DEVICE

ANDERS MANGA
LEFT OF AN ALL-TIME LOW
"This Circle" sure as hell sounds like "Head Like a Hole". "Empire of the Sun" sounds like some other Nine Inch Nails track that I can't place. Or even more recent Numan. Is this guy popular? This is kind of like aggressive synth pop trying to make a comeback, only it was never that popular to begin with.

BAND OF HORSES
EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME
The first song, "The First Song" begins prettily enough with piano, guitar, drums, bass, whatever. High voiced Perry Farrell clone on the mic. Not bad. Etc.

BE YOUR OWN PET
BE YOUR OWN PET
Short, snappy, aggressive guitar/drum pop songs. 15 tracks in 33 minutes. If it's a race, they will win. Foul moothed girl singer. Nice. Very nice. "We Will Vacation, You Can Be My Parasol". Sure, why the hell not. I mean, the guitar/drums thing is still hott, I guess. If it ever was. And some are convinced that it was. Though some of us are still unsure.

BLACKMORE'S NIGHT
VILLAGE LANTERNE
Sounds like ole Blackmore discovered Dead Can Dance, Evanescence and Riverdance on the same day. & got so excited he had to grow a moustache & form a band. Sure, okay. And blows the dust off "Street of Dreams" & even gets ole Joe Lynn Turner onboard.

CAEDMON'S CALL
In The Company Of Angels II: The World Will Sing
He mentions god in the first line, is this supposed to be a trick? It is.

CANNIBAL CORPSE
KILL
The song titles tell the whole story here. And I still love Cannibal Corpse even though I've never really listened to them & I don't know shit about them. I don't care. I just love the fact that they still exist on the same plane. "Five Nails through the Neck". "Submerged in Boiling Flesh". And you can't understand the singer, so that's even cooler with me.

CESIUM 137
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
I wonder what Caedmon's Call would say to the title of this album of ghey 4-on-the-floo trance pop.

DONALD FAGEN
MORPH THE CAT
'morph' the cat, huh. Seriously? I'm supposed to listen to 52 minutes centered on that concept. 'morph' the fucking cat? I liked that one song of Fagen's that was on MTV back in like 1982 that showed everyone running down to a fallout shelter in their backyard. "H Gang" kind of reminds me of that. I'm someone who was turned off Steely Dan & all their permutations forever by classic rock radio. So, sorry. 'morph' the cat. Dude.

DRYLINE
REACH FOR THE SURFACE
Consistently brutal, melodic death metal. I kept waiting for the wimpy clean vocals to kick in & ruin everything. Oh, wait. There they are. Fucking.

EMBRACE
THIS NEW DAY
Sounds like they wanna be U2 &/or Coldplay. ie big budget guitar piano drums poprock.

ENSLAVED
RUUN
Nicely melodic black metal. & the keyboardist uses a Hammond organ tone too in addition to the usual pipe organs & orchestra patches.

GOMEZ
HOW WE OPERATE
I don't know, it's not bad but it also just played for several minutes without making any impression whatsoever.

IN STRICT CONFIDENCE
WHERE SUN AND MOON UNITE EP
Genderly integrated synth pop from the old school of ....Xymox. Y'know, back when synth pop could still be a little dark without being morbid. That sounds like a compliment. I must be enjoying this. Even though if I tried to describe it I would say that the chix's voice sounds like Ace of Base. & at 54 minutes this is one long fucking EP. (though not the longest, I think Scorn might still hold the 'record' at 74 minutes).

KRISIUN
ASSASSINATION
Fucking shit, man! The opening riff to "Bloodcraft" sounds like a bunch of machine guns going off at the same time. For a long time. Nice. So it's like super prog death metal. I wonder why there isn't more of this kind of thing. 'snice. "Suicidal Savagery". I don't what that means. "Summon" = 49 seconds of bongos. Hell yes. This is what metal should be. Scary, tight as fuck and not a keyboard in sight. "Sweet Revenge" ... 'hello, victims'. Yeeeehaaghhghgh.

LITTLE WILLIES
LITTLE WILLIES
Okay, this is just fucking weird. "Roly Poly" sounds like Frank Zappa & Duane Allman playing the 'oh brother where art thou' soundtrack. Which means, yep, very annoying. "Lou Reed".

MARCEL COENEN
COLOUR JOURNEY
Ah, fake Yngwie/Satriani/Vai type shit. Dream Theater, that kind of thing. Hard rockin', but with better guitar solos & little prog bits scattered around the place. Not bad.


NERVE FILTER
LINEAR
Like an aggressive combination of Chemical Bros & Underworld? Orbital too. & new Skinny Puppy, but not so much. Dark dance music.

