This guy really, really loves Black Sabbath which to be serious is what the band Heaven & Hell is about. Learned about him from the Heaven & Hell twitter account: http://twitter.com/hvnandhelllive
While the Ozzy lawsuit aimed at Iommi seems to be trying to make Ozzy part of the story it’s obvious that fans like this don’t care these days what the boys call themselves. Right now the band Heaven & Hell are cashing in on the Black Sabbath name, catalog and history.
He continued, "So the idea is to commemorate 20 years since ‘Headless Cross’ and I can reveal that some of the songs have NEVER been done live before… like ‘Black Moon’… It’s a REALLY complex track, but we’re gonna bring it to the stage and show it off. Also, we’ve just left behind the anniversary of ‘Eternal Idol’, so there’s gonna be some more off that album too like ‘Born To Lose’.
Actually, Martin claims this wasn’t his idea, it was the promoter’s but hey, why not do this? Good for them, I say. Ozzy should have made a new album with Sabbath during the Ozzfest years. I’d say the chance of that happening any time soon due to these new legal tangles is unlikely.
Now can we see Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan go out and form a band called Born Again please. In 9th grade if I’d known better I’d have been at that concert when they rolled through Green Bay, Wisconsin. Speaking of Deep Purple, here is a video of 1,683 people playing Smoke On the Water in Kansas City.
Sabbath with Tony Martin is an era which I haven’t listened to very much but will probably be buying those albums in the coming days as I liked the live version of Headless Cross performed in Brazil in 2008.
Sabbath fans, let’s just hope Ozzy doesn’t die from an ATV accident or anything else before one day the original Black Sabbath lineup can make one more new album together. Hey, the Eagles and Van Halen (sans Michael Anthony) got back together and did it, so why not Sabbath?
Heaven & Hell is playing at the WaMu theater in Seattle on Saturday August 8. Despite being a lukewarm fan of The Devil You Know there is no doubt these guys are a huge part of heavy metal history and I’d like to see them play the Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules stuff live.
These days I hesitate to share my anticipation for something based on a trailer, but the video game Brutal Legend just hits all my hot buttons. It’s a rock-based adventure based upon heavy metal album covers (awesome!) killer rock voices like Rob Halford, Lemmy and Ozzy and guitars as swords. Oh yeah. First, check out the trailer for yourself and judge for yourself:
I just showed our youngest teen the trailer and he said: “looks like a sweet game.” It’s coming out October 13, er, Rocktober 13 of course for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Oh, and if you were wondering about face melting attacks? Check. Assuming you pull off a ripping guitar solo, that is.
Throwing up the Dio horns, this game does not have permission to suck.
In case you were living under a heavy metal rock, the closest thing to hearing brand new Black Sabbath music came out last Tuesday, April 28 courtesy of Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice under the name Heaven and Hell.
This same line-up was responsible for arguably the last respectable Black Sabbath album Dehumanizer. A few of those tracks are my favorites from the Dio-era Sabbath.
Many have argued that Black Sabbath without Ozzy and Bill Ward on drums isn’t the Black Sabbath. I’d love to see Ozzy and Ward get together with Iommi and Butler and make at least one more Sabbath album but I’m not sure Ozzy has the vocal chops left. Also, this kind of sniping from former bandmates won’t help.
There’s no doubt musically it could happen. Also from the first and last time I’d seen them together at Ozzfest Ozzy seemed to be going through the motions rather than pulling some surprise songs from their legendary catalog. We’ve all heard War Pigs and Paranoid, but what about something less predictable?
At any rate, the Heaven & Hell lineup, quite wisely, are ensuring they won’t meet Sharon Osbourne’s wraith by using the name of their greatest Black Sabbath hit for the new music.
Whatever they want to call themselves officially it’s still Black Sabbath to me. When they toured as Heaven and Hell a couple years back and released a live album, they played almost all old Sabbath stuff and you can bet the tour with the new album satanically titled The Devil You Know there will be Dio-era Sabbath songs.
