How many Polocks does it take to rock your ass? FOUR, if you’re talking about Sceptic!

I can’t decide if I should describe Sceptic as a death/black metal band playing power metal, or as a power metal band with a death/black metal sound. No matter how you slice it, Sceptic’s third album Unbeliever’s Script combines portions of death metal, black metal, and power metal and delivers interesting results.

Sceptic’s vocals are decidedly black metal as are the guitars’ tones; yet more melodic than heavy, the solos and song structures that contain them seem more progressive in style than anything else. It’s all done well, but be prepared to give the disc more than a couple of spins to really get into the music. Think of them as “the black metal version of Dream Theater.”

If you like your metal complicated, Sceptic is for you. Jacek Hiro is the type of guitarist who will either inspire you to practice on your six-string even harder, or give up playing guitar completely. Hiro manages to keep it heavy while still delivering tons of melody and solos throughout the disc. Everything on the disc is good; the guitars are great.

On Unbeliever’s Script tries to be a lot of things at once and, for the most part, does a pretty good job of pulling it off. This album should help the band shed their image of being a “Death rip-off” band. Recommended for fans of technical and melodic death metal everywhere.

01. Unbeliever’s Script
02. Illussion Possessor
03. Controlled By Mind
04. Soul Controllers
05. Shapeless Entity
06. Knowledge Gatherer
07. Voices From The Past
08. Spiritually Tormented
09. Waves Of Destruction

With a lineup consisting of members from Hate Theory, Sofa King Killer, and Fistula, the guys in Rue are no newcomers to rawk — they already know how to kick ass, and proceed to do so on Rue’s self-titled debut album.

Several of the tracks on Rue’s debut album draw comparisons to bands like Lamb of God, Hatebreed, Acid Bath, and one of my favorites, Pro-Pain. You’ll get no complaints from this listener. “The Escapist” and “Flathead”, the first two tracks of the album, show you right up front that these guys can dish out hardcore with the best of them. Starting on “Complacence”, the third track, the band dips into some heavy stonerville territory. From that point forward, everything becomes a a mixture of heavy hardcore, stoner, and doom — often during same song.

Production on the CD is minimal. While there aren’t a lot of effects, that’s a good thing. The mix delivers the thickness in the guitars perfectly without overprocessing or mushing anything. I could write an entire review just about the guitar tones on this CD. The guitar on Rue definitely has its own voice. It’s the perfect blend of fuzz, buzz, and grime.

Rue has done a perfect job of creating a sound, sticking to it enough to give their album cohesion, but mixing it up enough to make each of the nine songs sound unique. While only time will tell if there’s enough here to separate these guys from the pack, nothing on this disc makes me think that these guys can’t play with the big boys. Great heavy music for the horned one in your home.

If you remotely like Rob Zombie and don’t buy Past, Present, and Future, you are indeed a cheap bastard.

Answering the masses complaints that CDs are too expensive, Past, Present, and Future has been priced at $11.99 (and can be found cheaper than that — Best Buy usually has it for $9.99). For a ten-spot, you get a greatest hits CD with 19 audio tracks, and a DVD with ten of Rob Zombie’s videos. Anyone who downloads this is either lazy or just cheap.

Past, Present, and Future kicks off with “Thunder Kiss ’65”, White Zombie’s breakthrough video. Like a sideshow carnie, Rob Zombie takes your hand and leads you down his past hits one by one, album by album. “Black Sunshine,” “More Human Than Human” and a few other White Zombie fly by before we arrive in Rob Zombie solo country.

While not technically “hard to find”, most of Zombie’s one-off soundtrack songs appear here as well, such as “The Great American Nightmare” and “Blitzkreig Bop”. It’s nice to have all of these in place finally. Unfortunately, “I Am Hell” from the Beavis and Butthead album is missing. The album eventually winds down with tracks from Zombie’s latest project, the House of 1000 Corpses soundtrack.

Several of the songs are “remixes”, and the middle of the album drags a bit. If nothing else, it serves as a reminder to bands everywhere that drum machines are no replacement for real drummers.

And that’s just the beginning. After over an hour of his creepiness’ music, there’s still ten music videos to go through. Not every Rob Zombie related video made the cut, but all the ones that are there fans will enjoy. I would have liked Electric Head and a few more, but look at it this way — at around ten dollars, that’s still a cheap CD, and a free DVD.

Those who quit buying Zombie’s music after White Zombie broke up would probably dig this package. New Zombie fans will appreciate the collection, and old-timers such as myself will appreciate all the singles in one location, as well as the video collection.

Music industry take notice — THIS is the way to battle music piracy; by giving people their money’s worth.

