SONIC SYNDICATE: We Rule the Night

Produced by Toby Wright
Released: July 30, 2010

In the cynical world of the music industry, it's more often the band that can fake it and look the best that gets the break. This is clearly the case for Sonic Syndicate. Nuclear Blast evidently saw the potential in the band's generic, crowd-pleasing metalcore mimicry with added eye-candy factor courtesy of bassist Karin Axelsson and quickly bankrolled them, talking them up as one of their next big things. The departure of melodic vocalist Roland Johansson has done nothing to slow the band down but it does seem to have delivered an opportunity to give their sound a pretty big overhaul, one that even Johansson seems somewhat bemused by. There's good reason for this, because We Rule the Night is pretty bad.


New English-born recruit Nathan Biggs has said that he likes singing melodies, and that's an admirable thing for a vocalist. But the band's grab for accessibility on this album is so contrived and obvious that they've actually crossed the line into the realms of pop-laced rock. That in itself wouldn't be such a bad thing if the results weren't so diabolical. Let's face it, as a metalcore band Sonic Syndicate was only ever average at best, no more than strictly generic second-tier tryhards that came across like In Flames by way of Bullet for My Valentine. As if that wasn't horrible enough, they've decided to add really bad melodic emo into the mix now as well. The end result of this is something like what would happen if Linkin Park had really bad sex with My Chemical Romance, and if you can picture that in your mind without going insane then you should take that as a warning not to subject yourself to We Rule the Night.

The melodies and hooks are pretty insidious, but the music as a whole is just hollow, boring and annoying. In the end, if this band didn't have Karin Axelsson, they'd have nothing.

1. Beauty and the Freak
2. Revolution, Baby
3. Turn it Up
4. My Own Life
5. Burn This City
6. Black and Blue
7. Miles Apart
8. Plans are for People
9. Leave Me Alone
10. Break of Day
11. We Rule the Night

Rating: 15%

GAMMA RAY: To the Metal!

Produced by the Spirit of Freedom
Released: 2010

As the pendulum shifts further and further toward retro-sounding bands and more and more extreme forms of metalcore, that Gamma Ray suddenly find themselves struggling for relevancy is no surprise. Over the last few years, this once inconquerable band seems to have hit a few hurdles on their trailblazing path to true power metal glory. Since their late 90s run of four incredible albums in a row, the last decade hasn't been quite so kind: Majesty was hit and miss and Land of the Free II was an inconceived hodge-podge that almost ruined the legacy of the original. In amongst them there's been an almost inordinate number of compilations, boxed sets and double-live CDs and DVDs that always seem to point to the gradual demise of a once-great band.

On To the Metal! the German quartet fall back on Judas Priest and Iron Maiden worship to the point where  Kai Hansen adopts a Halford-like bark a good percentage of the time and the title track is little more than a shameless rip-off of "Metal Gods". It isn't that the album is totally without merit. "Empathy" with its uncharacteristic gentle opening is a great track and "All You Need to Know" has the erstwhile Michael Kiske adding his golden touch. But even here, the grabs from Maiden and Rainbow are just too obvious to ignore and too prominent to be accidental. On the tracks that Hansen doesn't write, Gamma Ray sound much more themselves, without the blatant thievery from their influences. Even so, they aren't exactly creating any real magic, just joyously catchy, triple-vocal melody power metal played at ridiculous speed like they have always done, and there is schmaltzy dreck like "Mother Angel" and oodles of cheese. For the completist, the "deluxe" edition contains a making-of DVD which shall remain unreviewed because, well, seriously why bother?

Even with the flagrant plagarism To the Metal! is at least much better than the last couple of studio albums. You can tell from the artwork that it doesn't break the mould as far as Gamma Ray albums go. While they are incorporating more and more classic metal influences into their music (as least with regard to Hansen's songs), they're still uncompromisingly melodic heavy metal. It ain't Land of the Free, but at least it's not Land of the Free II.

1. Empathy
2. All You Need to Know
3. Time to Live
4. To the Metal
5. Rise
6. Mother Angel
7. Shine Forever
8. Deadlands
9. Chasing Shadows
10. No Need to Cry 

Rating: 70%

CITY OF FIRE: City of Fire

Released: 2010

Any project with the names Byron Stroud and Burton C. Bell attached tends to get people thinking about crushing grooves, dense, repetitive staccato riffing and bleak, apocalyptic visions of society driven by tight, mechanical timekeeping. So for those not familiar with their work outside of Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad, City of Fire might come as a complete surprise; indeed, even those aware of the pair's less intense musical outlets could find this album something of an eyebrow-raiser.

