A few months of musings...

So, I realised that I've been horrendously lax writing the blog lately.  It's not for lack of ideas (I have pages of them on a USB stick...), more because my work uses gmail and attempts to sign in to the blog with my personal account just get auto-redirected to the work login page.  First world problems.

Anyway, here is a random and disordered summary of the last few months' musical musings...

1. I didn't quite "get" the new Nine Inch Nails album at first but it grew on me a lot.  Enough really good songs and moments to make it worthwhile (the highlights are Copy of A, All Time Low, Various Methods of Escape and Black Noise).
2. The footage from their tour looks phenomenal - Trent has taken the stage performance to a whole new level.  Super-excited for the NIN/Queens of the Stone Age show down here in March.
3. The Sound City documentary was a pretty interesting watch and the soundtrack is a worthwhile listen.  I think the track Mantra, featuring Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and Trent Reznor is the first time they've all been on a song together, despite the fact they've individually paired up with each other on numerous occasions over the past decade.  Anyway it's a pretty sweet track and it really makes me wish they'd do more stuff together.  But I also want more Them Crooked Vultures so you can't really have everything.
4. I liked the new Queens of the Stone Age album a lot more than I expected to, considering it is the exact opposite of what I thought it would be.  I was expecting a hard, aggressive record and it's a weird, broody, trippy thing.  But it is catchy, and engaging, and also that artwork that random guy did for it is freaky and very fitting.  Well done Mr. Homme.
5. Earth Rocker is still the best album of the year.  However there has been a ton of great stuff, including Deltron 3030's Event 2, Run the Jewels, Vista Chino's Peace, Alter Bridge's Fortress, and definitely not Megadeth's Super Collider.
6. Alter Bridge's Fortress is a pretty heavy album by their standards.  The opening and closing tracks are both brilliant and there's a lot to enjoy in between.
7. The Soundwave line-up has some amazing stuff - most notably Testament, Down, Alter Bridge, Megadeth, Alice in Chains and Rob Zombie.  The headliners suck (sorry, but Green Day and Avenged Sevenfold just don't cut it), but it doesn't really matter given how the rest of the bill is shaping up.
8. I like Testament more and more as time goes on.  Their latest live album, Dark Roots of Thrash is a stunner.  These guys are like a really good red wine that just gets better with age.  A very thrash metal red wine, that is.
9. I had a random urge to listen to Type O Negative the other day.  They are still highly entertaining and a solid listen.  RIP Peter Steele.
10. The new Monster Magnet album sounded pretty good on the pre-release stream.  Dave Wyndorf has been very hit or miss over their career but when he produces a good album, it's generally very good (Dopes to Infinity, Powertrip, Mastermind...).
11. Lemmy is hilarious.  When asked what was different about the new Motorhead album from its 20 predecessors, he responded with "it's more recent and we stood in different positions when we played it".

Anyway that's enough for now...

Busted knees and Alter Bridge

The last couple of weeks haven’t exactly been super fun.  After picking up a compound fracture of my kneecap in a hockey match a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been laid up at home with my leg in a splint.  For someone as physically active as me, this has been pretty tough going.  On the bright side, two weeks down, four weeks to go on the splint front.

You would think that would have meant I would’ve played a bunch of music, but actually I haven’t, not nearly as much as I thought.  I’ve done a bit of work from home, played some video games, messed around on the ipad, but I haven’t listened to a lot of music.  The stuff I have played has been somewhat half-hearted background listens to albums that probably deserved better – the new Run the Jewels collaboration, Testament’s Souls of Black, a slightly obscure DJ Shadow mix.

Anyway for no reason in particular this morning I put on Alter Bridge’s Blackbird with breakfast.  I’ve mentioned before that I consider Alter Bridge to be almost criminally under-rated – they’re one of the few genuinely excellent hard rock bands to have emerged post-2000.  Great songs, great musicians, and one of the few genuine front men of the current generation in Myles Kennedy.  I was lucky enough to catch them in Sydney last February at the Metro and they were outstanding live as well (putting aside the fact that the gig actually buggered the humidity sensor on my iphone and for some reason it spent the next two weeks thinking it was connected to a dock!).

It started out pretty well – it is a very good album – but there were a couple of particular moments that just lifted my mood immeasurably and I realised what a grumpy shit I had probably been for a couple of weeks (but hey, missing out on an entire snowboarding season and most of a hockey season will do that to you…).

