What’s New – Week of Dec. 29, 2008

The new year has barely started and we’re already layering on the mascara and giving it a pair o’ black eyes! If the neighbors thought your Christmas party was a little loud, wait till they get a load of the House of Hair this week! Lita Ford, Queensryche, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and the proverbial “more” will be filling the finest two hours of your entire week.

And we’ve got some killer giveaways to make your new year go off with a bang – ShipRocked will be taking you and a few hundred other headbangers onto the high seas for some maritime rockin’ with Queensryche, Skid Row, Tesla and more!  Enter to win right here. Also up for grabs this week: a chance to score a brand new Sammy Hagar CD, Cosmic Universal Fashion, and maybe even the grand prize – a phone call from the Red Rocker himself!

Win Sammy Hagar Cosmic Universal Fashion CDs

WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Congrats to the 25 winners (listed below) of our recent Sammy Hagar giveaway. Each of you will be receiving a copy of Sammy’s new CD, Cosmic Universal Fashion. John from Tempe, AZ, who listens to 93.3 KDKB, was selected as the grand prize winner and scores the CD and a phone call from Sammy. High fives to all who entered!

1 GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

Grand Prize entry (John Tindall – Tempe, AZ):

I first heard Sammy back in Montrose and loved the sound. When Standing Hampton came out, the tape never left my player. I lived in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and we saw all our concerts in Spokane, WA. Sammy was coming in concert on my birthday and I had to go. I didn’t have a car yet as my mom, then a single parent, was teaching us kids the value of a dollar. I’d been working and saved up some money, so I went and bought tickets for me and my girlfriend and went to rent a car…but I was stopped dead in my tracks: you had to be at least 25 years old to rent one. The only ‘cool’ person I knew was my girlfriend’s next door neighbor, Bret. When I called him and started to sell my story it didn’t sound like it would fly as he was hung over from the night before…not a good time to drag a person out of home to fill out a bunch of paperwork, not a good time for a car renter to rent to someone red-eyed and reeking of booze.

When I told him of my love of Sammy and it was my birthday, things took a turn that I never could have hoped for. He said it was his birthday too, and they started celebrating early the night before and he would be heading into ‘re-over’ (cure for hang over by getting drunk again), would not be driving, and that instead of renting a car I could just borrow his Porsche! WOW! Um, well…YES! What a great ride to a great show! SAMMY totally kicked ASS all show long.

One footnote: when driving a high performance car and you want to pull over to open some Cold Duck (can’t believe I drank that), do not take an exit that is part of clover leaf as the contents will become shaken, not stirred, and blast out upon opening. Not to fear though, the all-leather interior clean up was a snap. Bret got his car detailed and returned without a scratch and I got to see Sammy on my birthday, one I will never forget. I believe the year was 1983. I also followed Sammy through the VH years…I think that band — notice I didn’t say the name — was at their best when Sammy was at the helm. I saw Sammy rockin’ off on the 5150 tour at Compton Terrace in Phoenix, Arizona, too…another awesome show Sammy put on! Keep rockin’, Red!!!!

24 ADDITIONAL WINNERS:

Troy Adams – Valdosta, GA
Edward Cooper – Grand Ledge, MI
Erin Cosgrove – Fort St. John, Canada
Randy Edinga – Edmonton, Canada
Brian Evans – Saginaw, MI
William Fix – Springfield, MO
Robert Glover – Madison, TN
Ken Howell – Bloomingdale, GA
Michael Hutnik – Windsor, Canada
Kelly Jerred – Rapid City, SD
Timothy Johnson – Santa Maria, CA
Rich Lippolis – Hilliard, OH
Troy Maturin – Kaplan, LA
Karen Miller – Webster, NY
Mary Montgomery – Abilene, KS
Ronda Nelson – Terre Haute, IN
Paul Pease – Rogers, AR
Christy Roberts – Royston, GA
Lisa Samsel – Shavertown, PA
Anna Singleton – Galesburg, IL
Wes Stumbo – Shelley, ID
John Tindall – Tempe, AZ (grand prize winner!)
Bev Trende – Phoenix, AZ
Jeff Watkins – Gainesville, FL
Casey Yates – Phoenix, AZ

Prizes should arrive within 3 weeks of posted winner names.

Thanks to ALL the HOH and Metal Fans who entered the contest!
- Dee and the House of Hair Team!

Get Cosmic with Sammy Hagar!

