First Spin Impressions

[Nightrain]

Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)

post-Portnoy shows Dream Theater trying to regain momentum by implementing a more classic-feel approach and also gives more room for Jordan Rudess to battle with Petrucci on the interlude parts. 'On The Backs of Angels' has been introduced earlier, less-metal and prog-rock oriented, many passage still sounds monotonous, but a good track though.

 

Around 3 ballads here and all of em are good to great with 'Beneath The Surface' is the best poppish/acoustical track. With 30% ballads out of 9 tracks, looks like Dream Theater is trying for a safer approach, gaining more mainstream audience, and rebuild the ashes after Portnoy left the gang.

 

'Outcry' is complex but awesome, along with 'Breaking All Illusions' are the best track here. I'll say it's a 75-80% on the first spin, still far from their masterpiece - SFaM, but a good progress, hopefully it grows more.

[TIM (2)]

My two fav songs of the year so far are from Lovex and The Poodles.

 

Right now I think Crash My World is edging out Bring Back The Night. I also agree with Jez, the new Lovex is better than the new Poodles, with that being said, the Poodles is probably my favorite new band of the past 5/6 years, with already 4 great studio releases under their belts.

 

Thanks to all for your comments on Lovex, they sound awesome (from the soundbytes the new one sounds like it's all-killer) and I'm awaiting my copy. Not sure how I missed them but I'd assumed, from the name, they were a bit like The Poodles or Wig Wam and were kinda sleaze/glam/hard rock (a combination that is my idea of hell). Luckily they are pure melodic rock and right up my street.

 

P.s. No offence to anyone who likes The Poodles (even though they suck).

[Glen]

My two fav songs of the year so far are from Lovex and The Poodles.

 

Right now I think Crash My World is edging out Bring Back The Night. I also agree with Jez, the new Lovex is better than the new Poodles, with that being said, the Poodles is probably my favorite new band of the past 5/6 years, with already 4 great studio releases under their belts.

 

Thanks to all for your comments on Lovex, they sound awesome (from the soundbytes the new one sounds like it's all-killer) and I'm awaiting my copy. Not sure how I missed them but I'd assumed, from the name, they were a bit like The Poodles or Wig Wam and were kinda sleaze/glam/hard rock (a combination that is my idea of hell). Luckily they are pure melodic rock and right up my street.

 

P.s. No offence to anyone who likes The Poodles (even though they suck).

 

Yeah Lovex is a great album, but it does tail off a bit in terms of quality over the last 2 or 3 songs, the first 7 are all great though. Think I have rated around 86-87%

[zacharyamelie]

My two fav songs of the year so far are from Lovex and The Poodles.

 

Right now I think Crash My World is edging out Bring Back The Night. I also agree with Jez, the new Lovex is better than the new Poodles, with that being said, the Poodles is probably my favorite new band of the past 5/6 years, with already 4 great studio releases under their belts.

 

Thanks to all for your comments on Lovex, they sound awesome (from the soundbytes the new one sounds like it's all-killer) and I'm awaiting my copy. Not sure how I missed them but I'd assumed, from the name, they were a bit like The Poodles or Wig Wam and were kinda sleaze/glam/hard rock (a combination that is my idea of hell). Luckily they are pure melodic rock and right up my street.

 

P.s. No offence to anyone who likes The Poodles (even though they suck).

 

Yeah Lovex is a great album, but it does tail off a bit in terms of quality over the last 2 or 3 songs, the first 7 are all great though. Think I have rated around 86-87%

 

If anything the first 3 tracks are out of place with the other 7. They have a dancey commercial pop rock vibe to them. For me the album gets really good once track 4 starts.

[Glen]

My two fav songs of the year so far are from Lovex and The Poodles.

 

Right now I think Crash My World is edging out Bring Back The Night. I also agree with Jez, the new Lovex is better than the new Poodles, with that being said, the Poodles is probably my favorite new band of the past 5/6 years, with already 4 great studio releases under their belts.

 

Thanks to all for your comments on Lovex, they sound awesome (from the soundbytes the new one sounds like it's all-killer) and I'm awaiting my copy. Not sure how I missed them but I'd assumed, from the name, they were a bit like The Poodles or Wig Wam and were kinda sleaze/glam/hard rock (a combination that is my idea of hell). Luckily they are pure melodic rock and right up my street.

 

P.s. No offence to anyone who likes The Poodles (even though they suck).

 

Yeah Lovex is a great album, but it does tail off a bit in terms of quality over the last 2 or 3 songs, the first 7 are all great though. Think I have rated around 86-87%

 

If anything the first 3 tracks are out of place with the other 7. They have a dancey commercial pop rock vibe to them. For me the album gets really good once track 4 starts.

 

Queen of the night is my fav track by a country mile :-))

[Geoff]

My two fav songs of the year so far are from Lovex and The Poodles.

 

Right now I think Crash My World is edging out Bring Back The Night. I also agree with Jez, the new Lovex is better than the new Poodles, with that being said, the Poodles is probably my favorite new band of the past 5/6 years, with already 4 great studio releases under their belts.

 

Thanks to all for your comments on Lovex, they sound awesome (from the soundbytes the new one sounds like it's all-killer) and I'm awaiting my copy. Not sure how I missed them but I'd assumed, from the name, they were a bit like The Poodles or Wig Wam and were kinda sleaze/glam/hard rock (a combination that is my idea of hell). Luckily they are pure melodic rock and right up my street.

 

P.s. No offence to anyone who likes The Poodles (even though they suck).

 

Yeah Lovex is a great album, but it does tail off a bit in terms of quality over the last 2 or 3 songs, the first 7 are all great though. Think I have rated around 86-87%

 

If anything the first 3 tracks are out of place with the other 7. They have a dancey commercial pop rock vibe to them. For me the album gets really good once track 4 starts.

 

Queen of the night is my fav track by a country mile :-))

Gotta agree with Dave here. To me, the weakest two songs are 'Queen of the night' (only for the horns - good song otherwise) and easily the album's weakest song, 'Slave for the glory.' The rest are super, but if anything I'd say it starts slow and picks up as the CD goes on.

[Glen]

My two fav songs of the year so far are from Lovex and The Poodles.

 

Right now I think Crash My World is edging out Bring Back The Night. I also agree with Jez, the new Lovex is better than the new Poodles, with that being said, the Poodles is probably my favorite new band of the past 5/6 years, with already 4 great studio releases under their belts.

 

Thanks to all for your comments on Lovex, they sound awesome (from the soundbytes the new one sounds like it's all-killer) and I'm awaiting my copy. Not sure how I missed them but I'd assumed, from the name, they were a bit like The Poodles or Wig Wam and were kinda sleaze/glam/hard rock (a combination that is my idea of hell). Luckily they are pure melodic rock and right up my street.

 

P.s. No offence to anyone who likes The Poodles (even though they suck).

 

Yeah Lovex is a great album, but it does tail off a bit in terms of quality over the last 2 or 3 songs, the first 7 are all great though. Think I have rated around 86-87%

 

If anything the first 3 tracks are out of place with the other 7. They have a dancey commercial pop rock vibe to them. For me the album gets really good once track 4 starts.

 

Queen of the night is my fav track by a country mile :-))

Gotta agree with Dave here. To me, the weakest two songs are 'Queen of the night' (only for the horns - good song otherwise) and easily the album's weakest song, 'Slave for the glory.' The rest are super, but if anything I'd say it starts slow and picks up as the CD goes on.

 

I can stand horns, if a song has the best chorus on the album ;-)

[TIM (2)]

XORIGIN - State of the Art

 

Saw this one described as "melodic hard rock with a modern edge" in the press release. The only thing to be gleaned from this information is that you should always ignore press releases! This is 80's AOR. They also sound almost exactly the same as Mind's Eye and other bands Flores has worked with, which is not a bad thing just not what I expected. The fairly thin production here will take you right back to 1985 with pompy keyboards and the high-pitch scandi vocals - in fact the sound reminds me of the lighter stuff on the (far superior) Crash the System album. "Can't Keep Running" is a good opener, and the general consistency is pretty high, but it desperately needs a beefier sound and a bit more originality. I saw someone on another thread suggest this is the best of the non-big name albums this year (i.e, excluding Toby Hitchcock/WoA etc), but Alyson Avenue and Lionville are better than this. Good/solid stuff, but there's nothing here you won't have heard a million times before, so I'd only recommend if it was fairly cheap. Probably a 6/10 from me...

