Showing posts with label Metal Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Metal Church. Show all posts

Metal Church reveals new LP track listing, cover art

Veteran hard-rockers reunite with former singer
By Peter Lindblad

Metal Church will release its new
album 'XI' in March (Photo by
Mike Savoia)
Welcome back, Mike Howe. We missed you in church ... Metal Church that is.

Like the prodigal son, Howe has returned as lead vocalist for the Northwest metal and hard-rock heavyweights, and the track listing and cover art for Metal Church's latest album XI has been just been released.

Due out March 25 on Rat Pak Records, XI is the band's 11th studio album and is available for pre-order in various bundles via http://www.ratpakrecordsamerica.com/metal-church. A limited number of the Deluxe International Version, which features a bonus disc of eight extra songs, can be had through the website.

Choose a bundle, however, and guitar picks, stickers, a special edition behind-the-scenes photo book, t-shirts and even a limited number of personal phone calls from Howe himself are among the many treasures packaged with what has to be one of metal's most highly anticipated albums of 2016.

Metal Church - XI 2016
XI is also available for pre-order on Amazon, Google Play and via iTunes at http://smarturl.it/MCXliTunes. Those ordering the digital version will receive an instant download of "Killing Your Time" from the new record, produced by guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof and co-produced by Chris "The Wizard" Collier.

Howe-era Metal Church made its mark on metal through strong songwriting, and "Needle and Suture" and "Soul Eating Machine" from XI are said to be reminiscent of that period. "Signal Path" and "Sky Falls In" exceed the 7-minute mark in length, giving Metal Church a chance to stretch out and flex its musical muscles.

Already, the band has released its first video from the album, as Metal Church roars through the rampaging debut single "No Tomorrow" inside the Satsop Nuclear Facility, an abandoned nuclear power plant in Elma, Wash. It was directed by Jamie Chamberlin of Black Dahlia Films and features a unique visual that ties in to the location. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ary17dRnC3o&feature=youtu.be. There's also a behind-the-scenes video on the making of that little film and it can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr0bHRjfhmU&feature=youtu.be

Below is the track listing for XI:

1. Reset
2. Killing Your Time
3. No Tomorrow
4. Signal Path
5. Sky Falls In
6. Needle & Suture
7. Shadow
8. Blow Your Mind
9. Soul Eating Machine
10. It Waits
11. Suffer Fools

For more information on Metal Church, visit http://metalchurchofficial.com. Check out their Facebook page at https//:www.facebook.com/OfficialMetalChurch and go visit them on Twitter at https://twitter.com/metalchurchis1.

First impressions: Anthrax, Megadeth, Metal Church

Examining newly released songs, videos from metal legends
By Peter Lindblad

Anthrax will discuss their new LP 'For
All Kings' on the series  "Backstory" on
Wednesday, Jan. 13. It'll be live streamed
as part of the AOL Build series. Gets tickets
at www.backstoryevents.com/event/anthrax/
to be there in person for the interview.
Appetizers have been served, and they were delicious. Soon, the tables of famished thrash-metal fans the world over will be overflowing with main courses from three of thrash metal's most enduring acts.

First to arrive is Megadeth's Dystopia on Jan. 22, followed by Anthrax's For All Kings via Megaforce Records on Feb. 26 and then comes Metal Church's XI, slated for a March 25th release on Rat Pak Records.

Megadeth - Dystopia 2016
On Thursday, Dave Mustaine and company teased their upcoming release by unveiling the title track for streaming on http://www.megadeth.com/home, this after rolling out a new video for the song "The Threat Is Real" in December.

Not to be outdone, Metal Church announced a release date Monday for XI, which marks the return of vocalist Mike Howe. "At first I struggled with the decision to come back, but after hearing the riffs that (guitarist) Kurdt (Vanderhoof) was writing, I just couldn't resist. The music called to me and I wanted to be part of it!" said Howe.

In July 2014, Howe began working with Vanderhoof on a side project with Saxon's Nigel Glockler, leading to a reunion of Metal Church and its former singer, all of whom are featured in a new video for the debut single off XI, "No Tomorrow," that premiered along with these glad tidings.

And then there's Anthrax, looking to follow up the sensational 2011 LP Worship Music, one of the best records of that year and some have even claimed it to be as good anything in their catalog.

So, what's the early verdict on the new stuff? Here's a rundown:

Megadeth: By the time "Dystopia" the song made its introduction, the public had already been treated to a cool animated video for "The Threat Is Real" and another new track, "Fatal Illusion," the latter a mean, seething slab of heavy, gnarly thrash that harkens back to Megadeth's early days.

With "The Threat Is Real," exotic Middle Eastern wailing fades as Megadeth unloads a barrage of crazed guitar riffs strikes. Later, hitting its stride, the track morphs into a vigorous, hard-hitting Iron Maiden-like gallop, charging ahead with nostrils flared. Vic Rattlehead, the band's mascot, makes an appearance in the song's video, with its comic-book illustrations and video-game graphics acting out an attempt to stop an act of terrorism. At its core, it's a song that makes the case that our fears of sudden violent episodes of terrorism – like the ones that have dominated the news cycle in recent weeks – becoming the norm are very real, indeed, and that there's a reluctance to address the problem head on.