Tracks

Audio CD

01. Thunder Kiss ’65
02. Black Sunshine
03. Feed the Gods
04. More Human Than Human
05. Super Charger Heaven
06. I’m Your Boogieman
07. Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn)
08. The Great American Nightmare (with Howard Stern)
09. Dragula
10. Living Dead Girl
11. Superbeast
12. Feel So Numb
13. Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)
14. Demon Speeding
15. Brickhouse 2003 (with Trina)
16. Pussy Liquor
17. Blitzkrieg Bop
18. Two-Lane Blacktop
19. Girl on Fire

DVD

01. Thunder Kiss ’65
02. More Human Than Human
03. Dragula
04. Living Dead Girl
05. Superbeast
06. Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)
07. Feel So Numb
08. Demonoid Phenomenon
09. Return of the Phantom Stranger
10. Spookshow Baby

If I could ask Rob Zombie one question about his latest album Educated Horses it would be simply, what happened?

Rob Zombie and his former band White Zombie were a lot of things: they were loud, they were heavy, they were campy, and most of all they were fun. Unfortunately Educated Horses is none of those things. Gone are most of the b-movie samples and chugging guitar riffs that made Zombies music so entertaining and enjoyable. Whats left is a watered-down album full of half-hearted pop singles with only a few moments of brilliance shining through.

It could be argued that Horses simply shows a more mature side of Rob Zombie the argument being, who wants to see a mature side of Rob Zombie? This is the guy that previously brought us songs like Grease Paint and Monkey Brains and Welcome to the Planet, Mother F***er and the two horror movies House of 1000 Corpses and The Devils Rejects. Theres nothing scary about Zombies new single Foxy Foxy, which couldnt possibly be confused with anything that even remotely rocks. If anything, the track reeks of I blew all my cash making movies and now daddy needs a hit single.

Let It All Bleed Out, Ride, and possibly The Lords of Salem are the only tracks throughout the discs 40 minutes that wouldnt seem out-of-character on any of Zombies previous releases. Most of the other tracks find Zombie singing over sitars, strings, mellow guitars and pop beats. Im no studio wizard, but the entire album appears to be overly produced with the music buried deeply under layers of production. Any questions about Zombies new direction can be answered by the noticeable lack of a Parental Guidance label on the disc. Its hard to imagine the author of La Sexorcisto Devil Music Volume One releasing an entire disc of radio-friendly material, but its true.

So, here comes the hard part. Can I say I hate it? No, or at least not all of it. Zombies ability to deliver hooks remains intact. Several of the songs are catchy, although unfortunately none of them are particularly memorable. Zombie was quoted on his website as saying I am positive that this is going to be the most kick-ass record yet. Id definitely have to disagree with him there. Old fans looking for more of the same will ultimately walk away disappointed, Im afraid. Fans who appreciate 70s rock (ala Alice Cooper) and can bring an open mind to the table may be able to appreciate Zombies new direction.

01. Sawdust In The Blood
02. American Witch
03. Foxy Foxy
04. 17 Year Locust
05. The Scorpion Sleeps
06. 100 Ways
07. Let It All Bleed Out
08. Death Of It All
09. Ride
10. The Devil’s Rejects
11. The Lords Of Salem

Just when you thought Al Jourgensen had gone off the policital deep end with Ministry’s 2006 release Rio Grande Blood, out comes Jourgensen’s alter ego (the Revolting Cocks) with Cocked and Loaded, an album that shows the world that there is still a place for sex and drugs in rock and roll.

13 years after the band’s 1993 effort Linger Ficken’ Good, the Cocks are back and as revolting as ever. Jourgensen and his revolving cast of friends and weirdos rock out with their cock out through ten tracks of industrial-laced metal. It’s better if you think of Cocked and Loaded less as an album and more as a ten-song-long screaming dick joke as told by friends.

Musically, the Cocks have never been more, uh, hard. Any remnants of the band’s synthpop sound from the 80’s and 90’s has been trampled by the musical sounds of Ministry. The drums, guitars, vocal effects and overall production values from Psalm 69 live again. While fans (?) of the Revolting Cocks may not be familiar with the albums’ overall sound, longtime Ministry fans will recognize it immediately. The biggest difference is that while Ministry pushes for a tight, industrial sound, the layered guitars and distorted vocals make no mistake that the Cocks are here rock.

Replace every reference to politics and war on Ministry’s Rio Blood Grande with dick jokes and you have the lyrical contents of Cocked and Loaded. From Pole Grinder and Jack in the Crack to the eloquently titled Prune Tang, no pee-pee topic is left unstroked.

