January 2012 | Music Junkie Press

RIP to one of the great Metal Guitarists, Mark Reale

January 27, 2012

Well, I heard the sad news of the passing of Mark Reale, founder and guitarist of the heavy metal band, Riot earlier this week. I was stunned since I had really hoped and prayed for his recovery from his coma resulting from complications with his Crohn’s Disease. Mark Reale was born June 7, 1955 and only at 20 created the band Riot which is still active today. In fact, in August 2011 they had completed the final mixing of their album hauntingly “Immortal Soul” and were soon touring. They were getting ready for another round of shows and Mark then suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage that resulted in a coma on January 11, 2012 in San Antonio, Texas. He remained in the coma and subsequently passed away on January 25, 2012. Mark Reale was often dubbed the Metal Warrior or one of the most underrated heavy metal guitarists. He really was incredible when he played. He was an excellent composer and created timeless metal music which would be enjoyed by many years to come. Mark’s bandmates [Read More]

David Rosales brings Hope and Love to feed your Soul with Smile.

January 25, 2012

SMILE by David Rosales. Music that brings Hope and Love to feed your soul and make you Smile. That is how I can describe the romantic and beautiful debut record, “Smile” by David Rosales. David brings together a well crafted arrangement of songs that highlights love, loss and life after. “Key to My Heart” is the first song I got to hear from the record and if ever there was a song where the vocals could touch your soul and bring the emotion of love to life, it is that of “Key to My Heart”. David’s vocals are like a safe haven for a warm heart and Olivia May’s vocals are the sweet touch of innocence wrapped in your arms. David expresses himself eloquently through his deep vocals and his storytelling as heard in ‘Wedding Day” or “All that you Love”. In “Wedding Day” , we are given a glimpse into the special day with his captivating lyrics such as “pedal covered soft parade”. The romance of true love dance through the lyrics and [Read More]

Vinyls are back and I don’t mean your couch!

January 4, 2012

I remember years ago when my oldest son Ryan was going through our CD collection and came across our box of Vinyl Records. I think it was maybe 4 or 5 years and he might have been 9 or so. He loved the big pictures and thought they were so “Cool” to hang on the walls of “his” garage. He was getting into Rock and Roll Music and had reclaimed our family garage as “Rockin’ Ryan’s Garage“. His musical Man cave, cross that out, BOY CAVE. It had guitars on the wall, a seven piece Pearl drum set that he got from his cousin Elyse and stacks and stacks of CDs and music magazines on the shelves. The little Rocker was born. He would listen to our Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt CDs but when he found this big box with these big pictures on it and we tried to tell him that is what we used to listen to for music, he thought the photos were so cool. We had organized lots of our CDs [Read More]

BlackBox 13 is hitting heavy with it’s Rock

January 1, 2012

Several of you have asked for more information on a couple of the bands from my Top Ten Bands of 2011 List. I wanted to formally introduce to a Kick Ass Rockin’ Band that hails from the city lights of Las Vegas. As you know the saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. Well if you get to see Black Box 13 you better not keep it a secret. This band is making headway fast in the hard rock scene even though they only formed in September of 2011. BlackBox 13 is Cory Kay, Joe Nassar, Joe Wiehl and Todd Turgeon. Talk about a perfect fit and jumping right into the fire. These guys definitely deliver. You have Joe Wiehl delivering powerful guitar riffs, Cory Kay with his pounding basslines, heavy hitting drumming by Todd Turgeon and top it off with the deep yet smooth vocals by Joe Nassar. These four guys came together and immediately began writing their own songs. It is a collaboration that has quickly paid off since they were [Read More]