metalmaniac777

Something for the Pain ~ Bon Jovi

This song's been stuck in constant play in my head for like 3 days now, and I've been playing the heck out of the album ("These Days") which I consider one of Bon Jovi's most underrated releases.

Goran is a good vocalist, but the bands/projects he's been involved with are not very impressive. Not really a fan of any of them and my vote ended up going to Snake Charmer, for what it's worth. None of the other choices do anything for me. Neither does Snake Charmer, mind you, but they were the best of a bad bunch. Of course, "bad" is just my opinion, because others obviously love the albums listed in this poll. Music...it's so subjective.

Latest acquisition...

THE SHOWDOWN: "Temptation Come My Way" (excellent Christian modern hard rock/metal)

Here's my recent additions to the DVD collection...

WILDERNESS (British survival horror/action flick)

BARRICADE (German gore movie, extremely graphic violence/splatter)

THE MARINE (dumb-but-fun 80s-style popcorn action movie)

Well, I'm not one of those people who thinks "Street Ready" is a masterpiece, because it's a patchy album, with almost as many fillers as hits, but those hits...wowzer!! When the band did it right, they were fantastic. I nearly voted for the new album, since I like the heavier, aggressive sound, but in the end I went with "Street Ready."

Never been a Loudness fan--something about them just never clicked with me--but I have heard most of their albums and the one I deemed the best was "Soldier of Fortune." But if I never heard them again I wouldn't shed any tears...

Hey Mark, this one really ain't that soft mate. It's not showered in keys like the majority of their 80's releases. Still may not be for you, but I can pretty much assure you it's not as soft as you think. the guys definately had some balls this time round.

Like I would take advice from you after the Used and Brother Firetribe debacles.

Ha-ha, jokes, mate. I dug up some samples for this much-maligned Night Ranger album and okay, it's not as wimpy as most of their other stuff, but it's still kind of flaccid compared to the kind of hard rock I typically enjoy. Harder than typical Night Ranger, sure, but not exactly anything I would describe as balls-out.

Never heard it, have no interest in hearing it, don't care for Night Ranger. Okay, okay, "Sister Christian" is a classic, and a few other decent songs are sprinkled across their discography, but overall they do nothing for me. I prefer my rock to have more balls than Night Ranger can muster.

Dave....start putting up more MP3 links in your auctions.....see if he tries to link to your MP3 samples you have posted??? When he does, your auction finishes.....take down the link and leave him high and dry. Now that would be awesome!!!!

 

 

 

Better Yet.....wait until he copies your MP3 links, and then replace the links with something like Milli Vanilli or Menudo or something....

Now that's just devious. I admire that in a person.

Here's what I've picked up the last couple weeks...

ART OF THE DEVIL II (nasty little Thai horror/gore flick...scenes guaranteed to make you vomit)

THE EXILED (Hong Kong action movie, very oldschool John Woo-ish in nature)

MASTERS OF HORROR: PELTS (awesome entry in this series...suicide by bear-trap...NICE!!)

UNDISPUTED II (pretty good direct-to-video martial arts film)

THE FAST & THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (a whole lot better than the second one, that's for sure)

SKID ROW: "Revolutions Per Minute"

I know the majority of folks 'round these parts hated this CD the way hillbillies hate sleeping with someone who ain't related to them, but I thought it was pretty decent. Not a patch on the first two albums, or even "Thickskin" for that matter, but still a good, solid hard rock CD. Probably would have been better received if it hadn't been called a Skid Row album, but hey, what do I know?

So there I was, driving home from work, when a cop pulled me over and said, "I clocked you doing 48 in a 30 mile per hour zone. Care to explain yourself?"

Thinking quickly, I replied, "The Ramirez brothers made me do it."

I then sat there for 10 minutes while the officer wrote me a ticket. Oh well, it was worth a try...

I just wonder why nobody here shared there suspicions about this before. Now that alot of people here got screwed, it seems like some people had an idea somthing wasn't right but didn't want to share. Just curious.

Because they would have been shredded like ecoli-laced Taco Bell lettuce. I like to think I'm a fairly respected member of this community, but I had a bad dealing with Lonnie last month but knew that if I dared to say anything negative about him, I would be taken to task for daring to disparage him. Until yesterday, talking bad about Lonnie was the equivalent of calling Mother Theresa a syphilis-ridden, take-it-up-the-ass whore.

Oh, how times have changed. That loud crash you heard yesterday? That was the sound of the mighty falling...

Picked up the "Saw III (Uncut)" DVD a few days ago. Best of the series and a perfect ending to a great horror trilogy. Unfortunately, they won't leave it as just a trilogy...

1988...some great metal releases, no doubt about it. Still, my choices weren't that tough.

Part 1: Lillian Axe ~ s/t. Didn't hear this one until long after it was released, but once I did, I was a Lillian Axe fan for life.

