Lordi - Get Heavy (2002)

SoriM here (a.k.a Pissed Gamer), and I just took over Metalhead’s (not so) Daily. *evil laugh*. No, just kidding, I am the second author, Metalhead barely afforded me. Consider me second in command here.My English may not be perfect, but I’m still able to review stüff and people comprehend me; so if you do not understand surely can’t be my fault. Also, I thought it was a cool I idea to write here, but then I realized I am not experienced enough in meal music to even dare to review an album. But since I’m already in, I’m going to try. Here goes nothing!:

I am not surprised you didn’t heard about Lordi so far. Funny thing, I first found out about Lordi in this video. Not a very nice way to get to know about a band, but for me it was enough to get me curious. Lordi is a Finnish hard rock band, which was formed in 1996 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume-designer, Mr. Lordi. The band is known for wearing monster masks and using pyrotechnics during concerts. (Thanks, Wikileaks Wikipedia!)

This album here is actually their first album. It consists of the first songs that I listened from them. So, let me review each piece of the album.

"Scarctic Circle Gathering" – 1:02 (Ambient) – Now, I can’t say too much about this one, it’s an intro, so it don’t have lyrics. But the way it sounds, makes you think about that scary but yet awesome stüff (I love using this word) is about to happen. A very good way to debut. The album introduction it sounds like it’s promising awesomeness, let’s see if the album give us what it’s promising in it’s intro.

"Get Heavy" – 3:01 – Oh, already the song that gives the name of the album? It doesn’t have a long intro, it looks like Lordi likes to get straight to business. For me the lyrics sounds like getting into business, blowing the doors off, a beginning for good times , kewl stüff (it’s not only the word, but the actual Norwich language that attracts me) about to happen. Coming to think about it, it’s the debut song, of course it freaking sounds like this! Nothing really special about this piece, they tell us to “get heavy”.

"Devil Is a Loser" – 3:29 – Now, this one is really kick-ass stüff (and of course, are also the Norwich chicks that attracts me, to be honest). Just listen to this song and you will feel like kicking asses. You have to have guts to say “Devil is a loser, he’s my bitch!”. From what I understood from reading the lyrics, it’s about dealing with the devil, and owning him. This song in particular I like it, it’s the reason I choose this album to review it. It’s one of the most popular Lordi’s song.

So far, the album followed a continuing line. First, the intro that makes you think “ohhhh, it’s ON now!!”, then the song of blowing down doors and entering awesomeness, where you kick a butt, and not only butt, but the Devil’s himself butt! I wonder what’s next?

"Rock the Hell Outta You" – 3:06 – You know the sensation, when a music fills your vines, you turn the speakers loud and…well, the song rocks the hell outta you? Yeah, for me this is the feeling this song gives to me. I am not telling you that this song is the be(a)st, it just, well, continues the Line of Awesomeness I told you about it a few line up. A thing that I must mention, is that like in many other songs of their, the re is a part, somewhere after the half, when the voice gets more deep, kind of evil casting if you think. That part expresses even more awesome juice.

"Would You Love a Monsterman?" – 3:02 – I’ll be hones with you, I love the song. I have hummed this chorus unintentional a few times, surprising myself. This one is another piece that people may know Lordi for it. Talking of the humming stuff (yeah!), the first thing I can say about this album piece is the fact that is catchy. Very! It says “Would you love a monsterman? Could you understand the beauty of the beast?”. Somehow makes me think about “ Beauty and the Beast”. Now, my philosophy is not advanced enough to talk about the meaning of the lyrics, but I can tell about those that its refers to loving someone despite the fact that is not, well, attractive. What I also observed about this song is that it is clear. You know that many times you can’t understand all they say in the song, mostly in rock. That’s why there are the lyrics and misheard lyrics videos of the song on YouTube. Not sure, but Would You Love A Monsterman sounds clearer to me. It’s crystal clear. The crystal of this album, because it is the best song of the album, besides Devil Is A loser. Also keep in mind that the band members look like monsters. Monstermen.

"Icon of Dominance" – 4:35 – I see that the fans are really appreciating this one, but I myself don’t like it that much. It’s a little different than the most of the song. I usually love when a band does a song that is more different, more beautiful, special (for example Rammstein’s Ohne Dich). But this time, no. It kind of irritates me how the musicality slows down. It’s just not done right.

"Not the Nicest Guy" – 3:13 – The lyrics are cool enough. It casts the idea of having a stranglehold on someone. Automatically, I compared in my mind this with Sad But True (Metallica) and Puritania (Dimmu Borgir) because of the meaning of being bad with someone. No, they don’t resemble that much, but this is how my mind works. Maybe it is actually rude from me to compare this with such masterpieces. Maybe because it’s not good enough. Perhaps this song is not the nicest one. At all.

"Hellbender Turbulence" – 2:46 – If being a little short isn’t bad enough, find out that I don’t like the song at all. I couldn’t extract nothing from the meaning juice of the lyrics, and the musicality doesn’t sound any good either. Consider it not bad, but somewhere between bad and average.

8 tracks already and I needed a break, to listen something I love. The line of Awesome that the album appeared to throw up became a curve. Listening to the last 3 tracks gave me headaches. Maybe I am also tired, but this really disappoints me, I thought the album was serious in building a straight line of awesome stüff.

"Biomechanic Man" – 3:22 – This can be something that a lot of audiophiles may appreciate. The deeper voice part sounds like a biomechanic monster talking, and at the beginning and at the end they made sounds specifically for a biomechanic thing. Overall the song pumps you up with adrenaline, the musicality demands your head to bang. It’s more better than it’s the last 2 or 3.

"Last Kiss Goodbye" – 3:07 – First thing you notice in this song is that the voice is a little different, a tone not bad-ass but the same awesome. I like also the sounds from the introduction. As for the lyrics, they sound like a love song; the first song that came in my mind to compare this with it is Vermillion, Vermillion Part 2 from Slipknot. Don’t think about the meaning, they are different, I am referring at the idea of love, making a song that is a little special. This piece is cool too.

"Dynamite Tonite" – 3:13 – It starts epic. The lyrics are expressing bad-assery, making a cold woman to melt. Of course, it reminded me of the song called “Bad to the bone” (when I am doing a review, the song/movie/game reminds of others, I hope I am not ruining it this way). I really like this piece, I think I am going to listen to it in the future, maybe I will even add it to some of my playlists. The musicality is great, audiophiles reading this shall try the song.

"Monster Monster" – 3:23 – Can’t say I like this one. Maybe my ear is not trained for this style. The first half-minute is epic, love it, but then I was disappointed by sounds that my ear doesn’t approve that much. But I can’t criticize this song, it’s well done, I admit. It’s an average one, not very good, not bad either. But I am sure the Lordi listeners love this one a lot.

"13" – 1:06 (Ambient) – What a coincidence, it’s also the 13^th track! Maybe they went out of ideas and just called it “thirteen” ? No, I think it’s because of the evil meaning of the number 13. This ambient is creepy stuff, you can hear some cries in it, and at the end it sounds like a man trapped inside somewhere, beating at the door. It is awesome when some things, things like this, you only hear them, letting your brain to imagine and interpret how you want. This way of ending an album gives me the idea that the band are expressing “that’s all lads, if you liked it, ok, if you don’t, curse you; we’ll be back suckers!”. Or, dunno, you can interpret it how you want.

So the album looked like it delineate a Line of Awesomeness, that curves down at the middle and then straight up again, like walking and doing a few steps a bit wrong. Overall, this album has good stüff. I don’t say that some songs are bad, but are average. But this album have also some nice cream, a few songs that you can consider them Lordi’s masterpieces.

*Bonus thingy stuff: check out the video clips. They are not Rammstein video clips, but they’re good.

Now you lads don’t get too excited. I won’t be actually active here. Consider my posts only like opening the window for fresh air.

The Underworld Regime by Ov Hell (2010)

So there's this bug buzz lads, that black metal died, all the classic (or otherwise... "true") fans are all whining "black metal's dead, the new stuff is a poser shit, blah blah blah...". Just a heads up, black metal hasn't died, it has evolved, into more melodic stüff, and hey, after all, ya can't blame someone for wanting money, and the new black metal also sounds really cool, now, apart from this, not even classic black metal is dead, and I'm gonna show you this today, with this album, The Underworld Regime, by a super super-band called Ov Hell. In 2007 Ghaal and King ov Hell of Gorgoroth tried to take over the "Gorgoroth" name to start their own band with that name. In 2009 they lost, and didn't recived credits for the name, so they formed the band "God's Seed", but later the same year Ghaal retired. King ov Hell contaced Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir and revived God's Seed, under the new name of Ov Hell, and guess who helped them make their first album, Ice Dale, Teloch and Frost. I don't know many things about Teloch and Ice Dale, but...Frost? Alongside with King and Shag? Ya have to dig deep to find stüff like this lads, really, really deep! That's the band's story, and it's as black metal as it gets, so stop complaining. Let's start, shall we...

