Machine Gun Funk ~ Homeland Obscurity (EP) (album review) ... Feeding the fires of tragedy!

Style: heavy metal, thrash, hardcore, doom metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: Florida

Members: Jared Kimble~ vocals
Jesse Jones, Kaelen Doughty ~ guitars
Mike Dusek ~ bass
Brandon Graham ~ drums


Drawing from Rage Against The Machine, Lamb Of God & Gojira, Florida headbangers MGF pour out thick distorted hardcore & thrash influenced riffs against a powerful rhythm section with growled/spoken lyrics of being caged by the government & facing the somewhat downward movement of society but with a slightly spiritual feeling ... that is, working against the decay of society isn't just a social rescue movement but a spiritual one as when one thing happens then "the body is saved", as is sung in "Caged". Like their influences vocals move between spoken-sung/growled-screamed, but not to the point of being unintelligible, which is a problem I often write about with bands of this genre. Bands have a message but make it difficult for anyone to get & thus defeat their purpose. Not the case with MGF. Frontman Jared Kimble turns in some technically controlled growling, notes are held long & lyrics are understandable, that helps give MGF that little extra push, at least for my listening preferences. Though, things get a little wild with some extreme singing on the title track, also the heaviest track. Of course, not everyone likes this style of singing, decipherable or not. While writing this review my father passed by & heard a minute & said the singer sounds like he's dying. It's a one word review too good not to share from the parental source. While behind our dying vocalist the two guitar & bass attack offers up a thick wall of sound where the two often become one enormous sound that at times flows like sludge metal (for example, "Caged"), though there is the occasional traditional guitar solo but it's kept to a minimum on the EP (i.e. "Quickening"). "Fires Of Tragedy" features an interesting twist on the guitar solo sound as the melody line is composed of both low-end riffing & high necked more lead-like riffs, with both guitars echoing each other for an interesting fuller sound for something that is neither a traditional rhythm nor lead. Drummer Brandon Graham deserves mention, who could be brought up in the mix & given more of a low-end though the bass does help, as he creatively weaves between traditional double bass lines with a variety of non-traditional patterns. I've always been bored by metal drumming that consists solely of double bass, as its almost like that's the only part of the drum worth playing & becomes more distracting than interesting. While not every guitar riff sounds better over a double bass drum pattern. Check out "Quickening" as its a drum tour-de-force & also the standout bass track, as bassist Miek Dusek finds a comfortable space between both the guitars & drums. "Quickening" includes fast double bass patterns, yet the rest of kit is given a major workout as the drum line moves fast from a focus on toms/snare to nearly cymbal only moments that is reminiscent of Megadeth, a band where the drums do anything but play a steady rhythm but actually echo the melody line. Named after a Notorious B.I.G. song this tight little MGF was formed in 2008 & recorded a five song demo in 2009, later playing around the Gulf states. In 2010 came their first formal single with the must hear "Anticipation" , with the recording of this four song EP following the next year. They've gained a reputation in the Florida underground metal community partly tapping into the hip-hop community. After the recording of this album guitarist Doughty was replaced with Sam Gibbs. Well worth checking out.

Slash ~ Slash (aka self-titled) (album review) ... Slashing through guests to get somewhere!

Style: hard rock
Label: EMI
Year: 2010
Home: n/a

Members: Slash ~ guitars
Chris Chaney ~ bass
Josh Freese ~ drums

Additional: Eric Valentine ~ keyboards
Big Chris Flores ~ keyboards/programming
Taylor Hawkins, Kevin Churko ~ b. vocals
Joe Sandt ~ harpsichord
Deron Johnson ~ organ
Mark Robertson, Alyssa Park, Julie Rogers, Sam Fischer, Grace Oh, Songa Lee, Maia Jasper, Lisa Li ~ violins, Anton Patzner, Lewis Patzner ~ strings
Steve Ferrone ~ drums
Lenny Castro ~ percussion

Guests: Ian Astbury ~ lead vocals/percussion
Izzy Stradlin ~ rhythm guitar
Lemmy Kilmister ~ lead vocals/bass
Kid Rock, Iggy Pop, Chris Cornell, Ozzy Osbourne, Fergie, Myles Kennedy, Andrew Stockdale, Adam Levine, M. Shadows, Rocco DeLuca ~ lead vocals
Dave Grohl ~ drums
Duff McKagan ~ bass/b. vocals


