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.

Kiss - Asylum

1985

This one rocks surprisingly good in an early Dokken early 80's LA Metal kind of way. Better than Diver Down. Catchy 80's pop Metal.

Production wise. The vocals stand out for their searing  inhumaneness. Especially on the choruses.

This very similar to their previous album Animalize, but this one is better.

When Bruce Kulick came in to record this album. Basically he said Paul and Gene were the bosses and he did what they told him. I assume he had a certain amount of freedom. If I remember correctly. - He said Gene would work any day, but Paul wanted weekends off and between the two of them Bruce worked like 25 days in a row...and was loving every minute of it.

Kiss - Crazy Nights

1987

It was still the 70's when Kiss started playing catch up. There should be no surprises that this album sounds the way it does. In the early 80's when Metal started busting out and into the mainstream it was more legit and hard rockin'. By the time the mid/late 80's hit Metal ballads, keyboards and smokin' fast guitar solos jammed into every song...cheese pop metal had been run into the ground and been watered down to the point where it was very similar to runny diarrhea ...popular metal on MTV was really the bottom of suck. This is what Kiss is shooting for here and they nail it!

-Strong contender for worst Kiss album and not surprisingly one of their best sellers. Certainly the best selling of the non make up era.

There's some rippin smoking guitar playing here. This album is super polished. It doesn't even sound like a band. It sounds like a production.

They're going for the lowest common denominator again. They achieved it! The keyboards...A bunch of song writers helping out. Did I say this might be the worst Kiss album? But it's still and interesting time capsule. The sounds here ARE MTV 1987 so much of this reminds me of the popular rock bands played at the time. Other bands...

Kiss - Monster

2012

Kiss albums always have strong openers. Songs that grab you right away on the first listen. You're, "Wow, this is pretty good". What happens with repeated listens, and with not that many repeats, you never want to hear that song again.

     This feels like the most honest Kiss album in ages. Each song go's back and forth with Paul and Gene trade off vocals. Production is pretty fancy, where on the last album Pauls voice was sounding pretty tired. He sounds fine here. Genes vocals are his best in years and years. This album really emphasizes the strengths of their voices and somehow manage to push their weaknesses aside. I can't imagine they could ever sound this good live. I like the guitar solos too. This sounds more like amped up 80's Kiss with fancy modern day production than any of the 70's classic Kiss.

    By the time you get to the seventh song or so..."Uh, it's still going"? That's where it gets a little Gene heavy with the dumb lyrics and all. Tenth song or so Tommy gets to sing about riding midnight rockets and space. Trying but not quite capturing the essence of an Ace Frehley song that is overridden with modern day Kiss type choruses. After that the Drummer sings a song about Rock and Roll and totally nails the Peter Criss type song that you wish wasn't on the album. 

  The album ends with a song where Paul and Gene trade off vocals. Maybe the strongest song on the album, but by the time you get here...just too tired of this. Next time, I'm gonna start with the last song skip the first song and end with the Peter Criss type thud.

This album is better than Sonic Boom. (After further listening to Sonic Boom, this album is not better than Sonic Boom).

Enoch - The Hierophant

2011

Jam out fuzz out rock out.  Psyche Power trio stoner rock out extended jams.

Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac

1983

Probably my most listened to album this past Summer of 2012. Similar to the first Metallica album...
Just on the verge of Thrash without being Thrash. The vibe on this album is what conquers.

Black Moth - Killing Jar

2012

Heavy but not too heavy with killer riffs. Dark occultish rock. Killer vocals throughout. Great song writing and great band.

-Somewhere between Witch Mountain and Blood Ceremony. Really good album.

Panties - Panties

2011

Sounds like updated mid 90's Hardcore/Power Violence. Fans of Spazz will love this. Although these guys are quite a bit more pissed and evil. Nice to see they're keeping it real with the album cover.

Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage

2012

Machine gun riffage in lock step with the drums...and slides.

-Modern metal right here. Taking it to the next level. These guys do shit right.

...and harmonics.

-A top 5 2012 release.

Chronaexus - A Tempest Of Reticence

2011

Long epic Post Black Metal. Not re-inventing the wheel here, but super solid. I'd love to catch these guys live since they are a semi local/Sacramento band.

These guys have got the Black Metal thing down. I'm hoping next time they break out of the box and take it to the next level. I hope it happens.

Motorhead - No Sleep Till Hammersmith

1981

Pretty much most all extreme music be it metal or punk and be traced back to Motorhead. This album sums up their first few records with a live album. More energy and aggression coming across on the live recording.

Venom - Welcome To Hell

1981

On one hand this is a bunch of garbled speedy noise that all sounds the same. Well, that might be your first impression, but the songs here are quite distinct. Fast bombastic murky and evil. Put this next to your early Motorhead and Judas Priest records. It sounds like children trying to cover those bands, but making up their own satirical Satanic lyrics. Songs are surprisingly catchy. One of the earliest albums to mix punk and metal.

Slayer - Hell Awaits

1985

Slayer! Drums are leading the charge.and riffs and vocals and satan. They've got it all figured out here on their second album.

Voivod - War & Pain

1984

If Judas Priest went a more progressive direction and Greg Ginn played guitar for them. Awesome record. Equal parts Punk and Metal. Hanging on the Discharge/Venom/Motorhead side of the tree. Deranged vocals.

Overkill - Feel The Fire

1985

Not quite Thrash. Sounds like a bridge from NWOBHM to Thrash. Good stuff for sure. This record didn't come out until '85. I guess some of the songs were written in '83. If this record had come out in '83 these guys would have been legends. Instead they are just Over Kill.

Kreator - Endless Pain

1985

Venom meets early Slayer. The first album from Kreator. Really fast and raw.

Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

2012

Legendary Thrash/Death Metal band Kreator. How many people on this album played on the classic albums of the mid and late 80's?

This album rips and smokes. The only problem is there's a big commercial sound going on here in the choruses and some of the chant along/anthem type vocals. If you can get past that, this thing rips and smokes. Very slick production.

For fans of Slayer. Not so much for fans of Kreator old school. People say the last 4 Kreator albums all sound pretty much like this.

Nile - At The Gates Of Sethu

2012

Technical Death Metal. This is nuts but, there's enough to grab a hold of here though. Streamlined production that serves the music well. Fast.

Nile fans seem to like this release least of all. It's been getting quite a bit of play time in the car, I will tell you that.

Children Of Doom - Doom, Be Doomed, or Fuck Off

2011

Very raw sounding punkish (and by punkish I'm meaning messed up Germs, Flipper...something wrong here type of stuff) rockish metalish, with a singer who sounds like a drunk Glenn Danzig with a cold. I like this quite a bit.

Gridlink - Orphan

2011

Crazy chaotic post hardcore blast beat down.

Amen Dunes - Through Donkey Jaw

2011

Sounds like (and it is) one guy multi-tracking some mellow psychedelic tunes. I'm really gonna have to listen to this more closely if I want to figure out what language he is singing in.

Goatwhore - Blood For The Master

2012

Goatwhore pretty much rules.

Ken Mode - Venerable

2011

Post Noise Rock.

Oranssi Pazuzu - Kosmonument

2011

Swirling outer space effects throughout. Some doomy psyche, with some Sonic Youth type rythyms and occasional scary monster in a cave vocals and a bit of Black Metal tossed in at the end.

Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand

2011

Braveheart Metal.