Album Reviews

[fourthcoming]

Just wanted to throw this out there....don't know if it's ever been mentioned, but Motley Crue: New Tattoo is an underrated album. Yes it wasn't recorded with the original lineup but the late, great Randy Castillo filled in on drums.

[binnie]

No, it's not been reviewed (yet).

Aside from Dave's Bitch's review of 'Saints of Los Angeles', the only other Crue record reviewed in here is 'Motley Crue' - which I think is very underrated.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Ministry - Psalm 69 (1992)

How to describe Ministry? Killing Joke face-fucking Prong? It certainly gets us close to the sheer dark nastiness of this band, the wall of loops, programmes and atmospherics complementing the concrete riffs. But it misses the sheer sense of humour - the black tooth grin. Long before Rammstein's industrial dance piledriver became part of metal's landscape, Al Jourgensen was making music of such innovative and freakish nature that it's a small wonder that Ministry garnered a claw-hold on success at the turn of the '90s. Dance, metal, punk.......what else you got? announces 'N.W.O's pummeling array of loops as it grabs you in its hypnotic repetitiveness.

How on earth anyone categorized it is beyond me - but you can't deny its instantaneousness. The title track is a mosaic of sample and loops, a tapestry of pop culture references cut to the sound of the world dancing to the tension of the edge. Were the songs all winners? Nope, but it was more about the aesthetic, the moment: that was the dance inheritence. 'Just One Fix' is gnarly, gothic trance, a Hetfield riff laid over some massive beats, the sort of thing Rob Zombie would later make a career out of. But Zombie was always about B-movie schdick. Ministry were about something altogether scuzzier, a black mirror to the downtrodden. 'TVII' is demented punk rock, a inverted piece of evangelism - 'connect the Goddamned dots' Al screams as he twists you into this dark little vision of the world.

Were it not for Korn injecting hip hop into the metal mainstream a handful of years later, you can't help but think that much of the heavy soundwaves of the '90s might have sounded like Ministry. The scene certainly needed a kick as thrash doled out its 456th wave. On the quite frankly genius 'Jesus Built My Hot Rod' - like Jerry Lee Lewis on warp-factor - you really wish history had taken another turn. How can these lyrics not make you smile like an anorexic at fat camp?

soon I discovered that this rock thing was true
jerry lee lewis was the devil
jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet
all of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world
so there was only one thing that I could do
was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
ding dang a dong bong bing bong
ticky ticky thought of a gun
everytime I try to do it all now baby
am I on the run
why why why why why baby
if it's so evil then?
give me my time, with all my power
give it to me all again (wow)
ding a ding a dang a dong dong ding dong
every where I goeverytime you tell me baby
when I settle downgot to get me a trailer park
and hold my world aroundwhy why why why?
ding ding donga dong dong ding dong
dingy dingy son of a gun

God bless you, Ministry.

[Mr Walker]

From the vaults: Mark Lanegan - Whiskey for the Holy Ghost (1994)

Have you listened to 'Blues Funeral' yet?

[binnie]

Have you listened to 'Blues Funeral' yet?

No. At any one time I have a pile of about 20 CDs I've purchased and am in the process of listening too. 'Blues Funeral' is on the pile, as is the 'lost' Screaming Trees record.

Have you heard it?

[binnie]

From the vaults: Ozzy Osbourne - Speak of the Devil (1982)

Undoubtedly intended as something of a stop-gap release between the Randy Rhoads-era Ozzy and the rebuilding of the band, 'Speak of The Devil' was a collection of Black Sabbath 'covers' which saw Ozzy delving into his own musical past with all the gusto of a fat kid locked in sweet-shop. The only Ozzy record to feature Brad 'Hey, look! It's a whammy-bar!' Gillis on guitar, this takes us back to a time which we are in danger of forgetting - a time when Ozzy was dangerous. Long before he was bumbling, half-cut TV dad, he was a bumbling (and decidedly more bulbous), half-cut rock 'n' roll bad-ass!

