Last week I finally got to hear the Dolly Parton and Sabaton albums from March 4th and they both had some pretty standout tracks. It wasn’t a reinvention of “Jolene,” “Halos and Horns,” “Those Were The Days” or “Carolus Rex,” (though Sabaton got close to that, though mostly because it’s a History-based Heavy Metal concept album) but solid releases nonetheless. I also heard for KING and COUNTRY’s new album and that was a good reminder of God’s love, which, honestly, feels muted these days by partisan religious leaders, tremendous political division and the senseless violence, war and death that have persisted for way too long. These are very hard times, when we need God and each other to shoulder our sadness and aches and those responsible to bring this to us often tell us “It’s your fault that you’re experiencing this sadness and ache, because you’re gay/love gay people as brothers and sisters/listen to heavy metal other than Stryper/listen to Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande/chose the Edelgard route/believe COVID is real/voted for Biden-Harris and/or Inslee.” There are, thankfully, good people who won’t say this, but it is something than can and will break someone.
But, back to the positive side, Lucius released a great single with Brandi Carlile and Sheryl Crow lending their voices to the piece, called “Dance Around It,” which is really something special. Also, this past week, March 6th marked the 30th Anniversary of Soundgarden playing the Paramount Theater in Seattle, a homecoming concert. The whole thing is available to watch on YouTube. Paul Stanley of KISS also revealed his top 11 lead singers, which led me to compile my own and write a new version of my top 10 guitarists since I last wrote it about 6-8 years ago and have had a lot more experience since then.
11 Top Lead Singers:
1.) Rob Halford (Judas Priest, Fight, Halford, solo career)
2.) Geoff Tate (Queensryche, Operation; Mindcrime, Sweet Oblivion, solo career)
3.) Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin, solo career)
4.) Ronnie Van Zant (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
5.) Sammy Hagar (Montrose, Van Halen, Chickenfoot, Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve, Sammy Hagar and the Circle, solo career)
6.) Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Country Communion, California Breed, The Dead Daisies, solo career)
7.) David Coverdale (Deep Purple, Whitesnake)
8.) Miley Cyrus
9.) Jeff Scott Soto (Talisman, Yngwie Malmsteen, SOTO, Steel Dragon (fictional), Sons of Apollo, solo career)
10.) Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath, solo career)
11.) Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, M.A.C.C., Audioslave, solo career)
Top 10 Guitarists:
1.) Allen Collins (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rossington-Collins Band, Allen Collins Band)
2.) Randy Rhoads (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne)
3.) Joel Hoekstra (Night Ranger, Whitesnake, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Joel Hoekstra’s 13)
4.) Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, pride and glory, Black Label Society, Generation Axe)
5.) Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin, The Firm)
6.) Doug Aldrich (Lion, Dio, Whitesnake, Glenn Hughes, The Dead Daisies)
7.) Slash (Guns N Roses, Slash’s Snakepit, Velvet Revolver, solo career)
8.) Eddie Van Halen
9.) Mike McCready (Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, M.A.C.C.)
10.) Vic Johnson (Sammy Hagar and the Circle)
I then couldn’t stop and decided to list my top 10 favorite drummers and bassists, this got a like on Facebook by a member of my congregation and Rudy Sarzo liked the bassist list. A Rob Halford fan also liked the singer list on Twitter.
Top 10 Drummers:
1.) Ringo Starr (The Beatles, solo career, All-Starr Band)
2.) John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
3.) Tommy Clufetos (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, The Dead Daisies)
4.) Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin reunion show, Black Country Communion, California Breed, Sammy Hagar and the Circle)
5.) Keith Moon (The Who)
6.) Artimus Pyle (Lynyrd Skynyrd, APB, solo career)
7.) Zak Starkey (All-Starr Band, Oasis, The Who)
8.) Tommy Aldridge (Black Oak Arkansas, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake)
9.) Vinny Appice (Dio, Last in Line, Resurrection Kings)
10.) Simon Wright (AC/DC, Dio, Dream Child)
Top 10 Bassists:
1.) Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne)
2.) Michael Anthony (Van Halen, Chickenfoot, Sammy Hagar and the Circle)
3.) Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Dio, Blue Oyster Cult, Dream Child, The Guess Who)
4.) Duff McKagan (Guns N Roses, Velvet Revolver, Loaded, Ozzy Osbourne, solo career)
5.) John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
6.) Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, M.A.C.C.)
7.) Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Country Communion, California Breed, The Dead Daisies, solo career)
8.) Mike Inez (Ozzy Osbourne, Alice in Chains, Slash’s Snakepit, Heart)
9.) John Deacon (Queen)
10.) Bob Daisley (Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Gary Moore)
There are playlists in my iTunes for each list, showing off each musician in one of their best performances, but in the interest of brevity, I’m not going to list them today. This week sees the release of the Charli XCX album that has her collaboration with Rina Sawayama, so that might have other good pop songs. Ray Wylie Hubbard is releasing his full album, of note to me is the track Ride Or Die (Montar O Morir), because it features quite a few special guests, such as Ringo Starr, Steve Lukather and Ann Wilson, meaning the drummer from The Beatles, the guitarist from Toto and the Bremerton-born lead singer of Heart will all be on one song. Chip Z’nuff’s new album also comes out and reportedly will feature Joel Hoekstra on two more songs and Steven Adler, the original drummer of Guns N Roses, on another. Also, there apparently will be a single from Apocalyptica with Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler and one from Carrie Underwood, and there will be an album named Kaiju Crescendo, featuring music from Toho’s giant monster films by Akira Ifukube, Masaru Sato and Michiru Oshima. Solar, my favorite K-Pop act, also released an EP last night.
Also today is the release of the Switch Port of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, a game I have been highly anticipating due to the great characters and great people who voice them. Examples include Chie Satonaka, a martial arts and steak-loving teen girl voiced by Erin Fitzgerald (Nazz and May Kanker in Ed, Edd N Eddy), Yosuke Hanamura, a guy who hits on ladies with no success but is still best friends with Chie and the protagonist (Yuri Lowenthal-Ben Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Force, Sasuke in Naruto, Marth and Eliwood in Fire Emblem Heroes, Spider-Man in the PS4 game, Marth and Alucard in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, He-Man in the Netflix series, Mercury in RWBY), Rise Kujikawa, a Teen J-Pop idol who uses her Persona’s offensive abilities for the first time in this game (Laura Bailey-Lucina in Fire Emblem; Awakening and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Vex’halia, Jester and Imogen in Critical Role (which is having their 7th Anniversary show tonight!), Rise Kujikawa is the role that made me take notice of her), Mitsuru, the head of the Kirijo corporation, who uses of a rapier and takes the threat of shadows seriously enough to be willing to do anything to stop them (Tara Platt-Temari in Naruto, Kali Belladonna in RWBY and, of course, Edelgard in the Fire Emblem series, one of the first openly LGBTQ+ Nintendo characters, as well as Miriel, the “witch librarian” in the Fire Emblem series originally in Awakening, recently added to Heroes (in homage to her real-life marriage to Yuri Lowenthal, Miriel and Eliwood are paired units in my Heroes)) and Elizabeth, a mysterious woman with potent magical powers who used to work in the Velvet Room, where Personas are created (also Tara Platt). I have bought the game and will be posting screenshots to Twitter later today provided the download went well and the Switch isn’t going to make this difficult, I’ve had issues with software on the laptop lately, not the laptop itself, just iTunes not canceling orders when you tell it to.
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