Tag: album

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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Denim and Leather – Saxon

I love a bit of Saxon. That great NWOBHM sound. Two guitars, bass, drums and vocals. Nothing else needed.

Denim and Leather

I bought this off iTunes about a year ago as part of a multi-album pack. I don’t like they get lumped together in the music app though so I edit the meta data and split the albums up with their own album art work. iTunes HATES me doing this. Recently I did this with Suicidal Tendencies and iTunes went ape-shit at syncing with my phone and I have to rebuild my complete library. I hate iTunes most of the time.

This album is awesome. I originally had the Best of Saxon on music cassette and played it loads. This album has some of the greats from there and others too.

My highlights are:

Denim and Leather
Princess of the Night
20,000 Feet

It’s real party music (or at least I think it is).

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Decade of Aggression – Slayer

This review is easy to write.

I first got this album on double music cassette in about 1992. I had seen Slayer as part of the “Clash of the Titans” tour at Wembley Arena and really liked them. They recorded the video to “War Ensemble” at that particular concert. I think that some of the songs on this album were recorded at that exact gig that I saw. The tape version has since been supplemented by a CD version and finally an MP3 version on the NAS drive.

This is an AWESOME album.

If you only buy one thrash metal album then it had better be this one and then in all honesty you only need to play the first song as it covers all needs of guitar based turn-on.

My favourite songs on this album are (and I don’t apologise for the length of the list):

  • Hell Awaits
  • War Ensemble
  • South of Heaven
  • Raining Blood
  • Dead Skin Mask
  • Seasons in the Abyss
  • Mandatory Suicide
  • Angel of Death
  • Hallowed Point
  • Blood Red
  • Postmortem
  • Chemical Warfare

The atmosphere conveyed by these disks is brilliant. You can only find one better live album out there (Live After Death). This puts all others to shame. Get it. Play it. LOUD.

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Dark Side Of The Moon – Pink Floyd

I’m expecting some complaints after this communication and album review. First let me give you my personal story of “Dark Side of the Moon”.

I was about 14 and was visiting Lynda, my best friend’s Aunt. First she showed us the video to “Thriller” which was very exciting and then she told us to listen to a particular album. It was, obviously (?), “Dark Side of the Moon”. I can remember the gatefold album and looking at the cover. I don’t really remember listening to the music much but I seem to remember the catchy riff of money. The music had a lot of weird stuff going on.

Years later I remember describing Pink Floyd as “dull monotonous shit”. I think, overall, this is a statement I will stand by. “Dark Side of the Moon” I will accept is a classic and parts of it send shivers down my spine. That does not mean that I have to like everything by that band and it certainly doesn’t mean I have to accept them as geniuses.

BTW I probably will accept Pink Floyd as genius. Their music really does affect some people a lot. A lot more than I would consider suitable but they love. It just doesn’t bother me so much. Sorry about that. I think I can recognise the good but also you have to accept it does nothing for me. It’s a bit like religion. I understand the attraction to religion and its good points but for me it’s all rather offensive.

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D – HexRx

HexRx make dirty hellectro music. That’s quite curious because hellectro is rather dirty in itself. HexRx take many samples from horror films and then build “tunes” around them. I can listen for about an album at a time and then it’s time for something else.

I like it, I just can’t take too much. Listening is an experience, which is a bit of a theme with this album.

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D.O.A. – Throbbing Gristle

The full title of this album is:

D.O.A. The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

This is seminal. When you take the members of Throbbing Gristle and look into their backgrounds and previous work you start to understand where they were coming from. In 1976 COUM Transmissions were doing this sort of crazy stuff. And modern day artists like to think that they are pushing the boundaries. I guess they are, but I can’t help thinking that it’s all been done before.

So, Throbbing Gristle, they made “music” to challenge pre-conceptions and to see how far they could take it. You might not like listening to it, but your life will be enriched for doing so (unlike a 1D album). You have to remember when this was made. 1978. The technology they were using was ground-breaking and their sound was something special. To understand the origins of modern industrial music you HAVE to include TG.

Favourite tracks include:

  • I.B.M.
  • Hit By A Rock
  • Dead On Arrival
  • Hamburger Lady (one of the most disturbing songs I have ever heard)
  • AB/7A
  • Blood On The Floor

Listen, appreciate, take some paracetamol (you’ll need it).

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Crunch – Impellitteri

In about 1990 I was given a music cassette with “Stand In Line” by Impellitteri. I was stunned. It’s a brilliant album with some seriously cracking songs and heavy riffs. Fast forward 15 years and I noticed that there was a double album deal on Amazon for some Impellitteri stuff. I bought it.

This is very much speed metal in the vain of Yngwie or Gamma Ray. My concerns were raised after playing the album through a few times. Let me show you the titles:

  • Beware of the Devil
  • Slay the Dragon
  • Fear No Evil
  • Speed Demon

My curiosity was piqued and I did a little Wikipedia-ing. This is what they say there:

Chris and I and Ken Mary are all Christians, but James and Ed and Glen, our touring drummer, don’t necessarily proclaim themselves as Christians, so it’s not a Christian band.

