not much changed from the band’s debut Show No Mercy.

Review: Iron Maiden, "Book of Souls"

I often think heavy metal fans are far too enamored with long songs. I’m guilty myself. If all the songs on a record are 8-10 minutes long, then it’s got to be epic, right? Maybe it’s a deep-seated rebellion against the punchy three-minute pop song that makes us think that way, but the epic metal that we expect isn’t always what we get.

When word got out that Iron Maiden’s latest record Book of Souls was a double album with only 11 songs, there were ooohs and aaahs. There was a Maiden-getting-back-to-its-roots sort of feeling for some, since they are the band responsible for a great many of those truly epic long-playing metal songs of the past. After a few listens though, I tend to think of Book of Souls less as a double album than a single disc stretched beyond the capabilities of its content.

Review: Gloryhammer, "Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards"

I have become a great admirer of Scottish musician Christopher Bowes. He has the uncanny ability to take the absurd and turn it into metal gold.

We first met Bowes as the frontman of pirate metal band Alestorm, where his aaarr-filled vocals, folk instrumentation and knack for unforgettable melodies turned what should have been a one-off novelty act into a formidable outfit that’s spawned a number of copycats.

A couple of years ago, Christopher Bowes turned his attention to epic power metal with the formation of the band Gloryhammer. On their 2013 debut Tales from the Kingdom of Fife, the band introduced us to Prince Angus McFife (vocalist Thomas Winkler), who rose after his home of Dundee was destroyed by the evil wizard Zargothrax (Bowes, who plays keys in Gloryhammer) and his army of undead unicorns. Preposterous, right? But so much fun.

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.”