Judas Priest

Are These the Most Anticipated Albums of 2013? Seriously?

A Web site (magazine?) called Loudwire posted their list of the most anticipated rock albums of 2013. The first question we have is "anticipated by whom?" Because if the answer is "people who love music," then we've got some major problems here. 10. Motley Crue Really? The tenth most anticipated n ... More >>

Curated Festivals and the Changing Face of Summer Entertainment

While most Texans are spending their Friday counting down to ACL or speculating about the Fun Fun Fun Fest line up, I find myself thinking about a festival north of our fair state. We're halfway through June and that means that the 2012 Gathering of the Juggalos infomercial should be dropping any da ... More >>

Multiples of Black

Houston heavy-metal lifers Helstar celebrate their 30th anniversary in style.

Verizon Wireless Theater Now Known As Bayou Music Center

Verizon Wireless Theater will no longer be known under that name, because owner Live Nation's sponsorship deal with the communication provider has expired. The venue, which holds about 3,000 people within downtown entertainment complex Bayou Place, will now be known as Bayou Music Center. Rocks Off ... 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 in Break ... 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 >>

Never Say Die!: Black Sabbath Reforming In 2012 For Tour & Album

​Today in Los Angeles, legendary, pioneering heavy metal group Black Sabbath convened in front of reporters at the Whiskey A Go Go to announce a 2012 reunion tour and album, set for a fall release. The event, hosted by Henry Rollins, was telegraphed by a countdown clock on the band's official ... More >>

Saturday Night: Judas Priest At The Woodlands

Photos by Jay Lee​Judas Priest Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion October 15, 2011 Saturday night, at 10:15 or so, a euphoric chill went up Aftermath's spine. Coupled with the cool weather, standing in the presence of Judas Priest at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion was overwhelming, so much ... More >>

Turbo Lovers

British metal icons Judas Priest are still living after midnight — but aren't retiring.

Dio Disciples Keep Ronnie James' Metal Flame Alive

When Ronnie James Dio succumbed to stomach cancer in May 2010 (some reports say it occurred here at M.D. Anderson), heavy metal lost its arguably greatest voice. And with a career spanning decades in bands like Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell, and his own Dio, he left a lot of material to ... More >>

Mellow Gold: Our Favorite Lite-Rock Hits Ever

...and so are your moustaches.​A few months ago, we did an extensive blog, maybe too extensive, on those made-for-TV compilations like Jock Jams, Monster Ballads, and AM Gold. What started out as a larky exercise in how to rag out the search engine on YouTube, turned into another chapter in ou ... 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 >>

Upcoming: Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Peter Bjorn & John, Etc.

​Bowling For Soup, The Dollyrots, Sunderland: Fri., Aug. 19. Warehouse Live. Breathe Carolina, Chiodos, I See Stars: Thu., July 28. Warehouse Live. Craig Kinsey, Sara Van Buskirk, Benjamin Wesley: Fri., June 10. Heights Live. The Damned Things: Wed., Aug. 17. House of Blues. The Dead Revo ... More >>

Five Essential Boogie-Rock Albums

​Boogie-rock has probably been derided by critics more times than people have torched a doob while listening to BTO. Intellectual types tend to write it off as guys with feathered bangs, mustaches and shirts open to their navel playing songs about cars, girls and partying (and partying in cars ... More >>

Shot In The Dark: How The Whole Mess Started

Mark C. AustinKings of Leon at Verizon Wireless Theater, October 2008​Just a couple of days now before Rocks Off - the person and the blog - proudly presents Shot In the Dark: Houston Press Concert Photography, our first-ever exhibit of live pics we've collected in about three and a half years ... More >>

Stryper's Michael Sweet: "God Formed This Band"

Photos by GroovehouseStryper at House of Blues, December 2009​Stryper, the world's coolest and heaviest '80s Christian heavy metal band of the '80s, comes to Scout Bar Monday night, touring behind last month's covers LP, The Covering. It's an appropriately shiny and heavy disc of covers from a ... More >>

Stryper

Flying V Hall Of Fame: Saluting One Rockin' Guitar

thestoneband.com​Today is the 53rd birthday of the Gibson Flying V, which since its debut has become synonymous with metal and hard rock of all stripes. The image of that V-shape is as iconic as the power chords it generates. Rocks Off has seen reverse V's and even bass V's in our time, and ha ... 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 >>

Suck It, Ben Gibbard: Two Weeks At The Wheel With Lady Gaga

​The past two weeks Rocks Off has been driving around Houston with only one disc in his car to listen to. It makes us feel like a billion damned dollars without fail, and can make any banal drive home after the bar feel like even more of a sexy adventure than it already is. It's not Motorhead, it ... More >>

