The band was formed in Chester, England in 1995 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Paul Draper and bassist Stove King. Originally called themselves “Grey Lantern” but changed their name to “Manson”, after the cult leader Charles Manson but were forced to change it to “Mansun” due to copyright issues.
After several EP’s and singles, their critically acclaimed debut album, “Attack of the Grey Lantern” was released in 1997 and it knocked fellow Parlophone act Blur’s self-titled album from the top spot of the British album chart.
The album’s sleeve art was a painting produced by Max Schindler, and commissioned especially for the album. It contains many references to personal interests and obsessions of the band, such as a TARDIS and an image of Tom Baker as Doctor Who, and Patrick McGoohan as Number 6, from The Prisoner. There is also a depiction of Winnie the Pooh standing close to a painting that may be a reproduction of Vinegar tasters, a Taoist allegorical painting. Guitarist Dominic Chad is known to be both a Taoist and a fan of A. A. Milne, and the album’s name is in fact a reference to Milne’s book Now We Are Six. Read more Mansun – Six (1998)
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Anthrax – Worship Music (2011)
Back in the mid 80’s “Spreading the Disease” was one of my favorite albums. “Madhouse”, “Aftershock”, the killer “Armed and Dangerous” and “Medusa” were daily head-banging munitions for me. And I love them since as I loved the 1990’s “Persistence of Time”, “Keep It in the Family”, “Belly of the Beast” or the murderous cover of “Got the Time” by Joe Jackson were killer proofs of how great band Anthrax really are and they definitively deserves to be one of the “Big 4” alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer.
During 1991 they collaborated with pioneering rap artists Public Enemy on a joint version of “Bring the Noise”. Also, the EP “Attack of the Killer B’s” was recorded during 1991, featuring a new version of “I’m the Man” and a cover of “Bring the Noise” on which Scott Ian did the vocals, as well as some other killer tracks: “Startin’ Up a Posse”, “N.F.B. (Dallabnikufesin)”, “Parasite” (Kiss cover), and two S.O.D. covers “Milk (Ode to Billy)” and “Chromatic Death”.
BUT, I also believe the best thing ever happened to this band was kicking out Joey Belladonna in 1992 and bring to the microphone John Bush, formerly of Armored Saint. Just listen “Only”, “Room for One More”, “Black Lodge” or “1000 Points of Hate” and you will hear definitively the difference. “Sound of White Noise” (1993), “Stomp 442” (1995), “Volume 8: The Threat Is Real” (1998) and “We’ve Come for You All” (2003) are all great Anthrax albums even if the record labels don’t offer them their full support.
“Worship Music” have history. The recordings beginning in 2008 and were finished this year… Read more Anthrax – Worship Music (2011)
Faster Pussycat – Wake Me When It’s Over (1989)
This isn’t definitively their dirtiest album, actually after their sleazy debut album, on this the boys from Los Angeles turned to more bluesy sounds kind of leaving behind their glam and hair metal roots, but still, this is 60 minutes of quality and dirty rock and roll as only at the end of the 80s were possible. “Bathroom Wall” back then was one of my favorite songs, kind of Sex Pistols/New York Dolls meet Steppenwolf (“Born to be Wild”).
“House of Pain” is a bluesy song, off the band’s original punk rock/glam outfit and style. The guys still rocks on with “Where There’s a Whip, There’s a Way”, “Slip of the Tongue”, “Ain’t No Way Around It”, etc, while songs as “Cryin’ Shame” combined hair metal and blues rock tastefully. One of my favorites from this album is the bluesy, cabaret taste like “Arizona Indian Doll”.
“House of Pain” reached #28 in the Billboard Hot 100 and the video, which was directed by future film director Michael Bay, was in rotation on MTV. The album itself peaked at #48 in the Billboard 200. Read more Faster Pussycat – Wake Me When It’s Over (1989)
Brutal Truth – End Time (2011)
Painful and consistent. I can’t really imagine any other band 100% entitled to delivering the soundtrack of the “end times” than Brutal Truth. Formed by ex-Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Stormtroopers Of Death bass guitarist Dan Lilker in 1990, in New York City, Brutal Truth along Napalm Death were one of the leading grindcore bands, delivering extreme – and obviously – brutal metal. The group disbanded in 1999 after four studio albums, but reformed in 2006 and delivered in 2009 “Evolution Through Revolution”. “End Time”, the band sixth studio album will be released on September 27, 2011 by Relapse Records. The band have also made the entire album available for via streaming from their website and as the official release note said: “End Time packs shotgun blast-sized impact throughout its 21 track take down of civilization’s imminent implosion.” Read more Brutal Truth – End Time (2011)
Gary Numan – Telekon (1980)
September 5, 1980, Gary Numan released “Telekon” the third and final studio release of what Numan retrospectively termed the “Machine” section of his career, following “Replicas” with Tubeway Army and “The Pleasure Principle” in 1979, the first album under his own name. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) claimed to have listened to it every day during the making of “Pretty Hate Machine” while Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields also became a Numan fan through the album. Otherwise, “Telekon” received a largely hostile reception from contemporary music critics. Many critics anyway considered Numan one of the “one-hit wonders” for his most popular song “Cars”, a single from his previous album. For the less ignorants, it is announced that Numan’s new album entitled “Dead Son Rising” will be released on September 12, 2011. Read more Gary Numan – Telekon (1980)
Staind – Staind (2011)
It’s been awhile, isn’t it? Actually, many just never heard of them before and after “Break the Cycle” and justifiably or not, Staind was labeled by most as one hit wonders, but anyway, as one of the followers and not the leaders of the nu-metal wave. Anyway, definitively I skipped some of their albums lately. Scheduled to be released on September 13, 2011, “Staind”, the seventh upcoming album marks the return to the band’s heavier sound that was predominate on their earlier two albums, “Tormented” (1996) and “Dysfunction” (1999). Juggling between nu metal (Pantera/Korn/Limp Bizkit) heavy riffing and gloomy grunge (Alice In Chains/Pearl Jam) and post-grunge schemes, the 10 new tracks of Aaron Lewis and his band mates are a collection of so-called modern and alternative metal elements and cliches, but still, Staind have some excellent riffs, strong themes and the skill and ability to write catchy and powerful songs. Read more Staind – Staind (2011)
Jethro Tull – Roots to Branches (1995)
Between their debut, “This Was” in 1968 and their 21st in 2003 with “The Jethro Tull Christmas Album “, Jethro Tull has delivered albums with distinctive sounds crossing genres and styles, merging prog/art rock, hard rock, heavy metal, jazz, blues, folk, classical, Elizabethan, and world music. I heard Ian Anderson’s music for the first time with the 72’s album “Living in the Past” and even if I wasn’t an unconditional fan of Tull, Anderson, we have to admit it, delivered quality materials throughout the years. “Roots to Branches” released on 4 September 1995, probably is not as acclaimed as “Thick as a Brick” (1972) or famous as “Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!” (1976), but definitively is a colorful trip into a musical universe filled up will all the spices from Anderson’s workshop. Read more Jethro Tull – Roots to Branches (1995)
Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
I love Alice. I loved his “Killer” from ’71, just like “School’s Out” and “Billion Dollar Babies” from ’72 and “Muscle of Love” from ’73. Then I loved “Welcome to My Nightmare” in 1975 and “Alice Cooper Goes to Hell” very next year. Later I loved “Special Forces” (’81), “Zipper Catches Skin” (’82), “DaDa” (’83), and “Constrictor” (’86). “Trash” (’89) and “Hey Stoopid” (’91) were both two great albums, “The Last Temptation” was alright and I really loved “Brutal Planet” in 2000 where Alice kind of give his answer to his followers and meanwhile new stars such as Marilyn Manson proving – once again – that he still have the power. But after that I kind of lost my appetite for Alice, “Dragontown” was at least a mediocre release while “Dirty Diamonds” sounds like a lost material from the 70s, not bad for that times, but quite outdated for the 2000s. Honestly, Alice didn’t really convinced me in 2008 with his concept album “Along Came a Spider”.
Then Alice planned to release a sequel of “Along Came a Spider”, but producer Bob Ezrin proposed instead the idea of a sequel to “Welcome to My Nightmare”, part of the thirtieth anniversary of its original release. Read more Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
Judas Priest – Painkiller (1990)
It was the 12th studio album by Judas Priest, and the original LP, cassette and CD versions were released on 3 September 1990. “Painkiller” was the first record with drummer Scott Travis, who was recruited from the band Saints Or Sinners and replaced Dave Holland who was behind the drum kit for two decades since 1979 and also it was the last record with founder member and lead singer Rob Halford who after the end of the Painkiller tour in 1991 left the band and to form the group named Fight under the heavy influence of bands such as Pantera and the new metal subgenre: groove metal. Scott Travis became drummer both for Judas Priest and Fight and Priest bring to the microphone the talented young American singer Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens for the following two albums “Jugulator” (1997) and “Demolition” (2001). Judas Priest and Rob Halford announced they would reunite in July 2003 and a new studio album, Angel of Retribution, was released on 1 March 2005. Read more Judas Priest – Painkiller (1990)
Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)
Probably one of the most expected albums of this fall by metal fans. Three years after the epic “Black Clouds & Silver Linings”, the progressive metal band formed in 1985 by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts are back, first time without founding member, drummer Mike Portnoy. His departure raise higher the interest for this new material, but Mike Mangini can not be a disappointment for anybody. Metal fans probably remember his name from his contribution on Annihilator’s third album, “Set the World on Fire” released in 1993, but he also contributed to Extrem’s 95’s album, “Waiting For The Punchline” and more notably he was the drummer in Steve Vai’s live band and recorded several drum tracks for Steve’s “Fire Garden” and “The Ultra Zone” albums. Also Mangini was notorious for setting five World’s Fastest Drummer records between 2002-2005.
The band’s 11th studio album, “A Dramatic Turn of Events” is scheduled for a September 13 release on Roadrunner Records. After several listening, this might be the best, the more balanced Dream Theater album so far. Well, I’m conscious, some said this about their previous album… and every new release of any band usually is nominated as their best, but this time Dream Theater actually quite managed to delivered their best. Read more Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)
