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The Metal Excess Awards: 2011 Edition
Last year I said 2010 was a better year for music than 2009 was. I went on to wonder how 2011 could even begin to top it. Well, guess what… 2011 did indeed top 2010! I’m looking back at my Top 25 list for 2010 and while those albums are all still good, this year’s Top 25 list is much stronger top to bottom.
2011 was a great year that saw classic rock/metal acts like Whitesnake, Warrant, Riot, Alice Cooper, Journey, Black N’ Blue and King Kobra deliver some of the best albums of their career while younger acts like Steel Panther, Reckless Love, Savage Messiah, Evile (who missed the list by this much) and Black Veil Brides have shown that they are more than capable of carrying rock & metal into the future.
Top 25 Albums of 2011
1. Whitesnake – Forevermore
2. Sixx:A.M. – This Is Gonna Hurt
3. Riot – Immortal Soul
4. Warrant – Rockaholic
5. Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare
6. Steel Panther – Balls Out
7. Megadeth – Thirteen
8. Anthrax – Worship Music
9. Sebastian Bach – Kicking & Screaming
10. Reckless Love – Animal Attraction
11. Edguy – Age of the Joker
12. Hurtsmile – s/t
13. Journey – Eclipse
14. Chickenfoot – III
15. Mike Tramp & The Rock ‘N’ Roll Circuz – Stand Your Ground
16. Black Country Communion – 2
17. The Poodles – Performocracy
18. House of Lords – Big Money
19. King Kobra – s/t
20. Saliva – Under Your Skin
21. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
22. Black N’ Blue – Hell Yeah!
22. Savage Messiah – Plague of Conscience
24. George Lynch – Kill All Control
25. Joe Bonamassa – Dust Bowl
Best E.P./Single
In light of a few non-album singles being released this year, I’ve decided to make this a hybrid category.
1. Sixx:A.M. – 7
2. Black Veil Brides – Rebels
3. Who Cares – Out of My Mind / Holy Water
4. Wildstreet – II …Faster …Louder!
5. The Last Vegas – The Other Side E.P.
Best Compilation/Cover/Live/Reissue Albums
Kind of a catch-all category this year. Instead of listing each category individually, I decided to lump them all into one list and rank them that way.
1. Black Sabbath – Born Again [Deluxe Edition]
2. Stryper – The Covering
3. Vains of Jenna – Reverse Tripped
4. Whitesnake – Live at Donington 1990
5. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy – Live: Made In Stoke 24/7/11
6. Hell – Human Remains
7. Scorpions – Comeblack
8. Def Leppard – Mirrorball: Live & More
9. Eric Carr – Unfinished Business
10. Black Sabbath – Dehumanizer [Deluxe Edition]
Want to read more about the year in music? Check out some of the fine sites & blogs listed below! And be sure to keep checking back for more Year-End posts here at Metal Excess!
All Metal Resource — http://allmetalresource.com/
Bring Back Glam — http://bringbackglam.squarespace.com/
The Crash Pad of Ray Van Horn, Jr. – http://www.rayvanhornjr2.blogspot.com/
Hair Metal Mansion — http://hairbangersradio.ning.com/
Hard Rock Hideout — http://hardrockhideout.com/
Hard Rock Nights — http://hardrocknights.com
Heavy Metal Addiction — http://heavymetaladdiction.com/
Heavy Metal Time Machine — http://metalmark.blogspot.com/
Imagine Echoes — http://www.imagineechoes.com/
Layla’s Classic Rock — http://laylasclassicrock.blogspot.com/
Metal Odyssey — http://metalodyssey.wordpress.com/
The Ripple Effect — http://www.ripplemusic.blogspot.com/
Like this:
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy – Live: Made In Stoke 24/7/11
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy – Live: Made In Stoke 24/7/11 (2011, Eagle Records)
Disc One
1. Been There Lately … 4:34
2. Nightrain … 5:02
3. Ghost … 3:43
4. Mean Bone … 4:01
5. Back From Cali … 3:36
6. Rocket Queen … 9:21
7. Civil War … 8:06
8. Nothing to Say … 7:27
9. Starlight … 5:45
10. Promise … 3:59
Disc Two
1. Doctor Alibi … 3:45
2. Speed Parade … 3:58
3. Watch This … 3:39
4. Beggars & Hangers On … 6:29
5. Patience … 5:45
6. Godfather Solo … 10:30
7. Sweet Child o’ Mine … 6:28
8. Slither … 7:33
