Black Sabbath "The End" (DVD+CD) 2017💀💀💀💀

Oh no! It's Halloween, and I don't have a relative album to post! And, to make matters worse, I've missed too many Friday the 13th's too. So I decided to cheat and repost an older review. You may think I've run out of "horror rock" albums to present, but that is absolutely not the case! I just don't want to do any of the obvious ones - not yet! I still have a few centuries for that - and I will need centuries to finish presenting my record collection at this pace. All I need is a vampire to come and bite me, and then I've got it made: listen to my records and CD's all day long (no wasting daytime sleeping in coffins for me, thank you), write in my blog, and roam the streets of Delft at night hunting juicy TU students for their blood. Next morning there'll be another bloodless body floating in the canal - call Van Helsing to the rescue! I'm not kidding, professor Van Helsing lives right down the street and teaches at TU Delft! And if you think Delft is no place for vampires, you obviously haven't watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. Most of the town scenes were filmed here - boy do I know some crazy stories about the filming of that movie, that guy Herzog was a first-class loon, just like his protagonist Klaus Kinski. But I'm not going into them today - no, I want to write instead about the DVD playing on my home cinema right now.
It's called Black Sabbath The End, and it documents the last concert of the last tour ever by that happy-go-lucky boy band, Black Sabbath. The boys have been through a lot these past years: when I last saw them in concert almost a decade ago, guitarist Tony Iommi was battling cancer but he looked healthier than Ozzy who looked and sounded like one of the zombies from Walking Dead. In this DVD, though, he just sounds like an older version of himself, and seems in good shape: a bit like an artificially re-animated corpse who has recently been taken care of by a master undertaker. Iommi and Geezer Butler ooze class, and drummer Bill Ward looks thirty years younger - scratch that, he has been replaced by Tommy Clufetos. Maybe Ward had an embalming fluid accident, it wouldn't be the first time a musician's reanimation goes bad - if you've seen the cult movie Dracula Of Exarchia you know what I mean. Adam Wakeman (son of Rick, who also played with Sabbath in the 70's) has the unenviable task of playing keyboards at a Sabbath show. Of course pitted against the heaviest guitar in the universe he stands as much chance as Tiny Tim in a boxing match against Mike Tyson. The concert in this DVD took place on February 4th, 2017 at the band's home town of Birmingham. It is augmented by "The Angelic Sessions" a few tracks recorded live-in-studio a few days later. I thought I was getting both the concert and bonus tracks on CD plus the DVD but no - you can get either the audio CD or the DVD plus a CD with The Angelic Sessions. If you want everything, you'll have to spend a small fortune for the super deluxe edition.

If you have to choose, go for the DVD. It's well-filmed, and the 5.1. surround sound is fantastic. The editing gives the movie a fast pace, many different angles are used, and the picture is given an atmospheric tint. Every instrument sounds crisp and clear, allowing you to admire the mastery of the musicians, especially Butler whose bass was previously all-too-often buried in the mix. Iommi is, of course, the riffmaster but he lays down a few nimble solos too. Clufetos also takes the spotlight for a long and powerful solo, and Ozzy sounds pretty good. Except when he talks, I can hardly make out anything he says. How the hell did he end up with his own TV show? What do they do - dub him or use subtitles? The concert starts with the perfect Halloween tune: the eponymous song "Black Sabbath", slow and heavy with menacing lyrics like "What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me...Satan's sitting there, he's smiling/ Watches those flames get higher and higher". Well, what did you expect from a band named after a horror movie with Boris Karloff? Lucifer appears frequently in the lyrics, together with a homicidal Iron Man, bloodthirsty generals, fairies with boots who dance with dwarves, Death as the Grim Reaper, paranoid men, dirty women and the children of the grave. References to marijuana and cocaine also abound. The songlist relies heavily on the first four albums, while the Angelic Sessions CD finds some room for 5 classics left out of the concert: On "The Wizard" we get a rare chance to hear Ozzy blow some blues harp, "Wicked World" sports some pretty wicked guitar, and "Sweet Leaf" is a solid run through an old favourite. I found the performance on "Tomorrow's Dream" a bit sloppy, but the emotive piano and vocals on the closing ballad "Changes" made for a fittingly emotional coda to the career of this iconic band.

