Firewind -- 'The Premonition' [review]

Firewind - The Premonition
Century Media (4/8/08)
Metal

Just when you thought power metal was dead and gone...

Led by guitarist Gus G. (Nightrage, Arch Enemy, Dream Evil)—who is slowly proving himself a worthy addition to the shortlist of guitar gods—Firewind offers up a heaping helping of power metal in all its epic glory.

Hailing from Greece, the band's method of attack focuses around the driving force of Gus G.'s guitar work, offering up classic power metal with a European twist (there's plenty of keyboard work to accompany the solos). The band offers a nice change of pace in a scene where the lines between subgenres—death metal, industrial and hardcore, most notably—are becoming increasingly blurred, it sticks to its guns and shines as a result. While a bulk of the attention goes to U.S.-based outfits for the most part, at least stateside, there's this huge metal scene in Europe with exceptional bands cranking out album after album of killer material. Add Firewind to that list... and probably place the group somewhere near the top.

Embrace the End -- 'Ley Lines' [review]

Embrace the End - Ley Lines
Century Media (4/15/08)
Metalcore / Deathcore

The press material for Embrace the End's latest offering compares the band to a cinderblock tornado, that really is the perfect way to describe this band, which incorporates elements from a variety of sub-genres of metal and hints of hardcore into one messy, extreme, metallic concoction.

The vocals shift from strained screeches to death-metal wails. And the band does a great job of incorporating these moments into each song to really sell the total package. Perhaps no song does it better than "Intensity in Ten Cities". The drumming is completely frantic, but always sounds controlled. It carries this plodding beat one minute, and then explodes into a machine-gun assault the next. And the guitarists have equal fun, trading mind-bending riffs and then shifting into an all-out assault of chords. The band tiptoes around this gorge of progressive metal without falling into the void, and then shifts on a dime to this goliath of rage.

Another shining moment on Ley Lines comes in the simplest of forms—the two-minute "Denim on Denim Hate Crime" melds inspiration from the most extreme ends of the metal spectrum, but never gets so loud and obnoxious that you can't stand the assault. (Think a combination of Cannibal Corpse and Pantera, but with a hardcore soul.)

There's some inspired guitar play throughout "Trainwreck on the John Galt Line", and the acoustic work on "Pity and the Road to Bimini" sounds fantastic. (The ethereal tone of the music, overall, really adds an interesting juxtaposition to the vocals later on, giving the band this added dimension missing from most of the other songs on here.) And the technical precision on "Overnighter" really makes you appreciate the musicianship of the various members and how they are able take all these elements and make a cohesive song.

The band does a nice job perfecting that we're-spinning-almost-out-of-control-but-know-exactly-what-we're-doing constant tempo-shifting for the most part, though it gets a little tiresome at times. Take "Ride It Like You Stole It", which starts promisingly enough with some really unique rhythm guitar work, but then totally abandons it for the stutter-stop approach instead. The same thing happens later on the title-track.

And that, in a nutshell, is the weakness of this album. The band isn't completely off-the-wall, like early Norma Jean, for example, but the approach gets real old after a while, unless you're a band like Between the Buried and Me. (Then again, BTBAM is throwing all genres of music into the mix, so it’s not quite the same thing.)

This type of music isn't for everybody. Hell, it isn't for a lot of people, but if you actually listen to it, a lot, the chaos and brutality all starts to make sense. Ley Lines isn't perfect, but this type of music isn't meant to be.

Cradle to Grave -- 'Texas Medicine' [review]

Cradle to Grave - Texas Medicine
Eye of the Sun Records (4/15/08)
Metal

Cradle to Grave may hail from the dark corners of British Columbia, but the band emulates the groove-based metal of legends Pantera to a T. So, it's little wonder the band has called its latest effort Texas Medicine.

Chock full of thick, meaty riffs, explosive drumming and antagonistic bass licks—not to mention that absolutely crushing groove—Texas Medicine is an easy contender for metal album of the year. With opener "Broken God", a goliath of a track, the band grabs the listener by the throat and tosses them down 11 flights of stairs. The band rivals Hatebreed with "I'm at War With Myself", and shows a more introspective side with "Light", while still maintaining the choking pace.

