Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

There are few acts to have survived such a massive musical transformation as Liverpool's Anathema. Along with Paradise Lost, the group was at the forefront of Europe's burgeoning doom metal scene during the early '90s. The band's blend between goth's despondency and death's brutality was a distinctive turn in style ...

Every year there seems to be a plethora of new Christmas CDs. Why, I don't know. There are only a handful I can think of that are worth listening to more than once --- Dwight Yoakam's, Fats Domino's, Phil Spector's of course, and a treasured Ace compilation from years and ...

12 years ago I took my ungrateful sons and a gaggle of their snot nosed friends to their first concert. It was out of town, in Dayton, Ohio, and featured Great White and Bullet Boys and another band, can't remember who, but what I do remember is that all of ...

15 years ago or so I was between marriages and living on the edge in an apartment next to a woman named __________ who was what would now be called a hottie. She was, I thought, way out of my league, so I never even tried for her. I think ...

It sounds like Cairo" couldn't wait to let you hear the latest that they have to offer. Unlike the usual Prog formula of a three to five minute album opening intro instrumental section, Bret Douglas jumps right in the his vocals at the start of, The Underground." The remainder of, ...

Although Holland's double bass has anchored just about every musical formation known to man, from overabundant jazz orchestras to antagonist duets, his own groups are purposely unconventional. Or at least they don't make that much sense on paper. Mixing Robin Eubanks' funky 'n boisterous trombone with Chris Potter's mellow and ...

The Dave Matthews band is a band of gypsies if there ever was one. With a following that is quite gypsy-like, caravaning around from city to city to follow what they hail as the greatest band ever, fans eat, sleep and breathe Dave Matthews band. Since its beginnings as an ...

Ironically, these things too shall pass. Even as Satanists. In closing 12 years of tenacity, the mutual pact between death metal demons Deicide and the Roadrunner label was one of heavy metal's most tumultuous, tho' beneficial, partnerships. The Florida band became one of the defining acts of death metal's initial ...

There is a bit of confusion surrounding Devon. There are two of them, apparently, floating around; the one with whom we are concerned is from Charlottesville, Virginia and has at the ripe age of 19 released her second CD, LONG SLEEVE STORY. She has an edge up on most independent ...

This London, UK based band is far from what I would call ordinary, entering into an atmosphere few artists attempt, crossing genres and creating a unique sound that encompasses many aspects. This album is their sophomore effort and includes guest vocals by Planet Asia, Massive Attack, The Specials, and Sight ...

It doesn't get any better than Dwight Yoakam. The guy releases CDs with regularity, he's incapable of putting out a bad song (well, okay, you have to leave UNDER THE COVERS out of consideration) and even though he says "I don't feel limited by country music because I don't feel ...

When it comes to heavy Swedish prog metal, Evergrey is king. Their triad of dark metal albums has placed them at the forefront of progressive music, and their unique sound defies trends, even within the prog world. There is no operatic tenor vocalist, and no excessive complexity for its own ...

On the first round, it's hard to imagine that this is the same band that bumbled around and got their tires flattened on MTV's Bands On The Run. Hey, we were all rooting for those goth chicks, or don't you remember? On second pass, tho, this is one of those ...

Freedy Johnston is everybody's brother and uncle. He's a guy blessed with some modest talent who utilizes it to the utmost so that while he might not always hit the mark he never records anything so wretched that his fan base is going to turn away in disgust. At the ...

Like that joke folks tell about a realtor's three most important factors in selling a house, all good blues artists refer to a similar code: location, location, location. Whether it's the Delta's original brew, Chicago's uptown strut or a Texas-sized twang, you can usually distinguish a musical bond by the ...

This part of the Bad Boy family is one standout son. G-Dep has the good flow and rhythms that will make him famous on his own. Child of the Ghetto is an excellent debut album for the very real and raw rapper. It features a unique street ghetto sound ...

Funny how even when George Jones is no longer at the center of the universe, all the noise is still all about George Jones. His latest publicity skirmish with Garth Brooks is proving to be one of the more sensational info-tainment and tabloid tidbits that we'd expect from country's original ...

The first impression of Love and Kisses is that Handsome Devil is another cookie-cutter pop punk band. And while that feeling is semi-true, Handsome Devil seems to offer a little bit more than most commercialized pop punk bands. This album is not a bad attempt at a fun, ...

Almost from the opening bars of "Last Time," the opening track of Ike Reilly's SALESMEN AND RACISTS, I had the same feeling I had on first hearing Springsteen's GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, Fairport Convention's UNHALFBRICKING, Dylan's HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED and BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, the feeling that I was hearing ...

A rip off the (quickly getting old) nu metal block, with a Latin twist, that's what "Ill Nino" seems like at first glance (listen, whatever). But their full length debut, "Revolution.Revolucion," deserves better than that. For one thing, drummer Dave Chavarri's production lends well to a breathable wall of sound. ...

You've undoubtedly heard the single. "Me, Myself, and I" borrows from the classic Pete Townsend riff on "Can't Explain," plows a different acreage of the same fertile ground that DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince did on "Parents Just Don't Understand," and keeps running through your head in spite ...

You just never know what you're get from Joe Strummer. At this point, some 23 years after he burst into the collective consciousness with The Clash, he continues to push the envelope of his music using his admittedly limited vocal and instrumental gifts to take the music into places you ...

For better or worse, KISS is a huge, albeit way too commercialized, phenomenon. The kabuki makeup laden New York quartet took the theatrics of Alice Cooper and cleaned up the Glam power hooks of the New York Dolls and were, for a time, the biggest American hard-rock band of the ...

Seldom does a band make it so easy to rip on them. Sure, watch MTV and you'll see musicians making utter fools of themselves all the time, but to title a song, "Boring" on an album that invites exactly that description? Who am I to resist that kind of temptation? ...

Lights Over Roswell tries to play their music off as alien. The album cover of "Exposed," the group's first effort, features what is presumably a deceased and soon to be autopsied alien on an operating table. Inside the booklet, we find diagrams of various flying saucers. On the band's website ...