Of course you know that this is the band of Geezer Butler, former bassist of… Fuck that - if you don’t know this, then fuck off completely. Anyway, this is way heavier than I thought it would be. Not as good, though. The idea to have the guy from Fear Factory sing probably looked good on paper, but he’s just not up to 100% most of the time. Maybe 75%. I like that Geezer wanted to be heavy, and this is a pretty good effort, but he apparently forgot that his bass work should be louder. Hell, I’m just glad to see that The Geeze is still alive and fuckin’ shit up, although this does sort of sound like Fear Factory, but with a different drummer. Upped a little out of respect for The Geeze.

This is evil ritual Ambient soundscapes. This kind of stuff relaxes me immensely, but I think it’s intended to be creepy or disturbing. I like it, but maybe not in the way I’m supposed to. Eventually some guitars and minimalistic drums show up, but they are not used in the traditional way and add to the atmosphere instead.

Well, I’m the wrong guy to review any Rap albums, but I must say that the production, use of samples, and layering of the music are pretty good. The beats seem a bit more interesting than most of the other Rap I’ve heard, which isn’t much. I can’t say that I like the “kill whitey” lyrics very much, though. Or is it only racism when a white says “kill blacky”? What idiots.

The very oddly colored, computer-generated, cover art led me to believe that Full Circle would be something a lot better than the Pantera clone they apparently are. It’s almost funny to think that anyone would take them seriously.

You certainly get a lot of “goodies” with this one: Two stickers, a napkin with lyrics on it, and a little zine/lyric booklet. The music is interesting (although not amazing), too: Energetic, raw Hardcore.

I don’t exactly have the whole story on this, but it appears to be the soundtrack to a film. At any rate, what you really care about is what it sounds like, so here it is: Progressive Death/Thrash. The playing on here is nothing short of amazing, and the production flawless. The music ranges from Thrashy Death to acoustic technical orgasms, the likes of which would make the guys in Fates Warning kill themselves. The only even remotely “bad” part of this is that it tends to make the songs seem a bit fragmented, and not as memorable as they would be otherwise. That’s all that’s keeping this from a 10, and it’s not by much.

These guys sound like a somewhat faster and more talented Pearl Jam. The loud bass, and generally excellent sound really help it out for me, but this is a style I simply don’t honestly like. I would, however, say that if you at all like such bands as Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, or the aforementioned Pearl Jam, then you would have to love Flowerland.

This starts really strong. I was worried about the drums, as their former skin beater is now in the mighty Slayer, but drum-wise this is just fine, thank you. Russ succumbs to a little vocal distortion every now and then, which is suicide for him. And the riffs occasionally falter, and sound like that horrid “new Thrash” now called (by some) “Power Metal” [which would eventually become known as Nu-Metal. -Editor] When not vocally distorted, and not stealing riffs from former Hairspray Rockers, this is okay, but those are transgressions which I simply cannot forgive.

I was a little worried that they might alter their style, but they came through for me again. Certainly Thrashy, and definitely intense, this is maybe even better than their last album, Cuatro, which I liked quite a bit. There is even a little Industrial-ness poking its head through here and there.

A very impressive sleeve surrounds this strange, sample-laden, Groove-heavy EP. It’s tough to accurately describe the music, but if a band like Kyuss were way tougher, that might come close. When there are vocals, they are off in the distance, giving the whole thing an eerie dream-like quality.

First off, the vocals really remind me of Death, and I guess the music is in the same style, too: Pretty technical Death Metal, with Thrashy parts, and some slower stuff, too. These guys even go one more step and make it all pretty easy to remember, and that’s crucial. It gives them a somewhat original sound, and that’s hard to accomplish nowadays. Excellent production tops off this great release.

Oh shit is this a joke. The drums are still totally fuckin’ godlike, but the riffs are all Pantera. And the vocals? All wrong. On their first album, Burton C. Bell really was the “dry lung vocal martyr,” but now he is the “vocal effect and sweet-voice dork.” Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Here we have a compilation of some old tracks, and a few new songs, too. If you really want to check out some interesting Progressive Metal, then this is the thing to get, unless you already have all the Fates Warning albums, then it might be too much cash for only three new songs.

I thoroughly enjoyed the S.O.D. “cover” (“March of the S.O.D.” renamed “Mosh of the F.O.F.”), but it seems that Family of Freaks mine the depths of Speak English or Die for a few other riffs as well. I guess that’s okay. It’s been awhile since I’ve heard a Metal band this concerned with “pit riffs” - Hardcore seems to be trying to recapture that style. Anyway, this is a worthwhile demo.

The intro sorts of sets the stage for a style more like that of King Diamond, so I was surprised to hear such an intense Death Metal assault following it. The excellent production comes courtesy of Wave Digital, which has been made famous by being the pet studio of Broken Hope. In fact, Broken Hope’s Joe Ptacek even lends his lungs to a pair of songs on this, but I like Phil’s vocals better. In fact, although they aren’t as heavy to be sure, I like pretty much everything about Experiment Fear a little better.

Well, I know that E13 front-man (and owner of Relapse), Bill Yurkiewicz, thinks Black Metal is stupid, but making fun of Venom’s Black Metal LP cover is bound to be a bad move. I’ll bet a lot of people won’t think that it’s very funny. I sure don’t. But on to the music. There’s an edited version of one of the songs from Ethos Musick, and the others were apparently recorded during those sessions. So am I to take that to mean that this was the stuff they thought wasn’t good enough for the album, or didn’t they have enough room for it? The production is pretty lacking, which was certainly not the case of Ethos…, so that’s strange. They do a 48 second Dead Kennedys cover, sample some porno stuff, and ramload two Doors songs together. At least all this is mastered at the correct level, although the 22 minute last track couldn’t have been any more inane at 3 times as loud. Maybe they could try smoking more dope next time. Upped a little for at least trying to cover DK.

Well, these guys are certainly not doing anything new, but their crushing riffs, excellent playing, and powerful production make up for it. Even the vocals are as they should be: raw, but sort of understandable. But of course all bands where the bassist also sings are cool. The beginning of “Realm of Terror,” is awesomely heavy, and extremely memorable. If the entire demo were as monstrous as that section, or that song in general, I’d have to give it a 10. In fact, upon repeated listens, I find that the two songs which follow “Realm…” are nearly at its level. Evilution seem to have put their weakest song first, which is a fatal mistake. Not that “Night of Magic” is bad, just bland compared to the other three (expect for the guitar solo, which is an ass-kicker, but all the solos on this are). These guys have some damn serious potential. I’m anxious to see what they do next. I’d bet someone signs them.

Clocking in at just over 26 minutes, I was tempted to call this an EP, but any guys who cover Slaughter’s “Nocturnal Hell” can make a 26 minute LP if they want to. I must say that the songwriting on this album is very strong, and their drummer is very fast and exact. I’m a sucker for Thrashy Death with keyboards, and these guys really excel at it.

Sometimes resembling an electric guitar driven version of Dead Can Dance, these guys keep it pretty scary sounding. Sometimes slow, Doom-like; and others more up-tempo, but always with that ominous shadow behind everything. The drum machine is used really well, and the clean vocals somehow make the music all the more eerie, as they are sorta evil-sounding.

This seems to be a really good combination of heaviness, speed, memorable riffs, great playing, and superb sound. Hey, I even like the vocals. Eternal Solstice have a winner here, that’s for sure. They experiment a little bit, but generally just go for the kill, combining fast parts with Doom riffs to really create their own style.