As the world continues to battle a virus, we present the ultimate escape! It is time to celebrate our BravePicks 2021! Heavy metal is the ultimate diversion, so let's let the music do the talking. It is time to unveil our annual BravePicks countdown, where the devout scribes at BraveWords cast their votes at the hits and misses of the year! So who will be our #1? You’ll find out as we count down the BravePick Of 2021 each day in December!
Everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! And stay tuned in January for the writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), What/Who Needs To Stop In 2022? and Metal Predictions For 2022. All will be showcased come the New Year!
First up, the best of the best for 2021 begins NOW!
Deep Purple — a band that was one of the first stitches in the quilt of hard rock — are set to release their first album of tracks not written by the band on November 26 via earMUSIC.
The new album entitled Turning To Crime is a powerful example of what many fans initially thought upon the announcement of the record. Deep Purple? Covers? Most certainly a criminal offense. But despite the objections from some fans, Deep Purple; still coming off the high of their 21st studio record Whoosh! released back in August of 2020, has noted that Turning To Crime is an album recorded for pure fun. Roger Glover first teased what would become Turning To Crime last year during an interview during a Deep Purple Faninterview with Anssi Herkkola, stating that the band’s lack of touring due to the COVID-19 pandemic would continue to lead to more time in the studio.
The album filled with varying covers chosen deliberately by each member, mostly from the era just predating Deep Purple, is produced by celebrated producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, KISS) and is also responsible for the production of Purple’s last three studio recordings: 2013’s Now What?!, 2017’s Infinite, and 2020’s Whoosh!.
Turning To Crime opens with a reimagining of the 1960’s band Love’s classic track “7 And 7 Is'' and features re-recordings of tracks from bands along the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, The Yardbirds, Bob Seger System, Cream, and more. One of the most notable efforts is titled “Caught In The Act” which is an unexpected almost eight-minute medley of songs from Freddie King, Booker T. And The M.G.’s, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, and The Spencer Davis Group that features almost little to no vocals.
Sonically, the group did a superb job in keeping the integrity of all of the tracks chosen while adding the Deep Purple twist; most noticeable to me is the addition of Don Airey’s iconic keyboard sound. Gillian’s vocals are as recognizable as ever and quite strong for a voice that was belting “Child In Time” over 50 years ago.
Steve Morse’s playing and tone are, as always, extremely pleasant to the ear and kept me entranced throughout the album; especially in his recreation of the solo from The Yardbird’s track “Shapes Of Things”. With that, my hat always goes out to Morse who has filled the shoes of original guitarist Richie Blackmore since ‘94 and manages to knock it out of the park with tasty riffs and solos every time. And we simply can’t forget the classic Deep Purple rhythm and groove given to us by drummer Ian Paice and bassist Roger Glover.
My one gripe with Turning To Crime is that the selection of songs was rather predictable in the sense that it makes perfect sense for Deep Purple to cover a track like Cream's “White Room”. It’s obvious that Deep Purple is targeting their efforts to their most prominent demographic whom they’ve already won over long ago, but I wish the band would’ve taken a different approach — maybe even covering songs from an artist or era that we wouldn’t have necessarily expected.
Despite wanting the band to step a bit outside of their comfort zone, the band’s latest efforts have continued to surprise fans with their level of quality; and I am still incredibly elated that 53 years after the band’s debut in 1968, Deep Purple are still recording and releasing music new (or in this case old), for rock fans of multiple generations to continue to enjoy.
Second album from Sweden’s ToxicRose, who look like Shout At The Devil Mötley Crüe, meets Pretty Boy Floyd, meets Dimmu Borgir. Music leans towards the harder, edgier sounds, but it’s like goth glam with modern riffs and vocals similar to Black Veil Brides from when they were doing this ten years or so ago, which can be heard in first track “Blood On Blood”.
“Heroes” switches gears to more Brainstorm type power metal riffing with the shouting vocal. No, this is not LA ‘80s glam; the music is very contemporary, although “In For The Kill” could have been on a late ‘80/s early ‘90s album from Spread Eagle, Babylon AD, or Every Mother’s Nightmare. Retro busy keyboards begin “Remedy”, a bell and fuzzy industrial guitars to “Angel” before the rhythmic chorus. Unlike a Crazy Lixx from the new wave of glam/ hard rock, ToxicRose much more like minded to Eclipse in the music. “Domination” has a drive and great Nightwish change after the solo section with those accenting keys. “Open Up” chugs along with nothing in common to glam. I like the start to “New Breed” better than the chorus section.
I don’t know how much I like this band. I want to, but it seems like they don’t know if they want to be retro or current. Potential is there in the musicianship, and with the metal edge I can hear Slave to the Grind Skid Row, but they need the riffs and hooks. Maybe pull back on the clothes too? Go for a more Tesla, Badlands, Dangerous Toys look?
Os fãs de Five Finger Death Punch já podem se preparar para receber novas músicas em breve. Depois de ter lançado o F8 em 2020, a banda está agora trabalhando em seu nono álbum de estúdio.
Nesta terça-feira, o vocalista Ivan Moody decidiu dar uma prévia dos próximos trabalhos e publicou um curto vídeo em seu Instragram mostrando a banda no estúdio Hideout, em Las Vegas. Nas imagens é possível ouvir o trecho de uma música inédita e na legenda Moody incluiu as hashtags “#feelinjustF9” e “#andhelliscomingwithme”.
O estúdio Hideout é propriedade do produtor, compositor e engenheiro de som Kevin Churko, que trabalhou em todos os álbuns do Five Finger Death Punch desde o War Is The Answer (2009). Além do disco inédito, a banda também está regravando seu álbum de estreia, The Way Of The Fist (2007) para seu 15º aniversário.
