Gothtober - AFI : "Silver Bleeds the Black Sun"

 Did anyone doubt that these guys were into Bauhaus? The opening track actually sounds more like Peter Murphy's solo work. "Behind the Clock" features more motion and showcases Havok as more emotive in his vocal performance. His screaming days may be over, and this seems the logical direction for the band to go as they begin to age out of the Hot Topic brand of punks they found themselves in. Their songs are very concise and get to the point, even amid their brooding. "Holy Visions" features a more Sisters of Mercy-like bassline driving the track. This is nothing new, as bands like Cold Cave and Night Sins have been doing this for some time already, so they are playing catch up. The chorus makes the tribute a little too obvious. 

"Blasphemy & Excess" is back on the more Peter Murphy solo album side of the fence, but you can begin to hear a little more of who they are as a band. By the time it winds around to "Spear of Truth," there is more of a Death in June feel.  A more focused groove would benefit the song. I think their normal fan base is going to be fooled by this sort of thing, by I am reviewing post-punk revival bands all year long, and Peter Murphy just put out a solo album earlier this year that gives me all the fan service I need. 

"Ashspeck in a Green Eye" picks up the pace, as he takes on a more urgent breathy vocals that bounce back up in a register more common for him. I think if they had balanced this out more with what they have been doing up til this point in their career, it would be more effective. Granted, it is still a part of who they are, but the baby feels like it got thrown out with the absinthe here. "VOIDWARD, I BEND BACK" comes a little closer to finding the middle ground. It sounds more like AFI. "Maguerite" sounds a little more like them as well, but is less inspired. "A World Unmade" finds them touching on the more new wave adjacent corner of post-punk. There could be more of a hook. 

The end of the album with more of a punk song that works pretty well at finding the balance. I will, however, round this one down to a 9 as I have higher expectations than these guys just coming across a cover band. They have long blended elements of bands like the Cure, so not sure why it was handled this way, and there is an almost obligatory feel to what they are doing like "Ok guys we need to dial up the goth now" this is coming from someone who is the target audience for this sort of thing so less calculated is what I needed here. 

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pst493

the Top 40 Hair Metal Albums of All Time - 20 to 11

This might not be  genre most of you associate with me. It is one t I grew up with.Many of these s I still hold dear today . When the 80s were ranging I was not listening to the Cure, I did not get my interest peaked in them til 1990. I listened to music heavier and darker than this in the 80s for sure, but this was the sound of chasing girls at the mall and smoking pot in my cousins car.  I choose 40 since many of these acts represent a time when this kind of music cracked the top 40 . It was a time when MTV began to dominate so image became every thing. Many of these band would put out album that were not metal at all, nor would I consider them metal bands. Granted most are on the low end of the heavy scale, with a few evolvoing into something heavier. I will make a Top 40 Glam Rock albums of all time to clearly contrast the difference, glam rock being more in the vein of Bowie and T-REX. Yes, some of these artists also crossed over into glam , but hair metal has a more cock rocking flair to it and is less androgynous.

These albums are  more about doing cocaine and getting pussy, devoid of any political correctness, none of this would fly in 2020. It would get a hastag for sure. Any this list should speak for itself, in some cases it might not be the most popular album or the album that broke the band through , but the album I feel has the best songs when it comes to hair metal. Remember that as some of these bands have better heavy metal albums, but we are talking about the best to tease your hair up and get a blow job to. So here are the top 40 hair metal albums of all time.

20-Dokken- "Under Lock and Key" 1985

This album crossed the band over into hair metal. Before this they had a harder edge. This one was more polished thanks to the slick production. They are sadly under rated band. Top notch songwriting is their strength along with George Lynch's guitar.




19-Buckcherry- "15" 2005

This one might not love the cocaine as much , but overall the songwriting is better.





18-Dangerous Toys- "s/t" 1989 



 Marketed like a poor man's Guns n Roses, these guys were harder than most with an AC/DC like energy and more snarl to the vocals.


 


17- Spinal Tap- "This is Spinal Tap"


How much black can it get? the answer is none. When other bands are stuck at 10 with no where else to go these guys went to 11.




16-Twisted Sister- "Love is For Suckers"1987 

 Generally this band is glam metal, but not hair metal as they owe more to Alice Cooper. This album still had an edge but swinging for the hair sprayed arenas. Even then Dee Snider has a great deal of balls to his voice always giving them more of an edge.


 



15-Faster Pussycat-"Whipped" 1992


 I know this as none of their "Hits" , but it's a better album than their first two. They had more solid songs that allowed them to transition from just being hair sprayed whores of the sun set strip.



