ClawFinger [Eponymous]

Trawling through YouTube one day, i came across ClawFinger, and straight away i liked them, they're really 'in yer face', they swear a fair deal, so be prepared if that offends you, but their lyrics have some great meaning, ironic one moment, political another, they can have fun too, i would call them a Metal Rap band, now i certainly have a hang up about Rap music, there's so much bad Rap out there, but this album proves there's good stuff too, if only you search for it.

ClawFinger are a Swedish band, now broken up, supposedly they finished last year, after hearing them on YouTube, i thought 'which album should i go for?', and of course i'm always drawn to the visuals, and this one's a stunner, showing the cylinder of a six shooter gun, and one bullet in the chamber on the front, but none on the back, it represents russian roulette, put one bullet in one of the chamber, 'spin the wheel', and point it at your head and pull the trigger, can be 'played' solo, or as a sort of duel, love the visuals and its meaning, nice black / dark grey on white, the ClawFinger logo is great as well.

This is a two disc set, the main album is disc 1, and then there's a bonus album of remixes, the two tracks i enjoyed the most were, 
Do What I Say, on the remix disc, i just love the intro of the young boy singing in a nursery rhyme voice [0:10-0:19], 

when i grow up, there will be a day

when everybody has to do what i say

and this intro comes back a couple more times [1:55-2:29 & 3:24-4:00], but this time he adds the words,

when i grow up, there will be a day

when everybody has to do it my way

with the words 'my way' screamed!, like some sort of kiddie Frank Sinatra!, loved the way parents unwittingly teach their children to be bossy themselves when they grow up!.

I Can See Them Coming, this was my favourite track on disc 1, a guy who's his own number one fan!, love the intro, and the heavy exploding drum beats, seemingly a hitleresque megalomaniac, but in reality sits in a cell with a straitjacket on, some of the lyrics are a peach

i'm the best sex i've ever had

and,

i'm the atom bomb that i'll blow my world

all the way to my kingdom come

at the end it's wickedly funny, a guy going crazy and losing his mind, and mumbles and drools, with a nutty laugh to finish things off! [3:25-3:39].

Almighty [Just Add Life] 

This is a rather unique album, a very different idea where these plastic cases which are transferable and replaceable, actually in this case become part of the cover art in itself, consisting of an opaque green plastic case, where stickers are placed on the front and back, there's no back inlay, but there is a booklet that you can see underneath the plastic, plus the disc itself is bright orange with a red star in the middle, i think it's a great idea and a wonderful artistic statement, but i certainly enjoyed the music even more, this is still a fairly new album, this is the third time i've listened to it, and the second time it's appeared in my Blog [8th December 2010], and i've been looking forward to giving it another spin, i love the cracking drums, crisp and smart, play loud and enjoy!.

The Almighty are a Scottish Rock band, formed in 1988, they have broken up and re-formed at times, i believe they've gone from a quartet to a trio, the front cover artwork [photographs by Tony May & Rupert Truman] consists of nine pictures [3 x 3], all very colourful, though i don't see how they relate to the music, or the title of the album, they made this album in 1996.

It was certainly tracks 1-2 & 10-11 that i just found irresistible, a tremendous amount of energy goes on in these songs, ultimately it's track 11 'Feed The Need' which i found so great, here's a synopsis of this track,
11 Feed The Need - Nice deep bass starts off, and quickly the vibe is taken up by the other instruments [0:04], delicious drumming, nice and hard and loud, this is the music for the chorus, but then a certain Red Hot Chili Peppers funk comes in to the thing for the verses [0:23+], now the chorus is really anthemic [0:50+], with the other guys shouting 'feed the need' as backing vocalists, in the second verse James Taylor comes in on Hammond organ [1:17+], accentuating the funkiness of the verse, there's this certain rising guitar line that i just love, what a great track, best lyric 'all trying to live somewhere that doesn't exist', i've just got this anthemic shout 'feed the need!' stuck in my brain, and the other tracks are really starting to work their way into my skull. 

