I had no clue Shaggy had a new album out. I didn’t know what to expect when “Clothes Drop” started, but to be honest it really follows in the vein of eir last album “Hotshot”. Starting out with the very funky, tropical-influenced hit “Clothes Drop”, Shaggy shows that ey still has it. What should be the immediate thing noticed about “Clothes Drop” is the fact that the disc’s seventeen tracks…
“Peace Tonight” blends a country sound with the pop of the sixties. After the opening chaos, what results is something that is much more Dolly Parton and Stevie Nicks than anything. The production is a little on the bare side, but Erin Sax Seymour creates a very catchy song off of the bat. The guitar lines present on the track are nothing special, but what they allow Seymour to do…
Individuals might not know that this band used to be Apocalipstick. Since the EP, the band has become a little more fleshed out, and while there are still some issues with the production of this album, there are present the same brand of catchy punk tunes that were so prevalent in the previous disc. There are pieces of “Cowboy” that really seem to look more toward the rockabilly (Tiger Army…
Severe Torture do the equivalent of a Chinese version of their same name with the opening track to “Fall of the Despised” in “Endless Strain of Cadavers”. This means that the same arrangements are tapped, especially in terms of the drums, really bringing in individuals due to the fact that listeners can find some common ground by the fourth or fifth iteration. The band really brings in a few disparate…
Bands aren’t usually around for thirty years, and even fewer of them are able to keep a style reminiscent of that era for so long after their formation. The Seventh Season do so, while keeping together enough relevancy to maintain a decent album. Using a voice modifier that many would assume to be on a Britney Spears or Cher track, Yuri makes a solid rock track that can be as…
There are a number of different artists that attempt to make music for children. Many of these artists create efforts that can only be enjoyed by the younger set. However, I believe that the music that is on From The Birds can speak to all ages. This is due to intelligent musicianship and care taken throughout the disc to continually make interesting and intelligent efforts. From The Birds begins with…
For a band that has been around for around seven years and are so well traveled, I really expected more from “Devour” that what is actually on the CD. The guitars on the disc sound tinny, and the sequencing of the instrumental and vocal parts isn’t spotless. “Abuse Me” has some interesting strides in the amount of body and general sound that Seven 13 has taken from earlier rock tracks,…
The screaming that The Seventh Cross does on their “Scorched By The Flames of Vengeance” seems to show that the band is much more influenced by emo ands and music than they’d like to admit. Of course, at some point the style of music that The Seventh Cross plays is metal. There are hints of eighties metal present throughout “Scorched”, but much of what the band places down is without…
I had heard about how good of a band 7 Seconds was about eight or nine years ago, and I decided to pick up one of their albums from the local CD store. That album, “Soulforce Revolution”, was one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard. However, I decided to give 7 Seconds a second chance, and let me say, I’m happy I threw this disc in my player. A…
While it true that the production value of 7K during their “Make It Up” is solid, the track present does not have enough energy to do much of anything until the band can corral their forces for a brief time during the midpoint of this track. The tension that 7K is trying to create with the design to hold back guitars towards the end of the track is a tack…
Sevendust start this album with a pretty hard rocking track in “Hero”. The fact with this track is that the song does not really lift individuals up like previous Sevendust tracks. It is middle of the road and does not enjoy the hooks that are needed to really bring individuals in by the barrelful. “Ugly” is a track that relies a little more on the creation of a vocal harmony,…
Smartly using Jonathan’s synthesizer in place of a third guitar, Settlefish adds a different element to the chaotic soundscape that marks the compositions on dance a while, upset as paradoxical, intentionally human even through completely electronic instruments. Keeping along with the focus on the keyboards, Jonathan makes it the most versatile part of the band; the beat of “On Symmetry Pebbles” pokes a hole into one’s soul with each beat,…
“Death Triumphant” starts out in a fairly normal way. The band is playing at breakneck speeds, but there is nothing that brings Setherial to that next level. The first track on the disc is “Limbo of Insanity”, and while it is fun to listen to, one cannot hear anything that has not been done before on this track. The title track begins in much of the same vein, with Setherial…
There are CD reissues all the time. However, many of these re-releases still sound as if they were created in an earlier period. Dwarr’s 1984 album, Starting Over, has a timeless quality to it that simply is not present in many of the recordings that are reissued every year. This is because Animals touches upon the different musical currents that were present in 1984and creates an utterly unique and haunting…
Sepultura has changed a lot in the last few years. One of the first metal albums that I ever bought was a copy of “Roots Bloody Roots”, and the band seems to have moved well beyond that style in the 6 or 7 years since I picked up that album. There seems to be a lightness among the tracks on “Dante XXI”, one in which the bass is eschewed for…
Punching through the static nature of emo with an extremely forceful bass line, September is Falling start off their self-titled LP and fill it with a very rhythmic drum line and compelling vocals. With each part of the band fighting for the top of the hill, pushing out its fellow instruments as soon as an opportunity is reached, the bands intensity cannot be understated. The staggered nature of each of…
Pretty much every local emorock band that came out since the release of Senses Fail’s EP has done a cover from the formers retinue, whether it be “187” (Silver in December, The Goodlife) or “Stephen” (Tripping Linda). It is simply not possible to overestimate their influence on the up and coming emo scene, and it is this fact that “Let It Enfold You” is an album that is tremendously important,…
Semaphore “make” an album that is very slow in starting, and has tracks present during “Make” that really start over each time. Thus, when a track like “Childhood Revisited” ends, there is no presumption that Semaphore has already been through this same scheme time and time again in the past. While the compositions (especially during “Drone”) are fairly sedate, this is not to say that they are Spartanly arranged or…
For decades, the follow up to The Beach Boys brilliant Pet Sounds was one of rock and roll’s best urban legends. Sure they eventually threw up their hands and released the so-so album Smiley Smile in 1967, but there was always talk of what was almost released. A sonically-layered masterpiece, bootlegs dripped out in the years that followed and in 1993, Brian Wilson finally released, a newly recorded version of…
The remix of September Sun by Lumia is a perfect introduction to Kodomo, as it will immediately showcase the emotive force that are typically present in his recordings. I personally like the seemingly conflicting electronic feel and heaviness that is established here; Kodomo is incredibly talented at what he does. While listeners may be afraid of the track’s nearly six-minute run time, Lumia is arranged in such a way that…