Tag: Hard Rock
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Matthew. ‘Yesterday & Forever Ago’ (2023)
Today we’ll be covering my debut LP Yesterday & Forever Ago, which was officially released this morning. I previously covered the pretty wild turn of events that came about during the recording of this album in my writeup of the EP I released earlier this year entitled CAMBRIA: The Lost Sessions, so I won’t belabor…
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Cheap Trick ‘At Budokan’ (1978)
Cheap Trick’s At Budokan served role similar to The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East and Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison in that it was a live album which served as a jumping off point in their career. The album received heavy airplay following its release in 1978, transforming Cheap Trick from a marginally successful…
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Creed ‘Human Clay’ (1999)
Creed has long been a fixture in internet culture, first as a convenient punching bag for all that was wrong with the post-grunge movement that dominated the airwaves following Kurt Cobain’s death following Nirvana’s 1991 magnum opus Nevermind, and now as a sort of “return of the millennial” rallying cry in the 2020’s as rock…
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The Who ‘Who’s Next’ (1971)
Born from the rubble of the ambitious Lifehouse project that The Who eventually abandoned (probably because it was so insane– seriously), Who’s Next is the magnum opus of the British rock band known for their over the top stage show and prolific musical output. This was the album that defined rock and roll for a…
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Metallica ‘Master of Puppets’ (1986)
Master of Puppets is a hallmark album in metal history that is often lauded as one of the genre’s most important albums of all-time. Along with going six times platinum (which is insanely impressive for a thrash metal full-length) it has the unique distinction of being the very first metal album to be selected by…
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Jethro Tull ‘Aqualung’ (1971)
If you’ve ever listened to a man play a flute and say “goddamn that would sound dope as hell in a rock and roll band” then boy do I have an album for you. Jethro Tull’s 1971 prog-rock classic Aqualung is notable for many things– its reflection on spirituality and the sometimes fraught relationship it…
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Joe Satriani ‘Surfing With The Alien’ (1987)
There’s not many guitarists that can absolutely rip like Joe Satriani and 1987’s Surfing With The Alien is a love letter to all the guitar-heads out there who just want to hear some good ol’ fashioned shredding for the sake of it. It’s bombastic, over the top, and just plain fun as hell. The album…
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Aerosmith ‘Toys in the Attic’ (1975)
Toys in the Attic features Aerosmith at their absolute best, a stellar album that takes you on a ride through the dirtiest and raunchiest of what rock and roll can offer. It’s raw as hell and features the band firing on all cylinders in a way they never really captured throughout the rest of their…
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Scorpions ‘Love At First Sting’ (1984)
“Rock You Like A Hurricane” is an iconic hair metal song and Scorpions are an iconic heavy metal band, selling over 100 million records during the course of their 60-year history. It puts them at the top of best-selling lists of not only heavy metal but bands of any genre, influencing cultural powerhouses like Guns…
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Alice Cooper ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ (1973)
As the original shock artist, Alice Cooper’s influence on rock and roll spans nearly five decades long. His live shows were legendary for their theatrics and featured elements like magical stage illusions, pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, and baby dolls. He was basically the Tim Burton of 70’s rock, and one of the first…
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Judas Priest ‘British Steel’ (1980)
If Black Sabbath’s Paranoid was the album that defined heavy metal in the 70’s, Judas Priest’s British Steel was the album that defined heavy metal in the 80’s. Featuring early elements of thrash, glam metal, and hard rock, Judas Priest took the slow plodding sludge grooves of the previous era, turned up the BPM, and…
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Thin Lizzy ‘Jailbreak’ (1976)
Thin Lizzy is one of the most underrated bands in rock history in my opinion. Whether it’s the super smooth vocal stylings of Phil Lynott, the twin guitar harmonies of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson that remain to this day the sound of their generation, or the pulsating rhythm section of Brian Downey, there is…
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Soundgarden ‘Superunknown’ (1993)
Superunknown is a hard rock masterpiece, merging disparate elements of grunge, heavy metal, alternative rock, and punk into a vicious pistol whip of a record. There simply was no band better at combining elements of the snakelike grooves of Black Sabbath, the electric vocal hooks of AC/DC, and the raw primal energy of Nirvana. Simply…
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Sound City ‘Real To Reel’ (2013)
Ed. Note: Welcome to Sound City week here at Music of Matthew dot com! This week we’ll be covering some notable albums recorded at the legendary Sound City studio in Los Angeles, which was covered in great detail in Dave Grohl’s excellent 2013 documentary “Sound City”. To kick off Sound City week we’re starting with…
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AC/DC ‘Highway to Hell’ (1979)
AC/DC’s history is split into two eras across two different absolutely legendary lead singers, Bon Scott and Brian Johnson. They both have this incredible rasp and grit to their voice that fits the sound of AC/DC perfectly in their own different ways. I’ve always felt Bon Scott was a little more unhinged and primal (both…
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The Darkness ‘Permission to Land’ (2003)
All The Darkness do is write bangers. This is one of my favorite hard rock albums of all-time for the simple reason that it is fun as hell and has no interest in pretending to be anything otherwise. Modern rock music in general has the unfortunate malaise of sometimes being a little too self-important, and…
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