Sunday 7 December 2008

A few words on the year that was 2008....

By H...

A lot has happened in 2008, lots of albums, gigs, travelling etc, met loads of new metal minded folk on our travels, here are my highlights and lowshites of a very good year!!!!

Best Album of 2008
MOTORIZER- MOTORHEAD!!!
An amazing year for Motorhead. Their new album was their best offering since, well, the album before that haha!
The lyrics, the riffs, the solos, the drumming, vocals, attitude and also a killer gig in november and everything else they've been involved with this year, they delivered the goods in '08, one of my favourite, consistent, reliable bands ever, they never let me down.

Best Gig of 2008
IRON MAIDEN, Twickenham Stadium, July 5th!!!
What an emotional show, a setlist to die for, the greatest history lesson ever taught in this country from THEE greatest ever heavy metal band, a band we've grown up with, gone through all the highs and lows with and stuck with them through thick and thin, I've always said they're like a football team, even when they have their bad days you still support them to the end.
This was one of those gigs we'll certainly all still be talking about in many fucking years to come, an experience I will never forget, an excellent show on so many levels.
Support bands??? What support bands, as far as I was concerned there were no fucking support bands, just a load of time wasting cunts filling the air with their shitty sounds to replys of choruses of boo's from the Maiden Faithful.
A very long day, very long, drunk, knackering day, with apologies to thee driver of course!
Let's see Maiden top this show on the next tour, I have a feeling they'll be dusting off some old underated songs for the true few!!!!


Some of the Best Of The Rest.... 2008 Albums.... In no particular order...

Ross The Boss- New Metal Leader.
Whitesnake- Good To Be Bad
Yngwie J. Malmsteen- Perpetual Flame.
Darkthrone- Dark Thrones and Black Flags.
AC/DC- Black Ice.
Testament- The Formation Of Damnation.
Cynic- Traced In Air.
The Lamp Of Thoth- Portents, Omens and Dooms.
Alice Cooper- Along Came A Spider.
Death Angel- Killing Season.
Judas Priest- Nostradamus. (the first cd)
Exodus- Let There Be Blood.
Witchfinder General- Resurrection.
Sammy Hagar- Cosmic Universal Fashion.
can't remember anymore but there was a shitload of good albums this year.


2008 Personal Live Highlights.....

SUFFOCATION!!!!!
Seeing Queen.
KISS and Maiden ruling at Graspop, Belgium.
Forbidden at Graspop.
Testament at Graspop.
Pagan Altar at The Doom Metal Inquisition in Bradford.
Cathedral and Napalm Death at Damnation, Leeds.
Brutal Truths excellent show in Sheffield/Bamford!!!
Today Is The Day in birmingham.
Dio shouting at simon wright in birmingham.
Me and Patchie singing The Ramones with Motorheadache in birkenhead!!!
Our first look inside our new arena for Whitesnake in liverpool!!!!
Motorhead and Saxon in manchester!!!
Too fucking many great live moments to remember them all!!!

The Shit Bits of 2008....
Don't even get me started with Death Magnetic and Chinese Democracy.
The new Venom album sucked too.
The new Queen album was also a bit of a letdown.
Judas Priest at Graspop, very slow, very disappointing, playing old fast classics like Sinner and Eat Me Alive at a snails pace is not good, they must surely realise that megadeth and testament are gonna kill them live over here in february.
Def Leppard at Graspop, "Welcome to the sparkle lounge" said joe elliot, no thanks lad.
Can't remember if the Down 3 album come out in '08, I must have blinked and missed it cos I only listened to it twice.
The new Soilent Green album Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction didn't impress me.
I honestly can't remember any other shit.

The Death of Richard Wright.
This made me really sad.
The dream is over, and now fans can stop wishing for reunion gigs.
Personally I didn't want them to reunite for a tour but maybe do one or two shows and release it as a dvd, there is no way they can even contemplate doing anything under the pink floyd name now because Rick Wright's keyboards were the unmistakable, undisputed sound and mood of pink floyd. It baffles me they did The Final Cut without him but is that really classed as a proper floyd album? No, to me it ain't.
I'll miss Rick Wright, I thought it was great to see him involved on David Gilmour's last solo album and tour.
R.I.P. Rick!

Also the death of Jerry Reed.
I'm kinda glad that Jerry Reed's death wasn't as publicised as much as Johnny Cash's.
I haven't encountered any band wagon jumping yet but this is england, I can imagine it being different in america, Reed was legendary in his own country, over here if I mention his name I usually get the answer, WHO? then I usually have to follow that with "cletus the truck driver from smokey and the bandit" and the man meant so much more to me than cletus.
Reed was a great musician, totally love his guitar playing, he will be missed!

See you in 2009!!!!

...H

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