So many albums, so little time. Trying to make the best of a short week here in Canada, it will be both exciting and draining to sit through all these album releases happening this week. I have to admit there are a few on this list I might hold off till the end (coughifwehavetimecough) such as U2, Melvins, Starkill, etc. Not knocking their talent or the album as a whole (if it wasn't good enough it wouldn't be on AFGM), just a few front runners that I have had my attention on such as Acacia Strain, Exodus, Scar Symmetry, Sammy Hagar, and Grinder Blues! Woo hoo!
Speaking of Sammy's new album, I was really delighted to hear the stripped down material that he has been working on with Vic Johnson.
"I realize that when I played my songs acoustically, it made me sing different. It brought a new light to the lyrics that I’d written throughout my career. It was just me and Vic live in the studio with no overdubs. Just two guitars, sometimes one guitar, sometimes just one voice, sometimes two voices." -Hagar
Exodus welcomed Steve "Zetro" Souza back to the fold for the new Exodus album. Kind of a bummer for Rob Dukes since he has been fronting the band for quite some time now. But old relationships and best selling albums can sometimes take the forefront on that subject. So in short, sad to see Rob go but looking forward to what Steve can bring to the table.
The Acacia Strain taking a fair amount of the hype for this week's releases as they enter into their seventh studio album "Coma Witch" which brings the deathcore pioneers back into the spotlight. While some reviews have been less than admirable, I have to agree with New Transcendence with their unique review. Fit For A King and Starkill are also high on the radar for rockers as well, with some solid efforts of their own.
So the usual reminder folks. Whether it's their first or fifteenth album, bands need funds to keep playing music for us all. So be a doll and head to a local record store for a double win! If ordering from the couch is your choice, then get it from a solid online retailer. If you are an anti-hoarder, then stick with the digital streams and sales. Cheers and have a great week with new music!
Songs of Innocence is a curious album. Not because of the music but because it will probably be remembered as the album 500 million people complained about and then deleted. If U2 had released it normally it may have received better reviews (it’s the best thing they’ve done since How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb maybe even Zooropa) but it wouldn’t have made the same waves in the music press either. Maybe the gamble was worth it. It’s been downloaded roughly 26 million times (around 5% of the people able to) which makes it a huge success. But I can’t help shaking the feeling it’s tarnished; a very, very good album by one of the great rock bands has been deleted by more people than will ever listen to it. -The Sound Bot
(Grinder Blues - Grinder Blues)
The name of this band is perfect as the trio channel their Mississippi Delta and Chicago Blues influences like Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and others, but ‘Grinder Blues’ adds a heavy dose of distortion to their groove, and there is plenty of groove going on here. Jabo Bihlman’s guitar playing is a deadly combination of Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, whilst his little brother punishes his drums with a jazz mixture of Billy Cox. Then there is Pinnick throwing out his spitfire bone-rattling bass lines deep in the pocket to bring it all together. -Innocent Words
(Sammy Hagar with Vic Johnson - Lite Roast: Acoustically Brewed)
Sammy tips his hand by calling his acoustic album Lite Roast, the very title suggesting that these low-key renditions of old tunes are designed for smooth consumption at a coffeehouse. And he's not wrong! Strumming a 12-string while accompanied by Wabos guitarist Vic Johnson, Hagar approximates the kind of intimate atmosphere that can be found anywhere there's an open mike. It has to be said the Red Rocker -- who, like Johnson, is clad all in white on the album cover -- knows how to modulate his charm, toning his inherent hamminess down a notch or ten, preferring to slyly slide into a phrase instead of singing to the rafters. -All Music
(Bob Seger - Ride Out)
The strange thing is how young and vital Seger sounds. In both energy and focus, “Ride Out” far outpaces Seger’s last album, “Face the Promise.” Though his new music will hardly upstage his classic work, it’s a more likable and open effort than anything Seger has produced in two decades.
He penned all the ballads, the most beautiful of which, “All of the Roads,” finds him assessing life with some apologies and shudders, but without conclusions.
For all his autumnal perspective, it’s clear Seger isn’t about to book a bed in the nursing home just yet. In the title track, he vows to “ride out to a bold horizon/where the sun may be shining/on a place you’ve never seen.” -NY Daily News
(The Melvins - Hold It In)
History and experience state that most people’s fandom only extends as far as MTV or Rolling Stones or their favorite local program-director controlled DJ point them; and, most people who claim to be fans of Nirvana are never pointed in the direction of the blistering and trail-blazing Melvins.
