The Chronicles of Michael Christopher
Writings. Musings. Mediocre Photography. Travel. Skulls.
This year is the 30th anniversary of the Guns N' Roses ambitious Use Your Illusion albums, and to mark the occasion, Ultimate Classic Rock is doing something pretty cool by diving into the background of each song on the records with a new one every day. The track I got to tell the story behind... Continue Reading →
Kiss resumed their End of the Road tour last night at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Mass. more than 17 months since the last show of the trek, with this current leg having been interrupted and significantly rerouted since it was first announced in Dec. 2019 due to COVID-19. The band showed little signs of rust though,... Continue Reading →
It's one thing to have what is arguably the greatest crossover heavy metal song in history. It's quite another to be accused to finding major amounts of inspiration in said song not just in independent acts from a parallel label, but the guitarist and co-founder you fired many years prior. An unknown Los Angeles band,... Continue Reading →
It's hard to believe 30 years have passed since "Enter Sandman" completely changed the way the mainstream viewed heavy metal. Metallica ended up with one of the biggest hits of their career, shifted both radio and MTV in one fell swoop, and it all happened by riffing on a nightmare scenario of getting sand in... Continue Reading →
The Sammy Hagar vs. David Lee Roth debate will likely go on forever, but the first time any real comparison could be made was when the latter dropped his debut solo LP, Eat 'Em and Smile, in July 1986, a scant few months after Van Halen released their first effort with Hagar at the mic,... Continue Reading →
Following two keyboard-driven albums, Van Halen got back to basics on For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, their third LP with singer Sammy Hagar. Part of that had to do with the ever shifting musical landscape and a need to stay relevant, but it also was due to bringing in producer Andy Johns, who had previously worked... Continue Reading →
Load, the follow-up to Metallica's squillion-selling Black Album, was widely considered to be a bit of a letdown when it came out 25 years ago. That's not exactly a fault of the band, look at any other landmark effort in an artist's catalog and the LP that came after it rarely lives up to the... Continue Reading →
Come the late spring of 1991, it had been just over three years since a new album by Van Halen was released. It was long overdue then when the single "Poundcake" dropped ahead of the upcoming For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge LP that June. Starting with the sound of a drill raking over the strings of... Continue Reading →
One of the fascinating stories I discovered in recent years was how Jimmy Page jumped onstage with a couple of different bar bands in Lake Tahoe back in 1991 while he was there to work on material with David Coverdale for their collaboration together. Versed in the history of all things Led Zeppelin as I... Continue Reading →
Sylvester Stallone wasn't just the biggest action star of the mid-80s, he was the most popular actor at one point. It was during the run when the Rocky franchise delivered hit after hit and Rambo was seemingly following in the same footsteps that he took the lead role in Cobra, about a loner cop fighting... Continue Reading →
