FRANKENBOK: The Last Ditch Redemption

Produced by Frankenbok

Released: 2008

Frankenbok is a strange band. Just when you think you’ve got them sorted out, they do something totally different to what you would expect. Ignoring the fact they’re now up to their third vocalist, none of their releases so far sound that much alike and each one in itself has contained stylistic variations that have touched almost the entire sphere of the metal universe. It makes them a difficult group to get a handle on. I’ve warmed to them considerably since the days when I thought their debut was a bunch of ideas looking for a direction but they still surprise me.

“The Last Ditch Redemption” is a concept piece about a violent criminal seeking atonement for his guilt, envisioned through a cycle of songs linked by ambient segues. First song "Dig" is a fast-paced stripped-back and raw groove metal tracks that makes interesting use of a chainsaw. "This Monster My Son", a mother's letter to her evil offspring, has a definite melodic metalcore aspect. This links by way of an extended interlude of twisted voices and dark soundscapes to the rocking groove of "The Other Side of Hell". The pounding, repetitive riff of the title track rounds the musical side of things out before the final ambient piece leads one to doubt if the redemption sought by the EP's protagonist actually comes to pass. Frankenbok don't do anything overly technical or flashy here at all, just some simple metal songs that very clearly mark the journey to absolution in a strikingly effective manner.

Made up mainly of ambience and soundbytes, the segues help the story along and definitely add an extra dimension to the release, but when their combined playing time is longer than that of the actual songs it could be argued that they’ve overdoing it a little. Even so, Frankenbok has come a long way from the band that knocked off a Madison Avenue cover just for laughs and, as usual, it will interesting to see what they do next.

1. "As I dug myself deeper into trouble, the darkness swallowed me whole"
2. Dig
3. "I crossed the line. And was exiled. Rejected. Alone"
4. This Monster My Son
5. "The walls closed in, and the voices in my head were telling me I'm guilty. Guilty. Guilty"
6. The Other Side of Hell
7. "All those bridges that I burnt lit the way home"
8. The Last Ditch Redemption
9. "I have a second chance and I'm not gonna blow it. I hope"

Rating: 78%

DYSCORD: Dakota

Produced by Adam Spark and Dyscord

Released: 2008

Dyscord has made considerable waves on the Perth metal scene in the past few years, opening for a growing array of international visitors there and since making inroads in other parts of the country. I have heard Dyscord's material before and while they are undoubtedly a good and competent band capable of some crowd-pleasing moments I haven't exactly been blown away by them either. Unfortunately, their debut full length Dakota has done nothing to change that.

Comprising nine songs and a short interlude, this is in a lot of ways a pretty decent collection of aggressive metal. Dakota starts out on the right foot. A move from their earlier metalcore-ish sound toward a modern melodic death metal one is immediately apparent. "Noble on Paper" is a clear marker of this development, with a main riff directly out of the Gothenburg copy book. James Herbert's vocals mainly alternate between hardcore-ish shouts and death metal rumble, however a couple of times he does make the mistake of dropping in some clean vocal lines. These are, like those of so many others, quite weak (bordering on the embarrassing in the title track). Fortunately they're only used on two songs, but if singers are going to use them at all they need to go back ten years or so and see how people like Burton Bell and Devin Townsend made them so effective.

In all other respects, Dyscord has put together an album that maintains a remarkably consistent level throughout. In fact, Dakota probably suffers from being too consistent: Dyscord seems so constrained by the limitations of their stylistic delivery that they appear either unable or unwilling to go far beyond it, making for a bunch of songs that are increasingly indistinguishable from one another as the album progresses. The transition from the thirty-second "Treaty of Laramie" into "Masika and Haemon" was rather effective and the faster pace of "Haemon Unleashed" also set it apart. These three tracks evidently serve as something of a suite (but are missing from the booklet for some reason) and mark the album's high point. Elsewhere, Dakota has plenty of catchy moments but no clear stand outs and even after several listens I was struggling to remember much of it.

Musical ability certainly isn't lacking here and there's a level of energy and intensity that makes me think Dyscord would be awesome live, but they could profit from a little more inspiration to stop them getting lost among the tons of bands doing exactly this equally as well.

1. Noble on Paper
2. Dakota
3. The Clothes Maketh the Manslaughter
4. The Picador
5. Treaty of Laramie
6. Masika and Haemon
7. Haemon Unleashed
8. Hot Snakes McGillycuddy
9. An Ode to Envy
10. The Logical Conclusion

Rating: 68%

VENOM: Metal Black

Produced by Conrad Lant

Released: 2006

Venom. The band that virtually single-handedly, and quite inadvertently, invented thrash metal and everything that came after it. Three guys who could barely play their instruments and couldn't afford decent production were somehow responsible for some of the most enduring musical styles of the last 30 years. 25 years on, Venom is back with their 11th studio album, and the first since 2000's Resurrection, an album that either ruled or blew goats, depending upon who you listened to. The irony of that is that it's true for Venom as a whole.

Metal Black sees the return of guitarist Mike Hickey to the Venom fold, whose previous stint in the band was back on 1987's Calm Before the Storm. It also sees Venom turning away from the 90s-style thrash they were going for on Resurrection and making a return to their roots. The problems with this are legion, the most significant of which being that they are now trying to do deliberately what they originally did accidentally. Look at it this way: the only guy still left in Venom from the Welcome to Hell days is Cronos, who still thunders away on the bass and spits out silly lyrics about the Devil like a somewhat inept version of Lemmy. The other two guys, Hickey and Cronos' brother Antton, are actually musicians, trying to recreate something that was made by blokes who barely knew one end of their instrument from the other. The end result is a poor knock off of every significant thrash band that came along in the original Venom's wake. Here they sound like Destruction, there like Exciter. At one point there's even a bit of Slayer about them, a band that Cronos once proudly boasted he could blow off stage, and at every point coming across like a band that should have thrown in the towel ages ago. At nearly an hour, Metal Black is also far too long.

Not only does Metal Black sound recycled, it also sounds forced. It sounds like a band that's reasonably good trying to play badly on purpose, which is exactly what it is, and there's enough genuinely bad bands around as it is without the need for another one to pretend.

1. Antechrist
2. Burn in Hell
3. House of Pain
4. Death and Dying
5. Rege Satanas
6. Darkest Realm
7. A Good Day to Die
8. Assassin
9. Lucifer Rising
10. Blessed Dead
11. Hours of Darkness
12. Sleep When I'm Dead
13. Malifecarvm
14. Metal Black

Rating: 52%

HELLFUELED: Born II Rock

Produced by Fredrik Nordström and Patrik Sten

Released: 2005

If you thought the last few Ozzy Osbourne albums were a bit wanting (and, let's face it, who doesn't?) then Hellfueled could be the panacea you've been seeking. With their third album, this Swedish quartet lays down the sort of stuff that the Ozzman was doing in the 1980s when he still had a fire in his belly and his albums still had decent songs on them.

