Making sure we remain Hard Til Halloween is Texas thrashers Juggernaut with All Hallow’s Eve from their 1986 debut album, Baptism Under Fire.
Despite releasing 2 full studio albums back-to-back on Metal Blade Records, opening some shows for King Diamond and having the kind of talent that would later go on to outfit acts like Machine Head, Spastic Ink, S.A. Slayer, Halford, Fates Warning and Sacred Reich, Juggernaut itself never really found its groove and disbanded within 7 years of their debut release.
Which is a shame, cause this kind of mid-80’s speed metal really warms a certain corner of my heart. It’s what I think metal sounds like when I imagine it, and as such, it’s what I want metal to sound like when I hear it.
Thankfully for us, like any metal band at the height of the Satanic Panic, they delivered a face melter all about the Eve of All Hallows. In fact, they went so far as to call it All Hallows Eve.
Unless, that is, you’re looking at the center label for Baptism Under Fire. That one simply lists the song as All Hallows. The back says Eve, and the record even has a pull out sleeve with lyrics, and that says Eve too. So I’m not really sure what the deal is there. Maybe just a misprint?
What I do know is that this song rules and I was glad to dig up yet another 80’s metal All Hallows, Eve or not.
The main bumpers here are courtesy of the Tales From the Darkside installment Cutty Black Sow, a particularly ruthless Halloween episode that happens to feature a couple of cool Halloween masks, including this shot of our favorite Helloween evoking Be Something Studio’s all-star, Fang Face.
Hard ‘Til Halloween. Hashtag it. It can be a thing. People can take that in any direction they want, too. Let’s put some creative shit on that tag. I don’t wanna see a bunch of boners either. A few is fine, it’s unavoidable. But let’s not have another #erectfest incident, ok? Cool.
So yeah, Heavy Metal Halloween. It’s a phrase we’ved use a lot around Halloween Shindig. Hell, our Halloween episode of Shindig Radio in 2019 was literally called A Heavy Metal Halloween.
That episode featured songs exclusively called Halloween performed exclusively by 80’s Metal bands. In fact, our last track was very much one of them. There was enough of those bastards to populate an entire episode, and we still found even more after the fact! There’s a couple in the Bullpen even, if you’ll believe that. Hell, there’s another on coming in like 10 days. It’s crazy.
So, I was pumped to stumble across this song literally called Heavy Metal Halloween. I wish it had been featured on that episode, but hey, we can’t have it all. But we can have it ring the bell for our Hard ‘Til Halloween countdown.
There is some solace in the fact that I found this after 2019 though, and that’s that despite being called Heavy Metal Halloween, this song isn’t exactly the most Metally, nor Heaviest, song we’ve ever featured. And it’s certainly not played by an aging 80’s metal band from Europe either. I think these guys are from Rhode Island in the 90’s, so it’s really just as well that it wasn’t featured.
It is performed by Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake, which, if you’re a keen-eared Metal fan, will song like a fun portmanteau of Great White, White Lion and White Snake.
The band seems to be the jokey product of performers from a variety of punk bands including Sleigher, Vague Perception, Beer and Suckface.
Oddly, the song hails from their album Great Whyte Christmas, which features a lot of fun and silly tracks including the Misfits Last Caress turned into LastChristmas. It honestly sounds a bit like Deck My Balls to me and if I didn’t know any better I’d accuse Mikey and the Crypt Keeper Five of lifting this entire concept wholesale from The Snake. This is such a weird and rare little album though, I seriously doubt that’s the case.
I might end up posting the whole thing up on YouTube, as I had to grab a hard copy to ad this song, but I’m not sure. Until then, let’s kick out this block and get Hard ‘Til Halloween with Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake’s Heavy Metal Halloween!
2022 saw no shortage of Heavy Metal tunes. I think there were 8, by my count. Not a bad showing.
