Communications

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Close To Human – Aesthetic Perfection

This album is quite clearly the product of a band who are finding their ground. It’s good but unfortunately it’s not as good as their later stuff. This was the last album by this band that I downloaded and probably just as well. Had I got this one first I wouldn’t have carried on. As it is I consider Combichrist and Aesthetic Perfection to be at the peak of their music genre.

As this is a recent purchase and I’ve only really listened to it on runs I can’t be sure about stand out tracks. Just having a look at the titles doesn’t help apart from noticing that the second song on the album is missing. How does that happen?

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Burning Red – Machine Head

This was the first Machine Head album I bought and I can remember driving in a car somewhere with Andy Smith with this on in the background. I think it was about the time I lived in Brentwood. Much like the previous review it’s a very good heavy album. Well worth listening. On first play I got confused by song number 8 as I knew the lyrics and melody of the vocals! somewhat worrying for an album I hadn’t heard before. Only when the chorus came in did I realise it was a cover version of “Message in a Bottle”.

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Burn My Eyes – Machine Head

This is one of two Machine Head albums I bought while I was living in Brentwood. The sound is rather more industrial and heavy than a lot of the other stuff I listen to. It’s good stuff, somewhere on the way to Nine Inch Nails and Slipknot.

The guitars are heavy, the drumming pumps and the vocals are dark. It’s very good winter music. I do suffer a little with Old Dog syndrome with this album. Not to take anything away from the album, it’s just a bit too new for proper song selection. I listened to it this morning in the car and remembered all the songs. It’s good.

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BTO’s Greatest – Bachman-Turner Overdrive

If I have to be honest this is not the greatest of that wonderess of bands Bachman-Turner Overdrive. If you want to hear their best stuff then just get the Not Fragile album and remove “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”.

However, as a start this is good. It does contain some stuttering song about blue eyes and it’s a shame as although it is their most well-known song it is not one of the best. My personal highlights are:

  • Hey You
  • Roll On Down The Highway
  • Freeways
  • Let It Ride
  • Rock and Roll Nights

I guess it is hard to create a “Best” album. Music taste is so subjective. I do not think this ranks anywhere high. See my review of Not Fragile in about six months time to get an idea of what I think of a great album. This album doesn’t even have “She’s a Devil” because as we all know: “Her hair is the colour of fire”.

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Broken – Nine Inch Nails

The first NIN album in this list. I’ve seen them twice but never really got into them around university time. So, The Downward Spiral wasn’t my first Nine Inch Nails album. This one, along with Fixed, was my first NIN album. A friend was giving away some music as he had just got a new girlfriend and needed the space in the house to put her stuff. I got some NIN and Rammstein.

This is a very good album. It has that raw, industrial sound that I really liked for about 15 years. NIN along with Ministry really broke new ground and paved the way for bands like Slipknot.

Highlights:

  • Pinion
  • Wish
  • Last
  • Happiness in Slavery

I do happen to think that the Fixed album has better versions but this is still great. Well worth putting on at any time but mostly an autumn album. Definitely not for the summer time!

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Brave New World – Iron Maiden

This is probably the last “new” album by Iron Maiden that I bought. There were some duff ones from “Fear of the Dark” and I gave up for a while. I’m not really sure why I got this but it may have been to do with seeing them at Earl’s Court Arena.

This album opens with “The Wicker Man” which is a good song and classic, it has nice pace and rocks along. “Ghost of the Navigator”, “Brave New World”, “Blood Brothers” are all good songs. After that I start to lose interest in the album. I think that, perhaps, the Maiden sound only takes me so far now.

Overall, this is a good album. It’s not like the first seven studio albums but it is good. My main issue with Maiden at the moment is Jannick Gers. The band doesn’t need three guitarists. Mind you, I’m very much looking forward to seeing them at Download this year [probably because they are playing all the old stuff].

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Boys In Heat – Britny Fox

This album was originally bought on vinyl, I can’t remember why but it was probably in the rock/metal section and the cover looked good. It’s very much an album of cockrock and a good one at that. All the songs are good and well constructed.

Every now and then I find that I’m humming a tune and it happens to be Britny Fox. I wasn’t aware that the song “Hair Of the Dog” was a cover version until I bought the Spaghetti Incident by Guns’n’Roses.

My highlights:

  • In Motion
  • Standing in the Shadows
  • Dream On [lovely song]
  • Long Way From Home
  • Shine On
  • Angel In My Heart

On further listening it turns out that there isn’t a bad song on the album!

If it’s a classic LA rock style that you want then this is a great album.

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Old Dog, New Tricks

Reviewing my iPhone music has certainly shown up some weaknesses with my brain. I was aware of the limitations of my memory but this has brought it into sharp perspective.

All the songs and albums I have been listening to for many years have been absorbed completely by my brain. I know what the songs are called, the good bits, the lyrics, the bad bits, the drumming, everything.

All the music I have listened to more recently, even though I have listened to it a lot just hasn’t really sunk in. I know the songs when I hear them but they aren’t “recorded” in my brain.

One of the reasons could be that my memory forming neurons worked better when I was “growing up”.

It could be that I’ve just been listening to the stuff for so long that it just had to sink in to my grey cells.

Another could be that I tend to listen to songs now when I am driving or running and I can’t see my iPhone to see the album cover, song title or lyrics.

Whatever the reason I don’t seem to remember new songs and lyrics although when I listen to them I remember [There’s a PhD in there somewhere].

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