Alghazanth - Osiris Typhon Unmasked

Warning: I'm kind of drunk right now, so this is probably going to be very poorly written.

Here's the 2001 release from another black metal band called Alghazanth. I don't know much about these guys, they are very typical of the Dimmu Man's Child style of black metal. It's nothing too original, but its well done, and I am enjoying the listen. It's not the polished production of Dimmu or OMC and the vocalist sounds a bit more like he would fit in a swedish melodeath band, similar to one of my old favorites, Without Grief. He still molds well with the overall black metal sound they have going though. Just like DB and OMC, there are good melodies placed throughout the album that will keep you interested.

I liked the 2004 release, The Polarity Axiom, and will have to check out the newest release by these guys, Wreath of Thentat... Black metal bands always have the silliest album titles.

Alestorm - Captain Morgan's Revenge

Umm... Pirate metal? This is a new one to me. Are there any other bands out there that do this? I've just started listening to this album, and its actually quite catchy. I was expecting to have to stop it on account of lame silliness after 2 tracks. If metal bands existed in 1600 Caribbean America, they would sound something like Alestorm. Its kind of like viking metal, but with pirate themes instead of vikings. Or to steal a quote from their myspace page: "If pirates had a wall of Marshalls."


They lyrical content, since its sung by a vocalist that can be understood, seems to be about all your favorite pirate adventures involving drinking, sunken treasures, sailing the seas, and tavern wenches. "With the power of ale, he could not fail." These guys are Scottish, so I guess it's not that surprising that drinking is a large part of their lyrical inspiration.

Musically, this is great stuff. There's heavy riffs, some blistering solos, and damn catchy sing-a-long choruses involving drinking. These guys must be an absolute blast live.

Old Man's Child - Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion

This album cover could be artwork for the Armies of Chaos in the aforementioned Warhammer game.


Old Man's Child shouldn't need much of an introduction. Galder created this band and is the main participant. He hires session musicians for recording albums and probably touring, although I have no idea if he still tours with this band. It turns out that Gene Hoglan played drums on this one. Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion was released in 1998, before Galder eventually joined the similar sounding Dimmu Borgir. My introduction to this band was when I started hearing the more popular black metal bands, such as Dimmu Borgir. I'm not sure why its taken me this long to get around to one of their older albums such as this.

Old Man's Child is very much a more raw, stripped down, Dimmu Borgir. The songwriting and song structures are similar, its just not quite the epic grandeur that defines Dimmu Borgir. I really should compare OMC to something other than Dimmu, but I'm just drawing blanks for other bands... I really like this genre of black metal, I just haven't been listening to much of it lately. Perhaps this album will get me digging around for some of my other albums, because its typical Old Man's Child, which is definitely good.

Scarve - The Undercurrent

Here is the latest 2007 release from Scarve. These guys play decent death metal. The singer is becoming to comfortable with his clean voice using some echo effects. His death voice is very good, I'm not sure why he doesn't stick to it more. Perhaps they have more than one singer. I suppose I could find out, but I'm feeling too lazy to even do some Google searching. The track "Plundered" rocks very hard and has a good, catchy chorus which seems to layer both his clean and death voices. The final few tracks unfortunately slow down a bit, drag on, and leave a dull aftertaste despite how good most of the album was.

Demiurg - Breath Of The Demiurg

Hmmm... I don't know what Demiurg means, and the only thing I can dig up on google (besides the band) is that there was some demiurg virus and this wikipedia article on the Demiurg.

In the tabletop miniature wargame Battlefleet Gothic, the Demiurg are an alien race of squat semi-humanoids, who share many traits with the typical fantasy dwarf stereotype: they are avid miners, expert traders, and, in some ways, further technologically advanced than humans. They also bear a particular hatred for goblinoids (Orks in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, of which Battlefleet Gothic is a part).

