THE TEA PARTY: The Edges of Twilight

Produced by Ed Stasium and The Tea Party

Released: 1995

The 90s threw up a lot of artists that were blending disparate musical influences, but few bands were able to do it as convincingly and engagingly as The Tea Party. With their magic third album the band brought all of the elements together in a way that remains unmatched.

The Edges of Twilight brilliantly showcases The Tea Party's ability to marry a basic Led Zeppelin-inspired blues rock with the same folk and world influences that band also loved; indeed if there was a band to faithfully continue Zeppelin's legacy in that area, The Tea Party was that group. Jeff Martin's rich, commanding baritone weaves enigmatic lyrics around an appropriately mystical musical backdrop that combines rock with Eastern structures and instrumentation.

"Fire in the Head" opens the album with a majestic, cascading riff that mirrors that of "Kashmir"--an audacious and self-contradictory move when the band's stated goal was to distance itself from Zeppelin comparisons--and "The Bazaar" quickly follows with Martin's hard rock guitar playing an Eastern motif underpinned by a harmonium and goblet drums. Having thus established the rock crudentials that enamoured them even to more parochial heavy metal fans, The Tea Party then goes on to explore further musical territory with "Correspondences" and "The Badger" taking on a more folk-oriented feel with more extended use of traditional acoustic instruments. These lead up to the album's centrepieces, "Sister Awake" and "Turn the Lamp Down Low" where all the elements come together in harmony as the band use hand drums and Indian stringed instruments to enhance the cabalistic atmosphere evoked by Martin's lyrics. Later on, the mandolin and harp-guitar track "Shadows on the Mountainside" shows The Tea Party once again embracing a folk ethic that is given further substance by the appearance of Roy Harper (look him up) reciting poetry in the extended unlisted coda of "Walk With Me".

The Edges of Twilight was justifiably The Tea Party's most successful album and while it seemed to enhance rather than shirk the comparisons with Zeppelin and the Doors that shadowed the group, it showed off a remarkably talented and diverse band that embraced its influences and worked them into something special and original.

1. Fire in the Head
2. The Bazaar
3. Correspondences
4. The Badger
5. Silence
6. Sister Awake
7. Turn the Lamp Down Low
8. Shadows on the Mountainside
9. Drawing Down the Moon
10. Inanna
11. Coming Home
12. Walk With Me

Rating: 93%

MESHUGGAH: Catch Thirty-Three

Produced by Meshuggah

Released: 2005

Meshuggah's latest album is getting plaudits from all over the place right now, but until I hear it myself I can't comment. So here now I present my view of their bewildering 2005 release, Catch Thirty Three. Like other Meshuggah albums, it’s a combination of wierdly abstract lyrics, excessively down-tuned guitars, seemingly awkward time-signatures and off-kilter arrangements, but this one pushed boundaries they had only just begun to explore.

After releasing an EP that consisted of a single 21-minute track, the crazy Swedes followed through with something even more audacious: Catch Thirty Three is one 47-minute long song broken up into 13 separate parts. At first, you don’t even notice. A sludgy, slow and twisted riff pounds by, somehow staying within the parameters of a recognisable time-count. Then you look up and see that you’re at track four! By the time “Entrapment” rolls around a little after that none but the biggest Meshuggah fanboy could deny that it’s starting to sound pretty repetititive, but that’s when the album begins to evolve. “Mind’s Mirrors” breaks up the piece with a long section that is almost nothing but vocoder followed by some unconventional guitar tinkering. Having reached the halfway point, Catch Thirty Three moves up a gear on “In Death – Is Life”, but shifts moods again almost immediately. The album’s longest “section”, “In Death – Is Death” stretches on and on seemingly without end for over 13 minutes of what can only be described as wankery but for some reason if you’ve come this far you have to go the rest of the way. From track ten onwards, the album almost crashes to a finish with the same riffs and themes as the first half, but at a slightly more frantic pace.

Catch Thirty Three is hard to describe adequately because it’s just too strange, and certainly not for anyone who is looking for something particularly catchy or easy to digest. At the same time, it is maddeningly compelling and even hypnotic in parts and it certainly ranks as one of the oddest metal releases of all.

1. Anatomy Lost


2. Imprint of the Un-saved


3. Disenchantment


4. The Paradoxical Spiral


5. Re-Inanimate


6. Entrapment


7. Mind's Mirrors


8. In Death -- Is Life


9. In Death -- Is Death


10. Shed


11. Personae Non Gratae


12. Dehumanization


13. Sum

Rating: 77%

DARK TRANQUILLITY: Fiction

Released: 2007

Dark Tranquillity's masterpiece is a lot like a cancer. The first time you hear it, you notice a few subtleties like the increased presence of keyboards, but nothing that truly grabs you until the catchy "Focus Shift" towards the end. Put it on again, however, and by the time the earth-rending "Icipher" enters the picture, Fiction has really begun to infect you. "Inside the Particle Storm" is a monster that spreads the disease further, a harsh, fast and violent excursion into near-black metal territory that threatens to rip the flesh from your face, without a doubt the most sinister song this band has ever done.

When I said masterpiece in the first sentence, I meant total masterpiece. Fiction is the culmination of every thing Dark Tranquillity has ever released. If it takes at least two listens to fully sink in, it's because true genius can sometimes be hard to appreciate right away. Fiction takes the pure aggression of Character, Damage Done's melodic moments and the darker atmosphere of Projector and Haven and then goes beyond them, invoking a sound that transcends the melodic death metal genre that they invented. Always the masters and never the mastered, Dark Tranquillity simply slays on Fiction. Everything is done right, even Mikael Stanne's clean vocals when they occasionally appear. It's true that in the past his attempts at this were sometimes cringeworthy, but he nails it here, particularly on the closing track "The Mundane and the Magic" where they work as counterpoint to those of female guest Nell Siglund, and never at any time does the band sound in danger of ever being compared to Evanescence or Kilswitch Engage. Martin Brändström's keys are prominent but never overwhelm the vicious twin guitar attack; Dark Tranquillity has proven time and again to be one of the few bands to know how to do this properly and here once more it's the guitars that provide and drive the melody, not the electronics. Anders Jivarp is as rock solid in the engineroom as always, filling out tiny spaces with nifty stickswork that would go unnoticed unless it wasn't there. Indeed, everyone in the band delivers a faultless performance from beginning to end but it would be hard to expect anything less.

Fiction is Dark Tranquillity's finest moment, and it will take something special to match it next time.

1. Nothing to No One


2. The Lesser Faith


3. Terminus (Where Death is Most Alive)


4. Blind at Heart


5. Icipher


6. Inside the Particle Storm


7. Empty Me


8. Misery's Crown


9. Focus Shift


10. The Mundane and the Magic


11. Winter Triangle

Rating: 98%

LACUNA COIL: Karmacode

Produced by Waldemar Sorychta and Lacuna Coil

Released: 2006

Lacuna Coil seem to have become one of everyone's favourite bands over the past few years, at least since Comalies and their appearances at Ozzfest had Americans arguing over whether it was they or Evanescence who was emulating the other. Since then, Lacuna Coil has only risen in popularity, and a good proportion of that success has come from this album.

Karmacode was this band's breakthrough album on a commercial, mass-following level. The hordes that ate up Evanescence and are currently scoffing down H.I.M. and even Opeth also grabbed this with both hands, especially the guys once they got a load of the incredibly sexy Christina Scabbia, easily one of the hottest women in rock history.

However there is little doubt that ever since Unleashed Memories, when the grim male vocals that made their first couple of releases so uneven were reined in, Lacuna Coil has become an increasingly formulaic band. It was evident even then that they had a clearly mainstream agenda and Karmacode is the final confirmation of this. All of Lacuna Coil's hallmarks are here. It's not ridiculously heavy, but there's still enough guitars in there to make it metal. Coupled with the band's typically soaring melodies, Scabbia's wonderful voice and the hint of Gothic melancholia, this is almost the perfect release for the seemingly increasing army of commercial Goth-metal fans around the world at the moment. Artistically, and from a long-time fan's point of view however, Karmacode is not particularly exciting. Virtually every track is built on the same quiet keyboard intro/delicate verse/soaring chorus/repeat/interlude/chorus structure that helped get units ticking over, but it doesn't make for a very interesting album. Karmacode is so rigidly formulaic that it makes Comalies seem diverse; worse, it lacks any real catchiness so that after 47 minutes have gone by you're left without any one particular song stuck in your head.

