Weekly Shuffle

Ok this weeks is going to be different as my iPod in on the fritz so instead I'm using comcasts music choice metal station so it's their take on metal and more mainstream look at than I normally take first up


"la Epiddemia" by Ill Niño - well these guys have gotten a lot heavier than I remember them being , but it sounds like second rate Slipknot, they don't want to surpress their rap rock past but are going for Chimera like vocals but even more bland. The guitars are better than I remembered.

" Tomorrow belongs to Nobody" by Carcass, ok the first band I actually listen to so that's a relief from the metal core I fear is to come. These guys know how to piece the riffs together, more rock n roll take on things than from the Heartwork album, the verse riff is still pretty mean though and has a good groove. The lyrics are no a text book rundown of medical procedure but neither were the lyrics on Heartwork.

"Buildings" by Katatonia band number two I like, I think this has come up on the shuffle before, if I have to drop down to a sixteen gig iPod I doubt this album will make the cut, it has it's moments but is a lot more of the same , I like the melodies here better than some of the others on this album. I don't want to hear the get more progressively radio stale which each release which is the direction it's gone since Great Cold Distance.

" Secular Haze" by Ghost, first I have heard from this album much more circus feel, I heard its a different singer and it's much less king Diamond in the delivery though the keyboards have the theatrics of the kings later solo work ,but the melodies are smoother almost like Opeth. It sounds over produced and a departure from their first album, not a good sign of things to come. I guess the change in singers is why they changed their name to Ghost b.c . look for them in the where are they now files everywhere.

"the aftermath" by Incite, o.k now here's the kind of boring bullshit metal I hate, there is nothing you haven't heard since vulgar display of power o.k far beyond driven to be fair as 97 is the last time this sort of thing had any validity Becuase by the time Slipknot got around to it the hardcore influenced thing was already a mall metal cliche. No ambiance or melodic trappings but not heavy enough to justify the lack of them.

"Lenfant Sauvage" by Gojira, I liked their first album but never got around to really checking them out after that point, this isn't bad , it's less Meshuggah worship than I thought there would be and I guess if you are going for a more mainstream metal thing this is the way to do it. Towards the middle of the song it begins to bore me but nothing too offensive , while I wouldn't be opposed to hearing the whole album it doesn't seem like something I would listen to on a regular basis either.

"Psalm 69" by Ministry, I have been on a Ministry kick lately, this is one of the albums best songs and it's a classic album so I only have good things to say about this one. I love the effects on Al's voice here, he wasn't growling but it makes the delivery sound heavy as the guitars , It coats them well.

"kings of deceit " by Affiance, ...this is pretty bad cheese , it's going for a big power metal like chorus with out anything interesting to back it up just straight forward chugging, they prolly have faux hawks and are wearing affliction shirts as they pose on the monitors. Imagine Symphony Or Strativarious without the chops.

"Frozen at the moment of Death" by Six Feet Under , I owned their first album and I like Cannibal Corpse up until the Bleeding , then like the bulk of Chris Barnes solo band when you heard one album you have heard them all, the vocals are really one dimensional and uninteresting, though the band has picked up the pace from what I recall of their previous efforts, the bridge to this song is o.k but this could really be any death metal band, very lacking in personality.

"Feel so Numb" by Rob Zombie ...when this came out I did not own it but for 2001 this was a less offensive reminder we had just wandered out for the nineties than other stuff on the radio at the time, I'm not sure I would say this is metal, but I removes a lot of non metal things on the shuffle, however I don't think this stood the test of time as well as Ministry as it sound like wrestlers might start walking to the ring at any moment.