DVD (*** to ****) Black Sabbath, Fairies Wear Boots, Under The Sun / Every Day Comes And Goes, After Forever, Into The Void, Snowblind, War Pigs, Behind The Wall Of Sleep, Bassically/ N.I.B., Hand Of Doom, Medley:Supernaut/Sabbath Bloody Sabbath/Megalomania, Rat Salad/Drum Solo, Iron Man, Dirty Women, Children Of The Grave, Paranoid
CD **** for The Wizard, Changes *** for Wicked World, Sweet Leaf ** for Tomorrow's Dream

Danny Elfman "Nightmare Before Christmas" O.S.T. 1993*****

They say that supply and demand is the most important law of economics, so if there is a bombardment of Christmas movies every year around this season, there must be a demand for them? I'm talking about all the movies about Santa, his reindeers and elves, sappy family movies with uplifting messages, and the odd romantic comedies - because when are you going to find true love if not in Christmas, the "miracle season?" I mean seriously, why are people still making those movies if they're all going to be the same? Then, in 1993, came a Christmas movie that was completely different than any other: funny, weird, bitter-sweet, macabre, and... Halloweeny. Walt Disney Pictures was involved but made sure their name and logo was nowhere to be seen. The idea was conceived by the brain behind the best modern Gothic fairytales: Tim Burton. His aesthetic permeates the whole project even if the actual direction of the painstakingly realized stop-motion animation belongs to Henry Selick. The film became a cult hit whose fame kept growing while, lo and behold, was later proudly re-released by Disney under their own name - as one can also see on the cover of the vinyl soundtrack here.

The music is, of course, written by Burton's permanent collaborator Danny Elfman, who was then still active as a member of pop band Oingo Boingo and not yet a full-time film score composer. Here, he not only writes the melodies but also sings the parts of the main protagonist Jack Skellington and writes the lyrics which are integral to the plot as they either recount was is happening onscreen or propel the story further. So, to make sense of the songs it is necessary to let you in on what is happening in the movie when the songs are playing: the album begins with an orchestral "overture" offering samples of the film's main themes. The narrator (actor Patrick Stewart) then explains the film's basic premise: for every holiday there is a different group of creatures living in the respective city, spending a whole year planning and executing that holiday down its last detail ("Opening"). The action then shifts to Halloweentown and its spooky residents introducing themselves in upbeat musical number "This Is Halloween". After that comes "Jack's Lament" in which the town hero both celebrates his ability to terrify and confides his yearning for something different ...which he finds in Christmastown. "What's This?" is a happy number filled with Jack's excitement and amazement at the strange things happening at Christmas (Presents! Singing! Laughter!). He shares his finding with the other Halloweeners ("Town Meeting Song") and finally hatches the plan to organize Christmas himself ("Jack's Obsession"). Cue the snappy "Kidnap Santa Claus" where the Halloween kids fantasize about the terrible fate that will befall Santa. In the New Orleans blues-like "Oogie Boogie Song" Santa is the prisoner of a deep voiced boogeyman, while "Making Christmas" is sung by the citizens of Halloween town as they are mangling the holiday by giving its familiar trappings their own nightmarish twist. "Sally's Song" is the closest we get to the obligatory love ballad. It gives voice to Sally, a ragdoll who loves Jack and who is imprisoned by her creator/evil scientist. Another Elfman-sung number is "Poor Jack" where Jack realizes his mistake and goes to Santa's rescue, saving Christmas just in the nick of time. "Finale" sees the two communities reconciliate and Halloween citizens watching their first snow falling, the music mixing the themes of both "This is Halloween" and "What's This". The narrator returns on "Closing" and the album ends with "End Title" reprising some of the themes we heard earlier. Like all the instrumental passages, it alternates dark and light, tension and calm. This is one of those cases where film and music complement each other perfectly so that the one makes the other seem even better. But even without watching the film, the music is captivating, and the songs are wondrously quirky but utterly hummable, resulting in one of the greatest musicals since the genre's glory days of the 60's. It's hard to understand why neither film nor musical score won an Oscar, in contrast to other Disney movies. Or maybe it is a testament of Burton's peculiar talent, to make a Christmas movie for kids that nevertheless was too dark for both Disney and the Hollywood Academy. Though not for the public, which embraced the movie, rendering it a classic and justifying a 3D re-release, a rock covers album, and, finally, collectible vinyl releases - the latest being this, in striking "pumpkin orange" vinyl. Beautiful edition, though not one for the hi-fi lovers: the volume is rather low, and my brand new copy played with some pops and clicks - not really bad, but a shame considering it costs more than 30€ in the shops. Worth adding to one's collection anyway.