"Dystopia" is a bit different, its stylized, clean guitars practically gleaming and sharply etched. Here, high-definition production enhances the urgency, the pure energy of a track that takes off like a rocket. Mustaine has been singing the praises of new guitarist Kiko Loureiro to anyone who will listen since his hiring, and apparently there's a good reason for that. The six-string action on "Dystopia" is dazzling, with a solo that requires a dose of Dramamine before going on this ride and classic twin-guitar sculpture leading into a chaotic, fiery ending that takes your breath away.

Wipe that saliva from your mouth. Dystopia will soon be here. You can check out the song below:



Metal Church: A lapsed member of Metal Church has returned to the flock in the form of Howe, who is pounding the pulpit once again, just as he did on such landmark records as The Human Factor, Blessing In Disguise and Hanging In The Balance in the late '80s and early '90s.

His pipes sound as commanding and venomous as they ever did in a thrilling new sonic blitzkrieg called "No Tomorrow." The accompanying black-and-white video is now available for viewing, and it takes place in what appears to be a secret Roswell-like location, within a huge, abandoned, cylindrical concrete structure where space aliens are running around causing mischief or trying to escape. What exactly is going here is somewhat unclear, but it's a fun, sci-fi distraction.



Essentially, what Metal Church has offered up is a performance video with vague and shadowy conspiratorial undertones. As for the song itself, the exhilarating "No Tomorrow" is good, slash-and-burn metal, with a ripping Vanderhoof solo to boot. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but there's an electricity running through its veins that is undeniable and the band seems to be enjoying itself in the video, which may speak to their enthusiasm for the XI material. Going back to church never sounded more appealing.

Anthrax: Already a Hot Track on iTunes, "Breathing Lightning" is sure to have tongues wagging. Anthrax bassist Frank Bello said of it, "That should be the biggest song Anthrax ever had."And he's right. It's got big, roundhouse hooks, a vitality and an immediacy that grabs you and an exciting, radio-friendly quality that's all fairly unusual for the band. The guitars are strong, melodic and powerful, the vocals are expansive and the rhythm section moves with dexterity and purpose. It's easy to get swept up in its currents. This could be a game-changer for Anthrax.

There's a clip of Bello, Charlie Benante and Scott Ian discussing the track on YouTube, and I urge you to check it out, because it offers real insight into the making of "Breathing Lightning." You can check it out here: http://anthrax.com/anthrax-breathing-lightning-preview-video/



CD Review: Vicious Rumors – Live You to Death 2: American Punishment

CD Review: Vicious Rumors – Live You to Death 2: American Punishment
Steamhammer SPV
All Access Rating: A-
Vicious Rumors - Live You to Death 2:
American Punishment

Still chasing his speed/power-metal muse all these decades later, Geoff Thorpe has kept Vicious Rumors going through thick and thin – the "thin" part being singer Carl Albert's death in 1995 and Thorpe's own battle with carpal tunnel syndrome, and the "thick" being their salad days of the late 1980s and early '90s, when the band, founded in 1979, was on Atlantic Records back when being on a major label meant something.

Undergoing a renaissance of sorts, having released the critically acclaimed Electric Punishment in 2013, Vicious Rumors is upping the ante with a searing new concert album for Steamhammer SPV, Live You to Death 2: American Punishment. Gripping and relentless, with the high-pitched wail of new singer Nick Holleman swooping and diving in and around stampeding double-kick drums, tenacious bass lines and serrated, stinging guitars, the energetic romp Live You to Death 2: American Punishment finds Vicious Rumors thrashing as hard as ever, getting into gritty street brawls with "Towns on Fire" and "Lady Took a Chance," riding roughshod on a frenzied and melodic "Don't Wait for Me" and defiantly pounding away at the Anthrax-like declaration "I Am the Gun," with its ever-shifting tempos and tightly wound riffage that's at once heavy and thick and later lightning fast and razor sharp. As for "Minute to Kill" and "You Only Live Twice," they are electrifying and single-minded in their approach, always on the attack, speeding and raging until their dying breath.

Recorded with startling clarity and richness, Live You to Death 2: American Punishment documents where Vicious Rumors is at right now and where it's been, the set list throwing exciting new material in with wicked old favorites like the surging anthem "Soldiers of the Night." Comparisons to Iron Maiden and Metal Church have always been spot-on, but Thorpe is, and presumably will be until death, his own man, and with Live You to Death 2: American Punishment this version of Vicious Rumors carves out its own identity.
– Peter Lindblad

Walter O'Brien - The Metal Music Man

Backstage Auctions’ consignor Walter O’Brien opens up about managing the careers of some of the biggest acts in heavy metal history.

By Peter Lindblad

Walter O'Brien
All the stars aligned for Walter O’Brien and Concrete Management during one amazing two-week period in 1989, even though the music-industry veteran almost didn’t answer when opportunity knocked. Signing a little ol’ band from Texas called Pantera, this fearsome tornado of sh*t-kicking, brutally intense groove metal and canyon-deep, guttural vocals that would destroy everything in its path, came first, and soon after, White Zombie was brought aboard.

