First off I got two cds in the mail from Amazon. I got Adrenaline Mob's "Omerta". I ordered this cd primarily because Mike Portony (ex drummer of Dream Theater) was on this album. I didn't know until after I read the booklet that the vocalist and guitarist from Symphony X was on this cd as well. So I thought this was going to be the best super group ever! It's not bad at all. It's not anything like DT or SX it's good work out music, a solid hard rock album. Lots of good syncopation which I love! If you're hoping it'll be progressive like Dream Theater you will be disappointed. If you get it because you wanna hear good music you'll enjoy it. On Mike Portony's presence on the album I'd say his full potential was not shown here. It's good and the drums are defiantly there and he uses them a lot but I want to hear him drum like he did with DT. Sadly those days are over.
(Just a wee little note, this album is explicit, I didnt know that until I opened the package and saw the black and white "Parental Advisory Explicit Content". Only one song, "Feelin' Me" is explicit the rest is clean.)
The next cd I got was Machine Head's latest "Unto the Locust". I know I'm a little late to the whole Machine Head party but hey, better late than never. I sure am glad I got into them. I got the "Blackening" off Itunes around Christmas last year and I really like the riffage they use. It's a shame they use the "F" bomb so much. That being said "Unto the Locust" doesn't have an "F" bomb in sight! The album is pretty good, not as good as "Blackening" but still worthy Machine Head material. Of course I had to get the special edition, it was only $5 more and it came with more art work in the booklet and a dvd of the making of. It was a short 30 minute video and I was hoping for some more content but oh well. So I'd recommend this to anyone interested in Machine Head and if you're already a Machine Head fan you should already have this because it did come out last year.
Then a few days later I went to our local F.Y.E. and got $80 worth of cds. Yes that's right $80....I think I have a problem. So first off I found Avantasia's "Wicked Symphony". For those of you that don't know, Avantasia is a side project of the vocalist from Edguy. This album, "Wicked Symphony" has a boat load of guest musicians. Such musicians range from Symphony X to Judas Priest. Other than that it's good Swedish power metal. If you like Edguy you'll like this.
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Finally I come across something I've been looking for...Death! Of course I mean the old school death metal band Death with the legendary Chuck Shuldiner. Words could not describe my joy upon finding the albums I had been searching for. I picked up "Human" and "The Sound of Perseverance" I would have cleaned them out of Death but all the albums were $15 dollars so I had to leave behind "Individual Thought Patterns". I'm listening to "Perseverance" as I type this. "Human" and "Perseverance" were the reissue so they both came with two discs. The second discs are a bunch of demos, live tracks, and instrumentals which are interesting to listen to. It's a shame Chuck died because it sounded like he had a lot of good innovative ideas still bottled up in his head. I liked the way things seemed to be going on "Perseverance" but alas it was their last. Every death metal band has Chuck to thank for paving the way. Rest in peace.
I found Destruction's "Day of Reckoning" and I thought, "What the heck, I like the song 'The Price' so why not. I hear that are good thrash, and I love some good thrash." Well they really aren't my kinda thrash. I like a bit more technicality in my thrash and this album just didnt do it for me. Maybe I need to listen to it again but I could have passed. They did put a cover of Dio's "Stand Up and Shout" so that made it a little better.
pretty brutal cover if you ask me
Then I found Edguy's "Hellfire Club". I've been looking for this album because it has the song "King of Fools" and I really liked it. It's happy feel good power metal and its pretty good front to back.
Now, being the metal head I am you'd think I'd have some Iced Earth in my collection. But I did not until I got "Dystopia". This is Iced Earth's latest release and I like it (man i say that a lot.) Since I haven't heard any previous Iced Earth I don't really know what to compare it to. It is power metal so I'm probably going to like it and what a surprise, I do. If you want to hear what Iced Earth is all about and if you're a noob to IE (like me) go pick it up, I enjoy it.
Oh yes, I stumbled upon a jewel....Liquid Tension Experiment. I'm pretty sure it's their self titled but just to be sure this cd has the 30 minute jam session called "3 Minute Warning". For the non-prog fan this will be a total turn off. This band is, or should I say was, made up of Mike Portony, John Petrucci (guitarist from Dream Theater), Jordan Rudess(now current keyboardist for DT but at the time of this recording was not) and Tony Levin on bass. I like prog, therefore I like this. I think only hardcore prog fans will appreciate this cd. I am, however, not saying I don't want other metal heads to listen to this because it is a good and different album. It was only recorded within a week! But it's all instrumental for the most part so since vocals were out of the way they didn't have to take the time to write lyrics to fit the songs. Maybe that's why they pulled it off so fast, I don't know because I have really no idea what it takes to record an album. One more thing, reading the booklet it had an interview with Mike and he was talking about how he was trying to figure out which guitar player to pick. He asked Pantera guitar legend Dime Bag but he sadly couldn't do it. Know I love John Petrucci's work and he truly is a gifted musician so I'm not slamming him when I say this. I really would have liked to hear what Dime Bag would have done with this project. I and a huge Pantera fan because of the awesome guitar work! It would have been interesting to see how he would have add his own flavor to the mixture. Plus it would have been nice to have more of his fret work in general. Too bad he's gone.
Finally I get to the Kreator section and I start flipping though to see whats all there. A copy of "Coma of Souls" and "Hordes of Chaos". I knew Kreator was good but I didn't have any of their albums yet so I grabbed them right away. If you ask me I couldn't tell you which one I like more. "Coma" is classic thrash, "Hordes" is new thrash. Both are in your face Kreator from front to back and it's nice. I was lucky that "Hordes" was the special edition and it came with a making of dvd as well. But all I can say is that they are both good thrash albums, I doubt you'll be disappointed with either if you like Kreator or thrash in general.
Well that's it all I got in the past week. It should hold me over for a while.....I hope. Until next time.....keep it METAL \m/
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