Heavens Fire "Judgement Day"

 

Toronto-based band Heavens Fire may not be a well enough known name in rock music, but they sure have as interesting of a back story as any of the many bands to have come before them. I personally think of Def Leppard’s well documented misfortunes when I think of the heaven and hell that the band has gone through over the past thirteen or so years. The story is well documented on the bands Website, so to shorten it slightly, after the release of their debut album in the year 2000 and what looked like a promising start having gained attention in Europe and Japan, the band’s drummer suffered a very untimely death. Not long after that, guitarist JT Harris was given months to live after being diagnosed with cancer. After defying those odds and surviving, JT’s father grew very ill and the band was once again put on hold.

Skillet "Rise"

For the past few years, Skillet have been the front runners in the slew of Christian rock bands to have hit any success. This movement of bands who are labelled as Christian rock without any complaint by the bands include artists such as Red, Thousand Foot Krutch, Fireflight, and the list goes on. The impressive thing about these bands is their ability to make music so easily accessible to the ears of moderate rock fans, while sneaking in their own messages of peace and goodwill and what have you in to their lyrics.

Scorpion Child "Scorpion Child"

If you read my review on Monster Truck, you’d have read a bunch of words that sum up to me ranting and raving about a band finally able to harness the sound of classic hard rock and successfully modernize it and call the style their own. After a number of bands that I have heard, some popular and some underground, who concentrate on trying so hard to sound like what much of them refer to as the good old days of rock, but lacking any true identity, Monster Truck turned my hopes, and the hopes of many people in the world, including Slash, that the future of hard rock was in good hands.

Halestorm "Halestorm"

I had so much fun writing about Halestorm’s The Strange Case Of... album a few months ago that I decided I’d go back to their self-titled debut album. I discovered Halestorm when the first Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival was announced. Since there was no way I was going to miss what was essentially an Avenged Sevenfold/Disturbed co-headliner, I checked out what other bands were going to be there. Only two really caught my attention, and the main one was Halestorm. This was approximately a year after the April 2009 release of their debut album, so I immediately went to HMV to pick it up.

Megadeth "Super Collider"

In the seven or so months since I started this website, I’ve never been so nervous to write about an album. The reason being I’ve never disagreed more with fellow reviewers on an album. Megadeth have been an established metal band for a couple of decades now. Everyone knows the story, but for those who don’t I’ll be happy to share; Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine was originally the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of a band. Metallica was the name of this band, you may have heard of them. Anyway, he was kicked out from the band practically overnight, and to get back at them he started Megadeth. They are coined a thrash metal band due to the aggression and personal anger that was heard in the bands first few albums, and because of the movement of thrash metal that was developing directly around them. Some of these “thrash” albums the band released were pure excellence, such as Peace Sells...But Who’s Buying and Rust In Peace.

Barenaked Ladies "Grinning Streak"

Scarborough, Ontario’s Barenaked Ladies have always been somewhat of a novelty act to some. Probably over 90% of the population has heard of them, and most of them could only really name two songs (If I Had $1,000,000 and One Week). Fortunately there are plenty of people out there who do know more of the hits that the band has had such as Old Apartment, Enid, Falling For The First Time etc. While there are people out there who may not take them seriously because of such quirky songs as Be My Yoko Ono, the bands more serious side has never truly hit the public eye the way it deserved to with songs such as Jane and What A Good Boy being two of the absolute best examples.

Dio "Magica"

I will admit to being a huge Ronnie James Dio fan, one of those fans who stand by the fact that he is one of the most important figures in heavy metal. For those who don’t know, after years of hanging around the music business with several incarnations of his first band, which would end with the title Elf, Ronnie was asked to join none other than Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in his first post-Deep Purple band called Rainbow (or as the first album read, “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow”). The band was essentially the Elf line-up just with Ritchie on guitar instead of guitarist David Feinstein. After various line-up changes (which continued after Ronnie left), Ronnie continued his climb to the heavy metal top by joining none other than Black Sabbath after the departure of original lead vocalist, some guy named Ozzy Osbourne. It was now that Ronnie gained the attention required to be a credible name in heavy metal. Having already started a popular transition while in Rainbow with his lyrics of wizards and sorcery, he brought this lyric style in to Sabbath’s sound, as well as the “devil horns” hand gesture which became the heavy metal symbol from that moment on.