But in 2023, we completely ignored metal altogether. I’m not entirely sure if that was intentional on my part. I have a sort of master list that ebbs and flows and sometimes that doesn’t always jibe with how the seasons break out. Either way, 2023 was metal-free. What a Samhain bummer.
So, for the 2024 season we’re bringing it back. We’re goin Hard ‘Til Halloween. We got Heavy Metal Halloweeners, Referential Metal and Inclusive Metal all on the docket and we’re gonna keep your head bangin’ til the costumes are hangin. And if it ain’t quite Metal, it’ll still be hard, guaranteed.
Setting off this block is a dusty old fucker you might be familiar with. See, we featured this tune on Shindig Radio’s Heavy Metal Halloween back in 2019, and I could have sworn it was already on the playlist. But it was not! So, we’re gonna set the record straight and get this straggler on the roster tonight. It’s none other than Halloweenby Avenger.
The German Power Metal Band Rage was known, for a very brief period of their prolific career, as Avenger. Seems there was a British band by that name as well, so they went ahead and changed their name to Rage.
But not before they released their first album, which incidentally includes tonight’s Shindigger, predictably called Halloween.
Like their German brethren Helloween, Avenger takes a few minutes to wail away for us about the Eve of All Hallows, taking the stance that the night is inherently evil and linked to Satan.
For the record, I’d just like to state, I am not a Devil worshipper. Nor am I a Satanist, Luciferian or otherwise. I pledge no specific allegiance to Satan, Bel, Baal, Baphomet, Set, or any creepy fuckin’ Owl gods. I’m not entirely sure a being of such report exists, nor do I think any of us are. At least, I’d like to hope none of us are aware anyway.
But assuming a sentient being representing all evil with whatever powers, attributes, motivations and intent the old books of lore (or berobed weirdos in the woods of Mendecino County) have assigned upon it does actually exist, I wish not to align myself with them.
Now, the pious might argue that by simply having a blog and a room dedicated to a day not set aside for the Lord All Mighty, I am implicitly doing exactly that. Or that in creating an entire playlist of songs that not only fail to glorify Jesus, but it most cases represent a direct affront to him, that anything else I might say on that matter would be complete and utter horseshit. Hell, they might even be right. I’m not really sure how all of that works.
But if an all-powerful and omnipotent being stands as the antithesis to such an evil being, I imagine it knows full well about my post here and is hopefully noting my rejection of any and all actual creatures it stands in opposition against. But again, probably not how all that really works. At least, not if these righteous folks are to be believed anyway.
Look, I just like the color orange and think spooky monster stuff is pretty neat. I enjoy detailed and cartoonish representations of those monsters. In particular, I love old Halloween decorations. I like hazy blow-molded lights and creased cardboard die-cuts and honey-combed tissue paper shaped like bats. I like plastic Jack O’Lanterns and Ben Cooper masks and whatever the hell that stuff is they make stretchy cobwebs out of.
I like it when the leaves turn and crunch under the feet. I like the sharp sensation of breathing a lungful of cool autumn air. I like harvest foods like apples and corn and man, pumpkins with faces carved into them sure look cool.
I like the smell of latex masks and that shitty colored hair spray. I like candy and the communal spirit of the night. I like that it is a neighborhood-centered holiday rather than a family-centered one. I have fond memories of Halloweens past, trick or treating in the crisp air and watching Halloween TV shows and scary movies after.
Perhaps I am naive. Perhaps I’m unwittingly praying to Satan everyday through these activities. I’d sure hope not, and would like to go on record as such not being my intention. And that’s because that’s just not what Halloween means to me. It means the acknowledgment and honoring of death as one season of life gives way to another. This is not evil. Nature doesn’t understand that concept. Nature just is.
But maybe that’s that naïveté. Maybe it’s not about what it means to me, or what I ignorantly think it means. Maybe there’s something entirely more sinister at play here. But I dunno. That sounds like a whole lot of self righteous, puritanical Christian bullshit to me. But maybe that’s just the devil hard at work again, manipulating me with lies.
