DJ George Burnz Top 20 metal, hardcore, and punk of 2015

Here's my top 20 albums of 2015
The Metal Pig and I have a combined 80 (even) new albums for 2015, here's my cream of the crap! Metal Pig's list to soon follow! Our motto is, quoting the Sea Hags, 
"You're only as good as your shittiest song,"
so on that note…..

#20
Iron Maiden 
Book of Souls
This is highly revered as a comeback album, I would have to say Bruce's voice is shot and off key, the album has some solid tunes, and some boring ass crappy ones too. It's better than the last few...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F7A24f6gNc

#19 Slayer 
Repentless
 Nice effort from half of the original band, Tom lost his vocals somewhere too, but the album has some great classic riffage. I need some Gary Holt Exodus riffs though, maybe next album. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjb0j9l1sz4

#18
Nuclear Assault 
Pounder
It's an E.P., it almost didnt make it, but, I dig these dudes, and this EP rocks, I can't wait for the next EP, til then check out my interview with Dan Lilker! 

#17 Aggressive Response
Self Destroyer

Albany Hardcore, 80's style abrasiveness. NYHC done old school style. Look for these dudes. They rule.

#16 Karyn Crisis Gospel of Witches 
Salem's Wounds

With Immolation's Bob and Ross, Karyn comes back in full force, with a spirit ghost that she channels. Check out my interview with her last winter. And this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2piIXVm8Z5Y

#15 Carousel 
2113

I hear Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Bulletboys, and it plain rules!!!!
Their last album Jeweler's Daughter is quite a gem, this one is right there too, good old rock n roll.

#14 Red Death
Permanent Exile
This album is so bad ass, it reminds me a lot of Sick of it All, and it's one of the best hardcore albums to come out in 2015.

#13 The Sword
HIgh Country

This album is a bit of a departure from their normal rockiness, yet, it still manages to pull though, and kinda grows on you after a few listens. Check out our show review in the post below!

#12 Lord Dying
Poisoned Alters

I reviewed these dudes opening for Crowbar, they rock live, and their album is smokin hot shit, think Crowbar, minus the sad shit.

#11 Skinless
Only The Ruthless Remain
Our local boys, and personal homies came back together to put this album out, and it is solid NYDM, with the original lineup back, they are pounding out some classic death metal action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UQrG5Qezu4 

this dude uses Skinless for his theme song! 

#10 Turnstile
Non Stop Feeling

Damn, yo dog! This shit is da bomb! No really though, this album is packed full of moshtastic grooves, though sometimes I feel like I'm listening to 311 or Rage Against the Machine.

#9 Chiefs
Tomorrow's Over
 This scratches my Helmet itch, and I love it. Stoner rock Helmet from Cali, get some y'all!

#8 Atomic Bitchwax
Gravitron

So pumped these dudes got back together and made a record, we love all their albums. We saw these dudes at CBGB's open for Nebula and holy shit they rock. This album, after a bit of a hiatus, is on point, quite amazing jams. Their last album had a song with a fake vinyl sound, as if some dropped the needle on the record at the beginning of the tune. Now, hearing it on actual vinyl, kinda bummed me out, lesson learned, don't simulate a turntable sound on your album, then press it on vinyl, in the end, we all lose. The soul clap, hey baby, I gave it so damn much rotation this summer, it was  the feel good hit hahaha

#7 Sick Of It All
Last Act of Defiance 

These NYHC legends are back!!! This album reminds me of Scratch the Surface era toughness, yet, a few corny songs, namely the Get Bronx and the DNC tunes. DNC, DNC, oi, oi, oi. Uh, what? Losing War is one for the books, that songs is the jammy jam.

#6 Lucifer 
Lucifer I
This album is quite spellbinding, and I'm hooked. Johanna from the Oath is great, and she has a sweet doomy stoner rock band backing her. This debut is a good taste for more to come from these guys. 

#5 Faith No More 
Sol Invictus

These guys are one of my favorite bands of all time, and I am kinda biased, but, this album rules, there is only one terrible song, that Motherfucker song. The rest of the album is classic FNM, kinda Angel Dust era-ish . Go get this album, if you are a old school FNM fan, you'll be happy. 

#4 Ghost
Meliora

These guys have a schtick, I know, but their songs rule, regardless. It's classic rock, metal, psych rock whatever, I love it. It's creepy and cool, go get their albums, their isn't a bad one in the bunch. 

#3 Enforcer
From Beyond
Every one of this band's album has hit #1 on our countdowns. This one has a few boring songs, not living up to the EVERY SONG RIPS high bar standard they held for themselves since forever. It still is one of the best albums of 2015, hands down. They are coming to the US Jan.2016!!!!!