Lacuna Coil deserve success. They are great at what they do and have been doing it longer than most but with an offering as bland as Karmacode, that success may prove to be fleeting.

1. Fragile


2. To the Edge


3. Our Truth


4. Within Me


5. Devoted


6. You Create


7. What I See


8. Fragments of Faith


9. Closer


10. In Visible Light


11. The Game


12. Without Fear


13. Enjoy the Silence

Rating: 64%

SAXON: The Eagle Has Landed III

Released: 2006

It could be that because I was trying to listen to this album at 1 o'clock in the morning that I struggled to find anything to really recommend it. Or it could be that, despite the length of time they've been around and the standing amongst metalheads this band has long enjoyed, Saxon has never really lived up to that status. A combination of recordings lifted from 11 performances over two years, this mammoth, dinosaur of an album plods along for over an hour before hitting any of the glorious moments that you'd have every right to expect from a band that still headlines major festivals after nearly 30 years on the road.

On disc one of The Eagle Has Landed III, Saxon sounds very much like a band of tired old campaigners, wearily flying the flag as they wait for the end to come. There is probably no better example of this here than "Frozen Rainbow", a hoary old chestnut from 1979 that's delivered with all the exuberance of a dirge. Biff Byford sings as if he's reading the lyrics off a sheet while standing in a bank queue and no one else seems all that interested either. Most of the rest of the ancient Northern English beer barn metal on the first CD is also less than spectacular, and I still can't decide if that's because Saxon simply can't get excited about them anymore or if they were just rubbish in the first place. Or both.

Mercifully, the second CD is made up largely of tracks from 2004's Lionheart album and a selection from other more recent works. On these heavier and more modern-sounding cuts, TEHL3 finally shifts into higher gear. Indeed, on tunes like "Man & Machine" and particularly "Dragon's Lair" where they simply rip, Saxon seems totally energised and play like they're really enjoying themselves. It almost makes up for having to suffer through the first half of the album.

The Eagle Has Landed III is really like listening to two different bands, and what's most interesting is that the early stuff on which the Saxon name was built is utter crap compared to what they're doing now.

CD 1

1. This Town Rocks
2. Backs to the Wall
3. Redline
4. Stand Up and Be Counted
5. Never Surrender
6. Frozen Rainbow
7. Suzie Hold On
8. Play it Loud
9. Warrior
10. See the Lights Shining
11. To Hell and Back Again
12. Stallions of the Highway
13. Wheels of Steel
14. And the Band Played On
15. Crusader

CD 2

1. The Retrun
2. Lionheart
3. Man and Machine
4. Beyond the Grave
5. Searching for Atlantis
6. To Live by the Sword
7. Unleash the Beast
8. To Live by the Sword Pt 2
9. Flying on the Edge
10. Jack Tars
11. English Man o War
12. Court of the Crimson King
13. Broken Heroes
14. Dragon's Lair
15. Rock Is Our Life
16. Travellers in Time
17. Solid Ball of Rock

Rating: 58%

CELTIC FROST: Monotheist

Produced by Celtic Frost
Released: 2006

Five years in the making, when Celtic Frost finally unveiled its comeback album, it's pretty clear no one knew quite what to expect: would it be a return to the primitive blackened thrashings of the early 80s or the experimentation of Into the Pandemonium? Or would it be something else? As it turned out, it was something else, and what a monster it is! For over 68 minutes, the band slowly unfurls a masterpiece of cold, stark malevolence that will be difficult to surpass. Make no mistake, Monotheist may well be one of the most evil and terrifying albums ever recorded.

Right from the very beginning, it's clear that this is not one for the faint-hearted. The deceptively minimalistic, plodding guitars of Tom G. Fischer and Erol Unala provide a bleak skeleton for haunting sound scapes that ooze malice and decay. "Progeny" opens the album with a swathe of feedback and a chugging riff, Fischer's indistinct, tortured vocals immediately evoking a sense of the hatred and despair to come. The central themes of Monotheist are death, decay and the degradation of religion and Celtic Frost never wavers from its path. Almost every track is enveloped in an atmosphere of a calculated evil that is rarely found outside of the minds of serial killers.

"Drown in Ashes" is the one exception, a melodic Goth metal track featuring Xanthia's Lisa Middlehauve that seems almost strangely out of place with drummer Franco Sesa providing some polyrhythmic work that gives it an almost poppish vibe amid the morbidity of the rest of the album. This oddly accessible diversion is only brief however, as Monotheist becomes increasingly more sinister and desolate as it progresses. With "Os Abysmi vel Daath" the band revisits the dark teachings of one of their original influences, the 20th Century's most infamous occultists, Aleister Crowley. In an appropriately nasty fashion, the song is built on a stuttering, cascading riff with Fischer intoning the lyrics as if reading from some forbidden text.

The album eventually culminates in a vast, 29-minute "triptych" of sheer malevolence and evil. Even sitting in a brightly-lit office wasn't enough to stop the shivers in my spine as Martin Ain's eerie "Totengott" crept forth like a voice from beyond the grave. Yet this is merely a genuinely creepy introduction to the immense "Synagoga Satanae", where Celtic Frost weaves all of the album's elements together in a grand invocation of wickedness, complete with choral arrangements, spells uttered in a malicious whisper and vocal contributions by Satyr from Satyricon and Peter Tägtgren among others. It is a spectacular climax to a brilliantly conceived if disturbing excursion into the macabre that leaves virtually all others working in the same vein absolutely cold.

1. Progeny
2. Ground
3. A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh
4. Drown in Ashes
5. Os Abysmi vei Daath
6. Obscured
7. Domain of Decay
8. Ain Elohim
9. Totengott
10. Synagoga Satanae
11. Winter (Requiem, Chapter Three: Finale)

Rating: 96%

ABSOLUTE STEEL: Womanizer

Released: 2005

As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to listen to it. I thought I knew what I was going to be in for, but Absolute Steel exceeded my expectations with a level of cheese and hilarity that almost caused me to have several serious road accidents. Zimmer's Hole take note: this is how to make a parody album. Absolute Steel is a Norwegian five piece proudly living out an 80s Sunset Strip daydream of endless girls and partying. The end result of this fantasising is an album so ludicrous Steve Rachelle himself must be pulling his hair out that he didn't think of it first.

In a nutshell, Womanizer is a combination of the music of Turbo-era Judas Priest and the lyrics of a second-rate Poison clone. Considering how completely vacuous Poison could be a lot of the time, that's really saying something! Hilarious lyrics abound on this stunningly-contrived 80s metal pastiche, with "Deeper" perhaps taking the cake with this jaw-dropping couplet: "If you're looking for romance, I'm not your guy/Put down that joint girl, I'm a natural high!" And for sheer absurdity, nothing comes close to the acoustic ballad "Juicy Lucy", without doubt one of the most ridiculous songs of all time! "Beer Run" is the album's highlight, with its chorus of "We're out of beer (No!)/Let's do a beer run (Yeah!)/We've got to save the party". This track is so close to the heart of any real headbanger that none who hears it could possibly disagree. Absolute Steel really is playing it for laughs, and as mentioned there's plenty of them to be had. It works, because the music is great and the songs are so dumb you know they can't possibly be taking themselves seriously. Rounding off the album is a six-minute Steve Vai-style guitar shred instrumental that's so obviously over-indulgent you can almost see Yngwie cringing with embarrassment.

Womanizer is the ultimate party metal album. No piss-up should be without it.

1. High Heels and Fishnet Stockings


2. Beer Run


3. Kick


4. Rough Love (Tender Heart)


5. Deeper


6. Juicy Lucy


7. Too Slow Above


8. Deliverence


9. Opus Suite

Rating: 87%

JEFF BUCKLEY: Grace

Produced by Jeff Buckley and Andy Wallace

Released: 1994

Every generation needs its romance album, and for sophisticated Generation Xers, Grace was that album. An audacious mixture of styles and disparate influences, Jeff Buckley assembled his carefully orchestrated songs from a heady blend of jazz, blues, rock and folk and touched base with all manner of classic artists, many of whom would subsequently heap praise on him.

Some commentators have criticised Grace for containing no less than three covers, but this is as unfair as suggesting that Elvis and Sinatra were somehow lesser artists for not being songwriters, and overlooks Buckley's bravery at those he attempts. His brittle version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" has since often been lauded as definitive; his take on the tragic "Lilac Wine", a track previously only recorded by female artists, is equally commanding.

