The Shizit Release New Album… And It’s Free

This hit me out of nowhere yesterday while visiting SputnikMusic.com.  The Shizit has long been one of my favorite bands and probably the most overlooked band ever, at least in the metal/electronic genre.  They have been broken up forever, their last proper release was 2001’s Soundtrack For The Revolution.  After that one member went on to Cyanotic and the other formed Rabbit Junk.  Both bands are good, but never compared to what the Shizit was.  When I saw that they had release a new album, and on top of that it was free, I flipped out.  You can download it here.  I’ve only had the chance to listen to it once, but it’s fantastic.  If you like any combination of Metal and Electronic music, get this right now and go get their entire catalog prior to this.  I plan to have a full review in the next few days.  Christmas came early for me…

Review: Katatonia – Night Is The New Day

It’s finally here… This is easily the album that I have been most looking forward to all year. I only discovered Katatonia within the last year or so do to a random listen of The Great Cold Distance. I have been hooked ever since and once I found out they were going to release a new album this year, I marked my calendar in big, black marker and circled the month of November. The thing that Katatonia does better than any band in the world is their adaptation of Doom Metal (or Depressive Doom Metal if you want to get specific). While most bands scream their way through tracks doing their best Cookie Monster impression, Katatonia has some of the best clean vocals that can be found anywhere within the Metal scene. And before every Doom nerd mails me to tell me how stupid I am, there are some bands that are great within the genre, even with all that screaming. But they all take a back seat to Katatonia as far as I am concerned.

Like most people, the first thing I heard off this album was Forsaker which is the albums opening track. It’s a track that is heavy as you can get with Jonas’ wonderful clean vocals over the top. The track shows why Katatonia are the Masters of Melancholy because the track has this heavy, depressing feel to it. Most of the album gives of that vibe and while people might think that listening to depressing music is, well, depressing… they are correct. The way I see it, however, is that it’s much better to feel something instead of nothing. So many bands have no feeling, no emotion. It’s all glossy, happy stuff. Or it’s just not from the heart. Night Is The New Day is from somewhere deep inside the members of Katatonia and it comes through on every track.

After Forsaker opens things up on a high note, the next 4 songs are equally as brilliant. Onward Into Battle is my favorite track off the disk. Something about the pacing and sound of Jonas’ voice just make me all warm and fuzzy inside. The albums latter half is not quite as good as the first half, but that doesn’t make it bad. The entire album doesn’t have a track worth skipping over.

The newer elements that help to push this disk forward (when compared to past releases from the band) is the addition of more prevalent sythns. They are used to supplement almost every track here and help to give them album more weight. If you had the privilege of hearing Unfrul (released on an EP after The Great Cold Distance) you will have a good idea of what I am talking about. They haven’t turned into an electronic metal band or anything, they just use small electronic accents here and there and they work perfectly within the style of music.

If you are scared off by the words “Doom” or “Depressive Doom” in front of your metal, don’t be. Katatonia takes what everyone thinks about the genre and flips it on its head. They have some of the best clean vocals in all of metal and some of the most talented musicians. The album is pretty dark and it is pretty depressing, but as I said before, I just like that it does such a wonderful job of conveying that emotion. This might not be for everyone, but I think it’s something all metal fans should give a chance.

Final Score:

• 4.0 out of 5

Listen If You Like:

• Katatonia: The Great Cold Distance
• Anathema: A Natural Disaster




Review: Caspian – Tertia

Post-rock isn’t dead, but it might be on life support. The genre’s life cycle thus far has been an interesting one. In the early 2000’s there were maybe 50 releases in the genre to pick from each year. This year, according to Rate Your Music’s database their are 108 release already. Over 200 releases last year. While those number sound small for a genre like rap or metal, for Post-rock that’s a lot of stuff that’s been released the past few years. A genre that used to flourish by having quality over quantity has now gone the other way with a lot of releases leading to a watered down selection of albums. With all of that said, there is still good stuff out there, it’s just not easy to find. It seems like this year the only bands really putting out post-rock worth listening to are some of the more famous acts from the genres recent past. Mono’s newest, Hymn To The Immortal Wind, is about as beautiful as you can get. Maybeshewill’s sophomore album is pretty good, but not of the quality their first release displayed. Overall, there hasn’t been enough good stuff to keep post-rock fans all that interested in the genre.