For City of Fire has at its core a far looser, more raw heavy rock feel that draws inspiration from a more simple time and a basic sound that, it could be argued, seems influenced by one of the early 90s greatest bands. The shadow of Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger album looms over City of Fire like a colossus, from the way the guitars in "Carve your Name" mimic the warbling screech of "Jesus Christ Pose" to the overall feel of the entire album. This is in no way a bad thing, and Bell's idiosyncratic vocal style adds a different dimension to this collection of songs that would be lost in the hands of a more conventional singer. His alternating strangled croak and darker clean semi-croon aids in giving the band's brooding songs of despair, heartbreak and misery their necessary atmosphere. Sho Murray and Ian White's grubby guitar sound echoes the gloomy vibe of grunge rock but City of Fire adds a healthy injection of metal and groove to forge a strong and fairly diverse album. As much as it's a very different kettle of fish to anything Fear Factory has ever done, structurally City of Fire nonetheless follows a similar path to that band's classic albums by adding bleak introspection and atmospherics as the album draws toward the end, finishing off with a striking cover of "Rain" by The Cult.

City of Fire has delivered a strong and surprisingly consistent album of modern metal with their debut. One can only hope that the standard can continue in the wake of Bell and Stroud's Fear Factory workload.

1. Carve Your Name
2. Gravity
3. Risig
4. Memory
5. Spirit Guide
6. Coitus Interruptus
7. Hanya
8. Emerald
9. Hollow Land
10. Dark Tides
11. Rain

Rating: 86%

BUCKCHERRY: All Night Long

Produced by Buckcherry

Released: 3 August 2010

Buckcherry seems to have recovered from the gloom and doom that overshadowed their last album and get back to basics with All Night Long, an offering more in tune with their endless partying vibe than the ponderous and distinctly un-fun Black Butterfly.

Once again making extensive use of the songwriting talents of Marti Frederiksen -- surely this generation's Desmond Child -- Josh Todd and the lads get straight down to rocking on the title cut and keep things on track for the next seven or eight, through the AC/DC stylings of "Oh My Lord", the Cinderella-esque "Liberty" and the pop-laced "These Things". Only the stock-standard power ballad "I Want You" interrupts the flow of the good time rocking out. Buckcherry do their best work when they're not thinking too much nor depending on their audience to do so, and for the most part All Night Long succeeds in this regard. So despite the earnest good intentions, chucking on a topical piece about the Gulf oil spill like "Our World" simply rings a bit hollow when surrounded by fluff pieces about partying down and getting loaded. It's like finding a song about spousal abuse on a Guns N Roses album.

Still, with the exception of a couple of sappy ballads, Buckcherry has put together a pretty decent hard rock release, with the deluxe edition also including another 25 minutes' worth of tunes in the shape of the acoustic "Reckless Sons" EP that sees the boys maintaining a distinctly rocking edge even without cranking the distortion. It's definitely worth adding to the playlist of your next night of alcohol-fuelled mayhem.

1. All Night Long
2. It's a Party
3. These Things
4. Oh My Lord
5. Recovery
6. Never Say Never
7. I Want You
8. Liberty
9. Our World
10. Bliss
11. Dead

Rating: 75%

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY: Order of the Black

Produced by Zakk Wylde
Released: August 10

Now eight albums in, Zakk Wylde has well and truly established Black Label Society as a band that can be relied upon for consistency. You pretty much know what you're going to get from BLS and Order of the Black doesn't disappoint. The shape of the band may change slightly every so often, but the style of the music rarely does. In all fairness though, while overall the album sounds the way you'd expect even after the four-year gap since Shot to Hell, Wylde does throw in a few surprises now and then, adding a nice little twist here and a touch there, to keep up the interest factor.

