Top Albums of 2009 [column]

It was a hectic year, and trying to come up with a top 10 list to close things out seemed like an almost overwhelming task. Where there really 10 albums that stood out to me? Well, when I finally sat down to build and rank a list, I realized there was, and then some. There were obvious picks, and happy surprises, and a couple that came out of left field and completely blew me away. At the end of the day, this represented, to me, the best 2009 had to offer.

So, without further ado...

Best albums of 2009...

10 (tie).

Taking Back Sunday
New Again
(Warner Bros. Records)
30 Seconds to Mars
This is War
(Virgin Records)
Eyes Set to Kill
The World Outside
(Breaksilence Records)

And in a cheat of sorts, a three-way tie for the No. 10 slot. Taking Back Sunday sounds positively invigorated on New Again, Snarling through an enjoyable mix of high-energy tracks with the typical trademark tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Check out the catchy-as-hell “Summer, Man,” the melancholic “Where My Mouth Is” and infectious “Swing.”

While a daunting task to follow-up the break-out A Beautiful Lie album, 30 Seconds to Mars didn’t try to make a sequel, and instead crafted one of the most interesting albums of 2009. From the slow build of “Escape” to the explosive anthem “Kings and Queens,” the band continues to surprise as an alternative standard bearer.

Finally, the sophomore release from Eyes Set to Kill. The beauty of the music that Eyes Set to Kill are beginning to craft is in the juxtaposition of the various elements continues to mature. Whether it’s the dual-vocal approach, the quieter piano moments sandwiched between stutter-stop riffing and thunderous groove, or when the parts pull into one mass attack (executed to perfection on “The Hollow”), the band never seems to get lost or overdo it with the individual elements.

9.

Pearl Jam
Backspacer
(Universal Distribution)

"When somethings broke, I wanna put a bit of fixin on it; When somethings bored, I wanna put a little exciting on it; If somethings low, I wanna put a little high on it; When somethings lost, I wanna fight to get it back again."

Pearl Jam’s recent rocker, Backspacer follows in the footsteps of 2002's Riot Act, and while the band has, in many ways, moved away from the raw power of Ten or Vs. (something I think it tried to recapture with the self-titled album a few years ago), it’s still able to put out a raucous collection of music, continuing an almost 20-year streak and pretty much solidifying a spot as one of the most reliable rock bands of the last, well, 20 years.

8.

Thursday
Common Existence
(Epitaph Records)

"When I first saw you there were guns in the river; Black birds of warning circling high above the marquee where the blue notes of lovers mixed with the loneliness of others turned our breath into snowflakes as we whispered in the gutters."

Thursday seemed to have rediscovered and recaptured the energy and emotion so prevalent on the band’s first two albums and channeled it into one raging beast of an album. While the band sort of drifted off into mellower, experimental fare gradually over the past couple of albums, Common Existence is a true return to form. From the abrasive album opener “Resuscitation of a Dead Man” to the slow-burn dirge of closer “You Were the Cancer,” every song is a Thursday masterpiece.

7.

Slayer
World Painted Blood
(American Recording)

"Like a storm that devastates; Religious power instigate; Take religion to my confession; There is no filter on my aggression; With a blister open wide; To keep the massacre alive; I got cold devastation; With my moral imperfection."

What World Painted Blood does manage to do, is far outshine the band’s more recent releases (2001’s God Hates Us All and the oft-overlooked 2006 release Christ Illusion), and it does so by pulling from a deep bag of tricks, strung together to craft their best offering of the new millennium. There’s a little bit of everything on here: Tom Araya’s schizophrenic vocal delivery on the blistering “Hate Worldwide” and deliberate “Public Display of Dismemberment”; the pure thrash bliss of “Unit 731”; the punk aesthetic of “Snuff”; the chilling dirge of “Playing With Dolls”. Truth be told, the band almost seems to have taken a page out of 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss, shifting between the roles of chaotic thrash masters or slowing things down to sound like the metallic bringers of death.

6.

Mastodon
Crack the Skye
(Reprise Records)

"The screaming arrows tear through my soul; In the dawn your face is haunting; White ghostly dreams."

Mastodon continues to push the boundaries of metal, and Crack the Skye further solidifies the band’s post as one of metal’s best new bands. While the album seems more polished and directed than some of the group’s previous efforts, this set is still chock-full of crushing riffs and features two 10-minute-plus epics as the band drifts and lilthes over a musical landscape. A little less stoner-metal, a little more 70s-inspired progressive rock, the band never disappoints as each song impresses more than the last.

5.

Paramore
Brand New Eyes
(Fueled By Raman)

"And the worst part is before it gets any better we‘re headed for a cliff; And in the free fall I will realize I‘m better off when I hit the bottom."

Every band has one of those moments; It’s not necessarily a break-out song or album, but a time where everything falls into place to become a defining moment. This is that moment for Paramore. On this album, the band fires on all cylinders to amazing affect. The music is tight, the lyrics smart and thought-provoking, the songs are catchy at times, deep at others. While All We Know is Falling established the group, and Riot! caught everyone’s attention, it’s Brand New Eyes that proves lead singer Hayley Williams can front a band and command a stage, and the rest of the band continues to craft nice little power pop/punk songs. Of note is the snarling “Ignorance” and “Brick by Boring Brick,” the melancholy of “The Only Exception” and album closer “All I Wanted,” and the near perfection of the album’s best moment, “Turn it Off.”

4.

Lamb of` God
Wrath
(Epic Records)

"Everything you've ever begged me to be; Could never have meant any less to me; Everything you've ever asked me to say; It's so far away from the truth."

