Grey

Same here. Listening to it for the first time, I cringed as soon as Ilous started singing and couldn't make it through a single track. I'm too much of a Great White fan to be able to accept anyone other than Jack Russell singing for the band. If they hadn't called it "Great White", I might give it a chance. But for now, I just can't listen to it. And as for "fat paced rockers", I'll stick with Meatloaf.

Exactly. Throw in a little slide guitar and maybe a southern accent. Other than that it's the same thing. I can appreciate most music as long as it's "real" - no computerized crap, drum machines... In fact, the new Steel Magnolia CD was my favorite for 2011.

I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but I have to give the band and engineers a lot of credit and a big thank you for not squashing all of the dynamic range out this one. This sounds great, and in my opinion has plenty of "punch" if you simply turn up your volume knob. It's refreshing to hear while the Loudness War still rages on. Very few modern recordings sound this good.

A little more like Daughtry, I'd say.

Yeah, a couple of the best tracks are on the Deluxe version. That's the way to go. Overall, I'd say it's not quite as good as the debut, but it still has 5 or 6 really good tracks on it. Some of them, like "Love Bites" are a bit too heavy for my taste. But the tracks like "Here's to Us", "Private Parts" and "Beautiful With You" are great.

Jet Black Stare's "In This Life", in my opinion, is one of the best CDs released in recent years. I haven't seen any discussions here. Anyone else familiar with it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LojbTK7aQ5Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg4pE_QaNOY Rod Black has some new demos posted on his Facebook page. Good stuff. It looks like it'll be a solo CD. Definitely looking forward to it. What do you think?

Cool duet with James Michael of Sixx:A.M. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PXfsN51eKQ

Definitely. I'd say the same for LoudLion.

I've heard this one too. I'd say it's average at best. I didn't find anything on it that was worth a 2nd listen. "Nothing Without You" is a halfway decent ballad. But like Geoff says, Mark Fox doesn't really have the right voice for it. He manages ok on songs like Shakra's "Why", but it doesn't work here.

Every time I hear this one (written by Mutt), I can't help but imagine Shania singing it. Track starts at 1:08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bohVV_KlSHw&ob=av2n

Def Leppard still sounds as good as they used to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32yZPs5kWjQ

http://www.heavyharmonies.com/cgi-bin/band.cgi?BandNum=1299 http://www.rockdoc.dk/art10048.html This song is from their first full length, which aren't nearly as good as the debut e.p. Cool. Thank you.

WTF? Why? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p22BfALgJpw

They don't make themselves easy to search for. Anyone got a link?

Mr. Big - Just Take my Heart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnWKxaDKBHI Tesla - Love Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03vPxo0WILA Heart - Crazy on You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27IW08mC3zE

After hearing that, I'd have to say it's my most anticipated too. I think this might deserve its own thread.

Amazon has the album in mp3 format: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005X5LZAQ/

Doesn't seem to be much information about that one anywhere online, so I'm not surprised at all that it has been missed. I find it surprising that new bands give themselves a one-word name and then release a self-titled debut CD - it makes them very difficult to find. Seems like a poor business model to me! It's also inevitable that loads of albums will be missed; people just don't have time to listen to all the good CDs released in a year. My number one CD from 2011 is still Pallas - XXV, but I doubt any of the HH panel have heard it. If that's the Australian band Syndicate then it's not surprising it's not made bigger headlines. It's decent but very patchy and is about 10 songs too long. I think it's a good album with a small handful of excellent songs. I do agree, though, that it's not overly solid from start to end. I thought most songs were pretty good, but they needed more of the killers like 'Shout,' 'Right in front of me,' 'Holding on,' 'All my life' and two at the end - 'Don't hate on me' and 'Bring it on.' It was a good enough disc, but James is totally right. A real c*nt of an album to try and track down. I don't even know if was released in Australia either - I don't think so. And the self titled name makes it impossible to find an album that's already impossible to find. Shame, as it deserves to be noted to some degree. Yeah, it's hard to find. I had to settle for a digital download from Amazon. I'd forgotten about how long it was since only 8 of the tracks made it onto my music player. If they'd taken out the filler, it would have been a solid album start to finish.

I'm surprised that my favorite, Syndicate's self titled CD, didn't even make it as an Also Ran. How did you miss listening to that one?

Halestorm just released an EP online containing 4 tracks from their upcoming CD. You can listen to all 4 of them here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18CsONbjOFE Definitely check out "Here's to Us". What do you think? I loved the first CD, so I'm looking forward to April when new one is released.

A View From 3rd Street is a great CD. "Baby, it's Tonight" is a classic, but I think "Get Me Through the Night" would be my favorite. Last month, I was playing his music for my girlfriend who had never heard of him and she's hooked on "Heart of Blues" and "Start the Car".

Cool. I didn't even know this existed.

Thanks for the suggestions. Hairy Christmas sounds cool. I found the mp3s from Amazon. I already have the Billy Idol Christmas tunes. Not what I'd expect from him, but still good.

Me either. Nor do I want to see Jack, pretty much solo, singing old Great White tunes. I could see the rest of the band touring with a replacement vocalist while he was sick. Those dudes still have to earn a living. But I always figured it was temporary and Jack would be back in the lineup when he got better. I wonder what happened. As much as love Great White, I'm not interested in either band. They need the original members together to make it work.

I need new Christmas tunes for my collection. I'm looking for original music, not rock versions of traditional songs. I just found "Shake Up Christmas" by Train which is pretty good, but I need more. Any suggestions? Maybe something released in the past few years that I may have missed.