The Faceless - Planetary Duality

2008

Progressive/Technical Death Metal. First impression made me think about the inhumanly fast drums and super human starts and stops, but after more listens I forgot all about that stuff. Now it's just nutty Technical metal that does not suck. These guys make it work. Album seems pretty short which actually helps.

AC/DC - Black Ice

2008

This sounds bored and generic. Production wise it's great. Brian Johnsons' voice sounds as good as it ever has. AC/DC know how to do it, it just sounds uninspired.

-This sucks. Bad. Can't listen to it without getting annoyed and angry.

Deadbird - Twilight Ritual

Eyehategod plays Neurosis. This album crushes and rules.

Indian - Slights and Abuse / The Sycophant

2007 / 2008

Big crushing heaviness that is a steamroller of a beatdown. For fans of Black Cobra, High On Fire...also long, long slow parts.

-This is two vinyl releases collected on one CD.

Portrait - Portrait

2008

Mercyful Fate worship. If King Diamond had a cold and was singing in a cave. The band rocks real good.

Those Poor Bastards - Satan Is Watching

2008

Fire and brimstone preachin' from some crazy Marilyn Manson/Tom Waits two headed monster.

Hell Bullet - Kill For Beer - DEMO

Extreme thrash somewhere between early Slayer and Kreator. This is one thick wall of relentless thrash. Awesome.

-These guys are from Brazil. Hell Bullet MySpace.

Luz Atomica - Luz Atomica

These guys have got a grimey Alice Cooper kinda thing going on. Sleazy glammy grime rock. Sounds like they're gettin' into whatever L.A. Guns was gettin' into. Later in the album there's a song that sounds like The Clash covering Duran Duran.

Across Tundras - Western Sky Ride

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

The Pack A.D. - The Funeral Mix-Tape

If you like your blues in the style of The White Stripes or the Black Keys and not Eric Clapton. You'll be diggin' this. Female vocals remind me of Chrissie Hynde sometimes, more bluesy wailin' though.

Your Highness Electric - The Grand Hooded Phantom

Wolfmother with a little more originality. Catchy stuff. Gateway band for your friends who don't care for the heavy.

AC/DC - Black Ice

If it ain't broke don't fix it. It is broke though since no song on this album is as good as any of AC/DC top couple dozen. This album even sounds kinda dumbed down if you can believe that. HA! It doesn't suck, well, yeah it does a little. There's 15 songs on here. If they had trimmed it down to 8 or 9 this could have been a relatively strong record.

Fun Facts: There's an eight year gap between this and their previous album Stiff Upper Lip.

Apostle Of Solitude - Sincerest Misery

2008

Modern sounding retro doom with soulful young Gene Simmons like vocals. I like this one quite a bit. Mellow and easy to listen to. That's subjective though...a lot of stuff I listen to when I'm by myself ends up being much more abrasive when I play it with other people around.

Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations

2008

The vocals are just plain silly. Breathy monster croaks. The music is pretty good though and has me trying to look past the vocals. Big heavy doomy metal that rocks. The vocals are not even in the realm of being judged as good or bad. They're just stupid.

Fun Facts: I guess the vocals are supposed to be stupid because this is "horrorcore" or something like that. Good luck.

The Bottle Doom Lazy Band - Blood For The Bloodking

2008

Big big heavy slow monstrous riff doom. Much like early Melvins or Grief. If these guys were a local band I'd go see them every time they played. Listening to the CD reminds me of other CD's I already own and have listened to a million times. That's not to say this isn't good stuff. The only thing that sets it apart is the vocals. WHen they get into the groove everything seems fine. The really slow parts however border on comedy. The album has some interludes to break up the doom.
Slow and long songs for fans of heavy rock doom. Not that wimpy goth doom.

The Band - Platinum

Even better than the Doobie Brothers.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

2008

As an album I think it's tedious.

It sounds like riffs and parts just stacked on each other and it seems to go on forever.

It probably would have made a nice EP or 3 song maxi single.

The songs don't sound like songs. They don't go anywhere or tell a story. Like Master of Puppets or the songs from the first 2 albums.

I can hardly take these guys seriously after seeing Some Kind of Monster.

They should have gone back to their old NWOBHM albums and stole some of those riffs that the didn't use on the first record.

The albums isn't bad in small doses. I'll give it a 7 or so.

If this wasn't a Metallica record I doubt I would like it as much, or maybe think it's a little better than it is because of the familiarity factor.
Like old friends.