Wrath is everything you expect from a Lamb of God album: crushing blast beats and choking rhythm, along with the snarling, haunting vocals of Randy Blyth. The fact of the matter is that, while perhaps not the most innovative metal band out there, Lamb of God has pretty much set the stage to be the best metal act of the decade. Album after album of blistering metal -- at times insanely catchy -- and with little filler, the band’s latest is no different. Opening with a slight curveball with the layered “The Passing,” the band soon explodes with fury with “In Your Words,” grabbing a hold of the listeners’ throats and never letting up. And hey, Slayer is a little predictable, too, but no one’s trying to deny their status as legends.

3.

Silversun Pickups
Swoon
(Dangerbird Records)

"How many times do you wanna die; How many ways; Do you wanna die; Do you feel safe again? look over your shoulder; Very carefully look over your shoulder."

I can’t think of a song in the last five years that has captured my ear quite like the gentle drone of “The Royal We”. It’s like the band somehow recaptured that moment in 1994/1995—the tail end of Jawbreaker and the beginning of Sunny Day Real Estate, with the lo-fi dirge and muddy guitar play. The band is definitely channeling a lot of classic ’90s acts (the aforementioned, and possibly Pixies, or Mudhoney), with just a hint of something like Coheed and Cambria (in the vocal delivery). It sounds like a throwback, but manages to somehow sound fresh at the same time.

2.

Alice in Chains
Black Gives Way to Blue
(Virgin Records)

"And I always paid attention to all the lines you crossed; Forgive this imperfection it shows, and know; I am the child that lives and cries in a corner; Dies in a corner."

The album really picks up where the band left off. Most of the time, you almost forget Layne Staley isn’t still front and center with the group, both a comfort and a curse as a long-time listener. DuVall does a great job continuing in the tradition of the classic AIC sound, managing to somehow emulate Staley but push through with his own style, too. Without going through track-by-track, I’ll simply say that the band does a good job of mixing all the different elements of its sound — with some hard-rockers (“Acid Bubble”), mellow fair à la Jar of Flies (“Your Decision”) and thunderous dirges (“A Looking in View”) — to craft a complete experience. Perhaps not quite the perfect release, it’s exactly what fans were hoping for. And, with the replacement of such a legendary vocalist, way more than most bargained for. In the end, Black Gives Way to Blue is quite the little gem to turn a whole new generation of fans onto the band.


1.

Silverstein
A Shipwreck in the Sand
(Victory Records)

"You broke my heart, You promised me the moon and stars; I fell for your dreams; I fell for your lies; There was no other way; You know I tried. And I knew you could never love me; I had so much sorrow inside; You could never reach; But can I still keep; A place in your heart."

While they could have easily been lumped in with the rest of the dual-vocalist screamo bands that popped up in the early part of the decade, Silverstein offered a little something more. The clear vocals were just melodic enough, and the groove in the guitar work just deep enough, that the band managed to stand out and craft a sound uniquely its own (when you hear a Silverstein song, you can immediately tell it's Silverstein). On this album, everything that made the band unique — each element of its sound and approach to songwriting — seems to have been ratcheted up a notch or 10. Just listen to “American Dream” with its balladic opening that gives way to a hardcore dirge (the spark) that the band is more than willing to douse with enough melody (the fuel) to start, well, a house fire. That driving, hook-laden guitar work pops up in every song, but this time out the band looks to rely on a lot of solid bass work, too, to push the songs forward (check out “You‘re All I Have”). Ultimately, what the band has done a fantastic job of here, is creating a series of moods, dragging the listener on a musical journey through the heartache, betrayal, vengeance and angst—weighty matters to be sure—that are tempered with a lighter mood in the music’s melody.

Mudvayne -- Self-titled [review]

Mudvayne - Self-titled
Epic Records (12/21/09)
Metal


With Mudvayne’s latest opus, the self-titled fifth studio excursion for the band, people seem a little too wrapped up in the presentation (the packaging was printed in black light-reactant and the band is not doing promotion behind the effort) and are overlooking the most important part: the music.

Mudvayne is a return to form (of sorts) for the group, which had experimented with a more rock-tinged approach on 2008’s The New Game. While not as complex as its debut full-length — L.D. 50 — and not as epic as the band’s best offering to date — Lost and Found — the album still has a lot going for it. Besides the bass-heavy, technical dissection of in-your-face beats (tock-tock-tock) that have become a Mudvayne staple, the band seems to have ratcheted up the extremes at each end of the musical spectrum. Take the heavy-as-hell opener “Beautiful and Strange,” chock-full of heavy handed blast beats, which is just as crippling as a band classic like “Dig,” only with a decade of fury packed behind the delivery (the same could be said for “I Can’t Wait,” though the song doesn’t sound quite as tight). On the other end of the spectrum is a song like the moody “Dead Inside,” slower paced and more “quiet” in the approach. “Dead Inside” also, interestingly, closes the album, acting as a juxtaposing book end of sorts. In between the brash, brazen and melodic, are typical Mudvayne songs, with plenty of screaming and songs featuring a mixture of the band’s two styles.