Gibby Haynes, vocalist for the Butthole Surfers and former Ministry collaborator on Jesus Built My Hotrod makes multiple vocal appearances on the album as does Phil Owen (Skatenigs) and Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedies). Biafra’s Viagra Culture slams the “I must win” mentality, but it’s message is overpowered by the rest of the disc (the track is preceeded by Devil Cock). Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) and Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) make six-stringed appearances on the disc, but in the middle of all the rockin’ racket it was tough to identify their performances.

Cocked and Loaded is the id to Jourgensen’s ego — it’s foul, sophomoric, and occasionally offensive. In other words, it’s rock and roll.

01. Fire Engine
02. Ten Million Ways to Die
03. Caliente (Dark Entries)
04. Prune Tang
05. Dead End Streets
06. Pole Grinder
07. Jack in the Crack
08. Devil Cock
09. Viagra Culture
10. Revolting Cock Au Lait

Very few people who have seen Rev Jones perform live ever forget him. While concert goers may initially notice Jones’ atheletic stage antics, colorful tattoos and unique hair style (a few dreadlocks growing out of the top of his head), what the reverend is most known for is his revolutionary two-handed bass playing technique. Along with Les Claypool (Primus) and Billy Sheenan (Mr. Big, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth), Rev Jones has brought the four-string to the front of the stage and elevated the art of bass-playing to the next level.

Head-banging fans weren’t the only ones who noticed of the Reverend’s unique skills; over the years, Jones has recorded and toured with the likes of Fuel, Steelheart, Paul Gilbert, George Lynch, and the Michael Schenker Group (of which Jones toured with for seven years), along with several less well known bands i(but no less talented) ncluding Kottak, Black Symphony, and China Blue. But it is with Forte’, the local Oklahoma City-based band, where I first saw the Reverend perform. 20 years ago, everyone standing in the crowd knew that the Reverend was “going places.” Eventually he did, and here we are.

Bass Line is Rev Jones’ first instructional DVD. On it, Jones walks viewers through the basics of playing bass, including the two-handed bass technique he is known for. The DVD is broken up into seven sections: Left and Right Hand Techniques, Both Hands Techniques, Bass Equipment, Famous Song Licks, Music Style, Song Ideas, and Live Show. Throughout the DVD a picture-in-picture technique is used so that viewers can watch what each of his hands are doing at any given time. Also included on the DVD is a PDF file that includes both the musical notation and the tab for each example performed throughout the DVD. The examples are numbered both during the DVD and in the PDF file, so following along is pretty simple.

In Famous Song Licks and Song Ideas, Jones works his way through several bass licks. Each lick is played twice, once at normal speed and once at half speed. If you’re trying to play along at home, you may learn (as I did) that “normal speed” is a relative term. In Famous Song Licks, Jones works his way through King Crimson, Rush, KISS and Led Zeppelin riffs, among others. In Song Ideas, he breaks down and demonstrates some of his own musical creations.

The two shortest sections of the DVD, Musical Style and Bass Equipment, feature Jones discussing those two topics. The talks are accentuated with short musical examples — for example, as Jones discusses different musical styles of playing bass, he gives short examples of each style. There’s something inherently entertaining about watching a tattooed, top-knotted rocker demonstrating old Motown riffs. Jones is one of the reasons you should never judge a book by its cover.

The DVD concludes with Live Show, with Reverend Jones playing solo on a stage with concert lighting and a bit of pumped in fog. And while it was nice to watch Jones perform The Eagles “I Can’t Tell You Why,” Judy Garland’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and his signature “Eleanor Rigby/I Can See Clearly Now” medley, it would have been nice to see some live concert footage included here as well (that’s what YouTube is for, I suppose). The closest we get here is on his performance of Black Symphony’s Symptom, which is played on top of a backing tape.

Bass Line was shot during a promotional tour in Taiwan; as a result, the DVD’s credits, subtitles, and much of the writing on the package is written in Chinese. Fortunately all the menus include both Chinese and English text, and I had no problem in playing the DVD on my plain-ol’ USA DVD player. Although come to think of it, my DVD player is Samsung, so it was probably made in Taiwan as well. Regardless, the DVD should play on your home DVD player, so no worries there.

My only point of contention with the disc, and it is a minor one, is that the disc is advertised as being for for both beginners and experts. To get the most out of this DVD, I’d say you should at least be an intermediate player. Jones hits the ground running with his demonstrations, and even though tons of useful finger exercises are demonstrated, there is no basic talk about tuning, what notes each string is, where notes are on the fret board, etc. Don’t get me wrong — I still think the DVD is excellent, but I wouldn’t recommend it picking it up the same day you get your first bass as Jones will quickly leave you in the dust.

