For a while I’ve been trying to pitch an interview to former Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee. Of course, I want to ask him about replacing Randy Rhoads for Bark At The Moon (yay!) and The Ultimate Sin (okay!) albums. And I’ve heard that he’s assembling a new band, so we’d discuss that, too. But mostly, I plan to break my wrist from petting Lee’s ballz about Badlands, his post-Ozzy heavy rock band. Well, wait, I mean, my wrist would break from petting them so thoroughly, not from using great force to pet them. I don’t want Jake to fear for his ballz here.

Ahem But it’s not just that Badlands was awesome, but interesting too. Their debut album, which I’ve privately retitled Bonerlands, convenes a creative team of super-stud Lee (fresh from parting with Ozzy), Ray Gillen (short-term singer for late Black Sabbath and early Blue Murder, total stud), drummer Eric Singer (now of Kiss, then going big like an Appice), and producer Paul O’Neill (the mind behind Trans Siberian sn’Orchestra, Savatage’s Streets: A Rock Opera). Weird team, right? It’s unclear how much Lee would ever discuss with me, cuz Badlands ended pretty acrimoniously (onstage arguments) and then sadly (Gillen’s fatal illness). But for now, let’s click play on “Devil’s Stomp” (above) and you’re jamming! Jake call me!

-ADF

When you go to a KISS show, you expect certain things. Explosions, blood, loud noises, drunken fist-pumping, explosions, fire, platforms, explosions, demon/starchild/alien/cat faces, obnoxious amounts of sequins, and possibly even explosions. It might seem cliché and it might seem over-done, but that’s what comes to mind when you think KISS + concert. So it’s a good thing they know that, too, because their show at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA was the loudest, brightest, most epileptic-fit causing explosion, ever.

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I love Metal Insider‘s Bram Teitelman so much right now I could kiss him on his Quaker Jewish mouth right now (And no, I’m not kidding. And, oddly enough, Teitelman is the second Quaker Jew I’ve known. Bizarre.). See, Bram noticed what the rest of us failed to – that the riff from the new Kiss song, “Modern Day Who Gives a Fuck,” is more or less a total rip-off of The Sword’s Freya.

Think Bram is wrong? Listent to both and decide for yourself.

Here’s Kiss:

And here’s The Sword:

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