Fight to the Death: X-Box 360 vs. PS3

I did something similar to this for the Zune/iPod.  While it was fun, it was pretty far away from being a heated debate.  In that case either player is a fine choice, with pretty minimal differences (whether or not iPod fanyboys want to believe that or not, and I now own an iPod).  This discussion is different.  It’s huge in the gaming community.  Casual gamers might pass by and say “No big deal” but hardcore gamers across the web fight about this incessantly.  I’m hoping to look at the debate in the most numerical way possible.  I am a PS3 owner but the decision to purchase Sony’s console over Microsoft’s in April of ‘08 was extremely difficult to make.  So here we go, category buy category.  I will be using as many facts as possible.  When looking at the software I will use Metacrtic to give me an average of reviews across the web, not just what IGN or Gamespot thinks.  Opinion can’t be completely ignored, but I will try and leave it to a minimum.  Also keep in mind that I am comparing the consoles as they stand today.  I don’t care about what happened at launch or what happened with a software update in 2006 that changed something you didn’t even notice.  It’s both consoles as they operate today.  So here we go…

Throwback Review – Urban Species: Blanket

I came across this album, released in 1999, mostly due to a rather large infatuation withImogen Heap. She is featured here, on the track Blanket, which is a great, laid back hip-hop song. Because of that one track I decided to give the entire album a try. Can’t say I came away entirely impressed but what did surprise me is that there are 3 or 4 songs here that are really good.

Urban Species is really a solo venture, though the name might lead you to think otherwise. The style here is ultra laid back british hip-hop. The genre is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it’s great to be laid back and chill. Sometimes it’s nice to pick up the pace. Unfortunately, the one song he does pick up the pace in, turns out to be pretty awful. The vocal style is constantly slowed down and at times really drab. At times it does work well but after listening to an entire album with little to no change on the vocals, it becomes tedious. The production here feels very jazzy at times but for the most part I think this could be looked at as a trip-hop or downtempo disc. Some of the production reminds me of Lamb but comes across feeling very different because of the vocals present.

Music Review – Brand New: Daisy

Prior to getting into the actual review of this one, I feel like I need to preface it with this…. The more I float around the interweb, it seems like people are very divided on what they think about Brand New as a band. It’s not so much a “love it or hate it” thing as it is a you either kind of like it or you are in love with it. When I say love, you love it in the deepest, most real way possible. I know that comes across as cheesy, but for my fellow Brand New fans, they will understand. Everything this band has done, including and since Deja Entendu, has been golden in my book. The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me is my album of the decade. That’s how much I love Brand New…. So if you aren’t ready for the gushing of a fan boy, stop reading now.

2009 Fall Releases – The Cup Overfloweth

I did a “Most Anticipated Music of 2009″ a while back and so far I have been pleased with most of the releases that I had been looking forward to. P.O.S.’s Never Better came out early in 09 and didn’t disappoint. Well, it disappointed me a little, it is his weakest release, but still has some great songs. Other release lived up to my expectations as well. Isis and dredg both had very strong releases. Then some disappointed, The new Prodigy was pretty terrible, don’t know why I get excited about their releases anymore, but I think that’s over with Invaders must die. So now we are almost into the fall (my favorite time of year) and there are tons of releases that have yet to surface. This is going to be a wonderful few months leading up to the end of the year. Here is what I cannot wait for:

Brand New - Daisy: Yes, I know they titled the album Daisy. I don’t care. Brand New has been a rare band in my opinion. They have gotten better and better with each release. 2006’s The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me is my favorite album of the decade, hands down. For some reason people still love to label these guys “Emo” but they are the furthest thing from it. They are American rock to it’s fullest. They just happen to have an emotional front man (one of the best in the biz) in Jesse Lacey. I will always have high expectations for Brand New releases, they have never let me down. Releases 9/22/09 (it has recently leaked as well).

Katatonia - Night Is the New Day: This is a group that I randomly came across as 08 came to a close. I tried out The Great Cold Distance and was blown away. One of the best metal releases I have heard in forever. I’m not quite as enamored with their past work, but the song writing during TGCD was so fantastic, I cannot wait for new stuff. With this one I am slightly worried that expectations are too high as I just really can’t get into any of their early work. I’ll find out when this releases on 10/19/2009.