Concrete was fast on its way to becoming heavy metal kingmakers. And it all started with an impromptu trip to Texas that O’Brien had been dreading, one that friends like Derek Shulman, formerly of the U.K. progressive-rock favorites Gentle Giant and later a music industry big shot at PolyGram Records and other labels, urged him to take.

At the time, O’Brien was representing Metal Church and trying to extricate the band from Elektra Records, who wasn’t doing much for Metal Church but refused to let them out of their contract. After much legal wrangling, Concrete managed to free Metal Church, so O’Brien went shopping for another label. He didn’t find much interest in the ill-fated metal band, but Shulman, who was running the Atco label, had another act he was high on.

“I went to him and I said I need a deal for Metal Church,” said O’Brien, “and he thought about it for a couple of weeks, and he said, ‘You know what? I just don’t want to take on anything that’s already been through the ringer a couple of times. But I’ve got this new band called Pantera that I’m signing and I’d love you to be their manager.’ And I went, ‘Oh God. You mean that glam band from Dallas?’”

True, Pantera did start out as glam-metal dandies, and they had the shiny stage clothes and teased hair to prove it. But when singer Phil Anselmo joined Pantera, a sea change occurred. Ditching the glam look, Pantera also transformed their sound into a swirling vortex of thick, aggressive, adrenaline-fueled riffs, driving bass and pummeling drums, made all the more evil by the trademark Anselmo growl. O’Brien wasn’t aware of just how much Pantera had changed.

Steer Horns Given to Walter from Pantera
Only Texas boys would think of this and yes they wanted
him to put it on the hood of his car. He didn't, but it
is featured in the auction
“[Derek] said, ‘Talk to Mark Ross, the A&R guy here,’ and tried to talk me into it,” remembered O’Brien. “And I said, ‘You know what? I’ve seen their pictures, I’ve heard their records and [they’re] just, well they're just not interesting. And they’d always send me their stuff, and I just wasn’t interested. Mark said, ‘Oh no, they’re different now. You’ve got to see them live.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to go all the way to Texas just to [do this]. So he tried to get me to do it for about two weeks, and I just didn’t want to do it. Finally, about 5 o’clock one afternoon, he calls me up. He goes, ‘It’s your last chance. I’m leaving for Dallas now. I’m going to the airport. I’ll send a limo to go get you.’ I literally looked at my watch and I went, ‘Well, I could be there in an hour. Oh hell, I’ve got nothing else to do tonight.’”

So O’Brien went, but only on the condition that Ross had to provide that limo and a hotel room. “And he was all excited,” said O’Brien. “I said, ‘I’m not going to like them, but for you I’ll come. And, of course, I went there and they were the most unbelievable live band I’d ever seen.”

Soon thereafter, Michael Alago, the man who signed Metallica to Elektra, knocked on O’Brien’s door with another proposition. “He was at Geffen, and he felt bad for what Elektra had done to [Metal Church], and he said, ‘I just signed this great new New York band at Geffen called White Zombie. Why don’t you manage them?’” recalled O’Brien.

Though he was too wrapped up in trying to break Pantera to take over White Zombie himself, O’Brien, who recognized the band’s potential, passed them off to a man who worked for him named Andy Gould.
“He had a bunch of bands that were just going nowhere fast like Princess Pang and … two or three others, and I went, ‘Andy, listen. Geffen really wants us to manage this band, White Zombie, and the record is unbelievable, but I just don’t have time,’” explained O’Brien. “And he listened to it, and he says, ‘This is a great record. Sure I’ll do it. And that was how we picked up Pantera and White Zombie in a couple of weeks or so. It changed everything.”

And in the end, O’Brien got the last laugh after everybody, it seemed, thought he’d lost his mind in signing the two bands.

“Funny thing, everybody we knew in the business thought we were nuts,” he said. “Everybody uniformly thought these two bands are going nowhere. And they turned out to be the biggest bands we worked with ever.”

One of the biggest consignors in Backstage Auctions’ upcoming “Rock Gods ‘N Metal Monsters Auction,” scheduled for Oct. 31-Nov. 7, with a special preview slated for Sunday, Oct. 24, O’Brien has long history in heavy metal and hard rock. In his 30-plus years in the music business, O’Brien did it all, from promotion and publicity to marketing and artist management. Working at the grass-roots level and exhausting all avenues of promotion, O’Brien helped propel acts such as Anthrax, Ministry and Winger, in addition to Pantera and White Zombie, to the top of the heap.

As one might expect, O’Brien has accumulated a vast collection of music memorabilia over the years, and he’s put most of it in Backstage Auctions’ hands to sell. Cleaning house wasn’t so easy for him, though his reasons for doing it are understandable.

“When I closed the company down, I turned 50,” said O’Brien. “I retired. I figured 32 years was enough in the business. And Pantera had broken up, and then I went back to finish my journalism degree, which is what I do for a living now. And of course what happened was about three days before my final exam, Dimebag [Darrell of Pantera] got murdered. And that was a whole other … for me that was it. I always in the back of my head said, someday, Phil will get better [he’d been fighting a drug problem] and they’ll bury the hatchet. Wouldn’t it be great to go out and see those guys play live again? And of course now that’ll never happen. And I’ve just been carrying all this stuff around and collecting it since I was a kid. You just get to a point where it’s just too much. I’m moving to a different house, and I just couldn’t pack it up one more time. So it was time to downsize and go a little Zen.”