It’s almost unclear exactly how this album came to be. The band at some point had a plan in place for an immediate follow-up to The New Game (the rumored The End Game, and front man Chad gray isn’t shy about his allegiance to his other band, Hell Yeah, content to focus on that project at the moment. So to that end, one could almost accuse the band of throwing a bunch of songs at the wall to see what stuck. Except, that’s not what this sounds like. It sounds like a group of seasoned veterans of the scene getting together to craft a no-frills attack (albeit it a little over-produced), only to sit back and watch fan-reaction. Mudvayne seemed to be able to dig into a well of influences to give the album an old-school metal flavor (an about face from the band’s prior release) while remaining firmly planted in its own roots (see the prototypical “Scream With Me” or “Heard It All Before”).

Legions of fans should eat this album up, as it’s one of the groups strongest, but it also has the potential to win over some new ones along the way. Perhaps not album of the year callibre, it’s a welcome surprise close out a decade.

Slayer -- 'World Painted Blood' review

Slayer – World Painted Blood
American / Sony Music (11/3/09)
Metal

Ten studio albums and counting into its catalogue, and it’s clear that Slayer, a living legend in the metal scene, will have few curveballs to throw at listeners. That’s not to say World Painted Blood is a boring album by any stretch—just that Slayer is one of those bands where what you get is what you get.

What World Painted Blood does manage to do, is far outshine the band’s more recent releases (2001’s God Hates Us All and the oft-overlooked 2006 release Christ Illusion), and it does so by pulling from a deep bag of tricks, strung together to craft their best offering of the new millennium.

There’s a little bit of everything on here: Tom Araya’s schizophrenic vocal delivery on the blistering “Hate Worldwide” and deliberate “Public Display of Dismemberment”; the pure thrash bliss of “Unit 731″; the punk aesthetic of “Snuff”; the chilling dirge of “Playing With Dolls”. Truth be told, the band almost seems to have taken a page out of 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss, shifting between the roles of chaotic thrash masters or slowing things down to sound like the metallic bringers of death.

To top it all off, Dave Lombardo still kills behind the drum kit, and Kerry King is… well, Kerry King, and, along with Jeff Hanneman, throws in plenty of inspired riffs and solos.

The nice mix of material is coupled with only a few missed opportunities (the uninspired title track picked to open the set, along with the plodding “Human Strain”). But for every low point, there are two or three songs that make up for it. (Check out the frantic guitar work on “Not of This God” or the go-for-the-jugular assault of “Psychopathy Red”.)

At the end of the day, there’s nothing necessarily groundbreaking to be had, but Slayer still manages to crank out one of the best metal albums of the year, while outshining their previous couple of efforts.

Hull -- 'Sole Lord' [review]

Hull - Sole Lord
The End Records (5/26/09)
Metal

Following in the footsteps of Crowbar, Mastodon and Down, with Sole Lord, Hull has crafted a heavy, foreboding slab of down-tuned metallic bliss. The entire album is sludgy, crushing and punishing.

From end to end, the band just grinds along at such a deliberate pace, drifting from the heavy-as-hell grind of metal to an almost ethereal nonchalance in a couple of spots. It could almost give you an anxiety attack waiting to hear what gear they'll shift into next.

Candlebox -- 'Alive in Seattle' [review]

Candlebox - Alive in Seattle
Image Entertainment (9/2/08)
Hard rock

Recorded in 2006, Alive in Seattle captures a band with something to prove. After more than a few years under the radar, Candlebox regrouped for this tour, and the ensuing energy is through the roof (no doubt aided by the hometown crowd).

The set opens with raucous versions of “Arrow” and “Simple Lessons”, and the electric atmosphere is tangible. Even when the band slows it down a little with “Change”, the crowd overpowers the band during the chorus in which you can’t help but smile for Candlebox, knowing so many fans are still out there.

The band tears through a bunch of hits and lesser-known tracks over the next hour. “A Stone’s Throw Away” and “Understanding” sound great, but the band really shines on the melancholic “Blossom” (the crowd is great on this track, too). And they just destroy “Best Friend”—already one of the group’s fastest, heaviest songs, bludgeoning the crowd with it (in a good way), with so much energy that Kevin Martin almost struggles to keep up with the vocals.

But it’s the hits that shine brightest here. The second the tell-tale opening riff of “You” hits, you can feel the energy shift in the room. The guitar work, which was always good on the studio version, is stellar toward the end of the song as everything starts to derail. Then, closing out the set, an intense rendition of “Far Behind” and a welcome surprise encore of “Cover Me”.

While a fair share of forgettable live albums have been released over the past decade or so, Alive in Seattle impresses in every way. The band sounds great, the set list has a nice mix from the band’s first three albums and the energy is phenomenal throughout. In addition, the release features a DVD of the set, including “Rain”, which doesn't appear on the CD.

First a fantastic new album (Into the Sun) and now a great live album—2008 is shaping up to be a great year for Candlebox.

PlayRadioPlay -- 'Texas' [review]

PlayRadioPlay! - Texas
Island Records (03/18/08)
Pop / Rock / Alternative / Electronic

PlayRadioPlay! falls into that genre of music that merges hook-filled, pop-ish, alternative music (say, mellower Saves the Day or maybe Straylight Run) with a decidedly electronic background of beats and melody, to create this mish-mash of music that is as much about atmosphere and experience as it is about content (think Idiot Pilot or Postal Service and the like).

The results are pretty enjoyable. Not completely outstanding, but enough to hook you in and entertain. The melodies are simple and catchy, the lyrics are just quirky enough that you’re captivated without rolling your eyes and the vocals are actually the high point of the entire package. Daniel Hunter, who alone initially made up the band—though he has put together a full band for touring, and I did notice, I believe, a female vox in a couple of spots on the album—oozes this faux innocence in his delivery, but is commanding enough to drive each song on the strength of his vocals, meshing with the music.

