Divinity - The Singularity

Hailing from Canada, Divinity play a sort of mix between Progressive Death, Technical Death, and Melodic Death/Gothenburg with an overall spacey feels that gives the band a wholly original sound. If you are into any of the previously mentioned genres then this band is definitely one to check out. To be honest I'm pretty surprised that I haven't heard any chatter about this band at all this year, being that they released a new album on Nuclear Blast and their sound should appeal to many people. Despite this, The Singularity contains plenty of gems coated in intricate riffage enhanced by great sound editing (you can actually hear the bass sometimes!) it would be a shame to let this release go by unnoticed.

The album starts off with a bang with "Abiogenesis," a simple song mostly containing chugging on the same note that is arguably my favorite out of them all. This song sounds a bit like a futuristic war march, and if two planets were going to commence battle in the year 3000 this is what I would want to play when the troops clash. The tracks just get more complicated and technical from then on, some of the notable ones being "Beg to Consume," "Lay In The Bed You've Made," and "Embrace the Uncertain," which contain catchy choruses and perplexingly awesome riffs.

There are little faults with the album, but I'd be lying if I said I loved every song every time I listened to them. When I sat down and tried intently listening to the whole thing start to finish I ultimately became bored, but it was when I listened to the songs in chunks of three or four at a time that I enjoyed the release the most. It was also a grower for me, ultimately catching on after two listens. Despite this, The Singularity is a great and highly recommended release. 

Support The Band :http://www.myspace.com/divinitymetal

Download The Singularity :https://rs9l32.rapidshare.com/#!download|9tl5|321802457|DIVINITY_-_THE_SINGULARITY__2009_.zip|67007|R~119697FF9CAC32F5881094D88F333175|0|0

Soulfly - Soulfly

Now onto the music, the album starts with a bang in Eye for an eye. Max’s harsh vocals, Mikes interesting riffs and Rays accents make the song a smash start to the album. The album paces itself with the songs No Hope = No Fear and Bleed. While No Hope = No Fear featured more of what was on the previous track, being Palm muted guitars with Max’s harsh screams in the verses and short and simple choruses Bleed featured Fred Durst? WHAT?! Well any ways Bleed still proves to be a good song going to what seems like Nu-Metal almost (But of course this going to happen) with Fred rapping. The next few tracks offered just the same thing but with less appeal with the exception of a few groovy riffs and the tribal influenced drums the songs couldn’t compete with the start of the album. Though in Bumba Max takes a different approach by adding some Portuguese in the lyrics, but still Max’s screams get lazier and worse in every track even unbearable at times. The track Soulfly (yes, there’s a song that’s the same name as the band) brings the album a new look, not only as a instrumental track but also shows the tamer side of Soulfly, also it gives the listeners a break from Max’s vocals with progressive like guitar riffs and the gentle tapping of bongos the song takes you to paradise. The following track Umbabaruma keeps them coming with a pumped up chorus the song will have you out of your chair head banging. The songs become more and more equal as the album goes, Fire and No give excellent instrumentation with some good lyrics from Max, and also I quite like Max’s screams in both songs. Prejudice is an odd track, the song features many different artists singing with Max from different genres, an interesting idea. On the other hand Karmageddon was a complete bore fest and was unwise to set it as the album closer, as the second instrumental Soulfly was much better while this track was basically just Ray doing the same fill over and over again and not at any significant pace either.

How was the band? The band was excellent, the guitars are creative interesting and surprisingly are hardly ever repetitive, Ray is superb and shows the most consistency of any member of Soulfly, the bass is hard to hear at times but remains to be respectable while Max uses an at times nasty scream and usually just doubles up Mike on guitar, I would defiantly like to see more from Max. Though I said the guitar is hardly repetitive the guitar is usually repetitive during the end of songs making the songs blend which is not good. Sometimes the instrumentation is flat and only accented by the drums adding to the blending of songs.

In Conclusion Soulfly have created a solid peace of music but they can defiantly use improvement by adding a few accents and maybe adding Max’s clean voice. The consistency of the album is another issue as the beginning seems to give more appeal than rest of the album because of some of lesser tracks in the middle and that’s a shame. Besides that the album was a hit with me and I recommend it to thrash and metal fans since it’s a brutal head bangger.

 Review:Sputnik

Some Things About The Band 

Year Of Release :1998

Tracklist:
01. Eye For An Eye (with Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares)
02. No Hope = No Fear
03. Bleed (with Fred Durst and DJ Lethal)
04. Tribe
05. Bumba (with Los Hooligans)
06. First Commandment (with Chino Moreno)
07. Bumbklaatt
08. Soulfly
09. Umbabarauma (with Los Hooligans)
10. Quilombo (with Benji and DJ Lethal)
11. Fire
12. The Song Remains Insane
13. No (with Christian Olde Wolbers)
14. Predjudice (with Benji)
15. Karmageddon 

Members Of Soulfly :

- Max Calavera- Vocals,Guitar
- Marcello D.Rappa- Bass
- Mikey Doling- Lead Guitar
- Ray Mayorga- Drums

Support The Band : http://www.myspace.com/soulfly

Download SoulFly : http://www.mediafire.com/?ryet1xi52oz

Mastodon - The Hunter

Atlanta's progressive metal quartet, Mastodon continues kicking ass and taking names on their fifth studio album. Produced by Mike Elizondo, the band delivers a majestic, modern metal album, driven by Brann Dailor's thundering drums and the dizzying guitar work of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher. The snarl of the riffs wrapped around the explosive beat on murderous "Curl Of The Burl" almost makes, front man, Troy Sanders' metal-kissed melodic vocals feel like an afterthought, as he belts, "I killed a man because he killed my goat / I put my hands around his throat", amidst crunchy guitars.
Finger-bleeding fret work opens "Octopus Has No Friends", morphing into frantically spraying riffs encircling the shifty, dramatic tune. For all the buzzing riffs sawing their way through rolling beats on "All The Heavy Lifting", with Sanders demanding, "Just close your eyes / And Pretend that everything's fine", and classic metal chug of grimy riffs on soaring "Spectrelight", Mastodon is more interesting here when they bury treasure within the burly metal exterior. The swirling clusters of guitars tumbling around a frayed, rapid-fire beat on "Blasteroid" has a gooey southern rock core underneath the glistening layers of prog-metal roaring on top.