9. By the Sword … 4:36
10. Mr. Brownstone … 4:41
11. Paradise City … 9:13
Musicians:
Slash – Guitar
Myles Kennedy – Lead Vocals, Guitar (“Nothing to Say”, “Watch This”)
Bobby Schneck – Guitar
Todd Kerns – Bass, Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals (“Doctor Alibi”)
Brent Fitz – Drums
What’s the full name of this album? And who is the artist? Is it Slash or is it “Slash featuring Myles Kennedy”? I’ve seen a number of websites not including this as a Slash solo album. And is the album’s title Made In Stoke 24/7/11? Some websites are calling it Live In Stoke or just Live. I’ve also seen it referred to as Featuring Myles Kennedy Live: Made In Stoke 24/7/11 and or even just Featuring Myles Kennedy! The last two just seem odd. Personally, I think the title should be Live: Made In Stoke 24/7/11 with the credited artist being “Slash featuring Myles Kennedy”. The date (and its formatting) is a whole other issue, so let’s not even go there.
Title issues aside, this stands as a great live album (which was recorded July 2011 in Slash’s hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England). Slash has said he’s a big fan of live albums because that’s where you get a sense of who the artist really is and I have to say he’s done a fine job putting out his own double disc live album! I don’t really know if he could’ve picked a better singer than Myles Kennedy to handle all these songs. He’s covering a LOT of singers on this album (Axl, Scott Weiland, Ian Astbury, Rod Jackson, M. Shadows, Chris Cornell, etc.) and doing a fantastic job of it. He sounds especially great on the GNR songs. Just put him in Velvet Revolver already!
This album really runs the gamut of Slash’s career. There are 7 GNR songs, 4 songs from the Slash’s Snakepit albums (which I wasn’t expecting at all), 1 Velvet Revolver song (would’ve expected a few more) and 8 tracks from his self-titled solo album. It’s a good mix of everything.
The song choices are excellent. I think the only glaring omission when it comes to GNR material would be “Welcome to the Jungle” but that’s a total Axl song so I understand leaving it off. Besides, “Been There Lately” was a great choice to open the show. It’s one of the better songs from the Snakepit era and it really comes to life when done live. The entire band sounds inspired through the whole show.
This is great live album that never really gets boring thanks to the varied material throughout. If you’re in the mood for some classic live rock ‘n’ roll… this is it.
Highlights: “Been There Lately”, “Nightrain”, “Ghost”, “Rocket Queen”, “Nothing to Say”, “Patience”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, “Slither”, “By The Sword”, “Mr. Brownstone”, “Paradise City”
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Like this:
Eric Carr – Unfinished Business
Eric Carr – Unfinished Business (2011, Auto Rock Records)
1. Eric speaks to the fans
2. “Just Can’t Wait”
3. “Troubles Inside You”
4. Eric talks about his music
5. “No One’s Messin’ With You”
6. “Carr Jam 1981″
7. Eric talks about audition
8. “Shandi”
9. “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”
10. “Dial L For Love”
11. “Elephant Man”
12. Eric Talks about Mark St. John
13. “Midnite Stranger”
14. “Eyes Of Love”
15. Bill Aucoin talks about Eric
16. “Through The Years”
17. “I Cry at Night”
18. Eric kidding around at a Kiss album rehearsal
Producer: Linda Caravello & Beth Jordan
On the 20 year anniversary of Eric Carr’s death, the Caravello (Carr) family decided to honor Eric by releasing Unfinished Business, an album featuring a number of Eric’s demos that were recently fleshed out and re-recorded with the aid of a number of musicians. Also featured are voice clips of Eric Carr. A similar project called Rockology was released by the family in 1999 but that album was nothing but demos & rough mixes with the only tampering being done by former KISS band mate Bruce Kulick who tried to re-mix the tracks and improve production as best he could.
