Congrats to Judas Priest!

They finally won a Grammy! Even though it's a live version of a song that is 33 years old, but hey. A win is a win.

Condolences to Megadeth. Poor Dave Mustaine can never win a Grammy, even though he totally should. Same with Slayer, although they have like 4 Grammy's already.

2008: The Year In Review

Top Ten 2008 Albums
note: these are only for albums i've purchased

1.


Ben Folds
Way To Normal
"His best musical offering since leaving Ben Folds Five"
Standout Tracks: Bitch Went Nuts, Brainwascht, Kylie From Connecticut


2.


Metallica
Death Magnetic
"The best thing for Metallica: Their best album since Cliff died"
Standout Tracks: The End Of The Line, All Nightmare Long, The Judas Kiss


3.


Hail Of Bullets
...Of Frost And War
"Solid Old-School Death Metal from a supergroup of some of the genre's finest"
Standout Tracks: Ordered Eastward, Red Wolves Of Stalin, Nachthexen


4.


Unleashed
Hammer Battalion
"Merciless offering of pagan death metal that stays true to its roots"
Standout Tracks: Hammer Battallion, Carved In Stone, The Greatest Of All Lies


5.


Deicide
Till Death Do Us Part
"It really is Deicide's most brutal album - EVER!"
Standout Tracks: Hate Of All Hatreds, Not As Long As We Both Shall Live, Angel Of Agony


6.


Arsis
We Are The Nightmare
"Equal parts of all their previous releases, this album shreds"
Standout Tracks: Shattering The Spell, Falling Winds Of Hopeless Greed, My Oath To Madness


7.


Hellhammer
Demon Entrails (Compilation)
"Absolutely essential to anyone who considers themselves a fan of extreme metal"
Standout Tracks: Euronymous, Crucifixion, Messiah


8.


Toxic Holocaust
An Overdose Of Death
"Bringing back the punk to thrash, a very enjoyable album"
Standout Tracks: Nuke The Cross, Future Shock, Feedback, Blood and Distortion


9.


Hate Eternal
Fury And Flames
"Shoddy production can't keep you from banging your head to this disc"
Standout Tracks: Whom Gods May Destroy, Bringer Of Storms, Fury Within


10.


Judas Priest
Nostradamus
"Classic Priest hidden within their most progressive offering yet"
Standout Tracks: Pestilence and Plague, Conquest, Nostradamus

----------------

Top Albums I Purchased This Year (Any Year)

1. Ben Folds - Way To Normal
2. Skeletonwitch - Beyond The Permafrost
3. Judas Priest - Metal Works '73 - '93
4. Morbid Angel - Altars Of Madness
5. Suicidal Tendencies - Prime Cuts
6. Impaled - Death After Life
7. Origin - Echoes Of Decimation
8. Metallica - Death Magnetic
9. Sodom - Sodom
10. Obituary - Cause Of Death

Honorable Mention: Death - Leprosy

Top DVD's I Purchased (Any Year)

1. Iron Maiden - Live After Death
2. Dark Funeral - Attera Orbis Terrarum - Part 1
3. Metallica - Live Shit: Binge & Purge
4. Slayer - The Unholy Alliance

Dishonorable Mention: Necrophagist - Summer Slaughter 2007

Top 5 New Bands To Me (Any Year)

1. Skeletonwitch
2. Judas Priest
3. Suicidal Tendencies
4. Impaled
5. Obituary

---------------------

Top 15 Performances Attended

1. Skeletonwitch (1st time)
2. Ben Folds (1st time)
3. Ben Folds (2nd time)
4. Obituary
5. Judas Priest
6. Skeletonwitch (2nd time)
7. Suicidal Tendencies
8. Unleashed
9. The Flaming Lips
10. Boris
11. Origin
12. Misery Index
13. Napalm Death
14. Iced Earth
15. Phobia

Honorable Mentions: High On Fire, mc chris, Hate Eternal (both times), Troglodyte (2nd time)

Top 10 Concerts

1.
Obituary w/ Unleashed
October 1
Kansas City, MO

2.
Skeletonwitch
February 11
Manhattan, KS

3.
Ben Folds
April 5
Kansas City, MO

4.
Ben Folds
October 22
Kansas City, MO

5.
Origin w/ Misery Index, Abysmal Dawn
August 9
Lawrence, KS

6.
Suicidal Tendencies w/ Terror, Whole Wheat Bread
November 29
Kansas City, MO

7.
Blackest Of The Black 2008 w/ Danzig, Dimmu Borgir, Moonspell, Skeletonwitch
October 31
Kansas City, MO

8.
Wakarusa 2008 w/ The Flaming Lips, Blackalicious, many many more
June 6th
Lawrence, KS

9.
Boris w/ Torche, Lair Of The Minotaur
July 23
Lawrence, KS

10.
Alice Cooper
September 12
Hutchinson, KS

Honorable Mention:

Iced Earth
November 12
Kansas City, MO

Worst Performances

1. Cobra Starship
2. 36 Crazyfists
3. Carnifex
4. Drowning Pool
5. Annotations Of An Autopsy

Top 5 Newsmakers

1. Metallica releasing Death Magnetic
2. Cryptopsy turning to Deathcore
3. Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back In Time Tour
4. Judas Priest/Heaven And Hell Metal Masters Tour
5. Chinese Democracy

Terrible Quality of Judas Priest live @ Kansas City!

