Monthly Archives: January 2009

ZZ Top – Eliminator (1983)

Posted on January 19, 2009 by jkonrath

Anytime anybody asks me the dreaded all-time, all-star, desert-island album question, my answer is almost always ZZ Top’s breakthrough album Eliminator. Why? Because it has everything. It’s blues. It’s metal. It’s tex-mex, swamp rock, disco, and power-pop all in one … Continue reading →

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AC/DC – Back in Black (1980)

Posted on January 17, 2009 by jkonrath

There are a lot of amazing things about this total definition of heavy metal as we know it, but one of the most amazing things about this album is that it was released only five months after Bon Scott died. … Continue reading →

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David Lee Roth – No Holds Bar-B-Que (video)

Posted on January 16, 2009 by jkonrath

Back in 2002, David Lee Roth came up with the idea to make a feature-length collage of music video and reality-type surreal TV, and spent about a million dollars of his own money doing it. The video went out to … Continue reading →

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Queensryche – Take Cover (2007)

Posted on January 15, 2009 by jkonrath

There are a few different reasons a group would record an album of cover tunes. Bands just out of the gate might not have enough original material written, and need to fall back on the classics to come up with … Continue reading →

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Rush – Caress of Steel (1975)

Posted on January 14, 2009 by jkonrath

Okay, before I start, I remembered this tiny bit of trivia, and it took me forever on google to confirm it, so I better just paste it in. This album, in the original LP form, had a bunch of city … Continue reading →

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Van Halen – 1984 (1984)

Posted on January 12, 2009 by jkonrath

I must have been 12 at the time, going on 13, when the video for “Jump” came out. I didn’t listen to much “heavy” music, but I spent at least ten hours a week glued to this new thing called … Continue reading →

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Rush – Rush (1974)

Posted on January 11, 2009 by jkonrath

Every band has to start somewhere. What’s amazing about Rush, after listening to their self-titled first release, is that it’s so far removed from their later core releases, and they went through such a giant transformation by their second album. … Continue reading →

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Queensryche – Queensryche (1983)

Posted on January 7, 2009 by jkonrath

Every band has to start somewhere. For prog-rockers Queensryche, they begin with a very NWOBHM-styled four-song EP. And it wasn’t even the same band initially – they were known as The Mob then, and Geoff Tate was enlisted to sign … Continue reading →

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Chris Poland – Return to Metalopolis (1990)

Posted on January 5, 2009 by jkonrath

Some metalheads may remember guitarist Chris Poland as one of the original guitarists in the band Megadeth. He appeared on their first two albums before getting fired by Dave Mustaine for his excessive drug use. (And you know if your … Continue reading →

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