Speaking with Metal Mal in a new interview, KK’s Priest / former Judas Priest frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens discussed teaming up with former Judas Priest bandmate K.K. Downing and touring with the band.
Owens on performing Judas Priest songs with KK’s Priest:
“I would like to (play more than they do now). The problem is we kind of split it half and half. The biggest complaint we actually get is that we don’t do more of my (Judas Priest) era. We do one song, ‘Burn In Hell’. So that’s actually what we get the most, is how come we’re not doing more. But it’s a hard thing. The problem is we’re not an old, established band. We get together and we learn these songs. We have the screens that go to it in the background. You just can’t change your setlist and learn new songs while you’re on the road and doing it. Other bands can. Like Judas Priest; they’ve been touring with that lineup for, what, 12 years now? So they have all these songs that they can kind of rehash and just throw in the setlist. But it’s a good setlist we have.”
KK’s Priest unveiled their blistering sophomore offering, The Sinner Rides Again, in September 2023.
With The Sinner Rides Again, KK’s Priest double down on the ripping melodic force of their debut, Sermons Of The Sinner. The Sinner Rides Again wields nine tracks of pure hellfire, produced and written by Downing and mixed/mastered by Jacob Hansen. The celebrated new album is a call for the classics while speeding full force into the future, delivered by some of heavy metal’s most essential performers.
“Sons Of The Sentinel” “Strike Of The Viper” “Reap The Whirlwind” “One More Shot At Glory” “Hymn 66” “The Sinner Rides Again” “Keeper Of The Graves” “Pledge Your Souls” “Wash Away Your Sins”
“Sons Of The Sentinel” video:
“Hymn 66” video:
“Strike Of The Viper” video:
“Reap The Whirlwind” video:
“One More Shot At Glory” video:
KK’s Priest is:
Tim “Ripper” Owens – Vocals K.K. Downing – Guitar A.J. Mills – Guitar Tony Newton – Bass Sean Elg – Drums
In 1994, BraveWords & Bloody Knuckles magazine was born and here we stand 30 years later celebrating the past 12 months of music on our anniversary! What an incredible ride it has been and it’s far from over! And during the past three decades, we’ve literally seen/heard thousands of releases and this is the time of the season when we crown the finest! The BraveWords scribes have spoken, so join us each day this month as we count down to the BravePick of 2024!
Remember, everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! Stay tuned at the end of December for BraveWords’ writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), What/Who Needs To Stop In 2024? and Metal Predictions For 2025.
BravePicks 2024
3) FLOTSAM AND JETSAM – I Am The Weapon (AFM)
The old guard still rules. Doomsday For The Deceiver came out an iconic year for thrash metal – 1986. 38 years later and Flotsam And Jetsam are producing some of the best metal out there. I Am The Weapon nuked the world in September and is another stunning revelation of heavy power thrash marked by tremendous vocals and fierce, volcanic riffs and rhythms.
Standing tall over their peers, Flotsam And Jetsam’s I Am The Weapon explodes at #3.
Scribe Rich Catino scored I Am The Weapon an 8.5, stating Flots “are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to new music.” An excerpt of his review:
“Primal” hits a steadfast pace, gallop, with some double bass drums. Title track lyric video angry with fitting words, “A world insane, Kill the pain, Say my name, I am the weapon”, graphics of giant monsters (Godzilla, too) and manmade weapons of mass destruction.
“Burned My Bridges” maintains the punch with a melodic bridge and chorus. “The Head Of The Snake” utilizes a drop tuned modern riff reminding of later Nevermore.
For a change, straight forward simple riff and arrangement to “Beneath The Shadows” followed by that ultra-fast start to “Gates Of Hell”. Old school riffing to “Cold Steel Lights” and complimenting lead work over the verse, with melodic break pre solo. I dig how “Running Through The Fire” has this start-stop drive, like the drums and rhythm seems to try and keep up with each other and just plows through the arrangement.
