Time and music have a funny relationship. In one way, it seems like just yesterday that I was listening to Appetite for Destruction for the first time. But when you stop and put a pencil to it, it’s actually been seventeen years.

It’s amazing that Guns N’ Roses’ legacy still remains today. After releasing an album, an EP, an album of covers, and a double album, the band disintegrated. By the time the band released “You Could Be Mine,” Steven Adler (drums) was out, Izzy Stradlin (guitar) was missing, and the band had added Dizzy (on keyboards). Five years after the band exploded, they imploded.

Guns N’ Roses “officially” broke up in late 1993, rougly ten years ago. For half of that time, we’ve been hearing about Chinese Democracy, Axl Rose’s new album with an all new GN’R lineup. By playing life a couple of times and leaking a song snippet or two to a couple of radio stations, Axl has managed to keep his band in the news despite the lack of a new album. The ex-Gunners have managed to use this exposure to their advantage as well, recruiting Scott Weiland (ex-Stone Temple Pilots) as a vocalist and calling themselves Velvet Revolver. Despite all these bands writing all this music, no one’s released a damn thing.

Until now. Universal Music proudly presents Guns N’ Roses Greatest Hits (Volume One, no doubt).

GN’R officially released five albums — none of them out of print or difficult to find. Fans of the band who already own all five albums will be disappointed to find no new material here. Greatest Hits consists of the band’s big radio singles, and a few cover tunes. If you were a fan of “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise City” from Appetite for Desctruction, you’re be one happy rocker. If you were a fan of other songs (like “Mr. Brownstone”, “Anything Goes” and “Rocket Queen”) you’ll be SOL here.

With only room for fourteen songs, it seems like a waste to include tracks like “Ain’t it Fun,” “Since I Don’t Have You” and “Sympathy for the Devil” on the disc.

I listened to the entire thing and enjoyed it thoroughly. I miss Guns N’ Roses and can’t wait to hear what both camps have in store for us in the future. However, the world has changed a lot since 1987. For the price most double albums (and many single ones) you can buy a CD-Burner (if, for some reason, your computer didn’t come with one). If you’re any sort of GN’R fan you already own the albums, and if you own the albums you can create this one. If you’re not a collector, save your cash and wait for both Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver’s new albums.

You know, I’ve actually been to Billings, Montana. I don’t know what there is to be so angry about. Seemed like a nice place to me. Try telling that to Grudge, the latest metal band hailing from the beautiful northwest.

After popping Grudge’s debut album Forgiveness into my CD player, I thought it started out sounding like most of the other nu-metal albums I’ve heard recently. By the end of the second song, I had written off the band as yet another hard-alternative band.

How wrong I was. Once Grudge gets their radio singles out of the way, they begin to rock.

Fans of classic metal, double-bass, and chunk-rock will enjoy this disc. Even during the first couple of songs on the disc, you can feel the momentum slowly building, churning. Once Grudge gets the ball rolling, they push it fast and hard all the way to the finish line, 44 minutes and 10 tracks later.

Traces of Corrosion of Conformity, Sevendust, and Faith No More can be heard throughout the disc, even though they really don’t sound like any of those bands. The vocal work on the disc is very emotional, and even the growling is stylish. The fretwork covers a lot of ground, everything from palm-muted grooves to 80’ish solos. Grudge’s drumming reminded me a lot of Chaos AD-era Sepultura, with lots of short bursts of double bass and constant grooving.

“Hate Me”, “Suck Factor”, “12 Gauge”, and “Pissed Sick” all stand out as outstanding tracks. I’d recommend the disc for any Staind fans who are looking for something just a touch heavier. Any fans of pre-Korn metal will definitely enjoy the album. As long as these guys can stay pissed off and have something to write about, I think they’ll do just fine in today’s metal scene.

01. Forgiveness
02. Panaphobic
03. Pissed Sick
04. New Seed
05. Carni
06. 12 Gauge
07. Suck Factor
08. Wave of Hate
09. Filth
10. Hate Me

For work yesterday I ended up spending eight hours in my car (round trip to Dallas and back). While some people think of that as a pain in the ass, I prefer to think of it as getting paid 34.5 cents a mile to listen to new music and come up with reviews!

