album reviews

Born from the combined talents of current and former members of Amorphis, Swallow the Sun and Kreator, Barren Earth is a unification of Finnish metal veterans making an album.

The first thing I noticed is the satisfaction the band has taken in the product they've created. That can be a hard thing to detect in a recorded release, but there's something about Barren Earth's "Curse of the Red River" that screams pride. They believe in every note, every tone, every growled word.

Evaluating an Overkill album is at this point much the same operation as evaluating an AC/DC album. If you like one, you’ll like them all. So for me, it’s more a question of how much I like the album relative to other Overkill efforts. I’m always curious to see what new minor cosmetic tweaks the band has made ever since finding their stride with “The Years of Decay” in 1989. Much the same as their American thrash contemporaries over the past two or so years, Overkill does not disappoint with their newest release, “Ironbound.”

This just didn't work out.

Serj Tankian went to all the trouble of getting his hands on a full orchestra to recreate his solo album "Elect the Dead"...and then didn't have them do anything.

You know what? I can get behind this.

Four or five years ago, I likely wouldn’t have cared for this album. I’m sure that I would have recoiled at enjoying an album that has this much mainstream appeal, and I certainly would have bristled at the idea of music that practically borders on hair metal revival.

Yet, in the midst of what seems to be an interminable period of mainstream metal that’s turned to doughy, emotional rock, “Time to Burn” is a nice, bombastic party rock album to have in your back pocket.