Born II Rock is eleven tracks of pure heavy metal joy, with a singer in Andy Alkman who sounds so much like Ozzy Osbourne that the only thing that really sets them apart from the man himself is better songs and the lack of extended guitar shredding. Jocke Lundren is no Wylde or Rhoads in the lead guitar stakes, but he certainly knows how to crank out a mighty fine headbanging riff. Production comes courtesy of the killer team of Fredrik Nordström and Patrik Sten, so you just know this is going to sound amazing and I challenge anyone to listen to this for more than a couple of minutes and not find themselves rocking along to it the way you did when you first heard Blizzard of Ozz. With a nice tight playing time of just under 40 minutes, not a moment is wasted and it hangs around just long enough for you to want to play it again immediately.

This is the perfect album to chuck on when you just want to get down and rock out, and there's nothing wrong with that now and again, is there?

1. Can't Get Enough
2. Regain the Crown
3. Look Out
4. Friend
5. Born to Rock
6. Old
7. Girls Girls
8. On the Run
9. Angel
10. Make it Home
11. I Don't Care

Rating: 88%

BLOODCHURN: Ravenous Consumption

Released: 2005

At face value, Bloodchurn don't look like much more than just another faceless brutal death metal band with a penchant for gore and splatter. Certainly the album title and the cover image of a guy apparently eating his own flesh gives this impression. Indeed, the artwork probably does this band a disservice, because once the actual music begins, Bloodchurn turns out to be quite a decent and fairly noteworthy listen.

This isn't a very original band by any stretch of the imagination, but they do manage to stand out from an extremely overcrowded field. The reason for this is simple: Bloodchurn has the ability to write a bunch of cool songs that don't all bleed into one another, so Ravenous Consumption sounds like an album of nine different tracks rather than the same one repeated end over end for half an hour. Bloodchurn knows how to mix it up, blending flat-out grind parts with more moderately paced sections, an occasional short-lived groove and a trace of melody here and there.

Admittedly, it does get a little repetitive by just over halfway through, but overall this is an enjoyable album with plenty of catchy and at times technical riffs, tidy and varied drumming that doesn't overplay the blastbeat card and genuinely interesting lyrics that obviously took more than a minute to write and don't focus entirely on disembowelment. This is definitely a pretty good effort with enough variety not to get completely lost among the uncounted multitudes.

1. Conceived in Blasphemy
2. Scavengers
3. Strings of Salvation
4. Dying Breed
5. Skulldrug
6. Point of Origin
7. A Cataclysmic Blessing
8. Born Without a Soul
9. Gouge Your Eyes Out

Rating: 70%

THE SCREAMING JETS: Live Forever

Produced by The Screaming Jets

Released: 2002

During the 1990s, the Screaming Jets were what Cold Chisel and the Angels had been to the 1980s and what AC/DC was to the 1970s. So when they originally pulled the plug in mid-2001, the door closed not only on a great band, but on an entire chapter of Australian rock history that may never be reopened, because the Jetters really were the last of the great Australian hard rock bands. Like some of them too, the Screaming Jets were sometimes never quite able to translate their raw, live energy adequately onto their studio albums. Perhaps the confines of a studio was too much like putting them in a cage because while they put together some great albums, the Screaming Jets was always a band to be experienced on stage, pumping sweat and crunching through some of the best no-frills rock of the 1990s.

Live Forever is a double live CD recorded at the very last show of their farewell tour in Newcastle in June 2001. For some reason however, this album still doesn’t quite give as good an impression of the feverish chaos of a Jetters live show in the way that, say, Liveline did for the Angels or Last Stand did for Cold Chisel. Apart from Dave Gleeson’s stage banter, this could almost have been recorded live in a studio somewhere with its surprisingly smooth and polished sound. It seems a little pointless to release a live album that doesn’t sound “live” but nevertheless, Live Forever gives you two whole CDs of the band’s best and not so best known songs from right across their catalogue, over two hours’ worth of catchy and hook-laden melodic hard rock tracks that have become part of the nation’s musical heritage.

For Screaming Jets devoted this will be, of course, indispensible, and the casual fan will probably find it a better overall document of their music than the BMG-issued ‘best of’ Hits and Pieces.

CD 1

1. Dream On


2. Alright


3. Tunnel


4. Blue Sashes


5. Realise


6. No Point


7. Starting Out


8. Higher With You


9. Shine Over Me


10. Helping Hand


11. Watching the Grass Grow


12. October Grey


13. Sad Song


14. Think


15. Here I Go

CD 2

1. Needle


2. Individuality


3. No Way Out


4. I Need Your Love


5. Too Drunk to Fuck


6. C'mon


7. Shine On


8. Shivers


9. Living in England


10. Better


11. Friend of Mine


12. F.R.C.

Rating: 78%

DAYSEND: The Warning

Produced by DW Norton

Released: 2007

Armed with a new singer and attached to a new label, Daysend showed almost immediately with this album that the four year break since their debut had almost no impact on them whatsoever. The Warning takes up virtually where Severance left off, with infectious melodies and riffs thrown up relentlessly throughout an array of well-written songs. If there’s one difference, it’s that none of them are as instantly memorable as “Born is the Enemy” or “Blood of Angels”.

The change of vocalist is barely noticable, as Mark McKernan has a voice virtually indistinguishable from that of former singer Simon Calabrese. This merely results in ensuring that The Warning flows directly on from its predecessor. Indeed, this album is a totally natural progression from the previous one, with a more discernable emphasis on melody. The heavy parts are still very much in evidence also, but the focus on melody means that Daysend has swerved even further toward commercial melodic metalcore. This has always been the band’s intention of course, and Daysend is very good at it. Strangely then, the album opens with one of its weakest tracks. Catchy as it is, “Shoot the Messenger” sounds like it was written with riffs left over from Severance. This isn’t a bad song, but you just know this band is capable of better. It’s a promise which they soon come good on with “Scars Remain” and “Blacker Days”, and “No Regrets” is a killer. Following that is the harmonic instrumental piece “V”, a reworking of a similar track from the Emissions of Reality album by Aaron Bilbija and Wayne Morris’ previous band Deadspawn, then comes the melody-drenched “Winter” with clean-only vocals that makes it the perfect tune for radio airplay.

“Between the Hammer and the Anvil” readdresses the balance then, undoubtedly Daysend’s fastest and heaviest track to date. In fact, the last half of the album is clearly more metal-inspired, with Bilbija’s soloing approaching almost epic proportions in some tracks, notably “The Eyes of the World”. Naturally enough, DW Norton’s production sparkles, although the emphasis on the guitars leaves little room for much bass to come through. That’s hardly a criticism however, because The Warning sounds amazing.

If there was any suspicion that Daysend would have any trouble following up their previous success after such a length gap, a couple of spins of this album should remove any doubt.