Eyes Set to Kill -- 'The World Outside' [review]

Eyes Set to Kill - The World Outside
Break Silence Records (6/2/09)
Metalcore / Post-hardcore

Music reviewers have taken the idea of the sophomore album and turned it into a tired cliché over the past decade or so, as if a band’s follow-up album could make or break a promising career. How many acts have you read about, “avoiding the sophomore slump,” only to burn out and fade away?

The reality is that any album could make or break a band. The good ones continue to exceed from project to project. The great ones build up a strong enough fanbase so that, when the time comes to shift outside the comfort zone, a less than stellar release won’t completely destroy the goodwill that took years to stockpile.

Eyes Set to Kill exploded out of the gates in 2008 with Reach, a fun little album that saw the band melding rock, metal, hardcore and melody into a seething beast of emotion. And the biggest thing the album had going for it was the raw passion that each band member brought to the table. There was this slight air of inexperience hovering throughout the proceedings that brought an added sense of urgency to each song.

Now, just a year and a half (or thereabout) since that full-length debut, Eyes Set to Kill returns with a vengeance. One wouldn’t think so much could change in that short amount of time, but on The World Outside the band hits each peak, each emotional high, each beat with such precision that you’d think this was its fifth or sixth album. Bands this young aren’t supposed to sound this good, are they?

This time around, Eyes Set to Kill have utilized a more balanced use of the melodic female vocals balanced out with the harsher, screamed male vocals. The listener is almost taken aback as album opener “Heights” unfolds without singer Alexia Rodriguez’s familiar tones being front and center.

It would appear that the band front-loaded this album with the more aggressive material, as the aforementioned “Heights”, “Hourglass” and “Deadly Weapons” show the band still drawing inspiration from the likes of Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold, at least in some regards.

After that hard-hitting trio, the band flexes their genre-bending muscle, first with the haunting, piano-based “Interlude”, which bleeds into the title track. (The use of a piano interlude shows up again, later, on “The Hollow Pt. 1”.)

The beauty of the music that Eyes Set to Kill are beginning to craft is in the juxtaposition of the various elements continues to mature. Whether it’s the dual-vocal approach, the quieter piano moments sandwiched between stutter-stop riffing and thunderous groove, or when the parts pull into one mass attack (executed to perfection on “The Hollow”), the band never seems to get lost or overdo it with the individual elements.

And the most striking improvement over Reach is the lyrical content hidden on The World Outside. The band bares its collective soul, so to speak, on the album’s strongest tracks, to great effect. From the title-track’s homage to life on the stage (“The world outside; its changing me, changing me; to whom I’m afraid of / I can’t confide in anything”), to tales of broken love on “Wake Me Up” (“It’s not my fault that I dug a grave so deep / Lying at the bottom, and I’m looking up; She’s all I see”), to the crushing letter to an absent father on album closer “Come Home” ("There’s never an ounce that I breathe without thinking about who I could have been with you").

Eyes Set to Kill had a hit with Reach. So make it two-for-two with The World Outside, which is easily one of the year’s best...

Odium -- 'At The Bottom' [review]

Odium - At the Bottom
Year of the Sun Records (3/17/09)
Metal

Odium has taken the blueprint of melodic metal from Sweden’s In Flames and tempered the attack with a hint of Killswitch Engage to create a sort of Canadian leviathan. The result is At the Bottom, an album chock-full of ambition even if the band ultimately chooses emulation over innovation.

That’s not to say there isn’t a hell of a lot on this album to satiate metal-heads the world over. Every song is a brutal dose of metal, filled with melodic riffs with a little synth or keyboard popping up on the rare occasion.

Odium is at its best when the band is just tearing through songs, like the blistering "Population Zero" or album opener "Oblivion's Gates", where each song is just turgid with meaty riffs, thunderous double-bass and blast beats, and a nice mix of growling, demonic vocals with the melodic, clean reprieves. (The band does a nice job with this recipe on the slower-paced title-track, too.)

That’s pretty much the approach Odium takes with each song, sometimes going a little heavier (“Frailty” or the nearly seven-minute “Need to Exist”) or more melodic (“The Failure” or the syrupy album closer “The Abyss Stared Back”). In a rare misfire, the band seems to channel Chevelle on “Serenity’s End”, opting for almost completely clean vocals. At least tracks like “It Goes Cold” or “Lifting the Veil” have a built-in sense of urgency to them.

Canada is turning into a breeding ground for solid metal outfits (just look at label mates Cradle to Grave or Misguided Aggression); If Odium is able to break out and reach a wider audience, the band could really make a mark on the scene and probably grow a lot, too.

Black Label Society -- 'Skullage' CD/DVD [review]

Black Label Society - Skullage
Eagle Records (4/21/09)
Metal

Skullage is the much-warranted career retrospective for one of metal’s living guitar gods, Zakk Wylde. The set offers up a glimpse of 12 years of recording; from the once-obscure Pride and Glory days (Wylde’s first band which recorded its only album in 1994) all the way through to BLS’s 2006 release Shot to Hell, there’s a little bit of everything on here.

Presented in chronological order, the album is a compendium of riffs, metal anthems and melancholic bliss. It opens with Pride and Glory’s “Machine Gun Man” and immediately shifts gears into “Dead As Yesterday” (off Wylde’s solo offering Book of Shadows, which featured material much different from the usual BLS fair).