***** for This Is Halloween, Jack's Lament, What's This?, Kidnap The Sandy Claws, Making Christmas, Oogie Boogie's Song, 

**** for Town Meeting Song, Jack's Obsession, Sally's Song, Poor Jack, Finale/Reprise, End Title

*** for Overture, Opening, Doctor Finkelstein/In The Forest, Jack And Sally Montage, Nabbed, Christmas Eve Montage, To The Rescue, Closing

Detroit Cobras "Tied And True" 2007***

I recently wrote about the different things one can do on Halloween, but I failed to mention one of the best options: go to a rock'n'roll concert, which is what I did this year. The Detroit Cobras were playing in Paard van Troje, just a few tram stops away. The support band was ideal for the occasion: The HelloWeeners are a Dutch garage/trash/rockabilly side project of various Eindhoven bands making infrequent appearances on Halloween or horror-themed festivals. They warmed up the audience (featuring a few dressed-up Halloween celebrants among the usual rock T-shirt wearing concertgoers) for The Cobras who went onstage around 21:30 for a show that lasted around an hour. Singer Rachel Nagy, obviously intoxicated, must have been especially happy with her Jack The Ripper disguise, jabbering about killing prostitutes and brandishing knives around. Thankfully, other than Rachel's drunken babble, the Cobras were just as good as the last time I saw them a dozen years ago: a tight band playing their familiar energetic brand of garage soul for an all-around fun Halloween evening!

This album, recorded in 2007, is the band's latest. Am I the only one who thinks there is something wrong with this picture? We're talking about a band which has remained active and yet hasn't released a new album for 12 years. 12 years, that's more than the combined lifespan of The Doors and Creedence Clearwater Revival! It took those bands less than 6 years each to record 13 studio albums and to write more than a 100 classic original compositions! And it's not just The Cobras who aren't making records, the same goes for many other bands - though probably no-one beats The Sisters of Mercy who are about to close 3 decades with no new recordings. Is it a case of "there's no money in making records, so we'd better get the show on the road to pay the bills"? Are the artists punishing us for illegally downloading their music or listening to it on youtube instead of buying their records? Are we to blame for this situation, or is our favorite musicians' inspiration drying up as they grow older? Just a thought... Back to our review, Tied And True is, like all of Detroit Cobras (DC) records before it, a covers album - mostly of 50's/60's unknown R&B songs. But it's also a concept album of sorts, delving into the dark side of love and relationships - at least that's how I interpret the choice of material, title and cover. Musically, the balance of the songs has also shifted: less garage soul dynamites, more ballads and girl-group pop. The latter style is dominant on the album's first half, opening with Betty Lavette's "You'll Never Change" followed by pop ballads like "Try Love", "Only to Other People", and Irma Thomas' "The Hurt's All Gone". Rachel is convincing at the slower songs, her weathered voice giving an impression of a woman who's been around, hurt and recovered again and again. Gino Washington's "Puppet on a String" is the sexiest of the slow numbers thanks to Rachel's delivery and surf guitar solo. Halfway through the album starts to pick up pace with soul belters like "As Long As I Have You" and "(I Wanna Know) What's Going On". James Brown's "If You Don't Think" is suitably sped-up, as is the country-ish "On A Monday" and "Leave My Kitten Alone" which was, I believe, the only one of these songs that they played at the Halloween concert - the meowing backing vocals were a source of hilarity, as was the drummer's kitty mask. "Nothing But A Heartache" retains something of its girl-group origins in the backing vocals but just loud enough to make the difference between retro pop and garage rock. The DC's knack for always picking the right song falters here on two occasions: The Melodians' "It's My Delight" sounds wrong when stripped of its reggae beat, and the Equals' "Green Light" sounds like a second-rate Spencer Davis Group copy - not much they can do with that material. Overall it seems that, rather than the soundtrack to a wild rock'n'roll party, The DC had set a different goal for this collection: they set out to make a more mature soul-pop-retro album, and that's what they deliver. In my opinion, though, this album may be a good showcase for Rachel's voice but doesn't play to the rest of the band's strengths, especially the energy and excitement which is evident in both the band's live shows and the DC other albums. I'd like to see them return to the sound of Baby or Life, Love and Leaving - if and when they enter a recording studio again. Which I hope they will do, soon. Come on guys, it's not as if you need to write new songs. Just delve into your old 7' singles collection and come up with an unknown gem or two!

