Nickelback – 2014 – No Fixed Address
By Eric | January 17, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Nickelback
Title: No Fixed Address
Label: Republic
Released: Nov 17, 2014
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Million Miles An Hour
#Edge Of A Revolution [Explicit]
#What Are You Waiting For?
#She Keeps Me Up
#Make Me Believe Again
#Satellite
#Get ‘Em Up
#The Hammer’s Coming Down
#Miss You
#Got Me Runnin’ Round [feat. Flo Rida]
#Sister Sin
Review:
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Nickelback – 2014 – No Fixed Address
Tags: 2014, Jewel Case, Nickelback, Republic, Standard
Black Label Society – 2003 – The Blessed Hellride
By Eric | January 15, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Black Label Society
Title: The Blessed Hellride
Label: Spitfire
Released: Apr 22, 2003
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Stoned And Drunk
#Doomsday Jesus
#Stillborn [feat. Ozzy Osbourne]
#Suffering Overdue
#The Blessed Hellride
#Funeral Bell
#Final Solution
#Destruction Overdrive
#Blackened Waters
#We Live No More
#Dead Meadow
Review:
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Tags: 2003, Black Label Society, Jewel Case, Spitfire, Standard
Black Label Society – 2005 – Mafia
By Eric | January 15, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Black Label Society
Title: Mafia
Label: Artemis
Released: Mar 8, 2005
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Fire It Up
#What’s In You
#Suicide Messiah
#Forever Down
#In This River
#You Must Be Blind
#Death March
#Dr. Octavia
#Say What You Will
#Too Tough To Die
#Electric Hellfire
#Spread Your Wings
#Been A Long Time
#Dirt On The Grave
#I Never Dreamed
Review:
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Tags: 2005, Artemis, Black Label Society, Jewel Case, Standard
Clutch – 1995 – Clutch
By Eric | January 8, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Clutch
Title: Clutch
Label: Atlantic
Released: May 9, 1995
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Big News I
#Big News II
#Rock N Roll Outlaw
#Texan Book Of The Dead
#Escape From The Prison Planet
#Spacegrass
#I Have The Body Of John Wilkes Booth
#Tight Like That
#Animal Farm
#Droid
#The House That Peterbilt
#Seven Jam
#Tim Sult Vs. The Greys
Review:
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Tags: 1995, Atlantic, Clutch, Jewel Case, Standard
Sam Smith – 2014 – In The Lonely Hour
By Eric | January 8, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Sam Smith
Title: In The Lonely Hour
Label: Capitol
Released: Jun 17, 2014
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Deluxe Edition
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Money On My Mind
#Good Thing
#Stay With Me
#Leave Your Lover
#I’m Not The Only One
#I’ve Told You Now
#Like I Can
#Life Support
#Not In That Way
#Lay Me Down
#Restart
#Latch
#La La La [feat. Sam Smith]
#Make It To Me
Review:
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Tags: 2014, Capitol, Deluxe Edition, Jewel Case, Sam Smith
Monster Truck – 2013 – Furiosity
By Eric | January 8, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Monster Truck
Title: Furiosity
Label: Dine Alone
Released: May 28, 2013
Packaging: Digipack
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Old Train
#The Lion
#Power of the People
#Sweet Mountain River
#Psychics
#Oh Lord
#For The Sun
#Boogie
#Undercover Love
#The Giant
#Call it a Spade
#My Love is True
Review:
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Tags: 2013, Digipack, Dine Alone, Monster Truck, Standard
Black Label Society – 2014 – Catacombs Of The Black Vatican
By Eric | January 8, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Black Label Society
Title: Catacombs Of The Black Vatican
Label: eOne
Released: Apr 8, 2014
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Standard
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Fields of Unforgiveness
#My Dying Time
#Believe
#Angel of Mercy
#Heart of Darkness
#Beyond the Down
#Scars
#Damn the Flood
#I’ve Gone Away
#Empty Promises
#Shades of Gray
Review:
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Tags: 2014, Black Label Society, eOne, Jewel Case, Standard
Clutch – 2011 – Blast Tyrant
By Eric | January 8, 2015 6:00 pm
Artist: Clutch
Title: Blast Tyrant
Label: Weathermaker Music
Released: May 10, 2011
Packaging: Cardboard
Pack-in DVD?
Release Type: Re-release with Bonus CD
Autographed?
Tracklist:
#Mercury
#Profits of Doom
#The Mob Goes Wild
#Cypress Grove
#Promoter (of Earthbound Causes)
#The Regulator
#Worm Drink
#Army of Bono
#Spleen Merchant
#The Swollen Goat (In the Wake of the)
#Weathermaker
#Subtle Hustle
#Ghost
#La Curandera (Notes from the Trial of)
#WYSIWYG
#Box Car Shorty’s Confession (acoustic)
#The Regulator (acoustic)
#Basket of Eggs (acoustic)
#Tight Like That (acoustic)
#Drink to the Dead (acoustic)
#Cattle Car (demo)
#Walpole Man (demo)
#Promoter (demo)
#La Curandera (demo)
#Steve Doocy (demo)
Review: From Amazon –
The long awaited third part in a series of three incredible CLUTCH re-issues is finally HERE, and this time the band and their label (Weathermaker) have thrown in the extra special value added twist!!! “BLAST TYRANT”, the classic 2004 release will be re-packaged as an epic 25 song double disc! In addition to original CLUTCH favorites like “The Mob Goes Wild”, “Profits of Doom”, “Weathermaker”, “Cypress Grove”, etc., this package contains the new 10 song bonus CD called “BASKET of EGGS”.
Featuring the first NEWLY recorded Clutch music in two years, “Basket of Eggs” is split between the extremely rare, electric, post-“Pure Rock Fury” demos (recorded in 2002, mixed in 2011) and BRAND NEW acoustic style recordings just recently captured in January 2011.
Topics: CD Collection | Comments Off on Clutch – 2011 – Blast Tyrant
Tags: 2011, Cardboard, Clutch, Re-release with Bonus CD, Weathermaker Music
The Woopop-Certified Top 13 (and a half!) Albums of 2014
By Eric | January 1, 2015 11:35 pm
Just like on last years list, I couldn’t limit it to only 10… and again, they’re in alphabetical order, because trying to rank albums or pull an overall favorite is just too damn hard.
Nate plays along with The Tea Party.
2014 felt like the year of comebacks. Fuel, Moist, Slipknot, and the Tea Party all released albums after some interminable waits, Theory of a Deadman returned to proper form, while Chevelle and Nonpoint continued the positive momentum they started on prior albums. Beyond those, there were just some really solid albums released by some of my usual suspects this past year. So without further ado, these were the albums that tickled my fancy in 2014:
Black Label Society – Catacombs of the Black Vatican
I spun this one quite a bit at work. It’s just more of the classic BLS sound. “My Dying Time” and “Beyond The Down” were highlights.
Chevelle – La Gargola
After what I consider a couple of mediocre albums in the middle of their career, Chevelle has really stepped up their game between 2011’s Hats Off to the Bull and now La Gargola. This one has more than a handful of tracks that go hard; the entire run of “An Island”, “Take Out The Gunman”, “Jawbreaker” and “Hunter Eats Hunter” is especially good.
Crosses – Crosses
This almost doesn’t count, because EP 1 came out in 2011, and then EP 2 in 2012, but it took until February 2014 to get the full album (both EP’s plus some new ones) out. Regardless, this is way more chill than 95% of what I normally listen to. Chino Moreno of the Deftones, and Shawn Lopez from Far put this project together for fun, and Chino put it this way: “minimal and soothing and it’s sort of like the stuff I like listening to when I’m not screaming my head off.” I love “This Is A Trick”, “Bitches Brew”, “Blk Stallion”, and I get “Prurient” stuck in my head all the time.
Every Time I Die – From Parts Unknown
I have to admit, I didn’t like Ex-Lives nearly as much as some of the others, especially coming off of New Junk Aesthetic, but this one brought me right back. It’s funny, the one track that kinda sticks out like a sore thumb, “Moor”, is the one I like the most, along with “El Dorado”.
Fuel – Puppet Strings
It took 11 years and a complete lineup turnover to get another Fuel album with Brett Scallions singing on it, but it was worth the wait! This album shows that Brett can certainly do his own thing without any of the signature Carl Bell riffs. There’s a couple of instant Fuel classics on here that can slot in right beside the hits catalog, like “Wander” and especially “Cold Summer”, which apparently had been kicking around in one form or another since before Natural Selection. “Time For Me To Stop” is another favorite.
Machine Head – Bloodstone and Diamonds
Don’t ask why it took me forever to really, *really* get into these guys. I was always aware of them, even saw them twice as openers, and yet never invested the time until early last year, when Robb Flynn started his blogs about the 10th anniversary of Through the Ashes of Empires. I finally gave it a good listen and was like “YOU @#$%ING MORON WHY DIDN’T YOU DO THIS SOONER??”. Went back and got the whole catalog (even The Burning Red and Supercharger LOL), and was excited as hell for this release. Needless to say, they didn’t disappoint. This album is fantastic! “Now We Die” starts it with a bang, and it goes from there. “Night of Long Knives” is a cool track, and I like “Game Over” as well.
Moist – Glory Under Dangerous Skies
As if 11 years between Fuel albums wasn’t long enough, it had been FIFTEEN years since Mercedes Five and Dime was released before Moist put out this new album. “Mechanical” is easily my favorite, as it’s the first song, first single, and track personally voted “most likely to sound like ‘Push’ had been updated for 2014”. There’s some classic-sounding Moist on here, like “Broken”, and “The River”, and then there’s some stuff that could easily be on a David Usher solo album. Pretty solid overall though.
Nonpoint – The Return
“The Return” may as well be the theme of my whole list, and while its the album title, it’s not like Nonpoint hasn’t been putting stuff out consistently. However, looking at 2012’s self-titled and now this one, they indeed have returned to prominence. “Pins and Needles” starts it off hot and heavy, and the album never really quits after that. Lots of good tunes on this one, including “Breaking Skin”, “Misery”, “Forcing Hands”, and “Never Ending Hole”.
Sevendust – Time Travelers and Bonfires
Not that there was ever any doubt that these guys could do their own Jar of Flies type album, especially in light of how good Southside Double-Wide was, but they proved it and then some with the original acoustic (and acoustic-esque) songs on here. “Come Down” is fantastic, “The Wait” is as heartfelt as anything they’ve ever done, and I really like “Upbeat Sugar” and “Bonfire” as well. It’s a role-reversal of sorts, as I’d love to hear these songs fully plugged in! The six new tunes would have been enough to land this on my list, but then there’s six acoustic versions of the heavier songs, including “Denial”, “Crucified”, and “Karma”. My one minor gripe is that we’ve already heard “Trust” and “Black” on SSDW, and they could have picked two more songs we’ve never heard acoustically, but that’s splitting hairs; they still sound great here.
Slash – World on Fire
I’ll trot out my old chestnut again: Myles Kennedy could sing over my cat’s screeching and I’d love it. Singing over a second whole album with Slash and the same band? Yes please!! I liked Apocalyptic Love a lot, and this one beats the pants off of that. The title track is amazing, as is “Wicked Stone”, “30 Years to Life”, and “Bent To Fly” is fantastic. Really, the whole album is; it’s what a modern straight-up rock record should sound like.
Slipknot – .5: The Grey Chapter
Sure, lets continue with the comeback stories. Six years after All Hope Is Gone, and after the death of Paul Gray and the departure of Joey Jordison, the nine lunatics come back with an album that blows AHIG out of the water, and rivals anything else they’ve ever put out. It runs the gamut from the atmospheric and downright creepy to the full frontal assault you’d expect. “Sarcastrophe”, “The Devil In I”, “Custer” and “The Negative One” are the heavy, and the tribute to Paul, “Goodbye”, is unlike anything they’ve ever done, except maybe “Snuff”.
The Tea Party – The Ocean at the End
One more comeback story! Ten years after the less-than-stellar Seven Circles, the trio got it right with this one. Back to the world music and blues influences that makes the Tea the Tea, this is solid from front to back. “The Black Sea”, “Cypher”, and “Submission” are early favorites, and “The Ocean At The End” is as great as any of their epic tunes.
Theory of a Deadman – Savages
Less of a comeback, more just a return to form after the generic radio-fare that was “The Truth Is…”, “Savages” is Theory getting their snarl back. “Drown” and “Savages” may be two of the heaviest songs they’ve ever done, while “Panic Room” and “World War Me” are solid TOAD tunes as well. There’s the requisite ballads and the country cross-over, but I’ll forgive those in light of how much I like the rest of the album.
Honorable Mention:
Clutch – Summer Sound Attack
This doesn’t really count at all, as it’s an online-only compilation put together for Clutch’s summer tour. Clutch is another band I was Johnny-come-SUPER-lately on. I saw them last December at Montage on a whim, and loved it. Got all the albums, and have been listening to them all year. Earth Rocker came out in 2013, so it’s not making the list, but this compilation of Earth Rocker tunes and a couple of “hits” from mainly the latter half of their catalog (Spacegrass the notable exception) will stand in nicely. Besides, if nothing else, this will make the list because every time I play “Electric Worry”, we follow up “Bang Bang Bang Bang” with Nate flipping out singing “DOMINOES DOMINOES!”
No, they’re not on here:
Black Stone Cherry (not as good as the prior three), Godsmack (same album for the 6th time), Hellyeah (it’s okay), Linkin Park (better than the last two, but eh), Mike Doughty (just missed the cut), Nickelback (LULZ), Seether (it’s growing on me, but see Godsmack)
Topics: Blog | Comments Off on The Woopop-Certified Top 13 (and a half!) Albums of 2014
Tags: 2014, Black Label Society, Chevelle, Clutch, Crosses, Every Time I Die, Fuel, Machine Head, Moist, Nonpoint, Sevendust, Slash, Slipknot, Tea Party, The Tea Party, Theory of a Deadman
12/05/2014 Nonpoint, (hed)pe, Recoil, Million Miles From Broadway, Setiva (Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall)
By Eric | December 19, 2014 3:48 pm
I was pretty excited for this show for awhile. Ever since seeing Nonpoint over the summer at Braun’s, and then getting (and immensely enjoying) The Return, getting tipped off that this bill was coming to Montage even before it was officially announced had me pumped. Seeing (hed)pe again for the first time in a long time was a nice little extra as well.
I can’t ever remember waiting in line to get into Montage for anything, yet there I was about 20 people deep… they sold the place out! It only holds about 300 or so, but regardless, glad to see a packed house, both for Montage and for Nonpoint.
I got in right at the tail end of Setiva’s set, and enjoyed Million Miles From Broadway again, same as at the Soulfly show. Good heavy tunes, good crowd support for them too. Recoil was from Australia, and they weren’t too shabby either, bringing more of the heavy.
I was fairly interested to see (hed) again; it had been almost 10 years since the gig at Showplace that I wasn’t super-impressed with. This time around was a bit better, though still nothing like seeing them on Broke back in 2000. I’ll get to the music in a second, but Jahred is bald now! The band is pretty stripped down now, no DJ, one guitar, and the only other original member is Mawk on bass. They sounded decent, the new songs were okay, but I’ll freely admit I like the old stuff much much better. There were plenty of people there to see (hed), so the crowd was lively and knew all the songs. They got plenty of time, packed in 14 songs, and definitely were solid support.
Setlist:
No Turning Back
Bloodfire
Killing Time
Whitehouse
Blackout
Bartender
One More Body
Raise Hell
Peer Pressure
Renegade
Firstly
Hold on
No woman no cry
Take me away
All of that aside, I was there to see Nonpoint! I camped out right in front of now fully-fledged member BC Kochmit, and got ready to rock. So did everyone else. They opened with Mindtrip right into Victim, and we were off and running. The crowd was lively, the band was lively, I got to see a significantly different setlist from Brauns, including three songs off the new album. What’s not to like? The set was great, but the night got even better afterwards…
I shelled out for the VIP after the show, and it wasn’t just a meet and greet, they let the 9 of us onto the tour bus! I hadn’t been on a bus since the Godsmack show, and that wasn’t even their real bus. It was extremely chill, we actually got to have real conversations with everyone in the band, and all five of the guys couldn’t have been more gracious. I knew what to expect with BC, but wasn’t surprised in the least that Elias, Robb, Rasheed and Adam were just as cool. All the other people that did the VIP were equally cool, thankfully no idiots! (Besides me, naturally.) It was a fantastic way to cap off the show, and cap off my concert goings for 2014!
Setlist:
Mindtrip
Victim
Pins and Needles
What a Day
Hands Off
Your Signs
Miracle
Breaking Skin
F**K’D
In the Air Tonight
That Day
Alive and Kicking
Bullet with a Name
Topics: Concerts | Comments Off on 12/05/2014 Nonpoint, (hed)pe, Recoil, Million Miles From Broadway, Setiva (Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall)
Tags: (hed) pe, 2014, Million Miles From Broadway, Montage Music Hall, Nonpoint, Recoil, rochester, Setiva