Gillis takes the moment with gusto, ad-libbing his way through Sabbath's catalogue and jamming on some of the greatest riffs ever written. It's a hell of a performance, oozing with energy. Adding LA sheen to Iommi's dinosaur rumble, these are less bassy and more histrionic interpretations - what the songs lose in darkness, they make up for in vibrancy. A ripping 'Symptom of the Universe' escalates in a sheer triumph; 'Black Sabbath' is still shit-your-pants scary, even in its hair-sprayed veneer; and the funked-up 'War Pigs' is truly raucous. And Ozzy? He's having a wail of a time: 'THE MAD MAN IS BACK!' he tells us after one song; 'KEEP ON SMOKIN IT' he orders after 'Sweet Leaf'. With the sheer joy which the presence of the world's most loveable nutter brings to the table, we can almost forgive the fact that his voice is all over the place on 'Never Say Die', or that the performance on 'Paranoid' is stodgy and that 'The Wizard' sounds flimsy.

In truth, the whole is much, much more than a check-list of perfections and cracks. Great live albums are about more than capturing a performance, they're about encapsulating the moment: and you can almost taste 1982 here. When the endless 'Greatest Live Album' polls are drawn, this warts and all take on the genre really deserves to be there - is there a better metal album to party to? The accolades always fall on 'Tribute...', but that's more down to emotion than reason. Whisper it: this is better......

[ELVIS]

The SOTD version of The Wizard is not "flimsy."

[jhale667]

SOTD is what got me interested in Mesa-Boogie amps and cemented my (already EVH-inspired) longing for a Floyd Rose trem as a kid...loved that album.

[chefcraig]

Speak Of The Devil is one of my all-time favorite live albums, mainly because of Brad Gillis. The guy literally gets to act out the fantasy that me and a million other guitar players have always had: Get onstage and blast out our vague recollections of the Sabbath catalog, with the actual fuckin' Prince of Darkness standing stage right on vocals.

The tune "Sweet Leaf" only became available when the album was re-released on CD. Now the damned thing has been deleted from Ozzy's catalog entirely. OK, swell, but where in hell is that freaking DVD, Sharon? For that matter, how's about The Ultimate Sin, you bitch?

[binnie]

The SOTD version of The Wizard is not "flimsy."

It really is - it doesn't sound evil like the original.

Like I said, however, it's a great record, warts and all.

[binnie]

Speak Of The Devil is one of my all-time favorite live albums, mainly because of Brad Gillis. The guy literally gets to act out the fantasy that me and a million other guitar players have always had: Get onstage and blast out our vague recollections of the Sabbath catalog, with the actual fuckin' Prince of Darkness standing stage right on vocals.

The tune "Sweet Leaf" only became available when the album was re-released on CD. Now the damned thing has been deleted from Ozzy's catalog entirely. OK, swell, but where in hell is that freaking DVD, Sharon? For that matter, how's about The Ultimate Sin, you bitch?

It was all about the moment. I suspect if Ozzy had written/recorded with Gillis it would have sucked (Night Ranger, for fucks sake). But on that night, with those songs, it worked.

[binnie]

Therapy? – A Brief Crack of Light

Opening with sharp 1-2 to the jaw of ‘Living in the Shadow of a Terrible Thing’ and ‘Plague Bell’, Therapy? announce that they’re back to their best on an album which is relentless in its delivery of eerie and angular riff rock. Coming across like a crack-riddled Husker-Du/Killing Joke hybrid, men in their 40s really shouldn’t sound this visceral. Where their last record was bass heavy, a glorious free and tortured barrage of noise rock, ‘A Brief Crack of Light’ pays homage to the band’s ‘90s heritage: shorter, sharper songs wrapped around pop sensibilities and simple dynamics cut hard, and cut deep. But don’t think they’ve turned up the ‘happy’ dial. Indeed, the linear notes quotation from Nabakov – ‘the cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness’ – tells us that this more concise Therapy? should not be confused with a lighter one. The sound is grizzled and worn in the face of acceptance – a black-tooth grin of life’s perpetual underdogs. And it suits the band well. The hymnal ‘Ghost Trio’ feels like New Order jamming with Placebo, and sounds like Belfast; ‘Get Your Dead Hand Off My Shoulder’ is the torn outlaw punk of The Skids; whilst ‘The Buzzing’ is a schizophrenic trip through the radio dial of rock ‘n’ roll’s history. The band’s punk heritage give the music an almost literary depth, but it’s one devoid of pomposity and rich in directness. The gaelic trip hop of closer ‘Ecclesiastics’ may be a damp squib, but this is as vibrant as Therapy? have sounded in years.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Living Colour – Stain (1993)

