Album of the week - Come What(ever) May - Stone Sour (2006)

Background: Stone Sour, for those of you that don't know them, are the side project of Slipknot's Corey Taylor and Jim Root. The band formed in 1992 but went on hiatus in 1995, before recording their first album, so corey and jim could focus on Slipknot. They reformed in 2002 to release their critically aclaimed first album, and this follow-up.

Tracklist: This is one of my all time favourite albums, largely because of the variety of it. You have some proper heavy metal tracks, like "30/30 - 150" and "Come What(ever) May", but you also have the clean ballards such as "Sillyworld", "Through Glass" and "Zzyxz Rd.", and then you have uncatograisable songs like "Socio" which sounds like Heavy Metal meets dick dale surfer rock, and "Cardiff" which sounds totally like nothing else at all. You never know what's coming in this album the next track could start with an acoustic gutiar chord just as much as it could start with a blast beat and scream. 

Vocals and Lyrics: Corey Taylor shows a totally different side of himself in Stone Sour when compaired to Slipknot. The vocals are almost totally clean with barely a scream to be found. The lyrics are definatly a high-point of the album, especially when compaired to the majority of Slipknot songs (some exceptions though). The subject of the lyrics vary widely, including political lyrics: (the title track "Come What(ever) May" is about the bush administration, "Sillyworld" is about corporate America and the degrading of ideals). Taylor's personal life ("Made of Scars", "Zzyxz Rd.") The music industry, and the generation gap ("30/30 - 150", "Through Glass"). 

Instumentation: Like the rest of the album, this is very varied. from heavy blast beat drumming in "30/30-150" to the piano and acoustic guitars of "Zzyxz rd." The rhythms remain solid throughout. Many of the guitars beats stick to unconventional scales, which helps lend the album an "unusual" sound. The album lacks any truely stand-out solos, but it never falters in it's effective rhythm, and decent solos.

Conclusion: This album is truely exceptional and incrediably under-rated. The real strength of this album is that the truely angry emotional songs are not the agressive ones, but the soft acoustic ones. "Through glass" is a furious rant at pop culture, but delivered with soft style and suvtelty. "Zzyxz rd." is about Corey Taylors alcoholism, and i guarentee more moving than anything you will hear on the radio. In short, if you don't have it, you need to hear this album, it's original, it's different, and it's very good.

Album of the week: Painkiller – Judas Priest (1990)

Genre: Heavy Metal/Speed Metal/Power Metal

 

Background: So I thought I’d start my metal album of the week with the classic “Painkiller” album, I’ve been listening to a lot of Priest in anticipation of Priest Feast this weekend \m/. This album marks Priest’s return to form after the sub-par efforts that were “Ram It Down” and “Turbo”. This album is heavily influenced by the thrash artists such as Megadeth and Slayer that emerged in the 80s, that were ironically themselves influenced by earlier Priest.

 

Tracklist: This album is Priest at there finest, the title track is a legendary metal masterpiece, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest metal tracks ever. The tracklist remains strong throughout, “Hell Patrol” is a fan favourite often played live. “Leather Rebel” and “Metal Meltdown” are both notable for there blistering speed and thrash tendencies. “Between the Hammer & the Anvil” is a personal favourite of mine, after a lacklustre series of chords, it explodes into Priest at there finest, with a catchy chorus and some great riffage. In my opinion the weakest point of the album is the final track, the power metal-esque ballad “one shot at glory” and it’s intro “Battle Hymn”, it lacks the speed and ferocity of the rest of the album, and generally is a bit of an anticlimax for the album. It’s one redeeming feature is a superb guitar solo.

 

Vocals and lyrics: Little needs to be said about Rob Halford’s vocal ability, his enormous vocal range is fully explored in this album which showcases his abilities perfectly. From crunching lows to the scary highs of the title track, every note is perfect. The lyrics on the other hand are very cheesy and stereotypical. However Judas Priest invented the stereotypes, so it’s hardly fair to criticize them for this.

 

Instrumentation: This was Priest’s first album with drummer Scott Travis, and wow can you tell the difference, perhaps because the Album kicks off with a legendary drum solo? This high quality drumming continues through out with extensive use of the double bass pedal and some fairly complex beats in songs such as “Hell Patrol”. The guitars are exactly what you would expect from the Priest duo of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. Heavy riffing throughout, with extensive use of many small fills, in the middle of songs, as well as incredible solo’s.

 

Conclusion: Overall this album is a true metal classic. It’s one of Priest’s heaviest albums and also one of there best. It’s is very close to musical perfection, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could have more impressive vocal ability than Rob Halford, and the rest of the band put in superb performances too. Very difficult to fault.