Iron Maiden

Judas Priest Prophesy Free Tickets to Woodlands Show; Nostradamus Reviewed

Musical Hurricane Preparedness Kit, Part 2: Hello Edouard (and Edward, and Ed, and Eddie...)

Metalocalypse: Baroness and the Southern Metal Renaissance

Baroness, "Wanderlust," 2007 In the same way that Houston rarely inspires photos of snow flurries, people tend not to associate heavy metal with the South. But, if you look hard enough, you'll find a rich history of hard music with roots planted firmly in Southern soil. In the '80s and early '9 ... More >>

Music to Shuffle Off This Mortal Coil

Baroness, "Wanderlust," 2007 In the same way that Houston rarely inspires photos of snow flurries, people tend not to associate heavy metal with the South. But, if you look hard enough, you'll find a rich history of hard music with roots planted firmly in Southern soil. In the '80s and early '9 ... More >>

Judas Priest's Screaming Seer Rob Halford

Master of Metal

Jason Ward's Matagorda Island Discs

Master of Metal

The Sword, with Torche and Stinking Lizaveta

Master of Metal

Iron Maiden

Master of Metal

Know Your Idols

Master of Metal

The Black Dahlia Murder, 3 Inches of Blood

Master of Metal

Invincible Czars

Master of Metal

Wielding a Sword

Master of Metal

Flipping the Script

Who's partying like rock stars? Rappers!

Encore Performance

Don't fret. Guitar Hero II kills the opening act

About a Beast

Ruminations on irony, Maidenhood and fraternity

Number of the Beeyotch

The Iron Maidens encourage you to bring your daughter to the slaughter

Stapp Infection

Sanctimonious hypocrites need love, too

Comeback Clips

A music-video renaissance is afoot -- but it's strictly on the download

Heady Metal

In 2005, longhairs got more progressive than ever

For Those About to Rock

Guitar Hero cranks rhythm-gaming up to 11

Ozzfest

Saturday, August 27, at the Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, 281-363-3300.

Machine Head, with Devil Driver and It Dies Today

Sunday, May 29, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.

Iron Men

Recent releases document the Maiden voyage

Ironing Out the Kinks

Infernal Bridegroom Productions resurrects Ray Davies' A Soap Opera after 27 years in rock limbo

Sum 41

Friday, November 1

Rocks Off Checks Out Corpus Christi

Photos by Craig Hlavaty This past weekend, Rocks Off took a respite from sweltering H-Town to visit family in our equallly sweltering, ball-sweat-inducing neighbor to the south. Corpus Christi is rather small compared the teeming ant farm we have here, topping just over a quarter of a million beachi ... More >>

Straight from the Sole: Houston's Best Metal Bands

You know Soledad. He's the vocalist from controversial Houston rap-metal act Daylight Coma. He's got a lot to say. Sometimes it's insightful, sometimes less so, but it's almost always said with conviction. This week, in honor of the fast-approaching HPMA, we asked him who he thinks are Houston's fiv ... More >>

Graveside Songs for Edgar Allan Poe's Long-Overdue Funeral

​Kicking the bucket at the age of 40 is bad enough, especially when, to this day, nobody's really sure how you died (everything from syphillis to rabies to political "cooping" has been thrown out there as a possible cause). But getting buried in an unmarked grave after a three minute "service" is ... More >>

He Said She Said: 10 Artists Who Never Got Their Due

In the course of music history, some bands get that extra push by pop culture and become uber-iconic, while others, though just as deserving, go largely unnoticed except by those who choose to dig even deeper. For every Elvis Presley, there is a seedier Carl Perkins off to the side. David Bowie get ... More >>

Fast As You: Rocks Off's Playlist for Sunday's Houston Marathon

anythingaboutcars.comThe 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner. Please keep your drooling to a minimum.​ The drinking stops tonight. Rocks Off is joining 30,000 other crazy, hardy souls to run the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon this Sunday. (We're running the half - it's only our second race ... More >>

Answers To Our "Metal Or Hymn?" Quiz

au_tiger01 via flickr.com​ A little harder than you thought, wasn't it? If Sunday-morning hymns belong to the King of Kings, and heavy metal is the Prince of Darkness' domain, they sure seem to copy each other's notes a lot. If you haven't seen our little sacred-vs.-profane brain-teaser yet, go ah ... More >>

Summer Tours We'd Like To See: Bring Back Texxas Jam!

Reminder: Tickets for Lady Gaga's Toyota Center show next year go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.​ Summer concert season doesn't last as long as hurricane season, and leaves somewhat less damage in its aftermath, but at least it gives us something to look forward to during those long, hot months. This ... More >>

Give Me No Man's Land: 5 Songs For The Fallen

​Today is Memorial Day, and Rocks Off would like to honor our brave and beloved dead as we honor everything - through music. At no time in American history have there not been men and women in life-threatening danger trying to protect us, whether it was a declared war or not. This is a sacrifice w ... More >>

Iron Maiden

​Today is Memorial Day, and Rocks Off would like to honor our brave and beloved dead as we honor everything - through music. At no time in American history have there not been men and women in life-threatening danger trying to protect us, whether it was a declared war or not. This is a sacrifice w ... More >>

Iron Maiden Digs Back Somewhere In Time At the Woodlands

Photos by Groovehouse / Click here for a slideshow​If you were just a casual Iron Maiden fan, Friday night's gig out at the shed in the Woodlands would have confounded and maybe even angered you. If you own the band's entire catalog on tape, vinyl, and disc, and maybe had their ghoulish mascot ... More >>

Answers To Rocks Off's Musical Nickname Quiz

​Rocks Off hopes you enjoyed our musical nickname quiz earlier today. We have had a few nicknames ourselves over the years - our dad called us "Boog" after former Baltimore Orioles first baseman Boog Powell, and we were known for years around the Austin Chronicle offices as "Weezer," which we ... More >>

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

One woman tells the story of many women

Today's High Schoolers Shrugging Off New Music

​During this part of the year, your humble narrator treks from school to schools selling contest music to bands and orchestras. It's a good gig, and it enables us to get a good gander at what the next generation of musicians look like. However, after several years of doing it, we started noti ... More >>

More Like "Hall Of Lame," Am I Right?

​Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is ready to admit a new class: Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, Darlene Love and Dr. John have all been inducted for 2011, the foundation announced Wednesday. With the exception of Wai ... More >>

Graphic: When Festival Booking Goes Too Far

Garland RobinetteYes, this is the real Jazz Fest 2011 poster, and that's really Jimmy Buffett.​Every spring, New Orleans puts on something called the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. But as Jazz Fest has grown more and more popular, the headlining acts have had less and less to do with ja ... More >>

GWAR Singer Vows To Swap Sex For Votes

Marc BrubakerGWAR at Fun Fun Fun Fest, Waterloo Park, Austin, November 2010​What do you do when your band is up for a prestigious award against the likes of Rammstein, Iron Maiden and Megadeth? If you're GWAR front "man" Oderus Urungus, you promise to get up close and personal (very personal) ... More >>

1986: Best Musical Year Ever?

​For almost two weeks now, Rocks Off has been obsessed with the year exactly 25 flips of the calendar backward from this one. It started when Steve Earle did one of his "Time Machine" shows, where the singer-songwriter who plays House of Blues Wednesday spotlights a dozen or so of his favorite ... More >>

Before Harry Potter, There Was Dr. John Dee...

​History is full of mysterious magicians. The modern world gives us Anton LaVey, Gerald Gardner and Aleister Crowley. In the ancient world you had Edward Kelley, Nicolas Flamel, and the Count of St. Germain. Of all those illustrious names, however, the name of Dr. John Dee stands out from the ... More >>

The First Ten Videos MTV Ever Aired

​Closing out this week of celebration, and a little mourning, on the occasion of MTV's 30th anniversary , we reached back into the YouTube vaults to present to you the first 10 videos Music Television ever aired. On August 1, 1981, The Buggles' awfully prophetic "Video Killed the Radio Star" b ... More >>

Saxon: "Denim And Leather" Never Goes Out Of Style

​While they did not achieve the level of success in America as Iron Maiden, Motörhead, or Judas Priest, Yorkshire-based Saxon was an early battalion on the front lines for the invasion of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (that's NWOBHM to music nerds) in the late '70s and early '80s. Ofte ... More >>

Happy 30th, Britney! Maybe Now You Can Finally Put These Performances Behind You

The face that launched a thousand Bob Doles​Where were you in...'81? Rocks Off was in junior high, spending long, solitary afternoons in his bedroom listening to Moving Pictures and Dark Side of the Moon and wondering why no girls seemed to be interested in playing Squad Leader. But 1981 also ... More >>

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs Rush...Again

Photo by Jeff Balke​A couple years ago, I was sitting on the back porch at the Continental Club talking music with a fairly well known music writer who seemed to believe that anything with a big hook or the slightest inkling of musicianship beyond the garage band aesthetic was utter garbage. I ... More >>

Gothic Council Considers the Proper Seduction of Metal Heads

​Pretend you're a drug dealer, or if it's more appropriate pretend you're still a drug dealer. If our memory of the D.A.R.E program serves us well then the key to successful drug dealing in the acquisition of new clientele through free distribution of choice merchandise. Once they're hooked, t ... More >>

Travelin' Band: What Do The Features Listen To On The Road?

​So The Twilight Saga has exactly two things that keep the films from being absolute torture. The first is Ashley Greene in all her pixie-hotness, and the second is that there really are some excellent bands that end up on the soundtracks. Case in point, the Features were featured recently i ... More >>

Gothic Council Considers Proper Seduction of Metal Heads

​Pretend you're a drug dealer, or if it's more appropriate pretend you're still a drug dealer. If our memory of the D.A.R.E program serves us well then the key to successful drug dealing in the acquisition of new clientele through free distribution of choice merchandise. Once they're hooked, t ... More >>