#2 Night Demon
Curse of the Damned

This debut full length from this California trio is one of the top metal albums of this year, and one of the top metal albums of all time. It harkens back to NWOBHM with a dash of Kiss, and it's exactly what we need from a metal record. They came to town opening for last year's #1 album writers, Skull Fist. Due to border issues in Canada, Skull Fist cancelled and Night Demon then stepped up, and rocked the house. When the Night Demon comes to town, you better get down there and drink from the chalice!!!! 

#1 Turbowolf
Two Hands

I can't put my finger on their sound, but whatever you wanna call it, it rules. They remind of Alice Donut, just a bit heavier, I can't stop listening to this album. Two Hands has been the soundtrack of 2015. Every song rules, the guitar sound and riffage is so heavy groove it rules, the female bassist does some dual harmony with the vocalist, he does some crazy keyboard synth jammin, and their drummer is absolutely nutz!!! Nine lives video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydpQLUoL9Tw

TURBOWOLF
RICH GIFT
VIDEO OF THE YEAR!!!!
IT  RULES TOO!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qicmU2KN3wY

The Metal Pig will count his down next!!!!!!

The Sword & Royal Thunder 12/2015 Clifton Park, NY

Since their first tour support for their first album, The Sword have made upstate NY a stop on several occasions. Their latest show was held at Upstate Concert Hall, to unfortunately, a noticeably less than full club. 
Royal Thunder is the touring opener, and both bands are on tour in support of new albums, respectively. 
 Royal Thunder is a slow chugger of a band, with the trademark jumping guitar player, hyping up what never really seems to come, or well, maybe it kinda did? It's a dual guitar attack, the other dude a bit more reserve and old school-ish.

The band's songs consisted of a lot of epic building crescendos that tear down and rebuild, and is very vocal driven, powered by a strong voiced woman, Mlny Parsons. 

At times, I'll admit, it felt like I was at a 4 Non Blondes solo show,

1 Non Blonde if you will hahaha. A few songs led into what  sounded like Faith No More influenced rocking weirdness, but for the most part, they were lacking any hooks, and the songs/band just comes off as a showcase for her vocals. They were good for what they are doing, I just needed more umph from the 2 guitars. 

The Sword 

The Sword started right off with Tres Brujas, rocking at full tilt, sounding incredibly good, and looking quite mystical, I should add, with a whole new light show in tow.

They laced the night with a bit of every album, and a few off the new one, which, still held everyone's attention. They produce stoner rock to the point where they practically epitomize the genre. 
 Vocalist John D. Cronise's voice is so distinct, his talking style singing, with that slight reverb, sounded perfect, just like he sounds on the albums.

They are out in support of their new album High Country, which is a little different than their other records, yet, just as good. There is a synth type little jam on the album, and I thought, this must be the  "tune up song," and sure enough, I was right. 

There is another song on the new record, that has a drum loop with a dancy sorta "I wrote this for my girlfriend" song or a Portishead/Phantogram sorta feel to it, and to me, it's one of the best songs on the album. I thought, that's the "show's over, turn the lights on song." 

Sure enough, after the last song, the lights turn on, everyone looks on the ground for picks, and as we head toward the mens room for a final piss, dudes were singing along to it, which also proved me right, that song rules….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcpKyx21yx4

 The whole new album rules, check it out, well, check out all their albums. 

All photos by Full Metal Racket Please ask for permission, or give credit due, don't steal!!!!!

Murphy's Law !!! 11/2015

I went and saw Jimmy's latest version of Murphy's Law, at Trickshots in Clifton Park, NY and all I got was a beer soaked Murphy's Law Shirt. It happens every time I see that band. Another thing that happens every time is, I hear the same set list, it's time to freshen that show up, with some new songs, or some different oldies like Car Song, Stay Gold, What Will The Neighbors Think, just to name a few….. Murphy's Law's latest guitarist is a dude who also played in Mephiskapheles and Bouncing Souls. He plays his guitar upside down and left handed. Shit was weird to watch. Beer and shots had by all, good times, great oldies.
 It was an old school high school reunion, with old Albany area bands Murderer's Row and Bruise Brothers opening up, definitely old guy night at the pool hall. 

ARF ARF ARF

Raven getting busy

 

Jimmy's usual silly antics kept Bob (from Stigmata and Murderer's Row) from trying to sleep, using his name "Bob" for several songs like "Crucial-Bob B-Q"…..

Jimmy and Raven honkin' away

In classic 80's (hair metal) style, some woman threw her bra at Jimmy, here's Jimmy strapping the big black bra to his head….

Murphy's Law is always a beer blast, without fail. Go get wasted with Murphy's Law sometime, you deserve it.

Skinless Philly November 2015 Kung Fu Necktie

Holy Shit, Philly's own Rumpelstiltskin Grinder opened for Skinless, on Skinless' stop in Philadelphia's metal/punk club Kung Fu Necktie, on their mini tour 2015,

and damn, those dudes tore down the house! Sweet fast thrashy, moshtastic fun. Go buy their records!!!!!!!!

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder

Skinless didn't disappoint, the crowd was slamming nuts, it was a tight little club, but, for a Sunday night, Philly packed 'em in! Metal is alive and well in Philly!!!

                                Sherwood back in action

                                                  Dave and Joe

Joe Keyser of Skinless

Abnormality Interview with vocalist Mallika Sundaramurthy 11/2015

Check out this interview!!! 

Skinless' first Boston appearance 11/20/15

Upstate NY's own Skinless has been banging heads since 1992, rearing 5 albums, all supported by countless tours. This latest album, is not seeing tour support, but plenty of shows to fill the months.  Now, for some reason, those earlier album's tours never made it out to Boston, so, Skinless and Boston finally had a long over due devirginizationing throw down, to end off 2015. Skinless regularly played closer to NY, in western Mass. namely the Palladium, which, Sherwood, vocalist of Skinless, was banned back in 2001 for stage diving off the PA, amonst other stuff. Anyway, here I was merchin/drivin/roadietc for Skinless, ( I have for the last couple albums) at the Brighton Music Hall, I was told it was once called Harper's Ferry, and had a lot of good bands rock the place. There's good and cheap South American food next door, if ya ever there, get some. 
 A band called Scalpel opened, but missed them, I was a bit busy with T shirts, and what not. Then it was Dysentery up next. No, I didn't get it from eating the pupusa next door, it was the name of the band up next. They put on what sounded to me like NYDM, and the slam was in full effect. The vocalist is from Tentacles and Streetsweeper, some of upstate NY's finest bands to grace that scene. The crowd in Boston was a cool, generous, old school, heavy patched battle jacket sorta crowd. They were a sweaty bunch, slamming like crazy, a little circle pit action, every one seemed to have fun with it.

Next up to bat was Abnormality, from Boston. They provided your basic death metal style, not as slam-mosh tastic as Dysentery, though the crowd was slamming and moshing up the joint, displaying their appreciation for death metal coming to Boston. I must mention that Abnormality is fronted by a stunning woman named Mallika Sundaramurthy, whom has a deep guttural growl, that matches any male counterpart of hers that I have ever heard. She also at times accompanied her deep death metal vocals with some black metal dying witch screech that makes it's so tasty as a total package.  Look for my interview with Mallika, for further detail about their up and coming death metal band to look out for, they just got signed to a major metal label, and new album soon, etc. 

Next up, it took over 20 years, but Skinless finally hit the stage in Boston. The completely grateful and exuberant crowd responded with fist and headbangin mania, circle pit spazz outs, karate moshers and football clobbering hooligans, all hitting it with a grin. Everyone had a blast, the club sounded great, oh yeah, Bob flubbed a song, haha, and Sherwood said "If some motherfucker comes thru that door waving an AK, I want everybody to attack that fucker and kill him!"
Good times in Boston, that scene is hungry for the death metal, and coming from NY, their scene greeted NYDM style with open arms. 

Noah and Joe Boston 2015

NY vs. Boston aside, we are more neighbors than enemies with Boston, and Mass. as a whole, and it's safe to say as a New Yorker, BOSTON RULES!!!!
*all photos by George DeMers* aka don't steal my blurry shots dickwad

Demo Pile #2 Acid Storm Demo 8/89

2nd demo in our Demo Pile comes to us from Sao Paulo, Brazil circa 1989, from a band called Acid Storm. I guess they made this into an EP, then released a full length. Check 'em out, a little Sepultura mixed with Excel, Death Angel, & Overkill is what we hear, and we love it!

Full Metal Racket Show Demo Pile #1 Abolish Endangered Existence

I have piles of demos from metal and punk bands from the early 90's, and I want to share them with you. Being a musician in several bands with demos throughout the years, I understand these demos represent the basic blueprint, dreams, aspirations, and true unfettered art, of each musician, in it's raw form. ENJOY!

