by Flogging Molly
Genre: Irish Punk
Similar Bands: Dropkick Murphys, The Pogues, Real McKenzies
Linkage: Flogging Molly's official site.

Woohoo! Irish drinking music. If you're unfamiliar with Flogging Molly, you're missing out.

The first six tracks are solid, with possibly the best opening five on any punk album I've heard. The title track is probably the strongest, though "What's Left of the Flag" and "The Kilburn High Road" are in the running. In fact, the only tracks I didn't really care for were "Swagger", "Cruel Mistress" and "Another Bag of Bricks" - and those are by no means poor songs.

As far as irish music goes, this is rather upbeat, it's faster, and you don't get the stereotypical melancholy ballad ("The Sun Never Shines") till the end of the album. But it maintains the irish feel with the not-so-subtle tin whistle and fiddle, as well as decidedly celtic melodies. I believe a few of the songs are traditional irish tunes, that Flogging Molly has redone with a more modern sound (I know that at least "The Rare Ould Times" is).

12 tracks, just over 45 minutes total. Though you should read that as 24 tracks and 90 minutes, as you'll be listening to it at least twice in a row .

Best tracks: Drunken Lullabies, What's Left of the Flag, May the Living Be Dead (In Our Wake), If I Ever Leave this World Alive, The Kilburn High Road, Rebels of the Sacred Heart, Death Valley Queen, The Rare Ould Times, The Sun Never Shines (On Closed Doors).
Verdict: "Drunken Lullabies" scores a 93 - You get now.

by Finntroll
Genre: Troll Metal? Perhaps Black Metal.
Similar Bands: None that I know of.
Linkage: Finntroll official site.

Finntroll is interesting. Apparently the idea for the band was born when a bunch of drunk finnish guys started messing around on their instruments. They set about to create folk melodies played with metal guitar and bass, threw in some grunting, troll-like vocals, and they came up with some pretty darn good stuff. It's sung in finnish, but translations are readily available, and they reveal that it's basically your fantasy power metal sort of thing. The big difference is probably the vocals, they give it a much darker feel than you're likely to find in most power metal bands.

So anyway, Visor Om Slutet (the album I'm supposed to be reviewing here) is rather different than other Finntroll albums. Before I got this, I had heard a few other songs by them (notably "Trollhammaren"), and this cd is decidedly slower than the other stuff I've heard. It opens with an instrumental, "Suohengen Sija", which feels really operatic for some reason. It then launches into "Asfågelns Död", a sort of slow marching song, with the vocalist chanting throughout. Kind of struck me as a Rammstein song, I guess the vocals resemble Till Linderman's singing. After a folky dance tune ("Försvinn Du Som Lyser"), we're back to instrumental stuff ("Verippu"). The rest of the album progresses in the same fashion, with an odd troll eating track(?), "Rov", to shake things up a bit. For those who've seen the Lord of the Rings movies - I think they should have used Finntroll in the soundtracks. Would have fit the orcs perfectly.

Overall, it's 11 tracks and 32:41 of immersion in finnish folk lore, with catchy melodies that you'd be singing along with if you could pronounce the words. It's short, but sweet, and if only for the novelty of troll music, it's worth buying.

Best tracks: Asfågelns Död, Försvinn Du Som Lyser, Under Varje Rot Och Sten, Den Sista Runans Dans, Svart Djup
Verdict: "Visor Om Slutet" scores an 87 - worth the download price.

by Hammerfall
Genre: Power Metal
Similar Bands: Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, Kamelot, Symphony X, etc.
Linkage: Hammerfall Official Fansite.

This is the long expected live album from Hammerfall. Prior to it, they had 4 full lengths, and fans have been asking for this for awhile. In addition, it's a "best of" album, so you would expect it to contain all of HF's most popular songs. In that regard, it doesn't entirely disappoint, but it could use a bit of improvement.

So the good - it sounds awesome, Hammerfall must be incredible to see live. The sound is pristine, no static or intereference, etc. And Joachim Cans sounds great. It's refreshing to come accross a vocalist who's singing doesn't need to be screwed around with before it goes on the final album. The guitar solo on disc 1 is beyond description. I'll just say it's one of the best solos I've heard (ranking up there with Luca Turilli and Alexei Laiho's stuff). And it's about 2 minutes of sheer bliss. If you haven't already noticed, the album is two discs, and a total of 22 tracks. That's a pretty good deal, considering you'll pay the same price for this as for a single disc album.

I'm thinking about this cd, and trying to come up with other reasons I'm not crazy about it. From a technical standpoint, it's near perfect. Several songs were missing that I would have liked to see ("Unchained", "In Memoriam", "Remember Yesterday", "Fallen One"), but that's just personal preference, and I'm not a big enough Hammerfall fan to be anal about it. But for whatever reasons, I'd only classify this as a "great" album. Not "excellent", not "awesome", just great. I'd recommend it to power metal fans.

Best tracks: (Disc 1) Lore of the Arcane, Riders on the Storm, Heeding the Call, Hero's Return, At the End of the Rainbow, Glory to the Brave, Guitar Solo, Let the Hammer Fall, (Disc 2) Renegade, Crimson Thunder, Heart's on Fire, Stronger Than All, A Legend Reborn
Verdict: "One Crimson Night" scores an 88

by Northstar
Genre: Emo
Similar Bands: Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Matchbook Romance
Linkage: Purevolume.com's Northstar Page

This is easily the best album I've bought in the last few months - here's why: Nick Torres is one of THE best emo vocalists, the guitar work is amazing, and the lyrics rock. This is most evident on tracks 1 "Rigged and Ready", 3 "Broken Parachute", and 6 "Taker Not a Giver". I was quite literally addicted to track 3 for about a week. So why should you buy this album? Because I'm telling you to. And have I ever given you reason to doubt me? Ok, that was a rhetorical question, you can stop saying "yes" now.

The link I supplied above (purevolume.com) allows you to stream "Rigged and Ready". So listen to that, and decide for yourself. Don't speak to me again if you don't like it. (Actually, if you don't like it, you're better off just not mentioning that to me... then I won't get irrationally angry and block you).

This is a short review, because it's rather pointless to just sit here and sing Northstar's praises. Instead I will just say that I highly recommend this cd. Endorse it, love it, listen to it regularly... all that too.

Best tracks: Rigged and Ready, Broken Parachute, My Ricochet, My Wishing Well Disease, Taker not a Giver, Daybreak, Cinderella
Verdict: "Is This Thing Loaded?" scores a 97 - just short of complete ownage.

by Senses Fail
Genre: Emo
Similar Bands: Matchbook Romance
Free Stuff: Buried a Lie (not on the album, but still a good example of how much they rock)

First of all, this is an EP, and that means two things: 1, it only has a few tracks (though 8 is more than usual for EPs) and 2, it's a good deal cheaper than your typical album. Point two is pretty nice, if you're a poor (lazy bum) college student like me. I got it for $7 and about a week later saw it on sale for $6 (that hurts, ya know), so it's a minimal investment.

So why buy it? Because of track 6 - "One Eight Seven". I've been addicted to that song for a year and a half (off and on). And that may easily be the best track, but the rest of the album is solid as well. (When are these guys gonna make the next one, I'm tired of waiting!) "Bloody Romance" is the track everyone seems to think rocks all, but I guess it just pales in my opinion when I contrast it with "One Eight Seven". I thought that the acoustic version of "The Ground Folds" was pretty good as well.

The weak part of the cd... possibly the lyrics. They are excellent 80% of the time. It's the 20% that's not so good. But that doesn't really take much away from the cd. Most of my favorite tracks are actually lyrical masterpieces ("One Eight Seven" eeeeeeeeeeee!), the only ones that suffer in my opinion are "The Ground Folds" and "Handguns...". Anyway, look into this band (perhaps snag that free and above all LEGAL download above?) because they are really good.

Best tracks: Free Falling Without a Parachute, Bloody Romance, Dreaming a Reality, The Ground Folds, One Eight Seven, Handguns and Second Chances
Verdict: "From the Depths of Dreams" scores a 92 - buy it.