All hail
Odin, the masters of Viking metal are back with’ Versus the World’. What we’ve
got here are nine songs of hate filled mid tempo melodic death metal. Amon
Amarth are a little irritated that years ago Christian invaders came to their
land and forced their Nordic forbears to give up their pagan ways. This album
is their revenge. Lyrically, it’s as if Manowar wrote the words to Amorphis’
‘Tuonela’ album. Lots of talk of battles and bloodshed and whatnot.
Musicianship is strong, and there are lots of nifty guitar parts. The vocals
are old school death metal, which means rough and gravelly but still more or
less understandable. Heard separately, the individual tracks are fairly good.
“Bloodshed” in particular stands out for me. As a whole, though, the album gets
a bit repetitious as the tempo and subject matter never change. But hey, that’s
just me. If you dig this style, you’ll probably love this album. (Bob
Ignizio)
We got
us some real country here with no slick overproduction or concessions to modern
tastes. These guys may hail from the Cleveland area, but they could teach the
current crop of Nashville posers a thing or two. Merle Haggard seems to be a
big influence, as well as Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, and other artists
generally grouped into the “outlaw” movement. “Buttonwillow” is a classic
country song about trying to regain love lost. “Shitlist” is sort of a gospel
country/rock song that asks the musical question “am I on your shitlist,
Jesus?”, and somehow manages to still be reverent. The band veers into full on
rock for “Marilyn Monroe” but get right back to the country with the ballad “Homefries”.
“Gates of Heaven” is another fine ballad, and the album closes with a
footstompin’ cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Tonight Will Be Fine”. There’s a few
mediocre tracks, but for the most part this is pretty good stuff. All the
standard country topics are here, from booze to wandering women to prison life.
The vocals are occasionally a bit rough, but with a few exceptions that works
for the material and the music is extremely well played with lots of tasty steel
guitar. (Bob Ignizio)
Remember
the old wine ads with Orson Welles where the tagline was “we will serve no wine
before its time?” That seems to be the approach Massive Attack takes with their
music. It’s been about 5 years since their last release, ‘Mezzanine’, but the
wait was worth it. As with their previous release, Massive Attack combines
electronic and traditional instrumentation to create moody trip-hop
atmospheres. Sinead O’Connor, whom I normally don’t care for, sounds really
good singing on three tracks which she also helped write (“What Your Soul
Sings”, “Special Cases”, and “A Prayer for England”). The contributions of
vocalists Robert Del Naja and Horace Andy are also strong. There really aren’t
any bad songs on here - one would hope so, given the amount of time the group
had to write material and weed out the weaker songs – but personal favorites
were “Future Proof”, “What Your Soul Sings”, and “Butterfly Caught”. Of course
the production is flawless. All in all an excellent collection of spacey
groovy chill out music that’s sure to please the group’s long time fans as well
as win them a few more. (Bob Ignizio)
Various – “We’re A Happy Family: A
Tribute to Ramones” (Columbia)
Come
on, you didn’t really expect this to be great, did you? Tribute albums are
always a mixed bag. Most of the time the mix includes more filler than killer,
and that’s definitely the case here. Garbage turns in a rousing version of “I
Just Wanna’ Have Something to Do”, putting their stamp on the song while
remaining true to its spirit. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio” is a perfect fit for KISS.
Rooney, an artist I’ve never heard before, does a nice moody version of “Here
Today, Gone Tomorrow” and Tom Waits turns in a weird but enjoyable take on
“Return of Jackie and Judy”. Pete Yorn also does a respectable job on “I Wanna
Be Your Boyfriend”, and I have to grudgingly admit the Chili Peppers “Havana
Affair” isn’t bad. Other than that, the rest is either too reverent (Green Day,
Offspring), twisted beyond recognition (Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson) or just
plain boring (U2, Metallica, The Pretenders, Zeke with Eddie Veder). Rancid at
least bring some energy to their version of “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” but in
doing so strip one of the Ramones catchiest songs of all its pop sensibility.
There’s also a hidden track, John Frusciante doing “Today Your Love, Tomorrow
the World”. Despite a few decent tracks I can’t really recommend this CD.
Stick with the original classics. (Bob Ignizio)
All hail
Odin, the masters of Viking metal are back with’ Versus the World’. What we’ve
got here are nine songs of hate filled mid tempo melodic death metal. Amon
Amarth are a little irritated that years ago Christian invaders came to their
land and forced their Nordic forbears to give up their pagan ways. This album
is their revenge. Lyrically, it’s as if Manowar wrote the words to Amorphis’
‘Tuonela’ album. Lots of talk of battles and bloodshed and whatnot.
Musicianship is strong, and there are lots of nifty guitar parts. The vocals
are old school death metal, which means rough and gravelly but still more or
less understandable. Heard separately, the individual tracks are fairly good.
“Bloodshed” in particular stands out for me. As a whole, though, the album gets
a bit repetitious as the tempo and subject matter never change. But hey, that’s
just me. If you dig this style, you’ll probably love this album. (Bob
Ignizio) 
We got
us some real country here with no slick overproduction or concessions to modern
tastes. These guys may hail from the Cleveland area, but they could teach the
current crop of Nashville posers a thing or two. Merle Haggard seems to be a
big influence, as well as Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, and other artists
generally grouped into the “outlaw” movement. “Buttonwillow” is a classic
country song about trying to regain love lost. “Shitlist” is sort of a gospel
country/rock song that asks the musical question “am I on your shitlist,
Jesus?”, and somehow manages to still be reverent. The band veers into full on
rock for “Marilyn Monroe” but get right back to the country with the ballad “Homefries”.
“Gates of Heaven” is another fine ballad, and the album closes with a
footstompin’ cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Tonight Will Be Fine”. There’s a few
mediocre tracks, but for the most part this is pretty good stuff. All the
standard country topics are here, from booze to wandering women to prison life.
The vocals are occasionally a bit rough, but with a few exceptions that works
for the material and the music is extremely well played with lots of tasty steel
guitar. (Bob Ignizio)
Remember
the old wine ads with Orson Welles where the tagline was “we will serve no wine
before its time?” That seems to be the approach Massive Attack takes with their
music. It’s been about 5 years since their last release, ‘Mezzanine’, but the
wait was worth it. As with their previous release, Massive Attack combines
electronic and traditional instrumentation to create moody trip-hop
atmospheres. Sinead O’Connor, whom I normally don’t care for, sounds really
good singing on three tracks which she also helped write (“What Your Soul
Sings”, “Special Cases”, and “A Prayer for England”). The contributions of
vocalists Robert Del Naja and Horace Andy are also strong. There really aren’t
any bad songs on here - one would hope so, given the amount of time the group
had to write material and weed out the weaker songs – but personal favorites
were “Future Proof”, “What Your Soul Sings”, and “Butterfly Caught”. Of course
the production is flawless. All in all an excellent collection of spacey
groovy chill out music that’s sure to please the group’s long time fans as well
as win them a few more. (Bob Ignizio)
Come
on, you didn’t really expect this to be great, did you? Tribute albums are
always a mixed bag. Most of the time the mix includes more filler than killer,
and that’s definitely the case here. Garbage turns in a rousing version of “I
Just Wanna’ Have Something to Do”, putting their stamp on the song while
remaining true to its spirit. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio” is a perfect fit for KISS.
Rooney, an artist I’ve never heard before, does a nice moody version of “Here
Today, Gone Tomorrow” and Tom Waits turns in a weird but enjoyable take on
“Return of Jackie and Judy”. Pete Yorn also does a respectable job on “I Wanna
Be Your Boyfriend”, and I have to grudgingly admit the Chili Peppers “Havana
Affair” isn’t bad. Other than that, the rest is either too reverent (Green Day,
Offspring), twisted beyond recognition (Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson) or just
plain boring (U2, Metallica, The Pretenders, Zeke with Eddie Veder). Rancid at
least bring some energy to their version of “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” but in
doing so strip one of the Ramones catchiest songs of all its pop sensibility.
There’s also a hidden track, John Frusciante doing “Today Your Love, Tomorrow
the World”. Despite a few decent tracks I can’t really recommend this CD.
Stick with the original classics. (Bob Ignizio) 