In regards to the album, Kisser states:

“I’m very pleased with the result and I’m excited to hear it all done. It was a long process, a learning process and a great experience. It’s a musical journey through the influences I had for last 15 years of my life and at the same time it’s very different from everything I did so far.”

[via: Blabbermouth]

Post from: Metal Martyr

I was in my mid teens, working as a dishwasher during the time. My coworkers were all in to the grunge thing and were neo-hippies to boot. We had a prep room where we would prep food and had a cd player in there to listen to music while we worked. I would often get ridiculed for my music and get the typical “Kill your mother, kill your father!” mocking when they walked in to the prep room while I was working. I would either turn it up louder or change it to something a little heavier, darker or evil sounding. I didn’t mind grunge so much, but disliked a lot of people that listened to it for their total lack of having an open mind. Most of them were in to it because it was the popular thing at the time.

During that time you had to already be an established band or release an album of epic proportion in order to survive. Even the ones that struggled or didn’t pull through during that era still live in our hearts. The bands on this list were the ones that survived by releasing truly amazing work and deserve the recognition. I know I’ve missed a load of albums that deserve to be on a list of this sort, but keep in mind it’s just “10 Metal Albums” and not a “Top 10″ list.

Flotsam And Jetsam: Cuatro. Released in 1992, Flotsam And Jetsam were a radio hit band and had already been on the scene for almost 10 years when Cuatro was released. Their fourth album and their fourth bass player, Cuatro took a slight step away from their the thrash metal roots. Often overlooked and forgotten about, Cuatro was and still is a great album.

Anthrax: The Sound Of White Noise: (1993) Anthrax’s first album with, in my opinion their best singer, John Bush previously of Armored Saint, The Sound Of White Noise had so many killer songs on it. Beginning with Potter’s Field, Only, Room For One More, Packaged Rebellion, the list goes on until the end.

Iron Maiden: Fear OF the Dark. Released in 1992, Fear Of The Dark is never considered one of Maiden’s best albums but it’s not their worst. Sure it may not be a classic like most of the 80’s albums, but it was one of their best of the 90’s and has plenty of great tunes on it. This was also Bruce Dickenson’s last album before his return to the band in 1999.

Death: Individual Thought Patterns. Death’s 3rd release in the 90’s came in 1993 with Individual Thought Patterns. I bigger, cleaner sounding album than any one before it. ITP was my first taste of exceptionally technical death metal. If there is one subgenre of a subgenre you could label Death as, it would be Progressive Death Metal. Chuck Schuldiner always raised the bar a little higher with each album, but Individual thought patterns took it up a few notches.

Carcass: Heartwork. In 1993 Carcass were criticized by a lot of long time fans as breaking away from the grindcore sound and heading in more of a death metal direction. You can actually hear that transition in Necrotism, but regardless of what specific sound direction Heartwork took, the sound was amazingly clean, fast and ferocious. Still quite underground and unrecognized by the outside world, their Heartwork video put them on the map all around the world.

Entombed: Wolverine Blues. Another album criticized by their fans due to a lesser death metal feel and more of a “Death N’ Roll” sound to it, Wolverine Blues was still a great album. It may not have been fast but it was still heavy as all hell and punchy enough to be a classic. The title track and others such as Hollowman, Full Of Hell and Out Of Hand, you can’t go wrong with this album.

Suffocation: Pierced From Within: Suffocation released their last album for a long time in 1995. Pierced from within was the best sounding album of their first 3. The production was cleaner and Roadrunner Records was taking off like a bat out of hell. Unfortunately this was almost the end of Suffocation as touring as a death metal band at this time was barely livable income. 9 years later the legacy would begin again.

Fear Factory: Soul Of A New Machine. Before Nu-Metal actually had a name there were bands like NIN and Fear Factory releasing albums in the early 90’s. I don’t think it was until Korn’s self titled release that people started to truly hate what was to become a monster mainstream metal genre. Soul Of A New Machine was just considered a new metal band with their first major label release. Not an album that catapulted them in to the nu-metal world like Demanufacture, but a great album.

Helmet: Meantime. Helmet’s 1992 release introduced a slightly different sound to the metal scene. Coming out of NYC, The post hardcore band still brought a slight hardcore sound to them with stop-and-go riffs that were heavy enough to be called metal and a sound that was still raw enough to keep them out of the mainstream. Most people can only name one song from Helmet, that being Unsung.

Sepultura: Chaos A.D. Another band that was raising the bar with every release was Sepultura. With a consistently small change of sound to each album, Sepultura released, arguably their best album with Chaos A.D. in 1993. This was also a turning point as we saw more down-tuning that ultimately lead to Roots, the worst album of the Cavalera, Sepultura era.

Metal never died during the grunge era and it was never mainstream. Hair metal/glam rock was sort of mainstream, but the metal we love with the ferocity, controversy and darkness was still well underground. If anything Grunge did us a favor by decimating glam and weeding out the bands that weren’t quite good enough to make it. Sadly there were some bands that were good enough but fell to the mass-marketing of grunge. No big label wanted to sign another metal band when grunge was the money maker. Lucky for a lot of metal bands there was still the independent labels like Roadrunner, Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast that knew that grunge was only a fad and believed in their metal bands and fans. Every genre has it’s fads and trends, but sooner or later they die or fade away and the true warriors and torch bearers of that genre keep marching strong. The rest end up on VH1 classics…

(all images: Amazon.com)

Post from: Metal Martyr

I bet Andreas Kisser would love to be interviewed without being asked about Max Cavalera, if not just once. I would also bet that Max would love, just once, to be interviewed without being asked about a Sepultura reunion. In the excerpt below, MetalPaths.com interviewed Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser. I only quoted two of three parts where the Cavalera word was dropped.

Have you listened to the “Cavalera Conspiracy” debut album? Do you think that maybe one day will happen to co-operate again with Max and Igor?

I’ve heard the album, it is not bad but they could do a lot better. For what people was expecting, I think it is very weak. Who knows what the future will be? This is something we don’t think about, I am looking forward to see, respecting our past but working towards the future.

Jean Dolabella is a pretty good drummer though and has left the worldwide press with the greatest impressions and there is no need I guess to mention Derrick’s great work all these years. Was it difficult for you to find members who would perfectly fit to the band?

It is always hard to change a member, especially such great musicians like Max and Igor but we are lucky to find even better ones like Derrick and Jean. They are exceptional guys and musicians, who are helping Sepultura on every level.

This was a pretty good interview. I would love to be able to meet and interview Andreas one day. I missed my chance to see Sepultura with the classic line up back in 96, right before the split.

Read the entire interview at Metalpaths.com.

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Video from Sepultura’s Official Youtube Page

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I wrote a review of A-lex last week and my initial reaction is that it’s a good Sepultura record considering my previous dislike for Derrick Green’s vocals. Fans that continued to like Sepultura’s albums after Max Cavalera’s departure will probably enjoy A-Lex as will a lot of people that didn’t. Check out my bare-bones review here. My favorite track is “What I Do”.

Image: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

When Against came out in 1998 I wanted to except it just like I wanted to except Judas Priest’s Jugulator the year before. With both of these albums came a few listens for the first day or so. It was kind of cool at first but it didn’t feel or sound right and soon after, all listening ceased. Derek Green’s voice over the signature sound of Andreas Kisser’s guitar tone and Igor Cavalera’s drum beats didn’t take. It didn’t take like Rick Allen’s arm didn’t take to reattachment. Needless to say I didn’t run out and snatch up Nation, Roorback or Dante XXI. Out of curiosity I had to check out A-Lex, though.

Being a concept album, you have to go in to it with an open mind. You have to think of the song writing as it revolves around the subject matter. In A-Lex, it revolves around A Clockwork Orange. If you’ve read the book or have seen the movie, then you can imagine what this is based around. A violent person that get’s caught and convicted of a crime after various other crimes. He then brainwashed in a “Rehabilitating” way and is made to feel sick when he thinks of a perverse or violent acts and even things he loves. The songs and lyrics follow through while fitting the story.

I don’t need to sit here and break down this album on a musical theory level to tell you that it’s pretty good. The music is catchy enough to want to listen to it more than once. Derek Greens’s voice fits the music as Andreas’ guitar, while not sounding like anything epic, still holds true to his style. A-Lex is a heavy hitting album from beginning to end and even with the track Ludwig Van, which is a track of guitar, string and horn renditions of Beethoven, which is actually really cool if you appreciate music.

So even though I can’t say that I’m a fan of the modern Sepultura, I can say that this is a good record. Nothing ground-breaking and epic, but a good (Modern) Sepultura sounding record. If I went back to basing reviews on a star or numbered system I would give it at least 3.5 or 4 out of 5.

If you have never read the book or watch the Stanley Kubrick movie of A Clockwork Orange, rent it, Borrow it from the library if you prefer a book. Whatever you do, what or read it with an open mind and appreciation for the story.

Image: Amazon.com

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Sepultura

Listen to Seoultura’s A-Lex Here.

Image: Amazon.com

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Sample the tracks here- SPV.DE

Image Source: Amazon.de

Story Source: Blabbermouth.net

Post from: Metal Martyr

The first track on it is an original from Rob Zombie. Titled after the movie, Warzone is the electric, techno-metal that you can expect from Rob and it doesn’t sound like anything different from Zombies lat albums. As I stated a little while back, it starts out kind of cool but I’m quickly turned off by it as soon as the vocals and rhythm kick in. Sounds like it was done in a day or two.

The second and third tracks we are all familiar with. Slayer’s Final Six from Christ Illusion and Psychosocial from Slipknot’s latest release, All Hope Is Gone. Two cool tracks, but I’ve already heard them. Do they fit in this movie? Most likely.

Now remember where I said that you have soundtracks that are mostly metal? This is where it goes non-metal and more into the pop/rock genre. The fourth track is Historia Calamitatum from Rise Against. Not a bad track but not something I’m used to listening to and not something I’m really into.

Track five is Seether’s Fallen from their latest Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces. Seether is a good rock band. Not a bad track, but I’ve heard this once again and I would rather hear new tracks on a movie soundtrack.

Kerli’s Bulletproof is the sixth track and sounds like a slower goth-rock, Lacuna Coil-ish sounding tune. Not too bad if you dig that sound.

7 Days Away follows Kirli with Take Me Away. A solid rock song with a a few good hooks and a decent sound to it, but doesn’t sound much different from a lot of the rock bands floating around the modern rock genre these days.

Senses Fail hold the 8th spot with The Past Is Proof. If you know who Senses Fail are then you know how this track sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl among the others. We go from a Hard Rock/ Metal soundtrack and the this pop/rock/emo sounding crap that makes you wish you were deaf or at least had an ice pick near by to pierce your ear drums.

The ninth track called Butterfly Wings is by Machines Of loving Grace. Another techno/pop/metal song with Rob Zombie/ Nine Inch Nails influence.

Track 10 is 3 minutes and 56 seconds that you’re going to wish you had back. Genesis by Justice is a strange track with ambient sounds, sample and all sorts of crap that just sound like it was made with a cheap Casio Keyboard and Acid-pro.

Pendulum’s Showdown make up the next track and it’s another electrified pop/punk sound. I though this stuff died out in 1997. Guess it’s still cool to put in to movie soundtracks.

Ok, it’s about to get better. Hatebreed’s cover of Sepultura’s classic Refuse/ Resist is a really good cover. It’s almost spot on, but I have to wonder who did the solos because as far as I have really never heard a solo like that in a Hatebreed song and I often wondered the capability of  Sean Martin and Frank Novinec’s guitar skills. Being a huge fan of Classic Sepultura, this track couldn’t have been in the right place to bring me back out of the slump I was in while listening to the songs before it.

Second to last on the soundtrack is Static X’s Lunatic. If you know me then you know that I’m not a fan of this band, however compared to most of the other songs on this soundtrack it’s better than most. Sounds similar to every other Static X song though.

The last track is by Ramallah with a track called Days Of Revenge. Kind of a nu-metal sound to it with keyboards and a rap-ish vocal verse. Not too bad but sounds more like Linkin Park if they were to go a little heavier.

I would say that I’m kind of disappointed with this soundtrack just for the fact that there is too much of the techno-electro crap and not enough good metal on it. No one ever said it was going to be a metal-driven sound track but that’s kind of what I expected. 4 out of 14 of the songs are good solid metal songs, but two of those tracks I’ve heard and only one of the other two I really like. Not a great soundtrack in my opinion. I think the last movie soundtracks that I really liked were Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight and Dee Snider’s Strangeland. That was a long time ago and I don’t think that I have really bought many since then. The last one that comes to mind is Underworld Evolution and that one sucked with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 songs.

As far as the movie goes, I’m really looking forward to seeing this. I wasn’t sure how this new guy Ray Stevenson would go over to replace Thomas Jane (And I would love to know why the actor change) but Ray Stevenson has a more hardened look to him. Thomas Jane did a good job in the first one, but Frank Castle always looked a little tougher than Jane. We’ll see.

Image Source: Amazon.com

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