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March 7th 2011, Los Angeles CA: VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show", the talk show based on classic rock and metal hosted by Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson, and featuring some of the most legendary names in rock 'n roll history, stayed in Los Angeles for yet another season. It kept to a full one-hour duration, and continued having a guest musician for each show, only this time with a bassist performing on the show for the first time ever, the one and only Billy Sheehan. Having missed the tapings for Season 6 completely due to scheduling conflicts, I'd been waiting for the Season 7 tapings for quite a while, so as soon as VH1 invited me to attend, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

Day 1: March 3rd was the first day of taping, during which they filmed two episodes. The first taping featured Chris Jerico and Yngwie Malmsteen. This will be episode #4, to be aired on April 9th. The show was extremely funny and it was great to have a brilliant guitarist like Yngwie on the show for the first time since season 1 which aired back in 2008. The second taping of the day however, featuring Ace Frehley and Billy Sheehan, turned out to be the funniest episode I have ever seen on TMS. Billy Sheehan is my favorite bassist of all time and I enjoyed every minute of his interview, but I am convinced that there isn't an interviewee out there funnier than Ace Frehley. In addition to his pearls of wisdom that had the audience in splits, he pulled off some other hilarious antics but I'll let you discover those for yourself, when the episode airs on March 26th. Guest guitarist for these two shows was Gilby Clarke.

Day 2: Duff McKagan was back on TMS and for the first time ever, Glen Hughes of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath fame, for episode #5 which has an air date of April 16. They had some very cool stories to share from their past experiences, and it's always interesting to see the two guests interact with each other to discuss how and when their paths crossed at some point in the past. The second taping of the day featured Carmine Appice and Dave Meniketti, also making their first ever appearances on TMS. I thank the folks in charge of this show for bringing these two hugely underrated legends on the show, giving us a chance to witness a pretty rare interview. Performer for this show was Billy Sheehan, and out of all the guest musicians I've seen on the show thus far, the response he got from the studio audience was by far the best.

Day 3: The line-up for the third day of taping promised to be a mouth-watering affair for any metalhead like myself, but unfortunately due to a scheduling conflict I couldn't attend this. It featured, for the first time on TMS Kirk Hammett and Uli Jon Roth for episode #1, airing on March 19th, while the second taping was with David Coverdale and another returning guest from Season 1, Lita Ford. The air date is April 2nd and the guest musician for these shows is Doug Aldrich.

Day 4: Having missed day 3, I was eagerly waiting for day 4, specially because Paul Gilbert was the performing musician. Again, I have nothing but words of gratitude for the makers of the show for getting on board two of my favorite musicians in the same season as performers. I suggest them to also have Paul Gilbert as a featured guest next time. As for the featured guests today, the first taping had Matt Sorum along with Cherie Currie from the Runaways, with Jim Norton thrown in the mix as well. Besides being an incredibly cool talk show, this episode was greatly enhanced when a surprise guest joined the show, as the studio audience went absolutely wild. Check out the episode on April 23rd to find out how it was! The last taping for this season brought Sebastian Bach and returning to the show, Lips and Reiner from Anvil. Bach came across as highly energetic, and was perhaps the best this season in terms of his interaction with the crowd.

All in all, this season surpasses the previous six, and each episode brings something worthwhile for every fan of this genre of music. The "Stump The Trunk", "TMS Top Five", and "Throwdown" segments also brought some entertaining moments to the show, making it all the more fun for the audience watching at home. But as for the studio audience, some of them unnecessarily lose their patience and try too hard to assert their opinion, as was the case with a guy we now know as "the Manowar brother". On the first day of taping, he was absolutely adamant for Manowar to win the TMS Top Five, so much so that the director had to stop the show just to shut him up. For all the other tapings that followed, the director sure enough prayed to God that the Manowar brother wouldn't show up.

I'm fully aware of the common criticism this show often gets, for not featuring some of the younger names in rock 'n roll, or the extreme sub-genres of metal. I can understand where these people are coming from, but I feel this criticism is totally unfair, because this is a show on VH1 Classic, and has to cater to a certain audience. They never promised this as the quintessential, be all and end all of metal show, but rather a show that focusses on the classic bands. For me it's a delightful throwback to the old school, something I certainly don't find on any other show.

My only criticism of the show though is the repeat appearances of the guests. I fully acknowledge the fact that they brought back Yngwie, Lita Ford and Ace Frehley to the show, because they appeared on Season 1, when not many people knew about the show. So it was like a "thanks for showing the faith in us". As for the other guests that returned to the show, I have absolutely nothing against them and I love them all, but as they were filming the show in LA, in the land of musicians, they could have easily called musicians who've never been on the show before. Other than that, I loved every minute of the TMS Season 7 tapings I got to witness.

A highly enjoyable throwback to the old school of rock 'n roll.

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