But it's the middle of the album that completely steals the show. "From Nowhere to Nowhere" has the catchiest, most punishing groove that only compliments the sing-a-long chorus. And the band throws in an absolutely sick bridge mid-way through the song, with an acoustic opening and wonderfully sung break down, well... just because it can. From there, it tears everything apart with the speed-inspired "I Am Nothing", and ends the assault with a thick slab of southern metal called "At Last" (featuring a great group-sung opener).

Other highlights include the breakneck "F**k It Up", the acoustic instrumental "Daughters" and pulse-pounding album closer "Beheaded in Paris" (with a nice extended ending that closes with Freddy Krueger's warning, "You shouldn't have buried me").

There's no shortage of metal bands out there these days, but not too many come even close to presenting such a blistering package like Cradle to Grave has done here. This is a total surprise release for 2008 that shouldn't fly under any metal fan's radar.

Zimmers' Hole -- 'When You Were Shouting At the Devil ... We Were In League With Satan' [review]

Zimmers Hole - When You Were Shouting at the Devil... We Were in League With Satan
Century Media (3/11/08)
Metal

As the initial blasts of the title-track and album opener pour forth from the speakers, it's clear that Zimmers Hole isn't screwing around.

Sure, most of the lyrics are delivered with tongue firmly planted in-check, but the music itself is so raw, intense and destructive, that the listener is left slack-jawed at just how good the metal is. And why would anyone be surprised? Guitarist Jed Simon (Strapping Young Lad) is a beast, Gene Hoglan (Dethklok, Strapping Young Lad) brutalizes the drum kit and Byron Stroud just destroys the bass; so who better to front such a band than Satan himself (a.k.a. The Heathen)? And while the band’s vocalist may hide behind a moniker, he's the real star of this show, switching from the highest pitched '80s-inspired wails to the most horrific death-metal growls this side of Obituary's John Tardy.

Filter -- 'Anthems for the Damned' [review]

Filter - Anthems for the Damned
Pulse Recording (5/13/08)
Rock / Alternative / Metal

It's been five years since The Amalgamut, and Richard Patrick, the force behind Filter, returns with Anthems for the Damned, where he showcases the two faces of the band—the abrasive, industrial-tinged goliath alongside the pop-minded, melodic juggernaut—in unison for an overall well-balanced sound.

Five years is a lengthy absence these days. So much so that, on first listen, "Soldiers of Misfortune" could be mistaken for Chevelle, a band with two notable releases in the same timeframe. But those trademark plodding bass lines and Patrick's unholy wail put an end to any perceived charade.

Various Artists -- 'Gigantour 2' [DVD review]

Gigantour 2 [DVD]
Image Entertainment (4/22/08)
Unrated
66 minutes

"Gigantour is the spirit of heavy metal captured in a festival. It was about people going there, and the musicians being treated with respect, and an audience feeling like they’ve been treated with respect. And everybody walking away—the entertainers and the entertained all in agreement that it was a great environment.”
—Dave Mustaine

With Ozzfest down to one show this year, Gigantour seems a worthy successor to be the summer festival to carry the torch of metal to the masses. While on face value there appears little difference between the two tours, Ozzfest tried to pack a lot of bang for the buck, shoehorning more than a dozen bands into the course of a single head-banging day. Many a year it seemed quantity ruled over quality, though with so many bands from which to choose, concertgoers still got their money's worth in the end.

Local H -- 'Twelve Angry Months' [review]

Local H - Twelve Angry Months
Shout Factory (5/13/08)
Rock / Alternative

Local H may not be the same band that crafted one of the best, and possibly most underrated albums of the mid-'90s in As Good As Dead, but with Twelve Angry Months, Scott Lucas, the mastermind behind the band, shows he still has what it takes to create twisted-yet-subtle alternative rock music that can be thought-provoking and explosive.

Living up to its title, the album consists of twelve songs (January through December),

Opener "The One With the 'Kid'" starts off melancholic enough, but shortly explodes into frantic drumming and head-banging riffs. It's all very textbook Local H, especially the stutter stop-start mid-song break and consistently building end sequence.

