Candlebox -- 'Into the Sun' [review]

Candlebox - Into the Sun
Silent Majority (7/22/08)
Rock

Almost a decade to the day since its last release (Happy Pills, 7/21/98), Candlebox has risen again and produced an album to equal its self-titled debut album.

Bursting onto the scene in 1993, the band may have found itself in the middle of a win-lose situation; the right-place, right-time story was both a blessing and a curse. Hailing from Seattle, label mismanagement attempted to capitalize on this fact and the band found itself lumped in with the grunge scene. This may have garnered the group a little extra attention, but as the music landscape shifted in the mid-'90s, the band unfortunately got lost in the shuffle (releasing the overlooked-yet-superior Lucy in 1995 and the weaker Happy Pills three years later). As the world welcomed a new millennium, the band was pretty much forgotten.

Into the Sun reminds listeners how missed Kevin Martin's soulful vocals have been in the rock scene. The album is immediately comfortable, and the band manages to string together a collection of songs to rival its best effort. For a moment, the group seems to channel "You" in opener "Stand", the familiar riffs giving way to a more modern explosion of rock. Candlebox also channels the intensity of earlier tracks like "Simple Lessons", offering up a nice blend of riff-heavy rock and roll with just the right amount of blues influence. The band shifts from louder material (the aforementioned "Stand") to a more laid-back rock-blues approach ("Bitches Brewin'") but really shines the brightest when it gets melancholic ("Surrendering", "Miss You" and the title-track). Of note are the aforementioned and much-missed vocals from Martin and the fantastic guitar work from Peter Klett (check out the solos on "Bitches Brewin'", "Underneath it All" and especially "Surrendering").

Of particular note is the blues-heavy, eight-minute-plus "Breath Me In" (which, for some reason, is split into two separate tracks on the album—an intro and the actual song), but truth be told, there isn't a weak track on here. Managing to channel the ghost of Mother Love Bone, the band just rocks out in every way imaginable.

The best part of this entire album is that Candlebox never sounds dated, and the band was never so huge that the effort might reek of a nostalgia trip. Instead, the group puts forth one of this year's strongest rock releases. Longtime fans can rejoice, and those new to the table can enjoy the ride.

Austrian Death Machine -- 'Total Brutal' [review]

Austrian Death Machine - Total Brutal
Metal Blade Records (7/22/08)
Metal / Hardcore

"Joke" bands are a tough sell. They're usually a side project, a creative outlet for accomplished musicians. And they're nearly impossible to review. There's no way to be overly critical because, after all, it's just a joke (Don't you get the joke?). But in the same vein, you can't completely embrace the band and take it seriously because, well, it's a joke.

Austrian Death Machine is a metal band fronted by the Governator himself, Ahhnold (an homage to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger); the band is actually the brainchild of As I Lay Dying founder and frontman Tim Lambesis (who, I presume, is pretty much the sole member of the band, though the album features plenty of guest appearances).

Total Brutal is your standard metal/hardcore hybrid album, with the joke being each song channels the brutality of Schwarzenegger's movies. All of the songs are based off movie roles—"If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It" (Predator), "Who Is Your Daddy, And What Does He Do?" (Kindergarten Cop), "You Have Just Been Erased" (Eraser) and "Come With Me If You Want to Live" (The Terminator), to name but a few—with a handful of skits thrown in to keep the joke rolling.

The thing is, while most of these songs are almost forgettable, some of them are actually pretty good. The band is at its best when the inspiration for a song is a springboard into a more elaborate idea. You can't help but chant along with the Terminator-inspired "I Am a Cybernetic Organism, Living Tissue Over Endoskeleton", and the guitar work on "Who Is Your Daddy..." is truly inspired. And you could probably take "Here Is Subzero, Now Plain Zero" off the disc and fit it onto any metal album, to be taken seriously. On the flip side, how can you not smile when head-banging along with "It's Not a Tumor"?

Basically, Lambesis is one hell of a musician, and has put together a brutal little album that is weighed down by the running joke. Total Brutal is worth a listen, but I can't imagine it finding a permanent home in anyone's rotation years from now. I get the joke, but I'm just not sure how long it will stay funny.

(hed) p.e. -- 'The DIY Guys' [review CD/DVD]

(hed)p.e. - The DIY Guys [CD/DVD]
Suburban Noize Records (7/8/08)
Punk / Metal / Hip-hop

It's nice to know the constraints that sometimes come with being signed to a major label never seemed to destroy the spirit that (hed)p.e. brought to its music.

