George Burnz of Full Metal Racket Show's Top Albums of 2016

My co-host the Metal Pig will have a different take of 2016, a bit more power metal tinged I am figuring, here's my list, hope you dig these new tunes. 

20. Candiria-While They Were Sleeping
It's good to hear these guys again The album is all over the place and that's ok, that's what they do. NYHC at it's weirdest. 

19. Death Angel-The Evil Divide
Death Angel proves why they are one of the originators of thrash metal.




18. Suicidal Tendencies-World Gone Mad
ST is back, this time with Dave Lombardo from Slayer on drums!




17. The Order-Rock'nRumble
The Order are a Swiss band that remind me of bands like Whitesnake and Montrose, and this album rocks.




16. Hypnos-Cold Winds
Hypnos is another European band that plays that retro rock feel I have been groovin' on. These dudes are from Sweden, a place that seems to be pumping out bands that rock left and right these days. 



15. Scorpion Child-Acid Roulette
These Austin, TX rockers play hard rock/hair metal sounding rock that is now played on classic rock radio. They got a Skid Row/Jackyl/Extreme sorta thang goin' on and I can dig it.




14. Hammerfight-Profound and Profane
These guys remind me of metal from our area of upstate NY, they are from Jersey, so, kinda close. Sorta hardcore tinged like Crumbsuckers or Ludichrist. This type of band would have played this local club called Saratoga Winners, which was a thrash metal redneck saloon that burned down a few years ago.



13. Bloody Hammers-Lovely Sorta Death
Type O Negative worship, shall I suggest it may be a bit more goth. Dude wears face paint, which throws me off, but then again, I do listen to Kiss. 




12. Hammers of Misfortune-Dead Revolution
Another 'hammer' band. This is Deep Purple metal. 




11. Imperial State Electric-All Through The Night
Not exactly metal, but hard rock, and this album rocks. 70's classic rock that reminds me of the Kiss tunes Ace wrote.




10. The Golden Grass-Coming Back Again
These Psych-rock stoner dudes from California put out a album that was my soundtrack to last summer. Feel good rock, makes ya wanna wear a bandana headband. They get all dual harmony singin like my dad's old Grand Funk Railroad 8 track used to do.





9. Gygax-Critical Hits 
This is former members of Gypsyhawk, and this album sounds a lot like as if this is a new Gypsyhawk album. I sure as hell ain't complainin'. I dig the Hotel Californiaesques dual harmony guitar solos all day. 



8. Ghoul-Dungeon Bastards
These guys play that thrash death crust grind that brings everybody to the pit. I know they are from a buncha other bands that I don't listen to and that's ok, these dudes are better off doing this schtick. 



7. Testament-Brotherhood of the Snake
I got a chance to interview Alex Scolnick at a time when they had just started to write this record, and it is a solid record, minus any cover song, booo, check it out y'all.

6. Anthrax-For All Kings
The new addition of Jon from Shadows Fall is quite the perfect matchup. I love his tasteful soloing on this record, and I may be biased for I love his work in Shadow Fall. This has to be the best choice for lead guitar that Scott Ian & the band have ever chosen. 



5. Savage Master-With Whips And Chains
It's like Doro, Betsy Bitch and Wendy O had a love child.




4. Diamond Head-Diamond Head
This is straight up metal done right. These guys were a major influence to Metallica and many other bands. This album has some key gems, and still proudly carries that NWOBHM flag.



3. Megadeth-Dystopia

Wow. Megadeth is back. This album is what I expect from Megadave. I got to see them this year in support of this album, a day after Nick Menza, their former drummer had passed away. 
They sounded great, Dave actually sang, and this album is solid, there's even a Fear cover song to boot. 




2. Blood Ceremony-Lord of Misrule
This album has many tracks that got stuck in my head over the course of this year. There is not a bad track on this album. The vocals are infectious and soothing, it's amazing she retains breath for that Jethro Tull flute. It was almost a tie for #1, it's that good.



1. Cauldron-In Ruin
These guys did it again, #1. Damn, Canada rocks!
They got into a horrible accident in Texas out in support of this mighty fine record, and I'm glad to see them back on their feet. 