[Glen]

XORIGIN - State of the Art

 

Saw this one described as "melodic hard rock with a modern edge" in the press release. The only thing to be gleaned from this information is that you should always ignore press releases! This is 80's AOR. They also sound almost exactly the same as Mind's Eye and other bands Flores has worked with, which is not a bad thing just not what I expected. The fairly thin production here will take you right back to 1985 with pompy keyboards and the high-pitch scandi vocals - in fact the sound reminds me of the lighter stuff on the (far superior) Crash the System album. "Can't Keep Running" is a good opener, and the general consistency is pretty high, but it desperately needs a beefier sound and a bit more originality. I saw someone on another thread suggest this is the best of the non-big name albums this year (i.e, excluding Toby Hitchcock/WoA etc), but Alyson Avenue and Lionville are better than this. Good/solid stuff, but there's nothing here you won't have heard a million times before, so I'd only recommend if it was fairly cheap. Probably a 6/10 from me...

 

I'd say there's a whole bunch of albums better than this, but 6/10 is a bit harsh. Granted there are a couple of fillers, but in the main this is solid AOR. Not particularly original but then what is these days?? As good as TB & WoA are you can hardly call them original??

[TIM (2)]

XORIGIN - State of the Art

 

Saw this one described as "melodic hard rock with a modern edge" in the press release. The only thing to be gleaned from this information is that you should always ignore press releases! This is 80's AOR. They also sound almost exactly the same as Mind's Eye and other bands Flores has worked with, which is not a bad thing just not what I expected. The fairly thin production here will take you right back to 1985 with pompy keyboards and the high-pitch scandi vocals - in fact the sound reminds me of the lighter stuff on the (far superior) Crash the System album. "Can't Keep Running" is a good opener, and the general consistency is pretty high, but it desperately needs a beefier sound and a bit more originality. I saw someone on another thread suggest this is the best of the non-big name albums this year (i.e, excluding Toby Hitchcock/WoA etc), but Alyson Avenue and Lionville are better than this. Good/solid stuff, but there's nothing here you won't have heard a million times before, so I'd only recommend if it was fairly cheap. Probably a 6/10 from me...

 

I'd say there's a whole bunch of albums better than this, but 6/10 is a bit harsh. Granted there are a couple of fillers, but in the main this is solid AOR. Not particularly original but then what is these days?? As good as TB & WoA are you can hardly call them original??

 

Fair point about originality. Though when you hear Hitchcock sing you know it's him. This guy could be any one of a number of scandi singers from the 80's, and compared to the best ones (Vikstrom/Edman) he's not even close or distinctive enough. In fact, this album could've been made by any one of a zillion scandi bands that made album's in the 80's. That's fine, but if I want to hear killer 80's AOR then I'll just play Treat/Alien/Glory/Skagarack albums instead of this. Just for you I'll give it a 6.5/10 then!

[Nightrain]

XORIGIN - State of the Art

 

Saw this one described as "melodic hard rock with a modern edge" in the press release. The only thing to be gleaned from this information is that you should always ignore press releases! This is 80's AOR. They also sound almost exactly the same as Mind's Eye and other bands Flores has worked with, which is not a bad thing just not what I expected. The fairly thin production here will take you right back to 1985 with pompy keyboards and the high-pitch scandi vocals - in fact the sound reminds me of the lighter stuff on the (far superior) Crash the System album. "Can't Keep Running" is a good opener, and the general consistency is pretty high, but it desperately needs a beefier sound and a bit more originality. I saw someone on another thread suggest this is the best of the non-big name albums this year (i.e, excluding Toby Hitchcock/WoA etc), but Alyson Avenue and Lionville are better than this. Good/solid stuff, but there's nothing here you won't have heard a million times before, so I'd only recommend if it was fairly cheap. Probably a 6/10 from me...

 

I'd say there's a whole bunch of albums better than this, but 6/10 is a bit harsh. Granted there are a couple of fillers, but in the main this is solid AOR. Not particularly original but then what is these days?? As good as TB & WoA are you can hardly call them original??

 

Fair point about originality. Though when you hear Hitchcock sing you know it's him. This guy could be any one of a number of scandi singers from the 80's, and compared to the best ones (Vikstrom/Edman) he's not even close or distinctive enough. In fact, this album could've been made by any one of a zillion scandi bands that made album's in the 80's. That's fine, but if I want to hear killer 80's AOR then I'll just play Treat/Alien/Glory/Skagarack albums instead of this. Just for you I'll give it a 6.5/10 then!

 

6.5 is still far too low Tim,

you need to give this an 8.5, your heart knows it's true

[Geoff]

XORIGIN - State of the Art

 

Saw this one described as "melodic hard rock with a modern edge" in the press release. The only thing to be gleaned from this information is that you should always ignore press releases! This is 80's AOR. They also sound almost exactly the same as Mind's Eye and other bands Flores has worked with, which is not a bad thing just not what I expected. The fairly thin production here will take you right back to 1985 with pompy keyboards and the high-pitch scandi vocals - in fact the sound reminds me of the lighter stuff on the (far superior) Crash the System album. "Can't Keep Running" is a good opener, and the general consistency is pretty high, but it desperately needs a beefier sound and a bit more originality. I saw someone on another thread suggest this is the best of the non-big name albums this year (i.e, excluding Toby Hitchcock/WoA etc), but Alyson Avenue and Lionville are better than this. Good/solid stuff, but there's nothing here you won't have heard a million times before, so I'd only recommend if it was fairly cheap. Probably a 6/10 from me...

 

I'd say there's a whole bunch of albums better than this, but 6/10 is a bit harsh. Granted there are a couple of fillers, but in the main this is solid AOR. Not particularly original but then what is these days?? As good as TB & WoA are you can hardly call them original??

 

Fair point about originality. Though when you hear Hitchcock sing you know it's him. This guy could be any one of a number of scandi singers from the 80's, and compared to the best ones (Vikstrom/Edman) he's not even close or distinctive enough. In fact, this album could've been made by any one of a zillion scandi bands that made album's in the 80's. That's fine, but if I want to hear killer 80's AOR then I'll just play Treat/Alien/Glory/Skagarack albums instead of this. Just for you I'll give it a 6.5/10 then!

 

6.5 is still far too low Tim,

you need to give this an 8.5, your heart knows it's true

I think it's time I broke my silence on this one.

 

Above, I said there were a couple of fillers. After a few more spins I sat down yesterday and penned my first official rating of the CD. Turns out that despite 'Gina' being the weakest song, and 'Matters of the heart' stumbled a little too - but I wouldn't call them fillers, not by a long stretch. It actually turned out, for me personally, that this rated very high - as in 90% - only my 4th 90% or over rating of the year.

 

Gems like 'Can't keep running,' 'Crying for you,' 'Too late,' 'This is it' and 'One for me' helped it's cause, all scoring very high. But the main thing about this ended up being the fact that it never dipped too much at all. The weakest tracks were still quite decent and overall I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised by this one. Very nice.

[Nightrain]

Above, I said there were a couple of fillers. After a few more spins I sat down yesterday and penned my first official rating of the CD. Turns out that despite 'Gina' being the weakest song, and 'Matters of the heart' stumbled a little too - but I wouldn't call them fillers, not by a long stretch. It actually turned out, for me personally, that this rated very high - as in 90% - only my 4th 90% or over rating of the year.

 

Gems like 'Can't keep running,' 'Crying for you,' 'Too late,' 'This is it' and 'One for me' helped it's cause, all scoring very high. But the main thing about this ended up being the fact that it never dipped too much at all. The weakest tracks were still quite decent and overall I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised by this one. Very nice.

 

I agree with 'Gina' but 'Matters' is quite good though, but cmon, you give a 75% for Performocracy ? give it another spin and tell me it's a 90%-ers

[Geoff]

Above, I said there were a couple of fillers. After a few more spins I sat down yesterday and penned my first official rating of the CD. Turns out that despite 'Gina' being the weakest song, and 'Matters of the heart' stumbled a little too - but I wouldn't call them fillers, not by a long stretch. It actually turned out, for me personally, that this rated very high - as in 90% - only my 4th 90% or over rating of the year.

 

Gems like 'Can't keep running,' 'Crying for you,' 'Too late,' 'This is it' and 'One for me' helped it's cause, all scoring very high. But the main thing about this ended up being the fact that it never dipped too much at all. The weakest tracks were still quite decent and overall I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised by this one. Very nice.

 

We both agree with 'Gina' and 'Matters', but cmon, you give a 75% for Performocracy ? give it another spin and tell me it's a 90%-ers, or should i need to listen again ?

It may not be my final rating, but by my own admission I'm a pretty hard (note, not harsh) marker, but this type of stuff just really appeals to me. Some people (Tim ) seem to hate stuff that sounds like it's from 1988-1990 but if you look back through the archives you'll find that I've rated stuff like Hotshot, Blind Date, Rockarma etc. all very high in recent years. And even include White Widdow in that. I love when a band records something that is genuinely as good as stuff that was released in music's prime, and that's where Tim and I differ on this. I think this would stack up just fine against some of the greats of 80's AOR (Alien - better than most of their discography bar first 2 CDs / Glory - better than anything they did after the first 2 albums / Treat - I'd honestly prefer this to s/t, 'Scratch & Bite' and 'Pleasure Principle' / Skagark - probably on par with a lot of their stuff). There is just some really killer stuff on here.

 

For me, not even a contest with The Poodles. I do like The Poodles, but I think 75% is very fair, imo. And this Xorigin CSD is FAR better than it.

[Nightrain]

FAITHSEDGE - s/t (2011)

A blend of hard rock, melodic metal, and progressive metal, with Alex De Rosso on guitar and Fabrizio Grossi on bass. Seems interesting at first, but in the end, it lacks of big hooks and strong tunes. Some big tunes here are 'Another Chance', 'World Keeps Falling Down', 'Take You Away' and 'That's What Happened To Us'. The rest are between average to good. De Rosso's guitar playing is the highlight, some average songs even has some beautiful riffs and solos, shame that too many fillers around. The fair score is probably around 65-70%

[TIM (2)]

Above, I said there were a couple of fillers. After a few more spins I sat down yesterday and penned my first official rating of the CD. Turns out that despite 'Gina' being the weakest song, and 'Matters of the heart' stumbled a little too - but I wouldn't call them fillers, not by a long stretch. It actually turned out, for me personally, that this rated very high - as in 90% - only my 4th 90% or over rating of the year.

 

Gems like 'Can't keep running,' 'Crying for you,' 'Too late,' 'This is it' and 'One for me' helped it's cause, all scoring very high. But the main thing about this ended up being the fact that it never dipped too much at all. The weakest tracks were still quite decent and overall I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised by this one. Very nice.

 

We both agree with 'Gina' and 'Matters', but cmon, you give a 75% for Performocracy ? give it another spin and tell me it's a 90%-ers, or should i need to listen again ?

It may not be my final rating, but by my own admission I'm a pretty hard (note, not harsh) marker, but this type of stuff just really appeals to me. Some people (Tim ) seem to hate stuff that sounds like it's from 1988-1990 but if you look back through the archives you'll find that I've rated stuff like Hotshot, Blind Date, Rockarma etc. all very high in recent years. And even include White Widdow in that. I love when a band records something that is genuinely as good as stuff that was released in music's prime, and that's where Tim and I differ on this. I think this would stack up just fine against some of the greats of 80's AOR (Alien - better than most of their discography bar first 2 CDs / Glory - better than anything they did after the first 2 albums / Treat - I'd honestly prefer this to s/t, 'Scratch & Bite' and 'Pleasure Principle' / Skagark - probably on par with a lot of their stuff). There is just some really killer stuff on here.

 

 

I don't mind the fact this sounds like it's out of 1985 at all. I loved Crash the System and last years Vega album's, both of which I had to repeteadly check the recording dates for as I still can't believe they weren't originally made in the 80's. I just mind when the quality isn't high enough. XOrigin has no fillers on it IMO. But at the same time the best song (which is clearly "Can't Keep Running") is not as good as the weakest song on either the Alien S/T or any of the first 3 Skagarack albums, nor anywhere close to the weakest song on "Dreamhunter". In fact it's an insult to those great bands to compare them IMHO. I still love great Scandi AOR, it was and will always be my favourite era and musical style. I still love it when I hear new bands playing in this style - the arrival of bands like Brother Firetribe and H.E.A.T are a total breath of fresh air to the genre - but this is a zillion miles from those bands. It's good, very good in parts actually, but they need to seriously crank-up the quality if they want to have a hope of making a follow-up album...

