Ho. Lee. Shit.

Durrrrr!!

Durpy durky durrrr! Dey dook mah jubb! Dey dook yur jubb! Deyduckyujurrr!!!!

(mp3) Nasum - The idiot parade
Available on Human 2.0 (2000)

(mp3) Anal Cunt - Van full of retards
Available on 40 More Reasons To Hate Us (1996)

(mp3) Heresy - Sick of stupidity
Available on Face Up To It (1988)

(mp3) A-Bombs - Five stupid men
Single (1997)

(mp3) Roger Alan Wade - If you're gonna be dumb
Available on V/A - Jackass Motion Picture Soundtrack (2002)

Black Sabbath galore

I posted a Black Sabbath cover by Neurosis last week which got me into a big Sabbath covers trip. I thought I'd might as well compile them and share them with you fine and dandy lot.

These are taken from the two Nativity In Black tributes and a variety of other places. Have fun.

(zip) Black Sabbath covers galore (99 mb)

1. Throne of Azaz - Black sabbath
2. Machine Head - Hole in the sky
3. System of a Down - Snowblind
4. Kyuss - Into the void
5. Coalesce - Supernaut
7. Entombed - Under the sun
8. Daemon - Symptom of the universe
9. Cathedral - Solitude
10. Pantera - Planet caravan
11. Slayer - Hand of doom
12. Metallica - Sabbra cadabra
13. The Fartz - Children of the grave
14. Faith No More - War pigs

And just for the sake of comparison, here's a zip of the originals as performed by Black Sabbath. All songs are from their first six albums, if you don't own them you need to get your shit together.

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #38

I got such a big kick out of doing the posts with Thin Lizzy title tracks and Neurosis title tracks that I just couldn't help making a Friday MP3 mix with only title tracks.

'Tis amazing.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #38 (51 mb)

1. Entombed - Left hand path (1990)
2. At The Gates - Slaughter of the soul (1995)
3. Nasum - Inhale/exhale (1998)
4. Soundgarden - Superunknown (1994)
5. Disrupt - Unrest (1994)
6. Slayer - Seasons in the abyss (1990)
7. The Stooges - Fun house (1970)
8. Monster Magnet - Powertrip (1998)
9. Metallica - Ride the lightning (1984)
10. Judas Priest - Rocka rolla (1974)
11. Iron Maiden - Killers (1981)
12. Ebba Grön - We're only in it for the drugs (no. 2) (1978)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #65

(mp3) Baroness - Swollen and halo
Available on Blue Record (2009)

(mp3) Led Zeppelin - Four sticks
Available on IV (1971)

(mp3) Neurosis - Children of the grave
Available on V/A - In These Black Days Volume Vol. 6 (1999)

(mp3) Spiritual Beggars - Magic Spell
Available on Another Way To Shine (1996)

(mp3) Serpent Throne - One percenter
Available on The Battle Of Old Crow (2008)

Sad But True x 1086

Last week Metallica's Sad But True became the first file in this blog's two year existence to hit a thousand downloads. And this in only a few months, since it was first featured in this post.

As of this very moment Sad But True has been downloaded exactly 1086 times. No reason to stop there, here it is again. Let's make it two thousand!

(mp3) Metallica - Sad but true
Availabe on S/t (1991).

A real work of art

Blabbervagina reports that some hack named Tom Sanford will auction off his "controversal" painting (see above) of Dimebag Darrel's assassination. It is expected to fetch anything from £500 to £700.

The painting is just as controversal as the attention-starved Sanford intended, but for very different reasons. It's not the subject matter that bothers us, sweetheart. It's the fact that you're a worse painter than a rabid raccoon running around on a canvas with a paintbrush up its ass. That thing is so bad it wouldn't even have made it onto a thrash metal album cover in 1988.

Sanford says he was "able to base [his] painting on the oral reports from witnesses of the four murders as well as Nathan Gale's eventual death." Apparently the audience's reactions to the murder was not so much shock and disbelief, but more like someone farted. Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas (bottom right), who I had no idea even attended the gig, looks more like someone just reminded her of the time she peed her pants on stage.

It also seems Nathan Gale looked like Lloyd Christmas with his shirt tucked into his jeans Jerry Seinfeld style, and Geddy Lee was so busy handing out View-Masters by the side of the stage he barely took notice of the murderings and shenanigans.

