This is basically a short summary of whats lying about my place or in the car getting the high rotation treatment at the moment. I haven't done one of these before, but might get into doing it regularly. Not sure it's ever going to appeal to a large amount of people - as the mix of stuff I listen to / watch is quite varied, but still, here goes!
[]CKY - "Infiltrate - Destroy - Rebuild" (CD)[]
[
]For those who don't know, heres a quick run down of how CKY the band, CKY the "skate" video series, and MTV's Jackass fit together. The CKY series of videos (now available as a box DVD set, but apparently only in the US) was created by [Bam Margera], pro skater and also one of the stars of MTV's [Jackass]. In some of the skits/clips throughout the videos, music from CKY the band is featured, possibly because the drummer is Bams brother. Songs from CKY have also been featured in a few Jackass episodes, which might have helped the band gain enough of a foothold to be releasing this, which is their 2nd full length cd.
Despite the ominous sounding title, CKY is not at all "heavy" and is quite listenable. For lack of a better way to describe them, and also in a sense paying respect to the path which they took to get where they are, the term I guess one could apply is a melodic form of "Skate Rock". They definately have a unique guitar sound, and I'm not sure of how exactly to describe it. One of the things I noticed from the first album was that a lot of the songs sounded completely different, whether they had been mixed at different places or by different people, the whole album sounded like a little bit of cutting and pasting had gone on from various sources. This one is much better in that regard, although the second track "Flesh into Gear" seems to appear again in a remixed form. So far that track appears once in a video skit, again remixed slightly in the first album, and again here - which is ok as its a nice song, and I guess they like it too. One final comment, the CD is quite short.
[]Lacuna Coil - [Comalies] (CD)[]
[
]This is the third full release from Lacuna Coil, although the first might have actually been more of an EP (I'm not sure as Amazon is only listing 2 titles, and I'm sure there is a third as I have it on MD). In some ways this album is more of the same, but thats not neccesarily a bad thing. I really like Lacuna Coil. The concept of metal/heavy guitar music with female vocals is one that isn't explored too often, and less often is it explored succesfully. Cristina Scabbia has a beautiful voice, and it works really well over the type of music played by the band, and is complimented by the alternative vocals of Andrea Ferro. I guess to sum it up, if you liked their other releases, then you should like this. When I picked it up from HMV the stand was filled with hype-ish (ok I know that's not a real word) type stickers proclaiming it to be certain magazines "ALBUM OF THE MONTH" etc, but dont let that put you off. Oh, and most of the albums are absolutely awesome to listen to while snowboarding solo!
[]Eighteen Visions (CD)[]
I picked this up on the strength of their track ("Motionless and White") on the [Trustkill] Sampler. Something about that track just grabbed me, it was the sort of direct straight up powerful stuff that attracted me to the hardcore genre in the first place. However the full album isn't quite as good. It lacks the crunch and drive I was hoping for, none of the songs quite have the same power that the track from the Sampler does. Theres also too much "singing" in it - imo the concept of hardcore singers who can both sing and scream doesn't always work too well. Bands like Vision of Disorder pull it off well, but when it fails it fails very badly. Although its kind of switching genres a little, listen to a few tracks from the Five Point O album, called "Untitled" and you can see a perfect example of it failing. The singer seems to be on a slightly warped mission to prove that he has the most different singing styles of any band out at the moment, switching from a hardcore-esque scream, to a rapcore chant, then to a death metal growl, and ocasionally has a shot at singing. It just doesn't work, and makes the album sound disjointed (urm there is where someone is probably going to tell me that they have more than one singer or something.. heh). Anyway, I quite like the Eighteen Visions album, just not as much as I thought I would - maybe it just needs a few more listens to grow on me..
[]Trustkill Sampler (CD)[]
As the name suggests, this CD is a mix of tracks from [Trustkill] bands, and theres some good stuff on here. The Brothers Keeper track sounds really nice (I didn't really like "I shot JFK"), the Eighteen Visions track is cool, and theres a load of other good stuff in here for lovers of all and any types of hardcore. Trustkill have been around for a long time, and seem to be further expanding, and good luck to them. It's really refreshing to walk into a store like HMV and find their releases readily available, like they should be.
[]Hybrid - Wider Angle (Special Edition) (CD)[]
[
]My cousin sent me a couple of tracks from this, and I ended up going and buying it. While I guess it would fit in the category (and I hate categorising music) Dance/Trance, there is some very different things on this CD, including some awesome vocals, and a track with some very nice (but a little Pink Floydish) sounding jazzy guitar soloing over the top. The opening track "If I Survive" is really nice, and quite a powerful track to listen to if you're in need of inspiration.
[]Progressive Euphoria (CD)[]
Another sent to me by my cousin. Never considered myself a trance fan, but some of this stuff can be really nice to listen to. Its helped drag me out of a few pretty crappy moods, and it's also nice to write code to if you're stuck in a noisy office.
[]Oxide & Neutrino - 2 Stepz Ahead (CD)[]
While I wouldn't consider myself a fan of UK Garage, I've liked a couple of tracks these guys have done. The new album has a cool twist to it - it comes as a 2 CD set, and the second CD is purely instrumental. Theres a couple of amazing instrumental tracks on there anyway, my favorite being "Shoot 2 Kill". There are some tracks which could have much better rapping, I've noticed Neutrino has a tendancy to like repeating the same line (or duo of lines) twice to either fill space, or help things rhyme better, and also tends to use words or phrases that just dont fit with the flow of the track in order to get the lines to rhyme. Rap doesnt have to always rhyme exactly.. and sometimes you feel like he's trying too hard for this. Having said all that, theres some cool tracks on this, and some variety thrown into the mix by cameos from other members of the So Solid Crew, so if you're a rap or garage fan it might be worth checking it out.
[]Spearhead - Stay Human (CD)[]
[
]Most of the other stuff so far is newish type releases. This is the current exception.. since seeing these guys live a couple of months ago I've had this CD either in the car, or in the CD player. Its such a relaxing CD, it forces you to stop and think a little. Michael Franti can write some great lyrics, and the rest of his band is great too. Seeing them play at the London Jazz Cafe was probably one of the best gigs I've ever been to, they played for over 3 hours non stop, and this is a great CD.
[]CKY - Box Set (DVD)[]
After ordering this from 2 places who never delivered it, I finally managed to get this through [Enterprises DVD] who import US discs into the UK. I'm guessing theres no plans to release the CKY stuff in other zones, but wanted these as they are utterly pld. The most popular and well known being CKY2K, and having previously only seen a poor quality SVCD version of this, I must say seeing it on DVD lets you see stuff in a lot more detail.. some of that detail is not always completely welcomed though. The quality of the box set is pretty low - a flimsy bit of cardboard that collapses without the DVD's inside it, and the discs themselves have a little extra footage, but not much. Basically one for the collectors, CKY enthusiasts, Bam Margera fans, and possibly Jackass fans as well.
[]Nothing for the XBox?[]
No. I'm still looking for a title or two that will let me know why I bought this thing. So far the titles being released are mostly garbage, although there are a few on the horizon worth looking out for. Personally I'm hanging out for House of the Dead 3, but only because I love lightgun arcade games, and have played Time Crisis 2 and Crisis Zone through to completion many times. Other than that, Marvel VS Capcom might be good, again probably because I'm a big Streetfighter fan (aah yes wasted youth, how I long to be a student again?), although of course that title will need a decent quality [arcade joystick] and someone to play against..
Well, that's going to be it for this entry. Embarassingly I've got a whole load of DVDs and CDs that were purchased a while back, but I haven't had time to watch or listen to yet. Things like the UFC Greatest Hits (matches) DVDs, the Steve-O "Dont try this at home!" DVD, and a few other movies. I guess I should also be listening to some KillSwitch Engage, Biohazard, Five Point O, Snapcase, Queens of the Stone Age, and Agnostic Front seeing as I've got tickets to see those bands over the next couple of months. Maybe when I become unemployed.. aaah.. one can dream..