Queensryche and Armored Saint in Omaha: December 13

Two nights ago, the progressive metal band Queensryche took to the stage at The Waiting Room in Omaha.  Once again, on a Tuesday night.  Nebraska kind of sucks that way.  The concert also did not start until 9:00 p.m.  Which is crazy.  With us having to drive almost two hours to get there and back, it promised to be a very late night.  And this week was already pretty stressful.

I'll be honest, I did not have the highest of hopes for this concert.  There were three bands present and there were questions about all of them.  The first band was Midnight Eternal, a band with whom I was completely unfamiliar.  The Metal Archives lists them as a symphonic metal band and they have a female lead singer, so my first thought was "Nightwish clone".  I have only heard two albums from Armored Saint, one of which I love, and the other I really don't care for.  Most of my knowledge beyond that was that they appeared in Hellraiser 3 and singer John Bush spent some time with Anthrax.  I was most familiar with Queensryche but have not really heard much from them since 1994's Promised Land.  I was not even aware until a few days before that singer Geoff Tate was no longer with the band, which made me that much more wary.  So I did not have the highest of hopes, but it was a chance to see a band I really enjoyed at one point, and my wife wanted to see them, so we went.  And I am so glad that I did, because this was possibly the best concert I have seen all year.  And I have seen several.

Midnight Eternal was not terribly impressive.  Their music was decent enough but my initial impression upon looking into them was correct.  Their pixie-ish singer was talented enough but did not really match up with the music that well.  They were decent, but I don't see myself rushing out to get their album any time soon.

But where Midnight Eternal failed to impress, Armored Saint came out swinging.  They sounded amazing and it is hard to imagine that this is a band likely in their late 40's/early 50's.  John Bush's voice still has the same power it did when they released the Symbol of Salvation album.  They played two tracks off of that album, which is really a classic.  Unfortunately they did not play "Hanging Judge", my personal favorite from it.  They played songs from throughout their career.  I did recognize one track from the album I did not like that much, but it was admittedly the best song from it.  My wife really enjoyed Armored Saint as well.  I may just have to look into their earlier catalog.

After that, Queensryche came on, and they blew me away.  New singer Todd La Torre, formerly of Crimson Glory, sounds so much like Geoff Tate that I would likely not have been able to tell the difference if I just heard them.  The Waiting Room does not have the biggest stage, but Queensryche managed to cram two huge monitors in to show some visual displays during most of their songs, including a little animated feature prior to "Operation: Mindcrime".  As I mentioned, I am only really familiar with the band's material up until Promised Land.  Luckily the vast majority of the songs played were from that time period.  There were only three or four newer songs, all of which were surprisingly good.  But by far the best stuff was the earlier songs, like "Queen of the Reich", "Empire", "Damaged", and "Rage for Order".  I was a little disappointed that they did not play "I Don't Believe in Love", but that was a small disappointment.  The band was in top form throughout and La Torre sounded amazing.  They closed out the night with a blistering version of "Eyes of a Stranger".  I was definitely impressed.

My wife wants it to be known that they were not as good as Scorpions from earlier in the year, but honestly, as much as I enjoyed that show, I enjoyed this one more.

Megadeth in Council Bluffs: October 3, 2016

Last night my wife and I traveled to the Omaha area (Council Bluffs is just across the river in Iowa) for the third time in the last week and a half to catch a concert.  This time, Megadeth was headlining a show featuring four other bands.  This is the third time that I have seen Megadeth, but the first time that they have been the headlining act.  I saw them for the first time a few years ago when Rob Zombie was headlining and I saw them earlier this year at a festival in Texas.  I was excited to see what they would do as the headliner.  The four supporting bands last night were Amon Amarth, Suicidal Tendencies, Metal Church, and Butcher Babies.

