Greetings! We’ve arrived at the last
Saturday of November and the final issue of 2025 for the Harbinger’s Killer
Picks as next month I’ll be focusing on my Top Ten Albums of the Year. So, one
more time, here are my top five picks of the month, in chronological release order.
First, the hottest band in the world, KISS, celebrated two golden anniversaries in late October/early November with deluxe CD/vinyl releases of their 1975 albums Dressed to Kill and the legendary Alive! It’s no secret that KISS is my all-time favourite band so new KISS stuff, especially live albums, is always welcome. They really went all-out with these releases! You get a ton of merch like T-shirts, books, posters, cards, photos, guitar picks, stickers, and of course, CDs and vinyls. And with Ace Frehley’s passing last month, it’s comforting to revisit and celebrate this particular period of peak KISS. Even if you don’t intend to buy these rather pricey sets, you can at least head over to YouTube and listen to a bunch of remastered classic tunes and newly-released demos. For one, Dressed to Kill has never sounded crisper; a much-needed improvement over the existing releases. But the real treasure buried amongst all these bells and whistles is the full soundboard show from May 1975 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. I’ve been waiting for decades to finally listen to it and it is ten shades of awesome! It features 18 tracks and since it can sometimes be hard to track it down in all the playlists on KISS’s YouTube channel, I’ve made a playlist of it on my own YouTube channel. You can find the link below. I urge you to give it a listen; you can thank me later. I just wish they’d put it out as an Off the Soundboard release instead of including it as an extra in a boxed set; the last two Off the Soundboard releases have been seriously lacking. In any case, I’m just thankful it’s available at last in near-pristine sound quality. With KISS’s Landlocked in Vegas electric and acoustic shows (November 14-16) now in the rearview, I guess this concludes 2025 for the KISS Army. I’m excited to see what next year will bring; we’re getting closer to the New Era of KISS (2027) with their digital avatars. It remains to be seen if it’ll be as mind-blowing as they claim it will be. In the meantime, we have plenty of KISS music to listen to, thanks to the incredible body of work they’ve accomplished over the past five decades.
Dressed
to Kill on KISS Online
Alive! on KISS
Online
KISS Live at Cobo Hall, May 16th, 1975 YouTube Playlist
Second, Silver Lining Music
released No Life ‘til Leather - A Tribute
to Metallica's Kill 'Em All on November 14th. I love Metallica
and I think I love tribute albums even more, especially when the roster featured
is this exciting. Featuring a who’s who of the best metal bands around, No Life ‘til Leather is a phenomenal homage
to the godfathers of thrash metal. Instead of covering random ‘Tallica tunes,
this project covers their classic 1983 debut, Kill 'Em All, from top to bottom. Now that’s my kind of record! Some
songs were recorded specifically for the occasion, others have been previously available
(Motorhead being an obvious example). There were only two modern bands I wasn’t
familiar with: Tailgunner who open the festivities with an awesome rendition of
“Hit the Lights” and Soen with their cover of “Motorbreath”—their sound
reminded me a bit of Offspring circa 1994, so pretty cool. We also have The
Almighty doing “The Four Horsemen”, making it sound as if Metallica had recorded
it around ‘96/’97 instead of ’83; Tygers of Pan Tang putting their spin on “Jump
in the Fire”; former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson handling the “(Anesthesia)
- Pulling Teeth” instrumental (how poetic is that!); Lemmy & Co. doing a
fine “Whiplash”; legendary NWOBHM band Saxon putting their stamp on “Phantom
Lord”; Diamond Head returning the favour to Metallica who’d covered one of their
own tunes—an all-time fave of mine, “Am I Evil?”—by covering “No Remorse”; fellow
Californian thrash masters Testament pay their respect with “Seek & Destroy”;
and British metallers Raven close things out with a scorching interpretation of
“Metal Militia”. No Life ‘til Leather - A
Tribute to Metallica's Kill 'Em is an instant classic and one of the best
tribute albums I’ve ever heard—and I’ve listened to plenty! If you’re a
Metallica fan or an old school thrash metal aficionado, then this belongs in
your collection. Go get it now!
