The Great Kat – Beethoven On Speed (1990/2007 reissue, Metal Mind Productions)
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Beethoven On Speed
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Ultra-Dead
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Flight Of The Bumble-Bee
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Revenge Mongrel
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Funeral March
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Kat-Abuse
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God!
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Made In Japan
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Sex & Violins
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Beethoven Mosh (5th Symphony)
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Gripping Obsession
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Paganini’s 24th Caprice
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Worshipping Bodies
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Guitar Concerto In Blood Minor
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Total Tyrant
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Bach To The Future: For Geniuses Only!
Produced by: The Great Kat, John Matthias, & Monte Conner
Total Time – 32:39
The Great Kat official website
The Great Kat on MySpace
Metal Mind Productions
Roadrunner Records
Three years after her debut, WORSHIP ME OR DIE!, the Metal goddess, The Great Kat, is back with her vision of bringing Classical Music back to the public eye by bludgeoning them with her guitar! BEETHOVEN ON SPEED is billed as “the LP of the 21st Century”, the ultimate album by the ultimate musical genius of out time. The Great Kat is talented, there is no question about that, her degrees from the Juilliard School in NYC speak volumes of the musician she is (or should be). One has to wonder why, with all the talent and training, Kat has decided to uses Thrash Metal as her forum rather than her natural Classical talents.
The Package:
Metal Mind Productions has a great reissue series going right now, licensing many out of print titles from Roadrunner Records and making them available again to the Metal masses. All reissues in the series are strictly limited edition to 2000 copies, each CD is numbered (mine is #1995). Metal Mind provides a nice full color digipak and booklet (with liner notes) and the CD is fully remastered. Like the first Kat album, there is no bonus material, a small disappointment as I can’t see any bonus tracks making the overall musical content any better.
The Music:
The whole point of the album is so Kat can take the music from her main inspiration, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and re-invent it through the ear-splitting shred of her guitar. I enjoy Beethoven and to hear the Kat’s interpretations of his compositions at least made the album mildly interesting. It’s important to note that The Great Kat tightened up her sound a little, there are some actual basic riffs that sound decent enough. It’s not all frantic, out of control, shredding for the sake of shredding. The good news is that I found a few songs that were actually listenable: ‘Ultra-Dead’, ‘Funeral March’, the acoustic half of ’Sex & Violins’,and parts of ‘Beethoven’s Mosh (5th Symphony)’.
Bottom Line:
For disciples of The Great Kat, it’s another great package by Metal Mind, the music made available again after a long hiatus being out of print. BEETHOVEN ON SPEED is a marked improvement compared to Kat’s debut, WORSHIP ME OR DIE!. The songs are tighter, sound better musically, and Kat’s shouting vocals are improved. What is obvious is that Kat has talent but it’s possible she is going in the wrong direction. It’s obvious that she can play and arrange Classical Music but it’s a mystery to me why she wouldn’t want to pursue her calling in true Classical form. Pairing Heavy Metal/Hard Rock and Classical influences has been done by some of the best guitarists of the genre: Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth…..the difference is that they do it better than The Great Kat.
Def Leppard – Songs From The Sparkle Lounge release date announced
Posted: January 18, 2008 in Metal News & CommentaryTags: AOR, Def Leppard, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Metal, Music, Rock
From Def Leppard.com:
Songs From The Sparkle Lounge release date and U.K. competiton
With March 27 being the start date of the band’s World Tour to support their upcoming album SONGS FROM THE SPARKLE LOUNGE, many of you have been wondering if the album will actually be released before the kickoff show. We can hereby tell you that as of today, the album is scheduled for release on MARCH 17 in the UK and MARCH 18 in the rest of the world. That’s right — in about two months the band’s new album might be in the shops! Please note this is a TENTATIVE date and therefore may change.
Furthermore, the first single off the album will be called “NINE LIVES” and will feature a guest appearance by country star TIM MCGRAW.
As a special promotion around the album release, Amazon is offering UK fans the chance to win a very special prize! One lucky winner (and friend) will get a trip to Miami to see Def Leppard’s second show on the tour, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami on March 29 (two hotel nights included). All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning, is enter some of your details on Amazon.co.uk and you’ll be entered into the prize draw.
Pre-orders for SONGS FROM THE SPARKLE LOUNGE are now also accepted at Amazon.co.uk.