Hey there everyone! Back from the woods but still on the rest of my vacation. I felt that you all wanted to get the jist of the albums that dropped this week (and there were quite a bit). There were also some notable ones that popped up and honestly, I didn't even know some of them were being released. I highly recommend taking a listen to the new Gallows and Hoobastank albums. These are two albums I've had the chance to preview and I was quite impressed with both (I assume Billy Talent's album will rock as well!). Hoobastank (I feel) has really pulled up their socks from their last album. Gallows is going to be playing Toronto in November so take a listen and pick up a ticket! I'll see you there. So, in closing, make sure to head to your
local record shop or your
online retailer and grab up a few of these albums!
"Produced by Sterling Winfield (Pantera, Hellyeah) and featuring a guest spot from King Diamond drummer Matt Thompson, Last Man Standing has the necessary amount of low-end and pop to give the band’s basic and relatively harmless riffs a launch point. Finding a groove is never a problem, and the band does just that on the respectable 'Punish All' and 'Treading the Tainted Path,' both of which see singer James Robinson do his best Robb Flynn-on-Anselmo vocal impersonation.
The overt simplicity of Last Man Standing draws an instant parallel to Fight’s War with Words for some peculiar reason. Maybe it’s because of chunk-on-chunk riff approach, or the rapped-out 'Break,' which is a total laugher of a track…LOD comes across as a less frothy Fight, only without some bald dude who can still hit the rafters with his falsettos. And when the pre-requisite war-mongering track 'March to Death' hits, it’s as if Legacy of Disorder followed the pre-00’s playbook page for page. The only thing missing is a frosted goatee and some flannel." -
Blistering
"The first ZZ Top album for nine years opens with the most remarkable rock'n'roll song of the year. Gotsta Get Paid is an adaptation not of some old blues or boogie, but of the Houston hip-hop classic 25 Lighters by DJ DMD with Lil' Keke and Fat Pat. It doesn't sound like hip-hop, naturally – it's reconfigured as a dirty, lazy, heavy groove, Billy Gibbons's growling guitar and voice front and centre. It's simply brilliant. In fact, their 15th album would sound amazing even if the songs weren't up to scratch – Gibbons and co-producer Rick Rubin have done a remarkable job in making the band sound both timely and timeless, and fiercer than at any time in their career. But the songs hit the mark pretty consistently, too: on Consumption, with its hiccups and pauses, ZZ Top sound like an engine coughing and spluttering and roaring into life; Chartreuse picks up where Tush left off; I Don't Wanna Lose, Lose You could have been buffed up for Eliminator, but is all the better for being unpolished. It's an unexpectedly wonderful return from an undervalued band." -
The Guardian
"This is how Gallows feels. At ‘Outsider Art’ you feel the ground slope, you’re running downhill. You’re nearly flying, jumping over bins and walls, wanting someone to try and stop you because right now you’re invincible and you will fucking have them. ‘Vapid Adolescent Blues’ is naked aggression and speed. There’s hooks here, proper, catchy pop hooks, as ‘Austere’ pushes you into overdrive, out of control, arms flailing, it’s a violent tumble to the street, a graze oozing blood down your leg, but it absolutely won’t let you stop. Faster, and harder. Nothing matters but the speed and the glorious fucking noise. This is how Gallows feels. Relentless, unstoppable.
‘Depravers’ and ‘Odessa’ have the lot- big gang-chorus shouting, guitars that are as much a rhythm track as the drums and drums like a drill through your head. In the former there’s also one walloper of a sing-a-long chorus. You’re at your peak now, laying on a burst of speed. But things are changing.
This is how Gallows feels. At the end of the record you’re running because you daren’t stop, you’re running for your life and it’s getting harder. ‘Cult Of Mary’ is all burning muscles and bursting lungs, and still you can’t slow down. You’re powering uphill and something is chasing you, a creeping paranoia that won’t let you pause for a second, chanting along with the innocent child’s voice that appears as the song drives itself to a genuinely sinister climax. You’re fading now, but the music is unrelenting and there’s one last dash to go. ‘Cross of Lorraine’ comes with a crushing, irresistible momentum that resolves into feedback and white static. It’s audio nausea that’s echoed in your stomach as muscles turn to water, lungs stuffed with sugar you collapse to the street, panting, sweating, trying not to vomit, legs trembling like Bambi in the snow. Silence rings in your ears- It’s over. Shaking you reach out and hit ‘play’ on track 1, This is how Gallows feels. Pulling yourself to your feet you start to run again." -
Drowned In Sound
"Ontario metal quartet Kittie have gone through a lot of changes since forming in 1996, most recently via a bassist swap that brought back four-stringer Trish Doan. Despite the roster shake-ups, the band have released six full-lengths since 1999, and a little bit of each album will be represented on a new best-of collection called Not So... Safe.
The 12-track compilation, which arrives September 11 via eOne Music, mines back-catalogue material from the group's 1999 debut Spit all the way up to last year's I've Failed You. On top of studio recordings of "Brackish" and "Charlotte," the collection also features a live version of Spit number "Do You Think I'm A Whore" and a remix of "Safe" by KMFDM." -
Exclaim
"2009's Rick Rubin-produced I and Love and You confirmed the Avett Brothers' transformation from quasi-bluegrass combo to modern soft-rock force. The Carpenter, also produced by Rubin, does an even better job balancing their roots charm and pop ambition, with straightforward and sturdy songcraft that holds up even when these polite Southern boys' lyrics tilt toward corn. Mood swings keep things interesting: 'Winter in My Heart' is a weeper with a ghostly singing saw; 'I Never Knew You' is a bouncy, piano-driven confection full of Beatlesque touches. You could argue here for less cello, more hot-pickin' and hootenanny hollering. But this crew aspires to be more than a jam-band circuit attraction. They've become Auto-Tune-less pop stars, and The Carpenter will only brighten their shine." -
Rolling Stone
"Lillywhite's sympathetic production and the rich band interplay, steeped in New Orleans R&B, lithe jazz fusion and nimbly driving jam rock, make for uncluttered songs that at times recall Clinton-era glories (the elegant slow build of 'Mercy' is just a hacky-sack flip away from 1996's 'Crash Into Me'; it could've soundtracked the shit out of a Friends montage).