BravePicks 2024Top 30
3) FLOTSAM AND JETSAM – I Am The Weapon (AFM) 4)CRYPT SERMON – The Stygian Rose (Dark Descent) 5)KERRY KING – From Hell I Rise (Reigning Phoenix) 6)BORKNAGAR – Fall (Century Media) 7)SEBASTIAN BACH – Child Within The Man (Reigning Phoenix) 8)GRAND MAGUS – Sunraven (Nuclear Blast) 9)IOTUNN – Kinship (Metal Blade) 10)NILE – The Underworld Awaits Us All 11)EVERGREY – Theories Of Emptiness (Napalm) 12)THE CROWN – Crown Of Thorns (Metal Blade) 13)NECROPHOBIC – In The Twilight Grey (Century Media) 14)DJEVEL – Natt Til Ende (Aftermath) 15)INTRANCED – Muerte y Metal (High Roller) 16)KITTIE – Fire (Sumerian) 17)BLACKTOP MOJO – Pollen (Cuhmon Music Group)
18)BLOOD RED THRONE – Nonagon (Soulseller) 19)RIOT V – Mean Streets 20)PORTRAIT – The Host 21)ROTTING CHRIST – Pro Xristou (Season Of Mist) 22)SAXON – Hell, Fire And Damnation (Silver Lining) 23)ULCERATE – Cutting The Throat Of God (Debemur Morti Productions) 24)POWERWOLF – Wake Up The Wicked (Napalm) 25)ENSIFERUM – Winter Storm (Metal Blade) 26)OPETH – The Last Will And Testament (Reigning Phoenix Music) 27)DARK TRANQUILLITY – Endtime Signals (Century Media) 28)MORGUL BLADE – Heavy Metal Wraiths (No Remorse) 29)THE DEAD DAISIES – Light ‘Em Up (Independent) 30)MÖRK GRYNING – Fasornas Tid (Season Of Mist)
Guitar legend Steve Vai is inviting his Patreon member to join him for a for a live BEAT tour recap on Thursday, January 2 at 10am PST / 1:00pm EST / 7:00pm CET. Go to Vai’sd Patreon page to be check it out or become a member here.
Former King Crimson members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin have banded together with guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and explosive Tool drummer Danny Carey for the first time to create BEAT, a creative reinterpretation of the three iconic ’80s Kibng Crimson albums – Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair.
Having completed a North American tour, BEAT is proud to announce they will be bringing the 1980’s music of King Crimson to Santiago, Chile at Movistar Arena on May 6, 2025. Tickets go on sale to the public today (December 20th) at 9am (local time).
Timed to the initial tour announcement, guitarist Adrian Belew shared, “The 1981 through 1984 King Crimson created a music all its own. Timeless. Beautiful. Complex. Fierce. For the fans who lived through it then, and the ones who never got to witness it, our aim is to bring it to life again. A monumental task but we’re going for it! There are not enough exclamation points to express my excitement!”
Guitarist Steve Vai offered, “Being a part of this ensemble is an extraordinary privilege and opportunity to perform some of the most beloved, timeless, and monumental music of the 80’s (and beyond) with truly inspired musicians. This music resonates deeply with me. Adrian, Tony and Danny are unique musicians with an otherworldly insight into presenting rich musical complexities in a very accessible way.” He continued, “Father Robert Fripp is one of our historical geniuses. His highly specific and exceptionally brilliant guitar technique is studied and revered. His contribution to the quality of my musical life, and so many others is supreme. I can assure the fans of KC that I will be putting my best foot forward to respect this great music with the care and intensity it deserves. Did I say ‘sparks will fly?’”
Bassist Tony Levin shared, “This is quite a tour. Revisiting some of my favorite music is a treat in itself, but in company of this stellar lineup, I expect to have my musical butt kicked! And it’s also great that we’re not just playing a few shows, we’re hitting it hard.”
Drummer Danny Carey added, “I am very excited to share the stage with three of my favorite musicians on the planet. Tony, Steve and Adrian have always been a source of inspiration for me since the beginning of my career, and now to be able to share a bit of my musical journey with them is a dream come true. There’s nothing better to make some sparks fly and light a fire under your ass than getting out of your musical comfort zone, and I can’t think of any other three guys I’d rather do this with.”
The vision for this undertaking emanated from initial dialogue between Angelo Bundini aka Scrote and Adrian Belew. Tour Producer Bundini recalls, “When Adrian called me to help bring his idea to fruition, I immediately thought it best to focus on the 80s albums: Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair. These three records famously marked Adrian and Tony’s entry into King Crimson. Their fluid, melodic virtuosity, and Fripp’s and Bruford’s dramatic precision created a totally unique, dynamic push and pull that would influence nearly every rock musician and/or band going forward for years, if not decades, to come.”