Now, should you go the other way with this concept and think that yes, Halloween is inherently evil and fuck yeah that’s exactly why you like it and my declaration of non-allegiance to Satan seriously offends you as a reader, cause man doesn’t it seem like some pussy ass shit over here at Halloween Shindig right now, I thought they were down – then shit, I dunno.
I’m not sure what to tell you, in that case. If that’s the sort of thing that you and your Master do not particularly appreciate, then I guess I’d apologize. But what do you need that for? You’re all fuckin evil and shit, right? What do you care what I say or think? Shut the fuck up, be fuckin evil and get the fuck down on this Hard ‘Til Halloween shit, will ya?!
For our third and final Heavy Metal Halloween melter from 1986, we’re coming back stateside with this rare and low-fi demo from Las Vegas’ Fallacy.
It’s not uncommon for heavy metal bands to write a song about Halloween. Indeed, The Shindig is littered with them. It’s also not uncommon for those bands to just go ahead and name that song “Halloween.”Fallacy’s tune will bring the grand total of literal Halloween heavy metal tracks to 9. And don’t worry, cause there’s more in the bullpen.
What’s also not uncommon, but certainly less not uncommon, if for those bands to directly tapped into John Carpenter’s classic theme. Wasted, Fondlecorpse, and Warhammer are all culprits, and you can add Fallacyto the pile, cause they bring that sinister 5/4 theme right out the gate. They veer off ultimately, but even a lick is good enough for us.
Fallacy wasn’t long for the world, and not much info is floating around for them except some posts trying to clear up the (no surprise here) common confusion of them with a band named Fallacy from Michigan. In addition to the rare cassette-only 1986 demo Fall and Remain (which can be heard in poor quality on YouTube) they appeared to have only have one other release. It’s a live cassette of show from the same year which features these and a few other tunes. Check out this dope flyer. I’m not sure if that tape is from this show, but who cares:That’s metal as fuck, and 6 buck? Not bad for a night of thrash.
It’s a shame they never got a clean album recorded, cause Fall and Remain rips. I’ll say the vocals could be stronger, but the band (particularly the drummer) are just mowing these songs down. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a cleaner cut of this song, that’s for sure. I eq’ed some of the wildly excessive bass outta that YouTube copy, but I’m no mixing engineer, and it’s still a pretty ragged recording. My apologies. If i ever run across a better rip, I’ll definitely update the playlist.
Since the boys from Fallacy seem to be directly referencing Halloween 2 here, and that one never got a proper Heavy Metal Halloween tune of it’s own, we’re headed back to Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween Night of 1978, for more of the night he came home.
So grab a service revolver and buck 6 shots…and then for sure tell everyone that excessively for the rest of the night, so much so that reporters can overhear you and then immediately jam that information into radio news updates about the ongoing search for Michael Myers.
It’s time to feel the steel with our second Samhain shot, a song that also happens to be from 1986.
This ones hails from traditionally neutral Switzerland, and takes aim at our Hallowed Eve via brute force and a stern warning. It’s Fortressand their track Halloween Night.
Unfortunately, not much seems to be known about this band, and the tune comes from their lone release, the 4-track EP Take the Night.
So little is this band discussed that only 1 image of the album even appears to appear online. It’s pretty low rez and it’s the album cover you see above, which I snatched from discogs.
Where did Fortess come from? Where have Fortressgone? Why are there so many other fuckin bands named Fortress? Seriously.
Encyclopedia Metallum lists 20 bands in total with the name Fortress. Are you kidding me? It took me 5 minutes just to determine which Fortress was this Fortress, only to discover they didn’t have any damn information about them anyway. Beautiful.
Well, since we don’t know anything about Fortress, we’re just gonna talk about this now I guess, because…fuckin’ Fortress? Really? That’s the band name that’s getting into double digits? It’s not even a good band name! I mean, it’s alright, but it don’t sound nearly as tough as all these dudes seem to thinks it sounds.
