Novallo – Novallo II
Novallo II is a new entry from the Columbus prog five piece Novallo. This short but sweet album wraps technical showmanship inside the bubble…
pop metal
Postcards From Natalie Zed, Part 3
Hellbound readers, we’re sure that by now you are all familiar with our Natalie Zed, right? Natalie was our big grand prize winner back in January, taking home more than 50 CDs + and shortly after she received her huge box ‘o CDs, Ms. Zed asked us over at Hellbound HQ if we’d be interested in running reviews of her winnings if she did postcard sized reviews of the albums. How could we say no?
So, without further adieu, here is Natalie’s third installment (reviews #21 – 30 for those keeping stats at home) in what Hellbound likes to refer to as “Postcards From Natalie Zed”…
Ratt – Infestation
I wasn’t expecting much from this album but am mildly impressed with a lot of the songwriting – full of huge hooks, great guitar work and of course Pearcy’s voice. Ratt brings back the classic sound of the 80s with great songwriting and great guitar solos but still for the most part inject some modern toughness to it. Now if they could just lose some of those cheeseball songs this would of been an absolute monster of an album.
Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe 2 – Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls And The Systematic Dehumanization Of Cool
For the first time in years, Hellbilly Deluxe 2 sees Rob Zombie playing and interacting with other musicians on tracks that actually sound like new songs rather than a set of reconstituted remixes. After the tone gets set by “Jesus Frankenstein” – which sounds a bit like an overture for the proceedings and echoes “Sawdust In The Blood” from Educated Horses – Zombie leads the charge through a set of the ten hardest-driving, least computer-controlled rockers to come from the singer since the word “White” preceded his name.