No regrets? A better title for Ace Frehley’s memoir might be No Consequences. Parts of Frehley’s life play out like an episode of COPS, except that the fuzz show up at a multimillion dollar mansion rather than a tenement. Cars are wrecked. Bottles of booze are chugged. Drugs are snorted. World class tools like Gene Simmons are annoyed. And in the middle of this, Space Ace manages to convince every kid with heavy metal dreams to pick up a guitar.
Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 12:00pm by Anso DF
Italy-based label Frontiers Records released two of 2011′s awesomest glam metal records, Sebastian Bach’s surprising Kicking And Screaming and Forevermore by Whitesnake, one of this year’s very very awesomest (read here). So Frontiers was already hot when two Tuesdays ago Beggars & Thieves’ new record We Are The Brokenhearted came out. The jam I heard was sweet and holy fucking shit that’s Jake E. Lee doing the solo and and AND appearing in the funny “Right Now”-style video (above at 2:17, with cameos from members of Slaughter, King Kobra, Kiss, Keel, plus a lady with huge jammerz and Kevin Churko).
Lee’s appearance in the video falls in line with recent rumors of an imminent-ish return from near-invisibility with a new project, which is an exciting prospect turned mega-exciting by his great performance on this B&T song and his seeming good health. I’m always begging anybody who has ever been in Lee’s proximity for contact info and it looks like the B&T team is next on my list. Which is a relief in a way cuz I was contemplating asking Paul Gilbert to introduce me to his Racer X bandmate and onetime Badlands drummer Jeff Martin in hope that he has Lee’s number. That sounds like a longshot but it’s not even close to my most desperate gambit so far for an interview with the dude. Jake CALL ME.
-ADF
Get Beggars & Thieves’ new album We Are The Brokenheartedhere.
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 at 11:20am by Axl Rosenberg
I have finally reached the point where I can’t even muster outrage or disappointment over Zakk Wylde’s career choices. Twenty years ago, I probably would have lept from an airplane without a ‘chute if the dude had asked me to. Ten years ago, if he had announced that he was doing a guest spot on, say, a new Dope record, I would have wept hot, burning tears of anger and betrayal. Now, it’s been announced that he’ll contribute a solo to the new EP by Black Veil Brides — a band whose music ranks somewhere in-between anal warts and sensitivity training with Phil Labonte on the list of “Things I Hope to Avoid” — and I can’t even muster a shrug. Like, I tried to shrug, and my shoulder muscles were all, “Dude, don’t even waste the energy.” And so here I sit, shrugless.
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!
And it’s worth noting that, unlike Kiss Kondoms, the band’s logo/likeness/whatever isn’t on the condom itself — so you’re literally paying more than six times what the things usually go for just to have the band’s emblem on the package you’re going to open (very likely in the dark, where you can’t see it too well anyway) and then discard.
So. Fucking. Lame.
-AR
[Via Metal Insider, who came up with a pretty joke about menstruation, too!]
Friday, August 26th, 2011 at 10:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Metal Insider tells me that both Rob Halford and חיים ויץ turned sixty yesterday, which isn’t really that old in the scheme of things, but is still most certainly a reminder that Metal’s Founding Generation is getting closer and closer to death. Then again, you know who isn’t getting closer and closer to death? Dead people. So, yeah.
ANYWAY, I remember when Mick Jagger turned fifty, The New York Times did a big article about it, ’cause I guess it was unfathomable that a rock star sex symbol would ever turn fifty. And sixty is obviously older than fifty. So I kinda feel like we should be writing some monumental piece about these two. Only, no fucking way am I spending time doing that. Instead, I think I’ll just prepare their obituaries, so we have ‘em ready for publication when these dudes finally go the way of Joey Bellardini’s voice. That seems like a much more constructive use of my time.
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 2:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
…there’s now a Kiss urn, too.