I have to admit that I used to play Warhammer, so I find this incredibly humorous. However, this album is nothing close to humorous; it is a face-melting assault of death metal. Wow! This band feautures Dan Swanö of Edge of Sanity fame. He's not doing the vocals, but according to their myspace page, he did drums for this first album and now plays guitar.

In any event, this is some heavy, somewhat slower paced (for death metal), grooving album. The vocals remind me of Michael Akerfelt from the first Bloodbath album, or possibly Dismember's vocalist, whose new CD I should be coming up to sometime soon. I think we've got here a new powerhouse in the death metal scene.

EDIT: Ok, this is much more likely for their inspiration for the bandname.

Demiurge (from the Greek δημιουργός dēmiourgós, Latinized demiurgus, meaning "artisan" or "craftsman", lit. "public or skilled worker" (from δήμιος demos (common people) + έργον ergos (work)[1]) is a term for a creator deity, responsible for the creation of the physical universe.

How to board a plane?

Here's a fun read via the Physics Today News Picks. A Physicist from Fermilab ran a Monte Carlo simulation to model people boarding a plane.

Vital Remains - Icons Of Evil

Brutal...

Glen Benton once again lends his voice to this super intense Vital Remains release. This album follows in the same footsteps as the previous releases. Vital Remains serves up only the finest heavy, technical, and sacrilegious death metal. The guitars are very interesting, although you can't listen to closely to them, because of the constant assault from Glen Benton's vocals. And these songs aren't short, each song clocks in at 7 or 8 minutes of brutality. If anything, I'm not sure I can take an hour and seven minutes of this intensity. This is a great album, and any brutal death metal fan should instantly pick this up.

Trail Of Tears - Profoundemonium

Allright, so here's another review-as-I-listen of the 2000 release by Trail Of Tears. I've liked a couple other albums by this band. The album released after this one, A New Dimension of Might, is very good, so I'm expecting that I will enjoy this.

Track 1 - Boring two and a half minute orchestral intro track. I hate long intro tracks.

Track 2 - I'm not really sure whats going on with this song yet. It started out with some really bad deep vocals, but then improved with some angelic and female vocals. Now it's got some standard death vocals and some good guitar riffs. I was worried for a bit that this would be a very short post because I almost stopped the album. Talk about impatience...

Track 3 - This track is reminding me of the band Anorexia Nervosa with a slightly different singer for some reason. Well it was, now it slowed down and the female vocals came in. The male singer doesn't have a very good clean voice.

Track 4 - The title track opens with just bass and keys and a somewhat lame intro riff. Not a very exciting track.

Track 5 - I swear this song has the same somewhat lame riff from the last song. The angelic vocals from the female singer aren't incredibly good, and I'm usually a sucker for any female voice. I like her regular singing voice, she needs to stick to that.

Track 6 - "Preludium" is an annoying way of saying "intro." I guess this track is just an intro to the following track. A simplistic keyboard track which is too long. We already had an intro to the album. This next song better be fucking awesome.

Track 7 - Opens with a very thrash metal sounding guitar riff. Nothing spectacular though. I took a bathroom break when the angelic voice came in. This is one of the better tracks on the album thus far, but that's not saying much.

Track 8 - The rest of these are probably going to be short because I've lost most interest in this album, but I'm almost through it, so I'll tough it out. Cut it out with those angelic voices. This track is actually better than the last, except for when the female starts piping in. Ugh, she just held a ten second note.

Track 9 - I wonder if this is the same female singer from the other albums I actually like. According to wikipedia, this woman left the band soon after this album.

Track 10 - Only 2 tracks left, unfortunately this one is the longest, clocking in at 7:30. Wow, this band has had all sorts of member changes. It looks like they even officially split up in 2006, but then reformed.

Allright I think I'm done with this. I'll keep listening to the last track, but I don't feel any need to write anything on it. I doubt it's going stray far from this mostly boring sound they have on this album. I got to say that I'm disappointed with this album, I really was expecting that I would like it.