First, Buried Alive.  The first three chords of this song made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.  It’s one of my favourite AB songs, but more than that, it was on my snowboarding playlist when we were at Whistler in January.  Now, there are a lot of songs on that playlist, but Buried Alive always seemed to come on at just the right moment.  One day in particular, I remember being particularly pissed off because I’d managed to lose my phone in a snow drift and after an unsuccessful couple of hours digging around for it we gave up and went home.  But then I decided to go back out and go riding that afternoon and had a great afternoon doing laps of Glacier Express, through Crystal and back up via Excelerator or Solar Coaster, on a beautiful sunny day where there was still some great snow around from a big fall 3 days earlier.  And I remember Buried Alive came on just when I was having a great run around the back of Crystal zone, actually managing to do jumps and stuff off the natural features on the side of the trail up there, which I’d only learnt the day before.  It was one of those ‘fuck yeah!’ moments and hearing the song again this morning made me think, there’s a helluva lot more snowboarding to be done beyond this year, and this song will be cranking when I do it.

And no, the irony of a track like Buried Alive on a snowboarding playlist (particularly when there is a ton of fresh powder around) is not lost on me.

Secondly, Rise Today.  Not my favourite Alter Bridge song, but undeniably an uplifting number and a decent, catchy rock song.  Also, excellent live.

Anyway, it’s amazing how a couple of tracks, or even just one, can pull you out of a really major funk.  Cheers, Alter Bridge.  Looking forward to your new album later this year.

Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here... reviewed!

2009's Black Gives Way to Blue was one of the greatest against-the-odds comeback records of all time. Few bands could regroup and recover after losing a singer of Layne Staley's calibre.  But Alice in Chains did, and the results were stunning.

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is the second outing of the post-Staley era, and I had pretty high expectations.  Not just because it's immediate predecessor was so good, but also because all the press I read around this album just got me even more excited.  Sure, most albums from big-name bands get plenty of pre-release hype from the mags, but the write-ups in Metal Hammer and Revolver were loaded with wry and incisive quips from guitarist/songwriter/singer Jerry Cantrell and the band spent little time on self promotion.

Those stories also reveal the source of the album's cryptic title.  A fairly mad theory from certain branches of Christianity states that dinosaur bones and fossils were planted on the earth by the devil to make us all believe in the theory of evolution and so on.  Cantrell is quick to point out that most religions have a pretty sensible and decent moral core, but somehow most religions also seem to end up with people doing and saying some fairly crazy and sometimes horrible things in the name of religion.

While the social outlook is interesting, it's even more interesting coming from a band like Alice in Chains whose songs to date have been almost exclusively founded in their own personal and collective struggles.  So, between the band's change in perspective, the interesting things they all had to say, and the momentum they've had since their reformation, you could colour me pretty excited for this one.

The album's opening three tracks are a pretty clear reminder that few bands do heavy, sludgy rock as well as AiC.  Hollow's catchy opening riff grinds along like a bulldozer in 6/4 time, with the chorus providing melodic relief.  Pretty Done recaptures the particularly eerie sound of tracks like Brush Away and Head Creeps with the trademark dual vocals of William DuVall and Cantrell laid over a swirling, droning refrain - the result sounding like the soundtrack to being trapped in a sandstorm.  Stone opens with an ominous bassline, adding a wonderfully bent guitar lick over the top for one of the album's highlights.

Things then take a slightly different turn with Voices, an acoustically-led, seemingly upbeat and cheerful number juxtaposed with some altogether more sinister lyrics:
"Everybody listen
Voices in my head
Everybody listen
Does yours say what mine says?"

After a fairly broody sort of an intro and verse, the title track is where Cantrell really starts pulling the lyrical punches he hinted at:

"The devil put dinosaurs here
Jesus don't like a queer
The devil put dinosaurs here
No problem with faith just fear"
It's a good listen, but it feels an idea or two short of its 6:39 length.

Lab Monkey meanders along at a similar tempo initially, but takes things up a step when it unleashes itself in the chorus and bridge, and also features a great talk-box guitar solo.  Somehow it also manages to sounds like it's in a weirder time signature than what it actually is.

Low Ceiling is a mid-tempo groover with a very catchy chorus, while Breath On a Window is one of the album's highlights.  It starts as an uptempo, positive number, but changes tack dramatically through a rather uneasy-sounding bridge, before another tempo change lurches us into an outro that manages to be simultaneously grooving and melancholic, with another classic Cantrell lyric - "I'd let you go, but you're always in the way".

Following that is another great track - Scalpel - which has a sense of melody reminiscent of the exceptional Lesson Learned and is another reminder of just how good a songwriter Jerry Cantrell is.