Part 2: Stryper ~ In God We Trust. Sure, it's in vogue to rag on the "holy bumblebees," but I still consider them a great band, and even though this particular album was a bit too slick & commercialized for its own good, it was still one of my favorite albums of '88.

Guess I'm just an unapologetic hair-metal hooligan.

In the mail yesterday...

SINNER: "Mask of Sanity"

More melodic than their last few heavy-hitters, but not quite as good.

I have a tough time picturing Lorraine selling 500 copies, let alone 1000. Maybe I'm wrong (and please, somebody correct me if I am), but I could have sworn I read a few years back that the top names in melodic hard rock (Harem Scarem, Jaded Heart, etc.) were happy if they could sell 5000 copies, with most other bands in the genre lucky to move half that. If that is true (and again, I may be totally misinformed), then it seems illogical to expect an obscure piece like Lorraine to sell 1000 units. So, obviously, I voted no.

Picked up yesterday...

SALIVA: "Blood Stained Love Story"

Still ass-kicking hard rock, but methinks a bit more melodic than "Survival of the Sickest."

Ahhhhh, 1987...what a great year to be a 14 year-old teenage headbanger. Sure, most of my "bangin'" back then was done to Christian hard rock/metal, but I did sneak in the occasional secular cassette, and one of those sneaks was Guns 'N Roses: "Appetite for Destruction," which easily won my approval back then and today easily gets my vote in the first section of this poll.

Second-half vote goes to Helix: "Wild in the Streets." The band never topped that one.

I could type something new here, but I'm going to take the lazy route and just copy/paste what I wrote in the original "Best of the Best German Bands" poll, and that is...

...technically, Jaded Heart and PC69 are the better bands, but Bonfire holds a place near & dear my heart, so I voted for them. I'll probably always cut them more slack than they deserve, simply because they're responsible for two of my all-time favorite melodic rock CDs, "Fireworks" and "Point Blank." I want to believe that they're still capable of someday creating another classic like those two albums, but then again, I also want to believe in the underwear gnomes...

SPOKEN: "Last Chance to Breathe" (very good modern Christian hard rock/metal)

Is that a new one? I owned 2 of their discs and liked them... even though the message got a bit much at times. The vocals were sort of "eerie" and reminded me a little of Vain. Not a bad band... what's this one like?

I believe "Last Chance to Breathe" was released last year sometime, not exactly sure when. I don't own their earlier albums, but this one shouldn't bother you at all with their lyrics...I can only remember one song being semi-overt in its Christianese...the other songs were pretty vague/generic, if you know what I mean; trust me, mate, you won't be put off by the lyrics. The lead vocalist does have a unique sound, and Vain ain't a bad comparison (vocally, not musically). Like I said, this is the first album by them I've purchased and I'm quite happy with it. Sounds like a million bucks (courtesy of producer Travis Wyrick) and has that riff-driven modern hard rock sound you & I both love. Imagine the band Red with Davy Vain on lead vocals and you have a rough idea of what this album sounds like.

Few bands as perfectly encapsulate what the 80s hard rock scene was all about as Lion. The looks, the guitars, the hooks, the choruses, the vocals...they had it all. Not my favorite group by any stretch of the imagination, but they're nowhere near the bottom of the list either. Here's how I voted in this poll:

1. "Dangerous Attraction"

2. "Hard and Heavy"

3. "Lock up Your Daughters"

Latest acquisitions...

SPOKEN: "Last Chance to Breathe" (very good modern Christian hard rock/metal)

PRETTY MAIDS: "Wake Up to the Real World" (not bad, but expected better)

PRIVATE LINE: "Evel Knievel Factor" (excellent, must-own for Wig Wam fans)

Being the horror buff that I am, I picked up "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" (Uncut) DVD the other day. A good bit more grisly/gory than the R-rated theatrical version, with nearly every kill having at least a few seconds of chunky red stuff added back in. With some of the uncensored shots of the chainsaw ripping through people's guts, it's not hard to see why this version was originally slapped with the NC-17 rating. Not for the weak-stomached, but a pretty solid watch for the gore-lovin' hardcore horror fan.

"Hear!" is one of those truly-beloved CDs in my collection. Every time I take a long road trip, I make sure this CD is along for the ride...a great driving CD, IMO. As others have mentioned, the abysmal production on the debut absolutely kills it. It didn't use to bother me, but production values have come so far since the late 80s that now the debut just sounds really piss-poor to my ears, to the point where I almost can't stand to listen to it. About the only 2 songs I still like are "Surrender" and "You'll Never See Me Crying."

"Hear!" just has that rich, powerful, beefier production. (It saddens my hard rock-lovin' heart to hear that production and think of what could have been with the debut... ) I remember buying "Hear!" when it came out and being absolutely stunned at how much better it sounded. Night & day. Anyway, here are my picks:

1. "Hear!"

2. "Surrender" (lousy production, but a great ballad)

3. "Nobody's a Hero," followed very, very closely by "Power of Love"