First Spin Impressions

[Nightrain]

Lana Lane - El Dorado Hotel ; man this is close to terrible. Having to skip part of the first song (because the f*cking thing is about 8mins) is not a good sign at all. And the the last song is 11mins, so it's not even an option. I have never bought a Lana Lane CD before and I'm not sure what made me think it was a good idea. Just a few tracks I heard here and there, including the Delany CD. But I wish I hadn't bought this. Proggy hard rock rubbish - weak songs I'd never bother to play again.

 

 

well yeah i'm pretty surprised you even want to spend a lil buck on Lana Lane, I mean, even myself that can handle many prog stuffs rated this a 60%, so probably it's a 30-40% for you lol

[Geoff]

Leviticus - Setting Fire To The Earth ; utterly dreadful, completely banal lyrics... but I guess this is kind of okay christian hard rock. Jeez there's some bad and average songs on this disc, though...

 

Leviticus - Knights Of Heaven ; pretty nice christian hard rock album, but just really bad lyrics, And funnily enough, not because of religious context. That's pretty mild with these guys, but they're just awful lyricists anyway. A few average songs, but a couple of pretty decent tunes. Worth a listen. Definitely the better of the 2 CDs.

[AlphaMale]

Ugly Kid Joe - Devil's Paradise: not bad.... not really the classic sounding Ugly Kid Joe and the song with the guys from Fishbone is AWFUL. The rest is pretty heavy and good.

 

Gotthard - Firebirth: this is a Gotthard record, minus the awesome choruses. I like it enough but a lot of the choruses go nowhere. I miss Steve Lee but Nic Maeder does a wonderful job here.

[Swazi]

Gotthard - Firebirth: this is a Gotthard record, minus the awesome choruses. I like it enough but a lot of the choruses go nowhere. I miss Steve Lee but Nic Maeder does a wonderful job here.

 

Yes, I agree. The new disc with Nic Maeder on vocals is a good one. It's definitely in the Gotthard style, but the vocals are a little rougher, maybe gritty. They do suit some of the old songs, but probably not all of them. I have seen them playing live just 2 days ago at a sort of release party. What I think is good about Nic Maeder is that he does not try to copy Steve Lee. He is not this type of charismatic frontman, but he has his own style. And he plays guitar on some tracks as well.

[Geoff]

Mad Max - Another Night Of Passion ; pretty typical of modern day Mad Max. A good solid CD with as many fillers as there are winners... if not a few more winners... so it's worthwhile. Not brilliant by any means but it'll please long time fans enough.

 

Michael Thompson Band – Futurepast ; I don't know what the general consensus on the debut is, but to me it was solid and not much better. So with that in mind, this pleases me. Probably on par with the debut, imo, this is a nice solid AOR disc. I expect it to gel even more after a few more spins, but a pretty decent first spin.

 

Mayday Parade - s/t ; I did listen to this twice in a row after being shamed by myself. I remember Glen speaking of this prospect last year but I truly never realised or heard about this CD being release in late 2011. I actually saw it in a CD shop the other day which is what alerted me. Shameful, as I really love this band. And thankfully this is a lot better than the You Me At Six CD I also overlooked last year. This seems like a good mix of the first 2 discs. It has the consistency of the last CD, and a few of the monster hooks of the debut full length. Well, not quite that good, but this sounded like a pretty damn good CD to me and a certain fan pleaser.

 

Crossfade - We all bleed ; someone need inform these guys that 1. nu-metal is f*cking awful and 2. it is long, long gone from the public eye. I kind of hated listening to this, despite one or 2 songs that were actually pretty good. The super long closer is actually interesting enough to be a pretty good song.

[Fat Freddy]

Def Leppard - YEAH!

