Tenology: My Ten Favourite Rock/Metal Songs Of 2016

Finally, we're here. The end of 2016 and about fucking time too. From celebrity deaths to celebrity presidents, it's been an absolute shitshow that all seemed to start with Lemmy's death at the end of last year.
However, despite the overwhelming negatives about 2016, there have been some positives to take away such as a collection of decent Rock/Metal songs that I intend to list here. On previous Tenology posts celebrating the year's music, I don't categorise songs in order of greatness; instead, I just list ten of my personal favourite songs from the year in random order. Since there's no reason to change the formula, that's exactly what I'll be doing this year too!
It's also worth noting that these songs have been chosen based entirely on my opinion, not how well they charted or fared among Rock/Metal fans. If I wanted to write about the "best" songs of the year, I'd spend the whole post wanking off about how amazing Beyonce and Radiohead are. But fuck that, right? Here are 10 songs I liked!


1. "The Getaway" - Red Hot Chili Peppers

If you cast your mind back to July (or click this link and spend a couple of minutes reading the post), you may recall me reviewing The Getaway - Red Hot Chili Peppers and talking about how much I loved this album. It's probably joint-first for my album of the year along with Dystopia - Megadeth and this album opener/title track is a solid reason why. It sounds like classic RHCP but at the same time doesn't feel like the band going through the motions, partly due to Josh Klinghoffer picking up the strings from John Frusciante. Great tune!


2. "Breathing Lightning" - Anthrax

If your mind hasn't returned from July yet (or you got curious and followed this link), you may ALSO recall me briefly writing about the new Anthrax album, For All Kings. Despite not really enjoying it, I did love this song and would recommend it if you like Heavy Metal over the usual Thrash stuff Anthrax is known for. Thankfully, there are some single edits of the song that don't have the shitty instrumental reprise at the end so if you want to buy the track, search for that version instead of the six minute one.


3. "Let It Begin" - The Treatment

Aha, a new track! I've mentioned The Treatment before on a previous Tenology post celebrating 2014's music but this song is stronger than "The Outlaw". It's still another uncompromising Hard Rock track with epic riffs and a catchy chorus by a band who seem to be happy in the ass-kicking-Rock sector of the industry so what's not to like? In a year literally plagued with death and despair, sometimes you need a good Hard Rock track to blast out loud and this song fits the bill nicely.


4. "Moth Into Flame" - Metallica

Back to old tracks again. I liked Metallica's new album and there were definitely some solid contenders on there for this post. However, there was only one track that I knew deserved to be on the main list without a doubt; "Moth Into Flame". Unlike "Hardwired" and "Atlas, Rise!", it contains all the hallmarks of a top quality Metallica song without sounding repetitive or losing too much energy throughout the track. It should've been the lead single from the album as it triumphantly declares "We're fucken back!" much more heroically than the album's title track.


5. "At War With The World" - Primal Fear

I haven't actually discussed Rulebreaker - Primal Fear on the blog yet but if you haven't listened to it, it's a pretty awesome Metal album. Granted there's not much variety on it but if you want pure Heavy Metal, you get exactly that. There were several songs I could've picked for this list but my personal favourite is probably this one due to the steady rhythm and epic chorus. Seriously though, if you like Heavy Metal, seek out Rulebreaker - Primal Fear.


6. "Breakin' Outta Hell" - Airbourne

A track so good, I've discussed it twice; once in an album review, once in a taster session. Basically, similar to "Let It Begin", it's a heavy Hard Rock song by a band that are masters of awesome singles but getting progressively weaker at awesome albums. Despite this, I still love listening to this song and hope that Airbourne will keep churning 'em out every couple of years or so.


7. "The Emperor" - Megadeth

Come on, I couldn't leave out a track from Dystopia from this post. I'll admit that if "The Threat Is Real" wasn't released as a single at the end of 2015, I would've chosen that instead but "The Emperor" is probably my second favourite track off the album. Lyrically and musically, it's fucking great; a song flipping the middle finger off at incompetent leaders with brilliant riffs throughout and a hell of a sweet solo with echoes of "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due".