In a rare occurrence for my wife and I, we were quite a bit early.  There were very few people in the seats and a handful in front of the stage when we arrived.  That gave us some time to wander around a little and find the merchandise table, where I finally got a Megadeth t-shirt.  At the festival earlier this year, they were completely sold out of Megadeth shirts in my size.  We then found our seats where we realized that Butcher Babies would be the first band to play, instead of Havok as we originally thought.  Apparently they had been kicked off the tour a couple of months ago due to a dispute with management and I did not realize this.  That kind of sucked because I was excited to see Havok, one of the better recent thrash metal bands.

So Butcher Babies took the stage, and I was already annoyed about Havok not being there.  And then Butcher Babies started playing, and my annoyance increased exponentially.  Butcher Babies is basically a novelty band.  They have achieved notoriety from having not one, but two, beautiful female singers (as my wife said, four boobs are better than two).  Early on the band's career, they took the stage topless in just pasties, but now dress like naughty schoolgirls, showing a lot of cleavage.  They both utilize extreme vocal styles, such as growling and screaming, and bounce around all over the stage.  Having two singers would make sense if they used two different vocal styles a la Scar Symmetry, but Butcher Babies do not do this.  The music was annoying too, Butcher Babies is basically Coal Chamber sonically.  So, things did not start off too well.  I will not be picking up any Butcher Babies albums, and my wife still thinks they are called Stabby Sisters.

Metal Church was next.  I am not completely familiar with their catalog, outside of their first two albums and one of their more recent ones.  The band had recently reunited with singer Mike Howe, who took over for David Wayne, the singer on the band's first two classic releases.  Unfortunately the band seemed to have the shortest set, playing just five songs, though one of the songs "Beyond the Black" was extended somewhat.  Four out of the five songs appeared on Metal Church's first three albums, so they stuck to the classic era.  The only other one appears on their newest album.  Metal Church sounded great, though Howe was a little worse for wear.  Kurt Vanderhoof's guitar work remains the band's biggest strength.

After another break, Suicidal Tendencies took the stage playing "You Can't Bring Me Down", which is my personal favorite ST track.  Despite the advanced age of some of the members (singer Mike Muir is 53), the band still moves across the stage like a bunch of damn maniacs.  Their set was energetic and filled with the kind of punk-infused thrash metal that made the band one of the forefathers of crossover.  Muir's frequent preachiness got a little old quickly, though that was the only downside.  I have been a fan of Suicidal Tendencies since early in my formative years in metal and the band played a number of songs that I was captivated by early on.  My wife, on the other hand, was not nearly as impressed.  The other big surprise was that Dave Lombardo, legendary drummer for Slayer and Testament, among other bands, was hitting the skins for Suicidal.

Despite having just seen Amon Amarth in concert a few months prior, I was pretty excited to see them again.  The stage set was different this time around, they had a boat in the middle of the stage instead of a viking helmet.  A number of the songs were the same as earlier in the year.  But they seemed to have a little more energy.  I have been a big fan of Amon Amarth's particular brand of viking-oriented melodic death metal since the first time I heard them, and last night was a reminder of why.

Finally, the headliners took to the stage.  Megadeth sounded terrific, although Dave may have been suffering from a little bit of a cold.  His voice was not quite right.  Megadeth played a wide assortment of songs from their entire history, as well as a few songs off of their newest album, which really is a very good release.  Megadeth opened things up with the classic "Hangar 18" and covered a few other songs from Rust in Peace as well, including the blistering "Tornado of Souls".  Along the way, they covered most of the bigger songs in the band's extensive catalog.  As expected, Mustaine and new lead guitarist Kiko Loureiro were the highlights of the night with their back and forth soloing.  They closed things out with the ball-busting "Holy Wars".

After three concerts in a week and a half, I am glad that it will be a little while before the next one.  Having to travel two hours to get there and getting home at 1 to 2 a.m. on weeknights can be a little tiring.  Nevertheless, I am already looking forward to the next one.  Most likely that will be in December when Queensryche comes to Omaha.  My wife and I will also be seeing Trans-Siberian Orchestra in November as well.

