Author Baricco reads some of his stories in Italian while
Air provides a musical backdrop. Sounds pretentious and I have to say to some
degree it is. Musically we find Air back in their delicate and moody ‘Virgin
Suicides’ mode, a welcome return to form after the bad pop of ’10,000 khz
Heroes’. Some of the musical passages find the band at their best, but every
time things start to get cooking Barrico comes in with his recitations mixed too
loud. Instrumental only versions of at least some of the songs would have been
nice. Although I admire Air’s spirit of experimentation, I’d have to file ‘City
Reading’ as an interesting failure. I just can’t see myself pulling this one
out too much when I can put on ‘Moon Safari’ or ‘The Virgin Suicides’ instead.
Recommended for completists only. (Bob Ignizio)
Cleveland metal legends Destructor are finally back, and
it’s a welcome return. New songs like “Sonic Bullet” and “Heavy Artillery”
co-written with recent bass recruit Jamie Walters update the band’s sound
slightly with more focused and stripped down arrangements but no loss of the old
Destructor fury. There’s also a sampling of songs that would have been on
Destructor’s never released ‘Decibel Casualties’ album that show the band in
more of a “technical thrash” mode, a cover of Hawkwind’s “Master of the
Universe”, and a couple of live tracks (fan favorites “Pounding Evil” and “Iron
Curtain”). The raw, high-energy production by the band and Bill Peters is
completely appropriate for the style of music and a welcome break from all the
“perfect” sounding metal albums these days. 9 songs in all, making for a pretty
long “EP” but I’m not complaining. If you already know Destructor, I’m sure
you’ll want to pick this up. If not, this is a good introduction to where the
band has been and where they’re going. Can’t wait to hear the new album. (Bob
Ignizio)
Well, this is pretty much what I had expected in the best
sense; Mercyful Fate with a different, more “traditional” sounding vocalist.
“Hell on Earth” kicks things off in fine fashion with riffs and arrangements
that recall ‘Melissa’ era Fate. Lots of tasty fills and without the burden of
having to write music around some half baked horror story by King Diamond (sorry
Diamond fans, but it’s true) guitarists Michael Denner and Hank Sherman are free
to write more straight forward songs. About the only major musical difference
between this and early Mercyful Fate is the drumming, which is a bit more
aggressive and modern sounding. Vocalist Martin Steene is more melodic in his
approach than King Diamond, although he lets loose with a few Halford-esque
screams and growls when appropriate. While I wouldn’t put this quite on the
same level as the early Mercyful Fate albums it’s better than most of what that
band has done since their reunion on ‘In the Shadows’. My only complaint is
that the lyrics, while not terrible, are pretty standard clichéd stuff. Other
than the aforementioned “Hell on Earth” standout songs for me were “The Calling”
and “Samhain” but overall this is a solid album. (Bob Ignizio)
I think Metallica may have finally hit on the perfect
solution to stop people from downloading their music. All you have to do is put
out a really crappy album like this one and why would anyone bother? This is
probably the worst drum sound I’ve ever heard in my life, all part of the band’s
daring foray into “garage rock” production. Apparently Metallica’s idea of
“garage rock” is “sounds like shit” because that’s what we’ve got here. It’s
like a wall of clanging sonic mud with James Hetfield alternately trying to sing
in the “pretty” voice he’s adopted since the self titled “black album”, and
off-key warbling that makes Marianne Faithful’s guest vocals on “The Memory
Remains” sound good by comparison. I had heard rumors that the band was heavily
influenced by Entombed for this album. That’ll teach me not to listen to
gossip. Just call these guys Korntallica or Metallibizkit. For crying out
loud, there’s even a rap part on lead off single “St. Anger”. Lots of neo-metal
sounding riffs and rhythms, too, as on “Some Kind of Monster” and “Shoot Me
Again”. And apparently Metallica have decided guitar solos are passé since Kirk
Hammet is barely a presence. If you still want to check this out, my copy is
in the used bin already. (Bob Ignizio)
Author Baricco reads some of his stories in Italian while
Air provides a musical backdrop. Sounds pretentious and I have to say to some
degree it is. Musically we find Air back in their delicate and moody ‘Virgin
Suicides’ mode, a welcome return to form after the bad pop of ’10,000 khz
Heroes’. Some of the musical passages find the band at their best, but every
time things start to get cooking Barrico comes in with his recitations mixed too
loud. Instrumental only versions of at least some of the songs would have been
nice. Although I admire Air’s spirit of experimentation, I’d have to file ‘City
Reading’ as an interesting failure. I just can’t see myself pulling this one
out too much when I can put on ‘Moon Safari’ or ‘The Virgin Suicides’ instead.
Recommended for completists only. (Bob Ignizio)
Cleveland metal legends Destructor are finally back, and
it’s a welcome return. New songs like “Sonic Bullet” and “Heavy Artillery”
co-written with recent bass recruit Jamie Walters update the band’s sound
slightly with more focused and stripped down arrangements but no loss of the old
Destructor fury. There’s also a sampling of songs that would have been on
Destructor’s never released ‘Decibel Casualties’ album that show the band in
more of a “technical thrash” mode, a cover of Hawkwind’s “Master of the
Universe”, and a couple of live tracks (fan favorites “Pounding Evil” and “Iron
Curtain”). The raw, high-energy production by the band and Bill Peters is
completely appropriate for the style of music and a welcome break from all the
“perfect” sounding metal albums these days. 9 songs in all, making for a pretty
long “EP” but I’m not complaining. If you already know Destructor, I’m sure
you’ll want to pick this up. If not, this is a good introduction to where the
band has been and where they’re going. Can’t wait to hear the new album. (Bob
Ignizio)
Well, this is pretty much what I had expected in the best
sense; Mercyful Fate with a different, more “traditional” sounding vocalist.
“Hell on Earth” kicks things off in fine fashion with riffs and arrangements
that recall ‘Melissa’ era Fate. Lots of tasty fills and without the burden of
having to write music around some half baked horror story by King Diamond (sorry
Diamond fans, but it’s true) guitarists Michael Denner and Hank Sherman are free
to write more straight forward songs. About the only major musical difference
between this and early Mercyful Fate is the drumming, which is a bit more
aggressive and modern sounding. Vocalist Martin Steene is more melodic in his
approach than King Diamond, although he lets loose with a few Halford-esque
screams and growls when appropriate. While I wouldn’t put this quite on the
same level as the early Mercyful Fate albums it’s better than most of what that
band has done since their reunion on ‘In the Shadows’. My only complaint is
that the lyrics, while not terrible, are pretty standard clichéd stuff. Other
than the aforementioned “Hell on Earth” standout songs for me were “The Calling”
and “Samhain” but overall this is a solid album. (Bob Ignizio)
I think Metallica may have finally hit on the perfect
solution to stop people from downloading their music. All you have to do is put
out a really crappy album like this one and why would anyone bother? This is
probably the worst drum sound I’ve ever heard in my life, all part of the band’s
daring foray into “garage rock” production. Apparently Metallica’s idea of
“garage rock” is “sounds like shit” because that’s what we’ve got here. It’s
like a wall of clanging sonic mud with James Hetfield alternately trying to sing
in the “pretty” voice he’s adopted since the self titled “black album”, and
off-key warbling that makes Marianne Faithful’s guest vocals on “The Memory
Remains” sound good by comparison. I had heard rumors that the band was heavily
influenced by Entombed for this album. That’ll teach me not to listen to
gossip. Just call these guys Korntallica or Metallibizkit. For crying out
loud, there’s even a rap part on lead off single “St. Anger”. Lots of neo-metal
sounding riffs and rhythms, too, as on “Some Kind of Monster” and “Shoot Me
Again”. And apparently Metallica have decided guitar solos are passé since Kirk
Hammet is barely a presence. If you still want to check this out, my copy is
in the used bin already. (Bob Ignizio)