Rod T, in the house. Your heavy metal lubrication, a slip and slide, rock and rolla destination...and all that jazz. What is up people? Are the 10,000 fists in the air, or are we simply just sitting by waiting for the next hurricane to wipe us into the ocean? I, for one, am going to continue weathering the storm and contunue providing you all of the metal ramblings you can handle. I am the best damn metal scribe on the planet, and don't you EVA forget it! I am here....FOR YOU.

So this edition of 'D Nec will be all about the mailbox, the mailbag, that heaping sack of letters and cards burying your favorite metal scribe. I have managed to pull out a few of these and I want to publicly display my thoughts and answers regarding many of your questions. So let's drain the Vain and just "Move On It".

First question comes from Mark in Parts Unknown. He wants to know if the infamous "Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park" will ever be officially released. Well Markie, after much research and hours spent with cigs and caffeine I have found that YES, INDEED this film will reach the public on October 25, 2005, just in time for the tricks and treats. The format of course is DVD and it is being released through Cheezy Flicks Entertainment at a discount price. I would imagine you can pick up this hunka-retro-bad through the online stores or at your local Best Buy or Family Dollar. Money well wasted.

Next up is a question about THE ULTIMATE New Wave band Def Leppard. Sarah remembers at one time in the 80s it was mentioned that a "lost" Leppard album did exist and it was simply titled "Def Leppard". Okay Sarah, I think what you might be thinking about is the 1978 EP that was simply called "The Def Leppard EP". That one was a vinyl release featuring three cuts, "Ride Into The Sun", "Getcha Rocks Off", and "The Overture". Around the mid-80s a bootleg record did pop up called "First Strike". This one featured some live cuts and unreleased songs like "Heat Street", "See The Light", "Glad I'm Alive", and a demo of "Wasted". Ain't no f-f-f-Foolin'!

And speaking of New Wave giants, Chris wants to know who were the final three candidates for the Judas Priest frontman spot after Rob Halford left? Well, this wasn't widely posted until a couple of years after the release of "Jugulator", which of course featured one of the finalists in Tim Owens. The other two were Ralph Scheepers (Primal Fear, ex-Gamma Ray) and D.C. Cooper (Royal Hunt, Silent Force). On a side-note many thought that Priest recruited Owens after hearing the Winter's Bane album "Heart Of A Killer", which featured Owens on vocals. That isn't true. They heard a bootleg gig with Owens singing in a Priest cover band called British Steel. They flew him in to audition for the spot and hired him after he sang the first verse of "Victim Of Changes". Signed, sealed, and delivered!

Julie from Spokane, Washington is a big Lion fan. Lion was a fantastic melodic hard rock band that put out three records in the late 80s, "Power Love", "Dangerous Attraction", and "Trouble In Angel City". They are best known for their "Transformers" theme song which was used as the introduction for the popular 80s cartoon. Julie wants to know if vocalist Kal Swan did anything else other than Lion, and she also wants to know what Swan is currently doing. Well regarding Swan's current affairs, that is a Where Are You column waiting to happen. What I can tell you is that you are missing what is quite possibly Swan's finest hour in Bad Moon Rising. That band managed to carry on after Lion disbanded, releasing three albums in the early 90s. The group shined on their debut ST as well as follow-ups "Blood" and "Opium For The Masses". Frontiers Records just released all three of those in a beautiful deluxe digipak for a fair price of $18.00. Also you can find Swan singing on the New Wave album "Rough Justice", released by the band Tytan. That release was circa 1986 and featured former Angel Witch and Judas Priest members.

Ralo from Sweden tells me that he remembers an American movie that was about a young kid who gets switched with a businessman. I immediately thought of "Big" but he later tells me that it was not that film. Anyhoo, he remembers a cool hard rock band playing at a bar in the movie, and from what he can remember the band was called Mace but he can't be sure. He has looked into the Mace catalogue but it seems like that might be the wrong band. Well Ralo, here's the downlow! The movie is called "Vice Versa" starring "Wonder Years" main boy Fred Savage. The band.....L.A.'s "Malice".

Okay that is all for this nugget of old fashioned romper room fun. We've hit the boards and smacked around the New Wave, the face paint, and of course the big hair. I do have a question for you, my metal fanatic. Does anyone have the details regarding the death of Riot frontman Rhett Forrester? The man was probably one of the finest metal singers of all time and I simply can't find much information regarding his murder in 1994. Does anyone have any info on this?

And for future reading, I highly suggest all wrestling fans to check out www.bigvanvader.com for plenty of goods concerning the BEAST!!!!!!! VADER!!!

Lata!

RT