TheAccountant

Worked from home today so I got the chance to fire up the record player and whatever came out of the moving box at random got listened to. First out: Triumph - Never Surrender Excellent title track. "A World of Fantasy" and "When The Lights Go Down" are almost as strong. Plus a bunch of very good instrumentals. The other songs are good as well. Very good album: But things were about to get even better. Next out of the box: Rush - Power Windows My 2nd favorite Rush album (only 2112 is better IMO). Awesome in every way possible - esp. Neils lyrics. Next out of the box: Rush - A Show of Hands. A generally prefer live albums to be recorded at one show and this album was recorded at several shows over 2 tours but it works out fine here. A very good live album. Better than ESL (IMO). Next out of the box: Bob Seger - Travelin Man This is a boot that was recorded in West Germany in 1980. Live Seeger - what not to like? Good stuff. Side 1 is killer with "Feel Like A Number", "Travelin Man", "Beautiful Loser", "Still the Same", "Main Street" & "Old Time Rock'n Roll". Side 2 aint bad either with "Turn The Page", "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" plus a few weaker songs - although the crowed enjoyed it all. Good album. Scary thing is, as awesome as the Seger album was, it was likely my least favorite album of the day. Thats saying something since it was darn good.

Thanks for recommending - another one to add it my list to try.

Resurrection? The live album - correct? Very good live show. A rare glimpse of light during the (IMO) musical darkness of the 1990's / 200's. But the music and lyrics I don't go wild for. But I agree with you - very good performance (assuming we are talking about the same album). As for the Bruce albums you mentioned, I don't believe so. I really enjoyed Tattooed Millionaire and then had another solo Bruce album but sold it as I was not impressed. Thanks for recommending these, I will try to check them out.

1990? that may help to explain why I never heard of them. Once you get to the 1990's I drifted away from a lot of music because well, it drifted away from my tastes. Basically for me the 1990's and 2000's until now represented a dark age that is just starting to lift. Their were occasional ray's of light, and I am finding more than I was aware of, but unlike in the 1970's and 1980's they did not get a lot of regular airplay - at least not that I was aware of. So I am having to dig through Youtube to find these fragile becons of light. Given how you describe them I am not certain that would fall into my taste range but I will add them to my list to try. Thanks for the recomendation.

I agree with you 100% that this is not a band chasing the past - I hear it using that past to move along to the future. Must confess though, I am not at all familiar with Paradise Lost. Glad you mentioned them - I will have to check them out. My guess is they never broke big in the US if they date to the 1980's. If they date to the 1980's and had broken big over here I would be familiar with them. As for Maiden I find them to be a very different band from Priest and (perhaps surprisingly) a bit hard to compare. Its like comparing Rush and Triumph. On paper, similar bands. Once you get listening, not similar. That being said, I historically ranked them about equal. Priest had good music in the 1970's when Maiden was not around. Then they both had their glory years in the 1980's. But Maidens glory years involved slightly more albums (# of the Beast through, and I am being very charitable here, Fear of the Dark - although most would argue just 7th Son of a 7th Son vs. Priest British Steel through Ram It Down. Yes, most include Painkiller but I don't - I think its a dog). Plus Bruce had a very good solo album in Tattooed Millionaire. Rob had no such album. Both went through a down spell after they changed lead singers in the 1990's. Then reenergized when their original lead singers came back. Maiden had a strong album in Brave New World and from Dances With Death they had Paschendale (which is my favorite Maiden song). But otherwise their music since Bruce came back had not really thrilled me. Priest is a different matter. Yes, they did Nostradamus which I don't go crazy for but all their other albums have been very enjoyable. So, 1970's - edge for Priest. 1980's - edge for Maiden. 1990's - who cares. But post return of Bruce and Rob - edge Priest. So its close but I rank Priest very slightly ahead of Maiden. Maiden at its best may be better than Priest at its best but their is just more good quality music from Priest and late career they have been on fire. Like you said, I can't wait for the new album.