 

Def Leppard and I parted ways around 25 years ago but this disc turned up the other day in a bin of cheapies at an animal-shelter fund raiser tag sale so I went "Ehhh, what the f*ck" and grabbed it. (Gotta do my part to help the puppies 'n' kitties y'know!)... I figured a covers album should be at least listenable. So on YEAH the Leps cover a bunch of their fave 70's glam-rock tracks and there are indeed a couple of goodies on here like the tear through T-Rex's "20th Century Boy," "Hangin' on the Telephone" (I forget who did it originally but I'm familar with the Blondie version) and Sweet's "Hellraiser" (though I prefer Raven's cover by a long shot). I always did kinda dig Badfinger's "No Matter What" and Lep does a decent job on it.

 

Not a mindblower release that is gonna bring me back to Camp Leppard by any means but worthy of a few spins, and the buck I spent on it went to a good cause.

[Geoff]

Hardline - Danger Zone ; really good melodic rock disc. I still think it's a farce having this called Hardline, as there is no link at all aside from the voice, which is a good link to have. But the album is totally written and played by a bunch of strangers. Craziness. But none of that matters as long as the CD sounds as awesome as it does... and it does. Some really great songs here and very few fillers. I think the title track was about the weakest moment on this disc.

 

Kutless - s/t ; very average modern rock, but pretty light of the christian lyrics which is okay. There was one pretty good song on this early on and another later too. A couple of okay songs but mostly pretty average.

 

Kutless - Sea of faces ; better and more consistent than the debut. Still pretty average by modern rock standards at this time in history, but it's a good enough disc. Again, not too bad lyrically.

 

Kutless - Strong Tower ; so this is what they call a worship album, hey? The lyrics will make you want to end yourself, but songwise this is actually the best of these first 3 discs. It's a bit more mellow, but some nice melodies here. Just a real shame about the painful lyrics. I thought all christian albums were worship albums?

 

Kutless - Hearts of the innocent ; another pretty average modern rock disc. Not bad by any means, but pretty run of the mill.

 

Mark, if you use your godly sense of smell to sniff this post out, it's not at all looking good for your argument that 'Believer' is not their best CD. So far it's about 10 times better than any of these discs, imo. A lot more melodic and memorable than these. Though you were right about the lyrics. Aside from the worship album, so far the lyrics are nowhere near as in your face as they are on the new CD. Shame. It seems the worse the lyrics, the better the album from these guys.

[The Rocker]

Hardline - Danger Zone ; really good melodic rock disc. I still think it's a farce having this called Hardline, as there is no link at all aside from the voice, which is a good link to have. But the album is totally written and played by a bunch of strangers. Craziness. But none of that matters as long as the CD sounds as awesome as it does... and it does. Some really great songs here and very few fillers. I think the title track was about the weakest moment on this disc.

 

Kutless - s/t ; very average modern rock, but pretty light of the christian lyrics which is okay. There was one pretty good song on this early on and another later too. A couple of okay songs but mostly pretty average.

 

Kutless - Sea of faces ; better and more consistent than the debut. Still pretty average by modern rock standards at this time in history, but it's a good enough disc. Again, not too bad lyrically.

 

Kutless - Strong Tower ; so this is what they call a worship album, hey? The lyrics will make you want to end yourself, but songwise this is actually the best of these first 3 discs. It's a bit more mellow, but some nice melodies here. Just a real shame about the painful lyrics. I thought all christian albums were worship albums?

 

Kutless - Hearts of the innocent ; another pretty average modern rock disc. Not bad by any means, but pretty run of the mill.

 

Mark, if you use your godly sense of smell to sniff this post out, it's not at all looking good for your argument that 'Believer' is not their best CD. So far it's about 10 times better than any of these discs, imo. A lot more melodic and memorable than these. Though you were right about the lyrics. Aside from the worship album, so far the lyrics are nowhere near as in your face as they are on the new CD. Shame. It seems the worse the lyrics, the better the album from these guys.

I am LOVING the new Hardline, and it's in my top 3 of the year so far. It's a close race between H.E.A.T., Hardline, & Dynazty.