The first song is called Devil's Harlot, and it's 3:23 long. Well the start sounds black metal enough, whiners, it's really fast, really harsh and really heavy. Shagrath kicks in and now it's really intresting, 'cause he doesen't really sounds such classic black metal, I mean, he sounds incredible in Dimmu, but he doesen't fits incredibly well in the classic black metal scene, the closest one I could find to Shag's style is Ghaal himself...more or less. Anyway, at around one minute, the next riff - is - killer! The blastbeat's snares comes at the time with the guitar's palm-muted E's and it's incredibly bad ass. At around two minutes and a half, another part kicks in and it's just incredible, I can't even describe it, it's darn good, the song ends with the main riff and Shag repeating the song's name: cool.

This next song (Post Modern Sadist, 4:56) starts really dark, with a woman singing, but in the middle of this intro, I am pretty sure I heared "Fuck me! Sex!" by another woman. Anyways the song kicks in with a great riff and Shagrath doesen't sounds so strange in this one. The breakdown's in this song make it really colorful, and, might be just me, but this song kind of has an Immortal feeling about it. Anyways, a really colorful song, wich is pretty rare in black metal, imposible to bore you, this song is really good.

We reach track number three, Invoker, 4:26, now with intros like this, I really get the title of the album, all this intros have this urban horror movie feeling about them. Anyways, this intro is shorter than the one in the last song and the song basically blasts off in a heavy riff + Shag screaming, the riff is pretty apocalyptic in feeling. This song kind of has a chorus, with a nice riff, and this "INVOKEEEER" screaming, and some things in between. I basically love King's backing vocals in this one. They are absolutley awsome. And around three minutes there's this riff that kind of reminds me of melodic death metal, that's a little minus to the song, but the riff is really, really short lived, so it doesen't matter really much. But at the end either a guitar or a keyboard (more like a guitar) kicks in with a melodic part, it isn't to bad, it is pretty nice, I wouldn't have minded it without, though, but it's nice like this as well.

Track number 4, Perpetual Night, 3:36 is what I call a black metal song. King's vocals are very pronounced in this one, wich I love, Shag also kind of redeemed himself with pretty nice vocals. The riffs have black metal written all over it, a really straight to the point song, pretty harsh one. It isn't really colorful, though, and for people a bit newer to black metal and people that don't like black metal it might sound a bit repetitive because of that. One thing to really notice is King's vocals wich are really apocalyptic and sound very, very good.

The fifth song is called Ghosting and is pretty long, it's 6:16, maybe due to the fact that it has a lower BPM (it's a bit slower). The opening riff is really dark and sad, it doesen't matter it isn't fast and Shagrath's singing really fits very well with this slow style of songs. This song is pretty repetitive, but it's pretty good considering the fact that it's the first one in wich Shag doesen't sounds really strange. I also, didn't really noticed Frost in this one, unlike the other songs. The guitarists though, should have a beer, 'cause they own the song (King as well, 'cause he wrote it.).

66666666666666... sorry xD, 6th track is Acts of Sin, also not really short song, 5:19. It seems the quality of the recording has lowered a bit, wich is something I was wondering about the other songs, the quality seemed just a bit to high. Also, I like Shag in this one, too, his accetable, yet it seems that all the energy he put in Dimmu's "In Sorte Diaboli" (wich is an incredible album) left him with nearly no energy whatsoever. I still like his lower vocals, though, and this song has a pretty good deal of them, not to mention he sounds nearly as good as in the last song and Frost did an amazaing job in this one, he's the one with the beer on this song. Also nice ending with suffering folk (or maybe it's just a suffering woman, I don't get it) and then a laughing old woman sound, pretty nice.

