Ozzy vs Iommi

About a year ago Ozzy decided he was going try to sue Tony Iommi. I believe this thing is still going on. I can't see why he would sue... is Ozzy running out of money or is his wife just pulling the strings as he's the puppet? How much more money can Ozzy need? Can't he just go do another solo album or go embarrass himself on TV some more if money is all he cares about? BLACK SABBATH WERE BETTER OFF WITHOUT OZZY. Yes, it's harsh, but it's the truth. Ozzy will never be a part of Black Sabbath ever again, no matter how much he wishes it.

Now let's think about it for a second. Ozzy left Black Sabbath to go do his own solo thing. Why should he get a cut of the profits when the band did so well without him? Ozzy went as far as to claim his vocals were the thing that made Black Sabbath so popular and he wants 50% of the profits Black Sabbath made, all while claiming the profits should be "equally" spread amongst the band members. Now I'm not a math expert, but something there doesn't add up. You want it spread equally, yet you want 50%? So basically, Ozzy wants a huge chunk of the profits from a band he isn't even a part of anymore. I will say this right here, right now, it was the RIFFS that made Black Sabbath so popular. Even on Ozzy's solo stuff, there were great riffs. Ozzy's latest album is pretty funny because Ozzy himself is the weakest part of his own solo project.

I hate to be the one to say it, but Ozzy was perhaps the weakest and worst vocalist that Black Sabbath ever had. Black Sabbath went on to do the best albums they could ever do without Ozzy, and all he really did was hold them back. Yes, the early Sabbath albums were good, but if they continued like that, it would have gotten very old very quickly. Dio being a more versatile vocalist, allowed the band to write better music. My favorite Black Sabbath albums come from the Dio years. I think Ozzy knows this new Black Sabbath was better without him, and he's upset over it.

If you still think I am wrong, consider this. Ozzy never wrote any of the songs for the band when he was in it either. Basically all he did was sing, and like I said, he was probably the worst vocalist they ever had. Ozzy is really just tarnishing his legacy more and more, and the "prince of darkness" is becoming even more of a joke. Ozzy should have stopped while he was ahead. Ozzfest is a joke of overpricedcrappy nu metal bands followed by them wheeling Ozzy out so he can get about halfway through War Pigs before they need to wheel him off the stage again. His reality show was a joke, and made him and his entire family look like spoiled idiots. His latest albums have been jokes. Seriously, when was the last time he released a good solo album, the early 1980s? The biggest joke of all? Ozzy thinking his "vocals" were what made Black Sabbath so famous.

On a side note, I HEAVILY recommend going to see Heaven and Hell live if you get a chance. They put on an amazing show. I also recommend their album, The Devil You Know. They can name themselves whatever they want, but this is the TRUE Black Sabbath, and the people with a clue know it.

My opinion on the big four of thrash metal.

I always see this brought up, and people are arguing which of the four is better etc. Here is my opinion on who is the best between Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. All four bands have some good albums, and all four have some not so good albums, (or terrible albums in the cases of Anthrax and Metallica) and each of these four have experimented a bit with slightly different sounds.

I'd put Slayer ahead of the other three. Slayer's first couple releases are much better than anything the other three bands have ever put out. Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel, Hell Awaits, Reign in Blood, are such classics of metal. Slayer released so much good stuff in the 80s, released some good stuff in the 90s although weaker than their older stuff, and their stuff of this decade isn't the worst stuff you've ever heard, especially when you compare it to some of Metallica's or Anthrax's later albums.

Then you got Megadeth. Killing Is My Business...and Business Is Good was a solid speed/thrash release. I prefer some of Megadeth's more recent stuff to Slayer's, Metallica, and Anthrax's most recent stuff. Megadeth had some great albums, but their discography isn't as good as Slayer's in my opinion. If I had to pick five or ten of my favorite albums from the big four, it would be dominated by Slayer. One of the things I thought that held Megadeth back was that Mustaine's vocals could get pretty annoying at times. Risk was a terrible album, it was Megadeth selling out, and can best be described as pop metal Megadeth. In fact, calling it anything metal is kind of stretching it. This is just a hard rock album much like anything that Metallica ever did for the last 20+ years. After Risk, Megadeth seemed to learn their lesson. You can't say the same about Metallica though.

