Music Video Reviews

Lordi - Would You Love a Monsterman?
The best way to describe Finnish shock-rockers Lordi is GWAR meets the Darkness! These guys look more extreme than GWAR, but they sound more like the Darkness with vocalist Lordi's almost Rob Halford type vocal ability! This first video is from their 2002 debut "Get Heavy", and is an interesting debut video for the band as they play in a dark, dead forest in front of a little girl. Great song and video overall!
Video Rating: ***1/2

Lordi - Blood Red Sandman
The first video from their new album "The Monsterican Dream" sees the band pay homage to the Evil Dead movies as they flat out ripoff the movies plot with three teens in a cabin finding a tape recording and suddenly being attacked and possessed by the Lordi zombies until only one of them is left to face the evil alone! Great song and video! Highly recommended!
Video Rating: ****

Seether feat. Amy Lee - Broken
One of my favorite tracks from the Punisher movie soundtrack. We see Seether playing in what looks like a post tornado hit trailer park. Amy shows up as an angel with black wings and sings her part. Great video and great song again!
Video Rating: ***1/2

The Transport League - Disconnect Massconnect
The first ever video by this band that has been around for a long time. First thing you'll immediately notice is the big resemblance in look and style to Static-X. The video features the band playing in a space ship or something and there are hoses or something attached to the singer's neck, which sometimes seems to get in his way. Don't know if it was suppose to turn out like that. Still, visually a good video and catchy song, but at almost five minutes seems to go too long.
Video Rating: ***

Slipknot Reinvented

Finally got my hands on Slipknot's much anticipate 3rd studio album, Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verses) (RoadRunner), and suprised to say the verdict after listening to it is a mixed bag. Their first self-titled release was truly ground-breaking to me the first time I heard it, and their follow up, IOWA, was a complete change from their debut. Now, Vol.3 once again sees Iowa's own nine man weapons of masked destruction turn another page as they explore more new ground.
I really got into their debut right off the bat, but it took me awhile to get into IOWA due to the shift in style from new metal to a more heavy Pantera-esque sound. This third serving looks to be another one that will take some time to digest. When I first heard IOWA, I listened patiently waiting to hear the next "Wait and Bleed", "Spit It Out", or "Purity", but nothing came close to that realm of greatness. But I still eventually found the gems in IOWA. Now listening to Vol.3, I patiently waited for the next "Left Behind", "My Plague", or "Heretic Anthem". Instead, I find another mix bag of differing styles that will take a while to get used to. Vol.3 sees the band shifting from speed metal (The Nameless, Welcome), to death/thrash metal (Three Nil, Opium of the People), some psychedelic (Prelude,The Virus of Life), gothic/black metal (Vermillion) and even two accoustic songs (Circle & Vermillion,Pt2)!
I can easilly name "Three Nil", "Opium of the People", "Vermillion", and the first single, "Duality", as my favorites so far, and the latter being the hands down best track on the album (Check my blog archives for a review of the video).
As a neat bonus, the CD comes enhanced with a link to exclusive music, video, downloads, as other stuff from the bands official webpage.
Overall, you wouldn't know the difference if you never heard the previous albums before. But if you have, this definately takes awhile to re-adjust to like IOWA was to Slipknot. Still great stuff and highly recommended.
Album Rating: ***1/2

Slipknot and Drowning Pool available now!

The new albums by Slipknot - Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verses) and Drowning Pool - Desentisized, are both now available locally. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to buying them yet due to financial woes. But rest assured I hope to get them as soon as possible and will post my reviews here.
Also, Static-X's Shadow Zone album has finally become available locally, but in an enhanced digipack which includes a DVD featuring various footage of the band. I'd get it if I didn't already have the normal version which I bought in Singapore late last year.

Music Video reviews

Iced Earth - When The Eagle Cries
Iced Earth have changed alot over the past few years. Formerly doing fantasy influenced metal, they made a change of pace after the 9/11 tragedy and focused they music more to American History. This video in particular is their 9/11 tribute and a good accoustic ballad. They cut down the song a bit, but it's still a great, touching video featuring various still shots of the 9/11 attack mixed with shots of various people's reactions as the events took place.
Video Rating: ***

Lacuna Coil - Heaven's A Lie
Italy's Lacuna Coil re-shot the video for their single after it broke them big in America, and the results were much better than the original studio footage version, though the song was cut down a bit. I only just got around to getting it now since I remembered about it when the new Nightwish video came out a while back. Stll highly entertaining stuff as the band plays in a chapel like environment with singers Christina Scabbia and Andrea Fero duking it out. Good stuff.
Video Rating: ***

Meshuggah - Rational Gaze
They may be credited as being one of the more original acts to come out of Sweden in a while, using their signature 8-string guitars to forge some REALLY heavy metal, but Meshuggah SUCKS at making videos. This one is a real strain on the eyes as the band play in a green CG type backdrop as the camera quickly cuts back and forth and can't seem to focus or keep up with the band. I couldn't even stand to finish watching this monstrosity as the song couldn't keep my attention.
Video Rating: *

Damageplan - Breathing New Life
Ex-Pantera co-founders Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrel's new band. I've been wanting to check this out for awhile and finally got the chance. Video is very simple as we see the band jamming in a black background with various single shots of each member. Much like Pantera's "Five Minutes Alone" video. The song even sounds like standard Pantera fare, which should be expected. Definately for fans of Pantera.
Video Rating: ***

Brujeria - La Migra
I'm not sure if it was suppose to come out that way, but this is one seriously FUNNY video by Mexican death metallers Brujeria as they sing about how Mexican immigrants get screwed trying to get into America by crooked transporters. The real hilarious stuff comes from the sub-titles at the bottom of the screen translating the all Spanish lyrics as the video goes by. Really funny stuff!
Video Rating: ***

Killswitch Engage - Rose of Sharyn
Their first single of the new album "The End of Heartache". It sees the band jamming in a desert surrounded by burnt trees with words such as "numb" or "speak" engraved into their dead branches. As the video goes on, the trees BLEED! Great song and cool video.
Video Rating: ***1/2

KoRn - Everything I Know
KoRn's third single, going back to the path of the "Right Now" video preferring to use an animated video, but this time in 3D CGI! Unfortunately, the quality of the 3D isn't all that good and you don't get the see the band in the video. Never a good thing as KoRn's videos are always more energetic when we get to see the band jam. Then again, that applies to most all videos.
Video Rating: **