Queen - Funny How Love Is

 #Queen #Freddie Mercury #Brian May #Roger Taylor #hard rock #glam rock #progressive rock #heavy metal #classic rock #1970s

Freddie Mercury’s attitude to writing about love changed over the years, from the optimism of “Funny How Love Is” (from their second album Queen II) to the mid-1980s, when he was writing edgy songs about love being dangerous and referring in interviews to his own love life as similar to a game of Russian roulette. “Funny How Love Is,” though, was a sunny, optimistic reflection on how love is omnipresent (“love is anywhere you’re bound to be”). It started out, in the first five takes, as a piano-led acoustic song, and evolved into a “wall of sound” track via Mercury’s friend and producer Robin Cable. “That album was when we first really got into production, and went completely over the top,” commented Taylor. “Funny How Love Is” was sung in demanding high-register vocals, which was the reason Mercury declined to sing the song in live shows. Although there are more famous Queen love songs, “Funny How Love Is” captures the innocence and optimism of the band at the start of their journey.  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/queen-love-songs/

Two Minutes To Late Night - David Bowie's Station to Station Cover

 #Two Minutes To Late Night #bedroom covers #heavy metal #David Bowie cover #music video

During the past year, the virtual jam — wherein a group of artists each claim their own corner of a 16:9 YouTube screen to rock out in isolation, together — has become as ubiquitous as Zoom conference calls, online schooling, and any other pandemic-era activity. Pearl Jam did it for Covid relief. The Rolling Stones did it for Global Citizen. Metallica did it very quietly. But few virtual jams have been as relentlessly creative and consistently surprising — not to mention flat-out awesome — as the ones featured in metal-themed talk show Two Minutes to Late Night’s long-running Bedroom Covers series.
Want to see Primus bass master Les Claypool, Tool drummer Danny Carey, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher, and Coheed and Cambria vocalist Claudio Sanchez, all avowed Rush fanatics, take on the beloved Canadian power trio’s 1975 classic, “Anthem”? Or Sleigh Bells vocalist Alexis Krauss lead a motley crew of artists through a metal-ized medley of Nineties Eurodance hits like Vengaboys’ “We Like to Party!” and Haddaway’s “What Is Love”? How about septuagenarian E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg slamming the skins on a furious cover of the Misfits’ hardcore punk rager “Earth A.D.,” alongside members of My Chemical Romance, Hatebreed, and Dillinger Escape Plan? Two Minutes to Late Night’s YouTube channel is the one and only place where these twisted musical fever dreams regularly become reality. As for the corpse-painted, suit-and-tie–wearing dude rocking out on guitar in his Brooklyn shoebox of an apartment in one corner of most of the clips? That’s Two Minutes to Late Night host Jordan Olds, a.k.a. “Gwarsenio Hall,” who’s also the co-creator, along with Drew Kaufman, of the whole endeavor. “We didn’t invent the cover song, or even the isolated performance,” Olds acknowledges to Rolling Stone. “But the way we do our covers and performances, I don’t think anybody else could do it quite the same.”
To be sure, Two Minutes to Late Night, which, true to its Iron Maiden–referencing name, first launched as a sort of mock headbanger-friendly version of Late Night With Conan O’Brien (“the most irreverent and the silliest of all the late night shows,” Olds says), is unlike anything else in the digital universe. Taping on the stage at Brooklyn heavy-music haven Saint Vitus Bar during the venue’s off hours, Olds and Kaufman, with the former hosting and the latter heading up cameras and production, released one eight-episode season that combined well-worn late-night tropes (Olds interviewing guests from behind a desk; a house band comprised of proggy power trio Mutoid Man) with some good old metal-style irreverence. The pilot episode alone featured a short in which Dillinger Escape Plan shredder Ben Weinman auditioned for the guitar slot in a female R&B act; a Name That Tune–esque game titled Squeal of Fortune; and on-the-scene reporting from outside Glenn Danzig’s house (“I’ve been standing here for six hours and I haven’t seen Danzig once — he may be on tour; he may be using the back door… we’ll never know”).
Season One of Two Minutes to Late Night wrapped in 2019, and not too long after — pre-pandemic, mind you — Olds and Kaufman came up with the idea of producing branded virtual jams. “The best part of the show to me was always the finale, where the guests would perform a cover song with us,” Olds says. “And so we finished the first season, but to be honest, it was hard to get a lot of guests in that format, because, for example, Chelsea Wolfe had wanted to be on the show for years, but to make that happen, it was like, ‘Well, are you free on this Tuesday and from 7 to 11 and in New York and not playing your own show?’ ” Doing virtual jams, he continues, “was a way to make some of these covers happen without having to figure out all the scheduling.”
The first Bedroom Cover, which filmed in January 2020 but premiered two months later, as schools and workplaces around the country were starting to go remote, saw Olds joined by members of Mutoid Man, Khemmis, and Thou for a thrashy version of “Dare to Be Stupid,” from the patron saint of music parodists, “Weird Al” Yankovic. “We thought it would be really funny for the first one out of the gate to be a really aggressive cover of a Weird Al song, given that he is, of course, one of our biggest inspirations,” Olds says. From there, things only got weirder: a sludge-metal version of Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years”; a stoner-goth take on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” with Dillinger Escape Plan, Mutoid Man, and, on vocals (finally!) Chelsea Wolfe; and a ripping run-through of AC/DC’s “Riff Raff” with members of Clutch, Cave In, and Converge superimposed on plenty of ridiculous Australian imagery (an Outback Steakhouse; koala bears; Crocodile Dundee).
The Bedroom Covers initially served two purposes: to provide an outlet for Olds and Kaufman to continue producing new original content even as the world went into lockdown, and also to offer a bit of financial assistance to artists who, virtually overnight, watched their income dissipate as gigs were canceled and entire tours scrapped. “We still had our Patreon going, which was helping to fund regular Two Minutes content,” Olds says. “But then we started seeing our friends in bands and crews posting about how sad and distressed they were — they were coming off the road and they weren’t sure what they were going to do for money, and in some cases they had upcoming medical surgeries that they weren’t sure how they were going to pay for because they don’t have regular health insurance. Their entire way of life had been taken away. So we immediately shifted the Patreon from funding the Two Minutes to Late Night show to funding the Bedroom Covers, and we split the money from each video between the musicians and the audio mixers and everyone involved.”
From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/two-minutes-to-late-night-bedroom-covers-interview-max-weinberg-1164120/