8. "When The Night Comes In" - Black Star Riders

If you're unfamiliar with Black Star Riders, they're basically a heavier version of Thin Lizzy made up of Thin Lizzy band members who didn't want to record new material for that band without Phil Lynott. I've heard quite a few of their songs and definitely like some more than others ("Valley Of The Stones" over "Bound For Glory", any day) but this is my favourite so far and it just so happens to be a single released this year. If you like Thin Lizzy and heavier music, I'd recommend them unless you're a die-hard Phil Lynott fan, as the vocalist sounds like a poorer version of him and it'd probably just piss you off.


9. "Eye Of The Beholder" - Wolfmother

Another song from an album I've already reviewed. Similar to Dystopia, this might not be my favourite song off the album but it IS my favourite off the songs released this year. It's got your standard trippy apocalypse sound that Wolfmother have cultivated through the use of organ and fuzzy guitars but when you get to the halfway point, the track picks up a bit and shifts gear into full-on Rock. It's a shame they couldn't add a guitar solo to that section but it's still great.


10. "Goodbye Angels" - Red Hot Chili Peppers

What's this? ANOTHER Red Hot Chili Peppers song? Technically, I never said I couldn't include multiple songs by the same band on this post and if I'm being totally honest, I would rate this higher than most of the songs in this list and upcoming honourable mentions. It's not a balls-out riff-heavy Rock anthem but it is pure RHCP at their finest, which is saying something without Frusciante involved. I may have been hasty in the past when I claimed the song would be better without Flea's little bass solo before the outro but having given it some thought, I think it works better that way after all. My personal favourite song off The Getaway and maybe, JUST MAYBE, my favourite song of 2016.

Those were my ten favourite songs from 2016 (that I heard and will probably change over time) but that's not to say everything else was rubbish. Here are five tracks that could've made the list if not for the strength of the ten above:


"Bullets & Tears" - Primal Fear

As I said when writing about "At War With The World", I could've chosen from a few songs for the list and if not for that track, this would've made it instead. I can imagine this track being fucking amazing live when that chorus comes around and for that reason, I love listening to it. However, even though I included two RHCP tracks on the list, I couldn't remove one of my top ten for another Primal Fear song.


"Medication For The Melancholy" - Rob Zombie

Yeah, Rob Zombie released an album this year. I should probably listen to it if only to seek out tracks like this. He doesn't do them often but when Rob speeds up the tempo, he fucking rocks. I didn't include this track because it sounds like just another Rob Zombie track off one of his previous albums and I've already got enough of them in my list. I went with Airbourne instead because I can honestly say I prefer "Breakin' Outta Hell" to this, although it's still a great Heavy Metal tune.


"See You Rise" - Diamond Head

Considering how much I said I enjoyed Diamond Head - Diamond Head in my review this year, some of you might be confused as to why I didn't include any tracks in the main list. I do still love the album and "See You Rise" is still my favourite track off it but it just couldn't beat the others on the list. If it didn't have the slower section in the middle, it may have done.


"This Train" - Joe Bonamassa

I don't think I'll ever quite understand why everyone seems to rave about Joe Bonamassa so much when most of the songs I've heard him involved in are just alright but I have to say, this track is pretty solid. It's a fun Blues number, which makes a change from just about every other popular modern Blues track in existence. It's not strong enough to take on any of the main ten but it deserves a mention here.


"Thundering Voices" - Rival Sons

A late entry, as I only heard this track a couple of days ago. I'm sure I've talked about Rival Sons before and how they're a decent Rock band who probably deserve more attention than I'm currently giving them but the reason I didn't include this on the main list is simple; the other tracks have had some time to get old (except the Black Star Riders one, but I know I'll still like that months from now) and I still enjoy listening to them. I can't say the same about this song yet but who knows, maybe I'll still like it in February next year when we're all absolutely shitting ourselves over what the world has become.