Notes about the songs:
- “Just Can’t Wait” (1987) was originally released on Rockology as an instrumental but this time around there are lyrics & vocals for it and there’s a good reason this new version comes off like Danger Danger — Ted Poley sings on it. I think it was one of the better songs from Rockology. It’s nice to hear it with a vocal track but I think it still stands as a great instrumental as well.
- “Troubles Inside You” (1987) features KISS collaborator Mitch Weissman on vocals. Sound quality isn’t that great given that it’s a demo but it’s a cool rocker.
- “No One’s Messin’ With You” (1989) is an early demo of what would morph into “Little Caesar” from Hot in the Shade.
- “Carr Jam 1981″ (which originally appeared on KISS’ Revenge album) & “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” (originally appeared on KISS’ Lick It Up album) are covers by the band ZO2.
- “Shandi” features Eric on vocals and comes from his 1980 KISS audition. These demo tapes remained lost until 2006 when they were rediscovered by Eric Carr’s family. The entire four-song audition was produced on CD in extremely limited quantities and released as The 1980 KISS Audition EP and sold through www.EricCarr.com. This particular version lifts Eric’s vocals from the audition tape and adds new music performances and arrangement.
- “Dial L for Love” is a near complete demo track (no vocals) from 1987. Could’ve been a really good rocker.
- “Elephant Man” never got past the lyrics stage in 1991 when Eric passed away. Music was composed for this song from scratch by Bob Gilmartin (who provides vocals & guitar) and Nick Clements. Eric’s sister and niece sing backing vocals, Twisted Sister’s A.J. Pero plays drums and Europe’s Kee Marcello provided lead guitar on the intro.
- “Midnite Stranger” comes from a demo that Eric had given ex-KISS lead guitarist Mark St. John back in 1986. Mark had contacted the Carr family in 2006 and gave them the tape and the plan was for St. John to add more guitar parts but the project was never completed due to Mark’s passing away in 2007.
- “Eyes of Love” is another song that was originally on Rockology. This version is considerably better with newly recorded music. All of Eric’s vocals remain while Seether’s John Humphrey plays the drums and Benny Doro plays everything else.
- “Through The Years” is a compilation recordings of Eric on drums from his teenage years up to live performances with KISS. Very cool thing to hear.
- “I Cry At Night” is a song from 1967. It was written by Eric and recorded by The Cellarmen, which was his very first band. Very much inspired by the Beatles and general rock/pop sound of bands at the time.
The rest of the tracks are short sound clips from interviews either with Eric or about Eric.
Overall, this is a great disc for KISS fans to add to their collection. Carr is one of the most loved members the band has ever had and this is another great trip back in time to see what a cool guy and great talent he was. Hopefully the Carr family has more demos and outtakes ready to go because I’d love for third album to come along. Hopefully we’ll get some new kick-ass versions of “Somebody’s Waiting”, “Nightmare” and “Can You Feel It” if that ever comes about!
Highlights: “Just Can’t Wait”, “Troubles Inside You”, “Shandi”, “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”, “Eyes of Love”, “Through The Years”
www.EricCarr.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Eric-Carr-Official/146128105398320
Who Cares (Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi & Friends) – Out Of My Mind / Holy Water
Who Cares (Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi & Friends) – Out Of My Mind / Holy Water (2011, earMUSIC/Eagle Rock Records)
1. “Out of My Mind” … 5:19
2. “Holy Water” … 7:00
Band:
Ian Gillan – Vocals
Tony Iommi – Guitar
Linde Lindstrom – Guitar
Jason Newsted – Bass
Nicko McBrain – Drums
Jon Lord – Keyboards
How’s THIS for a super group: Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Iron Maiden’s Nick McBrain, ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, ex-Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord and HIM’s Linde Lindstrom! Well, um, nothing against Lindstrom but, wow, he feels a bit out of place doesn’t he? I think his connection is he’s either dating or married to Iommi’s daughter.
Who Cares was initially a project put together by Gillan & Iommi to help benefit the rebuilding of a music school in Armenia but there was always the vague promise that Gillan & Iommi would continue to work together on some new material. I imagine with a reunited Black Sabbath that won’t be happening… ever (Sabbath will probably take up the next few years and these guys are old enough already). Shame. I’d much rather hear a Iommi & Gillan record (Geezer can tag along too) than a new Sabbath album with Ozzy.