Tartar Control - Diabolical

 #Tartar Control #punk #punk metal #comedy punk #TV pilot #music video

Robert, Sean and Robot are three fun time buddies who looove music. They're on a mission to bring rockin' good times (via the bowels) into your heart. Robert and Sean started their epic journey in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, Utah where they performed in The Tabernacle Choir, gave hugs to sweetly handicapped cancer-children, and lip-synced to Huey Lewis and The News. With the invention of their drummer/bassist Robot, they hit the road with their sights set on Los Angeles. Inspired by such bands as The Vandals, Left Over Crack, and Lawrence Welk, Tartar Control brings to you a musical experience that can only be described as a "loud hug." Today Tartar Control galavants all over the greater Los Angeles area giving sonic high-fives and handshakes to the masses.  From: http://www.tartarcontrolisyourfriend.com/about.html

Sean Hart and Robert Selander grew up in Salt Lake City, where they practiced Mormonism. Everything was swell, but something — a desire, a longing for more, or maybe just a mission call from Joseph Smith — told them they needed to head to Los Angeles. And there, they found their holy grail: punk rock music. This is, at least, the story they tell on stage. In reality, the duo are an Angeleno-bred set of comedians simply searching for a little more meaning through punk. Formerly an acoustic pair called The Smiths, performing hits by Stevie Wonder and Kenny Loggins, Hart and Selander knew punk rockin’ was their calling after learning about the likes of The Vandals and Leftover Crack. That’s when they formed Tartar Control.  “We were taken aback,” Selander said. “After that, it was one of those things where you see something once and you’re slightly revolted, then you think about it for a few days and you’re obsessed. We started playing around with different sounds and, after a while, we decided we wanted our own punk rockin’ band.” There was just one problem: they needed bass and percussion. With Hart on guitar and Selander on screaming vocals, the band was lacking a much-needed rhythm section. Luckily, they ran into a perverted, drunken robot uniquely named Robot, who filled the void (though he lacked the same morals as the bible-thumping Hart and Selander).
While Tartar Control has gained a following in the punk scene, they know their music won’t be accepted everywhere, especially in the Mormon church. “Mormonism and punk rock don’t blend together at all. Our church doesn’t know we’re in a band, and neither do our parents,” Selander said. “We’re going to assume the Mormon church is going to ignore the Long Beach Post. But you never know. They have tentacles everywhere.” Still, Tartar Control insists their lyrics, with titles like “Satanists are Fuckin’ Dicks,” “Brush Your Fuckin’ Teeth,” and “Cramps Don’t Mean You’re Pregnant,” are positive messages. “I feel like punk rock and metal of the harder core tend to get unfairly labeled,” Hart said. “For music, as long as you’re there speaking the truth, you have a voice. We’re certainly not fundamentalists in any sense of it. We’re not Amish. We’re not churning butter. I feel like music in general is something that people approach with a much more open mind.” They also said they like singing about things they know, like traffic on the way to Ralph’s, and things they enjoy, like Pokemon. Selander hopes to eventually incorporate Jigglypuff’s theme into their set to help audience members get sleep. “If I could lull an entire audience to sleep, I would think that would be a gift in itself and a mission accomplished,” he said. “Who doesn’t enjoy a good night’s sleep?”
With positive vibes like these, the group said the most vulgar piece of their performance is Robot, who goes out to party every night at 8PM but still manages to arrive to shows on time. But there’s a reason for this. Quoting Robot himself, he said he’s “just there for the bitches.” As Hart and Selander play sweet songs like “Jesus is Love” and “Fuzzy Bunnies,” Robot constantly interrupts the show by catcalling to women in the crowd while playing ’90s R&B from his speaker. “Robot will find his own road to recovery, for sure,” Hart said. “He seems to find a woman at every show and harass her. He’s kind of a womanizer. We don’t ask him a lot of questions about where he goes at night. He used to live in our garage, but he must still go through there because I’ve found so many Four Loko cans that look like they’ve all been opened with a can opener, so we know it’s him.” Hart added that several child support notices have showed up at their apartment for Robot. “I opened one and I think he’s the father to several children,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s physically possible, but somehow he’s in charge of someone’s child.” This odd blend of crudeness from Robot and angelic playfulness from Selander and Hart has garnered them a following that crowd funded a television pilot, which can be viewed on Tartar Control’s YouTube channel. The group hopes to release the second episode within the next year.
Tartar Control looks forward to spreading the good news of Jesus in Long Beach this weekend, but just has one request of audience members. “I would like people to know it’s okay to put on deodorant before they come to our shows,” Selander said. “It’s okay to be clean. You can wear your black clothes and put all the glue you want in your hair, but it’s okay to take a shower because the glue won’t wash out.”
From: https://lbpost.com/hi-lo/music/jesus-sodomy-and-peach-cobbler-tartar-control-bring-the-punk-love-to-long-beach-2/

Turn Me On Dead Man - Cyclops

 #Turn Me On Dead Man #psychedelic rock #heavy metal #psychedelic metal #stoner metal #space rock #retro-1960s #retro-1970s 