What is wrong with this album? Technically nothing. But, how come after listening to it over & over & over via a couple days I almost have to force myself to get interested? I find myself wondering what happened to the trademarked bluesy riffs I used to love by Slash? & how come the singers don't seem to sound as interesting as I know all of them are? & how come none of the songs I can remember once the album ends? & how come I'm not playing air guitar to Slash as I used to? It's as if Slash has, deliberately or not, laid his Guns N Roses roots finally to rest, only to create some new music that lacks any distinct personality or any real emotional push in any direction. Some critics have talked about how this goes back to the 90's, but for me I can't help but hear the lack of things versus what is here. While none of the participants really do anything to pull the songs in any direction, not even the main player himself I feel. It's like there's a different vocal tone on each song, but it doesn't really mean much as nothing feels distinct. It's a duets album without any interesting duets. While there's a guitarist on all the tracks, Izzy Stradlin' appears on rhythm track on the first track & is the only additional guitarist, but I'm not really that engaged by the playing & it seems to lack any distinctiveness or personality. I can only think of some interesting points to touch upon. "Ghost" with Ian Astbury of the Cult feels like it has too many layers. Is there three guitars here all at once or is it four? What is this trying to be - the new utterly cluttered Aerosmith? While I realize I've been listening to Astbury too much with the reunited Doors versus the Cult as I'm always looking for Jim Morrison in his vocals, but that's not fair to him. The tracks with Ozzy, Lemmy & Iggy Pop feel like Slash is just trying to recreate each player's individual sound versus challenging them with a new setting. None are that interesting lyrically either & like most of the singers on the album the performances aren't so hot & feel more autopilot than anything. Ozzy is great partly because of dirty & stomping guitar licks in his solo albums, but his song here is a weak imitation that is neither dirty nor stomping & imitate the notes without the essence. Which means, it would have been better not to imitate at all. The fact that Slash is a blues-based rocker not a heavy metal guitar makes it feel worse as nobody is thus in their creative zone. Fergie probably made "Beautiful Dangerous" the standout single because she's the token female & something to look at in a video, as it's not really that interesting of a song & suffers from more Aerosmith-esque too many layers that take the focus in too many directions & none are particularly good. Chris Cornell turns in a good performance on "Promise", though it sounds more like his Euphora Morning meets Time over Soundgarden. He's always a great voice, but his solo career just makes us miss the power & majesty of Soundgarden & this guest spot is no exception. No doubts why Slash chose Myles Kennedy to join him on his next album from his two tracks here, the only singer with two songs. He might be the least famous guest but turns in the best tracks & I would have grabbed him too. The only real standout, or at least in terms of what I expected to hear, might be the instrumental "Watch This" with Dave Grohl & Duff McKagan which has hints of classic Slash days. Maybe Slash could continue this duet album theme with a group of instrumentalists on some future release? A guitar fest maybe? Though, that might go in the opposite direction & not be uninspired but too inspired & in your face. Though, I'll pay for Slash & Ronnie Woods in the same song any day given their mutual blues base the sparks would surely fly. What's interesting is there's a bounce with Slash. One great outing (i.e. Guns N Roses), then one iffy outing (i.e. Slash's Snakepit), then one great outing (i.e. Velvet Revolver), then this iffy outing & now his new album with Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators is great. I might be a bit off, but that's a thought that came to me while walking down the sidewalk today trying to figure out what I think of this album after spending days listening. I put off listening to this album for awhile as the idea of Slash's debut solo album got me excited & I didn't even read the reviews to keep my ears virginal. I should have listened earlier & gotten it over with. Sadly.

Asia Mei ~ Introverse (album review) ... Russian enchantress whispering sweet nothings in your ear!

Style: pop rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: Massachusetts

Members: Asia Mei ~ keyboards/vocals/programming
Andres Wilson ~ guitar/b. vocals
Louis Ochoa ~ bass
Andreas Brade ~ drums

Additional: Rich Zucker ~ snare drum
Julie Lee, Michelle Painter, Yuki Numata, Benjamin Russel ~ violins
Sarah Bleichfeld, Caitlyn Lynch ~ viola
Lowie Lin, Wayne Smith ~ cello
Hiroshi Sembon ~ programming
Michal Richardson, Jonah Rank, Ian Bateson, Cameron Fadgo, Julie Weiss, Yeshiva, Gonul Aksoy, Ben Nathan ~ b. vocals

I find that whenever one says 'here's a girl who plays piano & sings pop songs' many people assume the outcome is either going to be quirky Regina Spektor or introspective balladeer Tori Amos. On one hand it's good that there's been many women pianists over the years, from 60's Carole King to 00's Jane Mangini, helping bring the instrument more fully into the limelight & moving it beyond the world of Wakeman/Emerson dominated prog-rock or classical music where women pianists do have a dominating role. But, on the other hand, the diverse styles of music all these women pianists have shared with the world gets muddied over. Music PR thrives on comparisons & who sounds like who & being plugged into a comfortable or not niche & genre, so one can't be faulted too much for seeing the smaller picture & forgetting that the aforementioned Jane Mangini is often found on lists of the top 10 prog keyboardists & Christine McVie made some of the best pop of the 70's without a hint of classical music anywhere near here but actually the blues. The problem is when was the last time you saw a woman pianist listed on a list of best pop/rock pianists? Do we even think of them in that role? Like thinking of girl drummers ... it feels strange. One would not make such assumptions of a male pianist about what they will sound like, so we can't blame it all on the uncool nature of the eighty-eight keys in general ... it's just the fact that women are still not seen as equal players in music for anything but singing. Having said all this, pianist/singer & composer AM might play the piano & have songs centered on the instrument with a bit of a classical fringe (i.e. "Saved", "You (Wedding Song)"), but the first notes coming out of "Maps" which opens Introverse is a steady & slow bass guitar followed by an organ & one is immediately tuned into the fact that AM is not going give us the type of piano album we're expecting ... or at least not completely. Actually, it takes a minute before her voice is joined by any clear piano tinkling over the guitar lines & then the piano is not the upfront instrument at all. So, welcome to the world of AM the emotional singer & songwriter who just happens to play the piano but still appreciates electric guitar lines, acoustic guitar textures, a strong rhythm, a trendy loop, lots of textures & emotional nuances from the vocals, lyrics & the music. AM waves the flag, intentionally or not, that female pianists have a range & a lot of creativity & a wide palette. AM weaves in alt rock (i.e. "Maps", "Big Apple Tree", "I Dream") & acoustic guitars including some soulful blues (i.e. "Walking Away"), classical strings (i.e "Saved", "I Fall") & occasional programming (i.e. "Big Apple Tree", "I Dream") & even a touch of klezmer (i.e. "A Bus To Sunshine"). Yet, at other times she keeps things simple with soft ballads (i.e. "You (Wedding Song)", "I Fall", "The Forgotten One", "Your Answer"). Though, personally, I wouldn't mind more upbeat rock feeling songs & less dreaming piano-based ballads. While overall, she sings in a light tone like she's whispering some sweet words in your ear. AM is singing love songs, so she actually is whispering sweet nothings. AM was born in Russian, grew up in Jerusalem before coming to America to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music in the days of 9/11, before discovering the beauty of economic collapse as a NYC resident temporarily. Her husband Andres Wilson contributes guitars. Shards was AM's debut in 2006 & was hailed by music critics instantly. As a string arranger she's worked with Annie Gallup & John Wesley Harding, & has done Pro-Tools editing for Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt & Moby. She's also sang in a classical chorus that toured with opera's Andrea Boccelli. If you like your music more mellow & personal I highly recommend AM.

