Sunday, October 22, 2006

Strapping Young Lad - The New Black (CD)

Devin Townsend is easilly one of the hardest working men in the metal world today, releasing about 25 albums in the past 10 years under various projects, and that's not including all the albums he's produced for other bands!
I'll admit I haven't heard a lot of Townsend's Strapping Young Lad other than last year's "Alien" album, but The New Black definately stands as one of the best CDs I've heard this year with it's mix of heavy speed & trash metal, such is YSL's style. I could probably call this their best album to date if I had heard the previous ones.
Front to back, I don't really have anything to complain about this one. Definately recommended.
CD Rating: ****

Friday, October 06, 2006

Disturbed - Land of Confusion

Disturbed put a nu-metal twist to this classic Phil Colins-era Genesis track, with a video directed and animated by the legendary Todd McFarlane of Spawn fame.
Much like the original video by Genesis was a cry against war, so is this version which features a faceless hooded hero who starts off falling from the sky to get chained up in a basement somewhere. We than see world leaders arguing at a round table, with a big shadowy figure who's manipulating them and getting them to invoke marshall law on their countries or something like it. The hooded hero escapes and confronts the armies, and the people unite behind him showing their 10,000 fists (like the name of the album) and go at it with the armed forces. Getting past them, they make their way to the big man pulling the strings and he gets taken out by our hero who than flies off into space.
I really liked the song more than the video, as McFarlane's animated piece can't hold a candle to the original Genesis video that used puppets from the Splitting Image studios. Still a strong video though.
Video Rating: ***

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Trivium - Anthem (We Are The Fire)

From their forth coming album "The Crusade", Trivium return with this rather nicely done party video. Unlike the Lamb of God "Redneck" video, this has a more serious tone to it. With Matt Heafy and co. crashing some high society party and starting to jam at the poolside area as moshers and headbangers come from all around to get in on the fun. Great video, and a great song too, with an anthemic sing-along bit that we see everyone get into.
Trivium are definately the future of metal.
Video Rating: ***

Lamb of God - Redneck

Who would have thought Lamb of God had it in them to do a comedy video? The video starts off with the mother of a little girl planning a birthday party for the kid, and calls up Lamb of God to play at the party! We than see the big black LoG bus turn up the driveway during the party and the LoG crew set up the stage while not really giving a crap for the guests at the party. With the stage set up, Randy "I now look like Phil Anselmo with my bald head" Blythe and co. take to the stage and jam away as only they can while shocked parents quickly leave with their kids. Video ends with Blythe taking a dive off the stage into the kiddie pool.
Funny stuff.
Video Rating: ***

Deicide - Homage to Satan

The song might be Homage to Satan, but the video for this is more like an homage to all those classic zombie movies! Starts off with this zombie dude dripping black gunk from his mouth running around the street infecting everyone with his disease and turning them into zombies as well, climaxing with a priest being chased down trapped in a dead end alley before he himself is turned into one of the undead. All this while clips of the band jamming in (what else) an abandoned warehouse a thrown threwout the video.
Nicely done video and a great death metal song too.
Video Rating: ***1/2