No Life ‘til
Leather on Spotify
Third, Rockford, Illinois’ classic rock/power pop
legends Cheap Trick returned on November 14th with their twenty-first
and final studio album, All Washed Up,
marking fifty-plus years in the business! Who hasn’t heard songs like “Surrender”
or “I Want You to Want Me” a thousand times? Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen and
company excel at writing memorable riffs and catchy lyrics. While I’m not the
biggest Cheap Trick fan, I’ve enjoyed a lot of their songs over the past decades
and I think they’re a terrific band. The only album of theirs I’ve ever owned
is Lap of Luxury (1988) which I
bought on tape when it came out. At the time, thirteen-year-old me played the
hell out of that tape and to this day, “The Flame” remains my favourite Cheap
Trick song. All Washed Up is on par
with Cheap Trick’s best LPs, in my humble opinion. From the opening title
track, a great rocker to get things going, you know this is gonna be a fun
listen. “All Wrong Long Gone" channels AC/DC; the second single, “The Riff
That Won't Quit", took a while to grow on me but is a fine song; "Bet
It All" with its menacing and gloomy vibe is a highlight of the record, albeit
a tad too short for my taste; "The Best Thing" is a lovely Beatlesque
ballad; the first single, "Twelve Gates", remains my favourite track
of the LP, an instant classic; "Bad Blood" is a reworked demo from
the ‘90s, a cool lost classic; "Dancing with the Band" is a
high-energy, happy tune; "Love Gone" is another pretty ballad; "A
Long Way to Worcester" (pronounced “wustr”) is a laid-back kind of tune;
and the short closer "Wham Boom Bang" is a fun track with a retro sound.
Overall, this is a strong collection of Cheap Trick songs. Are they all washed up?
I don’t think so, but there comes a time for every band to take a bow and
retire. It’s always better when a band chooses to exit while they’re still at
the top of their game. They leave us with a significant catalog of power pop
gems, and man can these guys write great ballads! All Washed Up deserves a place in your music library, or at the
very least, a couple of spins to hear what the fuss is about. They will be
missed.
Cheap Trick’s Official Website
Fourth, Finnish heavy metal sextet Mausoleum Gate unleashed
their third album, Space, Rituals and
Magick, via Cruz Del Sur Music on November 14th. Wow, what a
trip this album is! It sounds like an undiscovered gem that was made and
produced circa 1980. Analog music lovers will really dig the vibe Mausoleum
Gate shoots for with their unique brand of prog rock/heavy metal. The opener, “Vision
Divine”, with its organ-driven sound and Jarno Saarinen’s Ozzy-inspired vocals take
the listener back in time to the late ‘70s. “Lucifer Shrine” is a prog delight
with a heavenly avalanche of synths, almost poppy at times, while the first
single, “Sacred Be Thy Throne”, is pitch-perfect and undoubtedly the catchiest
track of the record. “Shine the Night” might be my personal favourite,
channeling electronic music maestro Vangelis with its synthesiser arrangements,
and the title track is a spacey rocker that packs the most energy of all the
songs on Space, Rituals and Magick.
To close things out, the almost gentle “Witches Circle” is an epic eight-minute
number that showcases a softer side of the band. A way to describe Mausoleum
Gate would be to say that its Emerson, Lake & Palmer meets Black Sabbath.
Or Deep Purple with Rick Wakeman on keyboards and Ozzy on vocals. It’s
certainly Finnish prog metal at its best with sometimes weird lyrics about the
occult and Lucifer in a cheerful kind of way, if that makes any sense. In any
case, it’s a ton of fun to listen to. Space,
Rituals and Magick has got cult record written all over it! It will make
its way to my Top Ten Albums of the Year list with a vengeance.
Mausoleum Gate on Bandcamp
Fifth, Richmond, Indiana’s stoner
metal quartet (and sometimes quintet?) Wolftooth returned with their fourth LP,
Wizard’s Light, via the mighty Ripple
Music on November 21st. A great blend of Sabbath and The Sword with
a dash of Maiden, this band first came to my attention when they brilliantly
covered KISS’s “100,000 Years”. I’ll admit that this LP was a grower for me; I
found it decent the first time around, liked it the second time, and really dug
it the third time I took it for a spin. Chris Sullivan’s vocals are eerily
reminiscent of vintage Ozzy at times and it just adds to the retro vibe of this
record. The lyrics feature plenty of fantasy and metal themes to go along with
arena-ready riffs paired with a bunch of headbanging guitar solos on top of
thumping basslines and pounding drums. After a brief, mysterious instrumental
intro, the riff-heavy “Sightless Archer” starts things off with a bang,
followed by the infectious second single, “Darkened Path”. The title track
comes next, arguably my favourite song on the album; it’s a perfect metal tune
in every aspect. Next up, “Sands of Redemption”, a superb track with a
tremendous guitar solo; other highlights include “Armor of Steel”, a powerful
battle hymn, and the latest single, “All Father”, which is certainly the
doomiest song of this ten-pack of epic gemstones. Wizard’s Light is one of Ripple Music’s best releases of 2025. It’s
a solid slab of old school metal with a stoner slant, catchy and melodic, that
is guaranteed to satisfy heavy music fans across the land.
Wolftooth on Bandcamp
Ripple Music’s Bandcamp Page for Wolftooth
And that’s a wrap, folks! I’ll be back on December 27th for the last time in 2025 to reveal my Top Ten Albums of what turned out to be another memorable year for metal and heavy rock. Until then, stay safe, and crank up the tunes!
