Category: Album Reviews

Posted on

Every Dog Has Its Day – Salty Dog

I love this album. I’m not sure I can explain why though. For some reason every song makes me smile and want to jump along. There’s something about the sound and beat that gets me going. This is an odd album because I would say that the sound is a bit harsher than Poison and the songs a bit ruder and I’ve grown up out of Poison. Not this album though. I still play it. Quite a bit. There’s also some slow songs on here and they don’t bother me!

I bought this on Music Cassette back in the days when they were popular and I think I was probably working at Cossor Electronics in Harlow. There was an Our Price store next to the bus station and I used to get at least one album a week. More importantly, this album along with Blue Murder turned out to be a good buy in the days before preview and dodgy downloads.

As far as I know this band only made the one album. They are described as “sleaze metal”, whatever that is? I think they sound “southern” a bit like the Black Crows, but then I could be very wrong about that. It’s a great album, almost romantic [except for the song titles].

I like it, that is all.

Favourite songs include:

  • Come Along
  • Cat’s Got Nine
  • Heave Hard (She Comes Easy)
  • Slow Daze

You can always JFGI if you want to know more of the specifics.

Posted on

Enter The Grave – Evile

If you want thrash metal. This album is for you. It’s fast, angry, heavy and can’t be taken too seriously. If you like Slayer, you’ll love this.

Song titles are:

  • First Blood
  • Bathe In Blood
  • We Who Are About To Die

It’s lovely comic stuff. Or possibly slightly scary if you can’t cope with thrash.

Posted on

Eliminator – ZZ Top

What is there about ZZ Top that isn’t to like? Their sound is a unique blend of well-polished down and dirty guitar rock.  This album was a commercial success and had many singles that zoomed to the top of the charts. If you understand the American music taste then you’ll see why these songs worked so well.

All the songs on this album and toe-tapping head-banging great. Probably the sort of stuff you could play while your mum visits and she’d say she likes it. On my version I think “Legs” is the weakest song, but it was the biggest hit, maybe because of the video. I also think that “I need you tonight” is a lovely love song, it should be on every “intro to metal” mix tape, as it once was on a tape I made.

Alongside the comments I wrote about Boston, this is a great driving album.

Posted on

Elephant – White Stripes

This was the second album by The White Stripes that I owned. I really like the first one I owned and I guess it’ll be written about eventually in this place.

This album is much the same as the other one. I haven’t really played it a great deal in the last ten years but I really do appreciate the barebones sound and writing. I think it shows that every now and then the popular taste in music comes full circle.

One thing I would say is that this is the album with Seven Nation Army blasting off as the first song. It’s a great song with an amazing riff that has been ruined by every sports ground ever since.

Posted on

Electric Ladyland – Jimi Hendrix Experience

Look, I am perfectly aware that this is a classic album. I’m also perfectly aware that it’s hard to criticise things that are considered classic. For instance; I’m not that keen on The Beatles, they don’t really do much for me. I feel much the same way about this album. It’s OK. I can see that it’s considered a classic and I can even see why but it does little for me. I don’t really play it often.

Posted on

Eject EP – Senser

It is hard to explain just how important this EP is to me. I know that it shouldn’t really appear in this series as it’s not an album but I don’t care.

Loud, hard, heavy, angry, sexy, violent, calming, soothing, political, gentle, vicious

Rock, rap, heavy, soft, crazy, DJ, mixing, scratching, chugging, funk, trance

Andy first got me into this in around my third year of university. I lived in Ongar road and he gave me a tape of new music he had found. He always found good music and passed it on to me. It sounded a little like Faith No More who, I felt, had messed up heavy metal a little by mixing in some funk and crazy stuff.

Senser had taken music I loved and turned it on its head. They had funk, metal and they even had a DJ dude who would scratch in the background. This stuff blew my mind. It has to be played loud and let the bass ring out. I do like rolling bass lines that play all the while other ditties are played around the steady beat of the drums and thumping bass. I think all my favourite bands have managed that [AC/DC, Dokken, Iron Maiden].

So, all of the four songs on here are great. Download it from iTunes or whatever your preferred music provider is. I especially love Eject (Over Zealous Mix) with the David Koresh quotes. You youngsters should look it up and see how religion fucks everything up and belief in crazy things fucks everything up.

