ROCK/METAL, etc:
ABIGAIL'S MERCY: Salvation CD
Melodic Goth metal by any other name would smell as sweet - for 'tis the dawn anew and a band from a land-locked territory betwixt Robin Hood and Shakespeare wish to regail you with tales of heaven and hell, love and life, forces of evil and forces of good. Four merry musicians and their mistress singer pour forth a near dozen songs that fill the land with guitars, the songs full of lyrical imagery and their yearnings and aspirations, while a powerful rhythm foundation charts a course through the dark woods of Goth. Male and female voices sing and soar, well above the groundswell of guitars that rises up as the flowers of the forest, the songs forming the real meat of the meal, with little room for instrumental merriment. Whispers on the wind evoke names such as Nightwish and Within Temptation, but the ride to such lofty heights is a long one, and these five people at the moment have only just begun the trek - for 'tis a start, and no doubt further tales will be told.
BEYOND ALL REASON: Beyond All Reason CD
Truly there is something about this band - they thunder through a 14 song, forty-four minute set like a breath of wind on a hot day - as you let the roar wash over you, not with a bite but a caress as the whole dynamic power of the compositions get under your skin and breathe. This thing rocks - the guitars are on fire and the rhythm section steams ahead, while the vocals are way upfront and every word is heard on an impassioned performance. The arrangements are heavy, direct and yet complex, with some neat twists and turns inside some absolutely anthemic tracks. They can go from raging riffs to chiming guitars in a heartbeat, but when the band are on fire, which is most of the album, they give even the likes of FFAF a run for their money. There's not a bad track on this album which means you put it on and you play it - start to finish - no messing - with each song the epitome of economy and strength in terms of the length and structure, while the band whip up a serious storm and take you with them. It's nu-metal, it's emo and it rocks - you can't argue with that.
DEMONBREED: Closer To God CD
Death metal I guess - well, it brought me a bit closer to my maker, that's for sure - one hearing of this and my life seemed pretty pointless - well, so would you if you'd just been pummeled mercilessly by a band playing metal with the effect of a small nuclear arsenal, only to have them jump on your twitching corpse somewhere near the end. It's amazingly fast, furious and ferocious - all-guns-blazing death metal with shouted vocals that sound like the guy's in the electric chair and loving every minute of it, while the band power ahead with enough energy to fuel Glastonbury. There are a lot of bands around right now playing this style of music and it takes something special to rise above the masses. This achieves that by virtue of the excellent production job that means you hear everything in there while at the same time, are assaulted by this monstrous wall of sound from raging guitars and rocket-powered rhythms - with vocals that aren't so much to die for as sound like they've already died - they don't come much heavier than this, that's for sure.
ENEMY UNKNOWN: Alert Status Red CD
What a few people round here would call "old skool metal" with a distinct nod towards the likes of Priest, Maiden, Metallica - yeh, we're talking THAT territory. So, you get what you expect - furious metal riffs, thunderous rhythms, incendiary guitar solos and a vocal that, although produced to sound like it was recorded separately from the band, flies along on top, albeit a tad "dry" - you feel like the guy should have had the bottle of JD BEFORE he did the sessions. The compositions are well crafted and feature some quite sizzling guitar soloing along the way. For a debut, it's well played and arranged with a solid selection of songs, some searing metal riffing and a neat sense of dynamics.
FIGHT: Nothing New Since Rock 'N' Roll CD
OK - so you've had your appetite whetted by the stunning punk single that is the lead track on this album, 'Can't Be Bothered', and you buy the album hoping it will live up to the promise. Live up? F**kin' demolishes it, matey - this is the finest punk rock album for the kidz since…….well, the last one. With an attitude that could bore holes in Avril Lavigne at a hundred yards, this quartet of spotty punks proceed to deliver an album that exudes all the power and venom of the Sex Pistols with the lyrical fun and pace of Helen Love and the couldn't-give-a-toss attitude of The Ramones, Across 14 tracks and forty-one minutes of music, we are treated to a stunning set of blistering and anthemic pop-punk tracks with a female vocalist who sounds like she sulks for a living and is having the toughest time at home that could make a groan man cry and the attitude that would make any parent wonder why they'd bothered to have that night in the hotel all those years back. This is angry young punk at its fun finest and there isn't a less than fantastic track on this album. It'll have you up and dancing whenever you play it, wherever you are, drunk or sober, angry or sad - this is the ultimate good time album for kidz of all ages - lyrically bringing a wide smile to your face - and you can't argue with something that makes you smile and leap about for forty minutes every time you put it on - more fun than a roll in the hay, time to make your day - go out and get this album!!!
