Concert: Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel

On Friday, I saw Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel at MacEwan Hall. So this will be my first concert review on this blog.

Arrival

I arrived at the venue at just after 6:00, an hour before doors opened. I always like getting to concerts at least an hour ahead of time so that I have time to get my t-shirt and still get right up to the front of the stage. I have never not been up at the front in the venue, so it works pretty well. When I got there, there were only about 15 people ahead of me. This was the closest to the front of the line I have ever been. The waiting was fairly boring, as is to be expected. At 7:03, we were allowed to slowly move down the stairs to have our tickets scanned. Because (for some reason) this was an 18+ show, everyone had to have their ID out as well as their tickets. Anyone who wasn't 18 was told to go stand upstairs and look through windows at the top of MacEwan Hall. After getting in and getting patted down and all that jazz, I was free to check out the merch table. T-shirts were only $30, which is really good, especially considering Anthrax are a pretty big band. I got a Worship Music tour t-shirt, and as I was leaving, I saw that there were signed copies of Worship Music for only $10. Not wanting to be laden down with anything during the show, I chose not to buy it, and I regret that now. When I turned away from the merch table, I was amazed to see that there were only 3 people at the front of the stage. So I casually sauntered over to the front (to the left of centre stage) and began the wait.

Death Angel

Setlist

I Chose The Sky

Mistress Of Pain

Truce

Claws In So Deep

Relentless Revolution

The Ultra-Violence

Thrown To The Wolves

The lights went out at about 7:15, and there was a big roar of anticipation from the 50 or so people who were at the front of the stage in preparation of Death Angel. Before this, I had only ever listened to Death Angel's most recent album, but I knew beforehand that 4 of the 7 songs they played would be from that album, so I was excited enough. But even then, I had no idea how good they would be. I was absolutely blown away by the band. They got the crowd involved from the first song to the last, and by halfway through, there was already a pit going, despite there being not many people at all. Normally, I just bob my head a little for opening bands, unless I've gone to see them specifically. But I found myself headbanging furiously during songs that I had never heard before. And the crowd interaction during "Relentless Revolution" was fantastic, evident in most of the crowd yelling "take it all back". Before "Thrown To The Wolves" started, Mark Osegueda told the crowd that it was the last song of the night from Death Angel, and he wanted to feel the crowd. And he did. What a fantastic way to start off the night.

8/10

Testament

Setlist

Rise Up

The New Order

The Preacher

Native Blood

True American Hate

More Than Meets The Eye

Dark Roots Of Earth

Into The Pit

Practise What You Preach

D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)

Over The Wall

3 Days In Darkness

The Formation Of Damnation

There wasn't too much of a wait between Death Angel and Testament as the Testament drum kit  was already set up and covered during Death Angel's set. Plus the venue played Dio songs over the PA during the wait. When the lights first went out, there was another huge roar from the much bigger crowd. Unfortunately, they seemed to be having some problems with their intro tape. They didn't get that fixed for a full minute, during which people continued to yell. Before this show, I had only ever listened to 3 Testament albums, those being The Legacy, Souls Of Black, and Dark Roots Of Earth. Even with only those 3 albums under my belt, I was fairly well covered for this setlist. Like I predicted in my review of Dark Roots... "Rise Up" was definitely a perfect crowd interaction song. Chuck would thrust his microphone out over the crowd for them to yell back "WAR". The first half of the set was fantastic, with plenty from the new album (although I still would have liked to see "Dragon Attack" in there). However, after they had played "Dark Roots Of Earth", I found myself getting a bit bored. It may have been because I had been out drinking until 2am the previous night, but I didn't feel bored during Death Angel's set. It also could have been that I just wanted to get on to see Anthrax. That being said, "True American Hate" was probably the highlight of the set, and I even found myself attempting to sing some of the whoas during "Formation". At one point, Chuck came over the side of the stage where I was and threw out some guitar picks. And I managed to catch one of them in the air.

7/10

Anthrax

Setlist

Worship (Intro Tape)

Fight 'Em Til You Can't

Caught In A Mosh

Antisocial

Indians

Hymn 1 (Tape)

In The End

The Devil You Know

Deathrider

In My World

Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)

Encore Break

Among The Living

Got The Time

I Am The Law

Here it was. It was finally time. The band I had wanted to see for years now were about to take the stage. I was a little shocked when they began the show with "Fight 'Em..." instead of "Earth On Hell", as they had previously began their shows with that. But I soon forgot about that and just enjoyed the music. "Fight 'Em" was a great song to begin the night, and it's still one of my favorite Anthrax songs. "Caught In A Mosh" was a great treat to have so early in the set, and by the time that was done, I was completely exhausted. But Anthrax refused to slow down. Demanding that the crowd sing along with the guitar intro to "Antisocial", Joey kept the crowd engrossed. As an excellent little easter egg, the band played the end of "Number of the Beast" at the end of "Antisocial", and then the intro to "Run To The Hills" before "Indians". During "Indians", just before Scott is supposed to yell "WAR DANCE", he stopped the show. He told everyone he wanted to stop before they got too invested in it, because he needed more energy from the crowd; he needed everything we could give him. While he was talking, Joey came over to the side of the stage where I was and threw his half-finished can of Red Bull out to the crowd. Somehow, I managed to catch it, and I looked at Joey to mouth "thank you" because I was really damn thirsty at that point. He looked right at me and said "good catch" and motioned for me to have a drink and pass it along to others at the front. Rather starstruck, I passed it along. I wish I could have kept that can. But it gets better.

The band left the stage while "Hymn 1" played, and when the opening bells of "In The End" began and the lights came back up, the band were all stood, heads down, one hand raised high above them in metal horns. Joey introduced "In The End" for Ronnie [James Dio] and I noticed for the first time how many of the lyrics in that song reference Dio. Given that it was for Dio, the whole thing was very moving. During one of the last 4 songs before the encore break, Joey again came over to my side of the stage. He downed most of his orange Gatorade bottle, then threw it to the crowd again. I grazed the bottle with my fingers as it flew in the air, but several other hands on it knocked it down behind the barricade. There was still about 1/5 of the bottle left, and that would have been fantastic right about then. 

After a nice short encore break, the band returned to the stage for the last 3 songs of the night. "Among The Living" was a great sing-along song, and it was made so much more awesome for knowing the lyrics were about Stephen King's "The Stand". "Got The Time" was deliciously fast and furious. Finally, Anthrax ended the night with "I Am The Law". After the last song, Scott told the crowd to "always worship music", and Joey introduced the outro tape as Dio's "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll". As people started to drift away, I moved over to where the Gatorade bottle had fallen, and asked a security guard to get it for me. He did, and I walked away from that show with Joey Belladonna's Gatorade bottle.

9/10

Joey's Gatorade bottle with my shirt

Testament guitar pick

Testament guitar pick

Upcoming Concert: Anthrax, Testament, Death Angel

Just a little post to let you know that the next review will be a live review of a concert I am attending this Friday, September 22. Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel will be performing.

