Hardcore, Punk & Heavy Metal > Essential Hardcore, Punk & Heavy Metal

A change will do you good

Advantages: Nice new sound, very catchy
Disadvantages: None

Heaven and Hell is the first Black Sabbath album after the departure of Ozzy Osbourne, the album was their 9th album. The change in personnel gave both Ozzy himself and Black Sabbath a new release of life, following some rather uneventful albums. Black Sabbath's improvement was short-lived but centered much around new singer Ronny James Dio who gave the band a new sound. Black Sabbath have a very wholesome sound on the tracks on this album. Lady ...
...of the band's best albums to date and definitely my favourite after the initial period of success the band had around 1970. 1. Neon Knights 2. Children Of The Sea 3. Lady Evil 4. Heaven And Hell 5. Wishing Well 7. Walk Away 8. Lonely Is The Word ...

dangaroo 19.11.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Heaven And Hell - Black Sabbath

Devastating heavy metal

Advantages: Another towering Sabbath album
Disadvantages: Is it Heaven And Hell all over again?

...hors d'erve for the blistering Mob Rules - one of the hardest, full on rock and roll sonic attacks I have ever heard. I swear that this can peel paint off of your walls. Like the wheel rolling that Dio sings about in the lyric, this is a fantastically out of control HM song metaphorically tumbling down a hill. Country Girl is a simple riff, but it works to full effect - less being more. "don't ever fall in love with a country girl", sings RJD, well ...
...As rock songs go this is just about perfect, not a note wasted. And it was the song that got me into this band too. Slipping Away is the one track where everyone gets a solo, stop start and to be honest a bit of a downer, before we are back in familiar territory with Falling Off The Edge of The World. Another slow start before, you guessed it, another 100mph monster riff takes us over that edge. Over And Over ends this record and if it's seems ...

pinkmatchstick 24.10.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Mob Rules - Black Sabbath

Rifftastically heavy!

Advantages: 8/10 hardcore thumping tracks
Disadvantages: Hmmm, tracks 3 and 4!

...interestingly entitled Vol. 4 by Black Sabbath, supposedly called so because the initial title, Snowblind, is the name of track 6 of the album which is all about cocaine and thus had to be changed! A common thing for Sabbath after album 2, due to be called War Pigs was changed to Paranoid (hence non-sensical album cover) due to sensitivites over the on-going Vietnam war. Anyway, Vol. 4 is a collection of great tracks bar the usual Iommi fiddling ...
...acousticish version with his band Black Label Society. 7 - Cornucopia - very heavy track that whizzes along at breakneck speed leading to a strong contrast to track 8... 8 - Laguna sunrise - a couple of miuntes of tranquil guitar playing, beatiful song, no lyrics. 9 - St. Vitus dance - heavy riff-laden song about guy splitting with girl when perhaps he shouldn't, great cover by Cathedral a while back incidently. 10 - Under the sun (also known ...

snowblind_supernaut 20.06.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Black Sabbath Vol.4 - Black Sabbath

Brucie's Back

Advantages: Iron Maiden fans will like it.
Disadvantages: Not as good as Maiden

The air-raid siren is back. The big question is: does this sound like an Iron Maiden album now that Adrian Smith is working with Brucie again? Well, perhaps the easiest way to give a flavour of the album is to randomly reproduce some quotes from all the tracks. "Freak" - the prince of darkness plays his games. Your life is lost, your soul is damned. "Toltec 7 Arrival" - gibberish (it's 38 seconds of organ and mumbling). "Starchildren" - do I ...
...threshold of your waking hour. "Taking The Queen" - our skeletons rise through the veil of blood. "Darkside of Aquarius" - the second hellrider came, from flaming seas of molten sand. "Road To Hell" - slowly bleeding, watch the vortex feeding. Brave new world of secret fantasy that hovers just beyond your bloody grasp. "Man Of Sorrows" - a small boy lies kneeling, he prays for a god he does not know. Do what thou wilt he screams from his cursed ...

nicks 12.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Accident Of Birth - Bruce Dickinson

Brucie Ploughs On Alone

Advantages: More Cohesive Effort
Disadvantages: Too many fillers

What does the album title mean? Dunno mate. Album cover? Two blokes in suits eyeing each other over a stretch of eater. Significance? Ain't got a scooby pal. Lyrics? Well, they're all printed back to front and I couldn't really be arsed deciphering them. The music? Ah, now you're asking. This is Brucie's third solo album, and moves him well away from the land of Maiden after the transitional stages of "Tattooed Millionaire" and "Balls To Picasso". ...
...to catch you out with the old quiet-start-so-you-turn-it-up-only-for-it-to-suddenly-burst-into-life trick. The guitars of lead Alex Dickson and bassist Chris Dale are excellent, even overshadowing the superb voice of the man himself, although that reasserts itself on "Back From The Edge". "Inertia" is a contradiction in terms with its undoubted energy. Those guitars lift an otherwise run-of-the-mill breaking-up type number "Faith", while those tonsils ...

nicks 13.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Skunkworks - Bruce Dickinson