That's all from me this year. I hope you enjoyed my 52 posts and your 2017 is better than 2016...unless you're partly to majorly responsible for how shit 2016 turned out, in which case I sincerely hope your next 365 days are utter wank.

Rapid Fire: Whitesnake, Ozzy Osbourne, Anthrax

What's this? A NEW style of blog post?!
Yeah, don't get your hopes up too much. This is more of a blend of old and new partly down to an arguably lazy desire to get more album related content up on the blog in less time. Whilst I'll still do Shout Out posts about older albums or new collections of old albums, I thought it would be good to have blog posts where I discuss several all in one place, dedicated a couple of paragraphs or so to each of them.
One of the other reasons for this is that I feel like talking about albums in short, 140 character bursts on Twitter isn't really a great way to archive my thoughts about these works of art. I might still tweet about them if I'm bored/want to share my thoughts in a way that I know people will read but if you want a more in-depth view of my reaction to these albums, this is the place to be!

Speaking of Twitter, the first three albums are ones I've mentioned listening to already! You might know my summarised verdict of the albums but as I said before, I'll go into them with more detail than a tweet stream but less than a fully fledged review. Also, I don't know how I'll choose albums for future Rapid Fire posts but I'll try to keep it to a mix of old and new albums that I don't have much to say about.
Alright, let's see if this works!

1. 1987 - Whitesnake

I can't say I'm a Whitesnake fan but since I liked their Deep Purple covers album and a few random tracks off other albums, I thought I'd give their iconic album a listen all the way through. Along with containing their three biggest tracks ("Here I Go Again", "Still Of The Night", "Is This Love"), it's also a pretty decent Hard Rock album which is saying something, considering it came out in the late 80's. It's a guitar driven album, even down to the power ballads, and whilst few of the technical solos stand out, there are plenty of epic riffs to get stuck into.
The lyrical songwriting mostly boils down to your typical feast of romantic platitudes and four out of eleven songs all start with the same chord slide on guitar, making this a little bit uninspired when compared to other iconic Rock albums of the decade. However, this album does one thing incredibly well; it rocks. It's an album you can stick on in the car or at home and just enjoy all the way through, making it great in my books.

1. Still Of The Night

2. Give Me All Your Love

3. Bad Boys

4. Is This Love

5. Here I Go Again

6. Straight For The Heart

7. Looking For Love

8. Children Of The Night

9. You're Gonna Break My Heart Again

10. Crying In The Rain

11. Don't Turn Away

ALBUM RATING - 7/10

2. Bark At The Moon - Ozzy Osbourne

I knew two songs off this album before listening to the whole thing; the title track and "Centre Of Eternity", both of which I love. I was curious to see if the rest of the album could live up to that level or, at the very least, give me another reason to call Randy Rhoads overrated. Turns out this isn't the best album to support my argument as it's pretty mediocre overall. A lot of slow tracks and some very generic Heavy Metal plague this album, aside from the tunes mentioned above and "Slow Down", a song that may well have inspired some of the filler tracks on Iron Maiden's Powerslave.

Ultimately, it's not an album I'd recommend to any fans of the Golden Age Of Metal (1982-1985) as the title track/album opener sets the bar way too high for an artist of Ozzy Osbourne's quality to ever meet. It's a decent follow up to the Randy years but I'd argue that Diary Of A Madman is a stronger album as a whole. Shame, as I rate Jake E. Lee highly but it sounds like he was dragged down by the Prince Of Darkness.