On The DIY Guys, the group offers up a smattering of hits, new songs (in a live settling) and unreleased material, tearing through every song with abandon, and melding metal, hip-hop and punk in a way very few bands would even think of attempting.

The live songs, recorded at the Key Club in Hollywood, do a good job of translating what the band has to offer on stage. It's pretty raw, both in presentation (nothing appears to have been tweaked after the fact in the studio) and in product (the band has a sick energy on stage that it's had a difficult time capturing in the studio at times).

A couple of high points to look for: new tracks "War on the Middle Class" and "Niteclub in Bali" (recorded live) are fantastic little punk gems; "Ordo ab Chao" with its hints of reggae blended into the stereotypical (hed)p.e. attack; the extremity of "Bloodfire" that just oozes urgency; and the live version of "The Truth" (from 2005's Only in Amerika), one of the band's best songs that sounds 10 times better when coupled with the live energy of the club.

While it's supposed to be a CD/DVD combo, the DVD portion of the package is more of an added bonus. Featuring a mockumentary of life on the road (the vignettes look staged for the most part) that also features a handful of live tracks and a couple of music videos (for "Suffa", "Get Ready" and "Represent"), the disc is what it is, but is definitely not the meat and potatoes of the set.

That (hed)p.e. has been able to keep the intensity after over a decade of releasing albums, and survived despite a few missteps, The DIY Guys is a welcome little surprise. Nothing on here is groundbreaking, and a lot of it is raw (which is good, for the most part), so while this is a perfectly serviceable addition to the band's catalogue, it might not be the best album to win over new fans.

The Rotted -- 'Get Dead or Die Trying' [review]

The Rotted - Get Dead or Die Trying
Metal Blade Records (7/8/08)
Death metal

Witness the evolution of a band.

When Gorerotted charged onto the metal scene in 2002, the band was your typical death metal outfit (à la Cannibal Corpse), with its over-the-top imagery and offensive lyrics. But rather than languish in the underground, the band grew and changed with each effort. The punk aesthetic so prevalent in earlier material slowly gave way to more expansive musicianship. The dueling vocal attack was phased out. And now, with not only a name change (The Rotted), but also a change in lyrical content and presentation, the band has managed to position itself as one of metal's next big things.

Not bad for a six-year span.

With Get Dead or Die Trying, The Rotted have served up one choking, turgid mass of death metal, tempered with just the right amount of thrash, grind and extreme elements to position the group as one of the premier new-school death metal bands on the scene.

Every track is chock full of growls, snarls, machine-gun drumming and glorious riffs. In fact, every one comes across as a death metal masterpiece. More notable are the subtle moments the band works into some of the songs. Take the killer breakdown and guitar solo on "Angel of Meth", or the sick groove hiding just under the surface during the chorus on "The Howling", or the totally out-of-place instrumental "A Brief Moment of Regret" (obviously thrown on there to exploit the band's constantly improving musical chops). There are moments of thrash-inspired bliss to close out "The Body Tree", and in the straight-forward metallic assault of "It's Like There's a Party in My Mouth (And Everyone's Being Sick)".

And perhaps the best and potentially most overlooked offering on the disc would be the album closer, a cover of the theme music from 28 Days Later. Aside from being a simply fantastic take on the song, it works as a mission statement for the band. While earlier in its career they chose to pull inspiration from the goriest flicks imaginable, this new approach is finding horror in the mundane and every day elements of life—much like 28 Days Later relied more on story and human interaction as opposed to being a straight-ahead zombie movie brimming with gore. Very nice choice.

This is still an extreme album, so the fan base is only so big. But The Rotted have managed to craft a killer (no pun intended) death metal release, with enough other elements pulled in to have something to offer to most fans of the metal genre. Perhaps not yet one of metal's finest, with this effort The Rotted are surely proving the band at least deserves a spot in the conversation.

Kessler -- 'Know Your Voice' [review]

Kessler - I Know Your Voice
Adrenaline Records (7/8/08)
Rock

On first listen, Kessler basically comes across as Fall Out Boy Version 2.0. And if you were to base your opinion on the first handful of tracks off I Know Your Voice, you'd probably be right. But the band manages to have this slight edge on the melodic rock offerings that hark back to older Spitalfield material, or maybe a little bit of Something Corporate (bands that never hit the big time like the aforementioned Fall Out Boy).

"Love Is War" (with its overly cliché lyrics: "Love is war and you're worth every fight") ... "Bravo" (which happens to feature some nice, driving guitar work) ... "Outside Your Window" (featuring some nice melancholic riffs) ... every track just seems to pass by with little to note. It surely doesn't help that the vocals of lead singer Mike Mitchell sound so similar to those of Patrick Stump.

