ninjuice
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Reviews 49
Approval 87%

Soundoffs 48
News Articles 57
Band Edits + Tags 229
Album Edits 87

Album Ratings 602
Objectivity 90%

Last Active 02-24-11 3:55 am
Joined 02-21-06

Review Comments 6,760

Average Rating: 3.20
Rating Variance: 0.79
Objectivity Score: 90%
(Well Balanced)

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5.0 classic
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Converge Jane Doe
Dark Tranquillity The Gallery
Alongside albums like Slaughter of the Soul and The Jester Race, The Gallery is one of melodic death metal's most praised and influential efforts. It takes the harsh, growled vocals and brutality of traditional death metal and adds more than enough melodic sensibility to make the music not just heavy, but elegant and tasteful as well. Despite lacking the distinctive keyboards in their later albums, it's the most consistent and all-around amazing album they have released. Highlights include the head-banger and air guitarist's delight "Punish My Heaven", guest female vocals on the title track, slowly-bookended "Lethe", and acoustic instrumental "Mine is the Grandeur...", which flows perfectly into the all encompassing finale "...Of Melancholy Burning". But make no mistake, The Gallery is amazing from start to finish, and the rest of Dark Tranquillity's catalog has proved it's anything but a fluke.
Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism
Howard Shore The Fellowship of the Ring
Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast
John Mayer Continuum
Kamelot The Black Halo
A rare find in not only power metal but music as a whole, The Black Halo is an album that more than defies expectations. To call this power metal doesn't do it justice - Kamelot take the straightforward metal formula and add their impressive control of dynamics within brilliantly tight but uncomplicated songwriting and musicianship. Top this all off with perfectly complementary keyboards and a singer whose voice reflects his classical training in every positive way, and you have The Black Halo in a nutshell. On a near perfect album, it's intimidating to pick highlights, but the vocal tour-de-force "Abandoned" and orgasmic 9 minute monster "Memento Mori" end up being the defining moments here. There are flaws, yes, but they're so incredibly minute that it hardly even matters. Finally, this is part two of a double concept album, and even that is executed extremely well.

If there are power metal albums better than this, they're about as rare as the Fountain of Youth.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Hamilton - Original Broadway Cast
Protest the Hero Kezia
One has to wonder if anyone expected something like this to come from the same band who made A Calculated Use of Sound, a debut that didn't even hint at what they would become. But after a year spent learning to play what they'd already written, Protest the Hero made Kezia, one of the most all around brilliant metal albums I've yet to encounter. Musically, it's flat out jaw-dropping; a nonstop assault of punk-ish metal, technicality and divinely orchestrated chaos. Lyrically? One of the best concept albums of all time, a three-act discourse with amazingly written socio-political and religious lyrics. Even my main initial problem - Rody Walker's voice - is quite unique and simply takes time to get used to (and/or come to love). One could try to pinpoint highlights, but the album's so full of memorable moments that doing so is an almost completely futile exercise - just like trying to find similar albums as good as this. Classic and essential in just about every way.
Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come
Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness
The most consistent, cohesive, catchy and impressive album Rise Against has released, featuring Tim's best vocal performance and a large share of their best songs. Striking a perfect balance between the raw fury of their past and giant hooks of the present, The Sufferer and the Witness is not only Rise Against's best album but one of the best albums of the decade. If I'm wrong, show me a ballad by a similar band that's as amazing as "Roadside", but until then, I'll be enjoying the fact the replay value here is as strong as the music.
Rx Bandits Mandala
Sublime covering De-Loused in the Comatorium. If that doesn't entice you, I don't see how anything else I can say will.
The Beach Boys Pet Sounds
The Beatles Abbey Road
The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life
The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium
The Roots Game Theory
U2 The Joshua Tree

