Machine Head - The Blackening [2007]

"Clenching the Fists of Dissent" is an epic length. It has quite a lot to like... amorphous, energetic, and even beautiful at some parts. The song only drags, briefly, once or twice. "Beautiful Mourning" starts off really energetic, but drags like a fat-ass in the middle of the song. "Aesthetics of Hate" is a bit like the previous track, but with more hate and catchiness. "Now I Lay Thee Down" has a more mellow first half to it with a middle section made of barbed wire. "Slanderous" has the 6/8 energetic groove thing going on and it's pretty catchy until the chorus. "Halo" starts its epic-length off with a groovy and heavy riff. Light and catchy chorus, too. I hate the boring-ass cheap ending. "Wolves" takes a while before the good stuff kicks in, but after a little while, it becomes more bland, weak, and boring. "A Farewell to Arms" has a beautiful recurring theme to it, but a majority of the middle section is let down by filler riffs that only delay the awesome middle-ending riff. I must say that I'm impressed with the variation found within each song on the album. It keeps things interesting. Sure, not all of the riffs are good, but there are certainly more good than bad. I've never been a fan of Flynn's vocals, though. They always sound slurred to the point of being annoying... like he's drunk or something. It's a pretty damn good album. However, the good is mixed with bad riffs and it really lets the album down a bit.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.machinehead1.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Machine Head - Through the Ashes of Empires [2004]

There are a few songs on this album that are extremely high-energy all the way through. The one ailment of this album is the use of filler riffs in many of the songs. Songs like "Bite the Bullet" and "Seasons Wither" are half weak-sauce but with some really catchy heavy parts thrown inside. The production is great. It's damn clear and always heavy as hell. There are some annoying vocal sections like the end of "In the Presence of my Enemies", but there aren't enough to really piss me off. There is a little variation on this album as shown by the lighter and more validating "Days Turn Blue to Gray". However, too many of the songs fail to stimulate my interest and passion. Standouts include "Imperium", "Left Unfinished", "In the Presence of my Enemies", and "Days Turn Blue to Gray".

Rating: 7.25

http://www.machinehead1.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Dir en grey - THE MARROW OF A BONE [2007]

"CONCEIVED SORROW" is a pretty track with piano accenting the softness. Then, without warning, "LIE BURIED WITH A VENGEANCE" takes a trip to metal city with somewhat catchy and very groove-oriented riffs. "THE FATAL BELIEVER" keeps going in the same direction with metal riffage and a more J-Rock chorus. "GRIEF" finally brings a very small amount of variation into the album with a more Korn and Coal Chamber-like feel to a few of the riffs. "凌辱の雨" fits more in to the slot of heavy Japanese rock. "ROTTING ROOT" passed by without me even noticing. "艶かしき安息、躊躇いに微笑み" has a good amount of catchiness and passion going for it. Songs like "艶かしき安息、躊躇いに微笑み" and "THE PLEDGE" are really good and the more metal songs have some good groove and crazy vocals. However, all of this is overshadowed by the fact that there's virtually no creativity anymore. So, the metal songs feel very clichéd and old-hat, while the other songs, good as they are, feel like something that any ol' Japanese band could do. The production feels like a bit of a step backwards with weak guitar distortion for the metal parts. Not and impressive album.

Rating: 7

http://www.direngrey.co.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - GO [2011]

"Opening" introduces us to the dance aspect of giru. "destiny" starts off on a bad foot with the very emo-inspired style. However, redemption is slightly at hand when the chorus kicks in to reveal more of a high-school rock feel. Sure, it's cute and I want to like it, but damn is it fucking cliché these days. It really feels like they've traded in their balls for a nice heaping plate of vagina. That said, it's better than NOW and feels like it has more passion. Every once-in-a-while a pretty damn good section slips through the cracks, too. "MISSION CODE" is probably the only major highlight on the album. I'm just so sick of the gradual mutation into a more pop-friendly "metal"... there's virtually nothing left of the bite and attack they used to have.