Now it comes down to Metallica and Anthrax. Both started out with some good albums and both have really awful later albums. I'm gonna put Metallica ahead of Anthrax. Metallica sort of went on a steady decline, getting worse with each album. Anthrax experimented with lots of different stuff, but rarely was it ever good, and usually it was really pretty bad. I'd say Metallica has mroe good stuff out, while Anthrax has more bad stuff, despite Metallica doing pretty bad hard rock albums for the last twenty years. At least Metallica never attempted rapping. Don't get me wrong, I actually like some rap(good rap, not this pop shit that gets shitted out lately) and I'm not bashing the genre, but Anthrax shouldn't have even attempted that. Terrible. Newer Anthrax also isn't really my thing.

So in case you didn't want to read all that. Out of the big four of thrash, I think Slayer is the best, followed by Megadeth, followed by Metallica, and lastly there is Anthrax. No one is denying the influences these bands had on metal, or even calling any of these four bad, just really ranking them in my opinion. All four have some great albums in my opinion, and all four have some bad albums.

Ten best metal covers and five best metal covers of non metal songs

Ten best metal covers...like mosts of my lists, these aren't in any particular order.


Jag Panzer- Children of the Sea (Black Sabbath cover)

Overkill- Death Tone (Manowar cover)

Dan Swanö- Melissa (Mercyful Fate cover)

Deceased- Black Metal (Venom cover)

Sodom- Don't Walk Away (Tank cover)

Emperor- A Fine Day to Die (Bathoy cover)

Holy Grail- Exciter (Judas Priest cover)

Wolf- Die By The Sword (Slayer cover)

Rage- Fast As A Shark (Accept cover)

Twisted Tower Dire- Port Royal (Running Wild cover)


Five best non metal songs covered by metal bands

Sanctuary- White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane cover)

Tygers of Pan Tang- Love Potion No.9 (The Clovers cover)

Coroner- I Want You (She's So Heavy) (The Beatles cover)

Judas Priest- Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez cover)

Trick or Treat- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cindy Lauper cover)

The origins of power metal

Many people call Dio, Iron Maiden, and Helloween the pioneers of this genre, but there were power metal bands that existed before them. Two bands come to mind. Heavy Load, a power/heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1976 and released their first album in 1978. Many describe Heavy Load as Heavy Metal, Epic Metal,Power Metal, or all three. Stormwitch also comes to mind. Stormwitch formed in 1979, but released their first album in 1984. There were heavy metal and hard rock bands who existed before that who had a major influence on the genre, but I would call these two bands one of the first. If you know a band that undoubtedly played power metal that existed before that, hit me up. I'm counting Rainbow as more heavy metal and a huge influence rather than actual power metal.


Helloween came much later, releasing a different kind of power metal. It was energetic, and had more of a pop metal sound. Sure, Helloween might be the fathers of modern power metal, but the real power metal existed before that. As you might have noticed, I prefer USPM and the original power metal over the more modern sound. The older version of power metal was heavily NWOBHM influenced, and was very riff driven.

Helloween's first album was speed metal, but after that they pretty much laid down the foundation for all modern power metal bands to follow. Stormwitch and Helloween were both pioneers of two different kinds of power metal. Stormwitch only found moderate success, while Helloween became pretty huge. To this day, I will prefer Stormwitch to Helloween. Stormwitch's first three albums were pretty fantastic. If you haven't listened to Stormwitch, you really should. I want to smash my head through a wall when people think Hammerfall's cover of Ravenlord is the original.

Heavy Metal and Power Metal are definitely pretty similar, though most metal genres have something in common with heavy metal. Maybe there was power metal that existed before the late 70s. Send me a comment if you know any.

Ten of my favorite thrash metal albums

So tough to narrow it down... so many good albums don't make it. Maybe one day I'll do a "a top 100 thrash albums in my opinion" Anyway, in no particular order, ten of my favorites.

Hydra Vein-Rather Death Than False of Faith
Hirax- Raging Violence
Deceased- Fearless Undead Machines
Metal Church- Metal Church
Sodom- Agent Orange
Dark Angel- Darkness Descends
Sabbat- Dreamweaver
Flotsam and Jetsam- Doomsday for the Deceiver
Exhorder- Slaughter in the Vatican
Overkill- Feel the Fire
Annihilator- Alice in Hell

A big list of Traditional, Speed, and Power Metal bands you should check out.