That all aside, the new album sports a modest 10 songs:
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW Track Listing 1. “Atom And Evil” 2. “Fear” 3. “Bible Black” 4. “Double The Pain” 5. “Rock And Roll Angel” 6. “The Turn Of The Screw” 7. “Eating The Cannibals” 8. “Follow The Tears” 9. “Neverwhere” 10. “Breaking Into Heaven”
Wal-mart has two exclusive covers of the CD, according to the Heaven & Hell official website:
offers an alternate cover featuring the traditional Black Sabbath devil logo. While choosing the album artwork, the band narrowed it down to two covers, both of which will be available exclusively at WalMart.
Meanwhile, Best Buy, where I went to buy my copy of the CD is including an exclusive DVD showing unreleased video of the making of the CD. The suggested retail price for the CD is $18.99 while the digital version is already available on AmazonMP3 for $9.99. I almost pulled the AmazonMP3 trigger, but decided I’d rather have the CD version. I eagerly waited for Best Buy to open at 10am so I could be there making the purchase.
To my surprise, Best Buy was running a sale for the CD for the same price as the digital version, $9.99.
As I drove around throughout the day, I’ve listened to the album and here are the various tracks, organized by heavy to mellow, not by the track line-up listed above.
Heavy
“Atom and Evil” – catchy verse riff that reminds us why Tony Iommi is known as a riff master in rhythm circles and by Ozzy. “Fear” “Double The Pain” “The Turn Of The Screw” “Follow The Tears” “Neverwhere” “Eating The Cannibals” “Breaking Into Heaven”
Mixed heavy and mellow
“Bible Black” – I wish we’d hear more Iommi acoustic guitar music. How about an unplugged Sabbath album someday?
“Rock And Roll Angel” – more nice acoustic work in what might be the most mellow song on the album and yet it’s not a ballad.
Overall this album is just OK. It’s no Dehumanizer and a long way from the Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules albumes. It’s not bad, but it’s not that great either and have already replaced the CD in the player with something else. I’m glad they put out an album but with the exception of Bible Black and Rock and Roll Angel, I’m not super excited about any of these songs.
A couple months ago I wrote positively about an indie music exploration site called TheSixtyOne over at VTOR which had an MMO-like leveling structure and used the freshly titled Massive Multiplayer Music Discovery as its motto. Considered writing here about it originally but the MMO elements made it more appropriate for the group gaming / virtual worlds / MMO blog. My interest in T61 was maintained for about a month or so and included inviting several friends online into the site too. They seemed to like the site as well. All seemed good. Here’s what it looked like back in September 2008.
Now here it is a few months later:
T61 did something that never ceases making me go hmm on the web: started changing what passionate users of the site liked. Too many websites have chosen this silly path. They have momentum, buzz, and then decide to change things for the worse. Why? It’s one thing to make updates and add features but sites that have unique features should build upon these unique strengths and tear away non-unique weaknesses.
In a word: listen.
And boy has T61 stopped listening. They started removing features that were useful like an artist being able to provide news updates: gone. They also started clamping down on areas to allow and discuss criticism of the site on the site openly. Bizarre.
A complete site redesign without forums to even report glitches, let alone to express members’ concerns. I have to laugh at the fact that the designers had the nerve to include a section called “zeitgeist” after going to such lengths to ignore the people who tried to make this once magical place their home on this crazy world wide web. Sorry, you can’t post anything but bugs in these forums. Sorry, you can’t post on that person’s wall anymore. Sorry, you can’t post anything on this site but blips… on the walls of the people you already know. Sorry, no more tuneboxes. Sorry.
Word to those building websites for the rest of us out here to like and recommend to our friends: don’t change what we like. We can spend time at any website out there for as little or as long as we like. If we tell you we like feature ABC, then keep them, enhance them if you must, don’t distort and destroy.
Why does this happen on the web? Wish I had the answer, but don’t. It’s frustrating seeing ruined potential.