Rock-out opener "Crazy Horse" is a clear indication that all the standard Black Label Society factors are in place: the massive bottom-heavy grooves, pinch harmonic-infested sludge-ridden riffs and Wylde's bourbon-soaked gravel pit vocals. As stated, all is as you would expect, right down to the lyrical obsession with damnation and doom and there's simply no end to the amount of downright catchy, groovy riffs that Wylde can come up with. And of course his instinctively soulful soloing remains a highlight. Mix in the usual sprinkling of piano ballads like "Darkest Days" and "Time Wait for No One" and Order of the Black is as consistent as anything from the Black Label Society catalogue, with huge, booming drums from newcomer Will Hunt.

Yet Wylde can still manage to throw a nice curveball, as he does in "Godspeed Hellbound" when the viciously chopping riff seamlessly segues into a dark acoustic bridge augmented with strings and thunderous, rolling drums ahead of the solo. On "Chupacabra" he breaks out into a brief burst of multi-tracked Spanish guitar picking and the local release is rounded out by a surprisingly heartfelt version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water". It's moments like this that remind one what a remarkable talent Zakk Wylde is, an unapologetically old-school rocker who is nonetheless unafraid to show a more vulnerable side amidst all the overdriven bravado. Order of the Black is another solid and effective heavy rock album from a band that had rarely failed to deliver.

1. Crazy Horse
2. Overlord
3. Parade of the Dead
4. Darkest Days
5. Black Sunday
6. Southern Dissolution
7. Time Waits for No One
8. Godspeed Hellbound
9. War of Heaven
10. Shallow Grave
11. Chupacabra
12. Riders of the Damned
13. January
14. Bridge Over Troubled Water

Rating: 80%

VINCE NEIL: Tattoos and Tequila

Produced by Jack Blades
Released: July 2010

Vince Neil has obviously arrived at that point of his career where a covers album might seem like a good idea. His one-time mentor Ozzy tried it a few years back and the result was perhaps the best album he'd made in years. After all, a good song is generally still a good song even if it's put through the wringer a bit, and it just doesn't seem possible that Vince could fail as spectacularly as Bret Michaels, who no longer seems capable of even doing a decent cover of his own songs.

Tattoos and Tequila is essentially a collection of tracks that had an influence on Neil's career, plus a couple of newer ones possibly included only to extended the playing time beyond EP length. The title track isn't too bad to be honest, but the Nikki Sixx/Tracii Guns penned "Another Bad Day" is nothing other than another faceless power ballad that isn't worthy of their own bands. Elsewhere however, Neil plunders his classic rock albums collection to take on some less-familiar tunes by the bands that inspired him, and the results are rather impressive: his take on Aerosmith's "Nobody's Fault" is true hard rocking joy and Cheap Trick's "He's A Whore" and the ripper version of "Another Piece of Meat" are dynamite. Jack Blades' production strips the sound raw, echoing Neil's earliest recordings with Mötley Crüe and the dude even manages to add some real grit to "Viva Las Vegas".

On the negative side, "Who'll Stop the Rain" is one he probably should have left alone, but for the most part this is a surprisingly impressive slab of raw ass-kickery from a guy who still knows how to bring it.

1. Tattoos and Tequila
2. He's A Whore
3. AC/DC
4. Nobody's Fault
5. Another Bad Day
6. No Feelings
7. Long Cool Woman
8. Another Piece of Meat
9. Who'll Stop the Rain
10. Viva Las Vegas
11. The Bitch is Back

Rating: 70%

PARKWAY DRIVE: Deep Blue

Produced by Joe Baressi

There's nothing like playing to your strengths when you're at the height of your popularity. It's OK to take genre-bending wanders through hitherto-unexplored artistic avenues when the fanbase has started to die off (or before it swells), but when you're at the top of your game in the fickle world of rock, stick to what you know best. On Deep Blue, Parkway Drive does exactly that. Nothing less and not much more. It's catchy and it's safe, and goes precisely where it needs to go. But it's also very good. In the almost three full years since Horizons, Parkway hasn't changed that much. They've just gotten better at what they do.