Local H offers little filler here. "Michelle (Again)" is a bludgeoning force of rock, tempered with melody and classic pop-rock inspiration. The band sounds like it's ready to channel Mötley Crüe for a second on "White Belt Boys", before sliding back into a more deliberate approach. "Taxi-Cabs" sounds like a homage to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, being over-simplistic yet brilliant all at once. The mellow "The Summer of Boats", an acoustic joy, is dark and moody and haunting and beautiful all at once, and flourishing to close out one of the band's finest moments.

But it's not all magical. "BMW Man" borders on annoying, while "Machine Shed Wrestling" never seems to get off the ground floor, so to speak (it needed to be more fleshed out). But the raw power of "24 Hour Break-Up Session" and "Jesus Christ! Did you see the SIZE of that sperm whale", or the near-perfection of the Foo Fighters-esque "Simple Pleas" more than makes up for any shortcomings.

The two-man Local H approach (Brian St. Clair is still pounding the drum kit to accompany Lucas) is filled out with an eclectic collection of studio musicians, either filling out the drums tracks or adding some string arrangements (everything from extra guitar to violin).

In the end, it's clear Local H is back with a vengeance. This is the closest the band's come to replicating As Good As Dead in the past decade. There's no unfocused or overly experimental songs this time around, as it's straight-ahead rock. Newer fans of the alternative rock genre (anyone who thinks Jack White is the next coming, perhaps?), would love this stuff. A welcome return for a band some wrote off in 1998, it's clear Local H can still hang with the best of 'em.

Blind Melon -- 'For My Friends' [review]

Blind Melon - For My Friends
Adrenaline Records (4/22/08)
Rock

I'm pretty sure that when Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon died in 1995, most everyone wrote the band off; even the release of Nico in 1996 seemed more of a final nod to the Hoon family and a gift to longtime fans. And sure enough, the band members shortly thereafter went on to other things and Blind Melon sort of faded away.

But sometimes sleeping bands just can't be left to lie...

Without hearing a note off For My Friends, I wanted to say what a mistake this album was. I was ready to pen a diatribe criticizing the band at an attempted money-grab. Everyone already saw the Behind the Music. Why dig up the corpse that everyone assumed was resting peacefully?

Hell, "Tones of Home" turned me and thousands of other people into fans back in 1992; and we were all equally turned off when "No Rain", a song completely out of character for the band, turned them into a household name. (I was lured back by the intensity of "Galaxy" and "Toes Across the Floor" years later, but Hoon would be dead far too soon from a drug overdose for it to really matter, and the rest is well-documented history.)

But I digress...

I wanted to say no one could fill Hoon's shoes in this band, with this dynamic. I wanted to hate everything for which this album stands. But from the opening notes of the first song on For My Friends, the title-track, I was won over.

The band hasn't missed a beat, still offering up '70s influenced, riff-heavy rock with a modern edge. There's a hint of blues, a southern twang, and down-home grooves that permeate the entire album. And Travis Warren does a great job of sliding into Hoon's spot, emulating him just a bit (almost channeling him for the first half of the album), but giving the band a nice twist and making the vocalist slot his own.

The aforementioned title track is short, simple and really sweet. There's a great melodic riff anchoring the entire track, and it's as if the ghost of Hoon took up the microphone for one last jam with the band. "With the Right Set of Eyes" is a little more fleshed out—a bluesy track that twists around groove and mood while Warren completely commands the proceedings. The same goes for "Wishing Well", while things slow down a little on "Sometimes", which harkens back to a more '70s feel.

It's those times when the band chooses to completely let loose—moments on "Make a Difference", "Down on the Pharmacy" and "Harmful Belly" immediately spring to mind—that really make For My Friends shine. There was never any denying that there was a little bit of magic whenever the four original members got together, and while Hoon is definitely missed, Warren does a fair job filling the void.

Album closer "Cheetum Street", with its slight hint of Lynyrd Skynyrd, is the perfect closer, and one where Warren finally emerges, completely, from Hoon's shadow.

Chalk this one up as one of the year's bigger surprises. Almost 13 years since Soup, and 2008 sees a new Blind Melon release? And to top it all off... it's good? Who would have thought?

Saving Abel -- 'Saving Abel' [review]

Saving Abel - Saving Abel
Virgin Records (3/11/08)
Hard rock / Alternative / Post-grunge

It's pretty easy to sum up Saving Abel's new album: plain and simple, straight-ahead rock.

