Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Metal on Ice Tales from Canada's Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Heroes by Sean Kelly Metal on Ice: Tales from Canada's Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Heroes by Sean Kelly. March 2, 2021, 2 months ago. news sean kelly hard rock. Guitarist Sean Kelly (Lee Aaron, Helix, Honeymoon Suite, Gilby Clarke, Crash Kelly) published his first book, Metal On Ice, in 2013 via Dundurn Press. Subtitled, Tales From Canada's Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Heroes, it offered a new perspective on the dreams of musicians shooting for an American ideal of success and discovering a uniquely Canadian voice in the process. Now in 2021, Sean Kelly is hard at work on his next, as yet untitled book. The Toronto native has checked in with the following update: "I am currently in the midst of writing my second book, and it has really filled me with a sense of what I value in music, and in life in general. I can't tell you how fortunate and blessed I feel to have the opportunity to play the music I love both WITH and FOR good friends. Artist and audience really are two sides of the same coin, and the friendships I've been honoured with are the great reward for this lifelong pursuit. These have been difficult times, but they have also been very fruitful in terms of creativity. I just wanted to send a note of gratitude to all of my friends out there who share the love of music with me. I truly hope that the wealth of incredibly talented young artists out there find a similar satisfaction in their own pursuits. To borrow a line from Kim and Pye, music is the luck of friends!" Metal on Ice: Tales from Canada's Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Heroes by Sean Kelly. April 23, 2021, a month ago. news sean kelly alice cooper lee aaron crash kelly riff notes. Guitarist Sean Kelly (Lee Aaron, Helix, Coney Hatch, Trapper, Gilby Clarke, Crash Kelly) published his first book, Metal On Ice, in 2013 via Dundurn Press. Subtitled, Tales From Canada's Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Heroes, it offered a new perspective on the dreams of musicians shooting for an American ideal of success and discovering a uniquely Canadian voice in the process. Now in 2021, Sean Kelly is hard at work on his next, as yet untitled book. The Toronto native has checked in with the following update: "I'm deep into writing my second book, and I'm in a very reflective state of mind. I've been blessed with a wonderful career. Incredibly lucky. I'm so grateful for the influence of artists like Alice Cooper. He and his crew were so generous to us on this tour, and the experience prepared me for the things that followed. I can't describe the thrill of playing night after night with this legend, and the great guys who made up the Crash Kelly band at the time. Pictured here with me and Alice are Jordan Sane and Kevin Taylor from that lineup." Following is Kelly's announcement that he is following up Metal On Ice: "I am currently in the midst of writing my second book, and it has really filled me with a sense of what I value in music, and in life in general. I can't tell you how fortunate and blessed I feel to have the opportunity to play the music I love both WITH and FOR good friends. Artist and audience really are two sides of the same coin, and the friendships I've been honoured with are the great reward for this lifelong pursuit. These have been difficult times, but they have also been very fruitful in terms of creativity. I just wanted to send a note of gratitude to all of my friends out there who share the love of music with me. I truly hope that the wealth of incredibly talented young artists out there find a similar satisfaction in their own pursuits. To borrow a line from Kim and Pye, music is the luck of friends!" Metal On Ice – A book review. As we saw in the last two posts, hard rock and heavy metal were a driving force behind the success of Canadian bands beyond the national border. While some bands fared better than others, the world – meaning mostly Western Europe, parts of the United States, and Japan – were becoming acquainted with hard and heavy sounds from Canada. Canada’s love for heavy music was surely obvious by the eighties as several bands paid homage to heavy rock fever. Anvil’s anthem “Metal on Metal, Helix’s party rock hit “Heavy Metal Love”, Kick Axe’s “Heavy Metal Shuffle”, Killer Dwarfs’ “Heavy Metal Breakdown”, White Wolf’s “Metal Thunder” and Lee Aaron’s “Metal Queen” all offered different takes on what heavy metal meant and sounded like to them and nearly all of these songs reached the radio waves and late night video programs. Add to that the debut album by Sword, “Metalized”, and there’s no doubt that Canadians loved their metal. In spite of the fact that Canadian rock had made great headway through the seventies and into the early eighties, there were still great hurdles for bands to overcome. As many bands discovered, deals with record labels didn’t guarantee their albums would make them superstars. And as the nineties began, a lot of bands who had fought hard to achieve some degree of international success and play in the big arenas found themselves back in the bars as grunge made metal