Hatebreed - The Divinity Of Purpose

Here is a band I've not really listened to until now and I have to admit this album is a freaking monster. From the opening cut and what looks to be the initial single "Put It To The Torch" to the crushing depth of "Idolized and Vilified" this album just 'stomps a mud hole in you and walks it dry' to quote the legendary Jim Ross. The crazy thing about this album is even with the immense devastation of the delivery I can't wipe the grin off my face. This music just makes me happy I love it and I can't get enough of the sonic thumping that each track offers.

As with most of the hardcore bands that play this more brutal metal style Hatebreed have a great clear sound with a vocalist that is understandable but still has all the gutsy grit that their peers deliver but they don't sound muddy at all. When the manic swirling riff kicks off "The Language" you know that there is going to be an epic beating given to your ear drums and an assault like you haven't seen on all your other senses. But even with that crushing wall of sound the band are relentless with what follows.

There isn't much more to be said about The Divinity Of Purpose except buy the damn thing and listen to some quality heavy metal. This is not for the weak it should come with a warning that says "may open closed minded fools thinking and enlighten the sheep". HORNS UP MF's!

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Pink Cream 69 - Ceremonial

The band that blessed us Helloween fans with the awesome Andi Derris has returned with their latest effort and their eighth with David Readman who is a great vocalist and never fails to deliver the goods on a PC69 album. The new album kicks off with "Land Of Confusion" not a cover of the cheesy Genesis tune. It's a cool hard rocker that has a decent chorus and a nice aggressive riff. The band are immediately hitting stride with "Wasted Years" which has a familiar melody and a great hook.

As the album plays out the songs are always decent with some that lack a bit and wouldn't earn space on my I-Pood. The very Tyketto sounding "Find Your Soul" is one of the albums best songs with the cool drums and ringing guitars along with Readman's stellar vocals that totally sells the song. I'm fairly sure that any fans of bands like Europe, Stryper and Pretty Maids will fall in love at first chord with this album because this band takes what is good about the bands mentioned and creates a whole new level of credibility.

When you want to hear something that takes you back but is fresh and new then Ceremonial will fill all your needs. You get that melodic rock sound that is nicely balanced with enough of the pop metal and current style modern rock from an album that ebbs and flows very well. This is an album that you can put on and enjoy all the way through the twelve tracks.

If I was to pick the song I enjoyed the most upon my initial listen that stood out I'd pick "King For A Day" which is a seriously good melodic rock song. The album closes with the groovy swagger of "Superman" and it's one of those songs that ends the album in the way that you want to listen to it again. You have a good feeling and taste left in your mouth which is what bands should always try to do with the last song on any release because that last impression is almost as important as the first one. Pink Cream 69 release another strong album to add another to what is already a rich catalog of music for all fans of melodic hard rock.

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Len - It's Easy For You

As most would believe this band was done and long since forgotten even by the members but this album appeared late last year and I found it on Rdio. I gave it a listen and was taken back with how surprisingly good it was for a group that really is a one hit wonder to the letter. They had a couple of failed singles from that first album but in the end they will forever be known for "Steal My Sunshine" and after hearing this new album that should not be the case at all for Len.

The opening track is one of my favorites of 2012 "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" that has all the trappings that a fantastic pop song should have. The melody is perfectly sweet and chorus is so catchy that Krazy Glue doesn't have anything on it in the stickiness department. Being an indie album it doesn't have an indie feel in the sense it sounds like a big budget major label record. The production is excellent and the group write full fledged hit songs one after another. The dance jam "As Long As We Got Music" which features Micah Braun of Winnipeg band The Nods and now of Jicah turns out a good groove that easily fits pop radio.

The group ebb and flow into and out of Hip-Hop and blatant bubblegum pop which works at nearly every turn that shows not all one hit wonders deserve to be dismissed after that one massive success. One listen to "If You Want It (You Gotta Go Get It)" will force you to immediately add it to your regular listening rotation. It makes me want to skip and dance down the city streets in the sunshine like a happy fool with nothing but giddy happiness flowing out of me. From the uber catchy chorus to the boppy melody to the group singing "Oh Oh's" this song is a winner winner chicken dinner!

I'd like to tell you how great this record is in such a manner that compells you to go buy it and make them huge and make this album a massive success because this is awesome pop music that deserves more than anyone could know to be at the top of the charts. At the tender moment of the album "Feels Like Home" the electro-pop loneliness almost breaks your heart, then they follow it up with the uplifting and positive "Nothing Brother Me" that once again has zero wrong about it from composition to production to performance to instrumentation. The excellent little moog solo just makes me smile as it quirkly struts past in a rush.

