Columbia/Legacy a division of Sony Music Entertainment, have announced the release of Legacy Edition of JUDAS PRIEST’s seminal album, British Steel, on May 10th in the UK and May 11th in North America.

British Steel: Legacy Edition features the 2001 remaster of the original 36-minute, nine-song album (plus two bonus tracks). also included is a DVD which combines a live 16-song concert filmed in August 2009 at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena in Hollywood, Florida (the album sequence plus seven more cuts), with a 30-minute Making Of British Steel interview that includes all four original band members.

British Steel was the sixth studio album by Judas Priest. Released on April 14th, 1980 and produced by Tom Allom, British Steel was recorded at Tittenhurst Park in England – a mansion owned at the time by former BEATLE Ringo Starr, and previously owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

British Steel has long been considered one of metals all-time classics. It was with this release that Priest truly broke through to the masses, with a pair of tracks that have become fixtures on rock radio – the enduring anthems ‘Breaking The Law’ and ‘Living after Midnight’. but like all classic albums, there is not a single weak track detected on British Steel, as evidenced by such standouts as the perennial concert highlight, ‘Metal Gods’, as well as ‘Rapid Fire’, ‘Grinder’, ‘United’ and ‘The Rage’, amongst others.

In 2009 Judas Priest performed the British Steel album in its entirety for the first time ever as part of their 30th anniversary USA tour. A filmed recording of the show on the August 17th, 2009 at The Seminole Hard Rock Arena, Hollywood, Florida – will be included in both the limited edition deluxe and deluxe releases. The show was captured in front of a vibrant American audience and in full 5.1 surround and stereo sound. known for their high-energy and spectacular stage shows the band played the entire British Steel album in sequence as well as a number of other well-know tracks from their catalog.

The live concert was mixed in stereo and 5.1 by the original British Steel producer Tom Allom.

British Steel: Legacy Edition tracklisting:

Disc 1 – Remastered album
‘Rapid Fire’
‘Metal Gods’
‘Breaking The Law’
‘Grinder’
‘United’
‘You Don’t have to Be Old to Be Wise’
‘Living after Midnight’
‘The Rage’
‘Steeler’
Bonus tracks:
‘Red, White & Blue’
‘Grinder’ (Live)

Disc 2 – DVD The British Steel 2009 Tour (Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena, Hollywood, Florida, August 17, 2009)
‘Rapid Fire’
‘Metal Gods’
‘Breaking The Law’
‘Grinder’
‘United’
‘You Don’t have to Be Old to Be Wise’
‘Living after Midnight’
‘The Rage’
‘Steeler’
‘The Ripper’
‘Prophecy’
‘Hell Patrol’
‘Victim Of Changes’
‘Freewheel Burning’
‘Diamonds and Rust’
‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’

This entry was posted on March 8, 2010 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Metal News & Commentary, Reissue Report with tags AOR, Black Metal, British Steel, Classic Rock, Death Metal, Glam, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Judas Priest, Melodic Rock, Metal, Music, NWOBHM, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Rock, Speed Metal, Thrash, Thrash Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Reissue Report: Judas Priest – British Steel (2010 Legacy edition … is a post from: Boxsons

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Las Vegas metal band Guttural Secrete has issued the following update:

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had any kind of updates. First of all we have been working very hard on new material for our next release which will come out on Brutal Bands. the songs are taking some time but are coming along nicely. things should start to progress a lot better now though as we would like to welcome back Randy to the band who previously played with us on the last CD, Reek of Pubescent Despoilment, as well as recorded it. Our main focus currently is to get Randy up to date on the newest material so we can prepare to record a 3 song promo that we can hopefully get out for you guys sometime soon. We’ll keep you guys all up to date on everything we’re up to. We are certain that this new material will not disappoint and we appreciate everyone’s patience and support.”

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Virtual instruments may be going the way of recorded music: free and online.

We’ve seen plenty of sites that let you make or mix music in a rudimentary way, but none that offer the deep feature set of Hobnox AudioTool. This free online electronic music studio lets you compose with two TB-303 Bass Line generators, Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines and two banks of effects pedals including three delays, crusher, detune, flanger, reverb, a parametric equalizer and a compressor. By clicking the mouse button, you can drag virtual cables between any output and any input to customize the setup.