Here look, it took me precisely three minutes to make a better one:


I'm not as greedy as Sanford, so you can have it for only £400.

(mp3) Pantera - Cat scratch fever
Available on V/A - Detroit Rock City Soundtrack (1999)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #64

(mp3) Om - At Giza
Available on Conference of the Birds (2006)

(mp3) Street Dogs - Rights your to soul
Available on Fading American Dream (2006)

(mp3) Deep Purple - Paint it, black
Live in Stockholm 1970. Released on Scandinavian Nights (1988)

(mp3) Scott Kelly - Flower
Available on Spirit Bound Flesh (2001)

(mp3) Watain - Puzzles of flesh
Available on Casus Luciferi (2003)

Dropkick Murphys Week, Sunday: "The Meanest of Times" (2007)

Okay, let's finish off Dropkick Murphys Week in style!

After 2005's wildly uneven The Warrior's Code (see yesterday's entry), Dropkick Murphys showed once and for all what a force they can be if they only focus their energies in the right direction. With fantabulous The Meanest Of Times they released their best album since 2001's Sing Loud Sing Proud.

While this album may contain a rendition of the classics Lanigan's Ball (here called (F)lannigan's Ball) and Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya, this their least Celtic sounding record since 1999's The Gang's All Here. There's still plenty of bagpipes, tin whistles, accordions, mandolins and god knows what, but musically I see this a combination of the straight-forward punk rock of The Gang's All Here with the more settled classic rock sound of 2003's Blackout. A lot of the Lucky Charms leprechaun flavor they'd sometimes had in the past is missing here, and I'd even say that this is the album that more than any of the others harkens back to their 1998 debut Do Or Die.

That's one of my favorite things about this album - just when you thought they'd run with the success they had with I'm Shipping Up To Boston and put out another record of easily jiggable (is that a word?) Irish rock, they revert and go back to their brawling Guiness soaked rock roots, chock full of pirate singalongs and shamrock badassery. Feelgood anthems with fists pumping, spirits are high and revolution is in the air.

I really can't praise this album enough, hands down one of the best records of the 2007. Why I didn't include it in my countdown of the best albums of that year is a mystery.

I have nothing else to add, just download these and realise the greatness of The Meanest of Times. Then go and buy it. Don't download it, you cheap bastard, pay for it.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - God willing (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - The state of Massachusetts
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Surrender

Buy it @ Amazon.com

Dropkick Murphys Week, Saturday: "The Warrior's Code" (2005)

In this the penultimate day of Dropkick Murphys Week we've come to my least favorite album of theirs.

I took me quite a while to come to terms with this fact and it caused a great deal of hurt because the album paradoxally also contains my all time favorite Murphys songs. The three songs below are absolutely fantastic and as damn near flawless as any song could be. The Auld Triangle, a re-working of an old traditional, is so good it's almost hard to believe your ears. Same with the opener Your Spirit's Alive, written about their friend Greg Riley.

Other songs like Citizen C.I.A. and The Walking Dead are also great, but while the high points are staggeringly good they only make it more obvious how weak the low points are.

Captain Kelly's Kitchen probably looked like a fun idea on paper but in practice it's only silly and annoying. Wicked Sensitive Crew might be funny upon first listen, but is ultimately little more than a novelty. I'm Shipping Up To Boston, another Woody Guthrie piece set to music, gave the band a long overdue exposure thanks to its inclusion in Martin Scorcese's The Departed, but it's hardly much of a song. And don't get me started on the terrible Sunshine Highway, a cheery piece of rubbish somewhere halfway between Bruce Springsteen's least inspired moments and Blink 182.

Take It And Run and the title track aren't bad, just pretty uninteresting, they go in one ear and out the other. The Eric Bogle cover The Green Fields Of France, about a soldier in WWI, is too overly dramatic to take seriously. The final track Last Letter Home, about a soldier in the Iraq war, fares much better.

So yes, it does pain me to admit that one of my favorite bands could release such dull record. It is however arguably their most popular one, thanks to I'm Shipping Up To Boston. Many people discovered Dropkick Murphys because of that song, and they hold The Warrior's Code as their favorite as it was their first acquaintance with the band. Let's just hope these new fans don't stop there but instead keep digging deeper into the Murphys catalogue to find the really good stuff.