1. Bark At The Moon

2. You're No Different

3. Now You See It (Now You Don't)

4. Rock 'n' Roll Rebel

5. Centre Of Eternity

6. So Tired

7. Slow Down

8. Waiting For Darkness

ALBUM RATING - 5/10

3. For All Kings - Anthrax

I was tempted to review this album on the blog but since it took me so long to actually finish the whole thing, I opted against it. The reason I chose to listen to this having only listened to two of their other albums was all because of one track; "Breathing Lightning". I love that song, even if it doesn't sound like classic Anthrax and has a pointless instrumental outro, and I was hoping the rest of the album would follow a similar suit. Sadly, the first half is mostly just aggression and unimpressive Thrash and the shining songs in the second half don't even begin to make up for the last 40 minutes or so of noise.

There are a couple of tracks that sound like a good blend of modern and classic Anthrax, which is probably good news for fans of the band. However, fans of the genre might be split down the middle. It's decent Thrash but nothing special, certainly not Spreading The Disease or even Among The Living. This might be controversial but I'd rate the former a lot higher than the latter, even if both albums are great. For All Kings doesn't even come close to either of them, but I doubt anyone expected it to.

1. You Gotta Believe

2. Monster At The End

3. For All Kings

4. Breathing Lightning

5. Suzerain

6. Evil Twin

7. Blood Eagle Wings

8. Defend Avenge

9. All Of Them Thieves

10. This Battle Chose Us

11. Zero Tolerance

ALBUM RATING - 4/10

What albums or bands would you like me to discuss next? I'm not sure what I'll talk about next week (possibly a Shout Out post) but let me know if there's anything you'd prefer.

How To Get Into Metal

[DISCLAIMER]
THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST IS MEANT TO BE LIGHT-HEARTED AND FUN IN LOOKING AT METAL. IF YOU TAKE THIS BLOG POST COMPLETELY SERIOUSLY AND ARE OFFENDED OR ANNOYED BY THE CONTENT, TAKE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE BECAUSE I COULD NOT GIVE A TOSS.


Hey, casual music fan!
Did you hear a Metal song on the radio and thought it was pretty good?
Did someone you know play some Metal and you enjoyed it?
Did it whet your appetite for the genre and you want to hear more?
Then you're in a place that might not be the best source of music advice but sod it, you're here now, I might as well have a crack at it!

Unless you're listening to a specific Rock/Metal station, chances are there are only a few bands you heard on the radio. Two that immediately spring to mind are Iron Maiden and Metallica, although it's possible that you could've heard some Judas Priest, Saxon, Motley Crue, the list goes on. The aim of this blog post is to give you some recommendations and guide you as you get into more and more Metal bands. Obviously, I don't know what you're into and I can only really guide you based on what I assume is correct mixed with my own taste so I apologise if I'm wrong.
However, if you disagree with the content of this post and still want some decent Metal, I recommend going on Spotify and getting the Last.FM app. You can play the song(s) you like and then get it to make a playlist of similar songs that you can check out. It's kind of like the Genius function on iTunes only it isn't completely unreliable and crap. Anyway, let's get started!
Whilst I could talk for ages about different Iron Maiden songs and their best albums (for top quality Heavy Metal, check out "Powerslave" and "Number Of The Beast"), I'm gonna write about The Big Four. The Big Four are four Thrash Metal bands who are generally considered important in the world of Metal. What's more, they can be arranged into four tiers that get steadily more aggressive and "Heavy". At tier #1, it's Metallica.

Yep, there is a picture above. Might be worth clicking on it or something.
"Metallica" (or "The Black Album") has divided Metal fans for years. Some say it's good and has quite a few solid Metal tracks whilst most say it's shit and Lars Ulrich should burn at the stake. My opinion? It's not bad. It's different to their earlier material and I would say it's nowhere near as good but it has a couple of cool songs on it. The big hit from this album was Enter Sandman, although if you heard a Metallica song on the radio then it could've been that or (more likely) Nothing Else Matters.
Now, if you liked either or both of those, it sounds like you're not repelled by songs being quite heavy. I would recommend giving the rest of the album a try. If you enjoyed it, the next album I would recommend is my personal favourite from Metallica: "Ride The Lightning".

Whilst it's full of aggressive Thrash tracks such as Fight Fire With Fire and Trapped Under Ice, you can also find varying strengths of Metal on this album. If you liked softer tracks such as The Unforgiven, you might like Fade To Black. If you liked relatively heavy songs such as Sad But True, check out For Whom The Bell Tolls. If you liked faster songs such as The Struggle Within, you might find Creeping Death to your liking. After listening to those songs, your next best bet is probably the following album, "Master Of Puppets".

People tend to cite this as the best Metallica album. Personally, I think it's overrated. However, it still has some great songs like Orion, Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and the title track. Now, if you've enjoyed what you've heard so far, that's a good sign. Of course if you've heard some of the heavier tracks like Battery and you they're not to your taste, that's fine. You might grow to like them at a later stage, which means moving onto the next tier of Metal.
The next logical leap from Metallica is Megadeth, a band with similar riff based Rock but with more of a political stance in the lyrics and more fury in the guitar work. Small note: I haven't listened to every album by The Big Four, so I could miss some tunes that you'll enjoy more than others. However, I have listened to their most well known albums, along with a few that might not be as popular. At the end of the day, your best bet is to do a bit of independent research into these bands and their music.
Saying that, if you can't be arsed to trawl through entire back catalogues for the sake of finding a few decent tunes, carry on reading. Onto Megadeth and a passable album that's easily accessible if you're into Hard Rock.

Released last year, "Super Collider" received mostly negative reviews from critics for being less of a Thrash album and more of a generic Hard Rock one. However, for a first time listener, you're gonna find songs that may appeal to you such as the title track or The Blackest Crow. I also recommend the album opener, Kingmaker. This song is more typical of Megadeth's older sound from the 90's and if you enjoyed it, I've got another great album for you: "Countdown To Extinction".

A great follow up to a better album that contains quite a few of the band's classics, such as Symphony Of Destruction and Sweating Bullets. I also recommend the title track and, if you like your Metal a bit heavier, Skin O' My Teeth. You may have noticed that some of Megadeth's riffs are a bit darker (for lack of a better term) than Metallica's. You've got more songs in minor key and the riffs sound like they've got more power behind them.
However, Megadeth also have a fair amount of faster, aggressive tracks too. The two iconic Metal albums that contain several of these are 1986's "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" and 1990's "Rust In Peace". We're gonna look at the one I prefer.

Maybe I just prefer blue to red but I personally think this album tops "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?", even if critics and Metalheads think that album is superior. Don't get me wrong, that album has a few awesome songs like Peace Sells, Wake Up Dead and Devils Island but I believe this album is better to listen to overall.
From the blistering rage of the opening track, Holy Wars... The Punishment Due, to the exceptional soloing in Tornado Of Souls, this album demonstrates the band at their best. If you like fast songs, Take No Prisoners might catch your interest. If you like slow ones with catchy riffs, Lucretia is one for you.
By now, if you've spaced out the listens to each album, you should be into Thrash a little bit more now. I would recommend revisiting Metallica's debut album, "Kill Em All" before making the leap to the next tier of The Big Four, or maybe their fourth album "...And Justice For All", which contains a fair helping of fast Thrash.
So you've listened to Metallica and you've dabbled in Megadeth. These guys are the easier bands to get into but what's that? You want more? You want to keep journeying further and further into The Big Four's music? Alrighty then, time to bring out the next band: Anthrax.
Anthrax have a sort of Punk sound to some of their well known songs but that doesn't mean they go any easier on the riffs and soloing. It simply means you can expect some fantastic bass and drums from them. Whilst it may not be their biggest album, I would say this next one is their best. Not only in terms of the music on it but also as a way to move from one tier to another.

Boasting quite a striking cover, "Spreading The Disease" is one of those great albums that keeps you engaged start to finish. Tracks like the album opener, A.I.R, go full throttle with every instrument whereas more familiar songs such as Madhouse act as great bridges between Megadeth and tunes from this band's following album. However, before moving onto the next album, you may want to spend a bit more time on this one.
Tracks like Medusa and Lone Justice are ideal for those who still want steady Heavy Metal but you've also got songs such as Armed And Dangerous, starting off slow and gradually gaining power. If you like that song, now might be a time to revisit Metallica tracks such as Battery and The Four Horsemen.
Anyway, as I mentioned before, Anthrax incorporated some Punk elements into their music (particularly in the vocals and drums) for their next album, "Among The Living".

This album contains two of their signature songs, Caught In A Mosh and Indians. Dealing with rapid tempo changes, this music might not be to your taste but if there is a part of the song you like (for example, the main riff in Indians) then it's worth sticking with them over a couple of listens. As with a lot of songs, you find that the more you listen to them, the more you grow to like them. However, this album also has a few that you might instantly enjoy. For me, that track was One World which sounds like it could've easily fit onto "Spreading The Disease".
Now by this point, I reckon you've heard enough Metal to dip your toe into the water with the final band. Some are able to listen to this band and instantly like what they hear, although others might need some warming up first. However, if you find the right material, you should grow to like them. The last band in The Big Four is Slayer.
If I were to compare these bands to drugs, I'd say Metallica is the gateway narcotic. It's relatively harmless although still frowned upon by society. After that, you've got Megadeth. A bit heavier and probably something you should avoid in large doses unless you're happy to take on the side effects. Next is Anthrax, dangerous territory. However, not as dangerous as Slayer who, in the drug world, would be the equivalent of needles and blow jobs for cash. Luckily, there's a positive to this! As is the case with quite a few 80's bands, their first album is awesome.

At this point in their career, the band hadn't quite found their groove yet. You can tell in tracks like Black Magic and Die By The Sword that the blueprints are all there but they haven't quite settled on the lightning fast guitar strumming and hellish vocal growling yet. As a result, you've got songs such as Crionics and Tormentor that might be best to start on. As an added bonus, this music is incredibly similar to the NWOBHM subgenre (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) so if you liked those songs, check out early Iron Maiden, Saxon and Venom, the band that were undoubtedly a strong influence for Slayer.
Despite containing fan favourites, Slayer's biggest song comes from their third album, "Reign In Blood". That song is appropriately titled Raining Blood and if you like that song, chances are the rest of Slayer's 80's and early 90's music will appeal to you too. However, before you check out that album, there is one more that you may consider listening to first.

Ahhh, another freaky album cover. Excellent!
Anyway, "Seasons In The Abyss" certainly contains songs that bear the Slayer rhythm, such as War Ensemble, but the band have other tracks that blend the rhythm with slower riffs, such as Spirit In Black. If you're still reading and, months down the line, you've been periodically improving your resistance to Heavy Metal, congratulations!
So, what next? You've sampled from four plates and now it's time to get out there and do some more feeding! But where to begin?
Well, there's that Spotify/Last.FM thing I mentioned near the start of this post. You could also do research into the bands that influenced The Big Four such as Diamond Head and Judas Priest. As for modern Metal...well, there are good bands who keep the Heavy Metal feel alive (see my last review), bad bands who are just emo pussies writing angsty music about suicide for tweens and bands who divide opinion and deserve a listen first before you believe comments online like "DragonForce suck! They just speed up their music in the studio and can't play it live!" (They can. I've seen them. You have no idea what you're talking about).
But if there's a message to take away from this post, I'd say it was that you'll never know what's right for you until you listen to it. You could discover your new favourite band tomorrow after just one play and if you're willing to put in the time and effort, you may find a song by a band you hate that doesn't suck as much as the rest of their material. Bottom line is you shouldn't stop at hearing one decent song. If you really liked what you heard, check out some of their other tunes.

Of course, you might be unlucky and only find one good song on the entire album, despite the band being popular and well loved. I call this The Meat Loaf Paradox.