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AREA 54: Beckoning Of The End CD
You've got to play this all the way through. Stick with it. At first, it might appear a bit at odds with itself, as a sort of speed metal album oozes class - yes, that's right, class - from every pore with clarity, intricacy and a vocalist who can really deliver the goods and sing rather that shout, but all set of a quite speedy sound-world, yet one where the dynamics of the compositions take your breath away - and it is that last factor that really makes this so much more than a speed-y metal album. Why, there's even a ballad half way through - rock of course and one that really breaks out but becomes more of a modern Metallica-like metal anthem than anything else, and just one of the best tracks around right now. Elsewhere the songs themselves are so strong, smoking from every pore, as rollercoaster rhythms, guitars hotter than Jamie Oliver's kitchen and vocals that just soar through every track with ease and belief, all combine to produce a storming, qualitymetal album that improves with every play, Sensational stuff and you have to admire their approach - could be massive - indeed, should be massive.
AUDIO JUSTICE: Bored Games CDEP
Hmmmm……….odd one this. The opening track seems to straddle early eighties new wave and current nu-metal, sort of Skids-meet-Sum 41, not punky enough for one, not heavy enough for the other, instead living in some musical twilight zone that seems oddly restless. They get it better on the second track with an altogether heavier riff, but then reverting to the jangly guitar and and higher register vocal, seeming to indicate a desire to be more of a nu-metal band that thinks and feels in studied execution rather than throwing in the kitchen sink. Track three follows a similar pattern while track four accelerates the pace but still comes out a caught between two musical stools. Can't say I liked it overly, but it's quite catchy stuff second time around, so who knows - it may hot someone's spot - but not mine, sad to say.
BATTALION OF FLIES: Blue Lips, Cold Kiss CD
A Scottish nu-metal band from Edinburgh and with an interesting twist from the rest - while they are still undoubtedly a powerful band, many of the songs smoulder and burn rather than go nuclear while the vocalist is well upfront, undoubtedly because the songs have lyrics that are sensible, forthright, emotive and more, simply demanding to be heard and savored. They use dynamics to a tee, building tracks up from slow burners to electrifying heights as guitar riffs, solos and wall-to-wall backdrops spread out in every direction, the crisply produced but titanium strength rhythm section keeping it all propelled and anchored. It is nu-metal, it is powerful but it's well thought out, superbly arranged, played and produced and undoubtedly a song-based album, more for the armchair than the moshpit, although its sizzling sea of guitars will seduce you for sure. Will it be big? Time will tell.
BEAUTIFUL MISTAKE: Light A Match For I Deserve To Burn CD
Oooo......this is good. Imagine a cross between Linkin Park and Foo Fighters and you're close - yes, THAT good!! Right from the opening track you've got all the ingredients just right - steaming riffs, a wall of guitar-driven sound, searing lead guitars, solid rhythms, fantastic vocals that are positively anthemic, the occasionally used lower vocal and the Linkin Park picture is complete - but with the added ingredient of a sense of commerciality in the writing department that makes the songs even more memorable. The overall sound is just to die for throughout he album as song after glorious song unfolds and drives, the originality matched up with familiarity to awesome extent. By and large the songs are the sort that hang around in your head for ages after but without anything resembling an actual hookline or singalong chorus, and yet the sheer quality, energy, class, production and performance of every song, ensures that you will want to play this album long, loud and often.