It’s a good set, to be sure, though it does seem to lean a little heavily on the later, more popular releases—three songs from The Blessed Hellride (“Doomsday Jesus”, “Stillborn” and “Won’t Find it Here”) and Mafia (“In This River”, “Fire it Up” and “Suicide Messiah”)—and only touches on the oft-overlooked 1919 Eternal (“Bleed for Me”) or the lesser-received Shot to Hell (“New Religion”). Skipped entirely is the acoustic Hangover Music, Vol. 6 and the BLS debut Sonic Brew. However, the acoustic set “Slightly Amped”, recorded back on the Blessed Hellride promotional tour, is on here, and it does feature a killer version of “Spoke in the Wheel” (off the aforementioned Sonic Brew) so... perhaps that was a two-birds-one-stone type of deal.

Skullage is also available with a DVD set, which features a bunch of live footage, a handful of music videos, the aforementioned “Slightly Amped” set, and a half-hour piece with Wylde working out, goofing off, jamming and talking about the inspiration for some of his songs. Of note is an insane version of "Spoke in the Wheel" (which looks like it was recorded on the Mafia tour), the "In This River" video and some fun footage of Wylde messing around with the late Dimebag Darrell (talking about the "In This River" video and inspiration during an interview).

The set, on the whole, is killer, and metal fans really can’t miss with Wylde, but die-hards will miss a couple of things. With what was presented on the accompanying DVD, it would have been easy to omit songs like “Fire it Up” or “Won’t Find it Here” to include stuff like “Battering Ram”, Wylde’s sick version of “America the Beautiful”, his insane cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “I Never Dreamed” or another track off of Book of Shadows for the CD side of things.

Nonetheless, Skullage is a must-have for BLS fans and metal-heads in general.

Misguided Aggression -- 'Hatchala' [review]

Misguided Aggression - Hatchala
Year of the Sun Records (3/17/09)
Metal

Misguided Aggression may just be the Great White North’s answer to Lamb of God. On Hatchala, the Ontario quintet serves up a slab of brutal, in-your-face, fist-pumping metal.

Eight tracks clocking in at just over 26 minutes might lead one to think that te band took a single-minded approach to the recording, offering up quick blasts of metal with little variation. Such is not the case. Instead, Misguided Aggression uses the chug-a-chug template and folds in elements of groove, clean vocal melodies, slight hints of hardcore (think Unearth) and prog-based breakdowns (earning the band comparisons to Meshuggah). (And you can blame the short running time on a couple of instrumental interludes, the opening title track and “The Palamnaeusus Fulvipes”, which acts like a coda for the preceding track more than a stand-alone song.)

There are crushing head-bangers (“Pigs in the Market” and “Our Kingdom Come”) and more expansive, complex opuses, too (the systematic dirge of “Mustard Gas & Roses” which features one of the most blood-curdling howls this listener has heard in some time, and “Flesh to Gold”).

But the track that truly stands out from the pack, and one that will probably ultimately be one of the best metal anthems of the year, is “Faces of Abomination”. The track utilizes the best of what Misguided Aggression has to offer: sick breakdowns, unbridled groove, thick riffs and glorious howls. The song marks the only time the band opts to throw in the slightest clean, melodic vocals (dropped way down in the mix), and also features this nice little trick of slowing the song down to an almost-standstill, adding to its urgent feel.

At 26 minutes, the whole trip is over far too soon, and you’ll soon find yourself reaching for the repeat button. Bands like this sometimes like to overstay their welcome, but Misguided Aggression should have no fear with exploring this metallic soundscape again and again. Highest recommendation to fans of straight-ahead metal.

Silverstein -- 'A Shipwreck in the Sand' [review]

Silverstein - A Shipwreck in the Sand
Victory Records (3/31/09)
Alternative rock / Metal

Behold Silverstein’s finest hour.

On their fourth full-length studio album, the band goes the concept route, turning in A Shipwreck in the Sand, 14 tracks split into four chapters (playing out like a double-LP for those old enough to remember actual records). The concept, as it were, is the destruction of a relationship, revolving around the couple’s house burning down. Their history, courtship and ultimate betrayal plays through the songs, the only curveball being the title track, which offers up the at first seemingly out-of-place tale of a ship captain whose loyal crew has been beaten down by the journey and eventually revolts. In hindsight, the allegory is fairly clear.

It’s not the story though, that makes this Silverstein’s best outing. Instead, it’s the overall musicianship the band has been able to cultivate over their career. While they could have easily been lumped in with the rest of the dual-vocalist screamo bands that popped up in the early part of the decade, Silverstein offered a little something more. The clear vocals were just melodic enough, and the groove in the guitar work just deep enough, that the band managed to stand out and craft a sound uniquely its own (when you hear a Silverstein song, you can immediately tell it's Silverstein).

On this album, everything that made the band unique—each element of its sound and approach to songwriting—seems to have been ratcheted up a notch or 10. Just listen to “American Dream” with its balladic opening that gives way to a hardcore dirge (the spark) that the band is more than willing to douse with enough melody (the fuel) to start, well, a house fire. That driving, hook-laden guitar work pops up in every song, but this time out the band looks to rely on a lot of solid bass work, too, to push the songs forward (check out “You‘re All I Have”).

And Silverstein's hardcore side is starting to drift toward Atreyu territory, without the obvious rock influence. The vocals, which occasionally had the potential to grate on listeners in past efforts, seem a lot more restrained (finally). And surprisingly, even when someone like Scott Wade (Comeback Kid) shows up for a guest spot (on “Born Dead“), it only accentuates the band’s vocal efforts, instead of overshadowing things.