Frankenstein-inspired "Creature Lives" gets a more classic rock slant, complete with choir fuelled backing vocals and more elegant guitar, while the bluesy riffs of "Thickening" finds the band channeling their jazz influences for a restlessly shifting rhythm. Angular jabs of guitar on "Bedazzled Fingernails", the spacey solo in the middle of steadily sawing "Dry Bone Valley", and swirling creak of guitar winding through metal ballad "The Hunter" are all great reminders of the band's musical prowess on an album that rarely lets you forget. The album kicks the doors open with gleaming licks and livewire drums on foreboding "Black Tongue" and only lets up to pretty up their sound on the chilled closing ballad "The Sparrow", pushing the drizzled guitars in the distance a bit as if finally letting them get a well-earned breather. 

Support The Band : http://www.myspace.com/mastodon

 Download The Album : http://www.wupload.com/file/398029357/Mastodon_-_The_Hunter_

FOR PUPPY MICHEAL ROUSSIS

Children of Bodom - Relentless Reckless Forever

Your humble reviewer believes that 2003’s long-player “Hate Crew Deathroll” is Children of Bodom’s seminal moment, combining lumbering heaviness and wild abandon in equal parts, thusly exploding melodic extreme metal into a gaggle of imitators (some of whom are actually really good, so let’s not sell them short). In the eight years between “Hate Crew Deathroll” and “Relentless Reckless Forever,” Laiho and Co. have released two significantly-above-average-but-not-spectacular albums, “Are You Dead Yet” and “Blooddrunk.” So can everyone’s favorite wild child summon his inner muse (psychopath?) for Children of Bodom’s major label debut, or will “Relentless Reckless Forever” not quite reach the mountaintop?

To answer that question we have to (briefly) explore why “Hate Crew Deathroll” was so phenomenal and why the subsequent two albums weren’t quite as good – and it comes down to one simple thing: hooks. Every hook on every song on “Hate Crew Deathroll” is fired deep into our collective brains as if from a sniper rifle, lodged so deep only the devil’s surgeon could remove them, and never trading pop for heavy. “Are You Dead Yet” and “Blooddrunk” had their share of great hooks (the title tracks on both are deep sea fishing worthy), but there weren’t enough meaty hooks for the entire nine songs. “Relentless Reckless Forever” certainly has hooks, but like its two predecessors, they aren’t enough to snare the biggest fish.

The title track is a pounding, lumbering beast, but the layered guitar riff and keyboard line don’t quite mesh and we can’t get all fist pumpy and sing alongy excited like we did on “Bodom Beach Terror,” for example. “Ugly” shifts tempos and time signatures more smoothly than a rejected playboy, but even that makes it tough for us to bang along. All the elements are here for another strong Children of Bodom record, but they don’t quite work together to reach the majestic peaks that they once did.

And that’s the key point – everything is here for another strong Children of Bodom record, and “Relentless Reckless Forever” certainly is that. Laiho’s guitar easily sears the hair off our bums while Janne Warman’s keys range from casually elegant soundscapes to casually hot-like-the-sun flights of fancy. The playing from the entire group of five is tight, technical, and intense, and the nine songs range from mid-tempo sing-alongs (“Cry of the Nihilist,” “Not My Funeral”) to stop-start speed freakouts (“Ugly,” “Shovel Knockout”) and heavy crushers (the title track, “Was It Worth It?”). And as always, tongue is planted firmly in cheek.

So after breaking through heavy metal’s glass ceiling and getting signed to a major label, it is obvious that Children of Bodom has some extra financial backing for “Relentless Reckless Forever.” There’s lots of advertising, fancy digipaks, CD/DVD sets for the standard album price, and the band certainly has earned its standing as one of modern metal’s big names with consistent quality. “Relentless Reckless Forever” may not be the best Children of Bodom album ever, but while watching one of the live videos on the included DVD it becomes very clear that Laiho still sports a semi whenever he pulls on his whammy bar. And that’s totally cool, because we do too.

Highs: The interplay of Laiho’s guitar leads and Warman’s keyboard is often exhilarating.

Lows: The drumming seems to be a little less creative than on previous albums.

Bottom line: Children of Bodom delivers another excellent album in the band's major label debut.

Tracklist: 

1. Not My Funeral (4:55)
2. Shovel Knockout (4:03)
3. Roundtrip to Hell and Back (3:48)
4. Pussyfoot Miss Suicide (4:10)
5. Relentless Reckless Forever (4:42)
6. Ugly (4:13)
7. Cry of the Nihilist (3:31)
8. Was It Worth It? (4:06)
9. Northpole Throwdown (2:55)

Hellyeah - Stampede

Hellyeah - Stampede

A Protype Metal Band Of The New American Wave Metal Scene

01. Cowboy Way
02. Debt That All Men Pay
03. Hell Of A Time
04. Stampede
05. Better Man
06. It's On!
07. Pole Rider
08. Cold As A Stone
09. Stand Or Walk Away
10. Alive And Well
11. Order The Sun (Epic 2010)

Support The Artist : http://www.myspace.com/hellyeah