And yet, this is no nostalgia trip back to the quad. Even songs that luxuriate in strummy romantic escapism take midlife head-on: 'I'm too old to wanna be younger now,' the 45-year-old sings on the gingerly intimate 'Sweet.' He wears his grown-'n-grumpy honesty like a champ." -
Rolling Stone
"There is nothing new here. DMX is still battling his demons, still looking to God for answers and support, and still making energetic, violent threats at anonymous foes. Sometimes, X’s more violent songs sound worn-out because he’s been down that road so many times before. Usually though, he has enough oomph to make any track interesting. What holds these familiar themes together and lifts them above a tired formula is the production. It is at times dark, up-tempo, and classic X, so it should be no surprise that Swizz Beatz contributed to this album. Swizz does a solid job with 'What They Don’t Know,' and 'Y’all Don’t Really Know,' but the production is best on the Dame Grease-and-Snaz-produced 'Cold World.' The haunting piano keys are the perfect backdrop to X’s chilling rhymes. Other slower production, such as on the worthy sequel to 'Slippin’,' 'Slippin’ Again,' works well with DMX’s themes of darkness and redemption.
X holds down this album mostly by himself. Strong vocals from various singers on the hooks and a dope verse from MGK on 'I Don’t Dance' complement X, but don’t upstage him. This is Earl Simmons’ moment, and he makes the most of it. This album is worth it because it is a strong, honest body of work by a man who, through all his struggles, is still undisputedly a good rapper." -
The Rap Up
"The desert-dry wit of Tennant once again shows that journalism's lost is music's gain. 'Ego Music' rips apart self-regarding popstars with glee ('Sometimes I think I'm a single folk singer / Other times a scary witch diva / What can I tell you? I'm an artist'). 'Your Early Stuff' pitches PSB against cab drivers who constantly hark back to, well, their early stuff ('You've written a book or a film score / Amazing that you lot have come back for more').
The chillout vibe of some tracks ('Invisible', 'Breathing Space') does tend to drag, but just in time the chorus of 'Everything Means Something' pops up, tapping into that classic pop stream of melancholic euphoria. We'd like 'em to shuffle a bit nearer the dancefloor, but this will definitely do for now." -
Digital Spy
"Guitarist Dan Estrin, bassist Jesse Charland and drummer Chris Hesse perform admirably, but some of the songs just don’t work no matter what they all try. 'No Win Situation' sounds like a throwback to their 2001 major label debut right down to the guitars and the vocals. There’s nothing wrong with that; they’re just retracing their steps to find something new and unmined.
'Sing What You Can’t Say' is the most boring, tired, predictable track on the record and begs for removal; it just doesn’t go anywhere. And as the album crawls towards the end, the songs get slower and a lot more melodic than anything Hoobastank has done in a quite a while. 'Magnolia,' named after Doug Robb’s daughter and featuring an ultrasound recording of her heartbeat is a very moving song and one that will probably end up becoming a fan favorite. Yet, 'Incomplete' seems like it’s just that; it comes too little too late to save the album from being as amazing as it could’ve been.
So while it’s true that Fight or Flight is better than Hoobastank’s last two releases, it manages to fall short of the record it could have been." -
Lithium Magazine
"Tempest also ranks among Dylan’s darker works, largely because it has the highest death toll. In his senior years, Dylan seems more drawn than ever to murderous love triangles (the sinister Tin Angel) and disasters that also work as political metaphors (the 14-minute title track, which reimagines the sinking of the Titanic, with Leo DiCaprio actually on board).
Sprinkled throughout the stories are evocative train whistles, girls smiling through a fence, lying politicians, junkie whores, noble, self-sacrificing men, murderers, betraying friends, braggarts and perfect objects of desire. It seems as if all of humanity has a cameo and Dylan, more effectively mic’ed and clearer than usual, is mischievously directing the proceedings.
There might never be another Desolation Row, but Tempest is still the work of a master who can’t be touched by peers or progeny." -Montreal Gazette (http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/09/07/new-music-review-tempest-bob-dylan-sony-music/)
"Subtle changes like toning down some of the more hardcore vocals to show what else the band has to offer is a smart move, as is balancing the music with more complex lyrics in tracks like 'Lonely Road to Absolution' that have a resemblance to Metallica but still retain the band’s punk-rock roots.
The mix of high tempo and slower, heavier tracks might be a sign that Billy Talent is looking to branch out. Broken up by a rare ballad the line-up is mature for Billy Talent; a band that usually makes its money from Kowalewicz’s screaming fits.
As a rule, when bands change their sound they can either rise to new heights or flop to the stage floor. In this case, if Billy Talent is looking to change its sound to accommodate older fans or perhaps create new ones, they are taking it slow. It’s no wonder; BT has been together for almost 20 years, a staggering run for a modern day band. Recorded in three different studios in Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles, Dead Silence has all of the diversity of the musical cultures of the cities in which it was created." -
Lithium Magazine
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