The album hits an undisputed peak with Phantom Limb, a 7-minute epic which features essentially everything we love about AIC.  A jackhammer main riff and eerie dual vocals power the verses, building to a cleverly-constructed two-part chorus - initially explosive and soaring, before shifting to brooding and withdrawn, with DuVall taking the vocal lead and perfectly delivering the line "I'll just haunt you like a phantom limb...".  It's a brilliant track which never ceases to send chills down my spine during the chorus as well as during Cantrell's well-crafted solo.  It ends with a fitting outro - guitar drone and buzz over the top of a repeated kick-drum designed to mimic a heartbeat.

In my opinion that was exactly the point to end the album - it's such a brilliant way to close a brilliant track which the album has built towards.  The final two tracks Hung On A Hook and Choke are competent but don't really offer anything different to the rest of the album and feel a little anti-climactic after Phantom Limb.  The only sort of track that probably would've worked there would've been something really mellow that offered a major contrast - like the title track which closes Black Gives Way to Blue or Gone, which closes the first disc to Cantrell's criminally-overlooked solo record Degradation Trip.

Overall the album is a lot denser than Black Gives Way to Blue was and doesn't feature the same sort of overt cathartic moments like the dramatic about-face of Acid Bubble.  It's probably not as immediately accessible, but it's certainly a grower with some great details and subtle touches once you're past the in-your-face hit of the first three tracks.

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is another reminder that Alice in Chains is really the only band that sounds like Alice in Chains, and that rock fans are damn lucky these guys gave it a second go.  It's not perfect, but it's still a fine listen.

Alice in Chains v. the haters

Almost every new Alice in Chains video that goes up on YouTube seems to elicit a few comments along the lines of “Alice in Chains died with Layne Staley” with monotonous regularity.  Add to that a number of (relatively popular) pages such as this and it’s clear there’s a reasonable cross section of rock fans out there that hold the view “No Layne, No Chains”.

Nothing that follows should be taken as suggesting Layne was anything other than one of the most unique and talented vocalists of his era.  But that doesn't mean the band can't move on without him.  Personally, I’m pretty tired of hearing the haters who totally discount the post-Layne era of AiC for a number of reasons.  

Firstly, that view totally ignores the quality of AiC’s output since they’ve reformed.  Black Gives Way to Blue is actually a really strong album, and probably second only to Dirt in terms of AiC’s studio albums.  It doesn't have the raw edge of Dirt, but that's because they're not taking ridiculous quantities of drugs these days.  Equally, there's a level of craftsmanship and texture on tracks like Lesson Learned and Private Hell that wasn't present on the earlier material.  Cover to cover, BGWTB is a quality listen and certainly worthy of sitting in the AiC discography alongside the three earlier studio albums.  If anyone writes off that album because Layne isn't on it, it's really their loss.  And, for what little it's worth, I should add that BGWTB received almost universal critical acclaim - including maximum ratings from both Kerrang! and Metal Hammer.

Secondly, Jerry Cantrell has always contributed almost all of AiC’s songwriting.  Initially he also wrote almost all of the vocals, although Layne played an increasing major lyrical role (the self-titled studio album, and the last to feature Layne, is roughly 50/50 Cantrell/Staley).   However, you can count Layne’s primary songwriting credits on less than one hand (Angry Chair is the only song of particular note).  When Layne died, the band (on hiatus at that time) undoubtedly lost a uniquely gifted and talented vocalist, who was an important element of their sound.  However, while they lost the singer, they didn’t lose the songs – or the guy who wrote most of them (and continues to do so).  There are plenty of examples of bands who lost (or replaced) a vocalist, but were able to successfully continue because their songwriting and musical core was still intact – Deep Purple, Black Sabbath (when Dio replaced Osbourne… some of the subsequent examples don’t work so well!) and probably biggest of all, Iron Maiden after replacing Paul Di’Anno with Bruce Dickinson.  Ironically, in the case of Maiden, there is still a (small and insane) subset of fans who insist that the real Iron Maiden ended with Killers in 1981.

Thirdly, although Layne’s vocals were an unmistakable element of the classic-era AiC material, the vocal harmonies between him and Jerry Cantrell were equally unmistakable.  Go back and listen to Dirt – harmonized vocals appear on almost every song.  They’re more prominent on some songs than others, but that quintessential eerie AiC vocal tone that pervades throughout that album, as well as on the self-titled album, is thanks largely to the use of vocal harmonies between the two singers.  AiC's approach to vocals is actually a lot closer to the way many bands approach a two-guitar setup - there's a lead player (Layne), and a "rhythm" player (Jerry) who adds texture.  And sometimes the rhythm player takes the lead as well.  But it's a two-pronged attack - rather than a solo effort.  And I think that sometimes people assume AiC's vocals on the older material were all Layne.  Which they weren't.