Here's The Almighty album Just Add Life in full on YouTube, the track 'Feed The Need' is at 33:37, i added a comment with timings that you can click, however they don't list in a proper vertical order, but in a mismanaged clump, just hover your cursor over my comment and the timings open up.

Various Artists [Classic Axe]

Here's a really nice double compilation album revolving vaguely around the theme of lead electric guitars in Hard Rock / Metal music, concentrating on the Seventies and Eighties, lots of variety, and quite a number of tracks that might not be obvious contenders, and also seemingly obvious omissions too, but the David Lee Roth track is out of place, plus it's immensely awful, the 36 tracks were compiled by Stuart Fryer, what was he thinking?. 

This compilation was made in 2002, the main thing which attracted me to the discs were the front cover, a great concept [by Nick Purser], showing the back of a denim jacket, covered in metal studs [i think possibly photoshopped], it's nice and symmetrical, and wonderfully original too, of course the music's great too. 

Out of all of these tracks, it was tracks 3-4, 8, 14, 18-21, 24, 30 & 35 are the best, with tracks 3, 8 & 18 that really affected me the most, here's a short synopsis of these songs,
3 Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town, a real classic track, one of my very favourite power songs, wonderful guitar chords, intelligent background vocals, it has an excellent intro [0:00-0:24], and when Phil Lynott comes in, his vocals are just so powerful and pure, they almost startle me, the verses are actually better than the chorus, there's a nice little 'spread the word around' bridge before the third verse [2:11-2:35], and here's one of the choicest moments of the whole song, a third verse!, it really makes the whole song work on a tremendous level, i really like the lyric 'that jukebox in the corner blasting out my favourite song',
8 Rush - Spirit Of Radio, 
18 Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell, 

Led Zeppelin [Physical Graffiti] 

I forget how many decades i've had this double album, and how many times i've listened to it, but it still surprises me, there's still new things to notice if you listen carefully, it's my favourite Led Zep album, i played their Mothership [Best Of] album last year [18th November 2010], and it's a great introduction to the band, but on this 2 disc set, it's fairly sprawling, and some might feel there's a slight degree of filler toward the end of the second disc, but i feel that's where Led Zep play out their low key genius, and have a degree of fun too [the childishness in 'Down By The Seaside' and the fun in 'Boogie With Stu'], it just goes to show how varied they really are.

Led Zeppelin were an English Rock Band, formed in 1968, and disbanded in 1980 after the death of their drummer John Bonham, most of the tracks were recorded in 1974, but then other tracks, originally intended for previous albums, were drafted in to beef it up to a double album, there were 8 songs recorded in 1974 especially for the album, all these other tracks were recorded from 1971-1972, the album cover is a work of genius, showing a tenement block in New York, expertly made to fit the square of the album, i own the 'fatbox' double disc album, these recordings were the first to appear on disc, and were poorly transferred, i bought the remasters, issued in a double slimline case, much superior recordings, so not wanting to lose the original case or the best recordings, i swapped the two over, now i have the best of both worlds, it's a set that is a joy to own.

On this listen it was the lesser well known tracks that i found to be more stimulating than usual, however the 3 tracks that i enjoyed the most were 4, 6 & 10, with track 6 'Kashmir' the best, but i feel to focus in on track 10 'Ten Years Gone' [track 4 on disc 2], it's one of the mellower songs, featuring Jimmy Page strumming a lot on electric guitar, a nice Bluesy feel to it, it alternates between soft and loud, the lyrics are really meaningful, i like part of the first verse,

Blind skies of fortune

each have separate ray

on the wings of maybe

down in birds of prey 

in some quartets it's read as 'Blind stars of fortune', but listening to it, it sure sounds more like 'skies', i write a Journal each year, and i name them something meaningful, and two of them are named 'Upon The Wings Of Maybe' [1982], and 'Blind Skies Of Fortune' [1986], i'm really influenced by Led Zeppelin's lyrics, in the second half of the song, the music gets more intense and louder [4:06-4:47], i like these soft / loud waves, they really get to me in the end, the whole album should come with a recommendation, 'play loud'!.

