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...

Apparently the world is more than ready for a new "traditional" Christmas music album from MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER, the perennial favorites since the release of their original hit album from 1984 named simply "Christmas." There have been a few jaunts in different directions, including "The Christmas Angel" as a made for...

Chicago native Melissa Lefton's debut is spirited, fun, witty and not half bad. In fact, the sampling of songs offered here are engagingly lively with a satisfying supply of poppy/hook- filled tracks providing a little something extra not found in today's Top 40 canon, abundantly dispensed like so much vanilla...

Guitarist Firkins is one of the original Shrapnel label shredders, and arguably the heartland's finest fret-wielder, who got caught up in producer Mike Varney's commotion to discover as many Satriani-sounding slingers as possible. Assigned mostly to the label's blues comps, Firkins's true talent was often squandered on the heavy metal...

I hate Christmas music. My favorite Christmas song is one that a friend sent me over the Internet. It was part of a cartoon featuring an animated, angry, Santa Claus singing, to the tune of "Jingle Bells," "Ho- ho-ho, ho-ho-ho, ho-ho fucking ho!" You get the idea. A whole CD...

Throughout the years The Michael Schenker Group has taken many forms, traveled many paths and made an indelible mark on Rock music history. Of course one thing has always remained constant, that being its namesake Michael Schenker, skilled songwriter and musician who's fluent fretwork is legendary. This new MSG...

They were adored from coast to coast while MTV was still in its infancy and the new wave of British Pop groups defined a new generation of listeners. They were the one-hit wonder, hitting it big, living large for a moment in time, then fizzling out. Now the story can...

"Stargate," the last Mortiis release from a couple years back, gave a brief but convincing glimpse that boundaries were about to be crossed, an extreme focus was subject to change, to evolve, to expand within the limitless universe of this art known as music. And Mortiis, an unlikely performer, heralded...

Due to the magic of advance releases, I'm sitting here writing this in November 2001, a couple of months or so away from the release of the N*E*R*D CD, IN SEARCH OF N*E*R*D. There's a lot of buzz on this bad boy; there is a (confusing) rumor to the effect...

Their name was synonymous with early eighties New Wave and Modern Rock and their "Blue Monday" hit was proudly displayed for all to hear a few years back, in full neon glitter by the likes of Orgy. At that point, for all anyone knew, New Order was an age-old...

Out of the stack of reviews I received this month, somehow I ended up listening to this one last and I was instantly addicted. There are so many good tracks on this album that I couldn't even tell you which I liked the best. Well written, recorded, and produced, the...

I love the initial talk-up for these guys in their bio… "They've been around the local scene and people are happy with them." I mean that about says it all doesn't it? So what do the people from Springfield, Illinois know that maybe the rest of the world doesn't? Well...

I'm not too sure exactly what is going to happen with country music in the next five years. The genre is in a bit of commercial trouble, notwithstanding crossovers by groups such as the Dixie Chicks, and is in some artistic trouble as well, with radio playlists tighter than a...

For those of you expecting a hip-hop, dancing, 'party it up as I cruise in my car' music… Missundaztood is definitely not your album. Pink has gone completely blonde, and so has her music. Her new CD is stylistic departure from the R&B hip-hop of Can't Take Me...

Turn on alternative radio these days and everything sounds as if it's being played through either a "Faith No More" or "Alice In Chains" filter. It is somewhat ironic, since these two bands never really got their critical or commercial due during their heyday; both had hits, true, but not...

A little disclaimer, here. I'm feeling a little uncomfortable with this whole thing. The four young ladies that comprise PYT are in their early teens --- hell, they're in middle school, for chrissakes!!! --- and some of the lyrics are maybe more appropriate for someone twice their ages; I...

In the year 2000, "Queensryche" put out a Greatest Hits collection that was curiously timed. A few years earlier, it would have sold well, but by then the band had stopped being a mainstream commercial force.Indeed, the "Greatest Hits" package was the last thing they released under a 'major'...

Everyone would agree that there is no group that has continually reinvented themselves by playing with their sound to create very original music. OK Computer and Kid A are evidence that Radiohead is not a run of the mill, mainstream rock band; they are an incredibly authentic group who...

Most of those half-bred, jazz-hop hybrids offered to the musically daring are to be taken with a grain of patience. The formidable attempts have been "nice tries" at best, with little consideration for either the tradition of jazz or the on-the-fly creativity of hip hop. Jazzbos seem distrustful of the...

The fact that they're still around is a testament to the existence of the supernatural… how else can you explain it? Saxon, a Heavy Metal survivor like few others, continues to forge ahead, their battle cry long since echoing in the distance. Onward they trudge creating album after album...

Upon first viewing the additional video clip for the title track I am now firmly assured that we are indeed in the 21st century… a cooler brand of digitized cyber Death and noise infiltration there never was. Sceptic is a newcomer to the Death Metal scene. Originating from Poland, one...

In the 1960s Felix Pappalardi (a producer who later went on to become one of the founding members of Mountain and who also laid Cream to wax) recorded a project that purported to be a Western rock meets Eastern music. I can't remember the name of the damn thing, but...

It is somewhat ironic that with all the negative attention focused on the Middle East and certain aspects of its culture that there should be a renewed interest in the music that is produced in that area of the world. Given the period of time that it takes before a...

Sigur Ros just might be the next big thing. The Icelandic quartet has been pinned with just about every positive adjective that could possibly behoove a great band: innovative, original, talented, lasting, ingenious. The band's songs are grand in scale, great in musicianship, and are emotionally moving despite the language...

Meteors, motors, and a whole lot o' amperage, these guys are quick to lift off and ain't about to come down anytime soon. Solarized's chunky riffs and intergalactic groove delivers fits in as much as they fit with other established veterans of the Space Rock and Jam scene. Covering...

There are no experts on the subject of Africa. The continent is too large, with a population too diverse tribally and culturally for there to be an expert on the entirety of it. I live in a city with relatively large populations recently immigrated from various parts of the Continent,...