The band could draw comparisons to everyone from Mötley Crüe to Buckcherry to Nickelback to 3 Doors Down—the riffs are lush, the song structure simple, and the mood fun and, well, rocking.

The self-titled debut shoots out of the gate with "New Tattoo", full of screaming guitars, crushing bass and explosive drumming. Sure, it may not be rocket science, but the band is tight and smart (in song structure and lyrics), and is crafting some fun rock music. Just take a look at a band like Puddle of Mudd; it's obviously not as easy as some people make it look, and Saving Abel makes it look easy.

a'tris -- 'Lensing' [review]

a'tris - Lensing
Mark Records / Tunecore (2/19/08)
Rock / Alternative

a'tris is one of those bands that seem hard to pigeon-hole into a set genre; hints of Radiohead (without being overly pretentious), 30 Seconds to Mars (without the pop hook), Open Hand (without the crunch) and Deftones (without the metal edge) merge into a music experience.

There are flourishes, there's rock and pop bending together, there's mood and melancholy and joy, and it's all put together in a way that seems brilliant yet simple. That's not to say that this is a perfect album, or one of the best albums of the year. But there's plenty of glimmers of musical magic. The weakness of a'tris lies in its indie-ness, if that makes any sense. The band is so underground, or so non-conventional, that it seems to suffer as a result.

When the band is clicking, Lensing is really good—the grind of opener "Paradise Is a Boxcar", the hook of "Automatic Doors", the flourish of "Selling Oxygen", the beauty of "This Mortal Engine". In fact, the entire first half of the album is pretty much spot on.

Some of the later tracks start to sound a little too much like Radiohead, and the songs become almost uninspired. It's difficult to put your finger on, but these tracks just seem to lack the spark of the album's first half.

This is a good album. The band, or the group of musicians, or whatever a'tris ultimately is (the soul of the outift?), is solid and good at what it does. It's tough to put an album out like this and avoid becoming stereotypical or boring, and the band avoids doing that. It just doesn't seem to live up to the best of what it offers, leaving the listener a mixed bag from which to pick. This is good, but it could be great.

Ashes Divide -- 'Keep Telling Myself It's Alright' [review]

Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It's Alright
Island Records (4/8/08)
Rock / Alternative

Billy Howerdel is probably best known for his collaborative work with Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan in A Perfect Circle, though he does have a fairly lengthy résumé to his name. And with A Perfect Circle now being on hiatus, Howerdel is trying his hand at fronting his own band. The result is a mixed bag of ethereal rock music that pulls influence from a variety of sources.

Ashes Divide sounds more like 30 Seconds to Mars (with a hint of Nine Inch Nails) than A Perfect Circle, but that may be a much due to the absence of Keenan (more on that later) than anything else (though Howerdel's vocals could draw comparison to Jared Leto's).

Ashes Divide has just as much in common, sonically, with the aforementioned bands as it does notable '80s bands of the same vein (The Cure, Duran Duran, et al.), and Howerdel has managed to merge all of this influence to create something that harkens back to a time/genre without sounding dated. (The melancholic “A Wish” could just have easily been released by The Cure in 1988, yet it doesn't sound out of place on the album.) Likewise, something like "The Prey" could just have easily been released by Trent Reznor before he went all "garage" on everyone.

There's a definite ebb and flow to the album—it starts off loud, slides into a more retro groove for a few tracks, gets slower and more reflective in the middle and then picks up the pace again to end with a bang.

It seems Keenan may have been able to focus some of Howerdel's efforts in A Perfect Circle. The song structure seemed more direct in A Perfect Circle, which was a nice juxtaposition for the more meandering, imaginative vocals/lyrics. Here, some of the songs either plod along without direction, or seem to tail off and/or end abruptly, which is not only a disappointment but also calls into question what could have been given a little more effort. ("Stripped Away" and "Denial Waits" seemed to fall into this trap, which is a real shame since they’re the two opening tracks.)

Taken as a whole, Ashes Divide is a nice effort. There's a definite mood to the album, and everything flows very well together. A few times Howerdel seems to let his influences get the better of him, unleashing tracks that sound more like an homage than original effort, but this is a nice start for one of the music scene's harder workers.