subgenres like thrash and glam passé almost overnight. The story of the Canadian heavy metal band in the eighties has been wonderfully retold in a book by musician Sean Kelly (Crash Kelly, Helix, Nelly Futardo). Metal On Ice: Tales from Canada’s Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Heroes takes the reader on a journey from fandom to budding musician, to bar band to debut album, to arena band to canned band wondering what to do next. Kelly interviews over a dozen Canadian hard rock and heavy metal musicians about their early days in their respective bands, their experiences in making their way to the peak of their success and what happened after the grunge explosion hit plus where they are at now and how they look back on the eighties and early nineties. There are stories of harrowing winter road travels packed in a small touring van and the wild lifestyle that evolved around glam metal in particular. While the book doesn’t expound upon episodes of gratuitous debauchery, certain suggestions of youth-gone-wild are mentioned where artists are willing to offer a little insight. More importantly are the common trials shared by Canadian bands trying to make the big time. For this book – remarkable for its subject matter (how many other books can you name that deal with the subject of Canadian hard rock and metal?) – Kelly interviews members of Coney Hatch, Helix, Headpins, Haywire, Harem Scarem, Slik Toxik, Sven Gali, Voivod, Sword, Lee Aaron, Sacrifice, Killer Dwarfs, Razor and more. Plus he recounts his own experiences as a youth first exposed to heavy metal, learning to play the guitar, the life on Younge Street, Toronto, and his own pursuit of heavy metal-dom into the nineties. It makes for a very entertaining read if you were/are a fan of Canadian hard rock and metal. That last point – the Canadian one – is very important because there is a strong sense of Canadian identity running throughout the book. Near the end, musicians are asked if being Canadian had any influence on their lives on the international scene and how they were regarded or treated as Canadian musicians abroad. Finally, the book ties in the heavy metal arena with the hockey arena; musicians share their thoughts on how hockey and heavy metal are related in Canada and how the relationship is reflected in the life of a Canadian rocker. If there are any cautionary points to make about this book, then there are three that I noticed. The first is that this is a very Canadian book and perhaps Europeans will be sympathetic but I suspect some Americans might be less so. As a Canadian who is proud of his country’s hard rock, heavy metal, and progressive rock output, I felt a glow of pride often while reading the book. But Canadian pride is often and personal thing and not something we shout about to the rest of the world. So I felt it would be a little humbling to sit next to an American reading this book. The second point is that this book is very Ontario/Toronto-centric. I felt most bands mentioned were from Ontario or on the periphery but western bands in particular received less mention. Not something to really complain about however as there was plenty for me to learn about from a Torontonian’s perspective. And it’s thanks to this book that I learned muscleman Thor was from Vancouver! Furthermore, Mr. Kelly’s life experiences as a metal head in the eighties are not so far from mine (we are only a year apart in age), and as Toronto’s Younge Street became like the Sunset Strip of the North, it was interesting to read about. My biggest warning to any potential reader, however, is that you may feel tempted to go add some Canadian metal albums to your collections, and finding some of these like Sven Gali and Slik Toxik means tracking down expensive collector’s copies or finding used CDs in excellent condition. This means it can be a little expensive to satisfy the craving for Canuck metal that this book encourages. Metal on Ice: Tales from Canada's Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Heroes by Sean Kelly: Excerpt. There is another component to the story of Canadian hard rock and heavy metal outside of our national border. It is the story of individuals or bands who took their shot at the dream by making a move to the U.S. to cultivate and develop their craft and their music. At the heart of this decision was the concept of perceived opportunity, with America being the neon sign glowing in the distance, the oasis in the desert of the frustration of their hopes and dreams. There was a “scene” happening in the Mecca of American entertainment, Hollywood, built on the refinement, co-opting, and general “glamming up” of the hard and heavy music of the early eighties. The warm climate and allure of the Californian lifestyle that was the heart of the Sunset Strip in Hollywood was a magnet for hard rock musicians from all over the U.S. and Canada. New York also had a harder, tougher East Coast version of that scene. Toronto had a similarly inspired movement, an almost perfect blend of L.A.’s pomp and hair metal circumstance and New York’s brash leather and FU attitude. These scenes were also mimicked in other major U.S. locales. Even Seattle, the city that would ultimately sound the death knell for the hair metal movement