It's around the sixth track ("Perfect") where the band starts to get a footing and begins giving the music more of an air of originality. From the stinging urgency of the guitar work during the verses, to the desperation seething through the chorus, they finally seem to figure out what they want to do. And it doesn't hurt that the vocals change up enough to finally start sounding unique.

And they follow that up with the piano-driven "Where You Are". The anti-ballad (or should it be un-ballad?) slows everything down and gives the band a chance to shine with the melody instead of the rock (though the aggressive guitar work around the chorus adds a nice touch). The band continues that melody through "Run Away", a more rock-oriented track with underlying piano work. It would have been nice if the group chose to have the piano be the hook for the entire album, to set Kessler off from the umpteen other bands doing this type of music.

The rest of the set plays out using a mixture of the now-established methods of attack, though special mention should be made of the acoustic guitar work on "Dallas" (though much more would have been welcome).

In the end, I Know Your Voice is a good enough first effort, but the unique moments that crop up midway through the album, if incorporated more, could have made this a much better outing. Once the band embraced the piano, the album became much more interesting.

Whitechapel -- 'This Is Exile' [review]

Whitechapel - This Is Exile
Metal Blade Records (7/8/08)
Extreme metal

"Never underestimate immortality."
—"Eternal Refuge"

As much as you may want to shoehorn Whitechapel into the death metal genre, there's just too much going on with the band's sound to do so without regret.

On the surface, the band just tears through the 11 tracks on This Is Exile with abandon, and shoves in enough plodding riffs and double-bass drumming to fill a (sizable) graveyard. However, Phil Bozeman varies up his vocal delivery to such an extent—from growls to grunts to this really interesting stutter-chant (check out the closing moments of "Possession" and then again on "To All That Are Dead") or straight metal howls—and the band fully takes advantage of its triple-guitar attack to flesh out riffs (see "To All That Are Dead" again) and solos that, in the end, this music just has too many layers to be considered simply death metal.

Man Raze -- 'Surreal' [review]

Man Raze - Surreal
VH1 Classic Records (06/03/08)
Rock

While you wouldn’t necessarily call Surreal a vanity project, you might wonder if Man Raze would really be releasing albums if not for guitarist Phil Collen (Def Leppard) being the driving force behind the band. (It may also be a telling sign that the album is released on VH1 Classic label.)

The purpose for Man Raze, according to the band’s press material, is that Collen was looking for an outlet for the songs that didn’t fit the classic Def Leppard mold. Sadly, most of the material on Surreal, at least the stuff that doesn’t drastically deviate from the pop rock mold, sounds like Def Leppard light. And since Def Leppard itself sounds like Def Leppard light these days, well …

Man Raze presents pretty straightforward, uninspired pop rock. There’s other elements thrown in to the mix -- some punk (“This Is” and “Turning it Up”), reggae (“Runnin’ Me Up”), modern rock (“Low”) or heavier rock (“That’s Entertainment”).

The best the band has to offer sounds too much like some other band: “Skin Crawl” and “Spinning Out” would have had a perfectly suitable home on any Def Leppard release, while “Can’t Find My Own Way” plays out like an homage to The Police.

Surreal isn’t a complete waste of time, and fans of timid rock music will find something to enjoy, but there’s plenty of other, better bands out there that aren’t getting an opportunity because they don’t also have a “day job” in a bigger, better band.

Marié Digby -- 'Unfold' [review]

Marié Digby - Unfold
Hollywood Records (4/08/08)
Pop / Singer-songwriter

While the rumor mills may have turned Marié Digby from Internet sensation to manufactured pop queen of the moment, there's little to fault her on with this debut full-length. What came first, the record deal or the do-it-yourself YouTube videos? At this point, what does it matter?

Unlike the glut of other teen/early-20-somethings cranking out songs other people wrote, with little artistic merit to back up the attention, Digby has the following going for her:

1) She wrote all but one of the tracks on Unfold. The sole track in question is a re-working of Rhianna's "Umbrella", which ironically garnered Miss Digby all the attention pre-album release.

2) Digby obviously had a hand in composing most of the album. In addition to singing, she plays piano, synth, Rhodes and acoustic and electric guitar.

3) The lyrics, while staying a little on the safe side (tales of lost love, love, relationships, and emotional distress), are at least imaginative and show promise from a creativity standpoint.

4) And finally, Digby has the voice to back everything up.

