The Rock Gods & Metal Monsters 2019 Auction

Backstage Auctions is proud to The Rock Gods & Metal Monsters 2019 Auction, the most anticipated auction event of the year! 

We are so excited about this year's Rock Gods & Metal Monsters Auction and we are positively sure that the items we will be presenting in the auction will excite fans and collectors all over the world! The auction catalog will showcase over 1,000 auction lots of rare hard rock and heavy metal music memorabilia featuring;  

AC/DC, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Bon Jovi, The Cult, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Dio, Dream Theater, Gary Moore, Guns N' Roses, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, KISS, Megadeth, Metallica, Michael Schenker, Motley Crue, Motorhead, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Poison, Rainbow, Ratt,  Rob Zombie, Runaways, Rush, Saxon, Scorpions, Slayer, Stryper, Testament, Thin Lizzy, UFO, Uriah Heep, Van Halen, Venom, WASP, Whitesnake, White Zombie, Y&T and so many more! 

Fans and collectors around the world will be blown away by the historical and rare pieces of music memorabilia including;  Artwork, Artist Signed Items, Record Awards, Instruments & Gear, Concert Tour T-Shirts & Jackets, Concert Handbills, Movie Props, Tickets & Passes, Tour Programs & Itineraries, Picks & Sticks, Photos, Posters, Promotional Swag, Vinyl and more! 

This year’s Rock Gods & Metal Monsters auction will showcase some very spectacular and rare collections. Highlights include: 

• A selection of notable Metallica collectibles from the 1980s. 

• Hundreds of pieces of KISS memorabilia

• Collection of very rare U.S. and European metal concert posters. 

• Early day Black Sabbath, Ozzy and Randy Rhoads memorabilia.

• Huge collection of vintage concert t-shirts and jackets! 

• Rare movie memorabilia direct from the creators of “Detroit Rock City”.

• A historic collection of vintage Bay Area thrash metal concert handbills.

The auction will be live and open for bidding May 11 - 19, 2019 with a special VIP Preview beginning a week before the bidding goes live. So mark your calendar, this is definitely "the" auction event of the year! 

If you are not already a VIP, we invite you to register for your VIP All Access Pass sign up today! SIGN UP HERE

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We look forward to seeing you at the auction block! 

CD Review: Stryper – Fallen

CD Review: Stryper – Fallen
Frontiers Music srl
All Access Rating: A-

Styper - Fallen 2015

Placing its faith in heavy, crunching riffs and bold, uplifting melodies enveloped in fire-and-brimstone bluster paid off handsomely for a reinvigorated Stryper on 2013's No More Hell to Pay, an album that drew rave reviews from critics once reluctant to pay them any respect whatsoever.

A Frontiers Music srl release, Fallen continues their glorious crusade back to metal relevancy. Holding nothing back in terms of its growing creative aspirations and staying on message with determined zeal, the yellow-and-black attack is increasingly intense and relentless on the mighty Fallen, where high-minded principles and sentiments sometimes clash with righteous indignation.

All of which is found in the epic opener "Yahweh," as storming thrash-metal anger collides with angelic choirs and rousing, uplifting power-metal drama in a tour-de-force production that's as ambitious as anything the Christian metal stalwarts have ever attempted. Driving furiously through fast-paced, gripping tracks such as the Black Sabbath cover "After Forever" and "Till I Get What I Need," Stryper seems to relish throwing off the shackles of its hair-metal past. And when provoked, they can turn downright vicious, passionately pounding the pulpit with thundering sonic authority while condemning Hollywood for its false portrayal of Christians in "Big Screen Lies."

On Fallen, the band's 11th original album, there is darkness and light, with Oz Fox and Michael Sweet trading various combinations of searing, hot-wired guitar licks that seem to take dead aim at Stryper's detractors and Sweet singing with dynamic force and great conviction, as drummer Robert Sweet and bassist Tim Gaines flex their rhythmic muscles. Brawling, weighty guitars grind through the title track, "Pride" and "Let There Be Light," their gnarled hooks gripping tightly to desperate souls seeking salvation, while "Heaven" smolders, "Love You Like I Do" stings with melodic sweetness and the lovely pop-metal ballad "All Over Again" swoons with sighing harmonies.

Without completely reinventing themselves, Stryper has shown that an old dog of an '80s metal band can learn a few new tricks and not lose its identity in the process. There are times on Fallen where it seems Stryper falls back too easily on what's worked for them in the past and becomes formulaic, but for the faithful who've stuck with them through it all, that's probably a comfort.
– Peter Lindblad

Massive 60s and 70s Rock Photo Archive Hits The Auction Block

The Who 1965

September 2015 -  Backstage Auctions is proud to present one of the most historic rock photo archive auctions featuring thousands of vintage images of the British music scene from the 1960s and 1970s.

The collection consists of well over 20,000 historic negatives, slides and transparencies featuring some of the most iconic musicians and bands of all time. Almost exclusively comprised of film from the 1960s and 1970s, this material comes direct from John Halsall and was once part of the core archive of a London based photo agency. After having been professionally stored for the past 35 years, the world can now witness the unearthing of a visually magnificent and historically significant archive that has no equal.

This collection is divided in just under 500 individual lots and will be offered with a full transfer of rights, which makes this material not only collectible but also commercially appealing and exceptionally valuable.

The Grateful Dead 1970

As with any high quality collection, this archive is well-represented by the various decades and genres that ultimately transformed and created the history of rock, pop and punk music.

From the 1950s the collection offers attractive lots by several of the Jazz, Pop and Country greats such as Duke Ellington, Fats Domino, Charlie Mingus, Sidney Bechet, The Andrew Sisters, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, Bill Haley & The Comets and Gene Vincent.

Otis Redding 1966

The roaring 60s consume a large part of the auction. From teen heart-throbs such as the Bee Gees, Beach Boys, Dave Clark 5, Sonny & Cher and The Walker Brothers, to R&B giants such as James Brown, The Crystals, Martha & The Vendellas, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and The Supremes.

It is however the Rock & Roll portion that truly elevates this collection to peerless heights. In particular the thousands of never-before-seen photos of The Rolling Stones and The Who is what makes this archive one for the ages. 