Here's Led Zeppelin singing 'Ten Years Gone' on YouTube.

The Almighty [Just Add Life]

Well here's something different than the usual in my Blog, i heard a little bit of The Almighty, and i liked them, so when i saw this going on Ebay, i thought i'd give them a try, and i'm glad i did, the visuals are very interesting indeed [and that's one of the things that attracted me to this disc], not housed in your usual see through plastic case, but rather an opaque green plastic case, with two shades of green, with stickers on the plastic back and front, i like it, i like it a lot! [design by Storm Thorgerson & Jon Crossland], you can make out the booklet under the front plastic, which is the same as the sticker on the front [photography by Tony May & Rupert Truman], it's really quite ingenius, designed by the same guy that did a lot of Pink Floyd album covers.

The Almighty were formed in 1988 in Scotland, and this album came out in 1996, the band members are,

Ricky Warwick - Vocals and Guitars

Pete Friesen - Guitars

Stumpy Munroe - Drums

Floyd London - Bass and Vocals

The first thing i notice about the music, is the drums, and the Drummer Stumpy Monroe is brilliant, with the gorgeous sharp crack of the drumkit, rather like the band Therapy?, there's nothing worse than mushy vague drums, or drums recorded far back in the mix, the tracks that really impressed were 1-2, 4 & 10-11, and in giving these tracks another short spin, i find that it's track 10 '360' and track 11 'Feed The Need' that are the best.

Track 10, '360' is probably the better, it's a tremendous song, it starts off with the most fantastic drum intro [0:00-0:04+], the nice sharp crack of rolling drums, while in the background there's a low growling bass guitar, like a motorbike with it's throttle on low, and then the chugging lead guitars come in [0:04+], and the sneering vocals come in with 'you're talking to me!' [0:13+] nice opening vocal gambit that!, and the second half of the first verse gets louder [0:24+], with louder drums, and a rhythm guitar, and probably the most meaningful lines of lyrics, 'putting words in my mouth, that i can't spit out', the chorus is a nice hit [0:36+], with the drummer joining in the chorus bits, and right at the end of the chorus the chant 'pressure, pressure, press-ure-er-ure!' [0:51-0:59], right afterwards comes back those rolling snappy drums [1:00-1:07+], with the motorbike throttle bass guitar, and this is the same vibe as at the beginning, but reprises just have that knack of sounding so much better the second time around, this is the wonderful highlight for me, later the short screaming guitar solo wails in [2:08-2:24], and right at the end the intro rolling drums come back in [3:05+], and it's these that fade out to excellent nothing.

It's a disc that i've only played twice, but even while giving it an extra spin on some tracks just now, to review this disc into words, i can feel a tremendous excitement, as here in my hands i have another disc that will surely become a treasured recording, and will be a great asset to my growing disc collection.

Led Zeppelin [Mothership-The Very Best Of Led Zeppelin]

Well... just to prove i'm no Classical nut, here's Metal gods Led Zeppelin with their most definitive compilation discs, i got into Led Zeppelin a bit late in their career, in the very late seventies / very early eighties, and yes it was the LP Led Zeppelin IV / Four Symbols, took me a short time to discover Presence, and especially Physical Graffiti were miles better though, they were one of the bands that shaped my love of music, and they were way ahead of their time, however it's my opinion that Physical Graffiti is probably an even better introduction to Led Zeppelin than these discs, that double album has everything you could ask for.

Led Zeppelin started up in 1968, and have grown in stature as one of the greatest bands of all time, in essence they are really a bluesy Hard Rock band, and not Metal in the sense of other acts during the seventies, even today young people first discovering the wealth of material by them, quickly become devotees, and Led Zeppelin continues to create a large crowd of new followers.

