Cirith Ungol, “Forever Black.” My impulse buy of the week was a 40th anniversary re-release of Metal Blade Records’ first Metal Massacre compilation record, a collection of some of the hottest new metal artists of the year. There’s probably nobody you’ve heard of on the record unless you’re into the Los…

Dolly Parton performs at the UK Country Music Festival in an undated photo. Andrew Putler/Redferns. In two of the last three years I’ve attempted, with minimal success, to do an Easter column. (I apparently ignored it completely in 2020. There was other stuff going on in April of 2020…

Fantastic Negrito, courtesy. This week’s Tuesday Tracks is heavy on the guitar featuring blues rock, soul rock, ’70s SoCal rock, funk, indie rock and three-time Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito, who’s whatever kind of rock he feels like being today. Fantastic Negrito, “Trudoo” — Friend of the site Xavier “Fantastic…

Pink Floyd, courtesy. Last week I half-joking proposed some songs to use to jam Russian military radios. Half-joking because, well, seriously, that would be amazing, but I didn’t actually think it would help all that much. Since then, however, it’s been revealed that Russian troops did some really horrible…

Editor Daniel J. Willis brings some song ideas to Kyiv Independent defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko, who reported that the Ukrainian military has been jamming Russian radio communications with metal. Illia Ponomarenko, defense reporter with the Kyiv Independent and metalhead, reports that the Ukrainian military has been jamming Russian radio…

Michael Bolton (representing Connecticut) performs on the “American Song Contest” on NBC. Photo by Trae Patton/NBC. It has become tradition in this column for me to insult “Eurovision” every year, thus enraging Europe. Some assume it’s me doing a bit to annoy another continent (and Israel and Australia for…

The Pogues by their tour bus at a truck stop in Texas on June 18, 1988. Left to right: Jem Finer, Shane MacGowan, James Fearnley, Phillip Chevron, Darryl Hunt, Terry Woods and Andrew Ranken. Photo by Steve Pyke/Getty Images. We’re a few days past St. Patrick’s Day so that…

Joan Jett, courtesy. Last Tuesday, March 8, was International Women’s Day. That means I get to list women who rock. I mention women who rock fairly often in this column, so it deserves some explanation: It doesn’t necessarily have to be women who perform rock music. Being a rock…

Anna Shoemaker, courtesy. This week’s Tuesday Tracks span rock (Bobby Mahoney), punk (Moonraker), metal (Hollow Front), TikTok pop (Mia Rodriguez) and some songs that defy categorization (The Knocks, Anna Shoemaker). Hollow Front, “The Price of Dreaming” — Let’s kick the week off with some metal, shall we? Featuring screamed…

It’s not a universal opinion, but each Ghost album so far has generally been considered to be better than the one before it. The band’s doom metal debut was good but niche, and its follow-up, Infestissumam, diversified its sound with tracks like “Year Zero.” Then “Cirice” from Meliora won a…