By Metal Dave Arriving like a muscle car flipping end-over-end through a liquor store, Mean Mistreater from Austin, TX, is a glorious collision of New Wave of British Heavy Metal-meets-Hollywood sleaze rock. Think Angel Witch riding shotgun with W.A.S.P. and you’re close enough to smell the leather and sweat. Drawing blood with an eight-track debut…
“There were overdoses, seizures, ambulances. A lot of people around us died. A lot of people contracted HIV. In the beginning, it was exciting; then it was decadent and then it was just devastating.”
The crowd singalong to the piston-pumping “Turbo Lover” proved to be a memorable moment as the houselights illuminated the swaying audience to the obvious delight of a grinning Halford.
‘Checkered Past’ continues a prolific – and top-notch – streak started with 2017’s ‘The Missing Peace’ and reaffirmed with 2019’s ‘The Devil You Know.’
“Even before I started playing guitar, I would come home from school, crank KISS Alive! in my parents’ living room and basically play air guitar to that entire record.”
A highly entertaining, behind-the-amps tour of the 1970s arena-rock connections, rivalries, misfires and grand designs linking the “hottest band in the land” to Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and the cultishly influential, yet eternally dimmed Starz.
Calling from an Iowa stop on Van Halen’s “Balance” tour, Eddie comes across as refreshingly unaffected by his superstar status. He apologizes for taking five seconds to find an ashtray, then exudes an enthusiasm rarely found in an 18-year rock veteran. He also laughs – a lot.
The 10-track “Evil in the Queue” revisits an explosive night of ear-splitting volume and eye-spinning visuals.
“We were all on the crazy train, as Ozzy says, and it was a fabulous time to be in rock and roll,” Halford says of the debauched 1980s.
For a rock-n-roll journalist, few interviews carry more weight than Metallica. Were they among my favorite interviews? Not really. Will I brag about them to anyone who will listen? Most definitely.
On latest album “House of Noise,” Massive Wagons flip the switch to full-on, bouncy, good fun. Go ahead, put a party in your speakers!
On “Rest in Pieces,” Heaven Below takes on Chris Cornell (“Like a Stone”), Ronnie James Dio (“Hungry for Heaven”) and Judas Priest (“Desert Plains”), among others.