On this listen, it was good to get to know disc one, which is culled from their first four albums, early Led Zeppelin [albums 1-3] are not my favourite, it was the mid seventies where they truly defined their music the best, so disc two is excellent, and on this listen it's tracks 6-8 [disc 2] that really got me going, Kashmir is well documented by Robert Plant as their best track, so i feel it's track 6 [disc 2] 'Houses Of The Holy' that i have a strong gravity towards, it comes from the double album Physical Graffiti, so i've played this track a lot, and in closely listening to it today, i realize more than ever what a pure stroke of genius this song is, it's built up from an incredible riff, Jimmy Page's guitar has that lovely hollow echo sound to it, with a double riff and a reply by John Bonham, this is repeated four times, and it's on the third time that Jimmy Page gives a nice embellishment [0:00-0:16], this is the basis for the whole song, these four riffs are interspersed with six verses, each verse by Robert Plant slowly gains in volume and intensity, on the second load of riffs after the first verse, Jimmy Page also now embellishes the second riff [0:38], it's a magnificent tease, on the third verse John Bonham starts adding a tapping sound, a nice added touch [1:21], it's the fourth verse that i think is lyrically the best,

So the world is spinning faster

Are you dizzy when you're stoned?

Let the music be your master

Will you heed the masters call?

I always thought it said 'Are you dizzy when you stop?', makes more logical sense to me, that's what happens when you stop spinning, your head keeps spinning and you feel dizzy, by the fifth and sixth verses Robert Plant is almost screaming, i get a tremendous buzz from this, at the end of the verses there's an extended riff / jam for an outro [3:13+], the whole thing is one humongous tease, it's built up and layered in intensity, it's so musically annoying / satisfying, one of their best songs ever, and a genius of a creation.

Here's Houses Of The Holy being played on YouTube.

Various Artists ['Sanctuary' 28 Gothic Anthems]

Well here's something different, just in case you think i'm a soft middle aged guy, i do like stuff that is heavy and loud too, this is an excellent compilation album, certainly Gothic, but it also has a flavour of Punk and Metal about it too, it's hard to pigeonhole the album.

Ultimately i feel that the album has too many average tracks within it, especially disc two, and there's a flavour of Indie music which is out of place, i'm sure i won't keep this album, however these type of albums can work out a wonderful way to sample a whole bunch of Artists/Bands, and give you a great introduction point to some you especially like, that's exactly what's happened here with my first listen of this album.

I really liked tracks 2, 7-8 & 14, especially track 7 'The Beautiful People' by Marilyn Manson, now i'm certainly not a Marilyn Manson fan, in fact i see him as a modern day Alice Cooper, and i hated Alice Cooper, in my mind Marilyn Manson was all image and no substance, a Shock Rocker doing obscene things to get noticed, because his music can't speak for itself, so it was a huge surprise to find this track is so phenomenally good, wow! i like it a lot, and come to think of it his stage persona is quite endearing too!, one of the other things that happened is that this track lead me onto 'Blitzkreig' by Deathstars, another wonderful discovery, i'll have to get their album too!.

'The Beautiful People' starts off with these delicious damn drums! [0:04+], that permeate through the whole song, it's this powerful tribal beat which makes the track, something that The Sweet or Adam & The Ants would do, a bass guitar comes in [0:11+], and then the buzz guitar [0:20+], and we've got a real riff going, Manson comes in on the first verse whispering loudly! [0:45+], a nice touch is him singing the word 'wrong' in a falsetto voice [0:53], it's dynamite, the chorus is screamed by Manson [1:24+],

Hey you, what do you see?

Something beautiful, something free?

Hey you, are you trying to be mean?

If you live with apes man, it's hard to be clean

another nice touch is singing 'the horrible people, the horrible people' in a mocking whining voice [1:51+], later when the words 'the beautiful people' are whispered four times, with an 'ahhh' at the end [2:45+], there's this lovely tick tock sound made by the drums, a nice moment indeed, the whole track is a genius of a creation.

Here's Marilyn Manson singing 'The Beautiful People' on YouTube, the video is really good, very arty.