Austrian Death Machine - Double Brutal

If anyone ever says metal has to be serious all the time or that metal is just a bunch of angry guys you should point them in Austrian Death Machine's direction. Austrian Death Machine is the side project of Tim Lambesis (As I Lay Dying), which combines two of Europe's best exports: Metal and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Total Brutal, the band's debut, was a great, fun album. Featuring skits of Arnold in all his metal awesomeness. It featured songs like Get to the Choppa, Come with Me If You Want to Live, Who Is Your Daddy, And What Does He Do, and of course It's Not a Tumor. Great stuff for us fans of metal and the Governor of California.

Double Brutal is the new two disk album and some things are better left as are. Total Brutal was funny and a great idea. It covered Arnold's greatest movie quotes. Double Brutal (which I'm sure Metal Blade pushed for) just doesn't live up to it's predecessor. The best quotes were already used and the joke is a little wearing. The skits are still funny and the songs are still well done but the album doesn't hold like the first one does.

The second disc is an album of covers that relate to Arnold movies. And it's good to hear Tim flex his chops at a couple of classic songs (Hell Bent for Leather, I Turned Into a Martian, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good ). Again good songs.

The album is a solid 3 out of 5 stars but it doesn't have the same charm that Total Brutal had.


From Total Brutal

Hatebreed - Hatebreed

I like the new Hatebreed album... Wait, I like the new Hatebreed album?

Not to stereotype Hatebreed fans or fans of hardcore (tough guy) in general but I don't wear camo shorts or h2o basketball jerseys. I've never really been that into the straight hardcore scene. I don't wear combat boots and I will not be kicking ass in the pit. Bands like Madball and Hatbreed always seemed to escape me. I like sing-a-longs and all but the whole tough guy hardcore scene was not my cup of tea (my room on the other hand could've been the poster boy for a Hatebreed fan).

Their latest album, self-titled, caught my attention with it's first single, In Ashes They Shall Reap. I can't say it's the best song I've heard all year but it might be the catchiest and it's probably one of the top 3 songs I've heard in 09. It got stuck in my head and I love the song. It's great. The song alone got me to pick up the album. Kudos to whomever decided that should be the lead single.

I guess this record is has more thrash metal influence then previous efforts. Being as I'm not a huge fan I don't have a real basis to compare this album to previous efforts. I don't care for older Hatebreed, I dig this record. Hatebreed has always struck me as an odd band anyway in that they managed to find their way into mainstream metal without changing their sound or style but maybe that was helped by frontman Jamey Jasta's gig on Headbangers Ball.

Two minor missteps in my opinion. On Every Last Scar Jasta takes his hand in singing on the track. It sounds a might awkward and I'm not a big fan. It's probably the weakest track on the album. I'm also not really a fan of the Undiminished, an instrumental ballad towards the end of the record. It's not a terrible track but it seems to just be on the record with no real purpose. Maybe it would've made for a nice hidden track but as an actual track it takes away from the ferocious assault that the rest of the album has created.

If you're looking for some positive hardcore, look elsewhere. This is tough guy, survival of the fittest, don't get in my way, and don't hold me back. Jamey Jasta and the boys in Hatebreed aren't going anywhere.

Hatebreed has made an album I enjoy and that's really all I ask for.

Paramore - Brand New Eyes

Maturing as a band can be hard. Growth can be good, but it can also be a hindrance to what made you in the first place.

Riot was a secret pleasure record of mine. I love it. It is sugary pop music at it’s finest and I wasn’t sure if Brand New Eyes would be able to capture me in the same way. And it doesn’t. But it doesn’t turn me off of what Paramore is doing.

Fans who’ve heard Decode (the single from the Twilight soundtrack) won’t be completely surprised by a subtle shift in sound. And say subtle because Paramore has not completely managed to captured the pop energy that made songs like Misery Business and Crushcrushcrush such good songs and instead have created a record that sounds like a band that has come out of near collapse and survived and are better for it.