Song number seven: Krigsatte Faner, 3:54. This song is pretty basic, Shagrath returned to his strange vocals, and has added up some double-layered vocals and the guitar even has some solo-like parts, that pretty low in volume, some people might not even notice them at first. The second lead riff will surely be noticed, though, as it is higher in volume. Frost did very good in this song, not something to blow you away, but it's good. This is the lowest rated song of the album as of yet (rated by me, so it's my opinion, it isn't a law or something), let's se how the last song turns out.

The eight song, also the last one, is called Hill Norge, it's 5:46 and starts pretty nice, with more urban horror movie noise, that changes power from left to right if you listen with your headset. This is another pretty slow song, wich means Shag is pretty acceptable and I got to say the main riff is darn nice. I have to say, I am not a fan of how Shagrath writes lyrics, his not even old but he thinks his some legend now because of Dimmu Borgir and started going down the hill. Anyways I like the music side of this song, it's really great, I like slow-ish black metal songs, they always seem so colorful, even if they are repetitive. I got to give it to King for this song, he wrote it flawlessly (apart from the fact that his vocals are too awsome for describing words).

If you like black metal you will definetly like this, I like it, it's not one of my faves but it's really, really good. It would be a dream if more people would be inspired by this and start a Third Wave of
Black Metal. This album is worth the bucks for any black metal listener, it is really tough, and it isn't really repetitive, it's very tehnical and colorful, with a tiny bit more recording quality than most black metal albums, but not too much. I would love a third black metal wave with this caracteristics. Here's some samples:

Post Modern Sadist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8azw4E2icw

Perpetual Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZYx8VWuPng

Ghosting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KoBBoWEKeU

Dark Passion Play by Nightwish (2007)

Hello lads, so I had this terrible, terrible internet problem and I couldn't do nothing, well after some thoughts I decided not to make a daily of this anymore 'cause of many factors that influence this, included the fact that it takes about 2 hours to make a review, anyways, I WILL continue doing. You definetly should know who Nightwish is, but if you don't know the band let me fresh you up with some stüff, Nightwish is a band from Finland, they play power metal although they are often mistaken for gothic metal due to use of frontwoman, rather than frontman. So until their last album the frontwoman was Tarja Turunen, but stuff can happen, and when it's not "stüff", well, it's stuff, and people leave bands, anyways she was replaced by Annete Olzon, the frontwoman with a strange (and in my opinion undeserved) difficulty of getting people to like her, like most of the bands that change frontmen/frontwomen. So just like in my first review, guess what, we shall see about the album that features the new vocalist and just like in my first review we shall se why so many people are wrong when disrespecting the new band leader for no freaking good reason. Soooooo, what the hell am I waiting for? I don't know...... ah, oke, done waiting, let's go on with the review, shall we?

So the first track's called The Poet and the Pendulum, and it's darn long, it's so long it hurts, it's 13:54 long. So if it's not an incredibly epic song, I will say: "Are you f*ucking kiddin' me?! For a song so long it definetly must be super-epicly-darn-kick ass! Like "Satan's Fall" or something like that..." So let's see if it's epic enough to deserve it's duration. The beggining is very, very sweet, it has "classical" written all over it, after that it blasts into a heavy instrumental wich... OWNS! The verse parts have this Annete Olzon feeling, really nice. This is what I expect from choruses, to be explosive and heavy, the only thing heavier than a chorus should only be bridges, and this chorus is one heavy son of a song. After the second chorus we come back to the good 'ol balad part, wich is really well written and serene, the only thing I don't like here is the mixing, they could rise Annete just a tinny bit more, but this won't be a problem when it reaches the point where there's double-layered vocals. We get heavy through some whispers and some really kick ass orchestra, I got to give it to Tuomas, he really hit it big with this one, I already knew hes one hell of a composer but this stüff is mind blowing, he aranged the instruments so well, it's like aranged chaos when it hits the guitar parts, now Marco's part.... It's not often I can say I don't like how he sings, but on this one I'm not a fan of his performance at all, anyways Annete comes with the chorus saving us, kind of a strange bridge comes next because it has references to Tuomas, I'm not a fan of that... Anyways we follow up with nice balad parts once again, followed by a song-ending instrumental, one very, very well written instrumental, a great way to end a song. Does this song deserves it's duration? Hell yeah!

