Jonathan Hill

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Aug
4

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Ohgr Devils in My Details Review

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Ohgr Devils in My Details Review

Artist: Ohgr
Album: Devils in My Details
Genre(s): Industrial
Subgenres(s): Electro-industrial
Released: 2008
Length: 42 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Synthetic Symphony

Track List:

01. Shhh
02. Eyecandy
03. Three
04. Feelin’ Chicken
05. Pepper
06. D.Angel
07. Psychoreal
08. Whitevan
09. Timebomb
10. Smogharp
11. Witness

Ohgr Devils in My Details Cover

Devils in My Details is the third album by industrial act Ohgr. After 5 years the duo of Nivek Ogre and Mark Walk return with something unlike anything else in the industrial scene, or elsewhere for that matter. Devils in My Details is a concoction of aggressive marching drums, noise, extensive sound processing and demented vocalisations that have all been mixed into 1 bizarre auditory cocktail.

Actor Bill Mosley finds himself being dragged into the middle of this otherworldly album to perform disenchanted spoken word verses of his own design on songs 4, 7, 9, 10 and 11 while being the most human sounding part of the entire album.

Several songs are linked together with short interludes that grow out of the ever changing soundscapes to create longer, multipart songs. You will find this makes it much easier to find individual parts to listen to, which can be a problem with lengthy songs written by other artists. The only drawback to this is that you will feel like you’ve started listening to a song from the middle instead of the beginning if you do this.

Ohgr changes faces many times on Devils in My Details and never stays in a single place for long. This makes it impossible to get a clear picture of what the album is about from hearing a single song and is best experienced as the sum of its parts rather than individual pieces.

Devils in My Details is as unconventional as it is difficult to digest if you’re unacquainted with industrial music. The scope of vision and creativity used to create Devils in My Details is particularly wide and sounds like nothing else past or present. It is essential listening for industrial enthusiasts and anyone willing to experience something that takes more than a few steps outside the box.

Jul
28

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Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Review

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Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Review

Artist: Rob Zombie
Album: Hellbilly Deluxe
Genre(s): Nu Metal
Subgenres(s): N/A
Released: 1998
Length: 38 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Geffen Records

Track List:

01. Call of the Zombie
02. Superbeast
03. Dragula
04. Living Dead Girl
05. Perversion 99
06. Demonoid Phenomenon
07. Spookshow Baby
08. How to Make a Monster
09. Meet the Creeper
10. The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore
11. What Lurks on Channel X?
12. Return of the Phantom Stranger
13. The Beginning of the End

Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Cover

Hellbilly Deluxe is the first album that Rob Zombie recorded as a solo artist. Released the same year as his heavy metal band White Zombie disbanded, Hellbilly Deluxe serves as a spiritual successor to White Zombie’s final album, Astro Creep: 2000, but in many ways it is something entirely new.

Abandoning the groove metal sound of White Zombies last 2 albums, Rob Zombie gravitated towards nu metal still with an emphasis on strong groove laden songs and samples of horror film dialogue with his own lyrics revolve around the same themes as well as offbeat characters and concepts of his own creation.

Rob Zombie manages to cling onto his distinct gravelly voice while showing a massive improvement in his singing abilities. He sings clearly enough to be heard throughout most songs and no longer sounds like he’s straining himself anymore. At other times he takes to an almost spoken word delivery on Living Dead Girl, The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore, and Return of the Phantom Stranger.

Song-writing has flourished in a lot of new ways while each song is generally shorter and has a more clearly produced sound. After the creepy samples that make up Call of the Zombie he cuts to the heart of Hellbilly Deluxe; adrenaline pumping horror rock anthems tinged with an assortment of odd noises and all the other ingredients you’d expect to hear in a b-list horror film.

The other, more arguably artistic side of Rob Zombie crawls through on the spooky soundscape work of Perversion 99 while How to Make a Monster is a seemingly intentional lo-fi rocker that sounds as though it was recorded in a basement with the microphones in another room. The supernatural monster shenanigans come to a bizarre finish with The Beginning of the End, a noise song that is riddled with several layers of unidentifiable sounds that swirl around uncomfortably.

While some parts of Hellbilly Deluxe are comparable to White Zombies later output, it’s important to remember that Rob Zombie has moved beyond what White Zombie was and has gone onto carve out a far more ambitious and creative solo career with Hellbilly Deluxe.

Jul
21

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Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion Review

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Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion Review

Artist: Storm Corrosion
Album: Storm Corrosion
Genre(s): Ambient, Folk, Rock
Subgenres(s): Dark Ambient, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Folk
Released: 2012
Length: 48 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Roadrunner

Track List:

01. Drag Ropes
02. Storm Corrosion
03. Hag
04. Happy
05. Lock Howl
06. Ljudet Innan

Storm Corrosion Storm Corrosion Cover

Storm Corrosion is the long awaited collaborative project between progressive rock/metal stars Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, solo) and Michael Akerfeldt (Opeth). Given the background of these 2 prolific musicians you would think that you would have some inkling as to what Storm Corrosion would turn out like but the results are much more unexpected than you’d think. As with a lot of Steven Wilson’s output in the last few years, the music is brooding and dark sounding without strictly sounding like anything either musician has put forward before.

There are only 6 songs on Storm Corrosion and together they manage to make up a little bit more than the average length of an album. Drag Ropes, Storm Corrosion and Ljudet Innan all clock in at around 10 minutes each and like most of the album, they work around the same tired format; soft guitar lines that keep the rhythm, dark keyboard atmospheres, sparse and infrequent percussion and unstrained singing from both halves of Storm Corrosion.

Half way through Hag you’ll be treated to a short burst of distorted guitar noise and frenzied drum rolls with plenty of sharp clashes on the cymbals thrown in in an effort to keep your attention and break up the monotony. Lock Howl is the only song with steady use of percussion and while remaining well within the duos ominous criteria, it manages to wake the listener from their slumber before abruptly stopping once they realise that they are in danger of playing something that might be memorable.

Unlimited artistic freedom isn’t a bad thing in and of itself but when 2 of the current progressive rock/metal scene figureheads get together and produce an album with maybe 20 minutes of material worth hearing you know that something hasn’t hit the marker.

Jul
14

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Against All Authority The Restoration of Chaos and Order Review

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Against All Authority The Restoration of Chaos and Order Review

Artist: Against All Authority
Album: The Restoration of Chaos and Order
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Hardcore Punk, Punk Rock
Released: 2006
Length: 38 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Hopeless Records

Track List:

01. The Restoration of Chaos and Order
02. Sweet Televised Destruction
03. All Ages Show Tonight
04. Collection Scars
05. Radio Waves
06. Silence is Golden But Duct Tape is Silver
07. Shut it Down
08. Sunshine Fist Magnet
09. I Just Wanna Start a Circle Pit
10. War Machine Breakdown
11. Grinding My Life Away
12. The Production of Self Destruction
13. Buried Alive
14. Best Enemies

Against All Authority The Restoration of Chaos and Order Cover

The Restoration of Chaos and Order is the final album by punk rockers Against All Authority. The band has shed off almost all of their former ska punk influences with the exception of a handful of ska rhythms and a trumpet on Radio Waves and Best Enemies whereas some of their older material made use of a larger brass section consisting of a trumpet, trombone and saxophone.

Against All Authority are still as furious as ever and with the removal of almost all of the ska punk influences they have decided to stick to what they know and struck a fantastic balance of straight ahead punk rock and the more aggressive hardcore punk sound that they slip in and out of with little effort.

Danny Lore’s has improved on his vocal performance a fair bit since the release of their previous studio album Nothing New for Trash Like You in 2001. He still sings in a familiar throaty voice but he is much easier to understand and the band has a way of getting you to pay attention to what he has to say over everything.

The lyrics tend to focus on social/political commentary, the highs and lows of life as well as more specific subjects like the murder of Brian Deneke on Sunshine Fist Magnet and what the spirit of the punk rock scene is supposed to be on Shut it Down.

Against All Authority broke up in 2007, ending their 15 year run on a high note and truly showing how far you can stretch 3 chords and 6 strings without throwing in a single piece of redundant material.

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