Tag Archives: Bon Jovi

Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour) Writes The Forward for Definitive History Book of Hair Metal

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Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor has written the forward to “Nothin’ But A Good Time”, described as the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, will be released on March 16, 2021 via St. Martin’s Press. 1980s hard rock was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated — and maybe even helped to define — a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls”, and Guns N’ Roses‘ “Welcome To The Jungle” are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, Pac-Man, and E.T.Continue reading →


Metallica, Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, and KISS Top Forbes List of the World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities

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Metallica, Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, and KISS have been named to Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s highest-paid celebrities. Forbes estimated that Metallica earned $40.5 million in the last 12 months to land at position No. 78 on the list, with Bon Jovi pulling in $38 million (No. 87) and KISS pocketing $36.5 million (No. 95).Continue reading →


Bon Jovi, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses Among Pollstar’s Highest-Grossing Touring Bands of the Decade

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Pollstar, the music industry bible of data for recording artists has released their list of Highest-grossing Touring bands of the last decade and ranking on the list were Rock and Metal heavy hitters like Bon Jovi, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. Other top bads include U2, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Roger Waters, and The Eagles. Continue reading →


Bon Jovi, Sammy Hagar, The Smiths, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran And More Featured On The Bumblebee Movie Soundtrack

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The new chapter in The Transformers Movie series, Bumblebee is out now. Starring actress and pop singer Hailee Steinfeld, the music in the film has a decidedly 1980s sound with songs from Bon Jovi, Sammy Hagar, The Smiths, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran, Rick Astley, Howard Jones and more heard in the film. The main theme of the film is performed by Steinfeld herself. Check out the trailer and soundtrack now. Continue reading →


RAISE YOUR FIST! Heavy Metal Album Reviews Round up: Royal Hunt, Satan, Beyond The Black, Cauldron, and more

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As summer swings round towards autumn, there are no shortage of odes and tributes to the Gods of power and glory that brought us traditional and classic Heavy Metal. Ghost Cult dives in amongst the raised fists and studded wristbands to round-up the latest album releases.

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Kissin’ Dynamite – Ecstasy

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At its molten heart, Rock music should be a very simple beating beast indeed. It should inspire and excite, yes, but it doesn’t need complicated rhythms, progressive tendencies, cerebral lyrics, analysis, politics or a whole plethora of interesting and additional ingredients to be successful or do what it sets out to do. And that is to, unequivocally, “Rock”.Continue reading →


Judas Priest And Rage Against The Machine Among 2018 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Nominees

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The 2018 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nominees have been announced. Continue reading →


Casablanca – Miskatonic Graffiti

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We need to talk about Howard.

Along with Satan, murder and Vikings, the short fiction of HP Lovecraft is one of the most heavily used – and abused – thematic references in Metal, turning up in the albums of everyone from the kvltest of nocturnal grim panda-faces to Metallica. As you’d expect, Lovecraft’s vision has been treated with varying degrees of respect and authenticity, but Casablanca’s latest concept album takes reinterpreting his legacy to a whole new level of middle-fingers. The stars are right for the Great Old Ones to return (no surprise there) but they’ll meet resistance in the form of The Phantom, the pre-historic proto-human who created Miskatonic University and manifests in the form of a gold-skinned Rock Star Jesus to inspire mankind through songs about fast cars and girls.

The musical background to Casablanca’s gleefully irreverent tale is made of panoramic, hard-rocking Heavy Metal that brings to mind Virgin Steele’s Marriage Of Heaven & Hell mixed with a touch of Graves era Misfits and the kind of whimsical, small-town Americana more associated with early Bon Jovi or even the E Street Band. Not exactly an eldritch maelstrom of writhing tendrils, but it’s sharp and well honed, and the very act of putting lyrics at least ostensibly about HP Lovecraft over music like this seems genuinely iconoclastic. Which wouldn’t count for very much if the song-writing wasn’t there, but Casablanca pull off just the right balance of catchy choruses and driving riffs to make it work.

Perfection can only be obtained by the Old Ones themselves, of course, so a mere mortal Rock band are going to slip up every so often. Miskatonic Graffiti (Despotz) overstays its welcome on several tracks, often missing the opportunity to end the song on a high, and they never quite rock out quite as hard as they should, but on an album as distinctive and rich as this one they seem like minor flaws. Casablanca are very much following their own muse on Miskatonic Graffiti, and it takes them somewhere familiar, but not quite like anywhere their peers have ever gone.

 

7.0/10

 

RICHIE HR