Posts Tagged ‘cd reviews’
I’m just waiting on a friend…
It’s no secret that my older brother, Robert, was a big influence on my musical development, especially between 1975 
and about 1981/82. One of the bands that he introduced me to is The Rolling Stones. To date they are still my 2nd favorite band of all time behind Iron Maiden. He loved the Stones and subsequently so did I. He played them a lot and they became ingrained into my musical repertoire. After Wyman left I was done with them, but I love just about every album they did with him save one or 2 in the 80s.
I can remember coming home from school and listening to Tattoo You on vinyl. Typically mom and dad were at work and who knows where my brothers were. I seemed to have time to spin records before they all came home. Very influential and time well spent. Homework? Pfffft!
This album was always special to me though. It’s one of those albums that brings me back to a certain time in my life, actually to 2 different times in my life. I guess I have a lot of those types of albums and I am glad for it. Without music I don’t know how I would have ended up.
Tattoo You wasn’t a perfect album for the Stones although it had one of their biggest gits on it…Start Me Up. Sure it’s a fun tune but not one of their finest moments in my opinion. I really loved their slower tunes and this one has some great ones on it, pretty much all of side 2. Worried About You, Tops, Heaven, No Use In Crying and Waiting On A Friend. Such a smooth album side.
Side one’s highlight for me is Little T&A. When I was 19 I briefly dated a girl that this song seemed to fit so well. Typically when we went out I would play it sometime during the evening. Hang Fire is pretty good too. Pretty cool cover art as well. But all in all, side 2 rules this album.
There are many other Stones album that I like better, but this one does have that special place.
“Ain’t no use…”
Tiamat – Wildhoney – CD Review
Tiamat first caught my attention with their debut album Astral Sleep. It was raw, simple, dark…almost run of the mill 
death metal. Typically mid-paced but it didn’t suck by any means. Daniel and I went tape shopping (yes, I was still buying them in 1991!). He picked up Solitude Aeturnus’ debut and I picked up the Tiamat. Great picks by both of us.
I certainly picked up Clouds in 1992 and I believe it was in one of the first 100 CDs I ever owned. I liked it a lot even though they slowed down a bit more. It was a little more atmospheric. Cool album for sure.
But then came 1994.
Wildhoney.
WILDHONEY.
I remember the first time I popped it in. I was doing some stuff in the house…probably playing TecmoSuperBowl or something. I just remember that the album felt like it was over soon after it began. It’s 42 minutes long but it flows. The way they tied all of the songs in together was simply brilliant. Wildhoney got even more mellow than Clouds. They added a certain sense of Pink Floyd to their sound…imagine the song Fearless by Pink Floyd with distortion and better production. It was awesome. It still is. There is not a bad song on it and I think it should be in every metalhead’s collection.
This album gets regular play, at least once a month. It’s a great one to drive to. Very smooth. They use death metal vocals, but not in a cookie monster sort of way. You can understand everything that Johan sings.
Even though it is very much still in print, I think it needs to be shared. So here ya go. Listen to it in order. Many times.
I don’t get high but sometimes I have thought about what it would be like to listen to this one on mushrooms. Let me know, ok?
Megadeth – Endgame (2009) – CD Review
I like Megadeth…really, I love Megadeth. But I’m no fanboy. I really stopped listening to them when Countdown To 
Extinction came out. I even had a little trouble listening to Rust In Peace, but it’s pretty tolerable now. I’ll also be at the front of the line to say that I prefer Megadeth’s first 3 albums over Metallica’s. Dave is a riffmaster and I am sure there are a lot of good songs on the albums between Countdown and The World Needs a Hero, but I just can’t care.
Those first 2 are simply incredible. The perfect combination of power, sweet riffage, great solos, drumming and heroin. Even So Far So Good has some really high points.
But they whimped out after Rust In Peace. Other than Friendman’s Dragon’s Kiss album, his playing never did much for me, so I stayed away from his era of ‘Deth.
Then The System Has Failed came out with Chris Poland back in the ban for the album! I had to hear it…Loved it! His trademark sound was all over the album. I got to see Gigantour and finally got to meet Dave. It was a memorable experience. That guy is pretty smart and a phenomenal guitarist. I also like United Abominations a lot.
So here we are in 2009. Another Megadeth album. Endgame. I’m impressed. Dave has always hired good guitarists and Chris Broderick (Jag Panzer) is a worthy member. He’s got some great solos on Endgame as does Dave. It’s pretty easy to tell who is who. Dave’s style is pretty unique. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves as a guitarist, especially as a soloist.
Endgame is pretty good all the way through. The opening track is an instrumental and it does remind me of Set The World Afire in a few spots, but it doesn’t detract from the great solos. I’ve listened to this about 6 times now and I think my least favorite track is Bite The Hand. I was a little nervous when I heard about the ballad, but it’s not bad at all. My favorite tracks would be This Day We Fight, The Hardest Part of Letting Go, Endgame and 44 Minutes. Shawn Drover and James Lomenzo do a great job of holding down the rhythm.
Now I do have a few criticisms. Dave’s vocals have never been great by any stretch of the imagination. He’s certainly lost a step in his vocals over the last 2 albums. It’s natural really. He’s no spring chicken these days. They’re not bad, but he sounds a little weaker. That guy used to have one of the greatest wails in metal! I’ll also make a small complaint about the lyrics. Sure, metal has always had a bit of silliness and Megadeth sliced their share of the cheese. But it doesn’t really detract from the record. The record is good. Really good. Very rarely do I buy albums on their release day, but for modern era Megadeth, I make the exception.
Nice work, Dave. 8.5/10.
Sorry, no free download here. Go buy it, slacker.
http://www.myspace.com/megadeth is streaming it for free right now as well.
Overlife – Between Passion and Madness – 1998
1998. I was really buying a lot of music at the time betweenwhat I was selling through my online music store and what 
I was buying for myself. A lot of the stuff I was buying for myself was from Denis Gulbey at Sentinel Steel Records. Back in the old days when you could call in and jibber jabber, Denis recommended Overlife to me. So…thanks Denis!
Overlife hails from Alicante, Spain. I built their first website (long since gone) and used to correspond with Fabricio quite a bit. What really drew me to them was Leandro’s voice. Very unique and a lot of emotion. The music itself was a little sloppy in places and even the vocals seem a bit out of key sometimes, but this album is really good overall. It’s sung completely in English but I included 2 bonus tracks in Spanish. They are good European power/prog metal with a hint of wanting to sound like Dream Theater. Their later albums sounded more like DT type prog which was a turnoff for me. So, this album it is. I still listen to it a few times a year. It’s a bright memory of a darker time in my life where the death of my father and my divorce seemed to dominate my every day life.
So if you’re into the aforementioned style of power metal, I recommend this highly.
Skullview – Legends of Valor (1997)
A song from this was on one of the many compilation tapes that Kelz sent me over the years. It was the song Blood on 
the Blade from Skullview‘s debut CD. I bought this CD and the followup and have enjoyed them both over the years but there was always something missing and I still can’t put my fingers on it. They vocals were fine, the riffs were fine…these guys were a good traditional American metal band but something always seemed to be lacking. I always thought the drummer was a bit boring and a tad sloppy. I don’t know. But nonetheless, this album is certainly worth putting ears to a few times.
They did play one of the Keep It True fests and I am sure some of the other US metal festivals. I used to correspond with the guitarist quite a bit in the days of the old usenet metal forums. Great dude, fine guitarist. Wonder what he’s up to these days?
I guess I could compare them to Armored Saint and Early Jag Panzer…a little anyway.
You know as I sit here and listen to this album again, I blame it on the drummer. He definitely had some meter problems which translated to the rest of the band.
The Metal Files 
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