I have a lot of new albums, so expect a few more of these in the coming days/weeks. As always they won't be very long or in-depth, just more of a general opinion slightly elaborated on, but I may go off on a tangent as I did below. :roll:
KEITH CAPUTO – HEARTS BLOOD ON YOUR DAWN (
Soft, Melancholic Rock)
If you’ve not heard of Keith Caputo, he is the tremendous lead singer of
Life Of Agony; definitely one of the most underrated vocalists out there.
Life Of Agony has changed dramatically since
River Runs Red, an album consisting of heavy, crushing hardcore tracks the band had been playing for about five years at that point. Today, there is nothing hardcore about them.
Keith’s solo material, though, makes
Life Of Agony’s
Soul Searching Sun seem like a brutal hardcore album in comparison when it’s essentially alternative rock. His solo work is very mellow, very introspective and sorrowful. And it’s brilliant.
Hearts Blood On Your Dawn is the follow-up to
Perfect Little Monsters. This album is easily his best solo album to date. The songs are simply stronger in every facet, and considering he hasn’t released a bad solo album yet that’s saying a lot. Sadly you won’t find this album in stores; you’ll have to order it directly from Keith who is doing it the DIY way these days from Europe, but I suggest you pick it up. This is music that should be heard.
Rating:
90/100
Website:
http://www.keithcaputo.com
Downloads:
LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER and
LIVIN’ THE BLUES
CANVAS SOLARIS – PENUMBRA DIFFUSE (
Technical Instrumental Prog-Metal)
I am not a fan of instrumental music. I can handle an instrumental or two on an album, but I generally need some vocal melodies to keep things from getting monotonous. That’s why I basically closed the door on this band recently when people were suggesting them to me. Sure, the MP3 online sounded great, very
Zero Hour-ish—one of my recent favorite bands—but I pretty much assumed an album’s worth would bore me.
Strangely enough, I came across this album in the used bin for $2. I couldn’t pass it up! It’s most definitely worth the $2, I thought. Sure enough, it was worth it, worth more, in fact. This is a damn good album! What I like about it is the fact that the band doesn’t get excessive with anything. There is nothing self-indulgent about the songs, no excessive solos or drumming to fill the space where vocals would normally be, no one musician shouting musically,
"Look at me! Look at what I can do!" While some songs are heavy, others are mellow, acoustic with all manner of non-heavy instrumentation such as tabla, mandolin, clay drums and some light synthesizer work. It all flows seamlessly, melding metal with countless shapes and shifts that form a very solidly fused soundscape.
Surely not for everyone, but it won me over. I barely notice there aren’t any vocals, which is generally the biggest hurdle for me when it comes to instrumental work. This album is highly recommended, and currently their first two albums can be bought for a mere $10 plus $4 S&H at
Tribunal Records. That's a great deal, I ordered my copies last week.
Rating:
80/100
Website:
http://www.myspace.com/canvassolaris
Downloads:
PANORAMIC LONG-RANGE VERTIGO
SOULS AT ZERO – SOULS AT ZERO (
Heavy Post-Thrash)
A little known and very underrated band from the early Nineties. In the late Eighties they were known as
Wrathchild America, but were originally known as
Wrathchild until the record company added “America” to their debut without consulting the band (there was a UK band with the
Wrathchild name, which prompted the label to make the change). Back then they played more of a traditional thrash style, though not exclusively. They released two albums, switched labels and changed their name to
Souls At Zero. This era of the band was a slower, groovier version of their former self, and though the band was signed to two major labels they still never got the recognition they deserved. They got the fart in a tornado treatment.
Souls At Zero seems to be an angrier album than previous releases. The lyrics portrayed this and the music reflected it. Again, this isn’t a fast, aggressive album, but the vibe is enough to make it seem so. The dual guitar assault (riffs and solos), the raw, vitriolic vocals, and the overall “dark” nature of it all is a little different than that of the previous incarnation of the band. Standouts include
“Never”,
“Frustration”,
“Lost”,
“Grey World” and
“Welcome To The 90’s.”
This album is no longer in print, so check your local used bins or jump on the eBay train and look for it. They released two albums, the
Six-T-Six EP and
A Taste For The Perverse, before calling it a day in the mid-Nineties. Both
Souls At Zero and
Wrathchild America are worth checking out. Shannon Larkin (once in
Ugly Kid Joe, sadly now in
Godsmack) was in this band.
Rating:
80/100
Website:
http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=59476
Downloads:
CLIMBING THE WALLS and
DESERT GRINS (LIVE) (Two videos of
Wrathchild America, the best I could do)
BETH HART – SCREAMIN’ FOR MY SUPPER (
Soulful, Bluesy Rock)
If you ever find yourself yearning for the mirrored vocal reflection of the long since living Janis Joplin, then Beth Hart may be your girl. She’s a rootsy, bluesy rock vocalist playing piano-based rock music with a little blues, jazz, country and even gospel mixed in for good measure. The vocals are the standout here, they seethe with passion (seeing her live is a sight to behold!).
Janis Joplin is undoubtedly one the greatest vocalists from the Seventies, her power and passion is rarely matched, to this day. Beth Hart, when she lets it rip, could be mistaken for Janis Joplin by the unknowing ear. She has more of a trill to her voice that may throw some people off because it’s virtually ever-present, but if you can dig on it (and the music style),
Screamin’ For My Supper should be on your list of albums to check out. In fact, all her albums are worth checking out. This chick simply rules!
Rating:
85/100
Website:
http://www.bethhart.com
Downloads:
DELICIOUS SURPRISE (I BELIEVE IT) (Video clip from the Live At The Paradiso DVD/CD)
BEYOND THE EMBRACE – INSECT SONG (
Metalcore)
Being a fan of this band since their self-titled debut (they’re a local band for me) I was a little disappointed with this album. It’s only a recent purchase because when I first heard it—driving to Foxwoods with a friend after it came out—I was totally unimpressed. Nothing has changed now that I own it. They’ve always been borderline metalcore, but their previous albums are more aggressive and heavier, thus sort of negating that metalcore label and giving them a thrashier, more melodic death metal aura.
Insect Song suffers from simply being more of the same. When this came out—and even more so now—there were simply too many bands playing this style of music. It may be great music, but it’s also old before you even listen to it. It’s like only having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat everyday, they’re great and all, but come on…again? Only on the song
“…Of Every Strain” do we get a full song glimpse of the old
Beyond The Embrace.
The songs are all decent, but they go by without a whisper because there’s nothing new here. Shawn Gallagher has always reminded me of Elias from the rap metal band
Nonpoint when he’s singing in a more melodic voice, but with the melodic vocals taking up a greater portion of the vocal slots on this album it’s almost like listening to a heavier, less rappy version of
Nonpoint, which is weird (not an insult, I like
Nonpoint, it's just weird). The production is also pretty bad, very hollow-sounding, like it was processed…inside a dumpster.
Not a bad album, but nothing amazing from a band that can clearly do better…and should.
Rating:
55/100
Website:
http://www.beyondtheembrace.com
Downloads:
http://www.myspace.com/beyondtheembrace
(HED)PE – BACK 2 BASE X (
Rap Metal/Punk)
I like a lot of bands that fused rap and metal before it was cool to do so;
Run DMC probably being the earliest, but also
Downset (the band
Rage Against The Machine ripped off) and
Stuck Mojo, for example. I also like some bands that came later in the game like
Nonpoint and
Bionic Jive.
(HED)pe are sort of a mid-era band, formed in the early Nineties, but never releasing anything until the mid-Nineties. They labeled their brand of music G-Punk, but there was essentially no punk to be found on their first EP and their three following major label full-lengths. They were essentially a rock/metal band with some serious hip hop influences, and they did it better than most.
Then after their third full-length there was a drastic change in personnel. Then came
Only In Amerika, an album that was a drastic change in style. Gone was the groovy rock and metal, replaced by second-rate punk. There were a couple of old school moments like the killer
“Represent,” but overall the album smacked of a confused band trying to shed their skin and not quite fitting into their new skin, a fat guy in a little coat. Plus, the lyrics were so ridiculously juvenile it felt like you were listening a group of 14-year olds that idolized those goofy clowns in the
Insane Clown Posse. All I remember hearing through the whole album was punk this, punk that, pussy, fuck this, fuck you, fuck that, pussy, pussy, punk, fuck, shit, pussy, you’re a pussy, I love pussy, die pussy, fuck, fuck, pussy, pussy, die, and even more literary genius that I need not write out for you to get the point. It’s not like they were ever very poignant and mature, but this album was simply ridiculous.
So 2006 brings
Back 2 Base X, the first album to be released on Suburban Noize, the label owned by the
Kottonmouth Kings. Now, I can listen to some rap, not much, but the
Kottonmouth Kings is a band that I love. I don’t smoke weed, never have, so lyrically I can't relate much since 80% of their songs are glorifying weed, but they have always mixed rap with punk and they do it in amazing fashion (relatively speaking), so I had high hopes for this new
(HED)pe album. The first track on the album,
“Listen,” almost had me convinced that this album was a step back on the right track, a Seventies-influenced rap/rock tune that was more typical of early
(HED). But as soon as
“Novus Ordos Clitorus” steps up to the plate you know things have changed, or stayed the same, rather. Once again the band thinks they’re a punk band, Jahred’s screaming vocals are simply painful to listen to, they're so unsteady “cringe-worthy” is something of an understatement at times, and his death metal chant of “fight!” is laughable. And it simply goes down this same path for most of the album. Some different elements show up, but for the most part it would appear that this band is confused stacked up against their back catalogue (not including the last album).
I don’t often find myself thinking, “Man, this needs an injection of a whole lotta hip hop!” but there is nothing else I can think of here that would help this band out. This album is better than the last album, and it’s not completely worthless, there are some good songs on it, but they don’t work as a punk band, it simple does not work, they fail time and time again when they try to add punk to the mix. And it’s unfortunate because they were once a forerunner in the rap rock/metal genre. The lyrics are better this time around, not that it matters, though.
This album should be fittingly renamed to
Back To Gase X.
Rating:
40/100
Website:
http://www.myspace.com/hedpe
Downloads:
GET READY (Video) and
REPRESENT (Video from
Only In Amerika)
LAWL