ROB ZOMBIE
EDUCATED HORSES
I think the last thing of Zombie's I heard was that 'deathride 69' or whateverthefuckitwas, in about 1892. Again, you'd know more about this than I do. His voice is waaaay out front. The songs are all kinda like you've heard 'em before somewhere but you can't place where. Marilyn Manson crossed with Cathedral.

SICK OF IT ALL
DEATH TO TYRANTS
Oh my god. "Machete" kix in all brutal as fuck. Distorted bass, screaming, blast beat fills. I betcha it slows down & he starts crooning any second now. Ha. Nah. I saw these guys opening for Napalm Death in 1991 or so. It struck me as odd that shorthaired dudes would ever want to rock so hard. & now of course everyone has short hair & everyone wants to rock this hard.

SO THEY SAY
ANTIDOTE FOR IRONY
I don't know, I think there's a fresh glut of bands with prepositional phrases for names & 'quirky' 'ironic' album titles. And I don't mean to sound like a fuckin' fossil, but they're pretty much interchangable, aren't they. And I'll give you a dollar if you can tell me how this band is any different from anything else that's out right now. It's like in the 80s there was a bunch of faceless hair metal. In the 90s it was meaningless grunge. Now...this.

STEREOLAB
FAB FOUR SUTURE
Well, it is Stereolab, so that should tell you something. No, that should tell you everything. Gorgeous experimental quirky sexy pop with female singing & synths & live everything. & still perfect sunny day music. "Excursions in 'oh, a-oh'".."Widow Weirdo".

TAPES 'N TAPES
THE LOON
Mm. Semi-involved alternapoprock. So I'll say Flaming Lips.

TEARS FOR FEARS
SECRET WORLD
10 live trax from the comeback tour & two new studio ones. I loathed the comeback album at first but calmed down & accepted its beauty eventually. Then I forgot about it completely. So I can revisit the trax with freshie ears. This is mostly 'greatest hits live' but they do a big batch of newer shit too. The studio stuff is in line with everything else. Beatle-y as dick.

BLOODHOUND
NOSFERATU
Wow, I didn't think this kind of thing existed anymore. Dark but cool hard rock metal. Euro, obviously. Kinda Maidenish & the singer sounds like Jeff Scott Soto or the other dude who sang on the early Yngwie albums.

TEARS OF ANGER
IN THE SHADOWS
Modern metaltronica. Maybe more on the Queensryche end of things. With the occasional downtuned riff. Oddly enjoyable.

DRUDKH
BLOOD IN OUR WELLS
Long songs, lots of screaming, badly-recorded drums. Borderline racist song titles. Must be brutal black metal then.

STEVE KAHN
THE GREEN FIELD
Fucking nice guitar/bass/drums jazz trio.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
THE GOODNIGHT MOON
I don't know, I think there's a fresh glut of bands with prepositional phrases for names & 'quirky' 'ironic' album titles. And I don't mean to sound like a fuckin' fossil, but they're pretty much interchangable, aren't they. And I'll give you a dollar if you can tell me how this band is any different from anything else that's out right now. It's like in the 80s there was a bunch of faceless hair metal. In the 90s it was meaningless grunge. Now...this.

THE LIVING END
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Fake Foo Fighters.

THE VINES
VISION VALLEY
Hm. Catchy & cacky riff-rock. "Futuretarded". And "Atmos", hey, they stole my word. Which I stole from Rik & Ade on 'Bottom'.

TRAIN
FOR ME IT'S YOU
Hasn't their record deal run out yet?

VAN MORRISON
PAY THE DEVIL
I've never had a Van Morrison phase. And I stand by that decision. I mean, isn't this guy known more for his songwriting than his country & western crooning? Does he think he's Lyle Lovett now?

VAARTINA
MIERO
Now you're talkin'. This shit is just weird. I love it. It reminds me of that Miranda Sex Garden EP when they came back as, like, a full band. That was the shit. Vaartina is the shit too. The vocals sound like the Bulgarian Women's Choir. Actually this sounds like a rock band version of Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares. So..fuck yeah.

VREID
PITCH BLACK BRIGADE
"Då Draumen Rakna" opens & it's just ungodly, brutal, deathly black metal. Hence my erecti0n. Yeah, I dig it.

WILDERNESS
VESSEL STATES
Squawky clean guitars, the singer sounds like he's kidding with his two-note range. Sounds like rock-band improv. So I'll say Tool.

WINTERS BANE
Redivivus
More of the euro hard rock metal guitar band stuff with the Maiden vocals. Not bad for what it is but I'd probably only listen to it to make fun of the singer.

ZYKLON
DISINTEGRATE
Hmm. It'd be ignorant for me to say that it sounds like Emperor, since this band includes Emperor peeps. But guess what.