3-31-2012: Bonfire - Day 11

I was shocked when I learned these guys were still around!  BrettRox said they put on a great show at Rocklahoma a few years back too, so fuckin A to that.  This song to me is a case and point of what a lot of those old metal bands COULD do, but often don't.  Keep the melodies, add some better production, double kick drums sometimes and some heaviness, and you get what melodic metal is meant to be in the 2000s and beyond.

3-30-2012: Black N Blue - I'm the King

I'm the king of the concrete jungle, BIIITCCCHHH!

3-29-2012: Steeler - Undercover Animal

No, not the Steeler featuring Yngwie Malmsteen and Ron Keel, it's a different Steeler from Europe featuring Axel Rudi Pell.  This is from a very early album of the same name.  I found these guys by accident years ago thinking I was buying another "Yngwie" Steeler album.  Luckily, it was not in vain, because this album kicks ass!

3-28-2012: Running Wild - Final Gates

I seriously think this might be my favorite instrumental of all time.  Yes, there's some great ones out there, Orion and Into the Lungs of Hell come to mind immediately.  This is one by a band you just really need to check out right now if you have not.  This song sounds like it should end a movie!  Indeed, it does end the Running Wild video the Critic got a hold of years ago.

3-27-2012: Triumph - Troublemaker

Triumph, the makers of such wimp ass songs as "Magic Power" and "Hold On", and known also for their killer hard rock anthems "Lay it on the Line" and "Fight the Good Fight".  Few people know that this band lasted all the way into the early 90s and make a little known album called "Edge of Excess" in 1992.  This song was featured on that album and the Hellraiser 3 soundtrack alongside Armored Saint!  I heard this song in the middle of the movie and didn't even recognize it as Triumph because it was so damn metal!  That's right, Triumph, metal!

3-26-2012: Diamond Head - Sucking My Love

If not for Metallica, we know Diamond Head would have fallen into oblivion.  But some of US would still be hunting down there shit even without Metallica.  Their first album is pure classic NWoBHM, their second is almost as great, then they kind of fell to shit with Canterbury.  They came back in the 90s and put out a stellar album called Death and Progress.  After that, their stuff is pretty much mediocre.  Any true metal fan needs to hear Diamond Head's first 2 albums though, and here's another from their first one.

3-25-2012: Adrenaline Mob - Psychosane

I haven't really been into Dream Theatre since 2005's Octavarium, so I really could have given 2 shits when Mike Portnoy left a year or 2 ago.  Then Dream Theatre goes and puts out more mediocre music with "A Dramatic Turn of Events" and I just figured Mike would fall off the radar.  But instead, he announces a project with John Sykes that had me pretty damn excited until it fell apart.  So Mike put together Adrenaline Mob.  Holy shit.  I just can't really describe these guys.  They're different from most stuff out there right now, so it's damn refreshing.  Not a ton of replay value, but still awesome.  Give these guys a shot!