But let's not be a negative Nancy. As I said, the album does still contain some of the band's career best moments. You can find them below - crank 'em up and jig until the sun comes up.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Your spirit's alive (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - The walking dead
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - The auld triangle (very recommended!)

Buy it @ Amazon.com

Dropkick Murphys Week, Friday: "Singles Collection Volume 2" (2005)

On this day, the 5th of Dropkick Murphys Week, we've arrived at what is possibly my favorite DM record. Which feels a bit unfair since 18 of its 23 tracks are covers. Of the five original tracks, the only ones I get nuts about are the fast-paced On The Attack and Mob Mentality, a collaboration with oi! legends The Business.

The covers are what really make this compilation worthwhile. The Murphys pay tribute to their heroes in a raging and most entertaining way. Once you take a gander at the bands covered here (The Press, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Iron Cross, Cock Sparrer, The Nipple Erectors, AC/DC, The F.U.'s, Gang Green, Stiff Little Fingers, The Business, Motorhead, Sham 69, Angelic Upstarts and Misfits) you begin to understand where the Dropkick Murphys come from musically. They really do sound like the best parts of all these bands.

No wonder they kick fucking ass.

I usually pick three songs when I write about an album, but Singles Collection, Volume 2 is so damn good I couldn't possibly narrow it down to any less than five, and even that was a struggle.

All of these are extremely recommended.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - 21 guitar salute (The Press)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Vengeance (The Nipple Erectors)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Warlords (The F.U.'s)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Alcohol (Gang Green)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Hey little rich boy (Sham 69)

Buy it @ Amazon.com

Alcohol live 2002:

Dropkick Murphys Week, Thursday: "Blackout" (2003)

Day four of Dropkick Murphys week!

On Blackout the band kept moving towards the more classic rock sound that had become more prominent on 2001's Sing Loud Sing Proud (see Tuesday's entry) and really ran with the whole traditional Irish music influences which at some points makes the album feel more like it belongs in the "world music" section of the record store, as opposed the "punk rock" one. Whereas in the past the Murphys had sounded like The Dubliners mixed with Gang Green and The Business, here they sounded like The Dubliners mixed The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy and The Clash.

I've been a bit dubious over this album since it first came out. The main reason being that I feel bass player Ken Casey takes the mic way too often. If you have such a perfect singer and frontman like Al Barr, why have someone else sing?

This was also the first time I'd heard a Dropkick Murphys song I didn't like - both third track The Outcast (sung by Casey) and the opener Walk Away sounded a bit washed out and dull to me, and they still do. I think this rather (to me ears anyway) weak opening had tarnished the album for me for quite some time. It was only a year or so ago I realised just what a brilliant album this is. And I've even grown to like Ken Casey singing.

The Ed Pickford cover Worker's Song is a personal favorite of mine, the acoustic World Full Of Hate is another and The Dirty Glass, on which Stephanie Dougherty supplied some excellent guest vocals, is a classic. Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight features lyrics for an unplublished song by Woody Guthrie, which caused quite a bit of publicity when the album came out. Prior to this only Billy Bragg and a couple of others had been given the privilage to use Guthrie's words.

While I may have accepted Blackout for the great record that it is, I must say I don't care for the bagpipes on it. The album was recorded after Spicey McHaggis left but before current bagpiper Scruffy Wallace had been recruited, so the pipes were handled by Joe Delaney who also provided some pipe action on 1999's The Gang's All Here.

Is it just me or do the pipes sound quite out of tune? I'm sure Delaney is a fine piper, but he ain't no Wallace or McHaggis, that's for sure.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Buried alive (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Fields of Athenry
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Kiss me, I'm shitfaced

Buy it @ Amazon.com

Buried Alive live in 2003:

Dropkick Murphys Week, Wednesday: "Live on St. Patrick's Day from Boston, MA" (2002)

Day three of Dropkick Murphys Week!

The liner notes say "Dropkick Murphys don't give concerts - they throw parties" and ain't that the truth. I don't really have much to add to that, it sums it all up. You'd be hard pressed to find a Murphys gig where the audience is as important as the people on the stage. Half the time the audience is on the stage, but still.

Dropkick Murphys St. Patrick's Day shows is the stuff of legend in Boston, where the band annually spends an entire weekend performing. That seamless blend of band and audience is most definitely felt on Live on St. Patrick's Day from Boston, MA, which was recorded during three explosive shows at the Avalon Ballroom in 2002. This live recording was also included in their dvd On The Road With The Dropkick Murphys in 2004.

Singalongs and crowd interaction are a given in pretty much every song. Curse Of A Fallen Soul (from 1999's The Gang's All Here) gives me chills every time I hear it.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - For Boston/Boys on the docks
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Curse of a fallen soul (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Skinhead on the MBTA

Buy Live on St. Patrick's Day from Boston, MA @ Amazon.com.

Buy On The Road With The Dropkick Murphys too while you're at it. Right here.

Dropkick Murphys Week, Tuesday: "Sing Loud Sing Proud!" (2001)

On this their third album, Boston's sort-of-Irish folk rock punk dudes changed their line up quite a bit.

Original guitarist and founding member Rick Barton took a hike, and was replaced by not only a new guitarist, but two of them. They also added a dude on tin whistle & mandolin and stuff, as well as the legendary Robbie "Spicey McHaggis" Medeiros on bagpipes. This was the only album that featured McHaggis and he was only a member for a couple of years before leaving to spend more time with his family, but his impact (and his bodymass) was so huge that his spirit still lives on within the band to such a degree that some even think he's still in the band. The fact that this album has a song (The Spicy McHaggis Jig, a big live favorite among fans) written about McHaggis and his penchant for "chicks over four hundred pounds" probably has plenty to do with it.

The addition of then 17-year Marc Orrell, appropriately nicknamed "The Kid", was a huge improvement in my opinion. Not only did he have classic rock licks to spare, but he had an effortless, fluid playing style that Barton lacked and which suited Dropkick Murphys' ever-evolving sound as they grew into more of a Celtic rock band with punk flourishes as opposed to a Celtic punk band with rock flourishes. He was also a fucking firecracker on stage and made their already mad live show even more energetic. Orrell left the band in 2008 to pursue other musical horizons.

The result of all these changes in camp Murphy? Their magnum opus, that's what. People always tend to think the follow up, 2003's Blackout, is the best Dropkick Murphys album. Those people are drunk. Don't pay any attention to them.

While Blackout is a most excellent album, this is the one where everything clicked; this album has the best songs, the best production, the best party atmosphere, the best shout-along choruses, the best of everything. On the albums before and after this one the combination punk rock vs. Irish folk music has always tipped over in either direction. Not so here, the two styles mix perfectly.

This album rules, I cannot praise it enough. It's the kind of album that makes you wish you were Irish. Or at least from Boston.

Or at least have any sort of Celtic affiliation so you wouldn't feel like such a tool when you stumble around in a scally cap on St. Patrick's Day with green beer on your shirt.

(mp3) (mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Heroes from out past (highly recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Forever
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - The gauntlet

Buy Sing Loud Sing Proud @ Amazon.com.

The Gauntlet live in 2002. Marc "The Kid" Orrell is the one on the far left in the black shirt - what a star.

Dropkick Murphys Week, Monday: "The Gang's All Here" (1999)

Welcome to Dropkick Murphys week! Woohoo! I'll be going through one Murphys record a day for the next seven days. I already wrote about their 1998 debut Do Or Die during the countdown of the top 30 albums of the 90s (where it ranked #23), so we'll skip that one and leave room for others.

Their second album The Gang's All Here came out in 1999 on Hellcat Records and was produced Rancid guitarist Lars Fredriksson who also produced their debut. It's the only album the band did with both singer Al Barr (formerly of The Bruisers)and guitarist Rick Barton in the line-up.

Barr had joined in 1998 after original vocalist Mike McColgan left to pursue a career as a firefighter, and Barton left prior to the follow-up 2001's Sing Loud Sing Proud, which we'll get to tomorrow.

To me there are two phases in the Dropkick Murphys timeline, the first from 1996 to 2000, the other from 2000 to today. Early Murphys was a bit harsher, no doubt thanks to McCoglan rough vocals. Songwriting wise they were also distinctly more punk, while still having leanings towards Stiff Little Fingers, Thin Lizzy, The Pogues etc, influences that would come into full fruition on Sing Loud Sing Proud, where the band hit full leprechuan mode with jigs, The Wild Rover, The Rocky Road To Dublin and the whole bit.

This album is the transition piece between these two phases, where the songwriting is still mainly rooted in punk (plenty of Celtic influences though, make no mistake) but with a more powerful and well-produced Rancid-like sound that in many ways they still use.

While I think all Dropkick Murphys albums are great in their own way, this is one of my favorites. Mainly because it was my first acquaintance with the band, but because the aforementioned evenly balanced mix of hardcore punk and the Celtic sounds of their heritage. I also think this is where Al Barr and his drunken sailor vocals were at their best.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Boston asphalt (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Wheel of misfortune
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - The gang's all here

Buy it @ Amazon.com

The video for 10 Years of Service:

You know what?

This blog gets hundreds of hits and downloads each day, but the comments are few and far in between.

It's about time all of you lurkers and sneak downloaders start showing some appreciation up in dis muddafugga.

What did I tell you?

Didn't I fucking tell you? Damn right I did.

"He's just another man", huh Brett? Just another man who beat you at your own game and knocked you out like a bitch. Go on, cry about it why doncha.

Fedor is the Alexander Karelin of MMA and he will not be stopped. Especially not by a cocky, trash talking punk like Brett Rogers.

Watch and enjoy:

Fedor vs. Rogers - There will be pwnage

Tonight's the night - Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers at Hoffman Estates in Illinois. If you're in the U.S., watch it on CBS. If you're somewhere else, watch it online at Omnisport.

And I strongly encourage you to do so. You wouldn't want to miss Fedor beating the snot out another helpless hopeful, do you?

Yeah yeah yeah, I know Rogers has won all of his ten professional fights (five knockouts, four technical knockouts) and has been called a "knockout machine", but that won't help much when he's on the floor with Fedor figuratively (and perhaps literally, who knows?) buttfucking him all the way back to Minnesota.

The most badass thing about Fedor is not even his unmatched skills, but his complete indifference in the ring. He's like a plumber with a pipe to fix, it's just another day at work for him. You know the scene in Silence Of The Lambs where they talk about how Hannibal Lecter chewed someone's face off and his heartrate didn't even go up? That's Fedor for you.

A wee build-up for tonight's event:


And a tribute the big man himself:

(mp3) Skeletonwitch - Stand fight and die
Available on Breathing the Fire (2009)

(mp3) High On Fire - Master of fists
Available on The Art of Self Defense (2000)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Fight or fall
Available on Jailbreak (1976)

And perhaps most fitting of them all:

(mp3) Elton John - Saturday night's alright for fighting
Available on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #36

Zamišljen je kao konceptualni album, a tema pjesama je uništavanje zemljinog okoliša, te potreba čovječanstva da to zaustavi prije nego što bude prekasno. Za pjesmu "Metal Bastard" je snimljen i videospot kojeg je režirao David Snusgrop, Badass Blogger Extraordinaire.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #36 (38 mb)

1. Venom - The evil one (1997)
2. Motörhead - Live to win (1980)
3. Moistboyz - Great American zero (2002)
4. Poison Idea - Welcome to Krell (1990)
5. Voivod - Insect (1995)
6. Fu Manchu - Evil eye (1997)
7. Gojira - From the sky (2005)
8. Arch Enemy - The immortal (1999)
9. Corrosion of Conformity - Fuel (1996)
10. High on Fire - Return to N.O.D. (2007)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.com.

Daemon - "Seven Deadly Sins" (1996)

(re-post from February 10th 2008)

Ah yes! One more rarity from the vaults! Yet another criminally overlooked and sadly forgotten metal gem, just waiting for Metal Bastard to spread the word to the rest of mankind. You're welcome, world. You may thank me later.

Daemon was a death metal side project started by guitarist/vocalist Anders Lundemark (Konkhra) and drummer Nicke Andersson (Entombed, The Hellacopters, Death Breath). Their first album Seven Deadly Sins came out a year after the movie Se7en, and is obviously inspired by it, with one song for each sin (and an instrumental "Eighth Sin").

The album even ends with a sample of Morgan Freeman listing the seven deadly sins. It also has assloads of samples from that crap movie The Name Of The Rose (which would have been less crap if that talentless block of wood Christian Slater hadn't been in it). And also a little thing or two from Pulp Fiction.