Threshold: March Of Progress Review

7/10

Man was this was an even longer gap between reviews. The trouble is, I couldn't really think of anything to review. I didn't think people would really want to see reviews about year-old albums, so I was kind of waiting for something new to come out so I could review that. I may have to resort to reviewing older stuff soon though. Anyway, this review is about Threshold's latest album, "March Of Progress". About a year ago, I got Threshold's fantastic album, "Hypothetical". I thought it was amazing, but until recently, for some reason I thought that was their only album. So I was really excited to hear about the announcement of "March Of Progress". Then, of course, I found out they had 7 other albums. But I still haven't got round to listening to any of those yet. So if anyone thinks any of their albums can rival "Hypothetical", mention it in the comments, and I'll give it a listen.

01 Ashes: This is the first song I heard from the album because it was released as a single a while ago. Even so, I only listened to it once before I started listening to "March Of Progress". It's very interesting to hear on this song that the current vocalist does sound very similar to the vocalist who sang on "Hypothetical". This song has quite a bit of synth in it, but hey, it's progressive metal, so that's to be expected and encouraged. Occasionally, I have to check and make sure this song really is called "Ashes", because the phrase "march of progress" is said many more times. Oh excellent, there's a synth solo about halfway through the song. Which then trades off for a guitar solo. That seems to be a bit of a staple of prog songs, though: a key solo, then a guitar solo, then repeat. The chorus is very well done on this song, and I can see why it was chosen as the lead single. We get to end the song with a nice guitar solo.

02 Return Of The Thought Police: The song's title implies that this song will be about George Orwell's novel "1984". The line "you're killing us with kindness" smacks that suspicion straight home. "1984" was an excellent story, so this should make an awesome song. The lyrics are definitely worth taking a pretty good look at. There's another synth solo at 3:41, backed by a pretty metal sounding riff. Threshold does have a very talented keyboardist in their midst. The chorus really grows on you throughout the song, and the opening to it, "we can fight against corruption", really hits home.

03 Staring At The Sun: From the title, I remember I really liked this song from the first couple of listens, but it's not until the singing starts that I remember why. The repeated "when you talk about..." is, again, very pleasing to an English major. And so is the rest of the song. To me at least. I think the best one is "when you talk about surrender." When I reach the chorus, I remember having this stuck in my head for quite a while after listening to it. It's a really good chorus. And altogether, it's a really good song. The use of stopping and starting the riffs during the verse is very effective. 

04 Liberty, Complacency, Dependency: Boy this is a long song. Seven minutes 48 seconds long, and that's not even the longest of the album. There's what sounds like an interview with someone during the first minute and a half. Although, that could be a bunch of voice clips put together. I would assume that the voices are talking about liberty, complacency, and dependency. Just a guess. At 2:32, we come across a riff that sounds almost exactly like a Bullet For My Valentine riff. Damn, I can't quite remember which riff it is off the top of my head. If anyone else notices it and knows which riff it is, please let me know in the comments. It's actually quite astonishing the amount of words one can find that rhyme with complacency. Threshold use probably all of them in this song. 

05 Colophon: The song starts off by painting quite a bleak scenario ("circling ravens, hunt us down"). There's a very good use of vocal echoes in this song. Oh, there's a line at the end of the chorus that really stuck with me after listening to the album. At the end of the chorus, Damian Wilson sings "did you do all the things that you wanted to do?" And that line really stuck with me for some reason. It's very nice to hear that Richard West (the keyboardist) is playing just piano in this song, and it does make it sound very good. Again, he's a very talented keyboardist. 

06 The Hours: This song is 8 minutes 15 seconds long, and it's still only the second longest song of the album. Actually, it only just misses being in 3rd place, but 3rd is only 8 minutes 13 seconds. It's no wonder they manage to go over 1.2 hours in just 11 songs. I noticed that there's lots of nice piano playing in this song too, especially during the chorus. At about 3:45, West changes back to interesting synth sounds. You'd think I'd have a lot to write about in an 8 minute song, but honestly, I find myself getting a bit bored during it. It has good parts, and it does have memorable parts, but I still feel a bit bored. Perhaps the pieces between verses and choruses are too long. I think a good 2 minutes could have been cut out of it, and it would have sounded fine. To end on a high note though, the harmonies during the chorus are well done. 

07 That's Why We Came: This song features a very sing-along-able chorus, and you could easily find yourself humming along "that's why we came" whilst listening to it. I think the bridge after the second chorus really emphasises what a good singer Damian Wilson is. He reaches some pretty spectacular notes in it. Going back to the chorus, it is very basic, but it doesn't suffer from that. We get to end this song with a fairly gentle guitar solo again, which leads into a bit of acoustic strumming.

08 Don't Look Down: Here we have the previously mentioned third longest song of the album. 8 minutes 13 seconds. 4 of the songs on this album take up more than 34 minutes. Wow. The chorus of this song is also very sing-along-able. The "what are you waiting for" part is a personal favorite. You may also find yourself tapping your feet along with the drums during that part. There's some heavily edited voices at about 3:30 which are very reminiscent of "Narcissus" from "Hypothetical" (I told you that was the only other Threshold album I've listened to). Again, unfortunately, I find myself growing a bit restless towards the end of this song. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to this album. Luckily at just before the 7 minute mark, the song returns to the chorus that I so enjoyed before, and my attention is captured anew.

09 Coda: I also remember finding this song quite interesting just from title. We shall soon find out why. After the first set of "I will break down these walls", Damian moves into a bit that sounds quite like Devin Townsend. I remember why I enjoyed it now. This song has a really cool, stuttering riff. Oh, and I also enjoyed the chorus. Again, there's good use of echoing during "Coda". The stuttering riff during the verse serves well to show off the guitarists' and the bassist's technical abilities.

10 The Rubicon: Here we are. The last and longest song of the album. It stands at 10 minutes 24 seconds. The song begins with some very grand sounding organ playing, which builds into the whole band playing rather epicly. It does just sound quite epic. I'm pretty sure there may be an violinist playing here, but that could just be synth. It's very interesting to note that the word "threshold" is mentioned in this song. I just thought that was cool. After the chorus at the 5 minute mark, the song sounds quite like a Dream Theater keyboard solo. Or at least it bears resemblance to it. I have no idea what "The Rubicon" is, but it just makes me think it's something from out of Superman or something like that. The whole part during the last 3 minutes of the song returns to the extremely grand sound of the beginning of the song, and Damian again reaches some pretty spectacular notes. The song ends with a very slow and still grand riff.

Well, here we are at the end of "March Of Progress". I have somewhat mixed feelings about this album. It's a very good album, but not too much on it seems to stick out for me. It's certainly not as good as "Hypothetical" in my opinion. Seriously, if anyone thinks there's a Threshold album that can top that one, I'd love to listen to it. Drop a comment. I'll get round to listening to it after I'm through my Anathema stage. Anyway, I'll give this album SEVEN rubicons (still no idea) out of TEN. Because all in all, it was a good album.