[TIM (2)]

ANTHRAX - "Worship Music"

 

Much hyped return of Belladonna also means a ditching of the modern metal sound to be replaced by some pure old-school riffs. It's slightly thrashy and there's nothing much modern about their sound these days. I never liked the band until the 90's so was never going to like this much,and I don't. Some decent riffs,especially the first 30 seconds of "Fight 'em..." and "I'm Alive", but all-in-all this is generally pretty tired sounding stuff,and could easily be b-sides from any of their early albums. Even if you love this style, it's hard to argue the quality of songwriting is anything other than mediocre as there's barely a memorable song or riff on here. Too many songs also drag,and the vocals are frankly horrible - why on earth did they go down this path if it wasn't simply to make some money on a nice nostalgia tour?. This is patchy at best, and will almost certainly lose them all the fans they attracted during the 90's when they were the only Big 4 band releasing anything of value. Frankly the last albums of Metallica and Testament are light years ahead of where Anthrax are with this album. About a 5/10 at best from me.

[Glen]

Above, I said there were a couple of fillers. After a few more spins I sat down yesterday and penned my first official rating of the CD. Turns out that despite 'Gina' being the weakest song, and 'Matters of the heart' stumbled a little too - but I wouldn't call them fillers, not by a long stretch. It actually turned out, for me personally, that this rated very high - as in 90% - only my 4th 90% or over rating of the year.

 

Gems like 'Can't keep running,' 'Crying for you,' 'Too late,' 'This is it' and 'One for me' helped it's cause, all scoring very high. But the main thing about this ended up being the fact that it never dipped too much at all. The weakest tracks were still quite decent and overall I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised by this one. Very nice.

 

We both agree with 'Gina' and 'Matters', but cmon, you give a 75% for Performocracy ? give it another spin and tell me it's a 90%-ers, or should i need to listen again ?

It may not be my final rating, but by my own admission I'm a pretty hard (note, not harsh) marker, but this type of stuff just really appeals to me. Some people (Tim ) seem to hate stuff that sounds like it's from 1988-1990 but if you look back through the archives you'll find that I've rated stuff like Hotshot, Blind Date, Rockarma etc. all very high in recent years. And even include White Widdow in that. I love when a band records something that is genuinely as good as stuff that was released in music's prime, and that's where Tim and I differ on this. I think this would stack up just fine against some of the greats of 80's AOR (Alien - better than most of their discography bar first 2 CDs / Glory - better than anything they did after the first 2 albums / Treat - I'd honestly prefer this to s/t, 'Scratch & Bite' and 'Pleasure Principle' / Skagark - probably on par with a lot of their stuff). There is just some really killer stuff on here.

 

 

I don't mind the fact this sounds like it's out of 1985 at all. I loved Crash the System and last years Vega album's, both of which I had to repeteadly check the recording dates for as I still can't believe they weren't originally made in the 80's. I just mind when the quality isn't high enough. XOrigin has no fillers on it IMO. But at the same time the best song (which is clearly "Can't Keep Running") is not as good as the weakest song on either the Alien S/T or any of the first 3 Skagarack albums, nor anywhere close to the weakest song on "Dreamhunter". In fact it's an insult to those great bands to compare them IMHO. I still love great Scandi AOR, it was and will always be my favourite era and musical style. I still love it when I hear new bands playing in this style - the arrival of bands like Brother Firetribe and H.E.A.T are a total breath of fresh air to the genre - but this is a zillion miles from those bands. It's good, very good in parts actually, but they need to seriously crank-up the quality if they want to have a hope of making a follow-up album...

 

OK, I listened to this again this morning and have tentatively rated as 87%.

 

As stated previously there are a few dips in quality, but the real gems prop up the score - 'Cant Keep Running' (9.25), 'This Is It' (9.25), 'Said & Done' (9), and 2 more obvious stand outs are the Robert Sall penned 'Too Late' (9.25) and 'What Love Is All About' (9) both of which could easily sit on the new WoA album IMO.

 

Cheers

[zacharyamelie]

Well I got both Toby Hitchcock and The Work Of Art in the mail a few days ago. I'm impressed with both releases. Both are AOR and melodic rock gems, however they are very different in the delivery.

 

TOBY HITCHCOCK - Mercury's Down

 

It comes at you with some huge anthems, everything about it about is bombastic, yet not over the top like Robby Valentine or anything. Very similar to W.E.T. from a few years ago, no surprise there, same song writer. It was WOW from the first listen and much more immediate than the WOA.

 

1. This is the Moment - 9/10

2. Strong Enough - 9/10

3. How to Stop - 9.5/10 (This is PURE 'If I Fall' from W.E.T., I love it!)

4. Let Go - 8/10

5. One Day I'll Stop Loving You - 8/10

6. I Should Have Said - 9/10 (love the chorus)

7. If It's to Be - 8.5/10

8. Just Say Goodbye - 9/10

9. Summernights in Cabo - 9/10

10. Tear Down the Barricades - 9/10

11. A Different Drum - 8/10

12. Mercury's Down - 8/10

 

Overall:- 8.66/10

 

WORK OF ART - In Progress

Not as immediate as the Toby Hitchcock, but just as good. The approach here is MUCH more subtle. Artwork was my fav release of 2008, not sure this will be for 2011, but it won't be far off if it isn't. I do generally prefer the best songs on the debut than the best ones on this one. Tracks like 'Why Do I', 'Maria' and 'Cover Me' are staples in my household, however since it is not as immediate, I'll let it grow on me awhile longer and maybe my opinion will change. The playing, singing and song writing is as close to flawless as possible. You'd have to hate AOR not to love this one.

 

1 - The Rain - 9.5/10

2 - Nature of the game - 8/10

3 - Once again - 8/10

4 - Never love again - 10/10 (In the running for song of the year)

5 - Eye of the storm - 8.5/10

6 - Until you believe - 9/10

7 - The great fall - 9/10

8 - Call on me - 8.5/10

9 - Emelie - 9.5/10 (another KILLER chorus)

10 - Fall Down - 8.5/10 (Totorific!)

11 - Castaway - 8.5/10 (A glorious chorus, not too keen on the verses)

12 - One step away - 8.5/10

 

Overall:- 8.79/10

[Nightrain]

OPETH - Heritage (2011)

i've heard rumors that Akerfeldt is going to adapt a radical change to their music but didn't know it's gonna be this extreme From the growly prog/death stance to 70s prog rock with psychedelic tendency and jazz/fusion thing. And under the helm of Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, the sound is nicely done, fits to the 70s atmosphere. I love the title track intro, the first single 'The Devil's Orchard' is okay, but 'Slither', 'Nepenthe', 'Haxprocess', and 'Famine' are the highlights. 'Folklore' and 'Marrow of The Earth' are awesome too, overall most of the tracks here are enjoyable, esp. if you can appreciate that genre. 85%

[TIM (2)]

LOVEX - Watch Out

 

Thanks to Stefan/Jez etc for bringing this one to my attention, had genuinely never heard of them and am delighted they don't sound like the Poodles or WigWam or Crashdiet or any of that glam hard-rock type stuff that everyone loves but I don't. This is pure melodic rock for the most part, with a pop feel in places and a modern crisp production. Like a lighter version of Skillet. There's not a single filler on this thing IMO, and every chorus is huge and harmony-filled (except the closing ballad). Only slight criticisms are that some of the verses are better than the choruses ("Crash My World"), and after one listen - and a few repeat spins of favourite tracks - this isn't going to have the longevity of some other big albums this year. Personal fave tune is the almost-AOR of "One", which is pretty cheesy in a Eurovision-type way but has a huge hook, and overall this is a great find. About an 8.5/10 from me.

[zacharyamelie]

DREAM THEATER - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

 

Basically if you're already a fan you'll love it like I do. It isn't the second coming of Images And Words or as passionate as Scenes... but it is very melodic, the most melodic since Octovarium. This will likely be in the top half of my fav DT releases. I'm only on track 6 and I'm writing this very quick opinion. I honestly can't tell much difference between Mike Portnoy and the new drummer Mike Mangini. The biggest diffence is in the song writing, it's not as personal, moody or dark, sorta lighter like Octovarium was. The biggest negative thing is that is comes in a digipak with a bonus video (I never watch those documentry videos anyways). Although for a digipak it is of high quality (real trays for the cd to sit in), unlike the cheap ass job they did with Journey's Eclipse.

