Five Finger Death Punch - White Knuckles

Band: Five Finger Death Punch
Song: White Knuckles
Album: The Way OF The Fist (2007)
Genre: Heavy Metal

I went to see Five Finger Death Punch and Breaking Benjamin in Pittsburgh last night, and I just want to stress how good a show Death Punch puts on.

Since the singer's series of meltdowns over the last couple years, I wasn't sure how they'd end up holding up in a live set.  It turns out Ivan (the singer) was having a lot of trouble with alcohol and is now clean.  Good for him honestly, I feel like it was incredibly beneficial to the show that he's clean now.

The whole thing was fantastic though, their stage was really slick looking, the songs were really tight.  The only thing that bummed me out was that they didn't play this song, so I'm gonna share it with you today, eh?

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, or even sponsor my podcast on Patreon. No big, do whatever. But yeah, Twitter and Facebook are where I’m most active.

Twitter  Facebook  Patreon

Stryper - To Hell With The Devil

Band:  Stryper
Song:  To Hell With The Devil
Album:  To Hell With The Devil
Genre:  Heavy Metal

I would love to find who told Stryper that their eyesore of a color pattern was a good idea so I can hurt them.  It's hideous, like, my goodness.

But their music is surprisingly solid for being Christian music that originated in the 80s and such.  Most all Christian media is absolute trash until you hit fringe stuff.  The Worship music, the Rap music, and the Hardcore/Metal music.

Stryper's vocalist is straight amazing though.  Like, he can still hit these notes, which is straight up amazing.  Not a lot of the 80s vocalists still have the pipes to manage that trick.

Follow me on Facebook        Support me on Patreon

A to Z 2K17 Runner Up: Bride

Band:  Bride
Song:  Hell No
Album:  Live To Die
Genre:  Heavy Metal, Glam Metal

You know how 80s Metal was kinda its own thing that stayed to itself for the most part?  Well there was a Christian subgenre of that as well, and it was terribly wonderful.

While a lot of people are familiar with Stryper and Petra (considered Metal by some uninformed people I know), not as many knew about Bride.  In fact I only know of a couple people who are familiar with them.

They are good though if that's the kind of music you like.  As far as the good old Hair Metal sound goes you don't have too look to hard to find that 90% of the bands are straight trash.  Just don't even bother.  But these guys were a good time, and most of their albums were pretty nice too.

Follow me on Facebook        Support me on Patreon

Cover Week: Five Finger Death Punch - A New Level

Band:  Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP)
Genre:  Heavy Metal
Language:  Strong

I believe I covered this song a while ago in a rather terrible post that, not only do I ramble on, but all the songs are no longer available for whatever reason.

I mean, the main point I want to try and make is that the song is a good cover, but I feel like I probably owe you guys a little more than that since the post would be done right here if I tried that stunt.

Traditionally there's a mountain of argument that goes into any sort of Pantera cover.  There's the issue with Dime's guitar tone.  The dude had a very unique sound that doesn't translate to other people well because nobody has really replicated his tone.

Then there's Phil and his vocal chord damaging singing style.  The man destroyed his voice over his career which, while commendable, is kinda dumb.  He honestly had one of the largest vocal ranges in Metal which is really noticeable on the song Cemetery Gates.  The notes he hits are astounding considering what he's capable of now.

But this isn't Pantera, this is Five Finger Death Punch.  Honestly, they did a good cover.  They did it back in their early days when Ivan was still a little crazy with his vocal work in his post Motograter days so they captured a little of that psycho that everybody loves.  The music feels like typical Death Punch though, so kinda whatever on that front, ya know?

Solid tune, 3.5 out of 5.

<
Follow Me On Facebook

King Diamond - Christmas

Artist:  King Diamond
Genre:  Heavy Metal

I feel like I really need to listen to more of this dude's music seeing as I've posted two of his Christmas songs and none of his regular music.

I hear it's quite good, and judging by the fact that I really enjoy the novelty and quality of these Christmas songs I would suppose that I'd like it.

I dunno, I just never listened to Mercyful Fate or his self titled solo stuff I guess.  Except one, and it was about a haunted house, or a house haunted by his dead grandma.  Something like that.  I dunno, it was interesting.

<
Follow Me On Facebook

Iron Maiden - Holy Smoke

Band:  Iron Maiden
Genre:  Heavy Metal

Oh my gosh, this is one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time.  I've loved this song for quite a while, but I haven't ever seen the wonderful joke that is this video, haha.

This is probably my favorite song about Tele-Preachers honestly, not only because it raises some genuine things, but the way it opens with "Believe in me and send your money".  That makes me chuckle every time.

Iron Maiden has long been one of my favorite bands, I just haven't listened to them much recently since switching away from CDs.  It's rough to navigate some of the older bands on Spotify when they have a pile of live albums.  Still though, I managed to remember this song exists and if I can do that then I can get more Iron Maiden into my everyday life.

Side note, while the album this song was one is a little rough it did have a couple good songs on it, so check out the rest of them.

<
Follow Me On Facebook

Five Finger Death Punch - Lift Me Up

Band:  Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP) feat. Rob Halford
Genre:  Heavy Metal
Language:  Once, Strong

This was the track that spawned a great amount of excitement about 5FDP's album a few years back.  It was fantastic because you've got one of the best vocalists in Metal guesting on one of the newer groups on a really solid song.  There's a couple really good songs on the album, but hands down this is probably the best one.

It was a fantastic single to herald what promised to be a good album, and I feel they held the bar too high.  The album was good, don't get me wrong.  I've got a lot of love for the album here, it's got a couple of my favorite Death Punch songs on it, but with how nice this was the whole second album was just kinda...  Flat.  It felt like this album's rejects.  But you know what?  This song is still good, and that's what counts.

<
Follow Me On Facebook

Title Track Tuesdays: Godsmack - Faceless

Band:  Godsmack
Genre:  Heavy Metal

Let's be real now, Godsmack makes an album that is on average 11 songs long, have 2 low key kinda middle eastern sounding tracks, and 9 tracks that don't really sound too different.  You've got the albums that are saturated with the Wah pedal, you've got the ones that only have a little in the solo.  There's that one crazy acoustic album, but it doesn't even really count cause it's a special case, ya feel?

So with that in mind, let's look at Faceless.  With what I said we all should know that this song is kinda a shoe in for "Yeah, it represents the album", so we'll just go ahead and say that now.

But I'm not going to just skate past the fact that there are a couple songs on here that just straight up sound alike.  Firstly, you are actually able to just skip through the album from about the middle of each song on and it mostly could be the same song.  That's just Godsmack's style though, so we'll let that pass.

What I will not let pass is the fact that two of the songs on the album sound just like each other.  I can't find them right now because my Spotify is messing up, but if you listen through the album it's really obvious.

Five Finger Death Punch - Dot Your Eyes

Band:  Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP) feat. Jamey Jasta
Genre:  Heavy Metal
Language:  Strong

There's a certain appeal to the Metal strain that 5FDP plays because it's big, chuggy, and easy to get into.  There are times that I really don't care for them since the second part of Righteous Side Of Heaven was a little disappointing, but all in all I still like their stuff.

This is one of the tracks I like more off of this album.  "Lift Me Up" is probably my favorite, but this one is more than a little solid as well.

Jamey Jasta is from Hatebreed by the way, so if you liked his verse maybe check them out.

Iron Maiden - Wasted Years

Band:  Iron Maiden
Genre:  New Wave British Metal, Heavy Metal

I love Iron Maiden so much.  They were one of my favorite bands when I was first getting into my "Oh look, I'm so edgy" phase.  My friend Alan introduced me to them and back then I was all "Nah man, these guys seem a little rough."  He then told me to listen to Insane Clown Posse and if I was still thinking these guys were too much then He couldn't help me.

Luckily for me at the time I never listened to ICP back then, I waited a while before I poluted my musical taste with them.

Maiden though, I always forget how much I really love their stuff.  I really wish I could say their bassist was an inspiration to me and my play style, but he played in a way that was so far above my level back when I first started listening to them that I didn't even pretend I could play his stuff.  Heck, I probably still can't play it, though I might be closer than I was then.

This song is fantastic though, so please enjoy it.

Grim Reaper - See You In Hell

Band:  Grim Reaper
Genre:  Heavy Metal, New Wave British Heavy Metal

I saw this on Reddit about a week ago and I thought it sounded pretty cool.  I told Jeff about it and I was all, "Hey look, these guys sound like early Death, you might like it."  Well if you follow that link (which heck, it might be tomorrow's post) you'll see that Death sounds nothing like Grim Reaper.  Nothing at all.

Actually when he heard it he said that Grim Reaper sounded like, "that crappy Glam stuff you seem to like for some reason.  A good version, but still kinda crappy."

I can't deny that I'm majorly attracted to kinda crappy music, but still man, that hurts a little bit.  Eh, maybe not.  I can admit that I have poor taste at times, so that makes it all ok.

Hey hey, this sounds really classic though, so please enjoy.

Black Sabbath - Children Of The Grave

Band:  Black Sabbath
Genre:  Heavy Metal

This song is off of one of my favorite albums when I started listening to Metal more.  My dad gave me a digital copy of it when I had asked him for music once and it quickly rose to the top of a lot of my playlists at the time.  Honestly, a lot of that was probably driven by the fact that my mom hated Sabbath and, since I really didn't rebel that much as a kid, I wanted to do something to "stick it to the man".

Stupid reason to listen to a band, but it's not like it's the first time anybody's done something like that and it sure won't be the last.

Solid song though, I would call it reasonably ahead of it's time in the sense that it could have been released at any point between when it was and about 20 years later and still fit.  Thing is though that's just because Sabbath's style was mostly unchanging over the course of their entire careers.  They have sounded the same of at least similar since they started.

Have a good day, catch ya tomorrow.

Disturbed - The Sound Of Silence

Band:  Disturbed
Genre:  Heavy Metal

Disturbed is one of those bands I have a love hate relationship with.  One one hand the music is really the generic angry sounds of everybody's middleschool highschool days.  On the other, the guitarist is actually a really underrated player who's really good at being a busy yet simple enough to not sound busy.  Draiman, the vocalist, is a fantastic singer who manages to bring an aspect of melody to a band that otherwise would just be another hardcore band.

