Today is the 33rd anniversary of Ride The Lightning by Metallica!!
Anyway, that is my "review" of this stunning record. It's much more than just another great album for me. Its probably the most important album of my life time. Weird right?
Well well Mercury again a very personal take on indeed one of the best album. The thing is I only got into Metallica on Master Of Puppets and that's why to me this one is the best Metallica album and of the best albums full stop ever. It's interesting that the two albums are very much alike in their build-up and so if you've been there when the first of the two was issued I can vividly imagine you've got a more emotional connection with that one.
In any case keep up the good work: I'm one of the three readers of your diary 👏 :lol:
Hey man! Thanks again! I'm glad you appreciated the review. I adore Ride The Lightning. And I listened to Master Of Puppets again last night and I agree its one of THE great records ever made. I'd say its more detailed and consistent than RtL. All of their first 3 bring me much joy. Kell Em All's ace is its pure insane youthful energy, that certain punky attitude which is greater there than anywhere else. Ride The Lightning's ace is honestly the nostalgia and very personal reactions i have and memories i have connected with it, also its first 4 tracks are better than anything else, theres no 4 track run as great in my mind in MoP. Master of Puppets ace is that it is the most consistent and the fact that there are no average tracks on it, they are all at least 9s, and the production is more ingenious and worked over here than ever before - also "Leper Messiah" and " Disposable Heroes" exist where freakin' "Escape" and "Trapped Under Ice" are on RtL. So there's that.
As for the similar structure of the 2 albums, you are so freakin right. The quiet acoustic intro, the insane speedy thrash of the opener, the epic title track next, the foreboding slower 3rd tracks, the saddest songs and the ballads of the respective albums at track 4, the 2 more straight forward heavy metal thrash songs coming at 5 and 6, and of course the 8 minute plus instrumental at the end. Its actually pretty wild how similar they are!
I will probably be adding all their first 3 albums to my chart soon. I just can't choose. (Kill 'Em All is the only one on my chart as of now...NOT OKAY! 😄 )
Here's another great coincidence. Just a few days ago I admitted that I had never heard Sabotage. And now, here we are. I listened to it! Yay
Anyway, this was really great. Not as consistent as their first 4, not a fan "Hole In The Sky" (just not interesting for some reason. I know its a classic) and not a fan of Am I Going Insane. Other than that, the highs are In-SANE! "Symptoms of The Universe" is one of my new favorite sabbath songs now! Its so crushing and intense and angular in a way which early sabbath never was. Its fab.Supertzar is a strange yet brilliant twist on their sound. Love the gothic choir thing going on.
Anyway, not much else to add. I've heard all their first 6 albums. Now need to check out their Dio albums. _________________ -Ryan
Another classic with an even number anniversary? nice. I am having a hard time keeping up with all these classic records. But I will survive, lol.
Anyway, I was already pretty familiar with this album before giving it a new listen today. I liked it before, I borderline love it now. The whole album is a breathe of fresh air. The rhymes are consistently fast, complex and mind-blowing. And the tracks are strange, abstract, excellent etc. I just love the production here. The beats manage to be familiar enough that I can latch on to them, yet each of them also have elements that seem so unique, a lazy monotonous horn blowing comes in, or a strange slinky bassline, or a clattering little rhythm is noticable in the background, etc. There is always something sticking out that just seems off...in a good way.
Compared to the funky, clear, straight forward hip hop of the time, this album just sounds like a whole new world of potential. So cool.
El-P, he gets a lot of love. And he deserves it. From the jump he was totally killing it. And he's kept it going for 20 freakin' years! _________________ -Ryan
Here's another great coincidence. Just a few days ago I admitted that I had never heard Sabotage. And now, here we are. I listened to it! Yay
Anyway, this was really great. Not as consistent as their first 4, not a fan "Hole In The Sky" (just not interesting for some reason. I know its a classic) and not a fan of Am I Going Insane. Other than that, the highs are In-SANE! "Symptoms of The Universe" is one of my new favorite sabbath songs now! Its so crushing and intense and angular in a way which early sabbath never was. Its fab.Supertzar is a strange yet brilliant twist on their sound. Love the gothic choir thing going on.
Anyway, not much else to add. I've heard all their first 6 albums. Now need to check out their Dio albums.