[Geoff]

LA Guns - 'Hollywood Forever' ; sounds good to me. Initially I thought the production sounded a bit off on the first track, but that seemed to be a false worry. 'You Better Not Love Me,' 'Sweet mystery' and definitely 'Dirty black night' were instant standouts, but most of it was pretty cool. I admit the last 2 tracks were weak - the title track and the non-English track... but the first 12 are generally all quite good. Not as good as 'Waking the dead' or 'Tales from the strip' on first spin, but I can see this one growing nicely. I always love hearing new material from these guys. With Lewis at the helm it's a guaranteed good disc.

[The Rocker]

LA Guns - 'Hollywood Forever' ; sounds good to me. Initially I thought the production sounded a bit off on the first track, but that seemed to be a false worry. 'You Better Not Love Me,' 'Sweet mystery' and definitely 'Dirty black night' were instant standouts, but most of it was pretty cool. I admit the last 2 tracks were weak - the title track and the non-English track... but the first 12 are generally all quite good. Not as good as 'Waking the dead' or 'Tales from the strip' on first spin, but I can see this one growing nicely. I always love hearing new material from these guys. With Lewis at the helm it's a guaranteed good disc.

Dirty Black Night is classic L.A. Guns

[The Rocker]

Jettblack - Raining Rock

 

The two Hard AOR style tracks are my favorite(Prison Of Love & Never Gonna Give It Up). The rest is pretty good, kind of taking over where the last cd left off. Raining Rock, Weapon,In Between Lovers,System,Temptation & Something About This Girl are all good listens.

[Geoff]

Shannon Noll - 'A million suns' ; I think it's Glen and Tim that have mentioned this in high regard a couple of times here. Generally Australian Idol contestants are not people I make a habit of following as not much good seems to come from them. But I have heard his other albums mentioned here and the few odd tracks I have heard did sound pretty good, so maybe I need to really take some time to get these. Why? Because this album is freakin' fantastic! A really great disc that I would never have expected from him. The title track is average and there is another clunker at the end, but the rest. Wowser. So many good songs. 'A place in the line' is brilliant, but zomfg @ 'Living in stereo.' What a track. Like I said, most of this is great, though. Good shout out, Tim & Glen.

[Nightrain]

Shannon Noll - 'A million suns' ; I think it's Glen and Tim that have mentioned this in high regard a couple of times here. Generally Australian Idol contestants are not people I make a habit of following as not much good seems to come from them. But I have heard his other albums mentioned here and the few odd tracks I have heard did sound pretty good, so maybe I need to really take some time to get these. Why? Because this album is freakin' fantastic! A really great disc that I would never have expected from him. The title track is average and there is another clunker at the end, but the rest. Wowser. So many good songs. 'A place in the line' is brilliant, but zomfg @ 'Living in stereo.' What a track. Like I said, most of this is great, though. Good shout out, Tim & Glen.

 

how's the style compared to the likes of DAUGHTRY, JAMES DURBIN, or DAVID COOK ?

or is he more like ERIK GRONWALL solo style ?

[Glen]

Shannon Noll - 'A million suns' ; I think it's Glen and Tim that have mentioned this in high regard a couple of times here. Generally Australian Idol contestants are not people I make a habit of following as not much good seems to come from them. But I have heard his other albums mentioned here and the few odd tracks I have heard did sound pretty good, so maybe I need to really take some time to get these. Why? Because this album is freakin' fantastic! A really great disc that I would never have expected from him. The title track is average and there is another clunker at the end, but the rest. Wowser. So many good songs. 'A place in the line' is brilliant, but zomfg @ 'Living in stereo.' What a track. Like I said, most of this is great, though. Good shout out, Tim & Glen.

 

how's the style compared to the likes of DAUGHTRY, JAMES DURBIN, or DAVID COOK ?

or is he more like ERIK GRONWALL solo style ?

 

Mmm, its lighter than those - more 7th Heaven styled, but loads of melody and hooks.

 

Good stuff.

