Revisiting some scattered metal favourites from the Maiden/Priest orbit.
Anthem - Silent Cross (from
Domestic Booty) One hell of a downtempo power ballad. Actually, it's more of a power requiem - a yearning lament delivered with Ronnie James Dio-esque conviction by Yukio Morikawa. However, the main draw is that staggeringly
heavy guitar tone and relentless executioner's trudge. The jaggedly pummelling opening riff is goddamn near Sabbath's
Into The Void. If you're patient, let it lead in from the spectrally soaring dual leads and pensive twelve-strings of
Willesden High Road.Parent album, the masterfully-named
Domestic Booty, is a power glam gem.
These motherfuckers could (and can!) tear it up. BROWING UP MY MIND~This lineup of Anthem contains the primary force behind landmark Castlevania AST
Perfect Selection Dracula Battle, namely bassist and founding mainstay Naoto Shibata and guitarist Akio Shimizu. Fans of that album will instantly recall Shibata's sledgehammering, operatic take on PSDB2's
Iron Blue Intention here. Booty was even produced by Chris Tsangarides, he of Judas Priest's respective 70s/90s landmarks
Sad Wings of Destiny and
Painkiller, plus a seemingly bottomless well of other goodies I'm still discovering. The guy got around!
Steve Harris - The Lesson (from
British Lion) Still enjoying a bit of Maiden now and then, and finding their more recent output surprisingly vital, I never really got into this side project. This track's the exception, it's an affectingly bleak yet hooky little dirge with some haunting imagery and sentiment. Surprisingly despairing for Harris's usually dogged lyrical tone, guess he needed to decompress. No idea about the rest of the album, the lead single caned me away like a confused pupper and I've not been back!
I should at least give it a go, because Maiden colleague Bruce Dickinson's three solo albums between 1997-2005 (the first two with Maiden guitarist and classic writing partner Adrian Smith, all backed up by equally formidable shredder and crack producer Roy Z)
fucking smoke anything Maiden did with or without them in the same period, rivalling even their canonical Good Stuff. (see
also Glenn Tipton's fiendishly intense, technical, changeable
Baptizm of Fire. Glenn sounds like
Galvatron by default and
Starscream once he really gets going, couldn't believe he was such a capable mini-Halford)
GIVE IT TO ME / I WON'T O.D. / YOU TALK TOO MUCH / SHUT THE FUCK UP <--word
Title track is the best Mahou Daisakusen music that never was. A real rain-lashed 900MPH
STRATO STORM/FOREST OF DEAD/DEVIDED BY ZERO neoclassical inferno!
So you've come of age
And you want to meet "God"
Sure you can
He's right here
NEXT TO MEBack to Bruce though -
"ARISE! AWAKE!" Fuuuck me, what a howl-along chorus! AND sludgy, guttering, Sabbathy tone, with duelling Smith/Z solos erupting phoenixesque from the muck! Full circle motherfucker!