In Ruin is aptly named (after that accident), if they come to your town, come out and check out some metal in it's purest form. In Ruin is a dark album compared to their past efforts. The recording itself has a softer, darker tone to it, I'm not sure if it was intentional, but still reflects on and into their sound quite perfectly. 

Sick Of It All 30th anniversary 9/11/16

One of my favorite bands, Sick Of It All, is celebrating 30 years of NYHC. The lineup for the upstate NY show featured two local (Albany/Troy) bands that are as good as HC gets, Aggressive Response, and Wartime Manner. Friend or Foe from Richmond, VA are a great new HC band to check out, they opened too, along with Comeback Kid. 
 Sick Of It All played a set spanning their 30 year career. Being a long time listener of these guys, I wish I coulda drew up the set list. Safe to say there are a few songs I think are kinda silly and of course, are featured every show. I will call them out; ok I'm sorry, but "Take the Night Off "(to prove that we don't give a fuck)," is a horrible chorus, and silly. DNC, DNC, that song is terrible, Losing War is the jam to be played on that new record. "Sanctuary" is regretful. And there are a ton of floor stompers that could be added instead. A Month Of Sundays, Disillusion, I could go on, Oh, but man, Machete is such a fine tune, what a jammer. And they played "What's Goin' On'' Holy Smokes that fuckin ruled. Pushed Too Far, into Friends Like You is like taking vitamins, or breathing air. Pete was nice enough to drop us a radio spot, and he wasn't too dizzy from all those Bobby Biohazard spins !
Here's some typical HC photos, displaying unity, etc. 

Upstart Antisocial Campout Sept. 2016

Hey, so we packed our shit up and went camping for 2 days, in some old resort in the northern Catskills, East Durham to be exact.
It was a punk rock fest with tons of bands, and comedians as well. I was actually clued in on it through a comedian I met in my other hometown, Victoria, TX. The comedian is JT Habersaat, he was opening for a Texas band called Worm Suicide, and Grief Thief. We got to talkin a bit, and came to the realization that we had played a show together opening for the Murder Junkies in New Paltz, NY. Small world. He's hilarious, check him out!!! http://jtcomedy.com/bio/
 Anyway, Sheer Terror was headlining the 2nd night, along with this band from Moscow, Svetlanas, and their label mates, a Devo worship band called The Fantastic Plastics, all were on tap for a great weekend of camping and punk rock.

 Friday night, we showed up late, and set up camp, then checked out the layout. It's a scattered campground, spots here and there, a pub, a pool, and an outside stage, with a bar and merch tents. There were also motel looking rooms on the property too. 

                               This was the greeting robot

The best sign ever 

We went to the pub, and caught Albany's New Red Scare, who are a super solid punk rock band with some cheery Descendents sorta appeal under all the gruff. Studio stuff is a bit more polished than what I heard live.
 Svetlanas from Moscow played a surprise set, and rocked the house. They remind me of Turbonegro with alot more palm mute, and minus the amazing guitar shred that is Euroboy. Olga's wide eyed stares and in your face front woman tactics elicit nothing but hardcore punk mosh and sing along from the crowd. During the chorus for "I Must Break You," being the typical American, I pictured a Rocky montage, of Ivan Drago working out to this song & next time we're doin' shots of waadka and rockin "Let's Get Drunk" - look out.
http://www.svetlanas.su/

Enziguri played their style of NYHC, which had a posi style HC that was pretty cool, and minus any beatdown bs. check those dudes out, and tell them to change that band name hahaha https://www.facebook.com/enziguripunx/?fref=ts

The next day, we caught the comedy special, which was a perfect and positive way to start the day's festivities. There was a band that played called Menace To Sobriety, which were fun moshy punk. The funniest shit ever, was the singer quoting someone else, who had such a gem quote he had to share, now I shall share too; 

Why do think there will be a second coming of Christ? He wasn't nailed to a fucking boomerang!

 This band Damn Broads played, fairly aggro riot grrl 3 piece punks, who all shared vocal duties. The drummer had the Wendy O voice that stood out above the other two, and was so fucking rocking. https://www.facebook.com/damnbroads/?fref=ts

We did a lot of campfire grillin and chillin, with live punk in the background, Mephiskaphilies sounded great, we finished our food and drink, and head to the show, which, by the way, baked beans in a half a grilled butternut squash bowl is a camping dream.

Svetlanas played another set, and it of course, ruled. Go see these guys when they come to your town. They kicked off their US tour at the fest. 

And finally, Paul Bearer and Sheer Terror did their usual, get the crowd pumped with their timeless legendary NYHC classic anthems, only to put the pit on ice, with Paul's 10 minute banters. I still love them ugly bastards. 
https://www.facebook.com/sheerterror/ 

After that set, we went indoors to the pub, and saw The Fantasic Plastics rock their Devo-tional stylings, and, I will admit, i am hooked like cracks yo! Devolver is a killer record for any Devo/B-52's/80's rock/new wave fan. https://www.facebook.com/TheFantasticPlastics/

Miranda Plastic, gettin spacey on the Moog theremin, & Tyson Plastic's shadow, working Overtime! Way to seal the deal. Male Patterns blasted the face after that, we creeped back to the camp, what a day....

I hope they do this campout fest again, we absolutely had a blast, the turn out was pretty terrible, but, when I am camping, I kinda don't want a bunch of people around anyway, so, there's that...

Benefit show for Dr. Know in Tompkins Square Park w/ Breakdown, Token Entry, Cro-Mags, Antidote, Maximum Penalty.

 Tompkins Square Park and the area around it has a lot of history for NYC punk. It was my first experience and introduction to NYC (punk) in the early 90's. I remember it as a punk park, where a nearby beeper store sold weed. I was scared of that place at night.  There were riots, and for a period of time, it was fenced off. Breakdown, Reagan Youth, Missing Foundation, Leftover Crack and tons more, too many to list, played this park, all to rally and protest for squatters rights in the LES. Gentrifier Guilliani booted everyone eventually... Anyway, flash forward to now, everybody's old or dead, and the park reeks of it.

The benefit was to help Dr. Know, guitarist of the legendary American punk band the Bad Brains, pay for medical bills from a recent hospitalization. Bad Brains were one of the godfathers of the NYHC scene. Recently, Dr. Know suffered cardiac arrest, which led to organ failures, he survived, yet, he is faced a mountain of medical bills. Several old school NYHC bands got together for this benefit.
  I got there late, due to traffic on the damn Tappan Zee from a bad crane accident had cars bottlenecked, and fuckers rubberneckin the broken crane that fell, I snapped a shot, too what the hell, when in Rome traffic I guess...

  I missed the two openers,  I got there just as Cro-Mags hit the stage. 15 years ago, I saw Harley's War at CBGB with Daryl on bass, this Cro-Mags lineup is without Harley, in 2000, I also saw the Cro-Mags open for the Bad Brains when Harley and John were both in the reunited stage, and Bad Brains were called the Soul Brains, anyway, Here's some shots...

I finally got to one on my bucket list, seeing Token Entry live, and I was glad I did. The song Antidote is my radio show theme song since 96, due to it's Friday night reference, and overall badass jammin.

THE PIT! 

 MOSH! SLAM! CIRCLE PIT! WALL OF DEATH!

CHUNX

MORE CHUNX

BREAKDOWN ! 

They ended the night with clobbering breakdowns (of all things) and plenty o' sing alongs with lyrics like "all you are is a fucking dick" 

MOSH! NY SLAM!

Slam and jam in100 degrees to support a great cause, the foundation, NYHC and believe it, NYHC RULES.

And last but not least, I got to hang with Munsey of Skateboard Marketing, this guy has been supplying me with metal, punk, and hardcore music for 20 years at WSPN radio, and I am grateful to know such a great guy. He's an old school mf'er that used work at fukkin Combat Core, in like, '86 which fuckin rules. Cheers Munsey! 

Life & Death Tour 2016 Clifton Park, NY

I went and checked out the hardcore/metal tour of the summer, Life & Death Tour, when they stopped by upstate NY last week, it was a lot of newer bands I needed to check out, and I'm glad I did.
 I didn't stay for headliners, Terror,  I've seen them before, I really don't listen to them, and also heard their vocalist wasn't there to sing anyway. I was able to get my hardcore and metal on, and my tired old ass home at a decent hour, considering after all, it was a Tuesday night.
 6 bands for 25 bucks, it started at 6:30, with Red Death, the only band of the six, where I can say that I actually purchased my own copy of their music (imagine that, people) prior to the show. Red Death combine the perfect storm of metal and hardcore, sometimes coming off with a Scratch The Surface era Sick Of it All sound, that totally kicks ass. They opened with a short set, I think these dudes have a great combination of metal and hardcore that will attract a lot of listeners, look for these dudes, Red Death! 

Next I have a bunch of photos from a California hardcore band called Fury, from Orange County, (singer specified that they were Cali's OC not NY's) These guys play a old school style straight edge mosh, and are really a lot of fun, and excellent live.

The vocalist was a hardcore frontman spazz as you could imagine, during one song, you had the obligatory dogpile the mic, and he just handed it over to the dogpile, then leapfrogged over them into the pit, and started moshin and slammin crazy, good times.

One guitarist was playing a Jackson, the other guy, some Buddy Holly looking thing. 

Up next was Angel Du$t, which features members of other hardcore bands Trapped Under Ice and Turnstile. It seems to me that these guys were sick of meeting 18 year old boys at hardcore shows, so they decided to write music to attract the girls. Shout outs to the females in the audience, the subject matter of the songs all point to this, to me. They do a Fat Mike sorta punk, All, H2O, Bouncing Souls sorta vibe, I snapped some photos, check it out! 

Harm's Way played, I've seen them before, beatdown hardcore, not really my thing, photos are on this blog, (archive on right side), BUT, up next after them was Power Trip.
These guys are from Texas, and like Houston's DRI, they play a mosh heavy style of metal, making the crowd go bananas. They kinda remind me of Exodus, tasty thrash. Go see Power Trip and this tour package they are on, it's one of the best tours of summer 2016! I bought music from each band, except Red Death, because I already own Permanent Exile, which you should too! 

all photos by George DeMers

TSOL at the Fuze Box Albany May 2016

It's been since 2002 that TSOL came to town, that time, they played Valentine's (RIP), and they came with Agnostic Front, I still rock the shirt, it's hangin' in there......

This time they came to town with a pop punk sounding band from NJ called the Scandals. Can't say I was into it, but, I'm an old dude.

TSOL played a bunch of songs, mostly from Dance With Me and Disappear, which, no complaints here, they are 2 great records, start to finish. Jack, whom has been known to wear a dress onstage, was sporting a sports jacket and silly patterned RN scrub pants. 

He was pacing the stage like Ozzy, it was hard to get a good photo of him in that perpetually dark ass club. 

Afterwards, I got to meet Jack, and rap about shit, I told him how my first time hearing and seeing them was on a Flipside VHS video fanzine, which, as a teen I watched this video 10,000 times, it stains my brain forever, I still have it! Check out the lineup, classic footage, I tell ya. I think this version I have is a bootleg, and I am pretty sure I got it at ERL or World Records in Albany, way back in the deeezzzayys.

Oh techknowledgey, here's the video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgWA25oehbY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwv5egWtv8c 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcrDLCUWfIY

I remember when there were 2 TSOL's, (the Meatmen have a song hilariously titled "(Both) TSOL's are sissies) Anyway, one version of the band had no original members left in the band, and the other, well, the original members got back together and put a live album out, and, it was exciting as hell! We awaited with bated breath....

HOLY SHIT! Disappear came out in 2001 and ruled everything. 

There's a lot on the horizon for the TSOL cats. I was going to interview Jack, but his throat was harsh from all the pollen up here, so, here's what he told me....They have a new album due out in a few months on Rise Records, called The Trigger Complex, with a tour to follow!

Jack also has a short film based on the lyrics to "Code Blue" which has a lovely romantic necrophilia theme to it...can ya 'dig' it? It stars Andy Dick, of whom Jack said, "We were able to film it in the  one of the 2 days he remained sober." hahaha According to Jack, the film is currently doing the Euro film fest rounds, then it will hit the states! http://sub.festival-cannes.fr/SfcCatalogue/MovieDetail/5ab07921-be0a-4a88-b4e4-abab49f168c6

Here I am with Jack, they just played Albany's punk homeplate, the old QE2, now, a cleaner spot, (thank god, cuz GG played there) it's called the Fuze Box.

 Damn, we're gettin old, and quite the sweaty bunch at that.