in the early nineties, had its share of flashy metal attitude. Early photos of Alice in Chains and Mother Love Bone (which featured members of Pearl Jam) betray glam metal roots. Peterborough, Ontario, native Sebastian Bierk, better known to the world as Sebastian Bach, is perhaps the world’s most genetically gifted hard rock singer, his golden locks seemingly untouched by time and a voice like manna from rock ’n’ roll heaven. His move from the Toronto scene to the U.S. to hook up with Detroit rockers Madam X ultimately led to his most famous position as lead vocalist for multimillion-selling rockers Skid Row, a band that topped the U.S. Billboard charts with its sophomore album Slave to the Grind and ultimately proved to be the act by which all other acts were measured in the commercial “last kick” of hard rock in the eighties. I asked my good friend and noted heavy metal journalist Aaron Small to share a brief history of the man he considers to be “Canada’s Metal Ambassador.” Although vocalist Sebastian Bach was born in Freeport, Bahamas, he was raised in Peterborough, Ontario, and cut his teeth in Toronto bands Winter Rose and Kid Wikkid. A prominent figure in the local scene, Baz (as he’s nicknamed) gained worldwide notoriety when he relocated to New Jersey and joined Skid Row. Their self-titled debut was released in 1989 via Atlantic Records and spawned three hit singles: “Youth Gone Wild,” “18 And Life,” and “I Remember You.” These were songs that fans the world over instantly identified with. The album has since been certified five times platinum in the United States, selling in excess of five million copies. The follow-up, Slave to the Grind , was released in 1991 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, spearheaded by much heavier songs including “Monkey Business” and the title track. Sebastian’s success was so great that he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine later that year. As front man for Skid Row, Bach led his group around the globe, touring with the likes of Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Aerosmith, and Guns N’ Roses, in addition to countless headlining gigs of their own. Whether in Los Angeles, London, or Tokyo, Sebastian never forgot his Toronto roots and when the iconic Gasworks on Yonge Street was in danger of being shut down, Baz led a fundraiser to try to save the hallowed institution; sadly, it’s no longer around. After one more Skid Row album, 1995’s Subhuman Race , Sebastian would embark upon a solo career that saw him become a multi-faceted star. That instantly recognizable and absolutely unforgettable voice landed Baz on Broadway, with starring roles in Jekyll and Hyde and The Rocky Horror Picture Show . The transition to television was seamless with a recurring role on the hit series Gilmore Girls as well as numerous appearances on MTV and VH1. A larger-than-life personality with a terrific stage presence, Sebastian Bach may live in the land of the Stars and Stripes, but he carries the Maple Leaf with him wherever he goes. Canadian Legends To Take Part In ‘Metal On Ice’ Live Show. Billboard charting guitarist Sean Kelly is excited to announce the official ‘Metal On Ice’ CD release show, scheduled for Saturday, May 10th at The Opera House in Toronto as part of Canadian Music Week 2014. “I wrote a book to honour my hard rock and heavy metal heroes,” says Kelly. “Through the help of our fans and Pledge Music we turned up the volume with an amazing new EP, and now it’s time to crank the amps, stack the speakers, and put on the loudest book release party in history! The Metal On Ice concert is going to bring the passion of the book and EP to life through an evening of great songs and killer performances… Get your metal on. ” The CD release show will feature the album’s participating artists Brian Vollmer (Helix), Carl Dixon (Coney Hatch), Darby Mills (The Headpins), Lee Aaron, and Nick Walsh (Slik Toxik), along with host Christopher Ward (former MuchMusic VJ) and the author/musical director of the night, Sean Kelly. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, March 7th, at Ticketmaster. On October 29th, 2013, Coalition Music released ‘Metal On Ice: Tunes From Canada’s Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Heroes’, the companion EP to Kelly’s book of the same name. The ‘Metal On Ice’ EP features illustrious Canadian artists Brian Vollmer, Carl Dixon, Darby Mills, Lee Aaron, Nick Walsh and Russ Dwarf (Killer Dwarfs) performing new versions of classic songs from the 1980s. As a special bonus for fans, the EP also includes title track “Metal On Ice”, a brand new song featuring Vollmer, Aaron, Mills, Dixon and Walsh. “Guitauthor” Sean Kelly’s book ‘Metal On Ice’ has received accolades from the music press and fans since its release last fall. “For those of you who are fans of Canadian ’80s rock this is a real page turner… highly recommended!” commented Brighton Rock guitarist Greg Fraser. The book reached the #1 spot on Amazon Canada’s ‘Best Sellers in Heavy Metal Music’ section, and was selected as one of iTunes Canada’s ‘Best Books of September (2013)’. In 2013, a successful PledgeMusic campaign for the Metal on Ice project reached 112% of the target fundraising goal, thanks to international fan support.