BEECHER: Breaking The Fourth Wall CD
Manchester band who can turn it on bigtime with a hardcore debut album that has enough electricity in it to light up their hometown for a month. Right from the start, this beast roars into life with furious riffing shooting out at all angles as the rage begins and a steaming opener ensues, the fact that there is actually real melody and some neat chord changes in there too, almost as icing on the cake. With barely a pause for breath, it's straight into 'Dead For Weeks', a track where the vocals go into orbit aas the lead singer catches fire and delivers it to stunning effect, while all the time, the electric guitars and rhythm section drive curves on two wheels at speeds that cause an adrenaline rush of massive proportions, but again, there are changes in pace and variation in intensity that serve to act as a really refreshing and quality approach to this style of music. Even more bizarrely, again without a break, into 'Burning Surface' on an altogether more reflective note before, just over the one minute point, the band powers up, the vocalist roars into life and the immense wall of riffs, rhythms and burning leads rolls like thunder on a merciless storm to extacy. Around the three minute mark, the rifle-fire becomes a pure wall of firepower as this massive guitar expanse allies with intense harmony vocals to provide an awesome display before the song returns briefly to its raging and a massive, brief finale. By now you're only three tracks in out of an eleven track total, and you've enjoyed more in this than you'd get on a dozen similar albums by lesser talents. Needless to say, the hail of guitars, drums, bass and those screaming vocals continue to awesome effect throughout the album, the difference here being that this band can write great songs, they have imagination, and the ability to pull it off seamlessly and if ever there was a brand of metalcore that could be described as addictive while at the same time being playable again and again and again, this is the real deal. As impressive a debut as they come.
BEYOND ALL REASON: The Line We Draw Between CDEP
Holy shit!! This is just phenomenal!!! I mean to say - it's about time the female-fronted bands struck back, and this one is so hot you could fry yer lunch on it. There will be inevitable comparisons with Evanescence - Evanescence???? Tsk tsk!! This is miles ahead of that band in practically every facet you could mention. The female vocals are strong, soar and glide but none of this "cod-opera" stuff, this is one honest-to-goodness vocalist who can deliver the goods from start to finish. Not only that, but we get the essence of classic Linkin Park vocal throw-and-catch with some searing co-vocals from the male backing vocalist. All of this delivered over this massively produced morass of guitars, bass and drums, a wall of crystal clear sound that has all the force of a hurricane but so well structured and dynamically as sound as it gets - how to rock and rage with ease, flow and maturity. Every one of the four tracks on here is to die for - and it's the sort of thing that, once played, you just have to put it on again - and again - and again. It's only just 2004 and already this lot have laid down a musical gauntlet of composition, playing and production that is going to be heard to beat, and a full-length debut just deserves to be HUGE!!! Meanwhile you have to own this CD - you can't call yourself a rock music fan if you don't.
BITCH ALERT: Riot CD
Oh yes - just what I needed - something dirty and sleazy, something that makes you want to get down and get in - gloriously loud punk-pop from three females exuding enough electricity to light up Finland. But the songs - oh! the songs - it's hook-laden peroxide punk without a blonde bit in sight. These girls know how to rage and rock and come out making Courtney Love sound almost tame in comparison. Way more anthemic than even Hole at their height, this is fourteen big, beefy, guitar-soaked slice of driving female-vocal rock-pop that tears over you like a out-of-control steer and stomps you firmly into the dust. Produced, played and delivered to perfection, this is an album that will light up even the hardest heart while at the same time allowing you to turn it way up and freak out with the best of them - addictive and then some
BLACK EYE RIOT: No Hope No Future No Worries CD
Described as a "fucked-up, honest, no frills, old-school attitude punk", this is punk way beyond anything that the legendary punk bands of yore, could ever have even dreamt of sounding like. Ten tracks in 26 minutes deliver one of the fastest, most blistering, no-holds-barred set of ferocious songs that you're completely breathless by track three, let alone the rest of the album, and the best bit is that it doesn't let up - this immense sound of an ocean of guitars, roaring vocals, disemboweling bass and thrashing crunching drums, continues apace right to the end. The effect is shattering, and you feel like you've just gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson by the end of it - but the mind-melting effect is so electrifying, all you want to do is relive the experience once more. Making the likes of the Ramones and Motorhead sound like Bananarama, this is one of the most intense, enjoyable and deliciously wild sounding punk albums of recent history - a winner, oh-so uncompromising and just sensational.