Equally significant are lots by The Animals, The Band, Jeff Beck, The Byrds, Blind Faith, Cream, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, The Mamas & The Papas, The Move, Them and Pink Floyd.  

Mick Jagger 1964

Robert Plant 1979

The 1970s is the next decade that consumes the other large part of the auction, fueled by incredible collections from many of the A-List of Rock such as Led Zeppelin, Queen, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Mountain, New York Dolls, Sweet, Thin Lizzy, T. Rex and Frank Zappa. 

Complementing the diverse 70s are fantastic lots from the Punk era (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Blondie, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Jam, The Stranglers), Pop giants (ABBA, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, The Police, Dire Straits) to the early days of Heavy-Metal (AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard).

The collection comes to a conclusion in the early 1980s with exceptional lots from some of the legendary New-Wave (The Tourists, Pretenders, Ian Dury), Ska (Madness) and Reggae (Peter Tosh) performers.

Sex Pistols March 21, 1977 with Sid Vicious at Notre Dame Hall - London

Rounding out the archive are several impressive festival collections (Isle of Wight, Knebworth, Reading, Bickershaw, Glad Rag Balls and others) to over 30 lots from various “Top of the Pops” and “Ready, Set, Go!”  television episodes aired between the mid-60s to 1982.

Collection Highlights

Highlighted below are what we consider to be the Top Five collections to be featured in the auction. Of course it was hard to pick just five, but read on and you will get a sense of why these collections are high on our list.

Rolling Stones 1965

The Rolling Stones - simply because of the sheer volume (almost 5,000 negatives) and the fact that 75% of it is dated between 1963 and 1969. It provides the a most comprehensive visual documentation of their TV appearances, live shows, formal and candid photo sessions and their years of touring.

The Who 1965

The Who - very much for the same reason as with The Stones.  With almost 3,000 negatives, of with more than half from the 60s, this collection presents an insight into their high profile and public lives. 

Cream 1969

Eric Clapton – and in particular the collection of photos of Cream and Blind Faith, which include highly illusive images of club shows, rehearsals and candid photo sessions. The many addition lots of Eric Clapton with Delaney & Bonnie, as well as his early years a solo artist makes this overall a most comprehensive collection of the vintage Clapton era.

Jimi Hendrix ca. 1966 UK
Professional Photo Shoot

Jimi Hendrix - just when one would think that every Hendrix photo that was ever made has already been discovered and seen by ‘the world’, this archive offers 175 jaw-dropping new images, from photo sessions and candid moments, to TV appearances, rehearsals and live shows.

The 5th artist is a true toss-up between Pink Floyd (for the Syd Barrett content), Otis Redding (for the amazing live and backstage photos of several of his U.K. shows) and Black Sabbath (because it documents the first few years of their career through a series of stunning photo sessions and live shows).

Collections worthy of more than a quick glance

The Jeff Beck Group 1967 with Rod
Stewart and Ron Wood

What comes to mind initially is a collection of almost 800 Rolling Stones negatives (!) taken from their first tour of Ireland, which lasted exactly 3 days (January 6-8, 1965). To take that many photos means that you have documented nearly every plane, train and bus ride, hotel stay, breakfast, lunch and dinner, rehearsal and concert, dressing room and backstage moment from that tour…and this collection in fact has done just that.

The second is more an ‘angle’ than a specific artist. Perhaps the most unique element of this archive is that it captures so many ‘big name’ artists at a time when they were so young. And with that comes the other aspect…so many of the photos are deeply personal as they show these artists at home, in their backyard, on the road, in a dressing room, even in the hospital. What stands out – and we could do a great photo collage – is;

•         Keith Moon at home with wife & kids

•         Bill Wyman at home with wife & kids

•         Pete Townshend visiting his manager’s office

•         The Bee Gees at home with wives / girlfriends

•         Jimi Hendrix in rehearsal

•         Cream on the couch of their management office

•         Mick Jagger looking at a "peeking" fan 

•         Otis Redding getting ready for a show in London

•         Marc Bolan and his girlfriend with newborn son 

•         David Bowie on the floor in his apartment

•         Jeff Beck with his buddies (Stewart and Wood) 

•         Johnny Cash with wife & son

•         Roy Orbison with wife & son

•         Ozzy Osbourne dropping his pants  

•         Sonny & Cher in the worlds most "dizziest" outfits  

•         Diana Ross & The Supremes first UK visit

•         Mama Cass Elliot in her London hotel room

•         George Martin (The Beatles producer) at home

David Bowie ca. 1969

About John Halsall

John Halsall started London Features and was formed in 1969 and initially began as a tool for the syndication of John's

John Halsall - London Features Press Pass 1974

personal freelance articles and the photographs taken by his photographer/ co-director. By the 1970s it because apparent that, as far as rock music was concerned, London had become the Capital of the World and many of the foreign publications that had used Halsall as their foreign correspondent were either opening their own offices in London or financing a London based staff.

As time passed, the need for Halsall’s interviewing and writing obligations diminished but the need for on the ground photographers was growing, so LFI (London Features International) added photographers, opened additional dark rooms and a proper studio, and soon came into its own as an established agency.

Halsall interviewing Carl Wilson
of the Beach Boys in 1973

LFI became the largest agency in its field and the competition conceded; most sold their collections to LFI complete with rights as did many independent photographers. Halsall, being a businessman first, recognized the value and opportunity in the images and began to personally purchase the collections and assimilate them into the LFI library. 

Decades later, LFI became the victim of the “digital revolution” and the rise of such well funded giants as Getty and Shutterstock.  LFI was sold in 2005 and Halsall retired along with his amazing library of images. The collection being presented at auction is the personal collection and historical archive of John Halsall.

Auction Information

The Photo Archive Auction will have a special VIP Preview beginning on September 19^th, 2015. The bidding will begin on September 26^th and run through October 4^th, 2015.

To register for your All Access VIP Auction Pass click here:  VIP REGISTRATION

Black Sabbath's 'Sabotage': Anger is an energy

Classic album from metal pioneers hits a milestone
By Peter Lindblad

Black Sabbath's sixth studio
album 'Sabotage'

Nobody's going to lie about Sabotage's age. The sixth studio album by heavy metal godfathers Black Sabbath did, indeed, turn 40 last week in late July, but it's hard to imagine Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi throwing a party in its honor.

