This week the UK has suffered some of the worst riots in recent history. Opportunist thuggery, or the lashing out of a group of people, excluded from society as a result of political and societal elitism. After all, it was Thatcher that taught us that society does not exist. Now is the time people turn to answers for why this happened, and it’s not something I can honestly condemn. Dismissing the last days as mindless violence is futile and will never get us to the root of the problem. Is it a lack of God in today’s Britain (fuck off), a breakdown of family unity, or the reaction to what is essentially a continuous swap between two parties that are nothing but different shades of shit, both of which support the same agenda?
I can’t pretend I have the answers, but what I do have is some honest reviews of some new music. So if you are sick of hearing about riots, sick of hearing from quasi-intelligent individuals discussing the alleged problems and answers to the world’s problems, why don’t we unite in listening to some kick ass Metal? And if that isn’t enough, we can also mock the shit out of some crappy ass music too.
Staind – Paper Wings
What’s this, another Staind song? Do we really need another one? This one sounds like the last one, only not quite as bad. Still bad, but not quite as much. ‘Paper Wings’ is a song about not literally having paper wings, it’s metaphor instead. How clever. I wonder if vocalist Aaron Lewis went to Harvard.
Stillwell – You Can’t Stop Me
Talking about music still being bad, Stillwell are still, well, shit. ‘You Can’t Stop Me’ is a fusion of Funk, Nu Metal, and ‘bro Metal’. In fact, calling them Metal is an insult. Calling them music at all is an insult. I don’t know about you readers, but I’ve had to book an appointment with the nurse to have my ears syringed to get rid of all the crap clogging my ears after listening to that track. Stillwell, they can’t stop releasing shit.
Trivium – Built to Fall
This week saw the release of Trivium‘s fourth album, In Waves. I reviewed it and gave it two and a half skulls out of five. To be honest, I think 2.5/5 even was being kind, but what can you do… There was a few decent songs on the album, and those stopped the album from getting a lower rating from myself. Unfortunately, the latest song to be released to radio, ‘Built to Fall’, is not one of these “few decent songs”. It’s not terrible per say, but the tracks comes of as being incredibly generic at times. Heafy’s vocals are at their more annoying tone, and overall the song is fairly bland. Instrumentally, it’s not bad, but could be better. Trivium fans may fap themselves silly to this song, I don’t know, but what I hear is a song that is certainly lacking that extra ‘umph’. You may want to check it out if this kind of music is your thing.
Thinning The Herd – Oceans Rise
Guido reviewed the album Oceans Rise by Thinning The Herd earlier today. Now, I had never heard of the band before, personally. But Guido’s review intrigued me, so I just had to check out the album. The title track, ‘Oceans Rise’, is a fantastic slowed down, catchy piece of Groove/Doom Metal. I also agree with Guido’s review, the main riff is awesome and could have been written by Tony Iommi in his hay day.
Anthrax – The Devil You Know
Last month, Anthrax released a killer “comeback” track from the new album, Worship Music. The song, ‘Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t’ had a fantastic catchy and old school vibe to it. The track could have easily been released by the band back in the 80’s, when Anthrax were in their prime. This week saw the release of another song from the new album, called ‘The Devil You Know’. The track is similar in direction, but unfortunately doesn’t quite have the same impact of ‘Fight ‘Em Til You Can’t’. Nevertheless, the song is still catchy and brings with it much promise for the new album.