 



14-Def  Leppard -- "Pyromania" 1983


 It was a tough call between this album and "Hysteria" I think this album is more defining of haire metal, where there is less metal to "Hysteria" and more pop.


 


13-AFI - "Black Sails in the Sunset" 


 Plenty of punk bands crossed over into hair metal, Discharge and TSOL among them. This album just feels more like something LA Guns might have done and while it retains a great deal of the punk in it's dna, there are plenty of 8os moments.


 



12 Alice In Chains "Facelift" 1990 


 If you can not admit this album is hair metal you have never really listend past "Man in the Box".



 


11- Lita Ford- " Lita" 1988



 The songwriting on this album gives her this spot. It is almost to slickly produced and would sound better without some of these cheese ball keyboards, but they can't hold these songs back.



 

Multiple Eargasms - the Weekly Shuffle

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A post shared by Daniel R Moore Photography (@drmfoto) on Jul 10, 2017 at 12:36pm PDT

Ok we are two weeks in a row now, with this feature that has proven to be more popular than I would have imagined. I just press shuffle on my iPod and review the first ten songs that pop up. So here we go, hope this inspires masturbation and multiple eargasms. AFI- "Feed From the Floor" Danny Havok's vocals sound great hear and the bass line certainly invokes the Cure. This song stand more in the shadows of pop punk.I haven't give this album enough listens to that is one of the cool things about doing this feature is getting to dig back in an give things a second chance. Halsey- "Now or Never" The hook of this song reminds me of Ellie Goulding. I would say there is more of a hip-hop influence bubbling under the surface here than Goulding. The production certainly gives nods to hip-hop. For pop music this going to be one of the strongest albums of the year. The Smiths -Sweet and Tender Hooligan" One of the smiths more driving punk like moments. This shows how their influence touches both indie rock bands and post-bands. Moz sound great and the lyrics are as biting as anything else they have done. This is more straight forward playing than what you expect from Marr , but the bass line is killing it. the Cure- "Blood Flowers" This song is both sonically powerful and incredibly moving from an emotional perspective. I always forget how good this album was until I listen to it. It really does hold up against the rest of their work. Cocteau Twins- "Treasure Hiding" I normally dopn't think of these guys as shoe gaze , but I guess if this was the only song you heard from them it would be easy to slap that label on. Not my favorite song from this album as it lingers in the abstract for too long. Liz sounds great, but she could sing from the phone book and it would sound divine, the melody that comes in at 2:40 mark is awesome , but wish they got to the point. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum- Helpless Corpses Enactment Another bad that I am always glad to hear when they come up in shuffle as their are so chaotic that Sleepytime is not always my go to when cuing up something to listen to. This is one of their more metal moments, it's a damn shame these guys broke up, because I can't imagine what else they would have been capable of. Life of Agony - "I Regret" This band in their prime was criminally under rated. Too band when Keith's river started running red that he also forgot how he sang on this song and what about his delivery helped define this band and make them stand out from all the other bands in the 90s. This song is one of the few from the second album that sounded like it could have been on their first. 2Pac- "Only God Can Judge Me" This is not one of the strongest songs from "All Eyez On Me". It suffers a little more than some of the other songs when it comes to how the 90s production holds up today. Lyrically its a bunch of whining about how hard it is living in his shoes. The guest rap by Rappin 4 Tay is pretty terrible. Mastodon- "Clandestiny" I don't remember really being overly wowed by this song when I first got the album. It had endured in the competitive landscape of my iPod so that says something. Metal should not feel so middle of the road and this song doesn't hit me as being heavy enough to be metal despite it's guitar tones and most of the metal trappings being close to center. Cult of Youth - "Monsters" When they are in the more rambling folk punk strum they tend to sound less like Death in June. The baritone vocal is more rowdy and carefree than Death IN June, in fact I can hear fans of punk liking this more than tragic goths. Their earlier work was more filled with this kind of punk energy. Twisted Sister - "Burn in Hell" For anyone who wants to lump these guys in with the rest of the 80s hair metal I think this song sets the record straight. Not as dynamic vocally I think Twisted Sister has more in common with old Iron Maiden or Priest than they do Motley Crue. Unless we are talking about the Crue's first two albums then it does have a similar drive to it. The Cramps- "Bop Pills" This song is pretty much straight up rock in the vein of early 50's rock more than it strikes me as being rock a billy unless we are saying Jerry Lee Lewis falls into that as well. It's as song about drugs and those song are always good to party to.