Lita Ford ~ Living Like A Runaway (album review) ... And, kicking ass like nobody's business!

Style: heavy metal
Label: SPV
Year: 2012
Home: n/a

Members: Lita Ford ~ vocals/guitars/keyboards
Gary Hoey ~ guitars/bass/keyboards/b. vocals
Matt Scurfield ~ drums

Additional: Crispin Cioe, Arno Hecht ~ sax
Larry Etkin ~ trumpet
Mickey Kanan, Tayla Lemieux ~ b. vocals

Guest: Doug Aldrich ~ guitar


Harsh, heavy, angry & everything but the heavily commercialized hard rock sex-diva we remember from 80's MTV is how I briefly & maybe unfairly describe the latest album by former Runaway turned sex symbol rock chick LF. Okay, to be fair, LF hasn't been that sex symbol since she faded from the charts a long time ago, but ... she's never been this angry, emotional, raw or honest or even close to it. Her love songs were always I want you or miss you or I can't have you, not I hate you, I don't want to be with you, you hurt me, you've damaged me. Her songs were shallow, much like a lot of her 80's big hair peers so I'm not picking on her, but now she's turned the tables around & penned an album that puts on the table in bitter honesty all the anguish following the messy break-up of her marriage & loss of her life as she knew it. For example, "Branded" opens the album with "I don't want to fight you you no more/I watched you put your fist through the wall/I don't want to hear you screaming my name/I'm so tired of playing the same old game/yeah, you left you're mark on me". The album just takes off from here. No happy mask over what this album is about. I feel embarrassed to even listen in at times as she's so lyrically raw. Music isn't supposed to be this honest or if it is then it's posing as such or black metal that's expected to be like this. Only Lou Reed comes to mind as having this honesty, though he's a bit more poetic. On first listen this is a heavy album to digest, maybe too heavy, particularly as its just so far from what we know LF for. The songs are stronger, harder edged with striped back riff oriented grooving, the lyrics right up front & her singing some of her best aiming for emotion over technique or typical rock hollers. If you're feeling afraid that the LF you love has been thrown under the carpet, I would ask you to give this new album a chance. If you listened once & weren't sure I would also say listen again. I put it away after a first listen as I found it too challenging, but later listens brought out more & more depth & I now honestly call this her greatest moment as a songwriter. What I noticed on later listens is how LF's anger is digested through different lenses. "Branded" is about lovers relationships turned bitter, while "Hate" is about hate kids feel from their peers for being different. Then there's "Mother" which is a cry that is far too autobiographical to be comfortable, as she sings about a mother to her son who is obviously distant with the lines "please understand why I had to leave/the pain was deep/he was hurting me". It's one of the most gut-wrenching moments on the album. In a similar thematic vein is the Jekyll/Hyde themed "The Mask." "Asylum" is looking back on memories & being alone with the line "I don't want to die in the asylum", while on the other hand "Relentless" looks into the future & is a driving song about pushing forward with lyrics drawing comparisons with freight trains & fighters in the ring. "Relentless" might also be one of the best songs musically. The only songs not laced with anger might be the title track, a softer ballad with a potentially autobiographical slant about a youth with a guitar leaving town to do something in life. In many ways it reminds me of Reba McIntire's "Fancy" with mom saying go & do it. "Devil In My Head" is more a poetic romp about "love don't come easy for a lonely soul like me" & screams wannabe commercial hit but pales in comparison to the other more personal songs. Twenty years ago for LF this might have been a hit, but she's upped her own bar & thus it loses it's potency. "Luv 2 Hate You" is one of the non-personal tracks that keeps the album lighter & not tilting into murderous regret & anger. Album starts with "Branded" & ends with "A Song To Slit Your Wrists By" if one had any question on the intention of this album. Though the later is the one song that should be missing as it's a strange affair of cold electronic beats & industrial guitars. Though, sadly I only want to slit my wrists out of boredom with the song. Would have been better on the previous album Winter Wonderland, but its the only one moment in the biggest jewel in LF's crown.

Rod Stewart ~ Unplugged ... And Seated (live) (album review) ... But, you will get up & rock out!

Style: pop rock, blues-rock, acoustic, classic rock, live
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1993
Home: n/a

Members: Rod Stewart ~ vocals/banjo
Jeff Golub, Jim Creagan ~ guitar
Don Teschner ~ guitar/mandolin/violin
Carmine Rojas ~ bass
Charles Kentiss III ~ piano
Kevin Savigar ~ piano/accordian
Phil Parlapiano ~ accordian/mandolin
Dorian Holley, Darryl Phinnessee, Fred White ~ backing vocals
Marilyn Baker, Haim Shtrum, Mari Tsumura, Jay Rosen, Kwihee Shamban, Miran Kojian, Brian Leonard, Jean Hugo, Joel Derouin, Bruce Dukov, Joseph Meyer, Ronald Clark, Joan Elardo, David Shostac, Norman Ludwin, Drew Dembowski, David Shamban, Suzie Katayama, James Ross, Larry Corbett ~ strings