Yet it is Buckley's own songs that truly carry the album, a work of ornate textures and delicate arrangements providing a backdrop for his intuitive vocals, the key feature of which was his evocative falsetto so stunning that it became bigger than he was. It was, however, but one aspect of his talents. With "Last Goodbye" he somehow conjures the spirit of Led Zeppelin so overwhelmingly it sounds like it could have come from Physical Graffitti and the heart-rending poetry of "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" is made all the more moving by the sheer emotion of their delivery. If nothing else, Grace showed Jeff Buckley to be an artist who poured true passion into his work and there's simply no way of telling how great he could have become.

The legend of Grace has grown almost exponentially since Buckley's death but there's little doubt that even if he had lived, this album would still hold a very special place in the hearts of many.

1. Mojo Pin
2. Grace
3. Last Goodbye
4. Lilac Wine
5. So Real
6. Hallelujah
7. Lover, You Should Have Come Over
8. Corpus Christi Carol
9. Eternal Life
10. Dream Brother

Rating: 100%

FAITH NO MORE: The Real Thing

Produced by Matt Wallace and Faith No More

Released: 1989

Part metal, part funk, part rap and often publically dysfunctional, Faith No More was a groundbreaking act for its time and one so original that even now there is no other group that sounds quite like them. Although they had released two albums before this, The Real Thing was most people's introduction to the quirky genius of this San Francisco five piece, and most people's introduction to this album was "Epic". A stunning combination of genres that epitomised the group's style perfectly, "Epic" remains to this day possibly the most bizarre-sounding song ever to reach #1 on the Australian chart and began a love affair with this band that was sustained by Australian audiences until Faith No More split up eight years later.

While it was the best-known and most identifiable song from The Real Thing, "Epic" was only one of an entire album's worth of fantastic songs, and it succeeded as a heavy rock album in spite of owing very little to the standard heavy rock conventions. Instead of the pre-requisite lead guitar work of almost every other band playing anything even remotely metal, The Real Thing had virtually none, while in its place keyboards surged prominently and heavy metal riffs clashed with funk-laden bass grooves. Jazz tunes about paedophiles sat alongside funked-up Black Sabbath covers and crazy organ-dominated instrumentals. There were dark songs about child-rearing sung from the baby's point of view and extended stream-of-consciousness tales like the title track. Topping it all off was Mike Patton's schizophrenic vocal style that shifted guise as often as the music, crooning, whining and--most conspicuously--rapping. His innate ability to syncopate spitfire lyrics with Jim Martin's metallic riffage even inspired and influenced rappers and set the scene for a myriad of so-called rap-metal acts that were to follow in the decade to come, almost none of which were able to match the level of originality, wit and inspiration on display on this album. What made this even more phenomonal was that the band had already completed the album when Patton joined. His disturbing and thought-provoking lyrics and vocal acrobatics were added virtually at the last minute.

Both a breakthrough album for its creators and a groundbreaking one for heavy music, The Real Thing has also outlasted its legion of imitators, most of which have already been forgotten. It's a perfect and timeless release difficult to fault and almost impossible to tire of.

1. From Out of Nowhere
2. Epic
3. Falling to Pieces
4. Surprise! You're Dead!
5. Zombie Eaters
6. The Real Thing
7. Underwater Love
8. The Morning After
9. Woodpecker from Mars
10. War Pigs
11. Edge of the World

Rating: 100%

EXCITER: Violence and Force

Released: 1984

Exciter's second album appeared just as the metal world was feeling the impact of the thrash boom and the band was astute enough to adapt to the change. Switching from the shred label they'd been on to Metallica's label Megaforce certainly helped even if the awful, awful cover illustration really does the album nothing but harm.

While often lumped in with the thrash bands, Exciter's style on Violence and Force isn't really thrash although they were certainly fast enough to keep up with the new breed and doubtless influenced a few of them with this release. It's clear that the band is paying a huge debt to both Motorhead and Judas Priest here; if you can imagine the simplistic barrage of the former crossed with the malevolence of Stained Class-era Priest then a good picture of Violence and Force can be imagined.

"Oblivion/Violence and Force" and "Scream in the Night" are the perfect way to begin an album, driven by a relentless speed that dominates Exciter's sound and featuring drummer Dan Beehler's tunelessly screamed vocals. John Ricci's shred-like playing doesn't so much contain riffs as an endless series of steaming guitar runs played at a lightning speed, but he does find a couple of solid figures to put together in "Saxons of the Fire" and complements them with a blazing solo. Blazing solos are indeed Ricci's forte, which is why these guys were originally signed to Shrapnel for their first album.

Side two begins equally as impressively with "Destructor" and "Swords of Darkness" but it must be said that Exciter's speed-for-speed's-sake approach results in an album that in the end is a bit repetitive and samey sounding. The production is that notoriously paper-thin early 80s metal kind too which makes everything raw and nasty, although in this case it's accidentally something of an asset and while they fail to write really catchy riffs the choruses are massive.

Violence and Force is a good album without being spectacular but there's no doubt the energy and spontaneity apparent rubbed off onto many of the bands that sprang up around the time it was released.

1. Oblivion


2. Violence and Force


3. Scream in the Night


4. Pounding Metal


5. Evil Sinner


6. Destructor


7. Swords of Darkness


8. Delivering to the Master


9. Saxons of the Fire


10. War is Hell

Rating: 63%

MORTAL SIN: Face of Despair

Produced by Randy Burns

Released: 1989

Recorded in early 1988 but unreleased for almost a year, Face of Despair was the difficult follow-up to Mortal Sin's debut, an album that probably surprised all but the band themselves when it won strong accolades throughout the metal world in mid-87. Ultimately, however, this was doomed to disappoint, for almost exactly the opposite reason the previous album had been such a success.

With a budget and a producer (Randy Burns, who had previously worked with Anthrax), Mortal Sin should have been able to develop their songs and ideas further than the ridiculous constraints placed on them before allowed, but as the last track's transparently throwaway nature would prove, for some reason the ideas just didn't seem to be there. Whereas the first Mortal Sin album had been memorably catchy, Face of Despair simply wasn't. Indeed, while I could still find Mayhemic Destruction songs like "Blood, Death, Hatred" or "Liar" bouncing around in my head hours after I heard them, virtually the entire second half of Face of Despair is almost immediately forgettable.

What this album does have, however, is a killer trio of opening cuts. "I Am Immortal" begins this veritable thrash feast and silly lyrics notwithstanding ("the master will scorn you, he'll even forlorn you" ...Huh?), the riffs Paul Carwana and Mick Burke weave together here are just 100% classic thrash. That's nothing, however, because what they come up with in "Voyage of the Disturbed" is little short of genius. This could well be one of the best thrash songs of all time, and Carwana's solo here is just perfectly fitting to the subject matter. Next track "The Infantry Corps" is also a clear album highlight even if it doesn't quite hold up to the one before it, but "Voyage of the Disturbed" is such a great song that it's hardly surprising.

From that point on, Face of Despair starts to fall away. "For Richer, for Poorer" is OK but suffers from the lack of a solid hook. "Martyrs of Eternity" is somewhat better without really being in the same ballpark as the first three songs, but everything after that is merely ordinary. Three songs is hardly enough to carry an entire album, even if one of them is as good as "Voyage of the Disturbed", and one could even suggest this is partly why the label dithered for so long before releasing it. One could also do much worse, however; in any case, this is almost worth getting just for the second track alone.

1. I am Immortal


2. Voyage of the Disturbed


3. The Infantry Corps


4. For Richer, For Poorer


5. Martyrs of Eternity


6. Innocent Torture


7. Suspended Animation


8. "H"


9. Terminal Reward


10. Robbie Soles

Rating: 62%

JAG PANZER: Ample Destruction

Released: 1984

In the mid-1980s metal simply exploded worldwide and many bands and albums were thrown up that got lost in the crowd, only to be rediscovered and more appreciated later on. While Jag Panzer's debut album was rightly revered by a cult following when it was released, it really wasn't until much later that it gained its reputation as a true classic of the period.

While Ample Destruction boasts the thin production of virtually every other first-time release from the metal world of the 80s and is indelibly stamped with the band's influences, Jag Panzer made a simply killer album for its time. Yes, there's shades of Priest, NWOBHM and, on the vocal side at least, Manowar, but on Ample Destruction Jag Panzer don't really sound like anyone else. A big part of that uniqueness comes from the truly remarkable voice of Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin. To this day it's hard to find another singer who sounds even remotely like him. Conklin is backed up superbly by a band that at this time included the enormous shredding skills of one Joey Taffola, a man whose talents easily compare to the likes of Paul Gilbert and Tony Macalpine. Here though, Jag Panzer doesn't just shred endlessly like they sometimes do these days. On Ample Destruction, they write songs with killer riffs, giant choruses and wicked melodies, making this album one of the best of its time, a true forgotten gem.