[Swazi]

Shannon Noll - 'A million suns' ; I think it's Glen and Tim that have mentioned this in high regard a couple of times here. Generally Australian Idol contestants are not people I make a habit of following as not much good seems to come from them. But I have heard his other albums mentioned here and the few odd tracks I have heard did sound pretty good, so maybe I need to really take some time to get these. Why? Because this album is freakin' fantastic! A really great disc that I would never have expected from him. The title track is average and there is another clunker at the end, but the rest. Wowser. So many good songs. 'A place in the line' is brilliant, but zomfg @ 'Living in stereo.' What a track. Like I said, most of this is great, though. Good shout out, Tim & Glen.

 

how's the style compared to the likes of DAUGHTRY, JAMES DURBIN, or DAVID COOK ?

or is he more like ERIK GRONWALL solo style ?

 

Mmm, its lighter than those - more 7th Heaven styled, but loads of melody and hooks.

 

Good stuff.

 

I bought it yesterday and I'm looking forward to it !

[Geoff]

Shannon Noll - 'A million suns' ; I think it's Glen and Tim that have mentioned this in high regard a couple of times here. Generally Australian Idol contestants are not people I make a habit of following as not much good seems to come from them. But I have heard his other albums mentioned here and the few odd tracks I have heard did sound pretty good, so maybe I need to really take some time to get these. Why? Because this album is freakin' fantastic! A really great disc that I would never have expected from him. The title track is average and there is another clunker at the end, but the rest. Wowser. So many good songs. 'A place in the line' is brilliant, but zomfg @ 'Living in stereo.' What a track. Like I said, most of this is great, though. Good shout out, Tim & Glen.

 

how's the style compared to the likes of DAUGHTRY, JAMES DURBIN, or DAVID COOK ?

or is he more like ERIK GRONWALL solo style ?

 

Mmm, its lighter than those - more 7th Heaven styled, but loads of melody and hooks.

 

Good stuff.

 

Yeah, Glen's right - not really anything like any of those. It probably is more like 7th Heaven, but a lot "classier." More refined song-writing and 100% more well produced. It's good stuff, that you can be assured of.

 

 

Axel Rudi Pell - Circle Of The Oath ; I always have to think when I hear one of this chap's albums how good he could be if he wanted. I like that the dude just lives in his own little bubble and rolls how he wishes to roll. It's admirable and I'm still buying carbon copies of the same album be recorded over 20 years ago, and I know others are, so he must be doing something right. But what could really make this dude magnificent is if he just cut out the stupid 10min "epics" which really detract from the rest of the disc. There are a HUGE handful of killer hard rockers here, with great riffs. They're not perfect, but goddamn they are so heavily enjoyable. The only weak tracks are the title track and a few overlong balladic numbers which needn't be here. If he just made a CD of 10 uptempo 4-5min hard rock tracks these things would be pure gold. And is it just me or is this far better produced than the last few CDs. They always sound just fine, but there's a real kick to this one. A bit more power in the drums and the guitar even sounds crisper too. Really nice effort.

 

Modest Attraction - The Truth In Your Face ; since when were these guys christian freaks? I have their terrible 2nd album and never guessed they were christian, and I'm not sure the 2nd album is a christian rock disc. But this is. It's better than the 2nd album but they're still a poor band. I really didn't enjoy this one bit.

 

Failsafe - Routines ; very nice modern rock disc. It's not a world changer, but I've rated this a lot higher than a lot of bigger name modern rock discs this year. Very impressive if you like strong songs and solid hooks.

 

Hawthorne Heights - Hope ; I still like these guys but this 2nd kind of lazy sounding mini-album in a row isn't really setting my world alight. They sound how they've always sounded, but the songs are just a little more tired than before. It's still listenable, though, with a few good solid tunes rounding up the 2nd half. .

 

Smile Empty Souls - 3's ; there's still a pretty strong element of grunge left in these guys, but still some pretty good tunes. I'd struggle to listen to this too often, but it's okay modern rock.