BLUEPRINT: Ecliptic CDEP
Six new tracks and twenty-five minutes of music on a hot, hot CDEP from this excellent band. The opening track, 'Elements Of Refusal' is, unusually, a three minute instrumental that is strong and flowing, with some searing guitar work in it's steely melodic furnace heat. Then it's right into 'This Ends Here' and the band produce a song that is so full of dynamics and langurous chords in among its strong yet tightly mid-paced, nu-metal world, the vocals slightly out of focus, but the guitars working up a storm upfront as the whole band delivers some of the finest melodic-nu-metal you'll hear. 'Hall Of Splinters' gathers more of a head of steam and this track really kicks in with this huge sound and a decidedly anthemic feel to the whole thing, one smoking gun of track with guitars flying out in all directions as the rhythm section punishes and the vocals go supernova - just sensational. 'Sans Chorus' ups the anti even more with a magnificent slice of roaring rock, full of glorious harmonies, strong vocals, thunderous bass, crunching drums, and a sea of guitars that threatens to engulf you - turned up loud, the effect is phenomenal and another tracks that is simply stunning. 'International House Of Dirt' is even more powerful and here the vocalist steps more upfront and rages away to steaming effect as all around him this cauldron of superheated guitars, bass and drums blazes and boils, the effect sending shivers down your spine. 'Scorched Earth Policy', the final track, mixes the dynamics of the earlier tracks with a building process that turns a rousing mid-paced slice of magic into a huge, expansive nuclear cloud that rises above all its mentors and takes you over in a blitz of nu-metal harmonies, roaring guitar walls, driving rhythms and a finale to die for as the band soar into the heart of a black hole and die. Overall, this starts strong, gets stronger, and ends up being one of the finest things around right now if you like your metal to be as dynamic as it is powerful, song-writing and arranging at a creative and commercial peak throughout.
(THE) BLUEPRINT: Zero Zero One Mini-CD
The undoubted pedigree of this Nottingham-based band is without question - ex-members of Earthtone 9, Pitchshifter, Consumed - but it all comes to nothing unless they can deliver the goods - and this is twenty-two minutes that proves beyond doubt that they can. Six tracks of which the first, 'Minus 10', while of storm-force proportions, has a twisted hook that somehow wraps itself inside your head and refuses to let go, the sort of thing that you can't hum in a million years, yet becomes oh so familiar the moment you hear it, that torrent of guitars, bass, drums, vocals and harmonies pouring out and engulfing you in waves of tingling metal orgasms, even moreso on 'Consafos', where molten riffing and sky-high harmonies combine with powerful rhythms and diamond-tipped vocals, a song that you feel in the very fibres of your being. Descent' is a complete departure, the track displaying the fact that there are two members of the band handling electronics, and the result is a three minute dark, brooding instrumental that's simply pure atmosphere. Then, on 'Anatomy Of A Hero' the mighty juggernaut rhythms and crucifying guitar riffs are unleashed as the beasts of power metal are allowed to rampage once more, this time the vocals so strong and flying, as the song twists through harmonies, turns through an ocean of guitars, rhythms biting at your heels like a pack of rabid dogs - sensational stuff and another gem of a song. 'Reclamation Program' is two minutes of restrained mayhem where the bass-heavy electronics, chiming guitars and backwards cymbals plus almost buried, raging vocal join forces on a piece of dark, menacing atmosphere before the final track, 'Out Of The Black', provides the last throes of anthemic molten metal of the CD, a song that positively fires up and takes off, the perfect combination, of rage, melody, delivery and song-writing strength, all guns blazing as the mighty machine powers up and takes us on an unforgettable ride to the end of a truly exquisite EP from an undoubtedly talented, inventive and consistently strong new band who clearly have a lot more to offer - and if it's anything of the sheer quality and storm-force power of this lot, then that is something to be eagerly anticipated.