For all this though they are still just kind of...  Meh to me.  Don't get me wrong, all the things I just said about them are true.  I do think they are a really powerful group and have some great things going for them, I just don't think it always comes through.

That is, up until this song.

Disturbed has decided that, in addition to Draiman's usual preachy stance on literally everything from weed to the holocaust, they are going to show a softer side.

There are very few cover songs that I think are legitimately better than the original.  All Along The Watchtower would be a good example of a cover song that's leaps and bounds above the original.

Well who would have figured that Disturbed would not only cover a Simon & Garfunkel song, but actually do it well?  Nobody basically.  The fact of the matter is though they managed to take a song and turn it into a power ballad that would make anybody proud.  The message of the song manages to shine through much strong than it did in the original without actually taking away from it.  The edge that Draiman's voice takes on when he get's more emotional in the song helps to drive in the point in a way that the original just wasn't able to.

Don't be scared by the fact that I labeled these guys as Heavy Metal.  That's their general genre but it's not how the song sounds.  They didn't speed it up and add a pile of guitars to it.  Take a listen and enjoy it.

A to Z Challenge: G is for Gwar

Band:  Gwar
Genre:  Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal

Yo.  Who doesn't like a band that dresses up?  The correct answer is nobody.  Nobody can hate a band that dresses up and pulls it off.  (Slipknot, Mushroomhead, and the like.)

You know who does a fantastic job at the whole masked band thing?  Gwar.

Gwar may have started out taking things seriously, but I kinda doubt it.  With their costumes, elaborate backstories, and horrific stage show Gwar has managed to capture the hearts of many Metal fans.

I mean really though, this is just a magical thing to witness.  Their interviews are always gold cause they're just plain funny.  Even if you hate the music you should at least check out some of their interviews and things like that.

But for real, their stage show is the stuff of nightmares.  They kill people, they spray blood everywhere, they are really crass, and they kill people.  I 100% recommend checking it out, but you've been warned.

Happy Friday and G day everybody, continue to enjoy the A to Z!

Godsmack - I Stand Alone

Band:  Godsmack
Genre:  Heavy Metal

The lead singer of Godsmack, Sully Erna, had his birthday yesterday.  The Superbowl was also yesterday.

Sully's birthday was the reason that I picked this song though, even though I'm sure that after I watch the Bowl that it will inspire a great many things as well.

Writing this before I get to watch anything, so we'll see which team I'm rooting for and which one wins, eh?

Five Finger Death Punch - Wash It All Away

Band:  Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP)
Genre:  Heavy Metal
Language:  Brief, Strong

Screw this band.  They have made it so hard to actually find their songs on YouTube.  Their copyright is so freaking tight that people can't even upload the songs most of the time.  On top of that they don't allow YouTube to stream their album.  Like seriously, this sin't the song I actually wanted to post.  It isn't even the second song I wanted to post.

I can listen to their stuff on Spotify, but not YouTube.  That's just weird.  Not a great move guys, but you do you.

Cover Week 2: Five Finger Death Punch - Bad Company

I talked about 5FDP a while ago and posted all of their covers at once.  That was a mistake.

I'm reposting this one now so that, just in case you lived under a rock that played no rock music during 2009 - 2011 area, you can hear this song.  It's really good, and I think you might like it.

A to Z Challenge: F is for Faceless

We've talked about Godsmack before and how I really like them even though they're really repetitive.

This is a wonderful example of an album for that.

For instance, the songs Faceless and Changes have extremely similar choruses.  Like, really similar.  come on guys, the songs are even right after the other.

Still though, I do love a lot of these tracks.  Several of them are on my workout playlist actually.

My favorite tracks are:

Straight Out Of Line

Changes

Make Me Believe

I Stand Alone

I F*cking Hate You

Serenity

They're all pretty good songs, and I'd advise checking most or all of them out.  I mean, I think you should listen to the whole album, but that's a lot of time to commit, so I can understand if you don't.

Godsmack - Get Up, Get Out

Throwing back to some older Godsmack here.

This is a song off of the first album from 98.  Not too bad really, and the first lines always made me chuckle a little bit for whatever reason.  What can I say, I am amused when people talk about hitting each other.

This song was earlier in Godsmack's career, so it doesn't really follow the same outline I gave you the first time around.  Oh wait, it does.  it follows it perfectly.  Come on guys, vary your style just a tiny bit.

Five Finger Death Punch - 100 Ways To Hate

I'm not sure who was the person behind this remix cause they just put it at the end of their album.  I'm supposing that it was just could have done, or maybe it was an aspiring sound tech that wanted to be special.  I don't really know though, so let's move on.

This is one of my favorite pump up songs.  I can't recall if I posted the original before, but the raw "I hate you" energy that pours off of this is some of my favorite stuff, ya know?  I really enjoy the aggressive energy of it.

Funny thing, this video has some major issues staying on YouTube, so here's a Soundcloud link that's been up for 2 years.  Should be safe.

Here's a Spotify one though, just in case the Soundcloud one goes down.