1. Shoot the Messenger
2. Scars Remain
3. Blacker Days
4. No Regrets
5. V
6. Winter
7. Between the Hammer and the Anvil
8. This is a Warning
9. Passenger
10. The Eyes of the World
11. The Violence
12. Breathe It In

Rating: 88%

ROXUS: Nightstreet

Released: 1991

The Australian music industry is typically about five years behind the rest of the world so naturally just as glam metal was about to be virtually wiped out at a mainstream level across the globe, a Melbourne leather and hair band exploded onto the national chart with an exasperating power ballad called "Where Are You Now?". It cruised into the Top 20 and seemed to hang around for months. The band responsible for it was Roxus, a five-piece that had existed since 1987 and had been fortunate enough to release a reasonably-well received self-financed single around the same time Molly Meldrum had been scouting talent for his new label Melodian, a development arm of Festival, the country's largest independent record company.

By 1991 Melodian obviously decided they were ready and after the success of the single, Roxus unleashed Nightstreet onto the world. It would be fair to argue that many people probably wish they hadn't, and fifteen years later it's a barely memorable blip on the Australian music radar. If it's memorable at all, it's probably for all the wrong reasons.

From the outset, it was clear Roxus had moulded itself after Bon Jovi. There was the same personnel arrangement, same musical outlook and like the New Jersey superstars, the band had been named after its singer, in this case Juno Roxas. The difference between the two groups however is rather like the difference between 10 year olds playing armies in the backyard and Operation Desert Storm, and in the end Nightstreet aimed to be Slippery When Wet but ended up as 7800° Farenheit.

Nightstreet combines lightweight keyboard-drenched melodic pop-metal with high-cheese factor lyrics like few bands in history, resplendent with the type of corny innuendo that even Warrant would have left alone. Seriously, check out this foolishness from the title track: "I've got a hard hat, full sack, shining like a Cadillac/C'mon and loosen my load/I got a bomb tickin', lookin' for a lickin'/Feel like I'm about to explode".

The album is just as musically vapid. Even the tamest American hair band usually had some degree of bite, whether it be a scorching-hot guitar player or a kick-ass drummer. Here, the rhythm section is so buried in the mix that the bass and drums virtually don't exist and Dragan Stanic's guitar work is some of the most unspectacular ever recorded. For a band of its nature too, "Bad Boys" is the only song on which Roxus comes anywhere close to really rocking out but with truly hilarious lines like "Life can taste so sweet when you are down on your knees" it's impossible to take seriously. The less said about the awful "Jimi G" the better, but no song about a man should ever be sung by another man the way Roxas sings this gem. For all its irksomeness, "Where Are You Now?" is far and away the best song on the album and probably best illustrates where Roxus wanted to be instead of where they actually were.

After about a week on the charts, Nightstreet nosedived into oblivion and the title of its big first single quickly became an ironic epitaph for Roxus. After this, most of the band left or were fired and Roxus was never heard from again.

1. Rock N Roll Nights
2. My Way
3. Bad Boys
4. Midnight Love
5. Where Are You Now?
6. Nightstreet
7. This Time
8. First Break of the Heart
9. Stand Back
10. Jimi G

Rating: 37%

CRYSTAL BALL: Secrets

Produced by Michael Borman

Released: 2007

A few days ago I reviewed Step On It by Boss and gave it a bit of a caning, but after subsequently listening to this album it is quite possible that, as ordinary as Boss was, the only real impediment to a lengthy third-tier career was their location. Had they perhaps been from Germany (where, from memory, Step On It still has something of a cult following) or, like Crystal Ball, from neighbouring Switzerland, they could be up to their tenth or eleventh release by now.

For some reason, Crystal Ball has made it to album number six with Secrets, despite not having a single good, original idea (I've heard their last couple also, and they are much the same). The very fact they have done this must say more about the market in their part of the world than it does about the band itself, because a group as vapid and uninteresting as this one would have self-destructed long ago in Australia.

Secrets really has virtually nothing to recommend it. From the attempt at emulating Gamma Ray on the opening song across the spectrum of try-hard arena metal and boring stabs at melodic heavy rock, this is merely one mediocre track after the next, stretching on and on for what seems to be an interminable period of time. It isn't that the songs are badly played or that Crystal Ball is in anyway musically inept, they simply have seemingly no desire to make music that is inspired or remarkable in any form. True, "I Will Drag You Down" is actually not too bad and the closing song "Face the Truth" is also rather worthwhile, but the other 45 minutes or so are just a total waste.

Crystal Ball evidently have a fanbase and a sizeable enough one for them to be able to make their lazy efforts at songs worthwhile, but surely their only real saving grace is being so close to the fourth largest music market in the world.

1. Moondance


2. I Will Drag You Down


3. Minor Key


4. It's Not Love


5. Time Has Come


6. Secrets


7. Wings of Fire


8. Dreaming of You


9. Destiny


10. I'll Be Waiting


11. Face the Truth

Rating: 20%

FEAR FACTORY: Obsolete

Produced by Fear Factory, Rhys Fulber and Greg Reely

Released: 1998

Demanufacture established Fear Factory as a successfully innovative band, merging heavy and relentless death metal riffing and ceaseless drumming with injections of cleaner vocals and dark industrial elements. By the time of Obsolete, this basic blueprint had already been imitated across the metal sphere to the point where Fear Factory themselves had to adapt a new gameplan in order to keep ahead of their copyists.

A more creative use of keyboards, the introduction of some symphonic elements, a deeper immersion into Demanufacture's only hinted-at visions of the future and the stripping back of the band's death metal overtones in favour of a more commercial style are the defining aspects of this album. Dino Cazares' riffs aren't that different from before (for example the main descending motif from "Descend" is exactly the same as the main riff from "Replica", but slower) and may indeed be even simpler, but they are catchy and mostly effective and with the added bottom end afforded by his adoption of a seven-string guitar. Raymond Herrera's machine-like drumming is also a familiar feature, but here and there he adds an off-time beat like in "Obsolete". However, the album is really driven by vocalist Burton Bell. His clean singing is as processed as before, perhaps even more so, but instead of the robotic, hate machine roar of Demanufacture, his other voice here is quite raw, giving it a more human quality that is in keeping with the album's concept and that of its main character. For Obsolete is a concept album, and a meticulously conceived one at that.

Expanding on the themes the previous volume only hinted at, Obsolete works as a three act drama with the dissident Edgecrusher as the protagonist, escaping from authority only to be ruthlessly hunted down and eventually recaptured by the forces of the Securitron, his attempted insurgence brutally crushed. In this respect, Obsolete is an even more bleak vision than Demanufacture, which at least ended on a hopeful note. Concept albums are renowned for falling flat, but this one works due to the fact that at this point of their career, Fear Factory was still a fearsome songwriting force with only "Hi-Tech Hate" really coming down on the ordinary side. Elsewhere, while Cazares' riffs are almost unashamedly recycled, the inherent catchiness allows him to get away with it. As mentioned earlier however, Bell owns Obsolete as he characterises the various players from the storyline with surprising emotion and passion for an album of this kind. Evoking exactly the right amount of despair, this is nowhere better illustrated than in "Descent" and, later, "Resurrection" where the Edgecrusher is left to contemplate his failure.