Initially released as a digital single, the album has been made available on 7″ vinyl (limited to only 1,000 copies) and as a deluxe CD single featuring a video clip and a 30 minute documentary.
Despite being a one-off super-group that implied Tony & Ian might continue to work together, Who Cares went a bit under the radar, I think. Yes, it was done for charity so it’s not like there was any huge label or promotion backing this but given the talent involved I would have expected more buzz from the rock/metal community. The songs are just phenomenal and while I haven’t heard any of Gillan’s recent work with Deep Purple, the guy can still sing and scream like a rock ‘n’ roll god (even if his voice is a tad bit weathered, but at 66 years old, I’ll give him a break).
“Out of My Mind” is just plain heavy. Not Born Again heavy, but still heavy nonetheless, stomping along and sounding Black Sabbath & Deep Purple put in a blender: Iommi pulling out a great riff and solo, Gillan singing with venom and Jon Lord doing what he does best. Musically, it’s really not too far off from what we might’ve heard from Heaven & Hell.
“Holy Water” is a bit more majestic in scope with a taste of the Middle East. I’m not all that well-versed on Deep Purple with Steve Morse but from what I have heard, this sounds like the type of song you might hear from them as Jon Lord’s keyboard factors heavily into this track and Gillan is a bit more subdued.
Who Cares was put together for a great cause and features great music so it’s definitely worth buying. It also shows us what a great pairing Gillan & Iommi can still be and hopefully we can get some more music of out this duo in the future.
The Last Vegas – The Other Side E.P.
The Last Vegas – The Other Side E.P. (2011, Electric City Entertainment)
1. “It Ain’t Easy” … 4:08
2. “Other Side” … 3:05
3. “Evil Eyes” … 4:16
Band:
Chad Cherry – Vocals
Adam Arling – Guitar
Johnny Wator – Guitar
Danny Smash – Bass
Nathan Arling – Drums
Producer: Johnny K
In preparation for The Other Side, a full-length album coming in early 2012, The Last Vegas have released The Other Side E.P., which is free to download from thelastvegas.com.
If you’re familiar with The Last Vegas and like them then this E.P. is for you. All three songs still have that garage meets glam meets sleaze sound The Last Vegas have always had. There’s nothing here with the urgency of “I’m Bad” (“Other Side” is the single) but I like all three songs so I’m positive once The Other Side LP is released it will be another solid album from these Chicago rockers. I’m still waiting for a Last Vegas album to really knock my socks off but in the meantime their albums have been FUN and that’s what really counts, right? I’ll bet they’re a great live band.
For those of you that want/need a little something more than just 3 MP3 files, you can head on over to CMDistro.com and order yourself the E.P. bundle which includes: the E.P. on CD, a t-shirt & poster all for $20. Cool deal and it’s pretty cool of the band to put out this EP for free in digital format too. Hopefully it’ll build a buzz for the band before the proper album comes out because they really are a good band and deserve the recognition.
Unfortunately, it appears the guys are no longer on the Eleven Seven label (home of Motley Crue, Sixx:AM, Buckcherry and Papa Roach). Which is sad because I was hoping label president Nikki Sixx would continue to flex his muscles to get these guys on some good tours and it’s to my understanding that the “I’m Bad” single did very well on iTunes. I think Eleven Seven dropped the ball on this one.
At least they have a successful producer working with them on this new album. Johnny K most recently produced Megadeth’s Thirteen but has also produced for Disturbed, Staind, 3 Doors Down, Black Tide, Sevendust and Bad City’s excellent Welcome to the Wasteland.
