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Top 10 best songs that don't have guitar solos

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We all know I insufferably give metal artists shit for abandoning guitar solos.  Exceptions to the rule as J-Dawg says.  If I should have to wonder if your band does solos or not, you're doing it wrong.  But every purple moon a song comes along that is so Mr. Perfect that I give it a pass.  Below are 10 songs that I feel are acceptable in this regard.  There will be more of a bias towards the 70s and 80s because that was when the solo-less song was the exception. 10. Castle Rat- Cry For Me They don't all have to be from the 70s, but strangely enough Castle Rat has the most 70's aesthetic out of any recent bands.  Solid Iommi like solos adorn the album, but this tense, dark ballad with it's needle sharp hook is bereft of any lead.  Concerning, but it's so strong that it works.  (but please don't make too much of a habit of it). 9. Pantera- Slaughtered As many God-tier riffs as Dimebag has laid to tape, when you think of him maniacally abusing whamm...
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Of Manor Mice and Magnolias.

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Artist rendition of core-cunts squawking "plant" at Castle Rat's rise while being nostalgic for nu-metal on TRL           Being a metalhead sucks sometimes.  The biggest reason it sucks is you think the world revolves around you and that you're opinion matters the most (which in my case, it does), when the reality is it couldn't be further from the truth.  Now I like to think my thoughts are a mixture of reasonability, and unreasonability.      One opinion I hold that I think is very reasonable is that metal should be just as big as any other genre in American pop culture.  At various points in time, for reasons correct and incorrect, it was.      Now the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, and Iron Maiden certainly never had the cultural currency of a Prince, a Michael Jackson or a Bruce Springsteen, but they were still major players.  They headlined arenas, had songs your average Joe Q fuck-face would kno...
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MOAR SPICY TAKES

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1. The term "classic rock" is dead:      90s and 00s bands can't and shouldn't be considered classic rock.  For one thing, they didn't have the small backlash period that 80s and 70s band did only to be re-curated under this new moniker.  It could be argued that grunge never "died," but more accurately it never went through a backlash period and those bands are still loved.  Fair enough, but Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Nirvana never has been, nor will it be, classic rock.  and I like those first two! 2.  Lars was right about the Napster, but...       ... he was a terrible spokesperson for the cause.  He should have picked Jason Newsted instead.  Granted in that timeline he takes so much abuse he leaves Metallica anyway, but at least there would be less bad juju surrounding Metallica considering he was forced out for the sake of the brand (which ultimately succeeded.  Stupid asshole posers). 3. Pantera was not cal...
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Iron Maiden's Best of the Beast: a 30 year retrospective

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          The greatest hits/best of album:  If there was ever a product of a bygone era, it's this.  For those of you born in, say, the mid 90s and onward, the greatest hits album was what people bought if a) they were new to a band and wanted to know which songs to start with, or b) only wanted the "hits" from a band.  Said hits were curated by the band, the band's leader, record company execs who think they know what's best, or some combination thereof.  It should go without saying that this was pre-internet, nevermind streaming.  Insert your own 1800s joke here.     Said collection could be a boost that provides new interest in a waning band.  It could turn out to be the product that provides a musician with the most consistent and largest pay cheque they can receive.  There was a long period of time where The Eagles first such compilation, titled Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)  was the highest selling r...
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Thoughts on Lovebites' Budokan live show:

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I bit the bullet and decided to live stream this.  Not live live but you know what I mean.  I peeked at the setlist ahead of time so I'd say I know 95% of it, just not 100% when and where. Let's go holy diving.... 1) First and foremost I am so happy and so proud of the ladies for selling it out. I was really nervous them announcing this show, as they are about to cross the "old" threshold, in age and band time. But they sold it out, and it likely bought them some time in the business. 2) The ladies are properly singing backup vocals rather than using a track, and they sound pretty good, although they were a little too low on Stand & Deliver (in register, not volume). 3) As a general rule, if the band isn't promoting a new album, the first three tracks of their shows should always be "The Awakening," "The Hammer of Wrath," and "When Destinies Align," in that order. 4) Speaking of new album, only two songs were performed from it,...
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