Fields - Fields

Hippy rock... sorta. Not the best recording, production wise, in the world. Tasty guitar work throuout. Bluesy rockin' too. Pretty cool. Like chatting on-line with babes all day. Like your friends band, where your surprised they sound as good as they do. Fields actualy get a little over ambitious in the next to last song. Finishing off with a blues rocker that sounds like an informal jam going nowhere then they throw in some horns and guitar solo out like they know what they're doing...almost. Cool record. They not afraid of epic jams or not quite able to pull 'em of. They do manage to keep it interesting. They can always fall back on the guitar player. I'll give 'em an A for effort, or maybe a B+. The last song goes on for an unbelievably long time.

James Gang - Yer' Album

Little bit trippy. Little bit groovin'. Got that organ going. Cool guitar playing. Joe Walsh has a cool voice (I think all the band members share vocals). Catchy hard rock. Some funky drumming. Some orchestration. A bunch of good songs. There's one wanky bluesy time jam that goes on too long, but everything else is top notch. A little bit hippy sometimes, but not too bad. Hard rock. Last song jams out forever like they're Lynyrd Skynrd or something.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping

Sweet Home Alabama

Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny

Ramesses - Take The Curse

Original rythym section from Electric Wizard. Better than anything Electric Wizard MK II has put out. Crushing Doom with some noisey atmospherics. Somewhere black metal and Black Sabbath. Not really black metal at all. Sorry I said that.

Monster Magnet - Spine Of God

At this point Monster Magnet had a raw RAW rockin' sound. They were touchin' on psychedelia ...They really reminded me of early Mudhoney. The two bands went in completly different directions, but early on they seemed to be drawing from the same influences. Probably the Stooges and a bunch of weed and beer. Maybe a few hits of acid here and there. Think I'll wet my pants doing whippetts. Lots of spacey-ness, but it's all got an aggressive edge to it.

Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado

I think this one more than any other ELO album features the orchestra as a core part of the band and music. They live up to their name here. Pop music utilizing orchestral instruments. Big thanks to the Beatles, I suppose, is due...or at least George Martin. Each progressive ELO album after this seems to use the Orchestra less and less as the main structure of the songs, but more for accents. I'm pretty sure they abandonded the Orchestra all together by the end of their run. Anyway, it's in full effect here. Lots of sounds. Good stuff.

Across Tundras - Western Sky Ride

Post-Rock. I'll have to come back to this one.

Crippled Black Phoenix - The Resurrectionists

Post-Rock. Any band that gets labeled "Post-Rock" might as well be call Post Neurosis, or maybe Neurosis-Core. I'm sure each band is bringing their own thing to the mix, but you know, fuck it I'm old. You could probably add to the latest bunch, Neurosis-Floyd-core. I just don't have the patience. I'm gonna have to come back to this one.

Wicked Lady - Blow Your Mind

Heavy bluesy rock. Real dirty rockin' like Blue Cheer by way of The Stooges. Heavier Grand Funk type break downs and jam groovin'. Really raw recording. I don't know that fancy production would really help. This is music for people who don't like to take a bath. Totally diggin' this, but I think I might have to take a shower. Keep it simple stupid. A couple songs might seem to go on too long, but they start to take on a Flipper quality to them, and if you took as many bong hits as the band then they probably won't seem that long at all.

Trouble - Psalm 9

Keeping the Doom flag burning even when it wasn't cool. Should have been Metal enough to keep the kids happy, back in the day anyway. Tinny production, I have an old cassette so that may be the problem. The tunes rock plenty good. Metallic Doom 80's style. Is thata Cream cover at the end? I think it is.

Jex Thoth - Witness

Heavy mostly slow Doom with melodic female vocals. Organ sounds like church. Mostly depressing, sounds like Come if they were a lot heavier. Sounds like it was recorded on a boom box. Which is fine with me. It doesn't take away from it's effectiveness. This is a three song EP. Good stuff.

Burning Saviours - Hundus

Traditional doom, but not all slowed down. It's the regular stuff like Pentagram, Black Sabbath...Witchcraft is what it really reminds me of. It's hardly heavy enough to be called Doom. Lightweight, but appealing.

UFO - Lights Out

Couple good songs and some nice soloing. This doesn't do much for me. You know, it's kinda crappy.

Raven - Wiped Out

On their first album they got some rock mixed in with their metal. On this, Ravens' second album it's all Metal all the time. Falling somewhere between Priest and Maiden. Lots of shredding going on. Metal to the bone.

Armored Saint - Symbol Of Salvation

Hard Rock/Metal like Y&T or Keel. Seems like this type of Metal was out of fashion in 1991. I'm told this is the best Armored Saint album. I'm only familiar with March Of The Saint and that one is not bad at all. This one is more in the pocket and driving.

Exodus - Exhibit B: The Human Condition

Old school thrash with a post Pantera influence. As good as they've ever been. Big modern day wall of hugeness prodution. Regular guy Hetfield type vocals. No monsters of screaming memes here. (Although the vocals do get a little superhuman once in a while that's OK the kids dig it). This record punishes.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced 'leh-'nerd 'skin-nerd

Southern rock! Their first album and a virtual greatest hits collection. Guitars rule. Melodies and all the playing and singing are great. It comes across as emotional and honest. File this under awesomely great...oh, and Freebird.

Raven - Back To Ohio Blues

Raven - Back To Ohio Blues (1975) Stars 4
Ghetto psyche blues. Sounds like the White Stripes! Raw blues rockin' good stuff. I can't believe it's not Metal. If Led Zeppelin was a garage band.

Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties

Psychedelic feel under there. I wouldn't call it metal. It's menacing and heavy. Not as heavy or plodding as Sabbath. It's hard rock, but not just hard rock. These guys are doing a lot of playing. Little proggy like Jethro Tull. I don't know much about Zappa or the Tubes (or Jethro Tull for that matter), but for some reason those bands come to mind.

Van Halen - Mean Streets

Dave does his best to whoop it up, but this is Van Halens' darkest and heaviest album. I wish they would have continued in this direction, instead it pretty much starts going down hill after this one.

Shooter Jennings and Hierophant - Black Ribbons

Starts out sounding like Dead Meadow doing Pink Floyd. This is some kind of concept album with a 1984 type theme or something. Most of the album has a David Bowie/Nine Inch Nails type electronic feel, I suppose to go along with the concept. This is a good album. A little too electronicky for my taste.

The Lizards - Cold Blooded Kings

Good 70's sounding hard rock. The singer lets out some wails like Chris Cornell every once in a while.

- This sounds like it should have come out 20 years earlier. Should appeal to fans of Whitesnake.

Savoy Brown - Blue Matter

Blues rock. Still stayin' true to the Blues. No Led Zeppelin here. Starts out pretty mellow. Seems like each song ends louder than it began. As the album progresses the energy level picks up. By the time they get to the last few songs they almost sound like Cream.

Foreigner - Foreigner

Late 70's hard rock that is closer to light rock. Sorta like Bad Company, but Bad Company is cooler. This album starts out pretty strong but by the time your into the second side it just starts getting too lightweight for my taste.

Van Halen - Women And Children First

I'm Takin' some whiskey to the party tonight and I'm lookin' for somebody to squeeze.