It’s 1 word with 2 syllables, and that’s always a solid move for a band name. Straight to the point and harsh. Slayer, Vemon, Krokus, it just works. So I’ll give them that. But while it does have the upfront punch of “Fort,” that double S at on the back end really weakens up the whole affair.
So why are so many groups clamoring for this name? Cause it’s strong and keeps out invaders? Cause it can’t be penetrated? What’s the allure? Cause it can’t be the phonetics of this thing.
I’m not sure, but for 20 bands, spanning 3 decades, Fortress connected. And from all across the globe too! Hungary, Bavaria, Poland, Australia, even the Netherlands, all have Fortresses. Hell, the US accounts for almost half of them with 8 different Fortresses!
You wanna tell me one or two, sure. Bands unwittingly named each other the same shit all the time, particularly in the days before the internet.
Any band naming themselves post-2002 has no fuckin’ excuse. You come up with a some generic-ass nonsense like Fortress, you cross reference that shit with The Metal Archives, see if anyone else has already used it. Chances are they have, because you’re not that creative and Metal’s been around for over 40 fuckin’ years.
Maybe one other band used it 25 years ago and no one’s ever heard them. Fine, keep Fortress. Wait, there’s 17 other bands named fucking Fortress? Put that one back on the shelf, fellas. The world doesn’t need another Fortress. It’s not that great of a band name to begin with.
The first instances of Fortress seem to appear in 1980, with one glamy lookin outfit from LA (unsurprisingly) and another in Kansas. Germany pumped one out shortly after in 1981, and then our boys from Switzerland appear in tandem with another LA band in 1983.
Now, those 2 LA acts need to check the flyers outside the Rainbow Room or some shit and get their acts together. You’re probably using the same goddamn rehearsal space on Cahuenga, for christ sakes. The rest of ya’ll early 80’s guys, I’ll cut some slack. You late 80’s Johnny-Come-Latelys have a little more latitude but not a lot, and any of you clowns from the 90’s shoulda better known better. After that, you got high speed cable internet and a fuckin’ google search bar. Use that shit. Acting like you got a real unique one on your hands and not looking that shit up is just arrogant.
However, since our boys here were pretty early adopters and all the way over in the Swiss Alps just shredding up avalanches like they were in goddamn Blood Tracks, we’re gonna let them off the easiest. They’re the the only ones with a Halloween song anyway, so they’re clearly the only one’s deserving.
But seriously, no more fuckin Fortresses, alright everybody?
We’re gonna leave the 80’s behind and set a course for an old timey Halloween. But before we do, we’re gonna take a right turn outta the discotheque, head down Mundhra Road toward High Pike Farm and make a quick stop at The Quarry. Cause we’re lookin for a little rock over here and they got all the rock we need. So, here comes a triple-barreled blast of 80’s Halloween Metal to power our trip even further back in time.
This first shot is coming at you from all the way across the pound, with the UK metal molesters, Touched, and their 1986 album Death Row.
The glam-rock stylings of Twisted Sister team up with the NWOBHM sound of early Maiden to produce the sufficiently heavy but not necessarily intimidating, Night of the Hallowe’en.
There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of info floating around about Touched, but I will say, it’s an odd band name. Not necessarily tough, now is it? Certainly not in a metal context.
I suppose they could mean like “touched,”like you might say of someone who is particularly imbecilic or perhaps even crazy. That’s sort of tough-er I suppose, but not terribly. Just kind of offensive, really. Unless they’re directing that toward themselves, I guess.
Or, they could mean this in like a “you got touched” way. But not in the good way that you’d want to be touched, but in the bad way that no one wants to be touched. But thats weird right? To name your band that? Fuckin-A right it is.
Which I guess just leaves “touched” in the good way. And that could either be physically or emotionally. Like perhaps one feels after they watch We Bough a Zoo, or Mac and Me.
But that’s decidedly not tough. In fact, it might just be the opposite of tough.
The physical (and let’s just assume sexual) connotation of “touched” is the only thing that’s really left, and even that don’t make sense as a band name. But, hey, Touched it is I guess.
And that’s before we even get into this song’s title. Cause it’s not Night of Hallowe’en, It’s Night of THE Hallowe’en.
That’s weird. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone put a “the” in front of Halloween. Personally, I kinda like it. It’s makes Halloween itself sound like a monster that’s gonna get ya, or an evil entity unto itself that you better watch the fuck out for.
But I had to double check the album sleeve on that one, cause dude doesn’t even say that shit in the song! And I think that would be cool. But nope, just the title. Odd move.
So, it looks like we gotta whole lotta question here with Touched and not a whole lotta answers. We’re just gonna have to leave it at that I suppose. At least for now.
But that’s ok, cause we’ve just arrive at The Quarry, so let’s wake the neighbors, and get Touched by The Hallowe’en!
Note: I realize the audio on this one’s a bit greasy. There’s 2 versions on YouTube right now (already not a great place to get the song) one that’s real low quality and another that skips a couple times. I caught and corrected one but missed the other completely. However, I have this LP en route to The Halloween Hole as we speak, so I’ll update the track here, and even give YouTubers a better option after the season wraps. So if you dig this tune, stay tuned!
If you have a playlist where every 10th track is a Halloween Song, and you start a 31 song countdown on October 1st, it’s mathematically impossible to get that song to actually fall on Halloween. Well, without skipping a day of course, or not doing 31 songs.
Originally, this song was slated post last year on Oct. 30th and I had a whole spiel about math and tactics that unfortunately no longer applies, as this cleanup act from 2021 has shifted everything earlier.
No matter anymore I suppose, so I’ll just delete all that bullshit and talk about Seducer, a band that managed to miss out on our Heavy Metal Halloween in 2018. I should drop them onto that playlist though for sure.
As I’ve said in the past, these 80’s metal “Halloween” tracks are just falling off of pumpkin trucks it seems and I find new ones all the time. Hell, I think there’s a bunch more in the bullpen at this point, although I know several are “Something” Halloween, or Halloween Something. Impressive still, no doubt.
Not Seducerthough. Nope, they’re comin’ correct with this dinger from 1985’s Caught in the Act.
Accidents, departures and record company troubles ultimately lead Seducer to pack it up before they could turn their early career momentum into full blown notoriety.
They are still well regarded by fans of British New Wave Metal, and they’ll forever live on, however dubious the honor may be, as Heavy Metal Halloween Shindig heroes.
Lead in here with a little clip from 1964’s Witchcraft, starring Lon Chaney. That’s a fun one, if you’re into the style and era. I’m pretty sure Tubi’s got it right now, if you’re lookin’ for something festive for the evening.
Witchcraft is extra cool because of this fresh gimmickry: The Witch Deflector!
Here’s what the actual device looked like, and it’s pretty dope. One just went recently on eBay for a cool 100 buck, if you’re interested in holding it in your hands at all times.
Man, I wish they still did stuff like this at theaters. Honestly though, I’ll bet it would be something lame now even if they did.
Oh yeah, the song. Here’s Seducer!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go start a Doom Metal band called Witch Deflector.
Here’s a song that’s been kicking around the bullpen for a while now, just waiting for some poor rookie left hander to get taken deep back to back in the 2nd.
Now, I’m not entirely sure that’s happened here, but in the middle of a metal run to Halloween seemed as good a time to drop this Halloween track from Blind Guardian.
Ah, Blind Guardian: the sorta band that’ll get you laughed outta the room in some circles and a get you fat lip for saying a disparaging word in the other.
However, before this operatic and somewhat silly German metal outfit went clean off the D&D deep end, they meted out some pretty by the numbers, if not exacting, speed metal.
And their first album, at least their first album as Blind Guardian (their original name was Lucifer’s Heritage…yeesh) feels largely indebted to their German power metal brothers, Helloween.