They also plays around with an ethereal element on some of the songs (the interlude “Their Lips Sink Ships” or the opening portion of the title track), creating an almost dreamlike mood, to be destroyed by the explosive follow-ups (the grinding “I Knew I Couldn’t Trust You” or the blistering “I Am The Arsonist”).

Ultimately, what the band has done a fantastic job of here, is creating a series of moods, dragging the listener on a musical journey through the heartache, betrayal, vengeance and angst—weighty matters to be sure—that are tempered with a lighter mood in the music’s melody. That said, a fitting crescendo to this is album closer “The End”, an acoustic duet with female vocalist Lights, which weaves a tale of redemption and inevitability and apology, with a nice coda featuring a throwback to the earlier tale of the ship captain.

This is, hands down, Silverstein’s best effort yet, and easily a contender for album of the year.

Within The Ruins -- 'Creature' [review]

Within the Ruins - Creature
Victory Records (2/17/09)
Metal / Hardcore

Treading a razor-wire between metal, hardcore and death metal, Within the Ruins melds together a schizophrenic offering of tech-infused metal that relies on some elements from any genre within its reach. The result, while nothing terribly imaginative, manages to capture your attention.

The band has these moments, like on the galloping “Dig a Ditch”, where you’d almost expect them to break out into full-on, melodic, European-metal mode (which may have been a welcome change of pace), but for some reason it prefers to keep fully grounded into a metal/hardcore rut, so to speak. It seems the best thing the group has going for them, in terms of creative approach, is the imaginative dual-guitar attack that manages to incorporate just enough noodling before becoming overbearing (kind of like the anti-Norma Jean). Still, while incorporating multiple elements into each song could prevent them from dragging, the opposite seems to happen on occasion. Take opener “The Book of Books” or “Extinguish Them” as examples—the songs feel some three times longer than their four-minute runtimes would have you believe.

Ultimately, what we have here is a divisive release. Fans of hardcore will draw comparisons to some of their favorites on the scene; the same for metal-heads. Creatures sounds like a bunch of things thrown into a blender and then spilled about—at times devoid of direction, which is a real shame.

But Within the Ruins knocks one right out of the park with the instrumental “Jump Ship”, chock-full of melody and acoustic bliss. It would seem that incorporating more of that sentiment into its sound—more variety in the vocals (and no, the hardcore sing-along chants don’t count, though they do sound fantastic on “Tractor Pull”), and more grinding, groovy riffs instead of the machine-gunner approach would lead to a much fuller experience.

In the end, it appears the most divisive part of this release is that there are so many elements on here to love, but for some reason you can’t quite bring yourself to do it on account of the finished product coming out so chaotic. Ironically, song after song garners nothing more than a shrug, with nothing completely standing out and grabbing your attention, but once the album is over you find yourself giving it another spin. Did you enjoy it without realizing it, or are you just searching for something to latch on to? And that’s the most puzzling aspect of this Creature.

The Sleeping -- 'What it Takes' [review]

The Sleeping - What It Takes
Victory Records (2/17/09)
Alternative rock / Post-Hardcore

On their third album, The Sleeping continues on a well-worn path of post-hardcore, alternative rock that exploded a million bands toward the end of the first half of this decade. While most might roll their eyes at this endeavor because, well, let’s face it, most of the scene’s audience has moved on, and only the die-hard fans of specific bands stuck around at the party, there's still something to enjoy on What It Takes.

What The Sleeping has going for them is a sort of maturity to their musical approach (think the early years of Thursday). Sure, the band is, for the most part, taking big liberties emulating Rise Against, but they temper that approach on this album with added elements of keyboards and Theremin (just take a listen to the up-tempo anthem, “Friday Night”), ultimately giving them a wide palette from which to pull ideas for tracks.

(hed) P.E. -- 'New World Orphans' [review]

(hed)P.E. - New World Orphans
Suburban Noize (1/13/09)
Rap-rock / Metal

(hed)P.E. is an interesting case of contradictions. On the one hand, it's good to see that the years the band spent on a major label—where it was very clear that their sound was being distorted and manipulated to appeal to a wider audience—didn’t seem to crush their spirit. On the other, perhaps some of those constraints did them a little good.

On this album, all the positives the band has to offer—the smooth flow of the vocals, the tight instrumentation, the smart song construction—keep getting weighed down by the negatives also brought to the table. Some of the songs rely a little too much on the band’s punk sensibilities and are just too short. (The "get in, kick ass, get out" attack could work, but we know that they can craft good three- to four-minute songs, and have a good sense of hooks, so why waste time on little bursts that ultimately destroy any flow the album starts to create?)

Another glaring issue is the lyrical choices made on some of the tracks. A song like "Stepping Stone" has a fantastic, hook-laden chorus, but the opening salvo ("I just want to tie you up and rape you") doesn’t even work in terms of the song’s message.

But the good on here is really good. The reggae flavor of "Ordo" and the deep groove of "War on the Middle Class" is great, while the metal attack of "Stay Ready" and "Renegade" is done in trademark (hed)P.E. style. And the slow-burn of "Flesh and Blood" is actually a nice use of punk melded to the band's rap-metal assault.

Then there's the bad, like the above-mentioned "Stepping Stone" and all its wasted potential. And the stereotypical "Family" starts off promisingly but then quickly devolves to a typical, "mine’s bigger than yours," bad rap song. The over-too-soon "Live or Die Free" never really takes off, and too many intros broken off as their own tracks clutter the latter half of the album. And, of course, let's not forget the expendable (but obligatory for a Suburban Noize release) pot-anthem, "Higher Ground", featuring the Kottonmouth Kings.

