Josh Homme: Guitar, Vocals
Nick Oliveri: Bass, Vocals
Dave Grohl: Drums
Mark Lanegan: Vocals

1. You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire
2. No One Knows
3. First It Giveth
4. A Song For The Dead
5. The Sky Is Fallin’
6. Six Shooter
7. Hangin’ Tree
8. Go With The Flow
9. Gonna Leave You
10. Do It Again
12. God Is In The Radio
13. Another Love Song
14. A Song For The Deaf

Hidden Tracks:
Mosquito Song
Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy

Queens Of The Stone Age
Songs For The Deaf
Interscope

Queens Of The Stone Age has seemed to be some sort of an ever-changing musical collective who have had a different line up for every record with Homme and Oliveri being the orchestra leaders. This time they brought Dave Grohl and ex-Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan along for the ride. Grohl and Lanegan have been friends of the band for long and the latter has appeared on their CDs in the past. This was the first time for Dave Grohl to be featuring on QOTSA’s release as he took sabbatical from Foo Fighters to pound on the skins and getting rumours about the Foo Fighters splitting on the way. That fortunately wasn’t the case but I’m glad he took this gig because his hard hitting drum work is one of the high points of this record.
 The CD starts with a car radio being turned on and the theme continues in between songs so you get the feeling of driving through the desert and surfing through radio stations which all seem to be playing solely and only QOTSA. A long drive in the pounding heat could have a worse soundtrack if you ask me. The music is at times melodic pop with Beatlesque harmonies and at times more “metal” with screaming and gnarling vocals and harsh guitars. ‘This is what happens when you make music with the influences ranging from Slayer to Björk’ has Homme once said. Some of the tracks are three and a half minute lasting verse chorus verse typed songs suitable for radio and some are more complex in their structure. For example the first single No One Knows has a weird art guitar solo thing happening in the middle which succeeds in not sounding, strange enough, pretentious at all but actually making the song more interesting. You can almost feel the desert heat and taste the illegal substances while blasting this on your stereo. It might take a few rounds at listening to the CD but it is worth it. Just like A Song For The Deaf says: ‘The blind can go get fucked’. Get deaf to QOTSA!
 The hidden tracks Mosquito Song and the Kinks cover Everybody’s Gonna Get Happy are strange but good too.

-VG.LazyMF-

James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Robert Trujillo

1.Frantic
2. St.anger
3.Some Kind Of Monster
4. Dirty Window
5. Invisible Kid
6. My World
7. Shoot Me Again
8. The Unamed Feeling
9. Purify
10. All Within My Hands

Released 2003

9 points

-VsfingaZ-

check out: www.metallica.com

Billy Milano: Lead Vocals
Scott Ian: Guitar & Vocals
Dan Lilker: Bass & Vocals
Charlie Benante: Drums

1. Bigger Than The Devil
2. The Crackhead Song
3. Kill The Assholes
4. Monkeys Rule
5. Skool Bus
6. King At The King/Evil Is In
7. Black War
8. Celtic Frosted Flakes
9. Charlie Don't Cheat
10. The Song That Don't Go Fast
11. Shenanigans
12. Dog On The Tracks
13. Xerox
14. Make Room, Make Room
15. Free Dirty Needles
16. Fugu
17. Noise That's What
18. We All Bleed Red
19. Frankestein And His Horse
20. Every Tiny Molecule
21. Aren't You Hungry
22. L.A.T.K.C.H.
23. Ballad Of Michael H.
24. Ballad Of Phil H.
25. Moment Of Truth

Released 1999

Dee Snider: Lead & backing vocals
Jay Jay French: Guitars & Backing vocals
Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda: Guitars & backing vocals
Mark "The Animal" Mendoza: Bass & backing growls
A.J. Pero: Drums & backing vocals

1. Stay Hungry
2. We´re Not Gonna Take It
3. Burn In Hell
4. Horror-Teria (The Beginning)
a) Captain Howdy
b) Street Justice
5. I Wanna Rock
6. The Price
7. Don´t Let Me Down
8. The Beast
9. S.M.F.