Ok -this is showing real signs of potentially being one hack of an album. They are 2 for 2 with the songs released so far in my book. Very good stuff.

Been so busy over the last month I missed out on this coming out. Good golly - this is excellent. Rob's vocal are still amazing, tremendous lyrics, strong music. I did not think they could match Firepower (which, IMO, was their best album since Screaming for Vengeance) but if the entire album is this good they might match or exceed Firepower. Call me impressed - big time.

Been a while since I had the time to listen to any music - either been taking care of my parents or working or watching the news. But today I worked from home so that gave me the chance to fire up the record player and whatever came out of the moving box got listened to. Turned out this was an awesome thing to do. First out of the box: Bryan Adams - Reckless I remember when this album came out I listened to it and my first reaction was that it was almost to good. That mostly still holds true. My 2nd reaction was that the best song on the album was not what had been getting airplay - at that point I thought right away that "Summer of 69" was the best song on the album. It eventually got a ton of airplay and time proved me right, IMO its the song that has aged the best. Side 1 is just loaded with really good songs ("One Night Love Affair", "She's Only Happy When She's Dancing", "Run To You", "Heaven" & "Somebody"). Side 2 starts with the amazing "Summer of 69". Then it continues with the good ""Kids Wanna Rock" & "Its Only Love". It ends with 2 weak songs 'Long Gone" and the really weak "Ain't Gonna Cry". Minus the 2 weak songs on the 2nd side its still one heck of an album. Next out of the box: Triumph - Allied Forces The album has 2 of Triumph's best songs ("Magic Power" & Fight The Good Fight") plus it has a bunch of other strong songs like the title track and "Fool For Your Love". A very good album. Next out of the box: Triumph - The Sport of Kings Ok, I am going to say something crazy here. IMO this is Triumph's best album. While none off the songs can match "Magic Power" or "Fight The Good Fight" from Allied Forces or "Spellbound" or "Follow Your Heart" from Thunder 7 or "Never Surrender" from that album, this album just fits together amazingly well. One song just flows into the next. Its much more than the sum of its parts. Individually the songs just don't match with some of the songs from the other Triumph albums but together they do. Rush were masters of making their albums fit together and here Triumph put together a complete album. Its an album I never skip a song on. Note - I was lucky enough to see Triumph on this tour and it was an awesome show. Pity Triumph has been somewhat forgotten over the years. They should not have been. Next out of the box: Cinderella - Night Songs Side one loaded with strong songs (the title track, "Shake Me", "Nobody's Fool", "Nothin' For Nothin'" & "Once Around The Ride"). Side 2 has "Somebody Save Me" but is otherwise only ok. But side one make it an enjoyable album. Next out of the box: Ozzy - The Ultimate Sin Another album I never skip a song on. That being said, I think its not on the same level as Bark At The Moon or the Randy era work. Still very good. Not a bad song. Next out of the box: Journey - Greatest Hits A Journey greatest hits album. Nuff said. Just wish it was longer than 1 record - Journey has way more awesome songs than you can put on one record. I have a 3 CD set of the greatest hits and thats more like it. The only thing I can really complain about the album though is "Stone in Love" is not on this record. I would have removed either "Girl Can't Help It" or "I'll Be Alright Without You" (both from their Raised on Radio dog, um, album) and replaced one of them with "Stone In Love". Actually, I might have replaced both but I am not being greedy. Anyway, I saved the best for last by chance. So last out of the box today: Savatage - Hall of The Mountain King A masterpiece. Brilliant. Another album I never skip a song on. Never have right from when I first got it back in 1987 and can't imagine that I ever would skip a song on it.

Must confess I am not at all familiar with Slomosa or Seen - never heard of either band. But Unleash the Archers are awesome. Those 2 albums are just amazing. Wish I could like you comment more than once.

Went out to see a movie for the first time since July when I saw the last Indiana Jones movie. Tonight it was "The Marvels". Good standard supper hero flick. Enjoyable. Not great but decent. Fun escapism on a Saturday night. Not a big move goer but felt the need to go out tonight. I like the 3 Marvels so this was an easy move to go see. Worth while? Yes. Would I go see it again? No. It takes a special move for me to go see it more than once. But it made for nice night out.

I did not watch the Monterrey show - will check that out. Thanks for the recommendation. Not certain whats going on with me and HYCAD either. But so far not thrilled. Perhaps over time.... I had been away on business most of this week and while I was waiting in Penn Station for my train to return home I ran into a guy with a Nightwish T--shirt. We got talking about bands as I also like Nightwish - my second favorite band behind Rush. Turned out he saw Nightwish twice (lucky guy - I have only seen them once). I mentioned Unleash The Archers to him, which he said he would check out. Then I mentioned The Warning. He was like "Yeah, the band with the 3 sisters from Mexico?! Their really good. Not Nightwish. Not Within Temptation. Not Epica. Not Kamelot. Not Delain. But really good. Right behind them". Guess thats high praise for The Warning in his book. I would rank The Warning ahead of all of those bands except Nightwish. But still, good to get talking to somebody else who actually had heard of them and liked them. Even better since it was at random in NYC.

"...heavy metal classic, possibly the greatest metal song of all time." Clearly I don't agree with you on that - and I like Dokken. To each their own I guess, but I could not call it either a heavy metal classic or possibly the greatest metal song of all time. For me, Dokken's 5 best songs would be: 1. Breaking The Chains 2. Just Got Lucky 3. Into The Fire 4. Alone Again 5. The Hunter After that it would almost certainly be other work from Tooth & Nail. Perhaps the album that followed it. Those were the best albums (with Tooth and Nail being by far the better album). Back For The Attack is decent and an album I will enjoy it every so often, but for me its a significant drop off from their 2nd and 3rd albums (although overall its better than Breaking The Chains). Guess I have to go with the "not even top 10" option.

I watched the show from the Pepsi Center last night and waited till tonight to comment on it. Wow!! Highlights for me was Back Holes and Breathe. Pau's expression about 1:30 into Black Holes when she stopped singing and the crowed just picked up the song for her was priceless. You could tell she was in tears by the end of that song but Breathe (which as I understand it had never been played live b4 and was added to the album at the last second as the record company wanted something more tacked onto the album) totally reduced her to tears. Watched several versions of those songs and it so emotional. Awesome. Other Highlights (and frankly there are a ton of them) would include Dany's solo / acoustic version of When I'am Alone and the group playing XXI Century Blood. I really like that song so it was good to see it played live. Things that did not thrill me? Hmmm, Enter Sandman. I have beat that one to death in prior posts so I won't say more there. Speaking of More, that would be another things that did not thrill me. Nor did Hell You Call A Dream. Sick was better than the other version I have heard. Some of the music appealed - somewhat. So perhaps its growing on me. The light show did not thrill me, as I get older I get picky with my light shows at concert. But overall it was an awesome show. Just fabulous. BTW - adding the string ensemble was a move that took guts but it worked. I get real twitchy when bands add string ensembles, most of the time it does not really add much of anything or it outright detracts from the songs. When Rush tried it on the CA tour I was like ok, thats nice. But can we get them off the stage and get back to the Rush concert? It really added nothing. But here, with Black Holes, it really added to the song. Very well done.

Amazing - just amazing. There are a few bands I like more but for my money The Who were the best live rock band of all time (and yes, that includes Rush). Keep in mind they went out and put on this show at 5:00 AM. Awesome.

100% agree. Nothing after ANATO has been as good as the strong albums that came before. I also agree that The Machine was a let down. Great vocals - thats a given - but otherwise a dud to my ears. I have watched a recent show on youtube and even the live performance of the songs from The God Machine did not thrill me.