The second track, one of the albums singles, Bye Bye Beautiful, it's 4:14 and the lyrics are about Tarja and her leaving the band. Ok, the intro is pretty nice, heavy, nothing wrong about that. The verse is just sexy, it's so good, how can people dislike the way Annete sings? If this is "pop-ish" then hell yeah, give me pop. The prechorus is really intresting, with Marco singing, it's really nice, and the chorus brings those Marco-only vocal style, this powerful shouts, really nice. The bridge, also with Marco singing is also pretty evil, and what I like most in this song is the last prechorus where Annete also sings some "aaaaa" stüff while Marco does his own stüff.

Moving on to Amaranth. the third track, it's 3:51, the shortest song on the album. This song is an ok song, but for some reason, you can't stop listening to it, it's addictive, like really, the verse is ok to good, it has this "come on, do it!" feeling, the only thing really beautiful about this one is the chorus, it's one of the sweetest pieces of music I ever heard, and it's not even a balad. The bridge has a pretty nice riff, I love how Annete sings it, it's so provocative, something in my opinion Tarja wouldn't be able to do, we get out of the bridge with the chorus, wich is awsome, it is a double chorus in wich the second one is enhanced with some additional double-layered vocals, also it has a nice, really short ending.

Cadence of Her Last Breath - 4:14 - the intro is kick ass, I wouldn't mind a longer intro, anyways the verse is nice and the chorus is preeeeetty good, not the usual heavy chorus, but the objective of the chorus is to release the sentiments gathered in the verse, and that hasn't got to be always heavy, I like it after the second chorus, there's a solo, and the bridge is heavy as hell (compared to the genre's standards) and it's also instrumental. The very last bit of the bridge transfers really well into the last chorus. A very neat song, some people at least, will definetly enjoy this one.

The next one is Master Passion Greed, 6:02. Oh yeah, three word title, I have a good feeling about this one. It starts of pretty heavy, I like it, this unuion between bass, guitar and drums, with the keys coming in after to do a small lead, just to return into a very heavy and cool riff, well actually, not only one. Marco sings the verse parts and it has a thrash feeling about it, very Annihilator-ish. The chorus is pretty basic, both the vocalist sings and the keybords kind of "sings" with them in a very powerfull way. This song is full of colorful riffs, really neat and nice. Bridge also did by Marco, he seems (he doesen't seems, he is) the main singer in this one. The lyrics are about complications that can arise in a relation. The ending is impecable, nothing to say, just impecable. Pretty neat song, Marco fans should "feast on it all".

The sixth song is Eva, it's the first single one the album, it's 4:24 long. I took a pause of writing when I finished the last song, and before resuming with my reviewing, some tensiones built up, with me also around them, guess how perfect this song came, nearly calmed me 100%. So this is a really, really beautiful song. There isn't much difference between the verse and the chorus, but they are so serene both, it doesen't bother me. The solo ended up pretty nice, it's like a third verse, where the guitar sings, and thanks to Tuomas, the last chorus is pretty powerful, a combination of powerful and serene, the outro is also pretty nice, Tuomas thrown a few notes there to make it more colorful.

Moving on... Sahara, 5:47. I love the intro, it's really good and melodic. The verse is heavy, I would prefered Marco on it, but Annete did pretty good also, the chorus is decent, could have been a bit better, but in this song, I think the fact that the verse is more powerful than the chorus isn't so bad. The bridge is really good, now I don't mind the keyboards, Tuomas did great, but I kind of prefered less use of keybords, cause on this album at least, they are so excesive it seems like Nightwish only has one instrument. A good song, won't bore ya.

Whoever Brings the Night, 4:17 - Wow, this song starts with the guitar, 'mazin'... Anyways don't think
Tuomas won't get his claws in the intro, the thing is, it would sound boring without Tuomas. The verse is provocative, Annete really knows how to make provocative sounds, and I am not talking about the lyrics, but the way she sings. The chorus is more powerful than the verse, and has this "succubus" feeling about it, evil, powerful and... provocative! Provocative is also the bridge, and grats to the instruments, also powerful. The solo, I like, but what I like more is the rythm for it.