[Nightrain]

ANTHRAX - Worship Music (2011)

a good first half and a very bland and forgettable second half, and that's what their new album is all about. 'The Devil You Know' has that nice riffs, and the chorus is very melodic / commercial for a thrash band but love it, and probably that's the best track here, followed by the first single, 'Fight Em Till You Can't'. 'Earth On Hell' is quite decent but I think 'I'm Alive' and 'In The End' are pretty cool tracks, though a mile far if compared to the two strongest tracks here. 'Judas Priest' is promising with its 'Creeping Death' style intro but then steer away to a confusing thrash/modern metal thing, and the worst probably is 'Crawl', are they gonna be Soundgarden here or what? The last two tracks also ain't better at all, in fact most of the things on the second half are disposable. 60% in the first spin, don't know if i have interest to explore more, later maybe

 

HOUSE OF LORDS - Big Money (2011)

a better album, a pretty diverse songwriting, a combination of elements from the first three albums with their modern days. The songwriting is a bit uneven, there are fillers, but could be growers. Some of those big numbers for me are 'First To Cry', 'Someday When', 'The Next Time I Hold You' (super-ballad, probably worth the whole album alone), 'Hologram', 'Once Twice', and 'Blood'. The rest are okay, 'Living In A Dream World' is probably the worst for me, but I've heard many even worst songs than that, so not a problem. A strong offering and worth around 80% at a glance.

 

PUSHKING - The World As We Love It (2011)

Russian hard rock with strings of big guest appearances including Glenn Hughes, Eric Martin, Steve Vai, Udo, Paul Stanley, etc but too bad the songwriting is too safe, rather generic, couple of great tracks, several good tracks, and the rest are spread out between filler and average tunes. Not as bad as many claimed, but definitely doesn't live up my expectation at all. 70% at best but an album that could get you bored easily I think.

[Geoff]

Black Veil Brides - 'We stitch these wounds' ; I'll start of by saying I quite liked it, but there are a lot of things wrong with it. The biggest one being the carefree, unpassionate and detached performance by the vocalist. He sounds so bored and not into the songs, which really takes away from it. The muddy production is weak too. For a band that's possibly recorded a "heavy" CD, it just sounds weak and like the production job you'd find on a cheap pop album. No bollocks at all to speak of. But that said, I thought a few of the songs weren't that bad and overall it's probably a keeper. It just irritates me that I don't hang a lot on how good a vocalist is or is not. There are plenty of worse singers than this guy, that I like just fine. But when you don't mean it, or care about your songs... why bother?

[Nightrain]

GRAND DESIGN - Idolizer (2011)

If you like the debut, you'll like this one too, and you know that listening to Grand Design is simply like listening to Def Leppard in their prime mid-80s era. On the other hand, you get a feeling you're listening to a cover band instead, so that might be a negative factor for some, but if you just want to enjoy a good Def Leppard music, then 'Idolizer' is more than enough for you because Def Leppard nowaday is far crappier than them. Imagine a cross of Pyromania and Hysteria, and that's what 'Idolizer' is all about, some great tracks here that I love are 'Oughtograuph', 'Your Love's A Runaway' (very 'Hysteria'), 'Addiction For Love' (very 'Love Bites'), 'Rock Back To The 80s', and 'You're Gonna Dig On It'. Many wonderful harmonies, catchy chorus like the old days, some nice and nifty solos, this is a trip to the past, a memorable one, I think an 85% is deserved, might fluctuate around 80-90, but 85% is a reasonable one.

 

GRAND ILLUSION - Prince of Paupers (2011)

Not a fan of their in the first place, in fact many of their albums were packed of fillers, at least that's what I thought, and mostly are overrated albums, even though I can still find some gems within their albums, but this one, is pretty surprising, because every little track from start to finish is actually great. Instead of picking some strong tunes, I'll go with the weak first. 'On And On' and 'Under The Wire' are the lowest point here, but still in a 7/10 range, the rest are actually great, especially 'Gates of Fire', 'Better Believe It', 'St.Teresa's Love', 'Through This War', 'Gone', and 'Believe In Miracles'. Remarkable release and deserved at least 85%, but probably can shoot off to 90%. Should try this one folks, could be their best of their entire career!

 

WHITE WIDDOW - Serenade (2011)

This one is a no-brainer for some, according to some samples, you'll know how strong this will be, and yes, it lived up to my expectation, far better than the debut, and in fact, this is gonna be a strong contender to be in the top 5 maybe. Still continuing the debut's path, but I spotted some Def Leppard-ish hooks from Hysteria/Adrenalize era, so try playing this after Grand Design and it's a Leppard party all over lol. Some big tunes here are 'Strangers In The Night', 'Do You Remember', 'Reckless Night', 'How Far I Run', 'Serenade', 'Patiently', and 'Love Won't Wait', but all of them are enjoyable. I hope I'm not putting this up too high but looks like a 95% isn't too much. What a

brilliant album!