Jonathan Hill

A Soapbox for Uninformed Opinions

Dec
27

By

Alice Cooper Trash Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

Alice Cooper Trash Review

Artist: Alice Cooper
Album: Trash
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Hard Rock
Released: 1989
Length: 40 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Epic Records

Track List:

01. Poison
02. Spark in the Dark
03. House of Fire
04. Why Trust You
05. Only My Heart Talkin’
06. Bed of Nails
07. This Maniac’s in Love with You
08. Trash
09. Hell is Living Without You
10. I’m Your Gun

Alice Cooper Trash Cover

Alice Cooper returned to the throng of commercial success with Trash in 1989. This was his biggest selling album since the mid-1970s and it isn’t hard to see why. Alice Cooper cuts the fat to leave you with the best possible experience; 10 powerhouse rock anthems with a plethora of catchy guitar rhythms and infections sing-along hooks that are bound to snare your ears.

He tackles 3 topics that more often than not make a pop sensation (sex, love and heart break) with a sleazy, tongue-in-cheek grin that will make you laugh and cringe simultaneously with his blunt refrains. Memorable lines go from “no one else gets as deep inside you as I do” (Bed of Nails) and “pull my trigger, I get bigger, then I’m lots of fun” (I’m Your Gun) to him portraying an obsessed stalker on This Maniac’s In Love With You.

The 8 boisterous rock anthems are balanced out with Only My Heart Talkin’ and Hell is Living Without You, the 2 slightly more sincere power ballads in which his tone changes fittingly to deal with heart break. It’s worth mentioning that while sincere next to the rest of the album, Only My Heart Talkin’ descends into an incessant animal yelps as part of a long fade out that cues Alice Cooper to get back to what he excels at on Trash. Spark in the Dark takes a nod to Alice Cooper rejecting the use of hard drugs with the line “we don’t need cocaine” after overcoming his own addictions in the early 1980s.

As far as the recording of Trash goes, it has a distinct 1980s sound to it complete with the era’s cheesy keyboard effects. Thankfully they are used subtly and are relegated to the background so when they come into play, they don’t have enough emphasis in any song to diminish its quality.

Trash possesses all of the hallmarks of a great rock album. It will have you coming back for more time and time again with Alice Coopers sleazy lyrics delivered in a high energy performance across a small set of songs that never feel played out no matter how many times you listen to them.

Dec
19

By

The Darkness Christmas Time Don’t Let the Bells End Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

The Darkness Christmas Time Don’t Let the Bells End Review

Artist: The Darkness
Album: Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Hard Rock
Released: 2003
Length: 7 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Atlantic, Must Destroy

Track List:

01. Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)
02. I Love You 5 Times

Darkness Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) Cover

Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) is a festive EP by The Darkness in 2003 as a bid to grab the Christmas number 1 spot in the UK but landed second after losing out to the joyless Mad World by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews. The single was then featured as a bonus track on the rerelease of their debut album Permission to Land.

Both songs are rife with the same cheeky humour found on their debut album and since there are only 2 short songs on this EP, The Darkness manages make it more obvious than ever on Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) by letting the double entendres loose to sing about “bells end” “ringing in peace” during the festive season. The song also features a children’s choir and ends with bells and chimes to give it that authentic Christmas feeling while referencing the title in a musical context this time.

Justin Hawkins maintains his falsetto range and somehow restrains himself from his own flamboyant wailing only to let loose in a desperate plea to grab some attention from the choir when his own voice is buried by them on Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End).

I Love You 5 Times is a power ballad that is highlighted by its ridiculous lyrics in which Justin Hawkins confesses that “I watch as you spend an hour or two in the bath like a tuna” and “twice a week I take a peek as you bathe like a reptile”. If this wasn’t enough for you he purrs, moans along to the choppy guitar solo and ends the song with a kiss. The lyrics pull the ballad together and wouldn’t be the same without them whereas Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) is thoroughly enjoyable even if you are completely oblivious to the humour.

The Darkness put a brilliant, cheeky twist on Christmas cheer by bringing a duo of genuinely jovial songs to the table instead of rehashing tired Christmas classics like countless others have done before.

