JUSTIN’S METAL REVIEWS W/C 14/7/08

 

ALICE COOPER / ALONG CAME A SPIDER

 

Lets face facts here, Alice Cooper is a legend, he’s been doing this for nearly 40 years, the man has pedigree and the whole shock rock thing can firmly be laid at his feet, so when he releases an album you take notice.

 

Everyone has ups and downs, that’s how an artist develops but as a rule concept albums are tricky things but Alice has done them before, “Welcome To My Nightmare” in the mid 70’s being a total classic, this one is about a serial killer called Spider.  Were most bands go wrong is they spend too much time on the lyrics and the concept to the detriment of the music, this is one trap that Alice avoids as all the tracks work perfectly well on their own and that is where others come unstuck, in fact all of the tracks could easily be singles, like Nightmare there is only one ballad “Killed By Love” and its really good.  The other thing that makes this concept work is that its timeless, it would not have sounded odd if released in the 80’s and will still sound as fresh in 10 years time.

 

Also listen out for; “Vengeance Is Mine”, “Wake The Dead”, “Wrapped In Silk” and “Catch Me If You Can”, another welcome return for the man who invented Glam Rock, if you get the chance to see Alice live, don’t miss it, I saw him at the Monsters Of Rock in 2006 and he’s still goti it, he has always puts on a fine show and I’m sure when he tours with this CD it will something special.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.alicecooper.com/ & http://www.spv.de/

 

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 44 mins + 11 TRACKS

 

ESQARIAL / BURNED GRUOND STRATEGY

 

Its funny how some countries become synonymous with certain types of music, Sweden, Power Metal, Norway, Black Metal etc and Poland, Death Metal and that’s where Esqarial come in.

 

Musically they sound similar to Sepultura, with healthy doses of Slayer and Sic Feet Under being just some of the influences, this is the bands 6^th album and it proves the guys are progressing, this time there is both sung and gruff vocals and some very nice slower touches to add to the dynamics, take a listen to “Operation Totentanz” for further proof and it doesn’t stop there as “Experiment Fear”, “Cyanide Candies” and the title track are just as good.

 

This is a very fine album and well worth getting hold of but that may be a problem, unless some other label picks it up for release outside of Poland, I hope so because it deserves to be heard by all Metal fans.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.esqarial.com/

 

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 41 mins + 11 TRACKS