Trivium with Sabaton and Huntress in Omaha: September 29, 2016

For the second week in a row, I found myself driving down to Omaha on a Thursday night to catch a metal concert with my wife, who is getting more and more interested.  Things have come a long ways since she was falling asleep during the Opeth and Overkill concerts.  This concert was headlined by Trivium, a band that I loved when I was in law school.  I will say that I was more interested in seeing Huntress than Trivium, and I had not heard Sabaton before.  I have liked some of Trivium's stuff after The Crusade, but I did not check out their two most recent albums at all.  Huntress's album made it into my Top 5 of 2013, but again, I have not checked out their more recent output.

Huntress was the first to take the stage and they did sound excellent.  Jill Janus's voice was in top form for the most part, other than when she was doing screaching vocals.  It was the guitar work of Eli Santana that was the most impressive aspect of the band's show.  Huntress did play "I Want to Fuck You to Death", which was one of their best songs off of Starbound Beast.  I was not aware that Lemmy Kilmister helped write the song before last night.  Janus told the story of wanting to have the venerable Motorhead singer co-write a song with her and he presented the lyrics to this song.  Huntress plays classic-sounding pure metal and Janus's vocal range is awesome.  It was a great way to start off what would be a great night of metal.

I have apparently missed out on something with Sabaton.  They had a huge fanbase present at the show.  As I mentioned, I had not heard Sabaton before, as power metal has never been one of my particular favorite subgenres.  But they blew the roof off.  Emboldened by some terrific fan response, they were energetic and charismatic on stage and played some damn catchy songs.  Sabaton was definitely the highlight of the night, and it is not very often that a supporting band can really say that.  I will definitely be checking out some of the band's discography.  My wife was also very impressed with Sabaton, which is surprising, to say the least.

Finally, Trivium took the stage.  I am much more familiar with their catalog than the other two bands and recognized most of the songs they played.  And they played most of the songs that I expected.  Their setlist encompassed their entire output, even one song off of their very first album.  Trivium is usually at their best when they are avoiding the harsh vocals of their past, and thankfully they only played a couple of those songs.  The dueling guitar attack of Cory Beaulieu and Matt Heafy is definitely the band's strength and took center stage last night as well.  I was a little surprised that Trivium played "In Waves" as their encore, instead of the tailor-made for an encore "Anthem (We are the Fire)".

All in all, last night was a lot of fun for the both of us.  I was pleasantly surprised by Trivium's show, but Sabaton were definitely the highlight of the night.  

Blind Guardian and Grave Digger in Omaha: September 22, 2016

Last night, my wife and I attended the Blind Guardian concert in Omaha at the Waiting Room Lounge, a venue I have not previously been to.  Grave Digger was opening, so it was sure to be a fun night of German heavy metal.  The Waiting Room is a fairly small venue.  It is a bar that happens to have a stage area and a floor in front.  We found some seats at a table that had been moved to the back of the floor area.

Grave Digger was the first to take the stage and they played a blistering 45 minute set.  They are looking somewhat worse for wear, still dressing as they would have during the 1980's, but with graying and balding hair.  But they still sounded damn good.  I am not completely familiar with Grave Digger's catalogue, I only have one of their albums, but I did recognize one of the songs they played, which was my favorite off of the album I own, "Ballad of a Hangman".  Many of the other songs played had me convinced that I needed to check out more of their output.  Singer Chris Boltendahl was definitely charismatic and kept the crowd in it throughout the entire show.  All in all, it was a very impressive show for a band that has been around for more than three decades at this point.

Blind Guardian was up next, playing a track I had not heard before, though it would be the only one the entire show.  Afterwards, they played the enormously popular "Welcome to Dying", followed by the rollicking "Nightfall".  Blind Guardian has always had some rather unique lyrical themes for metal, and the next song "Fly" certainly qualified.  Only Blind Guardian can write a song about Peter Pan and make it sound metal as fuck.  After that, the band played the entirety of the album Imaginations from the Other Side, which was always my favorite of their albums.  They sounded just as good live as the album did, and that album is over 20 years old, which is incredible.  They closed the set after finishing up with the album, and then it was encore time and Blind Guardian delivered.  They started off with "Sacred Worlds", the best song off of their last album.  Later they performed the acoustic "Bard's Song-In the Forest" with the crowd singing along before closing the show out for real with "Mirror Mirror".  The band really did sound like they were 20 years younger, and singer Hansi Kursch still has the dynamic range that has become one of the key components of the band's sound.

This was my first time seeing a power metal band in concert.  Blind Guardian is of course one of the greatest power metal bands in history.  This was apparently their first concert in Nebraska, and the crowd was really involved.  Hopefully this will spread and more groups will make it over here.

Guns 'N Roses and Alice in Chains in Kansas City: 6/29/16

No, Guns 'N Roses does not really belong on this blog.  They are not a metal band after all, but they were heavily influential in helping to lead me to metal.  My older brother was a big fan of the band and had their first four albums.  In those days, the band was everywhere.  "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", and "Sweet Child O' Mine" were already massive hits and the band was striking it big with the hits from the two Use Your Illusion albums.  I have always enjoyed their music, though never quite enough to pick up any of the albums.

It was not my idea to go to this concert.  My wife has been slowly converting into a hard rock fan and has developed a particular fondness for attending concerts.  We have been to a number of concerts over the last year or so, many of which she wanted to attend.  I was okay with the idea of going since it was mostly a reunion for the band.  Slash, Dizzy Reed, and Duff McKagan re-joined the band with Axl Rose.  Richard Fortus had been with the band since 2002 and Frank Ferrer since 2006.  They also featured a second keyboard player Melissa Reese.  So, much of the band from the height of their popularity was back.  So that was enough to make me at least somewhat interested, though it was still my wife's idea to go to it.  Now, when it was announced that Alice in Chains would open for them, I was fully on board.

Well it turned out that we missed most of the Alice in Chains set.  Getting to Arrowhead Stadium in the first place proved to be a debacle.  Traffic was terrible and they were doing some inexplicable things with the entrances to the parking lot.  After that, we had to walk all the way around the stadium to get to the right gate, then wait in line for 20 minutes to get in.  Finally, we were on our way to our seats on the third level, only to find that we were bumped up to the third row of the floor seating area, right behind a kid that looked like a teen-aged Axl Rose, complete with long stringy hair and red bandanna.  Which was great, but meant we had to turn back around and head all the way down.  It just goes to show you should never pay full-price for the best seats.  This is the second time we have been moved up considerably.  By the time we finally got to our seats, Alice in Chains was playing "Rooster".  And then, they were done.  We heard bits and pieces of them playing "Down in a Hole" and "Would?", but that was it.  It was horribly disappointing.

A short time later, G'nR took the stage to "It's So Easy", which struck me as odd.  They have the perfect opening song in their arsenal in "Welcome to the Jungle".  Fuck, it even has "Welcome" in the title.  Why is that not the opener?  I was not sure what to expect from the band honestly.  I remember Axl showing up on some awards show several years back with Buckethead as his guitarist and being utterly unimpressed.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good the band actually sounded.  Axl's voice was obviously not as powerful as it had been when he was younger, but he did sound reasonably close.  He and Slash are a little pudgy these days and look kind of ridiculous wearing the same clothing they wore when they were in their 20's, but at least their sound is reasonably close.

Guns 'N Roses played most of their biggest hits and a lot of other fan favorites as well.  They also played at least one or two songs from the maligned Chinese Democracy album, which I could have done without personally.  In looking at their catalog later, the only song that sticks out in my mind that they did not play was "Patience", which is a little too soft and slow anyway.  After playing for two hours, they seemingly closed out the show with "Night Train" only to come back and play "Don't Cry" and close things out with "Paradise City".  It was a bit of a long concert, but it was a surprisingly good show from a rejuvenated band.

