It’s been awhile since we rocked out, eh? I say we ease back into it with some Occult Rock. Our vehicle for this blasphemous journey will be Austin, Texas’ Ancient VVisdom. Formed in 2009 they put out their debut full-length, A Godlike Inferno, in 2011. I’ve got two official videos for songs off that album lined up ahead.

Liberty N Justice are an all-star Hard Rock-project run by Justin Murr. Although Liberty N Justice are only quite famous within the Christian Metal world, some big names have collaborated, also from ‘outside’. Examples are Lou Gramm (Foreigner), Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row) and Robert Fleischman (Journey). They released a string of four albums and one EP called Chasing a Cure, of which all profits go to epilepsy research, a great cause of course.

The news for today is the release of the first song of their upcoming fifth album called Hell Is Coming For Breakfast, which is due somewhere this year. The song is called Stretch Armstrong, and it rocks! The lyrics are a bit dumb, but the song’s really catchy and there’s a goofy video coming with it. Anyways, it’s pretty good fun to watch and listen to Stretch Armstrong and worth your time!

I know, I know, some people will not be happy with what I’m about to write, but this groups debut has had seven spins in total in the past week, so I didn’t want to keep this to myself. Walking With Kings are a four piece Hard Rock / Heavy Metal outfit from the States, which features frontman Terry Chism, ex-Stuck Mojo/ex-Adrenaline Mob guitarist Rick Ward, ex-Stuck Mojo drummer Frank Fontsere (the latter two were also in Heavy Metal band Fozzy), and last but not least ex-Furyon bassist Simon Farmery. One hell of a long list, but some (semi-) great names are to be spotted, which means that Walking With Kings should be blowing some people’s minds here.

Although one would expect some Rap Metal to be made here, but I advise you to look towards Bon Jovi, and other Modern Hard Rock outfits. I’d like to say that if the overly melodic approach, and blatantly Christian lyrics put you off, don’t just walk away, because this really is good stuff. I didn’t like it at first either, but now it’s on non-stop.

Yeah I know, the last supper wasn’t on Boxing Day and there weren’t any Jack Daniels shirts at the time either, but I still thought this vid to be appropriate for today. After all, Boxing Day, or Second Christmas Day as we call it in the Netherlands, is a day off because of a Jesus-related celebration. And the dude’s in this vid too. That’s a big enough bridge for me.

Anycock, what it’s really about of course is the band entertaining the last supper guests, a UK band called Blue Origin. I know pretty much nothing about their history, but if they played to Gesus, they must be pretty friggin’ old. What I do know is that they’ve got four EP’s out since 2007 (technically one’s a demo) and they’ve recently released a single.

Today we’re having something that has totally, and yes, I mean totally, nothing to do with Metal. However, I still wanted to share this with you guys, and no worries, I’ll make sure you get your daily portion of Metal next to this as well. Dark Suns started out as a Progressive Metal band in 1997, but they somehow watered down to a Progressive/Alternative Rock-outfit, a bit in the fashion of Queens of the Stone Age. The only difference is that I like the former, and I don’t like the latter.

I actually arrived at Dark Suns via Alcest. I was hoping to get something similar, but it turned out to be something different. The style of Rock Dark Suns pump out is very varied and it’s certainly pleasant to listen to. On top of the Alternative/Progressive influences, there are some Funk influences as well. Totally worth a spin or more.

Another issue in the Rockin’ Out series! It’s the series started by Byrd36 to show the appreciation we Metalheads have for Rock, in all its shapes or forms as long as they are ”good”, as a genre that helped breed our beloved Metal. That doesn’t mean we only look at the stuff that’s gold and old, but instead we appreciate that Rock has grown in all of its own directions. That means that if it’s good, heartfelt and not by default meant to make fuckloads of cash, we potentially like it and potentially cover it.

Well fuck me sideways then, ‘cause today I’ve got something I pretty much instantly fell in love with. It’s by an Indian band named Goddess Gagged, pushed on to us by press release by India’s number one Metal musician and Demonstealer Records head honsho, Demonstealer. Demonstealer is already known for his good tastes – he likes hamburgers too we hear – but with this he managed to double our belief in his knack for finding and supporting pure goodness.

Today we’re rockin out to a new gem from the States. Darlings of the Underground (what a name) deliver us Hard Rock with a fresh sound. Their first single Panzer is catchy, solid and promising.

And from the underground they are! You’re asking for background information? Take a look on their website. Nothing. They come from Charlotte, North Carolina. No, but seriously. The Darlings are in fact a bunch of really nice guys. When I asked drummer Neel Jadeja for some information he was kind enough to provide me with some detailed information.

This time in Rockin’ Out, we’re not going to listen to some new Hard Rock outfit from nowhere, but we’re going back in time, when Metal and Hard Rock made the most sleazy and dirty type of music we’ve come up with until today. Glam Metal was born!

Ah, Soundgarden. I’m pretty sure that anyone who’s listened to any heavy music or even just Rock radio in the past sixteen or so years has heard of them, thanks to Black Hole Sun. That song alone isn’t responsible for their wide-spread success, several songs from the Superunknown and Down on the Upside albums enjoyed lots of radio play. That’s not what we’re diggin’ into today.

Many people don’t realise that the band formed waaayyyy back in 1984. Nearly a decade before the height of the Grunge movement they’re usually associated with and the release of the songs they’re best known for. So, today we’re going one album back from Superunknown to 1991′s Badmotorfinger, my personal favorite Soundgarden album.

I’m struggling here. With what to call this band. Wiki states ”Eye Empire is an American Rock supergroup”. “Rock”, you read. But listening to their material this stuff seems pretty borderline to me. Sure, there are primarily clean vocals, but really, the use of clean or unclean vocals says nothing about stuff being Metal or not. But then I wouldn’t know what would pull this band into either of the two sides.

Can we even speak of two sides? Isn’t it a continuum? A continuum in which these guys are just somewhere in between some roughly defined areas? Probably so. But, ‘cause I’m lazy and because my balls shrink from too much philosophical discussion, we’ll just have to go with the Wiki definition: it’s Rock. And that, dear children, makes it suitable for our Rockin’ Out series!

The rules are simple: Metal sprung from Rock, hence we appreciate Rock. In the Rockin’ Out series we pay tribute to it even. If it’s Rock – and if it’s not of that über-commercial four-chord ramming crap – it fits here!