Theatre Of Tragedy - Storm

Theatre of Tragedy sounds nothing like they used to on Aegis. I haven't followed this band too closely, but somewhere along the line they started incorporated a lot of synthesizers into their sound and moved towards being more industrial than metal. Liv Kristine, who went on to form Leave's Eyes, provided the angelic voices in this band until being replaced by Nell Sigland, another woman with a similar voice. You can visit their corny named website Pages of Tragedy here. I like a few tracks from the 2001 album Musique, though I completely passed on the last album, Assembly.

The biggest problem with their current sound is the male vocals. He stopped doing death vocals and just does a clean voice now, which is dreadful sounding. The best songs in their current form are ones where he has a minimal, or non-existant, presence. The band needs to eject him, or just stop him from singing and let him write, as it looks like he does the programming for the band. None of his vocal lines contribute positively to the songs. They could either be eliminated from the song or sung by Nell.

With that being said about the male vocals, its still not a bad album, certainly better than Assembly. Its soft industrial rock with female vocals, but many songs are catchy with memorable choruses.

Spiritual Beggars - Mantra III

This is an earlier 1998 release from my newly discovered Spiritual Beggars. This album almost predates Arch Enemy. Arch Enemy put out Black Earth in 1996. It looks like Spiritual Beggars put out their self titled debut in 1994, when Michael Amott was still doing Carcass. Even though this album is 7 years Demons senior, it still carries a similar sound. Perhaps it is a little more bluesy instead of... power-y? than Demons. Despite the super lame album cover, its still a great listen.

Spiritual Beggars - Demons

Wow, this album is killer. I've heard about this Michael Amott (of Arch Enemy) side project, but never actually got around to listening to it. The band also features Sharlee D'Angelo of Arch Enemy. While listening to this, I thought that power rock would be a good description, and low and behold, on their myspace page it states: "HEAVY POWER ROCK FROM SWEDEN!!!" Michael Amott is a master of writing catchy riffs and I'm sure this album is a release for many riffs that Amott writes that don't quite fit the metal-ness of Arch Enemy. The vocalist approaches the power metal style without crossing over to the lame side ala Rhapsody or Hammerfall. This album is just a good rock album similar to perhaps Corrosion of Comformity or even Clutch with more leads. Great stuff. I've got a lot of digging around to do to uncover some more from this band.

Enslaved - Monumension

Once again, here's an older album I'm checking out from a band that I've loved their newest releases. I discovered Enslaved after the release of Below The Lights. Below The Lights is still probably my favorite release by these guys, although for some reason I never got around to checking out their older catalogue after hearing it. Enslaved plays kind of a black folk metal type thing.

The first 3 tracks of Monumension are heavy and fast black metal, similar to what Below The Lights, Isa, and Ruun continue to perfect. The fourth track, Hollow Inside, makes heavy used of keyboards and clean spoken vocals, and begins slowing down the album. The rest of the album is weak compared to the strong start of the song. It still provides for an interesting listen, but they really could have scaled back many of the keys and spoken vocals. Enslaved is so very good at writing fast, heavy riffs and the singer has a distinctive metal rasp.

Overall, Monumension is a good album. It doesn't match up against Below the Lights and later, but is an interesting listen to hear what they would eventually head towards soundwise.

Between The Buried And Me - Alaska

BTBAM play a very original form of... well, metalcore I suppose. It's all hard hitting riffs and vocals with some minor nuances and complexities that really add color to the songs. I got this album because after hearing their latest album, Colors, I just had to hear more from this band. I don't know about their earlier albums, but this thing stays far away from any breakdowns and the annoying shit that sometimes shows up in many metalcore bands. And there aren't any radio friendly clean sung choruses on this thing. If there is any complaint to this band, its that the rough vocals of the singer aren't incredibly varied. Along with "Colors" and their very fun cover album "The Anatomy Of..." this is a great album that deserves a listen from any metal fan.

