Hard Rock
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the hard rock music genre.
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Alice Cooper – “School’s Out”
The attitude and personality is in ‘School’s Out.’ Additionally, the schmaltzy production shows for the first time… but where are the hooks? (read more)
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Judas Priest – “British Steel”
British Steel is Judas Priest‘s thickest, toughest-sounding album. It’s also one of their best—though I think Painkiller is more consistent in its greatness and equally valid for those descriptors. “Metal Gods” and “United” are the odd duds on British Steel, the latter clearly being an attempt to recreate Queen‘s “We Are the Champions.” Judas Priest’s sense of playfulness… (read more)
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Alice Cooper – “Billion Dollar Babies”
‘Billion Dollar Babies’ is a great album marred by horrible mixing and self-indulgence, even if some of the latter makes it endearing. (read more)
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Captain Beyond – “Captain Beyond”
Some incredible songs on ‘Captain Beyond,’ interesting lyrics, and ferocious performances. I greatly dislike the psychedelic mixing, however. (read more)
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Alice Cooper – “Love It to Death”
History hasn’t been kind enough to Alice Cooper band, who stand alongside fellow Detroit-rockers The Stooges as the true progenitors of punk rock. Alice Cooper don’t have as high a threat level as The Stooges’s out of control mayhem, but they make up for it in intelligence, as their melodramatic teenage introspective classic “I’m Eighteen” makes perfectly… (read more)
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The Smashing Pumpkins – “Gish” (1991)
The Smashing Pumpkins’s first album Gish arrived at the forefront of the coming alternative rock and grunge movement, and like other acclaimed bands of the time, the Pumpkins pioneered the new sound and attitude shift from the currently mainstream ’80s heavy metal/glam scene. The Pumpkins certainly know how to rock just as hard, and they… (read more)
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Boris – “Heavy Rocks”
Ball-bustingly reckless, heavy, hard rock with a bit of noise feedback, all backed up by a punk rock spirit. ‘Heavy Rocks’ is possibly the best Boris album. (read more)
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Boris – “Heavy Rocks” (2011)
Hard candy When Boris announced that they’d release an identically titled follow-up to their 2002 fan-favorite hard rock masterpiece Heavy Rocks, people got hyped. And hype is a stupid thing to fall into, let me tell you, because it’s by nature not rooted in rationality. People assumed Heavy Rocks 2011 would sound the same as Heavy… (read more)
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Queen – “Queen II”
An often overlooked Queen album (aren’t most of them?). Queen II is loose concept album where the first side of the album is meant to have brighter lyrical imagery with all songs written by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, while the second side contains darker songs all written by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. As usual… (read more)
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Queen – “Sheer Heart Attack”
‘Sheer Heart Attack’ is a great album, and one of Queen’s few that to feel like a cohesive whole instead of an arbitrary song collection. (read more)