First off, I'd like to apologize for that rant last time. My sister-in-law's Mom may have cancer and it's been almost an exact year since my favorite WWE wrestler had to battle Leukemia. He managed to beat it and get into remission and has since resumed his career, having exciting tag-team Pay-Per-View matches where he teams up with The Undertaker and Daniel Bryan, two of my other favorites, but for months, I had a very defeatist attitude because in my family, cancer is a death sentence. Combined with losing my Uncle, the voting results of the UMC General Conference and the death of Activist and Left Wing Christian Author Rachel Held Evans, I keep imagining high-powered right wing Trump fanatics toasting champagne, laughing and preaching that "God is truly on the side of the Republicans, so join our cause and think what we think or die!" I've seen the price of our callousness, God's children, God's LGBTQ+ children who don't know their father and as such, turn to worship His enemy. Nothing hurts worse to me, we're doing all we can and it still doesn't feel like enough.
Anyway, today is Halloween, a special day for Horror Film fans and people who love the feeling of being scared. I have a good collection of Godzilla films and a few entries in the Friday the 13th film series, though Godzilla is less frightening and more of a way to pump myself up and the Friday the 13th film I made sure to get was Part VI, which is more comedic than scary (at one point Jason walks onto a paintball field and the songs are all performed by Alice Cooper). Speaking of Alice Cooper, though, there are some good songs that work for this day if you want to be scared or experience Horror-Comedy.
Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath: For me, no Heavy Metal Halloween is complete without the Church Bell, Thunder and the dark chord sequence. It's a horror movie setting of a man getting pulled to Hell by the devil, which works well for the Holiday.
Black Sabbath-Paranoid: A more upbeat song, used in the movies "Dazed and Confused," "Suicide Squad" and "Kong: Skull Island." The guitar riff is catchy and makes you want to raise your fists to the air.
Black Sabbath-Iron Man: Great low-end chords, a classic riff and especially useful if you're having a Marvel Comics-themed costume party.
Black Sabbath-Into the Void: A song about escaping a polluted Earth for a home where love will last. Great, dark-sounding riff. Also recommended: Soundgarden's Into the Void (Sealth): The same thing, but the lyrics are replaced with words Chief Sealth said.
Judas Priest-Running Wild (Live 1979): I rediscovered Unleashed in the East for its 40th Anniversary and it is an amazing piece of work. There's a lot of great songs on it, with great guitar work and Rob Halford sounds as good as ever. I recommend the recent reissue so you can get live versions of "Hell Bent For Leather" and "Starbreaker" as well.
Rainbow-Stargazer: I covered this a bit on my review of the Rising Album. Ronnie James Dio's lyrics and voice make this amazing, with Blackmore's guitar work and the strings driving it over the top.
Black Sabbath-Neon Knights: The first track on the first Ronnie James Dio Black Sabbath album, aggressive, powerful and with great imagery.
Ozzy Osbourne-Crazy Train: A fun and aggressive metal song. This song showcases Randy Rhoads at his best.
Ozzy Osbourne-Suicide Solution: Another great performance by Rhoads. Ignore the controversy, I've listened to this like 100 times and he sounds like he's saying "Get the Flask out."
Ozzy Osbourne-Over the Mountain: Great drumming, great guitar, great vocals, this is the tightest Ozzy's "Blizzard of Ozz" group sounded.
Ozzy Osbourne-Crazy Train (Live): Get the one off Tribute, that is pretty much a must-have for Heavy Metal guys.
Dio-Rainbow in the Dark: Great riff, great keyboard, great vocals. One of my all-time favorites.
Metallica-Ride the Lightning: Great Thrash Metal piece with aggressive sound that often gets unfairly overlooked by its album-mate "For Whom The Bell Tolls." Also check out the Halestorm version.
Motorhead-Ace of Spades: Aggressive rock song with driving bass and guitar. Was in a film I watched every Halloween, so this says Halloween to me.
Alice Cooper-He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask): One of the songs from Friday the 13th Part VI. Even includes the "Ki-ki-ki, Ma-ma-ma" in it.
Dokken-Dream Warriors: Dokken was to Nightmare on Elm Street 3 what Alice Cooper was to Friday the 13th Part VI. They even made a music video where the band helps a girl escape from Freddy Krueger!
Alice Cooper-Feed My Frankenstein: A classic Halloween song. Also featured in the Wayne's World movie. Featuring guitar work by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and bass played by Nikki Sixx.
Judas Priest-Breaking the Law (Live at Wacken 2015): A classic Judas Priest hit that sounds even better in this live performance. I love the audience interaction and the guitar work and having been to a show on this tour, can picture it easily in my head.
Judas Priest-You've Got Another Thing Comin' (Live at Wacken 2015): Another classic at the same show, extended to 11 minutes with a lengthy virtuoso guitar solo by Richie Faulkner and call and response with the audience.
Crucify the Dead-Slash and Ozzy Osbourne: Two titans of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal combine to make an aggressive statement towards Axl Rose as Slash begins a solo career with an album that ultimately leads to his collaborations with Myles Kennedy.
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow-The Storm: A single released this year, Ronnie Romero sings about a storm as Ritchie Blackmore plays some nice guitar.
Jorn-Trio of covers: Norwegian Metal band Jorn performed at a festival and covered Ozzy Osbourne's Shot in the Dark, Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio)'s Mob Rules and Dio's Rainbow in the Dark. I would consider each a good Heavy Metal cover and something to listen to today.
BabyMetal-Distortion: A fun song with some aggressive backing, the fun part for me was when they performed this live. The video showed a wrecked metropolis with a red tinted sky a few times, each time prompting me to think "I've seen this movie!"
BabyMetal-Karate: My favorite song of theirs. It's a good headbanging song and it's also the song that made me a fan of them.
Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott-Take What You Want: A recent song that is both hip-hop and metal and it's actually a good song. I'm still trying to find out who does the guitar solo. It's about a rough relationship. Words can't describe the feelings when you see this, Miley Cyrus' "Slide Away," and Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana del Rey's "Don't Call Me Angel" on the top Spotify charts all at once.
Phil Campbell-Collaborations: Phil's song "Swing It" with Alice Cooper I already mentioned as being good for the Holiday and I heard "Straight Up" with Rob Halford on Saturday. That also fits and both work for this day.
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