This might as well be on MTV. Right on TRL with all the rest of the Pop, except that I think that anything on TRL would be heavier than this is. Notice that I didn’t say “Pop Metal,” because this is in no way even related to Metal at all. In fact, the airy lightness of the album is just weird. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like acoustic guitars. And I guess this chick has an okay voice - in a Lilith Fair sort of way, if you see what I mean. But if I wanted to listen to Joan Baez, I’d just break out my dusty old copy of Judas Priest’s Sin After Sin.

Apt band name.

According to their press release, Boulder once (or I should say, at least once) performed as “Motorhead USA.” Anyone with the balls to do that is okay with me. Also according to their press release, Boulder used to be way heavier, more along the lines of the Sludge-side of the Melvins, which I’m sure is true, but somewhat weird, since they’re now more like early Kiss. Sorta. I wish I’d gotten their previous CD (which also contains the band’s debut album), since it sounds as if I might have appreciated that more. But it’s impossible to deny how easy-to-remember these songs are. They bore into my brain like the bug from Star Trek II. I may just have to track down their other CD, because if these catchy, ultra-energetic songs were also super heavy… well, shit that would be even better! And it’s not bad as is.

Former Benediction growler Dave Ingram has done little to change the classic BT sound, and I’m happy about that. Heavy and plodding old style Death Metal is what I expected and what was delivered.

The reformed Bloodlet is back to kick our asses with their unique, and sometimes too-weird, version of Hardcore. But occasionally things just get too strange, with the different vocal styles and even constantly mutating riffs. The Steve Albini production is suitably think and dirty, and even powerful, but it makes this whole thing feel Sludgy, like Grief, maybe. The majority of this album is great, but there are moments of… insanity.

When an album moves your soul like it hasn’t been moved in years, it’s hard to find the right words to translate the feeling. Add to that the trials of filtering the hatred I’ll experience when I read the multitude of reviews writing this off as merely a decent, retro Death, just-for-fun gag. Well, sorry Terrorizer, your Niles and Dillingers can’t hold a fucking candle to Bloodbath’s simplistic mastery of the not-so-ancient art. (Death Metal never died, the labels and the writers just jumped onto a more prosperous bandwagon.) Metalheads take note, the modern day Reign in Blood is upon us. I’m not even going to go into the members that comprise this project. If you don’t know, you don’t matter. This LP is a little different from the classic Breeding Death EP. The musicianship is upped a notch, that is to say the riffs are a tad more complex, and there are actually a couple solos, albeit they are in the vein of the spastic fretboard-slaughter variety a la Deicide’s first album. So, it’s not quite the same first-listen flooring as the EP, but after a week, I was twice as addicted. This album, more so than the EP, embraces the old Swedish sound that bands like Entombed, Grave, and Dismember brought to life in the early ’90s, and it’s none more evident than on the album’s standout opener “Ways to the Grave.” Layered in the Sunlight sound with one of the most diabolical melodies ever recorded, this song begins the journey, with the best vocalist in Metal today as your guide. Before you can pick up your jaw, up next is “So You Die,” with a chorus so infectious your grandma would growl along, and “Mass Strangulation,” with an opening riff almost Burzumesque in its misanthropic flow. The heart of the album then forges on with unparalleled intensity and dynamics leading up to the final two cuts, the chunky groove-laden “Like Fire,” and the apocalyptic closer, “Cry My Name.” By the end of this sinister opus, you’re drenched in sweat, your jaw’s sore from grinding your teeth, and you’re twitching from the adrenaline rush you’ve just endured. It’s almost as if you become this album. Death Metal has never sounded this alive.

I would list a few of the more inspirational quotes from this album, but I’d more or less have to transcribe all of the lyrics as well as the between-song rants. Allow me to say instead that the lyrics here are just as antisocial, and in fact anti-everything, as ever, even if the band’s sound is perhaps slightly less thick and heavy, and a little more traditionally Punk, than it has been in the past, which is fine with me. They also rerecord their own “A Bitch Called Hope,” retitling it “She’s Still a Bitch (Called Hope).” This is not quite the flawless album I was hoping for (which is what I get for hoping at all, right?), but it is close.

This album, the first rumblings from Blasphemy in almost a decade, is a live concert recorded in Canada on July 13, 2001. Frankly, I’d thought that this band had broken up, but apparently they’re still together and this is the result. Note that Blasphemy also played a much-advertised concert with Black Witchery. This particular gig occurred a couple days earlier than that show, so if you know about the gig with Black Witchery, this is not the same show. The whole gig was recorded directly to minidisc so this live album fucking sounds amazing. Blasphemy is still the king when it comes to old-school chaotic fucking Black War Metal (kind of similar to the Aussie sound, but these guys came first). It’s dirty, raw and almost out of control, but this LP honestly made me wish I was there getting my head torn off my shoulders. The vinyl is heavy duty and the whole product is well put together, complete with Chris Moyen (who did album covers for Beherit and many other early Black and Death Metal bands) artwork on the cover. This is only available on vinyl and in 666 copies. The first 100 copies came on red vinyl and contained a bonus CDR of a Blasphemy rehearsal also recorded onto minidisc (which actually sounds better than the concert) but the 100 “diehard” copies are completely sold out. (If, however, you happen upon a copy of that particular edition on eBay, make sure it has the CDR before bidding on it. If it does have everything included, sell your soul if you have to, because the additional stuff you get with the “diehard” edition is well worth it!) Get this while you can!!!

Left-wing musical and political icon Jello Biafra is back with yet another triple-CD spoken word album and as before, Jello takes no political prisoners. This release covers a lot of ground and once again, so much material is time sensitive that you can’t help but feel that some of the information on this album is a bit dated. Even with an abundance of material surrounding the beginning of the War on Terrorism™ and September 11®, I thought that Jello had a lot to say that was still relevant - one of the things being the questioning of how much of the news we are being fed is real. Even though I tend not to agree with some of the more Socialistic things Jello has to say (I’m quite a bit more to the right than he is - though I’m still considered to be left of the center politically), I won’t question his right to say what he does. The only thing that I thought brought this album down from perfection was the fact that a good portion of this album repeated stuff that was already on The Big Ka-Boom: Part 1, which was released almost a year or so ago. That wouldn’t have been a crime if that particular CD were a limited edition kind of thing, but it wasn’t. Besides, most people who buy Jello’s albums would already own that one so repeating what was on it would be redundant. On a side note, if half the stuff he says about his former band-mates is true, the “new” Dead Kennedys have to be killed. It’s one thing to want to make a little money, but it’s another thing entirely to sell out completely. If D.H. Peligro really did say that they supported the War on Terrorism™ and the Bush administration, then they really have pissed on everything that Dead Kennedys stood for all those years ago.