JOHNNYTRUANT: In The Library Of Horiffic Eevents CD
Jeezussssssss……………now, this is heavy!! But you know what? This band are going to be huge - I'm talking ENORMOUS!! Why? Because of all the hardcore/death/rage metal bands around right now, they have got exactly what it takes to rise above the opposition. Evidence? This album, for starters. You only have to hear a track such as 'The Bloodening' for instance - it's hard, fast, furious and unleashes a metallic terror that makes Slayer sound like Bananarama - but at the heart of the beast is a song - structure, inventiveness, thought, passion, care, detail - all this and more, even to the extent that the wall-of-sound actually conveys a sense of melody at the heart of its nuclear-powered core, the result being one of the most LISTENABLE and enjoyable yet so outrageously heavy slabs of hardcore metal that you'll hear this year. Every song carries with it an arrangement that is truly awesome, showcasing a band that has got its direction in life well and truly pointing towards the top. You don't need me to tell you that this album rocks - that the rhythms, riffs and guitarwork harness all the energy of a thunderstorm and unleash it with the intensity of a hurricane - that the vocals rage and yet are so f***ing addictive - that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole - and that the album is one of those that, not only do you HAVE to play it from start to finish the moment you put it on, but which defies you not to put it on at every waking moment when you want to feel that electricity - the energy that makes the earth move - flow through your veins and keep you alive. Just the beginning and already surely a contender for rock album of 2005 - it can only get bigger and better from here - and that's an awesome prospect!
LIFE OF AGONY: Broken Valley CD
Hooooooooweeeeeeeee…………….ooooo, just listen to those chunky guitars - fantastic!! Now I've never heard anything by this band before, which may be a plus point, because this is one phenomenal album. Just take the first three tracks alone for starters - no, sod that - take the whole album - there's a real dirty, bluesy, swampy vibe going on down here - but there's also real metal at its heart - in many ways a bit like Reef without that wretched vocal meeting ZZ Top without the commercialism, with a touch of stoner in there for good measure. The songs surge and swagger, but then there are some smoking riffs and driving rhythms that serve to propel the songs on their merry way to intense inferno status. Ah yes, the songs - they have a vocalist who really does them justice, with a sort of nasally bluesy delivery something akin to a cross between Pere Ubu & Pearl Jam with a touch of Cheap Trick, only more powerful than all three. The guitar work is mighty - chunky, red hot, riffing and soloing - and this steals th show, even when the vocals are flying along on top, and when the combination of harmonies and multi-tracked vocals and guitars combine, the results are explosive. There's not a bad track on the album and it's something that undoubtedly has a massively wide appeal to rock fans of all ages - whether into Fony or Br:gade, ZZ Top or Black Crowes, you owe it to yourself to get this album - it's stunning!!
NIOTA: Cold Red CD Single
Debut recording for Casket Music and it's a 2-tracker, of which the first, 'Paper Fuse', after a couple of seconds intro from chiming guitar, simply erupts on your senses in a blaze of wall-to-wall guitars and rhythms as this hell-for-leather roar rings out, the intensity needle going ever nearer "10" a the track continues, the vocalist providing a throat-throttling performance of half hollered-half sung vocals that sails above the cooking cauldron of metal density, to perfection. It's all so gloriously fierce and yet solid listening enjoyment at the same time - quite superb! But if this one rocked, then the four minute 'Shatter' is an inferno, as the intensity goes way past "10" and the band launch themselves with the effect of an explosion in a firework factory, taking over your head, heart, feet and practically all points in between, with a mix of nu-metal, death-metal and hardcore that is so powerful and yet so passionate, you can't help but fall under its spell. Never has the lack of a hook sounded so addictive - the album should be a stunner if this is anything to go by.
RSJ: Reflections In B Minor CD
Uncompromising hardcore that pummels you senseless with lefts from the bass and drums, rights from the guitarist while the vocals finish you off with the killer blow. Yet there is method in their madness, order in the chaos, and amid the terror, moments of clarity that make you realize there really is a human soul inside here - somewhere! Most of the album takes the traditional standpoint of "hard and fast", as the punishing rhythm section provide rifle-fire foundations as the molten mass of guitars riffs and roars its way to oblivion. The vocals are shouted, shrieked and strangled, occasionally even sung, all combining to make this exactly what the audience wants. But, with so many bands around doing this stuff, the audiences become ever more demanding, more discerning, so to be at the top of the tree, you can no longer rely on all-out assault - and this lot doesn't. Throughout the brutality you'll find hidden areas of angular rhythmic twists and turns, moments of comparable respite as arrangements take unexpected directional avenues, all of which makes you sit up and realize that even in the harsh world of hardcore, there is room for invention and humanity. This one touches your soul - at the same time as wrenching it from your twitching corpse.