The themes of the songs are religious. I would say they are a Christian band.
Does this affect what I think of the music? Yes.
Should it? Probably not, but then I think that religion is immoral and particularly offensive and serves no place in the modern world.
Do I still listen now and then? Yes, I quite like the style, it’s worth a play now and then.
I still think that “Stand In Line” is stunning.

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Cross Road – Bon Jovi

I bought/downloaded/borrowed this originally because I wanted some Bon Jovi on my phone but didn’t want to buy the original albums. I sometimes go for “Best Of” albums because you are meant to get the best of that artist. I don’t think it always works out like that though. It appears that there are restrictions on the songs put on these “Best Of” albums. Also, some albums work as albums and you should listen through the whole thing.

So, I have since bought the albums I like and so only have a few songs left in this. The six songs left are:

  • Someday I’ll be Saturday night
  • Blaze of Glory
  • Prayer ’94
  • In and Out of Love
  • Runaway
  • I’ll Be There For You (version 2)

I’m not sure why I still have the last song there. I find both versions really tedious. When I saw the Jovi at Twickenham I just wanted “I’ll Be There For You” to stop. I also hate key changes. Look, get the original albums. There’s a reason the Jovi are as big as they are, it’s good stuff.

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Crazy World – Scorpions

Old dog, old tricks.

I bought this album on music cassette in the late 80s, I’m ashamed to say it but it was probably not long after “Winds of Change” was in the charts. A good ballad is always an indication of a good band as long you then forget the ballad (they annoy me).

This album is a stunner. It’s exactly the sort of music I like. There’re songs with gang vocals, guitar slides, cheeky riffs, excellent bass work, it’s as though the Scorpions know exactly what sort of music works well in an arena. Given how long the “boys” have been around it’s no surprise that this album is well-crafted and wonderful.

I like all the songs. It’s precisely the sort of album that, when in the correct mood, you can play in its entirety.

Highlights:

  • Tease Me Please Me
  • Don’t Believe Her
  • Restless Nights

 

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Crank – Almighty

I downloaded this album after a friend recommended it. I was after more British rock. I’ve seen The Almighty a few times and really enjoyed their shows.

This album is good. It’s playing right now on my Sonos system. It is an Almighty album. It does what it says on the tin. I think this is the first album that friend got by the Almighty and therefore he thinks it’s the best, whereas I already have a couple of albums and therefore I think Powertrippin’ is better. When you get introduced to a band you hold the albums you hear first on a pedestal, it takes a lot to remove the new sound and excitement from top place.

Look, it’s worth buying but it doesn’t stand out. Also, see Old Dog, New Tricks.

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Countdown to Extinction – Megadeth

I’ve been listening to this album while I’ve been trying to get the Windows Store to work on my tablet PC [doesn’t work within a domain].

There isn’t a bad song on this album. The problem is that none of the songs are stunning either. If you want some slow, melody driven rock then this is the album for you. I don’t think I’d even describe it as thrash.

The best bit about this album is that the opening few seconds of  “Symphony of Destruction” sound like the PS3 starting up. If only Sony had used a bit more of the song and then the PS3 would be truly awesome.

There must be something about music and drugs. This album was written while the members were clean.

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Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg

Cosmic Egg is the follow up album to the eponymous Wolfmother album. These guys are a cheeky threesome from the land down under. There’s a story behind me getting the first album but this is about the second.

I like it, it’s not quite as good as the first album but it does contain some lovely rock. These guys are crazy mix of Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple. It really works.

Get it. You won’t be disappointed.

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Corporate America – Boston

I bought “Boston” by Boston because I liked some of the songs and then I had a bit of a phase with Boston albums. You know, look up the albums on Wikipedia then buy the best reviewed. I got hooked on the collection of Boston albums. I bought four albums and thought they were all well crafted so I decided to get Corporate America.

The review: the music is what you would expect. It’s Boston. They write good songs. It’s well crafted, polished and just what you want for a summer evening. The message is pretty good overall too.

Getting hold of the album was probably the best bit about this whole episode. Amazon don’t sell it, nor do iTunes. None of the major music stores stock it. I think it was self-released and in limited numbers. I ended up getting it on eBay. I also spent about GBP25 on this thing. That seems to be the going rate. I just wanted to complete the whole collection of albums [FYI I don’t do illegal downloads – just a choice I made years ago].

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Core – Stone Temple Pilots

I am smellin’ like the rose that somebody gave me on my birthday deathbed.
I am smellin’ like the rose that somebody gave me ’cause I’m dead & bloated.

These lyrics pretty much sum this album. I downloaded it recently because I have had these words circling in my head for the last twenty years. After that time the song seems a bit of a let-down but worth playing now and then anyway. I think I have looked up this band on Wikipedia and they sold loads, but maybe I got that mixed up with someone else.

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Computer World – Kraftwerk

Got this album off John S. Wanted to know some Kraftwerk and I’m pretty sure that when getting to know a new artist it’s best to go early in their career. I’ve listened to this once, in the car, when the family were there so I wasn’t allowed the music loud.
The comment from the other in the car was:

This sounds a lot like all the other stuff you listen to

Quite simply – it doesn’t! It’s early electro-pop music which is really well written. More listening required!

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