Straight out of Baltimore, Maryland comes the Death Metal of Misery Index.  Originally formed from former members of the legendary Dying Fetus, Misery Index’s brand of Death Metal is quite left wing in it’s content, and this album is no different. MI are relentless, from the opening track “We Never Come In Peace”, “Traitors” and the equally brutal “Ruling Class Canceled”. While maybe not an all-time legend, this is certainly a very solid album by the men from Baltimore, as they move to become a prominent name in the metal scene. This album has impressed me to great lengths, and has left me hungry for more brutality. All I can say is “Roll on the next album!” and here’s hoping they will play a gig here soon.

In 2004, after Axl Rose hadn’t produced a studio album in well over ten years, record company Geffen decided to release a Greatest Hits album. It was surrounded by controversy however, as Axel Rose tried to sue Geffen in an attempt to halt the album as he disproved of it and it’s track listings. The suing failed and probably had a reverse effect, by hyping up the album so much, and perhaps caused it to go triple platinum in America.

Well at least Geffen started in the right way, with some classic 1987 Slash. The first track is one that everyone knows and one that Rose would be hard put to find a reason to keep out of the album, “Welcome to the Jungle.”  This was the bands first major significant single, and Slash has said he considers it to be the first the band wrote together. It starts off brilliantly, showcasing Slash’s talent straight away, Rose’s voice is powerful  at the start of the song, and only really lightens for a moment in the middle. It’s a great listen, and a classic song, a brilliant opener. It’s hard to believe that the song was inspired by a hobo screaming at kids. (continue reading…)

Ah Hybrid Theory, the album that made American rock band Linkin Park. Perhaps it was the powerful lyrics and expression in its songs, maybe it was that Linkin Park’s Heavy Metal sound mixed with a synth was considered unique at the time, or it could have just been that millions of teenage kids wanted to scream along with a downtuned guitar, no matter which of the above you pinpoint to Hybrid Theory’s success there is simply no denying that it was huge. Let me define just big this album was, it outsold, Metallica’s, The Spice Girl’s and Lionel Richie’s best selling albums by give or take a couple of million each, . A feat which I doubt many other debut albums can come anywhere to claiming. (continue reading…)

This is Children of Bodom’s sixth studio album, and is clearly more of a reversal for Bodom, after the “Are you Dead yet?” album, where many felt the band sold out. Returning to a more thrash and aggressive state, I feel this album shows that Bodom still have the ability to crank out a good album. There are several good guitar solos, like in the song “LoBodomy” (which also keeps up the tradition of having at least one song in an album having Bodom in the name) and “One Day You Will Cry”. The production is well carried out, done by Mikko Karmila and Peter Tagtgren, which is too be expected, as Tagtgren has worked with many heavy metal bands. Overall, I liked this album, and feel it is a vast improvement on “Are You Dead Yet?” (continue reading…)

Indestructible (Disturbed’s 4th studio album) was released on iTunes on the 30th of may. I had high expectations of this full length album – partly brought about by Dan Donegan’s claims that the new album will be more “Ballsier” than the previous 3 albums. When I compare Indestructible to The Sickness I admit I wouldn’t call it “Ballsier”. For one it’s lacking the trademark “Grr” I associate with Disturbed. There are some great heavy metal tracks on there (The title track is a true neck breaker), mixed in with some more mid-tempo general audience songs. The production quality is excellent considering they produced this album themselves. (continue reading…)