Judas Priest - Firepower

The following is my personal journey with Judas Priest from beginning of fandom to today. I found the path toward Firepower to be a therapeutic journey seeing as Judas Priest is one of the bands most responsible for who I am as a music listener today. So here goes nothing.

Visigoth - Conqueror's Oath

Salt Lake City's Visigoth hit the metal scene hard with their debut The Revenant King back in 2015. It was chock full of love for bands that deem themselves epic in the scale of their music, whether it be Cirith Ungol, Brocas Helm, Slough Feg, and even a cover of Manilla Road's 'Necropolis' to boot, the only track to clock in under the 5 minute mark. 2018 sees the band back with a renowned fervor with Conqueror's Oath. How does the sophomore album set up for the band?

Jim Breuer and The Loud & Rowdy - Songs From The Garage

American comedic icon Jim Breuer loves few things. He makes this abundantly clear through his comedy; those things are the New York Mets, Heavy Metal and of course his family. His Facebook page in particular became increasingly more popular in this past calendar year due in large part to his Mets' postgame recaps, wins or losses. His largest impacts on me prior to that were his uncompromising performances in Half Baked and his excellent comedy special Jim Breuer: Hardcore; which is still heavily quoted in my circle of friends. So his family life and heavy metal come full circle here on his debut album Songs From The Garage; a combination love letter to both things and it can be described in one word; fun.

Accept - Blind Rage

German metal pioneers Accept are a band that requires absolutely no introduction; fans of both old and new heavy metal need to do nothing but pay respect to these legends who have only been on the rise since they parted ways with original signer Udo Dirkschneider. The addition of Mark Tornillo of New Jersey based band TT Quick has been a major boom and a real shot in the arm for a band that hadn't done much of anything in the 2000's prior to his arrival on 2010's Blood Of The Nations and continued that success with Stalingrad in 2012. They have embarked on tons of tours all over the world and absolutely deliver live, as was the case when I saw King's X open for them in Sayreville, NJ in 2009. But what about Blind Rage? Does it hold to the same heavy metal and hard rock that the band is famous for? Let's find out.

'Tis The Season To Rank 'Em: Brutalitopia's Best of 2010 Lists Coming Soon

It goes without saying that every 21st century hessian recognizes the end of any year as a time to name their favorite albums of the year. Bickering, bitching, complaining, hating and the occasional positive remark inevitably follow, and that's what makes it fun.  And since this system clearly ain't broken, we here at Brutalitopia don't plan on fixing it. Various blogs have already released their lists, with the MetalSucks and Reign In Blonde staffs joining the fray today, and Decibel were prompt in getting their Top 40 out in this month's issue. Per my personal modus operandi, Mick and I are gonna be fashionably late to the party. Look out for our lists shortly before Jesus' B-day next week, and go ahead and speculate in the comments. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a spoiler and say Maiden will end up on my list, but that's about as obvious as giving away that the cute but stupid blonde girl in the shitty flavor-of-the-month horror movie dies first.

- Jack