Author: Merryl Lentz
VICIOUS RUMORS – Live You to Death
Live You to Death by Vicious Rumors is a ferocious, jagged-toothed beast of an album. Unleashed in a live setting, the band is given free reign to fully display its skillful fusion of pummeling aggression with surgically sharp playing. It takes talent to play spot-on melodies, twin guitar leads, and double bass drum pummelings at… Read more »
Aerosmith Rocket Into Another Dimension
Hell will freeze over, pigs will fly, and the earth will whirl backwards on its axis before legendary rockers, Aerosmith, ever bid farewell to the studio, right? Well, prepare for snow down below, airborne pork, and the earth doing a smoky burnout in reverse, because the band’s musical train may stop a-rollin’ after the release… Read more »
Crashdiet The Heavier, The Better
Sweden is famous for its meatballs, and Swedish sleaze band Crashdiet plays meaty glam metal that flaunts cast iron balls. Decked out in studded leather, eyeliner, long spiked hair dyed either menacingly black or scorchingly blond, and playing flashy anthemic rock undercut with a sleazy, sneering punk rawness, this foursome could have just as easily… Read more »
The B’z – The B’z
The buzz created by B’z, Japan’s all-time best-selling rockers, could easily escalate to a roar in America with their new self-titled, five-song iTunes release. B’z, resounding with 80s-style charismatic metal, is the first done in English (perfect, I might add) by vocalist Koshi Inaba and acclaimed guitarist Tak Matsumoto. The two joined forces in 1988,… Read more »
Richie Onori – How Sweet It Is
Richie Onori is an accomplished drummer whose diverse artistic endeavors could make a professional juggler look like an amateur. He’s been playing with a who’s who of musicians, his own band Heaven & Earth, iconic glitter rockers The Sweet, pursuing solo projects, and is also a talented singer, songwriter, guitarist, and businessman. “I’m proud that… Read more »
You Can Lita Ford To Guitars…
When most teenage girls were aspiring to become prom queen, preparing for their driver’s license, and confined to classrooms, 17-year-old Lita Ford was already crowned Queen of Noise, riding in limousines, and taking lessons from the school of life as lead guitarist and “eldest” member of the groundbreaking, hard-rocking, all-female Runaways. Now, more than 3… Read more »
TRIXTER: DRIVING A NEW AUDIO MACHINE
The spandex pants may be stashed away in mothballs, the Aquanet cans rusting on the back of a bathroom shelf, but Trixter’s 80s musical roots sprout with a 21st century twist on their strong, swaggering comeback album, New Audio Machine (Frontiers Records). As guitarist Steve Brown describes their newest release in two decades, “It has the trademarks… Read more »
STILL SHARP – JACK BLADES
Jack Blades may be a Night Ranger and a Damn Yankee, but don’t call him a one-trick pony. As he’s quick to point out, “When someone looks at me, looks at my past, looks at my music, looks at my life, they realize that I’m not just Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.” Although the… Read more »