Across Five Aprils
Life Underwater
Victory Records
41:08 – 11 Tracks
The label on the CD says: “…The “punk” of My Chemical Romance, the “hardcore” of Comeback Kid and the “emo” of Underoath.” Right there, a couple strikes against what we normally play on the Mosh Pit. MCM and “emo” Ugh. So, still to be fair, I put the CD in. It’s not quite as bad as I would have thought, not THAT emo (in the first few tracks), more punky metalcoreish. But yeah, it does get emo, has a bit of an edge, but not really what we do on the Mosh Pit anymore. As always, email or call and request it, as it is stuff that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else.
Bullet For My Valentine
Scream Aim Fire
Jive/Zomba
13 Tracks
I only have a single and sampler for this, but it’s very promising, it’s heavy, kind of technical and reminds me of what Trivium should be doing, you know catchy fast metal, with recognizable vocals, but still some abrasive screamin’ here and there. Thrashy, clean production, etc… this is their album which will make them turn the corner, or whatever clice` you want to choose for being their breakthrough album. You’ll hear more than you’ve already heard on the Mosh Pit!
Death Angel
Killing Season
Nuclear Blast
47:17 – 11 Tracks
One of my complaints with their last album, was that a lot of their tracks were kind of long, and in my opinion, they were long for the sake of being long. This album has tracks that are a bit more concise, much more like their earlier stuff. It’s fairly straightforward, yet, still catchy. It has a sound that fits with the times, yet still throws back to their old days. Death Angel are one of the Mosh Pit’s favorite bands, so we’ll be happy to put this on the air!
Farewell To Freeway
Definitions
Victory Records
42:56 – 11 Tracks
Starts off kind of metalcore, hardcore leaning, but then gets pretty emo in the vocal category. Lots of singy clean vox going on. This one is more for fans of Atreyu and Killswitch Engage… I can see that too. It’s got the heavy parts, but then goes back to the clean emo type style. It’s not too bad, just not really what we do much on the Mosh Pit. As always, request it, we’ll play it!
Grief Of War
A Mounting Crisis…As Their Fury Got Released
Prosthetic Records
44:39 – 10 Tracks
The latest entry to the new trend of old-school thrash influenced metal. They have a similar sound to more simple, heavy Death Angel. These guys are from Japan, and this CD was originally released locally in 2005. Their sound is quite refined, well produced, and yes, catchy… Name a popular, good thrash band, and you can pick out an influence here and there on this CD.
Grimbane
Let The Empire Fall
Moribund Cult
41:58 – 15 Tracks
This has the sound of that creepy Norwegian/Finnish church burning black metal. Simple, dark, evil. They are from Canada, and each band member has a special black metal one word name. That makes them even more evil! The production is decent, and this is nothing you want to play in church!
Sworn Enemy
Maniacal
Century Media
34:17 – 10 Tracks
Of all the hardcore based bands out there, Sworn Enemy has always had a cool thrashy metal edge to it and incorporated many different metal styles into their music. This album has the base of hardcore, but then cranks it up a whole bunch of notches adding some Slayeresque riffs, speed/thrash elements and well, I guess some blast beats too! As I like to mention frequently if I like it… it’s catchy too. In this case, it makes me want to air drum, air guitar and beat up an emo kid or seven.
Type O Negative
“September Sun” Single
SPV
14:21 – 2 Tracks
I was surprised to see the video for this song on Headbanger’s Ball a couple weeks ago, but then I figured they were re-releasing “Dead Again.” After opening the mail last week and seeing this CD, I was right! I really liked this CD, as it was one of my best of 2007, but I don’t necessarily agree with making fans buy a CD twice to get the extra stuff. They should allow a trade-in program. This is one of the tracks I didn’t play much, it’s a great song, but not super heavy. It is very dynamic and really gets you in a mood…. for me, I like the slow, heavy and doomy parts, overall it’s just a fun song to listen to… and no, I haven’t really read into the lyrics to even know what I’m supposed to get out of it. Then again, I don’t normally… I’ll try and at least squeeze in the edit of this song on the Mosh Pit!
Various Artists
C U LaTour Sampler
N/A
24:50 – 6 Tracks
Now this is a tour sampler that you can’t go wrong with. it’s the C.U.LaTour sampler, Ministry’s farewell tour, with Meshuggah and Hemlock. It’s got pre-released stuff from all of their respective forthcoming albums. As you may know Ministry’s final album is a cover album. “Under My Thumb” (Rolling Stones) and “What A Wonderful World (Short Fast version)” (Louis Armstrong) The latter is a fast version… with a bit of a punk influence, and of course it has the signature Ministry distorted guitar… it’s good stuff, just whetting the appetite for more cover songs by Ministry. Tech math metal fans will especially love the new Meshuggah stuff. This of course sounds like Meshuggah, so many bands lately have taken different parts from Meshuggah and made them into their own, but these are the originals, and this new stuff is as sick as ever. The Hemlock tracks aren’t bad, a little bit sludgey, but with Ministry and Meshuggah on here, you’ll probably hear those first.
Didn’t get in the Mail in time…
Genghis Tron
Board Up The House
Relapse Records