HighVoltageRockNRoll has shared fan-filmed video of AC/DC performing at Nippon Seinenkan in Tokyo, Japan on February 5, 1981. Check out the entire show below.
Setlist:
“Hells Bells” “Shot Down in Flames” “Sin City” “Back in Black” “Bad Boy Boogie” “The Jack” “What Do You Do For Money Honey” “Highway to Hell” “High Voltage” “Whole Lotta Rosie” “Rocker”
Encore: “You Shook Me All Night Long” “T.N.T.” “Let There Be Rock”
AC/DC return to the road in North America for the first time in nine years on the 2025 Power Up North American Tour.
Much to the delight of millions of fans across North America, the legendary Grammy Award-winning Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame-inducted band will perform in 13 stadiums coast-to-coast next spring. This run kicks off on April 10 in Minneapolis, MN at US Bank Stadium, canvases the continent, and concludes on May 28 in Cleveland, OH at Huntington Bank Field. Along the way, they will play some of the most iconic and historic stadiums in the world, including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA on April 18 and Soldier Field in Chicago, IL on May 24.
Tickets for all shows, featuring support from The Pretty Reckless, are on sale now, here.
The tour shares its name with their 2020 album, Power Up, which bowed at #1 in 21 countries. In 2024, AC/DC completed a European leg of the Power Up Tour, packing the biggest stadiums on the continent in the process. Power Up notably notched their third #1 debut on the Billboard 200 and exploded as one of the best-selling albums of 2020 worldwide. Plus, it garnered Grammy Award nominations in the categories of “Best Rock Album” and “Best Rock Performance” and “Best Music Video” for “Shot In The Dark.” Power Up is available here.
AC/DC played their very first show on the 31st December 1973 at Chequers Nightclub in Sydney, Australia. They are one of the most influential rock bands in history, with over 200 million albums sold worldwide. The band’s Back In Black LP is the “bestselling album by any band ever” and the “third bestselling album by any artist” with global sales of 50 million and counting. AC/DC was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2003. The band continue selling out stadiums on multiple continents, sell millions of albums annually and generate streams in the billions.
To continue their reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, AC/DC – Angus Young on lead guitar, vocalist Brian Johnson, rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, drummer Matt Laug and bass player Chris Chaney – are back to play to their legion of dedicated fans, which grows with every passing year.
Tour dates:
April 10 – Minneapolis, MN – US Bank Stadium 14 – Arlington, TX – AT&T Stadium 18 – Pasadena, CA – Rose Bowl 22 – Vancouver, BC – BC Place 26 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium 30 – Detroit, MI – Ford Field
May 4 – Foxborough, MA – Gillette Stadium 8 – Pittsburgh, PA – Acrisure Stadium 12 – Landover, MD – Northwest Stadium 16 – Tampa, FL – Raymond James Stadium 20 – Nashville, TN – Nissan Stadium 24 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field 28 – Cleveland, OH – Huntington Bank Field
“I could be listening to Abba one minute and then Morbid Angel. It doesn’t seem strange to me”: How Porcupine Tree reinvented progressive rock for the 21st century metal generation
(Image credit: Press)
Porcupine Tree did more than anyone to bring prog into the 2000s with metal-edged albums such as Fear Of A Blank Planet and Deadwing. In 2009, as they released their 10th album The Incident, mainman Steven Wilson dived back the band’s long and unexpected history and his relationship with metal.
All rock bands want to be loved. Some may claim that their only real concerns are creative and artistic, but the truth is that everyone who has ever picked up a guitar and written a riff wants to pick up a few fans along the way. But rare are the bands who can move steadily forward for a decade or two, weathering the vagaries of time and fashion while gradually gaining momentum and earning respect and credibility in increasingly huge amounts.
Although ostensibly a band that have long belonged to the progressive rock world, Porcupine Tree have spent the last few years expanding their audience – and, fittingly, their sound – and now find themselves in the enviable position of being one of the coolest and most intensely revered rock bands on the planet, and it’s by the world of metal that these hardy veterans have been most enthusiastically embraced in recent times. Thanks to founder member Steven Wilson’s brotherly relationship with Mikael Åkerfeldt and Opeth, and, more pertinently perhaps, to the mounting number of skull-flattening metal riffs that have been seeping into Porcupine Tree’s adventurous and subtly experimental sound over their last few albums, the band are one of the few acts to gain widespread acceptance from metalheads without making a wholesale shift to a metallic sound.