And much like Helloween, they’ve got a song about Halloween! Well, they say Halloween a lot , anyway. Additionally, the song was originally titled Halloween (The Wizard’s Crown) back on their old Lucifer’s Heritage Demo. So, what gives?
Well, when it came time to re-record the track for their proper debut, Battalions of Fear, they dropped the “Halloween,” kicked the parenthetical to the curb, and sent that “the” packing. A choice no doubt in an effort to differentiate their track from Helloween’s famous and similarly titled tune. A shame, really.
But, no matter. These are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Besides, when your chorus is just you shouting “Halloween” along with the song’s title, it’s water under the bridge really, and The Shindig is happy to have you, “Halloween” or not. You ain’t lockin’ down no 10-slot pullin’ that kinda bullshit, make no mistake, but you can bring up the rear, no problem.
This move (aside from relegating them to a 9er) did keep Blind Guardian out of the rotation for Shindig Radio’s Heavy Metal Halloween. Sure, I could have used the demo and even could have added it here, but frankly, I like the studio version more, titles be damned.
So, if you don’t like Blind Guardian, maybe give their early stuff a go. It’s certainly a little less over-the-top nerds in their Mom’s basement rolling 26-sided die.
So, here they are, on Halloween as it were, taking the crown from Thelemic Wizard Aliester Crowley. Or maybe Crowley’s taking the crown from some other wizard. I dunno, it’s a little unclear with these wizard dust ups. I just know, that allegedly anyway, it’s supposed to be about Aliester Crowley, in some regard. Which is always just a little creepy.
We began our season with Acid Witch, so it’s seems only appropriate that all this high octane motor-metal now culminates in a Halloween Song from none other than Motorcity’s own Lords of Halloween.
It’s a full-throttled driving tune detailing one ill-fated night for several youths in Detroit. A Halloween night, as it happens, back in 1988. There, the paths of a few mischief causing trick-or-treaters collided with the Black Trans-Am of some hard rocking teens leaving Harpo’s, all laced up on LSD and looking for kicks.
It doesn’t end well for anyone on this hallowed eve. For on this night, they will find, the chill of death walks behind…
…in a twisted tale of All Hallo’s havoc Acid Witch calls…
Hardrock Halloween.
Thank you all for joining us this year. 2020 has been a strange one we hope that having the playlist to bump in October has made it feel a bit more like old Halloween times.
Watch out for more mini-playlists and videos throughout the year, keep the Creep Phone on speed dial and stay tuned for new episodes of Shindig Radio!
From all of us at Halloween Shindig, we hope you all have a very Happy, and a very weird, Halloween.
The Great Coron-Out of 2020 put a lot of different shit on hold. Traveling, going to school, supporting local businesses, licking the palms of total strangers, weddings, feeling healthy, casually coughing in public, playing professional sports, trusting your fellow man, trusting authority, making movies, going to see movies, hell, just fucking hanging out with friends, all put on ice until further notice.
Unsurprisingly then, this heighten cautious state also put the brakes on independent bands that were trying to shoot music videos.
So this past summer, when faced with just such a dilemma, the latex mask guru’s atNightmare Forceand the Dutch Death Dealers Fondlecorpseapproached Halloween Shindig in hopes of producing a quarantine team-up to battle back the blockade.
The result was the video below; a visual barrage of over 40 years worth of Satanic Panic set to the soothing sounds of shredding and screaming: The Nightmare Force.
But that’s not the only thing Fondlecorpsehas to say on the matter of melting faces.
Not by a long shot. Ya see, Fondlecorpse has been peeling off VHS Metal for almost 20 years now. And with albums like Creaturegoreand Set the Drill to Kill, I wish I’d known about them sooner, because these guys could have been Shindiggin’ for years already.
And with songs like Krite Attack!, Choppingmall and Terrorvision, we wouldn’t have had to stretch even one inch to make room for them on the roster. Hell, they’ve got All-Star status just waiting for them in the rafters.
