My Tenth Album

Shout at the Devil:  Front Side

This is another album I bought simply for the album art.  I happened to have $10 one day while shopping in the Kirkwood Mall in Bismarck, ND and went to Music City specifically to buy this album.  I had seen it there before and wanted it for one simple reason - It looked BAD ASS!  I don't know what caught my eye first, the Black cover with the Red font (and two dots over the "O" and "U"), the outfits they wore or the flames and smoke in the photo backgrounds - it just looked BAD ASS!  

Also, the back of the cover had a photo of Nikki, Vince, Mick and Tommy in their leather outfits with smoke in the background as well as their pentagram logo.  It just had a "KISS" effect but it was more in your face.

Shout at the Devil:  Back Side

I listed to this album until it became warped.  Everyone knows the classic songs "Shout at the Devil," "Looks That Kill"  and "Too Young to Fall in Love," but every song is good.  Also, one cool aspect of this album was it had two "Intro" songs to lead into the heavier songs.  "In The Beginning" led into "Shout at the Devil" and  "God Bless the Beast and Children" led into the Beatles remake "Helter Skelter."  I thought it was a cool touch. 

I loved this album as did many others.  Wyndmere, ND native and author of Fargo Rock City Chuck Klosterman wrote about how it impacted his life via music.  It impacted other kids lives as well as it has sold over 4 million copies[1].

References:
1.  Retrieved from:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shout_at_the_Devil

US Fest 83. If I Had a Time Machine...

...the concert I would have liked to see was "Heavy Metal Day" of the US Festival.  The date was Sunday, May 29 1983, the temperature was 110-degrees, there was an estimated 375,000 people attending and it was "The day new wave died and rock and roll took over" as Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil said[1].  The lineup for this day of the festival was incredible for the time.  The bands are listed below and individual posts with festival concert footage from each one will come in the near future.

References: 
1.  Retrieved from:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Festival

 Sunday, May 29th (Heavy Metal Day): 

(in order of appearance)

1. Quiet Riot
2. Motley Crue
3.  Ozzy Osbourne
4. Judas Priest
5. Triumph
6. Scorpions
7. Van Halen

As I have said in previous posts there isn't much to do in rural North Dakota.  I lived on a farm twenty miles from the closest town (Linton) and it didn't even have MTV.  In fact I remember a couple wrestling buddies of mine were upset that they couldn't watch Beavis and Butt Head when they stayed overnight for the Holiday Tournament.  Since there was no MTV you pretty much were limited to shooting things (Bottles, animals, signs, etc.).  

However, there was a memorable moment where I had to stay at my brother Mike's town house in Bismarck ND.  Mike is about 17 years older than me and was an attorney at the time.  He had to go to work and told me to watch TV.  I was kinda mad because I thought I would be bored but as I was flipping channels (Luckily he had Cable TV!) I found MTV for the first time (This was 1986) and the first video I saw was David Lee Roth's video for "Yankee Rose."  I knew of Roth because he was the front man for one of my favorite bands Van Halen.  He was replaced in 1985 by Sammy Hagar and I wasn't too happy about it.  However, when I saw this video and saw how talented his band members were (Billy Sheehan on Bass, Steve Vai on Guitar and Greg Bisinette on Drums) I thought he might give his former band a run for its money.  Unfortunately like the USA Olympic Basketball teams that didn't win the Gold metal, this band might have been too talented for their own good.  Sheehan formed Mr. Big and Vai had a successful solo guitar career.  I will close by saying they were a great band that only had one album together and anyone I knew who saw them live said they were incredible on stage.  Below is the video to give you an idea.

My Ninth Album

Like I said in a previous post, somehow I convinced my brother Mike to buy Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry Album for me.  He claimed I owed him big because it was one of his more embarrassing moments (Having to buy an album from a band he despised).  I can see why as when you look at the cover.  Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider joked on VHI Classic that he "Looked like Bette Midler in drag."  Despite my brothers embarrassment and how Dee looked, it was on of the many albums that I listened to over and over again.  It included many great songs and is known for the MTV classics "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" which featured actor Mark Metcalf who is famous for his role as Douglas C. Niedermeyer from the comedy classic Animal House.  In addition to those songs every song is really good - there are no clunkers on this one.  One final note, Dee was great at pissing off parents (He is famous for appearing in court against the PMRC).  Every time I played this album my dad would get mad at me.  Funny thing is I played it more just to piss him off. When you live on a farm in rural North Dakota entertainment is hard to find.

A Very Important Song for Me

In 1985 we (My parents and I) were on a trip back home from visiting my grand parents in Beulah, ND.  It is about a 90+ minute drive.  Everyone loves their grandparents but most will agree that they are bored off their ass while visiting them.  Also with the lack of cool radio stations in rural ND it can be brutal.  Kids today have no idea how great they have it with I-Phones, I-Pads, etc. to keep them entertained.  Anyways that night I heard the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister and LOVED it.  Somehow I got my brother Mike to tell me who sang it and then I somehow got him to buy me the album.  He claims it was one of the more embarrassing moments in his life - to go to Music City in the Kirkwood Mall in Bismark ND and have the clerk think he was a Twisted Sister fan!  However, despite the shame he had he bought the album and I listened to it many times.  The extended video with the Douglas C. Niedermeyer (from Animal House) scene is below. I remember seeing the video and thought it was funny.  However, if I would have known who Niedermeyer was it would have been hysterical.
 

An Underrated Song From a Great Band and Album

I recently posted about the Scorpions Love at First Sting album found here and the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" found here.  In addition to that song "Big City Nights" and "Still Loving You" also received quite a bit of air time on the radio and MTV.  As good as those three songs are, one of my favorites off this classic album is "Bad Boys Running Wild."  It features a great opening riff from Lead Guitarist Mathias Jabs.  The video from the Crazy World Tour Live DVD is below for you to enjoy!

My Eighth Album

The first time I heard Quiet Riot it was the song "Cum On Feel The Noise" on a mixed tape my sister Shari made for me in the second grade.  When I visited my sister, my brother Steve or his girlfriend Faye I noticed all of them had the Metal Health album.  Since I loved the song my sister sent me, all three had the album and the album cover was pretty cool looking I was pretty sure I wanted the album.  What sold me was when I heard the song "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" off the Foot Loose soundtrack.  At the time it was a pretty heavy song.

What I didn't realize at the time was how important the Metal Health album was.  After heavy touring with the band Loverboy the album was the first heavy metal album to reach #1 on the billboard album chart[1].  Looking back I am not surprised that the album was as successful as it was.  Every song on it is pretty solid.  In addition to the first two songs listed above, the songs "Don't Want to Let You Go," "Slick Black Cadillac," "Love's a Bitch" and "Breathless" are really good.

References:

1. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Health

HR&M Experience Top 5: The Coolest Iron Maiden Album Covers

The last post covered the Top 5 coolest KISS album covers.  This post will count down the Top 5 coolest Iron Maiden album covers.  Like KISS was known visually for make up, Iron Maiden was known visually for for their mascot Eddie.  Eddie is a rotting cadaver and every album has Eddie portrayed in a different theme.  This was hard to put into order but here are my Top 5.

Enjoy!

#5:  Killers

#4:  The Number of the Beast

#3:  Live After Death

#2:  Somewhere in Time

#1:  Powerslave

HR&M Experience Top 5: The Coolest Kiss Album Covers

On the VH1 Classic TV Show That Metal Show, co-host Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine usually open the show with a segment called the "TMS Top 5."  In this segment they pick a topic like the top 5 heavy metal guitarists for example, list their picks and defend/argue with each other about about them.  They then create a "Final Top 5 List." In addition fans, musicians, tv stars or anyone else who is interested in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music will list their picks.

In honor of that I will do the same and call it the HR&M Experience Top 5  (Very original right?).  I wanted to start with the Top 5 Album Covers but since some bands would dominate the list (KISS and Iron Maiden For example) I will focus on one band at a time who was known for cool album cover art then pick the Top 5 all together.  This is an important topic as myself and many others bought albums because they looked cool without even listening to the album.

Here are my picks for the KISS Top 5:

#5:  Alive II

#4:  Alive!

 

 

#3:  Love Gun

#2:  Destroyer

#1:  Creatures of the Night