This One Goes to Eleven :: Rock and Metal playlist :: Episode 14 :: 29 Sep 2018

Welcome back, or just welcome if it's your first time, for Episode 14 of the usual mix of rock and metal, new and old. The NWOBHM is strong with this week's list, some old tracks and some new ones in the same style.   Read my notes for the lowdown and if you spot any connections that I haven't, or have suggestions for future playlists, leave them in the comments and earn yourself some kudos.

There's a link just below to a playlist that you can and should subscribe to, and it will change and contain the latest selections each week. Below that is the permanent playlist for episode 14. You can find all previous episodes / playlists by exploring the previous posts on this blog.

I think you have to click through to the Spotify app to listen to the songs in full. Underneath all that are my notes from this episode.

(Here is a link to the playlist that you need to subscribe to for the new episode each week )

- Shirley Knott





Get Out by Hypnos from Set Fire to the Sky (2018)  A recent release but sounding very classic 70s and 80s rock / metal. Swedish band, now four albums in.

Race with the Devil by Girlschool from Demolition (1980)  One of the most classic songs from one of the most classic bands.

Rough Ride by Avenger by Blood Sports (1984)  Newcastle band, label mates (Neat Records) with the mighty Venom

Bound By Silence by Metal Allegiance (2018) Another track from this new album from the supergroup, this time featuring John Bush on lungs.

You Belong To Me by Skull Fist (2018) Such a new release that the album isn't out yet, this is the second of two singles so far from the forthcoming album.

Chasing the Dream by Skull Fist (2014) The second of a double-bill from Skull Fist.

Genie's Got a Problem from The Cruel Intentions from No Sign of Relief (2018)  pop-punk crossover.

Bier, Bier, Bier ist die Seele vom Klavier by Onkel Tom from Bier Ernst (2018)  I have to confess that I love the folky metal from Germany (see also Korpiklaani, Schandmaul, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter and many others). Onkel Tom is a new one on me but I'm glad I spotted the album release this week.

Steel and Silver by Visigoth from Conquerer's Oath (2018)  only the second album from American power-metal band.

Let it Loose by Savage from Loose 'n' Lethal (1983)  This is one of the bands featured on Metal Fatigue from Ebony, one of two 'taster' compilation appearances the band made before beginning their run of full-length albums with debut Loose 'n' Lethal. Ebony Records' strength was talent-spotting.

The Wolverine by Night Viper from Night Viper (2015)  We're getting close to Halloween now! Closer to the time I'll do a Halloween special playlist. In the meantime this is a taster from female-fronted Gothenberg band, compatriots of Hypnos, our opener this week.

The Doomsday Clock by Satan from Cruel Magic (2018)  This is another track from an album that came out a week or two. It'll in my list of favourite albums of the year. A great sound and disturbing cover image.

Deuce by Kiss from Alive (1975)  This album came up in a conversation with a friend about classic live albums. On the whole I'm not a fan of live performances, but my favourite all-time albums include some amazing live albums (Tokyo Tapes by Scorpions, If You Want Blood by AC/DC, Alive by Kiss, No Sleep Till Hammersmith by Motörhead  Live Evil by Black Sabbath (RJD era) to name a few). Sometimes the performances and atmosphere outshine the studio originals.  If you like this track, there's worthwhile black and white footage of the band performing the song.

Creatures of the Night by Kiss from Creatures of the Night (1982)  Second in a double-bill from Kiss, this one a little more recent (though I realise with some horror that the time since this track is two or three times that since Creatures.... ). As Paul used to say when they played this live "this is the album you put on when you want to turn your brain to jelly". From memory this was the last album before they took their make-up off. It's sad that they're doing shows now with make-up on, and with band members wearing Peter Criss and Ace Frehley faces. They should be leaving that stuff for the tribute bands IMHO.

Carry On by Avenged Sevenfold from Black Reign (2018)  The Stage is a brilliant album which was released to everyone's surprise with no publicity. It seems that they've done the same thing with this EP. (I saw none and came across the release by accident).

Hungry and Angry by U.D.O from Steelfactory (2018)  Another track from the Godfather's recent album.

Welcome Home (Sanitorium) by Metallica from Master of Puppets (1986) The last Cliff Burton album, and arguably their best album. Certainly one of my favourites of all-time and this track is epic.




That's the list for this week.

For all of the best rock and metal new releases, subscribe to my New Rock and Metal Album Releases playlist.

This One Goes to Eleven :: Rock and Metal playlist :: Episode 5 :: 27 July 2018

Welcome back, or just welcome if it's your first time. This playlist, which is akin to an hour-long radio programme, consists of proper solid rock and metal, new and old. Centring around NWOBHM / MWOTHM  extending to thrash, symphonic, hard / heavy rock, southern and possibly tentatively exploring other areas too.  Do make requests in the comments.

There are a few weekly episodes available now, and you can find them by exploring this blog's previous posts.

Below is the Spotify playlist (I think you have to click through to the Spotify app to listen to the songs in full). Below that are my notes from this episode.

- Shirley Knott

In case the embedded player below doesn't work, here's a link.



Lies Are a Business by Dee Snider from For the Love of Metal (2018)  My ears have been looking forward to this one. I believe that a band is as good as its current material and I love it when classic acts put out solid new material rather than just going out and playing their old hits.

Gasoline and Ice Cold Gin by Evil Maquerade from The Digital Crucifix (2014) A lively Scandinavian metal band.

Avec Vous by Vulcain from V8 (2013) A band I discovered recently on BandCamp. This isn't from their most recent album but it's one that I particularly liked.

Fallen Brother by Kreator from Gods of Violence (2017)  A band that goes way back into the history of thrash metal, and once again they're putting out their best material ever.

Shining Perpetuity by Ultra-Violence from Operation Misdirection (2018)  Again one of this week's new releases. A new one on me but this is their third full-length. They seem to have an unhealthy interest in Clockwork Orange....

Upon the Knee by Chris Caffery from Jester's Court (2018)  Chris is a guitarist from the huge rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Red and White by Derdian from DNA (2018)  I think there's a serious concept going down here and some progressive power metal. This is a stand-out album and will make my list of best albums of the year.

F*cking Robots by Michael Romeo from War of the Worlds pt 1 (2018)  Another concept album. Without having dug too deeply yet, it seems to be based on the Wells novel, and I'm sure I heard a nod to Jeff Wayne's classic album in there. This track had me at the title, and I love the sound effects.

Hot for Teacher by Van Halen from 1984 (1984) From the sublime to the ridiculous. The Dee Snider album put me in an 80s frame of mind and this is the track that floated to the top of the tank when I gave it a stir.

Queen of Swords by Seven Thorns from II (2014) I don't know very much about the band but I like the sound. Scandinavian, unsurprisingly.

Life Finds a Way by Helion Prime from Helion Prime (2016) I really like this album. Since it was made they've changed their singer and I've been eagerly awaiting the next (still waiting).

Here Again by Rush from Rush (1974)  Proper old rock from a band that are still putting out quality material (I almost included a track from Clockwork Angels, and will do in a future playlist.)

Holy Diver by Dio from Holy Diver (1983)  Finishing with a song from my heyday and one of the finest singers in rock ever. This particular track is a classic but doesn't really show off his talent for lyric writing.
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MetalHammer free flexi-disc, Mammoth / Slave Raider

An expedition into my attic failed to retrieve what I went looking for, but I did find a stack of not-very-interesting-looking singles and out of curiosity brought them down.

Among them were a couple of gems, a metalhammer 4-track EP and this flexidisc!

Details are: Jive, free with Metal Hammer, 33.3rpm, not to be sold separately, Mammoth: Fatman / Bad Times / Slave Raider: Take the World By Storm, LYN19855, Made in Britain by Lyntone.

Will it play?? It has a couple of little knocks, let's give it a clean and find out....

[update] played beautifully, no skips just a couple of little pops that can be filtered out electronically. The sound is surprisingly good considering it's a thin cheap material. Disappointingly the Mammoth track (which is really good) is half of one song, which fades out and then half of another song. The Slave Raider track isn't so interesting but it is the whole song.

Death Row, second album from Touched

The latest addition to the family that is my Ebony Records collection is the second album from Touched, Death Row.

There's something really satisfying about buying a vinyl record that contains music that's not available via the streaming services (correct me if I'm wrong. I've found a couple of downloads online from other fans but I don't think they're great rips.) I would have bought this and many more discs at the time if the paper round money had stretched further.

I'd love to go back and tell my younger self "Don't worry - in the future the Internet will make it easy to find and buy decent copies of these albums, you'll have a bit more money to buy them and you'll have better equipment to play them. But there won't be much need; the vast majority of music will be available on demand via the Internet at a much better quality than you're getting from those crackly discs and that cheap stereo." "What's an Internet?"  "Possibly the most amazing thing that happens in the history of mankind. But you know how you think it's weird that ancient Egyptians worshipped cats...?"

I've got a rip that I'm pretty happy with and I'm very happy with the music. After the first couple of listens I feel that the music is a little more serious here than on the first album. Still boppy in places (moving on) and has the obligatory power ballad (When I Call Your Name) but goes to some harder and heavier places (title track). There's definitely a touch of Motley Crue going on. The guys are tight musically; John Hull does great work on all guitars and I like Ronnie's voice.

Rather confusingly, the track 'Back Alley Vices' appears on this album, which is the title of the debut album.

I've written before about the quality of the sound of the recordings from this studio which I don't really mind. It makes me smile, and it's the music that matters. This one definitely sounds better than the band's first album (I notice the words "digitally mastered" on the cover) but still isn't a very clear dynamic sound.

War Machine by Tank

Currently on the turntable (or rather not on the turntable because it's a CD but coming out the speakers anyway) is this relatively-recent Tank offering.

I made the 'pre-loved' purchase because it's not available for streaming or to buy digitally. (I don't count Youtube but that's a conversation for another day.)  Odd that, because War Nation (same record label) and the recent Valley of Tears are both available sans removable media.

Tank vinyl figures in my collection, but when an album first comes out in 2010 it feels as if the vinyl is simply put out as a collector's item and that perversely makes me not want to collect it. In this case I'll go for the nice clean rip, not being in the 'vinyl is warmer' camp.

Some say that it's not Tank without Algy Ward (who rather confusingly is also releasing records as Tank). My own feeling on this is that any album is a collection of work by a particular set of musicians and should be judged as such  regardless of the name on the front, but I can certainly understand how Algy's fans would feel on this matter.

What about the music? It's great. It's a more sophisticated sound than early Tank, but still has the classic metal sound that I love. I can really hear Saxon there in the music as well as the vocals; lots of good lead riffs and root-note bass. I'm not a fan of a couple of the more ponderous tracks here, but when it rocks, it rocks.

I'm becoming a Doogie White fan, he has a new album out in his own name (with La Paz) as well as a more recent Tank album.

Grim Reaper, See you in Hell and the Ebony label

I've just welcomed this little beauty into the family.

I'm collecting Ebony LPs now. I have a few in the collection, bought at the time (mid-late 80s) because of the great music; Touched, Samurai among others, but strangely not Grim Reaper, possibly (I know now) the best act to come out of the Ebony studio. (Don't judge too harshly, these were pre-internet days - we relied on magazines, a weekly rock show and word of mouth. Plus you often had to buy a whole album without any way of sampling any of it on demand. It was easy to miss great stuff.)

With so much of that output currently not available to buy or for streaming, it's a reasonable excuse to fill the gaps in the vinyl collection now.

Why Ebony? Back then, on cheap stereos and without the benefit of an audiophile's ear, it was obvious that the sound on these particular LPs sucks, but what they lacked in polished sound they made up for with top-quality A&R.

They had an ear for a really good band and great songs, and even on the Rock meets Metal compilation albums (bands payed for a day's studio time in return for being cut into a record) there are some real gems.

So here's to Darryl Johnston. Being able to discover (and afford) the music was difficult at the time, but better late than never!

Scorpions - Tokyo Tapes

I've come to this album in my project to rip some of my old vinyl*. It's bringing me so much joy all over again and so I have to write a few words about why it's such a special record.

It marks a milestone in Scorpions' extremely long (and continuing) career. (This is why I'm trying to avoid 'The') At the point that these concerts were recorded, Uli Roth had officially left the band but agreed to play this tour. His replacement as lead guitarist was the more metallic Matthias Jabs who brought a new sound and new style to the band.

They continued to develop their style and popularity, the high point of their powers for me being a few albums later; Blackout and Love at First Sting.

But here we have a collection of the best 'Roth period' Scorpions songs played for the last time by that line-up.

I'm not a huge fan of live albums. Metal in particular doesn't lend itself well to being performed live. Don't get me wrong, seeing a band perform can be awesome but there's a difference between the experience of a live concert and listening at home to a live recording. It's magical to watch people you admire on a stage in front of you performing songs that you know and love. But take everything away from that except the recorded sound and what's left usually sucks compared to the studio recordings of the songs.

I'm sure some people are thinking 'what about xxx, it's a classic album'. It's true that sometimes the magic just happens and you end up with a performance that's really special. (Bear in mind also that a live album may have been overdubbed in the studio later.) But that's the exception rather than the rule. Otherwise we'd all be listening to live albums all the time and bands would only occasionally put out a studio album.

This is one of the exceptions. There are songs here that I'll play in preference to the studio counterpart.

The fact that it's a huge 12" square item makes it all the more special. The front cover is a great shot that really sums up the contents. The big piece of artwork that comes with each album is something I really miss. In this case it doesn't stop there, the gatefold sleeve contains more images from the tour, including this one that I love. Notice the boots (which I'm sure looked really trendy in 1978) - Klaus is wearing monstrous platforms but is still only shoulder-high to the others. (No disrespect Klaus, I'm in awe of every note you've sung.)

** Scorpions are on tour right now

* Who'd have thought that I'd be able to buy a stylus for my 30-year-old Pioneer turntable, and through the Cambridge Audio amp I have now, these records have never sounded so good to me. If it wasn't for the very annoying pops and crackles and the fact that they inevitably degrade slightly every time they're played I'd choose to play the vinyl rather than the digital version.