Anvil

Artist of the Week: Why You Should Care About Modern-Rockers Raging Apathy

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​ Thirty-eight simple rules go ... More >>

Aftermath: Stryper Shout At The Devil at the House of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse / Click here for a slideshow​This year, Aftermath has seen all strains of metal: From Slipknot and Mastodon's metallic beatdowns at Verizon Wireless Theater, to The Sword's kindly menacing sludge jams at the inaugural Summerfest, to the force of power that is Motorhead at ... More >>

Listology: Toxic Noise DJ Bakka's Top Bone-Crushing Jams

​Every third Wednesday at Boondocks, the space upstairs turns into the most fabulous place in Houston for rockers, punks and metalheads when DJ Bakka revs the turntables for his popular "Toxic Noise" DJ sets. It's like going to visit a high-school bully's bedroom in 1987. If you still miss Shanle ... More >>

ACL 2009: Best Tweets Of The Weekend

Armed with our sort-of handy cellphone we were able to Tweet from ground level at the festival, with sometimes hilarious and vulgar results. Mostly the latter, because we are foul people. Over time, our Twitter updates devolved into angry rants, as you will see below.@hprocksoff sez:Oh god they real ... More >>

Aftermath: Judas Priest and Whitesnake at Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Eric Sauseda​Rust never sleeps, and metal never ages. Not when it's being worked over by Judas Priest's hammer and tongs, anyway. Friday night at Verizon, the Birmingham blacksmiths smelted a sold-out, juiced-up, colors-sporting crowd - metal bands always have the best merch - with ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Judas Priest's Rob Halford

 Tonight, Judas Priest, led by the inimitable metal god Rob Halford, hits the stage at Verizon Wireless Theate less than a year since the leathermen last graced Houston. They came to the shed out in the Woodlands last August, headlining the "Metal Masters" tour with Motorhead, Testament and Hea ... More >>

Men of Steel

Three decades after a metal classic, Judas Priest keeps "Livin' After Midnight."

Single-Album Sets We'd Like to See, Part 1: Bob Dylan, George Strait, The Pogues and More

Initiated by indie-rockers like Sonic Youth, Slint and Built to Spill at mid-2000s festivals - UK/U.S. hopover All Tomorrow's Parties and its various tie-ins being the most prominent - playing a beloved LP front to back in concert is now the hottest thing going on the classic-rock circuit. Within th ... More >>

Aftermath Extra: The Best Concerts of the Year, Part 5

King's X, Meridian, August 19: "[dUg] Pinnick's bass was very much the lead instrument, negotiating the distance between the complicated vocal harmonies and searing chainsaw riffs with a low-to-the-ground, almost nonchalant assurance." Masters of Metal, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, August 23 ... More >>

Top Ten Metal Albums of 2008

In a year worthy of your rage, metal delivered in spades. What with the economy circling the drain and Sarah Palin coming down from the tundra and then refusing to go back, 2008's been the kind of year that really makes you want to smash your head into walls or punch random strangers in the face. Go ... More >>

Aftermath: Masters of Metal at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

A Classic-Rock-Free Morning

Tonight: Big Sam's Funky Nation, Amplified Heat, Rudyard's Anniversary, Randy Rogers Band and More

Judas Priest's Screaming Seer Rob Halford

Master of Metal

Black Sabbath: The Rules of Hell Box Set Reviewed

Tonight: Valient Thorr at Rudyard's

Judas Priest Prophesy Free Tickets to Woodlands Show; Nostradamus Reviewed

The Sword, with Torche and Stinking Lizaveta

Byron Dean's Matagorda Island Discs

(In which locals sound off on the ten records they would take to Matagorda Island, the nearest major unpopulated sandbar to Houston.)

Yesterday Afternoon: Westheimer Block Party at Numbers, Mango's and Avant Garden

Highly Anticipated Albums of 2008

The Black Dahlia Murder, 3 Inches of Blood

The Donnas

The Austin Lounge Lizards

The Austin Lounge Lizards perform Saturday, January 6, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

Queer Eye for the Country Guy

Have today's C&W stars been consulting with the Fab Five?

Played Out

The filmmakers have consumed all the standard clichés and yakked them up in the humorless Rock Star

Made to Suffer

Japanese Catnip

Osaka's Shonen Knife cuts a pretty slice of alternative pop

The Pop Moment

Astral Dejection The Shonen Knife/Breeders/Nirvana tour blows through Houston's hall of shame