Well, we are finally back into the full swing of things here for music releases. The turkeys have been carved, the new years wishes have been made, and now it's time to get back down to business. That means new tours, new albums, and new everything! A fair warning folks that this week did not see much of a well rounded release week. This week tends to put the focus on the heavier side of things, as we see new material from veteran musicians such as Throwdown, Pro-Pain, and Against Me!
The other big seller this week will obviously be The Beatles US Box Set. With a price tag of about $150, its a great bargain for those die hard fans of the group and want to have the 13 album set all together. The description (below) does a fair amount of explaining.
The other big seller this week will obviously be The Beatles US Box Set. With a price tag of about $150, its a great bargain for those die hard fans of the group and want to have the 13 album set all together. The description (below) does a fair amount of explaining.
So despite the long standing history of these bands, they still require album sales and more to make ends meet. So if you are listening to on of these albums now, show some respect/love and purchase a copy of the album for their cause. You can hit up your local record store, online retailer, or other legal sources for you digital folk out there. There is some great music in this week's batch. Hope you enjoy!
(Monte Pittman - The Power of Three)
*Check out Monte's debut music video "Before The Mourning Son" over at:
My first impressions were that this is a real guitar lover’s record. That’s not to say this is a guitar-twiddling opus as you would get from the likes of Vai or Malmstein, but rather something slightly darker and heavier, there’s a real intelligence behind the songs and their arrangements. This is just full of catchy hooks and huge riffs, to get feet stomping and heads banging.
If this is Pittman’s return to his metal roots, long may he stick to those roots, for this is a metal album of the highest quality and I will watch with interest to see what he does next. -Planet Mosh
(Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues)
After 15 years, Transgender Dysphoria Blues lights the inner life inside Against Me!’s punk contrarianism. It’s the kind of album that transforms the back catalog leading up to it, a destination that recontextualizes the journey. Reinventing Axl Rose doesn’t exactly sound any different than it did in the angry early aughts, but now it’s possible to read the woman in “Eight Full Hours” not as a lover but as an imagined future self: “When you sleep, she’s standing there with open arms/ And one night could last forever.” Grace’s grandmother’s name rings a little differently on “Pints of Guinness” now that it’s also the name of her daughter, while the feeling of being untouchable on “Walking Is Still Honest” links into the feeling of being sneered at on “Transgender Dysphoria Blues”. Here, as in all of Against Me!’s best work, punk is rendered not as a detached political ethos but simply as the will to survive when the world around you tells you to cave in. This is an album about gender, sure, but it’s more an album about daring to thrive against the odds. Transgender Dysphoria Blues will be remembered as a milestone not because it’s the first widely known punk record performed by a trans woman, but because it brandishes a genre saturated by empty, male-centered politics to broadcast the most punk statements possible: Fuck the haters, be who you are, hold fast to those who love you. -Consequence of Sound
(Chrome Division - Infernal Rock Eternal)
So where does “Infernal Rock Eternal” land on the scale of Chrome Division releases? That depends on how much you dig the classic rock outfits of the ‘80s and ‘90s and if you’d like to hear that sound translated into a more metal-focused medium. While the album doesn’t hit the perfect balance between energetic metal and hard partying lyrics on “Booze, Broads, and Beelzebub,” it still hits closer to the mark than “3rd Round Knockout,” and is an overall great look back at the origins of metal.