Favorite song: Staring At The Sun

Threshold currently have no touring plans.

The Darkness - Hot Cakes [Bonus Tracks] Review

So this will be probably be quite a short review. This is a review of the 4 bonus tracks that came with the deluxe version of "Hot Cakes". Because there's only 4 tracks, there's not much point in giving it a numbered rating. Just refer back to the "Hot Cakes" review for that 9/10 rating.

01 I Can't Believe It's Not Love (Acoustic Demo): The first song starts off with clapping, tambourines, and acoustic guitars. This song has featured in The Darkness' live shows for a while, but was never officially released. Until now! In an acoustic version. The bass on this song sounds rather southern-ish. The bridge (or it could be a solo, I can't really tell) has some interesting parts going on in it. Most noticeably, a distinctly non-acoustic guitar playing in the background. 

02 Love Is Not The Answer (Acoustic Demo): The beginning of this song sounds fairly similar to the normal version of it. But then Justin Hawkins sings a little differently on the pre-chorus. There's some very good guitar harmonies in the background of the pre-chorus as well. The solo for this song is pretty well transposed onto an acoustic guitar. 

03 Pat Pong Ladies (Demo Mix): This must be a song that didn't quite make it onto the album. The harmonies on the phrase "pat pong ladies" sounds really good. I'm pretty sure there's someone singing very high behind Justin Hawkins' vocals. This is just a first listen, but I can kind of see why it didn't make the album. It doesn't quite stand out like "Love Is Not The Answer" or most of the rest of that album. But there is a good "na na na na" sing along bit towards the end of the song. And a pretty cool solo at the end. 

04 Cannonball (Long Version): I think this one has also been appearing in live shows for a while too. But the normal version may have been released as a B-side at some point, which I haven't heard either. This does sort of sound like it may have come from the "One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back" sessions, which was a few years ago. So that would be why it doesn't really sound like any other songs on "Hot Cakes". The chorus actually sounds quite like Def Leppard. Oh there's pan pipes on here. It must definitely have come from the "One Way Ticket..." sessions. The bridge in here is actually really cool. I wonder if that's the bit that makes it the long version. Because there's a lot of stuff going on and it would be very difficult to play that part live.

Well the bonus tracks are pretty cool if you're a big Darkness fan. If this is your first album, I wouldn't really bother with the deluxe edition, but it's fine all the same. The highlight of these bonus tracks was the acoustic version of "Love Is Not The Answer". 

The Darkness: Hot Cakes Review

9/10

Sorry for the long wait between blog posts, but I'm back with a review I've been waiting to do for a while now. This is a review of The Darkness' latest album entitled "Hot Cakes". And the cover art is already showing The Darkness' typical tongue-in-cheek style humor. Brilliant. Here we go.

01 Every Inch Of You: This song was the second advance song that The Darkness released. This is the one that came along with an awesome lyric video (see it here; probably not quite SFW). So this song has been out since May 31, so I'd listened to it a few times before I got the album. This song details Justin Hawkins' life in the band, and how he discovered that he wanted to become a rock star after hearing Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown". He also goes on to sing about how he's spent his whole life "defying the man". Actually, the chorus doesn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the song. But it's an INSANELY catchy chorus. And Justin Hawkins' first trademark high pitched squeal comes at 0:45. This is a great song to open the new album with.

02 Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now: This was the first advance song that The Darkness released, and it was released way back on January 23. Man, this album has been a long time coming. This song has another really catchy chorus, and you'll easily find yourself humming along "Nothing's gonna stop us, nothing's gonna stop us" for WEEKS after listening to this song. And the repetition of "Fixing your hair" in the most out of place parts is fantastic. The Darkness really are amazing.

03 With A Woman: Here we go, the first song on the album that hadn't been released early. This features a very foot-tappy riff to start the song. The Darkness really do know how to write amazing songs. The line "I want to tell you I love you but it wouldn't be true" is a great line, and still features that tongue-in-cheek humor. The build up to Justin Hawkins screaming "With a woman!" is really well done. The layered vocals slowly singing "Loooooove" higher and higher is perfect. 

04 Keep Me Hanging On: This riff doesn't sound quite like The Darkness' typical riffs, but they soon dispel any doubts and make it their own. The chorus takes the riff and makes it seem like the most natural thing in the world to have in a Darkness song. This song also showcases how well they can layer vocals, a tip of the hat to their fairly obvious obsession with Queen. Interesting. The solo in here sounds vaguely rockabilly-ish. Not quite as awesome as "With A Woman", but it's still definitely up there.

05 Living Each Day Blind: This song was also advanced released, but I'm not sure if the band really wanted to. About three weeks ago, The Darkness posted on their Facebook page that Amazon had their album up on their website for pre-order, and a couple of the songs from the album were available to stream on that page. All of the songs were ones that had already been released, except for "Living Each Day Blind". But The Darkness embraced the possible mistake, and promoted it. So this was the 5th song that was released in advance. This is a nice acoustic-y song, that's either talking about Justin Hawkins' childhood, or is just a made up story. The "What's stopping you from leaving here with me?" part of the pre-chorus is really good. And the actual chorus itself is very sing-alongy. It's very easy to imagine Justin Hawkins leading a sing along of the chorus with and audience, and then stepping back to point at the crowd to sing the "Living each day blind" part. I'm fairly certain this song will make it onto the setlist. Oh and of course, there's the finger snapping at 3:41, which can be transposed into the crowd clapping their hands. This should be on the setlist. Phew that was a long one there.

06 Everybody Have A Good Time: This song was the... 4th? 5th? (I'm losing track of the all now) song that was released in advance. It was released on June 28, and it has a really awesome and hilarious music video that features a stripping and dancing bear, and really funny credits at the end of the video (stick around for those, and you can find the video here). The opening riff for this song does sound like a very feel good riff, which this whole song is meant to be. This song is a really good showcasing of what a good singer and writer Justin Hawkins is (although it should be mentioned that Dan Hawkins and Chris McDougal also did a lot of writing on "Hot Cakes"!) The first time you listen to this song should definitely be watching that awesome music video by the way, so go and do that now! It's right here again! This song is the first of the album in which Justin Hawkins drops an expletive, found at 3:51, after which, the song winds down.

07 She's Just A Girl, Eddie: This song is about Justin Hawkins telling Eddie, a fella who has recently had his heart broken, that the girl is just that: a girl, and there's no point in feeling like it's the end of the world. This is (most likely) a good song for someone who has been heartbroken and wants to get over the person. The part about cavemen at 2:40 is hilarious ("sabretooth cave ladies chewed up and spat out our hearts"). Remember Eddie, she's just a girl. Because The Darkness said so.

08 Forbidden Love: This song sounds sort of tropical? Like it should be accompanied with coconuts and swaying hula girls. Anyway, this song is about Justin Hawkins being forbidden from loving someone, but it being forbidden only makes him want it more ("if you didn't want forbidden love, you shouldn't have forbade it"). The song also insinuates at the beginning that Hawkins (or the character in the song) is married, evidenced in the line "My in-laws would treat me like an outlaw", making the love even more forbidden.

09 Concrete: What an odd name for a Darkness song. Oh God the first 4 lines have the word "concrete" in them every line. And Justin Hawkins refers to himself as a "concrete lion". The final "looking for love" part of the chorus is amazingly well done. Then into the second verse, where we have possibly the best line of the album. Are you ready for it? "Carry your egg like a concrete penguin". Fantastic. I'm fairly certain that the band knew that the title would sound a little out of place on a Darkness album, and that's just their sense of humor shining through. I recently read in Classic Rock that they don't believe they're supposed to be a humorous band at all, but that's just The Darkness Sense of Humor Guarantee again. Which I definitely did not just make up... I might have just made that up.

10 Street Spirit (Fade Out): The 10th song of the album is a cover of a Radiohead song which has been a staple of The Darkness' live shows for a while now. Hawkins revealed to NME that "We included the Radiohead cover because it has been a live favourite for many moons, and we wanted to release a definitive recording of our interpretation" (NME). And their interpretation of it is very good. I've never heard Radiohead's version of the song, and of course it doesn't sound quite like The Darkness, but they've certainly made it their own again.

11 Love Is Not The Answer: Ah there we go. Back to having the word "love" in the song titles. According to this song, love is not many things, including your friend, the beginning, the end, and of course, the answer. But love will also make you stupid, and make you wait. This is a very well constructed song. From an English major's point of view, the continued repetition of "love is" and "love is not" makes for a pleasing song, both musically and visually. The build up on "for the faint hearted" is very good. 

Oh no it's over! Well, I'm just going to have to listen to it again. I will also be doing a mini review of the bonus tracks from "Hot Cakes", so look for that in a couple of days (or maybe even today if you're very lucky - read: if I have nothing else to do). Of course, "Hot Cakes" isn't quite as good as "Permission To Land", but really, could they ever top that album? No, no they could not. But "Hot Cakes" is definitely up there, and it will easily stand the test of time. I think a good number of songs from this album will remain in the setlist for a long time. I give "Hot Cakes" NINE delicious buttery pancakes out of TEN. Excellent comeback album lads! And come over and tour in Canada. Please.

Favorite song: With A Woman

If you go to this link, you can pre-order the album from several locations, and I urge you to do so!

Gojira: L'Enfant Sauvage Review

8/10

For my next review, I will be reviewing the fifth album by the French band Gojira. It was released June 26, 2012, and is called L'Enfant Sauvage, meaning "The Wild Child". This is the only Gojira album I've ever listened to, but I was very impressed by it.

01 Explosia: That's how this song begins: explosively. It's built up slightly before tearing into the song with a thunderous riff, and a growled "Go!" from Joe Duplantier. What becomes quickly apparent is that Gojira certainly have their very own unique sound, and that sound comes from the very quickly picked notes played high up on the fret board. It's a sound/technique that's repeated many times throughout the album, and I love it. It's great because it's very easy to tell that you're listening to a Gojira album. The song calms down around the 4 minute mark for about 10 seconds before returning to the explosions, which is all instrumental for the rest of the song. This is also the longest song of the album, clocking in at 6:39.

02 L'Enfant Sauvage: The opening riff for this song is amazing. And when Joe's vocals come in... Man, they're good. This is the most emotional I've heard him sound on this album, and it works really well. It can be pretty hard to distinguish emotion in growled/yelled vocals, but Joe's emotion comes through loud and clear on this song. A bit more laid back than "Explosia", this song kicks serious ass nonetheless, and I'm legitimately upset when it comes to an end. So upset that I think I'll just give it one more play...

03 The Axe: It's funny that this song is called "The Axe", because the opening riff sounds a bit like a chainsaw. Which is metal as all seven hells. There's some seriously fast playing done on this song. And Mario Duplantier (oh, Joe's brother! The things you learn from Wikipedia!) is one hell of a drummer. The really fast bell-sounding drumming parts (I'm a guitarist, not a drummer if you couldn't tell) are super awesome too. Christian Andreau's trademark guitar playing is a standout on this song. The softly sung group vocals at the end of the song are a very nice touch.

04 Liquid Fire: Oh actually, Joe sounds fairly emotional on this song too. Or it's just not quite as growly as previous songs. This is the first song of the album to properly feature any kind of background vocals. These background vocals sound sort of as if they were sung into a fan, and remind me a bit of Fear Factory harmonies. This song actually use a lot of background vocals, which is a cool change.

05 The Wild Healer: This song sounds a lot like the soundtrack for an NES game at the beginning. And it really doesn't sound anything like a Gojira song to start off with. Oh it should be mentioned that this track is an instrumental, and the shortest song of the album (1:48 long). This certainly is a very interesting track.

06 Planned Obsolescence: This song sounds a bit slower and more chuggier in comparison to the previous couple of songs. The drumming is certainly less frantic during the verses. This song also has some rather Fear Factory-esque vocals in it. It's not quite as good as the first four songs in my opinion, but it's still a decent enough song. For the last minute it lapses into a piano piece with the occasional bit of drumming thrown in for good measure (my technical drumming terms for the win!)

07 Mouth Of Kala: This is a really good headbanging song. There's a constant bass drumming going on, courtesy of Mario Duplantier. This will be another really heavy one. Man this guy must have legs of steel. This bass pedalling is constant. I wonder if Fear Factory was an influence on Gojira? Because there certainly are some similarities that I'm noticing now. Aww Wikipedia doesn't list them as an influence. Maybe not then.

08 The Gift Of Guilt: Wow this is a really nice gentle start. Just guitar being played, before drumming and bass comes in at about 28 seconds. A bit more of a melodic song so far. Ooh this one has a very interesting sound that I think is played on the guitar. I have no idea on how to recreate that sound though. Possibly a muted slide down the neck. Apparently Gojira started off in 2001 as a death metal band. They really don't sound like death metal anymore though. They sound like... Gojira. This is also a very good song incidentally. The chorus is sung really well.

09 Pain Is A Master: I like the beginning of this song. It sounds a bit more progressive, with some whispers in the background. It keeps up that progressive-y riff for a minute and 7 seconds before launching into typical Gojira heaviness and Christian Andreau guitars. Oh my this actually sounds a lot like a death metal song. Right after I said they didn't sound like that anymore... Ah well, this is an epic song. And it's probably the heaviest song of the album so far, even taking into account the sometimes proggy-ness of it.

10 Born In Winter: Oh this song also sounds rather progressive too. It's interesting how they decided to put the two proggy songs together instead of sandwiching them with plenty of heavy groovey metally metal songs. This song reminds me a bit of Mastodon's "The Sparrow", because they're both quite slow with vocals sung very low. However, Joe soon reverts to his yelling/growling vocals. Wow the song ends quite abruptly there.

11 The Fall: And we've now reached the last track of the standard edition album. There's two more bonus tracks on the special edition version of the album, but I'm not going to be reviewing them. Well, "Pain Is A Master" may have sounded like a death metal song because of the guitar playing, but this song sounds very death metally because of the singing. Joe definitely lapses into a death metal roar at a couple of points there. The song starts to sound a bit Fear Factory-ish again at around 3:20. But it still has Gojira originality. And the song ends with some increasingly scrambled guitar sounds.

In my opinion, this was a really good first Gojira album to listen to. It's intrigued me enough to try out some of their other stuff, and I can see why Metal Hammer raved about it. I give "L'Enfant Sauvage" EIGHT metal little sparrows out of TEN. Excellent work lads!

Favorite song: L'Enfant Sauvage

There's still a few dates left on Gojira's current North American tour, so if you haven't got tickets, try and grab them now!: http://www.gojira-music.com/tour

Muse: Absolution + The Resistance "Review"

I'm titling this a "review" because it's not really a proper review at all. I've never liked Muse; I didn't like them before I listened to them, and I certainly don't like them after giving them a try. And I will go through all the reasons I don't like them in this "review". So if you want a "I <3 Muse" blog post, you probably don't want to read this. If you do, however, want to read some guy tearing Muse apart, then this should be fine. Enjoy.

Absolution

This was the first Muse album I tried, and I got to song 4 before I had to give up. Because it sucked that bad. And this was supposed to be a good one, because "Hysteria" was on here, and that was supposed to be a good song (it's not).

01 Intro: This 22 second long piece of crap sounds like some dude smacking his hands repeatedly on a desk, while some other dude yells military-sounding commands at the end.

02 Apocalypse Please: And then, the Intro doesn't even lead into this properly. What a waste of 22 seconds. Christ, this dude's voice annoys me. He could be singing Slayer and I'd still want to shoot myself. He has this very annoying habit of stretching pretty much everything he sings out obnoxiously long (very apparent in "this is the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend, this iiiiiiiiiiiiis theeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend." And that apparently constitutes a chorus. My God, even him just going "Ooooooohh" manages to annoy me to no end. I'm sure some people will say his voice is deep and emotional, but no, it's just a really bad voice. This song could very easily be just the first minute copied and pasted three times. After the chorus, it repeats the exact same thing that was before the chorus, complete with the "Ooooh"'s. Terrible.

03 Time Is Running Out: This was another thing I noticed about Muse: they have a terrible habit of just putting a VERY  annoying buzzing sound behind everything to make up for not having any instruments. Seriously, this song had 42 seconds of buzzing in the background. And there he goes again, stretching eeeeevery wooooord oooouuutt in the chorus. Oh and, the pre-chorus. "Apocalypse Please" went on and on about it being the end of the world, but they're only just now saying that time is running out? I notice a distinct problem with this album. OTHER than the fact it's complete shit I mean. Again, even the "OOooh ooohh ooh yeahyeahyeahyeah" SUCKS.

04 Sing For Absolution: This was as far as I could get the first time I listened to this album. Will I get further this time? Probably not. I've noticed that the singer's voice is annoying no matter what key he's singing in. Be it high, low, whiny, awful, he sucks. Oh God, now I remember why I stopped with this song. "Siiiing foooor Absoluuuuuuuuuuuuutiooon." Dragging every damn word out. ORIGINALITY , GUYS. COME ON. Yep, screw this. I'm done with this album. Oh I suppose I should review "Hysteria" as well.

08 Hysteria: This is supposed to be their best song. Wow. Obnoxious buzzing throughout pretty much the whole damn thing? Check. Heavily, heavily edited guitars, made to sound like more buzzing? Check. Edited vocals to make them sound, amazingly, like it's being sung into a bumblebee? Also check. A better band name would be BEEmuse. Ha! Get it? ...screw Muse.

The Resistance

01 Uprising: Now even I recognised this song. I think it's a pretty well-known one. But again, that won't stop it from being brought down by a terrible album. The first thing that's noticeable is that the singer's made some effort to have as clean vocals as he could, which is definitely a step up from "Absolution". But again, there's his really annoying habit of drawing out every single word. And again, the guitars are all edited to sound like annoying buzzing. Seriously, where the hell is the appeal in that? I especially hate the falsetto "So come on!" parts of this song. The clapping also gets very annoying by the way.

02 Resistance: This song begins with what sounds like a washer going on in the background that slowly gets louder. Then some dramatic music, drums, and piano. Not terrible so far! ...and then the singing starts. Seeming to pride himself on breaking his voice across different levels, the singer utilises his typical vocal talents. There is one thing I can say about this album: it's definitely better than Absolution. But then again, a beaver farting into a microphone probably would be better than that. Actually, I'll say this: the pre-chorus is pretty good. The "it could be wrong, could be wrong" part is not bad. But then the chorus ruins it with the typical dragging out all the words.

03 Undisclosed Desires: This is obviously a poorly disguised pop/rap song. It has the awful bass sound in the background that's not even made by the drummer. Actually, I'm not even sure there's a drummer there. And the trademark buzzing is there, ever present throughout all of the chorus!  And that synth line is so annoying. But seriously, why would you want a buzzing sound over EVERYTHING? "Hey Mr. Label Boss guy, don't you think someone should take that buzzing out of this album?" "Nonsense lad, kids these days LOVE buzzing sounds on their music!"

04 United States Of Eurasia: This is the song that did it for me on this album. I gave up after this one. Actually, not even after it: sometime during it. It starts off not bad, with just piano and some low singing. But the he goes on to saying one line while dragging it all out, and then repeating it while dragging different parts out. He does this 2 different times after a minute and a half. It almost sounds as if they're trying to emulate Queen at points, which is an offence to both myself and Queen. Nope, that's it. I. Hate. Muse.

Randy Blythe Free From Jail!!

Randy Blythe has been freed after spending four weeks in a Czech prison.

He has already boarded a flight to New York to step back on US soil and see his family.

The Lamb Of God frontman was arrested in late June for allegedly pushing a fan from the stage into the crowd at a show in Prague two years ago, which may have caused a fatal injury. Blythe maintains his innocence, and Classic Rock reports that Czech authorities never formally charged him. His case will be heard in November.

Blythe initially posted bail of $200,000 — roughly equal to his annual salary — but the prosecutor filed a complaint to say he was a flight risk, meaning they believed he would not return to face the court. His bail was then doubled to $400,000, and the prosecutor repeated their complaint, but a decision was reached yesterday (August 4) to free him.

"As a world-renowned artist, in a specific genre of music, of course, he cannot afford to simply disappear," explained his attorney Martin Radvan (via Blabbermouth), who told the court that his position as a public figure would make it difficult to go into hiding. "If he wants to continue performing, he will have to return. And he wants to return because he believes he is not guilty of anything he has been charged with."

Blythe's defence case is strong, according to Jonathan Crane from the Prague Post. "Even if Randy was responsible for the alleged attack, the expert said that who is to say that he wasn't accidentally kicked or trodden on or left without help by fans below the stage," he said.

Thanks to Ultimate Guitar for this.

Lamb Of God: Resolution Review

7/10

Another blog in the same day? Preposterous! Yes, here I am writing a review of an album that's been out even longer than "The Industrialist". "Resolution", Lamb of God's 7th album, was released January 24th, 2012. Yeeeeah, that's a long time. I did listen to it a couple of times when it first came out, but I never got really into it, maybe (hopefully) because I didn't give it my full attention when listening to it. So I'm writing this review now partly out of a desire to want to love Lamb of God, and partly to try and bring any attention I can to the hell that Randy Blythe is going through right now. For those of you that don't know (and there's probably not very many of you who don't), Randy Blythe has been locked up in a Czech jail for a month now, despite having posted bail twice. His incarceration dates back to a 2010 show in Prague that entailed a supposed altercation between Randy and a fan, resulting in that fan sustaining head injuries causing his death. Which is all bull**** in my opinion. Anyway, here's my review of "Resolution" by Lamb of God.

01 Straight For The Sun: The first song starts off with a deep breath from Randy Blythe before launching into a truly terrifying yell, accompanied by a slow, groove metal riff. At 2 minutes and 10 seconds, you might expect this song to be an instrumental, but no, it's a full on song. The song is almost entirely the slow riff and Randy screaming a few times, which is as good a start as any to an album.

02 Desolation: This is more like it. Extremely fast, Randy's trademark growls. Man, those hammer-ons. Yeah, listening to this again now and actually pay attention to it now I can really appreciate it more. Especially the gang-yelled "Desolation!" part. They've certainly got the crowd participation part so far in this album. 

03 Ghost Walking: This song was the leading single for "Resolution", and was released back in December 2011. The song starts with a 1, 2, 3, 4 count-in before swaying into a twanging guitar riff played acoustically.  After the acoustics, the same riff is played, only 5,000 times heavier. Also, Randy yells. Actually, there's a lot   more screaming vocals as opposed to the growls that were prevalent on the album so far. The screaming is most apparent at the beginning of the chorus, at the "You live through HELL!" part. My God, that's an amazing solo in there. I can see how this song became the first single, but I think I may prefer "Desolation" so far.

04 Guilty: Oh gosh. This song is even faster than "Desolation" was. And for some reason, the chorus sounds somewhat similar to "Ghost Walking". That's a definite downside to having all the vocals sung the same way: a lot of songs can sound the same. At least with something like "Now You Have Something To Die For" there was something about it that made it stand out. Despite being fast, "Guilty" doesn't really stand out on this album at all.

05 The Undertow: Very good start to this song, a little beginning of a riff played in just the left speaker. This song seems to be lashing out against people who look down on you. There we go. This song stands out now, because the chorus is sung in a different style: more screamy than growly. Despite the chorus being screamed, it's actually very melodic. And there's a really awesome line in it: "Your words are worth their weight in shit." Yes, this is a definite highlight.

06 The Number Six: That's a very clever title for the 6th track of the album. I'm fairly positive it was done like that on purpose, but hey, you never know! It could have been an awesome coincidence. Oh I remember this song now! It stuck out for me the first time I listened to the album. I really like the "Just a running mouth" part of the song. It's sung well, and there's awesome guitars behind it. The rather progressive-y part around the middle is a nice break from the constant fast growls, and that's another reason this song really stands out. "The Number Six" is my favorite song on the album so far.

07 Barbarosa: Okay, this one is probably an instrumental. At a minute 36 seconds, it's the shortest song on the album. And it begins with acoustic guitars. And continues with acoustic guitars the whole way through, with some slightly distorted guitars played over top.

08 Invictus: The previous instrumental leads right into this song. I'm pretty sure it started off with blast beats, but then seemed to abandon them pretty quickly. This song seems to be going the same way as "Guilty" did: nothing spectacular about it. Oh, apart from a very fast picked solo that is. Yep, pretty sure I won't remember this song in five minutes.

09 Cheated: Holy hell this one is fast. Even (most likely) Chris Adler's count in is really fast. And it would have to be fast. At only 2 minutes and 36 seconds, Randy will have a lot to say very quickly. Is this song about zombies? I definitely heard Randy say something about "the walking dead". Zombies are pretty metal. More on topic though, this song is really good. Makes up for the bit of a disappointment that was "Invictus". 

10 Insurrection: Oh my God Randy is singing! Even if it was just for two lines, it was still a really nice change. And he goes back to it after a brief bit of yelling. The song also features some really melodic-sounding guitars, on both the choruses and the verses. There's some really good guitar playing on this song. Willie Adler and Mark Morton are on fine form for this one.

11 Terminally Unique: That's a very interesting title for a song. It's clever, and I like it. Now let's see if the song lives up to my expectations. Oh the chorus is very good on this song. I can't quite pick out what I like about it from the first one, but we'll see on the second. The "How FAAAAAAAR... did you think that you could run?" part is awesome. Especially that scream I attempted to transcribe here on "far". Oh no, Randy's trying to summon something by yelling "Awaken!" at it repeatedly. He's going to summon Chtulhu! I'm pretty sure Randy's voice could be enough to summon it after all.

12 To The End: All I could think when this song started was that the riff sounded somewhat similar to Queen's "Dragon Attack". Anyway, that's one really cool riff, especially with the little screaming part of it at the end. Unfortunately, the riff is the only bit that really stands out about this song. Although Randy does have a rather spectacular scream at the very end of the song.

13 Visitation: More gang-yelled vocals in this song. There's nothing quite like yelling "Decimated!" at the top of your lungs to make yourself feel pretty damn metal. But just like "To The End", there's nothing particularly special about this song.

14 King Me: Now I'd already heard that this song drew quite a bit of attention for using an orchestra or something in it. But that should make it sound unique, so I'm excited for it. Oh there's the orchestra! That's really awesome. It kicks in at about the 55 second mark. No growling vocals before 1:45 which is interesting; just Randy almost whispering. And the orchestra comes back at about 2:17. The orchestra definitely adds a lot to this song, and "King Me" is a highlight of the album.

Unfortunately, there just seems to be something about Lamb of God that doesn't appeal to me. Which is weird because I really love Machine Head and Trivium. I don't think I'll bother giving this album another listen, but I can appreciate that it's well done, and I know it's received a lot of good reviews. I shall give "Resolution" SEVEN slightly subdued but still very metal sunshines out of TEN.

Favorite song: The Number Six

#FREERANDYBLYTHE

#FREERANDYBLYTHE

#FREERANDYBLYTHE

Fear Factory: The Industrialist Review

7/10

This is my second album review on this blog. This time, I'm going to be reviewing Fear Factory's latest album, "The Industrialist". It's not quite as new as "Dark Roots of Earth" was ("The Industrialist" was released June 5, 2012), but I thought now would be as good a time as ever to give it a listen. This is actually going to be only the second Fear Factory album I've ever listened to, the first being "Mechanize", which I really enjoyed. So here goes.

01 The Industrialist: The song starts with clanking machine noises, but what did we really expect from a Fear Factory album by this point? A voice talks over the clanking about "The Destroyer of Worlds". I don't think this album will have many songs about ponies and rainbows. One thing I notice right away is the very melodic synth(?) sounds at the beginning, before the song launches into extremely fast pedalling complete with metal-on-metal sounds. So far, this album sounds a bit "growlier" in comparison to "Mechanize". The chorus has a very cool riff played in the background, which is a stand-out feature of this song. Essentially, this song is just a straight-up heavy metal song, as it doesn't have any of Burton C. Bell's melodic singing that a lot of recent Fear Factory songs have featured. Although having said that, the last 30 seconds or so have very melodic background singing.

02 Recharger: A great riff on this song, sounds very knife-like (that's the best way I can think to describe it). Oh, there's the melodic singing! How I missed you. Burton has a great melodic voice (as well as his metal voice) and it's really nice that he's using it quite a bit. "Soaring" would probably be the best way I can describe the vocals of the chorus. "All of this must end" is an oft repeated phrase, so this song is obviously keeping with the concept of something (most likely robots) destroying the world. Oh this is a really good chorus. It sounds even better the second time it comes around, and you can really notice the keyboards/synth behind the vocals.

03 New Messiah: Do all Fear Factory albums contain a song that is a play-on of Jesus Christ? There's "Pisschrist" on Demanufacture, and "Christploitation" on Mechanize, and now there's this song. Not there's a problem with that; I'm just wondering if it's a common theme. Nope, apparently not. It's only those three albums I have that have those songs. That's a bit of a coincidence. There's some rather strange sounding synth effects in this song. I'm not quite sure how I feel about them just yet. Ooh the growl/yelled "Messiah!" during the chorus near the end of the song are very well done.

04 God Eater: Oh this must be the song about ponies! Oh... no, maybe not. It starts with cool synth sounds again, which are definitely becoming a staple of this album. Apparently the name "God Eater" comes from a toybox that Burton C. Bell saw whilst travelling (thanks for that Wikipedia!) A bit of chanting comes after the opening synth, and then we're into the song. Hooray, more melodic chorus singing! Oh that echo-y yelling at around the 3 minute mark is a bit creepy. If I had to hazard a guess based solely on the title, I would assume this song is about robots rising up against mankind and taking over everything, becoming even more powerful than a God ("I'm your new God now!"). Oh I was pretty close. The lyrics are "No Gods, no Kings, only man." Aww man. No robots.

05 Depraved Mind Murder: Now that's a cheery title. And there's a very scary sounding drilling noise in the beginning. Now, that drill noise sounds fine in the intro, but including it after a line of singing just sounds a bit weird. This is a bit of a heavier song compared to most of the first part of the album, it still features Burton's melodic singing, but there's a lot less of it, and it's a much faster song. So far, unfortunately, none of the first five songs have really jumped out at me (I remember the song "Mechanize" from the Mechanize really jumped out at me the first time I gave it a listen).

06 Virus Of Faith: Did I accidentally skip back to the beginning? This song starts off with the hammering of some metal, complete with some whispering, and then into a heavy song. Yep, that's pretty much exactly how "The Industrialist" started. Oh I was expecting this to be another really heavy song, but there's still some melodic singing here, so we'll see where this goes. After the first chorus there are some very odd sounds that sound a bit like police sirens. Which is followed by a blast beat in first the left ear, and then the right ear. And that was very cool.

07 Difference Engine: Now we have the second shortest song of the album. This song is just 3 minutes and 38 seconds long. And so far, it sounds nothing like Fear Factory. It's very interesting. The first 45 seconds are very jarring compared to the rest of what I've listened to so far. But that's jarring in a good way. If there's such a thing. Which there now is. Well this song certainly caught my attention with the different-ness. Oh that's funny, because the song is called "Difference Engine". Well played Fear Factory. I can hear some potential Devin Townsend influences on the choruses here.

08 Disassemble: This song starts with some thundery sounds while a riff gets increasingly louder while alternating between the left and right speakers. Also on this song are some very strange electronic sound effects. Again, I'm not quite sure how I feel about them. The "Falling down, breaking down" part that comes on at about 1:20 is very well done, and I would say is another highlight of the album. Yes, I do really like that "Falling down, breaking down" part. This entire song is a highlight of "The Industrialist".

09 Religion Is Flawed Because...: From the length of this song I would expect it to be an instrumental. Let's see if I'm right. The end of "Disassemble" leads right into this song, which is 1 minute and 52 seconds long. Halfway through and so far all we've had is someone whispering something that sounds like "To me". With 30 seconds left, it looks like I was right in assuming this was an instrumental. Go me.

10 Human Augmentation: And now we have reached the last song of the album. Clocking in at 9 minutes and 5 seconds, this is the longest song of the album. And this now draws comparisons to the previous album, "Mechanize". Both albums had 10 songs, and "Mechanize" ended with an 8 minutes and 17 seconds long song called "Final Exit". Which was my favorite song of that whole album. 2 minutes in and all we've had so far is creepy whispering and machine sounds. That's a bit different from "Final Exit". I'm starting to wonder if this is actually going to be a song, or if it will just keep up the whispering and pneumatics for another 6 minutes. Only time will tell. At about 3:30 we have what sounds like a bunch of metal pipes falling off a shelf. I'm almost halfway through now and this still isn't a song. So far, this is a bit of a letdown as I let myself think it might be something like "Final Exit". I'm pretty sure the whispering person is just someone saying "This poison" over and over again. Oh, no, he changed to "Revelations" for a bit. And then back. Well, with 2 and a half minutes left, I'm almost positive it's not going to be an "actual" song. I can't really see this becoming a staple of a Fear Factory live show anytime soon. I'm kind of hoping there will a terrifying tell from Burton at the 10 seconds left mark, just to make it a bit more exciting. Well, that song was a bit of a letdown from the rest of the album. But I probably was more let down because I thought it would compare to "Final Exit". Ahh well. Album done now.

Well, this was a pretty good effort from Fear Factory. Not quite as good as "Mechanize" was in my opinion, but that may be because I listened to that album more than this, or because "Mechanize" was accompanied with the whole reunion hype. I deem "The Industrialist" worthy of SEVEN metal stars out of TEN.

Favorite song: Recharger

And don't forget to get your tickets to see Fear Factory this month in the U.S.!: http://fearfactory.com/tour-dates/

Testament: Dark Roots of Earth Review

9/10

Welcome to my very first blog! In this first blog, I will be reviewing the tenth album by thrash metal band Testament, "Dark Roots of Earth". Starting with just the artwork, this album already looks badass. The cover features some dude speaking to a giant satanic looking God thing that seems to have erupted out of the ground. This God thing has antlers, snakes, and a beard, so it's pretty cool. Anyway, this is actually only the third Testament album I've ever listened to in it's entirety (the other two being "The Legacy" and "Souls of Black"). But I was so impressed by this album, that I was actually motivated to start this blog just so that I could write down some of the things I'd been thinking when I first heard it.