Born out of anger and frustration over ongoing litigation with former manager Patrick Meehan, 1975's Sabotage, perhaps the most underrated of Sabbath's acclaimed "first six" albums, was recorded at Morgan Studios in London. The whole soul-sucking process seemed to take an eternity, as Ozzy would lament in his autobiography, saying that "Sabotage took about four thousand years" to make. Ozzy got so fed up by the whole experience that the singer, who rarely wrote lyrics for Sabbath, penned what amounted to a scathing "diss" track with "The Writ," which asked if Meehan was actually Satan or a man and posited the confrontational query: "What kind of people do you think we are? Another joker who's a rock and roll star for you/Just for you." It was a rhetorical question for Ozzy.

Hyperbole aside, the interminable sessions for Sabotage, only made more exhausting by the band's legal entanglements, caused no shortage of headaches. Butler is quoted in the liner notes to Reunion, the band's 1988 live album, as saying that "music became irrelevant to me." And yet, it's clear from listening to Sabotage, even all these years later, that Black Sabbath put a great deal of care into making it. Although intent on continuing down a primrose path that would lead them further into prog-rock temptation – "Supertzar" is practically a choral piece, with grand arrangements and the London Philharmonic Choir wailing and moaning in sinister fashion in chasing a striking Iommi riff like spectral hunting dogs – Sabotage is a record that has a hot temper, the very title suggesting that Sabbath was sick and tired of being screwed over. And raw emotions have often fueled great rock 'n' roll.

Frayed nerves and all, and perhaps on the cusp of a collective nervous breakdown, the original Sabbath lineup muddled through Sabotage's difficult birth and, in the process, broke new ground in terms of songwriting structures and musical innovation. Although not exactly immediately accessible, Sabotage has endured, slowly becoming a fan favorite, even as everyone laughed at its ludicrous album art and Bill Ward in his red tights. An arty concept gone horribly wrong, although, to be fair, this seemed to happen a lot with Sabbath, the cover of Sabotage ranks right up there with those of Paranoid and Never Say Die! for sheer absurdity.

 It's a journey with odd detours, including the completely out-of-character synth-pop flatulence of the universally hated "Am I Going Insane." Thankfully, it's the only real misstep here, although another confounding turn takes place after the opener "Hole In the Sky" essentially draws up the blueprints for stoner metal, with its heavy swing and charged, churning riffage. In a bizarre bit of sequencing, an instrumental titled "Don't Start (Too Late)" follows, allowing Iommi to display his prowess on acoustic guitar, as he pieces together complex little puzzles with an easy, smooth dexterity that proves, once and for all, that he's more than just a master of riffs. Which is great, except that any momentum gained from "Hole In The Sky" is stalled momentarily for an interlude that probably should have arrived in the middle of Sabotage, rather than at the beginning.

Enter "Symptom of the Universe," the proto-thrash beast that seeks and destroys, inspiring Metallica and the rest of its ilk to rise up from the gutter and revolt against everything '80s glam-metal represented. Trace the origins of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and here is where you end up, and yet, somewhere along the way, Sabbath decides the track needs a jaunty acoustic jam that seems to fly directly in the face of its evil, menacing riff.

All of this kind of works in a weird way, but upon its release, Sabotage must have been somewhat off-putting, although the forceful, straightforward push and solar-powered flashes of "The Thrill Of It All" and "Megalomania" seem to suggest a more grounded Sabbath that has freed itself from the shackles of doom and gloom. And then there's Ozzy's blazing vocals on "The Writ," so powerful and commanding. Of course, Sabotage precipitated a sad decline, their creative powers eroded by drug use that was the stuff of legend. They would recover, but not until Ronnie James Dio arrived. Sabotage was then, in some regard, a link to past glories, a life line for fans who wondered afterward if the old Sabbath was ever coming back. These days, even if it's not on the level of say Masters Of Reality or Vol. 4, it's damn close.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Lucifer – Lucifer I

CD Review: Lucifer – Lucifer I
Rise Above Records
All Access Rating: A

Lucifer - Lucifer I 2015

Having buried The Oath a year ago, witchy singer Johanna Sadonis ran straight into welcoming embrace of Lucifer, demonic necromancers that have resuscitated the hoary corpse of '70s proto-metal and tortured blues for nefarious purposes.

A three-piece she formed that includes Garry Jennings, formerly of U.K. doom-metal mongers Cathedral, as co-songwriter and studio guitarist, Lucifer is the cover subject of the latest issue of Decibel magazine and Lucifer I, from Rise Above Records, is the first spell they've cast.

Heirs to the fuzzed-out, doom-laden stomp, sinister swing and distorted propulsion of Black Sabbath, the "occult-rock" revivalists also pay their respects to Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, Blue Cheer and Led Zeppelin on a spectral, yet ruggedly heavy, debut album cloaked in gloom. Seeming to ring out from beyond the grave, Sadonis's distant, haunting vocals only enhance the chilling effect of Lucifer's sinister lyrics, and for everything else about Lucifer's birth that make black masses salivate, it's her singing that calls us to worship.

Lucifer's Decibel magazine cover

Their hotly anticipated maiden voyage of the damned is full of dark, slowly churning dirges, such as "Purple Pyramid" and "Sabbath," where eerie church bells predict a funereal descent. What separates Lucifer from the horde of Sabbath pretenders is the songwriting wizardry of Lucifer I and its ability to authentically conjure the black magic of influences such as Pentagram, as they wickedly unleash the hellhounds in the gathering momentum of opener "Abracadabra" and "Izrael" embeds the mournful, spine-tingling wail of Sadonis in solemn, melodic sacraments and seductive hooks.