Sandwiched between the two parts are some interesting moments, like the schizophrenic "Planet X" (easily one of the band's most successfully far-reaching tracks), complete with mid-song surf-rock riffing; the low-key, melodic "Self Aware" which is a nice change of pace; and one of the best songs of this set, "Tow the Line", which borrows a very familiar melody to great effect.

Ultimately, it looks like there's a good album hiding in there, but there's too much fat to trim away, which is gradually becoming (hed)P.E.'s calling card. Twenty-four tracks? Really? Even the overriding message, about the "new world order" and calls for a change, is, in the end, muddied by segues and tangents about sex and drugs and being truly “gangsta.”

Dirty Little Rabbits -- 'Simon' [review]

Dirty Little Rabbits - Simon [EP]
The End Records (1/20/09)
Alternative rock

This album is a real trip...

On first spin, Simon has this almost psychedelic, classic-rock air about it. But with each new listen—and let’s face it, at six tracks clocking in at just over 20 minutes, you’re sure to listen to this one a lot—the listener is, pardon the pun, pulled further and further down the rabbit hole.

It seems Dirty Little Rabbits has crafted quite the little musical voyage. The band, as a whole, produces an eerie, foreboding backdrop that makes the listener feel like they just wandered under the big top at an evil circus. And the ringmaster—in this case, singer Stella Katsoudas—acts as emcee, seething with drama and emotion. And her far-from-nuanced approach creates this situation where her vocals are either the driving force behind the song, or it appears as though she’s being pulled along by the rest of the band while trapped, presenting some sort of evil lullaby (intentional and for effect).

This EP kicks off with the instrumental “Poor Poor Woman With Her Head in the Oven”, but it’s clear, when “You Say” kicks in, that Katsoudas is the star of this show.

The band can create a mood, that’s for sure, but it can also craft a catchy, infectious song. Case in point: “Hello”. From the chugging guitars to the scene-setting organ and keyboards, Katsoudas’ voice dances and mingles over the notes (to the point where you could almost imagine her twirling around through a forest of dead trees). And the whole, beautiful mess is propelled by thunderous drumming (courtesy of Shawn Crahan of Slipknot fame).

But this wasn’t lightning striking once. While a song like “I’m So Beautiful” could almost be dismissed by its simplistic opening, it manages to pull you in like a trap and snaps shut with its hook-laden chorus. The same could be said, to some extent, of the slower-tempo “Happy".

This album is a nice taste of what the band can do, and the lo-fi production adds to its charm. Unfortunately, it over-achieves in its goal of leaving the listener wanting more than the six tracks. So to that end, you might be left wanting more from a full-length the band is (hopefully) working on.

Sigh -- 'Imaginary Sonicscape' reissue [review]

Sigh - Imaginary Sonicscape [Reissue]
The End Records (1/20/09)
Heavily orchestrated metal / Hard rock / Classic rock / Jazz, etc.

Japanese metal outfit Sigh is most often billed as a black-metal band. Sure, 2007’s fantastic Hangman’s Hymn could easily be compared to, say, Dimmu Borgir, but the band is far from a one-trick pony. In 2001, they released a sonic stew of various metal elements, heavily orchestrated with elements of several other genres thrown in for good measure. There’s jazz, hard rock, ’80s thrash, pseudo-disco beats, synthesizers galore, classic rock...

That album was called Imaginary Sonicscape, and perhaps an album title has never been quite so apropos. This reissue of the 2001 underground classic, courtesy of The End Records, includes bonus tracks not available on the original release, including an extended version of “Bring Back the Dead”.

There’s really no way to truly do this album justice in a review. Instead, here are some tidbits of what the band has to offer:

- The album kicks off innocently enough, with "Corpsecry/Angelfall", a straight-ahead thrasher, chock-full of enough synth riffs to make Dragonforce jealous. But the track abruptly cuts out to give way to gorgeous, epic orchestration that sounds more like a score to some Oscar-contending movie.

- "Nietzschean Conspiracy" relies heavily on sampling and sound effects, with the lead singer channeling the soul of Rammstein as he barks over (or perhaps under) atmospheric, spacey beats and jazzy keyboarding.

- What better to break up two genre-bending songs than with a killer piano solo? It would appear nothing, as the one-and-a-half minute "Impromptu" makes a quick little appearance before giving way to the opening riffs of "Dreamsphere" (right out of the mid-’80s, I might add).

- The heavily orchestrated "Voices" is a new track this time around, and once again Sigh explores a more score-based approach, with some nice piano work closing out the seven-plus minutes.

There are a few tracks in which the band pushes, or in one case exceeds, the 10-minute mark, and for the most part, that’s where Sigh really shines. Using five or six different elements in a three- or five-minute song can come across as forced, but on a song like "Bring Back the Dead", the band can meander a little without losing overall focus. On the other hand, on the behemoth "Slaughtergarden Suite" (five parts stretching to almost 11 minutes in length), the band almost doesn’t do enough to vary things up. In actually listening to the song, it's surprising just how fast it passes, but the closing minutes are a bit of a grind, with some nice keyboarding playing under the hiss of vinyl.

Overall, this is pretty avant-garde music. It’s much less schizophrenic than, say, Between the Buried and Me, and much less abrasive to that end, as well. No, this is much more accessible, provided the listener is willing to throw any preconceived notions out the window. Imaginary Sonicscape is an enjoyable journey through sound, and one of those rare "experience" albums where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Not quite as off-the-wall as some other reviewers would have you believe, a lot of music fans can find something to love on here. Don’t let that "black metal" stamp scare you off. (Oh, and by the way, despite the band hailing from Japan, all lyrics are sung in English.)