Guest: Ron Wood ~ guitar

Pumping bass, acoustic guitars of every shape, steady unelaborate drums kick off the show with the classic romp "Hot Legs". It's classic 70's RS time! But, then things move right into a more somber mood with the slow bluesy "Tonight's The Night". It's classic rock RS but expect there's also going to be a lot of crooning more in line with the 80's Vegabond Heart "Forever Young" RS. The result is a fusion of the 70's energized rocker with the 80's soft rocker, of mixed reviews, into a new 90's vibrant RS that isn't trying to recreate the past  nor defy his age but create a loose & fun evening rediscovering old songs & largely ignoring the less memorable 80's hits. Thus comes one of the best MTV Unplugged concerts in my opinion right alongside Eric Clapton & Nirvana. I'd always heard about the vibrant 70's RS who had an amazing live presence, but the 80's soft rock crooner presented a shadow of that reputation. This was the first live album I heard by RS & it introduced me to the RS of my parents generation. Though, unlike Clapton & Nirvana whose acoustic forays became accidental climaxes, RS needs a career boost after disaster album after disaster album & always having an eye for trends jumped right on board. He's doing his best to show the name RS still matters, even hamming it up at times with his banter, but yet it's hard to see this as totally acting but that he really has gotten into the moment & enjoying the nostalgic romp honestly as much as the audience is. It helps that former Faces bandmate Ronnie Wood comes out after the fourth song to man the guitar, which helps keep the vibrant 70's energy upfront & the weak 80's commercialism at bay, let alone its rare to see RS have someone to bounce off of. Yes, RS knew what he was doing inviting back his old bandmate from the Faces, he knew this would reinvent his career the way he needed. Particularly as they hadn't played together in twenty years. Excuse the deliberate nature, the well-planned set list, the backing strings, because it works & is a necessary album for anyone who wants to hear RS at his best. Oh, & excuse the fact that many of these songs originally were heavily acoustic so he's not taken to reinventing himself. But, many of the songs almost sound better here & certainly looser & his voice is raspier. Personally, I consider this the last album of classic RS as he'd never be this nostalgic nor vibrant again. This was also the formal goodbye to the slick RS that is full of RS's worst albums, the most uninspired music & one might be surprised how many albums he put out in the 80's that have gone intentionally forgotten by all parties sans a few songs that survived the garbage heap. What would follow Unplugged ... & Seated was the the under-rated Spanner In The Works, the brit-pop covers album When We Were The New Boys & the dance album Human. These would be would be nice codas, somewhat unmemorable but aging better than one might expect, but music of an artist unable to find a new direction after the high of his acoustic comeback & not wanting to return to the previous music. The later release also suffer from throat troubles that softened his vocal rasp, which some have said made him a better singer technically. Then RS would reinvent himself as the aging jazz & pop singer & cover artist to commercial success but critical failure. It might be one of the greatest facelifts in music become a torch song balladeer, but the music lacks the vibrancy that made RS famous, let alone might be a pleasant collection of albums for a middle aged man but a lightweight listening that's too contrived & lacking depth. But, for one wonderful minute we have RS sitting in a transition stage & he turned in a classic album that was everything RS wanted & needed & maybe a bit more. He wanted a successful album but got a legacy maker.

Joel Grind ~ The Yellowgoat Sessions (album review) ... From the ruins of a toxic holocaust comes this beast!

Style: black metal, heavy metal
Label: Acid Rat
Year: 2013
Home: Portland, Oregon

Members ~ Joel Grind ~ guitars/drums/bass


Some may know JG as the frontman & founder of Toxic Holocaust. This solo album will be welcomed by those familiar with the earlier days of Toxic Holocaust as on one hand JG has pulled some of the same primitive soul & drive from those days into The Yellowgoat Sessions. On the other hand, this is far more dark & carnal that reaches beyond rediscovering Toxic Holocaust to its roots & the fathers of black metal. Early Motorhead & Bathory have been thrown out as comparisons & they are quite accurate. But, other bands could be used as comparisons as JG has created an album, recorded over two days no less, that is anything but slick commercial metal, but instead recalls the early days of raw, heavily distorted & reverbed, not the most technically challenging but solid heavy metal. That's not to say that it was recorded over a tape player & suffers from bad production, not at all, only that you'll find a lot of comparisons here with the underground metal that was coming out in the early 1980's before thrash became the norm. Actually, it's less of a comparison & more of an absolute flashback. This has those trademarkable driving distorted guitar rhythms that marked early Motorhead, W.A.S.P. & countless other bands, though the former is a pretty solid comparison, while every so often a guitar solo briefly appears. It's not the most musically diverse album, but that does little to remove any enjoyment from this great release. While even the nostalgia aspect doesn't hurt or making it sound too imitative, probably because this particular sound hasn't been nostalgia to death & still remains fresh ... or maybe JG just has a great hand on what makes good metal. One secret is it isn't overly cluttered, technically complicated nor mind-numbing fast & the lyrics are understandable. The album doesn't do a mind-numbing onslaught of careening guitars but just drives with a metal reverbed groove that isn't heard much anymore. This is retro metal album recorded in a spurt of creativity & JG had enough sense, more than a lot of bands, to keep the kitchen sink at home. His lesson of simplicity should be studied. Some folks may know that Toxic Holocaust started as a solo project so why is this not under that band name, as what's the difference? The difference is that Toxic Holocaust has now become a band, while this is truly a solo album & JG doesn't want to disregard the band that has formed making it into a solo gig with session players. Check this release out. You won't be disappointed.

Burzum ~ Dauthi Baldrs (album review) ... Join Hermothr on a journey to hell!