And I can’t decide if I think this is more or less offensive than the Kiss Koffin. On the one hand, spending any extra amount of money to have anything put on a box which is literally going to be placed in the ground never to be seen again strikes me as an incredible waste of resources. On the other hand, at least if you’re buried in a Kiss Koffin, your family won’t have to actually look at Kiss all the time. I mean, do you seriously want your loved ones forever associating your memory with Chaim Witz and Stanley Eisen? What are you, from the Bronx in 1963?
If you really, really hate poor people and starving children and cancer research, you can purchase one of these bad boys here for a mere $650. Or you can just e-mail me and I’ll draw a picture of Kiss on a shoebox and mail it to you for sixty-five cents.
Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (not really at all) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.
We haven’t done one one of these all summer, but we came up with a fun one for this week:
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND PLAY ANY METAL BAND/MUSICIAN SOME OF THEIR MUSIC AND/OR SHOW THEM PHOTOS/VIDEOS OF THEMSELVES FROM THEIR FUTURE (OUR PRESENT), WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
Slipknot performed as part of this past weekend’s Athens edition of the Sonisphere festival. It was their their first show since the untimely passing of Paul Gray last year, and, therefore, their first show with former guitarist/current bassist Donnie Steele. And I think a lot of people were wondering how they would handle the transition; obviously, the band needed to pay tribute to Gray, but how would Steele appear on-stage? Would he Gray’s costume, the way Tommy Thayer basically pretends to be Ace Frehley when he plays with Kiss, or otherwise be given his own mask, the way Vinnie Vincent was given his own character when he was in Kiss?
Well, the answer is, “Neither.” The ‘Knot opted instead to have Steele stand off-stage, while Gray’s empty outfit stood by the drumer riser, scarecrow-like, for the duration of the show. And that might seem like kind of an odd decision, but, really, there’s no good or “right” way to handle a situation like this; there was going to be a certain amount of tension in the air no matter what, y’know?
You can check out more footage from the show, and the band’s complete set list, at Metal Insider. Meanwhile, there’s still no official word on whether or not there’s gonna be another Slipknot album, but I would bet a lot of money in favor of it happening.
Anyone who knows anything knows that Vinnie Vincent is the best guitar player Kiss ever had; more than that, he’s pretty much the best guitar player in the history of ever. Unfortunately, he hasn’t recorded anything since the 90s, so he’s ineligible for our current list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, but if we ever do a list of the The Top 25 Metal Guitarists Ever, I have little doubt he would appear very, very close to the top, if not at the tippy top itself.
Which is why it’s so heartbreaking that he has apparently turned into a crazy old lady who looks slightly less masculine than Joan Jett (see mugshot below) and who, according to TMZ, was recently arrested not only for beating his wife, but for keeping “four sealed containers containing deceased dogs.”
No, seriously — COREY AND ANSO FUCKING KILLED IT THIS WEEK while we were at the Golden Gods, didn’t they? I’m still catching up, but I’ve been getting a serious boner from reading all the shit I didn’t write this week. Some of my favorite pieces that neither Vince nor myself had anything to do with:
Phil Anselmo’s thoughts on weed, and, oh yeah, Corey’s update on the progress of Mr. Anselmo’s book.
I spend a sizable portion of my life thrashing the band Kiss, its members, and its fans, cuz well fuck them that’s why. Kiss reeks. Awfully. And those fuckerz are everywhere. Still! If fact, t’wasn’t long ago that we called out Kiss frontman Paul Stanley for adding a blemish to the sterling reputation of party-metal greats Steel Panther. But hey, video of Stanley’s vox on a live run at “Lick It Up” with the band seemed to suggest that their goal was to redefine the term earache. And I’m a dick for writing that cuz Stanley (above, right) recently revealed that he was born deaf in his right ear. Shit. Stanley explained in a TV interview:
There are a lot of metal and metal-related movies out there. There are classics like This is Spinal Tap, which I’ve introduced to countless people, all of whom eventually admitted to loving it. And of course, every metalhead worth his or her Woolite Dark knows the answer to the question “Who’d win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God?” Detroit Rock City is one of my favorite movies, which is a little odd, because I don’t particularly like KISS, although I do enjoy fire and explosions. And no account of metal movies would be complete without the celluoid genocide that was Rockstar. No matter how god-awful that movie was (though it’s still one of my top “bad” movies to watch), every single person in the civilized world knows the words to “Stand Up and Shout” — and I don’t mean the Dio song. They play it at my alma mater’s hockey games.