Sammy Hagar’s album, Cosmic Universal Fashion, has just been released on the new label Loud & Proud, and features guest appearances by the Cult’s Billy Duffy and Matt Sorum, and fellow Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony. Billboard reported that the album’s title song was written online with an Iraqi fan named Steven Lost. The song’s video references Van Halen’s 1991 song and video “Right Now.” Hagar also covers the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right To Party.”

Be one of the first to own the new CD and qualify for a personal phone call from Sammy to your home or cell phone! 25 people will win the new CD “Cosmic Universal Fashion” and one grand prize winner will get a personal phone call from Sammy.

Note from Sammy:
December 17, 2008
2008!
Redheads!

Thinking back about the events in 2008, all I can say is what a GREAT year it has been!! So many Wabo shows with my bud Kenny Chesney, what a Blast we all had!! This years 2008 Birthday Bash had to be one of my all time favorites!!! The new start of Club 1013, the St. Louis “Blessings in a Backpack” and our NEW album were three of our biggest highlights!! The first Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill opened it’s doors and has been a huge success!!!
Ya know what? I can’t wait for 2009!!! Are you ready for Chickenfoot?!

I hope everyone has a safe, Happy and Wonderful Holiday with friends and families!

God Bless and Peace!
Sammy

ENTER TO WIN: Contest Entry Form

For more info, check out:
Sammy Hagar’s official website, RedRocker.com!

What do you win?

25 Winners each get:

(1) CD copy of Sammy Hagar’s new “Cosmic Universal Fashion”

AND

One GRAND PRIZE WINNER gets a personal phone call from the Red Rocker himself!

ENTER TO WIN: Contest Entry Form

How to Enter:

Fill in the Entry Form here. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON ONLY, please. Tell us “Why I am the Supreme Sammy Hagar Fan”!! Incomplete entries will be tossed out – all address fields, station (or how you heard about the contest) field, and name fields must be 100% complete!

How we choose the winner:

Only entries received by January 14th, 2009 will be considered. The HOH staff will judge the entries based on Supreme Sammy Fandom, creativity, sincerity and humor. Oh yeah, use your spellcheck!! Slogging through thousands of these things is rough!

Contest Start Date: Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Contest End Date:Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at midnight

Did I win? Winners will be announced FIRST in the HOH newsletter and one day later on the website. Register for our weekly spam-free HOH Newsletter.

Questions? Email us at info@houseofhaironline.com

This contest is open to residents of the USA and CANADA only.

What’s New – Week of Dec. 22, 2008

On your feet or on your knees, head bangers! It’s really a personal preference. There’s no way I’m gonna let you rock your way toward the new year slouched on a couch! Stuff your stuff into some spandex, unload half a can of hairspray on what’s left of your hair, pull on those old boots and let’s kick New Year’s in the sugar plums! Boom baby!

The HOH holiday partying continues this week with a heavy metal radio rager featuring Warlock, Warrant and W.A.S.P. – and those are just the Ws! I’ve got two hours of the stuff old school heavy metal wet dreams are made of including some big giveaways on this week’s House of Hair, including Sammy Hagar CDs. You don’t wanna miss it!

REVIEW: tRnzPrNt – “Iced”

A couple years ago I had the unique privilege of chatting with the late Ricky Parent, best known for his powerful drumming with Enuff Z’nuff, but also his work with Vince Neil, Alice Cooper, War and Peace, Paul Gilbert and Tod Howarth from Frehley’s Comet. At the time, Parent was well into his battle against cancer and what I’ll always take from those 15 or so minutes we spent on the phone together was his adamant courage to push through the conversation. Despite my offer to postpone our interview, Parent gave me a little background about his early days as a rocker and how he joined the grossly-underappreciated Enuff Z’nuffonce Vikki Fox departed.

Ricky Parent came along during the nineties after Enuff Z’nuff had already hit a brief ascension of notoriety then instantly capsized down an incline that refused to rise for them once again—blame the press of the day, which refused to look past the Poison-esque glam facades they introduced themselves with. Undoubtedly the band was completely in a zone with Parent hammering the skins, and their neo-hippie pop rock was equally effervescent on 2002’s Welcome to Blue Island as it was in 1991 with the criminally-overlooked Strength, much less late-nineties output only the devout managed to chase down such as Paraphernalia and 10. Shame of it all was that Enuff Z’nuff was at their most confident on Welcome to Blue Island with Parent in the camp than perhaps they’d ever been. Certainly you can’t argue his presence was unifying glue towards bringing Donnie Vie and Chip Z’nuff back into a harmonious co-existence.

Unfortunately following Enuff Z’nuff’s 2004 sugary rock fest ?, they lost not only original guitarist Derek Frigo, who’d come home to play again, but sadly, Ricky Parent thereafter. One might say this band has faced and stood up to a curse that does its damnedest to destroy them.

As for Parent, he managed to make his remaining days in this life count, not by surrendering to the sickness that whittled him away (and believe me, I heard the fatigue in the man loud and clear on the phone), but getting together with some veteran rock buddies for a foot-tapping farewell as tRnzPrNt, a name generated by his online ID. Surrounded by guitarist Jimi Ambrose and G-Man Poster, bassist Casper Raines and frontman Jim Villani, Ricky Parent’s final output is nothing short of a triumph.

Sure, there’s the obvious effect that Parent got on the stool under duress and pounds his kit with the same precise force and happiness as he did for Enuff Z’nuff and his other studio work. The facthis group’s album Iced! is so danged good and full of such graceful energy is the true testament to Parent’s legacy.

There’s an Enuff Z’nuff ruboff in tRnzPrNt but only to a point when you hear songs such as “Drink to the Bottom,” “Teenage Overdose” and the happy-go-lucky opening track “Carrie Please,” the latter of which kicks Iced! off with such rocking glee you’re hooked on the spot. From there, Iced!seizes the moment on the Kiss-flavored “I Can’t Take It” and the brisk and breezy “Living for the Night.”

There’s a cool mix of Kiss and The Beatles knocking heads on “Little Girl” and there’s a private sweetness fortifying the lap-patting groove of “Something About You.” The band gets a little funky on “I Wuz Robbed” and steps on the gas a hair with “Foolin’ Around.” Meanwhile, tRnzPrNt’s heaviest cut, “Comfortable Foe” chugs with snarling riffs and some Ozzy-laced vocals from Jim Villani. Villani, however,largely commands his mike on Iced! with a unique pitch that accommodates his buried nasal tones.

What’s especially nice about Iced! is there are virtually no maudlin overtones to this thing. In fact, the jokey dialogue intro to “Talk Too Much” is, according to inside information, a potshot at American vocalists (largely from the alt rock scene) trying to pass themselves off as tragically hip British. Fun and mirth all the way to the finish line, tRnzPrNt is exactly the way we would want to remember Ricky Parent, pumping his band with hard, life-embracing strikes, which they take cue from gallantly.

God bless you, Ricky…

tRnzPrNt
Iced!
Ambran, Inc.
review by Ray Van Horn, Jr.

Judas Priest Nominated For 2 Grammy Awards This Week

JUDAS PRIEST are among the nominees for the 51st annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on Sunday, February 8, 2009 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Best Hard Rock Performance:
JUDAS PRIEST – “Visions”

Best Metal Performance:
JUDAS PRIEST – “Nostradamus”

The 51st annual Grammy Awards will be broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS Sunday, February 8, 2009, from 8 to 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

JudasPriest.com
RobHalford.com
MetalGodShop
HalfordMusic.com

REVIEW: Don Airey – Light in the Sky

There was a time in the mid-eighties as Generation X hijacked the scene where keyboards in hard rock and metal were considered taboo. Never mind every one of the great rockers such as Zeppelin, Sabbath, Purple and Rainbow blared their organs and synths with the same razzle-dazzle as their classical and blues-bred lead guitars and superfluous drum solos. When you stop and think how much more powerful progressive rock groups such as Yes, Nektar, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Jethro Tull sounded with keyboard accompaniment, it’s almost hard to see what the anti-key hubbub was about in eighties’ heavy metal.

Then again, masters of the keys from Jon Lord to Jens Johansson are in a far different class than some of the high-pitchedooze emissionscommercializing heavy music from once loud ‘n proud rockers such as Def Leppard and TNT. The latter band’s Tell No Tales particularly pours the synth syrup gratuitously, while another example, Fastway’s Waiting for the Roar,is perhaps the biggest keyboard rock wankfest of the day.

Don Airey, on the other hand, is perched with a different echelon of keyboard jocks. Having played with everyone from Deep Purple to Jethro Tull to Ozzy to Sabbath, Priest, Whitesnake, UFO, Uli Jon Roth, Rainbow and Gary Moore, Don Airey realizes that if you’re going to supplement hard rock with organs and keys, then you need to rock that stuff, brother. This is precisely what the finger-happy maestro does with A Light in the Sky, one of the most entertaining keyboard-driven albums put down in the modern era.

