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.

Mike Portnoy releases his eclectic top albums of 2009

The more I get to know Mike Portnoy the more I love him.  For a while now he's been releasing a "Top albums of the Year" list and this years is a damn good one.  Mike is such a massive music fan that it's hard not to get excited alongside him. Also, I am really surprised Cynic didnt make the list.... He definitely preaches for them. Maybe it's just because of their drummer.

Best Of 2009

1. BIGELF - Cheat The Gallows (AGREED!  Great great band.  Mike had them open up for Dream Theater this last tour and I feel like it brought them a ton of exposure.)
2. MASTODON - Crack The Skye (Not my favorite Mastodon album, but yep- still one of the best of the year)
3. ALICE IN CHAINS - Black Gives Way To Blue 
4. THE FLAMING LIPS - Embryonic
5. BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME - The Great Misdirect
6. THEM CROOKED VULTURES - Them Crooked Vultures (overrated?)
7. MEGADETH - Endgame (Easily this will be in my top 10 of the year)
8. THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT - Ki/Addicted (Underrated!)
9. HEART OF CYGNUS - Over Mountain Under Hill
10. ANIMALS AS LEADERS - Animals As Leaders

Honorable Mentions:

LAZARUS A.D. - The Onslaught
MUSE - The Resistance
PORCUPINE TREE - The Incident
BARONESS - Blue Record (It's nice to see this album getting a lot of credit it deserves)
RIVERSIDE - Anno Domini High Definition (This is what you would expect a favorite band of Mike Portnoy to sound like)

And, of course:

DREAM THEATER - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
TRANSATLANTIC - The Whirlwind

Best Of Decade-End Wrap-Up

1. MUSE - Absolution (Yep!)
2. BIGELF - Cheat The Gallows
3. OPETH - Blackwater Park 
4. SPOCK'S BEARD - Snow
5. THE FLAMING LIPS - At War With The Mystics (Never really got into them, but this is a great album)
6. ENDOCHINE - Day Two
7. BEARDFISH - Sleeping In Traffic Pts 1&2 (Mike also brought these guys on tour)
8. METALLICA - Death Magnetic
9. LAMB OF GOD - Ashes Of The Wake (hell yea!)
10. PETER GABRIEL - Up
11. BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME - Colors
12. MACHINE HEAD - The Blackening (Solid metal album, but I wouldnt say its particularly special)
13. WILCO - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
14. SLIPKNOT - Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses
15. PAIN OF SALVATION - Remedy Lane
16. COLDPLAY - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (uuuuuh, I have to disagree here.  Production was good though)
17. KING CRIMSON - The Power To Believe
18. WEEZER - Green Album
19. PORCUPINE TREE - Fear Of A Blank Planet
20. MASTODON - Crack The Skye (Interesting choice, I would go with Leviathan)

Progressive Nation Tour with Dream Theater, Zappa Plays Zappa, and Bigelf- Aug. 9 at Beacon Theater, NYC

The bottom line from last nights show is that Bigelf is some sort of brilliant cult band that I wish I knew about years ago, Zappa Plays Zappa is more of an acquired taste than onions, and Dream Theater is ALWAYS good live.  

Bigelf

Bigelf

Bigelf -  Mike Portnoy runs out and hits the drums

Bigelf with Portnoy behind the kit

Zappa Plays Zappa - also joined by a ¿singing? Portnoy

Zappa Plays Zappa

Dream Theater - check that kit out!

Dream Theater

Dream Theater's elfish keyboardist was amazing

Dream Theater

Dream Theater - my actual view of the stage

Dream Theater -Dweezil Zappa joins them on stage

Dream Theater - Portnoy is smiling over Zappa on stage with them

Dont miss the opener at tonights Dream Theater gig

I am super excited to see my boyfriend Mike Portnoy tonight at the Dream Theater gig. Opening up the show is my former Band Of the Week, Bigelf, and Zappa Plays Zappa (YAWN).

Anywho, in prepartion for tonights show, I just want to show this amazing drum solo from Port-joy in Japan.  Towards the end when he pulls that cute little Jap-uber-fan from the back row I wanted to die from a cute overload!  It's so nice when bands are so cool to their fans like this.

Band Of The Week - Bigelf!

When I first heard a song from these guys I thought the intro sounded straight out of Deep Purple (and the keyboard parts were a mix of Purple and Rainbow).  Then the vocals came on- Beatles-esque, almost Jack White-ish. Ok... these aren't bad bands to be compared to. Then came the guitars- BLACK SABBATH.  Bigelf  is an awesome new band with a new flavor, but a total appreciation for the old school. They may look like dirty hippies from the 70's, but I promise you their music is smart, trippy and super heavy. Badass.

Oh, and did I mention they are currently on tour with Dream Theater. They were hand picked to be on the tour by Mike Portnoy, so how bad could they be? Full review of that the day after the show.