River City Rockfest: San Antonio, TX 5/29/16

I did something last weekend I swore I would never do again.  I went to an all-day, outdoor music festival in the summer.  And I did it in Texas.  Don't blame me.  Blame my wife.  She was the one that wanted to go to this festival.  She has recently become a big fan of hard rock and heavy metal from the 1980's and the Scorpions are one of her favorite bands.  I like the Scorpions as well, though not quite to her level.  So she got it in her mind that she wanted to see them in concert, but the Scorpions do not really tour much these days.  They were going to be co-headlining the River City Rockfest in San Antonio though and so an idea for a vacation was formed.  The bands at the festival were mostly more modern rock-oriented, with some over-the-hill nu metal bands, and some older metal bands as well.

After two days of driving, we arrived at San Antonio the night before the festival.  We decided to skip the first act and get some lunch before heading over.  We missed Pop Evil, a band I am not at all familiar with other than my sister-in-law's boyfriend wearing their t-shirt all the time.  We also missed Avatar and Red Sun Rising, two other bands with whom I am not familiar.  The first band we saw was DevilDriver.  I have a couple of their albums, but I did not hear any of the songs from those releases.  To be fair, with as many bands as played, most of the setlists were fairly short.  Most of the songs kind of blended together.  They were decent, but I am not as familiar with their music as I once was.  Dez sounded great, as expected though.

After DevilDriver, we did not really pay much attention to the bands for a little while, trying to track down t-shirts and water, since it was 90 degrees and humid.  We barely heard Texas Hippie Coalition or Hellyeah, though to be fair, I am not really a fan of either band.  I also saw Hellyeah last summer with Slayer and King Diamond.  The singer gave the exact same "metal saved my life" bullshit speech that he gave last year.  We did get a look at the pathetic-looking third stage which was barely large enough for an entire band to stand on and rarely had more than a handful of fans watching.  I had not heard of any of the third stage bands and did not particularly want to move around much due to the heat.  We brought lawn chairs and positioned them in an area that allowed us to see and hear the first two stages.  The bands were staggered so that there was not typically two bands playing at the same time for more than a couple of minutes.

The next band that my wife wanted to see was Sixx A.M., Nikki Sixx's band.  This was fairly typical modern hard rock with a bit of the hair band flair.  The songs were catchy enough.  I doubt I will ever really like them myself though.  On the second stage after Sixx A.M. came The Sword, who I have seen before opening for Metallica.  This is another band I have not really kept up with, though I did recognize a couple of songs.  Their particular brand of psychedelic doom metal did not really appeal to too many in the crowd.

After The Sword, we had to seek shelter from the heat for a little bit.  Besides, the next two bands were Bullet for My Valentine (who I hate), and Hatebreed (who I am mostly ambivalent towards).  There was a sideshow called Hellzaopoppin that was performing in a small indoor area with fans running.  The acts were not very exciting though, other than one man who was missing his entire lower torso.  It was amazing he was even still alive.  We hid out there for a little while until close to the time that the band I was most excited to see would be taking the stage: Megadeth.

This was my second time seeing Megadeth.  Dave Mustaine was not quite as animated onstage and a lot of his normal commentary was missing, but they still sounded good.  They played a number of classic Megadeth songs like "Hangar 18", "Peace Sells", and "Holy Wars", but they also played a number of songs from their newest album, which is a pretty good release.

Once Megadeth was done, we moved forward closer to the main stage as the Scorpions would be taking the stage after the second stage band was done.  Fine with me, as P.O.D. was never exactly one of my favorite bands, even when I did like nu-metal.  A huge crowd gathered around the stage.  Amazing that a band that has been around for nearly half a century could still gather that much of a crowd.  The Scorpions were amazing and were definitely the highlight of the day.  The fact that men in their late 60's still could play that well, in the sweltering heat of Texas, was truly mind-blowing.  They played a number of their biggest songs: "No One Like You", "Big City Nights", and "The Zoo".  They acted like they were closing their show after an hour, but it was pretty obvious they would be back to play "Rock You Like a Hurricane".  And as expected, they did return to play two more songs, starting out with "Still Loving You" and closing with their biggest hit, which we all expected.