True to its title, every single song on here (except perhaps "Harder Than Steel") is about death and destruction! Every one, a virtual celebration of power-crazed violence. On the awesome "Warfare" with its infectiously catchy riff that almost-but-not-quite sounds like "2 Minutes to Midnight", Conklin bellows "Warfare is our battlecry, shout it out aloud!" before Taffola cuts loose, and even the cheesiness of lyrics like "I love to fight, I love to screw/Feel my heat begin to rise" from "Licensed to Kill" sound suitably nasty when The Tyrant is singing them. When they speed up, like they do with "Generally Hostile" and "Harder Than Steel" - a definite highlight on an album full of them - Jag Panzer comes close to thrash and when they get slow and heavy like in "Symphony of Terror" they almost beat Judas Priest at their own game before rounding out the album with "The Crucifix" an epic of masterful menace that could put Mercyful Fate to shame. Shameful too is that fact that Ample Destruction is so hard to find now in its original form. Most of the songs from this were recently re-recorded for the Decade of the Nail-spiked Bat set (the title of which was inspired by a line from "Licensed to Kill"), but these songs really need to be heard in the order and the format in which they were originally conceived. Track it down if you can, and if you find a spare copy, let me know about it!

1. Licensed to Kill


2. Warfare


3. Symphony of Terror


4. Harder Than Steel


5. Generally Hostile


6. The Watching


7. Reign of the Tyrants


8. Cardiac Arrest


9. The Crucifix

Rating: 88%

ABRAMELIN: Abramelin

Produced by Abramelin

Released: 1995

As if you didn't need another example of how innovative and interesting Australian metal bands can be, here is yet another classic release from a band that, had they been from another other country, would have been hailed as one of the greatest of their kind. Abramelin's self-titled debut album is a demonically heavy, crushingly brutal and breathtakingly technical metal record that wades waist deep in gore of a level so visceral as to leave virtually any other band of their kind reeling in disbelief. The original version of this album was banned by censors in Western Australia and later withdrawn for sale completely until a second pressing minus the lyric sheet was released almost two years later. Simon Dower's lyrics are easily some of the most depraved and disturbing of any ever penned; Chris Barnes has nothing on this man. Abramelin's blood-splattered palette is adorned with sickening tales of paedophilic serial murderers, necrophiliacs and the infernally damned.

Musically, this is a masterful album. By 1995, goregrind was a genre that was already running out of ideas and it would have been easy for Abramelin, a band that formed as Acheron around the same time as Cannibal Corpse, to merely go with the flow. Fortunately this was a band comprised of some remarkable musicians with an obvious if sinister purpose. Guitarist Tim Aldridge is clearly the star here. The technical aspects of his riffing and the complexity of his arrangements are simply mind-blowing. His playing is sharp and brutally aggressive but still possessed of a very clever melodic sense, and his lead playing is stylish in a late-era Carcass fashion. If that's not all, he throws in a gloomy classical guitar piece slap bang in the middle of the gruelling corpse-fucking epic "Stargazer". Behind Aldridge is the faultless time-keeping of one of the country's best but mostly unsung metal drummers in Euan Heriot, a natural and fluid player who blasts without falling back on triggers and tricks. Topping it all off is Dower, who delivers his lines in a bowel-quakingly guttural roar but still manages to enunciate words rather than unintelligible syllabic grunts. Finally, after almost forty minutes of technical grinding mayhem, Abramelin plays its last card: a cover of Dead Can Dance's "Cantara". It's a choice that almost boggles the mind, but in the same moment seems a strangely fitting way to end things.

Abramelin is still held up by Australian death metal fans as one of our greatest bands, and after allowing this album to mince your soul you will surely understand why.

1. Misfortune
2. Grave Ideals (Nekromaniak)
3. Spiritual Justice
4. Humble Abode
5. Stargazer (The Summoning)
6. Stargazing (Stargazer II)
7. Deprived of Afterlife
8. Invocation
9. Cantara

Rating: 95%

METALLICA: ...And Justice For All

Produced by Metallica with Fleming Rasmussen

Released: 1988

This was always going to be a problematic album for Metallica. Their previous effort Master of Puppets was a triumph of such magnitude that twenty years later it is still considered one of the best metal albums ever made. Then almost immediately afterwards came the unbridled tragedy of the death of Cliff Burton, a disaster from which the band has never fully recovered. In that light, ...And Justice for All was going to be a difficult album. Difficult and, ultimately, flawed. Despite this, Metallica's fourth album remains a classic and a firm fan favourite because in the end the band saves it with perhaps its best songwriting. It is hardly surprising that lyrically, Justice is Metallica's darkest album and James Hetfield wields words with an eloquent mastery here that he had never achieved before and hasn't quite shown since.

For its time, ...And Justice for All was a truly epic release. With a mere nine tracks, it nevertheless ran for more than 65 minutes, longer than Slayer's Reign in Blood and South of Heaven put together, and came audaciously presented as a double album in a gatefold sleeve. As impressive as this looked however, the initial prospects for this gigantic record didn't look good. At almost ten minutes apiece, both the title track and the Burton tribute 'To Live is To Die' were overly long and the latter was simply just boring. It was clear that Metallica was trying to recapture the magic of Master's 'Orion' as a dedication to their fallen bandmate, but without him it just becomes a turgid and overwrought snoozefest.

Worse by far however was Justice's bizarre and annoying production. Pushing the snare to the fore of the sound and virtually abolishing the bass altogether could well have sunk the whole album for good. Various reasons have surfaced for this, from a claim that Hetfield and Ulrich dropped the bass as some kind of ridiculous "prank" on newcomer Jason Newsted to another story that James wanted the bass low on purpose to give it a piano-like effect. Whatever the explanation, ...And Justice for All has the worst production of any Metallica album except St. Anger (which was also apparently done on purpose).

Justice's redemption lies in its songs. The opening broadside of 'Blackened', the anger of 'Eye of the Beholder' and the darkness of 'Harvester of Sorrow' lift ...And Justice for All above its imperfections. It is the meticulous and brilliant 'One', however, that looms over them all as the indisputable centerpiece, perhaps the zenith of Metallica's creative height, a song so powerful that almost two decades later it remains one of the greatest metal songs ever written. Even with such a disastrous sound, ...And Justice for All is as close to the perfection of Master of Puppets that Metallica would ever come again and yet one feels that without the shadow of Burton's death still haunting them, they could well have surpassed it.

1. Blackened


2. ...and Justice For All


3. Eye of the Beholder


4. One


5. The Shortest Straw


6. Harvester of Sorrow


7. The Frayed Ends of Sanity


8. To Live is to Die


9. Dyer's Eve

Rating: 83%

TAK MATSUMOTO GROUP: TMG 1

Released: 2004

Tak Matsumoto is a Japanese musician who is part of a pop band that is a multi-million selling concern in his home country. I don't really know much more about the guy than that (other than the fact that he can play the guitar like a demon), but it could well be that his first love, is American-style melodic hard rock, because that describes TMG 1 in a nutshell, and if that's your preferred mug of beer then this album will quench your thirst quite nicely.

Gathering together Mr. Big vocalist Eric Martin, journeyman drummer Brian Tichy and melodic rock mastermind Jack Blades as his band, Matsumoto knows exactly what he’s doing and who to get to help him do it: this is a killer line-up indeed. Martin is an outstanding vocalist with exactly the right tones for this type of rock and Matsumoto himself has an obvious appreciation for a good tune in that he can still write a few good ones while shredding his tits off at every opportunity.

When all is said though, TMG 1 doesn’t actually sound all that different from something that Martin or Blades would do with bands of their own. It’s solid, generic AOR that’s good in its own way but nothing truly outstanding and fourteen songs is probably a few too many when complete duds like “Wish You Were Here” and “The Greatest Show on Earth” somehow made the cut. There are lots of good songs too though, particularly the mean bluesy rocker “Red, White and Bullet Blues”, the Aerosmith-like “Wonderland” and the opening trio of tracks but while TMG 1 is certainly agreeable, it really doesn’t stand out very much. Melodic rock fans should find it worthwhile, but it’s not going to set their world on fire.