Highs: Classic rock meets metal from very talented members of the scene
Lows: Some of the album will simply lack the heaviness required to appeal to all metal heads
Bottom line: Chrome Division switches gears, focusing more on the classic hard rock style this time around. -Metal Underground
(Alcest - Shelter)
Shelter leaves no room for the questioning of its shoegaze credentials. Slowdive’s Neil Halstead is brought aboard to sing the lead vocals on “Away”, yet the shoegaze founding father sounds more deflated than dreamy as he moans through the song’s vaguely chamber-folk arrangement. Something is supposed to be evoked here: bemused melancholy, maybe, or wistful longing, or pensive detachment. Whatever it is, it never coheres or connects. At least it’s a break in the fog, even if it only offers a slightly bluer hue of featureless prettiness. The album was recorded in Iceland at Sigur Rós’ studio, Sundlaugin, with Sigur Rós producer Birgir Jón Birgisson, but it doesn’t sound appreciably different than Alcest’s previous output—let alone allow for much internal variation. -Pitchfork
(Throwdown - Intolerance)
None of these flaws necessarily make Intolerance bad, but it does mean that the album offers very little new and wouldn't impress anyone other than the target audience. So while the band aren't making much of a difference musically it seems Throwdown are happy trudging in between Groove metal and metalcore. Intolerance simply marks a short (28 minute) burst of energetic metalcore right until the end and if that's what you enjoy, Intolerance won't disappoint. -Sputnik Music
AFGM: In This Moment - Blood
AFGM: In This Moment - Adrenalize
Overall, this entire album is raw, sinful and catchy as hell. The only real pitfalls this record has are 1. they didn’t really keep the same momentum from start to finish. While the last half of the album is a great listen, I feel like the songs sort of blend together in comparison to the songs like “Blood”, “Adrenalize” and “You’re Gonna Listen”. And 2. while they definitely pushed themselves to the limit lyrically I do not feel the same way about the instruments. There are some great moments, and they’re not overpowering, but I think at this stage in their career they have the ability to take a little bit more risk when writing guitar parts or drum parts. I do like how it’s a completely different sound from all of their other records though, and that’s exactly the step they needed to take to secure themselves a position among other great metal bands.
Listen to the album, buy the album, don’t feel bad for getting a little turned on listening to Maria Brink sing, and go see them live. -Under The Gun Review
(Iced Earth - Plagues of Babylon)
This is hardly perfect though. Plagues is a bit front-loaded, the second half never quite managing to match up to the first, especially considering it contains two somewhat unnecessary covers. The first is Spirit of the Times by Sons of Liberty, a Jon Schaffer side project, and you can’t help but question the logic in covering your own material, especially as aside from the darker and heavier overtones it’s not massively different from the original. The second, Highwayman by Jimmy Webb, is hardly electrifying either.
That said, many of the problems that plagued previous Iced Earth efforts no longer show up. The obligatory cheesy metal ballad only appears once in If I Could See You, which is one of the better ones they’ve done, and only a couple of songs have a clean guitar intro, unlike on The Dark Saga where they appear on nearly every song. Iced Earth are a band who are at their best when they’re firing on all cylinders, and that is largely what they stick to here. With it’s almost death metal cover art, Plagues is for the most part a balls-out thrill ride, and honestly might be Iced Earth’s most complete work to date. -Sound and Motion Magazine
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(Pro-Pain - The Final Revolution)
There is plenty of take-no-prisoners Pro-Pain tunes here as well. The title track is one of the best examples as the riff heavy guitars are pushed forward by the nonstop motion of the drums and bass. ‘Under The Gun’ and ‘Emerge’ are much the same, carrying on that NYC hardcore aspect of the band that diehards have to come love over the years, but never reaching the songwriting heights of the title track in my opinion.
As far as bad songs go, there aren’t really any here. Some songs are fairly forgettable but they serve their purpose in the moment though. The two I just mentioned above come to mind as does the awkward sound of ‘Want Some?’, which also boasts some of the early rap-ish sound that bands like Ill Niño and Soulfly stole early on. It’s a little corny in my opinion but I’d also consider it the only real misstep here.
If you enjoy Pro-Pain you’ll definitely enjoy this. It’s a bit more dynamic than the band’s new millennium albums and for that many fans of their early works will likely be drawn back in. Don’t hesitate to give this one a chance if you haven’t been following along in this millennium. -Metal Forces Magazine
(The Beatles - The US Albums)
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