Van Halen. 1981. Oakland Coliseum CA. Four albums in four years and they were already playing 60,000 seater stadiums.

Cinderella. “Nobody’s Fool.” 1985. Watching this now it could have come from another planet — but in hindsight all this 80s exhibitionism was just the pop culture of its time — and as power ballads go, Cinderella had 2 contenders for best ever: this & “Don’t Know what You’ve Got”

Loudness. “This Lonely Heart.” 1987. Someone asked for more wholesome content recently and I remembered we had this thing called the 80s. The precise divide between 80s & 90s is so stark that in hindsight it felt like a Saturday night out followed by a Sunday morning hangover.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of few movie stars w/ several films that could all be considered their best ever movie 🍿

Contamination. 1980. Dir: Luigi Cozzi. A 45 year old #Alien knock off made on a shoestring budget — and to this day better blood splatter FX over any modern era CGI blood. Actually, I’ll take it one step further — CGI blood FX is a deal breaker for me. Blood squibs or nothing.

Slayer. “Raining Blood.” 1986. The Ritz, NYC. Imagine writing an album with such ferocity — 4000 hellfire riffs packed into 10 songs in under 29 mins & a drummer that could cast spells and summon demons — that you could *open* a show with your album closer.

Anyone into vintage cult & arthouse cinema w/ a flair for #Horror & #Giallo, give Sarah Makes People Watch Things! @torsodapop a follow — an amazing feed of film vignettes from a bygone era, incl. synopsis & photograph stills 👇

Anthrax. Public Enemy. “Bring the Noise.” 1991. It never mattered what spawned Nu Metal — this track, Walk this Way, Judgement Night — this was just pure attitude back in ‘91. It hit at the right time because not everyone wanted rainy day Seattle vibes.

Motörhead. “Whiplash.” 2005. A very cool Metallica cover — but still very much in that traditional Motörhead ‘hop-skip-and-a-jump’ riffing style. Good reminder that there’s actually a lot of Motörhead influence throughout the Kill Em All album... 🩸🔨

Black Sabbath. “Black Sabbath.” Oct 3rd 1970. Théâtre 140, Schaarbeek Brussels. First post of 2025. Taking us back. Taking us all the way back to the start. Is this the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end… ✟

Beastie Boys. “Sabotage.” 1998. T in the Park fest, Scotland. The band reminding the world of their punk hardcore roots and how even a single riff can still generate a mushroom cloud.

Anthrax. “Indians.” Chile. One thing we established this year is that there ain’t no crowd like a South American crowd. Fire hazards be damned, only death-by-mosh pit matters 🔥

Sepultura. “To The Wall.” 1989. Mexico. If there was any universal agreement this year it was that old school Sepultura w/ the Cavalera brothers was not only the best Sepultura but arguably one of the greatest thrash bands in history. Also, circle pit:

Motörhead. “We Are The Roadcrew.” 1981. No Sleep ‘till Hammersmith. I’m posting this at 11:39 GMT so this one’s for all the Brits, Irish, Portuguese, Faroe Islands, most of West Africa… everyone heading into the new year in the next 20 mins!! Lemmy! ♠️

Iron Maiden. “Hallowed be thy Name.” 1985. Play this clip at 2 minutes to midnight if you want Maiden to catapult you into 2025 — if you need a pick me up just watch Bruce here 🙌

Ratt. “Lay it Down.” 1985. This was the year we saw near unanimous agreement that Lay it Down really does have the sleaziest filthy guitar riff of all time…

Faith No More. “From Out Of Nowhere. 1990. Saturday Night Live. The flex between John Goodman dressed like a cop into Mike Patton & co just destroying the nation on live TV is what we now can call a historic moment. Bookmark this.

Thin Lizzy. “Cowboy Song.” 1978. Sydney Opera House. There was a ton of TL engagement this year w/ most folks falling into 2 camps: ‘must listen to more Lizzy’ — or — ‘in strong agreement that they were under-appreciated compared to their 70s peers’…

Suicidal Tendencies. “Institutionalized.” 1983. I’m posting classics today y’all — it’s new years eeeeeeeve!! Or New Year’s Day depending on timezone, here’s to 2025 — *shouts in Chris Farley* can we get this man a Pepsi for the love. of. god!