PARTIAL

utorrent is good except it hijacks the system pretty much. And everything else runs like an afterthought.



VENOM
METAL BLACK
New Venom sounds a lot like old old Venom. I actually liked the updated sound of Resurrection, the last studio album. The new one is a tiny bit retro in spots. But it still rules, obviously. & Mykusssessses's guitar playing sounds like Zakk Wylde or Dimebag. Lots of pulled harmonics & whammy pedal abuse. I approve.

Old school Venom all the way. Big riffs, double-bass drumming, screamalong choruses. And hailing Satanus. Venom has a high profile now that they're on Sanctuary & all the dudes my age in the early generations of extreme metal still wear Venom shirts. I'd wear one. "Assassin" is kind of a different strain of metal song. The lyrics sound like the brief to a rubbish first person shooter for the Playstation. Still, you gotta love Venom. & there's not a trace of black metal on this album, if that's what you're looking for.




TWISTED SYSTEM
CORE
"Stark Raver" might be all Star Wars samples, I don't know. ...Ah, yep. Well, Star Wars themed anyway. There's the Death Star theme? Techno style. Light sabers in the airrrrrahhh!! "Razor" is probably a similar pisstake, but to me it just sounds like straight trance. The whole album is four on the floor dance music. So there ya go. & "Beautiful People" is indeed a Marilyn Manson cover. I can say I saw that one coming. Because I did.



THE FOLD
THIS TOO SHALL PASS
Um, back when we had MTV most recently - six months ago? - this kind of crap was everywhere. Overproduced dude-singer pop rock with hard metal undertones. Which, that description just sounds like Poison. That's not this. "Going For My Lungs" has nice big chords but what they do with them is just vile. I can't listen to this crap, it makes me want to go to the mall.



David Fiuczynski/Dennis Chambers/Jeff Berlin/T. Lavitz
BOSTON T PARTY
Unabashed fusion. Fiuczynski is the only name I don't know out of this laundry list of fusionists. The first track, "D'funk'd" has kind of a jokey melody played on synth & guitar. The solos are of course where all the action is. With that synth, this could be some early 70s Moog shit happening. But it's snot. I don't know if it's good or bad but it didn't send me running out of the room. Even though many aspects are just downright cheesy.