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I’m not sure how I missed this, then again I’m not really paying too much attention to what’s coming out these days. Too much other stuff that I need to do.
To me, Pennywise is basically the AC/DC of punk. It’s familiar, it’s consistent and it sounds like an extension of there past 10 albums. You know what. I love that. I hate when bands decide to “explore”, 99.9% of the time it’s too jarring for the fans. I love that even without hearing a single track from the new CD I can pay my money and feel confident that I won’t regret it.
So as always, Pennywise delivers. You know what to expect, you get what you expect and it’s good. “Reason To Believe” feels like a natural progression from their previous work. They introduce new elements in small doses that don’t make you forget that you’re listening to a Pennywise disc.
It’s on repeat and getting plenty of spins. Thanks guys. Money well spent.

I’ve got a few things on my list for the next month or so…
Black Tide – Light From Above (03-18-08)
I picked this up last night, I kept hearing “Shockwave” on Sirius 27 Hard Attack and Black Tide is pretty much in every magazine I’ve picked up recently. While I was thinking it’s worth skipping a lunch to pay the Best Buy price to check them out. ($7.99). Here’s how it went trying to listen to it this morning for the first time.
Track 1 – Shockwave. Made it through no problem,
Track 2, considered skipping halfway through,
Track 3, almost skipped before it kicked in,
Track 4, skipped halfway through,
Track 5, skipped halfway through,
Track 6, ejected the cd halfway through and put on Bury Your Dead…
Here’s the deal. I’m all for that anthem chorus kind of thing but a verse or two would be nice. I mean really I can read the title of the song on the back of the cd case. You don’t need to repeat it 100 times in the song.
Bury Your Dead – Bury Your Dead (03-18-08)
Picked this up last night also. Gave it a listen on the train, much better then above.
Upcoming
Children of Bodom – Blooddrunk (04-01-08)
Testament – The Formation of Damnation (04-29-08)

Picked up the new Tiger Army CD. Pretty good, a couple of great tracks, probably won’t see the rotation that the Strung Out CD had but then again not many CD do. More to report on this later…

I missed the it by 2 weeks?
It appears that that the new Strung Out CD was out for at least a week possibly 2 before I realized it. Not sure how this happened. I’m sure that there was some sort of conspiracy involved. Anyway, all is right now, I picked up the CD last Thursday and the world seems a bit brighter.
Okay now I’m not the best person to review this CD, because Strung Out is possibly my most favorite band ever and I can’t do anything but ramble on about how amazing they are. That aside I’ll try to step back and give a fair review.
Coming in with 12 new tracks the guys have a formula and they stick to it. They don’t wander too far, which may be why this album seems to kind of blur by and I haven’t seemed to picked up on any one track. Can’t say that is a bad thing, it’s a great listen and it flows really well.
If you listen to any track you can definitely tell these guys are all great musicians, they all have great technical skills, they also have great melodic sense and can rock out with the best of them. Most of the tracks feature the fast riffs we’re used to, occasional breaks that change up the tempo, a few solos, though none that have made me rewind and say “oh shit what was that”.
I guess my only complaint would be that most of the tracks feel pretty similar, they flow together really well but nothing seems different enough for me to pick out one track from another. Also the vocals on every track seem to have the same effect that makes the tracks feel even more similar.
This could explain that why after almost 20 listens I still can’t really pick out one track from another. “Blackhawks” definitely doesn’t seem to have the musical variety that say “Twisted By Design” had.
Again all this could be that I tend to listen to music in the background and albums will go by in a blur and I’ll never really notice what I’m listening to. I’m listening now as I’m writing this and I’m about 5 tracks in and I think I’m being pretty fair.
Maybe after 30 listens I’ll have picked out a track or two. Maybe not, either way it’s just great to have another Strung Out CD to listen to. And one that flows so well and doesn’t have a single track that I’d want to skip (though I can’t think of any Strung Out tracks that I skip). Can you think of any band that has 9 or 10 albums out that doesn’t have a song that you don’t like. Yeah good luck with that one.
later.

Here’s two reasons why I need to talk to my buddy Tom more. I’d have heard of these guys way before now.
Falling into the “horror punk” category, these are something like “American Psycho” Misfits meets AFI (the “Black Sails” AFI not “13 year old girls cry at our shows” AFI). I’m working my way through 13 Halloweens at the moment but so far it’s amazing. Very good stuff. I’ll let you know more when I get a few listens in.

