Sepultura - Sepulquatra (Nuclear Blast)
A live album that has been cut together from Brazilian metal legends Sepultura's quarantine project, which kept them busy throughout 2020. Now it is a live album as these tracks were all laid down live in the studio but it has been produced to sound like a studio album. On these sessions they played a mixture of their own tracks and some covers from their respective studios. Additionally to make things interesting they also collaborated with numerous guests a lot of whom add additional guitars in unison with Andreas Kisser or vocals with Derrick Green. Now there's a an eclectic range of guest musicians, some from the Brazilian metal scene but also some friends from international bands. What we can all be glad about though is that opening track Territory, which features David Ellefson, is audio rather than video.
Blacktop Mojo - Blacktop Mojo (Self Released)
We've reviewed Blacktop Mojo a few times on this blog. Paul Hutchings gave their 2nd and 3rd albums Burn The Ships and Under The Sun 6/10 while Simon Black gave their 2020 EP Static 8/10 so they've had a mixed fortune in these hallowed pages. So what about this third full length? Well I'm afraid I have to move more towards Mr Hutchings than Mr Black as for me Blacktop Mojo's music falls too often into the realms of Shinedown and Daughtry to really leave a mark. Soppy ballads like Jealously are too throwaway, Latex trys little too hard to be sexy, while Bed Tundy is a clever pun but it's Alter Bridge-lite. You should expect that from a band that are dubbed Texas Grunge. As with a lot of the bands that aim towards radio success, like Blacktop Mojo do here, there are too many slower ballads consecutively, meaning that by the time Do It For The Money brings back the riffs, I was loosing interest. There's a place for this, it'll sell, mainly in the states or on rock radio but for me it's another addition to that long list of bands who attempt to reach the same level as Alter Bridge or Nickelback. 6/10
A live album that has been cut together from Brazilian metal legends Sepultura's quarantine project, which kept them busy throughout 2020. Now it is a live album as these tracks were all laid down live in the studio but it has been produced to sound like a studio album. On these sessions they played a mixture of their own tracks and some covers from their respective studios. Additionally to make things interesting they also collaborated with numerous guests a lot of whom add additional guitars in unison with Andreas Kisser or vocals with Derrick Green. Now there's a an eclectic range of guest musicians, some from the Brazilian metal scene but also some friends from international bands. What we can all be glad about though is that opening track Territory, which features David Ellefson, is audio rather than video.
As things progress we get Scott Ian on Cut Throat, the vocal trio of Fernanda Lira (Crypta), Angélica Burns (Hatefulmurder) and Mayara Puertas (Torture Squad) add to Hatred Aside, Devy being heavy on Mask, Matt K Heafy on Slave New World and Alex Skolnick of Testament on Vandals Nest. If I'm honest the guests don't really add that much to the songs leaving you with a Sepultura compilation with a couple of differences. It ends with a cover of Orgasmatron, one they have performed many times, though this time it features Phil Campbell. I admire that Sepultura have spent their time highlighting some of their compatriots with these sessions as well as joining some of their mates for some Sepul-karaoke but this is basically a fan-only curio. 6/10
Act Of Denial - Negative (Crusader Records)
Act Of Denial - Negative (Crusader Records)
Something of a supergroup, Act Of Denial are a melodeath band formed by Croatian guitarists Voi Cox and Luger, in searching for band members they have recruited Björn Strid (Soilwork/The Night Flight Orchestra) on vocals, Steve Di Giorgio (Death, Testament) on bass, along with drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner (Septicflesh) and keyboardist John Lönnmyr (The Night Flight Orchestra). So it is pretty much an extreme metal supergroup, albeit with Cox and Luger the only two members who have been in the same studio, I would think. Negative is their debut album and it's a heavy, aggressive mix of melodeath and groove metal. Driven by Cox and Luger's wall of riffs they come storming out of the gates with Puzzle Heart which with Strid on vocals has more than a little Soilwork, In Flames and At The Gates to it.