The album closes with three more strong songs and one that rivals everything on pop radio right now "It's My Neighbourhood" and I can see this song becoming a television commercial song at some point as it just has that sound that seems to be popular in that medium right now. After one of the weaker songs the closing number is as good as anything Cold Play or the Imagine Dragons are putting out. Overall this album is a shock because of how wonderfully giddy and sweet it is that never comes close to being cheesy or forgettable. I highly recommend that It's Easy For You and since it came out so late in 2012 it will be a surefire member of my best of 2013 album list without a doubt.

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Shakra - Power Play

Here we go again with a band that always seems to be lacking that spark that would help them catch fire and break-out. The same can be said on Power Play their ninth studio album but it is a huge record to be sure. The band are produced well and the vocals are impactful on most tracks. The one thing that gets a little boring is their guitar tone which is almost always the same but has a strange distortion effect that sometimes sounds too solid state and cold. Almost like a tiny speaker was being used and then it was manipulated with anything but high end digital software effects.

The sound is very noticeable on "Dear Enemy" where the guitar tone is at its absolute worst. When it comes to straight up song writing quality the band hit a couple of songs for doubles. One of them being "Save You From Yourself" that is a solid AOR tune with a little more dynamic crunch that usually gets ironed out on AOR albums for a more smooth sound. This album keeps some of the dirt and grit which does make the whole album a better listen.

Thomas Muster and Thom Blunier pull off some decent solo's and some nice riffs but in the end we've heard all this before and more often better. That is evident on "Don't Keep Me Hanging" which could be any number of bands who take the gallop and pomp chorus cheese to much higher heights. John Prakesh makes his second album as vocalist for the band and I think he's a good vocalist but he isn't going to set the world on fire with any cool gymnastics or deep growling passages that a couple of the tracks could have used.

As with much of the self produced albums we are receiving the band members just don't get how important an outside producer can be and this album shows that in spades when you take a song like the gawd awful "Stevie" or "Because Of You" one is just shit lacking everything and should have never made this album in its current form. But with some more dynamic acoustic guitars in the mix and a pull back on the distortion overload that is layered on the song "Because Of You" could be a very good song. The overt attempt to have a massive production sound on the backing vocals also removes all the organic sounds that add a measure of organics to the sound instead of processed Soundforge compression and wanna be Def Leppard with not even 10% of their recording budget. 

The bombastic groove that drives "Secret Hideaway" just makes me want to click to the next track because it is just not done right. This song screws up the intro effect they are going for then a wimpy odd pre-chorus/bridge section that is lost in a mess of mediocrity. By the time your in the chorus the song has fallen into the same old distortion sound issue with a blah wah peddle solo that I've heard for way to many years in this paint by numbers manner. Sure the band has some chops but they bury so much in over producing their songs and not trying different stuff like about some strings or a sax solo or even a moog synth now and again. Hell pick some acoustic guitars and put some crazy effects on them. This band will wallow in obscurity forever because they refuse to let go of the dull production techniques of yester-year.

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Check Out: Serena Ryder - Stompa

I just love this track!

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Check Out: Band Of Horses - Knock Knock

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The Lumineers - The Lumineers

The debut album well full-length album is a total winner from the folk rock indie Lumineers. The band have in little time made their peers sound like amateurs. You have Mumford & Sons and Of Mice & Men which both failed to meet expectations with their current albums. Then the excellent debut of Phil Phillips and The Lumineers that fill that void left by those previous bands.

This album sounds spectacular as well, the music is present and bright and effortless with a breeze I wasn't expecting to find so delightful. Songs like "Classy Girls", "Dead Sea" and "Charlie Boy" are slices of priceless music. The band just seem to be in another dimension when it comes to composition and performance on these tracks.

The honesty and emotion that are communicated are a breath of fresh air. There is no compromise to sound modern at this moment. The band just play good music well as if you were watching them in your living-room jamming and it was that perfect night where you've had just the right amount of single malt scotch that puts that once in a blue moon rosy glow on your cheeks with feint smell of jasmine coming through the screen door on a warm spring breeze.

This album begins as a I'll check it out list CD to this deserves to be a part of my CD music collection.