Thrice - Beggars: This one already leaked, which is way to early and might hurt (or help) with the final release. The same thing happened to Brand New with The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me and they scrapped almost everything they had and started over. Because of that experience I refuse to check this out early. I am going to wait for the release date and purchase it, because I want to support the bands I love. With the Brand New leak in 06 it kind of killed my excitement for the album because the leaked demos didn’t sound that good. Well, that’s because they were demos. From what I understand the Thrice leak might be more finalized than it’s Brand New counterpart, I don’t care. I’m getting this the day it comes out, in an actual store, which is 9/15/09. It is currently out on ITunes, but I feel like if I wait for the physical release I will be rewarded with something. Plus I want DRM free music.

Some honorable mentions to go over.

-A Wilhelm Scream is easily one of my favorite bands and I was really looking forward to their release this year. I’ve since found out that is a EP (5 songs I believe) so while I am still stoked for it, I want a full album.

-AFI are releasing their follow up to Decemberunderground this year and I am looking forward to it. I have cooled off on AFI the last few years and I’m not sure why. I think their last two releases have been their strongest (regardless of what others think) but I feel like I might be growing out of them. We shall see once Crash Love hits 9/29/09.

-30 Seconds to Mars is a guilty pleasure for me. They are kind of overly pretentious (seriously, that video for From Yesterday makes me want to gag) but I still enjoy listening to them. I’m not super stoked for this, but they are a decent band and always have 3 to 4 songs on each album that I think are great.  This Is War comes out in late October.

-CunninLynguists are set to release their second LP this year in the form of Strange Jourey Volume 2. The first one was better than I expected. It only had a handful of new songs and there are a few songs that weren’t even their own, but it was still a great listen. Hoping for more of the same.

Album Review – Chevelle: Sci-Fi Crimes

Not to start off with a “look how cool I am” item, but I have listened to Chevelle since their first disc, Point #1.  I first heard of them when I saw their video for Mia on MTV at some riduclous time early in the morning.  The song sounded like Tool, kind of.  The video looked like a Tool video, kind of.  At the time (and to this day) Tool was my favorite band.  I loved them.  I ate, drank and slept AEnima when it came out and because of that infatuation with Tool, I loved anything that reminded me of Tool.  Back then I was more forgiving, I listened to any crappy band that stole MJK’s vocal style or kind of sounded like Tool.  Almost none of those band stuck with me except for Chevelle.  I never really thought of Chevelle in the context of “on of my favs” but with the release of Sci-Fi Crimes, they are up there.

I have enjoyed every Chevelle album to a point.  They have all had a handful of songs that I thought were excellent, but then the rest of the tracks bored me.  With this release they have made an album that is good all the way through, front to back.  The album starts off with Sleep Apnea and the opening guitar is distinctly Chevelle.  The track is good, but the album gets better as it goes on.  The chorus of Mexican Sun is excellent and it becomes very infectious.  The further you get into the album, the stronger it gets.

For the first time I feel like Chevelle has their own identity here.  Maybe that’s what was always missing for me.  Something to make Chevelle strong on their own, not because they sound like someone else or have a heavy influence from another artist.  And that’s what this disc does.  The first single, Jars is a perfect song for radio play.  While that will be disappointing to some, it doesn’t really matter because we all know Chevelle doesn’t get a ton of radio time no matter how good they are.  The track has another awesome rif with a really catchy chorus, but it’s still heavy enough for Chevelle to keep that edge.  The album really gets better the further you go.  Letter From A Thief is by far my favorite track on the album.  There is a certain emotion in it that Chevelle hasn’t displayed before.  The last two tracks finish the album off in awesome fashion.  The last track, This Circus has some of the best percussion that I have heard in quite awhile and like so many of the tracks here, the chorus will stick in your head for days.

Will this album convert people who have hated Chevelle?  No.  Will it make long time Chevelle fans happy.  Hell yes.  I think it’s their strongest work and gets better with each listen.  I also feel like it’s brought me closer to Chevelle, as cheesy as that sounds.  I feel like I can call them one of my favorites now because their body of work over 5 discs is strong enough to do so.  I would be surprised if this didn’t get a spot on my top ten this year.