But strictly referential tracks won’t be necessary to include Rotterdam’s finest. Not in the slightest. At least not for their rookie at-bat, anyway. And that’s because Fondlecorpse took the main artery straight to the heart of this thing here with their 2007 full length release, Blood and Popcorn.
Featured on that album is, you guessed it, a straight up Halloween song. A Halloween song about Halloween ‘78, no less. And damn it if that’s not a sure-fire way to get webbed up in this Samhain soirée.
Loomis, Laurie, Smith’s Grove, Jack-O-Lanterns, and Trick-Or-Treating are all boxes getting ticked off here. Hell, even Samhain, the lord of the dead, gets a shout out from Sly, if you can actually make out what the fuck he’s saying anyway. I mean, this is Death Metal after all.
You can find more songs, CD’s, and merch at the Fondlecorpse Bandcamp, or you can follow them where ever you get shit beamed directly into your corneas: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
This quarantine saw Halloween Shindig joining forces with Fondlecorpse. Now, Halloween draws the circle closed, as Fondlecorpse joins the hallowed ranks of Halloween Shindig.
Welcome aboard fellas. Your brothers in Halloween Heavy Metal welcome you.
To kick off October proper, we’re gonna pull the lead-off batter from last year’s Heavy Metal Halloween episode of Shindig Radio, which segues nicely, being that it makes good use of a crude reworking of John Carpenter’s classic Halloween theme.
The oldest Heavy Metal Halloween track thus far on The Shindig, this one comes from Danish rocker’s Wasted, who formed in 1981. After releasing this demo in 1984, they toured extensively across Europe and began putting together a follow-up record.
Unfortunately, their record company at the time didn’t much care for this new material at all. They added insult to injury by suggesting the band would be more successful if they altered their style to sound more like Twisted Sister or Bon Jovi.
Wasted didn’t handle this seemingly constructive, yet mostly damn questionable, criticism all that well and slowly began imploding.
However, they reunited recently and just last year released a new album of brand new material that thankfully sounds nothing like either Bon Jovi or Twisted Sister.
So, despite the record company’s shortsightedness and the toll that not playing that type of ball offered Wasted, I’d like to personally thank them guys for sticking to their guns and providing this solid stand-up double, that wholly secures their place on Halloween Shindig.
It’s good to have you back. Hopefully you’ve been listening to the podcast we’ve been producing over the last year and it hasn’t been too long since you’ve last visited the ole ‘Dig here. Either way, you’re here now and we appreciate that.
Speaking of last year, our 1st track of 2019 was supposed to be the last track of 2018. Seems I was too busy handing out candy and futzing with malfunctioning fog machines to remember to post the last track. Oh well, at least it was for a good and truly Halloweeny cause.
Well, last year’s lost is this year’s gain, as rather than ending the season with a song called Halloween, we’re gonna start the season with one; a Shindig first!
And we got a doozy for ya in the form of another good ole fashioned 80’s Metal Halloween headbanger we’re so fond of over here.
This time, it came from deep in the heart of Texas. The band? Ripper!
Formed in 1977, they had a flare for the theatrical, taking cues from Alice Cooper and KISS with their ghastly appearance and spooky names. They even toss in some sinister horror synths on ya, just for ambiance! Though, admittedly, I think this is one of the few songs where they don’t utilize any de-tuned saw waves. Bummer.
Rippers’sHalloween comes from what is essentially the bands only album …And The Dead ShallRise, which is definitely worth checking out in its entirety.
Spruced up here with some cuts from 1988’s Halloween hoot Hollow Gate, for a little extra festive flare. Listen to local nutcake Mark Walters taunt his grandmother and cause some costumed havoc as you ring in the new season.
So let’s let ‘er rip, and let’s let Ripper lead the way.
#389: 
Here’s what the actual device looked like, and it’s pretty dope. One just went recently on eBay for a cool 100 buck, if you’re interested in holding it in your hands at all times.