O’Brien’s loss could be your gain. A previous auction sold all of O’Brien’s Beatles items and material he’d gathered while working with Peter Gabriel and Genesis. Talking about what he consigned for the metal auction, O’Brien said, “Of course there’s a lot of Pantera stuff – special items and things the band gave me, or things the promoters gave. There’s a jacket that’s a beautiful leather jacket that was custom made. There are maybe 16 of them in the world – a beautiful embroidered leather jacket from a tour, that kind of stuff. There’s laminates and tour passes, just backstage stuff.”

Fully Signed by Pantera Members - Dimebag Designed Guitar
This super rare and unique rock relic is featured in the auction.
The highlight, according to O’Brien, is something he is very fond of – a Washburn Dimeslime guitar, autographed by all four members of Pantera, with a Dimebag Darrell crybaby and a special Dimebag guitar strap and picks. “I think it was [from] '98, the peak of everybody being happy,” said O’Brien. “They autographed it with a big, thick Sharpie, so it still looks great and of course it’s been protected ever since.”
Parting with it is tough, but it had to be done. “I just got to the point where I thought, I’ve had the pleasure of owning it for a long time,” said O’Brien. “Somebody out there would love to have it.”

There is more … lots more, including a Cheap Trick tour program signed by Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen. “Cheap Trick is one of my all-time favorite bands, and I got to meet them in Japan with Pantera,” said O’Brien. “I kind of feel bad giving that one up, but again, once I decided to do this, I just went, ‘I can’t pick and choose.’”

White Zombie RIAA Astro-Creep 2x Platinum
featured in auction along with other RIAA Awards
But that’s exactly what collectors will be doing in this auction, which includes loads of vinyl from O’Brien’s collection, including test pressings, and more autographed items, plus many Pantera and White Zombie gold and platinum records from around the world – all trophies of a highly successful career that began way back in the early 1970s.

From 1973 to 1975, O’Brien worked in radio promotion and publicity for Jem Records, Inc. He then moved on to ATV/Pye Records before becoming label manager at Passport Records. In March 1978, O’Brien helped run the artist management company Hit and Run Music, aka Run It Music, where he worked with Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Rod Argent. After a short stint as label manager at Hannibal Records, O’Brien founded Relativity/Important Records as a domestic label for a music importer.

While with Relativity/Important, O’Brien greased the wheels to get The Cure’s classic single “Let’s Go to Bed” released while the gloomy, darkly pop Romantics were between labels. He also founded Combat Records and helped get Megaforce Records – the label that served as the first home of Anthrax and Metallica – up and running. But bigger and better things were soon to come, and they arrived via Concrete Marketing and Concrete Management.

It all started with a long-shot by the name of Grim Reaper, an ominous U.K. progressive-metal that needed representation in the U.S. O’Brien figured he was the man for the job. “I founded Relativity Records and Combat Records,” said O’Brien, whose familiarity with import records led him to Grim Reaper, “and I was trying to sign Grim Reaper for America. Their then-manager in England wouldn’t sign with me because he wanted to hold out for a major label. We laughed because what major label was going to pick up Grim Reaper in 1984? RCA came out of the corner and said, ‘We do.’ But [the woman who expressed interest] was a friend of mine and she said, ‘I’m going to sign them, but I know you wanted them first. They need a manager. Well, I know. We’ll sign them and hire you to be their tour manager, and after about a week or two on the road, they’ll probably beg you to be their manager and you’ll have a management company.’ And I went, ‘Deal (laughs).’”

A special project, Grim Reaper didn’t come ready made for stardom. Instead of rock god looks, they had complex musicianship and Grim Reaper, though melodic, could sometimes be a challenging, but ultimately rewarding, listen. Knowing MTV wasn’t in the cards for Grim Reaper, O’Brien didn’t have pie-in-the-sky dreams for the group. So he had to think outside the box to do what he could for them.

“We knew we weren’t going to get radio play,” said O’Brien. “So we did every possible grassroots thing we could think of, because I had a past in independent record companies. So I knew how to promote at a grassroots level, and that involves doing everything you can – every show you can get your hands on, every in-store appearance in any store that’ll have you, every interview on a radio station you can get, all the signed posters, the signed record jackets … just everything.”

Walter's Grim Reaper Passes featured
in auction.
It worked. At a time when bands were lucky if they could sell 50,000 copies of their debut album, the first Grim Reaper release O’Brien pushed sold 250,000. “Everybody asked, ‘How did you do that?’” said O’Brien. “At first we started saying, well, we did this, we did that. And then after about three months of realizing we were going to be broke soon – we had just started the company about three months ago – we said, ‘No. How did we do that? Pay us and we’ll show you.’ And that’s how Concrete Marketing got started.”

One man who shouldn’t be forgotten in all this is Bob Chiappardi, O’Brien’s partner in Concrete Marketing and Concrete Management. When he and O’Brien first met, Chiappardi wasn’t exactly on the fast track to upper management at Arista Records.

