Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard Of Ozz (1980)

Since it’s my birthday month, June was supposed to be filled with easy favorites, albums I love and didn’t review yet. I woke up and couldn’t think of a single one to cover. So I went to my Discogs collection and clicked the random button and out popped Blizzard Of Ozz, the solo debut by one Mr. John Michael Osbourne, aka Ozzy Osbourne. Life is filled with coincidences: the last time I used the random button to write was for Diary of a Madman, and Blizzard… was probably the album that got me on the heavy metal train to begin with. All aboard, indeed…

ChrisJune 3, 2025June 3, 20252 Comments

Vinyl

Century: Sign Of The Storm (2025)

Search the darkened nooks and crannies of any genre and you’ll find nuggets of wealth. Tried and true traditional heavy metal never had a visibility problem, but as I peruse heaping promo piles it doesn’t seen to have the market frothing had it had a decade ago when bands like Spirit Adrift and Haunt (somewhere between their fifth and fifteenth album) were showing just how much life the children of the NWOBHM could bring to the masses. So it’s a relief to find a band like Century not only holding the torch aloft for others to heed the call, but that they do it with a shine and polish that recalls my favorite bands of the past 40 years while maintaining a modern edge production-wise. Sign Of The Storm was an early highlight of 2025 for me, and almost a half year later still brings everything I want in my traditional heavy metal review to the fore.

ChrisMay 6, 2025May 6, 20252 Comments

CD, Vinyl

Iron Maiden: Live After Death (1985)

I won’t argue it has a more iconic line than yesterday’s Johnny Cash album, but for a kid growing up in the 80s in love with hard rock and heavy metal, there was no greater thrill than shouting out “Scream for me, Long Beach!” along with Bruce Dickinson. I may have discovered Iron Maiden through The Number of the Beast, but it was Live After Death, their live document of the 1984-85 Powerslave tour that hooked me as a fan for life.Practically a note for note execution of their greatest hits to date, everything from the cover artwork to the photos to the galvanizing me into the fan for life I am today.

ChrisApril 2, 2025April 2, 20251 Comment

Vinyl

Accept: Balls To The Wall (1983)

I wasn’t planning on writing today. I had made a decision to cut back a bit due to work and general world-in-flames anxiety. But then it was 5:30am, the third time I had gotten up in the night, and I knew I wasn’t falling back asleep. I thought about what album to listen to there it was: a butch, hairy thigh. A gnarled, vein-popped hand holding a ball. Udo called, and I replied. And so despite only coming around to Accept in my 40s, Balls To The Wall became a fast, fun pleasure in a way it never did when I heard then band and that song as a kid.

ChrisMarch 28, 2025March 27, 2025Leave a comment

W.A.S.P.: The Headless Children (1989)

80s metal week continues with The Headless Children, the first album from W.A.S.P. to actually make me consider them as more than a 80s metal shock-rock hybrid of KISS and Alice Cooper. I got the provocation and tongue-in-cheek of songs like “Animal (F— Like A Beast)” and the saw blade gauntlets Blackie Lawless adorned on the cover of The Last Command. But the music didn’t grab me at all until the theatrics were put aside (or at least toned down) to make way for Lawless’s songwriting and real inspiration. You want to think this band was in the band for the aforementioned artists, but if anything The Headless Children takes its cue and bows before the feet of prime, classic The Who.

ChrisMarch 26, 2025March 25, 2025Leave a comment

Cassette

Satan: Suspended Sentence (1987)

Everything about Suspended Sentence, the sophomore album from the UK NWOBHM pioneers Satan is a little rougher than their stellar debut four years earlier. The artwork feels a little rushed, the logo almost an afterthought. The production sounds muted, compressed and thin in sections, maybe overcompensating for songs that didn’t quite catch the fire Court In The Act did. And perhaps the most glaring change if you’re a fan: Brian Ross is missing on vocals, replaced for this one album by Michael Jackson (not “that” Michael Jackson) of Pariah. It overall makes for a more rough and tumble album, but though it doesn’t come up for listens that often, I still find moments of excitement in the way Satan build out their riffs and songs, so to kick off 80s metal week and close out March 2025 let’s dig in and see what’s behind the bones.

ChrisMarch 25, 2025March 25, 2025Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: heavy metal