A renomada banda brasileira SACREATH acabada de lançar o video clip para a musica freedom again,que esta no seu terceiro album de studio Apocalipse holocaut,a banda se encontra em studio gravando seu novo debut previsto para o 2 semestre de 2022..a banda já lançou um single chamado anubis no qual explora temas egipicios ,a arte dos singles do Sacredeath veem se tornando uma marca registrada da banda ,eles estão trabalhando atualmente com ums dos grandes artistas brasieliros Emerson da silva,a banda também esta no cast do Hell metal festival que vai acontecer no dia 18/12 em parceria com a radio rock de los angeles e finlandia ..
O video clio foi gravdo em parceria com a produtora olho magico de curitiba.
Bay Area thrash legends DEATH ANGEL have released their heavily anticipated new live record titled “The Bastard Tracks” today with Nuclear Blast. Recorded live at The Great American Music Hall in their hometown of San Francisco on May 22nd, 2021, and streamed live soon after, “The Bastard Tracks” is a deep cuts collection of rarely and never performed songs from the band’s celebrated catalog that’s available now digitally and on CD and Blu-Ray and will be released on vinyl on April 29th.
In conjunction with the release the band has rolled out the live video for “The Absence of Light,” which can be viewed now:
Commenting on the song, vocalist Mark Osegueda states:
“’Absence of Light’ is a song that I have been championing for since the album that it is on called ‘Relentless Retribution’ was released in 2010. It’s an extremely dark song lyrically that sits on top of this thunderous and driving riff and beat. It is not a fast song by any means. But! It’s HEAVY!! DARK and HEAVY!!!
We finally took the time to re-familiarize ourselves with it and we were all surprised how HEAVY it sounded when we all played it together in the room! I’m pretty confident it will rear its DARK and HEAVY head in some future live sets. In front of an actual audience!”
“When we performed and filmed the songs for ‘The Bastard Tracks’ it was such a crazy time and having missed being able to perform live for so long was taking it’s toll on me to a certain degree as I have been a live performer for the majority of my life..
I must say…It was a pretty dark time. I know it was for so many of us…But! Music once again helped to pull us through it…It was a bit odd performing to no crowd…But! It felt great re-learning some deep tracks and getting on stage with the guys and unleashing this pent up aggression! And the response from everyone who tuned into it suggesting that we release it as an album was overwhelming! Well…Thanks to them here it is! I hope you enjoy it!”
Adding to that, guitarist Rob Cavestany says:
“Choosing and sequencing the songs for ‘The Bastard Tracks’ set list was quite a different trip. All of them had rarely (and in some instances never) been played live. We hadn’t performed in front of a live audience for over a year, the longest ever for this band. It was to be filmed live at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and then broadcast worldwide on the good ol’ inter-web! I could get into that…
From basically re-learning most of these songs to getting them as tight as they should be, we put our energy together and made it happen! I’m thankful for having had this goal to focus on during those (still) crazy earth crisis days. It gave us an important reason to get together at DA Studio and JAM! Literally the only time I’ve felt “normal” since 2020 was while we were jamming! Fortunately we’ve been able to do it a lot. Now, we proudly present the audio and visual recordings of those sessions. Turn it up!
P.S. – We cannot wait to exchange live energy with you as soon as possible!!” DEATH ANGEL will perform a hometown show this weekend and will join TESTAMENT and EXODUS on “The Bay Area Strikes Back Tour” in Spring 2022. Tickets are on sale now at www.deathangel.us/tour.
DEATH ANGEL Tour Dates: 2021 Nov 27 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater 2022 Apr 9 – San Luis Obispo, CA – Fremont Theater Apr 10 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues Apr 12 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues Apr 13 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues Apr 15 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre Apr 16 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater Apr 19 – Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom Apr 20 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall Apr 21 – Austin, TX – Emos Austin Apr 22 – Dallas, TX – Amplified Live Apr 23 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues Apr 25 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live Apr 26 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade – Heaven Apr 27 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz Apr 28 – Chattanooga, TN – The Signal Apr 30 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom May 1 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage May 2 – Boston, MA – House of Blues May 3 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts May 5 – Huntington, NY – The Paramount May 6 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom May 7 – Covington, KY – Madison Theater May 9 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE May 10 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater & Ballroom May 11 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall May 12 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre May 14 – Joliet, IL – The Forge May 17 – Minneapolis, MN – Skyway Theatre May 19 – Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall May 20 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot May 22 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox May 23 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater May 25 – Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades
Mashup master Bill McClintock has returned with another work of art, combining the Iron Maiden classic "The Trooper" with Michael Sembello's Flashdance hit "Maniac". Enjoy...
The Limited Edition Trooper: The Collection 2 contains two bottles each of:
Trooper 666 - 6.6% Charged with even more flavour and more alcohol, but brewed to the same great recipe of the original Trooper. Trooper Red ‘N’ Black – 6.0% A blend of chocolate and crystal malt gives this full bodied beer a roasted malt and caramel backbone. The Robinsons’ yeast provides hints of both liquorice and honey to create a delicious warming brew. Trooper Hallowed – 6.0% - A hybrid beer inspired by Belgium and brewed in England. The Belgian style yeast combines with Noble hops to deliver a complete palate of subtle banana with a plum finish. Trooper Sun And Steel – 4.8% - A double-fermented pilsner infused with saké to produce a crisp refreshing taste with a flash of fruit. Trooper IPA - 4.3% - Marries together familiar American hoppy flavours with a fundamentally British backbone. Trooper Fear Of The Dark - 4.5% - English dark roasted chocolate stout that is full bodied and rich in flavour.