“I had already been in the music business for like 16 or 17 years, and I was hanging out with a friend of mine who did publicity at Arista Records, and Bob was some kid working in the mailroom in Arista’s publicity department,” recalled O’Brien. “I would sit down and wait for my friend to leave work, and we’d end up sitting around talking. And I liked him, and he liked me, and he just kept pressuring me to start a management company together. In my head I was saying, to be totally honest – not that he doesn’t know already – ‘I don’t want to do that,’ because I knew that I had almost 20 years of experience on this guy.”

But Chiappardi was persistent. All the while, O’Brien was in the process of leaving Relativity/Important Records and doing computer training work. “I was training and installing electronic mail systems, if you can believe it, in 1983 and 1984 for the music industry, the international departments,” said O’Brien.

But then along came Grim Reaper, and all the drama that can play on tour. Out on the road, one of the crew for the band overdosed on heroin. “I fired him,” said O’Brien. “He didn’t overdose and die. But that’s when we found out what he was doing, and I said, ‘I don’t work with junkies.’”

A painful personal experience earlier in life had taught him that it was impossible to trust drug addicts, but his crew of three people was now down to two. “And then Bob jumped and said, ‘I’ll come out on the road with you for a week,’” said O’Brien. “I’ll cover until you get somebody out here. I got somebody out there, and then all of a sudden, the band asked me to manage them. And Bob said, ‘Well, who’s going to be in New York handling meetings and the record label and all that while you’re out on the road?’ And I said, ‘Okay, you know what? Let’s start a management company.’”

Concrete Management...in the beginning. 
Innovative, creative and known for beating the bushes to promote their clients any way they could, Concrete built a sterling reputation in the business. Early on, they picked up Cities, a New York City band Chiappardi knew that included past and future Twisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero.

Steadily, Concrete built its client roster, with O’Brien taking on Metal Church at the behest of Alago, who was working for Elektra, the label that had planned to put out Metal Church’s second record around this time. Interestingly, Concrete also took on Winger, helping shepherd them to the top with their million-plus selling self-titled debut.

“We worked on all the preparation for Winger’s debut record,” said O’Brien. “What we used to say at the time was we took ‘em from nothing to like two million.”

Winger’s partnership with Concrete only lasted through the band’s first record, but that didn’t stop Concrete from steaming ahead. Going strong for years, Concrete really took off when Pantera and White Zombie came along. By the late ‘80s, Concrete was a well-oiled marketing and management machine. Word of mouth had gotten around, and in good time, some of the biggest bands in hard rock and heavy metal came knocking on Concrete’s door.

“Yeah, it was just ridiculous,” said O’Brien. “First, we did all the marketing, and the marketing company went through the roof. Then we started Foundations Forum, the big heavy-metal convention down in L.A. We drew 2,000-4,000 people for a week in a big hotel. We had like Judas Priest and Ozzy [Osbourne] playing in the hotel ballroom, people buying vendor stands at a heavy-metal convention for $2,000 a week. And we just sat there and looked at each other and said, ‘What the hell is going on?’”

It wasn’t just O’Brien who thought the idea of a heavy-metal convention was strange. “The funniest thing was, one day I was having lunch with an old friend of mine out in L.A. the weekend of the Foundations Forum. I think it was like the second or third one,” recalled O’Brien. “It was Don Bernstine, who had actually just become the head of acquisitions for Hard Rock Café for about six years, and unfortunately about two years ago, he passed away … so I’m going to lunch with Don Bernstine out in L.A., and he said, ‘Hey, would you mind? I just found out that Robin Quivers and Howard Stern are in L.A. this week. They’re going to bring the show into L.A. for a week live,’ because they’d just gotten picked up. At the time, they were just starting to get syndicated. And he said, ‘I was going to have lunch with Robin Quivers, but today is the only day she can do it. Would you mind if she joined us?’ And I said, ‘As long as she doesn’t mind me joining you, I don’t care. I’ve never met her. I’ll meet her.’

“So we sit down. It’s me, Don and Robin Quivers, and she’s very nice and very sweet, and she says, ‘Before we start, you know how we always think that L.A. is this weird, out-of-this-world, crazy place where anything can happen …’ and she doesn’t really know who I am, right? She says, ‘Can you believe in this town, right now as we speak, there’s a convention about nothing but heavy metal?’ And Bernstein cracked up and pointed to me and said, ‘That’s his company. That’s why he’s here.’ And she said, ‘You’re kidding me. Tell me all about it.’ And in fact, she talked about it on the air with Howard Stern that day, which probably didn’t hurt us any. But she was like flabbergasted, and I said, ‘Nobody’s as surprised as me.’ And it went for seven or eight years or something like that.”

Foundations, first heavy metal trade publication to be
featured in the auction.
Foundations Forum was just one piece of the Concrete pie. There was Foundations, the first heavy-metal trade publication, which also featured the Concrete/Soundscan Hard Music chart. The chart was featured in a number of national and worldwide publications, including Metal Hammer and Guitar World.

Perhaps the most ingenious marking tool Concrete came up with was Concrete Corner. Started in 1992, Concrete Corner was a unique retail program for heavy metal and alternative/hard rock promotion and distribution that set up its own section in independent record stores and a few chains. It made use of special point-of-purchase displays, in-store play, pricing strategies and a monthly sampler CD, plus a free magazine titled “Concrete Corner” – all designed to showcase new releases so they didn’t become lost in the crowd, so to speak.

