This starts off good with the song "Under My Skin".
The song begins with a good effects-saturated mellow guitar lick and melodic
vocals before heading to the heavy chorus. That's where vocalist Doug
Carter lets loose with a cool, almost black metal screaming vocal style and a
more typical nu metal bark. The song incorporates influences from nu
metal, alternative,and more traditional metal styles and is both relatively
unique sounding and just a good song. Unfortunately the other 3 songs on
this demo are more or less conventional nu metal. "Pulse 8" sounds like
Static X, and "Take it to the Head" adds some Limp Bizkit style rapping to
the mix. "Boom" is mostly along the same lines as "Take it to the Head"
but does have an interesting break in the middle. If you do like this
style of music, it's not bad and you'd probably enjoy watching the band live.
The production is good and the musicianship solid. It's just not anything
you haven't heard already, with the exception of the first song. That
track seems to indicate these guys do have something more to offer, so I hope
they'll head more in that direction in the future. (Bob Ignizio)
This 5 song EP from Cleveland's This is Exploding is full
of good hooks but sounds a lot like Weezer, especially the vocals.
Thankfully there are some signs the band is trying to develop their own sound.
The arrangements are a little more daring than the straightforward pop song
structures Rivers Cuomo and company usually deal in but they need to distance themselves
more. That said, the band does write some decent songs. My favorite
track is the rockin' “A Girl Named Hell”, but “Uneducated” and "Better" are both
good ballads. Unfortunately the last two songs close the album on a down
note for me. “Neither Do I” picks up the tempo but comes off sounding like
filler to my ears, and "Plan" starts off too slow and quiet for my tastes before
going into a nice instrumental jam that ends too soon. It almost
feels like the song is unfinished. If you want to hear a sample for
yourself, go to the band's website
where you can download some MP3s (mostly different songs from what's on the CD)
and the video for "Better". (Bob Ignizio)
Unearthly Trance – ‘Season
of Seance, Science of Silence’ (The Music Cartel)
Well, you certainly can’t accuse these guys of being
commercial. Unearthly Trance make Electric Wizard seem like speed demons by
comparison. Every 10 seconds or so the drummer will hit something, and that in
turn wakes the guitar player up long enough to bang out a power chord or two.
The vocals alternate between tortured black metal whispers and faint doomy
moans. The “production” reminds me of early Sodom or Bathory albums. I’m sure
there are people out there who will go absolutely apeshit over this but I’m not
one of them. This is pretty much all the things I like least about modern
underground metal combined in one handy package. They’re so concerned with
being extreme that they wind up making music that is completely lacking in
anything of interest. Like far too many bands these days, Unearthly Trance seem
content enough to have achieved a certain sound, and having done that don’t feel the need to write any good songs to go with it. About the only thing
that will stick with me from listening to this album is the memory of the pain
it caused me. (Bob Ignizio)
An entire album based around the concept of sex-obsessed
rock ‘n’ roll. I have to admit I was expecting the worst and was fully prepared
to hear 26 tracks of bad Mentors imitations. Thankfully that’s not the case.
This sucker pretty much rocks from start to finish, with only a few mediocre
tracks dragging it down in the middle. Lyrics range from subtle innuendo to
complete vulgarity. Musically ‘Cock ‘n’ Roll’ runs the gamut. There’s
amphetamine fueled garage rock (the excellent Lanterjack, Hellside Stranglers,
and Gunhack to name a few), 80’s glam (The Erotics), Impotent Sea Snakes style
porno novelty rock (the aptly named Porn Rock and Skum), stoner rock (Rickshaw),
and bluesy lo-fi freak-outs (Swagger). And this ain’t no sausage party,
either. About a quarter of the tracks feature female vocalists (since I don’t
know any of these bands I can’t say to what degree women figure into the
instrumental mix), with Sugabomb and Double Barrel Slingshot’s tracks more than
holding their own with the boys. Considering all the very unsexy bands these
days (unacceptable for a genre of music named after fucking), this is a very
refreshing compilation and one that is surprisingly consistent in the quality
department. (Bob Ignizio)
This starts off good with the song "Under My Skin".
The song begins with a good effects-saturated mellow guitar lick and melodic
vocals before heading to the heavy chorus. That's where vocalist Doug
Carter lets loose with a cool, almost black metal screaming vocal style and a
more typical nu metal bark. The song incorporates influences from nu
metal, alternative,and more traditional metal styles and is both relatively
unique sounding and just a good song. Unfortunately the other 3 songs on
this demo are more or less conventional nu metal. "Pulse 8" sounds like
Static X, and "Take it to the Head" adds some Limp Bizkit style rapping to
the mix. "Boom" is mostly along the same lines as "Take it to the Head"
but does have an interesting break in the middle. If you do like this
style of music, it's not bad and you'd probably enjoy watching the band live.
The production is good and the musicianship solid. It's just not anything
you haven't heard already, with the exception of the first song. That
track seems to indicate these guys do have something more to offer, so I hope
they'll head more in that direction in the future. (Bob Ignizio)
This 5 song EP from Cleveland's This is Exploding is full
of good hooks but sounds a lot like Weezer, especially the vocals.
Thankfully there are some signs the band is trying to develop their own sound.
The arrangements are a little more daring than the straightforward pop song
structures Rivers Cuomo and company usually deal in but they need to distance themselves
more. That said, the band does write some decent songs. My favorite
track is the rockin' “A Girl Named Hell”, but “Uneducated” and "Better" are both
good ballads. Unfortunately the last two songs close the album on a down
note for me. “Neither Do I” picks up the tempo but comes off sounding like
filler to my ears, and "Plan" starts off too slow and quiet for my tastes before
going into a nice instrumental jam that ends too soon. It almost
feels like the song is unfinished. If you want to hear a sample for
yourself, go to the band's 
Well, you certainly can’t accuse these guys of being
commercial. Unearthly Trance make Electric Wizard seem like speed demons by
comparison. Every 10 seconds or so the drummer will hit something, and that in
turn wakes the guitar player up long enough to bang out a power chord or two.
The vocals alternate between tortured black metal whispers and faint doomy
moans. The “production” reminds me of early Sodom or Bathory albums. I’m sure
there are people out there who will go absolutely apeshit over this but I’m not
one of them. This is pretty much all the things I like least about modern
underground metal combined in one handy package. They’re so concerned with
being extreme that they wind up making music that is completely lacking in
anything of interest. Like far too many bands these days, Unearthly Trance seem
content enough to have achieved a certain sound, and having done that don’t feel the need to write any good songs to go with it. About the only thing
that will stick with me from listening to this album is the memory of the pain
it caused me. (Bob Ignizio)
An entire album based around the concept of sex-obsessed
rock ‘n’ roll. I have to admit I was expecting the worst and was fully prepared
to hear 26 tracks of bad Mentors imitations. Thankfully that’s not the case.
This sucker pretty much rocks from start to finish, with only a few mediocre
tracks dragging it down in the middle. Lyrics range from subtle innuendo to
complete vulgarity. Musically ‘Cock ‘n’ Roll’ runs the gamut. There’s
amphetamine fueled garage rock (the excellent Lanterjack, Hellside Stranglers,
and Gunhack to name a few), 80’s glam (The Erotics), Impotent Sea Snakes style
porno novelty rock (the aptly named Porn Rock and Skum), stoner rock (Rickshaw),
and bluesy lo-fi freak-outs (Swagger). And this ain’t no sausage party,
either. About a quarter of the tracks feature female vocalists (since I don’t
know any of these bands I can’t say to what degree women figure into the
instrumental mix), with Sugabomb and Double Barrel Slingshot’s tracks more than
holding their own with the boys. Considering all the very unsexy bands these
days (unacceptable for a genre of music named after fucking), this is a very
refreshing compilation and one that is surprisingly consistent in the quality
department. (Bob Ignizio)