“It’s been very surprising to me how much of a crossover we’ve made into the metal side of things,” Steven tells Hammer. “We’re clearly not a metal band like Opeth, who’ve come from the metal tradition and combined other aspects into their sound. We’ve gone the opposite way. I think metal fans are generally very open-minded compared to certain fans of other styles of music. I speak as someone who started out as a metal fan and the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was the first music I loved. It was an incredible education, it opened a doorway to many other kinds of music, and that’s perhaps the way that Porcupine Tree works. There’s enough of a doorway for people to walk through if they love metal music. There’s a hook for them, something they recognise, but then they immerse themselves in all these other elements and they realise that actually, despite themselves, they quite like some of those other things! If that leads them onto other styles of music then that’s fantastic because that’s exactly how it worked with me.”
Porcupine Tree in 2009: (from left) Gavin Harrison, Steven Wilson, Colin Edwin, Richard Barbieri (Image credit: Press)
A metal fan as a teenager, Steven partly abandoned his metal roots as he began to make music of his own, forming Porcupine Tree in 1987 as a pastiche of the psychedelic and progressive rock bands of the late 60s and early 70s that had become essential parts of his listening habits.
This feature originally appeared in Metal Hammer magazine issue 198 (October 2009)(Image credit: Future)
A decade or so ago, however, a fan presented him with a CD full of new and overtly progressive-sounding metal bands, including Opeth. Converted anew to the ways of the metal world, he has made no secret of his love for bands like Tool and Meshuggah, and you can hear their influence in Porcupine Tree’s more recent music, as crunching, polyrhythmic riffs and moments of startling heaviness mingle with the band’s more restrained and atmospheric moments. It’s a frequently stunning combination and one that has been essential to their current popularity.
“I still like metal in principle,” he says. “but as a texture it’s very samey and I can’t listen to it all the time. I find it hard to listen to for any length of time, so that naturally led me to our sound where you get these little bursts of metal. It explodes out of something that is patently not metal, so it has this great impact. That’s why Opeth are so powerful for me. You get this incredible light and shade, so that when the brutality kicks in it’s incredibly powerful! I like to think that that’s how the Porcupine Tree dynamic tends to work.”
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Challenging expectations and taking music fans into unfamiliar territory has long been part of Steven’s ethos, but even by his band’s usual standards of idiosyncrasy, new album The Incident is a bold and audacious piece of work. A single 55-minute “song cycle” which takes in every conceivable element of Porcupine Tree’s sonic world so far, plus numerous unprecedented elements and ideas, and moulds them into a consistently fascinating musical journey; it’s a defiantly ambitious and unapologetic concept album, but one that has as much to do with the modern age as it does with the story-telling pomposity of 70s prog bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis. It’s hard to imagine any other modern rock band getting away with it…
“Let’s just say that I wanted a challenge this time and I didn’t want to repeat what had gone before,” says Steven. “One of the things I’ve always wanted to do is to do an album-length piece of music. But it’s actually very hard to do. The best analogy I can give is that it’s like going from writing short stories or commercials to writing a full-length novel or a feature-length film. It’s a whole different kettle of fish because you have to get structure and you have to get development and a sense of shape and evolution across the piece. It sounds easier than it is! I thought it was time to have another go at it, particularly coming off the back of [our 2007 album] Fear Of A Blank Planet where there was a very long piece of music that went down extremely well with people. When you have a situation like that you kind of feel slightly vindicated and more confident about playing to your strengths, and our strengths have always been in the more long-form pieces.”
Now that the word ‘prog’ is no longer regarded as a mark of shame, Porcupine Tree are finally able to reach and delight the kind of huge audiences that they have really deserved all along, such is the brilliantly inventive but accessible nature of their trademark sound. With so many plausible peers like Tool, Mastodon, Opeth and Muse producing music that is bending and broadening the minds of eager music lovers, there has never been a better time for an album like The Incident that takes an eclectic mix of sounds and atmospheres as its base level starting point.
“We set out to make music inspired by the music that we love, and you can hear the very natural consequence of that,” says Steven. “So people say to me all the time, ‘It’s really weird, your music, because one minute it’s really ambient and the next it’s like death metal’, but to me that’s not weird because that could be my listening diet. I could be listening to Abba one minute and then Morbid Angel. It doesn’t seem strange to me. It doesn’t occur to me that it’s a bizarre leap. That’s ultimately our trademark: this incredible range of styles all woven together, even though on paper it should fall apart and be a horrible mess.”