For the Heart I Once Had, 3:55, the second shortest song of the album, after Amaranth. This is another balad, or more balad-ish... I don't like the verse, because the lyrics are all sad-ish and stüff and Annete sings like she would sing a spring-related song, when it's actually snowing... I'm not a big fan of the chorus either, she puts so much powerful in the way she sings, she doesen't sounds really melodic, or... understandable? The little bridge, fits the song's theme, and I don't know what's about the last chorus, I actually like it.

The Islander, a balad and the last single, it's 5:05. If not the best song on the album, definetly one of the best ones, it has a strong influence on nordic folk music, and has this "viking" feeling, wich I personally LOVE. Marco is the leading vocalist on this one, and how this song doesen't has any drums, bass or electric guitar, he plays acoustic guitar on this one, instead of his bass. Annete starts singing halfways and brings more serenity to the song. The last chorus is more powerful than the rest of the songs, I wouldn't mind the same serene style like in the other choruses, but it doesen't bother me. Incredible song, one of the best, again.

Last of the Wilds, an instrumental, and also one of the singles, it's 5:40. How many times you see an instrumental as a single? Yum! This one combines elements of nordic folklore with... what else? Metal. Nothing much to say about it, it's really, really beautiful. Wouldn't mind if it was a bit longer but nevermind.

7 Days to the Wolves, I like how it's "7" and not "seven", pretty long one, 7:19. I don't mind this song, but it's nothing special, the main riff is pretty nice, I guess, and the guitar solo is actually darn nice. I know Bye Bye Beautiful should have been replaced from the live list because it has negative references to a real person, but they should have replaced it with a good song, not this.

Track 13, Meadows of Heaven, just as long as the last one, 7:10. Another balad, pretty similar to Eva, Annete seems limited when it comes to balads, but of course, it's all written by Tuomas, so it's not her fault actualy. Again, I like the nordic folklore influences in it, brought by Tuomas.

Overall, a pretty nice album, worth the bucks in most cases, especially for some songs, I enjoyed around half of it, I wouldn't mind less orchestra and less Tuomas, but still... Could have been better, one thing: it's that kind of album that if you get home with it and insert it into your dvd player or xbox 360 or audio system or whatever, won't sound so good at the first playthough. Give it more than one try. Here's some samples:

Amaranth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdZn7k5rZLQ (With Video)

Eva: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPMIEdrJZAY

Last of the Wilds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrIz0KCq1YA

AB III by Alter Bridge (2010)

Heya, lads, I had two day absence...due to reactorcore meltdown and outdated parts. And I also did some other intresting things, like started to learn Norwegian. Anyways, I'm back and I promise that in the near future there won't be any more absences like this one, so for today I have another album to review of course, and altough I don't confirm anything, I have plans, things to do apart from the usual daily. Now, to our usual stüff... Me lads, we gonna listen to some rock today. The evergrowing in popularity Alter Bridge released another album, AB III, also known as Alter Bridge III (or Alter Bridge 3, duh...). Let us comence:

Slip into the Void (4:55)... I have to say I expected way more, I mean, at first sights, I didn't even knew like, what's chorus and what's verse, it seems like a combination of rock and drone metal/ambient and it has a black-ish structure... It's a... mess. The chorus isn't as explosive as I expected and a start like this would definetly not drive me to listen to the rest of the album...

Isolation, 4:15, the first single from the album. Ok this one starts way better, it's heavier, the intro is pretty intresting actually, the chorus, I don't like it, it's so basic, what happaned to the Alter Bridge I so loved once? Look what they become. The solos are so boring, and except the intro, no riff is intresting, this - how can this be one of their most succesful singles ever? I don't get it, it's a basic song, a 14 year could have composed and written this song.

Ghost Of Days Gone By, 4:28, finally a song to keep me awake, this one is actually pretty good, the verse is really, really cool and the chorus is intresting also, just like the solo. I like the lyrics very much, they really fit into the rocks scene. It's not much to say about this song, it's just good!

All Hope is Gone 4:51. All hope is gone... wait a second, just wait a sceond! Am I the only one with the "STRANGE" feeling that I heard this somewhere else? Definetly not! It's the same name of
Slipknot's 2008 album! F.F.S. Slipknot is so mainstream that anybody heared that title, it doesen't matter you listen to black metal all day, ya still know what "All Hope is Gone" is! How can you miss that album and use the title as your own!? Anyways, let's look past this stuff, maybe they did it on purpose. It's a darn good song, but just like all the songs I already covered, it's ruined by it's chorus, really... It's really a shame because this song has so much potential, I don't know what to say, until now, good ol' Alter Bridge dissapoints me really bad.