So there ya go. New music from The Last Vegas – check it out for free or spend $20 to get some cool merch as well.
http://www.thelastvegas.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Last-Vegas/277828629131
Black Sabbath – Mob Rules [Deluxe Edition]
Black Sabbath – Mob Rules [Deluxe Edition] (2010, Universal Music/Sanctuary Records – UK Import)
Original Release: 1981, Warner Bros. Records
Disc One: Mob Rules
1. Turn Up the Night … 3:42
2. Voodoo … 4:32
3. The Sign of the Southern Cross … 7:44
4. E5150 … 2:54
5. The Mob Rules … 3:15
6. Country Girl … 4:02
7. Slipping Away … 3:42
8. Falling Off the Edge of the World … 5:03
9. Over and Over … 5:28
Bonus Tracks
10. Die Young (Live – 12″ Single B-Side) … 4:04
11. The Mob Rules (Heavy Metal Soundtrack Version) … 3:14
Disc Two: Live at Hammersmith
1. E5150 … 1:18
2. Neon Knights … 4:37
3. N.I.B. … 5:16
4. Children of the Sea … 6:07
5. Country Girl … 3:53
6. Black Sabbath … 8:24
7. War Pigs … 7:40
8. Slipping Away … 3:18
9 Iron Man … 7:04
10. The Mob Rules … 3:35
11. Heaven and Hell … 14:24
12. Paranoid … 3:21
13. Voodoo … 5:45
14. Children of the Grave … 5:05
Mob Rules is an album I’ve spoken about before. That review was very brief, but really, what can you say? Looking back, it’s not my favorite of the Dio era (that nod would go to Heaven and Hell) but it’s still a classic that’s almost as good as the first album they did together. In addition to the original album of Mob Rules, Disc 1 features two bonus tracks: the original version of “The Mob Rules” (which was recorded for the Heavy Metal movie) and a live version of Heaven and Hell‘s ”Die Young”.
The real pull for me getting this Deluxe Edition was to get the second disc which features performances taken from Dec 31, 1981 through January 2, 1982 at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. This entire disc was originally released as Live at Hammersmith Oden by Rhino Records with an extremely limited print run of 5,000 copies back in 2007. As you can imagine, copies of that album are expensive and hard to come by so it’s great to now have the entire album included as a bonus disc.
If you don’t already own Mob Rules, or even if you do, this is still worth the pick up just for Disc 2. The band is in top form but then again, the Dio line-up was never not in top form! There are four live albums to choose from this particular Sabbath line-up (two as Black Sabbath, two as Heaven & Hell) and all of them are classics but if you want to hear this group in their formative years with a recording that takes places even before Live Evil, here’s your chance! Great studio album, great live disc = great deluxe edition!
http://heavenandhelllive.com/
http://www.blacksabbath.com
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Chickenfoot – III
Chickenfoot – III [Classic Rock Fan Pack Exclusive Limited Edition] (2011, earMUSIC)
1. “Last Temptation” … 4:02
2. “Alright Alright” … 4:39
3. “Different Devil” … 4:24
4. “Up Next” … 4:33
5. “Lighten Up” … 5:12
6. “Come Closer” … 4:08
7. “Three and a Half Letters” … 4:07
8. “Big Foot” … 3:49
9. “Dubai Blues” … 5:02
10. “Something Going Wrong” … 5:16
Bonus Tracks
11. “Down the Drain” (Live in Phoenix) … 9:13
12. “Oh Yeah” (Live in Phoenix) … 6:23
Band:
Sammy Hagar – Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals
Joe Satriani – Guitar
Michael Anthony – Bass, Backing Vocals
Chad Smith – Drums, Percussion
Producer: Chickenfoot & Mike Fraser
This super group’s debut was decent but nothing particularly thrilling. It sounded like a bunch of guys having fun but it didn’t really translate when it came to the songs in my opinion. Well, on Chickenfoot III (they skipped the second album) this very much feels more like a band that has written real songs and not bunch of guys jamming.
Because of how underwhelmed the debut left me, I wasn’t sure if I was going to pick this album up. I saw Classic Rock magazine was doing yet another “Fan Pack” release and figured if I ever was going to buy the album that I might as get the album that comes with a magazine. It’s a bit more bare bones than the Alice Cooper release (or even Whitesnake): 132-page 3-D magazine, a pack of 5 Chickenfoot guitar picks and a pair of 3-D glasses. The artwork inside and out of the album packaging are in 3-D as is the CD label itself but all of that I believe is standard with the first pressed copy of the album (just like the “heat sensitive” version of the debut).
Onto the music, what can you say as far as the playing goes? Sammy’s vocals sound just as good as ever, no one’s going to say Satriani can’t play guitar and Chad Smith is the perfect drummer for this type of band. Then you have Michael Anthony who in addition to bass is adding his usual fantastic backing vocals to help enhance things (the VH boys have some real balls letting him go based on backing vocals alone).