Just a big disorganized list of bands from those genres I enjoy. Maybe one day when I get some time I'll edit it better, recommend albums too, or go into more detail about these bands, such as where they are from, and the type of metal. Anyway in no order. Some of these are borderline on other genres, but I had to include them.


Stormwitch,Cauldron Born,Helstar,Taliön, Tröjan, Griffin, Dark Age, Wolf, Tyrant, Blind Guardian, Attacker, Helloween, Attack, Savatage, Riot, Titan Force, E-X-E, Omen, Fates Warning, Jag Panzer, Gravestone, Black Knight, Abraxas, Liege Lord, Sanctuary, Manilla Road, Anvil, Iced Earth, Crimson Glory, Skid Row, Metalucifer, X-Japan, Piledriver, W.A.S.P, Manowar, Virgin Steele, Twisted Tower Dire, Adolf Castle, Heavy Load, Gotham City, October 31, Brocas Helm, Grave Digger, Cirith Ungol, Cloven Hoof, Metal Church, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, Exciter, Abattoir, Mercyful Fate, Dio, Heaven and Hell, Accept, Running Wild, Atlain, Mania, Scanner, Iron Angel, Chastain, Agent Steel, Rage, Axehammer, Adramelch, Paragon, Iron Savior, Iron Grey, Paradox, Druid, Angel Witch, Tokyo Blade, Tygers of Pan Tang, Girlschool
Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Dark Star, Battleaxe, Satan, Witchfynde, Witchfinder General, Grim Reaper, Demon, Tank, Diamond Head, Saxon, Steel, Savage Grace, Piledriver, Vicious Rumors, Morgana Lefay, Oracle, Axel Rudi Pell, Winters Bane, Heir Apparent, Mystic Force, Warfare, Anthem, Armored Saint, Loudness, Angel Dust, Oz, Witch Cross


That should keep you guys busy. I'm probably missing some stuff, but these are all bands from those genres I enjoy. If you think I left some things out, feel free to put them in the comments.

A quick list of ten of my favorite USPM albums

I'll try to narrow it down to one album per band.

In no order...


Helstar- Burning Star
Sanctuary- Refuge Denied
Omen- Battle Cry
Jag Panzer- Ample Destruction
Liege Lord- Freedom's Rise
Fates Warning- Awaken the Guardian
Savatage- Hall of the Mountain King
Attacker- Battle at Helms Deep
Griffin- Flight of the Griffin
Crimson Glory- Transcendence

These are all classics in my opinion. Check them out if for some reason you haven't given them a listen.

Five of the worst metal videos you will ever watch

These are classics, and the videos are almost so bad, they're good.

Anyway....

Savatage- Hall of the Mountain King

Incredible song, but the video is just plain bad. Holy shit, is that Frodo? He got kind of old. Anyway the video is dark, blurry, and there is smoke all around, so it's difficult to see what is going on. I'm gonna call that halfling creature in the video Frodo. Some people think it's a dwarf, but I think he's too much of a cowardly wimp and not stocky enough to be a dwarf. So Frodo is walking around a graveyard looking all creeped out, and falls through something. He lands in this underground cave tunnel where Savatage is just randomnly playing their song in really odd fashion. Of course, Frodo is creeped the fuck out by this, and goes running off. The singer saves Frodo from a axe trap, otherwise he might have had to take d6 damage. After avoiding the trap, Frodo is led to this hole that leads to a palace. I guess this is the Hall of the Mountain King. Frodo notices all the treasure and he decides the best thing to do would be to start looting. He somehow misses the huge mountain king who is just sitting on a giant throne. Looks like the album cover. The mountain king opens his eyes and Frodo realizes he is there, and decides it's time to get the fuck out of there. Frodo grabs what he can and tries to run out of there, but thinks against it, so instead he SMASHES THE TREASURE against the ground and takes off. So he runs around, and is eventually led to a treasure box that is buried. He carries the treasure box outside to the surface and opens it up. What's inside? Lots of gold and treasures, but on top of all that is a Savatage Hall of the Mountain king cassette. Frodo picks it up wondering what the fuck it is, and the video ends. Yeah fuck the treasure and gold, I got a Savatage album on cassette.