Thought it would be useful for other music game fans to create a collection of the various music videogames available already or soon. If you’re shopping for a music game fan, this collection might come in handy as well. This post is dynamic and should be considered a work in progress as new titles get added and additional details are provided (probably should have made it a page instead of a post, but oh well). If you want to add titles this collection is missing feel free to use the comments area below.
Xbox 360 [14 games]
Lips [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon Suggested retail: $69.99 with two wireless microphones Features: sing along with songs in MP3 format on your Zune (no lyrics)
Release date: available now
Guitar Hero World Tour [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon Suggested retail: $59.99 game only $99.99 with guitar $189.99 with drums, guitar and microphone (wired) Features: studio that allows creating original music and sharing with other GH players - All original songs, no cover versions
Suggested retail: $49.99 game only $129.99 with 7 button drum kit Features: can use special 7-button drum kit or Rock Band drums - all songs are covers, not the original masters - studio mode allows original music creation
Release date: game now, package with drum kit 11/10/2008
Rock Band 2 [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon Suggested retail: $59.99 game only $189.99 with drums, guitar and microphone Features:
Release date: available
Rock Band [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon Suggested retail: $59.99 game only $129.99 with drums, guitar and microphone Features: first game to offer play as band mode - good line-up of music to play through - plays all DLC content for Rock Band 2 - can transfer RB songs to Rock Band 2 for $5 Release date: available
Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon Suggested retail: $59.99 game only $99.99 with wireless guitar
Release date: available
Guitar Hero Aerosmith [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon Suggested retail: $59.99 game only $99.99 with wireless guitar
Release date: available
Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore [Xbox.com] Suggested retail: $69.99 with wired microphone Features: vocals only Release date: available
Disney Sing It [Xbox.com] Suggested retail: $59.99 Features: vocals only - 35 songs from Disney Channel Original Series and Movies Release date: 10/21/2008
High School Musical 3 Dance [Xbox.com] Suggested retail: $69.99 Features: dance to music only Release date: 10/28/2008
Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 [Xbox.com] Suggested retail: $69.99 Features: dance to music only Release date: available
Dance Dance Revolution Universe [Xbox.com] Suggested retail: $59.99 Features: dance to music only Release date: available
Guitar Rising [guitarrising.com] Features: will use real guitar plugging in through supplied USB adapter (source: Gamespot). Will debut with 30 songs across several difficulty levels (easy to expert). Notes will scroll from right to left and look similar to guitar tablature. Release date: 2009, date not yet announced
The on again off again licensing deal between The Beatles releasing their music digitally on iTunes is stalled according to Paul McCartney.
An EMI spokeswoman said: "We have been working hard to secure agreement with Apple Corps. to make the Beatles’ legendary recording catalog available to fans in digital form. Unfortunately the various parties involved have been unable to reach agreement but we really hope everyone can make progress soon."
Please somebody tell me this newest impasse has nothing to do with Jacko. No, it has to do with piracy concerns and also the long running trademark dispute between Apple Corps and Apple the company. McCartney wants their music on iTunes to happen but it’s not only up to him.
Meanwhile, the Rock Band game featuring The Beatles is moving full steam ahead, with the blessing of McCartney, Starr and Apple Corps and should be available by holiday season 2009.
Axl Rose, Dizzy and a bunch of other good musicians that make up the 2008 version of Guns N Roses have released Chinese Democracy on MySpace first, followed by a Best Buy only release this Sunday.
After listening, I know one place I will be this Sunday besides watching the Seahawks get beat again.
Yes, you can now listen to every Chinese Democracy track in or out of order for free streaming and after the first listen through I figuratively wiped my brow.
Wow.
There are some powerful, mind bending guitar riffs in here. If like me you miss the days when songs were layered with catchy guitar solos, you are in for a serious treat when you listen to what’s behind the Chinese Democracy curtain. Major kill switch, guitar bending, screaming action on some of these tracks.
Sure, the guitar wizard Slash isn’t there — and no disrespect is intended by the title of this post or the following admission — but you don’t end up missing him that much. This is either a testament to it taking nearly 20 15 years to get this GNR album published or the reality that there are 2008 guitar wizards in the making. I saw this 8-year old kid on YouTube yesterday that might grow up to be a future guitar god, who knows.