“We were getting paid by people – record labels, managers, whatever – to promote their records in the retail environment,” said O’Brien. “And anything we could do to have those records stand out, we wanted to do. So we came up with this plan to put a whole separate display case in the corner, which also gave Concrete a name to the kids, because the kids didn’t know who Concrete was. But then they got to know us because of the Concrete Corner, so that helped our own credibility in the marketplace, but it also gave us another product to sell to stay in business because a lot of people, especially with independent records … you know, just like in the supermarket business, the little tiny products, and little tiny companies, vendors, whatever you want to call them, can’t get shelf space. Well, in the record store, it was the same thing. We have all the superstars and the Top 100, and the Columbia Records and Capitol Records … we don’t have room for Shrapnel and Metal Blade, and all the other little tiny things. Well, this gave those labels and bands and groups another way to get seen without being buried in the M section or the Q section, or the Metal section of the rack.”

In return, stores got stuff like free records and tickets to concerts. “They were encouraged to give up that placement, which took up a little piece of their real estate,” said O’Brien. “It worked for them too, because those things started to sell. At the beginning at least, when people saw something on the Concrete Corner rack, they said, ‘That’s probably a good record’ – as opposed to the 40 metal records that came out that month that were sitting in the bins. These, they figured, they wouldn’t put it up there if it wasn’t better than most.”

And there was more associated with Concrete Corner, including listening parties and midnight sales for newly released product, the first being a Metallica box set, that were promoted through mailings to Concrete fans. Discounts were offered, raffles were held, free stuff was given away and there were bonus disc giveaways in which a disc of extra tracks was shrink wrapped to a new record from the Concrete stable. The first of these was a compilation disc attached to Korn’s Follow the Leader, which featured tracks from other Korn-approved artists like Kid Rock, Orgy, Limp Bizkit and Powerman 5000. Add to that a program called RetailVision, which offered videos of the latest hits in Alternative, Rap, Hard Rock and Pop.

Walter O'Brien's collection of passes which
will all be featured in the auction.
All of which contributed to Concrete’s rise as a major player in the music world. Eventually, as O’Brien recalled, bands began writing Concrete Marketing into their deals, and these were heavy hitters like Faith No More, Soundgarden and Blind Melon. At one point, said O’Brien, Concrete had 17 acts, including Winger, Ministry and Anthrax.

O’Brien stayed with Concrete Marketing until 1991, when he and Chiappardi amicably split, which left O’Brien staying with Concrete Management, Inc. The list of acts O’Brien has worked with over the years through Concrete boggles the mind. There’s Limp Bizkit, Aerosmith, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Alice in Chains and Ozzy, among the many others already mentioned in this story.

Now, O’Brien works as a staff writer and photographer for the Courier News newspaper in New Jersey and with the consignments he’s issued to Backstage Auctions, by buying one of his pieces, you can feel a connection to one of the most creative and inventive business people heavy metal has ever seen.

The Rock Gods 'n Metal Monsters Auction
October 31 - November 7th
Registration is Now Open: VIP ACCESS (There is no registration fee)



Metal the next big thing in rock auctions


Goldmine Magazine
By Susan Sliwicki


Al Jourgensen's Buck Satan
Backstage Auctions is betting on the universal appeal of metal music and memorabilia among fans worldwide for its next auction. The Rock Gods and Metal Monsters Auction preview runs Oct. 24-30; the auction runs Oct. 31 to Nov. 6. 

“Heavy metal is a lifestyle, and it shows in everything; it shows in the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the haircut you have, the concerts you go to, the music you listen to, the friends that you have,” Jacques van Gool of Backstage Auctions said. 

When it comes to business, make no mistake. Van Gool has done his homework. Just because metal music has never really seen the light of day in the mainstream media doesn’t mean it lacks a following. Van Gool cited the massive number of Web sites and magazines dedicated to heavy metal worldwide, as well as a plethora of heavy-metal festivals and legions of incredibly loyal fans who follow their favorite acts on social media platforms such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. 

“You have to go a little bit underground for this. I don’t see Fox News or CNN wasting their time saying Al Jourgensen of Ministry is going to put 100 items in a heavy metal auction, because they wouldn’t know what to do with that kind of news. But at the same time, the official Ministry database has 250,000 registered users, so, I’m going to forget about the Foxes and CNNs of the world. All that matters is that 250,000 Ministry fans know about it.” 

The market for heavy metal memorabilia is probably healthier than that of any other musical genre, he added. 

“Metal just doesn’t go away. It doesn’t die. Fans won’t allow it,” van Gool said. “The market for memorabilia from bands that are considered part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Motorhead, remains strong worldwide, van Gool said. 

In the past five years, van Gool has noticed younger metal fans expressing interest in the second- and third-tier bands of the NWOBHM that may sound obscure to non-metal fans. 
“From a collectible point of view, the original vinyl of these bands demands incredible, incredible amounts of dollars,” van Gool said. 

He cited original 7-inch records from Neat Records as being particularly hot with collectors. Records issued on Shrapnel or the original Metal Blade label also are popular in the U.S. 

“The very first Shrapnel album was called Metal Massacre, and Metallica is on that album, which was their first vinyl appearance before they got a record deal,” van Gool said. “In the early years, the Metal Massacre albums featured bands that were on their way to the next big thing, and everybody wants to have that.” 

