Trash?

Some reviews of things worth reviewing. Since I didn't really know what kind of stuff will make its way into this listing, I called the page "trash". The first entry will of course be a review of Alice Cooper's Trash (I wondered if I could put a review of my Windows trash here, but after I went through what rests inside it, I opted not to share these intimacies with strangers!).

Bad Religion - The Process of Belief

With all this Jihad, crusades and other religiously motivated stupidities going on in the world, I have finally found myself a belief. Better Bad Religion than religion gone bad.
These guys show, that a "revival" of Punk music was completely unnecessary, since Punk was never dead enough to be in need of resurrection (unless you count Iggy Pop as a corpse).
The first three songs of this album are nice handicraft. Plain, simple, good and fast Punk, but on the other hand nothing unexpected. It is the last three quarters of this recording that really shows how much the members of Bad Religion have grown musically over the past 20 years (yup, 20!). They know they rock, so they don't fear flirting with "the enemy". Anything from Pop ballad to Reggae is blended into their songs so naturally that you don't even recognize how far they roamed from the cozy warmth and security of long trodden paths. The vocal Hooklines and cleverly arranged background vocals are the extra cream on an already perfect cake.
Reading the lyrics, I was happy to see, that there seem to be some people left, that care for a little more than teenage sex topics in punk music. To hear "Kyoto Now!" from an american band in 2002 is consoling, when all you see lately from the proud nation are Stars'n'Stripes all over and not the least bit of self criticism in any regard.
Buy it at amazon.de.

black label society - 1919 Eternal

The "working man" of Heavy Metal Zakk Wylde shoots another round at your ears. As if recording the last Ozzy record and touring with the Madman is not enough, Wylde is serious about promoting his own band project BLS. He'll play at all the coming Ozzfests 2002 with his band AND with the Ozzy band.
It is interesting to see that even multi-platinum co-writer Wylde can still learn and especially hone his production skills. The last two BLS CDs were very straight-in-the-face, no-nonsense metal albums. "1919 Eternal" still features the same musical approach, most of the album is guitar riff orientated and drills into your head. Productionwise there is a real development. Wylde uses curchbell-samples and a guitarloop (Life Birth Blood Doom), nice left/right question/answer vocals (Demise Of Sanity), a screamloop (Bleed For Me) and in general some better arranged songs than usual in BLS context. This may or may not be, because some of the songs were originally intended for Ozzy Osbourne's "Down To Earth", but didn't make it on that album.
With "Lost Heaven" and "Bridge To Cross" there are (only!) two songs, which really allow the listener to catch his breath in between the aural onslaught. "Speedball" is the guitar skill showcase on the record, like "T.A.Z." was on the first BLS album. "Mass Murder Machine" is almost funky for a metal band.
What I don't like about the music are Wylde's vocals. He previously showed much better vocal performances. But I guess, he wants the vocals to be so limited in range and absent of any dynamics. A pity though, when you think back to the Pride&Glory Southern Rock times of the man.
Oh, and then there's an acoustic version of "America the Beautiful" as bonus track, but I'm not going to go into symbolism and US foreign politics at this point...

Buy it at amazon.de.

Alice Cooper - Trash

This guy is FAMOUS for his SILLY eyeliner. Unfortunately on the cover shot he looks down, so we can't laugh about his stupid make up. He probably contemplates the tips of his boots wondering if they can still kick ass. In the eyes of the 1989 listeners/buyers they could. Zombie Alice came (once again) back from the grave, where he now finally found no peace after Grunge'n'Crossover killed classic rock during the 90s. Lots of people contributed to the success of this recording... Desmond Child (producer and co-writer of this album), Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith), Joan Jett, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora (Drei-Wetter-Taft TV Commercial and a band named Bon Jovi), Steve Lukather (Toto), Kip Winger and Kane Roberts and so on... the only other person worth mentioning in my opinion is one of the background singers called Jango. Well, you couldn't make a living from acting in italo-westerns during the late 80s, I guess. Personally, I own this CD because of the song POISON. It's the only song that makes me smile and bang my head (admittedly only very slow!). The funny thing about that is, that it's the one song to which only Alice and Desmond Child of the above mentioned contributed.
Buy it at amazon.de.

The Cult - Beyond Good And Evil

Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy have revoked their gothrock band "The Cult". Instead of vanishing on the height of their former success in the late 80s, early 90s, when they had a major success with their album "Sonic Temple", they decided to cut their hair and release one more record in 1994 named " ". You read right, they decided to NOT give the album a name... so its existence could later more easily be forgotten, which was in retrovision a very wise thing to do. Vanishing from the face of this planet after having stained their rock'n'roll fame with the mediocre selftitled/not-titled album would have been a pity. So they had to correct the last impression they left us with and try to cleanse the stale flavour from our mouths. And "Beyond Good And Evil" is a hell of a toothpaste! This album is such a solid rocker, that it even surpasses "Sonic Temple" in my opinion. Every single track has its very special vibe and there seem to be no spoilers except for "Nico", which is as weeny a ballad as "Edie" was 1989. Songs with female christian names as title seem to suck? (Anyone remember "Carrie" from Europe? UaaaaAAArGgh!). Anyway, I'm getting carrieD away (Aaaah, now this damn Europe song haunts me!). I am thrilled that this reunion does not destroy the Cult's heritage forever, but reestablishes them as one of the GREATEST Rockbands around.
Buy it at amazon.de.

Kenny G - The Moment

I strongly recommend this cd in case you either have a personal elevator in your appartement or you sell your own cheese at a counter in your living room. If that doesn't apply to you, don't bother about the cd, it's complete crap!
Buy it despite my opinion of it at amazon.de.

Living Colour Live in Cologne, 17 July 2001

Getting up in the morning, I felt I got a bad flu coming my way or maybe worse. After considering for what must have been the better half of a second NOT to drive to cologne in the evenings and soigne myself at home, I got up and inhaled, drank and ate anything from apples to aspirins that is considered to hold an infection at bay.
I came to Cologne's E-Werk at about 2000 hours. The joint is situated amidst german television studios, in which such famous bedtimeshorteners as the Harald Schmidt Show are produced. This show is an imitation of the american David Letterman Show and about as blunt and stupid, but in german.
2035 hours. The lights go out and in an oldfashioned way an announcer takes the mike and welcomes the audience and calls LIVING COLOUR on stage. From the very first minutes of the concerts it becomes very clear that discussing wether the reunion was a good idea or not, is completely unnecessary. Corey Glover, Vernon Reid, Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun act and sound as if they had never split. The most obvious change in style are quite a few arrangements that include sequencers and drum machines. I already know these from Vernon Reid's solo album Mistaken Identity, which is a complete disaster! But with Living Colour there is a big difference which goes by the name of Corey Glover. His vocals really make the difference to everything this metalfunkcrossover band does. The evening's setlist goes like this:

1) Leave Me Alone
2) Sacred Ground ???
3) Middle Man
4) Time's Up
5) Trance ???
6) Ignorance Is Bliss
7) Elvis Is Dead
8) Type / Police And Thieves Medley
9) Glamour Boys (Reggae Version)
10) (Release The) Pressure ???
11) Drum Solo: Research&Development by Jungle Funk
12) Nothingness
13) Do You Feel Alright? ???
14) Don't Go ???
15) Cult Of Personality
ENCORE
16) Love Rears It's Ugly Head
17) Crosstown Traffic
18) Papa Was A Rolling Stone
19) Crosstown Traffic Reprise
20) 41 Shots

