Voltaire - To The Bottom of The Sea

Artist: Voltaire
Genre: Gothic Acoustic Alternative
Album: To The Bottom of The Sea

Well. I'm not sure how mainstream this guy is, being fairly uneducated in modern Gothic culture, but he's talented. Voltaire really is a gothic renaissance man. He's written books, songs (duh), released his own line of plushies, his own line of toy cars, his own video game, tons of stuff. Not to mention, for some reason, news programs ALWAYS go to him to ask about goth culture. It's rather funny, actually. Voltaire writes songs about varied subjects, including: Goth culture, Star Trek, Star Wars, Vengeance, Emotion, Eating Brains, Zombies, Cannibals, Other evil stuff, etc etc... This album was his first album that he decided to independently release, and as such, it's not readily available. It's quite good, actually, and if you enjoy it, you should support him by picking up his other records. May I suggest Ooky Spooky?

To The Bottom of The Sea

UnexpecT - wE_Invaders and Utopia

Artist: UnexpecT, unexpecT, Unexpect, uneXpect or any other fucking variation.
Genre: Avant-Garde Metal
Album: wE_Invaders & Utopia

UnexpecT. If you haven't heard of this band, you should've. A LOOOOONG time ago. Hailing from Quebec, this Canadian group of 7 performs the craziest brand of music you'll find in the mainstream. And don't fool yourself, they are VERY mainstream in the metal community now. Their latest effort: In A Flesh Aquarium recieved many positive reviews from a lot of mainstream metal magazines, and you should DEFINTELY pick it up. However, it isn't featured here because you can find that one ANYWHERE. Instead, here is their first album, Utopia, and their follow-up wE_Invaders. Both are fantastic releases, and they are a bit rare. So. Stop reading this junk, and download it. Damn.

wE_Invaders
Utopia

Enjoy.

Ayria Discography (As of 8/30/08)

Artist: Ayria
Album: Discography*
Genre: Electronica/Synthpop
Country: Canada
Year: 2003-2008

Holy crap, I'm back. Sorry about the Internet break everyone but I've returned. Massive thanks to the other co-authors who've been posting in my absence so back to the review.

Ayria, or legally known as the very sexy Miss Jennifer Parkin, was formerly the female counterpart of the band Epsilon Minus until she decided to get off her ass and make her own stuff. How very 90's boy bandish. Anyways she has beening raping clubs with various hits including the billions upon billions of remixes of 'Disease' and remixes of other popular songs done by her. Whatever keeps you Cyberkids waving your glowsticks, fine by me.

Lyrically she uses her music as an emotional outlet which gives a more in-depth view of her as a person, and of course I always go nuts for that. No one enjoys the idiotic realization that a musician they adore is a regular person as well. [/sarcasm]

When I first heard 'Cutting' off of Flicker, I thought she was using the lyrics in a mocking context seeing that a lot of her fans are teenagers and as melodramatic as some teens are, they lead to self-mutilation. Later on in an interview I found out it was about her personal experience when she used to cut herself. Ouch, I felt stupid. Everyone slap me for my e-shallowness.

Emotions, social issues, other things and lovely digital clashing pieces together wonderfully in her discography. And if you haven't noticed, I have actually added a memo of her new album's release date in September to my PDA. Yes, I have a PDA. It beats getting ink poisoning from writing memos on my hand all the time and it has cute little games that I lose at all the time. Happy listening, honkies.




*Due to the upcoming release of Hearts For Bullets, until then it is the complete discography. Once released I will reupload the entire thing as a whole. Click if you love attractive Canadian women.

Dolorian [When All The Laughter Has Gone]

Here is Dolorian's break through album When All The Laughter Has Gone. Dolorian is a black/ambient doom band coming from Finland. Now this band uses the word Doom quite literally, this is some of the most miserable shit I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. And this is coming from a massive Funeral Doom fan. Dolorian is crushingly depressing, yet soft and complex at the same time. It is introspective and harsh, if you wish to truly know misery then you must listen to this band. I'm putting up their first albums, with some of my favorite songs including My Weary Eyes. This band gives me a lot of inspiration and is the one I turn to when I feel dreary.

Track list:
1. "Desolated Colours" – 07:19
2. "My Weary Eyes" – 08:22
3. "A Part of Darkness" – 06:24
4. "When All Laughter Has Gone" – 05:52
5. "Collapsed" – 09:18
6. "Fields" – 04:45
7. "With Scorn / Perish" – 11:11

Download Nao

Rob Zombie [Past, Present, Future]

The Rob Zombie compilation album featuring a lot of Rob's work with White Zombie, and also a lot of his solo career. This album features a lot of music that is industrial in sound and just plain out enjoyable. Rob is a talented musician and performer. I am personally a big fan of some of the songs on this album, some songs make me want to get up and dance, Thunder Kiss '65, Dragula, Living Dead Girl, and Never Gonna Stop (Red Red Kroovy) and prime examples of his great work.

Track Listing:
1. "Thunder Kiss '65" – 3:54
2. "Black Sunshine" – 4:49
3. "Feed the Gods" – 4:30
4. "More Human than Human" – 4:28
5. "Super-Charger Heaven" – 3:37
6. "I'm Your Boogieman" – 4:27 (KC and the Sunshine Band Cover)
7. "Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn) (w/Alice Cooper)" – 4:12
8. "The Great American Nightmare (w/Howard Stern)" – 3:54
9. "Dragula" – 3:42
10. "Living Dead Girl" – 3:22
11. "Superbeast" – 3:40
12. "Feel So Numb" – 3:53
13. "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)" – 3:10
14. "Demon Speeding" – 3:44
15. "Brick House 2003" – 3:48 (The Commodores Cover)
16. "Pussy Liquor" – 4:46
17. "Blitzkrieg Bop" (Ramones Cover) – 2:43
18. "Two-Lane Blacktop" – 3:02
19. "Girl on Fire" – 3:29

Download Here

The Rocking Dildo's - On Speed

Artist: The Rcking Dildo's
Album: On Speed
Genre: Punk Influenced Black Metal
Country: France
Year: 1997

Just fucking get it or die.

Ben's Rating: 5,666,777,888,999/5 (yes thats right)

CLICK ASSHOLE

Japanese Hardcore/Jazz

Courtesy of Street Metal Angel, a reg of the Gaia Metal forum. Enjoy, honkies.


Demos
First Album
Second Album
Third Album
Fourth Album

Melt Banana - Bambi's Dilemma and Cell-Scape

Artist: Melt Banana
Genre: Japanese Noise Punk
Album: Cell-Scape and Bambi's Dilemma

Melt Banana is an extremely good punk bad from Japan. As a band, the only problem I have with them is the fact that they have a female vocalist. Who I actually enjoy, so I have very little issue with the band. Yasuko is of course, a small asian woman, so her 'barked' vocals actually sound... kinda yipped. Agata the guitarist, is amazing. Not a traditional shredder, but he has many pedal to produce noises you'd never even thought could come from a guitar. -Note: Like a White Bat in a box, Dead on the Cell-Scape album- The bass provides quite the structure for the songs, actually as otherwise it would be noise wank gibberish. The drums are actually quite solid, even though they can't keep a steady drummer. Great band, fantastic live shows.

Note: Yasuko, the singer, was so intense when I saw them, that her nose actually began to bleed. And she kept going!

Rating: Cell-Scape: 4/5
Rating: Bambi's Dilemma: 4/5

Bambi's Dilemma

Cell-Scape

Enjoy.

-EDIT-

The links now work.

Buckethead - Crime Slunk Scene

Artist: Buckethead
Album: Crime Slunk Scene
Genre: Experimental Rock
Country: Bucketheadland
Year: 2006

Buckethead is a guitar virtuoso who shows his skills in varied genres and styles. From bluegrass to techno, he's not just the fastest thing on six strings, he's also an extremely talented composer and songwriter. His influences include crappy drive-in science fiction movies, japanese television shows, and of course, Colonel Sanders. This album was one of my first from Buckethead, it's a great album that really showcases his strange, yet awesome talents.

Side Note: That man loves him some drum machine.

Rating: 4.5/5

Buckethead was raised in a chicken coop by chickens?

Wizard - Odin

Artist: Wizard
Album: Odin
Genre: Epic Power Metal
Country: Germany
Year: 2003

Ah Odin, one of my favorite Power metal albums of all time. This album has an epic beggining with the first track The Prophecy. The lyrics in the song are pretty good. It has many memorable moments, the vocals just blend with the instruments. The band kept the music epic throughout the whole album. I cant say much more about this album, since words cannot decribe its epicness.

Ben's Rating: 6/5 The first 6 out of 5 in this blogs history!

WHEEEERE IS IDUUUNAA???!!!!