Well I missed a while in here since I posted Heavy Metal Roundup - Judas Priest, but I'm back now so I'm writing some stuff about one of my all time favorite guys in the heavy metal business and that's Ozzy Ozbourne.
Ozzy Osbourne might a gotten hisself plastered all over everyones TV sets a few years back on his MTV show The Osbournes with Sharon and the kids, but that ain't what he's really famous for. Nope, he's one helluva rocker that feller!
Back in the start of things around 1970 if my memory still works ok and it probably don't, but that's sort a when I remember Black Sabbath getting together with Ozzy frontman and Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass and man I can never remember drummers names! But they had this real heavy sound like no one else at the time I remember, course as I said my memory ain't what it was!
That Ozzy Osbourne was a lunatic alright, he was getting drunk and stoned so bad that sometimes he never turned up to a gig and the other guys were real pissed with him! But they stayed together for a lot a years and made some great albums up until Ozzy left to go solo.
And that's when he really came out and kicked everyone's asses! He got Randy Rhoads on guitar man that guy was a genius tons better than Eddie Van Halen and they made them first two albums, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman and they were both pure genius. Ex-Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley wrote a lot of the songs and I only realized a long time after that their drummer Lee Kerslake was the old Uriah Heep drummer!
Then Randy went and got hisself killed in that plane crash with other guys in the band and we all thought, shit, that's the end of Ozzy! But the man bounces back with all kinds a stuff. Jake E Lee was a great guitarist too and they mad Bark At The Moon and it was totally brillaint. They follwed that a few years later with The Ultimate Sin which was also pretty cool.
Then Zakk Wylde took over guitar from Jake and No Rest For The Wicked got released I reckon around 1988. All that while Bob Daisley stayed with the band writing most of their songs and man he was the unsung hero of Ozzy's solo carreer. Then for a while Geezer Butler came back to do a tour with the band so I dunno what happened to Daisley in that time.
Well, into the 90s and No More Tears got released and Ozzy was still doing the heavy metal shit and not stopping for nothin! Well couple years later he decided to retire from touring and sis the "No More Tours" tour - funny name man! Then he got sick of not touring and came back with his "The Retirement Sucks Tour" and released Ozzmosis as well. What a guy!
Ozzy then got together the Ozzfest that gave a load of new bands a chance to get known and it made him a shitload of money too. But hey, that's fucking music for you! I just found another great site with more stuff on Heavy Metal Music thats worth a good look at so give it a shot.
That's it I'm gettin tired of typing with my two fingers on this thing!
See you all laters
Kenneth
Ken's Metal Blog
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Heavy Metal Roundup - Judas Priest
Now that the first post in this blog: Ken's Metal Blog, is good an done, its time to have some cage rattlin' in the world of heavy metal 20 or so years ago. This heavy metal roundup of the late 1970s and early 1980s is just to get a few things off my chest about what went on then and where it was going.
To start off in this post, Judas Priest were having it all their own way with some incredible album releases like Stained Class and then Hell Bent For Leather (released as Killing Machine in the UK and Europe). That last one saw a change in their sound to a more heavy, hardedged saound from the guitars and clearer definition from the drums. Probably more to do with better studio gear than they had on Stained class and the stuff before that. It also saw their single Take On All The World get some airplay on radio stations but not enough to get it anywhere in the charts.
Interestingly, they also released Evening Star as a 12 inch white/opaque single with Before the Dawn and a live version of Hell Bent For Leather which also flopped.
But in the album charts and of course live Judas Priest were unstoppable. Bob Halford's vocals were unparalleled at the time as he could hit incredibly high notes as well as low more so than pretty much any other singer around a the time. Often unsung guitar hero Glen Tripton's guitar work was also superb backed up by Kenny (KK) Downings antics on the whammy bar and as a guitar duo they were one of the best.
Memorable songs that will stand the test of time like Beyond the Realms of Death, Victim of Changes and Sinner, all from their earlier albums were the classics of Judas Priest that will never go away. Afterwards came the live Unleashed in the East which was overdubbed in the studio mainly with Halford's voice, but it was still dynamite. British Steel followed which saw the single United do a little climb in the charts, but the mainstream charts just weren't ready for metal just yet.
Later came albums Point of Entry and Screaming For Vengeance but by this time their songs had taken on a more commercial air, being shorter, punchoer and I'm sorry to say guy MORE FUCKING BORING!