Style: instrumental, symphonic metal, dark ambient, Norwegian
Label: Dead Ringer
Year: 1997
Home: Norway

Members: Varg Vikernes ~ synthesizers


1996's Filosofem is a fascinating Burzum album. It was composed over time but recorded in one final sweep before it's composer, Varg Vikernes aka Count Grishnackh, went to prison for fifteen years & was banned from using real instruments, though not released until after his incarceration. The album was a big unpredictable step forward from Burzum's roots. It was not a harsh listen with heavily distorted guitars & rough vocals but a droning quasi-symphonic landscape more in common with industrial than black metal. What was recorded next would be a bigger surprise, yet at the same time picked up what was put into place with Filosofem. The resulting Dauthi Baldrs ranks up there with Filosofem as two of the most fascinating albums under the name Burzum & maybe in the early black metal world as a whole. Dauthi Baldrs might even be just as influential to later bands as the early Burzum albums considering the amount of later black metal that sounds like this. If it wasn't influential in a strict timeline sense it certainly helped to build bridges between death metal, industrial & dark ambient genres. Vikernes recorded & released two albums in prison that utilized only a synthesizer dubbed into a standard tape recorder, the only equipment he was allowed. This meant a complete facelift of the Burzum sound with the result being symphonic death metal before the genre existed & industrial & dark ambient when the genres were still more underground than not. It's the best of the droning emotive notes of Filosofem but now with a heavy melodic development that moves like gentle waves painting lonely landscapes with simple minimalist lines. Perhaps early Burzum included all of this, but it was lost under the distorted guitars. While the instrumental approach means the focus, or distraction depending on what you hear, of the vocals now gives way to the melody which is far more developed out. It's such a hypnotic outcome I was disappointed when Vikernes got out the jail & went back to the jagged distorted guitars. "Dauthi Baldrs" or "The Death Of Baldr" includes crashing percussion with sounds emulating violins. Vikernes pulls a lot out of his limited palette & the percussion aspect is particularly exciting. "Hermothr A Helferth" ("Hermothr An A Journey to Hel") feels like a harpsichord, whereas both "Balferth Baldrs" ("Baldr's Balefire") & "Moti Ragnarokum" ("Towards Ragnarok") feel like symphonic ensenbles with the later having piano interludes. "I Heimr Heljar" ("In Hel's Home") has an interesting percussive aspect. "Illa Tithandi" ("Ill Tidings") is a ten minute meditation that feels like classical composer John Adams or industrial a la early Nine Inch Nails. One could talk about the classical strains, the folk motifs, the connection to traditional music forms contained here. One could even discuss the psychological aspects of the music given how far away this is from early Burzum. But, for this blog, that might be missing the point of how enjoyable this is. What could be a strange experimental album sacrificing enjoyment for the art, this straddles both worlds pleasurably. There is a simplicity here in the simple lines, but at the same time complex arrangements that are anything but haphazardly thrown together. The album tells the story of Baldr, the son of Odin in Norse mythology, but without lyrics or English liner notes, most will neither hear nor perceive the story. "Hermothr A Helferth" ("Hermothr An A Journey to Hel") feels like a harpsichord, whereas both ("Baldr's Balefire") & "Moti Ragnarokum" ("Towards Ragnarok") feel like symphonic ensenbles with the later having piano interludes. "I Heimr Heljar" ("In Hel's Home") has an interesting percussive aspect. "Illa Tithandi" is an alternative version of "Decrepitude I" & "Balferth Baldrs" is an ambiant version of the main riff from "Jesu Dod", which both appeared on Filosofem. The title track would be remade as "Belus Dod" on 2010's Belus, the first post-prison album.

Iron Maiden ~ A Real Live One (live) (album review) ... A real live one that's hard to catch up with!

Style: prog metal, heavy metal, NWOBHM, live
Label: Capitol
Year: 1993
Home: n/a

Members: Bruce Dickinson ~ vocals
Dave Murray, Janick Gers ~ guitar
Steve Harris ~ bass/b. vocals
Nicko McBrain ~ drums

Additional: Michael Kenney ~ keyboards


I'm not one of those great IM fans that know every album, has fond memories of the Powerslave tour & defends Bruce Dickinson's singing against the other IM frontmen. I enjoy some of their stuff & the hits, but am not that familiar with their music generally. By the time I was in my youthful musical prime (i.e. high school) they didn't have the impact on the charts as they once did. Like Kiss, I just missed their big moments & their last years are memories where I'm a distant observer, i.e. interested in other bands & only finding their music long after the fact. A Real Live One is the first of three live albums released in 1993. It consists of songs released after 1986, or more properly from the album Somewhere in Time through 1992's Fear of the Dark, performed on their latest tours. Later in 1993 came the companion album A Real Dead One of pre-1985 or classic songs from 1975 through 1984's classic Powerslave with the latest line-up. A month after this release came Live At Donington 1992 that duplicated A Real Dead One's track listing but with stronger performances. The pattern would now be set for a live album after every couple studio albums climaxed by the much publicized Flight 666 in 2009. Living in Donington 1992 was originally released only in selected countries but later made generally available, while the other two albums were reissued as a combined A Real Live Dead One. A Real Live One is the highlight of this trio of albums, it's companion album the low point. The criticism of its companion is that the older studio versions remain the superior versions, whereas on this first album the newer songs translate more smoothly to the stage with less arrangement changes to reflect a different band line-up & vocalist. Sadly, as a non-fan I don't find myself becoming a fan of the band. The problem for me is the half the songs I know I don't like these live versions. The issue really comes down to production quality. Maybe my ears are more adjusted to 2013 as the litmus test & I've forgotten that this hasn't always been the standard, but this is one of those live recordings where not everything comes through clean. IM is for me a band that has a textural element to their music & I feel it loses some of it here. For example, "Can I Play With Madness" has out of tune backing vocals, a cloud of guitar distortion the original doesn't have that wrecks havoc when the keyboards come in, & while Bruce Dickinson really might be a strong factor in IM's success having his voice not perfectly clean & out front in the mix does change some of the focus of the songs. I lose some of the detail in the IM live setting. But, on the other hand & where this album is good for fans, it paints an accurate picture of what a IM concert sounds like & that has a lot of value in itself. If you're a casual fan like myself I would recommend none of the above albums but instead go for a DVD. IM really must be seen live to be enjoyed fully, then you can venture into the audio only. I'm not at that point yet, so excuse me.

Aerosmith ~ Music From Another Dimension! (album review) ... This dimension has been banned for visitation!

