Tuesday's Metal Releases

Barren Earth - Our Twilight (Peaceville)
Dark Tranquillity - Where Death Is Most Alive CD and DVD (Century Media)
Devin Townsend Project - Addiction (InsideOut)
Manegarm - Nattvasen (Regain)
Richie Kotzen - Peace Sign (Frontiers)
Rush - Working Man Live (Sony BMG)
Skitliv - Skandinavisk Misantropi (Season Of Mist)
Suffokate - No Mercy, No Forgiveness (Century Media)
Swallow The Sun - New Moon (Spinefarm)
Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures (Interscope)
Voivod - Tatsumaki: Voivod in Japan 2008 DVD (MVD)

THOUGHTS: Normally I would go with Richie Kotzen as my pick of the week but I got to go with Skitliv, surprisingly enough.  Richie's Peace Sign is solid, but his work in general is amazing and this latest release doesnt quite hold up to them.  Still, a better record than most anything released lately.

As for Skitliv, their new album is better than their previous - it's pretty cohesive but still bizarre and abstract enough to sound like themselves (distorted and DOOMY black metal).  And thus, we have our winner.

Them Crooked Vultures may not be a big name yet, but they are made up of big names (Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, and Dave Grohl).  Their debut album is good lo-fi rock.  It can be pretty heavy at times.  Josh Homme's influence seems to be the strongest of the bunch.  His distinctive falsetto makes it sound like Queens Of The Stone Age at times; certainly more than it sounds like Foo Fighters or Led Zep.

Devin Townsend Project is good.  Just like everything Devin Townsend releases.  How is this guy not a bigger name?