Top 10 Albums of 2013 - Chip's Picks

Last week, my HHRR partner, Sharon, posted her top 10 albums of 2013.  Today, I give you my top 10 albums of 2013!

Helping Hands Rock Reviews Albums of the Year – Sharon’s Picks

2013 was a exceptional year for new music!  With so many fantastic releases this year, it was tough to put this list together.  But nonetheless, here they are...my top 10 favorite albums of 2013!  Happy Holidays!

Album Review: Jizzy Pearl Nearly Resurrects Love/Hate With "Crucified"

Since Love/Hate put an indelible mark on hard rock history with the 1990 anthem, "Black Out In The Red Room," singer Jizzy Pearl has not exactly rolled up in a ball and obsessed about how things were "back in the day."  To the contrary, after Love/Hate released a handful of follow up albums and subsequently disbanded, Pearl has gone on to be the replacement singer in a growing list of bands that's beginning to read like the who's who of 80's metal:  LA Guns, Ratt, and, most recently, Quiet Riot.  In addition, he has a few solo records to his credit, the latest being 2007's Just A Boy.

But things tend to come full circle and so it is with this quintessential survivor, who this year had assembled a group of talented musicians to record the first music to be attributed to the venerable Love/Hate this millennium.  The result was a six-song EP entitled Crucified, originally released on December 12.  However, legal threats from former Love/Hate members who didn't play on the release have forced Pearl to re-release the EP under his own name.

The brouhaha was thought to be due, in part, to former members believing that the material was not worthy of being considered part of the Love/Hate legacy.  That left a question from the Love/Hate faithful that we'll strive to answer in this review:  Does this new music sound like authentic Love/Hate?

Concert Review: Halestorm Digs Deep Into Catalog To Deliver Relentless, Entertaining 100-Minute Performance

As Halestorm winds down the album cycle for their latest full-length release, The Strange Case Of..., they pulled into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for one of their last performances prior to beginning work on their new record in January.  When bands have been on tour for a couple of years and playing the heck out of their latest material, there's always the risk that the band will appear tired and the music will come off as stale.

Would that be the case with Halestorm?

Album Review: Leeja Stark's "House of Eyes" Is Music To All Types of Metal Ears

Fresh off a successful launch of her video for "Supernatural," independent metal vocalist Leeja Stark released her debut EP, House of Eyes, on December 1.

The album gets rolling with heavy guitar riffery and harmony licks in the intro to "Supernatural."  However, listeners don't have much of a chance to get comfortable before Stark surprises them with a vocal twist rarely encountered when there are 7-string guitars and 5-string basses involved.