Short thoughts on recent listenings

Andreas Kisser - Hubris I & II: Boring. Pointless. Not bad per se, but just unnecessary. If it wasn't Andreas Kisser, I'd have dismissed it outright. II is lacking the bad singing of I and that's good. But it's not really great. If I wanted to listen to flamenco sounding guitar work, I'd listen to....

Rodrigo y Gabriela - 11:11: Okay, I'm a metal guy thru and thru. So why do I love RyG so much? No drums, no singing, very little electric guitar. Just 2 acoustics guitars and lots of energy. Perhaps what I like best is I can put it on with just about any company around and nobody says "How can you listen to this?"

GWAR - Lust in Space: Meh. Never been much of a fan of GWAR. Why start now? They do put on an interesting live show though.

Killswitch Engage - Killswitch Engage: I wasn't really into Daylight Dies, but this is better. Maybe I just needed to separate myself from KsE for a while. I guess it just didn't come off as sappy. It's a grower for sure.

Otep - Smash The Control Machine: WAY better than I expected. The last one was horrible. Well, maybe the last 2 or 3. Not to say this is great by any stretch. Still very much in the rap-metal vein on some tunes. At least one horribly so. And there is the obligatory almost spoken word "rant" we've come to expect from Ms. Shimaya. That chick can still shred some vocals though. When she screams "Make me come!" in "Numb & Dumb"...yeah.

Astra - The Weirding: The definition of retro. Transport me back 35 years and give me an endless supply of weed and Astra would be the soundtrack for that trip. It's pretty good but I'm stone cold straight right now so it's not doing much for me.

Resistant Culture - Welcome to Reality: Fuck yeah! Remember when Max was in Sepultura? This kicks ass!

Snail, Syrach and Weekend Nachos were alright but nothing special. Snail deserves another listen though.

New Sepultura tunes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am listening to the 2 new Sepultura tunes the posted on their myspace page and I must say, I like it.
Derrick sounds better on these songs than he has so far I think. He sounds a little more scathing on The Treatment than before and that is good.
We've Lost You has that mid-paced groove that makes you want to bang your head. It's pretty typical of Max-less Sep but good nonetheless. I will admit that I have loved Sepultura all along anyway.

I'm really liking The Treatment. It's mostly fast throughout but it it drops a few bpm every so often. Air drums are happenin. He's no Igor but he's not half-bad. HE is new recruit Jean Dolabella smashing the skins. Igor left giant shoes to fill so I don't expect anyone to actually fill them.

These 2 tunes have a real scream along quality to them. Maybe it's because I think I could scream about as good as Derrick Green anyway or maybe it's because Andrea Kisser still writes kickass tunes. I still need to check out his solo stuff, Hubris I & II.

I am definitely going to try and find a pirated copy of this (A-Lex btw, Russian for "no law") before the January 27 North American release date. Which has some killer artwork too.
I can really see myself making this a staple in the car. Oh yeah. If it came out before X-mas, it would be on my list. But, since I don't have Dante XXI either, I'll put that on my list.

I am gonna try and find a copy right now. Laters!!