Reviewing Reviews Of 2008

Looking back at some of my reviews of 2008 I can’t help but express how much I hate doing reviews sometimes. Sometimes you get excited for a newly released cd and love it for the first couple listens. Some are great cds with good sound but then later on you read what others stated in their reviews and second guess your own opinion. Some are great at the first listen but don’t hold a lasting effect that a good cd needs in order to make it a truly good release. Some take some time to sink in before you actually really start to enjoy them and some are immediate favorites. Some leave you wanting more in the manner that the entire CD is great and you want to hear more from the band and some leave you wanting more in the manner that there were only a few good songs and the rest fall really short and feel like fillers. Below are some reviews that I look back at and don’t quite feel the same as I did when I reviewed them and some I still hold firm.

All That Remains – Overcome: This was one of my “Highly Anticipated” releases for 2008. After really enjoying The Fall Of Ideals and This Darkened Heart, I couldn’t wait to see what was next. When the first two singles dropped I really liked them. The sound was a bit different and I couldn’t wait for the album. When I got it I was pretty stoked. I wrote a great review for it and said it surpassed their previous releases. While the album is different from the previous two and is good in it’s own right, it lacks longevity. I wouldn’t call it “uninspired” as many others have, but it It doesn’t having the lasting effect that The Fall Of Ideals has.

The Acacia Strain – Continent: This is another one of those albums that doesn’t have the lasting effect. It’s heavy and brutal, but it lacks the hooks that I feel is necessary to make an album stand the test of time. The vocals and lyrics are great, but a good chorus or breakdown is needed for me to truly appreciate this album. Like The Dead Walk, I really dug it at first listen but it’s easily forgotten within a week or so.

Austrian Death Machine – Total Brutal: Tim Lambesis side project with Ahhnold was fun at first few listens. The music is cool and there are a lot of guest solos in the mix. Paul Raven (From The Critics Den) kind of opened my eyes up a bit more on this album. In his review he states that it is one of those albums that get’s passed around by teenage metalheads and that the novelty of it doesn’t last very long. He was exactly right. It’s a “Solid thrash album”, as he says in the comments of my review but it doesn’t last long and gets thrown in with the stack of things such as Beatallica, the Jerkie Boys and such. Funny, yes. Overwhelmingly wowing…’fraid not.

Soulfly – Conquer: I stated in my review that this is probably Soulfly’s best release ever…and I still feel that way. If you ever plan on getting a Soulfly album then start with this. If you want to reach in to their back catalog, then go for their self titled debut. Everything in between is garbage in my opinion. Conquer brings a thrashier feel to it as if Max and Igor Cavalera Conspiracy release resurrected something inside of him. Let’s not forget that Marc Rizzo is a complete bad-ass guitar player too.

Withered – Folie Circulaire: This one was really tough to get in to. The blackened death metal genre is something I’m fairly new to and if your not totally in to that music then it will either take some time to get used to or it will just not sink in at all. The Funeral Pyre is the same way. Their 2008 release Wounds has that strange effect where it takes some time. Prosthetic Records signs acts that stand out from the rest. That’s where bands like Lamb Of God and All That Remains got their big start. Other bands that made their Prosthetic label debut this year that deserve a listen are Book Of Black Earth with Horoskopus and The Antagonist with Exist.

Children Of Bodom – Blooddrunk: This album seemed to fall short of my expectation upon first listen. I honestly don’t know what I expected of this album considering that I only heard Hate Crew Deathroll and Are You Dead Yet? before I got BloodDrunk. I bought it and the same day immediately after first listen wrote a review saying that it was mediocre. A day or two later I wrote a quick re-review, something I don’t often do. The album grew on me and I was really getting in to it. While it’s still not my favorite COB release it’s a good release nonetheless. After I bought Blooddrunk I went on the search and bought the remaining C.O.B. re-releases of the albums I didn’t have.

Finally Slipknot and Metallica: I loved the old Metallica like a million others have. I’ve also been disappointed like a million others have since the release of Load, Reload and St. Anger. What I expected of Death Magnetic was another over-hyped piece of dog excrement. What we got was a not-so-bad album with a more thrash feel than the previous four Metallica studio album with it’s ups and downs. This album proved that Metallica haven’t totally lost touch with their past, but are still far from re-achieving the expectations of a lot of their hardcore following fans from the beginning. At some points is seems as they are trying too hard and some times it seems they aren’t trying hard enough. Better than expected but still no enough to quench the hunger of a dying Metallica fan. Progress has been made but they might never make another Master Of Puppets and that’s something we all need to live with. To name this as “Album Of The Year” is just plain idiotic.

Slipknot really disappointed me this year. All Hope Is Gone was hyped and hyped some more. The best songs were released as singles and most everything else on the album felt like a rushed filler. We’ve seen a different progression of the band since MFKR, but this one was a giant step sideways instead of forward. Iowa had me wanting more and Vol. 3 made me a happy fan. The Stone Sour releases in between sufficed but All Hope Is Gone made me second guess myself as a fan of this band. I don’t really know if I will anticipate the next one as much as I have in the past. Also I have found so many more bands and releases this year that it was almost easy to forget how much I disliked this record and that makes me feel as if perhaps I’m growing away from Slipknot, which ultimately is not necessarily a bad thing. All Hope Is not Gone, but on more release like this and it may be.

Writing reviews is not as an easy process as some might think. After you have written so quite a few it’s tough to come up with creative ways to say just how “Brutal” or shitty an album really is. For some it comes easy and for others like myself it’s not always a piece of cake. You also have to battle your own feelings sometimes and try not to second guess yourself in fear of drawing a negative response from someone that doesn’t feel the same way about an album. At times you read a comment from someone after you’ve posted a review and it’s get’s you thinking about that album. You go back and you think to yourself, “Damn, they’re right.”. You don’t want to change your mind but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and either say so or just ignore the fact. Some albums deserve a full track-by-track review and other just need a simple explanation that the album slays. With the Internet it’s fairly easy to find reviews before you buy a cd. Who’s advice you take is solely up to you and your liking. If ever you agree read a review in Rolling Stone Magazine and it says nothing but negative things about the album…chances is are that the album is great. If they say and album is innovative and spectacular…buyer beware.

All Images: Amazon.com