Third Eye Blind by Third Eye Blind
Most of you have probably heard Semi-Charmed Life. Everyone that I've talked to pretty much loves or hates it. I like it a lot, but I didn't really expect much from the album as a whole. I figured it'd just be whatever 90's rock, but it actually surprised me. Most of the songs are upbeat with dark lyrics, so it was a pretty interesting contrast. Most songs were pop-rock but some sounded kinda grunge-y.

Rating: Surprisingly Pretty Good

Infinity by Devin Townsend



So apparently The Death of Music from Ocean Machine gave Devin Townsend a mental breakdown. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which explained the large differences between his two previous albums, Ocean Machine and City. Infinity was meant to be the parent album, sort of a mix of both, and you can definitely hear it. The result seems more Ocean Machine than City, denoted by the heavy use of synth, ambience, and layered vocals heard in Ocean Machine. But there's also the screaming and harsh vocals in what I assume would be City, an extreme metal band. Some of the tracks are sort of wacky and weird, which makes sense considering it was conceived after being checked out of a mental hospital and fueled by LSD. To the average listener this wouldn't be a bad place to start with Devin Townsend. It's not too heavy, but not too calm. Stand out tracks were Christeen, Bad Devil, War, Ants, Unity, and Noisy Pink Bubbles.

8.5/10

Bolzer - Aura (EP)

apparently this was one of the most acclaimed metal releases of 2013. no idea how it slipped past my radar for so long considering the insane amount of metal i listened to that year. oh well. 23 min ep stretched out across three tracks, a very short and digestible listen. i've already heard it twice before writing. here are my disorganized thoughts.

right off the bat this separates itself from the pack in the neo death metal underground by Actually Having Riffs to balance out the bass-heavy, lo-fi production work. oh, s***! they actually have dynamics, too! the blast beats and all around aural onslaught typical of the genre are used sparingly, with fills, fancy tom work and some punky d-beats making up most of the percussive side of the record. very nice touch.

being a two-piece this band makes up for their lack of bass with incredible multitracked guitar lines, occasionally venturing into contrapuntal territory but not as often as i would enjoy.

the vocals also employ more than one method of screaming things into my ear. bestial growls are contrasted by chants and yells (possibly provided by the other member?) kinda reminiscent of Mastodon if Mastodon weren't a completely f*** band now. i wish Mastodon were still good.

the second track "Entranced by the Wolfshook" (dope title) is easily the highlight here and possibly one of the greatest black/death metal songs i've ever heard. i don't like to use superlatives but it f*** owns. my favourite thing about tremolo-picked electric guitar lines is their ability to sound like an entire string section if played right and these guys completely nail it with this song, specifically toward the end.

overall recommended if you want to hear balls-to-the-wall blackened death metal with melody, progression and overall fun factor. the riff is a dead art form and these guys are the phoenix down. can't wait for their full length.

I'm glad you kinda liked it dog! Definitely check out Casualties of Cool, it's almost all mellow stuff, and the female vocalist, Che, has a much more prominent part on that record (she's on every track, and her parts are definitely better than Devin's). It's got a kind of southern feel to it too, Dev described it as like "haunted johnny cash". I'm pretty sure you'd dig that one a lot

Well the breakdown didn't stem from The Death of Music, the dude's bipolar. But if you haven't listened to City, I'd recommend doing that at least once. Independent of Devin's music, City is still one of the finest metal records ever released in my opinion

I wasn't able to do the review yesterday for being out of town, so here's yesterday's. Today's will be up later!!!

Graduation by Kanye West
Preview: Champion

Graduation's got a lot of what I like about Kanye in it. To me, it feels like an honest to god hip hop record, without much attempt at tackling grand art s***. Keep in mind, I have no idea what I'm talking about, but it's pretty poppy, pretty neato. Lots of cool samples in the beats that I like a lot, which is what initially interested me in MBDTF/Kanye's music in general. It's also fairly interesting in how it contrasts with the identity Kanye carries today (although not as much as Late Registration did), but every album of his seems to be at least a bit different. It's a good listen!