Picked up HellYeah, review to follow. Vinnie is just an amazing drummer I’ve seen him 4 times during the Pantera Vulgar and Far Beyond Driven tours. Maybe one was on the Cowboy’s tour, doesn’t matter, either way he and the late great Dimebag were amazing. So far I’ve yet to get a full listen to HellYeah but so far so good. More later…

Sometimes there’s little surprises that happen that, while minor in the scheme of things, can come at just the right moment. Yesterday I was paging through AP and saw that the new “Shadows Fall – Threads of Life” CD was out this week. Definitely one of those little surprises.
My iPod/iTunes is reporting that I’ve logged at least 5 full listens to the album with the first few tracks getting a bit more play. At 5 full listens I’d usually have a much better idea of what it is that I’ve listened to. Honestly, with this one I can’t say much. Don’t get me wrong, in a way it’s a good thing that I haven’t an opinion of it yet. While I don’t think it’s earth shattering, I don’t hate it either.
My judgment so far? Great disc. I’m hoping I latch onto a tune or two so that I can have something to look forward to. I do have to say that a few times I found several progressions in the CD to feel a bit rehashed from earlier work.
Things I love. Brian Fair’s voice, one of my favorite out there right now, amazing guitar work, great riffs, these guys can play. (I actually picked up my guitar one day to try to follow their lessons that came on “The War Within” disc, and quickly put my guitar back down, deciding just to watch in awe). Think I may just pick up Guitar World because I saw that they were on the DVD. It may not top a few issues ago watching Dimebag’s lost Video lesson but should be good either way.
Thanks for the great disc guys.

The evils of iTunes strikes again, the instant gratification that iTunes provides by being able to order music so easily is a real threat to me. Anyway onto my review.
Slayer’s “Christ Illusion” is the latest addition to their catalog. It rips, it’s brutal and oh so good. I’m not a huge Slayer fan, I have my moments where I’ll get hooked on them for a few days then walk away for a several months. (One exception is “Seasons in the Abyss” one of my desert island albums). I’ve listened to it several times so far but not enough to really pull any favorites from it. Probably not even enough to write this post either but I have some time so I’m posting. More later.
SLAYER!!!

I had high hopes for the band that’s been branded the next Metallica by the press. A title that can either be both hopeful and scary all at once. Which Metallica are they? The “Ride the Lightening” and “Master of Puppets” Metallica or the “St. Anger” Metallica?
Comparissons aside “The Crusade” is a big departure from “Ascendancy”. It’s less “nu-metal” and “metalcore”. Which in many of the interviews I read with the band’s guitarists is something they really focused on. They appeared to want to distance themselves from that genre. There’s no screaming that I can recall such as what was clearly a staple of their first two albums. One thing that can be said about this album is that it brings back that classic speedmetal and thrash metal sound from the late 80′s early 90′s. Guitar solos are quite a bit more front and center and in some instances there is quite a resemblance to Metallica, but I really hate jumping on the band wagon of comparrisons.
Overall, I’m not nearly as impressed with this album as I was with “Ascendancy”, to the point where I don’t know if I’d even have noticed this band if this were the first thing I’d heard from them. If you are looking for “Ascendancy” part 2, I think you’ll be disappointed. If you like the band and are okay with a band “growing musically”, the maybe it’s worth checking out.
There’s a few catchy tracks that should carry the album, such as “Entrance Of The Conflagration”, “Detonation”, “To The Rats’ and “Becoming The Dragon”. All of which seem promising, personally I’m going to give a few more spins and see what sticks. I should have learned never to write a review until it’s been played at least a half dozen times. Seriously, the last disc that I was instantly in love with was Strung Out’s “Twisted By Design”.

First there’s no relation between the two other then it’s the new music for today. Honestly there’s nothing that could possibly relate these two artists. Well maybe but it would be a stretch and require more thought then I have time for or interest in doing.
Wednesday 13 – Fang Bang
I’ve been a fan of Wednesday 13 since Murderdoll’s, in the scheme of things that’s not very long (3 albums). My friend Tom turned me on to Murderdolls during one of his visits and I’ve been hooked ever since. It may take me a bit to pick up the disks and they don’t see nearly as much rotation in iTunes these days but I still love listening to them. Yes they are a bit campy and almost goofy at times but they are a lot of fun. The music is just great straight up rock. Kind of glamy at times with Monster movie lyrics. Its perfect for this time of year.
Official Wednesday 13 Site
Watch “My Home Sweet Homicide”
Trivium – The Crusade
Whether they are the next Metallica or not is yet to be seen but damn it they’ve really done a good job of getting their Metallica-isms down. Thanks to AOL I’m listening to the full album (before I run out to pick it up tonight). Take a listen at the AOL Full CD Listening Party’s Trivium “The Crusade”.
Seriously these guys are all over the place, I don’t mean musically, just in general. There highly publicized in many of the guitar magazines and the metal magazines that I read. (Okay that’s only a few but still they’re really getting a lot of press). Musically they previous two albums were very easy to label “screamo”, but they definitely have their roots in late 80′s early 90′s metal. Their huge Metallica fans and they play Deans (Dimebag Models – Getcha Pull!!!!). They run a montly column in Guitar World, which 90% of what I’ve seen is still beyond what I’m able to play (no surprise there, my picking hand is terrible and even when I played 4-5 hours a day I rarely was able to play arpeggios cleanly).
Well I’m planning to pick up Trivium tonight and from what I’m hearing, I’m not going to be disappointed. Though I’m beginning to think they sound less like old Metallica and very similar to many of the 90′s metal bands that were not nearly as acceptable to listen to as Metallica. “Anthem” is really close to some of the heavier hair bands from the day others could be demos from “Ride the Lightening”. While it’s seems pretty different from “Accendancy”, (no screaming) there’s still riffs a plenty.
It should be interesting. More when I get some time…