Mixing everything from hard rock to fusion to classical, Don Airey literally goes space truckin’ on A Light in the Sky with a largely-inspired set of groundless tunes varying in mood and momentum.

At times, Airey is like Bach on a speed kick with fugue-turned-rock-a-rama instrumentals such as “Space Troll Patrol.” Sometimes the pace of the songs themselves take over like Deep Purple grooves thrown into an uncut gear, such as the brisk-tempoed “Endless Night.” Going into traditional Purple rawk modes on the stamping “Shooting Star,” Don Airey has only begun to take his listeners to way-out astral planes on this album.

Airey playfully tosses out a one-minute organ blues jam with “Rocket to the Moon,” but the dominant trait to A Light in the Sky is its articulate textures and explosive prog bursts turned in elevated succession. “Ripples in the Fabric of Time” works its way methodically through a soothing rock pulse before going berserk in the second half of the instrumental with madcap organ, guitar and violin solos. “A Light in the Sky Part 2” reigns as an extensive seven-minute rock odyssey complete with vocals from Carl Sentance, who uncannily sounds a bit like Ian Gillian and Glenn Hughes. In many sections, Don Airey heaps winding organ loops atop his throbbing rock furrow ala Fragile-era Yes. Detailed beyond comprehension, “A Light in the Sky Part 2” is a new-gen prog bonanza as interpreted by a veteran keystroker who was there to assimilate it all when it was originally created.

What’s particularly special about Airey’s project is he’s unafraid to scale the note-lunacy down to a focused and textured rock ballad with “Love You Too Much.” He also changes his entire scheme by switching to chamber piano on the strict and eloquent “Into Orbit,” which features gorgeous violin accompaniment courtesy of Lidia Baich. Beforehand, Airey puts on a clinic by merging rock and cabaret with the breathtaking “Somarero M104.”

As A Light in the Sky rounds on a majestic New York Minute escape “Lost in the End of Time,” what has been revealed is a supreme composer encased in the guise of a rocker. Brilliant on many turns, Don Airey has proven, as he has recently on Judas Priest’s Nostradamus that a mindset filled with Holst, Bach, ELP and Rainbowcan equate into one hell of a headbangers’ concerto.

Don Airey
A Light in the Sky
Mascot Records
review by Ray Van Horn, Jr.

What’s New – Week of Dec. 15, 2008

Ho, ho, ho, you hos!

The holiday edition of the House of Hair is rolling down Santa Claus Lane this week and spinning doughnuts on your lawn. We’re gonna be blowing off your chimney with two hours of seasonal music from Twisted sister, Skid Row, Dokken, Warrant and more, plus I’ll be giving one lucky winner a shot at partying on the high seas with our Get ShipRocked contest.

I’m not kidding – it’s 100 percent holiday metal, it’s hard, it’s hairy, and it’s all you need to kick those parties into full metal meltdown! It’s all right here when the House of Hair kicks you in your jingle bells – stay tuned!

TESLA TO JOIN QUEENSRYCHE, SKID ROW, OTHERS ON SHIPROCKED CRUISE

ShipRocked has announced that the multi-platinum rock band TESLA, who have sold over 16 million albums worldwide, will be joining Queensryche and Skid Row for what promises to be the premiere rock cruise of 2009.

“TESLA is very excited to be a part of ShipRocked,” comments drummer Troy Luccketta. “It’s going to be the party of 2009… great bands, great music and great fun! Be there!”

TESLA — Jeff Keith, Troy Luccketta, Frank Hannon, Brian Wheat and Dave Rude — recently reunited with producer Terry Thomas (who was behind the boards for the band’s 1994 Gold-certified Bust A Nut album) for their new album Forever More.

Next year marks TESLA’s 25th anniversary and what better way to celebrate…

“ShipRocked” is an unparalleled five-day rock and roll music cruise on the MSC Poesia that will be departing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on November 15, 2009 and sail to such exotic locations as Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, before returning on November 20, 2009.

In addition to Queensryche, Tesla and Skid Row, ShipRocked will feature live performances on multiple stages by EndeverafteR, Lynam and StoneRider along with the recently confirmed bands, Broken Teeth (www.brokenteeth.com) and Stereoside (www.myspace.com/stereoside).

ShipRocked has recently entered into a partnership with SonicBids for new and emerging rock artists who wish to perform on-board the 2009 music cruise. Those interested in submitting their EPKs can do so via ShipRocked’s event page at http://www.sonicbids.com/shiprocked.

Throughout the cruise, ShipRocked passengers will be treated to an array of on-board events and activities, including meet and greets with the artists, theme nights, heavy metal karaoke, contests, charity auctions, and maybe even a few all-star jam sessions!

Everyone on-board will feel like a rock star, as they bask in both sun and luxury on MSC’s Poesia. The Poesia is the third spectacular vessel in the MSC Cruise Line’s “Musica” family of ships. This amazing super-liner features MSC Cruise Line’s signature Italian inspired decor, impeccable service, sumptuous cuisine in multiple restaurants, beautiful swimming pools, hot tubs, a full-service spa and fitness center. Nearly two-thirds of the ship’s staterooms include private balconies!

ShipRocked will truly be the ultimate rock and roll vacation and backstage pass!

Pricing for ShipRocked begins at only $599 per passenger, with early booking discounts and exclusive passenger packages available.

Tickets recently went on sale to the general public.

For reservations or additional information, visit www.getshiprocked.com.

For sponsorship information, contact sponsor@getshiprocked.com.

REVIEW: We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year

In what is developing into an annual tradition with last year’s Monster Ballads Xmas and A Twisted Christmas the year prior, the heavy metal parade this year lines up somewhere between the North Pole and the hallowed nativity with the marching feet barely out of the pentagram circle for We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year.

If there’s any difference between We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year and say, Monster Ballads Xmas (blunt heaviness of the former aside), it’s the fact this stable of metalhead carolers bears a mixture of players of the scene versus entire bands. With nearly as much classic rock and metal (and a handful of new gen players) constituents wrangled beneath one banner as Hear ‘n Aid, We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year is a largely funmetal social mixer.

Just to hear Lemmy of Motorhead juke out a shucking version of Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run” with Dave Navarro and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons is a crowd-pleasing ditty, while Alice Cooper (who is having a banner year with his back-to-horror-business Along Came a Spider) gets away with murder by turning a terror-laced tweak upon a jolly yule classic with “Santa Claws Is Coming to Town.” Aiding Cooper on his shriek-filled monster mash Santa-style is Vinnie Appice, Billy Sheehan and John 5.

The name of the game with We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year is to not only heavy up traditional holiday hymns and carols, but to also mingle the players together, some to obvious effect, some not so much but to pleasantly hip delight in many cases. Sure, you can expect Ronnie James Dio with past and present cohorts Tony Iommi, Rudy Sarzo and Simon Wright to do up a droning doom-laden take on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.” You can also expect Tommy Shaw of Styx and Damn Yankees to do a by-the-numbers aspirant take on John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, Blue Murder’s Marco Mendoza and rock drummer journeyman Kenny Aronoff.

You get Stephen Pearcy and Tracii Guns doing a sloshy play on the already unscrupulous “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” with the David Lee Roth band-reunited Billy Sheehan and Greg Bisonnette along with Bob Kulick (Bob and his bro, former Kiss axe slinger Bruce check in all over the place on this album). You get Tim “Ripper” Owens wailing like a wildcat all over the greasy lickin’ good “Santa Claus Is Back In Town” with Marco Mendoza and Vinny Appice as well as Juan Garcia and the Dixie Dregs’ Steve Morse.

One of the coolest cuts on We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year is dUg Pinnick of King’s X leading a gorgeous and soulful send-up of “Little Drummer Boy” with George Lynch, Billy Sheehan and Prayerbox/The Orb’s Simon Phillips. Pinnick, who is always reliable to carry any tune with calm syncopation is the glue to this laidback sidewalk ditty based on a Christian staple.

On the other hand, Testament’s Chuck Billy and his demolition squad of Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Testament/Slayer/Exodus/White Zombie drummer John Tempesta, Shadows Fall’s Jon Donais and The Cult’s Chris Wyse rip out a hilarious thrash version of “Silent Night”upon which Chuck Billy pukes all over the words. Hard to take the song’s message of hope and peace to any kind of heart with these guys going positively berserk on it; however, this may be the greatest cut of “Silent Night” outside a conventional chorus version, if not the nastiest. If you thought Six Feet Under’s roasting of AC/DC’sBack in Black album was a hoot, you’ll be busting a gut over this blazing and brutal “Silent Night.”

Unfortunately, the mix of Geoff Tate’s sometimes overcooked vocals for “Silver Bells” overpowers his rhythm section of Carlos Cavazo, James Lomenzo and Ray Luzier, while you do have to chuckle as Ronnie James Dio well-dramatizes “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” with slow-brewedirony. Of course, Cavazo peels off a wicked cool solo on “Silver Bells” and the main rhythm drives along admirably, while Tony Iommi is a harbinger of the proverbial ghost of Christmas future with his iron-shackled power riffs.

Good to see Jeff Scott Soto getting loose on “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” following his unceremonious departure from Journey (viva la Panther, Jeff!) and perhaps there’s a subtle statement of accord that the former Yngwie Malmsteen frontman rubs elbows with the impresario’s current vocalist (“Ripper” Owens) on the same project. This is the inherent avowal of We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year, to align a heavy metal get-together in the spirit of unity and goodwill. As Soto interchanges between “We wish you a merry Christmas” and “We wish you a metal Christmas,” therein lies all the spice you need to make that heavy rocking egg nog more palatable.

Various Artists – We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year
Armoury Records
review by Ray Van Horn, Jr.

REVIEW: Sixx: A.M. The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack Deluxe Edition

Of all the various Motley Crue offshoot bands over the years such as Methods of Mayhem, 58 and Brides of Destruction, much less Vince Neil and Tommy Lee’s solo albums and Lee’s Rock Star Supernova, Sixx: A.M. is the most honest.

If you’ve read Nikki Sixx’s rendering book The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, you’re taken deep into his tattered mindframe circa 1986 and ’87 when Motley Crue ascended the ladder of hard rock success and subsequently released its second-biggest commercial hitGirls Girls Girlsahead of the far-superiorDr. Feelgood. Reading about Sixx’s extraordinarydecadence (even managing to out-shock Anthony Keidis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and his own debased narrative Scar Tissue), Sixx admits Girls Girls Girlsin his opinion suffered much from his addictions and his inability at the time to get a grip on life. It’s also the reason—along with the other Motley Crue candid expose The Dirt—that Saints of Los Angeles is Motley’s best and most sincere album in years.

Forming Sixx: A.M. with the purpose of breathing musical life into Nikki Sixx’s sordid and troubled autobiography, the end result featuring James Michael on vocals and guitars and DJ Ashba also on guitars is decidedly an anti-Crue soul-purging. The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack weaves a drug-infested and clean-resurrected rock opera with appreciable candor and courage. Colliding excerpts of Sixx’s diaries with a sound bred of Meat Loaf, Muse, Hanoi Rocks and FM radio rock with dashes of haunted Danny Elfman-esque scores, The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack serves as fair warning to junkies in the guise of poster child rock stars. It is also Nikki Sixx’s confessional to his massive audience which headbanged along to his monster bass though keeping a wary eye on him, knowing he’s already dropped dead from this life for a few terrifying minutes.

There is hope amidst The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack as there is desperation and a self-flogging lament expounded from Nikki Sixx’s sinful past, one indirectly pinpointed to rejection in his youth by his estranged parents. Compounded into 13 songs which vary between pounding rock jams and fragile ballads born of pain instead of schmaltzy lust (“Tomorrow” and “Girl With Golden Eyes,” for instance), The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack respires on its soaring single “Life is Beautiful” as well the schizophrenic “Pray For Me.” It throws darts at an absentee father figure on “Dead Man’s Ballet” and swoons into gospel-laden choruses as compensation for the internal anger seething out of Sixx’s accusatory lyrics. No one could’ve predicted “Heart Failure” would be so tuneful with a combination of biting Goth riffs and a rockout solo section. Nevertheless there’s deeply buried apprehension in the low-end notes of the song that plummet the listener into Nikki Sixx’s near-death experience.

As Sixx: A.M. bravely mixes in random electro pulses, a Piccadilly circus of the damned nuance, a subliminal Eight Mile hip hop-rock grooveon “Van Nuys” and even some Beatles and Black Crowes swoons on “Permission,” The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack rises above the implication of cross-market gimmickry. Included in this deluxe edition is a bonus live CD recorded at this year’s Crue Fest, Live Is Beautiful. Featuring eight songs from The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, only Nikki Sixx can attest to what it must’ve felt like to put his life’s story on display in front of a summer festival crowd, much less challenging them to wrap their heads around a frequently morose and cheerless form of metal expressionism, although “Life is Beautiful” and “Pray For Me” might be the two best songs Sixx has ever written. And you thought Motley’s “Danger” or the John Corabi-sung “Welcome to the Numb” were disturbed…

Sixx: A.M. – The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack Deluxe Edition
Eleven Seven Music

Review by Ray Van Horn, Jr

Next Page »