TANDJENT:

• No One Will Hear Us (2005) It's certainly fair to say Meshuggah's popularity has gone far beyond imitation, they seem to have started their own genre of music. I know the term "math metal" has been thrown around a lot, but whatever you call it, the band really started something, and Tandjent are right there in the fray. So yes, they do sound a lot like Meshuggah, from the super heavy guitar tone to the odd time signature start-stop riffs and the drummer doing straight 4 / 4 time over top. But damn these songs are good. I mean, it helps that the production is mindbendingly brutal and professional, but the riffs are just fantastic as well. And just when you think you have them categorized, they do something a bit different, like track 3, 'No Question' has the tonal qualities of Meshuggah, but with a groovy riff that's far more Pantera and by the final note of the song you want to skip back and hear it again. Or the double kick part at the beginning of 'Paralyzed' (Meshuggah haven't used straight doublebass in their music for years and years). Or the anthemic quality of the opening to 'I Remain' followed again by a great groovy riff. Songs like these are what push the band away into their own territory. If Tandjent decides to release more cds in the future, these songs have the originality that I hope they expand on. It's tough to imagine "No One Will Hear Us" has been in production for the past 4 years, usually you'd expect a big variation in the song styles and recording quality, but this album is just so consistent. And would you believe the drums are programmed? Perhaps not after hearing this cd, this has to be the most natural sounding drum machine I've ever heard. Top it all off with some seriously shredding guitar leads that hearken back to the days when a solo had something to say instead of just extra texture on top of the rhythm. Stupendous and spectacular, this album is an absolute must buy.

TERRORUST:

• Post Mortal Archives (2006) In this post Nasum world, we need good bands to help fill the void. And Australia's Terrorust is one of them. Half Nasum, half Pig Destroyer, this band goes for the throat with crazy nasally and gargly screaming, constantly blasting and double bass, and tons of aggression. The songs are longer, and many of the riffs are memorable, so don't expect this to be totally mindless grindcore. The band doesn't only rely on super aggression (although there's plenty of it here), they also know how to write a song. If you want to be thrown around the room for approx. 40 minutes and have your brain turned to absolute goo, I highly recommend finding a copy of this cd. Insane stuff, and well worth the cash.
  

TESTAMENT:

• The Legacy (1987) Lots of classic songs, with a slightly weak production (but what do you expect for '87?)
• The New Order (1988) This album sounds a lot like their first album, but once again, some more classic songs. Buy these albums after you've heard Practice.
• Practice What You Preach (1989) A classic album. Really great song writing, the sound is a bit weak, but the title track and "The Ballad" are probably two of the band's best songs ever.
• Souls Of Black (1990) I personally really like this album (although I know many people who don't). Really great production, great song writing, maybe a bit too similar to their last album, but it's no reason to dismiss it.
• The Ritual (1992) Now this album I didn't like (although a lot of people did, go figure). The production is horrible (waaayyy too much reverb), and the aggression is completely lost. Still a few good songs here and there.
• Return To The Apocalyptic City (1993, EP) A must buy EP for no other reason than to get a really great live version of "So Many Lies".
• Low (1994) Even after loosing their star soloist Alex Skolnick, the band has still got it. Much more aggressive than their last album, much lower (like the title), great production, great song writing. This album really redeemed the band.
• Live at the Fillmore (1995, Live) A great live performance with excellent production and a clear mix. The songs speak for themselves, with lots of older material.
• Demonic (1997) Oh my god. Testament is back and how. This isn't the same band you remember. Almost all the vocals are in a more death metal style (sort of like "Dog Faced Gods" off of 'Low'), the guitars are way lower. The riffs are huge, and the entire album just bludgeons you to death. Still, a few small nits, I wish the kick drum had been louder in the mix, I mean, it's Gene Hoglan on the drums, he needs to have all the power he deserves. And also I found the album didn't change tempo much, they should have added some faster songs. Everything generally stays in the slow / mid-tempo range. These problems aside, this album totally rips, and ushers a new age for the band. They have truly understood that metal is about aggression, and evolving means getting more aggressive. Now if only Metallica had listened.
• Signs Of Chaos: The Best Of Testament (1997, Best Of) The whole album is filled with songs from previous albums. It's a good cross section, but I own all their older CD's, so I don't see much reason to own this. The two new tracks on the album are cover songs, I don't know if they're any good, but they're not enough to get me to buy the album.
• The Gathering (1999) Holy shit. This album is good. The boys are back, this time with a superstar lineup including Dave Lombardo on drums, Steve DiGiorgio on bass, and the ever popular James Murphy on guitar. But we've seen superstar lineups falter in the past. Not this time. The album is a lot closer to Low, Chuck still uses death metal style vocals once in awhile, but tends to sing a little more. The riffs are excellent. The songs are well written and memorable, and covers many styles, tempos and moods. The double kicks are the fastest and loudest I've ever heard on a Testament record. James' guitar solos seem a little more subdued than normal, more ambient instead of show off stuff. The production is by far the best on any Testament record, thick chunky bass and crunch with every instrument perfectly clear. It's sort of rare these days to place a new CD in your player and after one listen know that this record will become an instant classic. This is one of those times. Dude, by the CD if you've ever loved this band.
• First Strike is Deadly (2001, EP) This album is a whole bunch of their songs from their first two albums, totally rerecorded using today's technology. Alex Skolnick is even on guitar. Overall, a good album, it's nice to hear these old classics get a little new life, and the production is of course excellent. My only complaint is most of these songs are available on their live recordings such as "Live at the Fillmore" and "Return to the Apocalyptic City", and live the songs tend to be a little more, I don't know, energetic. Whether it's just a speed issue, or Chuck using his more death-metal style vocals in a few bits when live, I think I still prefer the live versions to these rerecorded versions. But this album is still very enjoyable.
• Live In London (2005, LiveCD) Since most of you probably saw me slamming the recent influx of Anthrax live material, prepare yourself for an almost identical ride, this time with Testament. Their stories are almost the same. You get a live album of older songs a few years back ("Live at the Fillmore"), you get a studio album of re-recorded old songs ("First Strike is Deadly"), and now you get the old lineup reuniting and producing a live album of, you guessed it, old songs. And are these different old songs? Nope, the same stuff. So now I've heard 3 almost identical versions of 'The Preacher' and I keep asking myself why? Yes, it's cool that Alex Skolnick is back on this album, and he does a great job on the solos, and Louie returns for a few songs, but the material on this CD isn't different enough from the stuff on the other 2 cds to warrant a purchase. Actually, I take that back, there are a few different songs here, like I've never heard 'Electric Crown', 'Let Go Of My World' or 'Sins Of Omission" live before, but why do we need to hear 'The Haunting' yet again when they could have instead included some rarer material, like maybe a performance of  'Seven Days Of May' or 'Face In The Sky'. So I guess if you factor in the 4 unique songs you may still want to consider buying the cd, but overall it's a golden opportunity lost. The production is great, the performance is energetic, but it needed more songs that weren't already available in an almost identical form on the band's previous releases. Now please, guys, move forward and get us some new music ASAP.
• Live In London (2005, DVD) DVD copy of the concert, please read the review of the CD for songs and other commentary. As far as the video footage, the quality is great, but suffers from the shifty camera syndrome. The camera switches about once every second or so, and the eye isn't seeing anything long enough to take anything in. And during areas where you definitely want a singular focus (like a guitar solo), the camera is all over the place. Certainly if you're a musician and hope to see a few guitar fingerings or drum fills, you'll be out of luck, in general you see more shots of the crowd and random face shots of the band than actual instruments. Like the anthrax DVD, it may be better to get this DVD than the live CD, because at least you get to see the reformed band instead of just hear them, on the other hand, a live cd can be nicer because you can have that on more easily as background music. The interviews at the end is actually quite good, they talk to each member of the band and talk about the past present and future, and at 10min, it's just the right length.
• The Formation Of Damnation (2008) A very impressive album, although it doesn't quite reach the classic level of many of their previous albums. But don't take this as sounding too negative, this IS a really good album and I want to make sure that's very clear. Lots of slow stuff, lots of fast stuff, double kicks and groove, a good mix of death metal Chuck and singing Chuck. Alex Skolnick does his soloing thing, it's nice hearing his solo style with Testament again, they're just so distinctive. But as with anything, it all comes down to the songs. While there's certainly no filler material on this album, there really needs to be a few more "holy shit" songs for this to reach the level of "Low", "The Gathering" or "Practice What Your Preach". There are a few spots, I really love the fill before the verse riff in 'Afterlife'. I really like the songs 'The Evil Has Landed' and 'The Formation Of Damnation', although that's more because they're just a solid songs, not that they have any specific standout spot. This album is all cake, a little extra icing would have been nice, but I'll settle for the cake.
  

• Polars (2004) In general I'm not a fan of bands that are way to similar to other bands, I mean, we all have influences, but I've always felt you should try and blend your influences together to come up with something totally new. I can not call what Textures is doing new, and yet, this is just a great, great cd (This ain't no cheap knock off folks). Lets run down the list, we have Meshuggah influence (heavily), the off beat stop start rhythms, the super chunky guitar tone, fantastic production, and some of the thrashier parts remind me of "Contradictions Collapse". The vocals thankfully aren't identical to Jens Kidman, instead this guy's voice is higher and more akin to say the vocalist in Martyr. There's also some sung / choral parts that are very similar to the stuff Devin Townsend does on his solo records. Then you have really spacy guitar stuff (solos and clean rhythms) similar to Fred Thordendal's (Meshuggah's guitarist) solo album. So anyways, this certainly isn't original, and yet, I find myself putting this into my cd player again and again. Maybe it's that Meshuggah are now for the most part relying more heavily on repeated rhythms rather than writing slightly more traditional song structures, whereas this band is a little closer to the "Destroy Erase Improve" days of super memorable songs that are complex and yet follow a more traditional pattern. Also they are very good at effortlessly flowing between soft spacy keyboard stuff and the harsher angrier bits, possibly because they have a dedicated keyboard player (the last tracks on the album are primarily 10 min long keyboard soundscapes, whereas the other songs have a better balance between the angry and soft). Maybe it's just that I miss the old Meshuggah and so when this band harkens back to that style and yet manages to stay fresh somehow, I can't help myself. Anyways, whatever it is, this is a fantastic cd, and any meshuggah fan should pick this up immediately.
• Drawing Circles (2006) The follow-up to "Polars" (a cd of so much promise), "Drawing Circles" ends up kinda flat. A lack of energy would be the best description. Not as much screaming, way more singing, all the songs are pretty mid paced. Did I mention there was singing? And not cool, super ballsy singing like Devin Townsend, but I mean like nu-metal band flavor of the month type singing. The new vocalist's voice is just too generic, their last vocalist had this raspy high pitched voice that helped the band sound distinct. This guy really sounds like all the other guys. I see this cd as similar to Satariel's newest album "Hydra", everything is slower, more generic, less complex, just lackluster in general. There are a few good bits here and there, but overall, just nothing to get exciting about. I hope the band gets fast and thrashy again in the future. A special version of the album comes with an extra DVD that has a 10 minute documentary, a few short interviews, a lot of people running around, nothing too deep really, a lot of "we used to record in this studio, now we record in this studio" type of stuff.
• Silhouettes (2008) A vast improvement over their last album. While the singing is still there, the songs tend to have way more energy, which was probably my biggest problem with "Drawing Circles". Still not as thrashy as their debut, but this one got my head banging instead of my mouth yawning. As far as the riffs go, they still sound very much like a Meshuggah clone, so the originality isn't really there, but they're decent enough to keep my interest. All the usual elements are here, the spacy keyboards, some choral vocals, nice thick production. Overall this album won't be the most awesome thing you've ever heard, but it's decent, and well worth checking out. I can see myself listening to it again over the next few weeks, but whether it will have any long term staying power, that I can't say.
  

• Mictlan (2002) 3 song EP, 2 songs that were later rerecorded and modified for inclusion on their first album, and an instrumental track. The production is good, although more muffled than their debut. The songs are actually quite different in spots, with different guitar parts, extra or missing keyboards, making these songs true "alternate versions". The last instrumental track is a mixture of samples and electronic noise, and sounds very cool. If you happen to see a copy of this lying around for a low price (since it's only 10 min of music) I'd recommend grabbing it.
• Occasus (2004) For those of you that enjoy placing your head in a blender and plugin' it in, may I suggest a good dose of The Amenta, one of the craziest death / black metal crossover bands I've heard since Myrkskog. My first impression was "oh, so this is where Mike DiSalvo from Cryptopsy ended up", but a little research later, and it looks like all the members of the band are from Australia. But I swear, the vocalist sounds 100% like Mike DiSalvo, from the voice down to the oddly timed delivery, ever nuance. The music itself is mainly black metal (but well produced black metal with a very loud and thick sound vs the nasally sounding black metal that I'm not a huge fan of), with a few riffs now and again that are really chunky and precise (ie, the death metal influence). The drumming isn't anything too fancy, mainly triggered double bass and blasting, but it's all blazingly fast and super loud machine-gun style stuff, imagine a slightly more controlled John Longstreth from Origin's "Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas" album. Keyboards appear now and again (as well as gothic / industrial interlude sections) but they remain reasonably spooky and spacy, and enhance the music as opposed to making it cheesy. I really dig all the different styles going on here, they're blended together so well that this album totally defies classification beyond the fact it's very intense and furious all the way through. Highly recommended, this is probably the best new thing to hit my cd player all month.
  