Rating: 6.25

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Dir en grey - Six Ugly [2002]

"Mr.NEWSMAN" is a bit of an unbecoming start to the album. It's a live recording with somewhat poor production quality. "Ugly" kicks things up by moving back to a studio recording with better production. It's much more Heavy Metal than anything they've done previously. "umbrella" jumps back to the live recording. Overall, it's cool to hear Deg push themselves into metal, but the creativity is completely absent. If they can throw the creativity back into their new stylistic addition, all will be better. It's fairly classic as far as metal goes, too. At least the passion is there.

Rating: 7.25

http://www.direngrey.co.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - NOW [2009]

Techno-metal-glitchy intro track... standard operating procedure for these guys just with more of a house dance beat. Well, ok, congrats to them for slightly surprising me. I thought for sure that I knew exactly when the guitars and metal section would come in during "bit crash", but it turns out I was off by a few measures. Oh fuck no... "NO MUSIC NO REASON" scares me a bit with the very Swedish melodic shital verses... please don't go the way of DELUHI. "ALIVE" re-centers the circle back to what I'm used to with these guys. Finally, "I Think I can Fly" attempts to move things forward a bit, but the heavy parts are actually the weak link in this song. The verse riffs are definitely beginning to degrade in quality. A worrying number of sections are feeling like filler on this album. Gah, I wasn't a fan of the rap shit on MUSIC and time has not fucking sweetened it for this album... "nobody" will never be listened to again. And now with "睡蓮" I'm hearing copy-pasted riffs that have been copied FROM PREVIOUS SONGS ON THIS ALBUM. This is a very "meh" cd. There's almost no substantial progress to their style, the repetition is starting to kill me, the riffs aren't inspiring, and anything that could be considered catchy is too cliché and emotionless that it just falls flat on its face. All that said, it could have been worse... they could've used more influence from the Swedes. The only standout I can think of is "DIRTY STORY"... parts of "GAME" are good, but the fucking verse riff sucks cock.

Rating: 5.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - MUSIC [2008]

Dance and glitchy intro track. "Break Down" is even more accessible than previous girugämesh stuff... certainly more Pop Metal now than real metal. That said, damn it's fucking catchy and energetic if stock and uncreative. Production is quite punchy and alive. "ULTIMATE 4" is much more metal with some nifty effects to create some trifle of dynamics. "FREAKS" follows on. "アングリージュース" has a bit of a funky feel combined with some electronic LFO stuff. It's quite surprising that they can follow a very catchy album like girugämesh with another very catchy album and still feel relatively fresh. There are more than a few riffs I've noticed that have been recycled from past albums and shoved into this new context, but it's not that distracting and it doesn't happen often enough to piss me off. I'm happy that they added a few more influence to the music, but they ARE influence that are really popular these days and one gets the feeling that that is the reason for bringing those influences in. Well-done, nonetheless.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Chimaira - The Infection [2009]

I'm getting nothing from this album. It's slow, dim-witted, boring, not catchy, contrived, derivative, and almost all filler. The only song worth a fuck is actually really good and a wonderful piece of music to listen to, "The Heart of it All". The rest of the album is shit.

Rating: 4

http://www.chimaira.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Chimaira - Resurrection [2007]

"Resurrection" definitely has more ferocity and bite in that one song than they had on all of the previous album combined. Fairly catchy, but nothing to write home about. However, "Pleasure in Pain" IS something to write home about. VERY catchy with a wonderfully dark and twisted theme. So far, there's been plenty in the way of force, but virtually nothing in the way of creativity and experimentation, but "Six" tries to change all that. A much softer beginning with Persian influence before jumping into the thrash madness. The problem with it is that it's a bit too long and with too little to offer in the way of diversity. I never used to like the middle of this album, but now I realize that I wasn't ready for the non-thrash songwriting. It's much darker and heavier with more ponderous riffs and a propensity towards breaking away from their more typical sound. Something that bothers me about the album is Mark Hunter's lyrics; they're so stock, predictable, and uninteresting that it can almost ruin a song. Other than that, this is probably their best and most solid album so far. It really feels like Chimaira has been renewed in strength.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.chimaira.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Chimaira - Chimaira [2005]

All things were stock and unmoving until the middle of "Nothing Remains". Hopefully there will be more of that throughout the album, because right now I'm not really impressed at all with the first track. It's too long and the riff never really settles in to a nice catchy niche. "Save Ourselves" starts with a much more catchy groove to it... this is more like it. Too bad the chorus is meandering shit. "Inside the Horror" is a bit more doom and gloom; catchy at times. Things seem to get marginally better as time goes on listening to this album. It must be said that I LOVE the old-school soloing. "Salvation" seems to be the first song on the album that has solid writing through the whole thing. "Comatose" finally feels like the properly savage Chimaira I was expecting from the beginning. This album is mostly lifeless for me. It's not all that catchy, the songwriting isn't that good aside from "Comatose" and "Bloodlust", and it really drags on.

Rating: 5

http://www.chimaira.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Chimaira - Pass Out of Existence [2001]

Korn-like start to "Let Go", but then things move more into Heavy Metal. The use of effects is very impressive. A lot of effort went into the type, execution, and placement of effects. The production is quite dull, though... with the vocals having the sonic quality of someone putting a damp blanket over the mic. It's still quite heavy, though. There's definitely a recessed stench of the Nu Metal troll lingering around the songs, but it works because of the massive amount of electronic influence and the focus on thrashy and heavy riffs. There's even a whiff of Death Metal to it. Small surprises delight my ears, especially when done well like the middle section of the title track. However, the rap-ish vocals of "Split" and "Painting the White to Grey" make me cringe. This album could not be more different from "Impossibility..." The variation is wonderful. The creativity, while not stunning, is more than enough to set this apart from other Heavy Metal bands. That said, this album is a bit too long for its own good. It really feels like shit is dragging by the end and that they've run out of ideas.

Rating: 7.25

http://www.chimaira.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Chimaira - The Impossibility of Reason [2003]

Heavy Metal with a large dose of groove, a dash of thrash, and a pinch of death metal. I've never really liked Mark Hunter's Hardcore vox... I think his Death Metal style is much better. The Hardcore screaming is too thin and doesn't have any guts to it. "The Impossibility of Reason" is mostly a heavy metal romp, but contains a very surprising homage to Pantera towards the end... extremely convincing and very well-done. The transitions between sections are so smooth that the listener can hardly tell how they moved through the song. "Down Again" brings the catchiness back up a notch. There is a decent amount of variation in the middle of the album with songs changing up the tempos a bit. The whole album is pretty catchy, if a bit uncreative. The people calling this "nu metal" are clearly clueless retards.

Rating: 7.25

http://www.chimaira.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Soilwork - The Panic Broadcast [2010]

Wow, that's a fucking promising start. Pure grind, but not the evil type. There's definitely a style change in "Late for the Kill..." Hopefully I will hear more of the industrial/techno influence that I loved about the older stuff. "Two Lives Worth of Reckoning" continues with great strength; catchy-as-hell chorus and clean singing; strong songwriting; appealing thrash rhythm; still no techno :(. There's a massive focus on fast-moving melodic guitar lines on this album compared to the more subtle guitar work on previous efforts. The aggression seems to have taken a bit of a back seat on this album, though. On STD, most of the songs felt like the listener was being savagely beaten. Whereas this one feels more like intermittent moshing in between holding a lighter high in the sky while singing along. Most of this change can be attributed to the change in the guitar writing style. There's much more rock and rapid-melodic riffing of the benevolent type on this one than the more thoughtful and plotting riffs of old. I have finally gotten my first real taste of that techno influence that I was looking for in "Deliverance is Mine". "Night Comes Clean" and "King of the Threshold" are a bit weak in their writing (even though "KOTT" is fairly powerful in other ways). There's much less fatigue when listening to this album thanks to more variety between the songs than I have previously experienced in a Soilwork album. Quite catchy most of the way through with only a few songs feeling weak. It's not as insane and brutally heavy as it used to be thanks largely to the guitar riffs, but it's certainly some of their strongest writing yet.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.soilwork.org/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - girugämesh [2007.12.26]

