The final performance of Judas Priest’s “Epitaph World Tour” in May 2012 provided the perfect opportunity to offer a live video celebration of 40 years of metal.

The seasons haven’t officially changed until you’ve cranked up a favorite version of this warm-weather classic. An epic live retelling of “Summertime Blues” by Blue Cheer — available here as an exclusive advance stream — should do the trick.

Too often, Queen has become the sum of its over-stated parts — the operatic singer, the layered vocals, the anthematic balladry. What’s lost is the group’s ability to unleash round house after round house of knuckle-sandwich heavy rock.

Gene Simmons confirms that Eddie Van Halen, frustrated over his relationship with David Lee Roth, approached him about joining Kiss in the early 1980s. The timing was right, too, as Simmons and Co. were working without a guitarist on Creatures of the Night.

With the sad anniversary of Ronnie James Dio’s death some three years ago comes an opportunity to return to a muscular concert offering that finds him near the peak of his solo powers.

At Live Oaks Bar and Ballroom, Monroe, La.: I’ve seen Tom Keifer a few times over the years with Cinderella, mostly in arenas and ampitheaters, and always left happy.

I’ll grant that I’m only a casual fan of Five Finger Death Punch. I kind of liked the anger and heaviness of their first record Way of the Fist, but my interest waned.

Black Sabbath’s cameo last night on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” included the television debut of “End of the Beginning,” a song from their upcoming reunion disc 13.

It will come as no surprise to many Queensryche fans that the weakest link in Geoff Tate’s version of the band may be Tate himself.

In 1993, I had little to no interest in Shotgun Messiah. I considered them one of the also-rans of the late 1980s glam metal scene. Their previous two albums hadn’t connected with me