The uniquely American hair metal phenomenon, which included acts like Cinderella, Poison, Motley Crue, Winger and Ratt, dominated mainstream music in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and those acts still have a strong fanbase here. However, overseas, hair metal isn’t as big of a draw as speed or thrash metal, which boasts bands like Metallica, Slayer, Testament, Exodus and Megadeth, van Gool said. 

One of the biggest “holy grail” items that collectors seek is Iron Maiden’s first 7-inch record a three-song EP called “The Soundhouse Tapes.” 

“That little 7-inch single can sell for $600, $700, which is an amazing amount of money for a single for a band that made it 30 years ago,” van Gool said. 

Autographs are another great collectible, although they are not always extremely valuable, van Gool said. 

“The great thing about most heavy metal bands is that they are, in my opinion, more approachable than most other artists you can think of,” van Gool said. “The moment you start to act like a superstar, you’re gonna lose fans. Your fans need to feel like they can associate themselves with you.” 

That means the desire to bootleg signatures isn’t as high in the metal realm as in other genres of music, he said. 

When it comes to stage-worn clothing, pristine isn’t always the most desirable state, he added. 

“The more an item shows wear and tear, the better, because the more use a piece of attire has, the more it will tell you that the artist really enjoyed wearing that piece,” van Gool said. “When you get something that has makeup on it or smudges on it or hairspray on it, or, even better, bloodstains on it, that, in my opinion, definitely adds value.” 


The focus of The Rock Gods and Metal Monsters Auction is near and dear to van Gool, who grew up listening to and collecting memorabilia from bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Saxon. 

The sense of history associated with the memorabilia featured in this auction is staggering, Van Gool said. 

“You have to look at an individual piece, and you’ve gotta think about on how many stages this microphone stand has been, or what songs were recorded through this particular guitar, or how many photos have been made of this individual wearing this shirt or boots or whatever,” van Gool said. “It’s not just a shirt that’s on a mannequin that you photograph. There’s a little bit of history in front of you.” 

The auction lots are continuing to evolve, as many of the bands are first getting off the road from the hectic summer touring season. Confirmed headliners including the Al Jourgensen collection, which features everything from amps and road cases for guitars to microphone stands, pins, jackets, rings, sunglasses, gloves, hats and boots from the early 1980s until 2008. 

“You name it, it’s in there. He even included original master recordings from the early Ministry days,” van Gool said. 

When Ministry officially retired in 2008, it played its final farewell show in Ireland. A concert poster from that last show, signed by Jourgensen, also is in the auction. 

Whether you dig autographed records, signed posters or stage-worn attire from your favorite artists, the one thing that really matters at the end of the day is a piece’s provenance, van Gool said. 

Pantera, White Zombie, Metal Church, Exodus, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, Whitesnake, Dio, Quiet Riot, Mr. Big, Winger, Nelson, Queensryche, Alice Cooper and Rainbow also are represented, he said. 

The final auction lineup will boast about 400 lots that range from concert photos sold with negatives and full rights, to vinyl, stage-worn clothing, backstage passes, concert posters and instruments.




For more details on The Rock Gods and Metal Monsters auction visit Backstage Auctions. The auction goes live on Halloween.

