I held back from doing CD Reviews for a LONG TIME.  Only reason is that I don't wanna cut up someone's hard work.  I wanna pump what I LIKE and I think it's becoming apparent to me that I don't like much. I'm an old crusty fucker who's more into old school metal and classic rock than anything else.  But I do appreciate good musicianship.  Sometimes solely on the strength of ONE musician in a band, I can find myself liking the band and the music just because I want to hear that guitarist or drummer teach us all how it's supposed to be done.  Sometimes I don't hear the music, I feel it.  If that makes sense at all.  I can listen to a whole album and not even hear a single word that was said.  Sometimes I listen to an album and all I hear is the lyrics or the feeling put forth by the singer and the music falls by the wayside.  I'm insane and very inconsistent with what I like from day to day but I do know when something really grabs me by the nuts and won't let go and THAT is what I want to bring to you.  No, not my nuts.  The music that grabs my nuts.  I've always been the guy who's handing you a CD saying "check this out man!".  Now I can do it on a much larger scale which is kinda cool.  But I want to stress something here.  BIG TIME.  This is just MY OPINION.  I'm gonna lay it down in front of you, I'm gonna throw you links to the CDs so that YOU can have a listen and judge for yourself.  I'm also gonna throw you a link so you can go and put your 2 cents worth into the mix too.

If you have a CD you want reviewed, yapped about, hyped, possibly trashed, contact me for more info.

Band:  Keith Hill Project
Album:  Beauty Day
Hometown:  Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Website:  http://www.myspace.com/mailtokeithhill
Year:  2011
Track Listing:

01 Beauty Day
02 Kiss And Tell
03 Party In The Yard
04 Cool Little Number
05 Two Feet In The Circle
06 I Don’t Care
07 Everytime
08 Fire
09 Nightmare On Cleaver
10 You
11 Bump And Grind
12 Loving You Tonight
13 Out On The Highway
14 Nothing To Lose
15 Do Whatcha Gotta Do

Pros:

Kiss And Tell, Two Feet In The Circle, Everytime, Fire, Nothing To Lose,

Cons:
Nothing BAD here...

Random Guest Test: PASS

Breakdown:

Lots of good guitar work. Fun metal music with a definite 80’s feel.  Great drinking music! If you like hair metal/good old cock rock, this album will do it for you.

Rating:

4/5

Band:  Conflicted
Album:  Never Be Tamed
Hometown:  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website:  http://www.conflicted.ca/
Year:  2011

Track Listing:
01 After Too Long
02 Never Be Tamed
03 Victor(ia)
04 Fallen
05 The Hand Of God
06 Stay
07 Heat Me Up
08 I Wish. I Remember.
09 Alive
10 Torment
11 Release

Pros:

Never Be Tamed, Victor(ia), Stay, Torment,

Cons:

Not a huge fan of keyboards but this guy is too good not to bow down to.

Breakdown:

If you dig your metal outta the Dream Theatre/Queensryche mine, you’ll love this album.  Singing is top notch.  Kinda like Rob Halford meets Geoff Tate but he looks way better than those mutants. Old school metal with new school guitar work.  This guy shreds. Awesome keyboard work. Great production, kick ass first full length effort.  Get it in ya.

 

Rating:

4/5

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Band:  Heavy Early
Album:  Volume One
Hometown:  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website:  http://www.heavyearly.com/
Year:  2010

Track Listing:
01 14 Camels
02 Alright
03 Coming Home
04 Dislocated Love
05 Don’t You Know
06 Gleemer
07 Gone
08 Have To Wait
09 Hindsight
10 Lifeline
11 Teacher
12 Voodoo Man
13 Worksite Fatality
14 You’ll Never Change

Pros:

14 Camels, Dislocated Love, Don’t You Know, Gone, Lifeline, Voodoo Man, all of em

Cons:

Bass guy gotta smile more  ; )

Breakdown:

As soon as I put this album on I was hooked.  This is the stuff that proves there IS great “new” music out there!  From top to bottom this album is GREAT.  Classic rock with an updated twist.  Another band who just needs that one little ingredient to make em a household name.  I can't figure out what that little ingredient is though...

Rating:

5/5

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Band:  Breaching Vista
Album:  Vera City
Hometown:  Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Website:  http://www.breachingvista.com/
Year:  2011

Track Listing:
01 We Are The Way
02 Sleep
03 Nervous
04 Forgive You
05 Give Me a Reason
06 Tonight
07 Reverie
08 Run With the Punches
09 W5
10 Wrath of Nyre
11 Goodbye, So Long
12 Letters
13 Little Thoughts

Pros:

Nervous, Tonight, W5, Little Thoughts

Cons:

Feel like I’ve heard it already…

Breakdown:

Good production, decent arrangements, lots of hard work has gone into this album and ya gotta respect that.  I’m sure my 20 year old daughter and all her buddies would love this stuff… unless I suggest she try it out.  Then she won’t.  So I won’t.  I’ll let her discover Breaching Vista all on her own and then she’ll love it.  Me?  Not my cup o’ tea.  I give it an extra mark on the rating scale cuz I know the kids will dig this stuff.

Rating:

3/5

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Band:  Manahan
Album:  Commence
Hometown:  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website:  http://www.myspace.com/corymanahan
Year:  2010

Track Listing:
01 Blinded Life
02 No Time
03 Narcotic
04 Brace
05 The Nerve Within
06 The Scream
07 Take A Look At Me
08 Remedy
09 The Last Time
10 Bitter Inhale
11 The End

Pros:

No Time, Narcotic, The Nerve Within, The Scream, Remedy, The End 

Cons:

There isn’t a “bad” song on the album.  But if you're looking for something completely original you're outta luck.

Breakdown:

Take an ounce of Pantera and a 26er of Slayer and you’ve got Manahan. In this genre, it’s REALLY hard to do anything that hasn’t already been done. Sounds like I’ve heard a lot of this music before but then that’s what attracts a lot of people; familiarity. If you like your metal extremely heavy yet decipherable and intricate, then “Commence” is definitely for you. Awesome musicianship. Manahan’s guitars are top notch. Drummer is amazing.The axemanship is worth the price of admission alone. Get it in ya

Rating:

4/5

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Band:  Three Quarter Stone
Album:  Bullet With A Name
Hometown:  Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Website:  http://www.threequarterstone.com/
Year:  2009

Track Listing:
01 Bullet With A Name
02 It Don’t Matter
03 Wasted Time
04 You Are The One
05 I Don’t Need
06 Broken
07 Believe
08 Take
09 Out Of The Blue
10 Ride It Hard
11 Dressed To Kill
12 Last Call
13 Tough Times
14 Broken (Acoustic)

Pros:

Wasted Time, Broken, Ride It Hard

Cons:

No bad songs on this album.

Breakdown:

This is a great album from front to back.  Good old classic rock made today. Dual Les Paul’s are always a bonus!  Great drummer.  Dunno if the acoustic version of Broken should have been added. Kind of overkill. Pick one.  It’s  a great tune either way.

Rating:

4/5

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