What lessons Lucifer learned from grandfathers Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler are ingrained in "Morning Star," "Total Eclipse" and "A Grave For Each One Of Us," all of them blustery cauldrons of evil riffs that suddenly, but artfully, shift gears and hijack these songs, demanding they go to places – driven in a hearse, of course – that are similar, but different, from those already marked on whatever map they're following. In the process, the tracks complete metamorphoses into strange, compelling new shapes and personalities. Somebody has made one incredible deal with the devil.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Uriah Heep – Live at Koko

CD Review: Uriah Heep – Live at Koko
Frontiers Records Srl
All Access Rating: A-

Uriah Heep - Live at Koko 2015

Most of the face of that clock on the cover of Uriah Heep's upcoming two CD/DVD concert release Live at Koko is gone, revealing rusty gears and a shoeless man walking the rim, his arms mimicking the hour and minute hands above him and seemingly struggling against time like a mime pretending to be at the mercy of a strong wind.

One of the flagships of '70s progressive hard-rock, although they were actually formed in 1969 by guitarist Mick Box and vocalist David Byron, Uriah Heep has better things to do than count the days, weeks, months or even years until its certain end, as the invigorating and unbridled Live at Koko resuscitates their reputation as a driven and powerful concert act – no matter their advanced age.

While their middling 2014 studio album Outsider indicated that maybe they were running out of ideas, this career-spanning set from Frontiers Records Srl at the very least confirms the notion that Uriah Heep's combustible band chemistry has never been more dynamic – the pulse-pounding, one-two punch of opener "Against All Odds" and "Overload" hitting listeners right in the chops and buckling their knees. Their skillful brilliance is still miles ahead of most of the competition, with Box's solar-powered, squealing guitar forays and Phil Lanzon's smoldering, storming organ making roaring sonic furnaces out of "Between Two Worlds," "Can't Take That Away," "Free and Easy" and, of course, the driving, ever-popular closer "Easy Living."

"Sunrise" and "Stealin'" – the latter a major Top 40 hit in both the U.K. and the U.S. off 1973's Sweet Freedom album – emerge from their condition as slumbering legends and grow into tuneful awakenings in the this sultry London 2014 performance, raising up with sweet vocal harmonies and dewey, yearning melodies. On a quiet and calm "July Morning," the crowd can be hearing singing along joyously, just before the song surges with power, transforming into a fervent and glorious hymn. Poetic and deeply reflective, "Lady in Black," so beautifully written by former member Ken Hensley, drifts in next, with its infectious acoustic guitar strumming and expansive instrumentation enhancing the telling of this lyrical tale through the superb interpretation of vocalist Bernie Shaw, who is absolutely sublime here.

Contemporaries of iconic bands Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, the durable Uriah Heep never quite seems to get its due from critics and rock historians. The sweltering Live at Koko offers them a chance to reassess what has always been an underrated catalog, with few missteps.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Brant Bjork and The Low Desert Punk Band – Black Power Flower

CD Review: Brant Bjork And The Low Desert Punk Band – Black Power Flower
Napalm Records
All Access Rating: B+

Brant Bjork And The Low Desert
Punk Band - Black Power Flower 2014

Coated in psychedelic fuzz and deep-fried to a crisp in a bubbling vat of distortion, Black Power Flower doesn't go too far off the desert-rock reservation formerly inhabited by Kyuss.

Once the drummer for the pioneering stoner-metal outfit, whose legend seems to grow by the day, Brant Bjork – now a permanent fixture in Vista Chino with his old Kyuss running mate, John Garcia – takes on multi-instrumentalist duties with a new project that bears his name, Brant Bjork And The Low Desert Punk Band.

Now out on Napalm Records, Black Power Flower is a gritty, psychotropic stew of heavy, intoxicating riffs, mind-altering effects, dirty blues and ominous undercurrents. Gathering momentum in the aftermath of a doom-laden intro that recalls early Black Sabbath, the heady opener "Controllers Destroyed" becomes engorged with voluminous guitars, rumbling bass and bashed drums. Thick and rugged, "We Don't Serve Their Kind" goes from a slow burn to a steady, thundering stampede, while "Stokely Up Now" sounds more clear headed and lively, its guitars coming into sharper focus with repeated listens.

The rest of Black Power Flower is a smoky, fetid room littered with seeds and stems, junk food wrappers, pizza boxes and filthy bongs, its denizens, such as "Buddha Time (Everything Fine)" and "Soldier of Love," buzzed and slipping into comfortable comas, where tracks seem indistinguishable from one another. That's not such a terrible thing. Every track here is easy to like, throbbing with underlying tension and brimming with menacing, strong grooves that only seem lazy to the uninitiated, solid riffs with a little bit of bite to them and rhythms that move with a muscular grace. And just to show he's not a one-trick pony, Bjork tries his hand at buttery '70s funk with "That's Fact Jack" and bumps and grinds through the smoldering, sexed-up blues of "Hustler's Blues," both attempts satisfyingly seductive, earthy and organic, if not terribly original. Black Power Flower plants a seed. Now watch Brant Bjork and The Low Desert Punk Band grow.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Crowbar – Symmetry in Black

CD Review: Crowbar – Symmetry in Black

eOne Music

All Access Rating: A-

Crowbar - Symmetry in Black 2014

There's a stirring in the sludge. Three years dormant, following 2011's crunching return to form Sever the Wicked Hand, Crowbar, bloodied but unbowed, has surfaced from metal's filthy, oily muck to binge on the thickest, most engorged riffs possible and purge the eOne Music release Symmetry in Black, their 10th album.

And while it's unmistakably Crowbar, there's surprising diversity here, as well as a sonic richness that has the texture and feel of black velvet soaked in tar. Every move is deliberate on the sludge-metal juggernaut that is the well-designed Symmetry in Black, with its complex, slowly evolving grooves and subtle tempo changes, as well as expertly wound ropes of twin guitar. Symmetry in Black surges and churns with intensity of purpose and unimaginable power, the crawling brutality of "The Foreboding," the crushing weight of "Reflection of Deceit" and the building tsunami that is "A Wealth of Empathy" seemingly capable of flattening whole cities.

Deceptively intricate and relentlessly heavy, "Walk With Knowledge Wisely," "Shaman of Belief" and "Teach the Blind to See" – the incisive and evocative lyrics plumbing the depths of the human psyche – creep around aural dungeons, as a tortured, roaring Kirk Windstein tears his larynx to shreds, until Crowbar springs an ambush, racing ahead with trash-like rage, unleashing monstrous rogue waves of guitars or taking slight detours that almost reluctantly reveal themselves. 