Concert - All That Remains, Chimaira, Black Tide, Light This City

This is only the second time that All That Remains has played Las Vegas, and I imagine they will be stopping by Vegas on many of their future tours. They packed Jillians, which is pretty much the only small venue Vegas has that will book underground metal bands. I was actually surprised that All That Remains, and not Chimaira was headlining. I thought that Chimaira would have the bigger draw, but I was wrong.

I arrived a bit late to the show and had missed the opening band, 7th Son. There was an enormous line which caused me to miss Light This City's opening song, which turned out to be kind of annoying, since they only got to play 5 songs. This is the second time I've had the pleasure of seeing Light This City and, although a short set, they were the best until All That Remains hit the stage. These guys, and girl, play straight up thrash, with Laura Nichol tearing up with her vocals. I didn't realize this band was fronted by a woman when I had first heard songs from their latest album, Facing The Thousand.

Next up was Black Tide, the new young band from Florida, that is getting some serious promotion for sounding like an old 80s thrash band, which is ironic, considering I'm not sure if any of the members were actually born in the 80s. Needless to say, this is a young band, the singer is only 15, and I doubt the rest are out of high school either. However, these kids can play. Both the guitarists show incredible talent, and the drummer was powerful. I don't know about the bass, cause in true 80s thrash style, you couldn't hear it... Maybe that was just the mix that night though. Even though these kids were talented, the songs were a bit boring. If I want to listen to 80s thrash, I will put in my Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth. They did a decent cover of Hit The Lights, although they pretty much played it note for note as the original. My biggest gripe with this band is that the singer is terrible. Maybe in a couple years when his voice finishes changing it will be stronger, but it was very weak last night. The problem with bands doing the 80s thrash thing, is that it pigeonholes them into trying to sound exactly like Metallica and Megadeth, and I its very unlikely that a band will write songs than stand up to those kings of the 80s.

After Black Tide, came Chimaira. I listened to one song, but then went to get a beer. Sin City Brewing Co. makes a very good hoppy amber, similar to a Fat Tire or a Sierra Nevada. Chimaira is boring... They used to play hardcore, but supposedly their newer album was more straightforward metal. I don't know, I tried listening to it, but could only get through a couple songs before being bored. And their opening song last night did nothing to persuade me that they were going to do anything other than the boring breakdown driven hardcore that I have always heard from them.

All That Remains had a bigger crowd than their first time here, so they were pumped up and ready to go. Not much to say about this band, they kicked ass just like last time. Their guitarist can sure write catchy and super heavy riffs. And the vocalist has an amazing set of pipes. He hits a large variety of styles, but mostly does his cookie monster with clean vocals mixed in. His clean vocals are very, very good. They really shine in the choruses to "For Salvation" and "This Calling."

Beseech - Sunless Days

Beseech is goth metal that doesn't suck or try to be too radio friendly like Lacuna Coil has become. They are fronted by melancholic vocals from Erik Molarin and the very beautiful Lotta Hoglin. Of course, I should add that I'm a sucker for pretty girls with amazing voices. Both their voices flow together very well with the music. The problem with most goth metal is that so many songs are too melodramatic and just drone on to the point of annoying. Beseech concentrates on just writing catchy songs.

I have their two previous great albums: Souls Highway and Drama, and this 2005 release is just as good. They don't stray much from their formula, but why should they? They have a very good sound that will keep people listening.

Here's the kind of silly animated video to Innerlane

Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

I have no idea how to pronounce the title of this album, but I think it translates roughly to "Crushing Viking Metal." I have the newer albums Kivenkantaja and Viides Luku - Hävitetty from Moonsorrow's catalogue. I am not typing out anymore of their song or album names in this review. This album is one of their earlier albums that was released in 2001 and stacks up just as high against their later masterpieces.

Needless to say, with the album and song titles, all the lyrics are in Finnish, so at least I don't even have to try and understand what is being growled and screamed in the songs. Most metalheads are familiar with viking metal and various bands that run the field. If Moonsorrow is unfamiliar to you, think of them as a mix between Amon Amarth and Finntroll. They use some folkish elements like Finntroll, but never get quite as silly as Finntroll, and instead keep a driving heavy pace akin to Amon Amarth. Some viking metal bands often become a bit too silly in their imagery and folk elements. I can usually deal with it, but sometimes these bands just become too much, such as Battlelore, seen below...


Many of the songs here are long and epic, breaking past the 7 and 8 minute mark. Moonsorrow is one of the best in this genre and anyone that is a fan of Amon Amarth, Finntroll, or Thyrfing should eat this band up.

Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret

So my girlfriend likes Built To Spill, so since I have all these Built To Spill albums sitting around, I guess I'll review one. This is one of those bands, similar to Grandaddy, that I'm not really sure why I like. Its happy alternative stuff that is very much not metal. I even saw them live, and managed to enjoy the show. They have three guitarists for some unknown reason. None of their songs are that technical as to require three guitarists at any time. They are probably just too nice to kick out the unnecessary member.

The album doesn't really have any standout tracks, much of it sounds the same, but its a fun, relaxing listen.

This is nothing different than the other two Built To Spill albums I've listened to: Ancient Melodies Of The Future, and You In Reverse. I imagine these guys have a sound they will never stray too far from... Kinda like Slayer. I should call them the Slayer of... well, whatever this style of music is called.

Audioslave - self-titled

Nobody actually needs an album like this reviewed for them. Audioslave was popular enough that most everyone has probably heard a few songs from this album, such as "Cochise" or "Show Me How To Live," but this site is mostly for myself to better my pathetic writing skills. (And no one reads my blog anyway...) I figure if I keep on writing, I'm bound to eventually get better. Right? That's how these things work?

In any event, Audioslave is the boys from Rage Against the Machine with the terrible singer replaced by Chris Cornell. I always really liked Soundgarden. They had great riffs and Cornell has a great voice. However, I absolutely hated Rage Against The Machine; their songs grate on my nerves. So I wasn't sure how I would first react to Audioslave, being that they are mostly just RAtM. However, Audioslave is much more straighforward radio friendly rock, thanks to the leadership of Chris Cornell. Soul Power's (I forget his name, Tom something or other?) guitar whackiness, which I never really thought was all that great, comes through on many of the tracks, such as "What You Are" and "Like a Stone." I think just some catchy bluesy licks or solos would be much more fitting than the random noise he makes. Tom can do it, he is a great guitarist, and "Getaway Car" breaks out some good 'ol blues, and is the highlight of the last few tracks.

Overall, this is a very good alternative rock album. I Will have to check out the other two Audioslave albums.

Astarte - Demonized

Women in metal bands is hot. Astarte has 3, and 3 hot ones at that! The male members are listed as just session members on their myspace page, probably just so that they can call themselves a female black metal band. Careful of that myspace link, its rough on the eyes. Black text over a black and white background does not work...

Being dominated by female members is probably the only reason this band gets any sort of press. Otherwise they play melodic black metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir or Old Man's Child, although not as epic. It's nothing incredibly original, but it's done well. They probably could have cut a few tracks, as the thing clocks in at 64 minutes, which is about 20 black metal minutes more than I can sit through. The blond singer, Tristessa, has a slighty more glass-swallowing voice than Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy. Angela contributes vocals on the track "Black at Heart" and there's some other guest vocals here and there.

Here is their new video for the track Everlast


If you are digging these more brutal female fronted bands, check out the album Aura Sense by Enter Chaos. And if you just want complete brutality from a woman, listen to Merlin. She's not at all attractive, but she's got a brutal voice.

City Of God - A New Spiritual Mountain

Here's another album I know absolutely nothing about. I think I stumbled across it because the band name is the same as a movie that the filthy critic enjoyed and that I put on my blockbuster queue. Doing a quick google search turns up some other reviews that tells me this is a UK supergroup formed from former members of Kill II This, Xentrix, and Paradise Lost... I've heard Paradise Lost, heard of Xentrix, and have not heard of Kill II This. Seems like this album was released in 2005, but a link to their bandpage isn't functioning, so perhaps the band didn't last.

This is actually really good. Imagine if Fear Factory didn't suck and didn't bore the listener to death. The opening tracks are heavy and enjoyable. The title track is kind of weak, but gets going again with the following song Prisms. For the most part, A New Spiritual Mountain stays interesting throughout the entire listen.

Anthrax - Persistance of Time

I don't know why I never got into Anthrax at the time I started listening to Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. Maybe it was Joey Belladonna's vocals, or perhaps I just had no exposure to them. I didn't really go out of my way looking for music while in high school, and just heard what was either on the radio or what my friends had recently purchased. So somehow this is the first time I've actually sat down and listened to this album. My first experience with Anthrax was their latest album We've Come For You All, which is absolutely fantastic. I imagine I'm in the minority that likes John Bush better than Joey Belladonna.


I'm not sure I like the production on this album. The drums and vocals are fine, but the guitar sound is weak, which is a damn shame, considering there is monster riffing aplenty all throughout the album.

I can't really compare this album to the rest of their catalog, simply because I haven't heard anything except We've Come For You All. I'll try and get around to listening to the rest of their stuff, because I'm sure I will like most of it. Various old school Anthrax songs have been coming up on my Pandora radio station and has been urging me to get more. ...I think I have Stomp 442 around here.

Bruce Hornsby & The Range - The Way It Is

What the hell is this? This isn't metal...

So I've enjoyed the song "The Way It is" for a while now, but haven't ever heard the rest of the album it was from, nor anything else by Bruce Hornsby. This is mellow piano-driven folkish music similar to Billy Idol or umm... who's the guy that sings American Pie? Ahh yes, Don McLean. Thank you google. From the info on Bruce's website, this album was released in 1986 and appears to be his first recording.

It is very, very rare that I actually enjoy this type of music. The vocals, piano, and bluesy guitars create some memorable tunes. Even the lame drum machine fits the music and doesn't detract from the music. I'm not willing to reach much more into my sensitive side to talk about the love tones of the songs, so I'm just going to call this commentary done.

The title track is so good; its just waiting to be covered and redone as a hard rock or metal song.

The Physics of Racing

Here is physicist and racing enthusiast Brian Beckman's Physics of Racing Series (PhoRS). There's quite a bit of concepts and physics here relating to racing. Beckman does a good job of explaining the physics behind many driving fundamentals. A fun read for someone who is either interested in driving cars fast or just a huge physics nerd like myself.

Bleed The Sky - Paradigm In Entropy

I'm going to keep this post rather short as I want to get back to reading Our Dumb World. Pandora radio introduced this band to me. I've probably heard the opening song "Minion" a hundred times already. Pandora has this terrible problem of playing the same tracks over and over instead of different tracks from bands that you give a thumbs-up. I'm terrible at categorizing metal bands, so I'll just say that Bleed The Sky is similar to Cannae as they play metalcore. These guys make good use of some clean vocals. The album would even be good if not for the breakdowns that ruin a few songs.

Cannae - Gold Becomes Sacrifice

I already have the 2003 album Horror by this band. However, I know basically nothing about this band, so I journeyed over to their myspace page. The page hasn't really been updated lately, hopefully the band is still alive and well. This album was released in 2005. This Boston 5 piece (although looks like a 4 piece as their drummer position seems currently unfilled) claims they are a death metal / hardcore band... Which means just about anything you want it to today. The elements that I usually associate with hardcore (annoying repetitious breakdowns and terrible vocals) are mostly absent from the album. A couple songs get close, but manage to avoid breaking down into the usual sound that plagues terrible hardcore bands. (haha, terrible pun... I suck.) The opening track "Rats, Snakes, and Thieves" gets things rolling with a riff that sets the tone for the rest of the album. With the exception of a small acoustic break with the track of "Collapse" the record stays strong and heavy throughout. Memorable tracks are the aforementioned opening track, "Marked by Monuments," and "Bastinado" for one of the few guitar solos on the record.

Accept - Metal Heart

The only reason I checked out this album was because of Dimmu Borgir's killer cover of Metal Heart. My only previous exposure to Accept was Beavis and Butthead rocking out to the video of Balls to the Walls. If you don't know anything about this German band, just think of a cross between AC/DC and Judas Priest. If you can enjoy this somewhat cheesy form of metal, then Metal Heart is a solid album. On the other hand, if AC/DC and Judas Priest makes you run for the hills, then you should probably stay away. I don't know how this stacks up to the rest of Accept's catalog, but I'll definitely look into it. The title track is a classic metal song and the rest of the album thrashes almost as hard, although many of the songs sound similar.

November's Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure

I've got a huge backlog of albums that I need to listen to. So I thought I'd do a kind of live-review as I listen to this album. November's Doom, as the name implies, plays doom metal, similar to Daylight Dies and Swallow the Sun, two bands that I love. For some reason November's Doom has never struck a chord with me, but we'll see how this goes. This album isn't even their most recent. The Novella Reservoir is the title of their newest release if I remember correctly. I tried listening to one or two tracks of that album and put it away.



track 1 - good slow, mostly clean song. It kept my interest as I started writing this review.

track 2 - Opening with some spoken vocals, which I've never liked. Now the first death vocals have started. I think it's the singer's voice that I've never liked, maybe it will grow on me. With those complaints, its turned out to be a good song.

track 3 - Ripping opening riff. It's only the third track and I'm enjoying the vocals more. That's a good sign.

track 4 - Well, back to not liking the vocals. Posting the album cover during this song. Cool album cover. This band has always had good artwork, which is what has drawn me to the band in the first place.

track 5 - This song started off not too promising, but the clean vocals and some acoustics in the middle have eased my ears.

track 6 - Just added a new link. Check out a great night shot of the shuttle Atlantis in today's astronomy picture of the day.

track 7 - Good drum intro. Bring on some thick guitars now... Singer used the line "The pale haunt departure." Strange, track 1 was the title track.

track 8 - slow clean finale to the album. Decent song with some good vocals.

Overall a decent album. Nothing spectacular to me, but if you are a big fan of doom metal and don't already know of this band, then this is worth checking out. The production is top notch, and these guys do their stuff very well. It's just not entirely my thing.

Way Late Best of 2007

So I've stopped doing crack and with all my extra free time I've renewed my futile attempt at listening to every single metal album put out...

So lets just do a quick review of last year. Yeah, there was some good stuff: Dark Tranquillity put out a killer album, Devin Townsend created a zany alien named Ziltoid, Fall of the Leafe once again releases a masterpiece that goes unnoticed by everyone, and probably a bunch of other stuff I missed because of my crack addiction. However, there was one mighty newcomer that put everything else to shame.


Dethklok - Dethalbum

I really didn't follow the show Metalocalypse much until I saw the band play a free show here at UNLV. I did enjoy a couple of the episodes that I saw. The silly obscure metal band references here and there are a nice touch. (I hope a Finntroll's supermarket opens near me!) I wasn't really expecting much from the live show, even up to the point where Gene Hoglan and 3 other very non metal looking dudes took the stage. But then they ripped out the theme song and Murmaider and I was hooked. The show was unbelievably good. This humorous band was outperforming half of the real metal bands I've seen live.

Forget that this album comes from a silly, yet successful, cartoon and buy this album. Its top notch metal. The production on the album is cleaner and thicker than the songs on the myspace page, which come directly from the tv version of the songs.