• Unhallowed (2003) Pretty similar in style to their followup "Miasma". The album starts with midpaced doublebass underneath a chugging riff, a pregnant hold on the low E string (detuned accordingly of course), followed by a thrash style main riff that I'm sure would immediately get the crowd moving at any concert. They sure know how to start the mayhem. Again, a lot of stylistic influences abound, making for a dirty and ugly thrash/death/melodic hybrid. My only critique would be that perhaps a few intros or something to break the album up a bit, as it stands right now the album does suffer a bit from song sameness. But otherwise, lots of intense music, and well worth getting.
• Miasma (2005) This is the kind of music that can really only be categorized as "metal". There's just too many influential genres here to bother trying to break it down, from black to death to thrash to hard core, they all blend together into a powerful and ugly force, dark and disturbing. Vocals are a tradeoff between high pitched screams and midrange death metal type vocals. Drums range from fast doublebass, blasts to thrash. Guitars are thick and raw, no smooth guitar tone here, just ugly distortion, riffs are primarily fast picking with the occasional lower chunky parts (and some tremolo picking). I'd like to say the band sounds like this band or that band, but honestly, I'm at a bit of a loss. It sounds familiar, and yet there's no obvious lineage, the band sounds like themselves. Imagine fast thrash with black metal vocals and you'll come close. Song wise, excellent material, lots of catchy riffs, there's a certain degree of sameness to the songs, but it's not really a bad thing, it just makes the album feel sort of like one long song. This music is fast, angry and slightly disturbing. Some quality of the sound just makes you feel uneasy in a way that's hard to describe, like watching a twisted horror film. Enough talk, buy this album.
  
• Nocturnal (2007) More of the same for the band, and that's really the problem. I mean, if this were the debut for the group, I'd say it's fantastic, it has lots of great drumming, decent riffs, nice production, and there's plenty of anger and aggression for everyone. But it's identical to their last 2 albums. There's no intro, no interlude, no super awesome riff to differentiate it from anything the band has done before. The music is good, and fans of the band will probably enjoy it, but I've heard this album twice before and the formula is just boring me. Worth looking into, but personally it's just not exciting me anymore, I hope the band explorers other territory with their next album.
  

• Silent Treatment (2007) While nothing really new, The Bled manages to produce some interesting music I'd have to describe as Melodic Hardcore. Imagine many of the elements that make Devin Townsend so awesome, the screamed vocals, the sung vocals, the choral vocals, the heavy guitars mixed with more melodic guitars and a hint of keyboards for atmosphere, the big thick production. But then sprinkle in a few more influences, like U2, Eighteen Visions, and Between The Buried And Me. You get the idea. Much of this music is super heavy, the songs are generally midpaced, and the one thing I really like is how they incorporate the more melodic bits into the angry bits. Sometimes jumping between these two worlds sounds forced, but the way these guys do it just sounds very naturral. The music has this epic feel to it, everything just feels big, the cover of the CD sorta says it all, imagine the band standing in a barren field screaming up to the sky in anger. A good mix of styles and moods, worth looking into if you like hardcore and don't mind a little singing.
  

• Invention: Destruction (2006) Side project for two guys from Fuck... I'm Dead and the vocalist from Blood Duster. Sorta midpaced goregrind (don't expect any fast blasting or anything) with super low processed vocals (and the occasional high pitched screams). Think the midpaced parts from Broken Hope's first album "Swamped In Gore", and you'll understand what this album is all about. The sound is good with some serious bass and a little bit of extra rasp on the guitars. The ridiculously low vocals are fun to listen to, and while the songs aren't super original, they have a good groove to them. If you like Blood Duster or Broken Hope, check this group out.
• Brutal (2008) If you have their last album, you know what to expect. If you don't, then buy this one now! This album truly is the epitome of brutal. First, the album is called "Brutal". Second, the band logo on the front is one of the most difficult to read I think I've ever seen. And third, this album is so brutal, they didn't even bother giving the songs names, they're just Track 1 through 10. I think Track 3 is my favorite, with a really nice groovy riff, although the main riff to Track 9 is pretty awesome as well. The vocals are as usual just sick, super gargled and processed, and the guitars are tuned down beyond recognition, and the production has gotten a little cleaner without losing any of the super distorted nastiness. The riffs are really groovy, you won't be able to sit still listening to this music. Highly recommended.
  

• Demo - 4 song (1999)
• Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient (2001) Same general style as their 2nd cd, but the production isn't quite as nice. That's to be expected of course (since it's their debut), so no big deal. This album only contains 7 songs, but the tunes are generally cool, and we get another one of their interesting instrumental intros / noisescapes at the beginning of track 5. And plenty of screaming and out of tune guitar craziness of course. Worth checking into if you liked their 2nd album or are a fan of spastic Cephalitic Carnage-like grind.
  
• Within Dividia (2003) Cephalitic Carnage style grindcore, yet much, much better. One of the main selling points for this band is that while there's certainly a strong element of chaos to their riffs, it isn't so chaotic that you can't mosh to it. Ie, they do play a riff more than once so you can having a repeated theme to hold onto. Also, the band tends to remain a little less silly, which is always good. Finally, there's a few songs that have these really long intros that build and build ('The Sense Of Reverence' and 'Orthodox Unparalleled'), instrument upon instrument with complex drumming overtop that sound very Tool like in nature, except of course this stuff gets a whole lot angrier at the end of the build up. Productionwise it's good, although they may have included a little more bass. Riff wise, other than the slow building parts, it's mainly a lot of low chunky bits that alternate with high string out-of-tune chords. Vocals are high pitched screams. On future albums, I hope they explore those spooky build-up songs a bit more, they're pretty cool and allow the songs to have some variety to the intensity without going the acoustic guitar route. Highly recommended.
• Elementary (2007) Very, very different from their previous material. In fact, you'd think it was a brand new band if it weren't for the subtle hints of familiarity. In my last review, I said I wished they would expand on their intros a bit. Well, they went a step beyond expansion, and basically removed every trace of their grindcore roots. The result is something I'd have to call a heavier Tool. So if you're expecting one thing, you'll be getting another, and may be disappointed. But if you forget that the band even released 2 other albums, and consider this album on its own, it's still a really good album. The vocals are a nice mix of yelling and singing (sung vocals in metal have to walk a fine line between soulful and stupid, and these vocals manage to remain on the cool side of things), catchy riffs and hooks. Some excellent spooky intros and interludes. Everything on the album remains slow to mid paced. If I had my way, I'd still want them to add the grind, math metal element back in. But for what this is, it's still enjoyable. For fans of Tool and the slightly heavier. Definitely a try before you buy.
  