A.F.I - "S/T"

These guys were at their peak with "Sing the Sorrow" and then found the more 80's new wave influences creeping into "Decemberunderground" that current still pervades the even slicker radio geared sound that is on their new album. Sometimes it works like a fucking charm with the opener being one of those moments. They come closer to a more Panic! At the Disco like sound on "Still A Stranger" with the vocals bringing a little more grit, though the guitar sound is more refined and could more gain in place to give this more punch. The lack of grit is something that takes getting used to on this album. Sometimes they nail it even without their old punk snarl "Aurelia" being the first to stand out.  "Hidden Knieves' shows that they really shine these days more as song writers as the song has all the pop punk hooks married to a more Placebo like.

They veer off into a more jangling post-punks sound that makes me think of R.E.M on "Get Hurt" . The chorus is big and slick here with some impressive guitar that sometimes takes the back seat in the mix. They brighten their darkness into shades that recall the Cure's radio pop in a very obvious manner on "Above the Bridge". There is a little more of their old punk self on "So Beneath You", but it doesn't have the thoughtful sense of melody that a song like "Snow Cats" does. They come back with more kick to their  sense of remembering who they once were on "Dumb Kids" but Danny never goes up into his more piercing metallic screams. It is not until "Pink Eyes' that we hear more aggression blended with this slicker pop punk sound.While the bass line to "Feed From the Floor" is much more Cure inspired the rest of the band joins oin to create this more goth tone.The most powerful return to their former anthems is on "White Offerings" which kicks a tone of ass. br /> They continue to excel at the marriage of pop slick sounds with their darker goth shadows on "She Speaks the Language" . They have slinky Depeche Mode like bass line on the closing anthem "the Wind that Carries Me Away" , think if they stepped back on their distortion pedals they would have given this song more balls and taken it to the next level, but as it is the song is still pretty decent. I'll give this album a 9.5 and see how it grows on me without the more hard core ghosts of their past haunting it.

The Top 100 Albums From the 90s : 100 to 91

Living up to my word here's the top 100 albums from the 90s starting with 100 to 91. The deciding factor on these albums isn't how many they sold or how critical acclaim they received , but how they have stood the test of time and how much I find myself listening to them decades later.


  100- Mogwai -"Come on Die Young" One thing I reflected upon in regards to the 90s while I was making this list is that they were a decade in which I did not take a sober breath. So one of the big questions asked of music during this time was... "How does it sound when I'm high? "...Here is a band that passed that test with flying colors, they are from the days when post-rock wasn't a thing, this dreamy drug soundtrack bubbled into my mind.

 

99- AFI - "Black Sails in the Sunset" I remember thinking , these guys kinda sound like LA Guns. They brought cock rock vocals into hard core punk, before inspiring Myspace bands to do the same a decade later.

 


98-Skid Row - "Slave to the Grind" 


A more metallic swan song to the days of hair metal and an album that helped us transition out of the 80s once and for all. These guys were always harder than other hair bands, I saw Pantera open up for them on this tour.

   

97- the Refused- "The Shape of Punk to Come" Little did they know how prophetic this album title was. More scream than emo.

 

  96-Agalloch - "Pale Folklore" 1999 ? Shit there are bands still trying to catch up to these guys. This displays more of their folk side than they currently embrace.

 


95-King Diamond- "the Eye" This came out on the heels of the first three albums, which are classics. It might not be the first King Diamond album I grab to listen to, but it has held up better than some that came after it.He never really fit into the 90s as the 80s epic Iron Maiden vibe drenched in Halloween was more of his thing.



94-Dimmu Borgir - "Spiritual Black Dimensions" The second wave of black metal might have come out of Norway in the 90s , but that didn't mean Americans were listening to no matter how cvlt they claim to be at best you were listening to Deicide or Incantation, I known I was working at a record store when this came out and it took blast beats a minute to grow on me. This is the first album that would cement what would become their classic sound.




93- Death Angel - "Act III" We might fondly think of these guys as old school thrashers carrying the flame now, but this album symbolized the nail in the coffin for thrash as it now only had a power ballad that sounded more like "Under the Bridge" than "One", but this was before "Under the Bridge" had even come out. It's what happened when the Anthrax skate -shorts wearing metal hit the West Coast.



92-Rammstein -"Sehnsucht" Yes... the album with "Du Hast", though most of the other songs on this album are better than that. These guys still party like its 1996. I prefer the songs where he sings and the whole stiff German thing doesn't do it for me like some of the more grooving parts. Held up much better over the years than Fear Factory.




91- Vast - "Video Sensory Audio Theater" These guys held up better over the years than Stabbing Westward and when you put this album on aside from some of the sequencing. When this album came out it took me a minute to get into it. "Touched" was their calling card and compared to what some other bands were doing it didn't seem all that heavy, but the songwriting proved to be good for girl friend metal.