 

12 Stones - Beneath the scars ; one of the surprises of the lot and a really good modern rock album. Similar in style, II guess, to the new Shinedown disc, but imo this is much better. This album is 10 times more consistent than anything they've released before, and it is also 100% more commercial. A few real gems here like 'Only human' but when it's all said and done there's really not a weak track of all 14 songs - the closer is actually the weakest song. Really impressive album, though and I'd not ever have expected from these guys.

 

Casablanca - Apocalyptic youth ; this isn't as poor as I thought it might be based on samples. It's pretty laid back, almost DAD-sounding at times. But it's got a cool vibe. I actually really kind of dig it. It's not going to sit high in my list this year, but it's the kind of album I will properly enjoy every time I spin it. Try it out.

 

Departure - Hitch a ride ; yuck. Super boring AOR - probably their weakest album yet. Some of it is okay-ish, but for the most part it's just a really un-necessary AOR album.

 

Gotthard - Firebirth ; I hate to say it, but this ain't so great. Nothing wrong with it as such. Good tracks with some good hard rocking tunes and some nice ballads (the ballads are the strongest part of this album) but I have to agree with most comments I've seen on this. The hooks and choruses just aren't really there. Credit to them, though, as this sounds 100% like a Gotthard CD. When you're not concentrating you sometimes forget it's sadly not Steve Lee on vocals - man this dude sounds like him. Good hard rock disc, but not that exciting unfortunately.

[Swazi]

 

Gotthard - Firebirth ; I hate to say it, but this ain't so great. Nothing wrong with it as such. Good tracks with some good hard rocking tunes and some nice ballads (the ballads are the strongest part of this album) but I have to agree with most comments I've seen on this. The hooks and choruses just aren't really there. Credit to them, though, as this sounds 100% like a Gotthard CD. When you're not concentrating you sometimes forget it's sadly not Steve Lee on vocals - man this dude sounds like him. Good hard rock disc, but not that exciting unfortunately.

 

Yep, i would agree to this review.

[Glen]

Sadly this will be the first Gotthard album that I will not buy :-(

[The Rocker]

Gotthard - Firebirth ; I hate to say it, but this ain't so great. Nothing wrong with it as such. Good tracks with some good hard rocking tunes and some nice ballads (the ballads are the strongest part of this album) but I have to agree with most comments I've seen on this. The hooks and choruses just aren't really there. Credit to them, though, as this sounds 100% like a Gotthard CD. When you're not concentrating you sometimes forget it's sadly not Steve Lee on vocals - man this dude sounds like him. Good hard rock disc, but not that exciting unfortunately.

 

Yep, i would agree to this review.

I agree that it's not great. But I decided to give them a little slack, being that this is the first step out of the gate with a new singer after a horrible loss with Steve.

[Nightrain]

Gotthard - Firebirth ; I hate to say it, but this ain't so great. Nothing wrong with it as such. Good tracks with some good hard rocking tunes and some nice ballads (the ballads are the strongest part of this album) but I have to agree with most comments I've seen on this. The hooks and choruses just aren't really there. Credit to them, though, as this sounds 100% like a Gotthard CD. When you're not concentrating you sometimes forget it's sadly not Steve Lee on vocals - man this dude sounds like him. Good hard rock disc, but not that exciting unfortunately.

 

Yep, i would agree to this review.

I agree that it's not great. But I decided to give them a little slack, being that this is the first step out of the gate with a new singer after a horrible loss with Steve.

 

yeah i do think the new album is weak compared to GOTTHARD's real strength in the last few albums. Sadly, the ballads are the shining numbers here, I love 'Remember It's Me', 'Tell Me', 'Shine', and 'Where Are You', and the only uptempo track that I honestly think is strong is 'I Can'. The rest sadly are 6/10 to 7/10 quality tracks, bringing down the rounded total score to probably 70% or 75% top.