In stark contrast to Fear Of A Blank Planet, which enabled Steven to rage against soulless consumerism and the vacuous, material obsessions of the modern age, The Incident is an almost unbearably poignant and personal lyrical piece that hints at – while never quite focusing in on – an intimate and vulnerable tale of loss, grief, sorrow and resignation. While reluctant to be more specific about the subject matter, he admits that this is an album that looks inward, rather than lashing out at the world, and one that has immense emotional impact as a result.
“Yeah, …Blank Planet was very much raging against the outside world,” he notes. “It was that well-used approach of the artist singing about the alienation he feels from the world he lives in. Everyone’s done that, from Radiohead’s OK Computer back to Dark Side Of The Moon, but this one is much more insular. It’s more personal and it’s more stream of consciousness and less self-conscious, but I think it’s impossible to write about anything, whether it’s something that appears to be fiction or something auto- biographical, without delving down into this well of experience and emotional experiences. Whatever I write about, whether it’s drawn ultimately from something fictitious, of course I’m investing a lot of my own personal experiences in that in order to invest the lyrics and the song with some kind of emotional credibility. I’ve written songs about nuclear war and of course I’ve never experienced a nuclear war, but you can still delve down into your- self and pull out something relevant.”
Porcupine Tree onstage at Coachella in 2010 (Image credit: Anna Webber/Getty Images))
In their earlier days as a primarily studio-based project, Porcupine Tree’s live appearances were few and far between, but in recent times the band have become veritable road hogs – another factor in their ever-increasing profile. Seldom afraid to take a risk or two, either on record or on stage, they are currently preparing to take The Incident out on the road and, in true prog fashion, they will be performing the album from start to finish each night, eschewing all applause in favour of delivering the ultimate musical trip for their faithful supporters.
“I was terrified before rehearsals that we weren’t going to be able to play the fucking thing!” laughs Steven. “You work hard on the record and you don’t think about the logistics of performing it live, but we’ve cracked it and I’m looking forward to rolling it out now.”
In keeping with rock’n’roll tradition, will the second half of the show be the traditional ‘greatest hits’ set?
“Well, we don’t have any hits! Ha ha! You mean the popular fan favourites? Well, it’s always slightly tricky because we could go out for evermore and play our better-known songs but it’s not the right thing to do if you feel dead inside when you play them! If you’re really bored, it’s not fair to you or the audience to go through the motions. The über-fans are sick to death of those songs too, so we’re walking a delicate line here! But we’re pulling out a few things that perhaps are a little bit more obscure and the hardcore fans will appreciate, but we’re trying to keep enough of the hits. There should be enough to satisfy everyone. I’m looking forward to it!”
Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 198, October 2009
Dom Lawson has been writing for Metal Hammer and Prog for over 14 years and is extremely fond of heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee and snooker. He also contributes to The Guardian, Classic Rock, Bravewords and Blabbermouth and has previously written for Kerrang! magazine in the mid-2000s.
A downtown Los Angeles building once made famous on the cover of a Doors album caught fire Thursday (Dec. 26) and needed over 100 firefighters to contain the blaze.
The site was famously captured for the cover of The Doors’ Morrison Hotel album, which was released in 1970. On the cover, the band’s members are seen posing inside a glass window with the moniker “Morrison Hotel” painted on the glass along with a sign noting $2.50 for a room.
the doors, morrison hotel
Elektra Records
About the Fire
Per local Los Angeles station KTLA, the blaze started at shortly before 11AM Thursday at 1246 S. Hope Street in downtown Los Angeles. It took an hour and a half for the over 100 firefighters to contain the fire, which had been designated by officials as “major emergency.”
The LAFD reported that 17 fire companies took part in extinguishing the fire. Vacant for over 15, the building had been used as a training site for fire fighters, which gave the crews an advantage in navigating the structure fire. While some had already evacuated the building, fire fighters were able to rescue three others who had been inside.
The building had been purchased in 2023 by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and was expected to be turned into an affordable housing complex.
The structure was heavily damaged. The roof collapsed leaving the structural integrity of the building in doubt. Two video reports on the fire can be viewed below.