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Top 20 Green Day Songs Of All-Time

20. Brain Stew/Jaded
19. Know Your Enemy
18. Basket Case
17. Stray Heart
16. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
15. When I Come Around
14. Stuart & The Ave.
13. Nice Guys Finish Last
12. Wake Me Up When September Ends
11. Uptight
10. Bab's Uvula Who
09. Brutal Love
08. Troublemaker
07. Minority
06. Let Yourself Go
05. Warning
04. Fuck Time
03. Longview
02. American Idiot
01. Geek Stink Breath

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Sex Slaves - Call Of The Wild

For a band to call themselves Sex Slaves you almost want to completely dismiss them upon reading their name. I came close to doing so but I saw the album cover and went OK fine I will listen to them just to make sure. Not to mention I remembered that I liked some of their previous release. They aren't anything special for sure and their song writing needs work as well as a better producer in the studio would make a huge improvement on what they come up with and how it is put together.

The band finally get close their potential with "I Wanna Kill You" that was immediately likable to me. I love the chorus 'You broke my heart, and I wanna kill you' who hasn't felt that way once or five times! Again with a stronger producer this song is a hit for sure. Another song where they are on the right track is "Get In Line" that has good structure and a melody with a decent set of lyrics for this style but the lead vocals are wrong all wrong in the effects department. This song should be cleaner with big pomp vocals everywhere like you'd hear on a Def Leppard album with a very Train lead vocal track to make it more dynamic.

I have to admit I'm finding much to enjoy here and I'd love to have them go back in the studio with someone who has a greater vision like Jimmy Miller who did wonders with Primal Scream or
Mike Clink, Michael Wagener, Bob Rock for too many reasons to mention and then they would be in great hands with one of my heroes Butch Walker. The back end of this album seems to be the better part musically. I really hear massive hit potential with this band and if Chad Kroger isn't too busy writing Avril Lavigne's new record he should get his ass over to sign Sex Slaves to his label and he can mold the band into the gold status group that they can easily be.

If you want to hear a fun party rock record Call Of The Wild is for sure one. The production bothers me some and the vocalist could be used in a much better way as he's a pretty good singer. But you won't go wrong with "Cool Ride" and "Let's Make Out" along with the ones mentioned previously as well as the closing track "I Got Drunk" that begs for a Bob Rock slick AOR production.

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Mothership - Mothership

Rising from the ashes of bands like Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, Moxy and Motorhead you get the groovy grind of Mothership. The band is full of powerful fuzz tone distortion and bombastic energy. The boogie of "City Nights" is a good example of them finding their groove. I find myself reminded a lot of Canadian band SFH after hearing Mothership. I was a big fan of SFH and their album One Of Those Days from 1992.

Mothership have got the entire thing put together on their self-titled album with heavy rockers like "Angel Of Death" that you can't help but want to test the upper limits of your speakers with as they explode from your stereo. The very Sabbath sounding "Win Or Lose" isn't one of the songs you will constantly crave but the last minute thirty is probably better than anything you'll get from the yet to be released Black Sabbath album I'm sure.

If you are a fan of the incredible band Trouble this album is right in your wheelhouse. The vocalist isn't as good in my opinion but the music is up there for sure. Now I want to hear a new Wolfmother album damn it! So Mothership gets a ton of comparissons here and sometimes that's unfair but not this time I think they are showing some of those bands where they need to be by setting the bar high in this psychedelic sludge stone rock of 2013.

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Hollywood Undead - Notes From The Underground

As this band has evolved into their current sound I find myself a little bored with NFTU because it sounds too much like P.O.D. influenced by Linkin Park influenced by what once was Hollywood Undead. Deuce's solo album had little to like about it and this sounds more like a continuation of that album than a full on H U album. Songs like "Pigskin" and "Dead Bite" are more akin to what I like about them but neither song compares to "Lump Your Head" from their last album.

They do hit it right on "Kill Everyone" which is absolutely the best song on the album by a million miles. The personality and character is out and present on this track and the chorus is pretty good overall. The verses are bouncy and nasty with cutting aggression that makes you take notice. But nearly every other song sounds like one another and in a slow mid-tempo groove which doesn't work for me at all. I would pass on this release for sure. 2013 isn't kicking off with much of a bang but we still have a long list of releases to come and I'm sure many great albums are coming.

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Gary Go - Now Was Once The Future

Once you've read the album title and it's a great one there is no reason to go any further. This E.P. is a complete disappointment and Gary Go who I've been excited about since his Benny Benassi duets last year has not come close to living up to those two brilliant tracks. This album is all chill and slow jam infused crap that doesn't have a decent hook or dance groove anywhere to be heard.

If this is what the future is going to hold for Gary Go's music then I'm out completely. Not worth even checking out it is all faceless and bland drivel that no music fan should waste time hearing when there is obviously better music to easily find.

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