Like I said earlier, this very much feels like more of band now. Hagar says the first album came together very quickly while III was a much more laborious project. Well, if that means gelling better and Joe & Sammy writing better songs together… that’s fine by me! In fact, the only that I think fall a bit flat are “Dubai Blues” and “Lighten Up”. The rest of the album are just great rockers, good ballads (“Different Devil” sounds like something Van Hagar would’ve done), something socially relevant (“Three and a Half Letters”) and the albums ends with something a bit experimental that uses acoustic guitars and a banjo — the excellent “Something Going Wrong”.
Bonus live tracks are always kind of a throwaway to me. They are exclusive to this Fan Pack edition. “Down the Drain” and “Oh Yeah” may be two of the better songs from the debut but all they do is really highlight how mediocre that debut was and how much better this album is.
Chickenfoot’s III had revived my interest in this band after milquetoast debut, is one of the year’s best releases and I hope we get to see a third album (IV?) from these guy down the line.
Highlights: ”Last Temptation”, “Alright Alright”, “Different Devil”, “Up Next”, “Come Closer”, “Three and a Half Letters”, “Big Foot”, “Something Going Wrong”
http://www.facebook.com/chickenfoot
http://www.chickenfoot.us/
Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare [Classic Rock Fan Pack Exclusive Limited Edition] (2011, Universal Music Enterprises/Spinefarm Records UK/Nightmare Inc.)
1. “I Am Made Of You”
2. “Caffeine”
3. “The Nightmare Returns”
4. “A Runaway Train”
5. “Last Man On Earth”
6. “The Congregation”
7. “I’ll Bite Your Face Off”
8. “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever”
9. “Ghouls Gone Wild”
10. “Something To Remember Me By”
11. “When Hell Comes Home”
12. “What Baby Wants”
13. “I Gotta Get Outta Here”
14. “The Underture”
Bonus Tracks:
15. “Under The Bed”
16. “Poison” (Live at Download Festival)
Band:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Steve Hunter – Guitar
Damon Johnson – Guitar
Tommy Henriksen – Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Chuck Garric – Bass
Glen Sobel – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Michael Bruce – Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Dennis Dunaway – Bass, Backing Vocals
Neal Smith – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Ke$ha – Vocals
Dick Wagner, John 5, Keith Nelson, Tommy Denander, Vince Gill, Keri Kelli, Patterson Hood, Pat Buchanan – Guitar
Piggy D, David Spreng, Jimmie Lee Sloas – Bass
Jimmy DeGrasso, Scott Williamson – Drums
Rob Zombie, Kip Winger – Backing Vocals
Welcome 2 My Nightmare is a reunion for all different eras of Alice Cooper. Take a look at the credits! The surviving members of the original group are here (Bruce, Dunaway & Smith) and they have some co-writing credits too, the original Nightmare era guitar duo of Steve Hunter (back in the band full-time) and Dick Wagner are present, more recent Alice gunslingers Kerri Kelli and Damon Johnson (who recently left and has been replaced by Orianthi of all people!), Jimmy DeGrasso, Piggy D (who worked with Alice on “Keepin’ Halloween Alive”), Kip Winger sings backing vocals, Desmond Child co-wrote “I Am Made of You” and Bob Ezrin is producing!
I think pretty much all eras of Alice are represented! I’m surprised Alice didn’t bring back Eric Singer, Derek Sherinian, Ryan Roxie, Eric Dover, Kane Roberts and Jason Hook! In addition to all of those people, Rob Zombie, Vince Gill, John 5 and Ke$ha also perform.
All of this star-power and buzz over doing a sequel to Welcome To My Nightmare has worked as the album sold roughly 21,ooo copies and debuted at #22 on the Billboard charts. This is Alice’s best chart debut since Trash.
Before I get into the music, I want to say that this Alice Cooper Fan Pack from Classic Rock magazine is just outstanding. I had ordered the Fan Pack for Whitesnake’s Forevermore and while that was a good package, this is even better. Not only do you get the album (in what I guess what is the standard hardcover booklet format for these Fan Packs) but there’s a School’s Out pin, Alice Cooper face paint, Alice cut-out face mask, 2 two-sided posters and finally the 132 page magazine called Classic Rock Presents Alice Cooper.