These guys remind me of Nuclear Assault, here' some info on them http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Abolish/117213

I

The Shrine, Corrosion of Conformity, (Clutch) Upstate Concert Hall Clifton Park, NY 10/2015

I've been waiting for this day, since C.O.C. announced that they would be back together with Pepper on vocals, to have the tour stop in Upstate NY. For those of you that don't know C.O.C.'s long tenured history, they have a sound that varies  by album, from punk, hardcore, metal, & stoner rock. Basically, any heavy rock genre that seeps from the underground, C.O.C. has an album for it.

 The Shrine opened up, offering up some skate rock from Venice Beach, CA. They seemed to have pulled their more stoner jams out for this tour with Clutch and C.OC. They have a few videos on Youtube of them being kitschy and corny, which to me, kinda takes away from the legitimacy of their brand of rock n roll, something we take very seriously here at The Full Metal Racket Show. Though, the imagery aside, the songs rock. They remind me a lot of Annihilation Time, with that 80's SoCal vibe. It's as if they lived off the SST comps like the Blasting Concepts, with a ton of messy Greg Ginn style guitar work, overall making the band remind me of Rollins Era Flag. Anyway, check out my photos, they're kinda shitty, then watch my quick little interview in the post below!

So, for this tour, Corrosion of Conformity had our favorite lineup of theirs, Woody, Mike, Reed, and Pepper.  C.O.C. has been a band since '82, with vocal additions of Karl and the COC Blind era in the early 90's. Go check out our interview with Karl and Reed and COC Blind on Youtube, and here on our blog. Anyway, Pepper joined the band mid 90's, then left the band a few years later.  Pepper brought that Southern stoner groove to the table, later revitalized with the Down albums.The 2 records, Wiseblood, and Deliverance are the Pepper albums, and they rule. Pepper sounded great, he can still belt out those (now old) tunes. They played a song "Who's Got The Fire" that they haven't played live in years, someone posted it on Youtube, check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja9PZjOtikg

Here's some photos I took, All photos by your truly, George DeMers, copyright and all that.

Got to meet those creeps! 


The headliner was Clutch, one of those bands that we have tried to like, but, somehow, it's just not there. It's kinda rocking, kinda stoner rock-ish, but just not at the same time. All I know is, we're ready for the COC Animosity tour!?!!

The Shrine interview Oct 2015

Heavy Montreal 2015 Dokken, Marky Ramone, Sanctuary

 Sunday's lineup of Heavy Montreal 2015 to me personally, was the weakest, though, as I entered the Berri Metro station, I realized that metal has morphed into something greater in numbers than I expected, or at least was unsure of 'til then. The last two days, turn out for the greatest fest in North America was shit, and leave it to us to be frank- It speaks volumes- Hot Topic metal is the only draw, (?) wow and how, do stoic, time tested and true- bands could garner such irreverence is beyond me, especially to be replaced by /for gimmicky chug a lug showboating lamesville pop music. As I heard Rollins once call it "Candy Bar Metal" "Hard outer coating, with soft sweet nugat center." Lamb of God and Slipknot were headliners, and you knew it. We have nothing against these bands, they are great guys, and we have seen them several times live, etc. Just not our cup of tea....which leads to...Dokken...
 Dokken is highly revered here at Full Metal Racket Show, well, early George Lynch Dokken anyway. We even celebrate Lynch Mob, Wicked Sensation, George Lynch did us a station ID way back in 2000. Anyway, Don Dokken followed suit along with other vocalists of the 80's hair bands that we have seen live in recent years, (namely Vince Neil), who barely sings their songs, and never hit the notes. It's sad to see and hear, especially when some of my parents favorite singers of the 70's still hit every note. Mick Brown is the only other original member, and he seemed well, ALIVE- Don seemed, I don't know? anemic, indifferent, tired, something... Their latest guitar player I guess, played for Doro, and is their old attorney.... Anyway, here's some Dokken pics! 

 Marky Ramone got himself an Andrew W.K., and it works. Though Marky could really have an all star band like George Clinton at this point in his career, I guess it's a start. They blazed though their set, in standard Ramones fashion, and, like Iggy the night before, (I don't know if it's an old punk guy thing or what) Marky ended his set, got up and walked off stage as if the crowd wasn't there....Check out my interview with Marky, here on our blog, here's some shots of their show. 

   Sanctuary rocked one of the side stages to a pretty full crowd.The Metal Pig, here at Full Metal Racket is a huge fan of these dudes, from way back. Jeff Loomis, former member, was in the house with Arch Enemy earlier in the week, so between that, it was good to see the Seattle metal crew (Nevermore) represent in Montreal. Here's some photos I took of Sanctuary, dig it!