On occasion, Crowbar turns expansive and melodic, drifting into celestial territory with the lonely and dreamy, yet still dark and unsettling, "Amaranthine," but they cannot contain their larynx-shredding rage, and it finds purchase in the blistering thrash-metal of "Ageless Decay." Windstein and his sinister henchmen Matthew Brunson (guitar), Tommy Buckley (drums) and Jeff Golden (bass) walk confidently through the shadow of death and embrace evil, lowdown tunings like an old friend, still worshiping at the altar of Black Sabbath but changing their incantations and exploring other aspects of their heritage. Black is their color.
– Peter Lindblad

CD/DVD Review: Dio – Live in London: Hammersmith Apollo 1993

CD/DVD Review: Dio – Live in London: Hammersmith Apollo 1993

Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Rating: A-

Dio - Live In London: Hammersmith
Apollo 1993

Four years after the death of Ronnie James Dio left the heavy metal community in a state of profound mourning comes "Live in London: Hammersmith Apollo 1993," the first-ever video release of a professionally shot classic concert from, what was at the time, a newly reconfigured Dio touring the Strange Highways album.

Looked at by some as the start of a downward spiral for Dio and applauded by others as a much-needed change of lyrical scenery, Strange Highways was made with new parts, as the legendary singer and longtime collaborator Vinny Appice, having left Black Sabbath after Dehumanizer, revived Dio with former Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson, new guitar slinger Tracy G and Warrant keyboardist Scott Warren in tow.

Gone were the trappings of medieval fantasy that had fired his imagination in the beginning, as Dio started exploring matters of a more contemporary nature. Not everyone was onboard with the shift in emphasis, but at the Hammersmith Apollo on this December 12, 1993 evening, Dio made amends to those who accused him of heresy. Raining down fire and brimstone as only he can with his extraordinary vocal firepower, Dio led the band on a blazing march through his gloriously sinister past and a defiant charge into the band's then-current material, breathing fresh life into the churning title track, the dark and impossibly heavy "Hollywood Black" and a ferocious version of "Jesus, Mary & the Holy Ghost."

Without the distractions of mechanical dragons and castle ruins cluttering up the stage, Dio brawls with favorites from his Sabbath days, attacking "The Mob Rules," "Children of the Sea" and "Heaven and Hell" with vim and vigor. The heightened drama of "The Last in Line" soars, while the powerhouse anthems "We Rock" and "Stand Up and Shout" throws their fists in the air and race recklessly ahead. Mystical and melodic, "Don't Talk to Strangers" is both pretty and poisonous, while the gnarled hooks and animalistic growls of "Holy Diver" and "Rainbow in the Dark" raise the dead.

More than capable as a guitar shredder, Tracy G rips through hot-wired solos and wrenches tough, smoldering riffs from his instrument, as Pilson and Appice pound away rhythmically, their teamwork during Appice's drum solo causing seismic tremors. Edited to capture the breathtaking pace and excitement of a band playing with urgency, passion and energy, the crystal-clear "Live in London: Hammersmith Apollo 1993" boasts stellar camera work, shooting from a wide range of angles and with an innate sense of when to go close on Dio and his talented henchmen and when to pull back and gauge the crowd's reactions. Add a vintage "Hanging with the Band" featurette that provides an enjoyable glimpse into life backstage before and after the performance, and the package becomes even more vital.

Available on DVD, Blu-ray and as a two-CD set from Eagle Rock Entertainment, "Live in London: Hammersmith Apollo 1993" is also impressive sonically, a fitting tribute to an artist whose work will live on well after his passing.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Black Label Society – Catacombs of the Black Vatican

CD Review: Black Label Society – Catacombs of the Black Vatican

eOne Music

All Access Rating: A-

Black Label Society - Catacombs of
the Black Vatican 2014

Whatever horrors there are hiding in the Catacombs of the Black Vatican they can't possibly be any more terrifying than what's yet to be discovered in Zakk Wylde's scraggly beard.

Nevertheless, the ninth album from the biker-metal doomsayers in Wylde's Black Label Society is certainly gloomy and eerie in places, this cavernous dungeon of monstrously heavy riffs, deep-dredging melodies, squealing solos and a few gritty ballads all haunted by painful memories and reeking of death.

Rummaging through the Catacombs of the Black Vatican, the old bones and skulls of Black Label Society's past are encountered, but do not linger in those sealed-off vaults. Wylde certainly doesn't. Although the brawny guitars, wicked grooves and rumbling rhythms found here have a familiar ring, there is a fresh vitality to this material that's palpable, throwing everything good about Alice in Chains, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and even Southern rock in a boiling cauldron and casting timeless spells with those magical ingredients.

An absolute pile driver, its great mass heaving to and fro, "Fields of Unforgiveness" delivers a great pounding, while the stoned, churning blues of "Believe" is especially thick and meaty, its repeated riff not only powerful, but also memorable, seemingly feeding off its own energy. And in "My Dying Time," another in a long line of grungy, riff-heavy tracks with elongated, almost graceful curves, Wylde, sounding more like Layne Staley than ever before, confronts his mortality without fear, whereas the growling "I've Gone Away" and a very dark, Black Sabbath-like "Empty Promises" – Wylde's solo here is a shower of sparks – crawl through a sonic gutter bloody and vengeful.

Strong, shifting melodic currents run through Catacombs of the Black Vatican, as it swerves and bends to the mighty will of its creators, little flowers of sonic beauty sprouting through cracks in the hard sonic cement. Nonetheless, thanks in large part of Wylde's affecting vocals, the ballads "Angel of Mercy" and "Scars" somehow manage to sound both earthy and lush, each as pretty as anything in the Black Label Society canon, the latter inheriting its Southern accent directly from the Allman Brothers. Blessed be the Black Label Society.
– Peter Lindblad

Original Black Sabbath catalog available digitally

Black Sabbath's '70s catalog is
now available through iTunes

Black Sabbath is finally going digital.