Melodic flourishes of technical lead guitars and keys, on top of the thrash/death metal assault have that traditional melodeath sound, the credentials boosted by the production of Fredrik Nordström who was so key in making the sound of most of those bands just mentioned. Along with the high profile membership they have also sought out the six string wizardry of Bobby Koelble (Death), Peter Wichers (ex Soilwork), Matias "IA" Eklundh (Freak Kitchen) and Ron ‘’Bumblefoot’’ Thal (Guns N' Roses, Sons of Apollo) for some solos. Negative is an album that really embraces everything good about the melodeath genre but adds more elements to it, mainly the incredible guitar playing and Strid utilizing his clean voice a lot on songs such as Reflection Walls but also roaring like a good one on Controlled, Down That Line and Clutching At Rays Of Light. For a debut Negative is very impressive, hopefully this can become more than a studio project as gigs start to re-appear. 8/10
The Cold Stares - Heavy Shoes (Mascot Records)
Big, riffy two pieces are usually very good. Bands like The Black Keys, Royal Blood, The Picturebooks and Wales' own Henry's Funeral Shoe all provide grungy, fuzzy, blues-influenced garage rock. So when it's a thriving genre to which The Cold Stares are adding their mark. Heavy Shoes is Chris Tapp (vocals/guitars) and Brian Mullins (drums) fifth album but their first on Mascot Records. Tapp draws from his own life along with American Gothic writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, though Tapp has lived through more traumas than Poe could conjure in a lifetime, adopted, the great-grandson of a Bootlegger, divorce and being diagnosed and thankfully in remission from cancer, Tapp explores all of these themes on Heavy Shoes his guitar playing moving between blues rock, Americana, desert rock and even doom as Mullins' drumming shifts the time and pace of each track, both men in a mirror-like unison. Musically acts such as The Picturebooks, Rival Sons and even good old Grand Funk Railroad themselves are all clear musical comparisons for The Cold Stares, the album hinges on tracks such as Strange Light, Election Blues, the title track and closer Dust In My Hands. Pure, blue collar rock n roll born out of struggle, just like it used to be. 7/10
Big, riffy two pieces are usually very good. Bands like The Black Keys, Royal Blood, The Picturebooks and Wales' own Henry's Funeral Shoe all provide grungy, fuzzy, blues-influenced garage rock. So when it's a thriving genre to which The Cold Stares are adding their mark. Heavy Shoes is Chris Tapp (vocals/guitars) and Brian Mullins (drums) fifth album but their first on Mascot Records. Tapp draws from his own life along with American Gothic writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, though Tapp has lived through more traumas than Poe could conjure in a lifetime, adopted, the great-grandson of a Bootlegger, divorce and being diagnosed and thankfully in remission from cancer, Tapp explores all of these themes on Heavy Shoes his guitar playing moving between blues rock, Americana, desert rock and even doom as Mullins' drumming shifts the time and pace of each track, both men in a mirror-like unison. Musically acts such as The Picturebooks, Rival Sons and even good old Grand Funk Railroad themselves are all clear musical comparisons for The Cold Stares, the album hinges on tracks such as Strange Light, Election Blues, the title track and closer Dust In My Hands. Pure, blue collar rock n roll born out of struggle, just like it used to be. 7/10
Blacktop Mojo - Blacktop Mojo (Self Released)
We've reviewed Blacktop Mojo a few times on this blog. Paul Hutchings gave their 2nd and 3rd albums Burn The Ships and Under The Sun 6/10 while Simon Black gave their 2020 EP Static 8/10 so they've had a mixed fortune in these hallowed pages. So what about this third full length? Well I'm afraid I have to move more towards Mr Hutchings than Mr Black as for me Blacktop Mojo's music falls too often into the realms of Shinedown and Daughtry to really leave a mark. Soppy ballads like Jealously are too throwaway, Latex trys little too hard to be sexy, while Bed Tundy is a clever pun but it's Alter Bridge-lite. You should expect that from a band that are dubbed Texas Grunge. As with a lot of the bands that aim towards radio success, like Blacktop Mojo do here, there are too many slower ballads consecutively, meaning that by the time Do It For The Money brings back the riffs, I was loosing interest. There's a place for this, it'll sell, mainly in the states or on rock radio but for me it's another addition to that long list of bands who attempt to reach the same level as Alter Bridge or Nickelback. 6/10