In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

Damn. I mean, damn. The pacing, the patterns, the innovation, the hooks, the instrumentation. It's all just so well-balanced, so fine tuned. There's no magic trick in this album, just a lot of hard work. I could never get bored listening to this.

Definitely in my top 5 favourite albums ever.

9.5/10

Evanescence: Origin (8/10)

It's not perfect, not by a long shot. But it has a more industrial feel than their later works like Fallen, and that's why I like it. Considering it's a demo, it doesn't have too great audio quality (I think?), but it does have some good tunes. Highlights include "Where Will You Go", "Away From Me", and the early version of "Imaginary" which supersedes the original.

Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness

Now, the good songs on here are great. Welcome Home? The Final Cut? Wake Up? Yes yes YES. The rest lacks a certain quality and sharpness. I daresay that the two singles outside of Welcome Home are very unimpressive.

But the stuff that works still really works, and if Welcome Home was on the previous album, I may have given it a 10, so good is the song's quality. I prefer the edited version, though. It's a little more tactful.

7/10

Last one I listened in full was Paradise Lost's Draconian Times.

I'm not really that keen with doom metal, but I have to say: these guys did a professional job with this album. The songs are awesomely composed and quite atmospheric. My only complaint was that it takes a little while to build up for the more climactic songs. Anyway, all in all, it's an awesome album. I give it an 8.0/10.

Dr. Feelgood.

Dr. Feelgood... hmmmm... The problem with talking about the album is no matter what I think of, the only word that comes to my head is insubstantial. Every song feels as shallow as a puddle and every song I have a HUGE feeling that they're capable of doing much more, but they never reach it. Every song feels like a different variation of them getting laid and well... it's childish. And the variety of the album is nonexistant, making songs feel identical or just not really that interesting. The album isn't bad, just a let down.

Dr. Feelgood
She Goes Down
Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
Kickstart My Heart
Rattlesnake Shake
Same Old Situation
Slice Of Your Pie
Sticky Sweet
Time For Change
Without You

5/10

Thought I'd do a couple of ratings:

The Killers - Battle Born

Was looking forward to this given how amazing their previous albums were, especially the live CD/DVD album "Live at the Royal Albert Hall". Very disappointed though, "The Way it Was" is great but apart from "Runaways" and "Here With Me" which are mediocre the rest of the album is terrible (note though that I found the itunes festival performance of "Flesh and Bone" amazing but the studio version on Battle Born is terrible).

The Way it Was
Runaways
Here With Me
Flesh and Bone
Deadlines and Commitments
Carry Me Home
From Here on Out
Battle Born
A Matter of Time
Prize Fighter
Be Still
The Rising Tide
Heart of a Girl
Flesh and Bone (Remix)
Miss Atomic Bomb

Score: 4/10

In celebration of this week's DLC, I have also done One-X by 3DG.

One-X

Came across Three Days Grace for the first time in March with the DLC pack, "Pain" and "The Good Life" were amazing from first hearing and grown to like "I Hate Everything About You" after an initial frustation due to the guitar part sounding identical (but in a different tone) to Linkin Park's "Figure.09". Later that month I found "Animal I Have Become" which was even better to all mentioned and recently found a CD copy of One-X. Amazing album with 1 meh song and can't wait to listen to the other albums.

Animal I Have Become
Never Too Late
Pain
It's All Over
Time of Dying
Let it Die
Gone Forever
On My Own
Get Out Alive
Over and Over
One X
Riot

Score: 9/10

Squackett - A Life Within A Day
7/10

After hearing a handful of people in the progressive rock scene refer to this as a slam-dunk album of the year, I decided to finally get into it. While the music, on the whole, is entertaining, enjoyable material, it not only remains directionless (with considerable jumps in stylistic direction between songs), but also surprisingly pedestrian considering that this is a product of two legends of prog.

If you're looking for a solid, early 80s-sounding AOR album in the vein of Collins-era Genesis, Toto, or Journey, you're in for a bit of a treat - almost nobody makes albums like this anymore (with the possible exception of the most recent albums from Uriah Heep and Journey, which I'd recommend more highly). if you're looking for a good progressive rock album, deduct a couple of points from the score - for lack of a better term, it's just not engaging enough to really merit praise on that front. Overall, it's a passable-to-pretty-good album with some cool ideas, but a bit too breezy and aimless to really make it great.


Jadis - See Right Through You
7.5/10

Above-average neo-prog album firmly rooted in the 80s tradition, but not up to the standard of some of their better material (Understand, for instance, remains a gem of the genre). It's well-put-together and engaging, but there's that nagging feeling of "haven't I heard this before?" amongst a lot of it.

Skinny Puppy - The Greater Right of The Wrong (7/10)

Decent industrial album. While it's not bad, and does have some good moments and songs, it doesn't seem extremely innovative. That's pretty much all I can say. Highlights include "I'mmortal".

Elliott Smith -- XO (10/10)

Love this album.

Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
8/10, one of their best efforts

Bloc Party - Four
6.5/10, pretty underwhelming