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Posts Tagged ‘Alternative metal’

H.E.A.D – Save Me from Myself

Posted by PacMusic on December 10, 2008

Save Me from Myself cover

Surviving Korn with dignity.

My immediate reaction to this album is to compare it directly with what Jon Davis is doing. Some may say that this is unfair, but I’m going to do it anyway.
This album blows Jon Davis out of the water.

Don’t get me wrong, this album has plenty wrong with it: The drums are weak, the singing in parts is flat and there isn’t much that impresses me when it comes to the bass, but what can I expect from a guitarist and backing singer?

It reminds me very much of something else, but I can’t remember what and that irks me, which it probably won’t with you, but maybe it will.
maybe it’s the fact that there is nothing particularly new about the music I’m hearing, but nevertheless, it’s still pretty solid.

It’s not nearly as catchy and hook based as much of Korn’s work, any I’m thinking that it’s a good thing, as it takes H.E.A.D away from his Korn persona and lets him explore his own work and not letting people accuse him of clutching at the remains of a dead success, while not being too far away from Korn to have people accuse him of selling out etc.

It’s simple, it’s pretty effective, it’s balanced, there’s a fair share of hard and softer songs, but most of all he remains a serious musician, unlike the sideshow freak that is Jon Davis.

I had actually completely forgotten about the whole religious aspect to H.E.A.D’s music and it doesn’t jump out at you hugely, mainly because the vocals aren’t too imposing on the album, they hide behind the guitar for the most part.

Listen to this album: While wearing a jumper and throwing the horns.

Rating: 69%

“Flush”

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Slipknot – All hope is gone

Posted by PacMusic on September 16, 2008

All Hope Is Gone cover

A return to the top for the ‘knot.

Slipknot’s third album caused a great number of fans (myself included) to lose a lot of faith with the band and saw a lot of similarities between Slipknot and Corey Taylor’s other band Stonesour. This caused a lot of us to think that Croey was taking over Slipknot and making it more what he wanted to do and less what we wanted from the band.
Like Metallica, I found a lot of lost respect for Corey Taylor when he stood in for an ill Jon Davis as Download ‘06 and was like a child at Christmas being able to sing these classic Korn songs that he obviously loved.

Now comes Slipknot’s next album, and what do we get? Well, it’s kind of a mix of everything that SLipknot have done before. There’s some of the really heavy riffs that we saw in Slipknot (album), we have the tight clean lines of Iowa and we have the weak, Corey Taylor singing styles of Vol III. This all mixed together causes some of the songs to start really well and drift off, some are good, others are terrible and some start weak and end good.

The first listen I had, I was like, ‘Wow, this is actually good’ and I went around telling everyone that Sliipknot are good again, but the more I listen to it, the more I find that’s not what I wanted from this album, and find bits that really stick out like a sore thumb.

The song, ‘Gehenna’ is one of those that starts well and fades away. The start is deep and dark, similar to the start of Iowa (song) but as we get to half way, Corey starts singing out of tune and this one line of tuneless singing repeats and repeats and…
It really is awful, I can’t stand to listen to it and have to turn it off.

You have to feel sorry for Corey as he did destroy his voice by doing so many gigs. I think this is one of the reasons why he wants to sing more. He also came out defending people who pirate music this last week, saying that the companies cause the piracy by bringing out lots and lots of rubbish music, so you have to admire him to an extent.

Overall the album is quite enjoyable, but the bad bits are really bad. Really, really bad. Take these out and you have a reasonable album.

Corey’s name has appeared too much in this review, so here’s the names of the others:

  • (#1) Joey Jordison – drums
  • (#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
  • (#4) James Root – guitars
  • (#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
  • (#6) Shawn “Clown” Crahan – custom percussion, backing vocals
  • (#3) Chris Fehn – custom percussion, backing vocals
  • (#5) Craig “133″ Jones – samples, media
  • (#0) Sid Wilson – turntables

Listen to this album: While wearing a mask.

71%

Extracts from ‘Gematria’, ‘Sulfer’, ‘Gehenna’ and ‘The Cold Black’

Psychosocial

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Blaze Bayley – The man who would not die

Posted by PacMusic on July 12, 2008

Understated excellence.

While this album is quite superb, it seems like the band aren’t even trying that hard and it feels like they still have 50% left in the tank and that they could release this at any point. But they don’t.

This album complete’s all it’s objectives and can claim success with every element of this album, but it feels like just another day at the office, and this stirs up a sense of  unease about this album. Why didn’t they give me 100%?

So, is this album great, or not? Well, I don’t know. I’m in completely two minds about it. Maybe it’s the fault of the producer that it feels as though there’s something missing.

Surely, if you are a big heavy metal fan, you will like a lot in this album, and believe me, there is a lot to enjoy from this album, but I believe that the enjoyment is going to be short lived.

Listen to this album: While climbing a really really tall ladder.

Rating: 79%

Extracts from ‘The man who would not die’, ‘Samurai’, ‘Robot’ and ‘Voices from the past’
http://bumchickens.googlepages.com/BlazeBayley.mp3

‘Look for the truth’ (Live)

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