The first disc that worked it’s way into my changer (and has since worked it’s way back out) was the self-titled release from Florida-based Groovenics. Both their bio and website proclaim that the Groovenics are “The future of heavy music as we know it. If this is the future of heavy music, then please dear God, kill me now so that I may live in the past forever.

I hate to start out right off the bat by picking on a band’s bio because I really feel that a band’s sound should talk louder than their bio – however, the beginning of their bio says that fans of “Incubus, Mr. Bungle, A Perfect Circle and Deftones” should enjoy their music. First of all, I am a fan of Mr. Bungle, A Perfect Cirle, and the Deftones, and the Groovenics should not even consider themselves in the same ballpark as those bands. Second of all, I think this band sounds *exactly* like Incubus. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t think of Incubus as “the future of heavy music as I know it”. In fact, as of this writing, Incubus has the number one video on VH1. Incubus, Groovenics, and anyone else who sounds like those two bands do not constitute the future of heavy music. To be honest, I don’t think they consitute the future of much of anything.

Their online biography also mentions that “each member [of the band] draws from their own pool of stylistic influences, tapping into metal, punk, funk, pop and electronica.” Can’t argue with that; there’s plenty of punk, funk, pop, and electronica thrown in all over the place. An older website I found that pays tribute to them says that they combine “hardcore, jazz, industrial, ska, hip-hop, punk, latin, surf rock, and anything else they can get their hands on.”

Apparently combining “hardcore, jazz, industrial, ska, hip-hop, punk, latin, and surf rock” sounds a lot like Korn, because that’s what the majority of the guitars sound like on this album. The Groovenics have adopted the well known “feedback” sound – You know, guitar tracks that go “chunka-chunka WAAA, chunka-chunka WAAA-WAAA.” The majority of the songs do in fact remind me of Incubus. The drum and bass work are solid and provide a good platform for the rest of the band to build on, but the heavy keyboards and weak guitar don’t do much to take the music up a level. The vocal work is probably the most annoying thing on the record – sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s awful. K*rl Michaels (I’m sure his friends knew him when he was just Karl) takes the most annoying parts of Serj Tankian’s (System of a Down) vocal style and multiplies them to new heights. At one point, I actually thought that Michaels was doing a Jim Carrey impersonation. His singing at times is decent, but his screaming gets old. Fans of the genre may enjoy the album, but not being a fan of the band, nothing jumped out at me and drew me into their world.

Like most new bands currently trying to break ground, the band has a spectacular website online. www.groovenics.com has a ton of pictures, songs, multimedia, desktop wallpapers, and other goodies out there waiting for you. I found the website to be much more entertaining than the CD. Both the website and the packaging of the CD are very professional and clean in appearance, and do a good marketing job.

Groovenics follow the current trend of including a nu-metal version of an 80’s classic by tacking on their version of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” I’m all for covering old classics (I rather enjoyed Alien Ant Farm’s recent version of “Smooth Criminal”), but for some reason this one doesn’t do anything for me. The bottom line with it is, it’s not any better than the original. Screaming over and adding distortion to old 80’s songs doesn’t necessarily make them better.

As for the rest of the songs, there’s no sense in me going through and ripping each one apart individually. The overall vibe of the music is not as “heavy” as bands like, say Linkin Park or Papa Roach. Is the band talented? Yes. The songs show strong pop sensability and will give lots of young teenage boys and girls the pseudo-angst they need to make it through junior high. The songs have a lot of “rapping” over the verses and screaming during the choruses, a definite pattern which much be followed in the nu-metal world. However, if you’ve been into music for any length of time and “know” music, you’ve heard this before – and you didn’t care much for it the first time, either.

People won’t be talking about the Groovenics’ second album. In fact, in a year, they won’t be talking about this one either. Groovenic’s self-titled disc is a small fish in a big sea of nu-metal crap. From what I’ve found on the internet, it looks like they’re a pretty good live band and have a pretty large following in West Palm Beach. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that’ll be enough to take them to the top. If their sole idea of marketing is to target the metal crowd, they should probably rethink that plan very quickly. If, however, they can get one of their acoustic/electric songs played on TRL just once, the sky will probably be the limit and we’ll be stuck hearing this band for a long time. The Groovenics have a specific market in mind – angry youth. Kids who are angry enough to want to rock but are too young to know who Max Cavalera are will be the most likely to pick this disc up.

Harmless rock intended for nu-metal fans. Not, however, the future of heavy music.

01. Just Right
02. Windchill
03. Teach Me
04. RAM
05. Spooky
06. Shiver
07. Scratch and Sniff
08. She’s a Freak
09. Chopsticks
10. Superstar
11. Booty Barn
12. Get it Started
13. Pour Some Sugar On Me

I’m sure somebody somewhere thought Six Feet Under covering AC/DCs Back in Black album in its entirety was a good idea. After all, AC/DC’s 1980 album is a classic example of sex, drugs and rock and roll with a side order of violence. No stranger to those same topics (as heard on songs such as Burning Blood, Revenge of the Zombie, and Feasting on the Blood of the Insane), it would seem as through Six Feet Under and AC/DC’s Back in Black would be a match made in Hell. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way things went terribly wrong.

AC/DC fans have been split for more than a quarter century now between Bon Scott (AC/DC’s original front man) and Brian Johnson, his replacement. After Scott left the band (and the planet; he choked to death on his own vomit), Johnson joined the band and as a tribute to all that is Bon Scott, the band (along with a little help from Mutt Lange) wrote and recorded the bands seventh studio album, Back in Black. Johnson’s vocal style and delivery differed from Scott’s, and fans have been arguing over who was better ever since.

In a distant third would be Chris Barnes, lead growler of Six Feet Under and former lead singer of Cannibal Corpse. Barnes’ vocal delivery consists of little more than one long monotonic grunt. And, at least for a few minutes, it works; lines like “You’re only young, but you’re gonna die”, and “if you’re into evil you’re a friend of mine”, sound convincing enough. But as the album goes on, Barnes’ death metal delivery becomes less and less applicable. By the time we reach Given the Dog a Bone, the shtick seems silly; by You Shook Me All Night Long, it just seems stupid.

Even worse than Barnes is guitarist Steve Swanson, who simply isnt as good as Angus Young (who is?). Swanson attempts to hide the fact by hiding behind frequently pitch-bending notes and plenty of whammy solos, but the difference is blatantly obvious in well-known riffs such as the opening of You Shook Me All Night Long. Even worse is the heavy distortion and dropped tuning, which creates a muddy mess and completely strays from the dynamics AC/DC originally delivered. While Swanson is obviously a talented guy, the mix does him no favors. Terry Butler (bass) and Greg Gall (drums) more or less stick to the original material.

Six Feet Under could have done something really neat with this tribute and made these songs their own by adding double bass or changing the tempos perhaps. Instead, they recorded ten fairly straightforward cover songs and growled over the top of them. I cant imagine either AC/DC or Six Feet Under fans getting a kick out of Graveyard Classics 2 more than once. Its like one of those weird, alternate universe things comic book fans drool over like if Superman and Han Solo hung out for a day. At the end of the day, Han Solo and Superman dont really have that much in common. Then again, neither do AC/DC and Six Feet Under.

The sole point of reviewing a CD is, for me, the reviewer, to try and convey to you, the reader, what a CD sounds like. Many reviewers talk about what genre a band is in. Others try and describe a CD’s sound by comparing it to bands the reader may already be familiar with. (“This sounds like Metallica with a little Britney Spears thrown in,” for example.) With that in mind, let me tell you what Godflesh’s latest CD, Hymns, sounds like.

When I was about eight years old, my father decided to put a new engine into his Blazer – a big block 454 out of a ’70 Corvette Stingray. After a couple of months of working on the project, it was time to test everything out. It was the middle of December. With dad in the truck and me standing in front of it, he started the engine. The headers weren’t hooked up, and it was SO loud. Common sense told me to try and stuff my mittens into my ears – but I didn’t. I stood there, listening to the excrushiatingly loud “buh-buh-buh-buh” of the idling engine and feeling the rumble in my stomach, which felt SO good. Dad yelled something to me out the window, but all I could do was smile, wince, and give him the thumbs up.