01 Rise Up: The first song kicks off the album as a typical thrash metal song. Which is absolutely fine for Testament, so no complaints here. Right away, it's obvious that this song is a perfect "sing-back" song for live shows, so it's almost guaranteed that Rise Up will be a staple in Testament's setlist on their upcoming North American tour with Anthrax and Death Angel. The chorus involves Chuck Billy growling, "When I say rise up, you say war!" Which will be a perfect bit for the audience to yell back at live shows.

02 Native Blood: The second song of "Dark Roots of Earth" is definitely one of the highlights of the entire album. It has fairly cleaner singing than the majority of Testament songs, and it serves to prove that Chuck Billy can do more than just growl and yell. Native Blood is Chuck Billy singing about taking pride in his Native American blood, and about the hardships he had to endure when he was younger because of it. The choruses have some really great melodic singing, and all in all Native Blood is a great performance from the whole band. There's also a blistering solo, and re-recruited drummer Gene Hoglan's playing is as airtight as ever.

03 Dark Roots Of Earth: Ahh the title track. It is a fairly slower song compared to the first two songs, but it's not a bad thing by any means. Featuring another great sing-along chorus, it is very easy to imagine crowds of rabid Testament fans yelling "Dark roots... of the earth!" with metal horns raised high. As it mentions some kind of God, I would imagine this would be the huge creature depicted on the album cover. And as I listen closely to it right now, I'm pretty sure this is another one of Testament's "climate change" songs. That would most likely mean that the creature erupting out of the earth is what pollution and such is doing to the earth. Sweet metaphor.

04 True American Hate: The fourth song launches right into a spectacular, most likely finger-tapped solo, which is an excellent way to start a song. Hoglan's double bass pedaling is fantastic as always. Aaaand here's another chorus that they're going to love playing to audiences. Billy will sing "True American hate!" and the audience will yell back "HATE!". After the second chorus we get another excellent finger-tapped lick/solo, before leaping into the main guitar solo, which will bring the song to a close after another couple of choruses (HATE!).

05 A Day In The Death: There are two versions of this song if you get the iTunes deluxe edition. The version which appears on the album has drumming from good ol' Gene Hoglan, while the second bonus version features a guest appearance from Lamb of God's Chris Adler. Unfortunately, I only have the Hoglan version, which is still pretty damn epic. A Day in the Death [of Mankind] is a song written about the various states of disarray the world is in nowadays, whether it's dictators, revolutions, or protests, everything seems to be contributing to the death of mankind. A phrase often repeated throughout the song is a haunting "my back is against the wall."

06 Cold Embrace: This song is now my favorite song on the album, and probably my favorite Testament song of all time. Chuck Billy's clean singing is so beautiful, and the lyrics are extremely poignant. The lyrics and theme of the song remind me a bit of Symphony X's "Lady of the Snow". After the second verse (which ends with the excellent line "sorrow is the color of her dream"), the song speeds up a bit, with lyrics reminiscent of Metallica's "The Day That Never Comes" ("the sun will never shine"). Cold Embrace is also the longest song on the album, clocking in at 7 minutes and 45 seconds. But don't worry; that's 7:45 of pure awesome.

07 Man Kills Mankind: I assume this title is a play-on of the phrase "guns don't kill people, people kill people". Pretty clever, guys. Because in reality, there really is only one thing responsible for the majority of the horrible things that happen in the world today, and that is mankind.  One notable thing about this song is that it features some really good harmonies, with one of the singers going quite high. And of course, Gene's drumming is fantastic.

08 Throne of Thorns: The eighth song of the album is the second longest on here, standing at 7 minutes and 4 seconds. The song starts with some very nice acoustic guitar parts, before leaping into the excellent riffage that is thrash. The "God of war! Fire born! Throne of Thorns!" part of the chorus is a definite highlight of the song, and of the whole album (I'm pretty sure that's what the lyrics are: it could also be "Firemourne", which sounds totally badass, whatever it might be). There's a distinct possibility that Throne of Thorns could refer to the Iron Throne in George R.R. Martin's "Song of Fire and Ice" series. And if that's the case, then it most likely contains references to Joffrey Baratheon.

09 Last Stand For Independence: The non-deluxe part of the album ends as it began: with a furiously fast thrash metal song. Packed with awesome riffs and licks, this song wouldn't sound too out of place on "Souls of Black". There's not too much to say about this song. I think it maybe would have been better to have it somewhere in the middle of the album, and have had something like "Man Kills Mankind" or "A Day In The Death" as the closing song, but that's pretty much the only criticism I can have with this song and the album in general.

Well that's all I have to say about the normal version of "Dark Roots of Earth". Read on for my thoughts on the bonus tracks that come with the bonus edition. And listen to "Cold Embrace" again.

10 Dragon Attack (Queen Cover): Oh God yes. A Queen song. Queen is one of my all time favorite bands, so I was incredibly stoked when I saw a cover of Dragon Attack show up on the bonus tracks. Chuck Billy himself said that he didn't want the cover versions to just sound like karaoke versions, so they tried their best to re-imagine the songs. And they certainly did. With this cover, Testament have made this excellent Queen song their own. There's a nice easter egg hidden near the end of the song, where Gene Hoglan plays a bit of the drum beat to "We Will Rock You". I'm really hoping one of the cover versions will make it's way onto the setlist for the Death Angel/Testament/Anthrax tour, and I really hope it's this song.

11 Animal Magnetism (Scorpions Cover): Now, I have never actually listened to the original version of this song, which is a bit odd as I really like Scorpions. Anyway, I thought I'd still give it a try. What we have here is very doom metal-y sounding song, with very slow chugging guitars, and very distorted/echo-y vocals. When I first listened to it, I thought it sounded similar to Scorpions' "The Zoo". Which makes sense as "The Zoo" and "Animal Magnetism" are both on the same album. This version doesn't sound quite like Testament, nor does it sound quite like Scorpions, which is perhaps exactly what a Testament cover of a Scorpions song should sound like. Again, Testament have succeeded in re-imagining the song.

12 Powerslave (Iron Maiden Cover): Unlike the previous two covers, Billy says that Testament didn't even try to change this song up. It was too much of a classic to try and mess with. Given the success of the other two covers, however, it's very likely that they would have done a fine job at trying to make this one their own too. But this version is fine as is. One thing that stands out on all three of these covers is how different Chuck Billy can make his voice sound on each of them. If I was shuffling my iPod and "Powerslave" came on right after "Dragon Attack", I would probably assume they were two different bands. Kudos to Chuck Billy on his excellent vocal range.

13 Throne Of Thorns (Extended): This version of the song features an extra 37 seconds of the song, but other than that, there's no difference.

This is an awesome album. If I had to describe this album in one sentence, it would be that one. What an awesome album for their 10th. I give "Dark Roots of Earth" NINE horns up out of TEN. Nice job Testament!

Favorite song: Cold Embrace

Buy tickets to see Testament with Anthrax and Death Angel this fall!: http://www.testamentlegions.com/site/tour-dates/