1. Oh Japan (Our Time is Now)
2. Everything Passes Away
3. Kings for a Day
4. I Know You By Heart
5. I Wish You Were Here
6. Greatest Show on Earth
7. Signs of Life
8. Red, White and Bullet Blues
9. Trapped
10. My Alibi
11. Wonderland
12. Train, Train
13. Two of a Kind
14. Never Goodbye

Rating: 65%

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD: Alien

Produced by Devin Townsend

Released: 2005

When Devin Townsend resurrected Strapping Young Lad in 2003 the reaction that album received was pretty lukewarm to put it mildly and there was plenty of people who were prepared to believe that the perfection achieved with 1997's City really was some kind of fluke. Fast-forward 18 months or so and without too many of his other recording endeavours muddying his creative waters Townsend may well have delivered something that may well be City's equal if it doesn't actually surpass it.

Alien kicks off the way all such things do, with ‘Imperial’ rising up as a relentless and crushing wall of sound played at breakneck speed. Following that is the sensory overload of the almost impenetrable ‘Skesis’, a titan of a track with a fortress of guitars and synths. Then the appropriately-named ‘Shitstorm’ is piled on top of it like a weapon of mass sonic destruction. Gene Hoglan’s incredible drumming keeps the madness from veering off course and Townsend’s frantic vocals scream lyrics that don’t seem to make much sense but follow the same basic concept of being pissed-off about something.

If that doesn’t sound too far removed from what SYL has thrown up in the past then you’d be right, except that from this moment the album becomes significantly more interesting than just barely-controlled noise terror. Quite suddenly, the album slows down and drops into a heavy groove in the shape of ‘Love?’, which goes into strong contention as one of the best songs SYL ever put together. A couple of tracks further along and ‘We Ride’ erupts like the most violent outburst of rage ever recorded but then Alien reaches its most transcendent moment with ‘Two Weeks’, a somewhat abstract, meandering acoustic song that recalls Townsend’s Terria opus.

The proposed Tom Jones cover was dropped because the band thought it would interfere with the flow of the album and I have no doubt they were right; subsequently, this was replaced by the 13-minute soundscape ‘Infodump’, a meandering swirl of white noise, tape loops and demonic vocals vaguely reminiscent of something that Namanax would do (only much less threatening) and similar to the style of Townsend’s own Devlab project from the year before.

Production-wise, Alien is a monster, with the murk of earlier works replaced by a gleaming sound and featuring a huge choir of backing voices that includes members of Zimmer's Hole and Tourettes. Some versions also came with a bonus live track and a DVD featuring a “making of” doco and some video clips, all adding up to over two hours of SYL madness.

This is the best-produced and most diverse Strapping Young Lad album ever, a masterpiece of intensity that rivals City as SYL's best.

1. Imperial
2. Skeksis
3. Shitstorm
4. Love?
5. Shine
6. We Ride
7. Possessions
8. Two Weeks
9. Thalamus
10. Zen
11. Info Dump

Rating: 93%

FOZZY: All That Remains

Produced by Andy Sneap

Released: 2005

Fozzy started out as a fun-time cover band project for Rich Ward and Chris Jericho but over the years the band has striven to develop a legitimacy as a serious act. Prior to this album, Fozzy was still covering old 80s metal standards, using silly pseudonyms and pretending they were a forgotten early American rock band trapped in Japan for 15 years after a record deal gone wrong. Having now dropped all of these pretences, after almost three years of silence Fozzy returned with its first complete album of original material.

All That Remains features a raft of guests that include Marty Friedman, Zakk Wylde, rapper Bonecrusher, Derek Bonner from Lilitu and two of the guys from Alter Bridge (the band formerly known as Creed) but, sadly, little of the mischievous sparkle of the previous albums. While the originals on Happenstance weren’t too bad, it was the spot-on versions of Scorps, Maiden, Priest, Sabbath and Accept classics that really made the album what it was. This time around, it’s all originals and something just seems to be missing.

That isn’t to say this is a bad album, because it isn’t, and is, in fact, rather a diverse little outing with a mixture of straight up heavy metal and hints of old-school American power metal and even a thrash element cropping up towards the end, where Friedman chimes in for a guest spot in “Born of Anger”. Jericho once again proves himself to be quite a noteworthy vocalist and Ward, as always, wrangles out some truly quality riffage, but All That Remains just somehow lacks the entertainment factor that a band called Fozzy with a wrestler as a singer should possess. “Enemy”, “The Way I Am” and “Lazarus” are actually pretty good songs, but the rest doesn’t hold that well together, especially the rap-metal tune, which is rather surprising when most of this band were in Stuck Mojo.

1. Nameless Faceless


2. Enemy


3. Wanderlust


4. All That Remains


5. The Test


6. It's a Lie


7. Daze of the Weak


8. The Way I Am


9. Lazarus


10. Born of Anger

Rating: 62%

AZRAEL: Into Shadows Act II: Through Horned Shadows Glimpse

Released: 2004

“Avant-garde” is a term that’s thrown about a lot, particularly in regards to black metal bands and while there are some aspects of this in Azrael’s music it’s actually quite difficult to say if they’re really treading new ground. The indistinct, fuzzy cover art and the concept of not naming any of the tracks on the basis that such behaviour is “too human” should certainly enhance their credibility with black metal’s purists although one wonders what their thoughts may be on a band with such beliefs coming up with such a contrived name for their album.

The first two tracks stretch out for a painfully long time. At over 12 minutes apiece, these are sure to test the patience of even the most devout BM devotee. Coarse, raw, and primitive, the sound is typically thin, enhanced now and again by non-metal touches but hardly enough to push this into the genuine “avant-garde”. On track three Azrael try the patience even further with six and a half minutes of twisted, distorted noises like some kind of demonic brass band. More long, long songs follow: ‘5’ runs for 11 minutes and track six clocks in at almost 13, but for the most part Azrael could say what they’ve got to say in less than half the time.

Atmosphere and a sense of evil is most certainly present on this album, but the overall feeling is that of spectacular self-indulgence.

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7

Rating: 25%

PANTERA: Far Beyond Driven

Produced by Terry Date

Released: 1994

Pantera's previous album Vulgar Display of Power had lifted them to major league status around the world but it was Far Beyond Driven that was to make them into one of the biggest metal bands of all time. This album was so huge that it even hit #1 on the Australian chart, thus becoming only the second heavy metal album ever to do so. The irony of course is that it is probably the patchiest release in Pantera's catalogue.

Controversy over the artwork aside (the original cover art was banned almost immediately), it's clear that the band members' hedonistic lifestyles and a self-proclaimed desire to get heavier with every release was over-shadowing one of the main things that had made them such a great band in the first place: great songwriting.

Far Beyond Driven starts off on pretty much the right foot with four monster tracks in a row, all of which are plainly heavier extensions of the material found on the previous album. "Strength Beyond Strength" is a violent flurry that shows Pantera at their most hostile and it's clear that their days as a party band are long behind them. "Becoming" and "5 Minutes Alone" are no less antagonistic, the latter inspired by a threat from a fan's father against Phil Anselmo. Then comes the sludge-like "I'm Broken" with the album's catchiest riff and something more of anguish than pure anger about it. While there's a noticeable reduction in Dimebag Darrell's spectacular guitar solos, until now one of Pantera's defining aspects, so far the album is all going along pretty nicely.

Suddenly, however, it becomes evident that the speculation about substance abuse during the recording sessions may well be true. "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" is easily one of the worst pieces of garbage ever recorded and only a group of people under the influence of something brain-frying would think it worthy of inclusion on any kind of release. Almost anything would be an improvement after that. "Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks" seems to just groan on forever though and the next couple of tracks don't really stand out either. At last, "Shedding Skin" comes on and reminds us when the need is most apparent that Pantera can do something that's more than one-dimensional. This track not only restores the balance but easily eclipses everything else on the last two-thirds of the album, although "Use My Third Arm" is certainly far from a complete waste.

In the end, Pantera's focus on aggression for aggression's sake and a brazen need to be controversial resulted in Far Beyond Driven being far less consistent than the two albums that had made their name. While it definitely has its moments, any album with a stinker like "Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills" on it is hardly going to rate as one of the best of all time, Grammy nomination or not.