For the first time, the full catalog from the original lineup is now available digitally in the United States, having been remastered specifically for iTunes. The increased audio fidelity is supposed to replicate more closely what the artists, recording engineers and producers had in mind when making the records.

"It's about f--king time the first eight Black Sabbath albums were made available on iTunes in the U.S., said Ozzy Osbourne.

Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi added, "Great news, been a long time trying to explain to fans why the music wasn't available."

Available exclusively on the iTunes Store worldwide (www.iTunes.com/BlackSabbath), The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1978 can be purchased in one newly created downloadable bundle. Fans can also choose to download the eight legendary studio albums, two classic compilations, or simply purchase each song individually.

Black Sabbath: The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1978 features the band's collected studio work for Warner Bros. Records from the 1970s. Among the offerings are the band's groundbreaking self-titled debut from 1970, 1970's Paranoid, 1971's Master of Reality, 1972's Vol. 4, 1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, 1975's Sabotage, 1976's Technical Ecstasy, and 1978's Never Say Die!.

Compilations We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'N' Roll (1976) and 2006's Greatest Hits 1970-1978 are also available. 

The reunited original Sabbath lineup, minus Bill Ward of course, will soon return to North America on its latest tour, following runs through both North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe. 

This latest round of North American tour dates starts March 31 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, and will take the doom-metal godfathers through 10 cities in Canada, including Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. The trek ends April 26 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA. 

These dates will be part of the band's final shows of their 2013-2014 world our in support of 13, their first studio album in 35 years.

DVD Review: Black Sabbath – Live ... Gathered in Their Masses

DVD Review: Black Sabbath – Live … Gathered in Their Masses

Vertigo/Republic

All Access Rating: B+

Black Sabbath - Live ... Gathered in Their
Masses 2013

Darkness had spread across Australia in the spring of 2013, as the originators of doom metal, Black Sabbath, brought their live, and fairly ancient considering their advanced age, evil to the land "Down Under." 

Meteorologists may not have had an explanation for the atmospheric anomaly, but the reunited original Sabbath lineup – except drummer Bill Ward, that is – did. They had embarked on a world tour in support of their comeback album 13, one of 2013's most critically acclaimed metal albums, and Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Ward's replacement, ex-Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper tub-thumper Tommy Clufetos, rode into Melbourne like the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." 

It wasn't the end of days. Grizzled, yet fully capable of churning through and grinding out old sonic blasphemies and new abominations alike with a tenacious spirit, Sabbath just needed a place to practice their dark arts. On April 29 and May 1, Melbourne audiences were able to witness what might be their last chance to see Sabbath's unholy trinity do their worst. The filmmakers who shot the amplified, electrifying "Live … Gathered in Their Masses" must have been thinking along those lines as well.

As is the case with most, but not all, concert DVDs these days, high-definition cameras were used to sharply and vividly capture Sabbath, awash in purple and blue hues, rolling through its set list like a Sherman tank. While briefly shedding a light on what goes on behind the scenes at the start, the film slams forward, with Sabbath diving headlong into "War Pigs" with an appropriate amount of blood lust. Slogging through the heavy sludge of "Loner" and raging through "God Is Dead," off the new LP, with the sinewy muscle of men half their age, Butler and Iommi plunder their blackened past with confident and brutal efficiency, relentlessly kicking with scuffed boots at the still red-hot embers of "Iron Man," "Symptom of the Universe," "Snowblind," "N.I.B." and "Fairies Wear Boots" and slowly coaxing them into burning conflagrations of oily, industrialized metal that Sabbath bulldozes into piles of smoldering ruins as the fires die down.

Lenses smartly seek out Butler and Iommi, instinctively catching them in action as the bassist thunders and gallops along to every bludgeoned, crusty riff or every spell of solo wizardry that blasts its way out of Iommi's bottomless bag of tricks. And yet when they want to build the kind of gallows drama that plays out in a condemned man's head the night before his execution, the pair tease, in the most torturous manner possible, the haunted "Black Sabbath" as it crawls along like a death sentence, as does this viscous, "head pounding against a wall" version of "Into the Void."

Still a deranged cheerleader, Ozzy, on the other hand, is not the strongest vocalist anymore, and his incessant yammering on about not being able to hear the crowd roar its appreciation becomes somewhat distracting, grating and tiresome. Still, there is some demonic life left in that ravaged, frail voice, and when it comes to interpreting Sabbath's most horrific Satanic verses in his uniquely insane manner, nobody compares to Ozzy. All in all, "Live ... Gathered in Their Masses," available as a single DVD or a CD/DVD version, finds Sabbath possibly making a last punishing stand as Butler, Iommi and Ozzy confront their own mortality. If they are nearing the end, this powerhouse concert DVD will testify to their explosive potency as a live act, even as most of their contemporaries have long since retired. http://www.republicrecords.com/
– Peter Lindblad

Best of 2013 in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal ... Part 3

Sabbath returns, death metal breathes fire, Ghost gets eclectic
By Peter Lindblad

Death metal did not take a holiday in 2013. Ghost took a strange, but wonderfully odd left turn into psychedelic pop and progressive-rock. Toxic Holocaust taught us all about chemistry, and heavy metal's godfathers made 13 their lucky number.

Let's be honest: 2013 was all about Black Sabbath. 13 was surprisingly virile and dark as night, mapping out territory they've explored before, but stumbling upon fresh ideas and deep caverns of rumbling menace in doing so. And that made it a top 10 favorite.

Exhumed also made a comeback in 2010, and that led to Necrocracy, one of the most devastatingly brutal records of their career. Ghost's (the B.C. is, as they say, silent) Infestissumam was a little out of character for them, but its architecture was stunning. Furthermore, everyone should join The Resistance. Their Scars will never heal, but you wouldn't want them to.

Here are 10-6 in our "Best of 2013 in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal" list of albums, Part 3:

Exhumed - Necrocracy 2013

10. Exhumed: Necrocracy – Death metal sourpusses Exhumed returned with furious vengeance in 2013, lashing out with murderous hatred at a political system so bloated and corrupt that to truly capture just how ugly society and government have become, only the revolting imagery and language of rotting corpses and gory violence can adequately describe the horror. Captained by a singer who growls like a grizzly bear possessed by demons, Exhumed grinds and thrashes its way through the carnage with angry, doom-laden riffs, vicious grooves and complex, contorted dynamics that shift speeds seamlessly on this joyless ride from an evil, spindly crawl to a immense, fast-moving conflagration. Not for the faint of heart.

