“Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?” –Frank Reynolds In this case, the egg is the 20th Anniversary edition of one of my favorite albums of all time, the seminal Ashes of the Wake. Wait, wasn’t there a 15th anniversary reissue? Yes, yes there was. As for the “trying time,” just […]

I’ll make a full confession so you know where I stand. I am a Lamb of God fanboy. I have the Wrath era logo tattooed on me in what was, at the time, the most painful place I had yet to receive a tattoo (I will not confirm or deny if it was my b-hole). […]

At this point in Satch’s career, it can be difficult not to take the man’s talent and virtuosic skill for granted. After all, time and again, he’s been called one of the, if not the greatest guitarist in rock music. It’s not hard to agree with that opinion either; for close to thirty years, Joe […]

In listening to Scream, one has to wonder why Ozzy was in such a rush to change guitar players. Just about every guitar riff on the record was quite obviously written by Zakk Wylde, and though Gus G. plays them, it still sounds, with the exception of a few notable moments, more or less like […]

The haters can hate all they want, but I stand by my conviction that As the Palaces Burn and Ashes of the Wake are two of the most satisfying metal albums of the past decade. Lamb of God‘s (official) debut New American Gospel was impressive just for its caustic, spastic fury, but Palaces took that […]

It’s a shame that, in one of his prophecies, Nostradamus didn’t foresee that Judas Priest would one day record a two-disc concept album about him. Maybe he could have warned them that it may not be the best idea. The idea of a concept record about Nostradamus had me scratching my head to begin with. […]

 thought Ozzy’s last record, 2001’s Down to Earth, was one of the most underrated records of his career. (When I say last record, I’m not counting the god-awful covers record.) The six years since have certainly given fans reasons to be less than enthusiastic about the self-proclaimed Prince of Fucking Darkness. First there’s the joke […]

There’s something slightly disturbing about this project to me. First, I see the video for the first single and one of the guitar players in this band looks and moves eerily like drummer Vinnie Paul’s late brother Dimebag. Then, there’s the singer from Mudvayne doing his best Phil Anselmo impression on some of the tunes, […]