If you missed banging your head during the three hour heavy/hair metal sets DJ BJ (who shared many glory stories of nights spent in the trenches of the glamorous Hollyweird sleaze-rock scene) and I spun this past Friday at Amoeba Music San Francisco, here's a wee cross-section of the darkest and most sinister selections you can spin for your pleasure whether you're spending this Halloween night in your inner oubliette or amongst fiends!

1.) "Halloween" - King Diamond

2.) "Touch of Evil" - Judas Priest

3.) "God Bless the Children of the Beast" - Motley Crue

4.) "Madhouse" - Anthrax

5.)"Walk in the Shadows" - Queensryche

6.) "Close My Eyes Forever" - Lita Ford feat. Ozzy Osbourne

7.) "Fear of the Dark" - Iron Maiden

8.) "Black Sabbath" - Black Sabbath

9.) "Gail" - Alice Cooper

10.)"Midnight/Tornado" - Skid Row

11.) "Scared" - Dangerous Toys

12.) "Iced Earth" - Dracula

13.) "Halloween" - Helloween

The fact that a singer could get someone like me, who hates the whole Dungeons & Dragons/Lord Of The Rings culture, so pumped up with lyrics like “Circles and rings, Dragons and kings, Weaving a shock and a spell...”

Sure, there were other Metal vocalists who had powerful voices, but they were either too shrill (Bruce Dickinson) or way too operatic (Rob Halford) for my taste. Dio’s voice had the power of an opera singer but with a style that you would find in soul & rockabilly singers. It’s no surprise to me that his first releases were soul singles as Ronnie Dio & The Prophets back in the early sixties.



Dio’s music got me through some very long drives across the U.S. and Mexico. I played his solo albums and his albums with Black Sabbath (Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules) and Rainbow (Rising and Long Live Rock & Roll). Dio turned out to be the ultimate co-pilot; he never fell asleep, never let me down and occasionally yelled, "Look out!"

Dio was always the source of late night drunken arguments with my friends about who was better: Ozzy-Era Sabbath or Dio-Era Sabbath? Yes, Dio was a better singer. The band played better with him and Dio wrote his own lyrics (Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler wrote most the lyrics of the songs from the classic Ozzy-Era). Yet, it was always a losing battle for anyone on Dio's side. Why? Because HE'S freakin' Ozzy Osbourne! Everyone loves him, faults and all. That's why there was a television show called The Osbournes and not "The Dios!" Sorry, Ronnie.

The wonderful summer-long Amoeba's Monday Movies @ Space15Twenty in Hollywood (the weekly free outdoor screenings of music-related films curated by Amoeba Music) ends tonight with a screening of the highly recommended Anvil! The Story of Anvil. If you have to miss the screening, the DVD of this underdog story about endearing Canadian metal band Anvil comes out next week, October 6th, on DVD, and will be available at Amoeba Music. Last Monday evening there was another Amoeba-curated screening of the film up in the Bay Area at Elis Mile High Club. 

I just loved this film so much since it is totally unlike your typical, run of the mill music documentary. LA Weekly summed it up pretty well when they dubbed it "Hilarious and achingly touching." In fact, it is so touching and personal, yet always respectful of its subjects, the two lifelong metalhead buddies Robb Reiner and Steve "Lips" Kudlow, that you instantly connect and feel watching it that it has to have been made by someone whom the band members really, truly trusted and felt totally comfortable around.

Not surprisingly then, Sacha Gervasi, the director of the documentary, was once a roadie for the band. And for this riveting documentary he went out on the road again with Anvil, a band who looked all set to make it big in the 80's metal world but somehow never did. He's made a film that will remind you of Spinal Tap except that it is real, and more importantly, reverential. Last week I caught up with the film's director to ask him about this refreshingly unique music documentary. 
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Amoeblog: I love your film, including how it flows so naturally and seems to have taken on a life or direction of its own. Did the film turn out differently than maybe what you had initially expected?

Los Angeles, CA hard rock band The Iron Maidens are, as they fairly claim, "the world's only female tribute band to Iron Maiden." But they are also most proficient and accomplished musicians, who not only do justice to their heavy metal heroes, but also add a new lease on life to the veteran UK metal band whose music they've been avidly honoring since they formed eight years ago.

They've even recently recorded and released a kick-ass CD/DVD set of Iron Maiden songs. titled Route 666 (a nod to Flight 666). The original Iron Maiden-esque cover art of a female monster is done by Derek Riggs, creator of Iron Maiden’s mascot, Eddie, and numerous signature Iron Maiden album covers familiar to any Maiden fan.

The five member group, comprised of women with diversified musical backgrounds ranging from orchestral and musical theater to blues and rock, is comprised of Linda “Nikki McBURRain” McDonald on drums, Sara “MiniMurray” Marsh and Courtney “Adriana Smith” Cox on guitars, Kirsten “Bruce Chickinson” Rosenberg on vocals, and Wanda "Steph Harris" Ortiz on bass.

Hard rocking and hard working, the band's busy upcoming schedule includes playing an all ages show at the Trevi Entertainment Center in Lake Elsinore, CA tomorrow, Second Wind in Santee, CA on Thursday,  The Key Club in Hollywood on August 12th, the The VooDoo Lounge in San Jose on August 14th, and Annie's Social Club on Folsom in SF on August 15th. Fresh back from a Saturday night gig in Kansas, I caught up with the band yesterday to talk about, among other things, Iron Maiden's music, the difference between a tribute and a cover band, and being women in a male dominated field. The interview, which the band members collectively answered in true democratic fashion as a unit, follows below the video clip of the band performing "Revelations" at Cane's in San Diego last month. For more info on the Iron Maidens visit their official website or their MySpace.
 
Iron Maidens: It was a mutual love of Iron Maiden. We knew each other from here and there and with down time from other bands we were in, we got together just to have fun and jam some Maiden songs. From the start the response was phenomenal, with guys fighting to look in the rehearsal door window to see who was playing these great songs. Then we thought, 'Hey, let's do 1 show for a goof and see how it goes.' It sold out and we haven't looked back since.

1) Deathspell Omega Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining The Katechon (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

2) Horna Sanojesi Aarelle (Debemur Morti)

3) Old Wainds Death Nord Kult (Debemur Morti)

4) Darkthrone Dark Thrones & Black Flags (Peaceville)

5) Ofermod Tiamtu (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

6) Bahimiron Southern Nihilizm (Moribund Records)

7) Satyricon Age Of Nero (Koch Records)

8) Taake Taake (Century Media)

9) Cattle Decapitation The Harvest Floor (Metal Blade)

10) Khold Hundre ar gammal (Candlelight Records)

11) Capricorns River, Bear Your Bones (Rise Above Records)

12) Enslaved Vertabrae (Nuclear Blast)

13) Cannibal Corpse Evisceration Plague (Metal Blade)

14) Cynic Traced in Air (Season Of Mist)

The above list of fourteen metal/black metal releases (not in any particular order) popular with Amoeba folks is culled from the current Spring/Summer 2009 Music We Like booklet regularly published by Amoeba Music and available for free at each Amoeba Music store. The first listed release, Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon, is a split EP by French bands released December 2008. The title Veritas Diabolo Manet in Aeternum is a work of two French black metal bands: Deathspell Omega (Chaining the Katechon) and S.V.E.S.T. (Le Diable est ma Raison).