• Akeldama (2006) Quite a number of styles mix together to form the aptly named The Faceless, who have yet to reveal to us their true face, but are more than happy to reveal the faces of their influences. Lets go down the list, Job For A Cowboy for the overall heaviness and atmosphere, Between the Buried And Me for some of the zanier bits, Devolved for both the drum sound and general drum style, Cannibal Corpse for the vocals, Necrophagist for some of the lightning fast unison guitar scales, Meshuggah for some of the odd time signatures, Theory In Practice for some of the symphonic bits and general atmosphere, Fred Thordendal's Special Defects for some of the intros and solos. All great spots to be influenced from, thankfully the songs are really strong, which helps keep everything together. The sound is spectacular, the performance is just insane, this group is tight and the material they're playing is tough. My favorite track on the album has to be the title track instrumental, which I've been listening to again and again, it sounds like what Dream Theater's 'Erotomania' would sound like if it had been played by Meshuggah. This is a fantastic album, and I'm so glad a reader pointed the band out to me. My only complaint would be that the group needs a little more consistency. They pull lots of elements from their influences, but they need to be a little more choosy about how they work them all into the music to avoid sounding too all over the map (it doesn't help that there appears to be 4 different drummers who perform on this CD). However, this is the band's debut, so I'll just have to assume that things will improve with time and experience. Damn impressive material, a must buy.

• The Haunted (1998)
• The Haunted Made Me Do It (2000)
• Live Rounds In Tokyo (2001, Live)
• One Kill Wonder (2003)
• Revolver (2004) So despite the fact this band has been around for awhile, in fact I think I may have accidentally seen them live once at a festival somewhere, I really never sat down to give them a listen. Thrash? Well, I enjoyed thrash in the 80s, but the only new thrash albums I listen to now are new releases from old favorite bands. But when a random mp3 from this album happened across my desktop, I decided to give the album a try. Basically, the band takes the riffing style of Slayer and infuses it with a much larger and more vicious guitar tone reminiscent of Entombed, and then puts overtop some ultra pissed off vocals that make Slayer's Tom Araya sounds almost meek. I could also draw parallels to Arch Enemy or In Flames, except this band has far less to do with melody, and far more to do with anger and aggression. Each song is a well crafted composition with just the right levels of speed, slower bits to mosh to, and the occasional spooky intro with acoustic guitars. As mentioned earlier, the vocals get a special note, as this guy's voice and delivery are just excellent, there's a difference between trying to sound angry and actually sounding angry, and this guy is pissed off. So if you're not digging what Slayer's been up to recently (or even if you have), and haven't checked this band out, stop procrastinating and give them a try.
• The Dead Eye (2006) Not sure if it's my mood or this album, but this cd just isn't grabbing my attention like the last one did. Overall, the songs are way slower, there's more melody, and the vicious anger that the last album had seems to be gone. Now don't get me wrong, melody can be good, but to use melody properly the riffs need to be super cool / stuff I've never heard before. These riffs for the most part sound like b-side Slayer material. A good example is "The Medusa", the riffs are sort of generic, it never gets above like 130 bpm, and there's more singing than screaming. Even faster songs like 'The Shifter' start off quick, but then slow down. Even the guitar tone is more generic, what happened to that cool Entombed style sound? I don't want to label the album as bad, but it's just not above average in any way, and I doubt I'll be listening to it again now that the review is done. Check out "Revolver" instead.
  

• Submissive (1996, Demo)
• Third Eye Function (1997) The band that keeps popping into my mind is Meshuggah. Some of the riffs on this CD sound like specific Meshuggah riffs. Theory In Practice however seem to have taken the next logical step. Not only do they have weird time signatures, but many of them don't last longer than a bar. While making it hard to mosh to, it does make for some interesting listening. The sound is huge and tight, very technical, straight ahead death metal vocals, lots of keyboards and strange interludes with spanish guitars. The guitar solos, as well as several interludes remind me of Yngwie. Although they heavily borrow from some of their influences, after prolonged exposure to this album, I really like it.
• The Armageddon Theories (1999) A more focused CD this time. Although all the elements from the last CD are still there, it finally sounds like the band is doing their own thing and not just grabbing stuff from other bands. This particular CD is almost closer to black metal than death metal, with a high pitched raspy voice, and huge reverb laden guitar tone (and plenty of epic keyboards). However, if you listen, instead of simplistic tremolo picking, the band is playing complex rhythms in very odd time signatures, sometimes low and chunky, sometimes a cascade of perfectly picked high end notes. This wall of sound almost sounds a little like the new Cryptopsy album, but not as riff oriented, much more chaotic with melodies, rhythms, and speedy double kicks creating this crazy torrent of noise (but if you listen close, there is definite structure to that noise, which makes the music interesting on many levels). Solos are still crazy and yngwie sounding, but work with the music a little better instead of just being on top of the music. The other neat thing is even though the melodies are so chaotic, somehow distinct songs and themes seem to show through. This is certainly not a CD that can be digested in one listen, since there's so much for the ear to hear. Other bands have tried similar stuff but ended up sounding like they were showing off or sounding like they were a complete mess, these guys are definitely doing something right, and real music has emerged from these mess of notes. Cool.
• Colonizing The Sun (2002) This will actually be a very short review, since this album is basically Armageddon Theories part 2, same style, same sound, etc. The songs are a little less frantic than last time, the music is given a chance to breath a bit more with some slightly simpler song structures, but overall it still gets really nuts in a lot of areas with cascading notes and crazy time signatures. The songs of course are great, lots of memorable riffs. If you enjoyed the last album, here's some more for you to digest.

• Fused Together in Revolving Doors (2004) Very similar to their new album, with the usual treatment of brutality, speed and manic craziness. Productionwise, just every so slightly (like hair slight) more muffled than "Clients". Otherwise, not much else to say, the songs are great, the performance is over the top insane. These guys are quickly working their way up the grindcore ladder, and well deserve the praise you've been hearing. I'd still buy "Clients" first, because it is a slightly better album, but this is highly recommended too.
• Clients (2005) The Red Chord combines aspects of Nasum, Pig Destroyer and Dillenger Escape Plan into one crazy package. The music is just manic, nuts, super fast, in your face, tons of screams. It's like your mom yelling at you with her face an inch from your ear. Lots of start-stop riffs, squawks, the music jumps from riff to riff real quick, but it's not so chaotic as to completely lose you along the way (ie, it's not doing the "Disgorge" thing). There's definitely some standout parts to this cd, lots of great riffs and a good groove. Technical without becoming musical masturbation. Vocals are midrange growls with a few shrieks and even a few spoken word bits. The guitars tend to remain on the higher strings most of the time, plenty of out-of-tune bends and such with a few low chunky parts thrown in for good measure. Everything is really tight with a nice razor-sharp production. Awesome major label debut for the band, and highly recommended.
• Prey For Eyes (2007) More carnage from the chord. All the elements are here for a good CD, but they just don't nail it the way they did on their last album. It's tough to put my finger on it beyond a more general feeling that the song writing just isn't quite up to par. Everything else is here, all the ingredients that made their last album are present and accounted for, but there's just way fewer riffs where I go "fuck ya!". After such a great album from Despised Icon last month (I sorta put these 2 bands in a similar style category), this is just sorta a let down. Now that's not to say this is a bad album. There are still some good songs here, but there's also a lot of filler material that doesn't turn my crank. Like the last 2 minutes of the song 'Prey For Eyes' is the same riff repeated again and again, with very little variation. Same with 'It Came From Over There', the first 3 minutes seem to go on and on. A few good songs like 'Responsibles' and 'Dread Prevailed' do their best to save the album, and help elevate the CD's ranking from maybe a C to a B. Worth looking into, but I prefer their first 2 albums way more.