Style: hard rock, classic rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 2012
Home: Boston, Massachusetts

Members: Steven Tyler ~ lead vocals/guitars/keyboards/harmonica/percussion/mandolin/cigfiddle
Joe Perry ~ guitar/bass/hammered dulcimer/synths/vocals
Brad Whitford ~ rhythm guitar/b. vocals
Tom Hamilton ~ bass/guitar/synths/vocals
Joey Kramer ~ drums/b. vocals
Rick Dufay ~ rhythm guitar

Additional: Melanie Taylor, Laura Jones, Bruce Witkin, Warren Huart, Mia Tyler, Sharlotte Gibson ~ b. vocals
Dr. Rudy Tanzi ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Marti Friederiksen ~ keyboards/synth/b. vocals
Paul Santo, Zac Rae ~ keyboards
Eric Gorfan, Daphne Chen ~ violin
Lauren Chipman ~ viola
Richard Dodo ~ cello
Tom Scott, Jessy J., John Mitchell ~ sax
Bill Reichenbach, Jr. ~ trombone
Gary Grant, Larry Hall ~ trumpet
Jesse Sky Kramer ~ bass
Daniel J. Coe ~ synths
Jesse Kotanisky ~ violin solo
Jack Douglas ~ percussion/keyboards/synths/b. vocals

Guest: Julian Lennon, Johnny Depp ~ b. vocals
Carrie Underwood ~ vocals
Desmond Child ~ piano
Russ Irwin ~ piano/b. vocals

First things first, this album should have a warning label on it. Not a traditional warning label about bad lyrics ... no, on second thought it should be about bad lyrics, just really poorly written bad lyrics. Do not do what I did & read the lyrics first. That's your warning. You'll suddenly decide not to listen to the album. I mean, it's bad enough when your lyric writing is based around a rhyming dictionary, it's worse when you don't know how to make sense when you rhyme, let alone have anything remotely interesting to write about. Why even write songs? Why not just sing the rhyming dictionary? Steven Tyler will show you how to make it sound interesting ... you just have to have a voice with his trademarkable dynamics & no humility that after thirty years in music you have nothing to sing about other than cliched sex like it's 1985. Tyler might be talented, but its albums like this I question the definition of talent. Read/listen to "Luv XXX" if you want to see what I mean. Now that we've got the warning out of the way, grab a blender, throw in every Aerosmith album from day one, except for the two sans Perry, & press pulp. The result is Music From Another Dimension! & the dimension is a time warp twenty years ago. This sounds less like what we'd except the aging boys to sound like at this point in their life & more like Pump or Permanent Vacation but without any of the great Desmond Child lyrics or memorable arrangements ... okay, there's one Child song, but "Another Last Goodbye" is the closer, the cleanest arrangement & still empty lyrically & thus ends up being more a useless coda of what could be than a benefit. How you can aim & miss so badly is the question this album asks. Looking at Steven Tyler's list of instruments & the array of backing musicians & the answer becomes clear. It's not that you're aiming, you're just out of control. This is every album they've made plus the kitchen sink from each band member's house all mixed together with no focus either on the whole or in individual songs. The album is heavily textured & layered to hell but it's got too many layers to focus on, the problem with the Joe Perry Project albums too, & it sound like a bunch of pieces sewn together versus coherent songs. Someone had too much studio time. Hey, look, we've got an hour & a kitchen sink - what are we going to do with it? It's not riffs or melody lines but just a bunch of sounds with some wild vocals, & over-used & distracting backing vocals, & no message & no flow on any level. The emotive ballads, the moments when things come back to this dimension, suffer from bad lyrics right out the door that kills anything the song is trying for. It's hard to figure out what the boys are trying to do here. Obviously they are trying to go back in time, but they've failed to notice that their classic songs are not the ones that are cluttered, but slimmed down & basic. Think of the opening to "Janie's Got A Gun" or the memorable guitar parts of "Dream On". If there were layers added to that the songs would collapse. I repeatedly listened to this album, though I struggled to get past the first few songs as song after song would go buy & I'd realized I couldn't remember what I'd just heard. It's not good when you can't remember an album you've just listened to. There is some saving grace. In each song coming out of the cluttered mist, its not even a scary mist either, is Joe Perry's guitar solos. Besides still looking cool in his elder years, cooler than ever maybe, & not like someone's grandmother going through an egotistical personality crisis, the guy is still a hot guitar player. It's just a shame he doesn't know when to pull back or maybe he does but isn't the one steering. The only songs I found of interest after repeated listens are "Oh Yeah", "Closer", "Freedom Fighter", "Lover Alot" with its rhythmic singing & the country-esque ballad "What Could Have Been Love". "Beautiful" is a strange song I found addicting, maybe because I couldn't figure out which band Aerosmith was trying to imitate. It opens with hip-hop/rap/talking vocals for the verse & an Arctic Monkeys like chorus. Didn't Aerosmith see what happened to the Rolling Stones when Mick Jagger decided he could rap in the early 80's? Like the Stones the chorus is great, the verse horrible, the song destroyed but you keep wanting to hear it again just to see if its really that bad. "Out Go The Lights" was almost on my list as it has some great soloing, but the overly long ending solo with oop-oop vocals just killed it's momentum. "Legendary Child" I originally liked as it has the first good lyrics on the album, but cluttered by an unfocused arrangement. How many kitchen sinks are necessary? No more sinks. I want some counter space back. Perry takes vocals on "Freedom Fighter", "Oasis In The Night" & "Something". The first sounds like something out of Warren Zevon & is absolutely out of place in this mess. The tracks also make this feel like the Rolling Stones where Keith Richards also sings two tracks & just like the Stones each of Richards' tracks are low-key affairs that are some of the better songs as they do what all the other songs should do. Tom Hamilton takes lead vocals on "Up On A Mountain" lessening the Richards effect. It seems to me there's a lot of bands from the older days coming back with new music either choosing to reinvent themselves, like Bret Michaels & Bon Jovi, or sticking to the old template, like Kiss or Journey or Night Ranger. While a decade ago when they were all having reunions the reinvention was great. Now I highly recommend not to reinvent but just chill for a bit longer on what you do best. The reinventions I'm finding routinely disappointing, while the bands holding still, even when I don't particularly like those bands in the first place, are far more enjoyable.

Rusted Root ~ When I Woke (album review) ... Send me on my way with this delight!

Style: folk rock, jam band, acoustic rock, experimental
Label: Polygram
Year: 1994
Home: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Members: Michael Glabicki ~ lead vocals/guitar/mandolin/harmonica
Liz Berlin, Jennifer Wertz, Jim Donovan ~ percussion/b. vocals
John Buynak ~ flute/mandolin/percussion/guitar
Patrick Norman ~ bass/percussion/b. vocals
Daniel James DiSpirito ~ drum/sax/tabla

I've never been much into jam bands, but the moment I first heard RR's "Send Me On My Way" on the radio I was hooked to this particular jam band. Perhaps the thing that separated RR from their peers was the always changing & unpredictable rhythms & different parts that fused together to paint a hypnotic musical experience that relied on a different format than traditional droning notes. The other thing that grabbed me is the world beat influence that permeates the music from start to finish but with the result never really sounding like a world beat album nor disjointed pieces that seem uncomfortable together. It's heavily layered & you want to crank up the volume to hear the funk bass, the new age singing, the Native American & South American drumming creating tribal grooves, the folksy acoustic guitars, the Native American flutes, the mandolins, the talking drums, the country washboard & the Indian tambura. The pieces might span the ethnic music spectrum but together lose their identity & becomes something truly world beat. There's only two problems that have plagued RR. You know fireside sing-alongs? RR takes this to the next level, but it's hard to sing along with & the lyrics are fragmented or under-developed. The only thing not textured are the lyrics. The singing is great but no message is ever lyrically developed enough. The other problem, maybe more of a problem for some depending upon what you like when it comes to jam bands or hippie folk rock, is that more often than not the songs feel incomplete. Some songs feel more like jams (i.e. "Back To The Earth", "Ecstasy", "Martyr", "Rain"), while others feel like extended bridges between one song to the next (i.e. "Food & Creative Love", "Dream Trip", "Infinite Tambura"). Though, if the songs were more cut up, individualized & less extended it might potentially kill the flavor of the album, particularly on the second half of the album which is more jam oriented. We'd potentially go from tribal grooves to a heavily rhythmic take on the Dave Matthews Band. The album now feels like they found a groove & when a new groove came into their head they went with it, versus saying we two minutes here or a solo here. There are some legitimate more beginning-middle-end songs, including the hit "Send Me On My Way", "Cruel Sun" which veers off into a Grateful Dead solo moment, the radio friendly "Cat Turned Blue", the slow plaintive ballad though lyrically weak "Beautiful People", while "Laugh As The Sun" & "Lost In A Crowd" lie somewhere between finished songs & jams. Some critics, & commercial success would echo this, have said that the follow-up to this, RR's third album, is tighter & more focused making When I Woke a bit of a transition album. Their debut was more rock oriented & imitative, while the third album was a sound unique to RR with When I Woke being the bridge. I've not heard the other albums so I can't comment on that, but I know when I first heard this album I loved it & over a decade later I still enjoy it just as much, maybe even more since I've developed out my listening for world rhythms since that initial introduction. If you like tribal grooves, anything but traditional arrangements & instrumentation & prefer music that flows versus being restrained, RR would be a delightful addition to your music library. RR continue to record & tour.

The Senseless ~ The Floating World (album review) ... Floating above the world due to going so fast the notes went into orbit!

Style: black metal, extreme metal, deathgrind
Label: self-released
Year: 2013
Home: n/a

Members: Sam Bean ~ guitar/vocals
Leon Macey ~ drums

Guest: Matt Wilcock ~ lead guitar

 

 I'm actually blown away by the speed. So fast on some songs I'm reminded only of Sadistik Execution of Australia. Is this computer enhanced, as this can't be humanly possible? This is fast guitar lines & fast drumming, not just one or the other, only taking a break for an occasional vocal shout that's the slowest thing here. Personally, it's so fast it's almost headache inducing with my ears literally aching at times ... even on low volume. It's taking the definition of brutality & not holding back. But, while speed is the focus the riffs are actually pretty interesting, helped along by the fact that the distortion is kept at a minimal level to let every note be heard instead of lost, while the vocals mostly avoid the growling undecipherable approach. So, think more Pantera than Mayhem. I'll confess that I'm not fluent in deathgrind & extreme metal so my ears might be hearing something unique here where there isn't for those familiar with the genre ... so those of you should excuse my excitement. But, what I'm sure is unique is that while it's brutally heavy it's not as dark as one might imagine. There's a delicateness here in the lyrics. There's something here other than death, destruction & mayhem & even musically there's some softer moments (i.e. "White Flag"). The only song I didn't particularly care for was "Death To Metal" that has a boring four chord punk chorus with boring growled vocals for the verse, or maybe it's the verse & chorus, it's hard to tell in this uninteresting mash-up, but one bad song out of a dozen songs isn't bad. The Senseless is the solo work of former Berzerker member Sam Bean & Mithras drummer & producer Leon Macey. The Senseless debut came in 2007 with In The Realm Of The Senseless & immediately showed this was not one's typical metal band, but was aiming for extreme speed & also lyrics that would come to be called 'happy metal'. This follow-up was started in 2008 but the duo didn't feel the music was perfected enough to release until now. Ex-Berzerker guitarist Matt Wilcock guests on a track.

Haverford ~ Wisdom Lost (EP) (album review) ... Keeping their eye on the groove!

