Queensryche
Welcome to a Monday. We’re those old fuckers that play those old heavy metal songs. METAL SHOP rolls out kick ass 80’s metal and hard rock 24/7.
All your favorites are always in the mix, including IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, METALLICA, DIO, MÖTLEY CRÜE, MEGADETH, QUEENSRŸCHE, SCORPIONS, RATT, SLAYER, and more.
Listen also for the new ANTHRAX… ‘Evil Twin’ is coming up soon. The new album ‘For All Kings’ is excellent and cracked the U.S. Top 10 in its first week of release to land at position No. 9 on The Billboard 200 chart.
In a recent interview with vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza of San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans EXODUS, he said “we’re not considered one of the [so-called] “Big Four” [of 1980s thrash metal, which consists of METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX], and I hate that phrase. METALLICA is by far the biggest band in the world, so to put the other three in that category? No disrespect to MEGADETH, ANTHRAX or SLAYER; I love all of those bands, but I lived in the Bay Area when metal was being born, and everybody wanted to be like EXODUS. That goes from POSSESSED, LEGACY, DEATH ANGEL. It was not necessarily METALLICA, it was EXODUS. So, to me, that was the band that innovated and started it out.”
Checkout this video an IRON MAIDEN fan uploaded of the official and bootleg merchandise stands at the band’s March 3rd concert at Palacio De Los Deportes in Mexico City. METAL SHOP’s Ralph Cartel noted that in Las Vegas, the official merchandise booth was out of control. In Mexico though, not a soul is buying a t-shirt inside the venue but if you go outside it’s a whole different story.
Former ACCEPT singer Udo Dirkschneider is currently on tour where he is performing ACCEPT songs one last time before he closes the chapter for good, saying “I wanna close, like a book, and say, ‘Okay, that’s it. I read it.’ Sometimes you have to come to an end with something. I wanna close up everything with ACCEPT. Click Here to read more and see video footage from Friday’s show in Jyväskylä, Finland.
Happy Birthday to Linda Jarota listening to METAL SHOP in Pennsylvania, Chris Hiles listening in Washington State, Tony Nicholl listening in the U.K., and Jorge Zorrilla Diaz listening in Peru.
Have a good one all and stay dry out there.
Hello 80’s metalheads, lurkers, and surfers! There is word again of a possible DOKKEN reunion, this time from former bassist, Jeff Pilson, who says “we’re actually working really hard to try and pull something together right now. It has to fall in spaces where there is time off [from my gig with Foreigner], so I don’t know for sure whether it’s gonna happen. So let’s just say we’re all friendly now, we’re all past all the decades-old crap, and we all talk and everything’s great. Now it really is just down to scheduling and trying to figure it out. Because, you know, you’ve gotta do it right, if you’re gonna do it. We all feel that way. Pilson continued; “We shared something very special together. I think we’re all at the point in life where we kind of appreciate it now. And if we ever get a chance to do some more with it, I think… It would be very interesting, because we’ve never been in a situation where there wasn’t animosity, so I don’t know. [Laughs] Maybe it won’t work. I don’t know. [Laughs]”
In case you missed it, Sammy Hagar (The Red Rocker) made some interesting claims in this Dan Rather interview clip released over the weekend, saying “I was really as big as VAN HALEN.” Click Here to watch the video.
Man, I love the rockumentaries coming out now on some of the 80’s metal and hard rocks bands and how they really capture the hunger of the early days. The QUIET RIOT one was really good and now TWISTED SISTER is out today. Check out a clip of ‘We Are Twisted F***ing Sister’ at this location – Click Here.
Happy Birthday to QUEENSRŸCHE Guitarist Michael Wilton. He turns 54 today. Did you know he is also known as ‘The Whip,’ for how fast his fingers “whip” around the guitar fretboard? After original Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo left the band in 1998, Wilton gradually began performing most of the songs that previously featured DeGarmo doing the main solo live, including “Silent Lucidity”, “The Mission”, “En Force”, “I Am I”, “Take Hold of the Flame”, “Best I Can”, “The Killing Words”, “Bridge”, “The Lady Wore Black” and “Anybody Listening?”, amongst others.
Happy Birthday to Andres Moreno listening to METAL SHOP in Bogotá, Colombia and Jacob Kulhanek listening in Houston, Texas.
Have a terrific Tuesday and never stop rockin’!
Time to kick Tuesday’s ass with 80’s metal and hard rock… Maiden, Priest, Metallica, DIO, Crue, Scorps, RATT, Megadeth, W.A.S.P., Dokken and more spin 24/7 on METAL SHOP.
Happy Birthday to SKID ROW founder and bassist Rachel Bolan (real name: James Richard Southworth). His stage name ‘Bolan’ is a tribute to one of his childhood idols, T. Rex frontman, Marc Bolan. Did you know Rachel Bolan sang back-up vocals on Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood album?