Bass Line has so many exercises, tips and tricks crammed into it that I suspect those wishing to soak up the Reverend’s skills will need to watch the video many, many times. Those like me, who appreciate the art form but have no real desire to learn the bass, will definitely enjoy the video’s performances and riff examples. Highly recommended, I can’t imagine any bass player not learning something from this video.

Purchase at: RevJones.com

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9BaVAE7r7M

“Christian Rock” is an interesting genre. Its bands and fans exist almost exclusively outside of mainstream music circles — there are many huge Christian Rock bands that you and I have probably never heard of. Simply by associating your band with the genre, you drastically limit your fanbase. Being accepted by mainstream fans is almost unheard of; to crossover, you had better be damn good.

Red is damn good.

Breathe Into Me, the first single from Red’s End of Silence, shows the band’s strongest side right up front. Tight vocals, dirty guitars, and an obvious pop sensibility with a big, singable chorus make the song memorable. Falling somewhere between a “less-rappy Linkin Park” and a “slightly heavier Creed,” the track is better than it sounds on paper.

Song structures flop between heavyish but radio-friendly rock and softer ballads. Along with the first single, tracks such as Let Go, Wasting Time, and Break Me Down all deliver distorted-laden hooks. Some of the tracks have backing orchestrial tracks that thicken the band’s sound, and a few of the tracks are flat out ballads. It’s an eclectic range that shows an extreme range of talent. I suspect fans of the band’s heavier tracks won’t care for the ballads as much, and vice versa. By the third spin I was already skipping most of the ballads — a sure sign that they’re destined for the top 40.

The production on End of Silence is impeccable. The disc punches and sounds terrific. Kudos to whoever mastered this. If you are a producer, even if Red isn’t your bag you should hang on to a copy of this disc and use it as a benchmark for your own recordings. Hot, punchy, dynamic. Great work.

If you’ve ever caught yourself tapping your foot to a Creed song (it’s okay if you don’t want to admit it publicly; I wouldn’t) or dig the rock/piano mixture of Evanescence, you should definitely check out End of Silence.

01. Intro
02. Breathe Into Me
03. Let Go
04. Already Over
05. Lost In You
06. Pieces
07. Break Me Down
08. Wasting Time
09. Gave It All Away
10. Hide
11. Already Over – Part 2

Denmark’s latest export is Raunchy, literally. The five-piece outfit cite “Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad, Machine Head, Deftones, and Korn,” as their influences. Wow, I remember when all of THOSE bands were new bands, and I was reading THEIR lists of influences. Fuck I’m old. Anyway, back to the album. Before even reading anything about the band, when I listened to this CD I heard similarities to Fear Factory and Machine Head. Korn, no. Deftones, not really. Strapping Young Lad, no idea. Morten Toft Hansen’s skin pounding and kick drums combined with the tight and tuned-down strumming of Lars Christensen contribute to the Fear Factory-esque sound, and the fact that Lars Vognstrup sounds exactly like Burton C. Bell during most of the opening tracks doesn’t help separate the two. Combine that with Jesper Tilsted’s keyboards paired up with Jesper Kvist’s bass, and it wouldn’t surprise me if these guys used to be in a Fear Factory tribute band. Track one wasn’t even over, and I was done with these guys.

But, ho-ho! Just when I had written these guys off as a clone of “that other band”, they turn around and do something different. Track 3, “Active”, sounds like later Machine Head, almost mainstream metal. The drums sound like a straight forward rock song during much of the track, the guitars aren’t palm-muted, and Vognstrup takes the opportunity to actually do some singing! While proving that these guys are more than a one-trick pony, I get the feeling that these songs were written over a great span of time — although, what they lack in cohesiveness, they make up for in the rock department.

The rest of the album falls somewhere between these two goalposts, with a few blast beats and industrial sounds wandering off the already beaten, nu metal path. I found myself listening to it, but feeling guilty about it later. The songs are catchy but not deep. The music is good, but not outstanding. These guys are the gravy, not the potatoes. They’re no fork, they’re a spork. They’re no Rudolph, they’re … Comet. Not bad but not remarkable, Raunchy is leading the wave in bands waiting in line, ready to grab Fear Factory’s crown.

Tracks:
01. Twelve Feet Tall
02. Bleeding
03. Drive
04. Tonight
05. Leech
06. My Game
07. Crack of Dawn
08. Out of Sight
09. This is Not an Exit
10. Never Be

Back from the dead is Pyrexia. Recently reformed by guitarist Chris Basile featuring an all new lineup, Pyrexia has returned to the death metal scene with Cruelty Beyond Submission, a tasty sampler of things to come for the band.

