Sometimes when you’re listening to mainstream music, you get a craving for something a bit more aggressive. Something with a bit of kick. So, discovering Throw The Fight on Virb the other night was just the tonic.

Throw The Fight are a 5-piece from Minneapolis, and they produce a brutal but melodic brand of metal that I really enjoyed from listening to their Virb page.

The songs the feature on Virb (and MySpace) are taken from their EP The Fire Within. Endless Struggle takes a Maidenesque twin guitar attack and mixes it with a driving metal track. Sort of Sum 41 on steroids. If this type of metal is your thing, you should also check out These Apologies and Our Horizons, both fantastic tracks.

From what I hear, Throw The Fight are gaining popularity in the US:

selling over 5,000 copies of their first self-recorded e.p. Current stats for the band include over 100,000 plays and over 24,000 friends on Myspace.com, 54,000 plays on Purevolume.com

These guys are definitely worth keeping an eye on!Throw The Fight are

• Paul Kreuger – lead vocal
• Aaron Huppert – bass
• Joey Ulrich – guitar / vocals
• Cory Huppert – drums
• Ryan Baustert – guitar / vocals

I got friended on MySpace this evening by Californian rock/metal band 1RKO. I was impressed with their latest release One More Time, so I listened a bit more. Now it’s time to tell you a bit about them…

The group consists of vocalist/guitarist Simon Daniels, co-founder Bryan Spang on bass, guitarist Derek Stephens and Rich Sacco on drums.

The name 1RKO comes from the notion and the mission of re-creating the original larger than life experience that rock n roll is supposed to bring,an explosion of strength,and emotion.When asked to describe their approach to their work,they see it as a process of discovery,where you are naked,authentic,ignore trends and take the bull by the horns.

While their approach to metal isn’t exactly mould-breaking, the group are heavy hitters. They replicate that smoothly distorted, melodic rock sound that I loved as a teenager and still do today.

Read more & comment »

I was looking at Google’s Music Trends this evening and noticed that Linkin Park’s In the End was at the top of their chart. Bizarre, I thought, that’s been out for ages. As it turns out, the single was released in 2001 (the Hybrid Theory album came out in 2000).

Naturally, I headed on over to YouTube to catch the video, and I was not disappointed. The interplay between Chester Bennington’s vocals and Mike Shinoda’s rapping is absolutely fantastic, far better than anything Limp Bizkit were doing at the time. I sometimes wonder why Linkin Park didn’t go further. Fred Durst was certainly more media friendly and controversial, while the Linkin Park guys maybe come across as a bit geekier? What do you think?

Whatever, I really love this rap/metal fusion stuff. Shinoda is definitely the cooler of the two vocalists, but Bennington really wails on the chorus. In The End is simply a great song to scream whenever you’re in a terrible mood and you need to let out your frustrations. I heartily recommend it!

A bit about the video. Very sci-fi! The band are playing in a surreal desert landscape and on top of a mysterious obelisk. It’s a CGI masterpiece, gloomy and dark and brooding. The thing I loved about this type of music was that it was straightforward, heavy hitting, and no messing around with extended guitar solos. Not that I mind guitar solos!

Anyway, if you missed In The End first time around, or you haven’t heard it in a while, time to check it out again!

Did you read my review of Persistence Of Time? Sound Of White Noise sees Anthrax kick out Joey Belladonna (for artistic differences, if I remember correctly) and recruit ex-Armoured Saint frontman, John Bush and Anthrax sound much better for it!

First Impressions

Sound Of White Noise is a vast improvement on Persistence. The overall sound quality is much clearer and more modern than Persistence Of Time. The songs are more individual and catchy too. Where Persistence was very straight ahead, almost bone-headed thrash in places, it lacked grooves, refinement.

The album is based around themes of anger and hatred, in keeping with earlier Anthrax material, but I think Bush’s voice carries the songs much more effectively than Belladonna.