BULLETPROOF ELECTRIC REVUE: S/T CD
This is the third time I've played this - no, it's not what you're thinking. It's just that I'm convinced that this is a good album - only trouble is - I'm not convinced at all. Here is what is essentially a rock album, but it's so eclectic, it almost becomes too much of a effort to try and find what it is that's lurking at the heart of the thing. There are as many elements of USA indies, earthy contemporary angular blues, almost seventies-laced, fuzzed-up psychedelia as there are rock, and by rock I mean rock. 'Satellite', one of the best tracks on the album, at least gives us a flavour (and no more than that) of Kings X with its infectious chorus and sizzling guitar work/rhythm pace-setting, although the cheesy organ and what sounds like theremin solo in the middle briefly disrupts the feel. Track after track reveals a band with undoubted talent, in fact possibly too much, a band who clearly don't want to be categorized, but a band whose songs are, in a sense, too psychedelic for rock, too rock for psychedelic, and still I can't find what it is that I'm missing about this album - but it's not grabbing me. Oh well, play four may help - until then, you're on your own.
CANCER: Corporations CDEP
Despite my years, I still think that, to someone who's lost a loved one to the wretched illness, to have a band named after it, still doesn't feel right. You almost want to hate them before you've started. Which makes the fact that, albeit reluctantly, I thought this to be a quite stunning slice of epic-metal mayhem, shows just how good the band really are. The opener, 'Oil' sums up the relentless war and fever-pitched love-hate relationship that we have with the stuff of life, as the massive guitar-driven assault and nuclear-powered rhythms drive to the heart of the earth and back, with vocals on fire and getting to the core of your very being. An assault and then some, but a good one. The "Live in the studio" version of 'Witch Hunt' is even more aggressive, even more of an attack on your senses, growled vocals racing, massive guitars riffing to hell and rhythms so fast, they become a blur before your very eyes and ears. Track three continues in this vein while the remix of 'Oxygen Thieves' takes the band into the world of industrial metal and THIS is where it really starts to get interesting as the electronic and metal worlds collide head on in absolutely superb fashion - a steaming gem of a track. Finally you get a similarly industrial remix of 'Oil' that is just so heavy, you won't believe something so stripped down, something so stark yet solid could be this good - stunning - and when the guitars swirl and dive, sear and bite, above drums and bass that could move mountains, with synths soaring and swooping all around, this goes supernova and interstellar at the same time. Overall, a triumph and, despite the band's name, heartily recommended.
CANDYCAINE: All My Friends Are Strangers CDSingle
Four powerful, driving tracks of UK nu-metal that is a sizzling, explosive and ultimately rousing brand of rock, that, like the best of bands such as Foo Fighters, stays in your head while at the same time being the sort of thing you want to play again and again. Heavy with crunching riffs and steaming guitars, the propulsive rhythm section drives along four tracks that are brimming over with strength and atmosphere, the quality of the song-writing at a peak as the yearning, soaring, raging vocals are sung to perfection as the ultimate roar of the guitar-fuelled engine bursts into life. With a combination of dynamics, power and well-produced structure, the band really takes off and could give many a more famous USA band a real pasting, on this form. The album should be well worth the wait and, if this is anything to go by, may just blow you away.
CUBIC SPACE DIVISION: Cubic Space Division CD
This lot like to tease - they'll start a piece with slowly strummed chording on the electric guitars to lull you into a false sense of security before erupting with all hell's might and pinning you to the wall with an attack so ferocious, you'd think it had sharks teeth. Occasionally they might just play around with you a bit before delivering the killer blow, but deliver they always do, as a veritable hurricane of guitars is unleashed. Yet it's not all storm-force power, as a track like 'Bohemian Grove' illustrates, with its sense of dynamics providing a respite (almost) from the storm. But there follows an immediate attack and you are once again fighting for your life. This band is one seriously potent brew of fiery nu-metal laced with a song-writing and arranging skill that puts them at the forefront of the genre, the art of dynamics as important as the power, leading to a set of songs that simply soar skywards, time after time after time. Anthemic and then some, this is a raging yet totally honest and wonderfully strong album that you can't fail to get wrapped up in, the songs as important as the power, the dynamics as important as the songs, the whole band playing a blinder and whipping up a brew that is totally intoxicating. Amazing, original and perfectly played and sung, this is the business and more.