Rating: Good

Their Satanic Majesties' Request by The Rolling Stones
Man, this really sucked. The Rolling Stones are my favorite band, but this was just not good. It sounded like they were trying to imitate The Beatles. The first half of the album was boring hippie s*** and the second half was alright but only because it had She's a Rainbow and 2000 Light Years From Home there, which are two really great classic Rolling Stones songs. Pretty much every song other than those two were lame. Super coincidence was after listening to it, I read a recent interview with Keith Richards I thought was unrelated about him s*** on Sgt. Pepper's, when he said Satanic Majesties' Request was also a piece of s*** and came out around the same time.

Rating: "Oh, if you can make a load of s***, so can we." - Keith Richards

Laundry Service by Shakira
Preview: Whenever, Wherever

This album was pretty much what I expected it to be. Whenever Wherever was my first favorite song as a kid, and if I'd bought this CD right then and there, I'm sure I'd have liked it. I have to be honest though, it's a really simple pop record. The songs themselves aren't really anything special or especially memorable. Shakira's a top tier vocalist and I'd love to see her perform, but I don't think I'd ever actually buy one of her records. Despite the rating I'm gonna give it, it's not actually a bad album, just not something for me (or likely anyone who listens to enough music to spin 30 new albums in one month). Whenever Wherever's still a great pop song though

Rating: Bad



I meant to do this last night but I fell asleep whoops
I'll get to today's album later I promise

Twilight of the Thunder God by Amon Amarth



Didn't dig this album as much as I thought I would. The title track is definitely the highlight of the album and it's a great introduction but I found myself bored for a lot of the album. Melodic death metal is cool and all but the same drum beat every song made it seem more repetitive than it was. I also felt that the rhythm guitar lacked a lot of punch, and the production was a bit too raw for me. The vocals were impressive for the first few songs but got old pretty quickly. Altogether it still had enough songs with strong riffs for me to view it positively, but I'm still pretty disappointed. Stand out tracks were Twilight of the Thunder God, Where is your God?, No Fear of the Setting Sun, and Live for the Kill.

6/10

This Great Pressure by Jogger
Preview: Master and Student

This album is a f***. It's mostly cool a** chill beats but it's all over the place with a lot of different genres and styles, including one black metal track. I don't know what f***' stars had to align for that particular track to come into being, but I f***' DIG it. Everything on this album is neato and sometimes sincerely rad as Heck. Shoutout to Look for the recommendation (probably!), this s***'s good. I don't know what all else to say about it, because it's a lot to take in, but I'm into it man.

Rating: more like This Great Album (Well, great-good. I'm hesitant to ever give the best or worst score, fight me over it)

...And now that I'm caught up, I'm gonna get behind by a few days. I'll be working out of town for a bit so I won't have a computer to post quality reviews on, although I'll try and keep caught up on the albums. Expect four reviews to pop up on Monday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If I don't see four reviews on my desk by Monday, you're fired

Synchestra by Devin Townsend
This was one of the ones I've heard before but wanted to relisten to because I didn't remember much. The first time I listened to it I was laying in bed trying to sleep and realized this was not the album for sleeping to. It's totally weird in such a great way. Starts off all calm then halfway through the second track goes hard. Stays that way for a song then throws a song about babies in. Then a polka song. Then keeps switching it up for the rest. Such a crazy, awesome album. It's the most fun Devin Townsend album I've heard.

Rating: Good, Like Babies

Crime Slunk Scene by Buckethead



I've heard a few Buckethead albums, most of them were pretty peaceful or atmospheric. This one's pretty different. It's more rock and metal oriented with a bigger emphasis on electronic elements. It's undoubtedly the best one I've heard though. I loved just about every song except Mecha Gigan, which actually gave me a headache with it's piercing noises. The lack of vocals really let me focus on the instruments, which helps because everything that isn't guitar on this album plays to compliment it. The bass and drum beat are pretty simple most of the time, and really just change tempo between songs. The guitar itself is raunchy, and for most of the songs uses delay and light distortion. Some of the songs get pretty experimental, but it's all pretty accessible, especially if you're into guitar more than anything else. Highlights were Buddy Berkman's Ballad, King James, We Can Rebuild Him, Gory Head Stump 2006, Mad Monster Party, Col. Austin VS Col. Sanders AKA Red Track Suit, Soothsayer (best one), and Slunk Parade.