1. Strength Beyond Strenth


2. Becoming


3. 5 Minutes Alone


4. I'm Broken


5. Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills


6. Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks


7. Slaughtered


8. 25 Years


9. Shedding Skin


10. Use My Third Arm


11. Throes of Rejection


12. Planet Caravan

Rating: 68%

STU MARSHALL: Altered States

Produced by Stu Marshall

Released: 2007

Yesterday I reviewed a Dungeon album, and today I'm taking a listen to the solo album from that band's former guitarist Stu Marshall. Instrumental shred albums aren't high on my list of preferred listening. Guitarists can digest these things and then rave on for hours about sweeping and dive-bombing while everyone around them wonders why they're talking about domestic duties and Stukas, and I prefer fretboard wizardry within the constraints of well written and stuctured songs, rather than existing for its own sake. Therefore, Marshall's Altered States should ordinarily be sitting in the dark corner of my CD collection reserved for vapid wankfests like Onward and Malmsteen. The fact that it isn't says a lot.

Altered States kicks off with a track called "Kill or Be Killed", a fast, thrashy cut with a face-ripping riff. "City Nights" stays in metal territory and features the added bonus of Enter Twilight's Richie Hauberger adding his own jaw-dropping moves to Marshall's already considerably awe-inspiring string pulling. These two songs represent the more metallic side of Marshall's personality as the rest of the album explores other angles. Several of the pieces like "Can You Hear Me?" and "Juli's Song" have that laid-back Satriani-style feel about them and "Blind Faith" is a very nice slow, bluesy extended jam. Then there's "Goliath", the only track to feature Marshall's smooth rock vocals. This is a real stand-out that had me thinking of some of Gary Moore's heavier rock moments, with the soloing to go along with it.

While there is some insane playing in evidence, Marshall doesn't go all out to bludgeon his listeners with pure technique, repetition or speed. Instead, he can be languid and relaxed or drop into a steady groove and just rock. Guitarists will still be the ones to greet this album with most enthusiasm, but people who aren't musicians should get something worthwhile from it also.

1. Kill or be Killed
2. City Nights
3. Can You Hear Me?
4. Francois
5. Juli's Song
6. Northam Grove
7. Blind Faith
8. Goliath
9. Balloon Race
10. Sunday Afternoon (The Jam)
11. The Drunken Highland Fling

Rating: 69%

DUNGEON: Resurrection

Produced by Lord Tim

Released: 2005

When Dungeon released their first official album in mid-1999 it was eagerly snapped up by fans who had caught the vibe of killer live performances from the band. Resurrection went through three pressing before being deleted, which isn’t a bad run for a debut album from a band that was barely known even in Sydney at the time. In retrospect, however, it’s really a wonder Dungeon moved any copies of the album at all. Listening back to that original recording, it's became pretty clear that bottom-drawer tape demos and even some early black metal had better production standards. Fortunately, the playing and songwriting saved it from oblivion. That, and the fact that Dungeon was offering something very different from every other band in Sydney at the time.

As part of their international deal with LMP, Dungeon completely re-recorded ­Resurrection during the sessions for their One Step Beyond album, and the result was a marked improvement in every aspect. Immediately noticeable were some cosmetic changes: new and totally different cover art, the juxtaposition of the tracks “No Way Out” and “Judgment Day” (still spelled wrong) in the running order and the replacement of the Justin Sayers-penned “Let it Go” with a new track called “Severed Ties”. This is a weak point for the album however, as it is perhaps the most generic and boring song Dungeon has recorded since their demo days, a somewhat tired and predictable ballad that could well have been left off altogether.

In all other respects, however, this version of Resurrection is a killer. As mentioned, the first one had the songs and the chops, but this time around the production is there to back it all up. Significantly, the tempo change in “The Legend of Huma” that previously sounded like a bad splice is now much more seamless and the guitar sound is much more balanced. Most of the solos are completely different and the pace seems a little brisker, and overall the whole album sounds so much more alive than the flat, drenched-in-tape-hiss original. “Severed Ties” does let it down, but the consolation is the bonus cover songs.

Dungeon’s choice of covers may raise some eyebrows, but they rule. The first is the John Farnham-era LRB track “Playing to Win” and the second Thin Lizzy’s “Waiting for an Alibi”. Both are handled with Dungeon’s usual aplomb, with “Playing…” receiving a slight thrashing up while the latter is played more or less straight with guitarist Stu Marshall handling the lead vocal duties.

Anyone who missed this the first time should definitely try and grab a copy of this and see why, at their height, Dungeon was one of Australia's best metal bands.

1. Death From Above


2. Resurrection


3. Paradise


4. No Way Out


5. Wake Up


6. Fight


7. Severed Ties


8. Time to Die


9. I Am Death


10. Judgment Day


11. The Legend of Huma


12. Playing to Win


13. Waiting For an Alibi

Rating: 88%

HATE ETERNAL: I, Monarch

Produced by Erik Rutan

Released: 2005

Hate Eternal’s strictly generic brand of brutal death metal is built primarily on blast beats and speed, but that shouldn’t give them an excuse to be just plain boring. After listening to I, Monarch I was left wondering if there’s a more over-rated and significantly less-inspired drummer in metal than Derek Roddy. Over the course of this album’s ten tracks, Roddy plays precisely the same beat, at precisely the same speed, over and over again with virtually no deviation whatsoever. Even when the band knocks the speed back a few cogs for something like the Morbid Angel-like mid-pace of the title track, Roddy can’t seem to do anything else but drop in the same monotonous, uninspired blasting he plays on every other track. The most frustrating thing is that I know Derek can do better than this, and so can Erik Rutan. Both of them have played in some of the greatest death metal bands of all, but on this album neither of them sound like they're really trying.

While it’s true that Hate Eternal has never really stretched themselves beyond the predictable and generic, on I, Monarch it's made so much worse mainly because of the drummer’s phoned-in performance. “The Plague of Humanity” and “The Victorious Reign” are reasonable stand-outs, but I, Monarch is about as uninteresting and ordinary as brutal death metal gets, and being able to play a blast beat for 42 minutes straight doesn’t make you a great drummer, just a fast one.

1. Two Demons


2. Behold Judas


3. The Victorious Reign


4. To Know Our Enemies


5. I, Monarch


6. Path to the Eternal Gods


7. The Plague of Humanity


8. It Is Our Will


9. Sons of Darkness


10. Faceless One

Rating: 14%

BLOOD DUSTER: Lyden Nå

Produced by Jason PC

Released: 2007

This album is like a Tourettes patient with ADHD stoned off their face. It's fast, loud, offensive, manic to the point of lunacy and then so mind-numbingly slow it has to speed up just to stop.

As if one volume of Blood Duster's patent insanity wasn't enough, Lyden Nå offers up three, each one showing a separate facet of the band's music. Even so, the first two parts are over in less time than it takes to listen to the average Arch Enemy album. Broaching subjects as diverse as crashing planes onto shithouse bands, face-ache cock-teasers on MySpace, taking drugs, and stomping around in piss, not to mention the odd swipe at emo and the trendy wankers who've ruined their beloved Northcote, volume one is Blood Duster's by-now trademark death rock. Enormous grooves are unleashed, Beltsy squeezes off some machine-gun like leads and they somehow manage to throw in a bagpipes player, Darryl Cotton from Zoot exhorting people to throw their drugs on stage and a guy tinkling away on a piano. The strange excursions into country aren't forgotten either, with Craig Westwood from DernRutlidge crooning away like a drunken cowboy on a track called "TheNightTheyBurnedOldEmoDown".

With some tracks barely longer than the time it takes to read their names, volume two is practically over before it begins. In the full-on percussive grind mode they cut their teeth on, Blood Duster rips through 16 bursts of noise, blastbeats and screaming in just 16 minutes and 11 seconds. This is the disc for the old school Duster fans, and with some of the samples running longer the actual music they accompany, they won't be disappointed.

Finally, there's "Slowandlongina", an immense mindfuck of a track that chugs away over the same slow-motion riff for 21 minutes. A secret code in Lyden Nå's packaging gives access to this brain-aching sludge monster via the Blood Duster website. Excruciating in its length and vast in its monotony, this is a beast that possibly only the most dedicated drone fan or the most royally wasted listener could truly appreciate. It's a pretty safe bet you won't be hearing them play this one live.