Composing music in this way is a bit tedious, because you need to add and shape each note individually. but this is exactly how many electronic musicians work, because it allows so much control over each element of the loops and allows you to create melodies and beats without playing them.

Testing AudioTool, I encountered no serious issues, and was able tocreate and edit beats in the same way that one would do with Reason orsimilar software. The only time I noticed a drop-out was when I messedwith the length of a sequence as it was playing, which isn’t somethingyou really need to do anyway. The program loads with a demo song already in place, but you can start your own composition by clicking the Clear Pattern button on each synthesizer.

The site currently requires Java, although that could change soon.
The developers at Hobnox who made AudioTool would prefer to use Flash entirely,
but say its support for dynamic audio is lacking. They suggest thatthose who want to support online virtual instruments should join the Make some Noise campaign, which hopes to convince Adobe to add sound manipulation features to Flash and to shore up one specific unstable audio feature, allowing Hobnox and other developers to push the envelope with more evolved online music tools.

As of right now, the only way to export a song from AudioTool is torecord it as it plays using Total Recorder, Audio Hijack or similarsoftware. Hobnox says it’s working on a new version of the tool willallow users to save and load songs and will add new effects, asynthesizer, a drum computer, a sequencer and even a sample editor. Inaddition, the next version should support collaboration, so that groupsof friends can work on the same song.

If you’d like to get started with Hobnox AudioTool but haven’t programmed beats before, watch this simple tutorial.

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Among the five artists who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday (March 15), Jimmy Cliff is probably the least familiar to American audiences. By all rights, the Rock Hall’s honoring of the Jamaican legend should change that.

A prime force in reggae for nearly 50 years, Cliff made his mark most notably with The Harder they Come, a gritty 1972 film that combined hard-hitting music with an unflinching, realistic look at ghetto life in Jamaica. Cliff’s lead-actor role, and his dominance of the soundtrack, brought him international fame, even as mainstream success in America eluded him.

Since then, Cliff has released a spate of acclaimed albums, and has earned extensive praise from peers in both the reggae and the rock worlds. Artists who’ve covered his songs range from John Lennon to Willie Nelson to Fiona Apple, and such notable figures as Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer, and The Rolling Stones have been among his collaborators.

2010 is shaping up to be a busy year for Cliff. Currently he’s putting the finishing touches on his first album of new material in six years, and in June he will kick off a North American tour that includes an appearance at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

To commemorate Cliff’s induction into the Rock Hall, we’ve dug into our vaults for a never-before-published interview, conducted in 2004. among other topics, Cliff shares his thoughts about the evolution of reggae, the success of Bob Marley, and his fond memories of the Clash’s Joe Strummer.

Reggae has undergone lots of changes through the years, incorporating hip-hop and so forth. Do you feel the music has retained its spiritual foundation?

That’s the great thing about this form of music. Reggae, as it has become known, started out as ska, and then it was called rock-steady. it became known as reggae in its third form, and then it evolved further — from rub-a-dub reggae, to ragga reggae, to dancehall reggae. it keeps evolving into different forms, and I think that’s something that’s unique to this music, and very healthy. I’m really pleased with where reggae is today. the spirituality is still there, and the social and political aspect of the music is still there as well. some reggae artists are addressing those issues, while others sing about girls and cars and so forth. I think that’s a good thing.

You made your mark as an actor, in addition to becoming a singer-songwriter. Do you have any theories as to why singers often make good actors?

In my experience, most of the actors I’ve met have had a yearning to be singers, and a lot of singers I know have a yearning to be an actor. my first love was really acting, and even to this day I feel I’m a better actor than singer. But it’s easier to write a song and record it, than it is to do film work. it takes a lot of money to make a successful movie. That’s why I’m better known for singing.

Generally speaking, when you begin work on a new album, do you try to do something that’s different from what you’ve done in the past?

Yes. I’m a creative artist, first and foremost. when I start writing a new album, I automatically begin with thoughts of how this one is going to be. I never want any album to be like the previous one I’ve done. Sometimes that’s gotten me into trouble. when I came onto the scene, there was nothing called ska, or reggae, or anything like that. That music was just beginning to take form, and I directed my energies toward helping create that. That wasn’t necessarily a commercial thing to do.