With that out of the way, I will agree that this album is a “return to form” in that it has returned Alice to his old school schizophrenic ways. After dabbling in industrial metal and garage rock for the last decade, Alice is back to genre-hopping. Auto-tune, Rolling Stones, disco, pop-rock, surfer music, symphonies, Tom Petty, rag-time… It all has a home on this album.
The good/bad thing about Alice is that he’s never been afraid to throw his blood-stained top hat in to practically any genre of music. Case in point, after starting off with the piano from “Steven”, “I Am Made of You” is a ballad complete with vocals done in auto-tune and some electronic beats in the background and a piano. I did not like it when I first heard it, but the song has grown on me and is now one of my favorite tracks here. Next, “Caffeine” kicks in with some rowdy rock ‘n’ roll. My first thought when hearing it was that it sounded like Velvet Revolver. Well, I wasn’t too far off because song was co-written by Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson. This and “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” (with its Stonesy vibe) are the most straight forward rockers of the bunch. “The Nightmare Returns” is a short instrumental still incorporating parts of “Steven”.
“The Congregation” is a pretty good Beatles-inspired number that sounds like a track from The Last Temptation but it took me a few listens to get in to. And hey, what album would be complete without that classic Alice ballad? Here that song is “Something To Remember Me By”, a great companion to those late ’70s ballads of his. The next highlight on this album for me is “What Baby Wants”. A true guilty pleasure for sure, it’s a pop/rock song featuring Ke$ha. The final two standouts is the Tom Petty-ish “I Gotta Get Outta Here” and the Fan Pack exclusive “Under The Bed”, a mid-tempo ballad that could’ve come from the Hey Stoopid era.
So, like I said, there is good and bad when Alice attempt to cover so many genres. When he succeeds, he really succeeds. When he fails… yuck. With Vince Gill on guitar, the country-rocker “A Runaway Train” can’t go away fast enough but I can kinda here old school Alice in it. Immediately following is the vaudevillian rag-time of “Last Man on Earth”. Just awful but I can’t decide if it’s worse than “When Hell Comes Home” (which is garnering rave reviews for featuring all the surviving members of the original group).
As for “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever”, that’s just goofy fun. Something you might hear from Alice in the early ’80s. Basically filler as is the surf rock of “Ghouls Gone Wild”. “The Underture” closes out the standard edition of the album and it’s an instrumental bring in pieces of songs from both Welcome To My Nightmare and this album.
Overall, the songs are just so varied I think you have to really be patient and let it all soak in. After the first listen, my head was spinning was variety of music. With each listen, I’m picking up on songs more than I had before and while there are some really bad songs on this disc, they are few and far between and the songs I like I like A LOT. Having said that, Welcome 2 My Nightmare is easily Alice’s best since The Eyes of Alice Cooper if not The Last Temptation.
Highlights: “I Am Made Of You”, “Caffeine”, “The Congregation”, “I”ll Bite Your Face Off”, “Something To Remember Me By”, “What Baby Wants”, “I Gotta Get Outta Here”, “Under The Bed”
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Bonus Words:
Welcome 2 My Nightmare continues a rather disturbing trend of offering different bonus tracks depending on which edition you buy: the regular edition of this album has no bonus tracks, the Classic Rock Fan Pack has “Under the Bed” and a live version of “Poison”, the deluxe edition features a cover of The Animals’ “We Gotta Get out of This Place” and live versions of “No More Mr. Nice Guy” & “The Black Widow”, the vinyl album has “Flatline” and finally iTunes gets the exclusive “A Bad Situation” (which you can’t even purchase as a single, you HAVE to buy the whole album to get it).
I really couldn’t care less about the live tracks but there are four brand new tracks scattered about that I would have loved to have been included on at least ONE edition of the album so I could just buy that one! It’s a cash grab and I don’t think this practice is very fair to the fans. I can’t imagine a significant number of fans are going to buy all of these albums to get those handful of bonus tracks because you’re looking at someone having to spend $80-100 total to snatch up all of these editions. I really don’t understand the thought process here and Alice isn’t the only artist guilty of it. If anything, this only seems to increase the likelihood of illegal downloading.