4.5 superb
Anberlin Cities
Bright Eyes Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Coheed and Cambria Neverender
Dark Tranquillity Damage Done
Dark Tranquillity Fiction
It doesn't seem very often that a band almost touches a classic so long after releasing it, but that's exactly what Dark Tranquillity has done here. Twelve years after the essential melodic death metal album The Gallery, Fiction sees the band pouring every one of their strengths into 10 ridiculously good songs. Almost like an unintentional greatest hits, the ten songs here musically encapsulate everything that has and still makes DT such an amazing band. When it's all over (ending with their best closer since, well, The Gallery), this album serves as hope that Dark Tranquillity won't be burning out anytime soon. (although honestly, have they ever made us worry about that?)
Disillusion Back to Times of Splendor
Dropkick Murphys The Warrior's Code
Fear Before The Always Open Mouth
Feist The Reminder
Florence and the Machine Ceremonials
Frank Sinatra In The Wee Small Hours
Frank Sinatra Classic Sinatra: His Greatest Performances 1953-60
In Flames Colony
In one sentence, it's the perfect balance between "true" melodeath and the catchier, more commercial elements that would start to compromise their sound on Clayman. That, and it's bookended by "Embody the Invisible"/"Ordinary Story" and "Man Made God", which should be all I have to say to anyone who's heard them.
Iron Maiden Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Jay-Z The Black Album
The Black Album isn't Jay-Z's last album, but if he'd stayed in retirement, it would have been, and Hova would have thus bookended his career with his strongest release since the essential Reasonable Doubt. Lyrically, it's only bettered by his aforementioned debut, and the production is impeccable, unmatched by everything else he's ever done. The album only falls below its remarkably high self-established standard twice, and even then "Threat" and "My 1st Song" would likely be highlights on any album from a lesser MC. Sure, the albums before and after this were duds, but if Jay had retired for good, The Black Album would have assured the hip-hop community would be missing him. The rest of us are just hoping he can make something this good again.
Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt
One of the greatest rappers of our generation at the absolute top of his game, Reasonable Doubt is an essential near-classic that no hip-hop fan would be without. Here, the soon-to-be superstar unintentionally trumps every performance afterwards over old-school production, making everything after it sound just a little..."uninspired"?. The guest spots don't hurt either, especially when the late Notorious B.I.G. makes "Brooklyn's Finest" one of Reasonable Doubt's greatest moments. But as good as it is, it doesn't deserve full marks; a couple stronger tracks, better hooks or stronger production would elevate it to that level. Irregardless, we know he's never going to top this, and in some ways, it doesn't really matter - this album would hopefully have gotten Hova into the history books by itself.
John Powell How to Train Your Dragon
John Williams Minority Report
Judas Priest Painkiller
Kamelot Epica
Living Sacrifice Conceived In Fire
Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing
For me, Mean Everything to Nothing is a bit of an enigma. I both love Andy Hull's voice and find myself slightly annoyed by it. Manchester Orchestra's wonderful brand of alternative/indie rock isn't truly unique, but I can't think of anything that sounds really similar to this. It's amazing, but almost feels like it shouldn't be. Personal indecision aside, the chilling "I Can Feel a Hot One" is reason enough to listen to this album, and the rest of it will make you thankful you did. It's catchy, it's clever, it's accessible, it's fun, and the best part? One gets the feeling that they're capable of something even better.
Megadeth Rust in Peace
Michael Jackson Thriller
Muse Absolution
Polar Bear Club Chasing Hamburg
Regina Spektor Far
Rise Against Revolutions per Minute
Rob Dougan Furious Angels
Sarah Fimm Red Yellow Sun
Sarah Fimm could have gone on making the spacey, soothing trip-hop of her first three albums and her tiny but devoted fanbase probably wouldn't have cared - she was pretty damn good at it, after all. But in a period of about nine months, she made two brilliant choices: releasing a free EP that both reached new fans and hinted at a new direction, and completely ditching trip-hop for the new-age/folk/pop hybrid on Red Yellow Sun. While different, Red Yellow Sun sees Fimm exhibit the same strengths as before: the low-key instrumentation complements her voice perfectly, the songwriting never feels tired, and her amazing, soothing voice never falters. The only obvious flaw is a section in "Crumbs and Broken Shells" where guest Peter Murphy's operatic warble sounds grating against Fimm's smooth, controlled vocals. Ending with an awesome climax and one of the year's best closers, Red Yellow Sun is yet another excellent album that (if number of ratings are any indication) will hopefully get the recognition this woman's been deserving for awhile.
Soundtrack (Video Game) Mass Effect 3
Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb
Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between
The Beatles Revolver
Thrice Vheissu

4.0 excellent
A Fine Frenzy One Cell in the Sea
A Fine Frenzy Bomb In A Birdcage
AFI Sing the Sorrow
Anberlin Never Take Friendship Personal
Anberlin Vital
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Blindside Silence
Bob Dylan The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited
Bright Eyes Cassadaga
Chevelle Wonder What's Next
Chiodos Illuminaudio
Coheed and Cambria Year of the Black Rainbow
Coheed and Cambria The Afterman: Ascension
Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Coldplay Prospekt's March
Common Be
Converge You Fail Me
Converge Axe to Fall
Converge All We Love We Leave Behind
Cryptopsy None So Vile
Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen
Danger Mouse The Grey Album
Dark Tranquillity Character
Dark Tranquillity Where Death Is Most Alive
Death Cab for Cutie The Photo Album
Dropkick Murphys Blackout
Dropkick Murphys The Meanest of Times
Edge of Sanity Crimson II
Edge of Sanity Crimson
In the 13 years since its release, Crimson has attained an almost legendary cult status among metalheads - and for the most part, it deserves it. Very few bands have attempted (or succeeded at) something like this; a single 40 minute song chronicling post-apocalyptic Earth, worldwide infertility, a false messiah, betrayal and revolution. But as good as the idea behind this progressive (melodic) death metal album is, its execution leaves a little to be desired. The band isn't able to keep Crimson interesting for all of its duration, and there are some stretches in the middle (about as long as a normal song) where little to nothing interesting happens. As amazing a musician as he is, Dan Swano's singing voice leaves something to be desired, but luckily he doesn't use it all that often.
So for the record: Is Crimson unique? Definitely. Impressive? No question. Amazing enough to call classic? Not really.
Eluveitie Slania
Elvis Presley Elvis: 30 #1 Hits
Epica The Quantum Enigma
Feist Let It Die
Florence and the Machine Lungs
Frank Sinatra My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years
Frank Sinatra Nothing But the Best
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
In Flames The Jester Race
In Flames Come Clarity
Iron Maiden Dance of Death
Iron Maiden Powerslave
Iron Maiden Edward the Great
James Newton Howard Signs
Jay-Z The Blueprint
John Mayer Battle Studies
John Murphy Sunshine (Soundtrack)
John Williams Jurassic Park
Kamelot Karma
Kanye West Late Registration
Kanye West The College Dropout
Killswitch Engage Alive or Just Breathing
Less Than Jake Hello Rockview
Living Sacrifice The Hammering Process
Living Sacrifice The Infinite Order
Lo-Fi Scorpio Noir
Metallica Master of Puppets
Metallica Ride the Lightning
Metric Live It Out
Metric Fantasies
Michael Jackson Off the Wall
Misery Signals Of Malice and the Magnum Heart
Mos Def The Ecstatic
Muse Origin of Symmetry
Mutemath Mutemath
Nas STILLmatic
Nas and Damian Marley Distant Relatives
Opeth Blackwater Park
Paradise Lost Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us
Paramore Riot!
Pearl Jam Ten
Pharoahe Monch Desire
Pig Destroyer Terrifyer
Priscilla Ahn A Good Day
Project 86 Drawing Black Lines
Project 86 ...And the Rest Will Follow
Propagandhi Supporting Caste
Protest the Hero Fortress
Queen Greatest Hits
Radiohead OK Computer
Rammstein Reise, Reise
Rammstein had been slowly but steadily improving since their debut, and the majority of Mutter said they were ready to make something truly great. A bit ironic, then, that the band had to (in some ways) abandon their traditional sound to make their most varied, ambitious and consistent album to date. Here, these six Germans bring their signature industrial ("Mein Teil" and the title track), bluesy acoustic rock ("Los"), epic power ballads ("Ohne Dich", "Amour"), and even poppy industrial ("Moskau") - and best of all, they succeed at just about all of it. The major change of this album coupled with the disappointing follow-up suggest that they'll never make an album this good again - but to their credit, none of the other German industrial bands have either.
Rammstein Völkerball
Regina Spektor Begin To Hope
Regina Spektor What We Saw from the Cheap Seats
Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture
Robin Skouteris The King of ArtPOP
Rx Bandits The Resignation
Rx Bandits ...And the Battle Begun
Sara Bareilles Careful Confessions
Sara Bareilles Kaleidoscope Heart
Sarah Fimm White Birds
Sarah Fimm Nexus
Sarah Fimm Karma Phala
Set Your Goals Mutiny!
Set Your Goals This Will Be the Death of Us
Sights and Sounds Monolith
If the artwork or album title isn't a very good indicator, then "Sorrows" should make it clear: Monolith is a big album. Not really in length (although it is almost an hour long), but in scope. The huge, Vheissu-esque atmosphere helps this post-hardcore/progressive/rock hybrid retain an epic feel for most of its duration. Add in wall-of-sound production (it is produced by Devin Townsend), wonderful pop punk-esque melodies and consistent songwriting, and you have one of 2009's most interesting albums. With a debut this good, a sophomore slump still means a pretty good release, and it's not too often you can say that.
Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits 1974-1978
Steven Price Gravity OST
Streetlight Manifesto The Hands That Thieve
The Beach Boys 20 Good Vibrations: The Greatest Hits
The Beatles Let It Be… Naked
Like a gorgeous woman, Let it Be is even better naked.
The Beatles Rubber Soul
The Beatles The Beatles
The Beatles Help!
The Beatles 1
Like many 'greatest hits' or 'best of' collections, the problem with 1 isn't what it contains but what it leaves out. Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road are represented by a maximum of three songs each, while Rubber Soul, The White Album and Sgt. Peppers... get absolutely none. Of course, it was during their early years when the Beatles had more hit singles, so an album of "number one hits" won't be as comprehensive as it should be. Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is this: while a collection of many great songs, anyone who listens to just this is really missing out.
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Calm Blue Sea The Calm Blue Sea
The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis
The Fall of Troy Doppelganger
The Jezabels The Brink
The Jezabels Synthia
The Mars Volta Frances the Mute
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Let's Face It
The Roots Things Fall Apart
The Roots Rising Down
Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV
Tyler Bates 300
U2 Achtung Baby
U2 U218 Singles
Underoath Define the Great Line
Unearth The Oncoming Storm
VersaEmerge VersaEmerge
Weird Al Yankovic Running With Scissors

3.5 great
All That Remains The Fall of Ideals
Amplive Rainydayz Remixes
Anberlin Blueprints for the Black Market
Anberlin New Surrender
Anberlin Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place
At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul
August Burns Red Messengers
Come on people, it's not that good. In fact, this should be one giant borefest: it's not original at all, and like most any metalcore album it's pretty repetitive. There is, however, some x-factor that makes Messengers just...work. Hopefully their rate of improvement continues through to the next album, but for now August Burns Red have yet to make anything near a classic album.
August Burns Red Constellations
Blindside About A Burning Fire
Carcass Heartwork
Chevelle This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In)
Chevelle Vena Sera
Christina Perri lovestrong.
Coheed and Cambria The Second Stage Turbine Blade
Coheed and Cambria No World for Tomorrow
Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head
Coldplay Mylo Xyloto
Common Like Water for Chocolate
Converge Petitioning the Empty Sky
Dark Tranquillity Haven
Dark Tranquillity The Mind's I
Death Cab for Cutie Plans
Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs
Demon Hunter The Triptych
Epica The Holographic Principle
Fair The Best Worst-Case Scenario
Faith No More Angel Dust
Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape
The only Foos album worth your time or money. As good as the singles from their other albums are, nothing else has managed to be as consistent or interesting as this. Yeah, just about everyone has probably heard "Monkey Wrench", "My Hero" and career highlight "Everlong", but to leave it at that is ignoring the wealth of good material here. "Hey, Johnny Park!", "Up in Arms", "Wind Up", "My Poor Brain", heck, pretty much the whole thing is great. everything else they've released up has failed to measure up to this, but for just one album, the Foo Fighters could do no wrong. If only they could replicate such success again.
Fort Minor The Rising Tied
Most of us probably figured that Shinoda would release a side project, but I doubt many thought it would be this good. A bit like Kanye West, he lacks more than a little in the rapping department, but his skills as a producer easily overshadow this (with the obvious difference that Shinoda plays most of the instruments). There are definitely some duds ("In Stereo", "Slip Out the Back") but The Rising Tied succeeds due to its multiple guests, strong production and excellent singles. Now if he can quit Linkin Park...
Frank Sinatra Songs for Young Lovers
fun. Some Nights
Gay Witch Abortion Maverick
In Flames Clayman
Jay-Z American Gangster
Jay-Z Fade to Black (DVD)
John Mayer Room for Squares
John Williams The Patriot
Killswitch Engage As Daylight Dies
Less Than Jake GNV FLA
Lo-Fi Scorpio Lo-Fi Scorpio
Lostprophets Start Something
Lupe Fiasco Food & Liquor
Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child
Maroon 5 It Won't Be Soon Before Long
Metallica Metallica
Metallica Death Magnetic
Metric Synthetica
Misery Signals Controller
Muse Black Holes & Revelations
Muse HAARP
Mutemath Reset
MxPx Ten Years and Running
My Chemical Romance The Black Parade
Newsboys Take Me To Your Leader
Newsboys Shine: The Hits
Nine Inch Nails The Slip
Opeth Watershed
Paramore Brand New Eyes
Brand New Eyes sees Paramore mature even more within the confines of their alternative/pop punk sound, but it also begs the question: Is this the best they're capable of? When a band covers At the Drive-in live, listen to Thrice, "borrow" a lyric from Refused and write something very similar to (if not stolen from) a mewithoutYou song, surely great but still generic pop punk isn't all they can do. If there's any justice in the world, this will be Paramore's last album on the Fueled By Ramen label. In the meantime, Brand New Eyes is a helluva lot of fun, and Hayley's vocal prowess makes up for her band's somewhat mundane performance.
Pharoahe Monch W.A.R.
Project 86 Songs to Burn Your Bridges By
Queen Greatest Hits I & II
Rage Against the Machine The Battle of Los Angeles
Rammstein Mutter
Reflection Eternal Revolutions Per Minute
Refused Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent
Regina Spektor Remember Us To Life
Relient K Mmhmm
Relient K Five Score and Seven Years Ago
Rise Against Appeal to Reason
Appeal to Reason has been taking quite the bashing since its release, and most everyone has the same complaints:
"The music isn't 'passionate' enough."
"Those lyrics on 'Hero of War' suck."
"The polka-esque part in 'Entertainment' doesn't work at all."
I disagree, but even if that was all true, that doesn't stop a large majority of the album from being good or great. "Re-Education Through Labor", "Kotov Syndrome", "Savior", "Whereabouts Unknown"....Appeal to Reason delivers the goods. Changing their sound a bit doesn't mean they've lost any "passion", it just means Tim doesn't wanna shout all the time - or something like that. Whatever. Album is great, but why listen to me? I'm just a fanboy.
Rx Bandits Gemini, Her Majesty
Sara Bareilles Little Voice
Scar Symmetry Holographic Universe
SikTh Death of a Dead Day
Soulstice (USA-MD) Dead Letter Perfect
Soundtrack (Film) Across the Universe
Spoken Last Chance to Breathe
Sum 41 Chuck
Sum 41 All Killer No Filler
System of a Down Toxicity
The Beatles Let It Be
The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour
The Decemberists The Hazards of Love
The Empire Shall Fall Awaken
It's undoubtedly better than Killswitch Engage's new album, but Awaken isn't exactly something to get excited about. There's some pretty nice Meshuggah-influenced metalcore to found here, and with 8 songs spanning 40 minutes, the focus is on interesting songwriting instead of catchy choruses and predictably placed breakdowns. That doesn't mean there aren't breakdowns, in fact, one of the problems is that the not-so-common breakdowns are cliche and boring. The lyrics are also a bit too preachy (Leach trades his old spiritual/philosophical themes for political ones) and the shredding can be more flashy than it is interesting. Besides those points, Jesse's performance is great, and if it's true his band is made of jazz musicians then theirs is pretty commendable as well. Despite its faults, Awaken is a strong metalcore album, and one hopes The Empire Shall Fall improve from here (instead of going the other way like a, ahem, certain former band).
The Mars Volta Octahedron
The Roots Phrenology
The Roots How I Got Over
The Roots undun
Thirty Seconds to Mars 30 Seconds To Mars
Thirty Seconds to Mars This Is War
This Time Next Year Road Maps and Heart Attacks
U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind
Unearth III: In the Eyes of Fire
Upon Beauty Rests For the Days We Fear the Air We Breathe
Various Artists Halo 2 Original Soundtrack-Volume 1
Various Artists The Matrix Reloaded OST
Various Artists The Matrix: Music From The Motion Picture
VersaEmerge Perceptions
VersaEmerge Fixed at Zero
Weird Al Yankovic Poodle Hat
Weird Al Yankovic Bad Hair Day
Weird Al Yankovic Off the Deep End
Weird Al Yankovic Straight Outta Lynwood
Weird Al Yankovic Mandatory Fun
X Japan Art of Life

3.0 good
A Fine Frenzy Oh, Blue Christmas EP
A Fine Frenzy Pines
Aerosmith Just Push Play
All That Remains This Darkened Heart
Alter Bridge One Day Remains
Playing a somewhat refined but still generic form of radio-ready hard rock, Alter Bridge's debut is a rather average album. Guitarist Mark Tremonti displays much more talent than he did in Creed, and full-out shredding solos have shown up in several songs (thanks to vocalist Myles Kennedy playing rhythm). Kennedy also displays much more range than Scott Stapp, and thankfully significantly less swagger as well. Still, the album has several faults: the typical song structures, boring and sometimes awful lyrics, as well as little that distinguishes the songs from each other (or other bands on the radio, for that matter). It's occasionally quite enjoyable, but ultimately just another mainstream rock record.
Amon Amarth Twilight of the Thunder God
I must have missed whatever everybody else caught, because I have yet to understand what so many people love about Twilight of the Thunder God. If you've read any one of the reviews, you'll know the album does absolutely nothing new in the melodic death metal subgenre or with it's Viking/Norse mythological lyrics. And that's the problem.
The guitar riffs, the drums, the various growls/screams, the lyrics....it's all been done before, and in various cases much better. "But it'll make your balls bigger!" Yeah, so will various other albums, ones that are much more memorable and ultimately better than this. I'm not saying that Twilight of the Thunder God is bad - it actually leans over on the good side - but there's so little (if any) material that's interesting, unique or impressive enough to make it worthwhile.
Angels and Airwaves Love
Anna Nalick Wreck of the Day
Apologetix New And Used Hits:The Best of Apologetix
Arch Enemy Rise of the Tyrant
As I Lay Dying An Ocean Between Us
Audio Adrenaline Underdog
Audioslave Audioslave
Auditory Aphasia The Peripatetics
Austrian Death Machine Total Brutal
B.o.B The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Between the Buried and Me The Great Misdirect
It's a Between the Buried and Me album, which means there's some cool parts, some laughably bad stuff, a ton of semi-coherent wank, and Tommy Rogers' still bad harsh vocals. This could be excellent if it was half the length, but as it is it's just acceptable.
Birdy Birdy
Brand New Daisy
Chevelle Sci-Fi Crimes
Coldplay X&Y
Cross Movement Holy Culture
Cute Is What We Aim For Rotation
Dark Tranquillity Projector
Dark Tranquillity Skydancer/Of Chaos And Eternal Night
Dark Tranquillity We Are the Void
David Bazan Curse Your Branches
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien Funk Man (The Stimulus Package)
Demon Hunter Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter The World Is a Thorn
Destroy the Runner I, Lucifer
Disciple (USA-TN) Back Again
Disciple (USA-TN) Scars Remain
DragonForce Sonic Firestorm
DragonForce Valley Of The Damned (Demo)
Edict August
Eisley Room Noises
"It is a Christianality theme, it is fictional, but no religion in the music, it is Okay, it is funny, do you need some coffee from a Christian coffee shop?"

The quickest way to describe Room Noises is to compare it to Feist or Metric - female-fronted indie pop with basic instrumentation and simple song structures. The problem is, it's not as catchy as either aforementioned artist, and there's little else to keep one interested besides a strong vocal performance from Sheri Dupree (one of four siblings and their cousin who form Eisley). Her backing band might as well be studio musicians or even pre-programmed loops, considering their contribution to the album is completely forgettable.

So basically, the only truly interesting thing associated with this Room Noises is the memes.
Erin McCarley Love, Save the Empty
Eternal Tears of Sorrow Children of the Dark Waters
Evanescence Fallen
Falling Up Crashings
Falling Up Dawn Escapes
Fireflight Unbreakable
Foo Fighters Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Fort Minor We Major (Mixtape)
God Forbid IV: Constitution of Treason
Good Charlotte The Young And The Hopeless
Hans Zimmer Gladiator: Music from the Motion Picture
Haste the Day Pressure the Hinges
House Of Heroes The End Is Not the End
It's about as classic as every other pop rock/pop punk album of the past decade. What we have here is a supposed "rock opera" that could have been written by just about anyone else, and aside from the closing track, there's nothing that conjures up the grandeur such an album should have. Physical copies of The End is Not the End must release some very powerful hallucinogen, because the last time I checked, a lot of catchy hooks, and mediocre everything are not enough to earn a near perfect score.
In Flames Reroute to Remain
In Flames Soundtrack to Your Escape
Inhale Exhale I Swear...
Iron Thrones Visions of Light
Opeth minus the acoustics fronted by Tommy Rogers minus the suck make a progressive (melodic) death metal album minus replay value and truly impressive qualities. There's not much else to say about this, other than it's free, generic and too repetitive for its own good - you more or less get what you pay for here.
Jay-Z Kingdom Come
Jay-Z Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter
Jay-Z and Kanye West Watch the Throne
John Mayer Heavier Things
John Mayer Born and Raised
Juggernautz Juggernautz
Justifide The Beauty of the Unknown
Kamelot Poetry for the Poisoned
Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West has made an amazing album, worthy of the praise it's received and more. I am of course referring to his debut The College Dropout, which follows the unofficial hip-hop guideline of therefore being his best album. As always, West's unbelievable ego is very apparent on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but this time it manifests itself through overly long songs and now un-modified singing, mainly in the second half. The album starts out good: "Dark Fantasy" and "Gorgeous" are both good opening tracks, even if Kanye lacks whatever fire he used to have. "Power" is fantastic, even if it's outdone by the GOOD Friday remix. "All of the Lights" sports the best beat here and Rihanna's guest spot is - as usual - a welcome highlight, and "Monster" is better than anything from 808s and Heartbreak, despite Nicki Minaj's annoying performance. It's here where the problems - and the singing - start. "So Appalled" has uninspired performances from everyone involved. "Devil in a New Dress" sounds like a College Dropout b-side, with the most mundane beat here. "Runaway" sports the most annoying use of piano I've ever heard, and ends with 3 minutes of pointless noise. "Blame Game" basically wastes the usually-awesome guest John Legend before ending with pointless Chris Rock banter. Why it took people six years and the wrong album to realize West's quality as an artist is beyond me, but this is Merriweather Post Pavilion once more and somebody forgot to spike my drink - again.
Katy Perry One of the Boys
Katy Perry Teenage Dream
Lacuna Coil Shallow Life
Lady Gaga The Fame
Synthetic, generic, homogenous, and completely unimpressive, but also catchy enough to be mildly entertaining. It's very much the same thing that's been played on top 40 radio for quite awhile now. And I'll stick with singers who don't get their melodies out of the same can as their beats ok thanks.
Less Than Jake TV/EP
Linkin Park Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park Meteora
Living Sacrifice In Memoriam
Lostprophets Liberation Transmission
Mastodon Crack the Skye
maudlin of the Well Bath
Max Tannone Jaydiohead
Max Tannone Jaydiohead: The Encore
Mercenary Architect of Lies
Mick Boogie and Terry Urban Viva La Hova
Missy Higgins On a Clear Night
Muse The Resistance
Mutemath Spotlight
Mutemath Armistice
Mutemath Flesh and Bones Electric Fun DVD
Newsboys Thrive
Newsboys Step up to the Microphone
Nirvana Nevermind
Paramore All We Know Is Falling
Pax217 Engage
Pharoahe Monch PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Pillar Fireproof
Pillar Broken Down: The EP
Pillar Where Do We Go from Here
Polar Bear Club Clash Battle Guilt Pride
Project 86 Rival Factions
Project 86 The Kane Mutiny
Protest the Hero Scurrilous
Rammstein Rosenrot
Red (USA) Innocence and Instinct
Innocence and Instinct marks a definite improvement for Red, and anyone saying differently is a loon. The problem, however, is that the band has gone from derivative and boring to derivative and "okay"; riffs have improved, strings work better and songs don't drag as much, but it's still a trip through extremely familiar mainstream rock territory. It's nice to see a band moving towards potential when the opposite seems to happen so often, but Innocence and Instinct is just a growing boy cleaning up his mess, nothing more.
Relient K Apathetic
Relient K Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer
Rise Against The Unraveling
Rise Against The Black Market
Rufus Wainwright Want Two
Sanctus Real Fight The Tide
Sanctus Real Say it Loud
Senses Fail Still Searching
Set Your Goals Burning At Both Ends
Skillet Alien Youth
Smash Mouth Astro Lounge
Steve Jablonsky Transformers - The Score
Sum 41 Underclass Hero
Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown
The Ascendicate To Die As Kings
The Beatles A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles With the Beatles
The Fray How to Save a Life
The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath
Thirty Seconds to Mars A Beautiful Lie
Thousand Foot Krutch Phenomenon
Thrice Beggars
tobyMac Momentum
Trivium Shogun
Vertical Horizon Everything You Want
Weird Al Yankovic Alapalooza
Yellowcard Ocean Avenue

2.5 average
50 Cent Get Rich or Die Tryin'
A Day To Remember Homesick
AC/DC Back In Black
After the Burial Rareform (Re-release)
Better production and a now tolerable vocalist are small improvements on what remains a boring breakdown fest full of wasted potential (i.e. technical ability).
After the Burial In Dreams
All That Remains Overcome
Angels and Airwaves We Don't Need to Whisper
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
As Cities Burn Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest
As I Lay Dying Shadows Are Security
Atreyu Lead Sails Paper Anchor
August Burns Red Thrill Seeker
Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Boys Like Girls Boys Like Girls
Breaking Benjamin Phobia
Bring Me the Horizon Suicide Season
Bullet for My Valentine The Poison
A surprisingly decent album. No, the band does absolutely nothing new in the almost completely stale metalcore genre, but the execution is done well enough that it's not a real chore or pain to listen to. The instrumental performances are pretty solid, and with all the screaming you might not notice the lyrics might as well be written by Hawthorne Heights. Yes, there are much better bands that play quite similar music; yes, they'll be forgotten in several years along with 80% of the metalcore 'scene'; and no, The Poison isn't a terrible album. Actually, it's better than several other bands at the bottom of the spectrum.
Bullet for My Valentine Fever
Children of Bodom Blooddrunk
Chiodos Bone Palace Ballet
Cross Movement Higher Definition
Daughtry Daughtry
Demon Hunter Summer of Darkness
Demon Hunter Storm the Gates of Hell
Disciple (USA-TN) Disciple
Disciple (USA-TN) By God
DragonForce Inhuman Rampage
DragonForce Ultra Beatdown
Enrique Iglesias Escape
Foo Fighters One by One
Good Charlotte The Chronicles of Life and Death
Haste the Day When Everything Falls
Hawthorne Heights Fragile Future
Heaven Shall Burn Iconoclast (Part 1: The Final Resistance)
On the outside, Iconoclast seems like a great album: the vocals are semi-unique, lead single "Endzeit" is metalcore at its best, and it's based around several sociopolitical lyrical themes. Coming from Germany, I hoped these guys would stand out from all the other metalcore being produced on our side of the Atlantic.
Listening to the album is another story, because the hopes instilled by "Endzeit" quickly turn out to be empty promises. Nearly all the riffs are quite forgettable, the vocals become tiresome halfway through, and the lyrics aren't that great either. After giving this more than a fair chance, the only tracks that stand out are (you guessed it) "Endzeit", "Black Tears" (a well done Edge of Sanity cover), and the two instrumentals, "Awoken" and "Equinox". Here's hoping these guys put more of their apparent ideological passion into their music, because for now, they're not doing anything truly interesting.
Hoobastank Hoobastank
Inhale Exhale The Lost, the Sick, the Sacred
Iron Maiden No Prayer for the Dying
Jay-Z The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse
Jay-Z The Blueprint 3
Proof that the good material on American Gangster was a fluke and the few gems Jay's produced since coming out of retirement aren't worth all the crap one has to sift through.
Jay-Z and Linkin Park Collision Course
Kanye West Graduation
Killswitch Engage The End of Heartache
Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage (2009)
Kutless Kutless
Kutless Sea of Faces
Lifehouse No Name Face
Linkin Park Reanimation
Linkin Park A Thousand Suns
maudlin of the Well Part the Second
Metallica Load
My Chemical Romance Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
Newsboys Not Ashamed
Oh, Sleeper When I Am God
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and John Frusciante Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and John Frusciante
Owl City Ocean Eyes
P.O.D. Satellite
Pax217 Twoseventeen
Pillar The Reckoning
Project 86 Truthless Heroes
Take the serious potential for another amazing post-hardcore album that the band who recorded Drawing Black Lines had going for them and then throw it all away because the record label wanted them to record a run-of-the-mill hard rock album. Then, make the vocalist sing constantly instead of doing whatever he wants, which would usually include shouts, screams and rapid-fire lyric delivery. Oh yeah, and his lyrics need to be stripped of any shred of brilliance they had before, save a few great lines. This hellish recording situation for the band results in an album that's too uninspired and [back then] uncharacteristically simplistic to be anything more than "good", which is why fans with their heads straight will not choose it as their best album.
Project 86 Picket Fence Cartel
Apparently this all we're gonna get from latter day Project 86, an inoffensive and sometimes interesting hard rock album that sounds like a band making music they don't completely care about. Almost everything on Picket Fence Cartel sounds as tired as Schwab's vocal performance, and serves as further proof ...And The Rest Will Follow was their last worthwhile album.
Protest the Hero A Calculated Use of Sound
As awesome as they are now, just two years before Kezia Protest the Hero wasn't all that great. Sounding more like a hardcore punk outfit before their transition to metal, A Calculated Use of Sound quite rarely impresses and all too often bores the listener. Why? There's nothing here that really could blow anyone away. The instrumental performances are pretty standard, with young Tim and Luke playing punk-ish riffs for the duration of the album. Worst of all, every person who gets annoyed by Rody's vocals now will want to kill themselves listening to this. By no means does music need to be technical to be interesting, but even then there aren't any real positives to be found here. A Calculated Use of Sound may provide an interesting look at the band's origins, but otherwise it's pretty forgettable.
Red (USA) End of Silence
Relient K Relient K
Relient K The Anatomy of Tongue In Cheek
Sanctus Real The Face of Love
Skillet Collide
Skillet Comatose
Smash Mouth Summer Girl
It is/was their best album since Astro Lounge, but Summer Girl is just Smash Mouth being Smash Mouth.
Story of the Year Page Avenue
Taylor Swift Fearless
The Agony Scene The Agony Scene
The Agony Scene The Darkest Red
The Beatles Please Please Me
The Devil Wears Prada With Roots Above and Branches Below
The Mars Volta Amputechture
The Nightwatchman The Fabled City
It's better than One Man Revolution, but of course, that's not saying much. The Fabled City sounds fairly similar to the album before it, except that several of the songs sound more like "rock" than just "folk". Morello once again has an okay singing voice, but his almost nonexistent range and monotone delivery get pretty boring fairly quickly. And of course, the lyrics range from 'okay' to 'bad' or 'terrible'.
The Syncope Threshold Tale of The Complex Circuit
Thousand Foot Krutch Set It Off (Remastered)
Throwdown Vendetta
Train Train
Trapt Trapt
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety

2.0 poor
AC/DC Live
After the Burial Rareform
As Blood Runs Black Allegiance
"Hey, we're As Blood Runs Black, an awesome new death metal band. We play our instruments pretty darn well, but unfortunately it doesn't cover up the fact that we have close to no songwriting abilities at all. Do you like to mosh and headbang to breakdowns? Then this album is for you, because there's at least 20 on here! In fact, some of the songs basically revolve around them. We could play some more actual riffs, but we just love our breakdowns so much. So do all the fans, cause this new subgenre called 'deathcore' is really picking up steam. Well, gotta go, we've been charged with breakdown abuse and the music police are after us. Remember kids: CHUG CHUG!!!"
Atreyu A Death-Grip on Yesterday
Attack Attack! Attack Attack!
Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen
Between the Buried and Me The Anatomy Of
Blake Lewis Audio Daydream
Bon Jovi Have a Nice Day
Bon Jovi Bounce
Bon Jovi This Left Feels Right
Bowling for Soup A Hangover You Don't Deserve
Britney Spears ...Baby One More Time
Bullet for My Valentine Scream Aim Fire
Chris Cornell Scream
Common Universal Mind Control
Creed Human Clay
Drop Dead, Gorgeous In Vogue
Eiffel 65 Europop
Fall Out Boy Infinity on High
Falling Up Captiva
Five Finger Death Punch The Way Of The Fist
Good Charlotte Good Morning Revival
Great Northern Trading Twilight for Daylight
Green Day 21st Century Breakdown
Hawk Nelson Smile, It's the End of the World
Hawk Nelson Hawk Nelson Is My Friend
Yet another bad album from Hawk Nelson. Despite small improvements in the lyrics and singing, the music on Hawk Nelson is Your Friend still boils down to average guitar parts, inaudible bass and lackluster drumming. Not only does is it constantly fail to impress, but it's often painful to listen to. Perhaps the worst thing about Hawk Nelson is My Friend is the fact that the band has yet to truly musically mature or improve after three albums. You might be okay having Hawk Nelson be your friend, but I certainly am not.
Hawthorne Heights If Only You Were Lonely
Hoobastank The Reason
I Killed the Prom Queen Music for the Recently Deceased
In Flames A Sense of Purpose
It Dies Today Lividity
Lil Wayne Tha Carter III
Metallica Reload
Newsboys Go
Newsboys Devotion
Newsboys Love Liberty Disco
Norma Jean O' God, the Aftermath
Number One Gun Celebrate Mistakes
Oh, Sleeper Son of the Morning
Panic! at the Disco A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
Pillar For the Love of the Game
Scott Stapp The Great Divide
Smash Mouth Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth Get the Picture
The Devil Wears Prada Plagues
The Nightwatchman One Man Revolution
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Don't You Fake It
This Beautiful Republic Even Heroes Need A Parachute
Thousand Foot Krutch The Art of Breaking
Three Days Grace One-X
A copy of their painful mainstream hard-rock debut album, only a little better and not as painful.
tobyMac Welcome to Diverse City
Trapt Only Through the Pain
Trivium Ascendancy
Trust Company The Lonely Position of Neutral
VersaEmerge Cities Built on Sand
Winds of Plague Decimate the Weak

1.5 very poor
Atreyu The Curse
Attack Attack! Someday Came Suddenly
Since none of the other soundoffs has been able to properly analyze or dissect Someday Came Suddenly and the crabcore phenomenon, I would like to (if allowed) point you towards the Guardian, which summarized things better than anyone else has:
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/24/attack-attack-stick-stickly-video
Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold
Chiodos All's Well That Ends Well
FM Static What Are You Waiting For?
FM Static Critically Ashamed
Hawk Nelson Letters To The President
KJ-52 Collaborations
Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight
MyChildren MyBride Unbreakable
MyChildren MyBride Lost Boy
meh riff meh riff drum fill barf barf barf meh riff drum fill barf barf brodown meh riff brodown
Repeat ten times, and end with a tiny, ineffective antidote in the form of a clean instrumental. (No stupid but amusing song about Halo this time)
Enjoy LOST BOY!!
Norma Jean The Anti Mother
Panic! at the Disco Pretty. Odd.
Plus One The Promise
Protest the Hero Sequoia Throne: Remixed
Simple Plan No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls
Suicide Silence The Cleansing
Boring, predictable, repetitive, lifeless, generic......throw whatever adjective you want at it, but the point is you've most likely a metalcore/deathbore album that sounds just like this.
The Turning Learning To Lose
Three Days Grace Three Days Grace
Trivium The Crusade
Wold Screech Owl

1.0 awful
(hed) p.e. New World Orphans
Like an extremely misguided Linkin Park or Insane Clown Posse meets Rage Against the Machine cover band from hell, (hed)pe attempt to mix hip-hop, punk, rock and metal together. The sad thing is that for some rare, brief moments (usually when they stick to rock), the band sound like they know what they're doing, but then they launch into something like terrible rapping or a mish-mash of all three genres. Couple this with the fact that the lyrics are either political or sexual (both written with the understanding and ability of a 12-year-old), and you have one awful record/band. Someone please drive their tour bus off a cliff, pronto.
Atreyu Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses
brokeNCYDE I'm Not a Fan, but the Kids Like It!
DoomThrone Skeleton Veiled in Flesh
Eleventyseven And The Land of Fake Believe
Insane Clown Posse The Great Milenko
Insane Clown Posse The Amazing Jeckel Brothers
Moevot Abgzvoryathre
Rascal Flatts Me And My Gang
Rascal Flatts Feels Like Today
Soulja Boy Souljaboytellem.com
Waking The Cadaver Demo
Waking The Cadaver Perverse Recollections Of A Necromangler
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