Including ex-members of Catastrophic, Obituary, Insatanity and Malevolent Creation, Pyrexia’s latest release delivers a skull full of hardcore death metal — that is, if you consider three new tracks a skull full; only three of the tracks on Cruelty Beyond Submission are new. The other eight tracks come from previous Pyrexia albums (System of the Animal, Hatred Anger and Disgust, and Sermon of Mockery). The band has not changed their sound significantly over the years, and the songs flow well between eras.

Pyrexia is working on a new full-length album due this summer, but until then,Cruelty Beyond Submission serves as both a disc to tide fans over until the new album arrives, as well as a greatest hits package and great introduction to the band’s work. Older fans of the band won’t be thrilled about paying full-CD prices for three new songs, but general fans of death metal bands like Suffociation (who make a guest appearance on the disc) should enjoy the brutal attack of Pyrexia.

When Anthrax and Public Enemy teamed up for their version of “Bring the Noise”, I think most people didn’t it as the future of music. At best, I saw it as a novelty act pretty good novelty idea. And then came the Judgment Night soundtrack, an entire album that teamed metal bands up with rock acts. Some of them seemed a bit forced (House of Pain and Helmet comes to mind) while others of them like Onyx and Biohazard began actually laying down the groundwork for a new genre of music that is still popular today – the rap/rock genre.

Those early beginnings opened doors and inspired even more bands to mix their own musical tastes into unique musical mixtures. Sepultura was probably one of the most famous of those, mixing elements of their native South American tribal sounds in with heavy music, creating “Roots,” one of the most interesting and heavy albums of the 1990’s. Another band that has pulled elements from their eclectic background and mixed it with heavy rock is Puya.

Puya’s latest studio album, Union, couldn’t have come at a better time. Nu-metal (God, I hate that term) is beginning to get stale. Anytime music develops a “formula,” it’s nice to have a band come along and break up the monotony.

For those not familiar with their work, Puya has developed a sound that mixes a fairly heavy metal onslaught with the latin sounds of their homeland. I don’t think anyone will confuse Puya with Ricky Ricardo anytime soon, but the salsa influence IS there and present on every track on the disc.

The best part of Puya’s sound is that it doesn’t sound forced. It actually sounds like four latin guys rockin’ hard and letting their background shine through. So many metal bands nowadays sound like they used to be a metal band, they recorded as a metal band, and in post production someone layed down a bunch of DJ scratching sounds over the top of their songs. Not so with Puya – from the drums to the bass to the guitars to the vocals, everything here feels integrated.

The disc opens up with “Ride,” a catchy song that shows off some of their funky latin grooves as well as a blast of tuned down guitars and screaming vocals through the chorus. As a new fan of Puya, I was a little turned off by the lead singer yelling, “this is the Puya / comin’ straight to ya,” over and over through the song, but it grows on you. I’m not a big fan of simple rhyming – “this is the Puya / and we say Booya” would have also been annoying, as well as “this is the Puya / I’d like to do ya” or “I’m gonna goo ya” or even “a cow can moo ya.” All of a sudden, “comin’ straight to ya” doesn’t seem so annoying.

Much like Sepultura’s classic Roots album, Puya’s Union takes some twists and turns down different musical alleys, but always ends back on rock road. The production on the disc is top notch, as are the musicians. In Erizo, the band first delivers heavy licks and Spanish growls, then migrates into a latin tribal groove, before coming back full circle to kick more ass. If nothing else, the music is interesting – the changes interweaving back and forth are done well and never bore or confuse the listener.

Did he say Spanish growls? Yes, that’s right. Some of the album is in Spanish, but the more I listen to it, the less I seem to mind. To me it again draws the Sepultura or even a Brujeria comparison, to where the music grooves so much and rocks so hard that a lot of the time I don’t really care what they’re singing about – and if you do, the lyric sheet has both Spanish and English lyrics printed. No more typing stuff into Altavista’s Babelfish to translate lyrics!

Union is a perfect title for this disc – it’s the perfect union of two styles of music that you wouldn’t normally consider mixing. For metal heads around the globe, hopefully this also represents the union between record stores and their cash! Puya have released a top quality disc that’s certainly worth a spin – whether you know how to mamba or not.

Tracks:
1. Ride
2. People
3. Erizo
4. Socialize
5. Numbed
6. Bridge
7. Si Aja
8. No Interference
9. Semilla
10. Matter Of Time
11. Pa’ Ti Pa’ Mi
12. Ahorake
13. Union