Living Colour always inhabited their own little pocket of the rock ‘n’ roll hemisphere. Smashing the sheen and va-va-voom of 80s metal into punk’s sense of commentary and an urban grittiness, there’s was always a heady sonic brew. Album number three was a left turn into heavier directions. Restlessly funky and relentlessly thought-provoking, many didn’t know whether they were meant to dance or take notes – but few could deny the infectiousness of their songs. Sure, the social commentary comes off as a little naïve in the post Rage Against The Machine world – this sound more like Extreme than Refused – but you can’t deny the charm of the songs. ‘Mind Your Own Business’, ‘Never Satisfied’ and ‘Auslander’ are all bluesy, grinding and muscular, featuring Vernon Reid’s seriously tasty riffage and searing solos. ‘Nothingness’, conversely, opts for a soulful r’n’b vibe where most metal bands would have cobbled together a power ballad; and ‘The Little Pig’ and ‘Postman’ are darker, more twisted metal, the latter spliced with recordings of drug taking. Living Colour always made bold and brave choices, and this variety should not therefore surprise us. But it does, however, make for a curiously unbalanced album, an accusation that could not be levelled at the band’s earlier work. In the presence of that glorious guitar, coupled to Doug Winbush’s sultry bass and Corey Glover’s easy, effortless vocals, you can live with the foibles of this disc, however.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Velvet Revolver – Contraband (2004)

‘Is it like Guns ‘N’ Roses? Is it like Guns ‘N’ Roses? Is it like Guns ‘N’ Roses?’ ran the hype before this release. The answer? A bit. But without the Izzy cool. There were several pieces of the puzzle missing, and in truth VR always felt like an unbalanced band: 3 badasses jamming with an artiste whilst their baldy friend made up the numbers.

For all the hype, ‘Contraband’ really was little more than a solid record doomed to disappoint. It certainly rejuvenated the careers of a bunch of ageing rockers in their post-Guns limbo, launching Duff, Sorum and Weiland as celebrities as much as musicians, and ultimately proving to Slash that he just doesn’t need the other guys to keep on producing music that is credible.

But there are some glorious moments. Some killer riffs and, of course, the solos. The Slash solos. They come straight out of the Angus Young School of Belt ‘em out, and they’re cooler than Steve McQueen in a freezer. ‘Contraband’ also bequeathed us two songs to play the shit out of: Weiland’s delicate take on separation and a power ballad without the cheese – ‘Fall To Pieces’ – and a downright nasty piece metal – ‘Slither’. The latter is close to being a classic, and that’s quite an achievement for a bunch of middle-aged rockers 15 years past their prime. But elsewhere, this trades on memories rather than substance – you have to wonder how far a bunch of unknowns would get if they presented ‘Superman’ or ‘You Got No Right’ to an A&R guy.

There are some deep cuts worth pursuing, however. ‘Do It For the Kids’ has a serious of epic hooks and melodies that Cheap Trick would be proud of, a gnarly punk song wrapped up in silk sheets; ‘Dirty Little Thing’ is a slicing kick to the head; and ‘Headspace’ is constructed around a rolling-death riff. But so often the highs only serve to throw the lows into relief. On ‘Illegal I Song’ – with its crazy timing and sense of fucked-up abandon – you get the sense that VR really wanted to shake off the shackles of their past and do something different with this record, but they just didn’t quite have the balls to do it. Instead, we get a half-way house that rarely satisfies, a punkier Guns ‘N’ Roses fronted by someone who’s vocal-range is so limited that the overall feel is somewhat monochrome.

But despite the fact that I know that most of this record is not terribly good, I can’t help but like it. Why? That’s the blinding power of nostalgia.

[Dave's Bitch]

Very tempted to do a review of Chinese Democracy to follow that up