American
Gypsy Music is Alex Denillo, drummer for Mesmer Machine (also reviewed this
month). Here, Alex does just about everything himself. This can often be a
recipe for self indulgent disaster, but that’s not the case with ‘American Gypsy
Music’. Denillo actually has the chops to play all the instruments, and his
singing voice isn’t bad, either. I guess I’d sum up the overall vibe of this
album as sort of glammy goth rock. I hear bits of Bowie and Iggy mixed with The
Damned, Love and Rockets, Sisters of Mercy, Jesus and Mary Chain and even a
little bit of The Cure. While a few songs probably could have been worked into
his other band, for the most American Gypsy Music sets itself well apart from
Mesmer Machine. Not a great album, but definitely a good one that’s worth
checking out for fans of goth rock and fans of eighties alternative rock in
general. (Bob Ignizio)
Well
this just smokes. Annihilation Time kick the shit out of all the boring
sound-alike rock bands populating the underground these days. Mixing seventies
stoner rock with early eighties hardcore, Annihilation Time manage to make those
overused influences into something fresh, resulting in a sound kind of like
Black Flag meets the MC5. More importantly, this band writes some killer
songs. Every track on here is a keeper, but “Too High to Die”, “Panic”, and
“Yuppie Killer” stand out especially for me. The band also turns in a great
cover of The Pink Fairies “Teenage Rebel”. The production sounds authentically
early seventies and the cover art is the coolest I’ve seen on any release so far
this year. Without a doubt this will be on my best of 2005 list, most likely
very close to the top. (Bob Ignizio)
Louisville,
Kentucky’s AYIN has a bass heavy and jazzily experimental hard rock sound
coupled with good vocals and songwriting. If you’re one of the handful of
people aware of Nomeansno, they kind of remind me of that, but with more of an
eighties new wave influence. “Framebreaking” even has a passage that sounds
like a Smiths vocal melody. Of course it isn’t long before the song is veering
into a noisy breakdown. While I can point out influences here and there, AYIN
doesn’t really fit neatly into any of the popular genres of the day, which is
refreshing. The closest I could come to categorizing them is to say they’re the
sort of band I’d expect to be on Alternative Tentacles in the late 80’s/early
90’s, boasting good songwriting that has hooks but isn’t commercial and good
musicianship that impresses without turning self indulgent. If this sounds
interesting to you, go to
http://thrownbrick.cjb.net/ and order yourself a copy of this disc. (Bob
Ignizio)
Bartados – ‘Fury and Fear, Flesh and
Bone’ (Agonia)
Ladies
and gentlemen, I present an underground extreme metal supergroup (of sorts).
Barbados is made up of Yasuyuki and Yohuei of Abigail, Chuck Keller of Ares
Kingdom and Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust. Actually, this is like having 3 EPs
on one CD, because there are three distinct sounds on here. Tracks 1 through 5
(with Chuck Keller on guitars and vocals) have an 80's Slayer/thrash feel, while
tracks 6 through 10 (with Yasuyuki on guitars and Joel Grind on vocals) have a
New York Hardcore/Punk feeling to them. 11 through 15 are different yet (no
lineup details in the booklet on these), harkening back to a Venom-esque vibe
with grindcore singing. The first five tracks were my favorites, though part of
me loves the lyrics on Joel Grind's numbers (Death metal songs with titles like
"Satanik Beer", "I Love To Eat Pussy", and "Dick is Fucking Big"? Far out!).
Yasuyuki and Yohuei are the constants throughout, though they're not enough to
give the CD any cohesion, and that ultimately hurts this release in the long
run. While the idea of an American/Japanese Speed metal summit is intriguing,
it's not enough to carry the final result. This could have been better. The
Heathen Hippy gives it Two and a half Satanik Beers. (Taliesin Govannon)
American
Gypsy Music is Alex Denillo, drummer for Mesmer Machine (also reviewed this
month). Here, Alex does just about everything himself. This can often be a
recipe for self indulgent disaster, but that’s not the case with ‘American Gypsy
Music’. Denillo actually has the chops to play all the instruments, and his
singing voice isn’t bad, either. I guess I’d sum up the overall vibe of this
album as sort of glammy goth rock. I hear bits of Bowie and Iggy mixed with The
Damned, Love and Rockets, Sisters of Mercy, Jesus and Mary Chain and even a
little bit of The Cure. While a few songs probably could have been worked into
his other band, for the most American Gypsy Music sets itself well apart from
Mesmer Machine. Not a great album, but definitely a good one that’s worth
checking out for fans of goth rock and fans of eighties alternative rock in
general. (Bob Ignizio)
Well
this just smokes. Annihilation Time kick the shit out of all the boring
sound-alike rock bands populating the underground these days. Mixing seventies
stoner rock with early eighties hardcore, Annihilation Time manage to make those
overused influences into something fresh, resulting in a sound kind of like
Black Flag meets the MC5. More importantly, this band writes some killer
songs. Every track on here is a keeper, but “Too High to Die”, “Panic”, and
“Yuppie Killer” stand out especially for me. The band also turns in a great
cover of The Pink Fairies “Teenage Rebel”. The production sounds authentically
early seventies and the cover art is the coolest I’ve seen on any release so far
this year. Without a doubt this will be on my best of 2005 list, most likely
very close to the top. (Bob Ignizio)
Louisville,
Kentucky’s AYIN has a bass heavy and jazzily experimental hard rock sound
coupled with good vocals and songwriting. If you’re one of the handful of
people aware of Nomeansno, they kind of remind me of that, but with more of an
eighties new wave influence. “Framebreaking” even has a passage that sounds
like a Smiths vocal melody. Of course it isn’t long before the song is veering
into a noisy breakdown. While I can point out influences here and there, AYIN
doesn’t really fit neatly into any of the popular genres of the day, which is
refreshing. The closest I could come to categorizing them is to say they’re the
sort of band I’d expect to be on Alternative Tentacles in the late 80’s/early
90’s, boasting good songwriting that has hooks but isn’t commercial and good
musicianship that impresses without turning self indulgent. If this sounds
interesting to you, go to
Ladies
and gentlemen, I present an underground extreme metal supergroup (of sorts).
Barbados is made up of Yasuyuki and Yohuei of Abigail, Chuck Keller of Ares
Kingdom and Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust. Actually, this is like having 3 EPs
on one CD, because there are three distinct sounds on here. Tracks 1 through 5
(with Chuck Keller on guitars and vocals) have an 80's Slayer/thrash feel, while
tracks 6 through 10 (with Yasuyuki on guitars and Joel Grind on vocals) have a
New York Hardcore/Punk feeling to them. 11 through 15 are different yet (no
lineup details in the booklet on these), harkening back to a Venom-esque vibe
with grindcore singing. The first five tracks were my favorites, though part of
me loves the lyrics on Joel Grind's numbers (Death metal songs with titles like
"Satanik Beer", "I Love To Eat Pussy", and "Dick is Fucking Big"? Far out!).
Yasuyuki and Yohuei are the constants throughout, though they're not enough to
give the CD any cohesion, and that ultimately hurts this release in the long
run. While the idea of an American/Japanese Speed metal summit is intriguing,
it's not enough to carry the final result. This could have been better. The
Heathen Hippy gives it Two and a half Satanik Beers. (Taliesin Govannon)