To tell you the truth: I already listened to it. At first I thought that I would never listen to it until it’s released, but someone handed it to me and I was in my car and I was like, "Okay, let’s give it a try." So I listened to it: It’s a really good record. It’s very different from what the original GUNS N’ ROSES sounded like, but it’s a great statement by Axl. Now you understand where he was heading all this time. It’s a record that the original GUNS N’ ROSES could never possibly make. And at the same time it just shows you how brilliant Axl is. So it was a relief for me to actually hear it.
Like former GNR guitarist I too felt prepared for disappointment and was pleasantly surprised by how good this album sounds. This had Spore-like hype written all over it but unlike Spore, Chinese Democracy delivers.
Track listing and notes
"Chinese Democracy" - for a title track and intro to the album, I suppose it works, but it had a bit too much going on for my taste. Not that I don’t like complex music, but this one feels like you need an Iron Maiden type lineup of multiple guitarists to pull it off faithfully live. I like music that doesn’t feel too much like it was over-processed and this track just oozes over-production. This doesn’t take away from it being a decent song melodically, but stripped down a bit I bet this would have rocked more. The guitar solo foreshadows perfectly (3:26) that this will be a guitar album that kicks ass.
"Shackler’s Revenge" - this has been available and playable on Rock Band 2 for awhile now. One of the weakest vocal tracks IMO. A little too new wave sounding for me, although love the guitar work. Fun to play this on Rock Band.
"Better" - Ironically, this is where the album starts to pick up some serious steam for me. I’d heard a bootleg of this a few years back and enjoyed it then. Professionally mixed it sounds even better. Catchy verse and chorus. Layered with some thundering power chords. This could have been a B-side cut — and a good one — on Use Your Illusion II. If you were worried if Axl could still sing, this track answers with an exclamation mark. Great track.
"Street of Dreams" - the first mellow track on the album, heavy in the keyboard area. Axl’s verse vocals seem off the first few listens, like he’s singing in a can or something but it grew on me after a few listens. This isn’t "November Rain" or "Patience" but it’s pretty good.
"If The World" - has a groovy 70s-era riff going. Almost like this could be something you heard playing in the background of a Shaft movie.
"There Was A Time" - an almost religious song like opening and closing, quickly replaced by a guitar moaning in the background and catchy beat. One of the best guitar solos on the album. 5:21 listen for the liberal kill switch. I think it’s songs like this that will have budding guitarists everywhere adding kill switches to their axes.
"Catcher In The Rye" - second mellow song. Just OK. Kind of a Bon Jovi-ish la-la-la chorus part that didn’t work very well for me. Too much layering and overdubbing here again.
"Scraped" - a vocal assault opening that leads into a "Rocket Queen" type riff. Digging it, especially the wah-wah guitar solo.
"Sorry" - Sebastian Bach of Skid Row sings backup vocals on this haunting third mellow track. This is one where the tons of layering guitars and overdubs actually works quite well. Might be the best lyrics of any song on the album or at least the easiest to understand. Liner notes needed.
"Riad N’ The Bedouins" - easily wins the strangest song title award. A beginning with a theme that moves into an upbeat, rocking moaning intro. I don’t have any idea what this song is about but it jams.
"I.R.S" - (somewhat) mellow track #4. Better than "Catcher in the Rye" but not as good as "Sorry" and "Street of Dreams"
"Madagascar" - mellow track #5. There is some similarity to the last track with this one, although the beat is different. Gotta dig the clips of King’s famous "I have a dream" interspersed with the "Failure to co-mun-nicate" clip in "Civil War" — nice way to pay homage.
"This is Love" - this is the sixth and final mellow track complete with piano, keyboard and vocals only opening. When the guitar comes in around a minute in the song, it’s surprisingly subdued but effective. Axl layered vocals are nice. This kind of reminds me a bit of Black Sabbath "Changes" in the overall feel, though the melody is nothing like it. At 2:15 the guitar power chords start to color the song leading to a heavy, somber solo. Cheap guitar solo nowhere to be found on this album. Thanks GNR!
