Uncredited musicians, or ghost musicians, make the music industry go round. Or, at the very least, they make the job of the producer’s life a whole lot easier. Recording iconic albums seems to involve plenty of requirements – talents, inspiration, showing up.
“Black” by Pearl Jam was meant to be a deep cut off of the juggernaut album “Ten,” one of the most important of the grunge era. Instead, it became one of the group’s most famous and enduring tunes, not least of all because of the emotionality…
Top 11 Rainbow Songs: When Ritchie Blackmore Finally Got His Way
September 21, 2024
Rainbow was the brainchild of guitar magus Ritchie Blackmore and unapologetically an attempt to gatecrash the charts. With the side project active for more than two decades, Rainbow did manage to secure hits and, what’s more, to incorporate trends that varied wildly…
Top 100 Greatest Alternative Rock Albums of the 90s
August 14, 2024
The 100 greatest alternative rock albums of the 90s were, for the most part, great hits. No longer was inventive, often bizarre, guitar-heavy music reduced to being sold exclusively in stores that handled independent records exclusively.
These albums were of global…
Judas Priest spent their career becoming so good at writing heavy metal anthems that, for most, the band is synonymous with the genre. Their very best albums routinely rank at the very top of lists of metal albums. And, all these decades later, they still receive…
Beyond the Gloom: Best Doom Metal Albums of All Time
November 25, 2023
Doom metal is the slowed-down, pitched-down, doom-obsessed genre that worshippers of Black Sabbath nurtured and developed. It’s the soundtrack to the universe slowly grinding itself into dust. The genre quickly expanded beyond mere attention-grabbing formulas. Some of…
AC/DC Albums Ranked: Is This the Best Hard-Rock Album Ever?
October 3, 2023
AC/DC believes in the redeeming power of rock n’ roll. But it has to be pure rock n’ roll, not soapy power ballads or some synth-driven tunes. No, when it comes to the essence of rock music, few bands have made greater, better-ranked albums than AC/DC.
No…
Deep Purple Albums Ranked: This is the Hard-Rock Group's Greatest Album
September 19, 2023
Deep Purple has, in the book on rock history, an important, very long chapter dedicated to them. At their best, they’ve albums ranked as some of the most important releases in the world.
But Purple is as much a political organization as they are a band. Group…
Van Halen had one collective talent above anything else. They could make themselves unavoidable. Whether it was through Eddie van Halen’s guitar playing or David Lee Roth’s showmanship, this heavy metal band could not be ignored.
Today I’m pitting…