The albums lead single Ignorance is a song the most resembles Riot. It’s not like Paramore has abandoned their sound altogether. It’s still pop rock but it’s a more mature sound. A lot of growth comes from Hayley Williams’ lyrics. Gone are songs about high school loves, replaced with songs about growing up. The album grows and goes deeper the farther into it you listen. It’s not a record front loaded with singles and catchy pop songs to pull you in and back loaded with throw away b-sides. Brand New Eyes is a complete record and I think it gets better as it goes. The album’s closer, All I Wanted, is a beautiful song and leaves you wanting to hear more.

Brand New Eyes seems like a fresh start for Paramore. Not trying to distance themselves from their past but I have grown up and created something showcasing their maturation.

Kowloon Walled City

Kowloon Walled City is offering their latest album Gambling on the Richter Scale for free download. It's high quality too. Good stuff. if you're into noise metal check this album out (Fans of Bison BC, Kylesa, Baroness, etc...)

http://inthewalledcity.com/music/

9.29 New Music

Good week for new music. A lot of good stuff.

Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

Austrian Death Machine - Double Brutal

Dethklok - Dethalbum II

Doomriders - Darkness Come Alive

Evergreen Terrace - Almost Home

Hatebreed - Hatebreed

Hope Sandoval - Through The Devil Softly

Melvins - Chicken Switch

OM - God Is Good

Paramore - Brand New Eyes

Reviews to come...

Lacking

Sorry for no posts this week. There was no album out Tuesday I felt worth mentioning.

Every Time I Die - New Junk Aesthetic

New Junk Aesthetic is good. Every Time I Die has perfected their brand of hardcore, they own their sound. I don't hear too many bands with a sound similar to Every Time I Die and with New Junk Aesthetic they continue to make great music. My only issue is that because their so good at what they do and it's not that different or more mind blowing then previous releases that it's hard for me to put this near the top of my list of releases this year. Good record, great record in fact, it just doesn't impress on me more then other records I've heard this year.

From start to finish New Junk Aesthetic is a solid record. Roman Holiday is a slow jam. The Marvelous Slut, Who Invented the Russian Soldier, For the Record, Buffalo 666 are all standard ETID songs. Wanderlust (the albums first single) seems tailor made for radio play. The album is good. Classic ETID.

New Music Tuesday

A decent Tuesday for releases. Posted later then normal because I'm on vacation.

Every Time I Die - New Junk Aesthetic (which I've bought)

Living Colour - The Chair in the Doorway (which I've bought)

Megadeth - Endgame (which I might buy)

Thrice - Beggars (finally out on cd, which I've bought)

Tyondai Braxton - Central Market (which I will buy).


Man I spent a lot of money today. There are also reissues of the first 2 Sunny Day Real Estate records. And Muse has another Queen cover record out (which I might listen and right a review about how much I'd rather listen to Queen).

Advent - Naked and Cold

A little late getting this up but better late than never.

Naked and Cold is Advent's second album out on Solid State records and they stepped it up and brought their A-game on Naked and Cold. Remove the Earth was a small foreshadowing of what was to come. All the polish has been removed and we are left with a raw, heavy album. This might be the most raw sounding hardcore album I've heard in a while. Naked and Cold is a harkening back to the mid-nineties spiritual-filled hardcore scene. The album reminds me of bands like Focused, Unashamed, and Overcome, less in sound but more in presentation. The sound reminds me of the early days of Facedown records. Advent is hiding their faith and Christianity, instead they have brought it to the forefront and are unashamed in their beliefs and aren't stepping back. It's worship at it's heaviest.

From the Nothing, the albums opener, to the close of the record, Blackness of the Day, Naked and Cold will kick you in teeth and assault your hears. There's no singing, there's no ballads, there's nothing soft of melodic about Naked and Cold. Advent have delivered an follow up that's even better then the original. Good, raw, heavy music.

Friday

I'm going to post a review of Advent's Naked and Cold this weekend. Next week will be busy. New music from Every Time I Die, Living Colour, and Megadeth!

I don't know why I like the new Hatebreed song so much but I do.