9/10

Fly by Night by Rush

Pretty chill album, wasn't really a song I disliked on it. The title track and Rivendell were the highlights for me. I kinda go back and forth on thinking Geddy Lee's vocals are really good or incredibly ill-fitting for the music depending on the song. Rush in general is one of those bands for me that is consistently good at everything but for whatever reason I'm just not that into them. Like, I feel like they should be one of my favorite bands but I just forget they exist sometimes. I feel like I need a day to listen to a lot of their stuff at once.

Rating: Neil Peart Stands Alone (Good)

Sorry I was out for almost all of yesterday but here's my review now



Vegas by The Crystal Method

I'm not big on electronic, but even if I was I feel this this album would be just okay. Pretty loud, sort of weird electronic sounds following a drum beat. It's almost entirely instrumental, and the lyrics are samples that either repeat through the song or just show up once. I don't want to call it "heavy" but the album was pretty consistent with it's sort of intense tone. I dunno this album was probably better than my score but it didn't really click with me that much. Stand out tracks were High Roller, Comin' back, She's my Pusher, and Jaded.

5/10

I'll listen to Metallica later tonight

I'm still a day behind but I'll catch up soon I swear

Metallica by Metallica



This is the album where people started accusing Metallica of selling out. Yeah this isn't one of their best, but it's probably the best of their worst. What I noticed the most was an overall lack of creativity. A lot of the songs were bland, with the same riffs and some pretty boring lyrics too. I think most of the songs were really counting on their riffs to pull the rest of the song up. In some cases the riffs are catchy enough to be pretty fun to listen to, such as Wherever I Roam and Don't Tread on Me. This album does have some slower tracks that sound really great, like The Unforgiven and Nothing Else Matters. I dunno it just seems like Hetfields vocals aren't strong enough to support the heavier tracks anymore, but he's still a great singer on slower things. Overall the album just kind of lacks depth, but it's strong tracks make up for the otherwise standard, forgettable tracks. Stand out tracks are everything I mentioned above, no Enter Sandman cause I don't think it's that good.

6.5/10

Perdition City by Ulver
Preview: The Future Sound of Music

This record's got some Cool Beats, but as a whole I thought it was kind of passive for me. It didn't really hold my interest for the whole runtime, and some of the ambient moments were just boring (sorry). It had a super cool moment or two throughout, but it's not something I feel like I'll revisit. Not for me.

Rating: Okay



Underachiever by Che Aimee Dorval
Preview: Needs Fixing

So Che is the female vocalist in Devin Townsend's Ki and Casualties of Cool albums, and her voice is f*** gorgeous. This record has a more clean production style than I'm used to hearing through Devin, and I think it does a better job of highlighting her range. The songs are usually simple, folky singsong-y tracks, but her voice makes them worth listening to I think. I'm not entirely sold on a lot of the songs, but her performances on them are wonderful, and I absolutely am sold on Che as a singer. Listen to "Needs Fixing" on the Bandcamp page, just do it. Her vocals on that track actually made me say "oh wow" out loud, and that's not easy to make me do.

Rating: Great-good, gonna purchase when my check comes in



Viva! la Woman by Cibo Matto
Preview: Birthday Cake

Devin Townsend went on a mass recommendation spree on Twitter one night and this album caught my eye (as well as another one later this month). It's a trip hop record, and I think I'm beginning to understand what that means. A lot of the songs have a weird dancy atmosphere, often through some tribal//world beats, and it's a pretty entertaining listen. The vocalist is japanese I think but she sounds a lot like Bjork in a few places. It's a f*** weird sounding album tbh but I enjoyed it!! You might ought to give it a spin, Luke

Rating: Good




Week 1 favs: Jogger, Che Aimee Dorval
Least favs: Shakira, Harvey Danger


Gonna catch up w/ Pixies and Skyhill tomorrow