FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
The nightmare thread notwithstanding, Alice and company could have given this a different title and stayed away from the ‘sequel’ aspect and still had this be the best, most complete sounding Alice Cooper album in a decade. Yes, even the song with Ke$ha (‘What Baby Wants’) is catchy as hell, if not a little discoesque (ala Goes To Hell).
City of Steel is a terrific debut full length for Untimely Demise, and though there may be a few things they could tweak here and there to tighten up the songs, the album is still very memorable and catchy. There is absolutely nothing to dislike here, and anything that might be perceived as needing fixing, will definitely come out with a little more experience.
On From The Devil’s Tomb, Weapon manage to weave a thread of incredible beauty through what should be truly ugly music.
Make no mistake, this is not a metal album, this is early, dirty underground hardcore for folks who loved it and miss it, and a lesson for those who have no idea what hardcore is but are open minded enough to check it out. Start here then, go find the bands that influenced Arson Anthem you won’t be disappointed.
“When rumours started to fly that the original Alice Cooper group was going to be inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, Alice and his ‘team’ decided that it was time to put something out to commemorate that original period of time. It would have been easy for them to slap together another Alice Cooper compilation, maybe tag in a rare live track and leave it at that. Thankfully, Alice opted to not do that and put together one of the best box sets a fan of the original band could ever ask for! ”
Jason Wellwood reviews the massive four CD, DVD, LP, 7″ and book ALICE COOPER box set “Old School 1964-1974” released recently by Universal Music.
This, as far as I’m concerned, is the ‘must see’ live DVD of the year
The album is definitely worth picking up for those of you into the hard rock/power/prog scene but I think that the next album (perhaps entitled Two?) will be INCREDIBLE if Fullforce can pull off songs like the first half of One all the way through.
Using every positive adjective I could find may not do the album or the band justice but try this on: Unexpect are a collection of aural artists and in Fables of the Sleepless Empire they have created their masterpiece.
I have to admit that it’s pretty bittersweet, as good as From Chaos to Eternity is; I feel it should have been a bit more epic. The finale to such a huge, sweeping overall piece of musical work, in my mind should have been much grander.
Overall, the live show is just amazing, musically, vocally, visually, the ensemble really pull it off. Hearing 80,000 fans singing along with Avantasia is a little awe inspiring.