Overall Obsolete may not be quite as successful as its predecessor, but it is still a powerful and heavy album that isn't afraid to take a few chances and proved it could be done. Alas, it was after this that Fear Factory seemed to abruptly run out of ideas, or, perhaps more correctly, run out of good ways to re-present the same ideas.

1. Shock
2. Edgecrusher
3. Smasher/Devourer
4. Securitron (Police State 2000)
5. Descent
6. Hi-Tech Hate
7. Freedom or Fire
8. Obsolete
9. Resurrection
10. Timelessness

Rating: 85%

TOOL: Ænima

Produced by David Botterill

Released: 1996

It's hard to be objective about the things you really like. I've attempted to review this album several times in the past but I've found it difficult because it's such a favourite. Put it this way: I bought this when it was first released so I wouldn't miss out on the lenticular packaging and then proceeded to play it every day for the next three years or so until I almost wore out the disc. That's not a bad achievement for a person who, upon seeing Tool live eighteen months before, had thought they were one of the most boring acts he'd ever seen.

On Ænima, Tool expanded their geek-rock oeuvre into the realm of dark, thought-provoking progressive rock in such a massive and successful way it's arguable whether they have been able to match or better it since. Using King Crimson as a rough guide, Adam Jones, Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor set down an often stark and brooding musical foundation upon which Maynard Keenan builds his narratives on philosophy, psychology, genetics and false martyrdom drawn from the likes of Carl Jung and Bill Hicks. Eventually, they all meld together in the sweeping closing epic "Third Eye", an expansive miasma of mind-altering substances, metaphysics and epistemology. And Ænima is very much Keenan's album, with the sheer intensity of his vocal delivery throughout being the key factor in its success. With any less of a talent, the utter audacity and arrogance of Tool's vision would most likely fall on its face.

Still, the rest of the band pull their weight. Jones churns out the mosh-groove from Hell in the latter part of "Stinkfist", Chancellor adds a suitably throbbing bass line under Keenan's assorted rants and whispers in the title track and the brilliant Carey's drumming is jaw-dropping everywhere. He is Tool's other true star, filling every hole with a subtle, clever fill or boosting the sound with an assortment of polyrhythms. All together, the band's music here is as moving as it is articulate: "Hooker With a Penis" is outright anger, "Ænema" pure cynicism and "Eulogy's" damning indictment against L. Ron Hubbard is particularly passionate.

At times however, Tool clearly overplay their hand, and it's difficult to tell whether this is intentional or not. While the sinister interlude "Message to Harry Manback" (a real answering machine message left for a former room-mate of Keenan's) is creepily effective, and "(-) Ions" is a decent build-up to the ambient intro of "Third Eye", most of the others only break the flow of the album; "Useful Idiot" is so short it seems to serve no purpose. Some may argue that without them Ænima is in some way less effective, but careful experimentation with a CD player's "skip" button will show that this really isn't the case.

No discussion of a Tool album is complete without making mention of its packaging, and on the threshold of an era where downloads and personal MP3 players were threatening to make even the CD itself completely redundant a band as pretentious as Tool still understood that powerful music should have great artwork. Hence, Ænima featured a lenticular cover with a booklet that included three alternative images: the regular "Smokebox" with animated smoke and eyes could be interchanged with another that showed a female contortionist apparently performing cunnilingus on herself (while the band watches) or another of some kind of monstrous reptile with a eye capable of 360º rotation. The tray also featured an animation of California being inundated after an earthquake, another homage to Bill Hicks' "Arizona Bay" routine. These days Ænima just comes as a standard package, so even though my copy doesn't play properly anymore, I'm in no hurry to update it.

Ænima is a dark, powerful and moving album from a band that was outstanding for its time; time seems to have caught up with Tool now that progressive music is fashionable again but Ænima itself remains as timeless as the day it appeared.

1. Stinkfist
2. Eulogy
3. H
4. Useful Idiot
5. Forty Six & 2
6. Message to Harry Manback
7. Hooker With a Penis
8. Intermission
9. jimmy
10. Die Eier von Satan
11. Pushit
12. Cesaro Summability
13. Ænema
14. (-) Ions
15. Third Eye

Rating: 98%

BOSS: Step On It

Released: 1984

Sometimes it's hard to see exactly what appeals to record labels when they go looking for hitmakers. Step On It came out just as the hair/pop-metal juggernaut was gathering momentum thanks to the combined successes of albums like Metal Health, Shout at the Devil and (most significantly in terms of this album) Pyromania, so clearly in this case, timing was everything. Boss was a hard-working band that had come across to Sydney from Adelaide in the early 1980s and it was probably the combination of being in the right place at the right time and having just the right level of Def Leppard-ness in their sound that attracted the interest of RCA, who gave Step On It immediate worldwide release when it came out in 1984.

I bought this album after seeing Boss open for Iron Maiden and thought it was all right but even back then I didn't love it that much. It has a couple of songs that are OK and one that I still quite enjoy but this is an album that has dated really badly and, on the face of it, wasn't that great to begin with. First of all, there's that cover, which, if you can't see it too well, is a woman's leg in heels (and studded leather anklet) stepping on (geddit?) a Gibson Destroyer. It's pretty lame, but in the context of 80s album covers, not as bad as some. Secondly, the production is the stock standard paper-thin and gutless "rock" mix that every Australian band who couldn't afford Mark Opitz or Nick Launay or Mike Chapman (or someone of similar stature) seemed to get. Nevertheless, none of this would have mattered if the songs were there, but they're not.

"Kick Ass (Rock N Roll)" isn't quite as kick ass as its title suggests but it is clearly the best song on the album, a nice hard rocker that I still crank from time to time and the track that best showcases the two aspects of Boss that were in any way remarkable: Craig Csongrady's wailing vocals and Kevin Pratt's blazing guitar solos. Both of them have loads of obvious ability (particularly Pratt) and this combination would arguably work better several years later in a reconfigured version of the band called BB Steal, but on Step On It the overall amateurish approach doesn't do much for them. "That Woman" (and quite possibly "Free Wheelin'") is the only other song that really rises above the terribly average; "Cry Cry" is a detestable attempt at a ballad and "Shake It" (which begins "Saw you last night at the local dance/I was feelin' pretty lucky, thought I'd take a chance") is just awful. In between, there's just a bunch of unmemorable songs (a couple of which were, amazingly, issued as singles) that, like the album itself, fail to rise to any great heights.

1. Kick Ass (Rock N Roll)
2. That Woman
3. Dancin' Queen
4. Strange Games
5. Hard N Fast
6. Escapee
7. Take It or Leave it
8. Free Wheelin'
9. Cry Cry
10. Shake It

Rating: 45%

ALCHEMIST: Tripsis

Produced by DW Norton and Alchemist

Released: 2007

The four years since Austral Alien is the longest gap between albums of new material in Alchemist history. The double retrospective Embryonics garnered a lot of well-deserved and long-awaited interest in this most enduring of Australian metal bands but a follow-up to the 2003 release was essential to maintain the momentum that the compilation had built up.There was a bit of talk from the band in the lead-up to the release of this that they were aiming for something of a return to their early days here, but on first listen Tripsis sounds essentially and stylistically like a virtual continuation of Austral Alien, albeit a significantly heavier one. It is really only the opening track "Wrapped in Guilt" where this is really the case however, because on repeated spins the truth of Alchemist's claims begin to become apparent.

First of all, every song is simply driven by a ceaseless churning undercurrent of grinding guitars that pound like a monstrous surf. Alchemist has not been this heavy in a long time, or probably ever. For example, "Tongues & Knives" begins with a savage burst, briefly subsides into jangling guitars with an echo of an Eastern theme from ages past, and then plunges headlong towards a series of blood-curdling shrieks not heard since "Chinese Whispers" ten years ago. Later on, the gently pining intro of "CommunicHate" suddenly explodes into a ripping thrashy riff and Adam's growl is at its angriest its ever been before he unleashes an anguished howl that hasn't been heard from him in many a day.

The longer you listen, the more you notice that Tripsis is just as different from past Alchemist albums as every other one has been. "Nothing in No Time" has a truly catchy headbanging groove at a speed unlike any song this band has done before. "Anticipation of a High" keeps the pace going before gradually fading out over a suitably trippy guitar line. "Substance For Shadow" is built around an incredible bouncing riff underpinned by what is almost a marching beat. "God-Shaped Hole" is an really uncharacteristically dark track in which some seriously distorted vocals spit forth from a maelstrom where a relentlessly buzzing, droning riff on one side competes with a swirling motif on the other. True genius.

Throughout it all are the occasional keyboard flourishes, the moments of tribal rhythms and those distinctive twangy guitar sounds but on Tripsis they are much less prevalent than usual. Instead, Alchemist use the power of the riff like never before--this is the most riff-oriented volume of their career.Perhaps most striking of all however are the lyrical themes. Gone are the mystical hippy broodings, the transcendental excursions and the odes to nature of past Alchemist outings. These songs are about the dark side of humanity, betrayal and failings, and the surging heavy drive of each one ram home the point.

With Tripsis, Alchemist once again proves themselves to be a band like no other. Their brilliance is undeniable.

1. Wrapped in Guilt
2. Tongues & Knives
3. Nothing in No Time
4. Anticipation of a High
5. Grasp the Air
6. CommunicHate
7. Substance for Shadow
8. God Shaped Hole
9. Degenerative Breeding

Rating: 96%

WARREL DANE: Praises to the War Machine

Produced by Warrel Dane
Released: 2008

Few songwriters in any genre write about the misery of the human condition like Warrel Dane. His first solo venture understandably allows him to be even more personal than before, and so it is that this is also the darkest thing he has done. That's bleak indeed when you consider that this is the man who wrote "Believe in Nothing" and "Evolution 169".

Musically, Praises to the War Machine is rather like a stripped-back Nevermore, melodic and thrashy but without the progressiveness. It is also somewhat less successful, particularly the heavier tracks. Dane's bandmates for this outing include Peter Wichers and Dirk Verbeuren from Soilwork so it isn't through lack of talent that the songs aren't always what they could be. None of them are bad by any means, but for the most part they lack that extra oomph that Nevermore usually delivers. With that said, this is not a Nevermore album in spite of the obvious presence of Dane's inimitable vocals and overlapping themes. "When We Pray" is a strong opener and only the lack of one of Jeff Loomis' spectacular guitar solos really differentiates it from a song by Dane's regular band.

"Messenger" (on which Loomis does actually play) isn't quite as strong although "Obey" is also a good tune. The spiteful and vindictive "Brother" and "Equilibrium" later in the piece are also stand-outs, but it's on the balladic tracks where Praises to the War Machine really shines and where Dane's power as a lyricist are truly displayed. Whatever the occasional weaknesses may be in the music department, the real power and beauty of this album lays in its lyrics. The themes he explores are his usual dark fare: the futility of religion, betrayals, human frailities. As previously mentioned, Warrel Dane's talent for evoking tales of pure humanity is remarkable and on "August" and "This Old Man" he surpasses himself, particularly on the latter, a tale about a lonely neighbour from the singer's youth.

Praises to the War Machine may not quite stand up next to Dane's other work with Nevermore on a musical level, but this is without doubt his most personal and darkest achievement.

1. When We Pray
2. Messenger
3. Obey
4. Lucretia My Reflection
5. Let You Down
6. August
7. Your Chosen Misery
8. The Day the Rats Went to War
9. Brother
10. Patterns
11. This Old Man
12. Equilibrium

Rating: 85%

APOLOGIES

I know there are a few regular readers, and I would like to apologise to them for the lack of reviews over the last few days. I've been recovering from an extremely painful tooth extraction that's prevented me from concentrating on much more than tying my shoes for most of the last week. I do, however, have a few new reviews in the works and as I finish them I'll post them up.

Cheers.

Rating: 0%

DOUBLE DRAGON: Scars of Fire

Released: 2006

Double Dragon is a name I've been hearing a lot of recently and they are currently holed up at work on a debut album so now seems like the perfect time to take a look at the previous CD. Since this was released this band has played with Slayer, Mastodon and TOOL among a string of others and appeared at the Big Day Out so they're obviously impressing a lot of the right people. "Scars of Fire" shows some of the potential that Double Dragon possesses but falls short of being really spectacular.

Opening track "Dead But Still Killing" is an absolute corker, sporting one of those insanely catchy In Flames-like melodic thrash riffs that immediately gets feet tapping and heads banging. It's patently generic but a seriously good way to get things cracking. "Inflictor" strikes next, not quite as good as the opener but again with a nicely flowing if predictable riff pattern. A tasty lead break from twin guitars heads into what for the briefest of moments threatens to become a breakdown but thankfully only turns out to be a single chug before heading back into the main riff again.

The CD loses a bit of its lustre after this with the next couple of tracks not really varying the diet much apart from the odd pinched harmonic being dropped in. The real clincher here however is the clean vocal lines. Used sparingly over the first two tracks, after this they crop up rather more, and occasionally seem as if vocalist Lee Gardiner is just putting them in at random because they somehow seem to be needed. They come off sounding a bit weak most of the time too and bold as it may be to suggest this but to me the songs would actually be stronger without them, or at least with fewer of them. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the last track, "Skulls of Fallen Conquerors" which starts off with some real ass-kickery going on with criss-crossing riffage and big thundering drums and Gardiner sounding like some kind of anger-fuelled madman, only to have a clean section come in and rob it of some of the rage. It's a shame too because this track could easily have been the best one of the lot. They get plenty of bonus points however for completely avoiding the use of any chugga-chugga breakdown parts.