**** for You'll Never Change (Betty Lavett), Puppet on a String (Gino Washington), As Long As I Have You (Garnett Mimms), Nothing But a Heartache (Flirtations), Leave My Kitten Alone (Little Willie John), [I Wanna Know] What's Going On (Art Neville)

*** for Try Love (Dori Grayson), The Hurt's All Gone (Irma Thomas), Only to Other People (The Cookies), If You Don't Think (Tammy Terrell), On a Monday (Lead Belly)

** for It's My Delight (The Melodians), Green Light (The Equals)
P.S. the running order I described corresponds to the European edition on Rough Trade, the U.S. one is different

Paul Roland "Masque" (Greek ed. Di Di Music) 1990🎃🎃🎃🎃

Halloween tonight, and there are a number of ways for someone to celebrate it: trick-or-treating obviously, or partying with friends in your Halloween costumes. At the very least one can sit home watching a horror movie: John Carpenter's Halloween maybe, or Friday The 13th. On occasion I've also posted reviews on Halloween-inspired albums like The Fuzztones' Monster A Go Go. If, however, you're less attracted to the camp side of the holiday, if you'd rather re-read Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley or Edgar Allan Poe instead of binge-watching The Walking Dead, Paul Roland might make for a more fitting Halloween musical accompaniment for you.