I would say that the sound that Senser created, along with the Prodigy, allowed other bands to build and transform the heavier side of music leading to Rammstein and Slipknot.

This EP still sends shivers down my spine. If it can do that after about twenty years then I’d say it deserves all the merit I can bestow upon it.

No one knows when it’s going to happen. When they asked him, Jesus said even he didn’t know the exact time, but it’s going to happen. One of these days, and it could be any minute now, Christ is going to come back for us all and after that it’s going to be pretty awful around here.

Posted on

Echogenetic – Front Line Assembly

I can’t quite remember how I heard about Front Line Assembly. I think they were on a compilation album and then I downloaded the album “Millennium” which will be reviewed much later in this series.

This album I bought before I saw FLA last summer at the Garage. This was their latest album and I wanted to make sure that I knew some of the songs they were going to play. I do like it. All FLA stuff makes it into my Hellektro playlist on my phone and Sonos system. This album has fewer guitar sounds throughout and is a bit more industrial/dance than Millenium. The voice is distorted and almost whispered throughout the album and that’s not my favourite type of sound. The songs are all well crafted as you would expect from someone with over 20 years in the business.

Posted on

Dream Evil – Dio

Dream Evil is a quality fast 80s metal album. It should in everyone’s collection along with Holy Diver by Dio. There are many songs on here that make me happy and send shivers down my spine. I love the sound, the feel and the attitude of the whole album. I think this, along with Holy Diver, has my ideal “sound” for a metal band. The way it is mixed really resonates with me.

The album has some definite singles, songs that are catchy and would work well on the radio and also get everyone singing at a concert. Favourite songs are:

  • Dream Evil
  • Sunset Superman
  • Naked In The Rain
  • Faces In The Window
Posted on

Dr Feelgood – Mötley Crüe

For whatever reason I really love the 80s metal/rock stuff. I’ve watched documentaries where it’s explained that it was nasty, drunk and misogynistic. I actually agree with all of that. Mötley Crüe were the worst of the bunch really, the album “Girls, Girls, Girls” pretty much sums up that era. It’s hard not to like stuff when it moves you. I think feeling moved by a song is a base emotion, possibly based on some early learnt patterns, but mostly something to do with real unconscious stuff. It’s hard to get away from what moves you like that.

Dr Feelgood is a damn good album. The production is clean and heavy. The riffs are all good it’s just a quality cock-rock album. My favourite songs of this group are: Dr Feelgood, Kickstart My Heart, She Goes Down and finally “Don’t Go Away Mad (just go away)”.

Pretty much every Crüe album has a bad song on it. They’ve always recorded one song that just doesn’t fit with the rest of the album and, for me, this is their first album where every song is valid and fits. “Without You” is a ballad, but well written, I just don’t like it much anymore.

 

Posted on

Don’t Look Back – Boston

I bought this on my Boston phase. I bought up all their stuff as I really liked “Foreplay – Long Time” from Rock Band on the Playstation. Any Boston album is very well written and just what you want. I’m pretty sure this is stuff someone not into rock would cope with playing in the background. More driving music. See Boston review.

Posted on

Divine Intervention – Slayer

I bought this on the back of Slayer’s earlier music from the 80s and although I play this now and then there isn’t a track on it that I can remember. It all rather mushes into one song by the end. Sorry.

For Slayer brilliance you need to get Decade of Aggression. Simple.

Posted on

Discovery – Daft Punk

I think I’ve listened to this a couple of times. I’ve been getting into electronic music since I saw Combichrist with Rammstein a few years ago. I don’t think I could tell you anything about any particular song on this album. However, given it is Daft Punk I assume it to be quite a good album. Not one I regularly play but am happy to have in my collection.

Posted on

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – AC/DC

Firstly let me announce that I think AC/DC are one of the best bands ever [40 million copies of Back In Black sold]. I love the raw rock sound and the cheeky lyrics. I remember being 17 years old and discovering that there were thirteen AC/DC albums and just being excited at the thought of owning them all. I probably had three albums at that time, Blow Up Your Video being my first.

This album, from 1976, has an excellent ensemble of songs by the gritty Aussie [although there is an argument to say they were British] band. Not a single bad song. Some excellent songs.