Fourthly, new vocalist/guitarist William DuVall has filled some enormous shoes in admirable fashion.  I saw AiC live at Soundwave a few years ago, prior to the release of BGWTB.  They were playing only the old stuff, at that stage.  And they carried it off extremely well.  DuVall never appeared to be trying to emulate Layne - he was playing to his own (considerable) strengths whilst being as faithful to the songs as possible.  Cantrell picked up a few of Layne's vocal parts too, and overall it came across like having a dual vocal/guitar attack.  And they did a great job of delivering the classic songs within that new dynamic.  And frankly, just straight up credit to the guy as well for delivering on a very tough assignment.  What he's doing is essentially like asking someone to replace Chris Cornell in Soundgarden, to replace Eddie Vedder in Pearl Jam, or to replace Maynard James Keenan in Tool.  And he's doing a great job of it thus far.

Fifthly, given time I think the new approach is going to allow AiC to expand their sonic palette.  The improved craftsmanship and texture on BGWTB that I mentioned earlier is largely due to Jerry's songwriting maturing - he's still the primary songwriter (albeit DuVall picked up almost as many songwriting credits on that one album as Layne did in his entire tenure with AiC).  Having two very capable singer/guitarists gives them a lot of opportunities to explore, as opposed to being confined to the usual four-piece dynamic.  Last of My Kind hinted at some of the possibilities, and given it was one of my favourite tracks off BGWTB, those possibilities are pretty exciting.  Wikipedia currently seems to be crediting both DuVall and Cantrell as vocalists, lead and rhythm guitarists on the forthcoming album The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here which hopefully means I might not be too far off on this one.

And finally, some of the creative direction behind The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here has me somewhat intrigued.  The press I've read indicates that the band landed upon this title as a criticism of religion's ongoing denial of some fairly basic scientific evidence and that this theme is reflected in some of the album's lyrical content (for those who don't know, the title refers to a religious contention that dinosaur bones were put on the earth by the devil to convince us that the Earth was actually older than the 6,000 years that Christianity would generally like to have you believe.  So yes, the devil made up all that big bang and evolution stuff).  It's an interesting, critical perspective that the older AiC probably never could have taken because, let's face it, all those drugs were bound to muddle the brain somewhat.

In summary, Layne was awesome (RIP), but subsequently AiC have (remarkably) continued to be excellent, and haters gonna hate.

Clutch - Earth Rocker

High expectations inevitably accompany every new Clutch album.   But that's what you get when you're sitting on probably the longest active streak of excellent albums amongst modern hard rock bands.  And when you've built one of the most dedicated fanbases in said genre through touring relentlessly, and putting on quality shows night after night after night.

And by Clutch's standards, it's been a fair while between drinks, with their last studio outing being 2009's Strange Cousins from the West.  So yes, expectations were riding pretty high for Earth Rocker.

And you know what? It delivers on every count.  This isn't just a good album, it's another great Clutch album - an album that gets me excited about this band, excited about their back catalogue, just excited about music in general.

Earth Rocker kicks off with a title track that really sets the tone for the rest of the album.  "What's this about some dB limit? Sorry, I can't hear none" muses singer Neil Fallon.  It's essentially a declaration of hard rock warfare - this album is the most straight-up, ass-kicking rock and roll record that the band have produced in their two-plus decades to date.

At it's simplest, Earth Rocker is five excellent, fast hard rock tracks, followed by a slow, groovy one, followed by five more excellent, fast hard rock tracks.

That might be something to do with recent tours with the likes of Motorhead and Thin Lizzy, but equally, this is a band who have proven they are unafraid to head off in whatever creative direction they damn well feel like.  Up to and including songs about kraken, John Wilkes Booth (and, for that matter, Abraham Lincoln), festive meals, burning beards and so forth.

On that note, the lyrical content this time around is somewhat less cryptic for the most part, though certainly no less intriguing.  The Face sees some of the most vivid imagery Clutch has ever created - lines like "1000 Les Pauls burning in a field, what rabid religion poisons their minds?".

