Geoff

I'm a bit bummed I couldn't find a few more keepers on this one because it's a pretty fair stab at it, if you ask me. Average production and some of the songs aren't exactly great, but I don't mind the general vibe of this one. 'Alibi' is a pretty cool tune too. Fun chorus.

Pretty patchy overall, but a few killer cuts (thanks mostly to the musicality) in 'Hungry For Love,' 'Midnight Girl' and 'Coast Of Gold.' Simple, and pretty banal, lyrically, but very nice slabs of melodic rock / AOR.

New album out from ex-vocalist Tommy Vext. Tommy Vext - A.N.T.A.R.C.T.I.C.A. 1 . Smoking Gun 2 . Gods and Monsters 3 . Panda Eyes 4 . Terrible Things 5 . Until We Break 6 . Can't Ourrun Your Ghost 7 . My Amends 8 . Father and Son 9 . Children of the State 10 . Gave It All 11 . We Carry On Bit heavier than the new Bad Wolves album, though not quite as polished, which detracts a little from the heaviness. Not that it's poorly produced by any means... maybe just not quite as 100% immaculate as the majority of modern rock/metal these days. As heavy as it is, a lot of the more balladic moments are actually the stand out tracks for me on this one. Was going to post a few tunes, but I can't find anything on youtube from this. Guess you'll just have to trust me that it's pretty decent.

Wow, that’s actually pretty incredible at that price. Few pretty decent albums in that lot.

That is good. Accent maybe a little stronger than ideal in a perfect world, but good energy, good song.

I’d be very curious to know the musical direction of this one.

lol, and again, this is fresh info to me again. This is the reason for all the sales, ay? Who’d have thunk.

I have no idea for sure, but my initial thought was just that it was a song recorded for use in the show alone? I don’t know how big or capable the show was of doing this, but it just came to mind as my kids watch these kids shows and several times there’s songs featured, created I assume by the writers, for the show. I wonder if this is the case here? I don’t know otherwise.

Absolutely excellent.

And album of the week goes to this little monster. First two tracks and album closer I can give or take but the rest of this thing is pretty well delicious. 1 . Feeding the Gods 2 . The Overlook 3 . Dead Talk 4 . Bodybag 5 . Euphoria (What a Feeling) 6 . Dissipate 7 . Losing My Color 8 . Hangfire 9 . Drowning Hymns 10 . Almost Ecstasy 11 . The Bends

Well I'll say it - it's not great but it's better than anything I've heard from Sweet outside of Stryper for as long as I can recall. If I'm being honest, I probably prefer these songs to most recent Stryper songs too, but I'd still prefer to hear Sweet in Stryper, if that makes sense. But this is far better than the Sweet/Lynch albums, imo. All that said, I don't love it. It's just better than comparable projects. Production is good and songs are actually mostly pretty decent (except 'Spinning wheel' and 'Wounded'). Favourite track is 'Eternal Flame.' My biggest gripe with the album is actually something Glen brought up a few years ago in reference to the latest Stryper album at the time. It's not the case on every song, but a lot of the time I just can't understand what Sweet is singing. Sometimes it's fine, many other times I just can't understand the words. Anyway, it's a pretty typical project album, but definitely not that bad and probably even pretty sweet for Sweet diehards.

She just dropped a new album. Forgot she was the bird from Flyleaf. Makes sense. Don't love it, but someone might? Lacey Sturm - Kenotic Metanoia 1 . Intro (My Heartbeat) 2 . State of Me 3 . Are You Listening 4 . The Decree 5 . Terrible Mistake 6 . Wonderful 7 . A Man Needs A Maid 8 . Thief 9 . Not Your Fight 10 . Awaken Love 11 . Reconcile 12 . (I Died) 13 . Breathe With Me (feat. Lindsey Stirling) 14 . End The Wars 15 . Outro (My Heartbeat)

Yep, same reaction as those above. Music and production is absolutely top notch. The songs? Maybe not so much. It's not like it's bad, but where the choruses at? Couple of songs on here the band just sounds a bit lost and directionless. See 'End Of A Chapter' for the most obvious example. What I assume is their climate change anthem, 'No One Saves The World Alone,' is a muck too. They're the only two songs I wouldn't play again. The rest is all solid, but a significant step back from their usual high level of quality. 'Street runner' and 'Stay with me' and then 'Follow through' would be my favourite tunes from the album.

Not all the bands I drop here are things I wholly love, but some are ones I think might appeal to others here, such as this one. Solid stuff; ANTINOVA - No Escape 1 . Talking Heads 2 . Love Games 3 . Another Heartbreak 4 . No Escape 5 . My Starlight 6 . Rise 7 . Recovery (Worth The Wait) 8 . Invincible 9 . Codependent 10 . Your Mistake 11 . Confessions 12 . Hypomanic Black Out The Sun - Cycle of Pain 1 . Cycle of Pain 2 . Memory 3 . Wildfire 4 . Kingdom Come 5 . Before I Fade Away 6 . Let Me Out 7 . Worlds Away 8 . Broken Paradise 9 . Whirlwind 10 . Set Me Free 11 . Better Place The Last Element - Chapter 3: Solitude 1 . The Journey Begins 2 . Lost Cause (The Journey Part I) 3 . The Mountain (The Journey Part II) 4 . Bury Me (The Journey Part III) 5 . The Journey Ends Don't love this album, but this was a great song from this one; This one could test to see if Dan ever enters this thread as I feel like this band might be slightly up his avenue. Maybe? Spiritbox - The Fear Of Fear 1 . Cellar Door 2 . Jaded 3 . Too Close / Too Late 4 . Angel Eyes 5 . The Void 6 . Ultraviolet

Nice find. Their new album is due out on 1st of December - 'Somewhere through the night.' Definitely one to bookmark.