Turn Me On Dead Man are a ‘heavydelic’ space rock band from San Francisco. combining heavy metal and psychedelia to forge a music that is both transcending and unforgettable. The songwriting plunges listeners into the heavydelic landscapes of 60’s experimentalism and 70’s bombast, creating a sound that is enthralling, imaginative, hugely entertaining, and incredibly hard rocking! The group have been creating their unique brand of lysergic-soaked rock since their inception in 2000, gigging extensively throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and garnering praise from all over their home turf and the country, spurred on by heavy rotation at the influential WFMU station in New Jersey. Alternative Tentacles founder Jello Biafra was suitably impressed by the band’s spaced-out, glammed-up, turned-up brand of audio mayhem enough to re-release their first epic record, “God Bless the Electric Freak”.
Live, Turn Me On Dead Man is a spectacle of epic proportions; a visceral sonic boom that spans the spectrum from the meanest, most gorgeous anthems of rock to the exotic ragas of modern psych, creating an explosive and diverse stage performance as energetic as it is uncommon. Simply put, Turn Me On Dead Man plays Heavy Crush Bliss Rock breaking the sound barrier on their own private Lear Jet headed straight to Hell! The bands twin guitar harmonization, melodic rhythmic switchbacks and trippy apocalypto-mystical lyricism keep California’s psychedelic rock tradition alive. In their own words: “mind melt music for the sick and twisted, heavydelic super rock for the ultimate freak outs”.  From: https://maximumvolumemusic.com/featured-band-turn-dead-man/

In September 1969, as I began ninth grade, a rumor circulated that the Beatles' Paul McCartney was dead, killed in a 1966 automobile accident and replaced by a look-alike. The clues were there in the albums, if you knew where to look. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's "A Day in the Life," for one, recounts the accident: He blew his mind out in a car / He didn't notice that the lights had changed / A crowd of people stood and stared / They'd seen his face before / Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords. The cover of the Abbey Road album shows the Fab Four walking across a street in what looks like a funeral procession, with John in white as the preacher, Ringo in black as the pallbearer, a barefoot and out-of-step Paul as the corpse, and George in work clothes as the gravedigger. In the background is a Volkswagen Beetle whose license plate reads "28IF" - Paul's supposed age "if" he had not died. Spookiest of all were the clues embedded in songs played backward. On a cheap turntable, I moved the speed switch midway between 331/3 and 45 to disengage the motor drive, then manually turned the record backward and listened in wide-eared wonder. The eeriest is "Revolution 9" from the White Album, in which an ominously deep voice endlessly repeats: number nine ... number nine ... number nine.... Played backward you hear: turn me on, dead man ... turn me on, dead man ... turn me on, dead man.... In time, thousands of clues emerged as the rumor mill cranked up (type "Paul is dead" into Google for examples), despite John Lennon's 1970 statement to Rolling Stone that "the whole thing was made up." But made up by whom? Not the Beatles. Instead this was a fine example of the brain as a pattern-recognition machine that all too often finds nonexistent signals in the background noise of life.  From: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/turn-me-on-dead-man/

Timechild - And Yet It Moves

 #Timechild #hard rock #heavy metal #heavy prog #progressive metal #retro #Danish

Timechild is massive and organic heavy rock from Copenhagen, Denmark. The band’s soundscape is made up of a powerful and present lead vocal, characteristic twin guitars and atmospheric vocal harmonies, which together create their unique Scandinavian expression. Timechild was formed in 2020 by four seasoned musicians from different corners of Denmark. With extensive past experience in a number of former and existing Danish rock and metal bands, the members had already crossed paths on both Danish and international stages. When the opportunity arose, they decided to unite their musical experiences and visions and created Timechild. The debut album was written and recorded during the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, which paralysed the Danish and international music industry. However, this silence gave the band time to jointly develop their common sound and expression. The vision from the start was to show how heavy rock can continue to challenge and surprise audiences even in 2021. Although the foundation of the band’s sound universe is clearly laid by the rock giants of the past, Timechild’s inspiration is drawn from across both time and genres. The opportunity to dive into the music history of past decades, and through this define one’s own sound, is one of the greatest privileges that today’s musicians have at their disposal. We can learn from the past without being backward-looking or unoriginal and we can be relevant and innovative without having to define a new genre.  From: https://mightymusic.dk/artists/timechild/

Turtle Skull - Rabbit

 #Turtle Skull #psychedelic rock #doom metal #psychedelic metal #stoner rock #stoner metal #Australian

Art As Catharsis Records are proud to announce the release of Turtle Skull’s second album, Monoliths - a texture-rich record that dances between bone-crushing lows and ethereal highs. Taking inspiration from Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Turtle Skull’s blend of warped psychedelia, shattering doom and indie-rock sensibility merges into their own brand of music dubbed ‘flower doom’. While the final product contains a faint similarity to the sounds of King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard, Khruangbin, or Kikagku Moyo, Monoliths is distinctively its own beast. It’s a record that heaves and soars, taking joyous compositions and steering them headfirst into a realm of fuzz and fury. ”This record is about the intimate connection we share with the Earth on which we stand. It’s about the world and your place in it. It’s about looking deep inside yourself and seeing what you find. It’s about life and death and everything in between, and most of all it’s about the pure joy of creation. We are very happy to share it with you." At the end of its runtime, Monoliths undeniably displays a much more fleshed-out realization of the doom, psych rock and indie fusion that launched the five-piece into the public eye following their self-titled release. Tipping between heavy and catchy is the strength of Monoliths - the roar of the fuzzed-out amps is counterbalanced by feather-light vocals, creating a contrast as clear and harmonious as sun and sky.  From: https://turtleskullmusic.bandcamp.com/album/monoliths

