God Lives Underwater - Life in the So-Called Space Age

It’s been quite a while since I’ve listened to this album…I’d forgotten how good some of these songs are.
This album gave God Lives Underwater their only “serious” hit: From Your Mouth. This song got fairly serious airplay for about a year before God Lives Underwater vanished from the public consciousness.
Part of the reson for thir disappearance may be the overall flow of this album. It starts oyt pretty energetic, but quickly starts to bog down. By the end of the album, you’re listening to a bizarre, extremely repetetive ambient techno piece.
This album’s worth picking up cheap, if only for the first handful of songs. Just be careful - it gets pretty dull before long.

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Ahhhh…Good ol’ Type O. Among metal bands, only they would cover a song from Hedwig and the Angry Inch…and it’s done in Type O s Classic Gothadelic style.
I was fortunate enough to see Type O Negative in concert twice afer this album. The first time, when they had Lacuna Coil opening, the concert was awesome. I went home exhausted, deaf, and a little battered. (I keot falling into the mosh pit).
The seonc time, though - co-headlining with Cradle of Filth, with Moonspell opening, was EPIC! Not only was the entire bill awesome, Type O successfully “bazinga’d” the audience: Normally, when the house lights come down before Type O tale the stage, the audience starts chanting, “You Suck!” (it’s a tradition - I’ll tell you more about it when we get to “O”). About 2 or 3 “you sucks” into the chant, a rotating red light comes on, and the theme from “COPS” starts playing. While the audience laughed, the band took the stage, bedecked in orange jumpsuits.
Welcome to the strange world of Type O Negative.

Korn - Life is Peachy

This is definitely the weakest album that Korn has ever produced. I know that I liked it at the time (I did buy it, after all), but now…not so much.
Admittedly, I did like A.D.I.D.A.s. when I was a teenager, but it;s that kind of song. It’s the kind of thing that appeals to an adolescent. The rest of the album feels like Korn focused too much on the visceral sound, at the cost of style.

KMFDM - Light (single)

Best. Single. Ever.
This single contains 9 different versions of the song Light. None of these nine tracks is the album track. Ironically, it’s the fact that it’s the same song nine times that makes this single so great. These nine versions of Light are just different enough that you don’t ever get bored with it.
Now that’s skill.

Liquid Tension Experiment - Liquid Tension Experiment

Liquid Tension Experiment - Liquid Tension Experiment II

Liquid Tension Experiment started as a side project by Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. Three quarters of this band would end up being members of Dream Theater - Jordan Rudess and John Petrucci also played in LTE. Because of this, bits of LTE songs are often incorporated into Dream Theater concerts.
Interesting fact: Dimebag Darrell was invited to take part, but he was not able to due to schedule conflicts. Too bad…
This music is nearly all instrumental, which is extremely awesome. When you let a bunch of top-quality musicians rock together like this, the sky is indeed the limit.

Hammerfall - Glory to the Brave

As I recall, we’ve discussed Hammerfall once or twice before. I remember scrambling to find just the right way to describe why I like listening to Hammerfall. Yes, they’re an epic power metal band, but there are hundreds of bands like that scattered across Europe (where metal lives!). I think I’ve figured it out.
Have you ever seen Rock Star? You know, the movie that (somewhat ironically) featured Mark Wahlberg as the singer for a heavy metal cover band who ends up singing for the band that he idolizes? Well, I’ve come to realize that Hammerfall reminds me of Steel Dragon, the band from Rock Star. This, in turn, means that Hammerfall really represents the NWOBHM bands from the 1980s that are (apparently) their inspiration.
By the by…if you didn’t know, NWOBHM was the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal” that took place in the 70s and 80s; bands like Iron Maiden, Judas priest, Diamond Head…you get the idea.

Guns N’ Roses - GN’R Lies

You know, I’m not entirely sure why this album is on my iPod. As I listen to it, I’m remembering that I never really cared for it. “Chinese Democracy” aside, this is easily GN’R’s weakest album. Particularly ludicrous is Patience. Think about that for a moment - Axl Rose…singing that “all we need is just a little patience.” To quote Robin Williams, “That’s like Idi Amin looking at Gandhi and going, ‘You are too intense.’”
Wow, this one is just…bad. I’ll be removing it from iTunes tonight. Ugh.

Go Simpsonic With The Simpsons (Soundtrack)

What better way to rinse the foul taste of “GN’R Lies” from my mouth than The Simpsons? Ahhhhhhh….. From the moment Danny Elfman’s theme starts playing, I feel better.
This is actually the second Simpson’s soundtrack album, the first being “Songs in the Key of Springfield.” The Simpsons soundtracks always make me chuckle, and the songs get themselves stuck in my brain all the time. Whimsical satire, thy master be Alf Clausen.
Notable tracks on this CD (there are a total of 53 tracks) include:

Slayer - God Hates Us All

From whimsical satire, we progress directly to in-your-face spite. Slayer was the group that really brought the rage into thrash metal, and on “God Hates Us All,” they continue to do so.
The title of this album isn’t an anti-religious statement (I was as surprised as you are), it’s more an expression of frustration. Watch the news for an hour, and the true meaning of “God Hates Us All” will reveal itself.
Interesting fact: the original cover for this album was deemed “too graphic” for mere mortals, so a slip cover was created for in-store display. The slip cover featured a pattern of crosses, the band’s name, and the album title in gold on a plain white background. The “actual” cover featured a bible with nails driven into it, blood spattered on it, and “Slayer” burned into the cover.

