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Album Of The Day: Dio – Holy Diver [Joe Barresi Remix]
Dio – Holy Diver: Super Deluxe Edition (Warner Records 2022) I can’t say that Joe Barresi’s 2022 remix of Dio’s Holy Diver is a revelation exactly but it’s a tasteful update. It loses a bit of ambience...
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Album Of The Day: Possessed – Seven Churches
Possessed – Seven Churches (1985 Combat Records) It came out of the Bay Area thrash scene but Possessed’s 1985 debut Seven Churches is now renowned for getting the death metal ball rolling. And quite...
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Album Of The Day: Iron Maiden – Piece Of Mind
Iron Maiden – Piece Of Mind (1983 – EMI, 2014 Reissue) When you’re in a “back to basics” metal mood, like I am today, classic Maiden is just a no-brainer. For the first six songs, 1983’s Piece Of Mind...
View ArticleDavid Lee Roth – Big Trouble
“I feel like a yo-yo, I’ve been here too long” Big Trouble‘s magical “I bet if you asked them, our heroes would say…” hook alone is enough to make it one of my favourite songs ever. But the track, from...
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Album Of The Day: Emperor – Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk
Emperor – Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk (Candlelight Records – 1997) Emperor’s Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk is both a great gateway into the diabolical world of black metal and one of the genre’s...
View ArticleVirgin Steele – The Burning Of Rome (Cry For Pompeii)
“Where the winds of war are blowing freely” In a tale as old as time, mismanagement and a shite label almost ensured that The Burning Of Rome (Cry For Pompeii) and its parent album, 1988’s Age Of...
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Album Of The Day: Anathema – Alternative 4
Anathema – Alternative 4 (Peaceville Records – 1998) Anathema’s Alternative 4 hits a sweet spot between the doom-laden metal of their early days and the uplifting self-help rock of their final ones....
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HMO Digest – 1st May 2024
Demon Driver The big news at HMO Mission Control recently is that, at the tender age of 48, I got my first car! At the moment I’m too busy trying to figure out what gear I’m in to want the added...
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Album Of The Day: Blue Öyster Cult – Spectres
Blue Öyster Cult – Spectres (Columbia Records – 1977) The main feature here is Godzilla, one of Blue Öyster Cult’s most classic and fun tunes with its lumbering monster riff and witty lyrics but the...
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Album Of The Day: Manowar – Into Glory Ride
Manowar – Into Glory Ride (Music For Nations -1983) Titter at the cover and giggle at the video for Gloves Of Metal if you must. We’ve all done it. But the seething Hatred, the awe-inspiring Gates Of...
View ArticleQueensrÿche – The Lady Wore Black
“And I listened, remembering all I heard” It’s rare for a band to arrive as fully formed as Queensrÿche did on their self-titled debut EP. They sound absolutely world-beating, and in a year as strong...
View ArticlePrimordial – Gods To The Godless
“We are your cross to bear” On Gods To The Godless, the first song proper on their third album Spirit The Earth Aflame, Ireland’s Primordial nail the unique pagan metal style they will become renowned...
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Album Of The Day: Judas Priest – Killing Machine
Judas Priest – Killing Machine (CBS – 1978) I’m cranking the hi-fi high today for my favourite Judas Priest album: 1978’s Killing Machine. Alternatively titled Hell Bent For Leather in some countries,...
View ArticleRush – Marathon
“In the long run” It wouldn’t score a podium place in my list of favourite Rush songs but Marathon is definitely a standout from the band’s 80s era. Taken from 1985’s Power Windows, this is Rush at the...
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Album Of The Day: Cathedral – The Carnival Bizarre
Cathedral – The Carnival Bizarre (Earache Records – 1995) Cathedral sound like they’re having a blast on 1995’s The Carnival Bizarre which is remarkable because a) you don’t normally associate...
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Celtic Frost – Into The Pandemonium (Album Review)
Celtic Frost – Into The Pandemonium (Noise Records – 1987) On its release in 1987, Celtic Frost’s third album Into The Pandemonium achieved instant fame as a ground-breaking work of avant-garde...
View ArticleDarkthrone – Blacksmith Of The North (Keep That Ancient Fire) (Song Review)
“Sound of iron, hard at work” You want riffs. And they don’t get much better than the angular, thrashy guitar intro that kicks off Darkthrone’s Blacksmith Of The North (Keep That Ancient Fire). Taken...
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Rush – Grace Under Pressure Tour (Album Review)
Rush – Grace Under Pressure Tour (Anthem – 2006) I’ve been listening to Rush quite a bit recently and you can’t have a Rush kick without taking in a live album or two. It’s been a while since I’ve...
View ArticleMy Dying Bride – The Cry Of Mankind (Song Review)
“You can’t expect to see him and survive” On The Cry Of Mankind, Yorkshire’s My Dying Bride take an extremely simple but eerie guitar motif and build a monumentally dark, symphonic beast of a song out...
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold As Love (Album Review)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold As Love (Polydor/Track – 1967) I went through a period of being obsessed with Axis: Bold As Love when I was a teenager, listening to it nearly every night. I...
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