7 years for a new release is a long time! To long… From their latest album “13″ a lot could have happened in their musical style! They could have lost  their edge, change their style or even worse get commercial. Fortunately they haven’t! Ok we can’t say there is anything innovating in “A.D.” but there is still their heavy stoner, groovy attitude which kick our asses! Maybe there is nothing “fresh” in their style but in these 7 years they have increase their level as musicians. More intense guitar works and a noticeable progress in Jason’s voice. ”The Disillusioned Prophet” is the first track that kicks in and start the dance!  Powerful vocals and amazing but mostly inspirational guitar solos! You can say that there is a pinch of classic rock in there… “The Immortal, the Dead and the Nothing”, a blend of acoustic and electrifying sounds reveals a more progressive aspect emphasized by monsterous vocals! You can say that “Six Year Trainwreck” is the more catchy song of the album, the “singles” genre but still with the powerful blow-minding riffs.  ”Za Gamman” is more sludgy and doom, reminder of their roots and in the most blowing, booster song of the album! ”Borrowed Immunity” is a more flat track but it is noticeable the dual guitar work of Southard and Daniels. Then  ”Down South Dog” gives us a new stoner attitude with groovy up and downs  and boogie riffs. “The Eyes of the Vulture” and “The Skull of the Head of a Man” are more raw tracks , the first one in rock-n-roll motives, the second one in a more hardcore-punk way. Finally “From Below” gives the doom ending of the album dragging you to hell to rip your head! Amazing doomy riffs, a strong track to leave you with the taste of the whole album in your brain!So you have all the ingredients for a perfect stoner album! Groovy techniques, heavy riffs, doom attitude, strong stoned rhythm section, powerful and loud vocals full of rust. After an absence of 7 years Solace really come back in the game and make some noise!

Despite my first completely false impression, I couldn’t believe when a hardcore metal holocaust came out from the speakers. This album could be expressed like a small orgasm as its duration is less than 14′. The good thing with this band is that they have the distorted groovy sound of Swedish death metal and the fury of grindcore mixed and combined in an excellent way with pure hardcore metal.Intesive drumming filled by a great thick bass sound, vocals that spit anger and disorder as well as razor cutting guitars are the basic elements of this magnificent album, mastered and produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou personal studio.

Chaos is unleashed from even the first 32″ track “Conform». Without having understand what happened, the first drumming hits of the second song “Scum Will Rise” punches you straight to the face making you endlessly to start headbaning with these great breakdowns at the end of the song. While the religion reproaching track “Your God” spreads hell for about 32″ again, “Suffering Soul” is here to express mental pain and disappointment accompanied by a groovy breakdown.And now is the time for the album’s highlight song “Unsilent Death” featuring a great tremble solo creating an atmosphere that really stinked death.” Traitos” ensures their undeniable grindcore influences, which are completed after the political “I Will Not Follow”. Another,good small solo exists in “No Servant” making the feeling of the cd more and more enjoyable.  As for “Spacegoat” keeps the pace before leading to cd’s longest and last track “Depths”.

All in all, “Unsilent Death” is easily one of the best releases of 2010 coming out from South California. I think that the future will be bright and very successful for this band, unless they keep up the good work.

The first thing to notice is the production. A very flat one surely with more work to be done. After “Critical Mass” a very heavy track sang by Owens, the first instrumental “Shot Across The Bow” a Malmsteen style song as we hear the past 25 years…nothing new.

It’s in “Look At You Now” where Yngwie make the vocal parts and surprise: the chorus melody is the same as “Live To Fight (Another Day)” from his previous album! As for the vocals maybe he is good in his Hendrix interpretations but for his own song the voice is very low and bad. After an also nothing-special instrumental “Relentless”, “Enemy Within” comes in with high Owens screams reminding his passage from Judas Priest! a pretty heavy song.

Hopefully the next tracks are a little uprising! Not of course the instrumental ones “Knight Of The Vasa Order” or “Into Valhalla” which are way far to be original, but “Caged Animal” and “Tides Of Desired” are pretty nice songs with catchy choruses and very good guitar sweepings.