For the most part, the quirkiness and density that pervaded the aptly titled Strange Cousins has been replaced by catchiness.  It's something the band have flirted with previously on tracks like The Mob Goes Wild and 50,000 Unstoppable Watts - this time around it's in full effect, with most of the songs bearing a massive payload of a chorus.  My personal favourites in that regard would have to be The Wolfman Kindly Requests ("Party's over you've all go to go... the wolf man is coming out!") and DC Sound Attack ("I'm a warmonger, baby... I've got blood in my eyes and I'm looking at you").

The sheer musical chops of this band are by now very well-established, so it will suffice to say that musically, the performances are all excellent even by Clutch's own lofty standards.  There are very few bands who could maintain such a combination of speed, power and precision throughout - whilst also adding in plenty of clever details (personal favourite: JP's ride and hi hat cymbal work on Wolfman).  And Neil has a ton of presence throughout, delivering every line with force and venom.

It's a very consistent record throughout - possibly the most consistent of their career and flows well over its 44 minutes.  Opening with a couple of fierce numbers in Earth Rocker, and Crucial Velocity, before settling into more of a groove on Mr. Freedom and the outstanding DC Sound Attack.  Unto the Breach  closes the opening salvo in exactly the sort of way you would expect it to with a title like that.

Gone Cold provides a moment of considered respite and quiet contemplation, before The Face launches us into side B with a kaleidoscope of metaphors and power chords.  The tempo is firmly increased once more on Book, Saddle and Go and Cyborg Bette - an ode to the perils of robotic love.

The album closes with a brilliant one-two punch.  Firstly Oh, Isabella, which - if not a direct sequel to (Notes from the Trial of) La Curandera from Blast Tyrant - is certainly a spiritual and melodic successor.  For all the talk in this song of ships running aground, it's amazing they didn't think to use Dan Maines' basslines just to get said vessel afloat - because he sounds like he could power an entire navy.  Pair that with a typically tasteful extended solo from guitarist Tim Sult, and some powerhouse work from drummer JP Gaster throughout, and this is probably the musical high-point of the album.

The second half of the closing double act is The Wolfman Kindly Requests... (working title: Newt Gingrich).  Although the track sonically grooves, twists and contorts through its five minutes, there's no mistake from the opening lyrical salvo that Neil is the star on this one: "You wanna know my political persuasion? Well, sugar, I howl at the moon".  It is exactly the sort of closing track that makes you want to go back to the beginning and press play once again.

All said, albums like this don't come along very often and Earth Rocker is certainly an early contender for album of the year.  If this album doesn't get you excited about music, about this band, well you are missing out.  Big time.

The best albums of 2012, according to me...

Arbitrary year-end list time, and in 2012, I'd have to say it was exceptionally hard to narrow it down to a 'top 12'.  There was an absolute glut of good music this year, from anticipated big-name releases (Deftones), unexpected comebacks (Soundgarden, ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead), side projects / collaborations (Call Me No One, Projected, Dark New Day, Mark Tremonti), and from bands continuing a consistent vein of form (The Sword).

There were some duds too - the new Muse album was an almost-unmitigated disaster (of 'what were they thinking' proportions).

There were also some very good albums that missed the cut, so a quick tip of the hat to them first.

Worth a mention...

Projected - Human
A side project that was the brainchild of John Connolly (Sevendust) and also included Vinnie Hornsby (Sevendust), Scott Marshall (Alter Bridge) and Eric Friedman.  Punchy, catchy hard rock, well worth checking out.

Orange Goblin - A Eulogy for the Damned
A welcome and overdue return to form... Orange Goblin ditch the more direct hard rock approach of their more recent (and less interesting) material in favour of the more bluesy and occasionally psychedelic feel of their earlier records.

Black Country Communion - Afterglow
Album number three made it out despite some internal strife within the supergroup.  Personally, this is my favourite BCC album yet, the songs feel a lot tighter whilst still giving individuals opportunity to shine.  Also - Glenn Hughes just seems to keep getting better as both a singer and songwriter despite now being 61.

Cherri Bomb - This is the End of Control
Debut album from a group of teenage girls (the oldest is just 17!).  Tell you what, they're showing a few much more experienced rock / hard rock bands up.  Well-constructed songs, with some great riffs and catchy hooks, demonstrate abilities well beyond their years.

Anyway, on to the list...

12. Jeff Loomis  - Plains of Oblivion

The second solo album from former Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis is a big step up from his debut.  Make no mistake, this at times descends into the sort of shredding one would expect from a predominantly instrumental record from one of modern metal's great guitarists.  But it rarely descends into showmanship-for-the-sake-of-it and manages to remain consistently interesting, thanks to Loomis' compositional skills as well as some great guest slots - including Marty Friedman, Chris Poland, and Tony McAlpine.  The two tracks with Christine Rhoads on vocals are the only mis-steps, but the unbelievably good collaboration with the legendary Ihsahn almost singlehandedly makes up for that on Surrender. And tracks like Sibylline Origin, Mercurial and The Ultimatum are sheer instru-metal bliss.

