Seeping Matter

Artist:  Dream Theater
Album:  Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard:  Yeah, right.
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard:  Blind Faith

One day some twelve years ago or so, I was at work discussing one of my favorite bands, Queensrÿche, with a co-worker of mine.  He suggested Dream Theater, the absolute kings of progressive metal.  Well, I didn’t know that then.  But I tried them out, bought a couple of albums, and found a new favorite band.

Then I kind of stopped following them for some unknown reason.  It was around this time that “Six Degrees” came out.  Eventually I bought it, because it was a Dream Theater album.  But I never really listened to it much.

Thus it went for a number of years, until one day at work when I created an “All Dream Theater” playlist and started listening to it.  These really, really amazing songs kept coming up that I realized I hadn’t heard.  After checking I realized that they were coming off of “Six Degrees.”

“Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” is two discs of pure awesome.  The title track occupies one entire disc in eight movements.  It’s pretty good stuff, very technical pure Dream Theater.  But the best stuff is on the other disc.  It is absolutely incredible.

I said “Yeah, right” on the “Best Song You’ve Probably Heard” item above because, in all honesty, either you’ve heard the whole album because you own it, or you haven’t heard any of it.  There’s a lot of great songs, but “Blind Faith” is my favorite.  In a band full of amazing talent, Mike Portnoy might be the most talented at his position of them all.  In fact, he might be the best drummer around today, really.  And “Blind Faith” is a fantastic showcase for Mike’s drumming ability.

If you’re looking for a new band to expand your horizons, try Dream Theater.  ”Six Degrees” is a good place to start.  Give it a listen, then again, and again.  My bet is after three times through you’ll be completely and hopelessly hooked.

Artist: Y&T
Album: In Rock We Trust
Year: 1984
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard: Don’t Stop Runnin’
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard: This Time

Say what you will about the cheesy cover, the dorky album title, or the weird band name; Y&T’s “In Rock We Trust” is so good that it is my favorite album from 1984, and that’s really saying something. Consider other albums that we were all blessed with that year:

• Scorpions “Love at First Sting”
• Ratt “Out of the Cellar”
• The Cars “Heartbeat City”
• Dokken “Tooth and Nail”
• Twisted Sister “Stay Hungry”
• and, of course, Van Halen “1984″

That’s some pretty awesome company. So you know what I’m saying when I tell you that this is my favorite album from that year.

Unless you are a pretty serious 80′s metalhead you’ve probably not even heard of Y&T before, so you maybe haven’t heard “Don’t Stop Runnin’”. It is probably the most popular song from this album and apparently still gets air time on radio and MTV. But it isn’t the best song. “This Time” is an awesome heavy metal ballad, one of the best ever. “Life, Life, Life” is an example of the common 80′s plea-for-peace topic, and is an excellent song. There’s not a bad song on the album, but especially the first four songs in a row are really outstanding.

This album is pretty hard to come by legally in CD form, although not as bad today as when I found mine, used. Your best bet might be to just buy the MP3s directly from amazon.com. You won’t be disappointed.

(Image credit: amazon.com)

Artist: Queensryche
Album: Operation: Mindcrime
Year: 1988
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard: Eyes of a Stranger
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard: Suite Sister Mary

Wow. Operation: Mindcrime. If they ever put a heavy metal album in the Louvre, this will be it without question.

There’s a lot of superlatives that apply to Operation: Mindcrime, and it might take a while to get around to them all, but here’s a few:

• Best Concept Album Ever
• Best Rock Opera Ever
• Most Artistic Heavy Metal Album Ever
• Most Artistic Mainstream Album of the past 30 years

Of course, that’s just my opinion, but my opinion is the only one that really matters here.

I’m not going to go into the back story of Operation: Mindcrime as it is amply documented in many places all over the Internet. Suffice it to say, the story is incredibly dramatic, insightful and even introspective. Without intending to leave out the other incredible Rychers, Geoff Tate is absolutely stunning in his heartfelt vocals, and the indispensable Chris DeGarmo sets the mood of every song with his incredible guitar work. Sometime when you have an hour alone at home or on a roadtrip, just crank Operation: Mindcrime and listen to it good and loud, uninterrupted, all the way through from start to finish. Listen to the story and put yourself in the place of Nikki. Then see if you can keep tears from your eyes as Nikki laments what has become of his life in “Eyes of a Stranger.” Good luck with that.

By the way I forgot at least one superlative:

• Best Rock Concert Ever

And on that note, I’m going to cheat a bit here and include Operation: LIVEcrime, the live recording of Operation: Mindcrime in concert, in its entirety, during the “Empire” tour. Queensryche in concert is simply amazing – one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen, and that’s some pretty lofty company.

This album was originally released in 1991 and was incredibly exclusive and hard to find just a few years later. Fortunately Queensryche re-released it in about 2001. The live album is incredible, possibly better than the studio version. Just thinking of the incredible ovation at the end of “Eyes of a Stranger” gives me chills.

With the inclusion of this album, I have to add another best song, “Roads to Madness.” The live version of this song is just raw power, and it is almost as though that song was meant to be on Mindcrime anyway – it fits right in to the story.

(Image Credits: amazon.com)

Artist: Alice in Chains
Album: Jar of Flies
Year: 1994
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard: I Stay Away
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard: Rotten Apple

One day, years ago when I was living in Colorado, my old roommate Curtis called me from Atlanta to tell me that I needed to go and buy this album right away. For some odd reason I had strongly resisted the grunge movement during college so I never really had that collegiate-exploring-music time, a fact that I rather lament today. So I didn’t already have any Alice in Chains music prior to Curtis’s phone call. However, I took Curtis’s advice and bought “Jar of Flies” soon thereafter. After all, Curtis also recommended that I read “Starship Troopers,” so his advice carries merit to be sure.

“Jar of Flies” is what you get when great musicians cut loose to see what they are really, truly capable of, without restricting themselves to a genre. It is a true masterpiece. I took a stab at the song you might have heard, but the truth of it is, probably you’ve either heard the whole thing, because you own it already, or you haven’t heard any of it.

The moods Jerry Cantrell can create with guitar are really incredible, but what Alice in Chains does best is harmony. They are able to come up with the most amazing harmony patterns that sound both unexpected and logical at the same time. Witness “Rotten Apple” or “No Excuses” to see what I mean.

Alice in Chains is a grunge band, but “Jar of Flies” is not really a grunge album – just seven songs worth of great music, and one I consider a definite must-have.

(Image credit: Amazon.com)

Artist: Def Leppard
Album: Pyromania
Year: 1983
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard: Photograph
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard: Die Hard the Hunter

“Pyromania” came out when I was, uh, I mean, about 25 years ago. I still remember hearing “Rock of Ages” on the radio. It sounded awesome then and sounds awesome now, especially live. But I didn’t really get into Def Leppard until a few years later, around “Hysteria” time. I really like both albums, but over the past 20+ years, I think Pyromania has weathered the best. Whereas “Hysteria” has a few pop-80′s-sounding tunes, “Pyromania” has a timeless sound that doesn’t feel like it will get old anytime soon, and yet already is starting to sound like classic rock.

Even though “Rock of Ages” was my first exposure to Def Leppard, I think “Photograph” is the best song on this album, and truthfully a much better tribute to Marilyn Monroe than that lame old “Candle in the Wind” boringness. “Foolin’,” “Too Late For Love,” “Action! (Not Words),” and even the cheesily-named “Rock! Rock! (‘Til You Drop)” are some other great songs on here.

Some of you may feel like dissing on Def Leppard, which is your right. But do realize that they have two 10x-platinum albums in the United States. Can your favorite band say that? Not likely – there are few who can.

By the way, Def Leppard is also a great band to play along with when you are learning to play electric guitar.

(Image credit: Amazon.com)

Artist: Journey
Album: Escape
Year: 1981
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard: Don’t Stop Believing
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard: Escape

Journey was my first ever “favorite” band and is still one of my favorite bands of all time. We all owe Journey a great debt, as they are one of those select few bands who saved the world from disco. And that is saying something. Grunge failed to save us from country, unfortunately, and disco, like country, had a lot of social appeal in spite of being lame. So for bands like Styx, Journey, and Van Halen to salvage us from the depths of disco lameness is something we can all be thankful for.

Anyway, choosing “Escape” over “Frontiers” as the first Journey “Essential Album” was not an easy pick. Ultimately, “Escape” is more significant as it was probably the most important Journey album to launch them into the upper echelons of all-time musicdom. “Escape” established them as a known, mainstream arena rock band, solidified and embodied their classic sound, and at the same time stood them above the crowd as one of the best ever. Who among us has not been inspired by “Don’t Stop Believing” or has not had the opportunity to make fun of someone singing, “So now I come to you with broken arms?”

Actually, the title song “Escape” might be the best song on the entire album, and probably even the most inspirational. “Mother, Father” is a beautiful ballad, the best on the album, and Dead or Alive is a great live song. In fact, any Journey concert would be incomplete without playing at least half of this album – and in my opinion, they should play more of it at each show.

If you don’t have it yet, pick it up, or download it from Amazon.com. You may find that you know more songs from this album than you thought, and that you wonder how you ever made it this far without having owned it.

(Image credit: amazon.com)

Artist: U2
Album: The Joshua Tree
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard: Where The Streets Have No Name
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard: Mothers of the Disappeared

This was one of the first albums I purchased from any band, way back when I was a teenager. I must have listened to this hundreds of times growing up. U2 existed before “The Joshua Tree,” but not for me. I’m willing to bet “The Joshua Tree” was the first U2 album for thousands, if not millions, of people worldwide.

“With Or Without You” was the first hit single from this album, and I really love that song. But “Where The Streets Have No Name” gets my vote for the best song because of the way it is written. It is art, pure art. “Mothers of the Disappeared” is a beautiful way to end the recording. But there isn’t a bad song on the whole CD, not at all. It’s a fantastic voyage from one end to the other.

(Image Credit: amazon.com)

It’s about time we had a new feature here on the Half Bad Boy blog. I thought, probably most of you are thinking, “Will someone please tell me what is good music that I should be listening to?” The easy answer to that is, Almost nothing even remotely current. But that doesn’t help you spend your money.

So I thought it might be time to try a new feature: the Half Bad Boy Blog Essential Albums. Every month or so I’ll try to list an album that is part of any half bad boy’s essential music collection. And if a month goes by and I don’t post anything, feel free to just wait longer.

Artist: Van Halen
Album: 1984
Best Song You’ve Probably Heard: Jump
Best Song You Might Not Have Heard: Panama

It probably comes as no surprise to readers of this blog that a Van Halen album would be the first selected Essential Album. But some might be wondering, why 1984?

Well, it isn’t because it is my favorite Van Halen album, although it is right up there. It isn’t because of album sales, although at ten times platinum, it is one of the best selling Van Halen albums of all time. In my opinion, 1984 is a landmark album for Van Halen because it was the first to show that they could be successful as a mainstream American band, not just as a hard rock band.

For all the talent that Eddie possesses, I think his biggest talent is amazing songwriting, not guitar virtuosity. “Jump” shows that in spades. It is upbeat enough that you might hear it in a grocery store, but it rocks hard enough that it tends to close out every Van Halen show. Play “Jump” with the volume turned up – you cannot help but smile. It is such a great song.

There are a slew of great songs on 1984. It is hard for me to envision that there is any living, hearing person, besides my own parents, who have not heard this album clear through a number of times. So selecting a “Best Song You Might Not Have Heard” from 1984 was tough. Odds are you’ve also heard “Panama,” and just about every other song on this album. But just in case you haven’t, check out “Panama” – it is a great time.

1984 peaked at number 2 on the charts, behind “Thriller,” one of the top selling albums of all time. And now, it is the Half Bad Boy Blog’s first ever Essential Album.

(Image Credit: amazon.com)