God Lives Underwater - God Lives Underwater

This is the debut EP from God Lives Underwater. It features the song No More Love, which was also featured on their first full-length album, “Empty.”
God Lives Underwater’s music is interesting. It sounds like a combination of the synth-pop of the 80s (think Depeche Mode) and the grunge rock of the 90s. The combination produces something that sounds like an oddball cousin to industrial. Future albums would better incorporate the electronics - on most of these songs, it sounds like the band was still struggling to pull it all together.

Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet

At last, we get to the Crash Test Dummies album that most people are at least aware of. This is the album that gave the world Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, the song that reached #2 on the American charts in its time.
After hearing the song a few times, I decided that I liked it enough to buy the album…see what these Dummies were all about. I was impressed. This is a very good album, and directly responsible for my acquisition of the remainder of the Dummies’ catalog. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm is, in my opinion, one of the weakest tracks on this album. It’s good, but the rest of the album is even better. The overall tone of this album is rather playful, even a bit whimsical on songs like How Does a Duck Know.
My favorite song on this album is When I Go Out With Artists. Why? Well, let’s just let the lyrics speak for themselves:

If I could see
If I could see
If I could see all the symbols, unlock what they mean
Maybe I could
Maybe I could
Maybe I could meet the artists, get to know them personally

Godsmack - Godsmack

I remember getting this one for Xmas. It was good then, and it remains good now.
There are a few moments on this album that really stand out for me, even a decade later. The “radio” intro on Moon Baby reminds me of White Zombie - it created a fun “Orson Welles” feeling to get the ball rolling. There’s also the intro to Keep Away. Every time I hear it, I’m reminded of Filter’s Hey Man, Nice Shot. The main riff in Time Bomb reminds me of Nine Inch Nails’ Last…except the bass line, which echoes White Zombie’s More human Than Human.
Hm. I never thought of all these things all together like that…maybe Godsmack was wearing their inspiration on their sleeve on this one. Regardless, I like this album. It helped to resurrect interest in metal after the grunge era (you may have noticed that I’m something of a metalhead).

Cradle of Filth - Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder

When light no longer rose to kiss me
I swore to tear Heaven asunder
As flights of fallen angels wished me
Godspeed on the Devil’s thunder

With this verse, Doug Bradley (You know him as Pinhead from Hellraiser) introduces us to Cradle of Filth’s newest (as of this writing) album.
“Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder” is a concept album, telling (in Cradle’s inimitable style) a story of Gilles de Rais, a 15th century Breton knight, companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc, and alleged serial killer. Fertile ground for a Cradle album, no?
Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine about excellence in drumming (I pay a lot of attention to drumming, because I’m so horrible at it), and he suggested that I pay close attention to the drummer on this record. Funny how soon the opportunity presented itself. Remember the name Martin Skaroupka. This man really knows his way around a drum kit, and he doesn’t settle for just being a timekeeper. This makes him an excellent addition to Cradle of Filth’s ever-evolving take on heavy metal.

Emigrate - Emigrate

Emigrate is a side project from Richard Kruspe (Rammstein’s lead guitarist). Less industrial than Rammstein, and with lyrics in English, this is definitely a little something different from an established artist.
He seems to take inspiration from everywhere. My World is reminiscent of the Butthole Surfers, while You Can’t Get Enough sounds a lot like Tiamat.

Eminem - The Eminem Show

Ow. I think I just brained my damage.
In all seriousness, though, Eminem can be pretty damn interesting. His skill with lyrics is indisputable, despite his tendency to “regress” to either childish humor or to the violence and misogyny that characterize so much rap music. I quite enjoy The biting commentary of songs like White America…not so much the juvenile misogyny of songs like Superman. I think I’m going to have to “cut the fat” - the childish crap’s gotta go.

God Lives Underwater - Empty

I first discovered God Lives Underwater via the Columbia House catalog (yeah, I got suckered in). I don’t remember the specifics, but something about the way they described this album really caught my eye. A few weeks later, I heard part of one of their songs (I believe it was All Wrong) in the store where I worked. About a week or so later, this CD arrived on my doorstep.
God Lives Underwater bridge the gap between rock and industrial. Imagine taking a good grunge rock band, and mixing in the kind of electronics one would find on a good industrial album. Kid of like Orgy, but not as highly polished.

Eminem - Encore

Wow, back already. That was fast.
There’s really nothing more to say - “Encore” and “The Eminem Show” are like two halves of some double album. Everything I said up there applied here as well. Some good, some poor, need to cut.

Mudvayne - The End of All Things To Come

If you don’t know of this album, what rock were you hiding under in 2002? I swear, it was impossible not to hear World So Cold then. Not that I’m complaining - it’s a damn fine song.
As far as describing Mudvayne goes, I’m going to have to describe them as “melting pot metal.” A little nu-metal, a little black metal, maybe a pinch of thrash…they seem to take influence from damn near anywhere, and mash it all together into a very complicated form of heavy metal.

Rollins Band - The End of Silence

What do you get if you combine punk rock, heavy metal, a touch of jazz, and a vocalist with a penchant for angry yet insightful rants? If the answer isn’t obvious…
“The End of the Silence” was the follow-up to “Weight” (the album you’ve most likely heard of). Unfortunately, the success previously achieves by Liar was not to be realized again - The Rollins Band just wasn’t something that “the mainstream” was prepared to deal with. Too bad - they missed out.
By the way, am I the only one who thought of Spinal Tap upon seeing a track titled Blues Jam?