Engaging the more well-rounded Joe Baressi as producer instead of sticking with metalcore specialist Adam Dutkiewicz hasn't done a lot to their overall sound but it does show a willingness to tinker with a formula without breaking it. While maintaining that level of melodramatic anger and angst that's difficult to imagine could still come out of a bunch of surfer punks living a rock n' roll fantasy (two Top 10 albums, endless world tours, mass adulation), Deep Blue harbours a level of maturity and sophistication that some of the bands they've inspired still lack. Among the bursts of furious rage, ridiculously catchy twin-guitar riffs, the insane chugging breakdown in "Deliver Me" and the groove-laden plod in the likes of "Wreckage", Parkway Drive has also sprinkled some refreshing and subtle introspective moments. They don't last long before getting swallowed up by the energetic and furious metallic attack however, an attack given further emphasis and focus due to Baressi allowing the rhythm section to breathe under the guitars.

Winston McCall's lyrics do little to explore much more than the usual PD fare, but they've came a long way since the tryhard posturing of Killing With a Smile. His delivery is typically more aggessive and convincing than many others, and on the occasions that the band veers directly into the serious metal territory of the Dark Tranquillity-style "Alone" he steps up with a frost-bitten shriek. These little diversities and his steadfast refusal to adopt any form of melodic clean vocals help to ensure that while Parkway Drive is yet to fully break out of their generic mould they are at the very least staying well out at the head of the pack.

1. Samsara
2. Unrest
3. Sleepwalker
4. Wreckage
5. Deadweight
6. Alone
7. Pressures
8. Deliver Me
9. Karma
10. Home is for the Heartless
11. Hollow
12. Leviathan I
13. Set to Destroy

Rating: 85%

OZZY OSBOURNE: Scream

Produced by Ozzy Osbourne and Kevin Churko

Ozzy Osbourne's thirty-year solo career has always been a hit-and-miss affair. Take away his first two albums and the opening pair of the Zakk Wylde era and you're left with maybe one full CD of good songs. Scream, his tenth studio release and only the third in a decade (not counting the surprisingly passable Undercover), probably brings that tally up to another half a disc's worth. Having read a bunch of reviews long before I actually got to hear this in its entirety, I'd already dismissed this as less than worthless, but if you can get over the fact that Ozzy's vocals are now more processed than ever and that it doesn't sound that different from anything he's done since 1990, then without it being anything more than average it's fair to say I found it better than it had been painted.

Scream is the first Osbourne album in 22 years not to feature Zakk Wylde, whose role is taken here by Greek facemelter Gus G -- a dude who was only 7 years old when Zakk took over from Jake E. Lee. At first, the difference is almost unnoticeable thanks to the familiar-sounding sludgy riffs and guitar tone. But Gus is a more lyrical and diverse player than Wylde, and if there's anyone who shines here, it's him. He solos with colour and flair without overpowering the song (what there is of it) or falling back on the endless repetition of pitch harmonics. He also adds a hauntingly Rhoads-like intro to "Diggin' Me Down", which is far and away the album highlight. Most of the rest are patently generic Ozzy Osbourne songs without much to distinguish them from any of the others he's pumped out over the last few albums, except for being somewhat better than most. "Let Me Hear You Scream" has a truly immense singalong chorus and "Let it Die" steals a little bit from Black Sabbath and to these ears a tiny bit from Rob Zombie, but that could be the spectacular amount of processing on Ozzy's voice that makes him sound barely human. "Life Won't Wait" is his standard ballad, but not really one of his better ones (are there any?) and "Latimer's Mercy" is a stand-out late in the piece.

As usual, Scream is Ozzy doing enough, and that's it. It's probably better than the last three Zakk Wylde albums, but that isn't saying a lot.

1. Let it Die
2. Let Me Hear You Scream
3. Soul Sucker
4. Life Won't Wait
5. Diggin' Me Down
6. Crucify
7. Fearless
8. Time
9. I Want it More
10. Lastimer's Mercy
11. I Love You All

Rating: 58%

BRET MICHAELS: Custom Built

Released July 2

At first glance, Bret Michaels' latest musical effort looks like a new album. He's got the theme song to his forthcoming show on there and a sprinkling of new tunes including one featuring Miley Cyrus (!). But on closer analysis, it's mainly smoke and mirrors: Custom Built is only half-new, a strange jumble of new tracks with a bunch of re-mixes, demo takes and re-issues thrown on to push it out to album length that ultimately serves no purpose. The blend of genres is all over the place, a confused and jarring hodge-podge of musical styles from slick AOR to sleaze rock to country rock to tracks with heavy dance beats.