KTLA 5 Report on Morrison Hotel Building Fire
LAFD Report on Morrison Hotel Building Fire
The Doors’ Morrison Hotel Photo Shoot
The famous album cover was shot by photographer Henry Diltz at the Morrison Hotel on South Hope Street in downtown L.A. The group had reportedly not been given permission to shoot at the transient hotel, so they patiently waited until the desk clerk had been called away, took a spot behind the window and the famous photo was captured.
Morrison Hotel was The Doors’ fifth studio album. It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum. The album is notable for the songs “Roadhouse Blues” and “Peace Frog.”
What 10 Rock Stars Had for Their Last Meals
Do you know what your favorite late rock star had for their final meal? While it might seem morbid, the eleventh hour activities of famous people — including rock stars — is something many are intrigued by. So here, we present you with the last meals of 10 famous rock stars.
Our 10 Most Rocking Robert Plant Solo Songs article presents a showcase of Robert Plant’s most roaring numbers he released during the post-Led Zeppelin years. It includes songs from all of his solo albums and a few of his side projects, including The Honeydrippers and the one Robert Plant Jimmy Page album called Walking into Clarksdale. We did not include anything from his collaboration with Alison Krauss as we feel that’s sort of a separate entity within itself. One that we really enjoy.
Robert Plant has spent most of his solo career trying to separate himself from his Led Zeppelin days. You can’t blame him, he is a musical artist who had a lot more to say. So far, since the breakup of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant has released eleven studio albums. While we’ve done multiple Robert Plant articles on this site, this is our first one that just looks at his most rocking songs of a solo career. We had a lot of fun doing this one.
# 10 – Shine It All Around – Mighty ReArranger
We open up our top 10 Robert Plant rocking songs list with a great one from his album Mighty ReArranger. That album was released in 2005. It was Robert Plant’s 8th solo album. It’s hard to believe that the record is almost 20 years old. Where does the time go? Phil Johnston produced the album. It’s a nice mid-tempo track with a great loud drum played by Clive Dreamer. The song also features Justin Adams on guitar, John Baggett on keyboards, Billy Fuller on base, and Liam Skin Tyson on acoustic guitar. The song was written by Justin Adams, John Baggett, Robert Plant, and Liam Skin Tyson.
# 9 – 29 Palms’ – Fate Of Nations
We continue our Robert Plant rocking songs list with a track from our favorite solo Robert Plant album, Fate of Nations. This is a driving mid-temp rock and roll song, which one can definitely get the sense of if they watch the video as it opens up with a clip of the open road. It’s pretty enjoyable watching these old Robert Plant videos and seeing a man who was such a mystery to so many of us in the 70s showcasing himself in some modern rock videos. Fate of Nations was released in 1993 during the grunge era.
# 8 – Rocking At Midnight (The Honeydrippers) –
In 1984, Robert Plant released an album called The Honeydrippers Volume 1. This was not really a Robert Plant solo album but rather a project that was led by Robert Plant and included his old buddy Jimmy Page, the legendary Jeff Beck, Mr Paul Shaffer from the David Letterman show that we all used to watch every night, and the great producer and songwriter Nile Rodgers of Chic Fame. None of the songs on the album are originals. They were all remakes of very popular ’50s and ’60s rock songs and R&B tunes. The big hit from the album was, of course, a remake of “Sea of Love;’ however, the closer Rocking at Midnight is the song that we’ve chosen to represent this interesting outlier in Robert Plant’s solo career.
# 7 – Most High (Plant / Page) – Walking Into Clarksdale
Continuing with this list once again, we pick out a song from another album that’s not officially a Robert Plant solo album. This is as close as we ever got to a Led Zeppelin reunion that released new music. Although, of course, it’s only featuring half of Led Zeppelin in Robert Plant and Jimmy Page as John Paul Jones is nowhere to be found on the record, and of course, John Bonham passed away in 1980. Michael Lee plays the drums on the album while Charlie Jones plays the bass. This is always been our favorite track on the album.
# 6 – Calling To You – Fate Of Nations
We return again to our favorite Robert Plant solo album, Fate Of Nations, with the roaring track “Calling To You.” This one rocks hard! There is definitely a bit of a “Kashmir” vibe to this one. No doubt about that! “Calling To You.” was the album’s opening cut. It was also the third single released from the album. The song was written by Robert Plant and Chris Blackwell. Can we get an Ohh Yeah? Yes, we can. Just take a listen.