That’s what Godflesh sounds like.

A slow, heavy, crushing wall of pain that tickles and upsets your stomach at the same time. That’s Hymns. Those of you who weren’t thrilled with the experimental sound on the last couple of albums (SoLaH and Us & Them) will be glad to find Godflesh have returned “home”. By keeping the riffs simple, the guitars tuned down, the drums wonderful and the vocals in your face, Godflesh have churned out a winner. I’ve heard the word “bleak” used to describe the overall album sound – accurate, I’d say. Certainly not an album I’d want to listen to while alone and with a loaded gun in the house.

You want band comparisons? Maybe slower Prong, maybe heavier Clutch, with a little Melvins thrown in for good measure. When some people hear a blast beat they say, “that’s heavy!” For me, when you hear a six minute song that is filled with guitars turned down to B and matching bass, constantly licking and teasing you into thinking it’s going to speed up or explode or climax at any moment, eventually rewarding you with a massive onslaught of brutal mass … THAT’S heavy. Quit thinking about 130 beats a minute and respect 13.

Much of the new album has clean vocals, which marks a bit of a direction change from the last few albums. There’s a split between drum machine tracks and live drums, but to tell you the truth I had trouble telling

which tracks were which. The guitars and bass mix together in a dirty low end swamp, but you can still tell them apart in the mix.

The CD booklet leaves quite a bit to the imagination. The photography of sparks, swirls, and flames is interesting, but I’d trade a lyric sheet for it in a second. In the 8 page booklet you get a track listing, a picture of the band, a “thanks” page and a lot of pictures of fire. The Godflesh website has a collection of lyrics as interpreted by listeners, but nothing official by the band.

Godflesh isn’t for everybody. You can’t dance to it. You can’t even walk to it, really. Everytime the CD’s on I end up stomping around the house very slowly like Godzilla in one of those old films – much to the enjoyment of my wife.

01. Defeated
02. Deaf Dumb and Blind
03. Paralyzed
04. Anthem
05. Voidhead
06. Tyrant
07. White Flag
08. For Life
09. Animals
10. Vampires
11. Antihuman
12. Regal
13. Jesus

One of the most popular rap acts of the mid-1980s was DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. Lighthearted hits such as Parents Just Don’t Understand and Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble introducted the duo’s family-friendly style of rap to the masses through radios everywhere, and in 1998 the pair appeared on the pilot episode of Yo! MTV Raps, elevating the duo’s status to Beastie Boys/Run DMC levels. In 1989 the group won the first rap Grammy ever.

Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince’s Platinum & Gold Collection is just one of three greatest hits collections released by record companies over the past few years. Others include Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince – Greatest Hits and Very Best of DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. All of these have similar tracklistings, and should be available in the bargain bin of your choice.

Younger fans of the genre may not remember pre-gangster rap artists such as the Fresh Prince, who bordered on novelty act with hits such as Parents Just Don’t Understand, Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble, I Think I Can’t Beat Mike Tyson and A Nightmare on My Street. Humorous lyrics and non-abrasive beats made the duo accessible for all ages. The group’s silly music videos appealed to younger fans while the humorous and fluid rhymes kept older crowds entertained. With the group’s overall light tone it is easy to overlook how good DJ Jazzy Jeff actually was; a pioneer of the turntable field, Jeff’s skills are highlighted throughout the disc.

No Fresh Prince compilation would be complete without the group’s massive hit single Summertime, which appears here in its original format (previous packages have contained remixes or edits). Summertime hit #1 on the US R&B charts in 1991 and earned the group their second Grammy.

The rest of the collection’s songs are pulled equally from the group’s five studio albums, from 1987’s Rock the House to 1993’s Code Red. Conspicuously missing are Will Smith’s solo efforts (Gettin’ Jiggy with it, Men in Black, Welcome to Miami, Just the Two of Us, Wild Wild West, etc.) For those you’ll need to pick up the first of presumedly multiple solo Will Smith Greatest Hits albums.