Still Remains, 4:47. This song is upside down, great chorus ruined by the verse, really I can write stüff better... This ain't rock, this is "oh look at us rocking". The bridge is nice and intresting, nothing special about this song... (As you might have noticed I try to make the review just a bit smaller, cause it's a freaking 14 song album.)

The sixth track - Make It Right, it's 4:18 long. Umm... it's worse than the songs before, it has a sucky verse and a sucky chorus, oh my... It gets worse and worse with each song, I don't know what happened to Mark, but his solos leave a "meh" behind. I really, really don't like this song, it just bores me...

Wonderfull Life, 5:22...Ok I might classify this as a balad, and it's pretty nice, it's better than the other songs actually I enjoyed it, and while I was reading the lyrics I didn't got bored actually, nice one, nice one. For a balad, though, I would really asked for more, and I know, for one, that Alter Bridge can bring us more!

The track number eight, I know it Hurts, 3:57. This one I actually like, I think it's nice, but damn, just as always, Myles ruined it, he wen so downhill. Mark really put a great solo on this one and the lyrics are awsome, the only thing the lyrics won't apply to, though, is this album... All... Hope... Is... Gone......

Ninth song, Show me a Sign, 5:58. I want to keep it as small as I can, because there's absolutley nothing special about this song, when I put the 3 "samples" of each album I review, I usually put around 2 (maybe 3) of the more intresting song and a more basic song, but with this album, I guess i will have to put 3 unintresting songs, cause there ain't an intresting one yet...

10. Fallout - 4:24 - I like the game series, let's se about the song. Ok... the song is as unintresting as it gets, what the... this songs just have nothing, but absolutley nothing special about them...
The track with the number eleven, Breathe Again. I just can't breathe, again the same boring stuff, I don't even know what to write about this one, and I fear that neither for the ones to come...

I am sorry lads, I will admit, I never listened to the album before doing this review, so I listened to the song and then listen it again while writing. I really remained without ideas, as the songs are so simple and boring I can't write anything about them, so I will stop there. I will surely not buy this album, but the truth is that it's really popular, I don't know why, but give it a listen on youtube. See if it is your style. I think that people with a smaller array of songs and artist known will like this better, I have lot's of things to compare it to, and I just don't like it, it's boring as hell... I won't give you samples because I don't know what to choose, head out on http://www.youtube.com/ and search some songs of this album, nothing more I can say, lads: Victor signing out.

Annihilator's self-titled (2010)

Thrash Metal! It's still alive, lads! And it's top notch energy is just like in them old times, Annihilator are blessing us with their newest album, "Annihilator"! This self-titled thrash metal album, is really something I didn't expected at all. Most thrash metal albums today are vague and boring, but damn, lads, let's see how this album is in comparation with both classic thrash metal albums and the newer ones. Let me give you a short introduction of Annihilator, it's a Canadian thrash metal band, their most notable album is Alison Hell or maybe King Of The Kill, another notable performance is that they only have one permanent member, their creator: Jeff Waters, who did guitars, bass and vocals for the band whenever needed.

After a relatively short intro we jump right into reviewing the first song, The Trend, weighting 7:04 minutes (pretty darn fat song). Well that's a damn way to start an album, the lyrics are based on the today's mainstream music, the stealing of music and it's elements and stuff like that, basically, disrespecting the classic artists that made music what it is today, just like Annihilator. This lyrics can really make you want to listen to the rest of the album as fast as you can, it worked for me at last. Well this song has a very long intro, but it's so full of energy, even has two, yes, not one, but two solos, as proof of the dormant energy of thrash metal just let loose by them metal gods. I'd count the verse the dullest part of the song, and with the least energy, but if that's the least energy you can get in a song, it's clear that they ate lots of sugar before recording. The chorus is short and to the subject, letting space to the instruments to handle the intresting part, not saying that the vocals in the chorus are boring, but their a bit short lived, that's all. It surprised me a bit but this song doesen't has any bridge, not terrible, but could have been one there. Oh, and by the way, this song has a total of four solos!