You wrote and recorded a song with the Clash’s Joe Strummer for your Black Magic album. what was that experience like?

Joe and I had met previously only at a distance, and we had never really had a chance to talk. But we had admiration for each other’s work. He just came into the studio one day. I don’t know how he learned that we were recording, but he had some lyrics he had written, and he said, “You know, I can hear Jimmy Cliff singing these words.” [Producer] Dave Stewart asked him how he thought the song should go, and he said, “I don’t know. I just hear Jimmy Cliff singing these lyrics.” the two of them began playing guitar, and I came up with the melody, and then Joe chipped in with some help on the melody as well. we recorded the song right away. That was a really special moment for me. You can imagine the shock I felt after hearing that Joe was not with us anymore.

You’ve likely heard this question many times, but do you have any thoughts about why Bob Marley took hold so strongly in America, whereas other worthy Jamaican artists did not?

Island Records really focused on taking Bob Marley over the top, so to speak. I myself moved away from Island Records, at a time when it wasthe company with the eye, the focus, and the concept of how to promote this music. I went to all the big majors — Columbia, EMI, Reprise, all of them — and they saw an artist with talent, but they didn’t know how to promote that talent. Bob was a great talent who also benefitted from great promotion.

Like many reggae artists, whenever you address issues that are troublesome in our culture, you do it with a positive spirit. Does that come naturally to you?

Yes. I do happen to think that the positive force is a superior force, on this planet. and we need to emphasize that. God knows, we have enough negativity going on. I came out of a situation where I could really have gone negative. I grew up in the ghettos of Jamaica, and came out of a situation where I saw a lot of friends, and people I know, die from gunshots and other violence. I could easily have gone that way. I had to have a positive outlook on life, in order to come out of that, and still be around, and make music. It’s become something that I’ve cultivated for myself.

Rock Hall Inductee Jimmy Cliff Talks about Reggae, Acting, and Bob Marley is a post from: Boxsons

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Beware … Dr Andrew McIntosh, biomedical and injury expert at the University of NSW, has found that headbanging in time to heavy metal music could cause head and neck injuries Source: the Daily Telegraph

IT’S enough to make the late Bon Scott roll over in his grave: AC/DC fans headbanging to Highway To Hell while wearing neck braces.

But a Sydney-based researcher is suggesting the unimaginable to heavy metal fans – wear a neck brace or ditch your love of hard music.

Dr Andrew McIntosh, biomedical and injury expert at the University of NSW, has found that headbanging in time to heavy metal music could cause head and neck injuries.

The self-confessed lover of milder music has found that songs such as Spinal Tap’s Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight and glam-metal band Motley Crue’s Kickstart my Heart top the list of injury-inducing songs.

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“Perhaps AC/DC should play something more appropriate, such as Moon River,” Dr McIntosh joked. “We would suggest a proper public health warning, as for smoking.”

The study revealed that an average headbanging song with a tempo of 146 beats a minute is likely to cause mild injury if the head’s range of motion is greater than 75 degrees.

The quicker the tempo and the greater the thrust of the head, the higher the risk of injury.

Dr McIntosh enlisted the aid of heavy metal fan and researcher Declan Patton to watch fans at concerts by performers including Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue and Motorhead.

The “tongue in cheek” research will raise the ire of fans but he warns that headbanging can increase the chance of headaches and neck problems.

Daniel Hewling, of the Central Coast band Black Asylum, laughed off the thought of wearing a neck brace.

“Kids love the music because it moves them. the urge to bang your head is irresistible,” he said.

“Your body reacts the same way as people tap their feet – only on a more energetic level. It’s a great way for kids to let loose. the feeling is primal and the bands feed off it.”

Headbanging music fans encouraged to wear neck braces is a post from: Boxsons

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Bunk Gardner and Don Preston are featured on several albums with the original Mothers of Invention (along with various later compilations of unreleased material by Frank Zappa) which include Absolutely Free, We’re only In it For The Money, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, Uncle Meat, Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped my Flesh. Gardner also appeared on Zappa’s first solo venture Lumpy Gravy, while Preston went on to appear on several albums after the break-up of the original Mothers, which include Fillmore East, June 1971, Just Another Band from L.A., Roxy & elsewhere as well as the feature film 200 Motels.