A couple of them aren't that bad: "Riding Against the Wind" is decent radio rock and "Lie to Me" rocks hard, but neither are anything more than average and neither are good enough to lift this album beyond novelty status. For some reason, there's two versions of "Nothing to Lose", one of which features Miley Cyrus singing flat and hopelessly off-key as if she's never even heard the song before. Her performance is so bad, it makes you wonder how it was allowed to be released. And given the apparent nature of the lyrics, it's downright creepy that a teenager should even be singing this with a 47-year old man. There's a version of Sublime's "What I Got" that sounds like Michaels driving out to Brad Nowell's grave marker and dancing on it, and "Wasted Time" is a re-hash of "Every Rose Has its Thorn", except suckier. To cap that off, the country version of "Rose" from Freedom of Sound appears just two tracks later as if Bret wanted to show everyone just how crap "Wasted Time" actually is. Then there's a "club mix" (yes, that means horrible early-90s style techno-rock mash up) of "Go That Far" and a rock version of "Driven". After some more adequate but unspectacular country-rock newies, Custom Built finishes with "I'd Die for You" from the Letter from Death Row soundtrack.

I suppose with all his TV work and health issues, Michaels has just found it difficult to put together many new songs since his previous solo album. After all, it was only five years ago. It's really hard to see the point to this at all.

1. Riding Against the Wind
2. Lie to Me
3. Nothing to Lose
4. Wasted Time
5. What I Got
6. Every Rose
7. Got That Far (club mix)
8. Driven (rock mix)
9. Open Road
10. Rock'n My Country
11. Nothing to Lose (demo version)
12. I'd Die For You

Rating: 20%

HALFORD: Live in Anaheim - Original Soundtrack

Released July 2

Just shy of a year since Judas Priest's live statement A Touch of Evil, Halford has issued this "soundtrack" to the forthcoming DVD of the same name (due August). Unlike Priest's disappointingly brief set however, this one weighs in with a hefty 23 tracks and brings together cuts from the three metallic phases of his career. Recorded back in 2003, before he finally rejoined his famous band, Live in Anaheim sounds more like Judas Priest than Judas Priest then did, a searing, energetic, thoroughly metal concert powerhouse.

The strength of any live album relies on its track-listing. Iron Maiden's have repeated the same songs so often that most of them are redundant, but even though this is the second live release for a band that had only done two studio albums at the time, Halford comes up trumps here. True, some of the tracks were also on Live Insurrection and two featured on A Touch of Evil but there's also a rare concert reading of the awesome "Rapid Fire" and the Stained Class track "White Heat Red Hot" that Halford announces has never been played live before, along with "Never Satisfied", a deep album cut from Rocka Rolla!. The version of "Painkiller" that opens this release blows the one from last year right out of the water and "Diamonds and Rust" is fully metalised, totally dispensing with acoustics. The band, Roy Z, Metal Mike, Bob Jarzombek and Mike Davis, are superb and Halford is spectacular. Much has been said in recent years about Rob's decaying voice, but here it only partly lets him down once. After pushing himself to the limits of his range in "Resurrection", he sounds almost out of puff during "Made in Hell" only to recover nicely in time for the Gothically sinister "Golgotha" -- one of two tracks (along with "Heretic") that are repeated in alternative, "bonus" versions on disc two that aren't included on the DVD, and probably added mainly so the twin CDs aren't seriously lop-sided. Whether they are completely necessary or not, they don't subtract from the quality. Indeed it would be hard to be disappointed with this other than some minor quibble over the track-listing but without a serious dud on here you'd be hard pressed to argue even with that.

Live in Anaheim is a stunning, heavy-hitting metal show that is testament to Halford's experience and prowess. A seriously good live album.

CD 1:

1. Painkiller
2. Rapid Fire
3. Heretic
4. Resurrection
5. Made in Hell
6. Golgotha
7. Into the Pit
8. Light Comes Out of Black
9. White Heat, Red Hot
10. Never Satisfied
11. Breaking the Law
12. Hearts of Darkness
13. Handing Out Bullets

CD 2:

1. Diamonds and Rust
2. Hellion
3. Electric Eye
4. Riding on the Wind
5. Victim of Changes
6. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
7. Heretic (live in Japan)
8. Sun (live in Japan)
9. Golgotha (live in Japan)
10. One Will (live in Japan)

Rating: 85%