Through a friend of a friend I recently caught wind of Siva, a relatively new female-fronted metal/rock band here in Oklahoma City. Whenever I hear about a metal band with a female vocalist my first thought is usually the same: is this a gimmick, or are these guys for real?

Turns out, Siva is for real — very real. In fact, Siva’s three-song demo (simply titled “The Demo”) contains three well-crafted songs that sound better than most of the demos I’ve heard this year, songs that could easily hold their own on the radio right now.

Siva’s heavy but not too heavy, falling well within the limits of rock radio stations. Musically the band could easily be grouped in with bands like Disturbed, Drowning Pool, Mudvayne and Evanescence. Within the confines of radio-friendly song lengths (hoving around the four-minute mark), the then-foursome/now-fivesome have managed to pack plenty of interesting hooks into each of the demo’s three songs. Each of the songs show comprehension of musical dynamics, building up before rocking out. As for the CD’s production … I don’t know what Siva paid for it, but it was worth it. The CD sounds fantastic; sonically it’s one of the best demo mixes I’ve ever ever heard.

Vocalist Bridgette Oliver is icing on the band’s cake. Her vocal style fits perfectly here, teasing listeners with her soft whispers and then attacking them with her full range. Through her clear vocals Oliver channels Evanescence’s Amy Lee, though those passages are broken up with flashes of screams and growls. The end result is a female vocalist that adds to instead of detracting from what the band is trying to accomplish.

Siva’s three-song demo sounds less like a demo and more like a sampler CD from an established act. These guys (and gal) rock and I can’t wait to hear more from them.

On the web:

Web: http://www.siva-addiction.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sivaaddiction

Sinergy’s third album, Suicide By My Side, is the kind of progressive/power metal I like — balls out, 100 mph, straight forward metal with no slowing down and no ballads in sight. It reminds me of Dream Theater without the long piano parts, or a more aggressive version of Hammerfall.

“I Spit On Your Grave” sets the pace for the entire album. With over a million kick drums in the first three minutes (yes, I counted them, there’s over one million in there) and at least that many different guitar notes, there’s no doubting these guys are masters of their craft. Kimberly Goss (ex-Dimmu Borgir) shows off her pipes as well, hitting harmonies and belting out notes to make any 80s metal gods jealous. Speaking of harmonies, Laiho and Latvala pull off plenty of their own guitar harmonies as well, starting in “The Sin Trade” and working their way throughout the album.

Sinergy has certainly matured on their third album. Tracks like “Passage To The Fourth World” and “Me, Myself, My Enemy” truly show the band’s talent. Haters of smart rock, progressive rock, or power metal need not apply. Those who truly appreciate instrument mastery and complex rhythms, patterns, and harmonies will most appreciate Suicide By My Side. With haunting cover artwork and ten complex songs, consumers will definitely get their money’s worth here. And, for those not convinced, samples of five of the ten songs are available in MP3 format from the band’s website.

Sinergy is currently on the road opening for King Diamond, touring in South Korea, Istanbul and Russia, with US dates planned soon.

Tracks:
01. I Spit On Your Grave
02. The Sin Trade
03. Violated
04. Me, Myself, My Enemy
05. Written In Stone
06. Nowhere For No One
07. Passage To The Fourth World
08. Shadow Island
09. Suicide By My Side
10. Remembrance

I can only assume that the first half of the word Revolusongs refers to the word “revolution” or “revolutionary.” Unfortunately, this album is neither. The boys from Brazil make their return to the public eye with this eight-song EP of fun but mostly unmoving covers.

The album kicks off with Hellhammer’s “Messiah”. Those not familiar with Hellhammer would most likely think this to be an original Sep’ tune. All the classic Sepultura trademark sounds are here — loud crashing rides, a loose snare, and that fierce, bassy Sepultura guitar sound. “So far, so good,” I thought to myself.

Insert sound of tires screeching to a halt here.

On track two, a cover of Massive Attack’s “Angel”, everything changes. The drums are now heavily gated and compressed, giving them an intentional drum machine sound. The guitars are low and clean for the majority of the song — even when cranked up, they remain mostly undistorted. And then there’s Derrick Green. I enjoyed “Messiah” so much that I didn’t take much time to examine the vocals. It wasn’t until track two where Green loses his growl and begins singing where the difference really became apparent.

With Massive Attack out of their system, I thought the boys might be ready to rock — but no, instead they drift into a version of Public Enemy’s “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos”. What the fuck? I really tried to give the band the benefit of the doubt by listening to the entire song. The first part is done in nu-metal style, with one guitar chunking and the other riffing over a sampled loop and a drum machine. During the middle section of the song, the guitars drop out and are replaced by an actual scratching DJ (DJ Zé Gonzales), and Green’s grunting style of rap is replaced by actual Spanish rap (rapper Sabotage). The only good thing I can think of to say about this song is some sort of racial peace is gained by bringing blacks, whites, and Mexicans together to all hate this song equally. I feel like throwing the CD away just from this one song and disassembling my CD player and scrubbing the insides with Mr. Clean, that’s how bad it is.