The Don & Bunk show started in 2001 with the duo wanting to show audiences their unique abilities that were revealed in Zappa’s first band. Gardner and Preston have both been long known for their amazing inprovising abilities and interpretation of Zappa’s music. they have recorded two CDs for Brain Records: Ahead of their Time and Joined At The Hip. Bunk has also recorded and/or performed with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, Geronimo Black, Tim Buckley, The 4 Winds Ensemble, ANT-BEE and many others. Don Preston has recorded/performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, The Residents and many others. he has also completed 23 film scores including Apocalypse Now. Don Preston was quite possibly the first person to add synthesis to live rock performances, taking Frank Zappas Mothers of Invention into uncharted musical territories over several tours and albums. Today, four decades after having built “analog synthesizers” from scratch before most people had heard of such things, Preston is a living legend and a pioneer who now tweaks synths on his Apple laptop.

The Don & Bunk show will be appearing on the following dates:

Mar. 17 (pre-tour gig) Hollywood Studio Bar &Grill – 6122 Sunset Blvd – Hollywood, CA – PH 323-466-9917 (performance starts at 9:00 pm)

Mar. 21 The Garage – Wilmington, DE

Mar. 24 Bearsville Theater – Woodstock, NY

Mar. 25 Rongovian Embassy – Trumansburg, NY

Mar. 26 The Magic Room – Boston, MA

Mar. 27 The Lilly Pad – new Haven, CT

Mar. 31 The hi Hat – Provincetown, RI

Apr. 1 Sullivan Hall – new York, NY

Apr. 2 The Black Lodge – Philadelphia, PA

Apr. 3 Orion – Baltimore, MD

Some of the songs the duo will be performing are: Flower Punk, Help I’m A Rock, Uncle Meat, A Pound For A Brown on The Bus, Eric Dolphy’s Memorial Barbecue, Holiday In Berlin full Blown, I Am The Slime and many other beloved Frank Zappa compositions.

PERFORMANCE/TOUR: Former Mothers of Invention Members Don Preston and Bunk Gardner to Tour East Coast is a post from: Boxsons

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By Jonathan F. McVerry – For the CDT

Artist: Anti-Pop Consortium

Album: “Fluorescent Black”

Label: big Dada

Hovering below the glitz and glam of rap music lies a cerebral, sharp and at times dark legion of artists that represents an underground sense and pioneering intellect of hip-hop culture.

It’s a style without overproduced beats and clean, poppy hooks. It’s a world where the emcees hang on every single word and quickly run through versus seemingly without taking a breath.

Leading this genres charge for the past 12 years, new Yorks Anti-Pop Consortium released its sixth record in September, Fluorescent Black.

It doesn’t take long to realize this isn’t standard club music from the alien and asteroid cover and the CD’s heavy-metal intro. The album wasnt written to make you dance. instead it exists strictly for head bobbing and comprehending at a very loud volume.

The men of Anti-Pop met at a Poetry Slam in new York City during the autumn of 1997. this humble origin is displayed on each very lyrical and word-heavy track. On each song, emcees High Priest, M. Sayyid and Beans intricately spew rhyme after rhyme at a rapid mind-boggling pace. at times it seems they find an endless amount of rhymes for each word and find unexpected places to squeeze in rhyming syllables.

Fluorescent Black is chock-full of multifaceted and multigenre music, and these veteran alternative rappers showcase a variety of beats that at times tinker on electronica and other times are full-blown rock music. despite the genre-hopping, their deliveries stay the same with stream-of-consciousness flows that make you want to catch every word.

In the late 90s, the group self-promoted itself with mix tapes, flyers and stickers throughout new York City a marketing campaign that put High Priest in jail for defacing public property.

Despite the setback, the boys developed their renowned act with trademark thumping beats and a reputation for lyrical prowess that keeps them separate from todays polished and glossy rap music.

In the most club-ready track, the albums single Volcano, thunderous down beats drop like bombs over a Gnarls Barkley-style hook. Everyone gets a turn on this track as the emcees trade off smooth versus and articulate with a personality that keeps ears perked and heads moving.

The loud, electronic drums and sound effects are reminiscent of UFOs, time machines and space travel. Its not a surprise that the future is a common theme in the groups music.

The trio continues to pull the boundaries of hip hop back to its old-school integrity while thrusting it to places its never been. Anti-Pop Consortiums genre-bending mission represents a place hip hop has never achieved at a global, pop culture scale and thats just fine as long as people are listening and heads are bobbing.

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while much in music has changed since their 2001 debut, Gorillaz, now with the release of their third full-length LP, “Plastic Beach,” have essentially stayed the same. the band is no longer the future of music. indeed, 2D, Murdoc, Russel, and Noodle _ the band’s animated members _ are simply purveyors of the craft they originally developed, which is practiced today by countless other artists. this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. on the contrary, the Gorillaz stand head and shoulders above most of their progeny and have further perfected their art on “Plastic Beach.”

the album includes even more great collaborations than its predecessors _ Lou Reed, Mos Def, and Bobby Womack are just a few of the guest artists and this time around, the band’s trademark brand of electro-funk-hip-pop is more focused, with tighter production and more sure-fire hooks. Also, “Plastic Beach” continues Gorillaz’ tradition of utilizing animation and technology to great effect _ the centerpiece of the group’s Web site is an adventure video game featuring band members, each stars in a YouTube album teaser, and there’s a music video in which a maniacal Bruce Willis engages in a crazy desert car chase with the group. All that said, Gorillaz, by remaining “virtually” the same, are no longer in a position to make any grand artistic statements about commercialism in art. instead, the band’s creators seem content to rest on their very real _ not virtual _ laurels.

“Plastic Beach” contains some of the best Gorillaz’ songs to date and is the best place to start if you’ve never heard the band. the album’s first single, “Stylo,” is a ’70s-esque electro funk gem featuring Mos Def’s understated rhyming and Womack’s soul crooning. “On Melancholy Hill” takes a page out the Pet Shop Boys’ book with blissful, fuzzed-out pop that would sound perfectly at home in the ’80s. the warm fuzzies continue on “Broken,” which contains some of the album’s best production. Enjoyable chill-out ballad “Empire Ants,” with a heavy trip-hop swizzle stirred in, borrows from the playbook of bedroom electronica producers like Moby and Mylo. “Some Kind of Nature,” perhaps the most intriguing collaboration on the album, juxtaposes Lou Reed’s trademark halting talk-singing with Albarn’s syrupy sweet harmonies over a buzzing hip-hop beat. _ Michael Kabran

Liars _ “Sisterworld” (Mute) (rating 7 out of 10)

with “Sisterworld,” Liars moves into the kind of conceptual territory the Mothers of Invention explored on its own “Freak out!” in 1966. that Frank Zappa-led album was a rabblerousing send-up of past, present and future rock and roll culture, centered in Los Angeles. Tellingly, the sleeve of the original release featured an advertisement for a “Freak out Hot Spots” map, aimed at those planning to visit the city. the map jokingly (and menacingly) provided an alert about “where the heat has been busting frequently” and “tips on safety in police-terror situations” and encouraged the listener to “hurry” because “this map has no commercial potential.” “Sisterworld” similarly investigates and attempts to understand the social and artistic landscapes of Los Angeles, but with an even higher degree of suspicion and paranoia.

the phenomenal “Scissor” opens solemnly with a beautiful choral section, led by Angus Andrew sounding more than ever like Nick Cave. Strings and a piano then join the layers of voices, and just as the listener is certain that this is the most delicate the band could ever sound, a wall of distorted guitars and drums emerges from seemingly nowhere. this is a startling development within an otherwise serene song, yet it’s emblematic of the surprise attacks the band employs throughout the album. It’s difficult to think of another recent album that used so many seemingly irreconcilable elements to such a coherent end.

A listener might reach the end of “Sisterworld” and wonder what, exactly, was the point of visiting this imaginary space. Although it’s excellently performed, recorded and mixed, this is definitely not an album that could be recommended for its escapist value. nor could it be described as entertaining. However, in the place of diversionary qualities and emotional uplift, “Sisterworld” provides a forceful (if not wholly original) perspective on the nightmarish effects of the dream factory. the album purposefully denies indulging the fantasies that pollute entertainment culture. “Sisterworld” is the sound of breaching that unknowable barrier and realizing that there is no fun to be had, after all. _ Thomas Britt

Pavement _ “Quarantine the Past” (Matador) (rating 5 out of 10)

just as the Pixies’ quiet-loud dynamics lost some potency when co-opted by Nirvana and mainstream radio grunge, so too is it hard to fully appreciate Pavement’s achievements now that the lo-fi movement has come and gone and Vampire Weekend have cornered the Ivy League market. Pavement are at least as important for “when” they made their music as for the music itself. If you weren’t there, it can be a challenge to understand what inspires such religious devotion among the band’s ardent fans.

Unfortunately, “Quarantine the Past” presents a poor case for the band’s importance. Understand that most of the tracks are excellent. If this were a stand-alone record, I would rate it more highly. as an overview of or introduction to Pavement, it is terribly flawed. Opening quibbles aside, the track list is highly suspect. the first, and most immediately apparent issue upon listening, is that they’ve chosen a surprisingly monochromatic selection. Sure, “Gold Soundz” is great, but all of the songs have the same general feel. Pavement’s surprisingly deft hand at balladry or harder rock is under-represented. Tracks from the early lo-fi EPs help break things up a little, but not enough.

Another issue is the lack of songs from “Terror Twilight.” with only five albums in the band’s repertoire, you’d think they’d find room for more than one song on a 23-track compilation. In addition to doing disservice to a huge portion of the band’s catalogue, omitting tracks from their last album compounds the diversity problem. Many highlights from “Terror Twilight” _ “Major Leagues,” “You are a Light,” “Cream of Gold” _ show a more restlessly creative side of the band than is on display here. _ David Gassmann

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists _ “The Brutalist Bricks” (Matador) (rating 4 out of 10)

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists have cranked out quality records for a decade and Leo had a strong run before that with bands like Chisel. with that track record, the release of new album, in this case “The Brutalist Bricks,” should be cause for optimism, but even fans can be forgiven for wariness. For the most part, the Leo paradigm is already set: a punk approach to big hooks mixed with smart, often political lyrics. Sure, “Living with the Living” mixed the plan up a little, but the pattern seems secure. with a new release, the question is not so much what it will sound like, but will it be strong enough to warrant more of the same.

considering those concerns, “The Brutalist Bricks” comes off as only a mild disappointment. A perfunctory listen yields little that stands out, offering none of the instant classics that the earlier albums earwormed into steady rotation. That’s not to say there’s no good music here, of course. the buzz and exploding doors of opener “The Mighty Sparrow” gives the album a strong push. the band’s as energetic as ever, and Leo’s got his usual vocal enthusiasm. “Woke Up Near Chelsea” has an anthemic ’70s sound that matches its despair-to-victory rioting, and succeeds reasonably well as a unifying rally point. “Gimme the Wine” provides a noisy, mildly abrasive approach to undercutting a chorus that could get a concert crowd screaming, making for an interesting song that still fits in with the general aesthetic.

the problem is just that none of that is quite good enough or interesting enough to really carry an album. Tracks like “Even Heroes Have to Die” could have been stuck on nearly any other Pharmacists album. Even if it’s quality, the similarity to past work provides too little payoff, and without surrounding standouts, there’s little reason to pick this album out over, say, “Hearts of Oak.” “Where was My Brain?” varies from the format a little with its more straightforward punk sound, but while it doesn’t sound exactly like typical Pharmacist offerings, it’s not strong enough on its own accord to be a winning performance. _ Justin Cober-Lake

Serj Tankian _ “Elect the Dead Symphony: Featuring the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra” (Serjical Strike/Reprise) (rating 4 out of 10)

the most impressive thing about Serj Tankian’s 2007 solo debut “Elect the Dead” was just how controlled it was. How many times have we seen a lead singer from a well-known band helm a musical project of his own only to put out a piece of work that was too self-indulgent and unfocused to even compare to his band’s past work?

with the release of Tankian’s new live album, however, perhaps we shouldn’t have been so hasty in praising the guy’s self-restraint. It’s all there in the title: “Elect the Dead Symphony: Featuring the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.” That’s right, an hour long CD of concert excerpts that feature the nasal-voiced singer fronting a 70-piece orchestra, performing re-arranged versions of songs from that 2007 album. Heaven help us.

