embrock

Quite a change in direction! Not bad in the least though.

Bands I've seen who can pull it off:

AC/DC - a lot of their songs are better live imo and Johnson still does pretty well (seen them 2001 and 2009).

Bon Jovi

Koritni

Crazy Lixx

Bands that can't:

Mötley Crüe - Vince Neil's vocals were simply embarassing in 2009 and judging from old clips it wasn't that much better in their heyday.

A couple of you guys might like this one! It's the first single off this Austrian band's upcoming sophomore album. The intro is huge!

Dragging this old topic out of the vaults as they are releasing their third album 'Black Dog Barking' today: It's more of the same, but after the first couple of spins I think it's not as good as 'No Guts No Glory' (which I love) and most of all I'd say that 34 minutes of new music after 3 years in between drinks is just not enough to satisfy me and the up-tempo songs are starting to sound very same-ish (There really is not much difference between 'Ready to Rock' and 'Raise the Flag').

On the other hand I think that the production of 'Black Dog Barking' is stellar! Brian Howes is easily one of my favourite producers this side of the millenium and I love the way he brings out those big backing vocals. Hopefully he's going to produce more bands the way he did it with Hinder (Take it to the Limit) or Airbourne...

Just stumbled over SIKK and I can't remember reading about them on here. They sort of evolved out of the ashes of Loud'n'Nasty and Danger and have just released their first single mixed by Beau Hill.

https://www.facebook.com/sikkofficial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nDx5AY0aoo

Great to see a continuation of this game, thanx!

Nr. 2 is Warrant - Blind Faith

no idea on the other ones though...

Got this a couple of days ago and it's a great album! They show off a lot of energy while being very melodic as well and it all sounds fresh. In my opinion they are one of very few bands which actually manages to completely nail the 80s vibe, but shoot it at you with a crisp, modern production especially on the backing vocals!

It's so good to see young bands starting out this promising and keeping rock relevant!

Teasing is over, their clip debuted. I like the song a lot, they definately continue in the same vein:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=llCIZa69ufE

Is 8 Dirty Looks - Violence in Blue?

1) Keep the Faith (replace 'If I were your mother' with 'The Radio saved my life tonight' and it'd be a perfect album imo)

2) Slippery When Wet

3) New Jersey

4) These Days

5) Crush

6) Self-Titled

7) Have a nice day

8) Bounce

9) 7800° Fahrenheit

10) What about now

11) The Circle

12) Lost Highway

 

Replacing If I Were Your Mother would kill that album in my opinion. I dont get why people dont like that song. Heaviest thing BJ has done...ever.

 

Yip I love that song too.

 

Also Crush > s/t ?!

 

Wow.

 

 

I missed that one. Wow is right....maybe a typo?

I like 'If I were your mother' as well, it's just that I think it's the weakest songs on a completely awesome disc...so let's not replace it, but add 'Radio saved my life tonight' as a 13th track!

And yes, I knew that my rating of 'Crush' would leave people lost for words and it is a strange case for me as well. I've got to really love the first 6 songs on Crush over time...from there on it varies between utter garbage and average imo. The ST on the other hand I enjoy much more as an overall disc, but except for 'Runaway' it just doesn't grab me as much as those 6 mentioned songs.

1) Keep the Faith (replace 'If I were your mother' with 'The Radio saved my life tonight' and it'd be a perfect album imo)

2) Slippery When Wet

3) New Jersey

4) These Days

5) Crush

6) Self-Titled

7) Have a nice day

8) Bounce

9) 7800° Fahrenheit

10) What about now

11) The Circle

12) Lost Highway

Yeah, it'll no doubt be my favourite CD of the year, regardless of if it rates highest or not. 'Balls Out' got far more repeated spins in 2011 than any other CD for me. Love these guys and obviously can't wait for this. I'm tired of shitty lyrics and need a fix from a band who know how to write the good shit.

Agree with a lot of stuff there! Nice to know they didn't change producer or anything, so I expect this to be nothing short of greatness.

Btw: Listened to Handicapped Slut a lot in the past couple of days and damn would it have made a nice inclusion on 'Balls out'!

Always had a very soft spot for 'Thank you for loving me' off Crush, as I think that especially the part after the second chorus and the guitar solo are great...

Yeah, posted this in the 'Adult DVDs' thread and I completely agree with you! Very few of them are still cute, but it's almost as if they wore masquerade during their job...

So did anyone get their sneaky little naughty pumpkin ears on this today?

