Limp Bizkit - Gold Cobra - Review

It is soooo hard to review Limp Bizkit, mainly because most of us thought that one or two musics (even an whole album) are pretty damn good when we were younger. Hell, I even know a couple of metalheads who claim to hate them, even though every now and then their music pops up in their Last.fm profiles, their mix-cd’s in cars and in their Mp3 players… face it, Limp Bizkit is a guilty pleasure for a lot of people. Having said that…

This will not be a long review, mainly because there is not much to say about this piece of “work” by Limp Bizkit. Gold Cobra is an average album by their standards. We get DJ’s, we get rapping, we get the same guitar and bass sound we always got and we get the same Fred Durst we ever got over the years.
Here is the thing that bugs me. We’re in 2012 and these are guys are playing the same thing they played over, and over, and over again between 1998 and 2002. Fred Durst is still screaming into the microphone that he “doesen’t give a fuck”, he is still talking about shotguns being in his neighborhood, despite probably living in a mansion in the richest part of whatever town he is living in.

It gets boring. There is nothing new in this album. I wish I had something better to say, something more substantial, but the Limp Bizkit attitude died too long ago for anyone to care, and their music did not evolve in the slightest. Who cares if Wes Borland is back? Did he brought anything new? No, he brought the old Limp Bizkit back.

My advice? If you want to listen to Limp Bizkit, stick to the classics (yeah, I just used the word classics when talking about LP). This album is a waste of time, not because it is bad, but because it is completely unnecessary and boring. Average at best. Only die-hard fans (about 12 of them) will be interested enough not to go listen to the old tracks after hearing these.
Not recommended.

4/10

Ulver - Wars of the Roses - Review

Are Ulver still a black/avant gardwhatever metal band? Not really. This is not metal in the sense that will make metalheads pee their pants. It won’t make anyone headbang and it certainly won’t make anyone crave for a mosh pit. But still… there is something of that dark environment in Wars of the Roses.

First things first. Ulver have changed into an almost post-rock sound in this album, while making it accessible to listen to. They were already at the top of the experimental, non-conventional musical world in metal. The next step? Make it confusing. Is it dark? Yes it is. Is it oppressive in the ambient black-metal kind of way? No, it's surprisingly light in sound and dark in the atmosphere that it portrays.

Listening to this album, i found myself thinking that many of the sounds in it could be found in such different bands as Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues (Stone Angels is almost a tribute to spoken-word Moody Blues), Röyksopp (with the eletronic sounds hovering behind so many of these songs) and even a pinch of Sigur Rós.

Kristoffer Rygg does an amazing job with the clean vocals here, there is absolutely nothing i can say of bad from him. As stupid as it may seem, his voice actually soars above everything else, while at the same time never intruding on the actual music being played.

Listeners of pleasantly melancholic tones underneath and an ethereal vibe of a past in metal will no doubt like this. My favorites are by far Norwegian Gothic that actually reminds me of a cross between an 80's ambient prog rock and a movie soundtrack, and September IV, a music that has such a beautiful ethereal sound that results in being quite uplifting, only to evolve into a frenetic sound of prog-rock as time passes.

Give the album a couple of tries, there are too many layers in this wonderful work to dismiss it after just 3 tries.

I recommend it.

10/10

Why my Power/Heavy-Metal Mixtape Rocks Hard!

 

1 - Morifade - Enter the Past 06:06
Atmospheric and heavy (at least for power metal), After this EP, they hired a worse singer and the rest isn’t history!

2- Manilla Road - Necropolis 03:10
The 80’s were fun. Fuck Pro-Tools.

3- Fates Warning - Orphan Gypsy    05:59
Power prog, prog power, whatever, it works!

4- Masterplan - Heroes    03:34
Wow! It’s Michael Kiske singing the chorus! Yeah, yeah, fire, FIRE! Shut up Beavis.

5- Powerwolf - Midnight Messiah    04:13
In Romania metal listens to you!

6- Omen - Last Rites 03:41
Classic heavy/power. A slow burner.

7- 3 Inches of Blood - The Phantom Of The Crimson Cloak    03:11
King Diamond had a child with a disabled whore.

8- Fairyland - Fight for Your King    05:44
Everything is candy on Power Metal Land. Still, you’ve gotta fight. For your king.

9- Messiah's Kiss - Thunderball    04:04
Possibly about a meatball.

10- Virgin Steele - A Cry in the Night 04:05
It is I, Prince Pretty from Prettyland.

11- CIRITH UNGOL - Black Machine 04:16
Singing like a baby crow and being cool at the same time. What an achievement!

12 -Running Wild - Genghis Khan    04:13   
“The flame of badness burned inside him” Say no more!

13- Versailles - Antique in the Future    05:46
Japan. Easily more metal than North Korea.

14- Heavenly - Miracle    09:08
Cheesy lyrics, high vocals, epic chorus, great song.


Listen to the full mixtape on Youtube
Mix by
Lord of the Slaughterhouse

Journey - Eclipse - Review

Would you look at that? The dinossaurs are alive and kicking!!!
Journey come back from wherever they were hiding their good melodic rock to present us with a kick-ass awesome album. Guess what, they actually sound like a band who are not ashamed of their past. There are some hints at long lost years in the vocals and in some melodies. The thing is that they are writing awesome rock & roll, with awesome riffs… and amazing guitar solos.
At times the band actually seems happy to fool around with progressive rock of the 70’s. Trust me… this is a big deal for these guys. 

Just take a look at these songs, Edge Of The Moment is an awesome song, what really gets me going about it is the vocals and the awesome guitar solo. The chorus is just, just pure melodic rock awesomness! Chain Of Love has a that 70’s progressive light rock sound I already mentioned, but with a modern rock twist. Tantra is just a an old-school balad with those magnificent guitars I already mentioned. Resonate, another good ballad but with an awesome groove to it. She’s a Mistery is the low point of the album, its pretty damn boring that actually ends with good rock & roll, still… not enough. Human Feel is 6.43 minutes of awesomeness. Another low point is To Whom It May Concern, a poor sappy ballad that should get those old Journey fans really happy. I hate it. The album ends with Venus, a prog rock anthem of guitar, drums and keyboards.
Veredict! A very good Melodic Rock album, with some really cool musics. The vocals are cool, the guitars are awesome. Good for new and old Journey fans!

7/10