Deep Purple - No No No

 #Deep Purple #Ritchie Blackmore #Ian Gillan #hard rock #heavy metal #prog metal #blues rock #classic rock #1970s #Beat-Club

After their breakthrough "In rock" album, Deep Purple consolidated their new found popularity with a remarkably confident and competent follow up. "Fireball" has all the consistency which was lacking in the brash rawness of "In rock", making for a much more satisfying album as a whole. The title track opens the album in blistering fashion, a phonetic representation of the track name indeed. A sort of cross between their own "Black night" Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant song", and Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin", it packs more into three minutes than most albums manage in forty. Classic stuff indeed! The following two tracks sit well together. "No no no" is a powerful, more structured song, with aggressive lyrics and a fine guitar solo by Ritchie Blackmore, while "Demon's eye" is a rather funky mid-paced number with an infectious melody. Ian Gillan is in fine vocal form throughout the album, but he clearly enjoys himself on "Anyone's daughter". This is quite the quirkiest song Deep Purple have ever recorded. It has a country flavor supporting comedic lyrics which tell the tale of Gillan's various conquests. A superbly outrageous piece, to which Blackmore adds some subtly lilting slide guitar, and Jon Lord contributes some wonderfully dirty piano.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=9121

Toadies - Backslider

 #Toadies #alternative rock #punk #post-grunge #hard rock #punk metal #indie rock #1990s

25+ years. That’s a long time to maintain relevance, especially in the music community. But that’s exactly what Rubberneck has done. Released during the height of the grunge era, it’s mistakenly labeled a grunge record. But it’s not, not by a long shot. Described as “the Pixies meets Metallica”, the Toadies had their feet firmly ensconced in indie, alternative, punk and (near) metal to forge a sound truly all their own. 11 songs without a wasted stroke, from the first strum of the instrumental “Mexican Hairless” announcing the arrival of Rubberneck to the heavy, near post-punk feel of the closer “I Burn,” the Toadies wasted nary a note, beat or word, 36 minutes of pure original Texas sonic-boogie bliss, this was an album that could only be forged by Texans, attempting to reclaim the rock world from Seattle’s grungy little fist. Not being grunge, punk or metal, Interscope originally went with the latter, placing the Toadies on hair metal showcases and festivals with the likes of Dokken and Great White. Therefore, their eponymous debut album was not met with the overnight success many people might believe. 2 singles and videos (“Mr. Love,” “Backslider”) had already come and gone in the time between late August and Christmas, and it certainly wasn’t a hit. Small tours with Samiam, The Goats, and Big Chief had done little to dent the band in the public eye, all the while turning them into a four-headed rock machine. 4 months of constant touring will do that to an already tight band, and they roared into 1995 as a juggernaut. With only a few thousand copies sold, they had one last chance to impress, and that came in the form of a ghost story centered on a North Texas lake called “Possum Kingdom.” One creepy video and a slot opening for British upstarts Bush later, people were finally taking notice and Rubberneck started picking up steam. Of all places to break first for them, Florida jumped right on board. Subsequent tours with All and a very young Sugar Ray only tightened the band as it headed into summer, with one of the most endearing singles of the year on their hands. “Possum Kingdom” was inescapable during that summer, and neither were the Toadies.   From: https://thetoadies.com/bio/

Author & Punisher - Night Terror

 #Author & Punisher #Tristan Shone #industrial metal #drone metal #doom metal #art metal #one man band #drone machine #dub machine

Author & Punisher is an industrial doom and drone metal one man band utilizing primarily custom fabricated machines/controllers and speakers called Drone/Dub Machines. The devices draw heavily on aspects of industrial automation, robotics and mechanical tools and devices, focusing on the eroticism of the interaction with machine.  From: https://authorandpunisher.bandcamp.com/community

If you or I wanted to mess with the pitch of an electronic bass signal, we’d probably plug in the nearest $50.00 MIDI controller and have at it. But we are not Author & Punisher. When Tristan Shone, who has made music under that justly severe moniker since 2005, wants to mess with such a pitch, he gears two high-torque motors to a pair of throttles, giving them autopilot and force-feedback functions. When he performs, it looks like he’s trying to fly an X-Wing with a bad steering rack into the Death Star.
Though he had already issued a few albums of moody industrial music before 2010, those throttles were the first “drone machines” the San Diego-based robotics engineer with a master’s degree in sculpture designed and fabricated. Shone literalized the idea of sonic sculpture, fusing the ethereal and the physical into an industrial metal vision. This tension characterizes Shone’s cursed soundscapes, too, which rampage between rhythm and randomness, melody and mayhem, infernal depths and screaming heights.
Eight years and a half-dozen releases later, Shone has released his Relapse Records debut, Beastland. His arsenal has grown to include so many forbidding prosthetics and devices he’s like a Rube Goldberg war machine stamping out arty Godflesh songs in stainless steel, his industrial core sprouting tumors of doom, drone, noise, and, covertly, pop. Metal vocals are recessed inside demonic sub-bass, concussive percussion, and skirling frequencies. Whether simmering or exploding, these eight three-to-six-minute tracks are exercises in perpetual combustion, a burning darkness expending some unnaturally limitless fuel.
Most of Shone’s creations are not instruments, per se. Some merely capture vocals in the most ominous sense of the verb, portending torture to follow - his elephantine drone mask, his fetish-y trachea mic, his Bane-style headgear. Others control electronic sounds. His “Linear Actuator” is visually suggestive of both a railgun and a tank tread, while “Rails” looks like some cruel factory press poised to remove a machine worker’s arm. These devices are not just for show; they meaningfully shape the sounds Shone makes. Instead of being designed for ease, his controllers fight back, offering physical resistance and semi-predictable outcomes, sewing chaos instead of order.
From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/author-and-publisher-beastland/