# 5 – Hurting Kind (I’ve Got My Eyes on You) – Manic Nirvana
There are many fans who weren’t really happy with some of the solo material Robert Plant released, especially in the mid-80s, and some of that complaining was pointed to this album, Maniac Nirvana. A good deal of the complaints had to do with the abundance of keyboards, and more of a big ’80s pop sound. Yet listening back to this, it definitely rocked a lot harder than people realized it did. That’s why we’re including it on this list.
# 4 – In The Mood – The Principle Of Moments
Released on Robert Plant’s second solo album entitled The Principle of Moments, this is one of those songs that showcases a nice mid-tempo, almost swing-type groove, but at the core of it is some really hard-rocking soul. The Principle of Moments was released in 1983. The song “In The Mood,” which, of course, has nothing to do with the famous Glenn Miller song, was released as the second single. It was written by Robert Plant, Robbie Blunt, and Paul Martinez. The song also became a top 40 hit for Plant as it peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the Rock charts, it was a top 10 hit, reaching number four.
# 3 – Tall Cool One – Now And Zen
Like so many others who were huge Led Zeppelin fans, I wasnt crazy about this one when it first came out. However, over time, I have come to really admire the song’s energy, clever lyrics, fantastic chord changes and melody, and, of course, the special production that was what most people didn’t care for. In the end, this one really rocks and that’s what this article is all about.
# 2 – Burning Down One Side – Pictures At Eleven
I love Robert Plant’s first two solo albums. None of us knew what to expect after the breakup of Led Zeppelin. Of course there were many that were expecting Led Zeppelin type of albums. But “Robert Plant Solo” is not Led Zeppelin. And that’s something that Robert Plant has always tried to showcase throughout his entire solo career. This was the very first Robert Plant solo song many of us heard as it was his debut solo album’s opening track. Honestly, this did not disappoint this rocked!
# 1 – Other Arms – The Principle Of Moments
I don’t think I’m speaking just for myself when I say this is my favorite Robert Plant solo song. When a song goes all the way to number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts and knocks out a 9-week run by the Police at number one you know people are digging it. It’s funny that this song was not even released as the first single from the record. It was actually the third single after “Big Log” and “In the Mood.” It was released as the album’s third single almost a year after the album was out.
Check out more Robert Plant articles on ClassicRockHistory.com Just click on any of the links below……
Kirk Hammett is best known as the guitarist with Metallica. He joined the thrash icons in 1983, replacing future Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine on the eve of recording their debut album, Kill ’Em All, and has appeared on each of the band’s albums since.
But Hammett is also a noted horror connoisseur. Not only does he have an extensive collection of horror memorabilia, including a huge collection of vintage movie posters, but he’s published a book, Too Much Horror Business, and founded his own horror convention, Kirk Von Hammett’s Fear FestEvil, launched in 2014.
Unsurprisingly, Hammett knows his way around the world of horror movies, though his taste leans towards the less blood-splattered.
“I don’t really enjoy movies that have graphic violence for the sake of it,” he told Metal Hammer in 2012. “A lot of my favourite horror movies have to have a supernatural element or a fantasy element or a demonic, satanic element and I like movies that rely on those elements to carry the plot. Violence for violence’s sake, like the Saw movies and Hostel movies or even Friday The 13th, to me it’s kind of sleazy and cheap. It takes more thought and more imagination to make the type of horror movie that I like.”
Gory or not, Hammett’s knowledge of horror runs deep, as he proved when Metal Hammer asked him to name his five favourite cult horror movie villains.
First up were Dr. Vitus Werdegast and Hjalmar Poelzig, from the classic 1934 chiller The Black Cat, played respectively by horror legends Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.
“It’s an unusual movie in that Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff play two villains who meet up at a house and they don’t like each other and they end up squaring off,” said Kirk. “The climax of this movie is them having this duel. Those are two of my favourite villains of all time, man.”
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For his second choice, Hammett stuck with the 1930s, this time picking Fu Manchu, the criminal mastermind created by British author Sax Rohmer in the early 20th century. The character has been portrayed countless times over the years, though it was Boris Karloff’s incarnation from 1932’s The Mask Of Fu Manchu that struck a chord with Hammett.
“Boris Karloff is great in it,” enthused Hammett. “Dr Fu Manchu is trying to bring down the entire Western Civilisation and at one point he brings out his death ray and starts randomly firing it at a bunch of people, and it’s just totally insane.
