When asked about his son, Jack, filming a documentary about him, Ozzy replies:
“I said ‘Jack, don’t just do things that make me look like a f**kin’ saint. I’m not a saint.’ Because, you know, you see some guy on the biography channel or something, and they’ll say how wonderful he is. Well, even Jesus Christ wasn’t always wonderful. Isn’t there one time when he goes ‘F**k, I don’t feel like giving a speech on this mountain.’?”
Hilarious comment. One for the quote books.
Hooray! The future is now: Ozzy’s genetic code can one day be bottled like inexpensive wine.
Scientists to map Ozzy Osbourne’s genetic code to find out how he survived so much substance abuse.
Let’s not forget that Ozzy’s been clean and sober for a long time, too.
Vocalist Bruce Bruce added recently that recording at Compass Point Studios – where they recorded their 1983 album Piece Of Mind — gives the new album, The Final Frontier, the same vibe, right off the bat:
“The studio had the same vibe and it was EXACTLY as it had been in 1983, NOTHING had changed! Even down to the broken shutter in the corner…same carpet….everything… It was really quite spooky. But we felt very relaxed in such a familiar and well-trodden environment and I think this shows in the playing and the atmosphere of the album.”
But some listeners haven’t taken so kindly. Marc Garrison blogged on Goldmine that the new track, “El Dorado,” was “weak.” The blog post — headlined “Iron Maiden’s “El Dorado” is a startlingly weak introduction to ‘The Final Frontier’’ — seems to be longing for the old OLD days of Maiden, past 1983. Check out the blog review of “El Dorado,” — which is free on Maiden’s Web site — by clicking here.
The tracklisting for the album The Final Frontier is as follows:
‘Satellite 15…..The Final Frontier’
‘El Dorado’
‘Mother Of Mercy’
‘Coming Home’
‘The Alchemist’
‘Isle Of Avalon’
‘Starblind’
‘The Talisman’
‘The Man Who Would Be King’
‘When The Wild Wind Blows’
For free download of Iron Maiden’s new track “El Dorado” go to, www.ironmaiden.com
Iron Maiden opened their Final Frontier World Tour in Dallas, Texas on June 9th.
For related heavy metal/hard rock items that you may enjoy:
• Download Guide to Alice Cooper (PDF download)
• Check out the book on classic guitars: “Classic Guitars, Identification and Price Guide,” By Nick Freeth
• And click here to check out the latest Goldmine record price guides
Barren Earth
“Curse of the Red River”
(Peaceville)
Review by Ray Hogan
This disc had my interest by the time the flute breaks into the final moments of the opening title track. I was pretty enthralled by the time the progressive guitar progression comes out of nowhere in the following track, “Our Twilight.” By the time the keyboard leads the charge of “Forlorn Waves” I was listening as intently as I’ve listened to anything so far this year.
Flutes, acoustic guitars, atmospheric keyboards. In other words, death metal. Progressive and melodic death metal, naturally, but death metal none the less.
Barren Earth isn’t quite a supergroup but with past and present members of Amorphis, Swallow the Sun, Kreator and Moonsorrow, the band pretty much comprises first-call Finnish metal musicians. “Curse of the Red River,” the group’s first full-length, is nine tracks of intricate (but never knotty) music that pulls as much from its progressive and folk influences as the death metal that is at its core. Opeth is an easy comparison but Barren Earth is its own band. Singer Mikko Kotamaki goes back and forth between growling and singing with ease but what really makes this band excel is the diversity of the musicians behind him, particularly guitarists Janne Perttila and Sami Ylisirnio, who are as comfortable with the technical precision of metal riffing as they are getting vaguely psychedelic. A lot of the disc’s atmospherics – and there are plenty – fall upon keyboardist Kasper Martenson, who impressively integrates his sound into the songs rather than on top of them. Pink Floyd and Entombed make pretty logical bed fellows on “Ere All Perish.”
Given the range of what Barren Earth offers musically, I keep finding myself going back to the rather straight-forward punch of “The Ritual of Dawn,” granted that to a band like this “straight-forward” means a major interlude section with abrupt tempo and instrumentation changes. All of the songs on “Curse of the Red River” are incredibly and carefully constructed, especially given that every member of this band has other musical concerns. This is a group we need to hear more from, even if it’s on an occasional basis.
Grade: B+
In Goldmine magazine, Rob Halford claimed that with British Steel all the stars aligned.
When asked why British Steel was their breakthrough album and not, say, “Hell Bent for Leather” [which was originally released as "Killing Machine" on October 1978 in the U.K.]?
Halford replied:
In all practical terms it’s got to be the way it (the album) sounds, the way the songs were created, the production of it. The beginning of 1980. … the decade of 1980 to 1989 was unbelievable for metal music. That was the year it became this worldwide phenomenon. Obviously, for us in Priest, we were delighted that it received that amount of attention.
