God Bless Ozzy Osbourne (Blu-Ray)

Ozzy is one crazy cat. Now to wait with bated breath for a Blu-Ray treatment of The Decline of Western Civilization: The Metal Years...You know I'm a sucker for a good documentary - especially if it has to do with something metal. The latest to catch my eye is a documentary on the self-proclaimed prince of darkness, Ozzy Osbourne.  The film had a brief stint at the theaters before making its way onto Blu-Ray.  The movie I speak of, of course, is God Bless Ozzy Osbourne which was put together by Osbourne's son, Jack. A retrospective of Ozzy's life and career, the movie touches on his childhood, musical career, and family.  GBOO is a fairly comprehensive film, touching on many glossed over areas of both his public and private life, and featuring interviews with Ozzy's family as well as his musical contemporaries.  

I really enjoyed this Blu-Ray, and thought did a good job of shedding some light on some of the man's personal demons.  My only complaint is that they didn't focus enough on the Blizzard of Ozz/Diary of a Madman period, which is easily the most compelling era of the man's career - though I still can't believe their wasn't more available footage of Oz with Randy Rhoads.  It is good to see that Ozzy has his shit together, which will hopefully lead to a killer new Sabbath record.  One of the better docs I've seen in a while.  Go get it!

Bottom Line: Ozzy undressed for the world to see who he really is.  Once you see this, you will better understand the stupidity behind their reality series.

- Ragman is thinking of making some sweet leaf tea...

Podcast #131: Payne

This image of House of Lords is presented in widescreen format. Do not adjust your monitor.Happy New Year! Join Genghis and Ragman as they bring in the new year Right to Rock style as they discuss what to look for in the new year - particularly where it concerns new material from Van Halen and Rush. Next, we rounded up House of Lords vocalist James Christian for a one on one, where James discusses HOL's latest release, Big Money, as well as their current tour. HORNS UP!

DVD of the Show: Nuclear Blast - Death…Is Just the Beginning VI (Various Artists)

Beer of the Show: Black Metal Imperial Stout (Jester King)
		Presentation: 3.5 Alcohol: 3.5 Taste: 3.5 Drinkability: 3.5 Overall: 3.5

Featured Tracks: Weaving the Fate - Str8 to the Bottom; Crematory - The Fallen; Stratovarius - Hunting High and Low; Van Halen - Take Your Whiskey Home; Alcatrazz - Hiroshima Mon Amour; Black Sabbath - War Pigs; Warmen - Alone; Kiss - Modern Day Delilah; House of Lords - Edge of Your Life, One Man Down, Can’t Find My Way Home, Inside You, Hologram, Someday When, Call My Name

- Ragman is expecting big things this year...

Podcast #131: Payne

Podcast #130: Nog

A nicer, humbler guy you may never meet than Andy Timmons - and you can take that to the bank. The MONEY bank.It’s that time of year again; Merry belated Christmas! It's time once again for Genghis and Ragman to pull out their annual Kicks and Kisses lists, so join G & R while they discuss the hits and misses of the past year.

Next the boys warm up the egg nog for a one on one with guitarist extraordinaire Andy Timmons who discusses what it was like tackling a Beatles classic with his instrumental interpretation of Sgt. Pepper’s [It's fantastic! - Genghis] and much, much more…

Ragman's Kisses

• Pagan’s Mind - Heavenly Ecstacy
• Dream Theater - Dramatic Turn of Events
• Iced Earth - Dystopia
• Asking Alexandria - Reckless Relentless
• Sebastian Bach - Kicking and Screaming
• Beggars and Thieves - We are the Brokenhearted

Ragman's Kicks

• Death of Jani Lane
• Steel Panther - Balls Out
• Metallica - Lulu
• Edguy - Age of the Joker

Genghis' Kisses

• Dream Theater - Dramatic Turn of Events
• Symphony X - Iconolast
• Animals as Leaders - Weightless

Genghis' Kicks

• Disturbed breaking up
• Megadeth - 13
• Big 4
• KK Downing leave Judas Priest
• Matt Barlow leaves Iced Earth
• Nevermore loses key members
• RUSH signs to Roadrunner Records

DVD of the Show: Pagan’s Mind - Live Equation

Beer of the Show: Gnomegang (Brewery Ommegang)
		Presentation: 3.0 Alcohol: 3.5 Taste: 4.0 Drinkability: 3.5 Overall: 3.5

Featured Tracks: NLO - God Was Born a Baby; Twisted Sister - Deck the Halls; Lemmy - Run Rudolph Run; Pagan’s Mind - Follow Your Way; Warrant - Family Picnic; Dream Theater - This is the Life; Sevendust - Last Breath; Iced Earth - Anguish of Youth; Symphony X - Lords of Chaos; Animals as Leaders - Do Not Go Gently; Asking Alexandria - Dear Insanity; Sebastian Bach - Kicking and Screaming; Beggars and Thieves - We Come Undone; Andy Timmons - Cry For You, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, A Day in the Life, Within You Without You, She’s Leaving Home, Electric Gypsy, Turn Away

- Ragman was worn out after mixing this one...

Podcast #130: Nog

New Year, New Shows

UStream.TV is pretty cool, but we're not sure how the new sound board will work with it.Our first taping of the year happens tomorrow night with some of our new equipment. Don't misunderstand, it's nothing fancy; just a new Alesis mixer and the ol' iPad 2 kicking in some real-time effects processing. Not sure if we'll have the wherewithall to do a live stream on UStream as we've done in the past, but as our setup becomes the norm, and we really get into the swing of things, we'd be happy to do so.

Looking forward to revitalizing the show and the site in the coming months, so thanks for listening and keeping those HORNS UP!

- Genghis is kinda stoked about the new studio setup's potential...

Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination

If you like a little blood in your beer, then Skeltonwitch's blend of death and thrash ("dash"?) metal is prolly up your alley.Athenian (OH not GA) metallers Skeletonwitch are best known - to me at least - for having one of the coolest album covers of late (2007's Beyond The Permafrost) back when John Baizley's Mucha-meets-Lovecraft style was all the rage. While I was hugely drawn to the artwork (I'm a huge Alphonse Mucha fan), I knew nothing about the band until now. Some call them a thrash band, others death metal, but I think they're somewhere in between.

Either way, their sound on Forever Abomination [Prosthetic Records] is classic thrash, in terms of short, breakneck paced tunes while the lyrical themes and Chance Garnette's singing style (seemingly the lovechild of Cookie Monster and Cobra Commander) are straight out of the death metal playbook. If you ask me, the bands with the most potential in metal these days find a niche to dominate, old or new. With the old, there's a pre-established pantheon of bands with loyal followings to consider, while a new niche sound takes a while to cultivate. Skeletonwitch does a fine job with the latter, cuz they know what sort of sound they do well with and they make it happen; managing to pack a whole [old] Metallica song's worth of grit and energy into less than 3 minutes, and I say good on ya, SK.

The Bottom Line: If you like a little blood in your beer, you're probably the demographic for a band like Skeletonwitch. I get the feeling this band puts on a helluva live show, and I hope to get to see 'em one day soon.

Standout Tracks: To be honest, they all kinda sound the same. So all...or none of them?

- Genghis cranks this sort of music at work - especially when he's coding on a deadline...