Double Dragon is certainly a band to watch and they can put all the pieces together but "Scars of Fire" is probably just a little too generic in many places and shows they still had some work to do in a few areas. I haven't heard any of their newer material but if they've tweaked things properly they could become a monster.

1. Dead But Still Killing


2. Inflictor


3. Forever Sacred


4. Valley of Broken Bones


5. The Skulls of Fallen Conquerors

Rating: 67%

VENOMOUS CONCEPT: Poisoned Apple

Released: 2008

"Hardcore" is a word that gets bandied about with furious abandon in music circles these days, but the guys who bring you Poisoned Apple know precisely where it belongs and after one listen, you'll understand too. With two members from Napalm Death and two from Brutal Truth, Venomous Concept adopted their name as a play on that of Poison Idea and the music is almost identical.

The first inklings of this appeared late last year as three tracks on a vinyl split with Blood Duster, so anyone who has that will know what to they're getting into. Otherwise, those familiar with Napalm Death and Brutal Truth who may be expecting something similar may well be in for a surprise. This is neither metal nor grind. It's pure hardcore punk that could have come straight out of early 80s America. It's stripped back and angry, with Shane Embury (in the unfamiliar role of guitarist here) churning out simple, catchy and speedy riffs for Kevin Sharp to vomit his caustic invective upon. It's violent and unrelenting, only slowing down enough here and there to give false respite before hammering down again like a blunt object delivering blow upon blow of fury, leaving novice listeners feeling not unlike the mutilated pink bunnies on the album cover.

Like most hardcore played at such crazy speed, Poisoned Apple's songs start to blend together after a while, but most of them don't last long enough to be deeply analysed as single entities, more as separate parts of one continuous barrage and the whole thing's over in just on half an hour anyway.

Real 80s hardcore is almost impossible to get these days so it's awesome there's a band bringing it back. Whether you're already a fan or you want to get into raucous crustiness, Poisoned Apple is where it's at.

1. Drop Dead
2. Stupid
3. Life
4. Water Cooler
5. Punk Rock Idol
6. Artist Friendly
7. A Case of the Mondays
8. Every Mother's Son
9. Workers of the World
10. Half Full
11. Check Out
12. White Devil
13. Hero
14. Three
15. Screwball
16. Chaos
17. Think

Rating: 86%

TEMUJIN: 1000 Tears

Produced by Temujin
Released: 2007

While originally released late last year, Temujin has announced that Renaissance Records will be issuing this album internationally in May, so what better time than now to put it through The Sound Cellar's wringer?

1000 Tears is the debut effort from the Melbourne duo of Kelly and Karl Lean and at a whopping 56 minutes there is certainly a lot of music here. Back in the 80s, Karl Lean was the founder of Nothing Sacred, a seminal band of Australia's thrash movement but Temujin could not be more different. 1000 Tears is very solidly -- and very generically -- Gothic metal with precisely all the aspects of that genre and almost nothing of anything else. Kelly's vocal style recalls those of Anneke van Giersbergen and Liv Kristine and musically the band evokes easy comparisons to Within Temptation and After Forever, but with less of the symphonic elements.

With "Find Me", Temujin immediately establishes their sound, with the gently sighing keyboards surging through the choruses and the crashing, slow-riffing guitars the foundation for Kelly's soprano vocals. It's easy to see why Temujin would stoke some interest with such an offering, but as 1000 Tears goes on it's a bit difficult to see how that could be maintained. For the best part of an hour, Temujin stick resolutely to their guns, barely wavering from the format set down in that first song. Karl spices things up a little now and then with some nice lead guitar work (his old Nothing Sacred buddies Sham and, er, Buddy help out here also), but otherwise there just isn't a great deal of variation on offer. This is somewhat of a shame, because when they do veer slightly, the results are impressive. Stripped of almost all keyboards, the heavier riffing and darker atmosphere of "Blue Jay" makes it a real stand out and "Throwing Stones" has Karl adding some depth to the sound with vocals of his own. This track is also significantly heavier, which helps to make it a highlight.

As it stands, 1000 Tears isn't a bad album, although the cover art is not a great representation of the package. Temujin puts everything in all the right boxes and has all the right elements to appeal to fans of their musical style. However, amongst a sea of similar acts it doesn't particularly stand out and breaks no new ground, giving the impression of playing things a little too safe while only briefly showing of what they are really capable.

1. Find Me
2. 1000 Tears
3. So Near
4. Let You Go
5. Spiral
6. Down
7. Blue Jay
8. Taken
9. Sheltered
10. Haunted
11. All of You
12. Throwing Stones
13. Heart and Soul

Rating: 52%

MACHINE MEN: Circus of Fools

Released: 2007

If Bruce Dickinson was still in his twenties, and Finnish, he would quite likely make an album that sounds like this. Machine Men evolved out of an Iron Maiden covers band, and their heritage is apparent in everything they do. Indeed, what Primal Fear is to Pain Killer, Machine Men is to The Chemical Wedding, so much so that not only did this band take its name from a song off that album, with Circus of Fools they have come as close to recreating the vibe of it as is likely possible without Bruce, Adrian, Roy et al being involved. Mixing that with a touch of Queensrÿche and chucking in a bit of 80s style thrash, Machine Men has made a thoroughly enjoyable CD.

With all thought of originality left sealed up somewhere they can't escape, these guys instead concentrate on writing catchy, melodic heavy metal. There's a definite classic feel to the material on display, but there is also a modern spirit along with a production that is crisp and crunchy in all the right places without that typical plastic sound to which so many European metal album fall victim.

As mentioned, by far the most noticeable aspect of this band's sound is its similarities to classic Iron Maiden, and in this regard Toni Parvianien mimics Dickinson so well that on "Tyrannize" I thought they'd brought the man himself in for a cameo. Nevertheless, this isn't complete Maiden worship. There's some sharp and crunchy thrash sprinkled about as well, all built around tight songwriting and razor-sharp, hook-laden riffs that dozens of bands would kill to write. For anyone who just wants to hear some new metal done the way it used to be done, and done stunningly well, Circus of Fools is well worth a listen.

1. Circus of Fools
2. No Talk Without the Giant
3. Ghost of the Seasons
4. Tyrannise
5. The Shadow Gallery
6. Where I Stand
7. Border of the Real World
8. Dying Without a Name
9. The Cardinal Point

Rating: 78%

IN THIS MOMENT: Beautiful Tragedy

Produced by Eric Rachel and In This Moment

Released: 2007

With their moneyspinners Shadows Fall now off with a major label, Century Media has cast its net wide to find a replacement. In Hollywood's In This Moment they may well have found it. If there's one band that could be described as Shadows Fall with a chick singer, it is In This Moment.