I officially don't now, lol. But I'm serious too. Pile ons just irritate me. Next we'll be saying the blanket world reaction to covid was all good too. I was all on board with a few harmless snipes at ADV here and there, but blanket general opinions and commentary will always just annoy me. Not having a go at you, @EnJayKay, but the moral of this thread seemed to end up being that you just hate everything. I made the point that I think right now ADV is more well equipped to be writing songs for, or with... I don't mind with, Jack Russell and Tracii Guns. And you said you'd rather hear shit written by Guns/Russell, but then as the thread went on you hate all the shit the non-ADVs of the world write anyway and nothing was accomplished. I like to discuss what is before us, and in this case, if the above song is anything to go by, I don't mind ADV in this project. He may fuck something else up and I'll be there to call it what it is, but in my opinion, this particular case isn't a reason to pile on ADV. I think that song's as good as anyone could expect from these guys in 2023, personally. And maybe that's because of ADV?

This one's just a straight no from me, and I would definitely have worn the purple eye shadow too. Definitely.

Nice chorus, but the verses are horrendous.

Not bad.

I guess it's a look for some reason, but why are those two mongaloids wearing face masks? Deducts about 10% of quality from my enjoyment of the song, but it's cool. I like this one. When the dude lets those screams go in the chorus is really reminds me of someone, but I can't think who. I'd like to hear more from these guys.

Yeah, no getting past those growls for me, but yes, it's solid for what it is. Not sure it'd edge out the million other very similar bands for me, personally, but it's solid.

Bands like this really make me wish I could get past the screams for a prolonged listening experience. These are cool, as was their last (similarly themed) album 'The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood.' It is a brutal and in places absolutely awesome listen... if you can handle the screams. I can't, for returned listens, but when they're not all-out screaming, 'The Shower Scene' is one of my favourite songs from the last decade or so.

Yep, me reflected on the Warrant comments. It was such a massive departure, but it is very easily my favourite Warrant album (though I still love the others) and also one of my all time faves. Yeah, I've watched all the videos too and didn't know there was an ongoing story either. The band themselves did say it was complicated, even as the authors and filmers of it. They actually floated the idea that when the story is finished, they were thinking about releasing the story as a short film, minus the music video parts. Just the story alone. That'd be cool too. Just 'cause I do these things, I was watching a reaction guy on youtube go through a bunch of their videos last night and laughed aloud a few times at him trying to decipher it all. Maybe when I have the time I'll give it a crack too. Haha, you pose and interesting question regarding Cauterize. And a very complicated one. I love the two bands (and debut albums) for near on the exact same reason, but in delivery, they're near on polar opposites. Cauterize's debut is like an onslaught of pure, fast-paced, raw and emotive weaponry, where as The Broken View's debut album (and EP) carry the same amount of heavy emotive impact; just dressed in a far more considered, refined and immaculately delivered approach. But in absolutely no way at all, less emotive and hard hitting than Cauterize. One could argue even more so, I do not doubt. So I don't know. At this point in time I would say these two are my all-time favourite artists, but maybe I need this new The Broken View album to break the tie. I could mention Cauterize alongside Warrant in my comments above, about bands that retained their excellence, even if their next album was a massive shift from the previous album, as Cauterize's 'Paper Wings' is a completely different beast to 'So Far From Real.' And I do feel like there's no way - even if they wanted to - that The Broken View could replicate their debut, with a lifetime of everything that made up that album (and EP) poured into that album. So it'll be interesting to hear how the next album stacks up. That first single - 'Something you can give yourself' - shows we could be in for a slightly unpredictable ride. lol, I am rambling but I guess in a pinch I am undecided on my overall favourite. I will say that where the most common critique I saw levelled at Cauterize was Jesse's vocals, this dude in The Broken View (Austin Kranick) is my current favourite vocalist and I can't see any reason why I wouldn't list him in my top 3 all time faves. Absolutely love his voice. Throw in the massive drum sound and immaculate production and there's every chance that if you call them even or thereabouts on a songwriting level, all the other bits might just push The Broken View into the #1 spot for me. Sorry mate, bet you didn't expect a novel. Just so rare to find a band that really sticks out from the pack, and it's a sweet thing when it occurs.

lol, I don't understand the fuss. Are they just bitter that they wrote a weak song and it got released for the world to hear them not at their song-writing best? I like Jon, Aldo and obviously Bangalore Choir, but I actually think the BC version is significantly better than the Aldo Nova version and if anything they did it a service by dropping the "dance of the dead" bit. You can't polish a turd and although this song isn't an absolute turd, it was BY FAR the weakest song on the BC album and obviously not good enough to make the cut for Aldo Nova's 'Blood On The Bricks' album... or any Bon Jovi album. I feel like there's probably not much to the reality of the story, but it doesn't seem like a song worthy of much fuss.

Nice. That’s a cool line up. Yeah, I actually saw Boys Like Girls on their Love Drunk tour many years back now, and they slayed. I recall it being an awesome show.