Meldrum
Blowin’ Up The Machine
Locomotive
40:55 - 11 Tracks
An all female meat and potatoes metal band… guitar driven, and seemingly influenced by Dimebag, they are alright. The main guitarist started out in a band called Wargod with Gene Hoglan, who guests on this CD along with Lemmy, and she was also in Phantom Blue (late 80’s early 90’s chick band). The music is fairly simple and straightforward. This is a maybe on the Mosh Pit.
Rammstein
Volkerball
Universal Republic
75:49 - 16 Tracks
A live DVD, CD and bonus DVD round out this fancy packaged live set from the Germans. The sound is good, the live mix is good, good enough to know what’s going on, yet live enough to know it’s live. I don’t have time to check out the DVD yet, but I’m sure that is way more cool than just hearing the audio. I mean, you can hear explosions and fire stuff… It’s cool, you’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!
Chiodos
Bone Palace Ballet
Equal Vision
38:34 - 10 Tracks
This was a CD that was supposed to get here last week, I just got it today. Normally I’d probably not do much with these guys, but they’re from the midwest and will be in town next week. They are probably more in the emo-core vein, but have some cool metal moments. The music is fairly complex and technical, and gets into some good ol screamo. You might hear this on the Mosh Pit!
Various Artists
Resident Evil: Extinction Soundtrack
Lakeshore Records
62:02 - 19 Tracks
I can’t say that I’ve seen any RE movies, but they sound tracks are usually pretty cool. It’s usually a good mix or some stuff. This one has a lot of remixes and metalcore. The metal focus of this CD though is Shadows Fall’s “Stupid Crazy” which is a bonus track from their newest CD. There are tracks from Chimaira and Throwdown, but just cuts from their newest albums. You’ll hear this Shadows Fall track from this soundtrack, but that’s about it.
Between The Buried and Me
Colors
Victory
64:12 - 8 Tracks
This release is more like a concept album or basically one big song divided into 8 tracks for easier digestion. It starts off like a Pink Floyd album, then builds up into brutality. Then it just takes of from there…. it stays fairly brutal, but the guitar work is more like prog-metal, it’s like, you put a metal-core band and Dream Theater them up a bit… you have this album, it’s got a lot of meedley guitar work, yet stays fairly brutal and heavy. The playing is technical, heavy and just solid throughout. Since this is a big long song, it’ll take a few full listens to fully digest. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!
Hurtlocker
Embrace The Fall
Napalm
36:11 - 10 Tracks
Good solid heavy thrash metal. Nothing really new, just good solidly produced and executed metal. This is good meat and potatoes metal that you will hear on the Mosh Pit!
The Black Dahlia Murder
Nocturnal
Metal Blade
34:38 - 10 Tracks
They are back with their first album in 2 years. It almost reminds me of 3 Inches of Blood right off the bat with the screaming vocals, but then the blast beats and death growls come in and just make this all out brutal. The drumming is sick, the guitar work is sick, dang, this whole thing is just sick. If you like brutal borderline technical death metal, then this is for you… But you know these guys’ reputation for awesome live shows and their last albums were great, so this just carries the torch. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!
Kosmos
Kosmos
The End
44:00 - 12 Tracks
At first, I thought I was listening to the theme from The Rockford Files, but no, it’s just kind of groovy 70’s prog rock sounding stuff. This featurs Away from Voivod and some other guys from other prog psychedelic bands like Tricky Woo, Paradise and Grim Skunk. It’s a bit out there, but it might be worth a mention and/or some airplay as some cool music to talk over!
Suicide Silence
The Cleansing
Century Media
44:02 - 13 Tracks
These guys are pretty brutal. They take thrash metal and turn it up a notch to just about death metal, well, yeah, okay, it’s death metal… okay in parts. There are screamy abrasive vocals followed up by all out cookie monster stuff. The guitars are all distorted and sound a bit like Dimebag, the drumming is brutal with some blast beats here and there. We played these guys a year or so ago when they had their EP out. Now they’re on Century Media and out to prove to everyone how brutal they are. They don’t have to try hard… they just are brutal. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!
Till We Die
Pressing On
Screaming Ferret
52:51 - 13 Tracks
These guys have that “sound” of the new wave of nu-metal. With some emo clean singing vox, mixed with a screamo angry chorus here and there. The music matches. It’s pretty straight forward with some hints of something heavy and technical. You can hear the Tool influence as well as some melodic hard rock type stuff. This type of stuff is more well served by the big rock station in town, but we’ll try to work it in if we can.
Iced Earth
Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part 1)
SPV
69:03 - 19 Tracks
Well, what can you say about Iced Earth… This is the follow up to Something Wicked, their album from, what, 10 years ago? A long time in the making, and with Jon Schaffer being the #1 fan of Iced Earth, and well, being the driving force, you know he’s not going to release crap. He’s pretty much got another new lineup for this CD. They don’t mess around on this one either. Like the BTBAM album above, this CD will probably be better digested as a whole, but just track to track it’s pretty cool. It IS an Iced Earth CD, so you know what it’ll sound like. Ripper Owens is his normal great self and Brent Smedley, the old drummer is back and puts on a solid performance. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!
Winds
Prominence and Demise
The End
55:23 - 9 Tracks
This is a bit prog-metal, more along the lines of heavier Porcupine Tree stuff, but maybe a bit similar to Dream Theater…. and in parts it gets pretty heavy, actually more reminiscent of Opeth! The vocals sound a bit like Maynard from Tool, but get to be brutal in some parts. The mix sounds a bit muddy to me, maybe I have to listen to it in my car (a nicer sound system). The more I listen to this, the more cool it is. We’ll find a way to work this into the Mosh Pit!
After Forever
After Forever
Nuclear Blast
61:23 - 13 Tracks
It’s been a little bit til we got some Fe-metal. These guys are a bit like Epica, but a little more concise. Most of the songs stay pretty heavy without so much effing around. It’s basically prog-metal with some black/death metal male vocals backing up the clean singing (soprano) talented female lead. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!