The ’80s poised to be the next ‘big thing’ in Music Memorabilia

Every collector dreams of owning a top-shelf, holy grail item. But how do you ensure you’ll have spot at the head of the collecting class someday? Well, it’s kind of like a 401(K) plan. There’s a lot of saving and planning, some discipline, and quite a wait for payoff.
“If you buy to collect, then the golden rule still is to keep whatever you have sealed, whether you buy an album or a CD or toy or anything,” said Jacques van Gool of Backstage Auctions. “Don’t be tempted to open it or listen to it. The moment you do, the item will lose value.”
Oh, sure, the item may still be in pristine condition. But breaking that protective seal is a lot like driving a brand-new car off the dealer’s lot: The depreciation starts the minute you do.
If you have any open or unsealed items, be sure to invest in good storage materials and bag them up now, because at the end of the day, the value of the collectible is driven by its condition. If you have vinyl, be sure to store it with a backing board, so the corners won’t bend.
For those of us who have limited impulse control, consider buying today’s “limited-edition” collectibles in duplicates — one to enjoy, and one to save for the future as a true collectible.
Just don’t expect to see a massive return on your investment overnight, van Gool warns. You need to be patient enough to keep the piece long enough so it can grow in value.
“Everything in music collectibles are like wine. There’s an incubation period, and they need to ripen and they need to season,” van Gool said. “If you buy something now and try to sell it or trade it in the first 10 years, the chances are the piece you bought is at the same value, or it might have lost a little bit of value,” he said. “That’s not different than the bundles of money we pay today for items from the 1960s and the 1970s. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, they were worth nothing.”
So, what are the items you should be saving today for your collecting investment tomorrow? Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a “foolproof” investment. That said, for the most part, everything that was collectible — records, posters, signed memorabilia —is still collectible, van Gool says. But a few specific areas have enjoyed a bit of a growth spurt in recent years.
“One type of item that has become increasingly popular over the past five years are vintage T-shirts, and that entirely has to do with the fact that five, six years ago, vintage concert T-shirts became fashionable, so they were, all of a sudden, in style, and it was cool to be seen in style with a 1976 Peter Frampton T-shirt or a 1974 Blue Oyster Cult T-shirt,” van Gool said.
Vinyl is also enjoying a bit of a rebirth. “There’s more new vinyl that’s being sold,” van Gool said. “When you see large retailers such as Best Buy jump on the bandwagon to start selling vinyl again, that’s a good sign.”
And it’s not just Baby Boomers buying back their old albums.“It’s people in their 20s and 30s, who did not grow up with a record player who are now discovering the wonderful world of vinyl,” he said.
When it comes to a certain “genres” that are on the rise, new wave, post punk and metal all land on van Gool’s list.
“If there’s a category lately that is really jumping and more and more demanding high prices, it is the ’80s hard-rock, heavy metal, whether it’s Iron Maiden or Judas Priest or Metallica or Def Leppard or Saxon,” van Gool said.
When Backstage Auctions conducted a Motley Crue auction a few years ago, it was kind of a gamble for the auction house, van Gool said. “It ended up being our first completely, 100-percent-sold-out auction. It was an over-the-top auction.” The event was such a success that Backstage is planning another auction around hard-rock/heavy-metal items.
“I think this current decade, meaning 2010 through 2020, is probably the decade where you might start to see the popularity decline of a lot of 1970s bands,” van Gool said. “I think that is going to be replaced by the Madonnas and the U2s and the Princes of the world. They are already collectible. But I think they will become serious collectibles to the tune of where you see auction houses really honing in on what I call the late ’70s and 1980s pop and rock artists,” van Gool said.
Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Boy George … they’re all heading for their day in the collectible sun, he predicted,
“Whatever you fell in love with as a teenager and as a high school student and college student … once you’re in a job and made a career and bought a house and have a couple of cars, you’re at a point where you start looking back and becoming sentimental, and you start to associate a lot of happy moments of those years with the music you listened to,” van Gool said. “You want to reconnect with that time in your life; you want to own something, whether it’s as simple as a poster or T-shirt or album, or something really big.”

-Susan Sliwicki, Goldmine Magazine
http://www.goldminemag.com/collector-resources/80s-poised-to-be-next-big-thing-in-music-memorabilia

-Backstage Auctions Rock Gods 'n Metal Monsters Auction - coming this fall. For more information visit our website for auction details.

CD Review: Lillian Axe "Deep Red Shadows"

CD Review: Lillian Axe "Deep Red Shadows" 
Love & War Records
All Access Review:  B

Keeping to those Deep Red Shadows referred to in the title of their ninth album, Lillian Axe, their solid hard-rock credentials built on blazing heavy-metal riffs, strong-as-steel song structures and a melodic sensibility that’s always ranged from unremittingly dark to sweetly poisonous, hardly ever emerges from them to find the world waiting with bated breath for whatever new sinister creations they’ve dreamed up. And that’s unfortunate, because Steve Blaze and his hardy crew of metal miscreants rarely disappoint, even if their albums never seem to rise up to that glorious metal nirvana reserved for only the chosen few God, or perhaps Satan, have blessed.



With song titles like “47 Ways to Die,” “The Quenching of Human Life” and “Sad Day on Planet Earth,” Deep Red Shadows would appear to be obsessed with human mortality, but that’s only one side of the story. Actually a passionate indictment of apathy and the blind eye mankind increasingly turns toward human suffering “Sad Day on Planet Earth” is all wrapped up in a fairly complex web woven of cycling, silvery acoustic guitar. Similarly cast, the follow-up, “Nocturnal Symphony,” is a dreamy, romantic meditation on eternity and the afterlife that you wish had something that set it apart from its predecessor, but is, none the less, interesting in its own right, if a bit devoid of emotional resonance.

As for “47 Ways to Die” and its black, sweeping embrace of more pop-oriented tricks, this is the song that would have AFI fans all in a tizzy if Lillian Axe weren’t so unnecessarily pigeonholed as a “metal” act. There are irrepressible vocal hooks hidden in its slowly building wave of guitars, setting the stage for the heavy, ponderous riffing and death-trip fantasy of “The Quenching of Human Life” and the stained-glass vision that colors the crushing quiet-loud-quiet dynamics of “A Minute of Years.” Better still is the pounding epic “Under The Same Moon,” a relentless battleship of a song thrashed by storms of guitars as its black clouds open up ever so slightly to reveal a bit of pale acoustic sun midway through, before dropping the hammer of the gods one more time and ending up in some protective harbor of melodic goodness and light.

Deep Red Shadows is a nice effort, but one that, aside from how wonderfully “Under the Same Moon” unfolds and how “47 Ways to Die” simply crashes against the rocky coast of your ears, contains less memorable and majestic moments than you’d for from a band that’s been fighting the good fight for so long. Consistently good, but somewhat clinical and bloodless, the album draws out the intricate guitar work of Blaze and Sam Poitevent and the power and grace of Derrick LeFevre’s vocals. Former Metal Church singer Ronny Munroe replaced LeFevre this summer, and perhaps he’ll push the band to greater heights. Until then, enjoy Deep Red Shadows for what it is, not what it could have been.

-         - Peter Lindblad