Jorn - Dio

A Dio tribute done right!Jorn Lande must be the busiest man in hard rock and heavy metal.  Jorn is currently fronting his solo band as well as returning to Masterplan, and believe it or not he is even on tap to join Glenn Hughes, at the High Voltage Festival, to co-front Heaven and Hell.  He and Glenn will pay tribute to the late great Ronnie James Dio.  It is no secret that Jorn is a huge fan of Ronnie’s music, because he has covered several of his tracks, in the past.  It will be a monumental day in metal history, in which I hope will get some sort of professional release down the line.  That being said, Jorn has just released a 13 track  CD full of covers, of the legend that was RJD, appropriately titled Dio. 

Dio is what you would expect; the songs are pretty true to form with a few twists.  As always Jorn and his band sound amazing and their rendition’s of the Dio tunes are spot on.   If you’re a Jorn fan you’ve heard a few of these before.  Jorn is no stranger to Dio covers and some of those covers re-appear on this release like Kill the King (Rainbow) and Lonely is the World/Letter From Earth (Black Sabbath).  The interesting thing about this release is that he covered a couple tracks from Dream Evil and Sacred Heart.  I was surprised to see those represented in the track listing.   I think some of the best covers on this CD are the ones he did from the Holy Diver record.  I really like his interpretations of Invisible and Shame on the Night.  Jorn has also included one original for the CD titled Song for Ronnie James Dio.  It is a song in which most of the lyrics are made up of Dio song titles.  It is a cool tune and would have made Ronnie proud.  That being said, I believe Ronnie would have enjoyed the full record.  I’m not sure if he heard it before his passing, because it was almost completed before he left us, but I think he would have dug it.  He was a fan of other great vocalist, and Jorn is definitely one of them.  A solid effort and fitting tribute to one of the greatest vocalists that heavy metal has ever seen.

Bottom Line: Jorn paying homage to one of his idols and doing it well.  The great thing about the Jorn solo band sound is that they are so heavy, which in turn breathes life into some of the older tunes.

Standout Tracks: Song for Ronnie James Dio, Invisible, Sham on the Night and Letters From Earth.

- Ragman misses the great one. 

Vanden Plas - The Seraphic Clockwork

German progressive metal at its finest.For those of you whose only familiarity with Vanden Plas is seeing the name on the back of some rich guy's Jag, this German progressive metal band has been cranking out music for nearly 25 years.  That said, The Seraphic Clockwork is only their 6th studio album to date.  And if you're looking for music set firmly in the archetypes of the genre, you've come to the right place.

Vanden Plas' strengths lie in crafting compelling rhythms with a judicious use of dynamics, reminiscent of genre forefathers like Dream Theater.  Following another common prog metal standard, The Seraphic Clockwork is a concept album chock full of imagery.  Songs like Holes In The Sky will definitely call to mind the satisfying unison runs (at 3:35 in the track) heard so often on albums like Images and Words.  While Sound of an Angel wields the power of Symphony X-style interludes (@ 2:26) with ease.  But don't let me mislead you; Vanden Plas definitely puts its own stamp on the genre with a Gothic chorus on Sound of Blood (2:25) and a string accompaniment on Quicksilver (1:51) and On My Way To Jerusalem (:25), the album's showpiece.

Andy Kuntz ably handles the singing chores, from smooth crooning to accentuating growls, demanded of prog metal's better vocalists.  Stephan Lill's guitar work won't immediately blow you away necessarily, but make no mistake, he can play.  See what I mean on tracks like Quicksilver (7:29) and on the intense Rush of Silence (7:11) for proof of his skills.

The Bottom Line:  Despite a disappointingly flat mix overall, The Seraphic Clockwork is a solid album from one of the better bands in the genre.  Fans of prog metal should definitely add this to their collection.