Hammett then moved onto the 1980s, with Herbert West, the mad scientist-gone-bad from 1985 cult classic Re-Animator, an adaption of a classic HP Lovecraft story. In it, West discovers the secret of re-animating corpses, leading him to go on a murderous killing spree.
“He’s such a great mad doctor,” Kirk told Hammer. “[Actor] Jeffrey Combs did such an awesome job being a mad villain. There’s something scary about the idea of a crazy doctor, right? Herbert West is one of the craziest doctors you’ll ever see.”
Hammett’s penultimate choice was one of the all-time great horror movie characters, again from the 80s: the monstrously creepy Pinhead, from 1987 classic Hellraiser.
“That was super-original,”said Kirk. “He’s a demon from a different dimension with all these pins stuck in his head. That’s just super-imaginative, you know? I love the whole deal with the box too, having it be the key to this other realm. I think [author and Hellraiser director] Clive Barker is a true genius.”
For his final choice of horror movie villain, Kirk returned to the 1930s, nominating another mad scientist, namely Doctor Moreau from 1932’s Island Of Lost Souls, played with creepy charisma by noted British thesp Charles Laughton.
“Charles Laughton plays another favourite villain,” said Kirk. “He had a really decadent approach to portraying Doctor Moreau and I always thought that was really, really great.”
Horror fans may quibble that there are no classic characters from the 70s, 90s or beyond, but given Hammett’s knowledge of the genre is hard to beat, we’ll bow down to his picks.
German thrash metal band, Final Depravity, have issued the following unexpected update:
“Today, on our 17th anniversary as a band, we have an important announcement to share with you: A few months ago, our vocalist Benjamin Krzis decided to part ways with Final Depravity. While we are sad to see him go, we fully respect his decision and want to wish him nothing but success and happiness in whatever the future holds for him.”
“Benjamin has been an essential part of Final Depravity, and over the years, he became not just a bandmate, but also a close friend. His talent, dedication, and energy have left a lasting impact on the band, and he will be deeply missed both on stage and off.”
“As a result of his departure, the studio work for our third album was put on hold a few months ago. This has caused delays, but rest assured, the wait will be worth it. We’re hard at work, and there will be exciting news about the album very soon. Stay tuned!”
Here’s what Benjamin has to say about his departure: “After an amazing time as the singer of Final Depravity, I’ve decided to leave the band. We’re parting ways on the best of terms and will remain close friends. I look back on many fantastic moments with great joy and forward to our friendship continuing in the future. It wasn’t an easy decision, but with one child and another on the way, my time is simply limited. I want to thank the guys for all the experiences we shared and everything I’ve learned from them, and I wish them nothing but the best moving forward – both musically and personally.”
BraveWords scribe and celebrated author Martin Popoff will issue his new book, Guns N’ Roses At 40, on June 3, 2025.
Published by Motorbooks, this 192-page hardcover is now available to pre-order at this location.
Celebrate four exhilarating and rebellious decades of Guns N’ Roses with this lushly illustrated journey through the band’s biggest moments.
Formed on Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Strip in 1985, Guns N’ Roses worked their way up from the club scene in less than three years to become a best-selling recording act and a top tour draw. Along the way, there was no shortage of controversy to accompany the accolades. In Guns N’ Roses At 40, prolific rock biographer Martin Popoff curates 40 key touchstones in GN’R’s career, charting their formation and early history, key concert appearances, groundbreaking releases, notable collaborations, business challenges, personal difficulties, band quarrels, and more. This beautifully produced tribute features:
Sturdy hardcover format
Stunning photography, both on and off the stage
Images of band memorabilia
Gatefold Guns N’ Roses timeline
Complete studio discography
Popoff covers it all:
A history of the band’s scruffy early days on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip club scene
Backgrounds of founding members Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, and Steven Adler
Rundowns of the key studio albums and the processes behind them
Analyses of the infamous incidents and controversies that seemed to follow the band
The departures (and sometimes the returns) of key members
First-person interviews with bassists Duff McKagan and Tommy Stinson
In examining 40 key pivot points in GN’R’s now-forty-year history, Guns N’ Roses at 40 provides a concise documentary-like view of the band that as much as any other helped drive a spike through the heart of hair metal. Combine this unique perspective with a gorgeous package and you have an indispensable addition to the collection of every fan.