Released 1984

Tom Araya: Vocals, Bass
Jeff Hanneman: Guitars
Kerry King: Guitars
Paul Bostaph: Drums

 1. Darkness of Christ
 2. Disciple
 3. God Send Death
 4. New Faith
 5. Cast Down
 6. Threshold
 7. Exile
 8. Seven Faces
 9. Bloodline
10. Deviance
11. War Zone
12. Here Comes The Pain
13. Payback

Produced by Matt Hyde
Executive producer Rick Rubin

Released 2001

Slayer
God Hates Us All
American/Island Def Jam Music Group 2001

 Slayer’s God Hates Us All was infamously released on September 11^th 2001 when the world was shaken by a tragedy by which most of us will remember that day better than by the release of another metal album. Anyway the irony was unavoidable: The band that has been accused of being Satanists, Nazis and in all ways a bad influence on all living things for nearly 20 years releases an album called God Hates Us All on the same day that USA is attacked in a way it has not been attacked since World War II. The coincidence did not pass unnoticed. A Finnish rock star, the singer for Maj Karman Kauniit Kuvat, wrote in a column suspecting the airplane attack must have been just a gimmick to market Slayer’s new album. His humor didn’t obviously amuse everybody and a wide debate on good taste began among the readers of the column.
 All this may sound a bit stupid and irrelevant but it actually makes you think about Slayer and what they possibly might have to say. Like I just told Slayer’s fierce lyrics and aggressive music have given the band a certain stigma. But if you listen to G.H.U.A. and think about what the world went through at the time it makes you think that maybe the band is just making observations in a world where quite a lot things are seriously fucked up. “Pessimist, terrorist targeting the next mark, global chaos feeding on hysteria” screams Tom Araya on the opening track Disciple. Doesn’t sound like somebody trying to talk confused teenagers into killing themselves. I’m not trying to say Slayer is Rage Against The Machine but they are not a bunch of right-wing Nazi Satanists either. The topics of their songs have always been sinister and grim but that’s just the things they like to sing (or scream or roar) about just as it is fun to watch horror flicks.
 Having said enough about Slayer’s role in making the world a better or worse place to be, let’s get to the point. From the now legendary breakthrough album Reign In Blood to 1994’s Divine Intervention, Slayer seemed to record only perfect metal albums. Then came Diabolus In Musica in 1998. It had a few superb songs on it but the whole of the album gave a weak impression. Fear of the band losing its grip and becoming a bad version of itself entered my horrified mind. By playing killer live shows the band managed to keep hope alive and by releasing G.H.U.A. the last shred of doubt was removed from my mind.
 The album is the return of the hard to core Slayer we all know and love. The boys locked themselves in Bryan Adams’ studio in Vancouver making it the first time the band recorded outside of Los Angeles. On the producer’s stool sat Matt Hyde and the veteran Slayer producer Rick Rubin acted as the executive producer. To get into the right mood the lights in the studio were dimmed, the place was redecorated with skulls, devil heads, pictures of extended middle fingers and written insults on the walls. Hearing the end result the interior designing trick must have worked: Slayer sounds scarier, harder, tighter and more evil than it has for ages. Paul Bostaph’s drumming is a treat for the ears once again and he handles the sticks just as good as the former skinsman Dave Lombardo (who is nowadays recruited, by the way). Slayer wouldn’t be Slayer without the trademark guitar solos of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King and believe me when I tell you the guys are just as crap at it as they were 20 years ago. On the other hand Tom Araya is getting better during the years like a fine wine. At 40 he is one the most credible metal vocalist out there. The anger and the fury that this grown man delivers when he gets the mic is something that most of the younger attendees will never achieve.
 All of the music is written by Hanneman and/or King and most of the lyrics by King with a few exceptions. Basically this means that there’s more “motherfuckers” and “fucks” than necessary and less of the psychological serial killer stuff that Araya has previously introduced. This is the only weak point of the album because if you ask me I would have rather had it the other way around: more psychopath shit and less cursing. The Pantera-like overdosing of bad language doesn’t somehow suit the kings of trash metal. Musically the album is sheer dynamite from start to end and with it Slayer has reclaimed their status as one of the most important metal bands on the planet. Writing this while blasting out the CD makes me wonder what the hell does the world need Slipknot for?  