Rating:  4.0 out of 5.0

Listen if you like:

• 10 Years – Division
• 30 Seconds to Mars – A Beautiful Lie
• Tool – Lateralus

Music Review: Alexisonfire – Old Crows / Young Cardinals

I was first introduced to Alexisonfire through random searching on the internet and coming across the video for This Could Be Anywhere In The World. I was blown away. As much as I disliked the screamer in the group, Dallas Green’s vocals were amazing and musically the group was spot on. I quickly got my hands on Crisis and was just as quickly disappointed. It really had the feel of any number of sing/scream bands that have popped up since 2000. There are so many bands in this genre (is it screamo, is it post-hardcore, do I care?) that it’s really had to stand out. There are a few groups I enjoy, stuff like Underoath or Evergreen Terrace but for every good band in the genre there are 5 terrible ones.

Since then, I have really gotten into Dallas Green’s side project, City & Colour. It’s a folksy, singer-songwriter gig and his excellent voice carries the style well. When I found out Alexisonfire was going to release a new album, I had to give it a chance based on Green alone and hope that I like the other elements better.

When first listening to the disc it was apparent that the strightfoward (generic) screams of the past were few and far between. Instead of screaming it is much more of a really, really (REALLY) raspy style of singing. The style sounds like a harder version of The Blackout Pact which sounds better and less “samey” then their screams of the past. On top of that it seems that they have matured as a group. The songwriting is fantastic throughout the disc, lyrically it’s pretty serious/dark stuff and they use some excellent production techniques that come across as more than “studio magic”.

The disc’s best track (in my humble opinion) is The Northern. I don’t know…. and I don’t think the lyrics here are tongue in cheek but it sounds like something ripped straight from Revelations. As Dallas sings “I Want To Go To Heaven” and “Hallelujah” with great layered vocals from the screamer the track just feels epic. There is also some catchiness in effect here as well as some of the choruses are the kind of stuff you will be singing for weeks.

More mature, less generic screaming and excellent songs make for a pretty kick ass disc. I wasn’t expecting to like this at all and came away loving it. Maybe I am missing something with their previous work, but it’s going to be hard to go backwards after hearing how good this disc is. I’m going to be really surprised if this doesn’t make it (somewhere) in my top ten.

4.0 out of 5.0

Listen if you like:
-Evergreen Terrace - Wolfbiker
-Dance Gavin Dance - Downtown Battle Mountain
-Underoath - Lost In The Sound Of Seperation

Review: OSI – Blood

While scouring the net for new music, something I do from time to time, I came acrossOSI. Reading up on them, they sounded like they had some potential. A project formed by Jim Matheos of Fates Warning and Kevin Moore of Chroma Key & Dream Theater. The project has been focused on electronic music for the most part, but this release has introduced quite a bit of heavy guitar. This sounded like something that would appeal to me. There are a handful or artists that are masters at mixing electronic and heavy guitars (see Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, mid-90’s Fear Factory and even Linkin Park) and when it’s done well it sounds so good to me.

With that in mind I came in with high expectations even though I had never heard them. What I got was a mixed bag of disappointment and excitement. The album starts off with a track that has some of the most generic nu-metal guitars I have ever heard. This was the disappointing part for me. Whenever the heavier guitars kick in on this disc it usually ends up ruining whatever good had been done previously within that track. One exception is Microburst Alert which is an instrumental that builds up wonderfully with a repetitive electronic drum loop that ends in a lovely clash of hard guitars and the backing electronics.

The excitement, for me, came in the tracks that were full on electronic or the tracks that used the guitar as more of an effect. The best track here, Radiologue, is nothing but a wonderfully laid back synth and an excellent vocal performance from Kevin Moore. I have read reviews on this that complain about Moore being too “laid back”, but I think that’s the point. He isn’t trying to overpower the music underneath him, he is trying to fit in with it and does a really good job. Another fantastic track is Stockholm which is a track that does use the guitar as more of a backing effect than a cheesy nu-metal rip off.

This disc is a great mix of agressive and laid back. It never really seems to try too hard. They stay in the zone they are comfotable with and it works. This really could appeal to a lot of people. There are parts of things like Assemblage 23 and even some Skinny Puppy but never coming across as hard as either one of those artists do. I hope the guitars grow on me through repeated listens, because the programming and vocals here are excellent. I can’t call this a must listen, but for people who like a little guitar with a lot of darker electronic elements should check this out.

3.5 out of 5