 

The intro is terrible - unreasonably bad rather than just pointless. But after that, the first 4 songs are killers, especially the opener. The only real problem with this disc is what happens next. The ballad, 'Stranger of mine' is a complete dud, and momentum killer. And sadly, following that is the most (and only) average rocker on the disc, in 'Won't take the blame,' crazily followed by a 1:45 outro to this same song. A really weird, and imo poor move. The upside? The next two songs are killers, and the last two are pretty sweet too - the last being a very good ballad, to make up for the earlier mess.

 

Overall, seems like a pretty great disc and some of their biggest choruses yet. There's some real "anthemic" stuff here and is another step in the direction that these guys arguably get better with every release. The middle section is odd, but it doesn't spoil an otherwise great disc.

 

Oh yeah, and production is killer, of course.

 

Well Geoffrey - first full listen & I must admit that I really liked the laid back ballad Stranger Of Mine, and Won't Take The Blame is great too. No problem with these 2 at all.

 

In fact take away the silly intro & silly pt 2 and you have a pretty awesome 10 track album - very very nice indeed!

Agree with everything you guys said!

Been following this band since pretty much right from the start (Thank you for letting...), so this is pretty tough.

I went with the following choices:

1) Though I'd count "No Regrets" to their first era, I went with the second era. Although I think they haven't released an average album since 2005, I'd rate the "ST" and "Dreamin' in a Casket" as their finest efforts to date.

2) & 3) I own "Bad Sneakers...", but haven't listened to it in ages, so these choices were kinda random.

4) Definately "Shame". Sensational and vastly underrated track, which shoould have been a hit! The album as a whole is quite average though.

5) I really like this album as I went through a special time in my life around its release. I chose "Breakout".

6) Fabulous disc! Went with "We don't celebrate Sundays", but there's hardly a bad note on this album.

7) Dito! "Silence for the Peacefully" is my choice cut, love its intro-riff and the chorus.

8) Very good album as well, but a couple of fillers imo. Went with "Shades of Grey".

9) Dito! Chose "Last call for Alcohol".

10) Haven't heard the album yet, but for the sake of it I voted "Above the Law".

Airbourne - Black Dog Barking (May); produced by Brian Howes - very excited for this one!

Crashdiet are far better live though

We agree on a lot of things, but definately not on this subject Just saw Crazy Lixx again a week ago and as much as I like the Crashdiet guys, CL are much tighter live + Andy Dawson's playing is miles ahead Martin Sweet's imo...

Completely agree with Geoff there! Bands like AC/DC are perfect proof for his point: Albums perfectly produced by Mutt Lange and still they manage to sound the same live. I can live with not too many backing vocal tracks on a studio album (although I love 'em) so the band is capable of doing the same in a live environement, but an unsteady or piss-weak mix is not really excusable especially when your last albums sounded great.

I wonder though how Generation Wild and Savage Playground would be judged if their production were vice versa - the songs off GW with the production of SP and the other way around?

Congrats Glen! Almost always a pleasure to read your posts!

Always quality posts! Keep 'em coming

Way cool!

Received this one today and damn there are quite a few songs which are simply outstanding!

 

Overall a great debut album and hopefully more bands are going to take their approach (= lots of touring; working with a top producer; write plenty of songs)...

 

Oh it's out now ? Okay will look for samples, sounds promising

Officially on Monday I guess, but I got it delivered today.

Samples are up on amazon or you may want to try these as they don't omit the choruses the way amazon often does:

http://www.cede.ch/go/?m=music&id=988327&lang=de

That build-up in 'Nothing left to lose' after the second chorus is one of the most epic moments in rock music in the last 20 years imo - Love it!

Received this one today and damn there are quite a few songs which are simply outstanding!

Overall a great debut album and hopefully more bands are going to take their approach (= lots of touring; working with a top producer; write plenty of songs)...

Nice lists, a good read! Good to see quite a lot of 'young' bands high on your lists!

I'm really hoping this one grows on me, too. I made the mistake of playing this back to back with "The Unattractive Revolution." Forget about "Generation Wild" for a minute, even "The Unattractive Revolution" blows the new one out of the water. But I'm hopeful.

Wow, surprised to read that! IMO The Unattractive Revolution is by far their weakest album to date, although 'In the Raw' and especially 'Falling Rain' belong to my favourite Crashdiet songs. I'm pretty sure TSP will grow on you, it probably takes about 3 spins (well, it took 3 spins for me )...