• Get Dead Or Die Trying (2008) Their name may have changed, but it's the same Gorerotted you've come to know and expect. First off, thankfully, the production has gotten good again, in fact, it's their best production yet. Also, while I've always enjoyed the band's riffs, it seems that this release they spent a little bit of extra time putting in some really brilliant material. Like the main riff in 'the Howling', or the slow beginning to 'The Body Tree', or the chunky riff at 1:40 in 'It's Like There's A Party In My Mouth (And Everyone's Being Sick)'. It's also cool to hear traditional blastbeats this fast, without the need to move to gravity blasts to achieve the speed. Hats off to the Nate. The last track is a bit of wasted space, but the other 10 are solid, fast and brutal as fuck. Short and to the point, this album should please all fans of the band, and anyone who likes no frills blasting and fast picking.
  

• Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth (1991) Similar to their later album, but with slightly inferior production. The mix is about the same, but the band feels further from the microphone. Otherwise you pretty much know what to expect. Super slow songs, ridiculously low vocals (with a few spoken word sections), a total of 4 tracks, 3 of which are 8 min each, and one 2 min closing song. Perfect for those times when you've lost all hope.
• Stream from the Heavens (1994) Sometime after all the crazy speed, you just need something that's 100% the opposite, and Thergothon delivers like no other. 200, 300, 400 beats per minute? Nah, lets try 20, 30 or 40 beats per minute. Lets just see how slow we can play without the drummer becoming totally lost! Waves of heavily distorted guitars, super low gargly vocals, and a few synth / sung passages all help lull the listener into a complete state of despair. It's so slow in fact it's almost comical, but laughter would be inappropriate for such music. What can I say, it makes for awesome background music when you need to unwind from all that brutal craziness, but you don't want to go ambient, you still need that fix of heavy distortion. I can highly recommend getting a copy of this cd, you may not listen to it on a regular basis, but I can promise you I'll be pulling this album out every once in awhile when I need to unwind. The epitome of Doom metal.
  

• The Mundane Corruption (2008) The way They:Swarm (formerly Whorecore) was described to me was "If I didn't know any better, I'd think this was a new Aborted CD." And that description is completely accurate. This short 4 song EP (with 1 intro) clocks in at just 14 min, but they get a lot done in that short period. Lots of low gurgled vocals, doublebass, low guitars and brutal riffs. And these are GOOD riffs, almost up there with any of the new Aborted material. The production quality and mix is excellent as well. I gotta give them a zero for originality, but if you like Aborted, here's they're long lost brothers. Well worth the cash.

• Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects: Sol Niger Within (1997) A completely mesmerizing album from beginning to end, Fredrik, lead guitarist for Meshuggah, gives us 45 minutes of psychedelic metallic insanity. The album is one long song that twists and turns through 29 separate sections, each one filled with great guitar soloing, strange time signatures, brutal riffs, and eerie keyboards. Vocals consist of spoken word segments, as well as this totally scary voice that sounds sort of like the sound your nails make when running down a chalk board. This is about as close as you can get to diving into someone else's subconscious, or someone else's dreams, where riffs melt into each other, key signatures mean nothing, and the music never quite goes in the direction you expect it to. Buy this album.
• Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects: Sol Niger Within Version 3.33 (1999) A reissue of Fred's solo masterpiece. The sound has been changed a bit, no more organ parts, some songs are a bit longer, with parts added, parts removed. The songs are now separate on the CD (instead of one long track like the first one), and there are two bonus tracks, one excellent 10 minute piece called "Missing Time" (which is in the same vein as the rest of the CD), and then one quick instrumental track that sound much heavier, much closer to a Meshuggah release. My person opinion is that the bonus tracks are worth the price, but you'll have to decide for yourself if you want to pay again for essentially the same CD. If you didn't buy the first copy, then you have no excuse not to buy this one.

• Malice (2007) Nice, precise death metal with excellent production and lots of bite. Very similar in style to someone like Behemoth or Bloodbath, with lots of fast but controlled blasting, doublebass and chugging guitars with the occasional harmonized scale. Vocals are pretty low, but growled, not gurgled. The sound on this album is fantastic, thanks to Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal fame producing. If I had one complaint it's that while the songs are generally good and the performance is excellent, the group doesn't have any one particular trait that distinguishes them from anyone else. The songs are all enjoyable, but no one particular section grabs me by the face and says "Listen to me, God Damn It!!" Good material, it's just needs a little bit of extra flavor.

• Blind Follower/Point of View (1998)
• Plague (2000) Angry unpolished death metal. Similar in style I'd say to older Suffocation, Internal Bleeding, or Immolation, vocals are midrange for the most part with a few lower and higher parts, a bunch of blasting sections, a lot of slower chunky parts and some good groove. Production is good, but still a little noisy. The songs are all high quality. Overall, I really like this release and their sledge hammer style of music, but I still think a slightly better production would be the icing on the cake. A strong first release.

• Opiate (1992) EP with 4 songs and 2 live tracks. Great sound, great songs, the same quality and style as just about everything else from the band.
• Undertow (1993) A fusion of the best that alternative has to offer with a strong metal edge. Decent production with the bass clear in the mix. Good song writing. By the standard of a lot of the stuff on this page, this music is pretty light, but it's still good music, and there's obviously a lot of aggression here, as well as depression and sadness, so you'll get your injection of dark emotions, don't worry.
• Ænima (1996) Another great album with lots of songs that get stuck in your head and make you loose all hope instantly. The album relies heavily on the bass guitar to create mood and rhythm, while the guitars add texture and random noise before locking in with the rest of the band to create some really razor sharp, tight chugging riffs. Excellent production as usual. The vocals produce a very spacy, depressing feel, mixed with some more aggressive moments. This music is so good I can't believe that it's popular. :)
• Salival (2000, Live & DVD) A two disc set, one DVD and one CD. The DVD has 4 music videos on it, Tool has always had the coolest videos, stop motion animation twisted in a way you just don't see in Disney films. I wish they'd included some live tracks on the DVD, and the menu system is very non intuitive, but the content that is there is good. The Live CD has several live songs, some live covers, and a few intros. The live performance is great, the very best being a modified rendition of 'Pushit' that goes on for well over 10 minutes, and is probably one of the most intense and emotional song the band has ever written / performed. Overall, well worth the cash.
• Lateralus (2001) Over 5 years since the last CD, and expectations are high. Overall, it's a worthy tool album. The first single 'Schism' is good, but a little untool like (unsettling, but more spooky then dark). The leading track 'The Grudge' is probably one of the best, a little digital delay and some great tribal style drumming, as well as the usual thicker guitar tone. Track 3 is probably one of the worst on the album, just because the vocal melody is too similar from parts of 'Pushit', and so sounds like a rehash. But later tracks continue to be new and fresh, including the more upbeat 'Parabola' and the angry and double kick laden 'Ticks And Leeches'. Many of the songs are actually just intros, so the album is actually not as long as you might expect, although most of the non-intro songs tend to be in the 7-10 minute range. As with their previous albums, I think you just listen to it all the way through, say globally it's good, then months later you start really being able to pick out all the specific parts that are the best, which is cool, gotta love an album that's still interesting months after you first hear it. As a friend said, it has more layers than an onion.
• 10,000 Days (2006) After another 5 year hiatus (but Tool was never known for their fast release schedule), the result is a mixed bag of music. It seems best to do a blow by blow on this album, so here goes. The first 2 tracks are great, definitely the strongest on the album. They have a little of everything, they're heavy, they have groove, they have lighter bits, they're epic in length and complex in structure. If you liked "Lateralus" you'll love this stuff. Next comes a 2 part song, about 17 minutes, which starts off quiet, and builds, but never quite gets to its destination. It tries to be what the song 'Pushit' was. Both songs start quiet, get bigger and bigger until it suddenly explodes. The difference is when 'Pushit' reaches it's climax you go "Awesome!" When these songs climax, it's like "this needs to be more intense". The next track 'The Pot' starts off with an odd acapella vocal bit, but it's so odd it's actually pretty cool. The rest of the song is a little repetitive in spots, but it's heavier thankfully and has a nice hook in the middle of the song. I'd say it's the 3rd best song on the album. After a short interlude we get to the song 'Lost Keys' which is a really quiet song with the same chord played again and again and again, and honestly doesn't do much for me. 'Rosetta Stoned' is louder and angrier, but the main riff just didn't wow me (maybe it's because it goes on without too much variation for 11 min or so). 'Intension' is another 7 min song that's quiet, and basically the same riff repeated again and again. And at this point, I start to see what my issue is with the album. Tool has always been a band to start a riff, then build ontop of the riff with variations, more instruments, etc. But for some reason a few of these songs just have too much repetition without enough variation. It's like the band wrote some great song structures but didn't add enough frills. That can work if the songs are 3 min long, but for it to work in a 7min long song, you need those frills to keep things interesting. The last "song" is 5 minutes of ambient noises. The album does grown on you, the first listen didn't grab me right away, but slowly it got better and better. Even so, I really feel like the band wrote about half an album, and expanded that to fill out the rest. Still worth getting for the first 2 tracks alone (and for the really interesting packaging that contains 3d stereograms and glasses), but I had hoped for something a little more.
  

• Erotic Diarrhea Fantasy (2004) Wow, band names are just getting more and more bizarre, eh? This two person band falls squarely into the Disgorge / Decrepit Birth category of fast riffs, low gurgly sound and superfast drums. A drum machine in this case. The vocals are especially low even for Disgorge standards, sounds like the guy may be inhaling instead of exhaling (but no voice processing apparently). Lots and lots of sound clips, and long clips too, in fact, I'd wager about 10 minutes of the album is sound clip instead of music. I won't even get into the song titles or lyrics (but 'Raped By Elephants' should give you some indication). This is definitely a band of extremes, what's the worst song titles anyone's come up with? Ok, lets be worse. What's the nastiest situation we can discuss? Ok, lets find something sicker. What are the lowest vocals we've ever heard? Ok, lets get lower. Unfortunately, they spent so much time trying to outdo everybody else, they didn't spend as much time on the riffs as they could have, and memorable riffs are one of the main reasons to write music, right? The material isn't bad, and the nice production is an added bonus, but with the mechanical drums and riffs we've all heard before, there's really not enough here to keep me satisfied. Fun and yet unfulfilling.

• Ocean Machine - Biomech (1997) Devin Townsend is back, this time with a more relaxed record (well, relaxed in comparison to the new Strapping Young Lad). The album proves the depth to Devin's songwriting skills, and the depth to his emotional states. While SYL represented pure and unbridled anger, Ocean Machine is far more mellow, sad, almost depressing at points. The guitar sound is huge, with dozens of guitars and keyboards layered on top of one another. The songs are more melodic, "80's music done right" as a friend put it. What can I say, Devin knows how to write great music, musically and emotionally. Very worth the money.
• Infinity (1998) This just goes to prove, Devin really is insane. First he hit us with the ultraviolence of Strapping Young Lad, then he made us totally depressed with his mournful Ocean Machine, and now we have the missing link between the two. And what a variety. First we have the crazy and wacky evil songs such as the Death Metal Swing tune 'Bad Devil', or the crazy guitar antics of 'Ants'. Then you have these epic film score pieces such as 'Truth' or 'Dynamics', you can just see Devin running to the top of a giant mountain with his delay pedal and screaming to the heavens. John Williams couldn't do better. With all this variety, you'd think you're listening to Steve Vai, except without the guitar heroics. Sound wise, the usual Devin stuff, he knows how to write a great riff and back it up with a thunderous cacophony of noise and echo that is messy and tight at the same time. Order and chaos combined, the white that balances the blue and the red of his other two bands. So, what the verdict? Devin is a musical genius, and I love him dearly, and I will be listening to this album until the day I die.
• Christeen (1998, EP) The songs 'Christeen' and 'Colonial Boy' from the Infinity CD, and 'Night' from Devin's Ocean Machine project. If you already have Ocean Machine and Infinity, not much reason to own this unless you're a collector.
• Christeen + 4 Demos (1998, EP) 5 songs, starting with 'Christeen', and then 4 demos that should have made the Infinity CD. As far as demos go, these are difficult to distinguish from finished pieces of work, which is good. 'Om' is another one of Devin's epic songs with layer upon layer of vocal harmonies and guitar reverb. A distinctly Asian sounding sunshine song is next called 'Sit In The Mountain'. The last two songs, 'Processional' and 'Love-Load' are more experiments in sound and sound processing than cohesive songs, still good though. If you liked Infinity, get this EP right now.
• Official Bootleg (2000) Live the way it should be done, with no overdubs, just the musicians and the microphone. Oh ya, and a large marshall. A dozen songs off of Infinity and Ocean Machine, and two SYL tracks (all from a live show in Japan) show devin in the stadium setting with lots of keyboards and big guitars, then 4 tracks all acoustic from a show in Vancouver, just devin, his guitar and his voice. Lots of interesting stuff here, some good performance parts. We were warned though there were a few mistakes here and there, and that would have to be Devin missing a bunch of notes in the singing parts (i.e., off key). D'oh! Many songs are done perfectly though, so don't fret too much. The guitar parts are right on the money, the drumming excellent, and fine production for a bootleg (probably from the house microphones), I do think though some reverb to the vocals, as well as reducing them in the mix a bit to match the level of the other instruments might have been a good idea. Raw and unpolished, this cd is very limited, so order yours today (if you still can)!
• Physicist (2000) Another offering from Devin's perverse mind. And perverse it is. He starts off with song structures reminiscent of big musicals, a theme to a sitcom on TV, an old scifi film like E.T., and then performs them using his usual onslaught of layered guitars, as well as some very inventive and fast doublekick work from our good friend Gene Hoglan. Imagine any musical on broadway, but twisted into an angry mess through distortion and blastbeats. His description of diet-SYL seems apt, since the feel is definitely Strapping, but not quite as angry and with vocal textures more similar to his work on infinity. So, does it all work? Yes. Even though some of the songs get a little silly with their Jesus Christ Superstar overtones (especially track 9, but devin admits that's probably his least favorite track on the album, so I'm reassured), other songs are masterpieces of sonic brutality, others achieve a proper zen like moment of perfect beauty and clarity. As he says in the interview available as part of the CD-ROM portion of the album, this album is not really a step forward like his other albums, but a step sideways. Devin seems destined to never release the same album twice, and no matter what direction he heads in, there's always the familiar sound that he manages to achieve in all his music that'll keep fans coming back for more.
• Ass-Sordid Demos 1990-1996 (2000) As the name states, 10 demos and extra tracks. As Devin states in the liner notes that come with this mailorder only cd "listening to demos can be like picking through turds, but turds can be cool though." Meaning, some really great music on this cd, and a few songs that don't quite cut it (or that are really just for fun). Nothing is terribly polished or perfected, just some raw ideas from Devin's brain before they got the final treatment needed to place them on an official album. Again, like the stuff off "Christeen + 4 Demos", demo means simpler arrangements that need many more layers of vocals and keyboards and such before they're ready for primetime, it does not mean bad sound quality, Devin seems to be able to get as great a sound on a demo as he does in the studio. Several songs are off his original Noisescapes demo, a studio copy of L.A., and other stuff written around the time Devin and Steve Vai were doing the Sex and Religion tour. Well worth checking out if you're a devin fan, probably not the place to start if you've never heard his music before.
• Official Bootleg Video (2000, Video) This is the Live bootleg CD, but in videoform. First comes the japanese show, which is well recorded, single camera but decent for a bootleg. They play a song or two that's not on the CD. Next comes the reason to buy the video, devin does his live acoustic show, just him and his guitar. This includes several new songs, as well as some very amusing banter between songs not on the CD. I don't know, there's always something compelling about a single man performance in a smoky club, you really feel like you're sitting beside that guy with the camcorder, no need to pan across the band every few minutes, there is only one focus, and his name is Devin.
• Terria (2001) After a slightly disappointing last album (disappointing in the sense it wasn't a quantum leap forward like all his other albums were), Devin is again going in a forward direction. This is the brown album, in touch with mother earth, and I can't think of a better way to describe it. Basically, it's the counterpart of ocean machine, same big guitars, thick keyboards, except with a slightly less sad tone and a more serene atmosphere. A perfect moment of beauty you might say. Overall, every song on the album is a masterpiece, they all work together like a narrative, which I suppose can be said of all devin's work, since every album chronicles another slice of his life and experiences. Really, I have no clue what the next step will be, I guess he doesn't know either until he's lived a little more, but in the meantime, I'd say once again, we've just been given the best Devin album yet.
• Terria Digipak (2001, Digipak) Includes the original CD, a bunch of new artwork, 1 bonus track (which I'm sorta glad he left off the album, it was too gospel in my opinion). Also includes video footage from the last tour which I believe is the same footage as off the Official Bootleg Video. Lastly, a whole bunch of audio commentary about the making of terria. That's definitely the most interesting part of the CD. Anyways, for the casual fan, I'd only get this if you didn't buy the original album, otherwise, for diehard fans only (like me).
• Accelerated Evolution (2003) I think the best way to describe this cd is the same description we were given long before the cd came out: shorter, more to the point songs similar in style to 'Life' from Ocean Machine. While a few songs do tend to go a bit longer than anyone's definition of shorter, for the most part these are far more straight forward compositions. Parallels could be drawn to many of Devin's former projects, like Ocean Machine but not quite as sad, like Infinity but without the same level of maniacal happiness, like Terria but not quite as epic. You'd almost expect mixing all these different styles together, you might accidentally end up with something kinda bland, but no, instead you get the best elements from all his past work combined into one of the more brilliant albums I've heard in quite some time (well, at least since "Terria"). The album starts out with a pounding metal tune perfect for a drive through the mountains, followed by a more haunting melody that showcases Devin's more emotional singing. Track 3 is an Infinity style tongue-in-cheek upbeat piece, happy yet strangely twisted. Track 4 is a big thick plodding symphonic kinda thing. Ok, ok, I'll stop the play by play, just believe me when I say as the album progresses you are pulled through states of happiness, joy, sadness, despair, confusion and just about any other emotion I suppose Devin was feeling during the performance of this record. A true masterpiece.
• Accelerated Evolution Special Edition (2003, Digipak) Contains an extra cd with 3 songs off Devin's Techno project called "Eko". Certainly not the usual stuff you'd expect from Devin, But they do share the same quirky sense of musical creativity. Very low key, quiet, understated songs, weird samples, keyboards, a drum machine, and guitars making strange noises (think the last song off of the "Christeen" EP). It's Devin in play mode. If you already have the regular "Accelerated Evolution", I'd only recommend this special edition for hardcore fans, otherwise, you might as well grab this edition, the songs are F-U-N.