So that is where I'll leave Judas Priest right now, where they ceased to be the Exciter and more the Metal Clones rather than Metal Gods.
Kenneth
Ken's Metal Blog
To start off in this post, Judas Priest were having it all their own way with some incredible album releases like Stained Class and then Hell Bent For Leather (released as Killing Machine in the UK and Europe). That last one saw a change in their sound to a more heavy, hardedged saound from the guitars and clearer definition from the drums. Probably more to do with better studio gear than they had on Stained class and the stuff before that. It also saw their single Take On All The World get some airplay on radio stations but not enough to get it anywhere in the charts.
Interestingly, they also released Evening Star as a 12 inch white/opaque single with Before the Dawn and a live version of Hell Bent For Leather which also flopped.
But in the album charts and of course live Judas Priest were unstoppable. Bob Halford's vocals were unparalleled at the time as he could hit incredibly high notes as well as low more so than pretty much any other singer around a the time. Often unsung guitar hero Glen Tripton's guitar work was also superb backed up by Kenny (KK) Downings antics on the whammy bar and as a guitar duo they were one of the best.
Memorable songs that will stand the test of time like Beyond the Realms of Death, Victim of Changes and Sinner, all from their earlier albums were the classics of Judas Priest that will never go away. Afterwards came the live Unleashed in the East which was overdubbed in the studio mainly with Halford's voice, but it was still dynamite. British Steel followed which saw the single United do a little climb in the charts, but the mainstream charts just weren't ready for metal just yet.
Later came albums Point of Entry and Screaming For Vengeance but by this time their songs had taken on a more commercial air, being shorter, punchoer and I'm sorry to say guy MORE FUCKING BORING!
So that is where I'll leave Judas Priest right now, where they ceased to be the Exciter and more the Metal Clones rather than Metal Gods.
Kenneth
Ken's Metal Blog
Friday, May 9, 2008
Ken's Metal Blog
Welcome to Ken's Metal Blog!
This blog is a commemorative type of outlet for my past love affair with heavy metal music as well as all the other names similar types of music go by, like heavy rock, metal, death metal, thrash metal and all that other stuff.
Well actually, I'm not into most of the newer - and by newer I'm talking anything in the last 20 years or so - types of metal sounds. I'm an old rocker, so the metal of my era was out of the 1970s and 1980s mainly, so we're talking bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Ozzy, Sabbath, Dio, Slayer, WASP that sort of thing.
I play guitar, so my interest was always in bands that featured heavy, fast and clever guitar work and guitarists. So out go bubble gum bands that have big keyboards - can't stand 'em! Even commercial so-calleed metal bands like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi leave me a little cold.
Too technical also leaves me wamting to go to sleep, so out go techno guitarists like Steve Vai, Vinnie Moore, Joe Satriani etc. Booooringgg!!!
Ok, Steve Vai did some good stuff with Whitesnake and Dave Lee Roth, but his solo stuff was to nod off to.
Am I a critical bastard? You betcha!
Follow this blog and I'll probably take apart every metal musician that ever graced a recording studio!
Kenneth
Ken's Metal Blog
This blog is a commemorative type of outlet for my past love affair with heavy metal music as well as all the other names similar types of music go by, like heavy rock, metal, death metal, thrash metal and all that other stuff.
Well actually, I'm not into most of the newer - and by newer I'm talking anything in the last 20 years or so - types of metal sounds. I'm an old rocker, so the metal of my era was out of the 1970s and 1980s mainly, so we're talking bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Ozzy, Sabbath, Dio, Slayer, WASP that sort of thing.
I play guitar, so my interest was always in bands that featured heavy, fast and clever guitar work and guitarists. So out go bubble gum bands that have big keyboards - can't stand 'em! Even commercial so-calleed metal bands like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi leave me a little cold.
Too technical also leaves me wamting to go to sleep, so out go techno guitarists like Steve Vai, Vinnie Moore, Joe Satriani etc. Booooringgg!!!
Ok, Steve Vai did some good stuff with Whitesnake and Dave Lee Roth, but his solo stuff was to nod off to.
Am I a critical bastard? You betcha!
Follow this blog and I'll probably take apart every metal musician that ever graced a recording studio!
Kenneth
Ken's Metal Blog
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