Meshuggah - Koloss

I wrote about two anticipated releases back in January and now I have both of them!

Meshuggah is another one of those unique bands that play music that you can't really put a label on except Meshuggah music. They've been around for about twenty years and haven't changed much. For me they have gotten better and better over the years. They are better over an entire record now than they were 10-15 years ago. "Destroy, Erase, Improve" and "Chaosphere" might have some of the best songs in the band's career but they aren't as good as the records after "Catch 33".
"Koloss" falls in the same category and after one listen it sounds really promising. I'm lucky that the Mars Volta vinyl won't come out until May, this give me more time to really get in to "Koloss".

Iron Maiden-En Vivo!

The new The Mars Volta album wasn't the only album I picked up yesterday. The band that has grown to be one of my big favourites, Iron Maiden, have come out with a new release for the fifth year in a row.

Two of these records have been compilations, one has been a full length studio album and one of them was a live album.

The new release is entitled "En Vivo!" and this is also a live album (three years after the last one...) and it's a concert they did in Chile. I haven't listened to it yet and I'm not sure I ever will, I still haven't heard the "Flight 666" album... I'm not a huge fan of live albums actually, I prefer to listen to studio albums. I'll probably buy the "En Vivo" blu-ray so I can play it on our TV we'll just have to get a new soundsystem for the TV to make Iron Maiden (and other concert DVDs and blu-rays) justice!

Leaders of the extreme

On the front cover of Napalm Death's new album there's a sticker that says what the title of this blog post is.

ND have been around for nearly 30 years playing extreme music. They started out as a grindcore band and, except for some weird stuff in the 90's, that's what they've been since.

This record "Utilitarian" is their 15th full length! They sound as vital as ever. ND have in later years had a great mix of death metal and grindcore and this record builds on the same recipe. There are also a few surprises. How about a saxophone solo on a grindcore record!? Never thought I'd see that...

There's a great story about how this extremely influential band got back to their roots of playing grindcore again. That is one of when Shane Embury (ND's bass player since the 80's and competing with The Melvin's Buzz Osborne with the coolest hair do in music business) heard the debut album of a Swedish grindcore band Nasum. This really is a "build up" to a future blog about my Nasum collection...