-Veikko“VG-Rock”Jalkanen

Check out: www.slayer.net 

Vocals and guitar: Rivers Cuomo
Drums: Pat Wilson
Guitar and vocals: Brian Bell
Bass: Scott Shriner

Songs:
1. American Gigolo
2. Dope Nose
3. Keep Fishin´
4. Take Control
5. Death And Destruction
6. Slob
7. Burndt Jam
8. Space Rock
9. Slave
10. Fall Together
11. Possibilities
12. Love Explosion
13. December
(14. Island In The Sun)

Released 2002

Weezer
Maladroit
Geffen

When I bought “Maladroit” I hoped that it would be different than the previous Weezer album “The Green Album”. It’s not that I don’t like “The Green Album” it has really great songs and everything, but I found it a little bit boring. When I started to listen to “Maladroit” I realised that it really was different, it is more like my Weezer favourite “Pinkerton”. It has different and more complex songs, more alternative sound, real guitar solos and great geegtanic heavy metal attitude.
Some of my favourite songs from this album are the real rockin´ riff driven “Take Control”, the sad and beautiful mosher “Slob” which I think is the best song from this album, the weird and funny “Burndt Jamb”, the heart warming “Slave”, the 70´s kick ass rock influenced “Fall Together” and the skate punk song “Possibilities” which remains me of my old favourite band “Descendents”. “Maladroit” doesn’t have any shitty songs, but like any other record some songs are better than some.
Weezer “Maladroit” is actually an amazing record from the first song “American Gigolo” to the last song “December”...did I miss something, oh yeah the worst thing about this album “Island In The Sun” (a hit song from “The Green Album”). I don’t hate “Island In The Sun”. Actually I like it very much, BUT IT REALLY SHOULDN`T BE ON “MALADROIT”, IT DOESN`T FIT IN!!! I would like to know why it’s on this album, I guess (I don’t know why) it’s because some idiot from Weezer´s record company panicked after hearing Weezer´s new songs and put “Island In The Sun” on the album and slammed a sticker advertising it to the cover because he/she thought that there weren’t enough easy MTV/radio smash hit songs and people won’t buy enough “Maladroit”. I would rather have a record with less songs than this kind of business bullshiiiiiiit!!
Weezer “Maladroit” also includes seven mini movies. I think the best is “The Cobo Challenge”, it has some serious skate or die style old school skateboarding in it...wheels on fire!!!!!
Like I already said “Maladroit” is a master piece from “American Gigolo” to “December” and I really recommend it to everyone out there...KEEP ON DANCIN´!!!

-Ville "VsfingaZ" Sohlberg

check out: www.weezer.com 

Vocals: Layne Staley
Guitar, vocals: Jerry Cantrell
Bass: Mike Starr
Drums: Sean Kinney

Songs:
1. Them Bones
2. Dam That River
3. Rain When I Die
4. Sickman
5. Rooster
6. Junkhead
7. Dirt
8. God Smack
9. Hate To Feel
10. Angry Chair
11. Down In A Hole
12. Would?