Late MOTÖRHEAD frontman, Lemmy Kilmister was a regular at The Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, CA. A memorial was held there on the day of Lemmy’s funeral on January 9th and a mural was painted on the bar’s wall as a mark of respect. Now, a life-size bronze statue of Lemmy will be erected outside the venue.
From the WTF file, former QUEENSRŸCHE Singer Geoff Tate Is Working On Jazz Album.
Dave Mustaine has discussed the possibility of re-recording MEGADETH’s debut ‘Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!’ with the band’s current lineup, saying “If I did go back and record any old songs, it would probably be like a brand new interpretation of our greatest hits, because I think that focusing on any one record and showing an interpretation of all of our great songs by a new lineup would be more exciting. You never know. We might do that.”
Really excited for IRON MAIDEN’s return to the states in two weeks. The Book Of Souls World Tour starts Feb. 24th in Sunrise, FL. Maiden posted the photo below on the band’s Facebook page yesterday with the caption “We’re still packing!! Glad it’s a big plane…”
Have a rockin’ day!
Who Are The Top 20 Metal Bands Of All Time?
Depends who you ask and how they define who is metal or just hard rock. For example, many agree that Metalica, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest are metal, but KISS, AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses are not metal.
That is how the authors of the new book ‘The Merciless Book of Metal Lists‘ see it in one of several indexes they compiled for this release set for April 9, 2013 by Abrams Image.
Howie Abrams and Sacha Jenkins’ book features numerous compilations of bests (songs, guitarists, album covers featuring goats) and worsts (embarrassing metal videos, metal fashion faux pas’).
80’s metal fans will also surely appreciate unconventional lists such as: ’10 Reasons Why EVERYONE Loves Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood” and ’10 Accomplishments Iron Maiden Would Never Have Achieved had Paul Di’Anno Remained Their Singer’.
One of the lists sure to spark some debate is ’20 of the Greatest Metal Voices.’ They nailed the top three (my opinion) and Queensryche’s Geoff Tate certainly deserves a top five appearance:
1. Ronnie James Dio (Black Sabbath, Dio)
2. Rob Halford (Judas Priest)
3. Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
4. Eric Adams (Manowar)
5. Geoff Tate (Queensrÿche)
6. King Diamond (Mercyful Fate, King Diamond)
7. Tom Araya (Slayer)
8. John Bush (Armored Saint/Anthrax)
9. James Hetfield (Metallica)
10. Max Cavalera (Sepultura, Soulfly)
In an interview with the New York Times, Abrams said Dio was the unanimous choice for the top spot because he had a virtuosity that set him far apart from other top metal vocalists.
“If he needed to apply darkness, he could do it,” said Abrams. “If he needed to belt and go to a higher range, he could. He replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath, and I’m not sure there was a taller task for a vocalist. He did it with ease and grace, and he may have improved on what Oz did in the first place.”
‘The Merciless Book of Metal Lists’ is a fun read. I especially enjoyed viewing the artwork from ‘200 Embarrassingly Bad Album Covers’… Anthrax took the top two spots with ‘State of Euphoria’ and number one ‘Fistful of Metal.’
BigMusicGeek.com: Despite him being rather far removed from the group, do you still have a functional relationship with Chris DeGarmo? What were the main motivating factors behind him leaving the group amid their main commercial peak?
Geoff Tate: “Yes. I’ve always had a relationship with Chris. I just spoke to him last week. …I can’t really answer for him, but from my perspective, he just got sick of it all, ya know? It’s really difficult to keep a band together when they hate you, are resentful of you and are jealous of you. There’s only so many days that you can walk in there with a happy face and say ‘Okay, guys’ (laughs), ya know? He just got worn down by it all and wanted to do something different with his life. He was in an economic position to do something different with his life and he just did it. Speaking to me, he said ‘Look, I’ve really enjoyed this and what we’ve created together and I cherish our partnership, but I really need to do something different with my life. We’ve had a really good run, but it’s time for me to move on and do something different’. You can’t argue with someone for wanting to live their life. Life is short. The road that you get on when you’re twenty years old and think you’re going to travel for the rest of your life…there’s always that crossroads where if all the stars align, maybe you’ll take that left turn instead of a right. He just got off the road. …He wanted to do something different and he went and did it.”
Queensrÿche with new singer Todd LaTorre performed New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31, 2012) at Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. Check out video below.
Setlist:
01. Queen Of The Reich
02. Speak
03. Walk In The Shadows
04. The Whisper
05. En Force
06. Child Of Fire
07. Warning
08. The Needle Lies
09. Prophecy
10. Road To Madness
11. I Don’t Believe In Love
12. My Empty Room
13. Eyes Of A Stranger
Encore:
14. Take Hold Of The Flame
15. Jet City Woman
16. Silent Lucidity
17. Empire
Click Here to view more videos.
Screamer Magazine: (New Queensrÿche vocalist Todd LaTorre) “This is a rebirth of a legendary band that deserves this chance again and that’s how I feel as a fan! I think I can speak from a different perspective than anybody here because this has been my favorite band since I was 14 years old. And I met them 20 years ago, when I was 18 years old. I drove to a record store and they signed my ‘Warning’ cover album–I still have it. So I’m able to look at things from both sides, which I feel gives an objective point of view.”
(Drummer Scott Rockenfield) “Most of it was geared around wanting to do better business and watching what our business has been doing, as well as trying to address some issues that began early in 2012. I mean, things had been building for a while, but in a nutshell, we wanted to address those things and it wasn’t accepted very well, and that started a sort of chaotic steam roll of a lot of negative stuff going on, which cultivated in the very end and escalated to what happened in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It had been building for a while, to be honest, and one of those things where we just finally decided to sit down and really address some of these issues and talk about ways we could do better business together, and that required us to have to make some decisions. We wanted to move on with some employees that were working with us and to just address a lot of issues that were on the table for us. And, like I said, once we opened up those conversations, it didn’t go very well, and so we had to make some decisions based around that and so that’s what we did. We just decided that it was best for us to move on; we didn’t see eye to eye anymore on those business decisions, so we wanted to keep doing what Queensrÿche is good at, which is making music and playing shows for the fans that want to hear what we do. So that’s what we did. The timing was good, we moved on, we found Todd, he fit the role. He’s got a great personality and all our chemistry together is really great and here we are.”
(Guitarist Michael Wilton) “The ultimate decision, though, is going to be how the fans feel and how the fans react and how this is played out in the marketplace. We’re doing pretty good numbers right now and we are the majority of the band, and to be honest, I think the fans are going to be psyched.”
Before Queensrÿche’s ‘Anarchy-X’ became the killer opening track on ‘Operation: Mindcrime‘ (1988), it almost became another song on their previous release.
METAL SHOP listener James Kocher in Micanopy, Florida discovered this YouTube gem (view below), a track written for the ‘Rage for Order‘ (1986) album, but never actually released.
According to Wikipedia, Queensrÿche wrote and recorded at least three complete songs 
that did not make the final ‘Rage’ track list, but are available on various demos. ‘From the Darkside’ is a slow atmospheric piece with lyrics and concepts later revisited for ‘Mindcrime’. ‘The Dream’ is a fast heavy metal tune and the unreleased title track ‘Rage for Order’ also has elements that ended up on ‘Mindcrime’, mainly the intro which became ‘Anarchy-X’ and some lyrical concepts. The song ‘Rage for Order’ was played live during the tour promoting this album and is available on bootleg audio and video.
In a posting on his official Facebook page, new Queensrÿche vocalist Todd La Torre wrote “‘Queen Of The Reich’: Yes, people do stare speechless, because they are shocked to hear the song performed well, a song that ‘broke out’ this legendary pioneering band. Shame on anyone to deny the music that garnished fans in the first place and still resonates 30 years later.”
He may be right, but as a long-time Queensrÿche fan, I’m offended. There are plenty of great (younger) singers that can belt out those classics better than Geoff Tate can today. Regardless of who you side with in the split, Tate made those songs famous. Anyone else fronting the band now is just facilitating the memories. -Rich Rock
Oregon Music News: Currently you can use the name ‘Queensrÿche’ as can Scott, Michael and Eddie. You put together an all-star line-up that will tour under the name Queensrÿche. How confusing do you think this will be to the casual fans and will this hurt the brand?
Geoff Tate: “Oh, yeah it will be. That’s why I tried to file an injunction to stop everyone from using the name until we settled our differences. They didn’t want that they wanted to keep touring. They couldn’t sell their other project without the name ‘Queensrÿche.’ I think that is what caused them to fire me and go through such extreme measures. They’re operating in ‘survival mode’ which is really too bad. This isn’t the way I envisioned the ending of the band. I do think this will be confusing for the ‘casual fan’ but I think most Queensrÿche fans are very intelligent people can go to queensryche.com or geofftate.com and get a clearer picture of what’s happening. I think this will allow them to make an informed decision on what they’d like to do.”
Oregon Music News: So Geoff how much of the break-up has to do with money?
Geoff Tate: “Oh, it’s all about money! It’s all about money. It’s unfortunate that some people are able to see the picture of where they are at. They have this misinformed of idea of what ‘reality’ is. So these people make these bad decisions on this ‘misinformation’ and then they have to justify their actions. I really believe that is what is happening here.”
Oregon Music News: Out curiosity, have you heard or viewed any of the clips of Todd La Torre performing ‘classic’ Queensryche material? If so what did you think?
Geoff Tate: “Oh, no. I’m not even interested in that.”
Oregon Music News: It must be very hurtful to cut ties with the guys because you guys basically grew up together.
Geoff Tate: “Oh, yeah. Absolutely, it was a horrible experience to go through and a complete betrayal on so many different levels. It’s been a painful few months—definitely. I’m on the ‘upswing’ I think. I’ve gone through the pain, the feelings of despair and the feelings of betrayal. I’m on to the next thing now and moving on with my life. I feel really good about it, I’m positive it about and very excited.”