Beautiful Tragedy begins with the ridiculously generic 'Prayers', a song that sounds so much like so many others I couldn't actually pin down one to compare it to. The next track, with its Coldplay-esque intro, doesn't exactly take too many chances either, and pretty much the same could be said for the album as a whole. There isn't that much to mark this album as any different to any other quality melodic metalcore/screamo disc that's appeared in the last couple of years. The soloing is neat and unadorned, the melodies are sharp and infectious and the riffs have a mosh-inspiring catchiness without being anything remotely original. There's even a big orchestral power ballad that would slot into rock radio formatting right next to Evanescence without too much difficulty. It does however feature a couple of punchy tracks like "Next Life" and the 'bonus' "Have No Fear", and "Circles" is also a stand out.

Beautiful Tragedy is a decent album and I found it reasonably enjoyable. But it's also completely safe one, exactly the sort of album a label would want a new band with some promise to release. The real wildcard in the group is Maria Brink, who has styled herself as something of a cross between Brodie Dalle and Amy Lee with something of a young Courtney Love hanging around too. Brink is the element that really makes this band, and it's not that much of a stretch to see her eventually transcending In This Moment for something much bigger.

1. Whispers of October
2. Prayers
3. Beautiful Tragedy
4. Ashes
5. Daddy's Falling Angel
6. The Legacy of Odio
7. This Moment
8. Next Life
9. He Said Eternity
10. Circles
11. When the Storm Subsides
12. Have No Fear

Rating: 68%

DIRE STRAITS: Brothers in Arms

Produced by Mark Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman

Released: 1985

Coming three years after the progressive jazz-rock opus Love Over Gold and riding the success of the enormous hit "Money for Nothing", Brothers in Arms would do for Mark Knopfler what Born in the USA had done for Bruce Springsteen: turn a guy in his mid-30s into a pop idol. It was done in a similar fashion too, with finely-crafted songs embellished with a timely pop sensibility.

The album is dominated by "Money for Nothing", the sardonic indictment of the MTV generation delivered from a disgruntled punter's point of view and driven by a distorted guitar riff Knopfler borrowed from Billy Gibbons. The irony that it was sung by a balding Scottish Jew who hadn't made his first record until he was 30 wasn't lost on the audience, but no one cared. "Money for Nothing" was such a huge hit and so clever a song that it could have over-shadowed everything else on the album had Brothers in Arms not been by Dire Straits. Because it was, most of the other tracks assert themselves just as well. On the opener "So Far Away" they return to the blues they cut their teeth on; "Walk of Life" is a feel-good 12-bar boogie with an enormous sing-along hook. The band's jazz inflections emerge in the smoky ballad "Your Latest Trick" and "Why Worry" rings with the tones of the steel-bodied National guitar on the album's cover. "Ride Across the River" featuring jungles sounds and tribal beats is one of the strongest tracks, the first of a suite of songs in which the various wars in Central America are used almost as a metaphor for his parents' experiences as Holocaust refugees. The title cut rounds these out, and thus also the album, in a manner reminiscent of "Private Investigations" but far more spiritual.

Brothers in Arms was one of the biggest albums of the 1980s, and as one of the decade's best, deservedly so.

1. So Far Away
2. Money For Nothing
3. Walk of Life
4. Your Latest Trick
5. Why Worry
6. Ride Across the River
7. Man's Too Strong
8. One World
9. Brothers in Arms

Rating: 95%

VIRGIN BLACK: Elegant... and Dying

Produced by Rowan London

Released: 2003

It is a pretty rare occasion when a band can embrace the Gothic metal arena and make something that is truly distinctive and unique, and yet this is precisely what Adelaide’s Virgin Black does. Elegant… and Dying is the band’s second full-length recording and sets about to immediately surpass the first: no mean feat when Sombre Romantic was so close to being a masterpiece. While Virgin Black’s music has all the rudiments of the Gothic doom genre, it is how they choose to work with it that makes them so special.

Samantha Escarbe writes riffs that would truly not be out of place among the very best of My Dying Bride’s catalogue and her lead guitar work is delicate and highly emotive. Emotive would also be a good but hardly adequate description of Rowan London’s vocal performance. His extensive and expressive range of moods -- passionate wails, hallowed whispers, dark chants and occasional shrieks – is a key element of Virgin Black’s haunting, melancholy sound.

In short, Elegant… and Dying is a jaw-droppingly amazing work exploring the dark side of spirituality through an intricately realised patchwork of layered keyboards, strings, ambience, choral chants and slow, immense riffs studded with eloquent guitar melodies and, of course, London’s kaledioscopic vocals. These elements certainly aren’t rare in Virgin Black’s chosen style but rarely are they envisioned and realised with such poignancy and opulence. Elegant… and Dying moves through the delicate guitar interplay of ‘And the Kiss of God’s Mouth Pt. 1’ to the enormous expanses of ‘The Everlasting’ and ‘Cult of Crucifixion’ with each highlight being surpassed by yet another.

This is a truly outstanding album.

1. Adorned in Ashes
2. Velvet Tongue
3. And the Kiss of God's Mouth Pt. 1
4. And the Kiss of God's Mouth Pt. 2
5. Renaissance
6. The Everlasting
7. Cult of Crucifixion
8. Beloved
9. Our Wings are Burning

Rating: 95%

ROB ZOMBIE: Hellbilly Deluxe

Produced by Scott Humphey & Rob Zombie
Released: 1998

Recorded and released almost immediately White Zombie's fate was sealed, Rob Zombie's first solo album was panned and pilloried in almost every review I saw of it, so I knew it just had to be well worth a listen. And I was right.

Departing not a jot from the musical direction and style of White Zombie, Rob and his buddies Riggs, Blasko and Tempesta plunged the listener into a world of complete Z-grade horror schlock, infested with vampires, ghouls, walking dead and assorted shambling creepy things and it was all done with an infernal sense of impish fun that the likes of Marilyn Manson seemed to have completely forgotten. Starting with a couple of tunes laden with samples and heavy syncopation, Hellbilly Deluxe quickly moves up a into overdrive when "Demonoid Phenomonon" surges forth with some cool and heavey second-hand Ministry riffs and the tone is set for some typically Rob Zombie party music. And the artwork within is pure genius.

Sure, he plunders the industrial scene mercilessly, shamelessly ripping off everyone from Ministry to Manson to Reznor to his own previous band, but unlike the others Zombie seems to be having a truly riotous time. It's shallow and tacky schlock horror-rock, but that's all it was meant to be: Hellbilly Deluxe is just 13 tracks of pure party music, something like cock rock for the 90s to be cranked and enjoyed without any need to put the brain into gear.

1. Call of the Zombie
2. Superbeast
3. Dragula
4. Living Dead Girl
5. Perversion 99
6. Demonoid Phenomonon
7. Spookshow Baby
8. H0w to Make a Monster
9. Meet the Creeper
10. The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa the Whore
11. What Lurks on Channel X?
12. Return of the Phantom Stranger
13. The Beginning of the End

Rating: 78%

SAXON: The Inner Sanctum

Produced by Charlie Bauerfeind

Released: 2007

As some bands enter the twilight of their careers, sometimes you can wonder why they don't pull the plug and slide away into quiet retirement. Other times, they just come out and plain surprise you. This is one of those times. Saxon's career has been pretty hit and miss for about 20 years, and yet they've managed to keep it together with nary a line-up change but for a couple of drummer reshuffles for a very long time. The last few studio albums had their moments without being anything amazing, and as mentioned a few days ago, The Eagle Has Landed III is better left unheard, but The Inner Sanctum is a truly stellar effort, one of their best albums in a long time and maybe ever.