01. Parents Just Don’t Understand
02. A Nightmare on My Street
03. Summertime
04. Boom! Shake the Room
05. Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble
06. I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson
07. I’m All That
08. He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper
09. Too Damn Hype
10. Pump Up the Bass
11. Rock The House
12. Just One of those Days

It was the fall of 1996. I was sitting in a smoky bar up in Washington state late one night when a band named Floater took the stage. What followed was 60 minutes of full-on pure ass kicking rock and roll. To tell you the truth, I can’t remember who they were opening for. The minute the show was over, I kicked back, smiled to myself, and said, “these guys are gonna be HUGE.”

Well, it’s been over five years, and I’m still waiting for them to be huge. To tell you the truth, I don’t know why Floater isn’t bigger than they are today -it’s certainly not due to a lack of originality, balls, or ability to crank out catchy tunes. Despite a record deal with Elemental and almost constant touring in the Northwest, Floater just hasn’t broken through yet. Until they do, I’ll be singing their praises to the masses.

Referred to as the “art-rock” trio of the Northwest, Floater have been putting out albums since 1994. Their music is creative, quirky, progressive, and, of course, heavy. Floater’s songs are riff heavy, combining heavy power chords, unusually soothing bridges and several vocal styles. While the band’s songwriting style could probably be compared to Tool or Primus, the band’s sound is probably closer to a sometimes funkier, sometimes mellower version of Clutch. Confused yet?

On Burning Sobobra, Floater continues their patented complex song writing approach. Each song has so many riffs, parts, harmonies and accompaniments that it must’ve taken weeks to write each song! The lyrics are great as well. This is one band where it seems like the music and lyrics are each 50% of a song – they’re equally important in each compilation.

“King Rabbit” comes away as one of my favorites of the album. Floater’s cover of The Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun” definitely adds a heavy turn to an old classic. “Alcoholic” has an almost Primus feel to it, before it turns really heavy at the end. A couple of the songs, (“Colorblind” and “Equinox”), show the band’s softer side, but they fit the mood of the album and are still interesting cuts.

Floater has recently begun playing more acoustic shows. In fact, “acoustic” Floater has recently been opening for “electric” Floater. This band is a lot of things, but I think the most important thing they are is “interesting.” If you’re tired of the same ol’ drivel, take a chance. Glyph is my personal favorite Floater album, but Burning Sosobra is my second. Both come highly recommended by the Flackster. If I were a millionaire, I’d buy everyone a happy meal, and put a Floater album in each one. So rock on that.

“I pull the trigger.
God is dead.
Now live in fear of
my soul instead.” – King Rabbit

01. Here Comes The Dog
02. Watched Over By Crows
03. I Know
04. Queen of the Goats
05. Exiled
06. Independence Day
07. King Rabbit
08. Milk of Heaven
09. Albatross
10. The Marriage of the Black Sheep
11. Colorblind
12. Waiting for the Sun
13. Alcoholic
14. Equinox

Flaw’s Through the Eyes delivers a nu-metal sound that anyone who owns a radio should be familiar with by now. But it’s not the main course that catches you here, it’s the side dishes; a little Tool influence here, a little Deftones sound there.

“Only the Strong” kicks off the album with a riff reminiscent of Deftones’ “Bored”, one of the best of the disc. That riff along with the one on “Get Up Again” will both have your woofers rumbling. Like other bands of the genre, the bass guitar is loud and up front in the mix. The production thickens up the middle nicely and the album easily stands up alongside the big boys. The vocals involve more singing than screaming, both of which fit the part.

On a few tracks (“Scheme” and “Whole”) the band (and particularly the guitar) edges dangerously close to merely mimicing Korn. Fortunately, most of the time Flaw manages to maintain their own identity by mixing up the heaviness with some moments of melodic goodness.

Those who like a little sing in their scream and aren’t burnt out on the whole nu-metal sound yet should check out Flaw’s debut disc. The band has a new album coming out next month, so it will be interesting to see if the guys have enough to pull away from the pack, or if they’ll end up spinning their wheels in last year’s ruts.

What happens when two Philippino immigrants raised on protests and social activism team up with two “hybrid metal freaks”?

