Album Reviews

Album Review: For Today-Breaker

Posted by Matt on August 23, 2010 at 9:58 pm

It gives the listener hope, it gives them power, it fills you with a divine over-whelming sense of peace, and that’s just the first song.
I waited a long time for this album. I heard from For Today’s vocalist Mattie Montgomery that “This album is going to be the most confrontational album ever written.” Hearing that I [...]

Album Review: The Devil Wears Prada-Zombie EP

Posted by Matt on August 22, 2010 at 3:28 pm

When The Devil Wears Prada released their first full length album Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord, metal fans were awestruck with the raw sound TDWP could push out. The punishing vocals and heavy breakdowns made for a brutal wake up call to other metal bands that were trying to keep up. Four years later, TDWP [...]

Album Review: The Acacia Strain-Wormwood

Posted by Jacob on August 17, 2010 at 12:09 pm

The Acacia Strain are heavier than ever with the release of their fifth studio effort, Wormwood. The album opens up with the track, Beast, which Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed appears in. The build up of the opening track will have every Acacia Strain fan banging their heads. A robotic voice come in stating, [...]

Album Review: Fear Factory-Mechanize

Posted by Miguel on June 30, 2010 at 2:32 pm

With Dino Cazares and Burton C. Bell reigniting their collaborative bromance, it seemed all was right in the metal world…until this comeback was almost torpedoed by the remaining 2/4ths of the original Fear Factory lineup who happen to be peddling Fear Factory lite on their own ill-starred Arkaea. With the original band’s progeny now split [...]

Album Review: Nevermore-The Obsidian Conspiracy

Posted by Miguel on June 11, 2010 at 2:04 pm

Nevermore. The name alone evokes tremors of ecstasy. Few bands have left such an indelible imprint on the contemporary metal world than the Seattle quartet, who’ve ventured into realms both extreme and melodic for 2005’s pre-hiatus masterpiece “This Godless Endeavor.” Back then, aside from sending shockwaves among metalheads who couldn’t really decipher which genre Nevermore [...]

Album Review: Exodus-Exhibit B

Posted by Miguel on June 5, 2010 at 3:37 pm

In the Year of our Lord, 2010, San Francisco’s preeminent peddlers of thrash vitriol hath come down to deliver us a brutal aural spanking that’ll leave our ears sore for days. No kidding, Exodus haven’t sounded this intense since…why, never. Until this “Exhibit B” came along. Where its predecessor was a bloated affair armed to [...]

Album Review: As I Lay Dying-The Powerless Rise

Posted by Miguel on May 31, 2010 at 2:29 pm

It has been quite a while since As I Lay Dying last stirred up a sizable commotion. A bunch of years removed from their “An Ocean Between Us,” America’s preeminent Christian metalcore (meaning the music is tough, but it’s got a positive message—like, yuck?) champions are back to secure their chokehold on a genre they [...]

Album Review: The Generals-Stand Up Straight

Posted by Miguel on April 17, 2010 at 3:50 pm

Blame it on the water (or the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol; excuse us, Jamie Foxx), but whatever (metal) music we hear from Sweden usually turns out pretty darn good 80% of the time. That’s 80% cos one has gotta admit, the remaining 20% belongs to the occasional crap band stinking up our listening pleasure—no names though.
The material at [...]

Album Review: Overkill-Ironbound

Posted by Miguel on March 29, 2010 at 6:40 pm

Now Overkill may be an elderly bunch, but their music is far from geriatric. While their past efforts saw the band slow down a bit (namely on 2007’s by-the-numbers “Immortalis”), this 2010 the wrecking crew have upped their game to stay competitive in a genre that’s gotten a new lease on life these past coupla [...]

Album Review: Rammstein-Liebe Ist Fuer Alle Da

Posted by Miguel on January 8, 2010 at 10:02 pm

Pussy. Wiener Blut. Backstabu. Song titles that prove Rammstein are quite the weird bunch, which means it’s all the better they sing in their mother tongue and spare humanity a whole lotta wincing from awkward lyrics. For their, uh, sixth album titled “Liebe Ist Fuer Alle Da,” the former citizens of the German Democratic Republic [...]