Saturday, October 31, 2026
Happy birthday to Napalm Death guitarist Mitch Harris!
Joe Satriani guitar anniversary
Joe Satriani guitar anniversary
October 31, 2006: Joe Satriani - Satriani Live! (live album and DVD) - Red Ink Records
Joe Satriani - Made of Tears (from Satriani LIVE!)
Helloween power metal anniversary
Helloween power metal anniversary
October 31, 1988: Helloween - I Want Out (single from Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II)
HELLOWEEN - I Want Out (Official Music Video)
Germán Pascual hard rock heavy metal anniversary
Helloween power metal anniversary
Helloween power metal anniversary
October 31, 2005: Helloween > Keeper of the Seven Keys - The Legacy > 2005, 2CD, Victor (Japan, Limited edition, Digipak)
Wikipedia shows:
Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy is the eleventh studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 2005. It is the first album with new and current drummer Dani Löble and a continuation of their 1987 and 1988 albums Keeper of the Seven Keys, Parts I and II. The album is a double CD with nearly 80 minutes playing time and comes in a digipack with 6 flaps. It was produced by Charlie Bauerfeind (Blind Guardian, Halford, Rage) and features Blackmore's Night singer Candice Night on the track "Light The Universe". The album's opening track, “The King for a 1000 Years” is, to date, the longest song released by the band.
Helloween - Come Alive
Testimony of Apocalypse thrash groove metal anniversary
Testimony of Apocalypse thrash groove metal anniversary
October 31, 2025: Testimony of Apocalypse - Agony in the Garden - Roxx Records
"Testimony of Apocalypse brings brutal, high-energy metal with thrash, groove, and death elements in a progressive sound. Formed in 2021, their debut album, None Escape the Judgement (2022), featured Sacrament’s Michael Torone. The follow-up, The Offering (2023), showcased 10 guest vocalists. Now with Derek Corzine as frontman, their third album, Agony in the Garden, arrives in 2025." -Bandcamp
Agony In The Garden by Testimony of Apocalypse
Helloween power metal heavy metal anniversary
Helloween power metal heavy metal anniversary
October 31, 2010: Helloween - 7 Sinners - Sony Music
Wikipedia shows: 7 Sinners is the thirteenth studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 2010. A video clip for "Are You Metal?" was released 31 October 2010. The whole album could be heard on Myspace a week before the physical release. For the first time since 2000's The Dark Ride, each song on the album is a solo composition, i.e. each member has written both the music and lyrics to his song with no additional input from any other member. 7 Sinners sold 1,900 copies in its first week of release in the U.S.
HELLOWEEN - Are You Metal? (Official Music Video)
Stryper heavy metal anniversary
Stryper heavy metal anniversary
October 31, 2006: Stryper - Extended Versions (live album) - Sony BMG (Wikipedia date)
Makes Me Wanna Sing - Calling on You - Free - More than a Man - You Won't Be Lonely - Reach Out - The Way - Soldiers Under Command - To Hell with the Devil - Honestly/
The Metal Archives shows: Tracks 1-4, 6-10 are from "7 Weeks: Live in America", track 5 is a bonus track.
Therefore, this album is basically the May 18th, 2004 album: 7 Weeks: Live in America, except that 7 Weeks is longer with 14 tracks.
Stryper - Soldiers Under Command
Slechtvalk - Dutch black metal anniversary
Saxon classic 1980s British heavy metal anniversary
Saxon classic 1980s British heavy metal anniversary
October 31, 2025: Saxon > Strong Arm of the Law > 2025, CD, Cuervo Records (Reissue, Remastered) (reissue of 1980)
Wikipedia says about this album: Strong Arm of The Law is the third studio album by English heavy metal band Saxon. It was released in 1980, seven months after Wheels of Steel, and debuted on the UK chart at #11. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the album is a "building block of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal," calling the track Heavy Metal Thunder "genre defining." The title track, "Strong Arm of the Law," has been described as "hard-grooving" musically. According to guitarist Graham Oliver, the track was inspired by an incident where the band was driving in Whitehall and was subsequently pulled over and searched by the security detail of then British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. The album's final track, "Dallas 1 PM" concerns the assassination of John F. Kennedy. "We thought, 'Should we put one shot in there or should we put three?'" recalled singer Biff Byford. "In the end we went down the conspiracy theory route and had three shots."
Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law
Dawnbreaker - Ad Majorem Dei Glorium black metal anniversary
Iron Man - Maryland USA 1970s-style doom metal anniversary
Black Death - Cleveland, Ohio, USA heavy metal anniversary
Hellslaught - Seattle toxic nuclear waste night fires attack black thrash metal anniversary
Hellslaught - Seattle toxic nuclear waste night fires attack black thrash metal anniversary
October 31, 2025: Hellslaught: Violent Iconoclasm - Witches Brew
"Hellslaught plays stubborn, vicious and resolute blackthrash." -Hellslaught
ABOUT this metal-crazy band: Expect pure, mean, old-school black/thrash metal. The songs are wild, fast, heavy, and vicious, where sharp, melodic guitar solos cut right through the noise. The production is raw and organic. Imagine this band playing crazy metal mania under a freeway overpass, keeping warm with trash cans on fire and a bunch of wild, crazed dogs surrounding them, and now you know the music of Hellslaught. When these guys see you, they yell "Die!" and you yell back "Arrgh," and that's how the relationship works. Let's fight right now! Ain't no one safe from the Hellslaught metal! Come and get you some awesome black thrash from Seattle.
Violent Iconoclasm by Hellslaught
Happy birthday to guitarist Misha Mansoor!
Dawnbreaker - black metal anniversary
Believer - prog metal anniversary
Believer - prog metal anniversary
October 31, 2017: Believer — 3 of 5 (Single/EP)
Believer - 3 of 5 (FULL EP)
Wikipedia shows:
Believer is an American technical thrash metal band from Pennsylvania. Formed in 1986, the band plays a hybrid of thrash and progressive metal, and is also known for their innovative use of symphonic elements. Their lyrics deal with topics of philosophy, theology and social issues. The two primary members of the band are vocalist/bassist/guitarist Kurt Bachman and drummer Joey Daub, who were joined by several others after their 1989 debut album, Extraction from Mortality. The band was jointly signed to Roadrunner Records and the Christian label R.E.X. Music. According to AllMusic, several mainstream magazines praised their second album Sanity Obscure. The title track of Sanity Obscure was covered by Robert Prince for the video game Doom as the track "On the Hunt". The band toured the US and Europe with Bolt Thrower the following year. Believer disbanded in 1994; however, in 2005, Daub announced that he and Bachman reformed the band. They signed with Metal Blade Records in 2008, and released a fourth album, Gabriel, in 2009. Their fifth studio album, Transhuman, was released in 2011.
RAMONES - "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" - RAMONES trailblazing rock and roll discography
RAMONES - "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" - RAMONES trailblazing rock and roll discography
This is song number seven from the Ramones' debut studio album released on April 23, 1976 by Sire Records. It features minimal lyrics and fast-paced melodies.
The Ramones ignited a massive fire in all of rock music, making fast songs the general mode of operation—a 29-minute lightning strike against pretentious, bloated, self-indulgent rock (like ten-minute in-concert bass solos) and disco. They stripped away the blues, prog, and pretension to return to the upbeat, fast energy of young American 1950s rock and roll and early 1960s American upbeat girl groups. The Ramones delivered catchy, melodic, rapid-fire tempos, buzzsaw guitar chords, no look-at-me solos, and minimalistic lyrics. They were returning to the original spirit of teenage American rock and roll and its culture: leather jackets, ripped blue jeans, sneakers, bowl-cut hair, 1950s movie street gangs, greasers, juvenile delinquents, and the disaffected, bored, suburban teenage outcast. Johnny Ramone once said, "When you think of who punks are, they're greasers, people who didn't fit in, but they didn't back down either. Who above all, love America." To Johnny Ramone, anti-Americanism, anarchism, anti-patriotism, political violence, and resentment—all those types of discourse—were literally foreign to his American way of thinking, much like the way British punk rock completely misunderstood the Ramones.
