Sunstorm - Emotional Fire

Rarely does veteran hard rock vocalist Joe Lynn Turner disappoint, and his latest release Emotional Fire will keep that trend going; well, sort of...  Emotional Fire is Joe's 3rd release with his side project Sunstorm.  The CD is an AOR orgasm ready to spew into your ears.  Wow that was graphic, wasn't it?  No seriously, this is some serious melodic rock from one of most powerful voices in the industry.  Some of the songs penned for this one, you might have heard before, because they were recorded many moons ago, by Cher and Michael Bolton.  Don't let that scare you off, because Joe gives them the hard rock treatment. 

Emotional Fire is an 11 song platter of AOR hard rock.  Joe sounds great, and so does the band, but there was something lacking on this one for me.  The songs are good, but lack the punch they need to be great.  The production is polished, courtesy of Dennis Ward, but comes off a little syrupy for my tastes.  There are times of brilliance, but not many.  Some of the tunes come off stale and dated.  Not a bad CD, but not a great one either. 

Bottom Line: Melodic hard rock with not enough punch.  Turner sounds great and appears not to have missed a beat, but unfortunately the material doesn't hold up as well as his vocals.

Standout Tracks: Emotional Fire, You Wouldn't Know Love and Torn in Half.

-Ragman wants some new original music from Mr. Turner.

Pretty Maids - It Comes Alive (CD/DVD)

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for a live package from Pretty Maids.  They have been a favorite of mine for years.  It seems like forever since they started talking of doing a live DVD, but for some reason it never materialized, but finally in 2012 it came to fruition.  The band is now celebrating their 30th year anniversary with a stellar CD/DVD package called It Comes Alive (Maid in Switzerland).  The band had a plethora of material to pick from, and that is just what they did for this live best of package.  The band did it right by making this an audio/visual package for fans.  This a cool thing for fans that have not been lucky enough to check out the band live. 

It Comes Alive is a monster set from these Danes that encompasses their entire career.  The band sound and look great.  The CD has a nice sound to it which gives you that live feel, but it was the DVD portion of this package that really kicked my ass.  Seeing the band perform classics like Future World, Yellow Rain and Walk Away were just mind blowing.  The DVD is filmed really well, and gives you a sense of being in the front row.  I would love to see this on BluRay. 

The CD is a nice complement to the DVD, but it was the DVD that stole the show for me.  Pretty Maids is a band that like lots of fan participation, which is evident in this package, so the visual portion of this set will help you get into tracks like Savage Heart more, because the the crowd take the chorus for most of this one.  You would never guess that vocalist Ronnie Atkins and guitartist Ken Hammer have been kicking it for 30 years, because they sound as fresh in 2012 as they did when they started in 1981. 

 

Bottom Line:  Longtime coming from the Maids.  A killer set of greatest hits, performed with precision.  Really cool to finally be able to see this band play live.

Standout Tracks: Hell on High Heels, Walk Away, Here Comes the Night, and Clay.

-Ragman is loving this package.

Podcast #135: Parodies

It takes a real man like Steve Blaze to clue you in: Sleeves are for pussies.Do parodies of heavy metal/hard rock bands hurt or help the cause?  Join Genghis and Ragman as they discuss everyone from the originators (Bad News, Spinal Tap) to the most recent bands (Steel Dragon).  Can you really take a band like Steel Panther seriously?  Tune in to find out what the boys think.  Next, join Liliian Axe guitarist Steve Blaze, who checks in for an update. Steve discusses the band’s latest CD, The Days Before Tomorrow, as well as the addition of new vocalist, Brian Jones.

DVD of the Show:  The Comic Strip Presents - Bad News

Beer of the Show: De Ranke XX Bitter (Brouwerij De Ranke)
	Appearance: 3.0 Aroma: 3.0 Palate: 2.0 Taste: 1.5 Overall: 2.0	"Bitter, bitter, bitter - with a lot of aftertaste."

