Summer vacation

I´m gonna slow down the blog in July. Be sure to visit the facebook page for updates, gems and great music.

I´ll be back in August!

Iron Maiden: See-Rock Festival (June 21) Footage Posted Online

Fan-filmed video footage of Iron Maiden's June 21 concert at at the See-Rock festival in Graz, Austria, can be seen below.

The band's setlist was s follows:

01. Moonchild
02. Can I Play With Madness
03. The Prisoner
04. 2 Minutes To Midnight
05. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
06. The Trooper
07. The Number Of The Beast
08. Phantom Of The Opera
09. Run To The Hills
10. Wasted Years
11. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
12. The Clairvoyant
13. Fear Of The Dark
14. Iron Maiden

Encore:

15. Aces High
16. The Evil That Men Do
17. Running Free

Alice Cooper: Entire New Hampshire Concert (June 20) Goes Online

Quality fan-filmed video footage of Alice Cooper's entire June 20 concert at Bank Of New Hampshire Pavilion At Meadowbrook in Gilford, New Hampshire can be seen below.

Cooper and Marilyn Manson have teamed up for "Masters Of Madness" through June 28. Following recent pairings of Alice with Rob Zombie and then Rob Zombie with Manson, this combination of Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson has been long awaited by fans of both artists.

The Mezmerist: Featuring Bill Ward Coming In September

The Mezmerist is one of the most mysterious US metal releases of all time. Nobody even knows who The Mezmerist is, and to even find an original LP was a chore because the band held on to a lot of the pressing. Originally there was only 500 copies made back in 1985, today those copies have gone for extremely high prices on eBay.

With this re-issue, scheduled for September 3rd via Shadow Kingdom Records, this is basically the first time anyone who knew about this lost gem made contact with the band. The label got lucky finding the mastermind behind the group, Thomas Mezmercardo. Since contacting him, they ended up taking an additional five years to put this release out properly and with all of the parties and work involved. Speaking of all parties involved, one of the most interesting things about this release is that Bill Ward of Black Sabbath did in fact play drums on this release. He played on the first four tracks on the first EP.

The circumstances surrounding the events back then are somewhat of a mystery, even to this day. Thomas sits down and tells the story of how all of this came together on the DVD portion of the release. This is not just any old over-hyped cult release. This is the definition of the perfect lost gem in '80s heavy metal history. It’s too hard to exactly pinpoint what this sounds like, but if you have to label it, call it psychedelic heavy metal. Close to Led Zeppelin, Cirith Ungol and Mercyful Fate, the release is a double EP - released as a full-length album.

1st EP circa 1983
'The Forsaken'
'Dead Ones Cry No More'
'Arabian Nights'
'Victim Of Environmental Change'

2nd EP circa 1985
'Kingdom Of The Dead'
'No Family, No Friends' 

'The Jam Song'

Steven Tyler To Record Solo Album

Steven Tyler has revealed to RollingStone.com that he will begin work on his debut solo album in early 2014.

"Joe has done, like, four solo albums,"Steven said. "I never have, though with lyrics and arrangements and so forth a lot of Aerosmith albums are just fine for me. It's cathartic. But I had a lot of fun doing '(It) Feels So Good'. I wrote that with Marti Frederiksen.

"I've got this itch in me to do a solo record, and that's what I'm gonna do next. I've got some great people that want to get involved in it.

"It's early on right now, but that's the itch I got. I got that itch to do something that's a lot different than Aerosmith.  Aerosmith s never been better, but we did that album. This last album was an Aerosmith all-for-one-and-one-for-all. But my heart is in stuff like that weirder, off-the-cuff stuff that I'm not sure Aerosmith would like.

"I'm into electronica - I was when I used to listen to Stockhausen in '65. So there's just a lot of stuff - good, weird fucking music that I want to get off my chest. The band will be playing, and we're going to China and Singapore. It's gonna open up a whole new world for Aerosmith  So Aerosmith will always be around, but I got this itch and I know how to scratch it."