Podcast #202: Chestnuts

Merry Christmas, peeps, and HORNS UP!It's that time again, kids, time for The Right To Rock's annual Kicks & Kisses List. Genghis & Ragman have made their lists and checked them twice to find out what hard rock and heavy metal events of 2015 were naughty or nice. So, grab a seasonal ale, light a festive cigar, and kick those feet up as the lads wax nostalgic for the year.

As per usual, this is a special end of year mega-episode so while there's no interview, you get to hear the sultry voice of Mayor McCheese as he croons a Christmas classic. Plus you get to compare your year's ups and downs with these two jamokes'. Happy holidays, everybody - and HO-HO-HORNS UP!

Beer of the Show: Neapolitan Stout (Parish Brewery)
	Appearance: 4.0 Aroma: 4.0 Palate: 4.0 Taste: 4.0 Overall: 4.0	"Parish Brewery deserves a medal for helping us finish strong in the beer department for 2015 with this delicious, if hard to find, stout. So, so good."

2nd Beer of the Show: Rare Bourbon County Stout (Goose Island Beer Co.)
	Appearance: 4.0 Aroma: 4.0 Palate: 4.0 Taste: 4.0 Overall: 4.0	"Words can hardly describe how amazing this special version of the venerable Bourbon County Stout is with hints of vanilla, caramel and smoke. Perfection."

Featured Tracks: Motörhead - Run, Rudolph, Run; Megadeth - Moto Psycho; Bulletboys - Saving You From Me; Bulletboys - For The Love Of Money; Jorn Lande & Trond Holter - True Love Through Blood; My Brother The Wind - Misty Mountainside; Heaven - Where Angels Fear To Tread; Nevermore - We Disintegrate; Crazy Lixx - Ain't No Rest In Rock And Roll; U.D.O. - Words In Flame; Cyrax - The Seventh Seal; Ranger - Defcon 1; W.A.S.P. - Last Runaway; Sweet/Lynch - Dying Rose; FM - Call On Me; Damian Murdoch Trio - Funky Desert Rider; Twisted Sister - Ride To Live, Live To Ride; District 97 - Snow Country; The Answer - Cigarettes and Regret; Agent Fresco - Dark Water; Motörhead - Sympathy For The Devil; Disturbed - The Light; We Are Harlot - Someday; Act Of Defiance - Throwback; Niche - Exiled To Islands; VLY - Headache; Sons Of Texas - Baptized In The Rio Grande; Devil's Train - Hollywood Girl

- Genghis loves these Kicks & Kisses shows - but dreads the mixing...

Podcast #202: Chestnuts

Hell In The Club - Shadow Of The Monster

Italy's Hell In The Club is back with a new platter of 80s/90s era hard rockin' so recognize.You may remember my review last year of Italy's (that's right, Italy, dude) Hell In The Club's sophomore release, Devil On My Shoulder, wherein I praised the band's totally authentic turn of the 90s hard rock club sound. These cats have the goods, to be sure, and they're at it again with their latest album Shadow Of The Monster.

To be fair, it's basically more of the same, but as I said in my review of their previous album, these cats are the real deal amongst the new wave of bands paying homage to that particular OG sound. The music has an authenticity that belies a genuine love and appreciation for the source material that you don't get with a cash-grab, wannabe situation. The title track has every trademark of the genre: harmonized anthemic choruses, blazing solos, club-shaking rhythms, and bawdy lyrics, of course. And the same goes for pretty much the rest of the album. Lead singer Davide "Dave" Moras has that nasal tenor that fits the music perfectly, while guitarist Andrea "Picco" Piccardi keeps the energy going with crunchy, swaggering riffage and impressive solos. It's all there for you waiting for a party to break out on cuts like the title track with its metallic stomp-ending verse beat. If you didn't get their last album, but need some feel good hard rock, this is the stuff.

The Bottom Line: Fans of Guns N' Roses, LA Guns and other hard rock bands of the Sunset Strip circa late 80s/early 90s, this is totally up your alley. Check them out.

- Genghis needs to get his old Levi's jacket cleaned...

Midas Fall - The Menagerie Inside

British quartet Midas Fall scratches my shoegazing itch like a custom-made, ivory-handled apparatus.UK-based quartet Midas Fall is grounded in that classic alternative/shoegaze sound that is quintessentially British. Trebly guitar textures are the stock in trade, processed with that trademark lush, liquid chorus that makes for a perfect canvas on which the singer's melancholic voice can trace her pains. In this case we're talking about Elizabeth Heaton, whose heartfelt wailing give the music its soul.

Speaking of Heaton, one of my favorite aspects of this album is that along with guitarist Rowan Burn, we are presented with a wholly female voice in terms of the guitarwork. Strangely you don't get a lot of that in the genre despite the deeply personal sound of the music, and I'm always fascinated with just how the layers of sound and texture are worked out where atmosphere is almost as much a member of the band as the actual players. It's easy to put too much into it and create a cacophanous melange that takes away from the delicacy of the lyrical content. And that aforementioned texture plays out perfectly on tracks like Afterthought through Burns' deft use of harmonics, feedback, delay, and arpeggiated melodies. Considering that the album was recorded live in the studio, I have to believe their live shows must be amazing to witness.

The Bottom Line: Fans of the whole alternative/shoegaze sound will likely revel in the beautiful, British somberness of Midas Fall, whose female-scripted guitar textures keep the listener floating on soft, gray clouds of introspection.

- Genghis is liking this album more with every subsequent listen...

Scorpions - Forever and a Day

It goes without saying, that the Scorpions are one of the greatest Hard Rock/Heavy Metal bands of all time.  It is hard to believe that the band has been around 50 years and that they can still rock as hard as they did back in the day.  As many of you know, a few years back, the Scorp's decided to call it a day.  Their original intention, was to go out one last time, and tour the world.  I believe the tour was supposed to last about 18 months, and then they would call it a day.  Fortunately, for the fans, the band had so much fun on their final tour, that they decided to keep going.

Forever and a Day is a documentary, that focuses heavily on the final tour, but not as much on the history of the band.  Don't get me wrong, they do touch on the early years of the band, as well as their progression, but the meat and potatoes of this film, is documenting the final tour.  I would assume, that the original idea was to film the final tour, but after they had a change of heart, then they decided to release this as a documentary.  This is this reviewer's opinion.

The film was released in Germany and recently made it State side.  The majority of the dialog is in German, so as you can imagine, much of the film is subtitled.  There are a few cameos in the film, from their peers, like Paul Stanley (Kiss) and Don Dokken, which was cool.  The disappointing thing for me, was that there wasn't enough focus on the history of the band.  The film really didn't touch too much on previous members, or their departures.  I think that would have made the film more interesting.  All in all this was a good documentary.

Bottom Line:  A well done documentary, on one of the greatest bands of our time.  A documentary of the band's last tour, before they changed their minds.

-Ragman is wondering is the Scorpion will ever play Houston again.  Why do they keep skipping Texas?  I want answers.

Black Stone Cherry - Thank You (Livin' Live)

I've been a fan of Black Stone Cherry, ever since their debut record.  The boys from Kentucky, serve up a steaming dish of metal tinged southern fried rock, that would make any Allman Brother proud.  They consistently put out solid product year after year, which is why these guys continue to grow in popularity.  It is hard to believe, that these guys have been around 14 years. It just seems like yesterday, when the debut hit my speakers.  That said, the boys have recently released their first live CD/DVD called Thank You (Livn' Live in Birmingham, UK October 30th 2014).  I have to tell you, I was extremely geeked, when I got my hands on this one, because I've never seen them live.

The band come out all guns blazing in this live DVD, by tearing through their vast catalog of killer tunes.  The band sound great and put on one hell of a show.  I was thoroughly entertained throughout this show, with the exception of a few things.  One critique I have, is that the camera work is a little spotty at times.  I'm not sure if they were going for more of a raw approach, but that is what it came off as.  This is not a bad thing, but I would have like to have seen something a little more polished. 

My only other complaint was that vocalist Chris Robertson, diverts many of the vocals to the crowd.  I get it, it is cool when the crowd sings along, but not to the point, to where the crowd sings the whole song like in Things My Father Said.  This is not what you want to see or hear in a live recording.  It is cool, somewhat, when you're at the show, but it is really annoying, when you are watching a concert video at home.  When I go to a show, I don't want to hear myself or the guy next to me sing, I want to hear the band. Unfortunately, this happens a little too often in this show.  Other than this, this was a good show.  I just had to hit the FF button a few times, dung the sing-a-longs.

Bottom Line: Black Stone Cherry commanding the stage and putting on one hell of a show.  The band sound great, when Chris sings, but it does get a little distracting with too much crown interaction.

-Ragman needs to catch these guys live in the new year.