2-29-2012: Skid Row - Monkey Business

Sebastian Bach was, is and always will be THE SHIT!  No one is more committed to metal than this guy.  This is one of their best songs IMO.

2-28-2012: Racer X - Street Lethal

A random "Missing Link" pick back around 1999, a little known metal band featuring future Mr. Big guitarist Paul Gilbert.  This is NOT Mr. Big, though...it's much better!

02-27-2012: Let It Go - Def Leppard

This is how I choose to remember Def Leppard - back when they actually rocked. I remember my friends Dad driving us up from Southern Illinois as a 15/16 year old to see them on this tour at the old Checkerdome. Opening act Uriah Heep. I still have the ticket stub. The good old days. Why oh why did they have to get wussy on me after Pyromania???

2-27-2012: Queensryche - Empire

One of my favorite Queensryche songs!  The first Queensryche song I heard that I actually liked.  I remember hearing The Bridge and The Real World when I was like 13-14 and hating them, but then I heard this one on Rockline and decided I'd better give them a whirl.  Fuck, I'm glad I did!  Like most people, I think Mindcrime is a masterpiece, and I don't think life would be the same without it.
I actually introduced a young metalhead to this album a few weeks back and he also thought it was King Shit.  Doing that made me a good person!

02-26-2012: Over My Head by King's X

This one is in honor of the drummer for one of my favorite bands King's X (who are criminally often overlooked) who suffered a heart attack over the weekend. May he make a quick and full recovery. Not technically metal but some kick ass hard rock.

2-26-2012: Twisted Sister - Captain Howdy

To be honest, I'm not that big of a Twisted Sister fan, but this song bears special meaning to me because BrettRox and I once worked with a strange dude we nicknamed "Captain Howdy".  This guy scared us because he just had that look about him that he would go all Dexter on someone after working hours.

I don't miss that guy.

2-25-2012: Vicious Rumors - On the Edge

Again, the first Vicious Rumors song I ever heard on DirecTV's Sonic Tap!  This one is an ass kicker too, double bass drums, fast, catchy chorus, kind of ahead of its time.  This song is why this band is coined "American Power Metal"!

2-24-2012: Quartz - Stand up and Fight

Another NWoBHM band that never made it.  This is from the album of the same name.  Check these guys out!

2-23-2012: Whitesnake - Bad Boys

We can't have a John Sykes theme without some Whitesnake!  This is a heavy track for Whitesnake, which is why I like it.  He does a great version of this song on his "Bad Boy Live" album from 2004 as well.

Haken - Insomnia

I just discovered this band today...and fuckin rules! Haken reminds me a lot of Dream Theater at times but before DT was overproduced. The song Insomnia comes complete with a breakdown ala Nintendo 1985. Their latest effort is Visions.

2-22-2012: Thin Lizzy - Cold Sweat

Indeed, it looks like John Sykes week here at MetalBytes!  He is an incredible guitar player who has made epic riffs over the years.  I really wish the Mike Portnoy/John Sykes thing would have panned out, but I guess it'll never happen.  Bummer.

2-21-2012: Blue Murder - We All Fall Down

Incredible song from an otherwise forgettable album, I agree with Eddie Trunk that Blue Murder SHOULD have been a lot more than what they were.

02-21-2012: Doro - Burning the Witches

It would just be wrong for my first post not to include my favorite Queen of Metal and future girlfriend Doro Pesch. I fell in love the first time I saw her on MTV back in the 80's when she fronted Warlock. If you don't know who she is you should get out and school yourself. Besides, who doesn't like a hot chick in leather! Enjoy

2-20-2012: Tygers of Pan Tang - Wild Catz

From the first Tygers of Pan Tang album, Wild Catz kickz ass!  We haven't done enough NWoBHM on here, and I hope to change that!  Interesting fact here:  John Sykes was in this band BEFORE he was in Thin Lizzy,  Whitesnake, or Blue Murder!

2-19-2012: TT Quick - Metal of Honor

The only reason I know of these guys is because singer Mark Tornillo now fronts Accept.  Not a bad album, not great either, but worth your listen if you like Accept and straight up ass kicking metal!