Metal bands recording live albums with full orchestras are commonplace these days, and are often marvelously executed, with recent recordings by Therion, Within Temptation, and Epica being three very good examples, but Tankian takes an entirely different approach. instead of accentuating his normal backing band with an orchestral score, “Elect the Dead Symphony” is just he and the aforementioned New Zealand orchestra, the only holdover from his band being guitarist Dan Monti, who politely strums an acoustic guitar during the proceedings. It’s a daring move, one that could have yielded exceptional results under different circumstances, but despite the sincere efforts of everyone involved, the entire performance falls totally flat. _ Adrien Begrand

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Though the lineup of the Guitar Hero download store is just a fraction of the size of Rock Band’s, the game still has a large enough selection of downloadable songs that it’s easy to overlook some gems — especially if they come from genres you’re not intimately familiar with. well, it’s time to expand your musical horizons, starting with our selection of 10 of the most rewarding Guitar Hero downloads.

10. “Jessie’s Girl“
Artist: Rick Springfield
Best for: Guitar, vocals, giving your bassist a break
Though it may be the greatest song ever written, this ’80s classic only just edges into our countdown, mainly thanks to the catchy guitar part and singalong vocals. the bass part, you ask? why, it’s a masterpiece of, uh, minimalism. Yes. That’s it.

9. “So What“
Artist: Pink
Best for: Vocals, drums
Pink is often mischaracterized as an R&B singer (thanks to her first album), when it’s clear she’s at her best doing big, fat, fun arena-rock anthems. Witness the unforgettable hook of “So What,” which mixes with the wonderfully boppy drum track to lodge itself deep inside your cranium, where it cannot be removed without the aid of dark magic.

8. “Stay Away“
Artist: Nirvana
Best for: Bass, screaming
This rollicking number from Nirvana’s legendary Nevermind will tear your vocal cords with sweet pain. Also, you’ll finally get to read what the hell Kurt Cobain was singing. Bonus: the bass line is pretty damn entertaining, too.

7. “New Slang“
Artist: The Shins
Best for: Guitar, vocals, sensitivity
To bring things down a notch after popping some blood vessels with “Stay Away,” here’s a wonderfully sweet-sounding acoustic number that Natalie Portman says will change your life. the soft, lovely vocals complement the laid-back guitar perfectly. just send your bassist and drummer out for snacks or something.

6. “Mr. Brightside“
Artist: The Killers
Best for: Vocals, guitar
There’s something about the near-monotonous vocals in the Killers’ breakout single that drags even the shyest non-singer off the couch. And the guitar, while simple, includes some really interesting arpeggiated chords that make the song entertaining as hell on Expert.

5. “Kid Charlemagne“
Artist: Steely Dan
Best for: Bass, drums
There’s no reason to expect a jazz-rock song like this to work in a game like Guitar Hero, but it totally does. This is probably largely due to the fantastically grooving bass line and entertaining drum shuffle. or perhaps it’s the porn-movie guitar track.

4. “The End of the Line“
Artist: Metallica
Best for: Guitar, drums, anger
With its intricate construction, surprisingly catchy hook, and positively ridiculous solos, this is a bit of a blend of old-school and new-school Metallica. Guitar is top-notch throughout, and the syncopated kick work makes the drum section especially entertaining.

3. “We Are the Champions“
Artist: Queen
Best for: Guitar, bass, singalong vocals
The crazy, fat chords and wonderfully melodic bass show why Queen has been such a musician favorite for so long. Add a chorus that every single person in the universe knows by heart and you’ve got a great party song. the only reason it’s not higher on the list is because except for the operatic vocals, it’s too slow to be seriously challenging to experienced players.

2. “Foxy Lady (Live at Woodstock)“
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Best for: Guitar, drums
Hendrix’s crazy, bluesy solos are in full effect in this legendary live performance; just check out the ridiculous ending for evidence. but playing this in a full band context helps highlight the fact that his success was about more than guitar. Check out the clinically insane looseness of the drum track for a particular challenge.

1. “Born to Run“
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Best for: Pretty much everything
Though the Boss doesn’t lack for admirers, it’s easy to overlook the fact that he’s backed himself with some seriously skilled musicians. the guitar parts are the definition of “rock n’ roll,” the drums are all over the place (in a good way), and even the comparatively simple bass line is entertaining. too bad World Tour doesn’t include a sax controller.

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