CD 1

1. Intro


2. Three Oh Seven Ohh


3. Pissstomper


4. TheKidsCanGetFucked


5. RockNRollJihad


6. BrokeAssBitch


7. MyspaceYourFace


8. AngryDragon


9. ILoveThePills


10. DusterDuster


11. TheNightTheyBurnedOldEmoDown

CD 2

1. TendonsSlicedForTransport


2. TheRichBreedFuckingCockheadChildrenWhoWillOneDayBeYourEmployer


3. TheWorldAndEveryoneInItDeservesToDie


4. RecreationalKilling


5. BetterStartASeedBank


6. ChildLabourEconomics


7. BarrelChockFullOfDeadCops


8. CzechItOutIGotSomeRules


9. Lustmord


10. OhMyMyraHindley


11. E55


12. RapedWithATyreIron


13. ISawYourDadSuckingOffAnotherDudesDad


14. OrgansForAProfit


15. StrungUpWithCockInHand


16. BalladOfHenryAndOtis

CD 3

1. Slowandlongina

Rating: 80%

AC/DC: Highway to Hell

Produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange

Released: 1979

For a band that has often been accused of recording the same album over and over again, it's interesting that if you asked ten different people what their favourite AC/DC album is, you would likely get ten different answers. Highway to Hell is where the journey really started for me; this became a launching pad for experiments with increasingly heavier and faster music right throughout my life so far but if I had to pick my favourite albums of all then this one would be in the list.

Mutt Lange didn't really have to do much to tweak AC/DC's music by the time of this juggernaut, because here is a band at the very top of its game. The unstoppable Malcolm Young riff factory is in overdrive, churning out one memorable tune after the next and Bon Scott's ability as a lyricist are in full bloom. Instead, Lange nudges the sound itself, adding presence to the vocals and Phil Rudd's clod-simple but locked-in-tight drums. The result speaks for itself. Highway to Hell is a rock album of immense power that truly befits both its name and that of the band that made it.

Few bands ever typified the wild rock n' roll spirit the way AC/DC did and with "Highway to Hell" and "Get it Hot" AC/DC even outdo themselves in that regard. "If You Blood" and "Shot Down in Flames" are another pair of volcanic rockers and "Beating Around the Bush" is a high-speed boogie celebration. "Girl's Got Rhythm" is an explosive paean to a hard lovin' woman that, like its subject doesn't let you up for breath. The smouldering swagger of "Touch Too Much" contains possibly Bon's greatest lyric ("Her body a Venus, with arms") and in "Night Prowler" the boys lock in to a mean, slow groove to bring their most savage tale ever to sinister life, only for Bon, ever the joker, to burst out with Mork from Ork's "Shazbot!" as the song fades to a close. Bon Scott really was the ace in ACDC's sleeve and he proves it time and again all over this. His vocal delivery borders on the manic most of the time, but his crafty turn of phrase lets you know that every line is sung with a sparkle of mischief in his eye. Then of course there's Angus, whose lead breaks are always both timely and incendiary, the perfect foil for Bon's banshee wail.

Only "Love Hungry Man" lets the side down, a song so bad even the band disowned it, made even worse (if that's possible) by the profileration of killer tunes all around it. Twenty years ago this would have made this album lose more that 2 percentage points, but now it's on CD you can just skip it completely and never have to listen to it.

Apart from that, Highway to Hell isn't just a classic rock album, it is a quintessential addition to any serious music listener's collection.

1. Highway to Hell


2. Girls Got Rhythm


3. Walk All Over You


4. Touch Too Much


5. Beating Around the Bush


6. Shot Down in Flames


7. Get it Hot


8. If You Want Blood... You've Got It


9. Love Hungry Man


10. Night Prowler

Rating: 98%

MOONSORROW: Kivenkantaja

Produced by Moonsorrow
Released: 2003

This is about as close to perfect an album of pagan Viking metal can be. With this, their third album, Finland's Moonsorrow have made a truly epic record that can proudly stand alongside Bathory's legendary Hammerheart as a benchmark for all future work in this style.

Kivenkantaja is a sprawling but strikingly cohesive album that makes use of traditional folk instruments and choir singing without compromising the metal elements in any way. The album opens with the marathon 13-minute 'Raunioilla', a sweeping musical saga that sets the tone for the rest of the album perfectly. This track virtually strips away all traces of the black metal element found in earlier work in favour of a more epic, progressive metal feel, but the grimness returns almost immediately with the next song, 'Unohduksen Lapsi', and continues to make its presence felt throughout, mingled with snatches of folk music, accordian, choir arrangements and that most distinctive of instruments, the Hammond organ, that gives the album a touch of 70s progressive rock here and there. The keyboards are most apparent in the sprawling 'Jumalten Kaupunki', but wherever they are used they only further the conjuring of the album's grand, majestic atmosphere and sweeping vistas of glorious battles on snow-covered fields, victorious celebrations and a mighty, insurmountable pagan spirit.

1. Raunioilla


2. Unohduksen Lapsi


3. Jumalten Kaupunki


4. Kivenkantaja


5. Tuulen Tytär


6. Matkan Lopussa

Rating: 94%

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Born in the USA

Produced by Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck Plotkin, Steven van Zandt

Released: 1984

In order to review this incredible album I had to take myself back in time to my high school days. It's easy to appreciate Born in the USA when you're an adult a few years older than Springsteen was when he wrote and recorded it, but to get a really good idea of the impact this release had, you have to go back to a time when an average looking guy in his mid-30s suddenly became a pop idol that 14-year old girls were hanging poster of on their bedroom walls.

Bruce Springsteen had never been as well known in Australia as he was at home because his songs were so rooted in the American experience. But Born in the USA had such a successful pop formula that kids everywhere could get into the music without needing to know what the songs were about. School girls wanted to be on stage with The Boss like that chick in the video for "Dancing in the Dark" without even caring that it wasn't even actually about dancing.

There's almost no better start to any album than Springsteen's magnificant Specktorish triumph of the title track. The discordant, clanging synths punish the listener into submission as the urgent, ragged despair of the singer's delivery lets them know they are hearing a song for the ages even if most of them -- including parents and US Presidents -- would completely miss the point.

Born in the USA's themes are the same as those Springsteen had always followed but his introduction of synths and dance beats served to disguise the real meaning of the songs, although even the more obvious ones are still deceptive. The character in "Working on the Highway" turns out to be a member of a chain gang, and "My Hometown" is set up as a tribute but is actually exactly the opposite, a tale of shattered dreams and broken pride. Even so, Springsteen stills give his small town denizens a sense of hope in the exuberance of the beat and injects humour into tracks like "I'm Going Down" and "Glory Days".

Bruce Springsteen perfected his craft here and made stories of ordinary Americans into three and four minute sagas that even teenagers with no grasp on irony could enjoy. Without doubt, this is one of the best albums of all time

1. Born in the USA


2. Cover Me


3. Darlingotn County


4. Working on the Highway


5. Downbound Train


6. I'm on Fire


7. No Surrender


8. Bobby Jean


9. I'm Going Down


10. Glory Days


11. Dancing in the Dark


12. My Hometown

Rating: 100%

ALCHEMIST: Lunasphere

Produced by John Hresc and Alchemist

Released: 1995

"We do not die! We only change!"

With this exhortation begins what is one of the finest and most legendary Australian metal albums of all. Lunasphere remains the favourite Alchemist album for many fans and ten years on it still hasn't lost its appeal. This is where Alchemist's musical vision really began to come together, where the somewhat haphazard experimentation of Jar of Kingdom coalesced into a more coherent but still remarkably inventive form.

"Soul Return" begins this eclectic journey with two and a half minutes of flat-out grind that suddenly veers into expansive, atmospheric ambience for five minutes or more before swerving back to grind again. It sets the scene for the journey to come, one where seemingly incongruous musical elements interact in a surprisingly effective way. Alchemist is often compared to Neurosis but on both "Soul Return" and the album's crowning glory, "Garden of Eroticism", they sound like no one more than diSEMBOWELMENT, though perhaps somewhat less evil and with more Middle Eastern stylings. Indeed, while Nile are renown for their use of Egyptian themes, most of the time they use them as little more than window-dressing. Alchemist, on the other hand, actually work Middle Eastern motifs into their songs.

Lunasphere is awash with them, from mere sprinklings in the likes of "Unfocused" to the distinctly Middle Eastern flavour apparent in "Yoni Kunda", featuring the most tasteful use of the word "vagina" in any song ever written. These elements, the ethnic and the ethereal, weaved so effortlessly and effectively into the fabric of the sound, are what makes this band and this album such a special one. Without them, Lunasphere would have been just another grind album, albeit one with some remarkable lyrics.

Like the music, this also offers something different from a lyrical perspective. Even with grind as a musical base, you would have to suspect that a band using Eastern scales would incorporate some metaphysical philosophy into their songwriting. On Lunasphere, songs discuss reincarnation and spiritual rebirth, along with mysticising female genitalia in "Yoni Kunda" and "Garden of Eroticism" with made-up words like "salacrophobia" (a fear of marihuana, according to the band) and "testrodelia". Again like the music, Alchemist goes places lyrically where few others dare.