"Jack O' The Lantern and Will O' The Wisp/ The Devil's Legion rides out in the mist" - now isn't that an appropriate way to start my Halloween album review? These also happen to be the opening verses from Paul Roland's Masque LP. The song, "Dr Syn Is Riding Again", is a hard rock piece with a wild violin solo, and its subject is an 18th century smuggler known as "The Scarecrow". Pretty standard fare for Roland, whom Wikipedia describes as a "singer-songwriter, author, journalist and paranormal researcher". A veritable Renaissance man, one obsessed with the past and with stories of the occult and the macabre. As a musician, he's responsible for more than 30 albums, bringing to life a host of amazing characters: deviant artists, medieval knights, jesters and whores, Victorian murderers and alchemists, vampires, mad scientists, street urchins etc. His music is invariably described as psychedelic, neofolk, goth, progressive, you name it. In truth, although there are similarities to Syd Barrett, Donovan, Robyn Hitchcock, Marc Bolan and others, he's impossible to pigeonhole. His music is just the medium through which he delivers his stories. It's often semi-acoustic with some kind of orchestral backing, but I've also seen him play with a heavy rock band, and I've seen him accompanied only by a lady with a flute (on a beach festival at 2 in the morning, sandwiched between The Last Drive and garage rockers The Droogs). Masque followed on the heels of his hardest-rocking album, the Medieval-themed Duel, and presents us with a mixture of electric and acoustic stylings. There are upbeat rockers with loud drums, e.g. "Dr. Syn", "Mr Scratch" (in the words of Mr Scratch, a.k.a. Mephistopheles: "A fair exchange is no crime/What's a soul my friend for the guarantee of a hell of a time?") and "The Mind Of William Gaines". I always thought the latter (about scientists re-animating an abnormal brain to study its workings) was about a notorious murderer, but it turns out I had him confused with Ed Gein. William Gaines was just an editor of horror comics. It still has a very Halloween-ish, Hammer-horror type, vibe. But while the electric guitars and drums are present throughout the album, they mostly take a back seat to the violin and other strings, with a couple of songs ("Taxidermist", "Mr. Scratch") also featuring sax solos. "Pharaoh" (sung from the perspective of an ancient Egyptian royal mummy) is a slow Gothic tune with an oriental flute melody, while "Candy Says" is a catchy song about a child receding into her inner fantasy world and imaginary friends. "Triumphs Of A Taxidermist" is sung from the perspective of a serial killer who enjoys embalming and collecting victims (my favorite is the "salesman to whom I couldn't say no"). Grisly murder stories accompanied by tranquil violin melodies are after all a Roland specialty. "Grantchester Fields" paints an idyllic picture of the English countryside with, for once, no horrible implications (the "ghosts of summers past" are surely a figure of speech). Side 2 opens with "Masque", a melancholic piano ballad about an actor losing himself in the characters he portrays, while the slow orchestral "Cocoon" is about a scientific experiment gone awry, and "I Dreamt I Stood Upon The Scaffold" is a variation on the traditional Childs ballad "Gallows Pole", which was also covered by Led Zeppelin... only here, when the dreamer wakes from his nightmare, he finds himself in a prison cell with a priest and executioner standing above him. "Matty Groves" is another Childs ballad, mostly known from the Fairport Convention version although I first heard it here. And though Roland's voice can't compare to Sandy Denny's (few can, really), he paces the song well, and sings with the panache of a true storyteller: when I listen to him, I can feel Lord Donald's wrath before slaying his wife and her lover. The album then closes with a nice Celtic jig, appended to the end of "Matty Groves". That is, if you don't have the Greek edition of the album which adds a bonus EP with 4 more songs: "The Ratcatcher`s Daughter" is orchestral pop, probably inspired by the same-named 19th Century music hall number. "Sea Captain" is a nostalgic portrait of an old sea dog, the upbeat "Sporting Life" of a gambler and scoundrel, and "Baby Let's Play House" an unexpected Elvis Presley cover. The first 3 songs were later added to the album CD reissue, otherwise I'd urge you to seek this particular edition of the album - the bonus EP is that good.

***** for Candy Says, Matty Groves, The Sea Captain

**** for Dr Syn Is Riding Again, Pharaoh, Triumphs Of A Taxidermist, Grantchester Fields, Masque, The Mind Of William Gaines, I Dreamt I Stood Upon The Scaffold, The Ratcatcher`s Daughter, The Sporting Life  

*** for Meet Mr Scratch, Cocoon, Baby Let's Play House

The Fuzztones "Monster A-Go-Go" 1992💀💀💀💀💀

Oops! It nearly passed by me. I had prepared another post for tonight, but that would not do! I can't not acknowledge Halloween! Even though, as a child growing up in Greece, Halloween meant nothing to me except maybe the name of a movie I wasn't allowed to see. Kids (adults, too) masquerade and party wildly during the Apokries carnival season, but that witches-and-pumpkins stuff? Total American nonsense! (though Irish in origin, as it seems to have its roots in the Celtic pagan feast of Samhain.) Fun nonsense nevertheless and, as with other irresistible American inventions, we were swept away in the early 90's even if we weren't little kids anymore. Filmmakers like Tim Burton and rockers like Rudi Protrudi had a lot to do with it.

