Rise Against – Nowhere Generation LP
Rise Against Nowhere Generation LP + 7” (Loma Vista Records/Universal Music Group) It feels difficult to believe that, with Nowhere Generation, Rise Against has…
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The Avalanches – Since I Left You (4LP Deluxe reissue)
The Avalanches Since I Left You 4LP (20th Anniversary reissue) (Astralwerks/Universal Music) While I have serious reservations about a reissue which features enough remixes…
Finger Eleven – Five Crooked Lines
It was very reasonable to assume that Finger Eleven had totally sold out years ago. Back in 2003, the success of “One Thing” –…
Black Sabbath – 13
Hellbound Metal: “It sounds awful, but 13 is not a bad album – it’s simply not the Black Sabbath album that a lot of fans will accept as a rousing return.”
Rob Zombie – Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
Hellbound Metal: If listeners were uncertain of what to expect from Rob Zombie now, seven years after his music began to struggle and movies clearly began to take up more of his time,the singer spells out what they’re going to get pretty clearly from the moment “Teenage Nosferatu Pussy” explodes to open Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, his fifth album.
KISS – Monster
KISS has been providing songs which cater to that affection for forty years and their wellspring of inspiration is in no danger of drying up, as Monster proves.
Soundgarden – King Animal
King Animal isn’t just some pale and passably competent effort designed to take hopeful fans for a few bucks – there is genuine heart in it, and that is what will win both old fans back and new fans to this record.
Killing Joke – MMXII
In short, MMXII by Killing Joke is one mighty fine follow-up record to its illustrious predecessor. The album has all the hallmarks of a great record. It has the songs, boundless energy and all the apocalyptic themes to do for.
Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth
Against all the odds, the band has managed to believably make twenty-seven years of chasing its tail melt away and re-present themselves in such a way that implies they were never actually gone.
Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare
The nightmare thread notwithstanding, Alice and company could have given this a different title and stayed away from the ‘sequel’ aspect and still had this be the best, most complete sounding Alice Cooper album in a decade. Yes, even the song with Ke$ha (‘What Baby Wants’) is catchy as hell, if not a little discoesque (ala Goes To Hell).
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