2-17-2012: Ratt - Eat Me Up Alive

So supposedly, Ratt is back in the studio to record the follow up to 2010's Infestation, which was a fantastic return to form.  If anything they're a bit heavier than before, but very melodic like in the 80s.  This song is a true ass-kicker and opens up the album.  I hope they kind of take things in this direction in 2012...

2-16-2012: The Cult - Rise

I'm not sure if the Cult is metal, each album seems to be in a genre of its own.  2001's "Beyond Good and Evil" was a breath of fresh air when it hit.  All the "revolutionary" garage band shit was hitting the airwaves in the form of bands like Nickelback, Default, Puddle of Mudd, etc.  Boy, did that shit get tired quick!  Anyway, that album was pretty damn heavy compared to virtually any Cult that came before.  This song was the single that should have kicked Nickelback and Puddle of Shit to the curb back in '01 as it was in rotation on the modern rock radio stations, but sadly, people stuck with the washed up garbage and garage rock became a passing fad a couple of years later.

2-18-2012: Sinner - Judgement Day

This is easily my favorite Sinner song.  We first got into these guys when they put out "The Nature of Evil" in 1998 not long after (or maybe before), the first Primal Fear album (also featuring Mat Sinner).  Then "The Second Decade" came out the next year and this song just blew me away.  Great shit!

To/Die/For - Hail of Bullets

In memory of Tommi Lillman who passed away today. He played drums for To/Die/For, Sinergy and Lordi. R.I.P

2-15-2012: Diamond Head - The Prince

No, this is NOT a Metallica original!  Tons of those old "Garage Inc" songs come from these guys who owned the NWoBHM in the late 70s.  They should have been more than they were, but they just couldn't seem to ever get their shit together.  They're still around, although they've lost original singer Sean Harris, so whatever, who gives a shit without him?  This is one of my Diamond Head favs.

2-14-2012: Danzig - Mother

I would be bewildered to ANYONE who didn't like this song.  Even if you're not a metalhead you gotta love this song.  Glenn Danzig is the man, even if he makes the same few songs over and over.

2-13-2012: Where Angels Suffer - Cardiac Arrest

The title track from their opening album, Where Angels Suffer is a kick ass new band formed by former members of WASP and Metal Church.  I hope we haven't seen the last of these guys and their website is pretty fucked up.

Freedom Call - Hero on Video

Freedom Call's "Hero on Video" from their latest "Land of the Crimson Dawn." This already has my vote for cheesiest song and cheesiest video of this decade. They should of named this krafty slice, "Cheeto on Video." I'm not a fan, but it makes me laugh.

2-12-2012: Van Halen - China Town

In my mind, the premiere track from the new album, "A Different Kind of Truth".  A fast, Hot for Teacher type song that kicks you square in the FACE!

2-11-2012: Accept - Fast as a Shark

This song is absolutely ridiculous for 1982.  It's got double bass drums throughout, it's wicked fast and just all out heavy.  WAY ahead of its time.

2-10-2012: Dokken - Almost Over

I love me some old  school  Dokken!   Like many 80s "hair" bands, they went astray in the 90s and early 2000s and couldn't get their shit together.  Some of their stuff was good, but not great like their 80s material.  In 2008, the came back with "Lightning Strikes Again"  and honestly, I'll take that and the rewrites of their classics from 2010's "Greatest Hits 2" over the 80s stuff!  This is one of the original tracks from the Greatest Hits album, and probably one of their heaviest songs that's still melodic.

2-9-2012: Tarot - I Don't Care Anymore

From their 1988 second album "Follow Me Into Madness", it's a great, catchy song that has been stuck in my head for weeks.  I can't complain about that!  Take a listen and it'll be stuck in your head for weeks too!

Album of the Month: January 2012

I am huge fan of thrash metal. Savage Messiah's sophomore effort doesn't disappoint.  The band hails from England where the only other current thrash metal band that comes to mind is GamaBomb.  Savage Messiah's singer, Dave Silver, reminds me more of a power metal singer though, but it works for me.  Songwriting is solid yet doesn't quite deliver in terms of a sound of their own.  Great recording and mix.  Guitar work is also fantastic and again a bit more melodic, reminiscing more toward traditional or power metal roots. The song below is, Six Feet Under The Gun, one of the better songs off this album.