Thrash Back!
Ok, so we all know the Thrash Classics, the 'Master Of Puppets', Reign in Bloods' and 'Rust In Piece's' of the world. Some of us may even familiar with Exodus's 'Bonded By Blood', Testaments 'New Order', Kreator's 'Pleasure Of Kill' and Celtic Frost's 'To Mega Therion'. But these twelve Thrash records are from the less heralded corners of the metal world. Records that kill but never got the recognition.
I recommend that you work your necks in!
-
Sesh, I think we're paying Binnie too much. He seems to be getting fat and lazy.Leave a comment:
-
Leave a comment:
-
Indeed. I reviewed the 2nd Snakepit record - 'Ain't Life Grand' - on page 4 of this thread. You'll see that I think it is one of the great unheralded rock records, and the second best thing Slash has ever played on.
I WILL review the new Slash record. I'm snowed under with work at the moment, so I'm a bit slower than normal. I think Slash's first solo CD (with the different singers) was good, the second one ('Apocalyptic Love') was only OK. It felt a little tepid in places to these ears.Leave a comment:
-
The 2nd Snakepit record was even better if you ask me. Had more balls too it. This stuff with Myles is really good but Slash got away from the gritty songwriting. I like it all. He has one hell of a music library at this point. Unlike his former singer/partner Axhole.Leave a comment:
-
I actually listened to the first Slash CD, It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere, in it's entirety for the first time in along while at work the other day. It occurred to me that, even though it was recorded in '95, it actually serves as a much better follow to Appetite than those abysmal Illusion CDs with Axhole.Leave a comment:
-
-
Review. Slash World On Fire. If you like Slash buy it. Good tunes. Maybe a little long.Leave a comment:
-
-
The new Slash album KICKS ASS!
Gene Simmons doesn't know shit! Rock ain't dead!Leave a comment:
-
Beastmilk – Climax (2013)
I am deeply suspicious of hipster records, which have a tendency to fall into one of four categories: gimmicky, pretentious, naval gazing, or whatever world music is trendy this week. Beastmilk, however, are genuinely worth the hype and ‘Climax’ is one of the best rock records I’ve heard in years and years. Fuck The Killers, fuck Kings Of Leon, fuck all of those tight-jean wearing bands that sound like them (why be a pastiche or a pastiche?) and fuck all self-consciously ‘retro’ bands. Here is a band making rock ‘n’ roll the way it should be: familiar, yet unique; immediate, yet challenging; and purely their own.
To be clear: this isn’t ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ in the AC/DC/ Led Zep variety, it takes its cues from a far wider spectrum of guitar-based music from the past forty years. ‘Death Reflects Us’ has a New Wave riff and ‘80s alternative vocals, a heavier Replacements doused with The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and The Cure. ‘Fear Your Mind’ is a furious burst of yearning, a claustrophobic punk rock which bleeds vicious lyrics; ‘Genocidal Crush’ takes the sweep of ‘80s alternative rock and amps it up with rock ‘n’ roll abandon; whilst ‘You Are Now Under Our Control’ is a hymn to Killing Joke wrapped up in the claustrophobic goth of Nick Cave; and ‘Ghosts Out Of Focus’ is a twisting, swirling morass of music which takes in the early Goth of The Sisters of Mercy and the poppier dynamics of Blondie and The Pretenders. These are songs which need to be heard. In the hands of producer Kurt Ballou, they sound raw, primal and very, very much alive.
By all rights, this band should be huge. If I was a thirteen year old kid right now, I’d feel lucky to be here for this album. Staggering stuff.Leave a comment:
-
From the Vaults: Godsmack – The Oracle (2010)
Why Godsmack are an arena-level band remains something of a mystery: if success went hand-in-hand with talent or innovation, they surely wouldn’t be. When they first appeared some fifteen years ago they were labelled ‘Metallica-in-Chains’ but in recent years their sound might be more aptly characterised as ‘Nickleback-with-muscle’: simple, to the point, radio friendly ‘metal’ for people who don’t really like metal. Derivative? In every possible way. Challenging? Nope. Does Sully Erma’s yarling grate? You bet. But I can’t help but like ‘em. Call it a guilty pleasure, but although you can hear every flaw in their sound, Godsmack know what they do and they do it well – unchallenging blasts of contemporary hard rock dripping in cheap. Grungy thrills.
‘Good Day To Die’ and ‘Cryin’ Like A Bitch’ are bruisers fitted out with some hulking choruses, and if you don’t take them too seriously they’re an awful lot of FUN. You WILL headbang to the title track whether you profess to hate this band or not, and the likes of ‘Forever Shamed’ have a hulking swing to it. Sure, there’s filler – some of these tunes sound like over-long jams – but that’s what the skip button is for; and, sure, they take their lyrics straight from the big ol’ book of clichés (‘Saints & Sinners’, ‘War & Peace’, ‘Devil’s Swing’) – but sometimes cheap and nasty works. And cheap this certainly is – you get the sense of a band as a very corporate entity, with the music designed to shift units and concerts tickets, heavy, but not abrasive enough to make you spill your over-priced beer in the enormodome. There’s a place for music like that, even if Godsmack are nobody’s favourite band.Leave a comment:
-
From the vaults: American Head Charge – The War of Art (2001)
‘The War Of Art’ – album number 2 from American Head Charge – stands of one of the few records from the Nu Metal era that is worth giving two shits about as those baggy pants disappear further in the rear-view mirror. What made (and makes) it so compelling is the sheer level of aggression on display here, and the avoidance of falling into the biggest Nu Metal cliché of all: Korn worship. Sure, you can hear traces of Bakersfields chosen sons on AHC, but those traces are mixed in with a little Slipknot, and some of the harder end of punk and hardcore to make one pit-bull of a record. And, yes, there are lots of downtuned guitars and programming – but they’re used as tools to service songs rather than gimmicks to substitute real talent.
Opener ‘A Violent Reaction’ balances violent beats with a groove that is tar-think. This was an incredibly aggressive band, but one who’s aggression came from a form of metal that owed little to thrash templates which, by the turn of the millennium, were considerably out-of-date. ‘Pushing The Envelope’ blends punk and industrial is an immediate manner which avoids soft-heavy-soft-heavy formulas; ‘Just So You Know’ proves that this band could write a hook; and ‘Song For The Suspect’ and ‘Nothing Gets Nothing’ found a sound – and lyrical themes – which were unlike anything else at the time. Under Rick Rubin’s guiding hand, the music was stripped back and focussed: raw, powerful and complete devoid of tricks, this was an album with musical depth that was far more than fodder for frat-boys to lift weights to. You WILL bob your head to the beats on ‘Seamless’, and the likes of ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out’ are slooow, brooding and phenomenally heavy.
Is it perfect? No – few records need 16 songs, and there is a pervasive sense that less might have been more. But how many truly classic Nu Metal records are there? Do you need more than 5 digits to count them? ‘The War Of Art’ would have to be up there. Metal journalists’ forced-amnesia of 1995-2002 is considerably hypercritical – the bands who sold a lot of records in that era also sold a lot of copies of their magazines. But before ‘Nu Metal’ becomes generation Y’s ‘Hair Metal’ – a cheesy bad joke wheeled out for gripes and jibes – we might like to remind ourselves that there were more genuinely creative bands in that genre than Korn, Slipknot and System Of A Down. American Head Charge weren’t far behind that leading pack.Leave a comment:
Leave a comment: