Getting in the ring

I'm sitting right now listening to 'Get In The Ring' by Guns'n'Roses and for a moment I let myself think "Maybe Chinese Democracy will capture the old GNR magic!". Well, we'll all have to wait until September now to find out as it seems most retailers have move the release date from 2nd April to Sept 07. Sadly, can't say I'm too surprised.

On the plus side, we've picked up a few good CDs recently, so expect a review or two soon! :)

Album roundup

It's been a slow start to the year with very few new albums catching our attention, however it looks like things are starting to pick up now. In the first few months of the year the albums of note have been Korn's "MTV Unplugged", Within Tempation's "The Heart Of Everything", Enter Shikari's "Take To The Skies" and McQueen's "Break The Silence", though not all of these will be to everyones taste. I personally question Korn's decision to release an 'unplugged' album, as a fan of most of their previous work I don't see the appeal of acoustic versions of songs that I loved for their 'Nu-Metal' sound. It always seems to me that it's an easy option for a band to gain 'artistic' points for going acoustic, but it's a distraction from the sound that actual made them popular in the first place... anyway, will stop before I get going on that one, that can be the subject of a future rant! ;)

Coming up over the next month or so we have the following hitting the shelves (and websites!):

• Type O Negative - Dead Again (19th March)
• Clutch - From Beale Street to Oblivion (26th March)
  
• Machine Head - The Blackening (26th March)
• Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy (2nd April)
• Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero (16th April)
• W.A.S.P. - Dominator (16th April)
• Annihilator - Metal (16th April)

A few on the list that I'm personally looking forward to, Machine Head and Nine Inch Nails in particular. Although I'm not bothered about it just now, Guns N Roses seem set on the 2nd April release date, though with so many slipped dates already it's probably best to wait until it's on the shelves before getting excited about it.

Annihilator

Again, in advance of a gig (this time Trivium) I was checking out a band I've never listened to before on the way home from work, support band Annihilator.

I only got half way through their Best Of compilation which covers their first 3 albums: ALICE IN HELL (1989), NEVER NEVERLAND (1990) and SET THE WORLD ON FIRE (1993).

I haven't finished listening to it so I wont pass final comment but so far it definitely falls into the 'classic thrash' category, sounding like early Megadeth and Anthrax. Some of the lead guitar work is really outstanding but as a whole I dont think the songs are as strong as anything by the other big 2. First vocalist Randy Rampage definitely has the nuts-caught-in-trouser-zip typical thrash screaming style!

http://www.annihilatormetal.com/

Clutch

When we were at the Motorhead gig a few months back I got to see and hear Clutch for the first time and I was really impressed. So much so that on a whim I bought a ticket for their own UK tour next month without really knowing much of their stuff.

So in a bid to get educated before the show I've been tracking down some of their stuff and on the way home tonight I listened to the rather excellent "Robot Hive/Exodus" album which I'd describe as a mix between Black Sabbath and jazz! It's not for everyone (as my Motorhead companions will testify to) but I love bands like this who offer something a bit different.

I'm looking forward to the new album From Beale Street To Oblivion due out in the UK on 26-03-2007 before they hit the clubs.

www.pro-rock.com

Top 10 albums of 2006

A little later than expect, we now have what we consider to be the top 10 albums of 2006.

1. Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death
2. Trivium - The Crusade
3. Motorhead - Kiss Of Death
4. Cradle Of Filth - Thornography
5. Slayer - Christ Illusion
6. Body Count - Murder 4 Hire
7. Lacuna Coil - Karmacode
8. Chrome Division - Doomsday Rock N Roll
9. Sick Of It All - Death To Tyrants
10. Logan - Cruel Little World

For us there were a few surprises in the list. At the top of the list, the team had believed that Trivium were going to be the clear winners with their fantastic album The Crusade, however, despite being at the top of the list for two of the team, they were further down the list for the third member. This gave Iron Maiden the opportunity to win it, being in the top 3 for each of us, which put them 1 point ahead in the final count.

It is good to see Motorhead hit number 3 in the list, still producing fantastic albums after all this time, further justifying their reputation as Legends! Cradle of Filth and Slayer both continue to release solid albums (even if CoF manage it more regularly ;) ). Body Count's long awaited return has proven worth the wait with a very respectable No6 position in the list, I'm hoping it won't be so long until their next album. Lacuna Coil pull themselves into the seventh position, just ahead of Chrome Division at 8. Hardcore legends Sick Of It All pull themselves into the number 9 position with more frantic action, while closing the top 10, beating a lot of competition, are Logan with their 3rd self-produced album, Cruel Little World.

Ginger live

I managed to catch my old favourite Ginger (of The Wildhearts fame) at a local venue this week and as usual, a good nights entertainment was provided. As I've said many times, I rate Ginger as the most underrated rock songwriter ever!

The night kicked off with The God Damn Whores which featured (oddly) all 4 members of Gingers band, including the man himself on bass while Jon Poole took up guitar and vocal duties, Jase Edwards (formely of Wolfsbane) was on lead guitars. Their set was good enough to convince me to part with £10 for the CD which sadly has an appalling sound mix (6/10 for the album).

RoboChrist may be the strangest band I've ever seen live, if it even was live. Think industrial metal with more than usual samples and a nutter running around stage playing a guitar I'm not convinved was switched on, occassionaly singing into a microphone I'm not convinced was swithed on. I'm yet to be convinced this was a 'live' performance!

Ginger himself was on top form, interacting with the crowd and piling through some top anthems from his back catalogue like So Into You, Supersonic Shake, Yeah Yeah Yeah, Only A Problem and 29 X The Pain. There were a good few new songs from his new solo album Yoni (out this week) which sounded good enough to justify tracking it down later this week.

If you get the chance, I'd recommend trying to catch the tour (8/10)

Digital Rights Vs User Rights

Since DRM (Digital Rights Management) is an issue to everyone that loves music and movies, I thought the article I came across on the tech website Ars Technica would be relevant to everyone.

I'm sure anyone that is reading this has come across DRM in one form or another, this could be anything from only being able to put your iTunes Store music onto a handful of devices, not being able to copy a DVD to your portable media player or even just reading the news about the Sony Rootkit scandal.

DRM is about controlling how movies and music can be used, what devices they can play on, how often they can be played, etc. As an example, it is DRM that prevents music purchased from Apples iTunes Store from being played on any MP3 player except an iPod. It does have it's uses, however the primary argument is that it is to fight piracy, however every time something new comes along in the DRM world, crackers usually have it beaten in a very short space of time rendering it next to useless. So who does DRM actually affect? It doesn't affect people who want copied movies and music, they can find it DRM-less without much trouble. It affects the people that actually pay for their music and movies - is it even possible to buy a DVD these days without having to sit through 4 minutes of anti-piracy 'awareness' messages each time you want to watch it? You can be sure that those with the pirate copy do not have to sit through that, only those that have actually bought the thing have to be treated like criminals!

I would recommend that anyone who likes there movies and music have a read at the following article, it is important that people know about these things before they have the chance to become too overpowering and controlling.

Privately, Hollywood admits DRM isn't about piracy:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070115-8616.html