Style: alt rock, shoegazing
Label: self-released
Year: 2012
Home: Long Island, New York

Members: Anthony Stano, Billy Mannino, Connor Ramert, Kevin Burke, Mark Masterson ~ n/a

Moody hypnotic lines, lazy mists of laid back grooves, reserved singing, & short & sweet songs that never go on too long after stating their thesis ... though they also unanimously fail to lead to a climax or feel developed with a couple songs lasting under two minutes. Maybe it's the fact there's no guitar solos just harmony lines, but Haverford obviously have their eye on grooves versus showy solos & I'd recommend they let these grooves develop. Let the hypnotic quality be developed. You don't have to have solos to fill up the space but by cutting things short there ends up feeling like there's space here waiting to be filled up. Haverford formed in 2012 & come from the same mold as Death Cab For Cutie & Dowsing, though I can hear subtle shades of Built To Spill if they'd be more adventuresome. Wisdom Lost is their first EP & their currently working on songs for their first full length.

Dethcentrik ~ The Fourth Reich (album review) ... Fanning the flames of revolution!

Style: experimental, avant-garde, industrial, instrumental
Label: Dod Incarnate
Year: 2013
Home: Colorado

Members: Stefan Klein ~ all instruments

I've been following the music of Stefan Klein, under the name Dethcentrik & Dod Beverte, for awhile now & have even made some music with him. I don't believe I'm being too biased when I say I hear a lot of change in the Dethcentrik music since the first album I heard. But, now I will be biased by saying it would be nice to think our work together had an effect on his latest music & we influenced each other. Early Dethcentrik is this challenging onslaught of furiously played guitars or drums against distorted keyboards & garbled vocals coming out of a band that has turned into a one man outpouring. Those early Dethcentrik albums have received more than one 'worst of' honor from music reviewers. Maybe such honors will still be granted, but I believe Dethcentrik should be given some new accolades for growing & changing & continually breaking expectations & moving beyond a small template with a lot of bravery to experiment & find new templates to meander through. My ego would like to say I helped push him in those directions as he helped me do the same. At one point, for many of us, it was not too wrong to call Dethcentrik industrial atonal black metal more furious than compositionally complicated. But, now I hesitate to even call this metal, or metal as most of us probably define it. Dethcentrik has moved much more experimental & into the land of sound landscapes, far more in the industrial realm than the traditional Mayhem-Burzum influenced outpourings Dethcentrik is known for. Now there's even incredibly unabashed social criticism in the lyrics ... which might have always been there but the new music reflects it musically versus just being heavily distorted guitars clashing with pounding drums. Now the songs have as much tortured anxiety as the lyrics with the creation of music that includes birds, thunder, wind, saws & other natural or maybe not sounds ... though heavily distorted beyond recognition. As for an additional note on the social criticism ... the interesting thing about Dethcentrik is that the group has had the label of Satanic metal attached to it. Nothing could be further from the truth ... that is if you deem any band that doesn't sing love songs or the John Denver or Beach Boys catalog Satanic. Or, I mean, if you call this Satanic we have to talk, from "Land of the Slaves & the Home of Pure Hatred": "Watch as this country dies, eating itself from the inside./Watch evil rise, gaining power through disguise./Watch the world burn as it ceases to properly turn ... /Watch the truth shine bright & with wings of justice the world take flight." Or is this Satanic, from "Pledge of Compliance": "I pledge compliance to the emblem of Shackledom/& to the dictatorship for which it stands/One state, under bigotry/With persecution and pain for all non-whites & non-Christians." I guess if criticizing our culture with lots of distortion Satanic ... well, didn't the Beach Boys throw in some distortion for a song or two once & their last album certainly had some social commentary. Satan reigns, I guess.

Aerosmith ~ A Little South Of Sanity (live) (album review) ... Doing what they insanely do best!

Style: hard rock
Label: Geffen
Year: 1998
Home: Boston, Massachusetts

Members: Steven Tyler ~ lead vocals/harmonica/percussion
Joe Perry ~ guitar/pedal steel/b. vocals
Brad Whitford ~ guitar
Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums

Additional: Russ Irwin, Thom Gimbel ~ keyboards/b. vocals

From the Get A Grip & Nine Lives tours comes this two disc live set to fulfill contractual obligations. They could have done something interesting with their Geffen swan song. I'm thinking of Billy Joel's live Songs In The Attic that culled lesser known earlier hits that his newer fans wouldn't know. But, it's doubtful Aerosmith were thinking creatively. They were probably just counting the days until the contract was up. So, what we get is a straight ahead live show with great production values. It's actually far more enjoyable than I expected. Probably because when they stick to the hits it's hard to fail & when you have a majority of songs be said hits from the 70's & 80's it's nearly impossible to fail. There's only two songs from Nine Lives & six from Get A Grip, but the later might be their last good album. It also helps that this is just the band in their basic form where they're not able to overdub to death a song with too many layers, there's not even any anonymous backing musicians except for a keyboardist. This is Aerosmith the way they should sound & the way we want them to sound. The boys are as on top of things energy-wise as ever, making for an enjoyable concert. The songs sometimes get a few extra shots for a longer guitar solo or there's a variation with the arrangement on a verse or bridge, but not to any real detriment & it's not always so noticeable. The newer songs stick pretty closely to their studio counterparts, but the older ones do tend to vary. The only song that doesn't do too well is "Janie's Got A Gun" with some odd guitar parts. Steven Tyler limits his audience banter. There's also a lack of audience noise. At times it might sound like a studio album because it's all too perfect sounding, but there's a bit of an echo now & then & a warmth that comes out that a studio album lacks. While a later day Aerosmith live album might seem like a waste, if you've seen them live recently this will be a good souvenir. Also of note ... remember, Joe Perry might be the lead guitarist we know, but he's really not. Brad Whitford takes lead duties on: "Love In An Elevator", "Same Old Song & Dance", "Back In The Saddle", "Last Child", "Walk On Down", "Dream On", "Mama Kin" & "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)".