Category Archives: Classic Albums Revisited

Machine Head’s Burn My Eyes Turns 25

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We spend a lot of time talking about Machine Head around HQ, and rightly so. They are one of the most influential bands in metal, specifically their very early years 1994 -1997 and their fertile middle era 2003 – 2011. It all started with the granddaddy of them all, Burn My Eyes (Roadrunner Records). Not only was this album a banger right from the get-go, but Machine Head became one of the preeminent bands throughout the 1990s on Roadrunner, along with Type O Negative, Sepultura, and Biohazard. We’re not here to go through the entire history of the band which has done a bit before but instead call attention to the highlights of this album and why it still holds up. Continue reading →


Metallica’s Thrash Classic “Ride The Lightning” Was Released 35 Years Ago

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The history of thrash metal got another ring on the world-tree in 1984 with the release of Ride the Lightning (Megaforce/Elektra Records), the second album by Metallica. With better songwriting, tight production, and more originality than their debut Kill Em All (Megaforce), Ride moved the needle forward for the entire genre and cemented Metallica as the premiere band in the genre. Continue reading →


AC/DC’s – Highway To Hell Turns Forty

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It was a very different world in July 1979 when AC/DC released their sixth album, the iconic slab of tune-filled granite we have loved and revered for 40 years. Jimmy Carter was President of the United States of America; Margaret Thatcher had recently been elected as the first woman prime minister of the United Kingdom. There was a Cold War. There was no internet. The Sony Walkman had been in the shops for three weeks. A very different world. Continue reading →


Twenty-Five Years Ago Marilyn Manson Released “Portrait of an American Family”

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…And popular music was never the same again. That’s how this story began for anyone following the career of Marilyn Manson, though few can claim to have seen it coming except for the star himself. Surely if you asked him, he visualized, created, dreamed and willed his ugly, beautiful, heavy baby into existence with Portrait of an American Family (Nothing/Interscope). His real-life nightmare/snuff film/acid trip/Satanist/Nietzche manifesto on the psyche of the modern world gave birth to a legion of fans and imitators the same way his heroes Bowie, KISS, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Arthur Brown, The Doors, Iggy and the Stooges, and more did. Continue reading →


Mr. Bungle Released Their Final Album, “California”, 20 Years Ago

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On this day twenty years ago the final studio album from the wild and weirdly cool, insanely talented Mr. Bungle, California (Warner Bros), was released. At the time it seemed like the band best known as the side project of Mike Patton had long legs as if they would go on to make many more albums afterward. Sadly, it was not meant to be. Still, California holds up today as a strong album and a forebearer of further musical projects all of the members would undertake in the future. Continue reading →


CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED: Slipknot’s Debut Album Turns 20

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Ah, 1999. A time for ridiculously baggy jeans, wallet chains, and clothes with far too many zips and pockets. A time for silly haircuts, spiked neckbands, black lipstick, and even blacker eyeliner – for both sexes. A time for backwards-facing red caps and hilarious facial piercings. Also a time for many metal fans over the age of forty to think back upon while making vomiting noises and pretending such crimes against metal never actually happened.Continue reading →


Limp Bizkit – Significant Other Revisited

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I’m twelve years old and watching MTV at Jennifer Mones’ house. I’m trying my best attempt at humor and charm, but a boy can only do so much while sporting a bootleg Chicago Bulls jersey. I’m crushing hard on her and failing but at the eleventh hour, this fucking music starts blaring in the background. I turn around to notice some outfit called Limp Bizkit has a video playing for a track titled ‘Nookie.’ I haven’t heard anything this remotely heavy ever. Suddenly my raging hormones and Jennifer had taken a back seat to ‘Nookie’ and whatever else was to be found on this Significant Other (Interscope).Continue reading →


Faith No More’s “The Real Thing” Turns 30

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Faith No More’s smash hit album The Real Thing (Slash/Reprise) turns thirsty years old today and it still holds up not only as the album that catapulted the weirdo art-punks cum alternative metal band into the mainstream, the majority of it still holds up as a classic. All of the bands’ earlier formative material on the We Care A lot EP and the Introduce Yourself album definitely had threads passed down to its cute, feisty little brother of an album, but in many ways, much of the creative energy and reckless abandon of future releases surely was foretold here. Continue reading →


Twenty Years of Blink-182’s “Enema of the State”

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In the year of boy band domination, Blink-182 was the answer for the counterculture with Enema of the State (MCA Records). They were there to bring you anthems with no-holds attitude for in between classes to failed crushes and even jokes about diarrhea and animal sex. Jerry Finn who was behind the production of Green Day’s classic Dookie produced the debut album that connected with so many in more ways than one. Continue reading →


Beastie Boys Released “Ill Communication” Twenty-Five Years Ago

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Beastie Boys were on fo the biggest, most successful groups in the work in the early 1990s when they made Ill Communication (Capitol/Grand Royale), released twenty-five years ago today. Prolific, putting out a new album every 2-3 years, the band was focused on never repeating themselves, and constantly improving. It would have been very easy for them to just keep remaking Licensed To Ill (Def Jam) over and over and that would have been enough for many bands. But Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA (RIP Adam Yauch) kept on changing and evolving. As they had on the previous few albums, they played all the instruments, and played them incredibly well on every track, across multiple genes. They had genius guest stars and collaborators (Q-Tip, Biz Markie, Amery Smith of Suicidal Tendencies, Money Mark, Bobo from Cypress Hill) and put the music first, before everything. Even the production on Ill Communication is incredible, all respect due to the B-E-A-S-T-I-E’s and their frequent partner at this time, Mario Caldato (“Mario C”). Continue reading →