After that, we decided to take off, missing the last two bands: Sevendust and Disturbed.  I have seen both bands when I was in college, and did not have a whole lot of desire to stick around.  It had been a long day and hot.  The last all-day music festival I attended resulted in me getting heat stroke.  I was not looking forward to that happening again.  Luckily, I stayed hydrated and survived.  My wife did too, obviously, or this would be a much different post.  I swore after that last one that I would never do this again.  But I did, and we traveled all the way to Texas in what could have been a very bad move to do so.

Amon Amarth, Entombed A.D., and Ex Mortus in Omaha: 05/09/2016

Monday was my birthday.  Luckily there happened to be a decent concert in the area so my wife had the wonderful luck to get to see a few death metal bands live at Sokol Auditorium.  Sokol is not my favorite venue since there is no seating and I generally don't like to stand for several hours on end.  But it tends to draw some decent bands.

Ex Mortus was the first band up and they ripped through a fast-paced, intense set filled with shredding guitar solos and leads and deep-throated growling vocals.  I have only heard one of this band's albums but their speed and impressive guitar work makes them a band to watch in the future.  The highlight of their set was the ripping version of "Moonlight Sonata" they played late in their time on stage.

Up next was Entombed A.D., obviously a reformation of the legendary Entombed, who were one of the leading bands in the Swedish death metal movement of the late 80's/early 90's.  Entombed's final album was the 2007 death 'n roll masterpiece Serpent Saints.  Three of the four members from that version of Entombed are currently with Entombed A.D.  The resurrected group played a number of songs from their newest album and also some classics from the Entombed era such as "Wolverine Blues", "Left Hand Path", and "Revel in Flesh".  Their classic tracks were the strongest from their set, but their other stuff was entertaining enough.  L-G Petrov looks a little rough these days, but he can still command attention from the stage.

Finally, Amon Amarth hit the stage.  True to their image, they looked like vikings and had a large viking helmet taking up much of the center of the stage.  The drum kit was stationed on top of the viking helmet.  At several moments during the show, a couple of people dressed to look like Vikings and carrying swords, helmets, shields, bows, and more took the stage.  I did not feel that was really necessary personally.  Amon Amarth delivered a strong set encompassing much of their catalog.  I have not yet heard their most recent album, but it appears to be fairly typical of Amon Amarth: mid-paced, crunching melodic death metal with deep, roaring vocals.  The only real problem with their set was that most of the songs were about the same tempo, making it a little difficult to stay interested in the show.  Some dynamics would have been welcome.  It was a very good show ultimately, but it could have been so much better.

My wife was less than impressed with it, which is not shocking.  Surprisingly she preferred Ex Mortus of the three bands.  She really hated Entombed A.D., which I found hilarious.  It was a damn good show, and a great birthday.

Ghost and Tribulation in Omaha: 4/20/16

On Wednesday, my wife and I left work a little early in order to travel to Omaha, Nebraska (about an hour and a half away) to see Ghost perform at Sokol Auditorium with Tribulation as their opening act.  Tribulation's most recent album was my Album of the Year and Ghost is coming off of a Grammy win, so I was fairly excited to see both bands.

I believe all of Tribulation's songs were off of their Children of the Night album, which really is a terrific album.  Their music was terrific, dynamic and powerful.  The band members were really into it as well, in particularly one of the two guitarists who was all over the stage, shrieking like a wild animal.  They played for about half an hour and included some of my favorite tracks from their latest album.  It was an impressive performance, though it annoyed my wife.

Ghost took the stage soon afterwards, after a long lead-up with some church choir vocal recording.  It was quite obvious that they have been building a large fan base as a large crowd gathered around the stage, many of whom were not in attendance during Tribulation's performance.  A number of people were also sporting makeup similar to Papa Emeritus.  Some were even wearing a mockup of priests' robes and collars.  One person had rubber goat horns strapped to his head.

The musicians of Ghost had their customary black robes and demon masks, concealing their identities.  Papa Emeritus emerged from the blackness shortly thereafter dressed in his customary evil pope robe and mitre.  He stayed in that costume for about the first half of the concert, but did eventually ditch the mitre and robe.  I don't know if that is normal for him, but it was hot in the auditorium.