  • Dirt Deeds
  • Love At First Feel
  • Big Balls
  • Rocker
  • Problem Child
  • There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’
  • Ain’t No Fun
  • Ride On
  • Squealer

Big Balls is hilarious although Wikipedia claims it has controversial lyrics but it depends whether you have a dirty mind or not. I’m pretty sure this song is about a costume party [NOT].

Rocker takes the power riff and makes you bounce.

Squealer has a brilliant bass riff and is an altogether brilliant song, for some reason I love it.

Ride On makes me cry.

10/10 for this one.

Posted on

Dirty Cash – Reaper

This isn’t really an album. It’s more an EP. Of the eleven songs on the album, seven are the same song just re-mixed. I really like the other Reaper stuff and this is ok. It’s more commercial and less dark/devil-ish. Not really my kind of electronic music but ok nonetheless.

I hope to see Reaper at some point in the future. His songs really mix the darkness and sex.

Posted on

Dirt – Alice In Chains

I loved Alice in Chains when I was younger. I still do, but I do think that they haven’t moved on musically. Their latest albums sound very similar to the early stuff.

I bought this at university after seeing Alice in Chains twice in the early 90s. I saw them support Iron Maiden and also support Megadeth. I’m pretty sure both concerts were at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, a great small venue.

This album is just brilliant from start to finish. It’s haunting and cunning. There is not a bad track on this album. You should buy it, or download it, or whatever you do to get music. Spotify? Is that the new thing? Nothing else to say.

 

 

 

It’s worth 10/10.
Posted on

Diamonds and Pearls – Prince

There was a time when I liked listening to Prince, or whatever his name became. I saw him live on the Diamonds and Pearls tour in Earl’s Court Arena and I was really impressed with the show. The man is a genius. For some bizarre reason I just wanted him to play “Anarchy in the UK”, I think it was his guitar sound, it had that punk edge to it.

This is a good album. It’s different. Not metal and a bit funk and pop, but I still like it. I don’t think you’d get far putting this stuff on at a disco but it is brilliant. It also takes me back to the carefree times of the early 1990s!

My favourites are:

  • Cream
  • Gett Off
  • Willing and Able

I’d rate this 5 stars.

Posted on

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here – Alice In Chains

Alice In Chains are an awesome band. I find their music haunting and beautiful. I reckon that the first few albums are just brilliant and after that the newer albums seem to sound the same. If I want slow heavy ghostly rock then this is an album I’ll play. It’s a newer album to me and is therefore subject to the Old Dog problem.

Anything by this band is worth a listen.

Posted on

The Devil Is Female – Reaper

Reaper is a DJ whose music comes under the genres of aggrotech or hellectro. I like that sort of music and have done since I saw Combichrist play at Wembley Arena supporting Rammstein. The Benelux countries have some excellent things of which to be proud and this music style is one of them. What else would you expect from an area of land that has been conquered and fought over so often.

The Devil Is Female is an awesome album. I love it. The album cover is scary enough to make me feel uncomfortable – just the point of art (create emotion). The opening song is a good old dance-floor filler. Good beats and a simple repeated melody. The album makes the most spectacular turn upwards with the second song:
X-Junkie
The happy dance beat and melody underlie disturbing lyrics. I am not going to go into much detail here. You should listen to it. What you should most definitely not do is listen to the song on the tube with any women around you. Just listen on your own, somewhere.
Now, the album does include a number of remixes of X-Junkie and I can forgive that as the rest of this guy’s work is really good. Happy for him to indulge himself a little on this album.
Other highlights:
She Is A Devil And A Whore
190
Execution Of Your Mind

Hellectro isn’t for everyone. Thank goodness. I like how exclusive it is.

Posted on

Device – Device

This album is from the singer dude from Disturbed. Let’s face it, it sounds like a Disturbed album. It’s good. Not outstanding, but good.

He does have a song with a woman singing along with him. I don’t like that.

Posted on

Demonstrous – Demonstrous

Somehow I ended up downloading this from iTunes, probably following a “what other people bought link”. I was searching for some music rather like Slayer and Evile but something a bit new.

What I got I would pretty much call an instant classic. This album is awesome. It’s got all the elements that make a great thrash album. There are chugging riffs, melodies, awesome vocals. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good bit of thrash.

Looking into the band I can see that they only managed this one album. Fair enough. The best music seems to come from the friction and hatred from working together to produce something that works.

This album is well worth the money.

Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress