By The Beard & Little Johnny     Tonight, once again The Beard (reviewer extraordinaire), and Little Johnny (IPA drinker par excellence) are covering another metal show. Event #15 & Bands #55-58 are on the agenda at Reggie’s Music Joint (in Chicago) as we review metal B&D band Savage Master, Sweden’s Screamer, Utah’s occult rock act Blood Star, and Chicago Spanish band Oscuridad Eterna. Arriving about an hour early, we sat at the bar and had a pre-show beer. Johnny spotted a beer called Foggy Geezer by Warpigs Brewing and said, “Hey Beard, that beer is named after ..read more

We continue our 'The Year In Metal" series moving into the 90s ... not a great decade for the fortunes of heavy metal. This 1991 episode shows that no specific heavy sub-genre was leading the pack, instead we have as diverse a grouping as you'll ever find in our ever growing series. From extreme metal to folk metal, from punk to hard rock, from boogie rock to grindcore ... it's all represented in this ode to 1991. Don't worry though, metal will arise after the 90s!!! Side 1 (0:00) "Arise": SEPULTURA - Arise (3:26) "Homesick Blues": THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Nobody Said It Would Be Easy (5:58) "T ..read more

Our Hard'N'Heavy series of podcasts focuses on new traditional metal and hard rock releases ... along with the odd hard rock'n'roll and melodic punk outing. Basically anything that doesn't fit on our Extreme Metal, Hardcore Punk or Doom series! This edition we focus on March and April 2024 releases. Horns up!                                                  ..read more

Reviewed by: Joe B. Yes, the three bonus tracks on Judas Priest's new album, Invincible Shield are great. So great, that those songs are the difference between a top album for 2024 and a top five all time Judas Priest album. Invincible Shield is Judas Priest’s nineteenth studio album. The standard edition ends with eleven tracks. This is the middle of where the bonus edition gets red hot. It starts off with “Panic Attack” and ramps up into a frenetic pace with “Serpent and the King”. The title track has Metallica Kill Em All thrash. The album’s pace goes from blistering to savagely heavy ..read more

By The Beard & Little Johnny Greetings metal fans, friends, and followers. It is one hour to doors here at the amazing Hell's Heroes metal festival. As the final day three start looms close, we once again have perfect weather in the mid 70’s (although the Beard has learned after dark it does get cold fast in the wind.) Walking home last night with Little Johnny after the Queensryche set, the lad bitched incessantly about why we could not just get an Uber. The terms cheap &^%$%^& and stubborn donkey were tossed around. Today, I made him walk the two miles to the venue onc ..read more

Want to listen to the future of stoner metal? Well, you've come to the right place, because in this edition of our "In 40 Minutes" series we visit the discography of one of doom metal's best up-and-coming entities ... Green Lung. A truly one-of-a-kind unit, revel in the glorious vocals and atmosphere that this London, England outfit deliver in spades on their three full lengths to date. Come up for the harrowing ... !!! Side One Woodland Rites (2019) (0:00) Initiation (2:31) Call of the Coven Black Harvest (2021) (7:22) The Harrowing (9:41) Leaders of the Blind (14:22) Reaper's Scythe (18 ..read more

It's time to revel in the new hardcore punk, d-beat, metal punk and grindcore releases issued from March and April 2024. Grind 'til death!! VIDEO AUDIO (0:00) "Flowers of Flesh & Blood" + "Ritual Majick" RUINED VIRTUE - Demo Demo | Ruined Virtue (bandcamp.com) (4:57) "Cold Case" + "Violence Survives" TRAUMATIZER - Traumatizer Traumatizer | Traumatizer | Neon Taste Records (bandcamp.com) (8:27) "Worldwide Disorder" DISHONOR - Chain Reaction, Mass Extinction Chain Reaction, Mass Extinction (EP) | Dishönor (bandcamp.com) (11:32) "Nic" + "Zitra" DEATH CULTURE DEPRIVATI ..read more

By The Beard & Little Johnny Welcome to Day #2 of the metal mecca of the south, Christian Larson’s incomparable Hells Heroes. We have arrived here at the grounds of White Oak Music Hall in Houston for day/night two of the festival. The rain has departed, and it is a beautiful 70-degree day, so we decided to walk the two miles to the venue. That is, the Beard decided and Little Johnny glumly went along while complaining that “he” gets enough steps in the Pits and doesn’t just sit at fests like I do. I mentioned that he is also a lot younger. He acknowledged that, while at the same time mut ..read more

By The Beard & Little Johnny   Greetings from Houston Texas, it is your Metal reviewing duo, (the Beard & Little Johnny) and we are here for the Southern Mecca of Metal Festivals, the mighty Hell's Heroes. A three-day forty-two band event across two stages that brings some of the best metal acts from around the world and across all genres.     As Day One draws neigh here in Houston, Texas, Mother Nature has challenged us with an all-day rain event. With storms not expected to end until after this evening’s festivities have concluded, it will be a wet and muddy day ..read more

Want to gain your racing stripes? Come join us as we celebrate the faster-than-hell discography of the one and only Zeke! Take your most hardened hardcore punk act and mix with Motorhead ... then press on the gas and there you have the Zeke experience. If you stay the course you are one hardened m*****f*****. Race all day and fuck all night !!!! Side One Super Sound Racing (1994) (0:00) Slut (0:52) Holley 750 (2:03) Mainline (3:28) Highway Star Kicked in the Teeth (1998) (4:27) God of GSXR (5:04) Telepath Boy (5:54) Rodney (6:44) Dogfight (7:39) Kicked in the Teeth (8:43) Fuck All NIght (9:47 ..read more