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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Upcoming albums (April 2009)

I've been taking a look over the upcoming releases for the next few months and thought it was time to give an update on what to look out for.

Coming on Monday (27th April) the new releases that caught my attention are 'Live Volume' from Corrosion of Conformity, 'The Infection' from Chimaira and the anticipated debut album 'The Devil You Know' by Heaven and Hell - who comprise of Black Sabbath members (past and present) Tony Iommi, Geezer, Vinny Appice and Ronnie James Dio.

In May we'll be seeing albums from Green Day (21st Century Breakdown), Hatebreed (For The Lions), Black Label Society (Skullage), Marilyn Manson (The High End Of Low) as well as the sound track to the Iron Maiden documentary, 'Flight 666' (which features a variety of live tracks across a double album). I'm hoping the new Marilyn Manson album will be back to their old style as I wasn't too taken with their last album 'Eat Me, Drink Me' - though the return of Twiggy to the band may provide the return to form I'm hoping for. Also showing up in May are a couple of the collectors out there; Janes Addiction are releasing 'A Cabinet Of Curiosities' which comes with 3 CDs and a DVD covering a variety of demo and live tracks, also up are the release of most of AC/DCs back catalogue (again) this time as 'Limited Edition Fan Pack', with each seeming to come with a small collection of merchandise (stickers, key rings, etc).

Beyond May the release schedule seems a bit sketchy, with only 'Back From the Dead' by Spinal Tap and 'Feel The Steel' by Steel Panther (both out in June) catching my attention, though I'm sure this will change as we get through May.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Forgotten Classics!

I’m currently ripping my entire CD collection to my new backup device and the other day I reached the letter L - I'm one of those sad gits that has his shelf in alphabetical order. As I worked my way through the Life Of Agony back catalogue I had a notion to play their debut album River Runs Red. The very next day I picked it up on my way to work and blasted it out the car stereo – Chris Moyles didn’t get a look in that day!

To be honest I’d forgotten how fantastic this album is, it’s an absolute whirlwind of human emotion set to the backdrop of some outstanding hardcore. Strictly speaking I never thought of LOA as an out and out hardcore band, they were always a bit different from the regular scene but I wouldn’t know where to start by putting them into another genre.

This Time, Through And Through, Bad Seed, The Stain Remains...in fact the whole damn album. Absolutely brilliant. One of the most criminally unknown albums in the rock world. If you own it, go dig it out and give it a spin, it’ll still sound as great as it did in 1993. If you haven’t heard it before then get it, it’s worth taking a chance on.

It makes me wonder though, what other classics exist in my collection that I haven’t listened to for ages and have forgotten about? If you have any suggestions yourself let me know.

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