Don'y skip over Technical Ecstasy! While their last album with Ozzy sucks & sounds tired, Technical Ecstasy is actually quite good. It's just very different. They got tired of being mother fucking Black Sabbath and just wrote a straight up 70s Hard Rock album. And it's quite good. It's not epic like their other stuff, but it's got a solid place in my heart. Then again I LOVE hard rock. Which is why G n' R is not comparable with Slayer & Metallica. Guns & roses is hard rock whereas Slayer and Metallica is thrash metal. Hard to compare those sounds I think.
Also, all of Sabotage rules. Hole in The Sky is massive. And I LOVE "Am I going Insane". But then again I've heard like a thousand times. lol. Peace, Dihansse & Merc!!! 😉
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Okay, Tilly, I will for sure check out technical Ecstasy. I have heard that album's followers mention that it is unfairly ignored and sometimes lampooned. Strange and cool cover. It will be one of the next ones i'll check out.
As for this diary, well I fell behind.
But as a quick round up... July 29th had no albums particularly interesting to celebrate except Rose Royce II: In Full Bloom's 40th anniversary. I have heard it and its absolutely great. Sadly its not on my music app. And I had to listen on youtube and I was just too busy to do that. I will do soon and give it at least some love. In short its a marvelous record.
On The 30th, Saturday, there were some significant albums to dig into. But I was busy and only had time to fan the flames of an album I already considered one of the greatest ever and one that never fails to blow me lil mind!
July 30th was the 48th Anniversary of In A Silent Way by Miles Davis!!!!
What can I say about this album that I haven't already said before? Or what many others admirers have not said before? Probably nothing. I'll just say this album is so uniquely cerebral, so smooth, so subtly genius on every level, the instruments are just there consumed in this space with each other, playing off each other, creating these sonic terrains which I have never heard before. The whole album, all 40 minutes and 2 massive tracks of it, no one player steals the show, but there are moments when the bassist comes in and blows my mind with some insane catchy part, then the lead guitar at another point for a breif moment seems to transcend humanity and create something of pure perfection, ditto on the keys, the horns, etc. It all adds up to these 2 twin towers of musical adventure and creativity which no matter how many times I listen I hear new wonders. I adore this album.
Also saturday was the 52nd anniversary of this album:
I listened to it and it was good. I loved the bands use of sound, there are gaps of silence, the riffs leave room for things to breathe, the vocals of both Guy and Ian are solid for what they are. The whole album was pretty darn cool. Yet for some reason I STILL haven't had a moment of "holy shit! I get it now!". For as long as I've been a fan of indie rock and punk this band has been held up as one of the greats. And at 16 I bought In On The Kill Taker, and I thought it was just indecipherable. I felt i"wasn't ready". Iand yet 12 years later and I still haven't gotten it. Repeater I like, its dancy and rocking and angry, but I don't love it. I get that they are "im portant" and also very inventive with their guitar sounds and tunings. But I wait yet for any sort of love for the band. I guess I'll just settle for general admiration.
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Okay, and that brings us to today, and I at first thought that todays options were weak. Then a super out of nowhere curiosity showed up, and I listened to it and I am blown away! I will explain more shortly. For now, goodbye. _________________ -Ryan
Today I was checking anniversaries and I saw Scorpions and I ignored it. Why? Cuz I have decided almost on reflex that I dislike late 70s and early 80s heavy metal and hard rock. Its an ugly, elitist mindset I developed at a young age toward any and all bands I lumped together in my head as being big, obnoxious arena rock. As a result, almost by default and with no real thought and without actually giving a hard listen to any of them, I will scoff at and make fun of REO, Rush, Journey, Kansas, Boston, and yes Scorpions. Now I realize that this band is not like those others (as are those other bands I am sure very different from each other, and I am sure I am really ticking off their fans atm). But this morning, just a few hours ago I did not know anything about the history of Scorpions. The entirety of my knowldge on them is the Virgin Killers cover controversy, and "Rock You Like A Hurricane". That's literally it.
So back to this morning, I skipped over Scorpions on reflex. Saw that there is nothing else interesting to my mind to check out today for this diary. So I scanned through them and I came across the Scorpions yet again and I saw that the date of this album was 1972! I was like "huh?". I thought it was a typo. I thought of the Scorpions as an early 80s band. So I looked them up on RYM and it says they initially formed in 1965! Now I thoroughly confused and embarressed by my ignorance. Then I look up their debut and I hear comments that this album featured a young, Pre-UFO Michael Schenker (which is probably common knowledge to many of you, but was new news to me and intrigued me), and I heard from the comments and reviews that this album was a strange brew, a mix of heavy metal, psych hard rock, and , wait... Krautrock?! Noooooo....that can't be right.
