Our Recap Of Episode #13 Of Metal Morpheus On The Borderline!!

For our fourth post in as many days, let's try and get back on track for our recaps of episodes of Metal Morpheus, the weekly genre-centric radio show on local internet station The Borderline! We'll next look at episode #13 from September 26th, which was the second in a three episode run to focus on guitar mastery over sub-genres, this time for bands/songs with amazing guitar solos. Like last week, the episode started with a severely abbreviated intro & runs for well over an hour (almost 68 minutes), with host Josh Amendola kicking things off by looking at hard rock pioneers Deep Purple and founding guitarist Richie Blackmore with their Coverdale-era classic "Burn" (0:45). Next, Josh looks at one of their contemporaries, German legends The Scorpions and then-guitarist Uli John Roth via their early classic "The Sails of Charon" (7:55). The episode gets heavier next with Ozzy Osbourne and his original solo guitarist, the late Randy Rhoads.

From the Prince of Darkness, Josh plays his "Blizzard of Ozz" deep cut "Revelation (Mother Earth)" (12:35), and it's clear that Josh is a big fan of Randy's in the intro & outro! Listeners will next get Van Halen and late guitar icon/namesake Eddie Van Halen, from whom Josh plays their Roth-era cover of "Ice Cream Man" (20:55). NWOBHM legends Judas Priest follow with their speed metal classic "Painkiller" (25:50), featuring acclaimed dual solos from both K.K. Downing & Glenn Tipton, though neither gets mentioned by name, oddly. The second half of the episode leads off with the late great Dimebag Darrell courtesy of Pantera's classic "The Sleep" (32:50), followed by one of the big four of thrash, namely Megadeth, whose on-air song is "Tornado of Souls" (39:55) featuring the dueling guitar of Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman.

This episode's local content is next, courtesy of early 1990s glam metal quintet Amethyst with their song "Presence of Mind" (45:55) from their second & final album, 1994's "Innocent As Hell", featuring some solid lead guitar work by Jose "Wales" Temporao. That's followed by Black Label Society and their frontman/guitar god Zakk Wylde with their song "Stoned & Drunk" (51:25), while Josh begins to enter the home stretch by going more recent, including Finnish power/death metal band Children of Bodom and their late lamented singer/guitarist Alexi Laiho, whose song played on-air was "Follow The Reaper" (57:15). The last song of episode #13 is also via it's only instrumental act, namely progressive metal prodigies Animals As Leaders with guitarist Tosin Abasi, whose track here is "Song of Solomon" (1:02:25).

Another solid episode of Metal Morpheus with lots of entertaining metal & hard rock tracks to go around, and I think Josh did a good job picking out songs with quality guitar solos to showcase, with more consistent background info to boot! Sure, which solos are the "most" amazing will be very subjective, and you could easily go on & on taking songs/bands out and adding new/overlooked ones in, but different strokes for different folks. Josh's on-air hosting abilities and banter have definitely found a good animated groove, and genre/solo fans should find a lot to like in this episode, which you can hear at this link or above! Yes, we will be getting to more episodes soon, including the final of Metal Morpheus' three week guitar-centric trilogy next, but Josh does return to metal sub-genres for a couple weeks afterward, plus an intriguing themed episode from this past Sunday, all hitting the SMS in due course.

Tune in live to episode #18 on Sunday night at 9:00 PM on The Borderline, and all past episodes of the show are available to stream on demand via the station's website. That's all for today, but stay tuned for Halloween weekend concert previews on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!