Album Reviews

[Dave's Bitch]

Killers is my favourite Maiden album

[binnie]

Glad you likey boys and girls!

[rocking ron]

Without 'Bruce' they wouldn't have never ever made it to the top, he was the key to their succes!!!

But I'm still very happy with those 2 first 'Maiden' albums with Paul D'ianno, great ''feel', good songs and the end of the punk and disco period (4 me) and the beginning of NWOBHM with bands

like Saxon, Tygers of Pan Tang, Judas Priest, Def Leppard , Raven, Motorhead and on and on.

And most of these bands are still there, so you see : ROCK WILL NEVER DIE

[Golden AWe]

I'm really liking this CD... it's what I always figured HR should have sounded like.

Mike Monroe has really progressed as a writer/composer since the 80's...in the old HR, it was the others who wrote pretty much all the best stuff.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Helmet - Meantime (1992)

25 seconds in to their debut record Helmet pretty much summed up what they're all about: delivering hulking grooves on slabs on punchy riffs. With a songwriting approach that was like Bob Mould on steroids, if ever anyone actually managed to captured what it's like to be beaten with a baseball bat, it's Page Hamilton and co. No-one sounds like 'em and no-ever will: as heavy as Black Sabbath piggy-backing Godzilla, they were nonetheless more in keeping with alt.rock introspection and punk ennui than metal's aggressive bravura. It's all about PRESSENCE: 'He Feels Bad' is so simple, but blest with so much weight. Why? Because it's all so direct: direct lyric, direct riff, direct hook. There's no artifice - and that's what makes it human. 'Unsung' sounds like Nirvana jamming with Prong, delivering gloriously snappy guitar-hook body blows, and even on this record's weaker moments - such as 'Turned Out', which sounds like something trying to free itself from the Rollins Band's skin - you got the sense of a real sense of purpose about Page Hamilton. Not only one of rock's best riff-smiths, he's also quitely been knocking out killer records for 20 years. Respect.

[Dave's Bitch]

I have been giving this album some serious play time over the past two weeks so i thought i would try my hand at a review ,So here we go

Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles

Saints of Los Angeles is the ninth studio album and the first since Generation Swine to feature the full line up.Each song on this album is like a mini story and each one screams Motley Crue.Each track offers a reflection on the bands wild past and shows just why Motley Crue are the most notorious band in rock

The band sound fantastic,Very tight.Vince Neil's vocals are solid,having a rougher more manly sound.The nasal squeal is still there but in general a more mature sound that works well.Mick does what he does best,Play loud aggressive guitar with a tone that makes you want to fight or fuck.Nikki's bass is solid through and through and Tommy is the same blistering ball of energy he always is

The title track makes no bones about it's message.We came,We saw and we kicked some ass,a genuin sleazy number.Other sleazy rockers on here include "Just another psycho","Face down in the dirt","White trash circus" and "Welcome to the machine".There are also a few good time fun songs thrown in,"Down at the whiskey" and the fantastically named "Chicks = trouble"

A few negatives however.Although Nikki Sixx is still the main creator,I felt a bit let down by the guys to see every track is co-written by people outside of the crue,With Mick Mars only having two credits and Tommy Lee with only one.Perhaps on the next outing they could sit down together again and write like they did years ago.Another negative for some,While a trip down memory lane with the Crue is going to be fun perhaps a whole 13 track album may be a bit much.I know the guys have never been about writing deep and touching lyrics but i would say they have wrote better.Some will probably pass this album as a cheesey, cliche mess from a bunch of 50 year old's thinking with their pants

In summary
Saints of Los Angeles is a true to form Motley Crue album.If you are looking for songs that will conjure deep feelings and change the way you view life,This is not the album for you.If you are looking for a sonic kick in the teeth by the kings of fire,chicks and hair spray then i promise you will not be disappointed

[binnie]

'Saints of Los Angeles' is one of those albums that I enjoy even though I know it's not very good and the band could do a lot better. You can't argue with a smile.

[Seshmeister]

I listened to it twice last Summer and then forgot about it.

[Dave's Bitch]

Well now you have read my review you can go listen to it again

the album just has something to it.I don't know what but it gets my motor running

[binnie]

I listened to it twice last Summer and then forgot about it.

A bit like Motley Crue.

[Mr Walker]

Binnie,
I'm too lazy (actually busy) to search through the tread, but have you heard Ghost 'Opus Eponymous'?

[binnie]

Yes.

I played the shit out of it last year when it came out but never got around to reviewing it. I'm suspicious of hype - and find the satanic thing a little tiring - but it's a damn fine, stripped down doom record. Easily one of last year's best (and most refreshing) discs.

Sometimes a record comes along at the right time. Candlemass and Catherdral have been making that kind of music for 20 years with almost no acclaim, but Ghost make 1 record and BOOM! Go figure.

[Mr Walker]

a damn fine, stripped down doom record

There ya go... you just reviewed it.

[binnie]

That's one off the list!

[binnie]

From the vaults: Hermano - Into the Exam Room (2007)

Most people probably wish that John Garcia would spend all of his time singing in stoner-rock Gods Kyuss, but his most long-standing other band, Hermano, have produced some mighty fine records in recent years. This is the finest of them. What makes its appeal so instant is that you get everything you love about stoner rock - the volume, the heaviness, the slacker-cool, the sheer Sabbath-worshipping lunacy of it - but its stripped-down and welded to songs. Great, great songs. 'Kentucky' rawks like rolling thunder - seriously, the next time someone tells you no-one's making good time hard rock, slap them with this. 'Our Desert Home' is huge, the sound of the cosmos eating itself, whilst 'Left Side Bleeding' has a riff which sounds like the soundtrack to the Big Bang.

But it's not all peddle to the meddle. Great albums (like great trips) are about 'the journey', maaaaan. 'Bonafide' is pure Creedence cool, 'Dark Horse II' is a stoner-trance straight out of Led Zepp III on a bad tab, and 'Out of Key, But in the Mood' is crusty, but sexy, Garcia adopting a seductive falsetto to charm the perfect hook from a blues work-out. But it's the title track that really get's it hooks in. Simultaneously cool and anthemic, it's wah-wah funk is offset by some killer incendiary lyrics:

'Well you got 40 more years to drown in your tears, and the little hands slower than the big hand, honey'.

If that doesn't make you punch your boss in the kisser, nothing will. Wrapped up in a beautifully thick production, these songs sizzle and ooze charm. But it's Garcia's potent vocals - soulful, yet spiced with venom - that sells it. Summer's coming - do yourself a favour and pick this up.