Ghost played a good cross-section from all three of their major albums.  Of course "Cirice" was performed and drew a big applause from the crowd.  Ghost were terrific performers and Papa Emeritus was very charismatic and interesting to watch.  My wife enjoyed this concert quite a bit.  As did I.  I was somewhat skeptical at one point about seeing Ghost.  I have enjoyed their albums, though they have not been particular favorites of mine.  But they were so impressive live, that I have achieved a new appreciation for them.

The Grammys Still (Mostly) Suck

Well I was reasonably impressed that Ghost won the Grammy last for Best Metal Performance.  I have seen the video of their acceptance of the award and I would have liked some reaction shots from the crowd, as Ghost definitely makes an impression visually.  Their song was the only nomination that I really like all that well.  The other bands nominated were Lamb of  God, Slipknot, August Burns Red, and Sevendust, none of whom I give a fuck about.  Ghost is apparently also going on tour soon with a concert date near here, I may have to go check them out.

Black Sabbath in Omaha: January 20, 2016

Last night, as part of my Christmas present from my wife, I got to see Black Sabbath finally.  The band had announced their last tour, entitled obviously The End.  Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne all returned for the last go-around, but were accompanied by Tommy Clufetos on drums.  Black Sabbath kicked off the tour in Omaha, NE of all places, because, and I am quoting Ozzy here "why the fuck not?"

I was not sure there was going to be an opening band until someone took the stage.  That band was Rival Sons, a band I may have heard of at one point, but never really heard.  Rival Sons was sort of a 60's/70's blues rock band.  The singer was very impressive and they did have some damn catchy songs, but I was not really sure they belonged at this concert.  I would have liked to have seen Black Sabbath bring on a young metal band to showcase, rather than this type of retro rock, personally.  Nothing against the band as they were enjoyable enough.

A short while later, Black Sabbath took the stage and opened up with fittingly, "Black Sabbath".  It was pretty clear from the beginning that Ozzy was not having the best night vocally, but that did not stop him from being the consummate showman, keeping the crowd going and interacting with them frequently.  Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler on the other hand sounded terrific throughout.  Iommi proved why he is one of the greatest and most influential guitarists out there and Geezer's trademarked rumbling bass sound was impressive.

The set list was mostly culled from the band's first four albums, much more of a sendoff than a tour focusing on newer material.  In fact, only one song did not come from that era, "Dirty Women" and it was off of their seventh album Technical Ecstasy, which still featured the classic lineup.  Other than that, the band played a bevy of favorites including "Behind the Wall of Sleep", "N.I.B.", "War Pigs", "Fairies Wear Boots", "Children of the Grave", "Into the Void", "Tomorrow's Dream", and "Snowblind".  Of course "Iron Man" made an appearance and the band closed with "Paranoid", while purple confetti (the most metal of all party decorations) rained down from the rafters.  One of the highlights was "Wicked World" which featured an extended drum solo, and Clufetos is one hell of a drummer.

I was a little disappointed the band did not play any material off of Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath as that is one of my favorite albums by Black Sabbath.  As mentioned Ozzy sounded pretty bad throughout the concert, he was frequently out of tune and definitely did not have the ability to hit some of the higher notes.  He was fairly active on stage though, despite kind of shuffling around like an octogenarian.   

All in all, this was a damn good concert despite Ozzy's vocal limitations.  I am very glad I got to see them before they hung it up for good.

Top However Many Albums of 2016

This is going to be kind of an ambitious post from someone who has barely posted in the last year and a half.  Because of that, I feel like I need to cover all of the albums I have picked up over the last year.  So there will be some less than good albums covered, don't take this to be a top albums list so much as ranking all of the albums I have bought over the year.  This is going to be a long one.  Even though I have not been picking up nearly as many albums this last year, there is still a pretty hefty stack sitting on my desk.

So, without further ado, abandon all hope ye who enter: