Tuesday's Metal Releases

Charred Walls Of The Damned - Charred Walls Of The Damned (Metal Blade)
Creature With The Atom Brain - Transylvania (The End)
Droids Attack - Must Destroy (Crustacean)
Knock 'Em Dead - Endless Struggle (Eulogy)
Light This City - The Hero Cycle Re-Release (Prosthetic)
Nostradameus - Illusion's Parade (AFM)
Priestess - Prior To The Fire (Tee Pee)
Joe Satriani - Live In Paris CD/DVD (Epic)
Shining - Blackjazz (The End)
Silent Fall - Otherwise (Pitch Black)
Sybreed - The Pulse Of Awakening (Listenable)
Through The Eyes Of The Dead - Skepsis (Prosthetic)

THOUGHTS: I often talk about the Swedish black metal band, Shining.  Well, do not get those guys confused with the industrial Norwegian band of the same name, Shining,  The Norwegian Shining are the band that released Blackjazz, and although my guess is that the album title is supposed to be a step towards creating a new genre of music (some sort of bizarro fusion between black metal sound and jazz), I am having a little difficulty finding the jazz aspects in this album.  Sans a little bit of saxophone (thats almost inaudible in the mix), and some groovey Pantera meets modern Satyricon riffs, I would say most of this album relies on..... synth.  LOTS of synth.   At some points the album takes on a spastic video game feel.  I really don't know what to make with this album, but I am pleased to hear something that sounds fairly new.  Minus the obvious Rob Zombie meet Ministry influence.
Charred Walls of the Damned is essentially exactly what you would expect from Richard Christy.  It was just a matter of time before Richard returned to metal after leaving Iced Earth behind for a shot at the big bucks with Howard Stern.  For the most part the songs are traditional power metal, but the drums are faster and heavier with lots of death metal blast beats.  The song writing is pretty strong, and the production from guitarist Steve DiGorgio holds up.  Also, this album gets my pick of the week.
Canada's Priestess are on tour with Bigelf right now in the UK, to support their latest album, Prior To The Fire.  I am not sure how I feel about this cd yet.  It's not as catchy as their earlier stuff, but it's also written better.  I guess the bottom line is that it's just not my style of music (it's your basic rock band), but I do think they hold up in a bland way.
Creature With The Atom Brain arent a metal band, but they are a rock band.  A unique, sorta psychadelic alt-prog rock band.  They are opening for Alice in Chains right now and fans seems to be digging this album.