Category Archives: Classic Albums Revisited

CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Pantera’s “Reinventing The Steel” Turns 20

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What happens when a band hits maturity? It’s bound to happen to all the bands you love. It’s definitely hard for some fans to accept when their favorite band, was once new and youthful have become the elder statesmen of the scene. Some bands also struggle to come to terms with aging and changing. Others try and recapture their earlier sounds, while others strive to evolve. This is what happened to Pantera twenty years ago when they created their album Reinventing The Steel (East/West). Continue reading →


CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Depeche Mode – ‘Violator’ 30 Years Later

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Just the other day, I used the Instagram filter “What Goth Band Are You?” and victoriously was labeled Depeche Mode. Though I strive to be dark, brooding, emotive, sexy, and mysterious, I feel it’s best left to the professionals to truly embody and exhibit such traits, and there is no finer example than electronic rock/synth-wave masters, Depeche Mode. Thirty years ago today (March 19, 1990), Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher, and Alan Wilder gifted the world their seventh studio album, Violator (Mute Records) and today, we look back in celebration and appreciation of a record that pushed boundaries, created timeless classics, and explored sex, desire, hedonism, and other ‘taboo’ topics (with a pinch of religion). Continue reading →


CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Quicksand Released “Manic Compression” 25 Years Ago

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Post-Hardcore is a sub-genre that gets tossed around today as commonplace, but in the early 1990s, it was a new little brother that the older sibling was not ready to cede attention to. As Hardcore Punk mutated into other offshoots, post-Hardcore started to gain ground. In New York City alone, the epicenter for many new waves of hardcore music, a lot of bands crossed over (see what we did there) and bands started to absorb elements of both with Prong, White Zombie, and Biohazard were all leaning more on metal vibes, Quicksand formed by members of ex-hardcore legend status bands we’re pushing towards a new sound. Heavy, but not in a tough guy way, vulnerable, but smart. By the time the members of essential musical outfits Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Beyond, Bold, Burn, and Collapse formed an anti-supergroup, released demos and the amazing Slip (Polydor) album, and toured tirelessly, fans in the scene could feel they were building to something huge. They walked in both worlds of Punk and Metal but were also world-building themselves at the same time. Continue reading →


CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Black Sabbath’s Genre Defining Debut Turns 50

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Black Sabbath in 1970, photo by Warner Brothers Records

On the sleeve: a grainy picture of a woman dressed in black. A stagnant pond. A creepy looking mill house. 

And two words. Black Sabbath. 

On the record: Rain. Thunder. A tolling bell. Those three notes. That voice.

And just like that, in February of 1970 – appropriately enough on the 13th – the face of music was changed forever.

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CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” Turns 40

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40 Years, Still Breaking The Wall

Ever wondered what makes a “classic band” classic? Have you ever sat down and play records of bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc. just to analyze the components of what makes them be as magnificent as they are? Even more, how is it that forty, fifty years later their music still as intact and as relevant as ever before? This is the case with Pink Floyd, especially when we think about that four classic albums run that they had in the mid-seventies. Albums like The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals, brought us records that still are in the charts and are, basically, soundtracks of our current lifestyle. Continue reading →


CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Korn’s Issues Turns 20!

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Think back if you will to the late great 1999. That was the year we were supposed to party like we were out of time. The states were in the throes of the Y2K scare. It was the year Nelson Mandela stepped down as president of South Africa and Kosovo went to war. It was also the year that Korn released Issues (Immortal/Epic Records). The first single, ‘Falling Away From Me’ was actually given away for free to the fans. Love them or hate them, it was a novel idea at the time and ended up raising over a quarter-million dollars for charity. Continue reading →


CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Korn’s Debut Album Turns 25

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Twenty-five years ago Korn released their debut self-titled album and changed the face of music. Yeah we know you think anything “Nu’ and metal bites. You can see yourself out right now. Whether you like all things Adidas tracksuits and Hip-Hop beats with downtuned riffs or not, what Korn put down on that first album changed heavy music for the better. All heavy music. 

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CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: The Beatles “Final” Album “Abbey Road” Turns 50

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Fifty years ago, The Beatles released what was their final recording together, Abbey Road (Apple Records). Even though the ‘Get Back’ single sessions and the massive Let it Be (also Apple). Let it Be is always remembered as the swansong and has the epic title track ear-wormed into our souls, but Abbey Road was the last time the band would work together collectively on music. Although they were the biggest band on the planet at the time, and their relationships were disintegrating, the group made some of its best music ever on this album. Continue reading →


Mötley Crüe’s Smash Hit Record “Dr. Feelgood” Turns 30 Years Old

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With the movie adaptation of Mötley Crüe’s biography The Dirt released on Netflix this year and corresponding album, memories of famous Hair Metal band have flooded back to old fans. The bands’ best-selling, best-sounding album found them at the top of their game musically and at the possible height of their popularity was Dr. Feelgood (Elektra) released thirty years ago today. It certainly is the best selling album of their career and has the most music on one release that holds up the best outside of Shout At The Devil (also Elektra).Continue reading →


Forty Years Ago – Led Zeppelin Released “In Through The Out Door”

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On this day forty years ago, Led Zeppelin signaled the begging of the end when they released their final studio album, In Through The Out Door (Atlantic). That title alone should have been then first clue really, that this was not your older brother’s Zep album. The turmoil stricken members fought through loss, and injury, and drugs, and excess, but wound up still making fine music. ITTOD is a solid album with moments of greatness. It’s definitely a late-era gem in their catalog in many ways, but also a signpost to the fatigue they were feeling after over a decade on top of rock’s peak. Drummer John Bonham would pass away just thirteen months and two weeks after this release, more or less ending the band as a regular unit. Continue reading →