Immortal- Call of the Wintermoon

Another great song with an awful video. Black metal videos are usually pretty terrible, and when it comes to terrible black metal videos, Immortal are kings. I could probably do a big list of just terrible black metal videos if I wanted. I'm not entirely sure if Immortal were serious when making this video, but it's still hilarious. They run around the forest, in their spikes, and carrying torches and wearing spiked clubs. Is that a fucking wizard hat and cloak? So they run around the forest some more playing hide and seek and making the most ridiculous faces. They then find some castle ruins, play more hide and seek, strike some poses, and make even more weird faces. The highlight of the video is when they "transform" when they notice the moon in the sky. Anyway, if you haven't seen this video, you gotta watch it, and even if you've seen it, you should watch it again because it's hilarious.




Immortal- Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms

Remember when I said above I could make a list of terrible black metal videos? Well I could probably do that list and just use Immortal videos. There are a few "playing black metal in icy area" videos, but I'll choose this one to add here. This video takes place on like a fucking glacier. The band is wearing sleeveless vests, and might as well not be wearing shirts. The video has Hellhammer on drums just drumming away. That's cool and all, but it's pretty funny watching them play their instruments outdoors in the snow. Abbath actually did the drums for the actual album. There's some scenes in the video where Abbath is singing while being frozen in ice, or underneath some ice. Picture that in your head for a second. Yes it looks as bad in the video as it does of the image you just imagined in your head.





Candlemass- Bewitched

The video starts out in a graveyard. Yeah, imagine that, doom metal and graveyards. They carry this coffin as a random chick runs away for no reason. The coffin is so bad looking, it looks like the band threw it together themselves. They reach a tombstone that says "RIP Messiah Marcolin" who was the current lead singer of the band at the time. Of course the coffin begins to shake and smoke, and Messiah pops out to start singing. I'm really surprised Messiah fit in that shoddy coffin, he's not exactly a small guy. So the video has Messiah in his monk robes, with his crazy hair, dancing in the most ridiculous way ever. The same chick from the start is still running away. Yeah, I'd run too. I can't even really explain some of the stuff going on here, it is something you need to watch for yourself. As he sings he does motions go with whatever word he says. He sings "mind" and he points to his head to let us know where the mind is. He says "you" and points at the camera to show he means you. He sings the word "fiddle" and pretends to play an imaginary fiddle. So Messiah goes around with his crazy hair, singing, dancing, stalking people, and turning people into zombies by pointing at them. Then he just sort of dances in front of a bunch of metalhead zombies. During the solo, the guitarist stands in front of a random building that has some orange dragon gargoyle statues. Meanwhile Messiah walks around shoving the zombies for no reason, and they eventually awaken and it leads to one of the most hilarious moments in metal video history. Messiah and his zombie metalheads begin to "dance" and it's so ridiculous it's on par with Immortal's transformation scene in Call of the Wintermoon. Yes, it's that bad.




Judas Priest- Turbo Lover

Judas Priest are an awesome band. If you don't think so, you probably shouldn't be listening to metal. As awesome as Judas Priest are, this video is just awful. Wow. Where do I begin. Everything is either, orange, grey, and purples. The video is just about some dudes on motorcycles, but they got these ridiculous like, skeleton robots coming after them. I know the idea of combining a skeleton and robot sounds pretty awesome, but just look at that thing. What the fuck. So they are riding through this wasteland, and the camera zooms into a sign that says helmet laws are enforced. Who is going to enforce those laws in this crazy wasteland they are in. A few moments later you see a hot chick. Yeah, in a Judas Priest video. Hey wait a second, she's not wearing a helmet. After her! I guess those skeleton robots are the ones that enforce the helmet laws, because they begin the chase. What's more ridiculous than a goofy looking skeleton robot? A skeleton robot on a motorcycle. Then you got a robot skeleton riding a fucking unicyle down the road carrying a short spear and one running after them carrying a giant wrench. "Guys come back, I just want to perform some routine maintenence on your bikes." One of the robot skeletons on the bike almost catches them, so what's the obvious way to kill a robot skeleton riding a motorcyle that's coming after you? Have a guy on the side of the road with a guitar flamethrower, of course. If Judas Priest wanted to make a good video, they should have just shown four and a half minutes of that hot chick straddling and grinding on her bike.