The Best Bits

Potters Field, an excellent intro track with a really funky riff. I can’t remember Anthrax ever attempting anything like this before. Black Lodge is the first time I’ve heard Anthrax tackle a more atmospheric type of song. The tremolo in the intro, and the subdued vocals are excellent and easily my favourite track on the album.

I love the earlier tracks in the album, especially Packaged Rebellion, Room For One More and Only. Once you get into the album, you’ll be singing along to every track. The outro vocals on Only are excellent for singing along to – really throaty and gritty!

The Worst Bits

I can’t think of a single weak track on this album! I’ve been listening to Sound Of White Noise in the car for about three weeks now and unlike Persistence, I haven’t yet begun to tire of it. I’ve been terrorising the roads of Northern Ireland for weeks, singing this at the top of my voice!

The Verdict

Despite being twelve years old (Sound Of White Noise was released in 1993), it still sounds fresh today. This is an important Anthrax album, because it marks a very successful transition between lead vocalists. Joey Belladonna had been synonymous with Anthrax for years, and the departure of such an established lead singer could have signalled the death of better bands!

Anthrax survived this and hit back with possibly the best album of their career. I haven’t heard the earlier albums Among The Living or State of Euphoria in a while, but I’m betting they haven’t aged nearly as well as this. If you’re a fan of Anthrax, you should already have this!

This review was kindly donated by The Levee Breaks blog.

This review of Anthrax’s Persistence Of Time started out differently to what you are about to read. Earlier this week, I was listening to Persistence in the car. The thrash-fest of Got The Time had just ended and H8 RED had begun. H8 RED = HATRED. “All this hatred, I can’t take it,” sings Joey Belladonna on the track. So, how long did it take me to figure out that H8 RED was actually ‘hatred’? Only 15 years! I’ve been listening to this album on and off since it was released in 1990 and only today did I make the connection! There is no excuse.

Initially, I was still impressed with Persistence. It was only when I started to think about the album for this review that I realised something: It’s nothing special.

The first few days of listening to Persistence was reliving it. I loved this album when it came out. I could sing along to the lyrics, wail along to a few of the guitar solos and generally rock along to Charlie Benante’s drumming. Maybe I’m slightly more discerning these days, but now it sounds a bit samey.

The Good Bits

Well, the major standout track on this album is Got The Time. Anthrax play this one punky, fast and don’t outstay their welcome – I think the song is less than three minutes long!

For me, the other standout tracks are Intro Into Reality/Belly Of The Beast, In My World and Keep It In The Family. There’s no real reason, just that I like these a bit more than the other tracks.

Where did it all go wrong?

Persistence Of Time was Joey Belladonna’s last ‘proper’ album with Anthrax (not mentioning Attack Of The Killer B’s). Maybe I’m tuned into this at the moment, but Belladonna’s voice on Persistence Of Time is very irritating! Many of the tracks are mediocre and have no real hooks.

This next point is purely personal, and probably comes from me living in a rural area, but the guitar sound on some of the tracks is like a tractor engine. When I was listening to this in the car, I found myself looking to see where the farmer was!

It didn’t help that I had burned a couple of early Anthrax tracks to the same CD: I Am The Law and Antisocial. The old classics sound much better by comparison, although I’d have to dig out State Of Euphoria and Among The Living to confirm this.

The Bottom Line?

Persistence isn’t the worst album ever realeased, but it doesn’t break new ground, won’t hold your attention and certainly won’t change your life. By a bizarre co-incidence, I happened to hit the Anthrax website while researching this and discovered that Belladonna is back in the band along with Dan Spitz (I didn’t know he’d even left!). There’s much consternation about this one the web – seems people actually liked John Bush! Time will tell how this one goes, but I’d go to the show if they ever land in Northern Ireland!

This review was kindly donated by The Levee Breaks blog.

Point of fact: I love to rock. I can be seen most days shooting in and out of Belfast playing air drums to whatever music is travelling with me. Second point of fact: Growing up, I never once thought Iron Maiden were cool. I always pegged them as a one-trick, denim-rock band along the lines of Status Quo.