Toxic Holocaust - Chemistry of
Consciousness 2013

9. Toxic Holocaust: Chemistry of Consciousness – Joel Grind gets an A in science for Chemistry of Consciousness. Less trashy and disease-ridden than past Toxic Holocaust recordings, but just as combustible, Chemistry of Consciousness sharply focuses Grind's love of crusty D-beat and dangerously fast thrash metal into nuclear weaponry that could almost be described as sleek or streamlined, were it not for Toxic Holocaust's feral rage. Never for a second does Chemistry of Consciousness lose any bit of its momentum or ferocity. It is a relentless attack, binging on and then purging itself of Venom or Bathory influences, as Toxic Holocaust forges its own identity and fearsome reputation. 

Black Sabbath - 13 2013

8. Black Sabbath: 13 – Three-fourths of the original Black Sabbath is better than nothing. Although this much-ballyhooed reunion fell short of reuniting the entire original lineup, it did produce the kind of churning, sludgy riffage that only Tony Iommi can dream up, while painting a charred, burned-out landscape of doom metal that's the stuff of good old-fashioned nightmares. And while it feels as if Sabbath has come full circle, revisiting its exhilarating early days one last time, 13 doesn't simply rehash the past. What fresh hell is this? It's one of Sabbath's making, full of awesome dread, soul-crushing alienation and the sense that God may have abandoned this place. It could be that this is Sabbath's last meal. What a satisfying one it is.

The Resistance - Scars

7. The Resistance: Scars – Somehow, Scars fell between the cracks. At least it did for critics. Hardly any Best of … lists for this year have mentioned the latest from these raging death-metal hardliners, and that's a shame. Scars gives a whole new meaning to the word "intensity." Aggressive from the word "go" and set ablaze with outright hostility, Scars sees these In Flames refugees slamming and crashing into anything their path, and then rising from the burning wreckage to do it all over again. Blistering speed is prized by The Resistance, but they are also completely into complexity and chaotic, high-impact dynamics, the likes of which are breathtaking to behold.  

Ghost - Infestissuman 2013

6. Ghost: Infestissumam – A coat of many sonic colors from these mysteriously Satanic Swedes, the defiantly diverse Infestissumam certainly threw a pop-oriented curveball at the world of heavy metal, leaving some to wonder whether they'd wandered too far off the path. Ghost's wildly eclectic ambitions came to the fore on Infestissuman, as their progressive and psychedelic inclinations drive songs that assume more pleasing shapes than past efforts, enhanced by choirs and other not-so metal accoutrements. Are they trying to redefine heavy metal? Maybe. They've certainly pushed its boundaries pretty far on Infestissuman, an album that grows more and more enticing with repeated listens. The darkness will return, and when it does, Ghost's black magic may be more powerful than ever.

Best of 2013 in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal – Part 1

The number of this beast is 20, as in top 20

By Peter Lindblad

There are many questions left unanswered from the year of our Lord 2013. 

One of them being, what exactly is an "Earth Rocker" and, as a follow-up question to Clutch, how do they differ from normal, everyday rockers? Also, why Summon the Faithless, Lord Dying? Is something nefarious afoot? 

And what about Monster Magnet's Last Patrol? Should we read anything into that title? And should you engage in a transaction with a Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, what are you actually purchasing? Zombie rodents? Would you buy such a thing from a man named Rob Zombie?

To say the least, hard rock and heavy metal had its share of scary, off-the-wall characters making ridiculously powerful music in 2013. Ozzy even sounded semi-coherent as three-fourths of the original Black Sabbath came back from the grave with a vengeance. As ill as he's been, Lemmy still barreled through Aftershock like a man possessed by demons, which is just the way Lemmy likes it. And former Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe showed everyone he's full of just as much piss and vinegar as guys half his age.

So, here we present the best metal and hard rock records of 2013 in this four-part series, counting down from 20 and headed toward No. 1. 

Amon Amarth - Deceiver of the Gods 2013

20. Amon Amarth: Deceiver of the Gods – Maybe this Norse metal thing has finally run its course with death metal Vikings Amon Amarth. Even the gods are wondering if its time Amon Amarth gave it a rest. Still, the gory Deceiver of the Gods, with its mighty blend of traditional melodic metal forms and good old fashioned thrash, is a mammoth production, a big boiling kettle of massive riffs, hairy vocal bellows and roiling rhythms that swings precariously to and fro, constantly spilling its contents over the edge. And Amon Amarth worshippers lapped up every drop.

Lord Dying - Summon the Faithless 2013

19. Lord Dying: Summon the Faithless – Stirring up a sea of sludge, coating it in crusty distortion and fashioning it into menacing shapes defined by crunching riffs and hardened grooves, Lord Dying staked its claim to Black Sabbath's throne as the masters of doom metal. Made of pure evil, Summon the Faithless is that shadowy figure of an album hiding around the corner, waiting to snatch whoever happens to walk by with a myriad of rusty hooks that could give whoever hears it tetanus. Make sure you're up on all your shots.

Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration
Vendor 2013

18. Rob Zombie: Venomous Rat Regenerator – Chaos reigns supreme in the circus world of Venomous Rat Regenerator, where demented bartender Rob Zombie and partner John Five whip up a lethal cocktail of hot, grinding industrial-metal riffage, hard-hitting dance beats and complete auditory madness. If any asylum could ever be described as "fun" or having a "party-like atmosphere," this is it. The inmates are running Venomous Rat Regenerator, inviting all manner of freaks, and they are throwing the bash of the century.

Saxon - Sacrifice 2013

17. Saxon: Sacrifice – Saxon sacrificed nothing on its last album. The grizzled New Wave of British Heavy Metal veterans mixed in some thrash stomp and made some of the toughest, most durable rock of their career. Wrecking-ball riffs and beautifully intertwined dual-guitar salvos each find their space on Sacrifice, which also incorporates touches of folk instrumentation on an otherwise hard-nosed, blue-collar epic that packs quite a wallop.

Vista Chino - Peace 2013

16. Vista Chino: Peace – Peace sells, and it should be bought by the truckload. Heavy and languid, with a wonderfully homegrown, hazy stoner-metal aesthetic hanging in the air, Peace could have sounded inert, stuck in a past where too many Kyuss fans choose to live. It doesn't. Rather, Vista Chino moves in mysterious and intoxicating ways. Instead, it's seductive, like an older brother daring you to smoke pot for the first time, and earthy, as if early Sabbath spent more  time in hippie communes, as opposed to graveyards. In a word, it sounds "natural," which is something that can't be said anymore for Queens of the Stone Age, that other Kyuss-related band. 

CD Review: Monster Magnet – Last Patrol

Monster Magnet – Last Patrol

Napalm Records

All Access Rating: A-

Monster Magnet - Last Patrol 2013

Without Monster Magnet around to spark up their own full-throttle brand of “stoner metal” and go joy-riding through space to seek adventure and cruise for easy girls in the cosmos, the universe would be far less interesting.

Hedonistic space lords as magnificent as Dave Wyndorf apologize for nothing, and with the unforgiving Last Patrol, Monster Magnet’s latest magic carpet ride on Napalm Records, pimped out in retro amps, guitars and trippy effects in an attempt to summon the hallucinogenic demons of their early psychedelic-garage days, the word “sorry” cannot be found his rich vocabulary. Exuding warm and distinctive clarity, Last Patrol is produced with care, so that every part of this sonic space-rock jalopy sounds brand new and forceful, even with all the miles on her.

Housed in such a clean-running machine, this work of mind-blowing pulp fiction is full of noir-style, sci-fi tales of obsessive torment, revenge fantasies and sexual conquest pulled from the outer reaches of Wyndorf’s fevered imagination, and yet Last Patrol never gets lost in the stormy turbulence of its own making. Even amid the howling chaos of wah-wah guitars, crazed distortion and crashing drums that close the title track, Monster Magnet’s momentum-gathering riffs drive straight through it without ever being blown off course, just as they do in “End of Time,” another blazing garage-rock comet propelled forward with apocalyptic urgency and NASA-like precision into swirling madness.  

Painting vivid scenes with absurdist imagery and colorful language, Wyndorf talks of stairs that lead nowhere, a man-hungry 10-foot blonde and “dead moons and chicken bones” in a commanding, if weathered, voice, as if he’s author Philip K. Dick with a guitar. With his craggy, deep vocals, Wyndorf builds aural cinematic drama like a musical John Ford, the ominous acoustic guitar plucking and strums in the intros to “Paradise” and “I Live behind the Clouds” foreshadowing something evil coming this way or a showdown of half android, half human gunfighters in a parallel futuristic universe to Deadwood.

There is religious fervor in the stomping, hell-spawned blues of “Hallelujah,” where Wyndorf gives a wild-eyed sermon on sin and salvation that could make the dead rise and the righteous weep. And while the careening “Mindless Ones” works up a furious tempest of distorted, violent energy reminiscent of those whipped up by Hawkwind, in Monster Magnet’s disembodied hands, Donovan’s exotic “Three Kingfishers” undergoes a withering transformation into a heavy metal odyssey of the mind, “Stay Tuned” dives headlong into tunneling blackness and “The Duke (Of Supernature)” hitches a ride upriver through the conga drum currents of Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan.” Monster Magnet continues to go where others fear to tread.

 –   Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Bl'ast! – Blood!

CD Review: Bl’ast! – Blood!

Southern Lord

All Access Rating: A-

Bl'ast! - Blood! 2013

As was made abundantly clear while waxing nostalgic about Sound City in his feel-good documentary film about the place, Dave Grohl plans to put the famed studio’s grand old Neve console – the one that brought to life the magic of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors and Nirvana’s Nevermind – to good use.

Breathing new life into some long-lost vintage master tapes of Santa Cruz hardcore heroes Bl’ast was one of his first orders of business, and he takes a flamethrower to material that was already highly flammable, his remastering and mixing work enhancing the already concentrated violence and red-eyed fury of these unpredictable punk-rock seizures. And he’s just a bit player in this drama, as was William DuVall – now plying his trade with Alice in Chains.

Blood! is reportedly the only document of DuVall making sweet fiery hardcore with Bl’ast. Industrious rhythms and rampaging guitars that are thicker and wider than one would expect are what cause the sudden impact of Blood!, but don’t mistake activity for a lack of musicality. Still, raw power and unbridled fury course through its veins, as the aptly titled Blood! packs enough explosives into these combustible tracks to attract the unwanted attention of the ATF. From the first bruising, urgent rumblings and building momentum of “Only Time Will Tell” to the sharp turns negotiated throughout the blazing “Something Beyond,” the high-octane action of Blood! is breathtakingly fast, aggressive and relentless.

Even while Bl’ast cultivates a resonant, animalistic growl in guitar tone, something most old punks cared nothing about, on Blood! they engage in dizzying shifts of dynamics in “Ssshhh,” “Sometimes” and “Winding Down” while driving impossibly fast, but never recklessly, as they brake and stomp on the accelerator through the stop-start traffic of “Sequel.” Knowing exactly what direction they want to go, Bl’ast feverishly tears through the 1:38 “Poison” – tied for the shortest song on Blood! – as if they have three strikes against them and they’re being chased by California cops, but they never seem desperate or self-destructive.

Then again, jail might be preferable to the unsettling psychology of “Your Eyes,” made even more deliciously disturbing by heavy, almost sludgy, metallic riffs that rise up and look to the heavens for deliverance. If Minor Threat took more of a liking to Black Sabbath and explored slightly longer forms and staged more angular sonic ambushes, all while maintaining its muscular torque, they might have made the tempestuous, biting and brawny Blood! As it is, there are only a few hardcore acts with this kind of DNA, Black Flag being one of them. If Henry Rollins needs a transfusion, he might want to give Bl’ast – these raging sonic contortionists of the highest caliber – a call. http://www.southernlord.com/

– Peter Lindblad