Gizmachi - The Imbuing (CD)

The first act signed to Big Orange Clown records, founded by Slipknot's Shawn Crahan. Gizmachi easilly fall under the category of been there, heard that. Not really a whole lot of originality in what they are doing, other than making some LONG music. The 8 tracks that comprise The Imbuing stretch out to about forty minutes!
I guess the best way to describe Gizmachi's sound is they sound like one of Mr. Crahan's other musical discoveries, Downthesun (whatever happened to them???), Hard hitting metal with a dash of industrial mechanics and a dual-vocal assault. They just seem to try to cram as much as they can onto a single song that it sounds jumbled at times.
Overall, The Imbuing is nothing you haven't heard before done better by other bands like Slipknot and such. The potential is definately there and they still have time to grow and develop. Here's hoping they get better in the long run.
CD Rating: *1/2

Must Hear Tracks:
- Bloodwine
- Romantic Devastation

Chimaira - Nothing Remains

Said to be written after learning about the tragic shooting of Dimebag Darrell last year, Nothing Remains is the first single of Chimaira's awesome new self titled album, and is also the opening track of it.
Interesting storyline to the video, as we see the band jamming in a club, scenes of a chick and an unfaced guy are shown arranging a meeting through a chat room. They than show hints that the guy is a psycho as they show torture devices like whips and such all around his place. The two than meet at the club where the band are jamming and go back to her place where the guy removes his hoodie to reveal that it's the band's vocalist Mark Hunter! So they make out a bit and head to the bedroom where Mark gets tied to the bed and we than discover that the chick is the psycho as the video ends. Nice to see something different in a video other than just the usual band jamming in a dimly lit place videos that are all over the place.
As for the track, it was a killer way to kick off the album and show the new direction the band is heading in, leaving it's industrial new metal sound behind in favor of a heavier more metal sound. A great track overall.
Video Rating: ****

Mindless Self Indulgence - You'll Rebel To Anything (CD)

This four-piece industrial punk rock outfit play some very interesting and hard rocking material. They do a good job of blending the samples and electronics well with their unique style of punk rock that has them singing about everything from past trends (1989) to being misunderstood (What Do They Know?).
The band has been around for a bit, but the few albums they've released were heavilly praised, and I have to agree after hearing this. Vocalist Jimmy Urine sings and screams with the best of them, and at times does a great job of just shouting incoherently, doing a much better job at it than System of a Down.
The only problem I have with the album is that it's rather short, barely touching the 30-minute mark with 11 songs, but you'll hardly notice the song lengths since they are so catchy and absorbing.
CD Rating: ****

Must Hear Tracks:
- Shut Me Up
- Straight to Video
- Stupid MF

Dope - Survive

Dope return with a simple video that sees them playing live mixed in with some visual effects. I don't know why, but they chose to mix in footage from their first video "Everything Sucks" to this one to give the video some graphical variety.
Maybe their getting back at all the members in the band that have come and gone over the years? Or maybe there's some other hidden reason behind it. Either way, the song for the video was really good and I do wonder if the rest of the album will be as good. Dope are really underated and don't get nearly as much attention as they deserve even though many rock/metal publications heap praise on them and recommend their records.
Video Rating: ***

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth (CD)

NIN's "The Downward Spiral" was the first full length CD I ever bought years ago. It was also one of the overall best CDs I ever heard also. I picked up NIN's latest album "With Teeth" cause it was said to be their best work since Spiral, but unfortunately I was really dissapointed with it. I know Trent Reznor defines the term "one man band" since he does everything himself during the recording process and there's no denying the man is a industrial musical genius.
The main problem I found was that most of the songs had too much build and no climax to them. That's what it sounded like to me. They just go on and on and on and that's it. Or we just hear Trent singing or screaming to a drum machine in the background. Nothing really as good as Downward Spiral. The only saving tracks are "Only" and "The Hand that Feeds".
You'd have to be a big NIN or industrial music fan to like this. Otherwise, it can easily be given a miss.
CD Rating: *1/2