Flattbush happens.

Named after the infamous Philippino political rock band from the 60’s who was, uh, “silenced” (face down in ditches) by the Philippino government, the new incarnation of Flattbush is just as political and, undoubtedly, infinately more aggressive than their namesakes.

As fast as Napalm Death, as frantic as Mr. Bungle, and as violent as Brujeria, Flattbush’s musical attack is as brutal as their lyrics.

In “Death Squad”, Flattbush spits out, “Thrash the pigs!/Local puppets, lynch ’em!/Confiscate the stolen land, build the nation, give ’em!” Although many of their songs are sung in a combination of English and Tagalog, the sheer ferocity of the music leaves little to the imagination — and if you don’t get the band’s message through either the lyrics or the sonic blast, the image of George W. Bush telling a Philippino woman, “you’re my bitch” on the band’s website should fill in any holes you had.

Musically, the band is not only loud and fast, but deceptively complex as well. Tempos and riffs shift so often that it’s often difficult to keep up, crossing the line between noise and music and back several times per song. Similar to Fantomas, listeners shouldn’t get too attached to any one riff; it’s not likely to be around for long.

Producer Bill Gould continues his quest to find and present original musical entities to the masses, and succeeds here by presenting a band with something to say. Armed with a violent music style and burning lyrics, Flattbush ain’t your parents’ protestors.

People are already talking about Fear Factory’s upcoming album, Digimortal. The word on the street is that this album has the potential to break FF into the mainstream. Is Digimortal all it’s cracked up to be?

Sort of.

Both Digimortal and Obsolete, Fear Factory’s previous release, are concept albums. While Obsolete was more of a linear story, Digimortal is a collection of songs describing a future world. In this future world, technology (a constant theme throughout Fear Factory’s albums) has become intertwined with human life. Even though in the future your body is still mortal, your memories can be “uploaded”, and later be redownloaded into a clone of your future self, thus creating a symbiotic relationship between technology and human life – Digimortal.

While nine or ten Fear Factory fans will find this theory amazingly interesting (and if you do, go rent Ghost in the Shell – same exact story, but came out 4 years ago), the rest of us will hopefully see through the technical jargon and get down to the music – and that’s what Fear Factory is all about.

The good news is that Fear Factory hasn’t tried to reinvent themselves on this album. The tight, TIGHT double bass, the crunchy thick laden guitar layers, and Burton C. Bell’s patented vocals laid over techy-sounding keyboards are all still there, in spots.

If there’s bad news to report, it’s that there’s not much new or exciting here.

Demanufacture is one of the toughest albums I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s an hour long sonic assault that doesn’t give you a rest. Each song attacks with an intensity unlike any album I can think of. Obsolete, their previous effort, gives you a break almost in between every song. Heavy song, light song, heavy song, light song. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for Fear Factory for a hard rockin’ fix, this obviously means you have half as many songs to pick from. Digimortal follows this trend. There are a few rockin’ songs, but lots of big, open singing vocals, lots of keyboards trying to sound majestic, and overly long open chords trying too hard to make these songs something they’re not. So, out of 11 songs, you’ve got 4 or 5 rockers, and a lot of filler. This album sounds and feels a lot like Obsolete part II, except whereas Obsolete was based on a big human/robot war (ie: Terminator), this one is based off of the works of William Gibson.

The lowest point of the album is track 8, “Back The Fuck Up,” featuring Cypress Hill’s B-Real. Anthrax and Public Enemy did this years ago – and the result is, neither band has a major label recording deal at the moment – take the hint. I’m a closet fan of rap and an huge fan of extreme music, but just like hanging out with my buds and sloppy sex, some things still don’t mix well.

The most disappointing thing about the whole package is, we know FF is capable of better. No one beats Fear Factory at their own game. No one is tighter. Period. And to hear them wasting their talents playing back up gangsta to B-Real makes me wanna put a “hole in they head.”

01. What Will Become
02. Damaged
03. Digimortal
04. No One
05. Linchpin
06. Invisible Wounds
07. Acres Of Skin
08. Back The Fuck Up
09. Byte Block
10. Hurt Conveyor
11. Never End