Illinois Entertainer

Judas Priest
Nostradamus: Priest’s Prophetic Project

Who could have predicted a band who’ve been around since the beginning of time (more precisely, since the inception of heavy metal) would produce such an audaciously ambitious project? Judas Priest’s Nostradamus is a 23-track, double-CD concept album. Unlike the central figures in other such releases like Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Who’s Tommy, or Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (also a seer), Nostradamus actually existed. With orchestral elements, Rob Halford’s piercingly high and alternately resonant low vocals, and one cut mainly sung in Italian, it almost deserves to be called a metal opera.

Appearing: 8/19 at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.

• Read more: Cover Story: Judas Priest

Coldplay
United Center, Chicago
Wednesday, July 23, 2008

“I was there” means so much more when whatever’s happening isn’t choreographed. Coldplay’s constant reminder that they were recording Wednesday’s performance for a DVD completely hijacked any notion of spontaneity, leaving the impression the crowd was already watching the video.

• Read more: Coldplay live!

Neil Diamond
United Center, Chicago
Saturday, July 26, 2008

There are two distinct sides to Neil Diamond’s musical personality — the legitimate singer-songwriter or the ham-fisted Vegas crooner — and usually his latest album hints at what vibe will be predominant on tour. Thankfully 2008’s Home Before Dark leans in the much more astute direction of his mid-’60s beginnings, along with 2005’s 12 Songs, both of which were produced by Rick Rubin.

• Read more: Neil Diamond live!

Dokken
First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park
Sunday, August 3, 2008

Because it’s protocol for some rock critics to hate, or pretend to hate, anything associated with ’80s metal, some of you will surely accuse us of ripping on Dokken’s Lightning Strikes Again (Rhino) simply because of their hair metal roots. The IE editorial staff, though, pumps ’80s metal from their iPods lovingly, not ironically.

• Read more: Dokken preview

Cross Examination
Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago
Monday, August 4, 2008

Ironically, the tour calling itself Thrash And Burn that stops at the Pearl Room in Mokena Monday night is not be the thrashiest show in Chicagoland that evening.

• Read more: Cross Examination preview

Bryan Adams
Sears Centre, Hoffman Estates
Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The joke at the IE office focuses on the fantasy that if only Sting made an appearance at the Rod Stewart/Bryan Adams double-bill next week, the ad hoc trio could perform “All For Love” from the 1993 Kiefer Sutherland film, The Three Musketeers.

• Read more: Bryan Adams preview

Tilly And The Wall
Abbey Pub, Chicago
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Garth Algar, standing over our shoulder while we read the newest Tilly And The Wall press release, declared, as he once did on the set of “Wayne’s World”: “We fear change.” He needn’t.

• Read more: Tilly And The Wall preview

Pumpkins Watch: D’Arcy Lives!

Blah blah blah Smashing Pumpkins . . . lawsuit . . . blah blah royalties . . . garbldee garbledee goo . . . Iha . . . D’Arcy Wretzky?

• Read more: Trouble In The Pumpkin Patch

Dead Heart Bloom
Fall In
(KEI)

Kicking off a series of three (presumably free, as this one is) 2008 EPs, Fall In slides through tastes more succinctly than Dead Heart Bloom’s two albums did.

• Read more: Dead Heart Bloom reviewed

Taylor Hollingsworth
Bad Little Kitty
(Mass)

To smoke, or not to smoke: That was the question before Taylor Hollingsworth. He smoked.

• Read more: Taylor Hollingsworth reviewed

Trouble
Unlucky Number Seven

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work — Genesis 2:2

It’s a story that should be familiar to readers of hard rock and heavy metal news: Eighties legends kick off their big reunion twice in the last six years, tour internationally to the delight of a die-hard fanbase, promise a follow-up to the last album that came out more than a decade ago, and lose a member who is so iconic to the group that some fans call for a name change.

Appearing: August 9th at Double Door in Chicago.

• Read more: Trouble interview

Lair Of The Minotaur
Reign In Blood

At 11 p.m. July 5th, while rowdy teenagers shot off their remaining fireworks, Lair Of The Minotaur frontman/guitarist Steve Rathbone sat indoors with family. The violent flashes they sought were to be found in the premiere of his band’s video for “War Metal Battle Master,” the title track from this year’s Southern Lord release (their third full-length and first without Pelican drummer Larry Herweg), on MTV2’s “Headbangers Ball.”

Appearing: August 17th at Buzzbomb (6301 W. 73rd) in Chicago.

• Read more: Lair Of The Minotaur interview

The Coast Is Here:
Chicago Metal’s Rising Tide

When Illinois Entertainer decided to put together a Chicago heavy metal roundtable, we had no illusions it would be easy. Getting five people (four of them important, busy musicians; one of them a lowly, lazy writer) to agree on a time and location to talk about our city’s resurgent heavy music scene sounded daunting, to say the least.

So imagine our surprise when it turned out to be rather easy to get Minsk bassist and metal-guru producer Sanford Parker, Yakuza frontman Bruce Lamont, Indian bassist Ron Defries, and Sweet Cobra guitarist Matt Arluck together at Empty Bottle (where Lamont also works, it should be noted) on a hot-as-balls Sunday afternoon in June.

• Read more: Metal Roundtable

IE: Is “community” a better choice of words?

• Read more: Roundtable 2

RD: Then they had the music room at Medusa’s where they would pack a bunch of fucking dance-party kids and then junkies and shit upstairs, and then they had the punk room and you’d be so fucked up on nitrous or whatever by the time you got there you wouldn’t even know who you were watching.

• Read more: Roundtable 3