Featured Tracks: Coldspell - Eye of the Storm; Bad News - Drink 'Til I Die; Street Legal - Warriors of Genghis Khan; Spinal Tap - Hell Hole; Strange Fruit - All Over the World; Steel Dragon - We All Die Young; Lillian Axe - Show a Little Love, Take the Bullet, Death Comes Tomorrow, Bow Your Head, My Apologies & Dream of a Lifetime

Classic of the Show: Spread Eagle - Switchblade Serenade

Genghis' Pick of the Show: Beyond the Bridge - Where the Earth and Sun Meet

Ragman Pick of the Show: Steel Panther - Why Can’t You Trust Me

- Ragman is on a roll...

Podcast #135: Parodies

The Deadly Spawn

Originally released in 1983, The Deadly Spawn has been recently resurrected and put on Blu-Ray for its "millenium edition". I unfortunately missed this one the first time around, so I thought it had to be good if it was getting re-released after all of these years. Basically, it's your classic 80s horror/sci-fi flick in which aliens come to earth, via a meteorite, and start devouring humans. The first to go are a couple of campers and then the toll starts to rise from there. The aliens take up shop in the basement of a house of an unsuspecting couple and start doing their dirty work. All hope is lost until a kid happens upon them and figures out how to outsmart the aliens before they take over the world.

This is one of those movies that surprises you when it shows up in some sort of elite package. It is a cult classic B movie from the 80s that not many people have heard of and there is a reason for that; this movie is mediocre at best. The story is okay, but it drags like a mutha. You get to the point where you're scratching your head wondering why someone hasn't been offed in a while. The acting is not the best and the monsters look cheesy, but what really hurt this flick was the development of the story. The writer was so involved developing the characters that he the must have lost sight of the real purpose of the movie - aliens killing humans. Not horrible, but it did get hard to watch due to boredom. I will say that I was impressed by some of the special effects. Not bad for a B flick back in the day. The thing is once this one gets going, it does turn out to be a pretty cool flick. Lots of gore.

Bottom Line: A cult classic gets the royal treatment. A B rated flick that takes too long to develop, but once it gets going, the gore is plentiful.

- Ragman thought about hitting the fast forward button more than a few times during the viewing of this one...

Oz - Burning Leather

The easiest way for an older band to get re-introduced into the metal scene is to either issue a greatest hits package, or re-record their classic tunes, throwing in a few new ones to show the fans they've still got it.  Well, Finnish/Swedish rockers Oz just did the latter with their new album, Burning Leather.  The band has not released new material in over 20 years so it was a logical approach to get re-introduced to the fans, while maybe picking up some new ones.  The band put out a handful of records in the 80s before breaking up in 1991 then reunited nearly two decades later, leading to their just released 11 track platter containing 5 new and 6 rerecorded tunes.  The band was pretty underground but had a decent loyal following back in the day.  Unfortunately, they never really made it big back then, but hopefully in 2012 they can make one final push to make some noise.

Burning Leather, as one might expect, sounds a little dated. And while it was cool to hear classics like Fire in the Brain and Search Lights with an updated sound, the true test for me, was to see what the new tunes sounded like. The new tunes actually sound very similar to what the band was doing back in the day; just pure heavy metal - or what I tend to call it, meat and potatoes metal. [It's] nothing that's gonna knock your socks off, but not to be disregarded either. The new tunes stand up well with the classic material, but again will not blow you away. The only curve ball on the record is the track Enter Stadium, which is the band's attempt at writing a big anthem. A little poppier than the rest of the CD, it kind of stuck out a like a sore thumb. 

Bottome Line: A veteran band trying to become relevant again via a lesson in old school heavy metal in the modern day. Solid, classic, heavy metal with a face lift.

Standout Tracks: Fire in the Brain, Search Lights, Third Warning, Dominator

- Ragman has fire in the brain, and it's driving him insane...