The quality is bad because of the rednecks.

Judas Priest -- Kansas City, MO -- August 1st, 2008

So let's get right into it.

First up as I was walking into City Market was Federation of Horsepower. They're a band that has a guy from the radio station with Johnny Dare on it. As an opening band, they weren't half bad. If I had to choose whether to have Federation of Horsepower open up or a metalcore band, I'll go with the Federation. Pretty fun band and the guitar solos were pretty good. 6.5/10

Setlist:
The last song they played was called "Testify"

Now, there's something you have to understand at this point. This concert is put on by 98.9 KQRC for Johnny Dare and his 15th Anniversary of his show. This is the same radio station that put on "Rockfest" with such fantastic bands as Shinedown, Seether, and Filter. So...let's just say that 85% of the people here are stupid rednecks who like to pick fights, drink beer and smoke weed. And 65% of those rednecks are [I]45 or older[/I]. It's pretty weird to see someone who probably has kids my age smoke weed. Anyways, why do I say this? Because everyone went [I]apeshit[/I] for Drowning Pool. My God, what a terrible band. Every song sounded the same, the guitars sucked, the vocals REALLY sucked, and the banter in between songs was just...bad. They did play "Bodies" which was just as bad. The vocalist said "Think back to when you first heard this song and try and relive that feeling!" Uhhh...so you want me to be miserable again?! Whatever. Here's the HIGHLIGHT of the set which made me lol. You know how bands take forever to end their songs, especially at the end of their sets? Drowning Pool played the very beginning of Creeping Death. That's right. [B]Drowning Pool covered (at least a bit of) Metallica[/B]. 3/10

Setlist included:

Tear Away
Soldiers
37 Stitches
Bodies

In between each band they had video clips from several people talking about Johnny Dare. That includes Lewis Black, Tommy Chong, Dee Snyder, Lisa Lampanelli and Brian Johnson of AC/DC. Thought that was pretty cool.

My step-dad looooves Jackyl, and while they are a fun band, they just got kind of tiring. And lemme tell ya, I know Jackyl is like an 80's band and kind of glammy I guess, but damn, the lead singer is extremely effeminate. Anyone ever seen the HBO show "Cathouse"? About the brothel? They flew out the owner/star of that show plus two of his girls because apparently, Johnny Dare does a show there every Valentines Day. They were a lot better to look at then the flashing girls in the crowd. They ended with a Johnny Dare/Lead Singer guy chainsaw duet. Fun band. 7/10

Setlist included:

I Stand Alone
She Loves My Cock (that's right)
Redneck Punk
The Lumberjack
and one song that originally has a guy from ACDC doing vocals.

But really, who are we there to see? The Priest, that's who. Although at this point, I was getting, like, sickeningly dehydrated. I was wobbling and the people pushing constantly (THERE ISN'T ANY ROOM UP HERE, CALM DOWN AND GO BACK) didn't help. I decided to stick around 'til Dissident Aggressor and then bail out for some water and watch at a better distance. The setlist is the same as Europe, but I'm 99.9 percent sure we got a smaller list by a couple songs. I know I left for water after Dissident Aggressor and I know I remember them playing Angel as I was leaving. I just don't know if they cut out Death (I think they did) or if they played Hell Patrol (not too sure). They for sure did not play Sinner, though. But, DAMN. They were fantastic. They were really firing on all cylinders and every member sounded fantastic. Highlights were Dissident Aggressor, Painkiller, The Green Manalishi and You've Got Another Thing Coming. 10/10

Setlist of Judas Priest:

Dawn of Creation/Prophecy
Metal Gods
Eat Me Alive
Between The Hammer And The Anvil
Devil's Child
Breaking The Law
Hell Patrol
Dissident Aggressor
Angel
The Hellion/Electric Eye
Rock Hard, Ride Free
Painkiller
---
Hell Bent For Leather
The Green Manalishi
You've Got Another Thing Coming

In closing: Next time I'm seeing a classic or semi-classic band at City Market, I'm hanging back. But damn. FUCKING PRIEST!!!