After that little rant, I have to be honest: I have two copies. The CR Fan Pack and then a standard edition (no bonus tracks) that came with Alice’s autograph when you pre-ordered… Hey, at least I didn’t buy an extra copy for bonus tracks!
Joe Bonamassa – Dust Bowl
Joe Bonamassa – Dust Bowl (2011, J&R Adventures)
1. “Slow Train” … 6:49
2. “Dust Bowl “… 4:33
3. “Tennessee Plates” … 4:18
4. “The Meaning of the Blues” … 5:44
5. “Black Lung Heartache” … 4:14
6. “You Better Watch Yourself” … 3:30
7. “The Last Matador of Bayonne” … 5:23
8. “Heartbreaker” … 5:49
9. “No Love on the Street” … 6:32
10. “The Whale That Swallowed Jonah” … 4:46
11. “Sweet Rowena” … 4:34
12. “Prisoner” … 6:48
Musicians:
Joe Bonamassa – Vocals, Guitar, Slide Guitar
Glenn Hughes – Vocals (“Heartbreaker”)
Beth Hart – Vocals (“No Love On The Street”)
John Hiatt – Vocals (“Tennessee Plates”)
Vince Gill – Guitar (“Tennessee Plates”, “Sweet Rowena”), Vocals (“Sweet Rowena”)
Blondie Chaplin – Guitar
Carmine Rojas, Michael Rhodes – Bass
Anton Fig, Chad Cromwell – Drums
Rick Melick – Organ, Synthesizer
Steve Nathan – Organ, Piano
Producer: Kevin Shirley
I have been curious about the “new” blues scene for quite some time. UK’s Classic Rock magazine often does features on new and old blues musicians so it got me interested and I figured I might as well start with the scene’s current modern marvel Joey Bones (or JoBo, if you prefer).
While I don’t know how this compares to Bonamassa’s previous efforts, Dust Bowl is all that a current blues-guitarist’s album should sound like. While it’s fairly standard for blues artists to cover old blues songs (only half the album features original material), I think I would get very bored if this album was just a repeat of songs from decades and decades ago. Luckily, Joe isn’t content to merely dig up the past.
Fans of Stevie Ray Vaughan will enjoy this album a lot as that is who I am reminded on songs like “Slow Train” and “You Better Watch Yourself”. Still, Joe’s own style shines through with “Dust Bowl” (my favorite track and the most accessible), the ballad “The Last Matador of Bayonne” (which sounds like it could’ve been on one of Black Country Communion’s albums), the excellent “Black Lung Heartache” (which start off sounding like bluegrass then turns into hard rock) and “The Whale That Swallowed Jonah”. Another high point on the album is “The Meaning of the Blues”. A lot of passion behind that song and it is the epitome of a great blues song, IMO.
Despite Joe being known primarily as a blues rock guitarist, country/folk music and classic rock have their places on this album. John Hiatt’s “Tennessee Plates”, Vince Gill’s “Sweet Rowena” and Free’s “Heartbreaker” are all covered. Hiatt and Gill both pitch in on their respective songs while “The Voice of Rock” Glenn Hughes lends his voice to “Heartbreaker” and again this is a song that could’ve ended up in BCC. Heck, Joe even covers Tim Curry’s “No Love On The Street” with Beth Hart lending vocals. I never even knew Cardinal Richelieu had an album… much less three! I always thought his musical experiences were tied only to the theater and Rocky Horror Picture Show.
In the liner notes (where he comes across as very likable, down-to-earth and funny), Bonamassa states this is his best album yet. Hey, aren’t the latest releases always the “best yet”? While he kinda has to say that and I’m still a novice when it comes to Joe, he may be right. This is a very good collection of original material and some choice covers. I’d love for his next album to feature and even higher percentage of original numbers with maybe just one or two covers thrown in.
Blues rockers will really enjoy this one and it makes me wanna pick up Joe’s earlier albums.
Highlights: ”Slow Train”, “Dust Bowl”, “The Meaning of the Blues”, “Black Lung Heartache”, “No Love On The Street”
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