This latest album from Saxon is a combination of power, melody and speed you would more usually expect from the newer breed of Swedish and German bands who grew up listening to the classic NWOBHM albums. What makes it substantially different however is that Saxon still does it heavier; really, this is like the power metal pretensions of Lionheart, but greatly improved and crossed with Denim and Leather or Power and the Glory.

"State of Grace" opens the album with an almost Helloween-ish feel, then the appropriately-named "Need for Speed" and "Let Me Feel Your Power" come in with a mixture of savagery, ball-tearing speed and a heaviness that this band has rarely matched. Biff is in fine voice and Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt fire away with scintillating dual guitar leads and melodies. After this Saxon veers slightly back toward their classic anthemic style with a trio of songs including the ridiculously catchy "I've Got to Rock (to Stay Alive)" and then head back to the more contemporary feel of the album's opening arsenal, ending with a big fat epic about Atilla the Hun.

The Inner Sanctum is an extremely solid and consistent album from a band that could very well have merely sat back on it laurels. But there's definitely life in this old beast yet and they have made a very good CD indeed.

1. State of Grace
2. Need for Speed
3. Let Me Feel Your Power
4. Red Star Falling
5. I've Got to Rock (to Stay Alive)
6. If I Was You
7. Going Nowhere Fast
8. Ashes to Ashes
9. Empire Rising
10. Atila the Hun

Rating: 92%

CULT OF LUNA: Salvation

Produced by Cult of Luna

Released: 2004

Categorising Cult of Luna as metal or hardcore is as incorrect as doing the same to Neurosis or Isis, the two bands this Swedish act is closest to musically and creatively. Like them, Cult of Luna don’t so much play music as manipulate sounds, creating vast atmospheric noisescapes with minimalist vocals and, despite having seven members on this album, very sparse instrumentation.

When the riffing finally does come in, often after a minutes-long build up of white noise, effects and ambience, it comes as crushing waves of sludge that quickly subside once more into further extended breaks of mesmerising tribal drumming or sonic manipulation.

Salvation is absorbing and hypnotic as Cult of Luna slowly unfurl the various moods of their music, some of which is so stripped back instrumentally it makes previous albums sound downright cluttered. ‘Adrift’ and ‘White Cell’ recall earlier works, but it’s clear that the band had turned a corner in its sound and direction. Opening track ‘Echoes’ drifts gradually into the consciousness long before you’re actually aware of it, rises to a grand crescendo and eases away again over a barely noticed 12 minutes, segueing into the mesmerising ‘Vague Illusions’ so effectively it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the next begins, and the story is much the same for the entire album.

For want of something to label it, this type of thing is usually called post-hardcore, but on Salvation Cult of Luna is almost post-music, of a scope and brilliance few could hope to match.

1. Echoes
2. Vague Illusions
3. Leave Me Here
4. Waiting for You
5. Adrift
6. White Cell
7. Crossing Over
8. Into the Beyond

Rating: 90%

JUDAS PRIEST: Killing Machine

Produced by Judas Priest and James Guthrie

Released: 1978

Killing Machine marked a change for Judas Priest as they turned toward a more commercial style. With American success looming, they toned down the demonic imagery of previous albums and the songwriting became far simpler and while they maintained their love for speed and continued to be heavier than anyone, Killing Machine is one of this great band's weaker moments. Originally released only eight months after the monumental Stained Class, there is definitely a feeling that this one was rushed through to capitalise on Judas Priest's US appearances with Led Zeppelin earlier in the year.

That isn't to say that this is a bad album, because Judas Priest simply don't make bad albums, and Killing Machine opens with the fury of "Delivering the Goods", a full-blooded scorcher that is only topped here by the godly "Hell Bent for Leather", the track that became this album's title song in the US. It should be perfectly clear after hearing tracks like this why Priest is metal's defining act: this is speed metal before there was a term for it. Elsewhere, "Killing Machine" and "Running Wild" are rather strong too while "Rock Forever" hints at the more anthemic tunes that would be sprinkled throughout this band's albums in the 80s. Most of the rest are take-it-or-leave-it: "Evil Fantasies" is reminiscent of their darker past but not as impressively done, "Evening Star" has a huge chorus but little else to make it memorable and the football chant "Take on the World" is like "United" from British Steel, but worse.

What lets this album down in the end is inconsistency, but what saves it, ironically, is that Killing Machine is the first album to display what would later be recognised as the band's classic sound, a sound that would keep them at the top of the metal pile for well over a decade.

1. Delivering the Goods
2. Rock Forever
3. Evening Star
4. Hell Bent for Leather
5. Take on the World
6. Burnin' Up
7. Killing Machine
8. Running Wild
9. Before the Dawn
10. Evil Fantasies

Rating: 65%

IRON MAIDEN: Virtual XI

Produced by Steve Harris and Nigel Green

Released: 1998

Over the years fans have leapt to defend Iron Maiden's 11th studio album but the truth is that the 90s were lean years for Metal's Greatest Ever Band™ and Virtual XI seemed like the final nail in the coffin for the group that seemed unable to take a wrong step a decade before. While certainly more upbeat and uplifting than the harrowing and patience-testing The X Factor, there was no getting around the fact that by now, with two of its major songwriters long gone, Iron Maiden was not just completely out of ideas but virtually devoid of inspiration. From the ridiculous cover art to the stupidly over-long and obesely self-indulgent second track, Virtual XI is Iron Maiden merely playing by numbers.

Unfairly, Blaze Bayley was long scapegoated for Maiden's failure to fire on both the albums he recorded with them but from a songwriting point of view he was responsible for what is one of VXI's better (and most over-looked) tracks, the Falklands War requiem "Como Estais Amigos" as well as "Futureal", one of the band's shortest and best flat-out rockers. Compared to his performance on the previous release where he often seemed to be struggling, Bayley does admirably with the material he was given here. Indeed, while he doesn't quite carry it off the way Bruce Dickinson would later do, he does give his all in the rousing "The Clansman", the album's clear high point and possibly the best track from this era of the band. Elsewhere though even his best efforts can't save "The Angel and the Gambler" with its ludicrous 9 minute plus running time and seemingly endless chorus repetitions (more than 20) that more than any other song proves that Iron Maiden really was running almost on its reputation alone by 1998.

The rest of the tracks are mostly OK without being truly memorable in any way. It was clear that for this band to continue it would have to change something to get some of the magic back, and less than a year later they did.

1. Futureal
2. The Angel and the Gambler
3. Lightning Strikes Twice
4. The Clansman
5. When Two Worlds Collide
6. The Educated Fool
7. Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger
8. Como Estais Amigos

Rating: 43%