"Prostitute" - the drumbeat to this one reminds me a bit of "Locomotion" on Illusion 2. This might be my sleeper favorite of the album with the gripping melody. Some nice Axl screams before the guitar wailing. I thought at first, hey this solo was short, but stay with it as more riffing assaults your ears (in a good way) at 4:23. Oh yeah this is good. Are we going to be left with a piano outro? The drums fade into the distance and keyboards dominate. You can imagine smoke rising through the stage. And then like that it’s just … over.
Can’t stop listening to these tracks on MySpace.
Kudos aside, back down to earth it’s clear that Chinese Democracy isn’t Appetite For Destruction. There is no smoking gun of a song like "Sweet Child O’ Mine" on here, but there are several very good, catchy heavy tracks like "Better" that will get plenty of rotation. The guitar work alone deserves high marks.
Axl would likely be the first to say that creating another Appetitle wasn’t what he was trying to do. I believed he’d botch up Chinese Democracy, but there are brushes of brilliance on this album. Axl might be difficult to get along with, but there’s no denying he’s got major talent and knows the recipe for good music.
Appetite is a classic and even if the original GNR got back together I doubt they could bring back the fire and magic of that album. I’d put Chinese Democracy somewhere between Use Your Illusion I (which I didn’t much care for) and Use Your Illusion II (which is a classic). The 6 of 14 mellow songs make it feel very Use Your Illusion 2 like as far as overall theme. It’s world’s better than the crap on Spaghetti Incident. Although they are two completely different types of albums, I put it about on par with Lies.
Where does this work for a grade? The wait was much too long, but it feels worth it in a few of these songs. The overall vibe of the album is thumbs up. Easily one of my favorite albums of the year among the best of the new music by 80s bands. A few of the tracks are weak, but even the weakest are better than expected. And hey, don’t forget your free Dr. Pepper! Now I’m stoked for a live GNR concert. Grade: A-
Daylight savings and Rock Band AC/DC pack time yesterday. Remember, you can only get this one at Wal-Mart.
$39.99 and standalone. You do not need Rock Band or Rock Band 2, however you do get a code on the back page of the manual to transfer the game tracks to either Rock Band or Rock Band 2. More like download since you download through Xbox Live with a one time use code.
It’s a short one, we played through this in less than a couple hours on expert difficulty. There are some AC/DC specific achievements like getting 5 stars on drums on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.
Is it worth $39.99 USD? If you are an AC/DC and Rock Band fan you’ve already bought it and played through it, if not, well, it might be a bit pricey as an introduction to both franchises. I’d spend a few more bucks and get Rock Band 2.
Update November 1, 2008 8:19am PST: Activision/Red Octane that make Guitar Hero World, have offered a drum tuning kit download (Windows XP only) which is supposed to fix the issues discussed in the review that follows. You will need a USB to midi cable which they will send you if you fill out a form here.
Saturday night at the stroke of midnight we joined a small line of people at the Tacoma, WA Best Buy as the first to buy the newest installment of Guitar Hero (Guitar Hero World Tour). After buying the $29.99 warranty for the bundle the total rang in at $233.90 USD.
We got it home and immediately dug in. The drum setup was quick and painless and give you a sense of quality that the Rock Band drums do not have. They seem more realistic — until you start actually playing.
The laggy band mode drum syncing ruined the first time gameplay experience for me. The drums are better synced in solo mode and even when playing with one other player, but add two or three more band members and it’s a mess.
When hearing the beat and when to hit the notes is all wrong. I tried recalibrating in the options several times but never found the sweet spot in band mode. I hope an update through Xbox Live comes along that fixes this as a quick survey of the Amazon reviews show many complaints from other reviewers about the same issue.
In a music game like this, quality calibration is vital. I give drum calibration a 0 out of 5 stars. I was failing on medium difficulty whereas I’m able to play hard and even expert drums on Rock Band 2. The plan was to play all night, but our band grew tired of me failing on what should have been easy intro songs and we quit playing around 2:30am.