The next four tracks on Sepultura’s collection of “strange bands to cover” include Devo’s “Mongoloid”, Jane’s Addiction’s “Mountain Song”, U2’s “Bullet the Blue Sky”, and Exodus’ “Piranha”. “Mongoloid” is mangled, “Mountain Song” is too fast, and “Bullet the Blue Sky” is too serious. “Piranha” is the only one with any bite, and the South American boys had to pull out a track almost twenty years old to get any momentum going. Too bad it’s at the end of the album and not the beginning.

The CDs untitled “hidden” track is 70 seconds long. The track begins with the opening riffs of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, and then switches to “Fight Fire With Fire”. The “Fight Fire With Fire” clip might just be the tightest 30 seconds on the disc. Unfortunately, they’re hidden behind the 40 worst. The “Enter Sandman” clip is so sloppy, so off time, and so off key for a song that every twelve year old knows how to play.

So, here’s my theory. I think that Sepultura is so tired of every review in the past six years reading, “Derrick sucks; bring back Max!” that they thought they would take the heat off of Green by releasing an EP where the entire disc sucks. The bloodhounds would be thrown off. Reviewers, comfortable with their “bring back Max” rants would suddenly have their game thrown off. “Green sucks … but so do these songs! Does not compute! Max couldn’t have saved this! DOES NOT COMPUTE!” Maybe the band’s plan was to try and make their upcoming May 2003 release look great by having it compared to this one. If so, then the guys are doing a great job.

Revolusongs, Sepultura’s version of the Garage Days Revisited EP, would’ve been better left in the garage. While everything here works great as a B-Side, little of it succeeds as stand alone material. Purists be damned, I can honestly say for the first time that Derrick Green is not the worst part of this CD; the songs are. Since Blabbermouth gave this EP 7/10, I’ll use the three points they didn’t use and drop a more honest 3/10 on it.

01. Messiah
02. Angel
03. Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos
04. Mongoloid
05. Mountain Song
06. Bullet The Blue Sky
07. Piranha

Every review of Sepultura’s first post-Max Cavalera album, Against, either began or ended by mentioning the fact that the band would never be the same again without Max. I swore that I would not fall into the same trap. Then, I heard the new album.

And so, to Sepultura, I say, drop whatever tribal sticks and stones you’ve gathered to make pseudo Brazilian music with, and run, don’t walk, to the nearest payphone. Call Max, and offer him all the rainforests in the southern hemisphere to rejoin your whithered shell of a band.

Was that too strong?

Sepultura’s Nation, slated for a March 21st release date, goes out of it’s way to prove what the last album already made painfully obvious – that the band will never be the same again without Max.

That being said, Nation isn’t half bad, it’s just not Sepultura. I got all the way through to the album by telling myself that this wasn’t Sepultura, but rather a really good Sepultura cover band. It just happens to be a cover band that three of the four original members are in. The whole album feels like an “A” student in school turning in a “C” paper.

Guitarist Andreas Kisser said about this album, “… we looked at this record where we were as a band, where the world was at the end of the millennium. It felt like a revolution starting for us. At its core, that’s what Nation is.” Uh, didn’t I hear that before, about an album called Roots?

Where the band suffers most post-Max is musically. There are no problems in the backbone of the band, with the drums actually excelling in several songs. Derrick Green’s vocals are passable – while you can say “it’s not Max,” he passes as a growler. The biggest problem with the music are the guitars. Kisser is a rhythm guitarist, plain and simple. If he records ten tracks, then whoopee, you’ve got ten tracks of rhythm guitar. The lead string work never jumps out and grabs you. Actually, not much
on the disc does.

Following the rules laid down by Rootsand Against, much of Nationspends a lot of it’s time talking about the political problems of Brazil, and paying homage to the native sounds of Brazil, so if you didn’t get enough of it over the last few Sepultura and Soulfly albums, here’s some more of it.

There are a few rallying songs included on the disc, including “Sepulnation,” and “One Man Army.” There are also plenty of collaborations – unfortunately, most of them don’t work well. Jello Biafra sings vocals on “Polotricks,” but to be able to hear and understand him they’ve turned down the music and slowed everything down.

Near the end I thought that maybe the album could have been saved by one good rebellion anthem at the end, but instead we’re treated to two songs which could put me asleep even if I were standing in a mosh pit. The next to the last song is “Water,” a slow, wimpy song that could easily pass for a Pearl Jam song (and one of their slow ones, at that). The last song on the disc is “Valtio,” a collaboration with Apocalyptica (yes, those piece of crap cello players who cover, among other things, Metallica tunes). Yawn. Wake me up when the revolution’s over.

You know, the rumor on the street is that David Lee Roth is getting back together with Van Halen. That means, according to my sources, that Hell has officially frozen over. That means it’s not too late guys! I’m sure Igor still has his brother’s phone number, give him a call! Make up! Do it for your country! Wait, that’s Brazil. Do it for OUR country!

I’m not a Derrick Green hater. Hell, I’m not particularly a Max Cavalera lover – I don’t even like Soulfly that much. I don’t like peanut butter and chocolate separately either, but I’m a pretty big Reese’s fan.

Folks, we’ve already seen Sepultura’s Master of Puppets, so to speak.

01. Sepulnation
02. Border Wars
03. Revolt
04. One Man Army
05. Vox Populi
06. The Ways Of Faith
07. Uma Cura
08. Who Must Die
09. Saga
10. Tribe To A Nation
11. Polotricks
12. Human Cause
13. Reject
14. Water
15. Valtio

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