Not that Rudi was among the first to sing horror-themed rock'n'roll: there's a great tradition from the childish "monster" songs of Bobby Picket to English lunatic rocker Screaming Lord Sutch - the British have an unhealthy obsession with horror, ever visited the London Dungeon? But nobody delves into the Halloween spirit as deeply and gleefully as Rudi and his Fuzztones. They've been covering (and writing) "horror" rock since they began, so it was only a matter of time until they made the ultimate Halloween album. It was only released in the U.S. and Canada, but I was lucky enough to get one of the original orange vinyl copies, to which I later added the CD I got as part of the Psychorama Box Set. As Rudi says on the cover, his goal was to do for Halloween what Phil Spector did for that other holiday. He even closes his album with a parody of Spector's narration at the closing of his Christmas album. Being even more of a perfectionist than Spector, though, Rudi also designed and drew the album cover himself. For the LP he chose 13 (naturally) songs, some of which have been in the Fuzztones' repertory for quite some time. Here they are re-recorded for maximum campness, with even spookier organ, and a cornucopia of special effects: creaking coffins, thunderstorms, howling wolves, rattling chains, the works... Screams? Need you ask? The album opens with a radio announcement carrying some "tragic local news...a young girl has been found dead at Hyde Park. The body has been badly mutilated. Because of these murders police requests that all women stay inside their homes after dark"...and, of course, The 'Tones launch into their hi-energy garage punk cover of Sutch's "Jack The Ripper", followed by another monsterpiece of his, "All Black and Hairy". Rudi's psychedelic ballad "Charlotte's Remains" is introduced with a wailing musical saw and features his best "sensual" slow vocal and Doors-y keyboards. "Dinner With Drac" is the cover of a 50's R'n'R novelty, followed by "The Night Of The Phantom" by Larry & The Bluenotes. Originally called "Night Of The Sadist", the producer thought it'd never get played on the radio and had Larry and the band overdub themselves on the studio. The censored title is more Halloween-y, though, so Rudi kept it. 

CD cover art

Original LP and back cover art

Then, of course, what is a Fuzztones album without a Sonics cover? Here they choose "The Witch" as most appropriate, delivering a fast punk-rock version with lots of screaming vocals. "Happy Halloween" is a fun and festive song introducing all the stars of the holiday. Side 2 opens with Bloodrock's "D.O.A" a ghostly heavy psych song from '71 and continues with the 'Tones own garage stomper "Cellar Dweller", and rockin' romps through Round Robin's R&B classick "I'm The Wolf Man" and "Goin' To  Graveyard" (the latter is attributed to Carroll, Hill & Burton, but I couldn't find who sang on the original). We also get a slow sensual take on Kip Tyler's exotica/rockabilly "She's My Witch", and the LP closes with Roky Erickson's "Night Of The Vampire", all imposing organ and ghostly vocals. Roky is different to the other songwriters here as he wasn't just innocently playing with horror, but was actually living through it (incarceration, electro-shock therapy, terrible psychedelic trips) and channelled his experiences into his songs. The CD adds a cover of The Driving Stupid's surrealistic "Horror Asparagus Stories" and Rudi's Halloween message. All in all, The Fuzztones can be credited with producing the perfect Halloween party album: the band are rocking hard, audibly having a great time playing and sending good-time silly vibes all around the place. It's perfect for your Halloween party - and, saving the best for last, it has just been re-released on vinyl in time for Halloween 2016. It's a limited edition of 500 copies, so hurry up if you want to grab one "in your grimy little claws", as Rudi would put it. It's a 5-skull album, all the way!

***** for Jack The Ripper, Night Of The Phantom

**** for All Black And Hairy, Charlotte's Remains, Happy Halloween, Cellar Dweller, The Witch, She's My Witch, Goin' To A Graveyard, Night Of The Vampire, Horror Asparagus Stories

*** for Dinner With Drac,I'm The Wolfman

** for D.O.A.