#jack starr

BraveWords Records Announce the New Jack Starr Solo Album,"Out of the Darkness Part II" will be Released April 25, 2025

Jack Starr talking about the new album, “This is the album I always hoped I would make, one that would be filled with power and glory but also melodic and passionate at the same time. This is the sequel to my 1984 album Out of the Darkness, and it truly is a worthy successor that I believe will be embraced with the same affection that greeted the original. So yes, Out of the Darkness Part 2 is here, and I urge everyone to listen to it. Keep the metal burning.”

Video for "Rise Up" from the album Out of the Darkness Part II: https://smarturl.it/jackstarr

Track Listing:

Hand Of Doom

Endless Night

Into The Pit

Rise Up

Underneath The Velvet Sky

Tonight We Ride

The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

Sahara Winds

The Greater Good

Soulkeeper

Savage At The Gate (Bonus Track)

The Lesson (Bonus Track)

Giles Lavery - Vocals (Warlord / Alcatrazz)

Jack Starr - Lead Guitar

Eric Juris - Lead Guitar (Warlord)

Gene Cooper - Bass

Rhino - Drums (Ex Manowar)

Guests Mark Zonder - Drums (Warlord ex Fates Warning)

Jimmy Waldo - Keyboards (Alcatrazz / Warlord / New England)

Produced and mixed by Thomas Mergler

Co-Produced by Giles Lavery & Jack Starr

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1967.

Jack Starr — Pain (Gimme Sympathy)

from discogs: 

“American rockabilly singer and songwriter from Dallas, Texas was a pioneer in lo-fi recording and no-budget filmmaking. He did most of his recording from 1958-68 in his mother's Dallas bathroom. Some of his songs were used as soundtracks to his homemade horror films which were confiscated by the Dallas Vice Squad years ago.

Born: 1942, Norton, Virginia Died: November 26, 1994, Dallas, Texas (age 52)

— it’s easy to imagine a young Jack White hearing this 

Monday, March 30: Virgin Steele, “Children of the Storm”

Virgin Steele: Guardians of the Flame (1983)

In my youth, I wouldn’t touch this album with a ten-foot pole -- or a ten-foot sword, for that matter -- but sheer nostalgia and that glorious fantasy cover art have me writing about it today.

Mind you, I still wouldn’t recommend Virgin Steele to most people, unless they have an unquenchable thirst for metal in all its forms; but I suppose the New York outfit did their small part to pioneer the neoclassical and power metal genres, or what they called “symphonic, romantic and bombastic” music.

Check, check and, uh, check!

All kidding aside, by the release of their sophomore album, Guardians of the Flame, in 1983, the young group already found themselves at a creative crossroads ...

Should they take the high road towards ambitious, castle metal fantasies with limited commercial potential, or embrace the vacuous brand of hair metal more likely to land them on the radio airwaves?

Guitarist Jack Starr certainly seemed partial to the latter, if brainless cuts like “Life of Crime,” “Metal City,” “Hell or High Water” and “Go All the Way” were any indication.

But then, his partner in crime, vocalist and keyboardist David DeFeis also seemed tempted by the pop metal demons, based on the anthemic “Don’t Say Goodbye (Tonight)” and big-ass ballad “A Cry in the Night.”

For what it’s worth, the two men actually saw eye to eye whilst collaborating on the album’s grandiose title track and the even more epic “The Redeemer,” while Starr managed to -- ahem! -- redeem himself on the unrepentantly metallic “Burn the Sun.”

So it’s not like there was an obvious and undeniable schism raging within Virgin Steele’s ranks (which, incidentally, were filled out by bassist Joe O’Reilly and drummer Joey Ayvazian), but something clearly had to give ...

And, sure enough, band founder Starr was summarily ousted the following year (replaced by Edward Pursino), launching a lengthy legal battle over the band’s name that eventually freed DeFeis to commit himself unconditionally to his so-called “symphonic, romantic and bombastic” heavy metal.