Tribal-like intro track. "patchwork" has a great Heavy Metal punch to it. "Vermillion" isn't nearly as heavy. "stupid" invokes Slipknot. "shining" has a lighter feel that brings things closer to J-Rock. "Shiroi ashiato" is a particularly beautiful song that gives way to the kick in the nuts that is CRAZY-FLAG. Overall, it's a good album. Heavy, but with nicer songs to switch things up a bit. The techno/industrial effects add some depth to the songs. There's good energy throughout. Some songs have sections within them that fall a little flat, but 90% of the time I'm listening to a very enjoyable riff/section. All that said, yeah, I can easily point out that there's not much new here at all and no chances were taken. However, the soul is there and the songwriting is good.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Damageplan - New Found Power [2004]

Slightly weak production quality, especially for the guitars, compared to Pantera. Wow, that's a bit strange, but it feels like the guitars actually got a bit heavier for "Breathing New Life". I think that the problem is that "Wake Up" is a weak song overall for starting the album. The production definitely isn't the best... I can hear over-driven distortions throughout songs. It doesn't really call too much attention to itself, though. "Energy through songwriting" seems to be the motto for the majority of songs on this album. Many times, the catchiness is so high that it breaks the meter. Other times, not so much. Songs like "Pride" are a nice break from the more sustained aggression of the other songs. Some complain that this is very much "unlike" Dimebag... but I can understand the appeal. Sure, I miss the insane solos and maddening creativity of Pantera, but that's been done and it's cool to hear Dime try his hand at what is basically a slightly more complex Nu-Metal. Naturally, I would have liked to see the next album change up to more interesting and creative music... but it was obviously not to be.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.damageplan.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - Reason of crying [2007.07.18]

Finally, properly heavy production. Much catchier songwriting than before, and even a hint of interesting elements mixed in with the more stock ones. I can tell that a lot more care went into writing these songs than previous crap. When I first heard this album years ago, I thought that the clean singing sections were more in line with "Emo", but obviously my ears were not adjusted to the sounds of Japanese Rock. "Melody" and "フリージア" largely fall flat for me. Ahh, here's the re-recording of "お前に捧げる醜い声" that I remember.

Rating: 7.25

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - 13's reborn [2006.09.27]

I already recognize one of the song titles... hopefully there won't be many repeats of previous singles on this album. The bass sounds like it's coming straight from Korn's 101-level class at the community college. The songwriting on the other hand is definitely making constant nods to Slipknot's self-titular effort. Even so, they do have some decent ideas that tend to mix things up a bit... however, like so many other bands, they limit these ideas to the song introductions. Good idea executed poorly.

Rating: 6.25

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - お前に捧げる醜い声 [2006.04.12]

Production quality is a little better. Hmmm... I believe they did a re-recording of this on one of their later full-lengths. It's firmly rooted in the Metal genre. Not all that inspired, but still catchy.

Rating: 6.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - 零-ゼロ--無景型円盤- [2006.04.05]

Production quality isn't the hottest. However, I AM liking the use of progressive drumming with a more tranquil Japanese rock aspect. The chorus and pre-verse go back to a more Metal punch. It's a good song, I can definitely see coming back to this one more often. It feels more than just 1-dimensional like the previous stuff.

Rating: 6.75

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

girugämesh - 理性壊乱-乱調型円盤- [2005.11.30]

Off to a bit of a bad start here. "Яeality" is straight up Japanese Hard Rock with no real attempt at Metal. Unfortunate. "Dirty Blue Blood" makes a valiant attempt to rescue the disk and, while it's attempt was heroic, it only managed to save itself in the end.

Rating: 6.5

http://www.girugamesh.jp/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.