Plus, we're unlikely to ever get another Nevermore album, and this is the next best thing.

11.  ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Lost Songs

The notoriously unpredictable Trail of Dead ditch the progressive concept album stylings of last year's Tao of the Dead in favour of a more direct, shouty vibe not unlike that on Source Tags and Codes.  Without rehashing previous blog material, this is an album which sees the never-static Trail of Dead at their best, this time mixing great melodies with an almost punk aggression in places.

10. The Sword - Apocryphon

The thing about The Sword is that you do largely know what you are going to get with their albums - 70's esque hard rock with some big riffs.  But they do it consistently well, and they have a remarkable ability to produce fresh-sounding material without straying too far from their roots - largely due, I think, to their near-unrivalled riff-writing ability as well as a bit more tempo variation and some clear development in their songwriting.  Cloak of Feathers and Arcane Montane are both great examples of this.  And the inclusion of an excellent ZZ Top cover is really the icing on the cake (and somewhat overdue).

9. POS - We Don't Even Live Here

Last year saw a great album from the Doomtree collective, and this year POS releases another excellent solo album, following on from Never Better.  I already blogged about this album, but it really highlights how under-rated POS is.  Musically and lyrically consistent, and I am personally a big fan of the way POS seems to deliver incisive lyrics with a smooth flow, without ever needing to resort to most of the usual hip-hop cliche's.  There's up-tempo tracks, there's slower tracks, there's even an excellent percussion-less track - and they're all good.

8. Adrenaline Mob - Omerta

This is entirely not what I expected from a supergroup consisting of various progressive rock and metal legends (Mike Portnoy, Russel Allen and Mike Orlando).  For a start, it's not progressive.  It's powerful, straight ahead hard rock / groove metal in a similar vein to some of the great material Corrosion of Conformity produced whilst Pepper Keenan was at the helm.  And it is kick-ass.  The only major diversion the album takes is to include an intriguing and memorable cover of Duran Duran's Come Undone.  It sounds to me like these guys had a lot of fun making this album - there's an enjoyable infectiousness throughout.

7. El-P - Cancer 4 Cure

This album seems to grow on me with every listen - and there's something about this record that just keeps me coming back to it.  From a production perspective, it's sparse, claustrophobic and bleak, but there's something about El-P's ability to craft immaculate beats that makes it very addictive.  Lyrically, he's on form throughout as well, but that was always going to be the case.  There are a lot fewer instant classics on this album than its predecessor, but there is still a great deal of depth to it.

6. Overkill - The Electric Age

You know what's great about music?  There's so damn much of it to explore.  Despite being a major hard rock and occasional metal aficionado, I hadn't heard Overkill until this year.  And they're not exactly spring chickens either, having been around since the heyday of thrash metal in the mid-80's.  But The Electric Age sounds exactly like a band that knows what they are about, and are proud of it - and they sure aren't gonna change that for anyone.  Thrashy, energetic and, well, electric. 

5. Mark Tremonti - All I Was

He was in Creed, then he was in Alter Bridge, and I'll be honest, I never really rated the guy as a guitarist until I saw Alter Bridge live earlier this year.  Turns out he is actually quite a phenomenal player, and as his debut album shows, he is no slouch as a solo artist either.  There's no amazing innovation, but the songs are well-crafted hard rock and unsurprisingly some of the solo work is pretty majestic.  Tremonti also handles lead vocal duties throughout and is pretty solid there too.  AND THE RIFFS!

You may well be totally sold on the album from the chorus of opener Leave It Alone - I certainly was.  Big thanks to my friends Amy and Antony who introduced me to this album - I may well have missed it otherwise.

4. Call Me No One - Last Parade

Clint Lowery and Morgan Rose, I salute you.  Not content with producing consistently excellent material with Sevendust (NEW ALBUM OUT NEXT YEAR!!!!), they decided to do a side project together, which is somewhat different but also excellent.  It's a little hard to pigeonhole, but it combines the edginess of Sevendust with the melody and hooks of, say, something like Foo Fighters.  I wrote a full review here, so suffice to say that this is a great album, an engaging listen across all of its 12 tracks, and a showcase of great rock songwriting and musicianship from two of the hardest-working guys in the game.