We didn’t break out the Guitar Hero microphone or guitar, preferring to play with Rock Band gear there. Reports on the guitar, bass and singing in Guitar Hero were all thumbs up from other band members.
Activating star power on drums and microphone
Your drummer and singer may wonder how star power is activated. It’s in the skimpy six page manual, but we’ll throw you a bone. To activate star power on the drums, hit both yellow and orange cymbals at the same time. On the microphone just tap the top of the microphone, no yelling in the yellow spots required like Rock Band. Kind of prefer Rock Band’s approach here.
GH Tunes sans vocals
Being able to create and share your own tunes with other players was a promising feature I was stoked about. We peeked at it briefly Saturday night and people had already created and shared some tunes mere hours after launch. Sunday after a fresh night’s sleep I checked it out in more detail.
Bummer alert: only instrumental tunes are allowed — drums, bass, guitar and even keyboards, cool — but no vocals. This is going to lead to a lot of axe shredding and drum pounding but will be a non-starter for vocalists.
Hopefully vocals will be added as part of an update someday (?). Or do we need to wait another year for Guitar Hero 5 to come out?
Summary and grade
For guitar, bass and singing, Guitar Hero World Tour is solid. Major thumbs down on drum syncing. I think until this is fixed we’re going to see a bunch of drumless bands. Or bands where the drummer marches, literally, to a different beat.
As for the GH Studio? No vocals hamper but not ruin the experience. I’m sure others will disagree with wanting to hear people screaming out of tune, karaoke style, but the absence of vocals is noticeable.
Surely there must have been a way to add vocal tracking to GH Studio? Since the software can detect when the music is in tune, was it that difficult to add the ability to match GH Studio created vocals? Or was this a copyright concern, afraid that bands would be creating an endless stream of unlicensed covers? I’m guessing technology was a small part of the concern here and copyright issues are playing at least some part.
Whatever the case, Guitar Hero World Tour’s strength remains its roots: guitar. Bass and vocals for the game part are a decent add, but while the drums are fun to pound on they aren’t much fun to play — outside of single player mode — because of the lag/syncing issue. I also don’t like that the bass pedal isn’t attached to anything like rock band to keep it in place, although must admit not having any trouble with it moving all around.
Guitar Hero World Tour as a package ends up a mixed bag and feels way too first generation in everything but its namesake. Perhaps our band is spoiled by competitor Rock Band which really has the band experience down and sports a solid lineup of hundreds of songs available, while Guitar Hero World Tour pretty much is limited to what comes with the game. Almost all the prior downloadable Guitar Hero songs and previous songs in games are not forward compatible.
Guitar Hero World Tour sports an impressive list of tunes, don’t get me wrong — and there is the ability to download for $$ a small few tracks (like Metallica’s complete Death Magnetic album) as well as what other players create in GH Tunes for free, but it doesn’t come close to matching Rock Band’s currently available music library. And with the AC/DC Live at Donnington track pack coming November 2nd, Rock Band will raise the stakes further.
Put all this together and I wouldn’t recommend to readers or friends looking to form their first music game band experience to buy Guitar Hero World Tour over Rock Band 2 this holiday season. Being my favorite baseball hat of the moment is my Guitar Hero cap pictured above, I’m conflicted, but the differences between the two in band mode are glaring.
Hardcore music game fans like our band will buy it regardless. I wouldn’t label GH World Tour a totally disappointing band experience, but it’s not up to par with all four band members (sans the drums, it works good). If all you care about is a cool guitar, bass or vocal experience in Guitar Hero World Tour then stop reading and buy this game now. You might want to skip the bundle and just buy the game otherwise.
Saturday night at the stroke of midnight we joined a small line of people at the Tacoma, WA Best Buy as the first to buy the newest installment of Guitar Hero (Guitar Hero World Tour). After buying the $29.99 warranty for the bundle the total rang in at $233.90 USD.
