Free Metal Monday: Ripple Music-Fully Jacked

Ripple Music
2017

California's Ripple Music has a brand new compilation available and I for one couldn't be any more thrilled! This digital release features eighteen different bands and while I haven't had a chance to listen to them all*, "Fully Jacked" seems poised to live up to it's epic title!! You have group's like Mos Generator, Geezer, Zed, Bonehawk, Foghound, Devil To Pay, and Switchblade Jesus. Heavy street rock and roll band The Watchers opens things up with the slick track "Sabbath Highway" and from that point forward it all looks so promising...



*I jumped around on this comp. and just sampled a few cuts.

Top 10 best re-issues/re-releases of 2011

Our top album lists we be out later this week. In addition to a list of new releases I started doing a list of the top re-issues and re-leases two or three years ago. This year was had so many good entries that I decided to expand the list from 5 to 10. So here they are in order from 1-10.


1-Twisted Sister-Under the blade CD/DVD set
It's one of the best Twister Sister albums with bonus tracks and the DVD is a live show from when they were still raw and angry.

2-Orange Goblin-5 disc box set
Five great helpings of pure thick stoner rock and bonus tracks on each one. WOW!

3-Jethro Tull-Aqualung 40th anniversary special edition 2 disc set
A great sounding remix on Aqualung and a whole disc of bonus tracks.

4-Mos Generator-s/t
Their debut debut re-issued with bonus tracks.

5-Sigh-Scorn Defeat
They had a rougher sound nearly twenty years ago, but just as impressive.

6-Stone Axe-S/T CD/DVD set
The original just came out a couple of years ago, but this version has bonus live tracks and a whole DVD full of live songs.

7-Uncannny-MCMXCI -collected works
Their one album plus demos equals a massive attack of classic early death metal.

8-Thin Lizzy-The boys are back in town, Live in Sydney, Australia 1978
Not their greatest live album, but it's a prime Thin Lizzy show with the band sounding very relaxed.

9-Warlock-Hellbound
My favorite Warlock albums got the re-issue treatment this year.

10-Atomic Rooster-s/t
A very underrated album.

Mos Generator-s/t

Ripple
2011

It was just a few months ago that I thrilled when Ripple music re-issued Stone Axe's debut with a pile of extras. Now that very same label treats us to another re-issue of one of Tony Reed's bands. This is the 10th anniversary edition which includes the original album plus a previously unreleased track from the original recording sessions and the full Live at the Manette recordings that were previously self-released in limited numbers. The songs from the original album are amazing enough on their own. Yes, I could just say these tracks are high caliber groove-laden, 70's inspired stoner rock and all that would be true. However that only scrapes the surface for how good this band really is/was even at this early stage of their career. Every project I have heard Tony Reed in has a flow to it that's just automatic in every aspect of the song. Many bands play this style and you can learn chords and beats, but you can't learn the kind of flow that Mos Generator have. It just comes with knowing what you are doing and it being second nature. That kind of flow is all over these songs. It's like being in a vehicle with an experienced driver/pilot you hear/feel a few seconds and you know you are in good hands so you sit back and enjoy the ride. If it just the original album being re-released that would be great enough, but we also get a bonus studio track and a live album as extras. I was particularly impressed by the live tracks because it sounds it's likely a smaller venue, but the quality is quite spectacular. Mos Generator live are perhaps even more spot on with hitting everything in fine fashion and just channeling their natural smoothness in this performance. Really a fantastic package all around. Once again Ripple Music not only delivers the goods, but they go the extra and exceed all my expectations on this one.