Dec
15

By

Slayer Reign in Blood Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

Slayer Reign in Blood Review

Artist: Slayer
Album: Reign in Blood
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Thrash Metal
Released: 1986
Length: 29 minutes (35 with bonus tracks)
Language(s): English
Label(s): Def Jam Recordings

Track List:

01. Angel of Death
02. Piece by Piece
03. Necrophobic
04. Altar of Sacrifice
05. Jesus Saves
06. Criminally Insane
07. Reborn
08. Epidemic
09. Portmortem
10. Raining Blood
11. Aggressive Perfector (Bonus Track)
12. Criminally Insane (Remix) (Bonus Track)

Slayer Reign in Blood Cover

Reign in Blood is the third album by thrash metal titans Slayer. Released in 1986, the recording is exceptionally clear for a time when figuring out how to record metal albums was coming out of its infancy. For comparison in sound quality you only need to look back to their 1985 album Hell Awaits to hear the difference. Acclaimed producer Rick Rubin is often cited for this and it contributed much to the success of Reign in Blood and its iconic status that it has attained over the subsequent decades.

Slayer obviously took their punk rock influences to heart and upped the ante for thrash metal by pushing the subgenre to its limits and did so with categorical success. The original release of Reign in Blood is incredibly short. It is a relentless 29 minutes that showcases an odd disparity between Slayer’s savage song writing abilities and the sloppy guitar solos that get jammed in thoughtlessly and appear to be more of an afterthought than an integral part of any of their songs. Thankfully Dave Lombardo will distract you from this with his masterful drum work that parades throughout Reign in Blood and he never misses a chance to impress.

Tom Araya’s vocal performance goes all the way from barely comprehendible splutters, snarls and high pitched screams to relatively even singing with a gruff slant to it. The lyrics were written by the guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King and deal with horror, gore and violence while touching on Satanism and death. While shocking for the time, these topics have since become standard fare for many thrash and death metal bands past and present.

Reign in Blood is a single-minded barrage of aggro in short, snappy bursts that doesn’t leave any room to flex their artistic muscles in other sonic realms. Slayer used their unquenchable thirst to create volatile music and spurred them on to record an album that ultimately became not only a flag bearer for thrash metal but a forerunner of death metal as well.

Link

Dec
8

By

Solitude Aeturnus Adagio Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

Solitude Aeturnus Adagio Review

Artist: Solitude Aeturnus
Album: Adagio
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Doom Metal
Released: 1998
Length: 63 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Massacre Records

Track List:

01. My Endtime
02. Days of Prayer
03. Believe
04. Never
05. Idis
06. Personal God
07. Mental Pictures
08. Insanity’s Circles
09. The Fall
10. Lament
11. Empty Faith
12. Spiral Descent
13. Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath Cover)

Solitude Aeturnus Adagio Cover

Adagio is the 5th album by American doom metal outfit Solitude Aeturnus. It stands firmly on the lighter side of the doom metal spectrum with tempos going from moderately paced (for a metal band) to the slower paces more commonly identified with the doom metal sound.

Adagio starts out with the moody dark ambient introduction of My Endtime before Days of Prayer comes into get the album moving. It sounds promising enough but the 2 follow up songs, Believe and Never, are cut from the same cloth and fail to move Adagio forward. This is the major pitfall that the band faces and it becomes evident that Solitude Aeturnus don’t know which direction to take their songs despite having some good verses littered throughout the album.

Solitude Aeturnus kick it up a notch for Idis and Empty Faith with more tempo shifts, a mix of clean and distorted guitar tones and singer Rob Lowe (whose voice suits this brand of doom and gloom particularly well) alternates between almost whispered lines and his powerful singing voice. The Fall gives some relief from the rehashed song structure by being a short and straightforward acoustic song before they quickly revert back to doom metal with the appropriately titled Lament.

A cover of Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath is used as the closer for Adagio. This forces them to adjust their approach and sees them steering away from familiar territory to bring much needed change to the album that lets it finish on a high note.

« Older Posts
Newer Posts »