Queensrÿche / child of fire / the warning (8) / 1984

Yikes! It's Friday already and I haven't done a journal since Monday. Sorry if there are people waiting for a NWOBHM band of the week this Friday, but I'm aiming for quality over quantity and having done the last three weeks in a row I think it's time for me to take a week off to get my notes in order for the next three weeks.

Anyway, in Song of the Day style, I've arrived at the conclusion that Child of Fire is my favourite track off Queensrÿche's debut…

Santeria / mexico / year of the knife (5) / 2008

This is a fantastic ballad by a the almost unknown band Santeria from Louisiana. I found the band through their inclusion on Classic Rock magazine's cover CD two months ago, but this track really stood out. Their album Year of the Knife is available (I believe) exclusively through CDBaby.com, though it is fully streamable on last.fm. Expect to be drawing comparisons to Bruce Springsteen and Lynyrd Skynyrd, maybe on some of the other tracks even u2, though the band is quite capable of being more aggressive than…

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witchfynde are a band I've mentioned in a journal from November, but their brief biography should be easy to do on account of mostly having last.fm streamable tracks and a comprehensive biography on their website.

The band's website claims that the 'idea' of Witchfynde was formed in 1973, but most sources claim the band formed in 1975. Either way, they are one of the oldest NWoBHM bands.

The core of Witchfynde has always been drummer Gra Scoresby and mysteriously named guitarist Montalo. Vocalist Steve Bridges and bassist…

Almost forgot to do a journal today at all. Really can't think of anything special enough for April 1st, so I thought I'd just make a reference to one of my favourite past April Fool's jokes. I wonder how many people read and remember the original?

yngwie malmsteen / forever one / angels of love (1) / 2009

So, The Great Yng has done a New Age album a la Marty Friedman's 90s solo output. Only Yngwie's is a reworking of existing tracks, whereas Marty's was made up of new tracks. For an Yngwie album it is surprisingly easy to do work to. Along with Friedman and some jazzy Allan Holdsworth and Greg Howe it's made up a fair chunk of the last week's listening while I've been attempting to absorb bits of facts and methods into my overloaded grey matter.

Apart from being easy to…

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Shiva are usually dubbed "the NWOBHM's answer to rush", but have also been compared to Deep Purple, Blue Öyster Cult, Triumph and diamond head.

Shiva formed in 1979 (totally unaware of what their name actually meant, by the way) as a four piece, but after one demo (unreleased until 2004) they reduced themselves to a power trio consisting of John Hall - vocals & gutar, Andy Skuse - bass, Chris Logan - drums.

Shiva's first single was 1982's rock lives on for Heavy…

Impellitteri / somewhere over the rainbow / stand in line (4) / 1988

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This instrumental cover of the classic Somewhere Over the Rainbow is often traded on the internet, falsely tagged as performed by yngwie malmsteen, and, I confess, is how I discovered Chris Impellitteri and his band unusually early in my musical exploration. Chris and Yngwie do share some similarities beyond their early playing styles though as both have worked with vocalist Graham Bonnet and both have gone on record as big fans of Ritchie Blackmore's rainbow. Famously, Chris was listed as the second fastest guitarist…

iced earth / "come what may" / The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked Part 2) (14) / 2008

Despite threatening not to buy this album after the curious move of changing vocalists mid-concept, (not that I'm particularly against Barlow, just the changing mid-concept) I eventually did buy it toward the end of 2008.

Most of the album, I felt was good-ish, but not that memorable. The second part of the story, I thought, was vastly below the quality of the first half. While the first album seemed to advance the story a little with each track (despite being…

chickenfoot / "Down the Drain" / Chickenfoot / April or May 2009

Yesterday Chickenfoot (the supergroup composed of Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith, in case you've forgotten) posted two songs from their upcoming self-titled debut on their website.

I feared Satriani might take something of a back seat in the band before I heard these tracks, but if these two tracks are an indication of the rest of the album, it's exactly what I was hoping for. Much earlier interviews stated no one in the band was acting out of character, and based on…

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To finish off the trio of bands that Neat Records sold to MCA, I present to you my article on fist! What do you mean I'm being predictable?

Fist began as axe, recording a track S.S. Giro under the name. The track though ended up in the Neat vault for a year or two before anyone would hear it in its original form.

Then, in April 1980, renamed as Fist; Dave Irwin (guitar), Harry Hill (Drums, not to be confused with the large collared comedian…