And on top of those films, there are the documentary explorations of the genre, which gave us such memorable moments like Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P. chugging vodka in a pool while is mom watches miserably in Decline of Western Civilization Part II.
I am here to add another illustrious title to this collection of cinemetal classics. I will show you exactly how Cool As Ice is a metal movie, and not a rap one, as everyone assumes. And I have various degrees in film, so you know my word is truth.
We’ve all seen a movie in which a monster or alien or alien monster or monstlien spends 90 minutes terrorizing people with its brute strength and supernatural firepower, right? But at the end, some hunky guy who uses tons of hair product fells the beast with some hokey, implausible trick-move like turning on a microwave near it or mounting and riding it while attaching an IED to its nads. It’s a fundamental flaw in this type of movie; comparatively speaking, do filmmakers mean to impy that if a particularly motivated ant so desired, he or she could take me out with a wee little poison dart-shooting taser or something? Fuck that.
Well, that’s what I used to think until I saw a clip (above) of feeble Kiss frontman Paul Stanley heroically toppling the unstoppable party beast called Steel Panther. It’s incredible! That band is all-powerful and merciless — I’ve never seen even a ho-hum Steel Panther performance, in person or otherwise — yet it took Stanley about two seconds to explode a shittiness bomb in their midst and reduce their jam to rubble. Now, Kiss apologists will rush to point out that the clip’s audio quality is unkind to Stanley and suggests a toy microphone inputted direct to a 1989 camcorder. And Stanley is cold and old and just walked onstage to belt “Lick It Up.” And Panther guitarist Satchel kinda jukes Stanley with a premature move to the bridge. Sure, I guess that would justify a C+ performance. This shit is F. F for fffffail.
–ADF
Steel Panther plays Mondays at House of Blues Sunset Strip and weekends in Vegas. Dates here.
Tomorrow sees the release of Crowbar’s new album, Sever the Wicked Hand, on eOne (you can pre-order a physical copy here or a digital copy here, and watch an EPK for the album here). To celebrate, Crowbar main man Kirk Windstein offered to tell MetalSucks readers fifteen things they did not already know about him. And far be it from us to say “no” to Kirk Windstein! And so, enjoy a rare intimate look into the mind of Kirk Windstein, directly from the man himself…
15) I’m addicted to diet soda and sparkling water! I’m always drinking one or the other.
14) I like to wake up no later than 7:00 a.m.
13) I love Journey.
12) My first arena concert was Van Halen, “The 80′s Invasion,” on the Women and Children First tour.
11) Ace Frehley is the reason I play guitar.
Ten more things you didn’t know about Kirk after the jump!
Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 1:00pm by Leyla Ford
Admit it: this picture makes you SO FUCKING HAPPY.
Recently, my friend sent me a YouTube link to a Bee Gees cover group. Excuse me, tribute band. That is the proper way of addressing them, as Mark Wahlberg taught us in Rock Star. I don’t like the Bee Gees. I don’t like disco. Disco is kind of terrible. Disco blows dogs for quarters. Disco is never amazing, especially not when KISS attempt it. To say I was a little confused would be an understatement. But my friends aren’t totally clueless to what I listen to, so I gave it a shot. It turned out it was a heavy metal Bee Gees tribute band. Okay, it was a little bit awesome. Weirdly enough, it worked. I only like thin-voiced men screeching when accompanied by equally high-pitched guitars, and that’s basically what heavy metal “Stayin’ Alive,” was. I turned it off about halfway through because, well, I still have my limits, but it kind of makes you stop and go, “Huh!” Metal just makes everything sound better.
Friday, November 19th, 2010 at 5:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Allow me to shill for a beat before the weekend: If you haven’t already bought one of our new, limited edition shirts, go get yours now!!! They’re selling fast, and soon they will be the title of a God Forbid album. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
