Content tagged 'Heavy Metal'

13 years ago today, Ozzy Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne became one of the rare father-daughter duos to ascend to the top of the UK Singles chart, doing so with a song that Ozzy had originally recorded as a member of Black Sabbath. “Changes” first debuted as an album track on Black Sabbath’s 1973 album VOL. 4, surprising more than a few fans in the process – the band wasn’t exactly known for delivering piano ballads, after all – while also demonstrating Sabbath’s musical diversity. In the past, Ozzy has used the word “heartbreaking” to describe the song, which may explain what led him to join

27 years ago today, Testament released their third studio album, an effort which found them getting more serious with their lyrics and, possibly not coincidentally, found them securing their first chart placement in the upper half of Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart. Recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, Practice What You Preach was a real line-in-the-sand album for Testament in terms of the topics they were covering in their lyrics, setting aside the more occult-themed lyrics of their previous LPs in favor of getting political and sociological. “We were starting to write more

48 years ago today, Iron Butterfly’s single edit of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” made its first appearance on the Billboard Pop Singles chart...or if you want to get technical, it appeared just under it. In the late 1960s, some of the bands that had started out in the so-called psychedelic era had been to transition to a harder sound, one which ultimately became described as heavy metal. If you were around at the time, though, you wouldn’t have called it that, because the term didn’t really take off for another few years. But that’s beside the point: what matters is that one of the bands that was in

July 13 has been a pretty good day for Black Sabbath on two notable occasions during their career, the first time because of a breakup and the second time because of a reunion. If you know anything about the history of Black Sabbath, then you know that the band officially began their career under that particular name in 1969. The process of the band coming to fruition, however, began in earnest on July 13, 1968. For the majority of that particular year, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward had been serving as members of a band called Mythology, gigging around the UK and finding a certain amount of

37 years ago today, the members of Black Sabbath finally got tired of Ozzy Osbourne’s antics and informed him that his services would no longer be required. When Black Sabbath settled in to begin the process of making a follow up to their 1978 album Never Say Die!, they did so with the knowledge that they really needed to turn in better material this time around, having seen the critics rip their last album to shreds. Unfortunately, all they found when they tried to write new songs was the same old frustration. “Trying to write this stuff, it was hard, but what made it next to impossible was

25 years ago today, Metallica released their third single from their 1991 self-titled album, ultimately securing themselves a top-40 hit with the track. Composed by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich and produced by them as well, along with Bob Rock, “Nothing Else Matters” has a surprising origin story: it first came into existence when Hetfield was on the phone with his girlfriend. “It was a song for myself in my room on tour when I was bumming out about being away from home,” Hetfield told the Village Voice in a 2014 interview. “It's quite amazing, it's a true testament to honesty and exposing

35 years ago today, Van Halen released their fifth studio album, an LP which provided them with the highest chart placement of their career up to that point and required the least amount of songwriting on their part. When DIVER DOWN hit record store shelves in 1982, one thing was very obvious about its contents just from looking at the track listing: it was filled with cover songs, including The Kinks’ “Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street,” along with a take on “Bad Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” and, to

You may recall how, back on September 29, Rhino released 10X10, by Ronnie Montrose featuring Ricky Phillips and Eric Singer, which was the album that the late Mr. Montrose had been working to finish when he died. Belated though it may have been, the fact that the project finally made it to stores was a big thrill to Montrose fans, but the thrill isn’t gone: we’ve also just released deluxe editions of Montrose’s first two albums. That’s the first two albums by the band Montrose, mind you, as opposed to Ronnie Montrose by himself. Just in case there was any confusion. Each of these CD reissues

19 years ago today, Metallica launched into a nine-song set at the home of the late Hugh Hefner, a.k.a. the architectural wonder otherwise known as The Playboy Mansion. Well, actually, it’s not the architecture of the mansion that’s a wonder as much as it is the architecture of some of its residents, but...we’re getting off-topic. Metallica’s performance was ultimately nothing more or less than a publicity stunt, but it was one with a dual purpose: not only did it serve to promote Trey Parker’s new movie, Orgazmo, but it also proved to be good publicity for the band’s then-new album, GARAGE