Listen to the Show

Recap by The Metal Wulf;
Not a lot of time for talk and/or random silliness, as this was our Best Of 2010 show. Considering there were five of us contributing this year, it filled the evening pretty completely, I must say!

Of course, if you tuned in at the beginning you may have been a little puzzled by the sounds of Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" kicking off the evening, but it was all in tribute to Mr. Rafferty's passing earlier in the week. A few Y&T songs were in there as well, as we'd also lost bassist Phil Kennemore. Let's face it, both artists contributed to some fine, memorable musical moments over the years, and respects must be paid where they are due!

Despite the limited time for talk, Bill and I did take a moment to make sure Joe found his car in acceptable condition following it's return on Christmas morning. He seemed pretty put-off by the whole thing, although I assured him that I thought we'd gotten all the reindeer poo off of his windshield.
Seriously, I've discovered, after that night, that birds are NOTHING when it comes to pooping on windshields. Flying reindeer are FAR worse, leaving a much larger area of splatter...

Anyhoo, on to the meat and potatoes of the evening!

Starting with Josh and continuing throughout the night with Bill, myself, Joe, and Rick, we played selections from our favorite albums of 2010. Now, in some cases there was a bit of overlap (a LOT in the case of Bill and myself, actually, but we listen to a lot of the same stuff, so...), but overall, I think the final tallies show a LOT of diversity in styles.
What can I say? 2010 was a HELL of a year for new music, and for my money the strongest showings were from acts that have been around for years. Kinda tells me that these acts have no plans of packing it in any time soon, and that the younger lions may need to start roaring a little louder if they wanna stay heard!

So, starting with Josh's list, here's what the Metallic Onslaught thought kicked the most ass in 2010! Take notes and check them out!

Josh Nolin's Picks
1. Iron Maiden-The Final Frontier
2. Gamma Bomb- Tales From Grave Space
3. Spiritual Beggars- Return To Zero
4. Bonded By Blood- Exiled To Earth
5. Halford IV: Made Of Metal
6. Helloween- 7 Sinners
7. The Sword- Warp Riders
8. Enslaved- Axioma Ethica Odini
9. Mago De Oz- Gaia III Atlantia
10. Tank- War Machine

Bill Smith's Picks
1. High On Fire- Snakes For The Divine
2. Murderdolls- Women And Children Last
3. Cradle Of Filth- Darkly, Darkly Venus Aversa
4. Triptykon- Eparistera Daimones
5. Dimmu Borgir- Abrahadabra
6. Watain- Lawless Darkness
7. Overkill- Ironbound
8. Rob Zombie- Hellbilly Deluxe 2
9. Black Label Society- The Order Of The Black
10. Flotsam And Jetsam- The Cold

Randy Smith's (aka Wulfie) Picks
1. Murderdolls- Women And Children Last
2. Rob Zombie- Hellbilly Deluxe 2
3. Black Label Society- The Order Of The Black
4. Overkill- Ironbound
5. High On Fire- Snakes For The Divine
6. Triptykon- Eparistera Daimones
7. Ozzy Osbourne- Scream
8. Stone Soul Foundation- Electric Valley
9. Cradle Of Filth- Darkly, Darkly Venus Aversa
10. Dimmu Borgir- Abrahadabra

Joe Wyatt's Picks (in no particular order)
Hail Of Bullets- On Divine Winds
Venomin James- Crowe Valley Blues
Atheist- Jupiter
Widow Sunday- In These Rusted Veins
Fallen Angels- Engines Of Oppression
Flotsam & Jetsam- The Cold
First Blood- Science Is Betrayed
Black Label Society- The Order Of The Black
Overkill- Ironbound

Rick Horton's Picks
1. Dimmu Borgir- Abrahadabra
2. High On Fire- Snakes For The Divine
3. Cradle Of Filth- Darkly, Darkly Venus Aversa
4. Death Angel- Relentless Retribution
5. Stone Soul Foundation- Electric Valley
6. Bleeding Through- Bleeding Through
7. Nevermore- Obsidian Conspiracy
8. Watain- Lawless Darkness
9. Enslaved- Axioma Ethica Odini
10. Kylesa- Spiral Shadow

Plenty of good music in there, let me tell ya! Makes me wonder if 2011 will be able to compete! But why stop there? Let's take a closer look where we overlapped, shall we? Because, when it all boils down, the following are the cream of the crop for 2010, and should be considered the true must-haves of the year.
Each title shows up on at least three of the previous lists. So, in no particular order:

Metallic Onslaught's Best Of 2010
High On Fire- Snakes For The Divine
Dimmu Borgir- Abrahadabra
Cradle Of Filth- Darkly, Darkly Venus Aversa
Overkill- Ironbound
Black Label Society- The Order Of The Black

Yep, I'd say that pretty much sums it up! Now check 'em out!

Listen to the Show - Pictures

Recap by The Metal Wulf; That's right, kiddies, we were live on Christmas Eve! Hey, how often is this possible, really? I was glad to jump on the opportunity to spend a portion of the holiday hanging with these guys!

Had kind of a shaky start to the evening as we encountered some technical issues, but those were remedied with a minimum of panic. Tim had joined us once again, but when he arrived without the sports car that Joe wanted for Christmas, disappointment was pretty evident. Man, Joe was really lookin' forward to that Mazeratti, too!
Of course, it was a no-go as well when Joe mentioned that Tim could just hand him over the monetary equivalent. Poor Joe...

There was some concern over the appearance of my left eye expressed, and when I tried explaining the circumstances behind it, hilarity ensued.
Here's the deal: Bill and I had visited our parents for a bit before the show. Mom and dad have three cats, and Cotton is the only one of them who falls into the "friendly" category. Marmalade and Munch, well, you just take your chances with those two. I mean, it IS possible to catch them in a good mood, but...
Anyhoo, I'd been petting Cotton, and something in her fur caused an allergic reaction that affected my eye. What I'd said on the show was something like this:
"Whenever I pet her, I puff up..."
Now, there was a very brief moment of dead silence, followed by insane laughter from EVERYBODY! It was so bad that Joe had to jump right into a music set while we got ourselves composed.
It's really blown me away how that little statement just plummeted all of our minds straight to the gutter simultaneously, quite possibly right along with all of our listeners! Seriously, it was almost like one gigantic mental toilet flush!

Probably the greatest moment of the evening, though, was the arrival of Jeffie Claus! Yes, indeed, folks, Azkath has once again sent us a Jeffie unit, and for my part, I couldn't be any happier! My best friend is back and just as goofy as ever!
For some reason, the rest of the crew didn't seem as thrilled to have him back. There was even some suggestion that Christmas had been ruined! Well, at least Tim and I were happy to see him!

And to just give you an idea of how considerate Jeffie Claus is, he gave Joe's convertible to me and Bill as a Christmas gift!
And it was AWESOME! Wow, how did Jeffie know that Bill and I wanted to spend the wee hours of Christmas morning joy riding around Seneca County? We had sooooo much fun!
More on that when we return in a couple of weeks, though! Which, by the way, will be our Best Of 2010 show, so by all means check it out and find out what albums had the biggest impact on us in the past year!

Listen to the Show

Recap by The Metal Wulf; Another relatively quiet evening this week. Meaning, in a nutshell, there was no goofing around until somebody fell into a large, spiky houseplant.
Yeah, there are still scratch marks on my left ass cheek...

We had a pleasant surprise in the form of a visit from Tim Binder, who's back in the area to celebrate the holidays. Joe even played Giuffria's "Call To Your Heart" just for Tim, and I must say, I was a little shocked by the song choice, for a couple of reasons:

A. That has got to be the most commercial song I've EVER heard Joe play on the Onslaught. Geez, what's next, Bon Jovi? Shudder...
B. What the FUCK? He plays Giuffria, but consistently busts on my balls for liking Jackyl? DAMN!!!!

Okay, to be honest, no disrespect to Giuffria. I've heard far worse over the years, no doubt about that. But, Giuffria sounded a little too much like Journey, and as far as I'm concerned, you only really need one Journey. Still, on the plus side, they had a damned fine guitar player in Craig Goldy, who went on to kick some ass with Dio off and on over the years. Hell, the guy is one of the main reasons that Dream Evil is one of my favorite Dio records.
Still kinda burns my tush that playing Giuffria was somehow a lesser evil than Jackyl, though...

Tim actually surprised us all a bit when he admitted that he didn't own any Metallica releases. Well, he's got Ride The Lightning ripped to his laptop now, so here's to hoping he gains a new appreciation for their stuff. Seriously, Tim, ya can't go wrong with their first three albums. Must-haves, all of them!!!

In some of the more humorous moments of the evening, Joe had remarked on how quickly our topics of discussion can spiral downward into tastelessness. It's actually kind of frightening sometimes, I have to say. Of course, if people could hear some of the shit we discuss OFF the air...

Interspersed throughout the evening was some more sounds of the season, of course. We're building up for our Christmas show next week, after all! Yes, that is correct, the Onslaught will be on for your Christmas Eve listening pleasure! Just imagine the headbanging fun you can have while wrapping those last few gifts! I have a feeling this show's going to be more fun than usual, and it's also going to be our last show of 2010, so DON'T MISS OUT!!!

Listen to the Show

Recap by The Metal Wulf; This night saw us easing a little more into the holiday mode, as we featured some sounds of the season, just done a little on the heavy side! Hey, personally, I kinda like rockin' covers of Christmas standards!

Azkath and FMG were on hand once again, and once again things got a little fuzzy for me before the end of the night. Josh and Rick had both celebrated birthdays during the previous week, and for some reason at a couple points during the evening I was compelled to give Rick a birthday lap dance... Yeah, I know...EWWWWWWWWW!!!! I'm sure it was no picnic for Rick, either... Imagine my confusion, though, when I realized I wasn't fully dressed at certain intervals of the show. Azkath assured me that Bill had hypnotized me and suggested the whole lap dance thing, although everybody else insisted it was Azkath who had suggested it... But he'd NEVER do something like that to me! I'd swear to it!

Things got really out of hand at the end of the night, though, when people started delivering a beat-down on Bill, and for some reason I was once again compelled to dance for Rick. Rick fought back violently, though, and before I knew it I was being thrown toward the storage racks for WEOS's vinyl collection. Didn't quite hit the racks, though, as I tripped over a prone Bill, falling directly into the large, spiky-leafed plant in the corner, where I not only received scratches on my left butt cheek, but I also managed to smack the back of my head on a window sill... ...and also landed on Bill's head... Poor Bill...