Newly a fan, I checked out some more, such as:

and:

Seriously, how could you not love a song called “Fire, Battle, Metal!”?

Wikipedia tells me that the band was put together a bit oddly; in fact “until the moment the first promotional photos were shot, the entire band had never been in the same place at the same time before. Some members did not even know each other.” Despite that, they rock. Very much. There are shades of Maiden, shades of Priest, they’re named after a Dio album … Well cool. \m/ Some of it is also rather reminiscent of Malmsteen’s vocal stuff.

By which I don’t mean Malmsteen singing …

I also picked up the new(ish) Ratt album: Infestation. I had heard good things about it, but wasn’t prepared for just how great it is. The first thing that struck me was that they haven’t got grungey or nü-metally at all. This is great old-school Ratt-style hair metal. It sits perfectly with Detonator, which is one of my favourite hair metal albums ever (and therefore of course one of my favourite albums of any style.
Herewith my impressions track by track…

Eat Me Up Alive: excellent opener. Classic Ratt riff to begin – though with a grittier, more organic guitar tone. Catchy chorus, excellent guitar work. Classic Ratt (welcome back).

Best of Me: fantastic. Starts with a riff that could sit on Invasion of Your Privacy. Has some neat chords in the verse, and a perfect prechorus: catchy, great backing vocals, cool arpeggiated guitar. The chorus is fantastic and very catchy – reminiscent of Run Around, to my ears. The solo is much, much win – but basically every bit of lead playing on the album is awesome. I haven’t picked out what’s Warren DeMartini and what’s Carlos Cavazo, but they’re both plying brilliantly.

A Little Too Much: again it could be on Detonator. The verse chords are the sort of slightly twisted harmony (as compared to most hair metal at any rate) Ratt often did. The chorus is fantastic: catchy, excellent backing vocals. I’m guessing the solo is Cavazo (he was in Quiet Riot, right? So played the solo on Cum On Feel the Noize?)

Look Out Below: dirty swing – nicely finding the tension between straight and swung. I don’t find it as catchy or immediately appealing as the last three, but it’s much cool. At the end I notice that DeMartini and Cavazo might be separated left and right – even the lead parts.

Last Call – very cool guitar riffs under the vocals. Great backing vocals. Neat bluesy/boogie interludes before the choruses – which again make excellent use of a call-refrain with the backing vocals. Cool harmony guitar solo – and at this point I’m thinking Warren’s on the right.

Lost Weekend: yep, I reckon Warren’s on the right, with a great intro lead. This song brings in some harder elements in the chorus, mixed with classic Ratt throughout. Great bridge!! Oh that’s excellent. The solo is totally choice of course.

As Good as it Gets: slightly odd intro/chorus riff, with a recurring chromatic note that’s slightly jarring in fairly typical Ratt fashion. The chorus doesn’t really grab me, but it’s still cool. More harmony guitars and cool soloing.

Garden of Eden: this doesn’t really sound like classic … oh … now the vocals have come in, and it does. The chorus (and much of the rest of the song – except he prechorus) sounds more hard rock than hair metal. The solo I would think was Cavazo, but sounded slightly to the right until it got panned hard left at the end. 1. That does me think I’m right about Warren being on the right. 2. I’m guessing my earbuds aren’t in that well, so I’ve been hearing centre slightly right.

Take a Big Bite: another medium tempo Ratt rocker with call-refrain between lead and backing vocals. And more great harmony (and traded) lead playing.

Take Me Home: ballad time! The chorus is reminding me of someone else, but I can’t think who. To be honest I find the ascending movement in the chords in the chorus a bit jarring. ah – that’s more Ratt (the bridge). Lovely solo – I’m picking DeMartini. Hmmm – now there’s soloing on the left over the chorus. Whatever; I don’t know Cavazo’s playing hardly at all anyway. I’m just going to listen and enjoy now

Don’t Let Go: an up-tempo rocke to close out the album. Pretty much classic Ratt, but with noticeably heavier guitar styling in the prechorus. They’re still sticking closely to classic pop/rock song structures, with catchy prechoruses and bridges – which I love.

Well, looking like Jesus if he had scored a Vidal Sassoon beard trimmer for his birthday/Christmas (always combined presents, dammit!) and got the whole designer stubble thing going on.

Anyhoo, it got me thinking, as the wind whipped my hair in front of my face for the umpteenth time, and my neck grew hotter and hotter with my hair floating around. There are a whole lot of reasons that long hair is a major hindrance. And I’m not even trying to run from sabertooth tigers and hunt antelope. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors long hair would have been a real problem. It gets in your eyes, in your mouth, can catch on branches and things, could be grabbed by a predator or competitor, and makes it harder to cool down (though the latter might not have been such an issue before we began wearing clothes).

And yet for some reason human beings (both sexes) grow long hair on our heads. It doesn’t seem to make sense…

… Until I realised that there must be a positive evolutionary selection pressure for Awesomeness. You see, long hair is awesome (basic unalterable fact of the universe), and so groups of our ancestors with longer hair would have had more awesomeness than groups with shorter hair. Over millions of years, those with longer hair were more successful (and awesome), and so in the end Homo Sapiens Sapiens has long hair. And is awesome.

You doubt? You mock? You don’t believe there would be such an evolutionary pressure, that long-haired louts would be more successful (and awesome) than their short-haired counterparts? Well how about Aragorn:

vs Viggo Mortensen

And it’s not just we of the XY persuasion. Oh no. Here’s Kate beckinsale:

vs (believe it or not) Kate Beckinsale:

It cannot be denied that long hair is Awesomeness with hot chilli sauce.

Further proof for the nay-sayers: how else could we explain that of the awesome male metal singers in the 80s and 90s, Sebastian Bach is the one who still has all his awesomeness … and all his hair. Samson effect, baby. This is one of the two bits where I think the bible got it right (the other being “Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward”, but that’s something entirely different ).

—————>

—-> 

So: long hair is awesome. Therefore our ancestors with long hair had more awesomeness, and were thereby more evolutionarily successful, meaning we can grow long hair upon our heads. Q.E.D.

\m/

3. You don’t know the words to the national anthem but you know all the words to Stairway to Heaven, including the extra bits on the live version

Well duh. I lived and breathed The Song Remains the Same for a looong time. Hardly need to explain that one.

7. You know there is absolutely nothing gay at all about grown men dressing in makeup, lingerie and spandex, playing for an all male audience, and gradually disrobing by the gig’s end.

Again duh. I was a teenager in the 80s, listening to 80s metal. Spandex and big hair rule. It is not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with it if it is.

But it’s not.

21. You’re suspicious of metalheads with short hair, and doubt whether they’re ‘really into it’.

This. This is why I cannot take seriously Eddie Trunk, or his co-hosts on That Metal Show. Yes, they appear to know a lot, and be deeply into the scene, but … FFS their hair! One looks like Charlie Sheen. Another I would swear is Stewart Copeland. And Eddie Trunk himself looks like that kind of nerdy kid who wanted to be associated with the metal crowd, so the hair was a bit longer than a crewcut, but … nah. Try as I might, my wife and I just cannot take him seriously, or watch That Metal Show. And I haven’t been able to bring myself to follow him on Twitter.

Maybe silly, but …. Dude! Hair!

29. You regard Ozzy-era Black Sabbath and Dio-era Black Sabbath as two completely different bands.

30. You’ve had arguments with friends over which era of Sabbath was the best, and the Ian Gillan era never rates a mention.

Another duh. If you need me to explain this, I don’t think I can do so in a way that would make sense to you. It just is.

The ones about disagreements with one’s wife around metal and associated paraphenalia aren’t relevant for me, as my wife remains a metalhead.

42. You and your metalhead friends can pinpoint the precise time when Metallica started to suck, but it’s different for all of you.

My wife and I were discussing this just today, as it happens. And yes, it’s different for us: I say their slide started immediately after Master of Puppets (and I’m right), but she says it’s after the Black Album (not that she likes anything on Justice … just sayin’)

55. You grow a beard and some drunk yells “Hey Jesus” from across the street.

Well … ummm… yeah.

57. You remember heavy metal before it was called heavy metal.

I thought I’d add this one, with major reference to my obsessive listening to In A Gadda Da Vida, by Iron Butterfly.

Amazing stuff, that. Remember that was back in 1968. Listen to what Erik Braun was doing with the guitar – 43 years ago.

58. You remember when heavy metal singers could actually sing.

Yeah. Already blogged about this. Back when singers actually sang. Those where the days, not that you young whippersnappers would know anything about that. Why I oughta! Get off my lawn you damn ….

76. When someone asks you if you’ve heard any good Nu-metal you immediately think of a new Saxon CD.

Well, don’t just take it from me:

Pull your head back
Hold your hands high
Shake your body
If it’s too loud
And your brain hurts
Fill your heads with heavy metal thunder

(Heavy Metal Thunder, by Saxon)

Nuff said.

88. You remember when you first heard Black Sabbath and it scared the shit out of you.

Not just the band; the song Black Sabbath in particular: that tritone – before it got hammered to death by all and sundry – was the most monstrous thing I think I’d ever heard up to that point. Absolutely amazing. Totally blew me away.

And of course:

101. You hate the fact all your favourite metal bands are now referred to as ‘Classic Rock.’

Oh the pain.

Enjoy. And Bang that head that does not bang. \m/

The first Maiden song I ever heard was Run to the Hills:

That won’t play embedded but I’ve left it in because it was the first thing of them I saw. Here’s a live version:

As a wee sidetrack, I think in the same TV programme they showed this from Kruiz, making it a most excellent show:

A real classic of course is Number of the Beast:

A bit of Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

and part 2:

One of my favourite Iron Maiden songs has always been (and still is) Revelations:

And the best way to learn history – Alexander the Great:

The Trooper is fantastic – classic Maiden gallop and harmonies:

Another favourite is Children of the Damned (song starts at about 2:30):

And getting all Egyptian with Powerslave:

There are many many more, but there’s a taster. Now if you don’t already have a bunch of Maiden cds, go now. Run, don’t walk.

Up the Irons!