 

and CASABLANCA is pretty good like i said earlier, it has that powerpop touch too i guess, not really great but quite enjoyable, perhaps also in the 70-75% range

[TIM (2)]

Shannon Noll - 'A million suns' ; I think it's Glen and Tim that have mentioned this in high regard a couple of times here. Generally Australian Idol contestants are not people I make a habit of following as not much good seems to come from them. But I have heard his other albums mentioned here and the few odd tracks I have heard did sound pretty good, so maybe I need to really take some time to get these. Why? Because this album is freakin' fantastic! A really great disc that I would never have expected from him. The title track is average and there is another clunker at the end, but the rest. Wowser. So many good songs. 'A place in the line' is brilliant, but zomfg @ 'Living in stereo.' What a track. Like I said, most of this is great, though. Good shout out, Tim & Glen.

Glad you like that one, good disc. Not as good as his killer "Lift" album IMO but back-to-form...

[JamesEagle]

 

Axel Rudi Pell - Circle Of The Oath ; I always have to think when I hear one of this chap's albums how good he could be if he wanted. I like that the dude just lives in his own little bubble and rolls how he wishes to roll. It's admirable and I'm still buying carbon copies of the same album be recorded over 20 years ago, and I know others are, so he must be doing something right. But what could really make this dude magnificent is if he just cut out the stupid 10min "epics" which really detract from the rest of the disc. There are a HUGE handful of killer hard rockers here, with great riffs. They're not perfect, but goddamn they are so heavily enjoyable. The only weak tracks are the title track and a few overlong balladic numbers which needn't be here. If he just made a CD of 10 uptempo 4-5min hard rock tracks these things would be pure gold. And is it just me or is this far better produced than the last few CDs. They always sound just fine, but there's a real kick to this one. A bit more power in the drums and the guitar even sounds crisper too. Really nice effort.

 

What are the best songs on this one, mate? I agree entirely about Mr Pell sticking to his guns, so he's not an album artist for me, but does occasionally come up with some nice tunes.

[Geoff]

Axel Rudi Pell - Circle Of The Oath ; I always have to think when I hear one of this chap's albums how good he could be if he wanted. I like that the dude just lives in his own little bubble and rolls how he wishes to roll. It's admirable and I'm still buying carbon copies of the same album be recorded over 20 years ago, and I know others are, so he must be doing something right. But what could really make this dude magnificent is if he just cut out the stupid 10min "epics" which really detract from the rest of the disc. There are a HUGE handful of killer hard rockers here, with great riffs. They're not perfect, but goddamn they are so heavily enjoyable. The only weak tracks are the title track and a few overlong balladic numbers which needn't be here. If he just made a CD of 10 uptempo 4-5min hard rock tracks these things would be pure gold. And is it just me or is this far better produced than the last few CDs. They always sound just fine, but there's a real kick to this one. A bit more power in the drums and the guitar even sounds crisper too. Really nice effort.

 

What are the best songs on this one, mate? I agree entirely about Mr Pell sticking to his guns, so he's not an album artist for me, but does occasionally come up with some nice tunes.

 

If you just want some nice slabs of hard rock, check these ones out:

 

Run With The Wind

Before I Die

Fortunes of War

Lived Our Lives Before

Hold On to Your Dreams

 

Pretty sure they were all pretty good. I think the opener, 'Ghosts in the dark' was good too. As a basic rule, any Axel Rudy Pell song around the 5min mark or under is generally pretty damn good (except for his terrible 'Magic' CD). And you can quote me on that.

[Dark Star]

Slash "Apocalyptic Love" In a word?? Excellent!!! Probably the BEST CD I have bought this year so far.. Now before Anyone crucifies Me, I have NOT bought the new Accept OR the new Over Kill, as I am SURE They will kick serious ass too!! But this CD?? Just awesome from start to finish!! I have yet to find a song I consider to be filler.. Like the saying goes.. All killer NO filler!! Hell, even the slower ballady songs are damn good!! Slash's guitar work is truly excellent and Myles Kennedy's vocals are truly excellent!! I Highly recommend this to Anyone that likes good guitar driven rock!! And awesome vocals!! I give this release a 10/10!!!

[Nightrain]

the new ACCEPT is great but the new OVERKILL isn't really IMHO