The singer/songwriter incorporates a variety of influences into her songs. There's the usual smattering of pop-rock throughout, but Digby takes a chance or two over the course of the album's journey. There's a rock edge to "Girlfriend", a melancholic beauty to the piano-ballad "Spell" (which features some of Digby's best vocal performances of the set) and a very comfortable adult-contemporary feel to both "Beauty in Walking Away" and the title-track (which could draw strong comparisons to Michelle Branch's early work crossed with, say, Sarah McLachlan). And, of course, let's not forget the insanely hook-laden "Say It Again", which is getting Digby a bulk of the attention on radio and music television at the moment.

So despite the backlash on Digby's "humble" beginnings, Unfold does its damnedest to prove the naysayers wrong. In an ironic twist, it's one of the things that makes Digby stand out that is also the weakest part of this album. Songs like "Unfold", "Traffic" and "Voice on the Radio" really shine because of the lyrics, but a song like "Miss Invisible", which is so haunting and beautiful on first listen, loses a little of its luster once you really listen to the lyrics (at least for an adult male listening to the track, as the song is about a young, female, outcast forced to sit under the bleachers; there's not much to relate to). Even with occasionally questionable lyrics, however, Digby can still take a song like "Stupid for You" and do enough to make it work.

Unfold is a very solid first outing which sounds much better than any debut should; it will be interesting to see what Digby chooses to do for an encore.

Cryptopsy -- 'The Unspoken King' [review]

Cryptopsy - The Unspoken King
Century Media Records (6/24/08)
Technical death metal

While not completely rare, it's not every day you see the type of blowback like that which is plaguing Cryptopsy for its latest release. The band is getting negative reviews across the boards from longtime fans, who are accusing them of selling out to the metalcore scene to make money. Hell, the last time a furor like this was reached in metal circles was probably back in 2003 when Metallica released St. Anger.

So is all the hate really warranted?

Cryptopsy was upfront before the release of this album. The Unspoken King was going to mark a new direction and be more experimental for the band. Before hiring frontman Matt McGachy, the band said it was looking for someone who could sing clean as well as do the usual growls.

The Unspoken King opens inauspiciously enough. "Worship Your Demons" is a quick little kick in the teeth, an extreme helping of straight-up death metal, as McGachy immediately slides into the lead vocalist slot with vengeance, serving up guttural wails with little effort.

However, the following track, "The Headsmen" is much more dynamic in its assault. Flo Mounier absolutely destroys with his drumming, combining speed and precision in such a way few others seem able to do (never sounding completely out-of-control or taking over the track). The guitar work incorporates more technical aspects as well.

"Silence the Tyrants" marks the last of the typical Cryptopsy attack. The song has a lot of really interesting groove underlying the usual death-metal fare, but is otherwise nondescript.

And then this train just seems to derail.

On "Bemoan the Martyr", the band seems to be channeling the Deftones at one moment before sliding back into its usual approach. (The cleaner, wailing vocals bookend the song, which actually makes things sound forced in this case.)

And that's pretty much how the rest of the album plays out; the death-metal staples are tempered with cleaner singing and slower moments. There's some truly inspired, intricate guitar play on "Resurgence of an Empire", and McGachy has some great clean vocals on "The Plagued" and "Contemplate Regicide". Plus, there's a couple of breakdowns thrown in for good measure. And take a listen to the great bridge thrown in to the middle of "Leach", which is probably the best song on the album.

In the end, it would appear that fans may have overreacted with The Unspoken King. Death metal is not the most inventive or imaginative genre, and Cryptopsy isn't the first band to attempt to pull in different elements to shake things up a bit. The band actually doesn't do half-bad with this effort. In fact, the biggest issue to take with this album is actually due to something you can't even hear. The group went through the trouble to hire on a keyboard player (Maggy Durand, listed as a permanent band member), yet any elements she may add to the songs is either overpowered by everything else or nonexistent altogether.

The playlist was put together perfectly, as the new "sound" is incorporated a little at a time until the listener gets used to where the band was headed. And the cleaner moments really add an interesting dynamic to the band, especially on a song like "Bound Dead", where the vocals are multi-tracked at times with a subtle growl under the clean vocals. This is what Cryptopsy should be doing more of if this is truly the direction the band hopes to follow.

Unfortunately, a lot of times the cleaner material comes across as contrived, and the changes seem to be there just to exist, instead of making sense from a song structure standpoint. This makes most of the album seem torn in different directions for absolutely no reason.

In the end, you're left with an unfocused effort that has its moments and shows potential growth for the future. "Bound Dead" (which is phenomenal, by the way) and "Leach" are obvious high points. The rest is a mixed bag.