And then the bad surprises come again! First the studio recording of “Albioni’s Adagio”! For Christ sake enough with this Yngwie! There is no live where he didn’t play it and this was clearly a move to fill the gap in the album! Secondly the long and tiring instrumental “Cross To Bear”. Clearly the perfect title for this song, 7 long and boring minutes of guitar with a lot of lack of inspiration. And for once more classical Malmsteen recipe songs “Axe To Grind” and “Blinded” with Owen making the slight difference.

Clearly a very bad Malmsteen album using the same old recipe and completelyout of inspiration and spirit. An album to avoid.

The answer is, probably, no.”Plead The Fifth” is more likely a struggling effort to gain back what was lost throughout the band’s two last unsuccessful album attempts to experiment in “Blue-Sky Research”( 2005) ,which also cost them their contract with Atlantic records,and “Our Long Road Home” (2008).Here they are, with a brand-new contract with Victory records, and their first album under their new label’s supervision.This new album is indeed a heavier one, with surprising vocal dynamics, raging guitars and head-banging moments.The band has not returned to their rap-rock vocal style that they had initially adopted in “Gift”,though.The trend seems to have faded nowadays,perhaps…

The fact is that “Plead The Fifth” can be considered a very good album: solid,well-produced,with very good sentiment-rising moments as in the exceptional “911ost”.Ok,there are a few more tracks rated more than average,like “Now Rise”,”Fractured” and the closing pleasant surprise of “Stares”.The album sporadically resembles to an old-school hardcore album,however mostly refering to rather alternative features.Noticeably,the guitar riffs deserve to be highlighted:crawling and rising selectively,they give the album’s main essence.Successively slamming and melodic,their tunes are perhaps the main reason you would like to go back and re-listen some tracks. Richards’s vocals are out-standing,too, both clean and screaming,while some Deftones-low-tuned voices give a nice overall touch.As far as the new drummer Nick Fredell and his big grooves are concerned,he seems to have adjusted very adequately to Taproot’s needs

Another fact,however,is that when it comes to a band like Taproot,with one of the most promising debuts of the decade(“Gift”),with several big radio and MTV hits(“Again And Again”, “Poem”) fans and media have the right to be stricter and demanding.Self-copies are not excused and repetitive calculations will cost you highly,for listeners are not fools.And fans deserve the very originality of your music.Isn’t that what makes an album good,anyway?

I might predict that if you’re a Taproot fan,you are most likely to listen to “Plead The Fifth” with pleasure.If you hate their music,let’s say,this is not their chance to attract you either.

So is this new record in the continuity of their present style or a back to the basics one? Both answers are correct as the band decide to put in “Mastermind” a bit of everything. “Hallucination Bomb” is a perfect example of what the band used to make, more beautiful space rock
passages, reminding a bit of Hawkwind. The same elements are found in “bored with Sorcery” with breathtaking guitar solos. Enormous Sabbath-like riffs. Mid ranged stoner voice switching to throaty yells, followed by heavy constructed solos, this two first songs are a real kick ass start! But the rest that follows really cool things down.

The other titles are in a more groovy rock style full of dust and motorcycle, but not really well performed. “Dig that Hole” tries a sludgy aspect with no real success, and “God and Punks” is surely the poorest song of the album. Things get more interesting on the next song “The Titan Who Cried Like A Baby having a more dark, atmospheric style. The rest is full of up and downs with fast tracks like “100 Million miles” and heavy loads like “When Planes Fall From The Sky”. Catchy choruses which won’t quite your brain. I think we will hear most of the titles in the future concerts.

Everything seems alright but in the end the album is a little to long as the record last about an hour. The first sensations of fresh inspirations soon pass away and the sensations of deja vu and old rusted riffs come in. Not that is a bad record but we can’t say it’s a fresh one. The heavy grooves and dusty riffs will surely pleased every Monster Magnet fan and despite some lazy moments, “Mastermind” is a very strong stoner record!

The first listening have left me with my mouth open and drooling that I needed one more time of this Norwegian storm to stand on my feet and just wreck my neck. From the first second of the Ulvetid and the voices screaming “Kvelertak” I was thrilled. With each one of the songs ended and another began there was another chilling on my spine. This band knocks me down after a long time that I remember myself so excited. It was from Mastodon’s debut or Enslaved experimentation that I had felt like this for a band. The rock ‘n’ roll-punk riffs of Kvelertak have in the weirdest way a familiar stoner sound and before you comprehend this BHAM!! A black metal bridge with superevil riffs and blast beats blows your brain on the ceiling.

Kvelertak sounds so provocative and pioneer. I believe if Steppenwolf or Black Sabbath were founded in these days this would be their sound. Their mother language that they are using in most of their songs except of “Sultans of Satan” makes the result more outstanding. Oh! How could I forget the swamp that spitted in my eyes from Hjelvik’s throat. Don’t be misguided from the rate that is too low, it’s cause I will expect their second strike. I could write a lot of more pages for this album but I would make you weary.

So the only thing that you could do is to grab a beer or a bourbon bottle and press on the play on your CD players. That’s what I’ll do. The rest is a job for Kvelertak …

That doesn’t mean that Zakk was releasing crappy stuff. Not at all, it just didn’t feel like pure Black Label Society. ”Mafia” was the album that brought much recognition to the band, with extensive touring and maybe the best shape of the band ever, but as an album it had many fillers. ”Hangover Music Vol. VI” was a special release, 100% acoustic, and despite having many personal moments of Zakk, it’s not what BLS fans would like to listen at that moment of time. Things got a little better with ”Shot To Hell” but again, there were songs that Zakk could write in just 5 minutes. ”Order Of The Black” came to set things right, to bring back this southern feeling, and to show that the new line – up could stand as equal to the previous one.

This time Zakk did what he knows best. The album is full of energy and the first three songs win the game from the very beginning, without even the referee give the start. ”Crazy Horse” is a great initial song that puts you straight to the climate of what follows, being one of the first two singles of the album. The other one is ”Parade Of The Dead” which was the first sample of the album, and when we heard it we all started smiling and believing we’re going to have something really good. There was no mistake about that, some things show from the beginning after all. The trademark riffs with the familiar guitar whistle are here again, more than the last seven years. The solos are straight from the chest of Zakk’s treasure and all seems bright.

Of course, there couldn’t be an unbalanced release with only riffmachine tunes, but we also have some great ballads such as ”Darkest Days”, ”Time Waits For No One” and ”Shallow Grave”. Zakk’s voice may stink booze and American South from one kilometre range, but that can’t just distract us from the feeling that when he gets more emotional and sounding more personal, he does miracles. On the other hand, the reason we love Black Label Society was that feeling from the beginning that they were an uncompromising act that just came to deliver some heavy music, full of quality and identity. And with great joy we see the band performing some great tunes such as ”Godspeed Hell Bound” or ”War Of Heaven”, with a groove that raises hell.

The best in this is the feeling I have that this album might be the ressurection of Black Label Society. It brings to my mind the time when ”1919 Eternal” came out, with the band, showing they could do better. And that’s what they did with ”The Blessed Hellride”. So, there’s an aura that he’s going to stand on his feet again, overcoming health problems and his departure from Ozzy’s headquarters, revealing the ”true” and more ”free” Zakk Wylde. The album closes with ”January”, a ballad dedicated to Zakk’s father, who stood as a great inspiration to him in his life and the result is simply amazing. The South rises again and this American feeling is active and here to give more. Strength, Determination, Merciless, Forever. Zakk Wylde rules supreme. Period!

Listening their brand new record, we can easily understand that Krokus take us back in time, some decades ago, with songs that are going to stay in our memory for a long time to come. Some of them are the starter “Drive It In”, “Rock n Roll Handshake”, “Keep Me Rollin’“ and “Shot Of Love”. “Hoodoo Woman” is already playing on the internet, a song carrying the all time classic sound of the Swish band but also sounding fresh and new. The sixth track of the album is not so hot as it says (“Too Hot”) as the band makes a mediocre mid tempo version of Ac/Dc’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”.

The surprise of the album is going to come by Krokus’s cover on legendary Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild”, a song directly connected in our memory with leather jackets, choppers and rock n’ roll attitude. It definitely is a respectable effort by the Swish band that overcomes expectations as Krokus manage to make this epic song sounding as if it was one of their own.

Krokus seem to take the biggest risk in the fifth track of “Hoodoo”, “Ride Into The Sun” as its sound seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the album. “Ride Into The Sun” reminds everyone times when we all used to dance in parties with Whitesnake’s and Def Leppard’s ballads. My reference to Def Leppard has been made on purpose as they have written a song under the same title in the past.

The last song of the album, “Firestar” is surely last but not least as it seems to drag us from our seats to a continuous headbanging and seems like a guarantee promise as we now wait for the next album composed by this legendary band.

On the whole, we can say that bands like Krokus may not be the legends that Ac/Dc, Saxon or Scorpions managed to become. Yet, it’s a known fact that through their long career, they have been respectful and successful as hell composing songs and creating record that have, until today, stood the test of time. “Hoodoo” is another one, among many, reason that Krokus have a place in our hearts and minds.

Contributed by Rene Chriss.

The collection captures ten of the band’s songs, demonstrating a variety of sounds.This variety is of course expected since the songs are written in a not only seven-year-period but a critical one as well for the music scene, with many changes occurring as far as music influences and demands are concerned.

Listening to “Madhouse” one can come across to classic hard rock/glam tunes,familiar to Skid Row or Motley Crew fans. From sweet love ballad “Away From My Heart” to rebellious “Rocker”, this collection offers forty minutes full of nostalgia for the legendary decade of the 80’s and the glam/sleaze/hair-metal bands that reigned back then.Following “Madhouse” ’s music journey we can still see the changes in the music industry which occurred in the early nineties and the evolving influences that bands like Nirvana and Soungarden caused with their appearance (easily observed in “Wreckerd Man”).

Although we can’t say that Uzi made much different from so many other glam rock bands running around in the 80’s, they sound really good with the majority of their tracks being listened with pleasure, especially by a nostalgic ear.Are you one of those recalling long-haired playboys in make-up and red-head girls in blue-jeans?Well, you should add this album to your collection!

First things first, seeing these names gathered in one album…well I got dizzy! Ian Astbury, Ozzy, Chris Cornell, Lemmy, Dave Grohl, Iggy Pop etc. But can even these names turn a bunch of mediocre songs into masterpieces? The answer is, of course, no. On the other hand, Slash shows out a unique skill of creating unique songs that fit to every artist that sang along with him in this record. Some heavier, some not so and one or two can be considered as closer to pop sound with rock elements. The conclusion is that every song seems to have been written with a purpose to be included in each one’s own record.

However, we can’t say that the outcome is something astonishing. With the exception of some tracks that can stand along with Slash’s past hits, the rest of the album is nor something innovative neither something that will stand the test of time or survive the judgment of the rock community. In the first category we can include “Ghost” (Ian Astbury), “Crucify The Dead” (Ozzy), “Back From Cali” (Myles Kennedy) and “I Hold On” (Kid Rock). We can also add the surprisingly good “Beautiful Dangerous” in which Fergie of Black Eyed Peas comes out as a natural born female rock singer! Another surprise is brought by Myles Kennedy who seems to giving his heart to the songs that he was called to sing proving that he’s one of the best in his field today. The mediocrity of the rest of the tracks is balanced by the fresh sound that all the tracks tend to have, giving the album a new perspective.

On the whole, Slash cannot surprise us with his first solo album. Yet, it was a difficult attempt and his work can be at least characterized as respectable. I’ll have to admit, though, that some of the songs will continue to play on my speakers for a long time to come and pure rock fans will surely like this album even if they expected something more, if we take Slash’s heritage as a fact.