- Genghis likes his metal proggy

Podcast #103: Union

Richard Christy knows how to drink.Bands are like families; they fight and sometimes breakup, but something usually brings them back together.  When a band gets back together, the first thought that comes to mind, is how long will it last this time?  Bands like Dokken - and now, Anthrax - have broken up and gotten back together more times than John changes his jock.  Are they teasing the fans with these short-lived reunions?  Not sure, but don’t really care, because I welcome them back every time with open arms.  Join Genghis and Ragman as they discuss the recent reunion of Anthrax and their predictions on how long it will last.  Next, the boys round up Richard Christy from Charred Walls of the Damned, as he discusses the band’s debut CD as well as their current tour.

DVD of the show: Anthrax - Alive 2

Beer of the show:  Monschof Kellerbier

Featured Tracks:  Charred Walls of the Damned - Voices Within The Walls; Anthrax - Anti-Social; Trust - Prefabricated; Anthrax - Superhero; Crimson Glory - Cydonia; Anthrax - Medusa; Accept - Dead On; Dokken - Heart to Stone; Charred Walls of the Damned - Ghost Town & Fear In the Sky

Classic of the Show: Malice - Rockin' With You

Genghis Pick of the Show: Bullet for My Valentine - Fever

Ragman Pick of the Show: Sevendust - Confessions (Without Faith)

- Ragman is perplexed as to what happened to the old site...

Podcast #103: Union

Update on Monday, July 19, 2010 at 3:00PM by Genghis

By the way, the old feed on iTunes is most likely no longer valid.  However, until the new feed shows up in the iTunes Store, you can still manually subscribe to it by choosing Subscribe to Podcast... under the Advanced menu in iTunes and using this feed link:

http://therighttorock.com/ituneslink

- Genghis does what he can to help the fans

We're Back!

As you might have noticed, we had a spot of bother with the website a few weeks ago.  Well, it was about time we updated and reorganized anyway even if it wasn't the way we planned on going about it.  But enough of that.

We're actually pretty excited to show you around the new place, including some of the new features here at The Right To Rock.  First, the podcast is back online with a new show: Episode #103, with special guest, Richard Christy, of Charred Walls of the Damned.

Next, we have a Discussions section which allows people to discuss various topics which Ragman and I will post for the listening audience.  The more interesting responses will be featured on future shows and might even get you a little something in return...

We've got a much better way to provide listeners and our guests with links to their sites on a separate Recommended Sites page in order to clean up our once cluttered sidebar.  Speaking of which, the sidebar on the right will contain better information about the CD of the Month as well as my Twitter feed (for whoever actually cares) so you can keep up with what's currently making our heads bang.

We'll add more features as we can, but until then, I'm thinking this will work out better than our old Wordpress site.  Hope you guys like it, and the podcast, and we'll keep on puttin' them out until our necks break from old age at a Megadeth reunion show.  Cool?

- Genghis wishes everyone a mighty HORNS UP!

Podcast #102: Covered

Airbourne has come for your women!What is your favorite album cover of all time? There are so many to pick from, it just may boggle the mind. Join Genghis and Ragman as they discuss their favorite metal artwork and see if they were able to pick just one. Also, the boys pay their respects to the late great Peter Steele (Type O Negative). Next, the boys corner vocalist/guitarist Joel O'Keefe of Airbourne for a one on one, who discusses the band's latest offering, No Guts, No Glory as well as their current tour.

DVD of the Show: Extreme - Boston 2009 (Take Us Alive)

Beer of the Show: Hoogstraten Poorter (Overall Beer Rating - 3.5)

Featured Tracks: Extreme - Decadence Dance; Type O Negative - Love You to Death; Dio - Jesus, Mary and the Holy Ghost; Type O Negative - Summer Breeze/Everything Dies; Poison - Sexual Thing; Iron Maiden - Genghis Khan; In Flames - Ordinary Story; Airbourne - Runnin' Wild; Steel Town - Blonde, Bad and Beautiful and Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast

Ragman Pick Of the Show: Adelita's Way - Invincible

Genghis Pick of the Show: Hellyeah - Cowboy Way

Classic of the Show: Steve Stevens - Pet the Hot Kitty

- Ragman feels he should let you know that this show was recorded before the passing of RJD...

Podcast #102: Covered