Missed one

The new Advent record Naked and Cold is out today

New Music Tuesday

A couple of quality records this week.

Candiria - Toying With The Insanities Volume 1 and 2

J. Tillman - Year in the Kingdom

Polvo - In Prism

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II

Rodrigo y Gabriela - 11:11

Sondre Lerche - Heartbeat Radio

Chevelle - Sci-Fi Crimes

When I first heard Chevelle's Point #1 I loved it. It clicked instantly. And so 10 years later they've released their 5th full length Sci-fi Crimes. It would be unfair to say that every record since Wonder What's Next has been the same but I don't think you'd be that far off target. If you buy a Chevelle record it's because you like Chevelle. If you didn't like the last record, you won't like the new one. It's a tough statement but it's true. A Chevelle record sounds like a Chevelle record. Of course there has been a less raw, approach and more melody but Chevelle has a sound and their records sound like you'd expect Chevelle to sound like. Yes it's mainstream radio hard rock but I still dig Chevelle and even though my listening has diminished over the last 10 years I don't hate them.

Chevelle might not be breaking any new ground on Sci-fi Crimes but they are continuing to make good, heavy music. There's a little more straight rock on this record, as the band had said there would be. The album contains the signature heavy riffs we've come to expect from Pete Loeffler (whose vocals sound as good as ever). The drums are solid, the bass adds enough, staying in the pocket and Chevelle sounds as good as they always have. The two openers, Sleep Apnea and Mexican Sun, are heavy Chevelle standards. The albums first single Jars is completely kick ass. Hearing that song got me interested in this record. Shameful Metaphors and Fell Into Your Shoes are much mellower then anything I remember Chevelle releasing. Interlewd reminds me of some throw away Smashing Pumpkins jam session. Roswell's Spell is the album's heaviest track. The album's closer, The Circus, reminds me of a Blindside track (think something from Silence or About a Fire). Not the strongest song for a closer but nothing to really gripe about.

If you like Chevelle, Sci-fi Crimes is for you.

David Bazan - Curse Your Branches

So only 2 records out today (that interest me) worth mentioning. The new Chevelle (which I'll review tomorrow) and the new David Bazan.

It's hard for me to talk about David's solo career without comparing it to Pedro the Lion(which was kind of his solo project anyway). And so with that in mind I have been listening to Curse Your Branches, and I love it. But I listened to Control this morning and clearly this album doesn't seem to hold the same weight as Pedro in it's prime.

By this point we all know David's story. Preacher's kid, turned questioning christian, turn rebel, turned agnostic. In all phases David has delivered great album after great album (minus the Headphones record which has some pretty weak tracks on it). Control moved away from spiritual themes and Achilles Heel mostly stayed away. And while Dave strayed from the spiritually honest lyrics and perfected his song writing skills, many fans hope for a return on David Bazan, the spiritual lyrical master. And Curse Your Branches is that album... although not for Christ.

Musically Curse Your Branches is much more refined then Fewer Moving Parts and it really doesn't sound like anything you'd hear on a Pedro the Lion record. Dave's voice has never sounded better. Between David's admittance that he no longer has a christian faith and is an agnostic, Curse Your Branches plays like a journal chronicling his journey, questions, alcoholism, and decision. It's devoid of the vulgarity that has been found on previous Bazan affiliated records. And it's a beautiful record. Between Dave's masterful wordplay and the right instrumentation to compliment each track Curse Your Branches is up near the top of my list for best records I've heard in 09.

The album's opener, Hard to Be (my favorite track), is a piano based track where David pronounces "There would be no going back". The album moves up and down, each song causing you to reach for the lyrics sheet and engage yourself completely in what David is saying and try to relate to or understand where he is coming from. It's a very smart album. David has always been one of my favorite lyricist and Cures Your Branches is right on par. Although this will probably alienate a lot of his christian fan base (if the songs of sex and swearing already didn't) but I imagine Dave is ok with that.

The albums closer, In Stitches, is a gorgeous song that is Bazan's break-up with God song. It's the prettiest song on the album and one heart wrenching piece of music.

Great album!