Cellar Darling - The Prophet's Song

 #Cellar Darling #progressive metal #folk metal #folk rock #doom metal #Swiss #Queen cover

Cellar Darling are a three-piece Swiss progressive metal band from Winterthur and Lucerne, founded in 2016. The group was formed by Anna Murphy (vocals, hurdy-gurdy, flute), Merlin Sutter (drums) and Ivo Henzi (guitars and bass). Cellar Darling incorporates heavy metal, folk, classical, and progressive influences. Notably, the band uses a hurdy-gurdy and a transverse flute. The trio were previously part of the Swiss metal band Eluveitie.   From: https://musicbrainz.org/artist/8291df18-f05a-46ea-93dd-64f55d976ff2 

We want to unleash feelings and experiences by telling stories and drawing symbols, in the way mankind has done since its existence: through legends, folk tales, theatre, drama, spirituality - and through songs. We reinvent folk tales for our age as the very essence of what they once were: stories of everyday life. We may sing about the future, we may sing about the past - for essentially, they are the same. If you come to experience our show, you will not know what to expect. If days are bright, our performance shall be bright. If they are dark, it will be dark. In any case, we will tell you stories: those you’ve missed in a world where no bed time stories are told anymore, or those which have never been told before.

Cellar Darling was formed by Anna Murphy (vocals, hurdy-gurdy), Merlin Sutter (drums) and Ivo Henzi (guitars & bass) in the summer of 2016. The trio has previously been part of the core of Switzerland's most successful metal band to date, Eluveitie, touring the world in 45+ countries on 6 continents for over a decade, and forming a bond that could overcome any adversity.
Anna, Ivo & Merlin have turned the departure from their old band into a new beginning, and have moved on to make their own music, while continuing the spirit of musical innovation they have become known for. Cellar Darling’s music is an epic, theatric combination of Ivo’s grand, heavy riffs, Merlin’s energetic drumming, and Anna’s unique, both powerful and fragile voice. Their sound is shaped by the hurdy-gurdy, with its signature folky, earthy tones, and their lyrics tell stories and tales both old and new, true to the band's stated mission: the reinvention of folk tales for our modern age as the very essence of what they once were.   

From: https://www.heavymetal.ch/artists/3676/cellar-darling

Tenebra - Moon Maiden

#Tenebra #stoner rock #psychedelic rock #blues rock #hard rock #hard psych #heavy metal #punk metal #occult rock #doom metal #noise rock #Italian

Tenebra are an Italian quartet offering Stoner and Psychedelic Blues sounds with retro references and a modern twist. Formed in October 2017, Claudio (bass), Emilio (guitar) and Mesca (drums) come from the hardcore and post-hardcore scene in Bologna, whereas vocalist Silvia is steeped in the underground rock of the ’60s and’ 70s. Together they create music that is not only the sum of their influences but pushes those influences outwards, adding odd tempo changes and nods towards Misfits, June of 44 and Love Battery into their strange brew.  From: https://maximumvolumemusic.com/band-of-the-day-tenebra/

The city of Bologna in Italy has around 400,000 inhabitants with 150 different nationalities. In 2019, out of this melting pot rose Tenebra, who are now releasing their new album Moongazer. Their music is an instant throwback, while being securely rooted in the here and now. Mesca’s accomplished drumming is garnished by Claudio Troise’s booming bass and Emilio Toreggiani’s filthy, smoky guitar. And then, on top of this deadly but sexy sonic concoction, come raspy incantations from Silvia Fennino. Sylvia Fennino’s voice is something to behold. It’s almost an event all by itself. She sounds as if she has just finished a pack of cigarettes while drinking straight scotch and gargling gravel. All while being able to sing VERY well. I could just imagine the 3 guys having a totally different sound – until they heard Sylvia sing. Then the lightbulb went on above their heads - “Stoner Rock. Definitely Bluesy Stoner Rock!” Her singing sounds effortless, while at the same time sounding like it takes all the power she possesses to wail her siren song.
I couldn’t imagine watching this band in the modern age. Their brand of melodious noise invokes a bygone era of smoke-filled bars filled with people whose wardrobe primarily consists of leather, and have a penchant for vehicles with two wheels rather than four. You could imagine them playing a set and then hanging out backstage with the likes of Jim Morrison or Marc Bolan.
From: https://www.metalepidemic.com/tenebra-moongazer/

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Manic Depression

 #The Jimi Hendrix Experience #hard rock #psychedelic rock #blues rock #R&B #heavy metal #British psychedelia #acid rock #1960s Mitch Mitchell #Noel Redding

There has been a lot of speculation that Hendrix had bipolar disorder based on some erratic behavior and mood swings he had. A big part of this, I think, is because he wrote a song called “manic depression” (an older term for bipolar disorder) with some assuming it was based on personal experience. My answer to this is that so far as I know Hendrix was never diagnosed with that disorder during his lifetime. I’ve never heard of him having either characteristic manic or depressive episodes, either. There are potentially other explanations for his behavior (including more mundane substance abuse). The description of “Manic depression” in his song of the same name doesn’t really correlate well with current understanding of that disorder. So my answer is that absent a contemporary psychiatric evaluation, I don’t think anyone can say for sure that he did or didn’t have bipolar disorder, but I think evidence for it is pretty thin.

I believe he did in fact suffer from Bipolar Disorder Through his lyrics, his drug/alcohol addiction, his mannerisms, the depression that he suffered from and from his clothing. Mental illnesses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder gives away physical symptoms, such as the sufferers wearing bright colors and strange patterns. On top of that, there’s a significant loss in his weight from the time he entered the military and the time that he was discovered. This disorder makes them unable to even get out of bed to eat. Then again, this could have been caused by the lack of money he had at the time, when he was traveling in the chitlin circuit. But, his weight got even lower and according to his close friends, not the hanger-ons, they stated that he hardly ate. Another concern would be his sleeping pattern. He often said that he had trouble sleeping and that he either slept too little or slept too much. Sometimes he would go days without sleeping. There was even an incident where he was scheduled to appear on the Dick Cavett show the day after Woodstock, I believe. But, he ended up missing. It probably had something to do with exhaustion because he had to be carried back to his dressing room. Dick asked about Jimi about twice during the interview, it was poignant and kind of creepy.

From: https://www.quora.com/Did-Jimi-Hendrix-have-bipolar-disorder

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was an English-American rock band that came together in London, in 1966. Composed of singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding, and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until 1969. During this time they released three successful studio albums. After Redding left the band in mid-1969, Hendrix and Mitchell continued to work together on other projects. The Experience reunited in 1970, with Billy Cox on bass, until Hendrix's death in September. Widely recognized as hugely influential in the development of the hard rock and heavy metal music genres during the late-1960s and beyond, The Jimi Hendrix Experience was best known for the skill, style and charisma of their frontman, Hendrix, who has since been called one of the greatest guitarists of all time by various music publications and writers. In his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments that produced astral-quality feedback and roaring distortion. His frequent hurricane blasts of noise and dazzling showmanship - he could and would play behind his back and with his teeth and set his guitar on fire - has sometimes obscured his considerable gifts as a songwriter, singer, and master of a gamut of blues, R&B, and rock styles.  From: https://rock.fandom.com/wiki/The_Jimi_Hendrix_Experience and https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-jimi-hendrix-experience-mn0000088906/biography

Tardigrade Inferno - How Nightmares Die

 #Tardigrade Inferno #avant-garde metal #alternative metal #dark cabaret #dark circus music #Russian #animated music video

Coming from the musically rich city of St Petersburg, Russia is the extraordinarily zany and creative band Tardigrade Inferno which formed somewhere around 2016 and released one self-titled EP and has been somewhat quiet for a few years. The year 2019 has barely had time to warm up and the band finally unleash the very first debut full-length MASTERMIND which displays the band’s unique mix of alternative metal with dark cabaret circus music. Add in sprinklings of death metal, thrash and power metal and you have one of early 2019’s most promising new acts.
The word “Tardigrade” can refer to either a variety of slow-moving microscopic invertebrates or it can simply be an adjective that means slow-moving or slow in action. I have no friggin’ idea how this applies to this band since this is high energy metal and there is relatively little info about this band on the net as i can’t even find any sort of biography whatsoever, however i can say that this band has found a unique sound right off the bat. However if i had to compare Tardigrade Inferno to any other band it would definitely be Diablo Swing Orchestra as it has the same cartoonish feel and the singing style of lead vocalist Darya Pavlovich sounds a lot like both AnnLouice Lögdlund and Kristin Evegård of DSO.
Musically though, this band doesn’t break out the jazz instrumentation or even circus accordions but rather delivers a metal music heft piled on top of dark cabaret and circus melodies alongside the bouncy festive rhythms that are associated with the greatest show on Earth. The metal bombast is mostly carried out by the power chord slapping staccato style accompanied by circusy keyboard runs but different metal variations come into play however mostly in an alternative metal down-tuned power chord rampage. While Darya Pavlovich’s vocal range stays more in clean vocal cabaret mode, she occasionally screams in metal style reminding me of Arch Enemy for short stints but unfortunately not nearly enough! The circus bounces are always under the surface despite heavy metal thunder stomping fast numbers or slower subdued moments.
While i’m constantly reminded of Diablo Swing Orchestra, Tardigrade Inferno isn’t nearly as daring and out there and is rather restrained in comparison. While the music is definitely quirky and playful it doesn’t change the sound up nearly often enough although there are moments such as on the title track where death growls and guitar solos enter the picture, otherwise Darya is pretty much on cutesy Gwen Stefani mode and reminds me a bit of the 90s band No Doubt only with more metal bombast. While a band to look out for as the members become more comfortable with this stylistic fusion approach, this debut is a great start with elements of ska, gypsy swing and the dominant dark cabaret sounds keeping the album infectiously catchy and light-hearted without skimping on the metallic angst.  From: https://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/tardigrade-inferno

Jane's Addiction - Stop

 #Jane's Addiction #Perry Farrell #Dave Navarro #alternative rock #hard rock #heavy metal #alternative metal #funk metal #neo-psychedelia #psychedelic rock #Los Angeles #1990s

Alternative rock legends Jane's Addiction broke the alt-rock mould when they released their debut album, Nothing's Shocking, in 1989. With scant regard for LA's spandex-clad genre conventions, they turned rock'n'roll on its head by throwing elements of funk, goth and punk into the mix. With their follow up album Ritual De Lo Habitual, released in August 1990, they built upon that template and subsequently broke alt-rock to the masses. They made it perfectly okay to love Led Zeppelin and The Sex Pistols.  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/jane-s-addiction-the-first-alternative-band-to-break-not-nirvana

Jane’s Addiction might be the ultimate “you had to be there” band. If you weren’t somewhere between 16 and 20 in 1988-90, their music is likely either totally foreign to you or a somewhat baffling memory, a misty relic of the pre-Nirvana age. But if you were there, as I was, they sunk a hook into you that will never come loose — and gestured toward a much wider world of possibilities than “punk” or “metal” or what was still called “college rock.”
Jane’s Addiction were unique, but they weren’t alone. There was a whole movement bubbling up on the West Coast in the mid to late ’80s. Between roughly 1987 and 1991, LA bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, and even Suicidal Tendencies — plus Bay Area peers like Primus and Faith No More — combined punk, funk, ska, thrash, prog, art-rock, and more into genre-shattering records and volcanic live performances. Metal and heavy rock were displaying a sonic broad-mindedness that really hasn’t been equaled since. Indeed, looking at what’s become of some of these bands since, it’s hard to believe it was ever that way.
I wasn’t a fan of Jane’s Addiction at first. Their independent 1987 live album — which they only released that way to buy themselves credibility; their major label deal was already in place — and their Warner Bros. debut, 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking, passed me by. But then Ritual de lo Habitual came out August 21, 1990 — 30 years ago today and two months after I’d graduated high school. I was fully onboard. I’d seen the video for “Stop” and loved both the high-energy psychedelic metal of the music and the band’s patchwork image. With their mismatched clothes, their manically/joyously headbanging drummer, their thrashing guitarist and head-down bassist, and their singer’s weird serpentine dancing and hoarse, crow-like vocals, they seemed like three different bands in one. I bought the cassette the day it came out and listened to it obsessively all summer.
Ritual de lo Habitual was divided neatly into halves. The album kicked off with a friend of the band’s, Cindy Lair, giving an introduction in Spanish: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have more influence with your children than you do, but we love them. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jane’s Addiction.” That launched “Stop,” the first of five fast, aggressive punk-funk-metal songs. The music was less thuddingly heavy than it had been on Nothing’s Shocking. Dave Navarro’s guitar was thinner and sharper; Eric Avery’s rumbling post-punk bass, always the heart of their sound, was louder and more physically present; Stephen Perkins’ drumming was wilder and looser. Perry Farrell, meanwhile, was more or less the same guy he’d been thus far — a scrawny, dreadlocked wannabe prophet, preaching indulgent amorality (“There ain’t no wrong now, ain’t no right/ Only pleasure and pain”).
From: https://www.stereogum.com/2095287/janes-addiction-ritual-de-lo-habitual-review-anniversary/columns/sounding-board/

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

 #Alice Cooper #hard rock #heavy metal #shock rock #glam rock #art rock #classic rock #glam metal #garage rock #1970s

The title track off of Alice Cooper’s most successful album up to that point, ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ presents the dangers of overindulgence. The background falsetto is provided by Scottish singer/songwriter, Donovan. In spite of the oftentimes comically distorted and grotesque subject matter throughout the album, Cooper says that Chuck Berry provided the bulk of his inspiration while making the album: “Berry was my favorite lyricist. When I first heard something like ‘Nadine,’ or ‘Maybelline,’ I understood those songs told a story. As the lyrics went along, you really got a picture of what was going on. He took the girl out; he couldn’t get his seat belt off – things like that. I always wanted to write three-minute stories that were funny, or maybe not just funny, but also dramatic. The idea was to compact everything into three minutes, which is really hard to do.” 

Donovan, during a post-show interview, on adding lyrics to Cooper’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’: “Alice was downstairs and I was upstairs at Morgan Studios when he was doing ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, I had heard this track and he asked me to put a vocal on it and I said ‘Sure. But it’s so big and so bouncy and so loud, I think I’m going to have to get into a falsetto!’ No one believed it was me!”  

From: https://genius.com/Alice-cooper-billion-dollar-babies-lyrics

Genitorturers - Touch Myself

 #Genitorturers #industrial metal #industrial rock #hardcore #electronic #hard rock #heavy metal #Divinyls cover

Led by outrageous frontwoman Gen, the Genitorturers are one of those bands far more well-known for their live shows and alternative lifestyles than for their music. Apparently the Genitorturer's live experience can include S&M, elaborate body piercings, sexual escapades, and who knows what else. As such, it's easy to focus on that aspect of the band and dismiss the music, and it might not be surprising if the music wasn't all that great, if that were the case. But on the contrary, the music is actually quite good, a catchy techno/electronic metal hybrid (a rough stab at their sound might be a cross between Rammstein and Marilyn Manson with female vocals) that is quite entertaining and effective. This is an odd band for a death metal bassist to end up in, but this is the precisely the case with David Vincent, formerly of Morbid Angel (though it makes somewhat more sense when one realizes that he is married to Gen). Quite the interesting band.  From: https://www.bnrmetal.com/v5/band/band/Geni

Shooting Daggers - Manic Pixie Dream Girl

 #Shooting Daggers #hardcore punk #riot grrrl #metalcore #feminist punk #post-hardcore #thrash metal #queercore #European

‘We are queer, and we’re gonna live!’ roars Shooting Daggers’ singer Sal Salgado Pellegrin, on We Will Live, the penultimate call-to-arms on the band’s fearless new EP, Athames. It’s a lyric that sums up the steely eyed attitude behind the band’s brutal, yet triumphant, hardcore punk. Heavy music is a place where people can find a home, when they feel they don’t belong anywhere else. But for a community that prides itself on inclusivity, metal and hardcore can still be unwelcoming spaces for women, the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. It’s those intolerances that the trio - made up of French vocalist and guitarist Sal, Italian bassist Bea Simion and Spanish drummer Raquel J Alves - are determined to eradicate. Inspired by the riot grrrl movement, G.L.O.S.S and Black Flag, alongside queercore peers Sharptooth and Pupil Slicer, they’re fiercely and noisily taking their own space in metal’s traditionally white, cis-het male scene.
“We’re vegan, we’re feminist, we’re women, we’re queer, we’re political, so we’ve got a lot to say,” says Sal. “Our music shares our perspective on our place in the scene, and in the world. I feel like you still have to prove you’re worth something and you’re not a poser when you’re a woman in the scene. Sometimes people come to us, and they say, ‘When I saw you going onstage, I didn’t expect you to be that hardcore, that heavy,’” adds Bea, arching an eyebrow. “And I’m always like, ‘Why wouldn’t you expect us to be heavy?’”
Sal and Bea formed the band in London in 2019, releasing their debut demo EP that October with a different drummer. After a line-up change, Raquel, a long-time London resident and band booker on the local scene, joined the ranks in November. “I’ve noticed people are more open to booking different bands,” says Raquel of the progression she’s noted since she started working at shows 15 years ago. “At least you have some representation on the stage. It’s changing, really slowly, but now there are a lot of bands speaking up with their views. When I was younger, you wouldn’t see a black metal band that was anti-fascist, or a queer doom band like Vile Creature.”
“But even though hardcore is a safe space for us, there is still a lot of work to do,” Bea cuts in. “It’s still very white. It’s still very misogynistic. A lot of girl and queer bands still don’t have a space. You still need to have male respect: when men respect and like you, that’s when other people like you too. Men for sure still own the scene and they decide who is cool and who is not.”   From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/shooting-daggers-the-politically-charged-hardcore-band-who-will-not-be-silenced

Black Sabbitch - War Pigs

 #Black Sabbitch #Black Sabbath tribute band #heavy metal #ex-Betty Blowtorch #music video

It’s not often that a band is born out of a name, but that was the case with Black Sabbitch. “We were just goofing around one night and someone said the name ‘Black Sabbitch,’ and we just thought, Maybe we should do that,” Black Sabbitch drummer Angie Scarpa explained. “I’m a freak for Sabbath - a complete and utter lunatic about Black Sabbath. So I said if you guys want to do this, why don’t we get together and play?” The band’s initial core was Scarpa and Betty Blowtorch guitarist Blare N. Bitch. They soon recruited Scarpa’s Art of Safecracking bandmate Melanie Makaiwi to play bass, and eventually found a vocalist in an actual Ozzfest vet - Aimee Echo from the Human Waste Project. This “all-female Black Sabbath” (don’t call them a tribute!) prides itself on the players’ roots in original bands. They don’t get together once or twice a year, practice a 45-minute set and play it the next week. Scarpa’s goal was to nail the experience to the extent that she felt like a member of Sabbath. “For me, since I am such a huge fan of the band, I didn’t want to do it unless it was going to be spot-on, but not in a boring ‘We sound like their record way.’ More in a ‘This is what it would have been like to see Black Sabbath in 1972. I really wanted to be able to have that experience for myself,” Scarpa said. Evidence of their quality lies in the fact that Ozzy asked the band to open a show for him last year.  From: https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/nov/23/blurt-dont-call-black-sabbitch-tribute/

Orb - General Electric

 #Orb #psychedelic rock #hard rock #heavy metal #fuzz rock #neo-psychedelia #Australian #1970s retro

Playing dark, sonically massive guitar-based rock that's heavy without sounding excessively metallic, ORB (not to be confused with the influential electronic group the Orb) hail from Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The group was founded by three members of the Australian band the Frowning Clouds after that band broke up: guitarist and lead singer Zak Olsen, guitarist and bassist Daff Gravolin, and drummer Jamie Harmer. The three musicians lived not far from one another, and with some extra time on their hands, they began jamming regularly. Inspired by their youthful enthusiasm for hard rock and early metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult, they started writing tunes that drew tongue-in-cheek inspiration from doom rock and psychedelia as well as hard rock. The longer they crafted heavy jams, the more they came to appreciate the style, and the less they approached the music with a smirk. In January 2015, ORB released their debut recording, a five-song cassette titled Womb. Within a few months, the group had earned a solid reputation among Australian heavy rock fans, and they struck a record deal with Flightless Records, the label founded by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/orb-mn0003515658/biography

Dir En Grey - Obscure

 #Dir En Grey #avant-garde metal #progressive metal #alternative metal #death metal #gothic metal #nu metal #metalcore #Japanese #visual kei #music video

Dir en Grey is the first Japanese metal band to break through in the West. Initially associated with visual kei (a Japanese musicians' movement that employed aesthetic tenets drawn from Western glam metal, including heavy make-up, elaborate hair styles, flamboyant costumes, and an androgynous look), they were arguably the most successful non-English speaking rock act since Rammstein. The band made its U.S. debut with 2007's The Marrow of a Bone, and played the festival circuit internationally as their sound began leaning on influences from goth rock and death metal to the theatrical metal of Korn and Slipknot. 2015's Arche - widely considered their masterpiece - added vanguard and technical death metal to the mix. In 2018 they revealed a more thrash-oriented sound with the controversial The Insulated World. They reappeared in 2022 with the decidedly more progressive Phalaris.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dir-en-grey-mn0000937315/biography

The term "visual kei" was derived from one of Japanese rock band X Japan's slogans, "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock", seen on the cover of their second studio album Blue Blood (1989). This derivation is credited as being coined by Seiichi Hoshiko, the founding editor of Shoxx magazine, which was founded in 1990 as the first publication devoted to the subject. However, he explained in a 2018 interview with JRock News that visual kei was technically coined, or at least inspired by, X Japan's lead guitarist Hide. Hoshiko also said that at the time they were called 'Okeshou Kei' ("Makeup Style"), "but it simply felt... too cheap. Even though X Japan was a big band and people used the term 'Okeshou kei' to describe them, the term was still lacking substance. I didn't like the term at all! Because of this, I tried to remind all the writers to not use this term as 'They are not okeshou kei, they are visual-shock kei'. From there, it went from 'Visual-shock kei' to 'Visual-kei' to 'V-kei'. After we spread the word, fans naturally abbreviated it to 'V-kei'. The Japanese love to abbreviate everything as a matter of fact." Hoshiko considers visual kei a distinctive Japanese music genre and defined it "as the music itself along with all the visual aspects of it."  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei