The Devil Wears Prada - Plagues (2007)

For those of you who haven't heard of The Devil Wears Prada, they are a 6 piece Metalcore band that formed in Dayton, Ohio in 2005. They consist of Mike Hranica (Lead Vocals), Jeremy DePoyster (Rhythm Guitar & Clean Vocals), Chris Rubey (Lead Guitar), Andy Trick (Bass), Daniel Williams (Drums), and James Baney (Keyboard, Synthesizer, and Piano). They have three albums released, their first two were released on Rise Records, while their latest album was released on Ferret Music.

The album Plagues is The Devil Wears Prada's second full-length album, following their 2006 release "Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord" and precedeing their 2009 released "With Roots Above and Branches Below". It peaked at #6 on the U.S. Billboard Indipendent Albums and #57 on the U.S. Billboard top 200. The album consists of 10 tracks which include "Goats on a Boat", "Number Three, Never Forget", "HTML Rulez d00d", "Hey John, What's Your Name?", "Don't Dink and Drance", "You Can't Spell Crap Without "C"" (Featuring Craig Owens, former vocalist of Davison, Michigan Post-Hardcore band Choidos), "This Song Is Called", "Reptar, King of the Ozone", "The Scorpion Deathlock", and "Nickels is Money Too". The album, as a whole, was a decent album. At points, the album decided to get a bit redundant with the overall tone. At points it felt as though James Baney's role in the band wasn't needed as the Keyboards just hindered some of the songs. However, the guitar work was excellent throughout the album, complex solos and rhythms that held up throughout the album. TDWP also made some culture references throughout the album, "Goats on a Boat" is a play off of the movie "Snakes on a Plane", "Number Three, Never Forget" is a reference to Dale Earnhardt, "Reptar, King of the Ozone" is from an episode of Rugrats, "Nickels is Money Too" references an episode of Metalocalypse, and "The Scorpion Deathlock" is from a finishing move of the wrestler Sting.

Overall, the album had a few hiccups, but flowed decently. Check this out if you're into Choidos, Killswitch Engage, Miss May I, Underoath, Atreyu, Haste the Day, Demon Hunter, or August Burns Red. The album was released on August 21, 2007 and is available on Amazon and iTunes.

Overall Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0

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The Devil Wears Prada's Website

Maximum the Hormone - Bu-ikikaesu (2007)

For those of you who haven't heard of Maximum the Hormone, they are a 4 piece Metalcore/Nu Metal band from Hachiōji, Japan. They consist of Daisuke "Daisuke-han" Tsuda (Vocals), Ryo "Maximum the Ryo-kun" Kawakita (Guitar & Vocals), Futoshi Uehara (Bass & Backing Vocals), and Nao Kawakita (Drums & Vocals). Daisuke and Nao are the original members, Ryo was suggested to replace Sugi by his sister Nao, and Futoshi joined soon after replacing Key. They are currently signed to VAP Records. And now for the review thingy.

Maximum the Hormone's sixth full-length release, Bu-ikikaesu, reached #5 on the Oricon album charts and is certified Gold in Japan. The album consists of 13 tracks which include "Bu-ikikaesu!!", "Zetsubō Billy", "Kuso Breakin Nō Breakin Lily", "Louisiana Bob", "Policeman Benz", "Black Yen Power G-Men Spy", "Akagi", "Kyoukatsu", "Bikini Sports Ponchin", "What's Up, People?!", "Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura Purin Purin Boron Nurururerorero", "Shimi", and "Koi no Mega Lover". If you're a fan of the anime "Death Note", you'll recognize "What's Up, People?!" and "Zetsubō Billy" as it's opening and closing themes for the second season. Also, if you're a fan of the anime "Akagi", the song "Akagi" is featured in that series as well. This album was one of the more unique listening experiences I've had in a while. It's a mixture of Ryo singing cleanly and really fastly, Daisuke either doing screams or scream-rapping, and the occasional occurence of Nao singing as well. Futoshi rarely sings, but can be heard in the group vocals for some of the tracks. It's brutal at points, and upbeat and happy at others. In some songs, it kind of sounds ska/reggae like with the guitars, while Nao sings peacefully, and then out of nowhere Daisuke comes in with a brutal scream at first which leads into a scream-rap. Ryo wrote and composed all of the songs for the album, and it sounds kick ass from start to finish.

Overall, the album was really good. Check them out if you're into Dir en Grey, Distrubed, System of a Down, Korn, The Fall of Troy, or even old school Slipknot. The album was released on March 14, 2007 and is available on Amazon and iTunes.

Overall Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0

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Maximum the Hormone's Website

Electric Six - Fire (2003)

Well that took a while to get back on track, been busy for the past week filming, so I bring you an epic review today. For those of you who don't know Electric Six (and if you don't then shame on you), they are a 6 piece Alternative Rock band from Detroit, Michigan. They formed in 1996 as The Wildbunch and currently consist of Dick Valentine (Vocals, real name is Tyler Spencer, only original member of the group), The Colonel (Guitar, real name is Zach Shipps), Johnny Na$hinal (Guitar, real name is John Nash), Smorgasbord! (Bass, real name is Keith Thompson), Tait Nucleus? (Keyboards, real name is Christopher Tait), and Percussion World (Drums, real name is Mike Alonso). They are currently signed to XL Recordings, WEA, and Metropolis Records.

Electric Six's debut album was 2003's Fire. The album #5 on the U.S. Billboard Top Electronic Albums, #38 on the U.S. Billboard Top Independent Albums, and #7 on the UK Albums Chart. The album contains 13 tracks that include "Dance Commander", "Electric Demons in Love", "Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)", "Danger! High Voltage", "She's White", "I Invented the Night", "Improper Dancing", "Gay Bar", "Nuclear War (On the Dance Floor)", "Getting Into the Jam", "Vengeance and Fashion", "I'm the Bomb", and "Synthesizer". The album released three singles, those being Danger! High Voltage, Gay Bar, and Dance Commander. This album is sex for your ears. Every song is extremely well written, catchy, and memorable. Almost everyone has heard either of the three singles from this album. Dick Valentine soars as a vocalist and moves you through his lyrics. There have even been rumors that the song "Danger! High Voltage" had Jack White of the White Stripes as a guest vocalist. The album officially credits John S. O'Leary as the guest vocalist for the song, former Guitarist Surge Joebot (Joe Frezza) has confirmed this, while Dick Valentine has, in a radio interview, confirmed that it was Jack White.

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Overall, this album rocked from start to finish. This is where I'd give you other bands that sound like them to give you a feel for this, but you should have this album already. It was released on May 20, 2003 and is available on Amazon and iTunes.

Overall Rating: 6.0 out of 5.0, yeah, it's that good

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Electric Six's Website

Dir en Grey - Withering to Death (2006)

For most of you who haven't heard of Dir en Grey, they are a 5 piece J-Rock, J-Metal, Metal, Alternative Rock, well, let's just go with Various Rock band from Osaka, Japan. They formed in 1997 and have had the same line-up of Kyo (Vocals), Kaoru (Guitar), Die (Guitar), Toshiya (Bass), and Shinya (Drums). Their first recognization outside of Japan into the US market of music was their 2006 release Withering to Death (other albums were released only in Asia while some were released in Asia and Europe). They are currently signed to Free-Will Records, which is a division of Sony Music.

Withering to Death is Dir en Grey's fifth studio album and was Dir en Grey's first official album released in Europe and North America (their previous album "Vulgar" was originally released in 2003 in Asia, but was released in Europe 3 months after Withering to Death). The album consists of fourteen tracks which include "Merciless Cult", "C", "Saku", "Kodoku ni Shisu, Yueni Kodoku", "Itoshisa Ha Fuhai ni Tsuki", "Jesus Christ R 'n R", "Garbage", "Machiavellism", "Dead Tree", "The Final", "Beautiful Dirt", "Spilled Milk", "Higeki wa Mabuta wo Oroshita Yasashiki Utsu", and "Kodou". Upon my first listening to the album (about 2 or 3 years ago now), I could only listen to the first three songs, which on my first listening, were amazing. Now that I have finally listened to the full album (I've listened to the track "The Final" in between those times), I can see how this got Dir en Grey onto the North American market. This album shows how talented Kyo is as a singer, at one point he can be singing so sincerely while in the next few seconds he can change to a death growl and back again to the nice side of his vocals. This is shown in depth in the songs "Merciless Cult" and "Saku" and is apparent in other songs as well. Saku was the album's second single and was voted as MTV2's Headbanger's Ball #1 Video of 2006, and it is a damn good song, it encompases screams, mid-tone vocals, fast paced growls, and even falsettos. All of that is over an already amazing band. To get a feeling for most of Dir en Grey's songs, if the guitars sound darker, it typically means that Kaoru wrote the song, while the more upbeat songs are usually written by Die.

Overall, the album was incredible, I honestly could not find anything wrong with it at all. Though not the band's best seller, it is their breakthrough album into North America and Europe. If you're into Maximum the Hormone, J-Metal, or even Metalcore to an extent, you should check them out. The album was released on May 16, 2006 in the US and is available on Amazon and itunes.

Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0

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Dir en Grey's Website

Danny Elfman - Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)

"Great, now we gotta finish the movie with Danny Elfman..." - Seth Green as Chris Griffin. Yes indeedy, today we're gonna be reviewing an album by a composer. For those of you who haven't heard of Danny Elfman, he was the vocalist/songwriter for Oingo Boingo from 1976 til their breakup in 1995, and he is also a composer. He has worked on many films, including Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mission: Impossible, Men in Black, Good Will Hunting, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Spider-Man, Red Dragon, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Nacho Libre, Wanted, Corpse Bride, Terminator Salvation, The Wolfman, and most recently, Alice in Wonderland. In addition, he has sung as Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas, was the voice for Bonejangles in Corpse Bride, and has written the theme songs for Desperate Housewives, Dilbert, and his most famous one, The Simpsons.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure is Danny Elfman's third movie that he has composed. The tracks that he wrote were "Overture/The Big Race", "Breakfast Machine", "Park Ride", "Stolen Bike", "Hitchhike", "Dinosaur Dream", "Simone's Theme", "Clown Dream", "Studio Chase", "The Drive-In", and "Finale". The score mainly draws it's musical themes from the second track "Breakfast Machine" (which you may have heard in Family Guy, or even in Team Fortress 2 as the Heavy character sings it from time to time). You can see "Breakfast Machine" repeated in almost all of the songs, although when it gets to the track "Clown Dream", the album takes on a darker feeling, as if it's sad and depressing. The "Breakfast Machine" theme then finishes the score as it comprimises more than half of the Finale.

Overall, this was a good album, a bit repetitive at times, but still a good album. This is normally where I'd be recommending other bands to listen to if you liked this, but since Danny Elfman is a composer, I'm going to skip that this time. The album was re-released with the Back to School soundtrack as well and can be found on Amazon and itunes.

Overall Rating: 4.2 out of 5

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Danny Elfman's Website

Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing (1998)

And so we do another non-metal album. For those of you who haven't heard of Placebo, they are a 3 piece Alternative Rock band from London, England. They currently consist of Brian Molko (Vocals & Guitar), Stefan Olsdal (Guitar & Bass), and Steve Forrest (Drums). They are currently signed to PIAS and Vagrant Records, and formed in 1994. Stefan Olsdal is openly gay, and Brian Molko is openly bisexual and has a sort of androgynous image, but that shouldn't effect the music for you. Now for the review.

Without You I'm Nothing is Placebo's second album (the first being their 1996 self-titled debut album), had a slightly different line-up from their current one, in that Steven Hewitt was the drummer for this album. The album consists of 12 tracks which include "Pure Morning", "Brick Shithouse", "You Don't Care About Us", "Ask For Answers", "Without You I'm Nothing", "Allergic (To Thoughts of Mother Earth)", "The Crawl", "Every You Every Me", "My Sweet Prince", "Summer's Gone", "Scared of Girls", and "Burger Queen" (which contains the hidden track "Evil Dildo"). With this album, you can just put it on and relax. It's got a calm vibe to it, even though some of the songs have a bit more kick to them. It has a rock tone to most of the album with a couple of slow songs here and there. The album's longest song "Burger Queen" is 22:39 long and has almost 8 minutes of dead air in the song before the hidden track kicks in. They could have just saved the time and cut it into two tracks instead of having the listener wait all that time. Also with Burger Queen, it starts off really mellow and relaxing, and then when the hidden track starts, it's fast paced and hyper sounding, which kind of threw me off guard. I'm normally a fan of geting caught off guard with albums, but this wasn't one of those times, mainly because of the drawn out waiting. So in a sense, the only flaw to the album is the track Burger Queen, where the rest of the album is extremely well done. "Pure Morning" was the first single from the album, they made a video for it as well (depicting someone about to jump off a building while people gather around to see if they will jump). Also. if you've ever seen the movie "Cruel Intentions" then you'll know the track "Every You Every Me" as it was the opening track in the movie.

Overall, the album flowed very well, with the only hiccup being at the very end of it. You should get this album if you're into A Perfect Circle, Muse, Silversun Pickups, Blur, Radiohead, or Keane. The album was released on October 12, 1998 and is available on amazon and itunes.

Overall Rating: 4.7 out of 5

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Placebo's Website

Beneath the Sky - More Than You Can Handle... (2006)

Beneath the Sky, for those of you who haven't heard of them, are a 5 piece (formerly 6 piece) Metalcore band from Cincinnati, Ohio who formed in 2004. The band consists of Joey Nelson (Vocals), Kevin Stafford (Guitar & Vocals), Jeff Nelson (Guitar), Nick Scarberry (Bass), and Bryan Cash (Drums). They are currently signed to Victory Records and have released 1 demo, 1 EP, and 2 full length albums. Now for the review thingy.

More Than You Can Handle..., Beneath the Sky's first EP, consisted of a different version of the band. They were a 6 piece when this was released. The Nelson brothers and Scarberry were still with the band, it also consisted of Chris Profitt (Guitar), Brandon Sowder (Drums), and Matt Jones (Keytar). The album consists of 5 tracks, those being "A Gunsmoke Kiss", "7861", "Miss Misery With a Delicate Voice", "Our Last Road", and "Being In A Coma Is Hell Carried On". When the album starts off, you hear something that you don't typically hear, an old vinyl record skipping, this is also at the end of the last song on the album. I personally liked it cause it gave it continuity and vaguely reminded me of how Dream Theater started and ended a few of their albums. In the track "Our Last Road", Joey Nelson did something that impressed me vocally, he changed his scream 5 times within just a few seconds. He went from a high pitched scream, to a slightly lower growl, to a mid-tone growl, to a low scream, to what seemed like an extremely low inhale vocal, but I doubt that. The album also marks the first appearance of the track "7861". They re-recorded it and put it on their first full-length album "What Demons Do to Saints". I personally like the EP version better, as they layered the vocals, had a lower guitar tone, and it was overall just better. I'll let you decide though, here's the EP version, and the full-length version.

Overall, this is an album that defines Metalcore, and I hardly even like the genre, but love this album. Definitely pick this up if you're into Underoath, The Devil Wears Prada, August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying, and Scary Kids Scaring Kids. The album was released on May 13, 2006, but is hard to come by as it was self-released. I personally can't find it on amazon or itunes, however, both of their full length albums are on there.

Overall Rating: 4.8 out of 5

Beneath The Sky's Website