Editors note: This 2014 best of list is from Johnny Legion’s lead guitarist, Zombilly.
You can keep up with the band and Zombilly at:
I am honored to have been asked to write up my top 5 favorite albums of 2014 for Badass Concert. Although I feel like my list will be vastly different than most other’s contributions. Whenever I think of my favorite things, whether it be my favorite movie in a franchise or album from a band, it’s usually pretty far out of left field in comparison to the norm.
Anyway, without further ado, I bring to you my top 5. I might as well start it with what most may think is the oddest choice. These are in no specific order; just the albums that impacted me the most this year.
Body Count – Manslaughter
Ice-T’s rap/metal band of 22 years has came back with a pretty awesome album that has some great guitar riffs and beats that go from Gangsta Rap, Rock, Thrash and Punk Rock. I feel like when most think about rap/rock, they go back to Run DMC who was famous for sampling rock sounds without adding much more structure than that. This is a well thought-out album, which with a slight change in subject matter and some added screaming vocals, would be passable as a standard metal album.
*Favorite song – Institutionalized
Fozzy – Do You Wanna Start a War
“That band with the wrestler?” YES! YES! YES! The Chris Jericho fronted band named after a Muppet. The band started out as a joke. Jericho was named Mongoose McQueen and they did a bunch of 80’s metal songs. Then they decided to get a little more serious and write their own music. Fozzy has always had a few cool songs on their albums but it wasn’t till their latest effort that they found the sound that portrayed what the band should really sound like. Instead of writing what was expected of them, they threw out all inhibitions and had fun writing and it really shows this time. It’s their highest charting album and had a top 5 song for strippers to dance to with ‘Lights Go Out’. The only song not to be in the hip-hop or pop genre.
*Favorite song – Brides of Fire
Wednesday 13 – Undead Unplugged
Wednesday is best known as the dead rocker from Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Tripp Eisen’s (Static-X) Murderdolls. The lyrical content has always been laced with Horror movie themes surrounded by heavy Glam, Punk and Metal influences. This album takes songs spanning his entire catalog and turning them into dark and haunting acoustic versions. Go outside on a chilly night with a candle and a boombox and tell me that this album won’t entice a few scares.
*Favorite song – Welcome to the Strange
Steel Panther – All You Can Eat
America’s biggest party band is at it again. They sound like Van Halen and Motley Crue except where those bands’ songs were just about girls, Steel Panther’s are about getting STDs from them and snorting cocaine off of their buttholes. I’ve been a fan of this band since their old Hollywood days, before they hit the mainstream. When they released their first album, I couldn’t help but continue to be entertained. Then they released their second album. I was pretty disappointed with that one. I saw them live last Halloween and got a sneak peak of their new song ‘The Burden of Being Wonderful’. Not to mention, I got to be in the music video. Needless to say, it brought me back and I’m happy to say their new album is part of my top 5.
*Favorite Song – Gloryhole
Powerman 5000 – Builders of the Future
With this album, PM5K came back from what many people thought, the dead. Their shows have been drawing bigger crowds than they have in the last number of years. In all actuality, the band never really went anywhere, still producing new albums every couple of years. Sure for a few of those, they lost the Rockets and Robots but now it’s back and for whatever reason, this is the album that got people to start to notice them again. ‘Builders’ is a fun and heavy album helping keep Evil Disco alive.
*Favorite song – How to be a Human
Zombilly
Johnny Legion
