I hadn’t listened to the entire Operation:Mindcrime album straight in probably a decade, maybe longer, but this discussion prompted me to put it on today. Definitely one of the great concept albums ever made. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t get into the feels when I Don’t Believe in Love came on, I listened to that song so much in high school and college.
I didn’t catch the early tours but I did see the band in the early 2000s, before they did that second mindcrime album. Main thing I remember from that show was that Tate had worn sunglasses for the entire show, until they did Eyes of a Stranger as the closer and he made a big production of taking them off right at the “lies behind my stare” line.
Geoff Tate was a fantastic showman. I’m sure he still is tbh. The Empire tour was one of the most memorable shows of all I’ve seen, not just for Mindcrime complete but also because they did so much cool stuff for Empire too. I remember he shot a layup at a real hoop while singing “Backstreet hoopstar…” in Best I Can.
I saw Queensryche last year with Judas Priest and the current incarnation of the band is fabulous. They only did stuff from the first five albums in support of Priest which was cool but their current stuff is absolutely worth a listen. Wilton is a great songwriter and riff merchant.
https://youtu.be/W6btF3AotH0
…and just for fun…
https://youtu.be/8lDulraHCsM
Bet you never thought you’d hear Queensryche playing Billy Idol!
Last night in Greensboro, NC at Hangar 1819 (formerly The Blind Tiger, now thankfully under new, less-shitty ownership so I can visit it once more):
Thulcandra, black metal from Germany
Wolfheart, melodeath from Finland
Obscura, techdeath from Germany
Fleshgod Apocalypse, orchestral death from Italy
I dare you not to immediately fall in love with this guitar solo…
Extreme are back with a new record in June. I’m super excited because from the sound of this, the opening track, they are also back to rock. Confirmed by Nuno…
He was on stage with Rihanna at the Super Bowl. Completely slipped by me when I watched it live. He’s been working with her for years. I never knew.
“When Eddie Van Halen passed, it really hit me,” Bettencourt commented. “I’m not going to be the one who will take the throne, but I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive. So, you hear a lot of fire on the record.”
Highly recommended for a listen with a good set of headphones on.
Vesper
3593
Great track - thanks for posting. Very impressive guitar work! I haven’t really paid attention to Extreme since Pornograffiti days - will have to check this new album out.
If you never listened to the third record, III Sides To Every Story, I think that’s easily as good as the first two. It’s also very lyrically relevant to modern times.
But yeah, I’m excited for this new one. Nuno has always been among the best there is, and Gary Cherone is a great entertainer with a great voice. Can’t wait.
It was SUCH a good show, LORD.
Then went to see They Might Be Giants the very next night for a substantial change of pace.
I’m listening to Metallica - Load right now. Which we all know how it is.
But man… opening up the album with the languid The House Jack Built was sure a statement, eh?
I posted this in the other music thread and someone pointed out to me that I should have probably have posted it here in this thread.
This is a Linkin Park song first recorded 20 years ago for the Meteora album but never released. It was finally released last month as a 20 year tribute and features Chester who sadly took his own life back in 2017. It already has over 28 million views. It’s a banger and the lyrics hit you like a truck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NK_JOkuSVY
So this Disney theme medley has been around for 3 months and somehow it took until now for the YouTube algorithm to work its way around to serving it up to me. I guess I need to listen to more Scardust so it ranks them higher.
Noa Gruman can do the Disney Princess shtick, if she ever gets tired of progressive metal there’s probably a spot for her at Disneyland.
I’m all about the Dreamworks.
Thought I’d share some of the nice new melodic black metal around this year that I’ve been enjoying. These are mostly along the lines of my favourite kind of melodic BM, the Dissection/Naglfar kind.
French solo act Inherits the Void - The Impending Fall of the Stars
Trio from Spain, Frozen Dawn - The Decline of the Enlightened Gods
From Sweden late last year, Nazghor gave us the annoyingly Bandcamp-less Seventh Secular Crusade. Not as good as the above albums but decent.
And finally for something a bit darker, I’m really loving this album from Greek two-piece Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya.
Subtitled ‘A Qliphotic Grimoire for the End of All Flesh’, it self-identifies as ‘Acausal Necrosophic Black Metal’. I love the made-up super-sub genres BM bands come up with for themselves these days. :)
More relatably it’s a 2nd-wave adjacent kind of sound, in the Emperor/Mayhem mould but heard through that awesome Greek BM lens I love so much. Recommended!
I still have to listen to it, maybe later I will edit this comment.
edit: well not a lot to say it’s still very vol 2 of the last disc
Tanith is a nice band
That video made my heart ache, I haven’t seen those guys in person since the pandemic.
Russ the guitar player is coming by Metal Magic Festival this summer with Satan. That’s gonna be good on a number of levels. I also haven’t seen Satan since the pandemic, and they’re right at the top of my list. With a little luck he’ll bring Cindy the bass player!
I watch a couple of YouTube shows that Martin Popoff appears in regularly, and he’s written books about them, and I know he’s a huge Rush fan, so this video had me absolutely confused:
And then I remembered what day it is.
This is just horrible man. The roof collapsed due to a tornado at a place called The Apollo in Belvidere Illinois during a concert with Morbid Angel, Skeletal Remains, Crypta and Revocation. One person is dead and 28 are wounded.
I used to live on the Gulf Coast right in the Alley. That shit is terrifying. I spent the evening of xmas day 2012 sheltering from this bastard.
Much love to those brothers and sisters.
The latest from Ghost is pretty cute, as is the “Christian” podcast that accompanies it.
Metallica are on Jimmy Kimmel all this week.
Speaking of Metallica, their new album is out. After two listening, I think it’s the worst one from the last three.