• Ass-Sordid Demos II 1991-1992 (2004, Demos) Very early demos from the almighty Devin Townsend. HDR seems more than a little worried that these demos may in some way have a bad effect on Devin's reputation, people mistaking them for current material. In fact, they go as far as to include warning after warning asking us not to put this material on kazza, and "This CD not intended for commercial sale", and "For some current material please write to:". Anyways, maybe they're a little paranoid, maybe I'm not paranoid enough, but personally I'm very happy this material finally got released, I had heard of the Noisescapes demo (that got Steve Vai interested in Devin) as far back as 10 years ago and I'm so happy to finally hear some of it. The first 6 tracks are from 1991, with Devin's band Grey Skies. While there's elements of garage band here, as usual, Devin's demos tend to be better than some big budget studio stuff. It's sort of blues, rock, metal, lounge somethin. I can totally see what Steve liked in this guy, not only is the guitarwork crazy (Devin's definitely got solo chops, his sweep picking and tapping are especially good), but he's also pretty wacky. The Soundscapes stuff (4 tracks from 1992) is far more serious, at least it starts that way, hints of SYL, Ocean Machine and any number of other later songs. Then 4 more random songs from various projects, including one really great song called Soft that starts off like 'Things Beyond Things', but eventually builds into an entirely new song, really beautiful stuff. Anyways, plenty of good material here, maybe not the best way to be introduced to Devin, but for a fan who already knows his stuff, there's plenty of gems here to get excited about.
• Devlab (2004) An experimental cd that will not be for everybody. Well over an hour, 15 songs of what best could be described as electronic noise. You know these weird interludes that devin does between songs on say Physicist, Terria or the last track on the Christeen EP? Well, here's a whole album of them. Plenty of neat ambient sounds, keyboards, looped delay / distortion, and a rare beat to keep the ear entertained. 90% of the material is quiet stuff, only a few spots do things get really noisy and loud. I'd highly recommend having this cd playing in the background while you're doing work, in that context the album is actually really cool, but I can't really recommend sitting down and doing nothing else but listen to this cd.
• Sychestra (2006, Digipak) As close to Infinity as Devin's come since. What I mean by that is where "Accelerated Evolution" was for the most part a pretty consistent album without too much variation and catchy songs, the songs on "Synchestra" have far more variety, from soft acoustic numbers to big devin guitar orchestral pieces to wacky experiments. The album starts acoustic, and quickly builds into one of Devin's army of guitar pieces that could totally be taken from "Terria". Track 3, 'Triumph' is the first official song after 2 intro pieces, and includes a solo by guitar-meister Steve Vai,  its fast in parts but not so fast as to take away from the orchestration, it's really well integrated into the piece, sort of reminiscent of Vai's song 'Rescue Me Or Bury Me". Then things start to get odder, with songs like 'Vampolka' and it's counterpart 'Vampira', which is strange and odd in the same way 'Bad Devil' and 'Ants' from "Infinity" is. Then things get back to more known territory with 'Gaia' which is probably the most straight forward radio friendly song off the album. Followed by a thunderous song called 'Pixillate', which is super heavy and just this side of being a Strapping Young Lad type of song. The album continues with several soundscape type songs which have tons of mood, but nothing easily identifiable as a standard song structure to them, then ends with 'Notes From Africa', which is a pretty straight forward song, but long. All in all, this album has longer and more complex songs than "Accelerated Evolution", it's mostly a cross between "Terria" (for the long songs and non standard structure) and "Infinity" (for the wackiness and variety). This album gets a good solid spot somewhere in the middle of the Devin Townsend catalog, some of the songs are a bit too odd for me and will probably be skipped in future listens, but there's some really awesome material here that will keep fans plenty happy, especially the beginning of the album. The Digipak comes with a DVD called "Safe Zone" which shows the band perform older material for an hour in a studio setting. The track listing is as follows: 'Truth', 'Regulator', 'Storm', 'Earth Day', 'Life', 'Dead Head', 'Away / Deep Peace', and 'Slow Me Down'. First off, the sound quality is of course awesome, and there's plenty of cameras on the band, but the whole concert has these fractally effects going on, which obscure the performers. I'm sorry, but for me a concert is about seeing the people, not about "cool" effects, and it interferes with the performance. After about 2 songs, like noise in a crowded room, you're able to ignore the effects, so not all is lost. And thank goodness they can be ignored, because this DVD is one of the very best concerts I've seen in quite some time. The band improvises actually a great deal in the songs, nothing super major, just extra drum fills here, extra guitar parts, etc, but it makes the songs feel fresh as opposed to just copying verbatim what's on the albums. Devin's voice is in prime form, and in the middle of 'Away' Devin goes crazy in the guitar solo, playing super super fast tapping, then sweep picking scales, anyone who didn't realize Devin has a shredder side to him, well, this will show you otherwise. After an extended solo, the band moves into the ending to 'Deep Peace'. That combined track, while long, that track is just spectacular to watch, my second favorite track being their rendition of 'Life'. Anyways, there are few concert DVDs that you ever want to go back to again and again, but this will be one of them, so if there was any question in your brain, let that question be answered and spend the extra cash for the Digipak version.
• The Hummer (2007) Not really my thing. This CD is ambient, I mean really ambient. Like one song is 15 minutes of a low hum that changes pitch every few minutes slightly. One song has some quiet dialog with odd noises underneath. A couple of times, my office mate asked me if I'd turned the cd off, because they couldn't hear anything. You know that music they tend to play at massage parlors? Well, this is even more low key. I can't say I wasn't warned, but this CD is the height of minimalism, so if you love SYL or Devin's other music, expect nothing like you've ever heard before. If you're into very quiet, peaceful, serene ambiance, check this out.
• Ziltoid the Omniscient (2007) Right before Devin takes an extended hiatus from making music to focus on producing, he gives us "Ziltoid!", a humorous tale that's based on a puppet show he wrote as a kid. The plot: a creature named ziltoid visits our universe, and demands the ultimate cup of coffee. He's disappointed with the results, and so he attacks the earth, the earth attacks back, you get the picture. While the humans may be unable to produce the best blend of coffee, Devin manages to produce a good blend of all his previous projects. You get elements of Strapping Young Lad (like 'Planet Smasher', which brings me back to 'Cod Metal King' off the first SYL), Ocean Machine (like in the pulsing rocker 'Hyperdrive'), bits that sound like Infinity, pretty much if you love Devin, there's plenty of good stuff here. The story is highly tongue in cheek (can a serious story be created that centers around coffee?), so if you're expecting some amazingly deep concept album, sorry this ain't it. But there are a number of great songs here, like the previously mentioned 'Hyperdrive', I'm also partial to 'The Greys' and 'Solar Winds'. The cd is a mix of instrumentals, sung vocals, and character dialog performed by Devin, to keep the story going. Everything on the album is Devin, all guitars, bass, vocals, and the "the drumkit from hell" drum machine was used for the drumming, which still isn't as good as a real drummer, but if you have to go drum machine, this is the one to use. "Ziltoid" may not be the best Devin album ever, but it has some good tunes, and it's a fun listen. Can't wait for him to return to the creative fold after his break. We'll miss ya, come back soon!

• The Serpent's Manifold (2008) Vagely what you'd expect from a band that contains a questionmark in their name. Transcending is probably best described as symphonic black metal, with maybe extra emphasis on symphonic. The band does lots of spooky intros (think Nile), and integrates plenty of keyboards and orhcestral bits into the music itself. Imagine Akercocke but with a little less speed and a little more experimental. While the black metal aspects are nothing unique (although certainly well performed), I find myself really enjoying the orchestral bits (the strings mostly), they integrate really well into the music, add lots of atmosphere, and make the music kinda catchy. The literature mentions a comparison with Danny Elfman, which is quite apt. If you always wanted to see how the music of "A Nightmare Before Christmas" would have sounded if it had been handled by a black metal band (mixed with a few middle eastern themes), check out this album.
  

• Killer Species (2000) Harken back to the old days of metal, well, not that old, but say the late eighties when you didn't have trouble finding a decent thrash band. Now the style is all but gone, except for a few bands like Transfear trying to keep the genre alive. While they don't break any new ground with this 4 song demo, they provide some decent catchy riffs, mostly thrash, with a touch of death metal thrown in, and a pinch of Entombed's wolverine blues.