Released 1992

Alice In Chains
Dirt
Columbia/Sony music Entertainment

 After hearing about the death of Layne Staley, the singer for Alice In Chains, I gazed in my record shelf hitting my on the three AIC CD’s that I had purchased years ago. Facelift their debut, the magnificent Dirt and their swan song, the self titled Alice In Chains. In addition the band has spawned acoustic material: SAP, Jar Of Flies, and naturally the recording of their performance at the MTV unplugged show. At fifteen years old with hair up to my ass (not literally, it was only up to my elbows) I considered all acoustic music too wussy and have never gotten round to buying those CDs. Nowadays they might be worth a try.
 In 1992 Nirvana was the biggest rock band on the planet and grunge had swept all the hair spray glam bands like Warrant and Poison off the music scene. From the rainy city of Seattle up north in Washington USA, there was popping up bands in every two minutes dressed up in the grunge uniform which consisted of ripped flannel shirts, worn out army boots and torn jeans. Biggest names in grunge were the afore mentioned Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains among a few others. Other prime movers which were not as successful commercially but enjoyed cult stardom were TAD, Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone to name a few. All these bands shared the same genre name grunge but were actually very much different from each other musically. Anyway this is not a supposed to be a story about grunge but a review of Alice In Chains’ Dirt. I will perhaps take a trip down memory lane and write a piece on grunge later in this feature. Stay tuned…
 What’s ironic is that AIC started out as a glam metal act and ended up being one of the leading lights in a movement that destroyed all those highheelglimmerglambighaired posers. In the late eighties when AIC was starting out Guns n’ Roses was the biggest and baddest band in the world and the LA rock scene was full of bad impostors. (Not saying that Guns n’ Roses was another useless glam band but a great innovatively traditional kick ass rock band. Maybe I’ll get back to them in future reviews too). AIC up in Seattle was no exception. At first they were just another bad Gn’R rip off. On the early demos you can hear Layne whine and moan like a second rate Axl over Jerry Cantrell’s cheesy hair-metal guitar riffs. It’s said that in the beginning they were even called Alice N Chaynz!? Anyway on Facelift the band started shaping up and creating their own sound and on Dirt they had moved on into the dark and sinister sound that AIC would be remembered of.
 The roots of the music on Dirt also lay deep in the soil of heavy metal and the disc was hard enough for metalheads but also attracted the alternative audience.
 The CD begins with the powerful riff of Them Bones and immediately informs the listener that this is no picnic. “I feel so alone gonna end up a big ol’ pile of them bones” sings Layne on the opening track and the same theme of despair frustration and anguish continues throughout all the songs. The second song Dam That River is also a more up-tempo piece but after that the music switches on a slower gear. From the third song Rain When I Die on AIC sounds like Black Sabbath of the nineties with Jerry’s harder than hell riffs and Layne’s said to be “Ozzy Osbourne meets Jim Morrison” like whining. More than one song’s lyrical content is about Layne Staley’s then said to be “former” heroin addiction. Not that hard to figure out what songs titled Junkhead or God Smack might be about. Although the songs are a bit on the slow side Down In A Hole is the only track suitable to be categorized as a ballad. The other songs are driven by the mighty heavy guitar but this has an acoustic one too. Still I didn’t consider that too wimpy back then and if I had, the fact that Slayer’s Tom Araya lends his vocal talent on one song would have made up for even an army of acoustic twingers.

R.I.P. Layne Staley

-VG-Rock-

Check Out: www.aliceinchains.com 

Vocals: Tony
Guitar: Jackson
Bass: Matt
Drums: Rory

Songs:
1. Not Your Savior
2. Life Size Mirror
3. Chasing Rainbows
4. Lies Can´t Pretend
5. Why Doesn´t Anybody Like Me?
6. Sleeping In
7. Fairytale Of New York
8. Pride
9. Always Carrie
10. Let It Slide
11. Six Degrees Of Misty
12. Coming Too Close
13. Saddest Song
14. Room 19

Released 1999

No Use For A Name
More Betterness!
(Fat Wreck Chords)

Most of you propably don´t know No Use For A Name. I first heard NUFAN in some snowboard films back in mid 90’s. NUFAN plays fast and furious “California punk” and I won´t deny the fact that it sounds little bit like Bad Religion or other bands of this genre, but NUFAN does it with really great songs and style.
More Betterness! delivers catchy, beautiful melodies and a lot of fast punk (there is also some slow songs too). This record just doesn’t have any bad songs in it, only one I don´t like so much is the only cover song on this album “Fairytale Of New York”. Some songs that really hit me are “Life Size Mirror”, “Chasing Rainbows”, “Lies Can´t Pretend”, “Pride” and “Always Carrie” (I actually could name almost all the songs). I won´t go any deeper of analysing these songs, because I only can say that these songs are punk songs with some great melodies.
The lyrics on More Betterness! are not so environmentally concerned as NUFAN´s earlier records. I don´t really listen to lyrics, but as far I understand most of the songs are about some girl related problems or something like that. Cover art of this album is the worst side of this album. It has some old photo of two women water ski´ing and some guy with a stetson taking a photo of them surrounded with some bizarre light blue and grey balls...I don´t get the point.
I also have to mention that NUFAN has changed over the years like many other bands have. Older NUFAN records like Daily Grind was much more about Anthrax kind of heavy riffs, which I like and it´s a shame to hear that those riffs are gone. But still if you are in the mood to listen some great California punk I really recommend No Use For A Name’s More Betterness! it´s really a rockin´ master piece!!!

-Ville "VsfingaZ" Sohlberg

check out: www.fatwreck.com

 

Lead vocals, Guitar: Paul Stanley
Guitars and Leads: Bruce Kulick
Drums Vocals: Eric Singer
Lead vocals, Bass: Gene Simmons

Songs:
1. Unholy
2. Take It Off
3. Tough Love
4. Spit
5. God Gave Rock´n´ Roll To You II
6. Domino
7. Heart Of Chrome
8. Thou Shalt Not
9. Every Time I Look at You
10. Paralyzed
11. I Just Wanna
12. Carr Jam 1981

Released 1992

Kiss 1992

Back in 1992 I hadn’t been listening to my childhood heroes Kiss for a few years. At that time I was only skateboarding and listening to punk bands like Shelter, Ramones (r.i.p. Joey), Coffin Break, All, Bad Religion, Pennywise and so on. I remember when my father brought a cassette copy of Revenge to me and I thought, “Kiss has put a record out...huge hairs (wigs) and tight leather, quite not my thing anymore”, but I gave it a shot anyway. When the first song “Unholy” exploded out of my speakers I was sold, it was just rockin`!!! After the summer of `92 all of my Quanta homies were sick and tired of Kiss and Revenge, but I Wasn’t. I just wanted more. Now ten Years later I have seen Kiss play live eight times, I have about 30 Kiss t-shirts, 80 Kiss cd`s, 80 lp´s, three sets of Kiss dolls, 50 home videos and a lot of other Kiss related merchandise. To put it shortly, I’m a Kiss freak.
  Revenge was the hardest Kiss record in years, much thanks to Gene Simmons who for the first time in years took Kiss seriously and didn’t just act in some shitty B-movies or didn’t do something other bullshiiit. Revenge also has some let’s party with some animal chicks, real rock and roll kind of songs, Paul Stanley really knows how to make great party rock with some sense of humor (or at least I hope he’s not completely serious with all the lyrics). One major reason for the harder sound was the new drummer Eric Singer who replaced Eric ”The Fox” Carr. Eric Carr died of cancer 26.11.1991. Carr always played the best drum solos and Revenge has one of those as a last track of this album...may Eric Carr rest in peace!
  Let’s go quickly through some of the songs from Revenge. “Unholy” is a great Gene song, a  really dark song in the vain of old classic “God Of Thunder”, one of the strongest songs from this album. “Take It Off”, a great party rock and roll song with some really funny lyrics “ Wave your panties in the air, lick your lips and shake your hair, uh huh. Ooh when you spread a little oil, yeah, my blood begins to boil, uh huh”, quite funny!?! Gr8 4 parteeez!! “Tough Love” is a song that brings out a darker and heavier side of Paul Stanley. “God Gave Rock `N` Roll To You II” (originally performed by Argent), at first I didn’t like this song at all, but as time went by I really started to like this song. At the end of this song Paul really gives his best rock aaaaanndd roooolll scream, which I like, but usually it only makes people want to turn the volume down. “Heart Of Chrome” is one of my favourite songs from Revenge. I don’t really know what is it in this song that makes it so special, but every time I hear it I love it...this shiiiit ROCKS!!  “I Just Wanna” is another amazing rock and party kind of song. Lyrics in the chorus are quite hilarious, it’s a little too hard to explain why, but if you ever got the chance to hear this brilliant song you’ll know what I mean. Last song is named “Carr Jam 1981”. It’s simply a couple of riffs built around an amazingbrilliantsuperbthunderous drum solo by The Fox...let’s give a big hand for drum solos!!
  Kiss Revenge is a really strong record. It`s not typical Kiss record, but it has classic Kiss sound in it (also thanks to producer Bob Ezrin). I have read that some Kiss fans in U.S.A. thought that Revenge is not enough adult and serious, but I think they miss the whole point; Kiss and rock and roll should be FUN not some serious shiiit. I have to also wonder would there be "Deuce" on Reprinted`s live set without this amazing piece of rock and roll called Revenge.

-Ville Sohlberg-

check out: www.kissasylum.com

Bass: Jay Bentley
Guitar: Brian Baker
Vocals: Greg Graffin
Guitar: Brett Gurewitz
Guitar: Greg Hetson
Drums: Brooks Wackerman
Oozin` aahs: Jay, Brett, Greg

Songs:
1. Supersonic
2. Prove It
3. Can`t Stop It
4. Broken
5. Destined For Nothing
6. Materialist
7. Kyoto Now!
8. Sorrow
9. Epiphany
10. Evangeline
11. The Defence
12. The Lie
13. You Don`t Belong
14. Bored & Extremely Dangerous

Released 2002