Glasgow Grin -- 'Saints of the Greatest Sin' [review]

Glasgow Grin - Saints of the Greatest Sin
Year of the Sun Records (11/18/08)
Metal

Who doesn’t love an engrossing story?

With its debut album, Canada’s Glasgow Grin serves up a bludgeoning slab of extreme metal, but in doing so also offers an intriguing story of a serial killer out to do the Lord’s work.

Saints of the Greatest Sin is a concept album detailing the final mission of a hunter of pedophiles (or so it would appear), presented in one nasty, metallic purge of hate. The stutter-stop, hardcore-influenced dirge of metal pours out of the speakers at such a breakneck pace, at times, that the listener almost feels like they are the hunted, trying to escape the wrath of our story’s protagonist.

The vocals grate over each word, oscillating between horrific wails and deathly growls, and this approach may prove to be one of the album’s few downfalls. The total message of the story gets lost at times, and it seems a little surprising that the band would chose to take this approach, solely. After all, for every one-dimensional song (the chug-a-chug approach on "Remorseless" or the full-on assault of "Hole Replaces Face") there are others on the album where the band takes a more dynamic route (the melodic bridge of "Epinephrine", easily the band's best moment) or the times a little bit of groove works its way into the mix ("Remorseless" and "The Terminal"). Then there’s the downright beauty of "Last Rites", which, if this album, at just over a half-hour in length, were a runaway train, would act as the moment right before derailment, where time seems to slow to a stop, even if only for a moment, before the carnage continues.

Taken as a whole, Saints of the Greatest Sin pretty much shows that Glasgow Grin has the ability to really grow into a dynamic metal outfit. Of course, there’s also that chance of the band stubbornly sticking to the bare essentials of its sound, which would ultimately be quite a shame.

Any fan of extreme metal/hardcore hybrids will find a lot to love about this album. It’s one of those which gets a little better with each listen. And, as a plus, the liner notes contain an accompanying story that more fully explains the hero’s (?!) final moments. Like I said, who doesn’t love an engrossing story?

Nickelback -- 'Live at Sturgis' [DVD review]

Nickelback - Live at Sturgis [DVD]
Roadrunner Records (11/28/08)
Unrated
90 minutes

Love the band or hate it, Nickelback has become one of the biggest rock acts of the new millennium, and the group’s new DVD effort, Live at Sturgis, aims to show audiences, fans and non-fans alike, exactly why that is.

Recorded live at the Sturgis bike rally in 2006, Nickelback’s performance is part of the Rockin’ the Rally show. The set was recorded with a plethora of high-definition cameras and offers up a fair chunk of hits, but there are a few issues preventing this from being a perfect release.

The show

Arguably all of the band’s biggest hits are on here, but they stick to three of their five (at the time) albums: Silver Side Up, The Long Road and All the Right Reasons. From the ballads (“Far Away” and “Someday”) to the power-rockers (“Side of a Bullet” and “Animals”) to the biggest hits (“Photograph”, “Too Bad” and “How You Remind Me”), it’s all on here. Longtime fans will miss some of the better, more obscure content off those albums, or even something like “Leader of Men” (off The State). This becomes a more glaring issue when the concert really clocks in at slightly over an hour, and the band only does a single-song encore.

Presentation

The concert footage looks fantastic, presented in high-definition with amazing direction. This is probably one of the best-taped shows, in terms of visuals, that I’ve ever seen. The sound defaults to a 2-channel surround (?!) but is also offered in various 5.1 mixes (CircleSurround, multichannel and DTS). I watched the show in DTS and it sounded pretty solid—the band is spread across the speakers with the crowd noise pushed low in the overall mix. The only complaint, and it’s a small one, is that there are a couple of occasions where the distorted mic for the backing vocals kicks way too high into the mix, actually overpowering Chad Kroeger.

Bonus material

In addition to the concert, there’s a short behind-the-scenes documentary on the band featuring a lot of footage from another concert from the tour; there’s a “photo gallery” that looks more like screen caps from the main show; there’s a short infomercial on Sturgis and Nickelback; and there’s a video for “Rockstar” (how was this song not on the main set list?).

Censorship

This is a rock show at a biker rally. No one should be surprised that, between songs, a couple of choice words are thrown out there. For some reason these words are either dropped off the mix or overtly bleeped out. It’s especially disappointing when it’s done during “Woke Up This Morning”.

The decision was also made to digitally cloth topless women in the crowd during the many audience pans (there are more than a few moments when the cameraman zooms in and focuses particularly on females). I’m not saying topless women would make or break the show, but given the number of cameras filming the proceedings, it’s pretty certain a version of this show, sans nudity, could have easily been stitched together.

It’s especially troublesome when the band takes a brief break and Kroeger compliments the females in the crowd, with the accompanying camera pans, and the women and language needs to be censored. Why even include the exchange at that point? It was a moment that could have been easily cut.

It’s a rock show at a biker rally... what did you expect?

In closing

This is one hell of a show and, albeit a little too short, is both visually and sonically impressive. The bonus features don’t really add too much to this collection, but fans of the band will absolutely love this. All of the radio hits are on here, so even partial fans will have a good time. And parents can feel safe their kids' minds won’t be warped by nudity or bad language, though the censorship might tick off a good chunk of diehard fans.