I really wonder... why the hell didn't they named this album "FAST!!!!!111!!!1!!!"... Anyways let's go on with the second song, Coward, 4 minutes and 22 seconds to enjoy in your life! This song is fast! It has a total of two guitar solos and they both kick it, as the title pretty much explains the content of the lyrics I won't say what's about, I will say, though, the word combinations they chose is pretty intresting, also, this time I felt like the vocals are more dominant than the instruments, which is great, becuase it means diversity, and diversity is good at contexts like this, not like the album we covered the last episode for example.

Number three, Ambush, it is only 3:22, but it's very fast and very harsh instrumental wise, the vocals themselves are pretty harsh, and unlike the last songs, neither the instruments nor the vocals are dominating, yay, more diversity, I like the fact that when listening to Annihilator, the guitar solos aren't that typical Kirk Hammet-ish nonsense-ish flurry of notes, they are melodical and yearpleasing, this album, is no exception of that.

Let's go on and see how Betrayed is, it weights four minutes and thirty four seconds. This song starts lowering the tempos but remains just as harsh as the other songs, after the guitar kicks in the intro, it even becomes a bit dark-ish. The vocal patterns are pure thrash metal, just as the main riff. I don't know how it feels to be betrayed, like a rat, but I know it's darn awsome to listen how others are betrayed... like a rat! The solo might be the best of the album, it really is in my opinion, pretty nice song overall.

25 Seconds, ironically, isn't 25 seconds, but 4:49. The intro is a really nice groove, but it quickly evolves intro a harsh guitar riff, they use this this groove before every verse. The vocals are pretty harsh, I can't say I'm a big fan of them, but the riffs really blow you away. The solo has no rythm guitar in it's back and therfore sounds pretty weak at the beggining, but after the rythm comes, it's OK, it's actually just as powerful as the riffs, wich makes me don't like the way it suddenly becomes that bass groove. I might say it's one of the weakest songs in the album, but it might be only my taste, also, the lyrics are inspired by a real case, where a Polish imigrant in Canada was killed by the police in about 25 seconds.

Another song that begins with a bass riff, a bit harsher than the one before, the sixth song, Nowhere to Go (5:08). The riffs are pretty nice, what I like about the song most is the chorus wich is really good, even though it seems a bit more rock-ish than thrash-ish. The lyrics are classic Annihilator "I'm gonna punch you in the face". Even the solo features a rock-ish feel. This is a rock influenced thrash song, something you don't hear very often, but it turned out really nice. I like the ending riff also, it's really well done.

Classic solo beggining song, reminds me of songs like "Neverending Hill", this one is called The Other Side and it's 4:20, and just like the one before it, I can feel rock influences that really make it sound unique and cool that surely won't bore you. I might even go as far as to say it's a rock song, with little solo fills and a more rock-ish riff, this one is the most unique and intresting song in the album in my opinion, the solo is also pretty nice written, but it also has a part without rythm guitar that kind of hurts my year a bit, because it sounds so weak. The lyrics, it seems to me like it's about that type of women that enters anyone's heart and then leaves them to dust, but I might be wrong.

With the eighth song, we return to brutal and fast thrash metal, called Death in Your Eyes, it's 5:58, it's the second longest song of the album, after The Trend, it has intresting guitar noises intro and around one minute and a half it has a cool solo followed by an brutal riff, that also becomes filled with a solo later on, really great part, an incredibly well written instrumental part and also it's very long, it last about three minutes. What is really intresting is the aparition of blastbeat drumming in the chorus, I really liked that. The end is similar to the beggining, a fast and short solo. Time to Die!

The last song, Payback, 4:48, it isn't as fast but is just as brutal as most other songs, and even seems to have a slight dark-ish atmosphere, the guitars are really harsh in this one. The riffs are really intresting and the solo is also nice, I heard better solos in this album though. I think it's the hardest song to play on the album, the riffs and everything, are pretty darn complex. Also the ending solo is way better than the main one, and adds to that dark feeling. The album also features a Van Halen cover, I won't comment anything about that, it's "Romeo Delight".

This is one of the best Neo Thrash album I ever heard, it isn't a must for any thrash metal fan, but it's worth the bucks, you won't be bored listening to it. Here's some samples:

Ambush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1ib5XJA3BM

Nowhere to Go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBi_FnPY0Vo

Death in Your Eyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnZGkUmtqJM