Blogger Questions Answered!

As always, I am happy to respond to other blogger's questions regarding most anything about me. This question comes straight from Mr. SoCo himself, AlCantHang. Al is obviously a fellow metal-head, and is curious to know the following:

"What are you listening to nowadays? Anything new and exciting an old school metal fan should pick up?"

I'll take this as two separate questions independently. For the first question, here are some of the albums I've purchased in the last 3 to 4 months or so:

In Flames - Soundtrack to Your Escape
Children of Bodom - Hatecrew Deathroll
Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache
Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake
Unearth - Oncoming Storm
Flaw - Endangered Species

A couple of comments regarding these selections: The In Flames disc was a bit disappointing to me. Being a die-hard fan, this one sadly falls short of my expectations. Granted there are a few decent songs here, but as a whole, it's subpar for them. The Children of Bodom disc was surprisingly good, even if they do have someone playing keyboards in the band. Killswitch Engage - more on that further down. Lamb of God - I'm still going through my first listen and so far it's extremely impressive. Following up on their As the Palaces Burn cd, they've outdone themselves with this effort. Unearth - also still going through my first listen, but like it so far. Flaw - sorry, but this was horrible. It's not "real" metal, per se, but I bought it because their Through the Eyes cd from two years ago was so good. Oh well, it was cheap at least.

Now, back to Killswitch Engage. This is the answer to Al's second question. I would whole-heartedly recommend buying this disc. Today. It is solid from beginning to end. I feel that this one would appeal most to some of the old-school metal fans who got their wings listening to Master of Puppets, Among the Living, and Peace Sells, But Who's Buying.

The vocals are more accessible to those not accustomed to the raw, growling-type style of some of the most extreme bands of today. And the guitar work is very riff-oriented with outstanding production quality.

So that's it in a nutshell. Go out and buy Killswitch Engage's "The End of Heartache" today!