Deadlock
Wolves
Lifeforce
46:51 – 11 Tracks
Melodic death thrash sounding stuff with female clean vocals playing the normal metalcore emo guy part. The music is more scandanavian and heavy sounding than anything metalcore. The female vox add a nice different thing. Most stuff with the female vocals lately aren’t this brutal. It’s pretty cool and you’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!

Ozzy Osbourne
Black Rain
Epic
46:28 – 10 Tracks
Wow, a new album from Ozzy. It’s pretty typical Ozzy album, some heavier songs, some slower songs. The heavier songs really are pretty well put together. I mean, they are more like good, catchy hard rock songs. The production sounds good, clean and punchy. There are clearly a bunch of effects on Ozzy’s voice… but it’s not too distracting. Blasko, Zakk and Mike Bordin put on a solid musical effort here, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing some of these songs live. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit.

Job for a Cowboy
Genesis
Metal Blade
30:41 – 10 Tracks
Fast, brutal death metal here. If you like Dying Fetus or good old classic death metal, these guys are for you! Good guitar solos, fast brutal drumming, harsh brutal vocals and enough technicality to keep the metal nerds happy too. The sound is crisp and clean thanks to mixing and mastering by Andy Sneap. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!

Kamelot
Ghost Opera
SPV
44:03 – 11 Tracks
Pretty good effort from these more symphonic power metallers.  The vocals are a bit like Geoff Tate, the music stays interesting and not so formulaic.   It stays heavy enough to make it Mosh Pit worthy, and still maintains some cool prog metal fun.  You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!

Dream Theater
Systematic Chaos
Roadrunner
78:44 – 8 Tracks
As you may already know, Dream Theater is my favorite band, so in my eyes, they can do no wrong. But then again, I’m a metal programmer at a radio station, so I have to be kind of, sort of objective. When I first heard this CD, thanks to a magazine place in town, it was a quick listen and I was just looking for cool heavy stuff. That listen just told me that this new album is more of the same from Dream Theater, long drawn out songs with lots of instrumental breaks, the usual singing from James Labrie, etc. etc. Well, it is a lot of that, but upon a few more listens, as usual with these guys or the new Rush album for that matter, this album delivers well! So many layers of complexity, harmonies, melodies, all that good music stuff. The songs are actually kind of catchy and you’ll find yourself singing lines of songs to yourself or airdrum or guitaring other parts when you stop listening. This has everything for the usual DT fan, but with a new record label, they will bring in people who have previously given up on them, or just draw in brand new fans!  You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit!