In This Moment : "Ritual"

So this is pretty much the Maria Brink show now. There is more spooky stuff going on to open the album and it feels like their will be less sexy nurses writhing around. I have often found her better to look at than listen to so lets see if this album changes that opinion. The first actual song is strange as it takes the stomp of a negro spiritual and molds it into something more sultry hard rock edges. The big chorus hooks don't come til mid way into the song. I am not sure if it is all production but here voice sounds better on this album, if she stays in more of Britney Spears like alto. But it's clear she has a better range than Spears as she can belt into her upper register.

There is a more organic feeling to this album, despite the drums not sounding real. Rob Halford shamelessly shows up on "Black Wedding" . Which makes this inversion of the Billy Idol even stranger. I make no qualms about stealing the chorus in the refrain. But some how it works. Then we get yet another cover of "In the Air Tonight". Not sure when Non-Point covered it, but seems like we don't need another cover of it. She does sing the hell out of it , but otherwise musically there is not much we haven't heard before. "Joan of Arc" feels a lot like "the Beautiful People " but a watered down less aggressive take on it.Pop and metal meet pretty evenly on "River of Fire ". I can do without the oh oh oh vocals in the background, aside from them it's a pretty solid marriage of pop and metal. I think the "let it rain" part would make this a great song for strip clubs.  If I ever wondered what Katy Perry would sound like doing metal the answer is on "the Witching Hour" . This formula is not fool proof as it backfires on "Twin Flames".

They get mired in similar almost nu-metal grounds with a slight tinge of 90s industrial rock on "Half God, Half Devil" . The problem then continues to be that they don't feel dark or heavy. They make a better stab at convincing me on "Roots' which was not the Sepultura cover I hoped for. "Lay Your Gun Down" feels more like an outro than ever building into a real song.I'll round this one up to a 7, I think I like the sexier KMFDM sound better, though the pop infused stuff can work. I guess if you are are fan this is par for the course.

Guilty Pleasures : Disturbed's "Immortalized"

OK, Disturbed is way more mainstream than every thing else I cover with the exception of say "Madonna" so I created guilty pleasures to review bands who at one point in time might have been a guilty pleasure. Here is a band I haven't listened to in almost ten years. As far as nu-metal goes they were a step ahead of all the Taproots and Hoobastanks. Don't let some of their guitarists dumbed down arena rock riffs fool you open the intro song is just him ripping a solo, while this might just be a fill on a Symphony X record , for these guys it confirms my suspicion that they have had a secert hankering to be Judas Priest, but jumping on the Korn bandwagon hindered that. Though they did cover "Living After Midnight" for Metal Hammer magazine. The chug on the title track is more metal than most of the new Ghost album and not too far removed from the last Symphony X album. With that said it's not anything I haven't heard done better by Iced Earth or Kamelot. It's like power metal for the masses. Drainman said they smoke a lot of pot while making this album and they must have been playing World of Warcraft in the studio as well. "Vengeful One " sounds like "Shout at the Devil" era Motley Crue until his vocals come in. He goes into his more melodic croon on this song as well. The hook on the chorus doesn't hold as much kick as their previous work. The ultra slick for radio production is one of the big factors that keeps this album from being as heavy as it could be.

There is more arena rocking kicking off on "Open Your Eyes" , which to their credit is the first song that has the stench of nu-metal to it. The woooahhohhhohh on the chorus sounds like if Def Leppard took at stab nu-metal. They dabble with electronics on the more Smashing Pumpkins paced "the Light". Though "Ten Thousand Fists" was the last album I gave the time of day, it sounds like it is a much different turn for the band. It almost has a power ballad like quality to it.I have to give it them for what it is it's pretty clever. I have never heard them use vocal harmonies like this.There is a riff very similar to many I have already heard from them on "What are You Waiting". When they bust into a faster Poppa Roach like riff I find myself thinking, "I haven't heard one song yet that would work in a strip club". Which is what I used to think of these guys as , the best band I was going to hear in da club. Though I don't think I have seen the inside of a strip club in four years. With a title like "You're Mine" I think I might be eating those words. But it's instead some weird thing like when Finger Eleven tried to make dance rock. The big rock chorus is eventual followed by one of the rare guitar solos. I could now hear this in a trailer for Fast and Furious 20.

I suppose "Who" is the equivalent to today's Whitesnake. It's better than any of the other harder rock you might hear on the radio, like Avenged Sevenfold. I am not their target audience that is for sure. Title alone I am prepared for another power ballad on "Save Our Last Goodbye" , but its one of the album's heavier songs. The chorus cheeses it up a little. They pull a Tool and record a bong toke on "Fire it Up".  Drainman goes into his lower register for this one. Unlike Tool there is more cock rock than prog rock going on. The vocals on this album are giving more love in the production department than their earlier work. The obligatory cover this time is Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence". He croons even lower than the previous song, but they are not a band I want to hear doing piano ballads.

They find their way back into the kind of groove you would expect from them...in other words the closest they come to getting down with the sickness. They close out the album asking the question most nu-metal bands should..."Who taught you how to hate?". It's pretty par for the coarse here. No real surprises . They hit more familiar grooves here , but otherwise color by the numbers. This album pretty much is what it is, not my thing , but well produced and performed I'll give it a 5.

 6.1

Falloch "This Island , Our Funeral"

Seems I have been under the wrong impression, about this Scottish band. Originally I would not listen to them because of the oddly neurotic reason that i thought their name sounded to much like Agalloch. The few times I heard them it seemed like they were a more post rock version of Agalloch. So this album is a surprise, it sounds little like Agalloch and has no black metal elements of any shade to what they do, aside from some comparisons to mid-period Alcest that can be drawn. They are actually pretty middle of the road. No heavier than say Katatonia, but the Swedish gloomsters at least have a sense of melancholy with little light at the end of the tunnel where Falloch is often too hopeful in their delivery. Not bad musicians , their singer has a decent pair of pipes.

 Though the song writing is mediocre. It opens strong with "Torradh". Then the second song fools you with some powerful drumming that leads into very bland hard rock. The 30 Seconds to Mars like vocal dramatics soar off on "For Uir". Aside from a great vocal performance there is not a lot of meat for the vocals to sit upon. "Brahan" begins to wander into a more A Perfect Circle direction. Some one criticized me once for comparing bands to other bands calling it lazy writing. But if bands were not so derivative like this then it would not be called for, so lazy song writing deserves to be treated in kind. These guys are just a hook way from becoming radio rock. I think in the late 90's when this style was fresher I would have appreciated this a little more, but it almost sounds dated now.

 They do broaden into ten and twelve minute jams in the second half of the album. "I Shall Build Mountains" gets more melodramatic rather than progressive, with the song almost taking on more of a power ballad like quality.The darker ebb and flow does develop at the end of this song, before going in a more Tool like direction.The twinkling guitars of "Sanctuary" might be more welcomed if I knew they were going to be balanced out with some heavier. The song builds into a vast orchestrated section with piano and keyboard filling out the edges. I acknowledge there is something for every one this just ain't fer me. These guys do have chops, this just is a little wimpy for my tastes, but you can not deny that they are not good at what they do, it just depends on if you have outgrown what it is that they do, which is almost incomprehensible that you would not be unless you are a teenage girl. This is totally girl metal if it's metal at all. It has metal influences and mall metal at that. I though these guys as skilled as they are and as well produced as this album is were still a little more legit.I will give a 6 well played, but derivative and wimpy.