The album was written and recorded in virtually no time at all in Stockholm's Sunlight Studios. The relaxed sessions combined with the noisy, trademark Sunlight sound gives the album a very loose, almost punkish quality, familiar to all fans of the Stockholm death metal scene of the 90s. This ain't Nile or Vader, folks. Those looking for technical precision death metal need to look elsewhere.

This is death metal of the old school, with all that that entails in terms of rawness, aggression and attitude. With, of course, a few flourishes of that signature, hellraising rock 'n' roll groove of Entombed. The album was made during Entombed's struggles with record labels and fits just right inbetween 1993's Wolverine Blues and 1997's To Ride, Shoot Straight, And Speak The Truth. Take the song writing from the former and mix it with the sound and production of the latter and what you get is Seven Deadly Sins.

My favorite song here is probably Envy, with its classic first verse: I’ve built around me a castle of dreams/What I have is what you want/I bought a gun to protect my property/I pull to kill on every occasion/So in court when they charge me, I say/“Judge, it was only for protection”.

After this album Nicke Andersson left due all his other commitments, and Daemon released their second album The Second Coming in 1999. In 2002 they released their latest (last?) album, Eye For An Eye, which isn't very death metal. It's a lot thrashier with a definite Bay Area tinge, and also quite often reminds you of Strapping Young Lad. But Gene Hoglan played drums on it, so I suppose it makes sense.

So folks: you get no less than three mortal sins. Buy the album and get the other five. Buy it today, or else God wins. And we wouldn't want that, would we?

(mp3) Daemon - Wrath
(mp3) Daemon - Lust
(mp3) Daemon - Envy (highly recommended!)

Buy Seven Deadly Sins @ Amazon.com.

Bonus:

(mp3) Morgan Freeman - Seven deadly sins
From Se7en (1995)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #63

(mp3) Catacombs - Where no light hath shone... (But for that of the moon)
Available on In The Depths Of R'lyeh (2006)

(mp3) High On Fire - Last
Available on The Art Of Self Defense (2000)

(mp3) Latitudes - Hunting dance
Available on Agonist (2009)

(mp3) Rammstein - Zwitter
Available on Mutter (2001)

(mp3) Breach - Breathing dust
Available on Kollapse (2002)

The Devin Townsend Project - "Addicted" (2009)

So it has arrived, the second installment in Devin Townsend's series of four albums. After Ki, which by Devin standards was so mellow it took me three or four listens before I even knew what the hell I was listening to, he's now back to familiar, compressed wall of noise territory. Anyone who thought Death Magnetic was loud should stay away from this one. The red lights on Townsend's poor mixing desk must be worn out by now.

Devin claimed this was his "Nickleback" record. Luckily he was't referring to Nickleback's music but rather their well-produced, radio-friendly sound. Thank fuck for that. I'm not hearing much of that either though to be honest, it sounds more like 1997's Ocean Machine (his "Foo Fighters record") and 2001's Terria (his "Helloween record"). I never thought Townsend would make a positive, happy sounding record, but I guess I was wrong.

Just like Ki, this one also has a female guest vocalist, by none other than Anneke van Giersbergen from The Gathering.

The opening title track was released as a teaser and I wasn't crazy about it then and still not too fond of it. It has a nice stomping beat, but I don't feel it's going anywhere. Second track Universe In A Ball! is as silly as its title, but from the third track onwards it's some of Townsend's best work in some time.

With Bend It Like Bender!'s disco beat, keyboard noodling and female vocals, it's hard not to think of Pandora and 2 Unlimited, but somehow it works. I'm not the kind who dances voluntarily (at least not where anyone can see me) but if I was at a club and it came on, it's not unlikely that I would drop 'em like they're hot til the sun came up.

Numbered! (yes, all song titles have exclamation points) is another scorcher with its huge soaring choruses and powerful climax. It also gives Townsend another chance to prove he could easily become an acclaimed opera soprano if he ever gets sick of metal. Ih-Ah! is the only song on here with the potential to become a hit on the rock station. It sure hope it does, if for no other reason than to hear all those annoying radio hosts sound like donkeys when they say the title.

The pinnacle here though for me is track #5, Hyperdrive!. A re-write of the song of the same name from Ziltoid the Omniscient (2007), which with van Giersbergen's vocals becomes so unashamedly melodic and huge that Kylie Minogue could have a world wide hit with a less noisy version. When that chorus kicks in after only 40 seconds I curl up in a fetal position on the floor and weep sweet tears of happiness.

I'm taken right back to 2000 when I first heard The Gathering's masterful if_then_else and immediately fell in love with that stunning voice. Picture that album mixed with Ocean Machine. Hyperdrive! is that fucking huge and amazing. It makes me want to run around the neighbourhood and kiss everyone and never listen to another song again.

It's also a reminder that enormous, bombastic rock is what van Giersbergen should be doing, not the bland shenanigans she's up to in Agua de Annique. Addicted and Giant Squid's The Ichthyologist show that perhaps doing guest vocals suits her the best.

As much as I (eventually) loved Ki, it does tend to drag - it has a few songs too many and several songs are too long. Not so here, Addicted clocks in at a handy 47 minutes and most songs are around the four minute mark.

Easily one of the best albums of the year, a solid 8/10. It comes out November 17th. Place an order right now.

And buy Ki too while you're at it, and start saving up for Deconstruction.

(mp3) The Devin Townsend Project - Hyperdrive! (extremely motherfucking recommended. And make sure you crank it up!)

(mp3) The Devin Townsend Project - The way home!
(mp3) The Devin Townsend Project - Numbered!

My Halloween costume 2009

After giving it much thought and consideration, I had finally decided that for the big Halloween party '09, I would dress up as...

























...a grown up person who realises he's too old to prance around in a costume like a fucking child. What did you dress up as, moron?

(mp3) Scratch Acid - Monsters
Available on The Greatest Gift (1991)

(mp3) The Dillinger Escape Plan - Sunshine the werewolf
Available on Miss Machine (2004)

(mp3) Roky Erickson - I walked with a zombie
Available on The Evil One (1980)

(mp3) Morbid Angel - Chapel of ghouls
Available on Altars of Madness (1989)

(mp3) Clutch - Ghost
Available on Blast Tyrant (2004)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #35

Damn, I can't believe I've done thirty-five of these motherfuckers.

This one is probably the softest one yet. Even the obligatory Opeth track (it feels like they've been featured on at least half of these, but they probably haven't) is from their "mellow" album. It gets a little rough with Soulfly, Shora and Will Haven, but the rest is easy listening all the way through, not sure why.

I guess we all need to chill and rest our ears once in a while.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #35 (44 mb)

1. Deadsy feat. Jonathan Davis - Sleepy hollow (1996)
2. Soulfly - Ain't no feeble bastard (1998)
3. Fireside - Cisco heat (2000)
4. The Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia (1980)
5. Gluecifer - Black book lodge (2002)
6. DLK - Regalskeppet (1995)
7. Green Day - Brat (1995)
8. Pearl Jam - State of love and trust (1992)
9. Opeth - Windowpane (2003)
10. Lingua - You wonder why you still wonder why (2006)
11. Shora - A deviance (2000)
12. Will Haven - Moving to Montana (2001)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.com

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #62

(mp3) Desultory - Visions
Available on Into Eternity (1993)

(mp3) Will Haven - Bats
Available on Carpe Diem (2001)

(mp3) Rage Against The Machine - Bullet in the head
Available on S/t (1992)

(mp3) Opeth - The funeral portrait
Available on Blackwater Park (2001)

(mp3) Guns N' Roses - My Michelle
Available on Appetite For Destruction (1987)

Neurosis title tracks

I did this with Thin Lizzy not long ago, and I figured I might as well do it with another one of my favorite bands. If you're not familiar with Neurosis, here's a quick bio:

They started in 1985 as punk kids with Amebix patches on their jackets and piss in their hair. 10-15 years later they had transmutated into a black bulldozer with "HADES" spray-painted on the side, and by now they have evolved into the grim reaper himself with Johnny Cash on repeat in his iPod.

That about sums it up.

(mp3) Neurosis - Pain of mind (1987)

(mp3) Neurosis - Souls at zero (1992)

(mp3) Neurosis - Enemy of the sun (1993)

(mp3) Neurosis - Through silver in blood (1996)

(mp3) Neurosis - Times of grace (1999)

(mp3) Neurosis - A sun that never sets (2001)

(mp3) Neurosis - The eye of every storm (2004)

(mp3) Neurosis - Given to the rising (2007)

All available on the albums of the same name. Buy them, fool.