The songs I indicated with ???, I think, I never have heard before. They featured the most electronica ingredients and I fear that the new Living Colour CD, if there is going to be one, will include this development. But live I loved everything they offered... A high point was "Elvis is dead" during which Glover played the role of having sense and Reid played the fool (Which LC song? ), who believes Elvis is still around. Excerpt:
Glover: "Everybody who believes Elvis is dead say Yeah!"
Everybody: "YEAH!"
Reid: "Everybody who believes that the King of R'n'R is still alive say Yo!"
Everybody: "YO!"
Glover: "They do not really believe he's still alive. It's just the hype. Wait a second... now, everybody who has a kangaroo in his own backyard say Yeah!"
Everybody: "YEAH!"
Glover: "I think I've proven the point!"
There was no way for them not to play GLAMOUR BOYS. But when they did so, they showed their contempt of the song (or of the fact that it is arguably their most succesfull piece) by playing a reggae version, which must have upset the die hard glamour boys in the audience and by ending the song with a little deviation from its standard lyrics... Glover: "Why do we play this fucking song?"
During the ZZ Top-La Grange-like blues number I called "DO YOU FEEL ALRIGHT?" a blonde lady hopped on stage and danced a little, mainly swinging her hips in order to show Doug Wimbish that she was especially fond of him. After taking off her jacket and shoes, she fortunately stopped taking off wearables. Since this was no Monster Magnet concert, a stripper would not have been the right thing here. Still she made a lasting impression! Wimbish: "It takes balls doing this!"
CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC was a great cover. Enough Hendrix to recognize, enough Living Colour to stand for itself.
41 SHOTS was the chill out song at the end. A very slow song telling the story of a man being innocently shot by the police. The vocal performance was outstandish and at the end of the song Glover started to cry, when Calhoun hit the snare 41 times in a staccato imitation of gunfire. It was overwhelming and I HAD TO CRY TOO for the very first time in a concert! It may have been show (Glover played in various Hollywood films including Platoon), but it seemed real enough to me. Of course there was nothing left to say and nobody dared yelling for a second encore. They came out signing at the merchandise shop after the show, but my lung called for a bed.
Going to the concert was of course the right decision! But my body seems to be of the opposite opinion and punishes me with what my doctor calls spastic bronchitis and features a lot of coughing, spitting and blowing...
All quotes are from memory and are not the exact same words the artists used!
Buy their album "stain" at amazon.de, on which Doug Wimbish replaced Muzz Skillings on bass for the first time.

Later addition: I found out that "Sacred Ground" and "Release The Pressure" are actually bonus tracks on the Best Of-album Pride, which was released before the breakup.

2nd addition: Thanks to Kenneth of Treiber, I corrected some errors! Shame on me!!! Also thanks for the info on song 11...

Ozzy Osbourne - Down To Earth

It took the Ozzman six long years to deliver his 8th studio solo effort. It is as solid an Ozzy release as always. UNfortunately it actually is a release just like any other Ozzy release before, meaning that Ozzy has equally few developed since his last album as usual. "Get's Me Through" reminds me of "Thunder Underground", "Black Illusion" of "My Jekyll Doesn't Hide", "Running Out Of Time" of "Old LA Tonight", and "That I Never Had", "No Easy Way Out" and "Dreamer" reach even further back in their reminiscence of "Miracle Man", "Diary Of A Madman" and "Goodbye To Romance"...
Of course every single song is different from its ancestor, but the atmosphere and essence of songwriting has not changed since the 80s. That is remarkable if you take into account that the writers of the above mentioned songs are not the same. Original guitarist and co-writer Randy Rhoads died early, later (3rd) guitarist Zakk Wylde dedicated himself to his solo career during Ozzy's radio silence and was replaced by Joe Holmes for Ozzy's Ozzfest appearances. The later two have now again switched positions, but Wylde has (unlike Holmes) not contributed as songwriter to any of the songs on "Down To Earth" although he plays all guitars on the recording. A new collaborator of Ozzy is Marti Frederiksen, who together with producer Tim Palmer has written most of the material on this record. Despite my criticism, Frederiksen has become one of my favorite song writers, especially as writer for Brother Cane, Aerosmith, The Cult and the movie soundtrack "Still Crazy".
If you already own all of the earlier Ozzy albums, you definitely will not need "Down To Earth"; then again, if you really have them all, you're probably a huge Ozzy fan and you will buy "Down To Earth" anyway... just like I have by the way! I'm sure this thing goes platinum whatever the critics say...
Buy it despite you don't need it at amazon.de.

PS: Looks like Ozzy might be gay... he explicitly denies to be three times in the credits... that's suspicious?!?

Paradise Lost - believe in nothing

"Sell it to myself, then sell it to the world." Meaning of course, that the members of Paradise Lost don't give a damn being criticized by their (partially former) fans, each time these fans do not appreciate the developments their band goes through. These critics are still out there. You will find a lot of people claiming that this recording is just no icon. I bought the Paradise Lost album icon shortly after I got believe in nothing, since I was eager to learn how their best effort would sound, if I am already blown away by this cd. Unfortunately, I had to find out that I disagree with most of PL's disciples. Icon is (just another) doomy, gloomy Heavy Metal recording, albeit a good one. But I have enough other recordings with an Ork as leadsinger... leadgrunt that is.
Believe in nothing is a very melodical recording. The hooklines of Holmes' voice burn their tracks inspite of their limited range right into your brain, so you can't forget them at work or waiting in a queue at your shopping mall. It is VERY embarassing starting to sing in a public place and drawing all eyes on you, like your some kind of junkie or maniac, just because the musical part of your central nervous system temporarily took over control from your brain. If you absolutely need a comparison, think of Depeche Mode with some REAL guitars in addition to the electronic knick-knack!
Listen to mouth and then buy it at amazon.de.

pride & glory

Guitarist Zakk Wylde is the mastermind behind this Rock trio and their selftitled debut from 1994. It is his first professional project without Ozzy Osbourne. Wylde applied for an audition held by Ozzy when he was 19(!) years old, was invited and got the job rightaway. His guitar style has always been deeply influenced by his southern rock roots (he played in a cover band called Lynyrd Skynhead!). The platinum selling Ozzy-hits like "Mama, I'm Coming Home" and "No More Tears" that were co-written by Wylde already feature a lot of country and slide guitar.
This recording features a wide variety of arrangements from piano ballads with string section (Fadin' Away) on to acoustic songs with harp and mandolin (Lovin' Woman) over to southern Rock songs with banjo intro (Losin' Your Mind) right up to noise attacks (Horse Called War).
Another major component of the P&G songs are the "Wall Of Sound"-guitar riffs that add a lot of turbulence to the air in front of your speakers. Zakk Wylde had not been immune to the development of the 90s guitar sound. So he decided to sell his former 80s guitar rack (luckily as a package with the leftover hairspray cans from his "No Rest For The Wicked" time with Ozzy) and tuned his guitar a little further down. Zakk Wylde is NOT the frustrated sideman with ego-problems who wants to leave the shadow of his breadgiver and tries to sing a little on his sideproject, to finally be recognized as a songwriter. He has a wonderful soul'n'whiskey soked voice. He actually is a better singer than Ozzy himself (which is not difficult though, since Ozzy is an original with a lot of attitude, but has no real singer's voice!).
Pride & Glory is the logical next evolutionary step from continuing down the path, Wylde had already chosen when he was still with Ozzy. Southern Steel at it's BEST. (Warning: there is also one fullfledged country song on this album, called "Cry Me A River"... which is 100% rock free, it took me a long time to get accustomed to that one.)
The album has been re-released 1999 at Spitfire Records. This release has a bonus CD with five covers from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles(!) etc.
Buy it at amazon.de.

Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace

The Great Letdown

Well, Master George Lucas has finally dedicated himself to the continuation of his best work, the Star Wars Saga. At several occasions Lucas said that "the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" were his favorite works of the recent past. If you have accidently witnessed one of this series episodes, you know what you have to expect from "Episode I - The Phantom Menace". The script is a complete catastrophe (and copied from himself). The actors can't achieve their outstanding performances of other movies, because of lack of dialogue and of somebody to talk to other than the blue screen. Even the special effects can not impress science fiction fans, since we are shown animations of frogs and froglikes and not of spacecraft for most of the time...
George Lucas said in multiple interviews that he was never really satisfied with the outcome of episodes IV to VI, since he was not able to put the pictures he carried in is head on celluloid with the equipment available at that time. I thank God, that this was the case, because I was given at least 2 wonderful Star Wars movies. Now that George Lucas was finally able to realise his ideas thanks to digital technologies, I seriously asked myself, if this man really is the great visionary, whom I had always seen in him.
Buy it at... NO, better not!
Better to watch the first film of the second trilogy "A New Hope".