What Stirs Within - Era Vulgaris

Advantages: Great different sound
Disadvantages: Some songs could be shorter

...As a big QOTSA fan I was expecting big things from this album. Songs For the Deaf was the album that made QOTSA what they are today - one of the biggest bands in the world. Era Vulgaris needs to be listened to - it is an amazing album and it grows on you. It is a really different album - a mixture of slow trippy songs and typical QOTSA rock tracks. Review of Album: 1) Turning on the Screw - Fantastic guitar rifts throughout this song. Great start to the album. However, it is a bit too long. 2) Sick, Sick, Sick - The track that was released prior to the album. Pounding drums - sounds a bit life All My Life by the Foo Fighters. 3) I'm Designer - Bit of a slower track - quite a strange song - unique rift to it. 4) Into the Hollow - Again, less drums and guitars in this song - a smooth, slow track. 5) Misfit Love... Read review

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Advantages: Some fantastic songs, yet another new style
Disadvantages: takes a bit to get going

.... It almost sounds like a marching band on some form of drug. Quality stuff! 11. Run Pig, Run Another one with fast music and a reasonably slow vocal. It's higher pitched than the previous track, but it sounds fantastic on here. There's a sense of panic that gets your blood going, and makes you want to listen to it more and more, despite a dodgy 5 second guitar riff later on. Ooh, got to put it on now!! 12. Running Joke Slow, but fantastically melodic. The vocals sound as though this guy's been drinking Guiness earlier on - kind of slurred if you get me. It's a great song, especially once the instruments all join in. 13. Era Vulgaris The title track. There are two voices singing most of the way through this song, and they compliment each other beautifully. The music is great with clearly distinguishable chorus lines and a very... Read review

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Advantages: Glorious early 90s electronica by two genuine pioneers
Disadvantages: Might be hard to find

.... So what is it about From Within that got under my skin and helped direct my conception of music and what I could and do like? From Within is accessible, first and foremost. It's got a very analogue sound. As a friend pointed out, it's just old enough so that we've bypassed digital and analogue is coming back into fashion (ala Motohiro Nakashima), and so dating back to 1994 it seems more modern than it might have done six or seven years ago. But that wasn't it at all. When I first listened to From Within I didn't think in terms analogue or digital or, more correctly, I didn't think about either. I was used to listening to some rock (mostly the odd stuff) and a little classical (mostly Bach and a little Beethoven) but having explored prog-guitarist-per-excellence Robert Fripp, I came across (completely by chance) a track by Klaus... Read review

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