To be fair and up front, I’m not sure if people who graduated from high school in the early 90s are allowed by law to dislike a Melvins’ album. That aside, Hold It In is definitely an album that will make it into my frequent playlist; a claim that the vast majority of albums released this year cannot make. -Bearded Gentlemen Music
That quintessential sound was waiting for a quintessential band like KMFDM, and as the title cut here croons, "You can't kill, what won't die", although a couple slower numbers here don't thrill, and the calm, kitsch disco that's been flirted with for a while now still seems better suited for My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. Get past those minor complaints and Our Time Will Come feels as if the band handed out post-concert comment cards and were truly inspired by all the excellent advice handed back. Respekt. -All Music
(Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died)
Sanctuary was one of the more promising power/thrash metal bands in the late 80′s and early 90′s but because of creative difference, they disbanded in 1992 having released only two albums.
If Sanctuary had never broken up and kept the same style over the years, this album would not have worked at all. However, with such a long hiatus, you would expect a band to have at least a bit of a rebirth. Sanctuary’s latest effort is a solid heavy metal album with excellent riffs, well crafted solos and different, yet sneakily good, vocals. The Year The Sun Died may not have you jumping out of your seat in the way you may have hoped but it definitely should not disappoint. -Metal Descent
(Gideon - Calloused)
The problem occurs when listening to the whole album. Every time the clean vocals come out of hiding, they are accompanied by what sounds like every other band member singing or screaming behind him, essentially creating entire choruses of gang vocals. Maybe they weren't confident enough with the quality of the singing, but this happens every single time (except for one time in "The Limit" when the vocals are accompanied only by fade/echo effects). It gets very old quickly.
Musically, Gideon could have (and have) done better, but considering the target demographic and the wholesome lyrics, all their young fans may just want another big mouthful of knobs to chew on. -Jesus Freak Hideout
(Scar Symmetry - The Singularity: Phase 1 Neohumanity)
Whether you are a long time Scar Symmetry fan or a newcomer, this is a band that unites all with a broad brush that covers many styles with such brilliant craftsmanship. In the world of Scar Symmetry, there are the fans that cannot get over the departure of Christian Alvestam (Solution .45), when the band decided to split his clean/growl vocals into two distinct vocalists: the smooth clean style of Lars Palmqvist and the harsh guttural utterings of Roberth Karlsson.
Scar Symmetry has taken its own history and remolded it better with a nod to all those elements to make the most memorable and astonishing masterpiece I have heard in the band's 10 year history. With the first in the trilogy concept series a smashing success that should grab the attention of a large swath of open minded fans, the band has its work cut out to make “The Singularity, Phase II” live up to this monument. -Metal Underground
(Exodus - Blood In Blood Out)
While it's easy to empathize with Rob Dukes' predicament, the result of "Blood In, Blood Out" is an overwhelming success. This band is more recharged even than when pulling together "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" in 2005 and Steve "Zetro" Souza has plenty to do with it. The rest is left to some ingenious songwriting, punishing thrash and an old school refusal to die.
This is one of EXODUS' finest outputs in their three-plus decades as a band and it deserves to become one of the toast albums of 2014. The cruddy circumstances leading up to it put aside, "Blood In, Blood Out" far exceeds what the fans could've wanted from it. Pared down to a simple sentence, this album is fucking sick. -Blabbermouth
Borrowing elements from Death is the Only Mortal’s stellar fretwork, and relying heavily on Continent-era brute force and brutality, Coma Witch is the band’s most solid and immersive instrumental offering yet—beginning, as always, with their stellar percussive element.
Coma Witch has ended the you you’d held in such high regard. The Acacia Strain do the same thing for heavy and hard-hitting deathcore. Coma Witch is the band’s figurative megatron, a sum of their best parts to a create a towering, discography-defining juggernaut. It is not simply enough to fear it—it must also be respected. -New Transcendence
Fit For A King‘s Slave To Nothing is impressive, a step forward for the band while retaining enough old sound to appeal to fans familiar with their history. The Will Putney (Suicide Silence, Miss May I) assisted production is perfect for the band. I would kill to work with Will and the band are obviously relishing their collaboration. Solid State Records is matching their greatest releases with this. It certainly is up to par with Demon Hunter’s best, with a display of soaring melody plus a whiplash groove to please fans looking to fill the Chimaira or God Forbid voids as well. -Metal Riot
(Starkill - Virus of the Mind)
STARKILL's second album is near flawless but even if it was made to be absolutely perfect it wouldn't have STARKILL's unique edge within the music. Parker, Shaun, Tony and Spencer have made an album which could change the face of modern metal today, these guys deserve huge success due to how talented they all are on their selected instruments. "Virus Of The Mind'' will be in every melodic death metal fans Top 10 albums of the year without a doubt. -Metal Temple
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