Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil

Review# 153

Avenged Sevenfold sit nicely between Classic Rock and Heavy Metal. They are one of those bands that can easily straddle the two scenes and have a massively strong fan base on either side. Personally I would enjoy this album without the power ballads, mostly as I think lead singer M Shadows looses a bit of vocal credibility in those tracks where his voice just becomes a bit too whiney. But tracks like Bat Country and Beast And The Harlot are stompers and make up for it.

Beast And The Harlot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXTC0SmgE2s
Bat Country: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHS3qJdxefY

Miles Davis - The Complete Plugged Nickel

This is about as close as you can get to unfiltered jazz. The band went into the plugged nickel in December 1965 with the intention of playing outside their normal ‘styles’. Putting everything they are comfortable with to one side and improvising with improvisation itself. Of course had they know they were being recorded they may not have gone ahead with it, so thankfully that’s one secret that was kept.

I don’t actually know much about music theory so maybe a lot of the impact is lost on me but one thing that does come across is a certain tension, probably caused by nervous energy. You hear the sound of the club and really if someone asked me what jazz was all about this is probably the album I’d refer them to. Of course if they asked what the best start was, naturally that choice would be Kind of Blue but I’m sticking to my guns that this is the jazz textbook and like most textbooks they are aimed at a less general audience. This is music which is intriguing to hear and is great fun to pay attention to. While I don’t really ‘get it’ at this stage I’ve got years of solid listening ahead of me and not many albums provide that kind of value.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Review# 152

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Strapping Young Lad – City

Review# 151

City is the main contender with Alien as my favourite Devin Townsend album. Yes I know Strapping isn't just Dev but let's face it, he was the driving force.
As in many other Devin projects, the lyrics are predominantly autobiographical and, since it's Strapping, delivered with a punch to the face. Musically it's intense and technical, there are a sprinkling of samples thrown in for good measure too. Devin ranges from sounding like a demon to a wailing banshee, a great example of this is on the track Home Nucleonics.
My main gripe with the album is the cover of Room 429 originally recorded by Cop Shoots Cop, this track just does not fit in with the rest of the album at all. I'm not sure if Devin just wanted to wind the album down after 7 blinding tracks he could have just left it with album closer Spirituality.
This is a reasonably underrated album, when you compare it to Devin's collective back catalogue, and is often left second to Alien or (solo album) Terria. Personally I think I like the Industrial leanings on City best but if you are feeling really chaotically angry/frustrated/anxious Alien would maybe be better so maybe it's all a mood thing. Either way Devin rocks, bring on Deconstruction and Ghost!

AAA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aOy7bEkbCU
Oh My Fucking God: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teeYBgyZhS8
Home Nucleonics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcCZ8QZzi-A
Detox: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f20L0msLsM

Kyuss - Sons of Kyuss

Review# 150

I have always avoided listening to Kyuss, too many references to Queens Of The Stone Age and also Sam telling me that I won't like them (due the aforementioned band etc)... So today I picked an album at random and of them all I pick the Sons Of Kyuss ep.
And with the exception of the vocals, which started to grow on ms a little bit by the end, I actually kinda liked it. Well mostly the riffs but still that's more than I expected!
The ep is still pretty much a full length album, clocking in at just under half an hour. It is apparently out of print now and can be hard to come by, I have no idea how much of a collectable it is though. Musically it is a bit heavier than what I was expecting for a band so involved with the Stoner Rock scene but then there is probably a lot more to it than I know as, to be fair, I know very little about this band and listening to Sons Of Kyuss has made that more obvious to me.

Black Widow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iloZW48IiJs

Kalmah - The Black Waltz

Review# 149

These are some real cookie monster vocals. I am actually pretty impressed by them to be honest. This may be another background album but it still quite fun. The melodic infusion just adds a little something to the musical style to give it some depth. And the vocals are just so stereotypically cookie monster that you can't help but love them.

Defeat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63O3Nbvyc-U

Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

Review# 148

There are some great opening lyrics to albums... I am not sure that "When it rains it pours like hell" is one of them. Especially when that is the only line, recited once, in the entire 2:40 song/intro. That line had me thinking for a bit that this may in fact be more of a silly/cheesy album and I thought that could be fun... But no, it's quite serious.
While the album is not bad it's not particularly exciting either. It's the kind of album that's good in a playlist that you have in the backround when you have mates over for drinks.

The Gale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onX5b4F7_k4