At this point I had just HAD to give this a listen, cuz surely these reviewers were jerking my chain.
Well I listened to it. Wasn't sure what to think and so listened again. And I can now say that I love it! It is indeed very weird, uncommercial, and heavy and unique. All the songs are edgy and experimental, the percussion never sounds like basic hard rock, the guitars are wild and all over the place, the heavy metal parts are indeed very indebted to Sabbath but they are all super badass too - I never thought these riffs and parts were super watered down or lame renditions of Iommi stuff. And indeed a lot of the vocals are strange and there are choir parts throughout and the last track is 13 minute long and is inventive and interesting thorughout. Why hadn't I heard of this album before?
Easy answer there: I had never heard it or even of it, because I always turned my nose up at the band. The fact that I listened to this album and loved it (like I REALLY love it) was a big moment for me. I now find myself openly excited about listening to many many Scorpions albums. That last statement is just unusual and is something I never thought I'd say.
In closing, this is an awesome and fascinating album, mixing the bone rattling heaviness of Sabbath of that era and the more adventurous and strange rhythmic aspects of Can and other Krautrock of the time. This album is really cool actually.
maybe....maybe I should give a closer listen to other hard rock bands of the era that I have written off unfairly...? I am not ready yet to dive into the works of Rush or stuff like that. But I am working ever-closer to doing that. _________________ -Ryan
I listened to it and its not my thing. Nothing particularly interesting in it at all. But I did see this review of it on RYM user named lostmonkeys which made me laugh.
"This is a good album with pleasant vocals and piano, but at the end of the day, everything sucks compared to "The Way It Is." And when I say everything, I don't mean the other songs on the album, I mean everything in the universe that isn't that song." hahahahahaha! _________________ -Ryan
Yeah I am listening to this on youtube now and hot damn! THIS IS IN-CRED-IBLE!!!!!!!!
It's so alive, so exciting, infectious, funky, groovy, and just downrigfht classic! CLASSIC!
Rose's vocals are dynamic and sexy and just absolutely amazing! The opening track, "Wishing On A Star" is honestly one of the most beautiful and romantic songs ever recorded. "Funk Factory" is an amazing funk song of the highest order. And the rest of the album and the rest of the tracks, are - one and all - eaither stunningly sweet, inventive soulful and romantic or blissfully, elaborate, funky soul-funk classics which will warm your heart and get you moving in dance!
I'm gonna listen to this again shortly. Then I am thinking it will be added to my chart.
More people honestly should listen to this. It's got like 75 ratings and one review on rate your music and much much less here. I recommend this highly to everyone reading this. _________________ -Ryan
Today I was checking anniversaries and I saw Scorpions and I ignored it. Why? Cuz I have decided almost on reflex that I dislike late 70s and early 80s heavy metal and hard rock. Its an ugly, elitist mindset I developed at a young age toward any and all bands I lumped together in my head as being big, obnoxious arena rock. As a result, almost by default and with no real thought and without actually giving a hard listen to any of them, I will scoff at and make fun of REO, Rush, Journey, Kansas, Boston, and yes Scorpions. Now I realize that this band is not like those others (as are those other bands I am sure very different from each other, and I am sure I am really ticking off their fans atm). But this morning, just a few hours ago I did not know anything about the history of Scorpions. The entirety of my knowldge on them is the Virgin Killers cover controversy, and "Rock You Like A Hurricane". That's literally it.
So back to this morning, I skipped over Scorpions on reflex. Saw that there is nothing else interesting to my mind to check out today for this diary. So I scanned through them and I came across the Scorpions yet again and I saw that the date of this album was 1972! I was like "huh?". I thought it was a typo. I thought of the Scorpions as an early 80s band. So I looked them up on RYM and it says they initially formed in 1965! Now I thoroughly confused and embarressed by my ignorance. Then I look up their debut and I hear comments that this album featured a young, Pre-UFO Michael Schenker (which is probably common knowledge to many of you, but was new news to me and intrigued me), and I heard from the comments and reviews that this album was a strange brew, a mix of heavy metal, psych hard rock, and , wait... Krautrock?! Noooooo....that can't be right.
At this point I had just HAD to give this a listen, cuz surely these reviewers were jerking my chain.
Well I listened to it. Wasn't sure what to think and so listened again. And I can now say that I love it! It is indeed very weird, uncommercial, and heavy and unique. All the songs are edgy and experimental, the percussion never sounds like basic hard rock, the guitars are wild and all over the place, the heavy metal parts are indeed very indebted to Sabbath but they are all super badass too - I never thought these riffs and parts were super watered down or lame renditions of Iommi stuff. And indeed a lot of the vocals are strange and there are choir parts throughout and the last track is 13 minute long and is inventive and interesting thorughout. Why hadn't I heard of this album before?
Easy answer there: I had never heard it or even of it, because I always turned my nose up at the band. The fact that I listened to this album and loved it (like I REALLY love it) was a big moment for me. I now find myself openly excited about listening to many many Scorpions albums. That last statement is just unusual and is something I never thought I'd say.
In closing, this is an awesome and fascinating album, mixing the bone rattling heaviness of Sabbath of that era and the more adventurous and strange rhythmic aspects of Can and other Krautrock of the time. This album is really cool actually.
maybe....maybe I should give a closer listen to other hard rock bands of the era that I have written off unfairly...? I am not ready yet to dive into the works of Rush or stuff like that. But I am working ever-closer to doing that.
Hi Mercury, I'm glad you liked the Scorpions. In fact I have them to blame for my weak ears. Theirs was the first real rock concert I went to when I was 15 and my ears were ringing for a week but it was a great concert. Their live album Tokyo Tapes dates from this time and is one of the best live albums I know although the quality of the recording is very weak (although the Deluxe version on Apple Music seems to be better). Because I've discovered them with this live album I never found a regular album on which the album versions were better than on this live album.
But I hadn't heard Lonesome Crow yet so I will definitely have to check it out, ex also to see whether the one track that is featured in a fantastic version on Tokyo Tapes, In Search Of The Peace Of Mind, is also good on this record. And of course I will listen to that long track at the end I don't know either.
To sum up: the 70's Scorpions were a great and vastly underrated band which had nothing to do with their 80's cheesy reincarnation; and... have a listen to Tokyo Tapes: you won't regret it.
In closing, this is an awesome and fascinating album, mixing the bone rattling heaviness of Sabbath of that era and the more adventurous and strange rhythmic aspects of Can and other Krautrock of the time. This album is really cool actually.
maybe....maybe I should give a closer listen to other hard rock bands of the era that I have written off unfairly...? I am not ready yet to dive into the works of Rush or stuff like that. But I am working ever-closer to doing that.
Hi Mercury, I'm glad you liked the Scorpions. In fact I have them to blame for my weak ears. Theirs was the first real rock concert I went to when I was 15 and my ears were ringing for a week but it was a great concert. Their live album Tokyo Tapes dates from this time and is one of the best live albums I know although the quality of the recording is very weak (although the Deluxe version on Apple Music seems to be better). Because I've discovered them with this live album I never found a regular album on which the album versions were better than on this live album.
But I hadn't heard Lonesome Crow yet so I will definitely have to check it out, ex also to see whether the one track that is featured in a fantastic version on Tokyo Tapes, In Search Of The Peace Of Mind, is also good on this record. And of course I will listen to that long track at the end I don't know either.
To sum up: the 70's Scorpions were a great and vastly underrated band which had nothing to do with their 80's cheesy reincarnation; and... have a listen to Tokyo Tapes: you won't regret it.
And I'm now listening to the title track and have also listened to In Search Of The Peace Of Mind and this is album is indeed much more experimental and trippy than on their latter albums and I really like it a lot. Thanks for the tip.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
hey dihansse buddy! Thanks for the heads up and rec of that live album. I will for sure check it out and some other scorpions just after listening to Rose Royce. Sounds interesting.
As for the last track, the 13 minute one, its the title track of the album and i think you'll really like it. And Peace of Mind is indeed really good here. I can't say (yet) how it compares to the live version. But to my ears and with no context or something to compare it to, I really think its cool. All the tracks are quite solid here. None seem, silly or corny or like missteps.
Edit after seeing your most recent comment: I am glad you are liking it! This is turning into a classic rec exchange! 😄
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Last business of the day:
TODAY IS THE 75th Birthday of Jerry Garcia! Rest in peace, sir.
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