3. Soundgarden - King Animal

The biggest mistake a lot of people seem to be making with King Animal is expecting and wanting Soundgarden, version 2012, to sound like they did on Badmotorfinger.  They aren't that band now, and they weren't even that band when the mighty Superunknown came out.  King Animal is clever, and refined, and a bit more worldly, and all the things you'd probably expect now that the band is 15 years older than when they split up and most of them have kids.  And crucially, some of the best tracks on this album - Non State Actor, Black Saturday and Rowing are tracks that they never could have written in their earlier incarnation.  Which is why I think this album is one of the best of the year - a comeback album from a band that are clearly not resting their laurels.  There's a helluva lot of hidden detail here - things that only fully reveal themselves on repeat listens, like the extent of the layering on the chorus of Eyelid's Mouth.  Like I said here, they took a real risk with this album - and it paid off.

2. Deftones - Koi No Yokan

I liked Deftones' last album, Diamond Eyes, a lot.  I went back to it the other day after listening to Koi No Yokan a lot lately, and it didn't sound quite the same.  Not because it's changed, but because the Deftones have found a whole new level with Koi No Yokan.  It's still quintessentially Deftones, it's just that almost everything about it sounds like a massive step forward.  The hallmarks of their sound are unchanged - the haunting, eerie atmosphere, the gruff 8-string riffs, Chino Moreno's intense and varied vocals - but every aspect of their sound is more detailed and refined.  Songs - and in fact, the entire album - gradually unfold through various twists and turns and never disappoint. Rosemary is a particularly good example, a brilliant atmospheric build-up to a huge finale (reminiscent of Tool's Forty Six and Two), but their are plenty of other highlights.  Probably their best album yet.

(I said all that WITHOUT mentioning White Pony, too)

1. Testament - Dark Roots of Earth

Between this, and Overkill, you could be forgiven for thinking I'm an 80's thrash metal revivalist.  I'm not - although I am increasingly of the view that the 'Big Four' were certainly not the 'Best Four' when it comes to that genre.  I only discovered Testament this year as well, which was mainly thanks to inadvertently stumbling across a review of this album. And what an album it is - a consistently brilliant listen across its 9 tracks; a true masterclass in metal from one of the legendary acts.  Considering how great I think it is, it's surprising I never actually got around to writing a review - but I think I was just too busy listening to it, enjoying it.

And there is an awful lot to enjoy here.  Whereas previous album The Formation of Damnation took a very aggressive, direct approach, this time Testament vary it up a lot more, both in terms of tempo and dynamics.  Dark Roots of Earth starts with all guns blazing - opener Rise Up is a huge call to arms, with its main refrain of "When I say rise up, you say war", and its followed up with Chuck Billy's nod to his native American roots on Native Blood.  Balancing out tracks like this - and the utterly brilliant and brutal True American Hate (best intro EVER!) - are epics like Cold Embrace and the outstanding Throne of Thorns, which steadily crescendoes to a stunner of a solo from Alex Skolnick.  No doubt Skolnick can shred with the best of them - but what really shines about this solo is the sheer feel that he plays it with.  But that's just one of a number of stunning moments, not just from the dual guitar attack of Skolnick and Eric Peterson either - vocalist Chuck Billy is a regular menace, and the rhythm section of Greg Christian and Gene Hoglan are outstanding.  Hell, sometimes Hoglan is playing a whole counter-melody on the kick-drum. 

If this wasn't enough, the extended version features some pretty cool bonus tracks, including covers of Queen's Dragon Attack, the Scorpions' Animal Magnetism and Iron Maiden's Powerslave.  The first, in particular, is quite something to behold - as is the way Chuck Billy does Powerslave justice despite probably being a few octaves short of Bruce Dickinson's considerable vocal range.

Testament have one helluva musical pedigree, and they really bring their considerable experience, talent and power to bear on this album.  Great stuff - an album that just keeps me coming back for more.

The best of 2012, Part 1...

It's approaching that time of the year where music critics and fans pick some arbitrary number of their favourite albums over the last arbitrary 365 (or 366) day period.  I'll do that too, because lists are fun (lists of that kind, anyway.  Lists of chores = not so fun).  But in the meantime, as a sort of a predecessor and whilst I figure out exactly where the excellent new Deftones album slots in to my arbitrary list, I've instead got another list... this one of arbitrary musical things that I thought were worthy of mention, or recognition.

Best Live Album and Best Live Band
Machine Head - Machine F**king Head Live

Too easy, really.  Iron Maiden's En Vivo isn't half bad but it isn't Flight 666 and it certainly isn't Live After Death.  Alter Bridge's Live at Wembley is pretty decent without ever completely knocking it out of the park.  But you know what? Even if those two albums were mind-bogglingly awesome, they would still not come close to topping Machine F**king Head Live.  This album is everything a live album should be.  The setlist is near-perfect... leaning heavily on their excellent last two albums whilst also having the best of the older stuff.  The performances are intense, spirited, powerful - great renditions of some great songs.  And crucially, this live album captures exactly what a good Machine Head gig is like - a savage, beautiful maelstrom.

I was lucky enough to see them in February - they were astonishingly good.  And this album reminds me exactly how astonishingly good they were, live.  If you are a metal or hard rock fan and you have not seen this band live, you need to sort that (do not settle for just buying this admittedly excellent live album).
  
Best EP
Down - Down IV: The Purple EP

Does anyone remember all that talk a few years ago about how digital EP's were going to replace CD albums as the prevalent form of music distribution?  That sure never happened.  The EP is actually getting to be almost a lost art-form, which is a damned shame (according to iTunes, a single with two live b-sides constitutes an EP now, sadly).  Despite that, this was not as much of a one horse race as you might expect - the Company Band's Pros and Cons EP was also pretty solid.  But Down's latest was a sludgy, thick beast of a thing, a big return to form after their slightly hit-or-miss third album.  Oh, and Phil Anselmo also gave one of the best interviews I've ever read.

Best Music Video
El-P 
I didn't really watch many music videos this year, to be honest.  Seems slightly odd in the YouTube era, but anyway.  Testament's video for Native Blood was pretty cool.  But in the end, El-P produced not one but two standout music videos, for a couple of tracks from Cancer 4 Cure: The Full Retard and Stay Down.  So I'm just going to give the award to El-P and then not have to figure out which is the better video.  It probably comes down to whether you have a bigger thing for inappropriate puppets or 80's schtick.





Best reissue
[still to be decided]
Before I start on this, whoever is is responsible for setting local pricing of some of the reissue box sets is ABSOLUTELY GOUGING.  Both the Rage Against the Machine XX reissue (2CD/2DVD/LP) and the Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie reissue (5CD/1DVD) are getting local pricing which is ridiculously out of kilter with US pricing.  The flash version of RATM will set you back US$75 on Amazon... or NZ$225 from a number of local retailers. After accounting for currency conversion and shipping, the price difference is circa NZ$100 more if you buy locally.  That's completely ridiculous.  Not quite as bad in the case of Mellon Collie (US$128 versus NZ$225, and arguably still overpriced in USD terms!), but still material.  I suspect it's the local distributors trying to extract the best they can out of the small NZ market - but screw that.  I buy plenty of my music off Amazon now anyway and this will only reaffirm my commitment to do that.  This is only going to hurt NZ retailers when consumers switch to ordering online internationally, so the distributors are probably shooting themselves in the foot.

Anyway, after that little rant, the contenders (subject to me ACTUALLY BEING ABLE TO AFFORD THEM) are:
Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction 20th Anniversary
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine XX (20th Anniversary)
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Best album released 10 years ago
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2002 seemed like a great year for music at the time, and looking back I think it still holds up pretty well.  But nothing from that year has held up as well as the remarkable Songs for the Deaf, the third - and best - QOTSA album.  It's an album I always seem to return to regularly, a fantastic hard rock record which has that timeless quality to it that all really great albums have.  It sounded unique and original then, and it still does.  QOTSA took everything they did so well on Rated R - great hooks and catchy melodies - added a whole lot more raw energy and edginess (largely thanks to Nick Oliveri, who left not long after), and produced a hard album that brilliantly straddles heavy and melodic. 

Coincidentally, ten years since he last drummed for them, Dave Grohl is back behind the kit for QOTSA during recording sessions for their new album following the abrupt departure of Joey Castillo.  I'm pretty excited about this because Grohl's drumming was a big highlight of Songs for the Deaf - maybe it'll add that extra edge that they've missed since Oliveri left (it certainly worked for Them Crooked Vultures).

It's always a great track live - but this performance with occasional contributor Mark Lanegan on vocals and Grohl on the kit is one of my favourites:



Best weird obscure limited-edition singleClutch - Pigtown Blues
This is really just an excuse for me to mention this song, which is excellent.  It took a while to grow on me but once it took hold there was no letting go.  It's hard to imagine this on any Clutch album as it is a slightly quirky (albeit groovy) number, so I can understand the logic for the single release.  Did I mention they have a new album coming next year?



Anyway, the top albums of the year will follow in the not-too-distant future...