With its combination of diverse musical elements and esoteric lyrics, Lunasphere cemented Alchemist's place in Australian metal music and reaffirmed their reputation as a wildly creative and interesting act.

1. Soul Return


2. Lunation


3. Unfocused


4. Luminous


5. Clot


6. Yoni Kunda


7. My Animated Truth


8. Garden of Eroticism


9. Closed Chapter

Rating: 97%

JUDAS PRIEST: British Steel

Produced by Tom Allom

Released: 1980

There are some who would suggest that this album is over-rated, but for mine, this remains the pinnacle of Judas Priest's commercial recording period. While the albums either side of this were so-so and below average, and later ones were fairly good, this is where the band's commercial aspirations all come together. This is the album that made Judas Priest into superstars, with volley after volley of fast and catchy songs that were heavy enough to keep the headbangers happy, but slick enough for American radio airplay. While it remains best known as the home of the big hits "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight", British Steel is much more than that, and almost every other song it contains is far superior to that pair of tunes.

British Steel begins with one of the fastest and most crushing tracks the band would ever write. "Rapid Fire" is about the best start to an album in recording history: an unmercifully heavy and speedy song for its time and a track so good that if it weren't for quality of the rest of the album it would have completely overwhelmed it. This sledgehammer-like opening was numbed when the Americans decided to release the album with "Breaking the Law" as the first song, but the remastered version has set all to rights again. "Metal Gods" is next, built on a stiff, staccato marching riff that sounds for all the world like an army of killer robots destroying humanity and then after the relatively lame "...Law" comes more savagery in the form of the appropriately named "Grinder". "United" is a pointless football chant that Priest was using to fill space on their albums back then and despite its legendary status "Living After Midnight" is the sort of light, throwaway metal that US hair bands would spew forth for the best part of the rest of the decade. "The Rage" is an angry track that has some nice bass work from Ian Hill, something that goes unnoticed most of the time and then "Steeler" winds up the album on the same speed metal note that "Rapid Fire" opens it. Perhaps it's because they're at the end of this album that these two tracks are so over-looked, but they both easily top almost everything that would come on the follow-up.

With British Steel, Judas Priest made an almost perfect commercial-flavoured metal album on only their second attempt, with most of the songs still standing the test of time. Had they failed here, they may well have never attained the god-like status that was to be theirs in the coming decade.

1. Rapid Fire


2. Metal Gods


3. Breaking the Law


4. Grinder


5. United


6. You Don't Have to be Old to be Wise


7. Living After Midnight


8. The Rage


9. Steeler

Rating: 96%

ZIMMER'S HOLE: When You Were Shouting at the Devil... We Were in League With Satan

Produced by Devin Townsend

Released: March 17, 2008

With so many metal bands coming off as unintentional parodies of themselves or of the music, deliberately contriving to be a parody metal band is a tricky thing to attempt. Cremator was one of the first, and were so good at it that many people didn't even realise they were taking the piss. In recent years bands like Metal Skool and Absolute Steel have made some pretty funny albums (the latter while pretending not to be parodic, which is clever in itself) and Crotchduster's Big Fat Box of Shit (that took off both metal and concept albums) made me laugh so much I almost killed myself several times when I foolishly listened to it while driving. Zimmer's Hole has been at the parody game longer than most, but for some reason they still can't quite pull it off.

Zimmer's Hole was founded by Jed Simon and Byron Stroud in the mid-90s, and the first thing you notice about this new album is that it doesn't sound that different from the other band they've been so well known for over the last decade: Strapping Young Lad. It doesn't really help that Devin Townsend handles production duties, because as fine a producer as he is, just about everything he touches ends up sounding like one of his bands to some degree. The fact that all four of the guys who play on this (Stroud, Simon, drum god Gene Hoglan and vocalist Chris Valagao) have all worked extensively with him over the years seems to have allowed Townsend to make When You Were Shouting at the Devil... sound like the Strapping Young Lad album he never got around to making. That means that primarily each song is built around fast, repetitive thrash riffs with high-pitched, manic vocals and a rigourous and thundering double-kick undercurrent. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, except that it runs out of steam pretty quicly. And there is humour here, but just not enough of it.

The title track does what it sets out to do, and that's poke fun at the whole Satanic thing that's made metal a laughing stock for a long time, but the real fun comes in the shape of "We Rule the Fucking Land". Unashamedly ripping off Metallica's "The Four Horsemen" with the main riff, there's also a "Die by my hand" lyric and Valagao throws out a vague Bruce Dickinson imitation. But it isn't quite convincing enough. Like Anal Cunt, any real laughs come from the song titles and not really the songs themselves; unlike them, Zimmer's Hole profess to be a serious band that makes actual music. A song called "Hair Doesn't Grow on Steel" should be hilarious, but it just isn't. "Fista Corpse" is mindless repetition of a lyric that wasn't that funny in the first place and most of the rest of the tracks hardly hold up as being as humourous as they're made out to be. As songs they're not too bad without being spectacular, but nothing really stands out as a particular highlight. Zimmer's biggest hurdle however is that they just sound too much like Strapping Young Lad, except without the songs that made SYL so incredible.

1. When You Were Shouting at the Devil... We Were in League With Satan
2. We Rule the Fucking Land
3. Flight of the Knight Bat
4. 1312
5. Devil's Mouth
6. The Vowel Song
7. Fista Corpse
8. Anonymous Esophagus
9. Alright
10. Hair Doesn't Grow on Steel
11. What's My Name... Evil!

Rating: 45%

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY: Inflikted

Produced by Max Cavalera
Released: March 25, 2008

Just over ten years ago Max Cavalera walked out on his brother and the band they started as impoverished teens in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Since then Igor has gone on to make some infuriatingly ordinary albums and his sibling some exasperatingly bombastic ones. Time seems to have served to heal the wounds that tore them asunder however, as they have now teamed up once more and with Soulfly's Marc Rizzo and Joe Duplantier from the insanely cool Gojira helping to spread the hate around Max and Igor present the Cavalera Conspiracy.

For those who have refused to accept anything the brothers have done since 1993, this could well be the album to fill in the great big hole in the CD collection that exists after Chaos AD. There is definitely more of the Sepultura than the Soulfly about Inflikted, a feeling that begins right away with the similarity the opening and title track has to "Slave New World"; if one were to sum this album up quite briefly, then suggesting something of a combination of the simplistic groove thrash of Chaos AD with the aggression of Arise might be a reasonable place to start. Teaming up together again after more than a decade certainly appears to have revitalised the Cavalera brothers and rekindled a spark for making metal again instead of the turgid, self-indulgent and odious volumes they've both been responsible for since the mid-1990s.

That said, with Inflikted they have lifted their game without really getting on top of it. After listening to the album only once I could barely remember a single thing about it except that "Heart of Darkness" sounded a bit like "Refuse/Resist" and "Black Ark" had some big pounding tribal rhythms but none of Soulfly's pomposity, although it is the track most closely related to much of that band's work. With repeated listenings however, Cavalera Conspiracy's merits become a little more apparent. "Hex", for example, is the fastest and most full-on thing these guys have done in absolute ages and "Terrorize" and particularly "Sanctuary" are really reminiscent of when Max and Igor had a raging fire in their bellies. "Bloodbrawl" is a clear highlight, kicking in with some raw, rabid thrash before moving into a huge, almost plodding groove that then becomes a tasteful acoustic coda which in turn fades to didgeridoo. In Soulfly guise, Max would overplay this aspect but the understated handling he gives it here actually makes it rather effective, especially as it immediately cuts to the urgent, punkish "Nevertrust". Other songs like "The Doom of All Fires" and the frustratingly generic "Ultra-Violent" don't quite hold up against the bulk of Inflikted however.

Despite some repetitious moments and a few songs that sound like Max is not-so-subtly pilfering from his own back-catalogue, Inflikted is something of a return to form for the former Sepultura pair, as if a decade or so of separation and a string of poorly received hardcore albums and overblown solo vehicles has revived the old passions. If only they could find a way to get the old band name back, this could well mark a promising new beginning.

1. Inflikted
2. Sanctuary
3. Terrorize
4. Black Ark
5. Ultra-Violent
6. Hex
7. The Doom of All Fires
8. Bloodbrawl
9. Nevertrust
10. Hearts of Darkness
11. Must Kill

Rating: 71%