Five Finger Death Punch "The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell - Volume 2"

The good thing about having already discussed Five Finger Death Punch when I wrote about Volume 1 of The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell is that I can just go straight to the point with Volume 2. There have been a number of bands doing what Five Finger Death Punch did in releasing an album in two parts a few months away from each other. Stone Sour also recently did it, and Green Day released three albums in a matter of about four months last year. It’s a trend I hope doesn’t stay. I mean sure, the more music from a band that I like the better, but why does it have to be released in the same year?

Protest the Hero "Volition"

Reviewing any Protest the Hero album is a near impossible task, but I’m going to try it anyway. Anybody who has listened to a Protest the Hero album hopefully knows what I mean. The entire “mathcore” movement is a heck of a subgenre but Protest the Hero is in their own league. “Mathcore,” for those who don’t know, is a subgenre of progressive metal that essentially requires some of the most tightly and precise playing of instruments out of any genre. It has odd time signatures and out of the ordinary music breaks, just like general progressive metal, only the intensity and complexity is raised through the roof.

Peur "We Can Build Astronauts"

When I got more in to newer rock music, I went through a period where I listened to a lot of post-grunge alternative metal bands; the bands like Puddle of Mudd or Seether or Chevelle. While I still very much enjoy bands like this, I found that they lacked something that kept them from being great. I’m not going to say that these bands sound the same from one another. While some do, not all do. They just seem a bit too comfortable in a small bubble of song writing style and are too afraid to experiment.

Avenged Sevenfold "Hail to the King"

 

I don’t think I know a rock band that is disliked more than Avenged Sevenfold. The most amazing thing is that none of these “haters” have any credible reason to dislike the band. It appears that ever since the turn of the millennium, any hard rock/metal band that gains popularity of any kind gets a lashing; it’s impossible to win. But at the end of the day I’ve never met any of these seemingly professional music analysts in person, they prefer to remain hidden, while in reality (you know, that world beyond the computer screen) I meet more and more fans of the band as they become among this generations biggest hard rock acts.

Soil "Whole"

Alternative metal band Soil never did break out in to rock stardom. Likely because there was never much differentiating them from fellow contemporaries that were on a slow rise at the time such as Puddle of Mudd, Seether and Drowning Pool. Albeit, all three of these mentioned bands are mainly just known for just one song each; with a slight exception going to Seether.

Newsted "Heavy Metal Music"

Earlier this year, former Metallica bassist Jason Newted’s new band, simply titled “Newsted” released their 4-track debut EP Metal. Earlier in the summer I wrote an article about it, not actually aware that Metal was so quickly going to be followed up by a full length album. Considering I’ve already written an article about the Metal EP, I suppose I can skip the whole history of the band and what not, besides I’m sure most of you already know who Jason Newsted is anyway.

Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals "Walk Through Exits Only"

All, to almost all metal fans know the name Philip Anselmo (for reasons that I think are obvious, I prefer to refer to him as “Phil” rather than “Philip”). Whether or not you’re a fan, it is undeniable that he and a little band named Pantera made such a difference in heavy metal music that it is still being talked about today in the form of god status. Phil, as well as drummer Vinnie Paul, bassist Rex Brown and of course the late guitarist Dimebag Darrell are all equally responsible for changing metal as we know it.

Five Finger Death Punch "The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell: Volume 1

If the name Five Finger Death Punch sounds familiar, it’s probably because they’ve become one of the biggest names in modern metal over the past five or so years. Coming in to the metal world with their 2007 debut album The Way Of The Fist, the band caught some attention with their song The Bleeding. It didn’t take long before they released their second album, War Is The Answer, which rocketed to number 7 on Billboard. When their third album American Capitalist went to number 3, it was clear that they had established themselves with a true fan base.

Butcher Babies "Goliath"

I’ve been wondering for weeks how to start off this article on the Butcher Babies. There is so much I can say, but I don’t know what would kick this off on the right foot. The reason being that every week or so I learn something different about the band that changes my perception of what they are about. Originally I was thinking of saying something along the lines of “some people would do anything to get noticed”, since in the early days of the band, their two female singers Carla Harvey and Heidi Shepherd would perform on stage wearing nothing on the top half of their bodies but tape covering their nipples. But not long after I discovered them, they dropped that gimmick, which was initially a tribute to punk legend Wendy O. Williams (the band’s name comes from her song Butcher Baby from the first Plasmatics album).

Megadeth "Super Collider"

In the seven or so months since I started this website, I’ve never been so nervous to write about an album. The reason being I’ve never disagreed more with fellow reviewers on an album. Megadeth have been an established metal band for a couple of decades now. Everyone knows the story, but for those who don’t I’ll be happy to share; Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine was originally the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of a band. Metallica was the name of this band, you may have heard of them. Anyway, he was kicked out from the band practically overnight, and to get back at them he started Megadeth. They are coined a thrash metal band due to the aggression and personal anger that was heard in the bands first few albums, and because of the movement of thrash metal that was developing directly around them. Some of these “thrash” albums the band released were pure excellence, such as Peace Sells...But Who’s Buying and Rust In Peace.

Anvil "Hope in Hell"

The “Story of Anvil” sure was a popular one a few years ago in the wake of a documentary released about the Toronto metal bands career. If you haven’t seen it, here is all you have to know; it depicted yet another of the countless bands who set out to be the next big thing but never became a Metallica or Judas Priest or even a Saxon or Accept. There was, however a point in the early 80’s when it appeared they might be. Their second album Metal on Metal was praised by metal fans and metal musicians alike for its proto-thrash sound, but due to mainly management botcheries the band just became irrelevant.

Holy Grail "Ride the Void"

California heavy metal band Holy Grail have the right idea. They have the apocalyptic dynamics of a classic heavy metal band, the vocals of a thrash metal band, the pace of a speed metal band and the lyrics of a power metal band. Ingredients of this nature put in to one band makes for one hell of a ride. Most bands lately that follow similar traits such as White Wizzard (a band that at one point featured a couple of members from Holy Grail) only succeed to make novelty songs that sound like an American New Wave of British Heavy Metal Band (which worked for Metallica but that’s an exception). Holy Grail manages to keep their sound more contemporary to something that more modern metal fans would like while maintaining an appeal to classic metal fans as well, as opposed to just appealing to the latter.

Newsted "Metal"

Jason Newsted was always just a tad out of place in Metallica. He came in to the band just months after the death of bass legend, and arguably the best metal bassist to ever record an album, Cliff Burton. Immediately after joining the band he faced sort of an initiation by his band mates. My personal favourite story is that when he would sign autographs for fans, he would write “bassface” and when other members of the band signed the same item, they would cross out the “b” in “bassface”...yah you get it. Even after the initiation ended he was still just the new guy in the band, and that always held a spot in the memory of the band and older fans of the band that he couldn’t seem to live up to despite being an excellent bass player. Jason himself at many times during his career still to this day has mentioned Cliff as being the best bass player to ever live, to demonstrate that he knew he wasn’t ever in Metallica to be better than Cliff.

Volbeat "Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies"

Whenever I think of Danish metallers Volbeat, I think of the first time I ever discovered them. Like so many of their fans, it was their fortune of touring with Metallica in 2009 that first introduced me to their unique sound. Having not one clue about this band beforehand, not even knowing that Metallica had more than one band (Lamb of God) opening for them, I was completely taken. They didn’t put on a spectacular show, for the most part they just stood there and played their instruments, and let their music do the talking.

Semeron "Breathing Scarlet"

There are generally two kinds of modern metal bands as of late: Alternative metal, which derives from the sound of alternative rock/grunge bands just with much heavier distorted instruments with bands such as Godsmack or Stone Sour, and then there is Metalcore, which involves for the most part intense guttural vocals with classic metal influence incorporated in its music with bands such as All That Remains or As I Lay Dying. There really aren’t many modern metal bands that step out of these styles, with few exceptions (Volbeat and Avenged Sevenfold for instance).