Ramones - "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement" - Ramones
SAXON - "Militia Guard"- SAXON heavy metal discography
SAXON - "Militia Guard"- SAXON heavy metal discography
According to The Metal Archives, May 21, 1979 is the release date for self-titled debut album by Saxon. "Militia Guard" is song number eight. It is the last song on the album. Some sources say that singer Biff Byford and the band reflected in later years that songs like "Militia Guard" were inspired by a fascination with classic history, swords, and medieval lore. It stood out on their debut album because, while most of the record focused on street-level hard rock and motorcycling themes, "Militia Guard" laid the foundation for Saxon’s grander, epic storytelling style seen in later tracks like "Crusader".
Saxon - Militia Guard (2009 Remaster)
Megadeth - album anniversary Youthanasia
Megadeth - album anniversary Youthanasia
October 31, 1994: Megadeth anniversary - MTV airs Night of the Living Megadeth - Halloween party and celebration of the release of the album Youthanasia
While official release dates vary slightly by country (commonly listed as October 31 or November 1, 1994), October 31, 1994, was the date Megadeth hosted their famous "Night of the Living Megadeth" live broadcast on MTV to celebrate the release the Youthanasia album on Halloween night.
Megadeth - Reckoning Day
in memory of American Civil War Union General Adelbert Ames on his birthday
in memory of American Founding Father William Paca on his birthday
this date in Jewish history - thousands of Jewish people murdered in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
this date in Jewish history - thousands of Jewish people murdered in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
October 31, 1905 - "On October 31st, 1905, thousands of Jews lost their lives in violence that swept across Russia"
The following article is by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller from the website Aish dot com:
For most people October 31 is a day of parties and dressing up in costumes. But just over a century ago, October 31, 1905 was a tragic day, ushering in hundreds of pogroms that killed thousands of Jews across Russia. Crowds surged through the streets, yelling threats, destroying property, and murdering Jewish men, women and children with impunity.
The immediate cause of this seismic wave of violence was the October Manifesto, a declaration from Czar Nicholas II guaranteeing basic freedoms and political rights. Promulgated on October 30, 1905 (sometimes referred to as October 17 on Russia’s “Old Calendar”), the declaration came amid rising political turmoil and the threat of revolution. Instead of calming tensions, the manifesto led to huge demonstrations and riots in many Russian cities. Tragically, it was Russia’s Jews who suffered the most.
In the city of Odessa, crowds rushed into the street to celebrate the manifesto. One student recorded that “a joyous crowd appeared in the streets; people greeted each other as if it were a holiday.” Among the throngs were many Jews who believed the new laws would help grant them long-sought legal rights. But violent scuffles soon broke out.
As the mood in Odessa darkened, many Russians began turning on the city’s Jews with almost unimaginable sadism. At first, angry rioters beat Jews in the streets and ransacked the homes and businesses belonging to local Jews. The extreme right-wing anti-Semitic group, the Black Hundreds, entered the fray, encouraging pro-Czar Russians to blame Jews for their country’s ills. When a city official was shot dead, the surging crowds became enraged and attacks accelerated, turning into a violent pogrom that lasted several days. The police either turned a blind eye or eagerly participated in the attacks.
Eyewitnesses described Jews being thrown out of high windows to their deaths. Jewish children were murdered in front of their parents. Rioters targeted Jewish pregnant women, assaulting them and killing some by cutting open their stomachs. Parents were tortured by watching their children die. By the time the pogrom was over, over 400 Jews were dead and about 300 injured in Odessa alone.
October 31 saw hundreds of other pogroms across Russia, mostly in the south. 690 pogroms cost 4,000 Jews their lives; the wave of hatred and murder saw another 10,000 Jews injured.
In the Belarusian town of Rechysta, local Jews, many of whom belonged to Communist and Communist-Zionist groups, organized to defend themselves from murderous mobs. The threat of violence was high: local Black Hundred members issued warnings calling Jews “enemies of the Czar” and demanding Jews’ “extermination”. Police officers distributed rifles to townspeople, and a parish priest announced “the Jews should be killed to a man, since they want to overthrow the Czar.” Violence erupted in the town when some locals beat up Jewish businesswomen and ripped up the dry goods they were selling.
About twenty Jewish men organized and fought back, but were soon hopelessly overwhelmed. One Jewish fighter, Noi Geizentsveig, later explained, “We did not see the enemy during the skirmish, therefore we did not throw the bombs (the Jewish self-defense group had acquired) and responded by aimless shooting." The Jewish fighters were overwhelmed; local thugs shot and stabbed them, yelling “Here is your freedom!” and “Here is your constitution!”, references to the October Manifesto they blamed the Jews for bringing about.
Within hours, eight Jewish fighters were murdered and twelve were wounded. They were dragged to the town’s police station and locked up with no food, water, or medical care, dead fighters together with those still living. Later on, the fighters who were still alive were consigned to house arrest, denied medical care even though some were severely injured.
The final pogrom of the hundreds that started October 31, 1905 was in the town of Bialystok (in present day Poland). Eighty-two Jews were murdered in those few convulsive days of violence, and about 700 people were injured. Czar Nicholas II dispatched officials throughout Russia’s territory to report back on the pogroms, which dissipated nearly as abruptly as they began.
For many Russian Jews, the October 31 pogroms was proof that they had no future in Russia and spurred many to leave. One Russian Jew who fled was the famous Yiddish writer Shalom Aleichem. He and his family watched three days of pogroms overwhelm the Jewish community of Kiev from their hiding spots in one of the town’s hotels. When the violence was over, they hastily made plans to flee Russia, eventually moving to America.
On November 25, 1905, three weeks after the terrifying pogrom and just before he left Russia for good, Shalom Aleichem wrote to a friend in New York, Dr. Maurice Fishberg, begging him to use his influence with American Jews to encourage the United States not to help Czar Nicholas II (who was embroiled in the Russo-Japanese War and was looking for a loan). After watching his fellow Jews murdered in cold blood, Shalom Aleichem, like many Russian Jews, despaired of Jews’ future there. “Six million Jews” in Russia could be “murdered” there, the author wrote, in a long, impassioned letter about Russian politics and the war.
Over a century after the horrible spasm of violence that consumed much of Russia, we owe it to the many thousands of Russian Jews massacred in the pogroms of October 31, 1905, to remember their deaths and honor their memories.
Sacred Reich - Violent Solutions
RAMONES - "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" - RAMONES trailblazing rock and roll discography
RAMONES - "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" - RAMONES trailblazing rock and roll discography
"Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" is song number six from the Ramones' self-titled debut studio album released on April 23, 1976 by Sire Records. It is 95 seconds of buzzsaw guitar assault and fast-driving rhythm section with these lyrics in their totality: "Now I wanna sniff some glue / Now I wanna have somethin' to do / All the kids wanna sniff some glue / All the kids want somethin' to do" — with the ever-present theme of disaffected rock and roll kids being bored out of their minds.
Critics have observed that when the Ramones landed in London in July 1976, their raw, high-velocity sound was an immediate catalyst for young British bands: the Ramones showed them that rock and roll didn't need virtuosity or long guitar solos to be great. Young British musicians listening to the Ramones relentless pace literally sped up their own tempos overnight after they saw the Ramones blueprint.
Critics also have noted that the Ramones directly sparked the UK's DIY media movement. Excited after watching the Ramones perform at the Roundhouse on July 4, 1976, 19-year-old bank clerk Mark Perry launched Sniffin' Glue, borrowing the title straight from track six of the Ramones' debut album: with a typewriter, marker pens, and photocopies, it became the UK’s first seminal punk fanzine. Apparently, the British lack of a sense of humor caused moral panic in the mainstream British press. They took the cartoonish lyrics literally and framed punk as a dangerous influence.
All types of rock bands have been influenced by the Ramones, including Napalm Death, Metallica and others that have recorded covers of this particular song.
SAXON - "Still Fit to Boogie"- SAXON heavy metal discography
SAXON - "Still Fit to Boogie"- SAXON heavy metal discography
According to The Metal Archives, May 21, 1979 is the release date for self-titled debut album by Saxon. "Still Fit to Boogie" is song number seven on the album. I like the grit of this Saxon song! As the title of the song says, it is Saxon delivering some good ole classic rock blues heavy metal boogie hoedown rock and roll.
in memory of American Founding Father John Adams on his birthday
Friday, October 30, 2026
this month in Jewish history - mass violence, murder, persecution and rape against Jewish people in Kiev, Ukraine
this month in Jewish history - mob violence against Jewish people in Odessa, Ukraine
this date in Jewish history - mob violence, murder and persecution against Jewish people in Iran
this date in Jewish history - mob violence, murder and persecution against Jewish people in Iran
October 30, 1910: Shiraz pogrom or Shiraz blood libel of 1910 was a pogrom perpetrated in the Jewish quarter of Shiraz, Iran, on 30 October 1910, organized by the Qavam family
"Shiraz pogrom or Shiraz blood libel of 1910 was a pogrom perpetrated in the Jewish quarter of Shiraz, Iran, on 30 October 1910, organized by the Qavam family and sparked by accusations that the Jews had ritually killed a Muslim girl. In the course of the pogrom, 12 Jews were killed and about 50 were injured. Besides the casualties, 6,000 Jews of Shiraz were robbed of all their possessions. The event was documented by the representative of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Shiraz." -Wikipedia
Wikipedia also observes:
There has been a significant Jewish population in Iran for 2,500 years. Pogroms have not been unknown: In 1892, several Jews were murdered in Shiraz. Twenty Jews were murdered and three synagogues were burned down in 1897. Pogroms, forced conversion and expulsion swept Zarqon, Lar, Jahrom, Darab, Nobendigan, Sarvestan and Kazerun. Jamshid Sedaghat, a historian in Shiraz, has said attacks happened annually during the late 19th century, finally ending as a result of pressure from Europe. The last of these occurred in 1910.
Historical treatment of Jews in Iran would change depending on the ruler. However, it was described by historians that Jews were heavily mistreated and oppressed throughout the Safavid and Qajar eras. For example, in the middle of the 19th century, J. J. Benjamin wrote about the life of Persian Jews: "…they are obliged to live in a separate part of town…; for they are considered as unclean creatures… Under the pretext of their being unclean, they are treated with the greatest severity and should they enter a street, inhabited by Mussulmans, they are pelted by the boys and mobs with stones and dirt… For the same reason, they are prohibited to go out when it rains; for it is said the rain would wash dirt off them, which would sully the feet of the Mussulmans… If a Jew is recognized as such in the streets, he is subjected to the greatest insults. The passers-by spit in his face, and sometimes beat him… unmercifully… If a Jew enters a shop for anything, he is forbidden to inspect the goods… Should his hand incautiously touch the goods, he must take them at any price the seller chooses to ask for them... Sometimes the Iranians intrude into the dwellings of the Jews and take possession of whatever please them. Should the owner make the least opposition in defense of his property, he incurs the danger of atoning for it with his life... If... a Jew shows himself in the street during the three days of the Katel (qatl al-Husayn, or "murder of Husayn"; a Shi'a commemoration)…, he is sure to be murdered."
Kreator - People Of The Lie
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
in memory of rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis
in memory of rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis
October 28, 2022: RIP Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935 – October 28, 2022)
Wikipedia say: Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935 – October 28, 2022) was an American country music and rock and roll pianist, singer, and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. He later became known for his chart topping country music recordings from the 1960s and 1970s. "Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the Southern United States, but his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" shot Lewis to worldwide fame. He followed this with the major hits "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential".
Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
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