I picked up Maiden’s greatest hits package, Edward The Great about 18 months ago from Tower Records in London, listened to it a couple of times and abandoned for a while. The disc found its way out to the car again about a week ago and isn’t showing any signs of leaving!

Spine Tinglers

Edward The Great has the unique privilege of providing two spine tingling moments, which is more than most albums! The first is definately track two, The Number Of The Beast with it’s almost whispered first verse building up into that scream, bringing the rest of Maiden thundering in. It’s hard to believe this song is 23 years old!

The second spine-tingler is the live version of Fear Of The Dark from Rock In Rio. I don’t think it’s the tightest performance ever, but the atmosphere, especially with the crowd almost drowning out vocalist Bruce Dickinson is sooooo electric! It’s an amazing performance and a great end to the album.

But what about the in-between bits?

All excellent. To be honest, I really only took a second look at Iron Maiden when bands like Sum 41 started to cite them as influences. Shallow? Probably. Anyway, most of the songs on there were familiar to me – I might not have liked them back in the day, but I couldn’t completely avoid them. With the benefit of hindsight and a touch of nostalgia, I really enjoyed the whole album. Like a reviewer on the Amazon website, I wondered why there were so many songs on there from the Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album, but didn’t dwell too much. The album rocks, that’s all you need to know!

The Worst Bits

I almost always skip the two tracks by Dickinson’s replacement, Blaze Bayley (why?). While Man On The Edge and Futureal are both competent tracks, I just don’t want to know! Even The Wicker Man is a bit of a stretch for me. I suppose none of them are ‘classic’ Maiden.

On the whole, though, I’d say this is a 9 out of 10! If I was compiling the album, I’d cut out Man On The Edge, Futureal and Wicker Man and replace them with stuff like Phantom Of The Opera, which is notably missing.

This post was kindly donated by The Levee Breaks blog.

Over the past month, there’s only one CD that’s travelled with me, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (or F.U.C.K.) by Van Halen. I first heard some of the songs when the album originally came out in 1992, but wasn’t into VH enough back then to buy the album.

Recently, I got a copy and took it out for a drive. What did I discover? A hard rockin’ album with real teeth, that’s what! VH purists knock F.U.C.K. as being one of their worst albums, but I was blown away by the sheer power and consistency of the album – you can just feel the energy on every track.

The Singles
Easing you into and out of the album are the two big singles, starter Poundcake and closing track Top Of The World. It’s hard to believe the video for Poundcake was made nearly thirteen years ago. It had the stock busty girls, but it’s best bit was every time Sammy Hagar sang loud, the microphone seemed to swell and throb which was just brilliant! I always thought Top Of The World was the weaker track, but after a few weeks, that intro riff really gets into your head and the lead break is fantastic. It’s a really heavy pop/rock track that grabs you from start to finish.

Best Bits
Needless to say, the two singles are amazing tracks. The rest of the album is excellent, particularly Judgement Day, Runaround, The Dream Is Over and Right Now. If you think about it in context, this album came out during the emergence of the ‘Seattle scene’. Although it went multi-platinium, it doesn’t get much recognition these days. But FUCK is a pounding heavy rock album which keeps the energy up throughout, by a powerful, tight and talented group who seem to be really enjoying themselves.

Songs To Skip Over
You need to be warned about the (only) two weak tracks here: Spanked and Man On A Mission. Neither do much for me and interrupt the flow of the album. Spanked, in particular, is terrible. AC/DC or Aerosmith could do a mean sex song, but it’s not Van Halen’s strongest area! 316 is the customary bit of guitar noodling from Eddie. It would normally annoy me, but serves as an extended intro to Top Of The World, so it escapes my wrath!

All in all, though, this thirteen year old record (I can’t believe it’s been that long!!) is truely excellent. If you’re revisiting your youth or simply want something to bop along to in your car, get FUCKed!

This review was kindly donated by The Levee Breaks blog.