CUBIC SPACE DIVISION: The Tesserract Diffusion CDEP
Two-track debut that reveals yet another new band in the world of today's metal who can take a mix of genres and breathe new life into it, this time injecting burning death-metal with a seriously fine sense of melody, the overriding comparisons to Slipknot simply bearing down on you like a behemoth. Yet, because of or despite this comparison, the two tracks concerned have to be two of the finest tracks I've yet to hear by a band who wants to be the leading pretender to the precarious Slipknot throne, for their incredibly layered mix of guitars, rage, melody, riffs, rhythms and overwhelming power is a light in the black, a beacon in the darkness of Slipknot wannabes, and simply in a class of its own. The shouted vocals are soundly married to the more dynamic voice, while the guitar attack provides echoes of finest modern Metallica and it all gels so well that you aren't aware you've been holding your breath in awe of the results until you start to turn slowly white, eventually gasping with admiration. This is a band that deserve to be absolutely massive and I simply can't wait to hear a full album - live they should tear the roof off, for they certainly do in th studio, yet they are inventive and do what they do better than anyone else around. Superb.
DAI LO: Constant Threat Of Accidental Death CD
Fuelled by some riffs that twist and turn more than a country lane, this Nottingham-based indie-rockers have produced a thirteen track, forty-one minute album that roars into life with action and attitude. The vocals are well upfront but, making up for the mistakes that so many bands make when they do this, the guitars are produced and arranged to perfection so that they also fire up and bellow out, the steaming rifferama constantly making the adrenaline flow. The production is just sensational as some of the strongest yet clearest sounding rhythm section work just pummels you into submission, while the whole thing, from thunderous rampaging guitars to soaring harmony vocals, is a rollercoaster ride of exquisite proportions. The songs themselves are uniformly excellent, much of it "nu-metal" derived, but with nods from things like AC/DC & Led Zeppelin being glimpsed along the way. Extraordinarily powerful, dynamic, snaking a blazing path through its amazing collection of top quality on-fire songs, this is anthemic British nu-metal in yet another topnotch guise - essential listening and then some.
DAYS OF GRACE: The Movement Schematic CDEP
In a sense, slightly more polarized than This Illusion, with whose CD this also arrived, but no less strong in the writing stakes, that's for sure. Here, the vocalist, Patrick Currier, not only sings but hollers, so that, on the opener, 'Dream Like Saul', in particular, the feel is controlled chaos one minute then right-ooff-the edge, the next, while all around the flames of twin-guitar-fuelled attack ignite and the rhythm section fires up to drive it all to some great indie-rock-emo nirvana - stunning stuff and just a superb track. 'Glitch', is, if anything, even more extreme, in the sense that the rock rages while unexpected warmth and grace that is the band in simmered down mode, also shines through as the compositions turns from rage to tensely anthemic in a heartbeat, the high-flying playing cutting through as guitar riffs scythe, rhythm stride forth and all guns blaze, the vocals going multi-tracked and supernova, as yet another gem of a song is delivered. 'Minus(i)' is propelled by this huge wedge of guitars that takes over the mix as the drums and bass provide an almost Kings X backing, and on top of this, the vocals just sail effortlessly as this massive slice of passionate indie-rock unfolds to perfection, things once again taken back to yearning emptiness, before the whole thing powers up once more and the sea of guitars, drums, bass and vocal interplay, all create this almighty anthemic mood that takes over every fibre of your being. Sensational. Three further, equally fine, creative and strong sounding tracks make up this CD-EP and every one of them is a certifiable gem, proving that this is a new band who can really deliver the goods without putting a foot wrong - a CD destined to find a place in your heart and on your player for ages and ages to come - turn it up and let it rise.
DEAD LETTER DEPT: Anthology UK CD
Twenty tracks that simply can't fail to have you leaping about the place like a whirling dervish as some of the finest emo to come out of the UK charges its pop-punk path through your head and takes you over completely. The likes of Blink 182 & Sum 41 have got got cause for concern because this new kind on the block wipes the floor with them. Song after anthemic song charts a course for head-shaking, pogoing and arm-waving bliss as the band are on fire from start to finish, with more hooks than a fisherman's rod, and each song swirling around in your head time after time. In fact there are so many grade-A songs here you have to play the thing twice in succession just to believe it could all be THIS good. Stone me - emo never sounded this good - summer's here so get switched on - go electric - get Dead!
DEFENESTRATION: Ray Zero CD
With all the power and rage of a force ten hurricane, this powerhouse piece of adrenaline-fuelled, napalm-soaked punk-metal whips up a potent brew that spills over its bubbling cauldron of nuclear-force intensity and sears into your head like a flying arrow. Track after track drown in a sea of molten metal riffing, with a sort of metallic Chumbawamba style dual male-female vocal that ranges from the death metal hollering of the guy to the soaring passion of the female, a state of affairs that lends both freshness and originality to this monster sounding recipe of wickedly rhythmic driving guitar overload that guarantees to burn holes in your skull and leave you in a mass of smoking ruins - unreal and to die for - in fact, you probably will.
DILUTRAL: Phi CDEP
With an anthemic roar, a new band comes into your life and all you can do is kneel down and praise the gods that they have chosen your lifetime into which to deliver their potent brew of wall-to-wall, guitars-fuelled metallic greatness. Across four tracks, they exhibit a few familiar tendencies, SOAD, Creed and similar coming to mind, but before you reach for the "so we've got to this stage already" button, let me tell you that every one of the four tracks and twenty-five minutes of muscular music, is simply superb. The opening couple provide a full-on anthemic slice of nu-metal while track three provides more of a dynamic presences as the song veers from assault to angst to anguish and back to assault once more. The final track moves along similar lines but with a more marked sense of brooding to the guitars, mellower vocals, but building into a many-headed musical monster on a song that erupts into life but twists and turns with the ease and expertise of musical veterans, illustrating to perfection that this is a band with a whole lot to offer and doing it in a way that is quite simply addictive, leaving you with but one desire - to play it all over again right away. Talented and then some, this is simply magnificent metal on any level, and song-writing at a height that will blow you away.
PETER DISTEFANO: Gratitude CD
The opening three tracks remind me a bit of King's X crossed with Mike Tramp, as a mix of quality electro-acoustic metal is heard where strong, thickly riffing but not overly heavy electric guitars, sit alongside acoustic guitars, chunky bass and drums, plus multi-tracked vocals that are just sublime, with harmonies that a Beach Boys album would be proud to own. But it's got that whole feel of the anthemic, dynamic, expansive mix of commercial songs and classic rock that, individually and collectively, the guys out of King's X excel at doing. The extraordinary part here is that this guy pulls it off with ease and every track is a joy to hear - a sunshine mix of rock and harmonies, song construction and delivery at an anthemic peak, but some really strong playing throughout. It's fair to say that if you've ever enjoyed a King's X album or just want a good, solid rock album with strong songs, stunning harmony vocals and instrumental muscle, then look no further than this - ten tracks of 100% guaranteed rock music class.
DRIVE LIKE YOU STOLE IT: Frequency CD
Seven tracks in just under half an hour from a new trio playing a fiery brew of pop-rock with attitude, as the songs range from Hole-esque screamers to the odd, more sedate moment that builds and explodes like the rest. With a female vocalist who delivers the goods with such strength to her vocals that it blows you away, yet sings the lyrics to perfection, the band unleash a potent fury of supercharged, dynamic rock, all three musicians firing up drums, guitars and bass to produce a blaze of sonic rocket fuel that tails out for miles and lifts you up like nothing else could, the sonic soup mixed and produced superbly, as this panoramic riffing and pounding arrangement climbs higher and higher. The songs have a mix of rage and brooding to them, with a mood that is both uplifting, angst-driven and raging, all in one, yet maintaining your attention without even thinking about it. It's almost immediate, definitely a grower and possibly a classic in the making. Turn it up and let that sound fly, as a real band of the future lets rip.