Type O Negative
Straight outa' BROOKLYN, NY, this is the greatest band ever conceived, and they just keep getting better with every release. The brainchild of Peter Steele (vox, bass), is a romantic venture and a sorrowful one at that. Let's start from the beginning. The first release by Type O is entitled "Slow, Deep, and Hard", and that's exactly what it is. Production wise, it is not the best, but it is far from bad. All the different instraments and vocals are mixed to the right levels, and everything is audible. Despite the low recording volume though, this album is an omen of things to come. The main theme of this is killing his ex-wife. The second release, "Origin of the Feces", is basically like its predecessor (it actually is an unlive version of it), but it includes more actual singing by frontman, bassist, and father of Type O, Peter Steele. The vocals are both deep and melodic. Also, we hear some backing vocals by other band members (mainly guitarist Kenny Hickey). This opus contains a few covers of classics such as Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", and Jimi Hedrix' "Hey Joe (seen here as Hey Pete)". Over all this album is a MUST. The next release, "Bloody Kisses", is definitely the mark of new things for Type O Negative. It is all singing, and no yelling done by Pete Steele, the keyboards here become featured as one of the main instraments as opposed to the backup role they played previously, and it still keeps its humor from the previous albums. This record sold over a million copies and it is evident as to why. Because people still love heavy metal, but trendies won't admit it. This is considered to many a sell out because it sold copies. I think it sold because it is definitely worth owning. So BUY IT if you don't have it. And I say that especially to you "Alternative", maistream motherf*!kers. The latest release, "October Rust," is the greatest album ever recorded! It KILLS all other albums. October Rust has the most well thought out melodies, harmonies, and instumentation in all of mine and your collections of music. This album has the heaviness of the previous albums, but taken to a high in production quality over any before. Also, the harmonies create the feeling of a valentino lover caressing the hell out of a gorgious chick, and the misery of a hopeless romantic having been left out on the street by the one he loves with all his heart. If you don't own this yet, your an ASSH*LE, and you know nothing about good music.
My Dying Bride
My Dying Bride is one of the bands that has a major influence on my own music. They themselves have gone through many changes musically throughout their career. On their earliest recordings, MDB was a doom metal band with death metal vocals, and a gothic tinge to it. The first LP entitled, "As the Flower Withers" is an excellent album if you like pure doom metal with growling vocals. The production is very good, especially for a first album, and the music has a lot of harmony to it. The next album, "Turn Loose the Swans" is what many consider to be their best. I myself heard this album first before I ever heard anything else by this band. It has awsome heavy melodies, and the harmonies along with a violin are extremely dark and sombre. The vocals on this album are a combination of clean and deep bellowing growls. A very nice mixture of the heavy and the light, melancholy. The last song on this cd has some female vocals too. The next release was an EP with all of the material from other pervious EP's. This is an excellent collection of stuff for already MDB fans. I wouldn't suggest to buy this first. What I would consider buying first is the next LP, "The Angel and the Dark River." Many old MDB fans dislike this release, but I consider it to be their best. This album is almost all slow, all melodic and the vocals are all clean this cd contains no growling. The production on this cd is one of the best I've heard anywhere. It is just about perfect. The songs on this album are for anyone who listens to sadness, with extra heavy and slow melodies. The harmonies on this album by the violins and the keyboards beat anything that this band has done before. The most recent release,"Like Gods of the Sun" is excellent as well. The instrumentation is a bit closer to their older songs, being that it is a bit heavier and slightly faster in tempo, but the singing is all clean and the melodies are beatiful. Many are now considering this to be their best album. Myself, I like it far less than the previous one, but it is still one of the best cd's in my collection. My Dying Bride is certainly one of the best bands out there. They are great at their respective instraments, and they are in tune so well with each other as a band, that they can come up with very complex songs. The lyrics are poetic throughout and are some of the greatest lyrics I've ever seen. I wish I could write lyrics as well as Aaron from MDB. The sum this up, go out and get an MDB disc. It will be one of the best purchases you ever make.
Anathema
Anathema is a band with similar roots as My Dying Bride. They are a Doom metal band that at first had harsh vocals and an extremely heavy sound. In fact the two bands have accused each other of "copying" the other. This is not at all the case, and in fact, as MDB has gone the way of their earlier stuff once again (not including the vox), Anathema has progressed farther along their path, and are now one of the greatest bands in existence. The album "Eternity" is one of the best albums I've ever heard. The production is the best ever along with Type O's October Rust. The music is beatifully melodic and harmonic. The vocals are clean and full of sadness, and the atmosphere is enough to cause you to cry from the beauty of it all. This is by far the most moody album ever. At times it is downright melacholic, and at other times it is angry. At some points there is almost happiness, and at others there is a feeling of hopelessness. The lyrics, as on all of the Anathema records are extremely poetic, but they aren't that tyoe of poetry that make you ill from all the self loathing. They are creative and metophoric. I suggest Anathema to anyone. Whether you like heavy metal, or ambient, atmospheric meditation music. It is even great if you are a classical lover because of all the influences. Get Eternity if you want an Anathema album, but the others are good too. "Pentecost III" would be my other choice, as it is the other Anathema album that I own and I like it very much as well.
Lacrimosa
Lacrimosa is a band you probably have never heard of. They are a gothic rock/metal band from Germany, and are less than obscure here in the U.S. I happened to accidentally come across "Inferno" at a used cd/tape store in York, PA, and I must be honest with you, it is the absolute best album I own besides a select one or two. Lacrimosa is the invention of lead singer Tilo Wolff. The band has keyboards, a guitar, bass, one of the most talented drummers I've heard in the genre, and a small orchestra playing with them including cellos, French horns, and others. This band is the final word when you talk about a band with the ability to harmonize a melody. The vocals are clean and deep for the most part by Tilo and Anna (female vocalist) has a high, sweet voice perfect for offsetting the depths at which Tilo sings. They are always perfectly harmonized when singing together and the music is precision. You'll never hear a flaw on a Lacrimosa album production and playing wise. It is an extremely well balanced mix. It goes from the quiet and it leads into the heavy. Many of the songs build up too which is one of my favorite listening experiences in music. The average legnth of a Lacrimosa song is roughly nine and a half minutes making their songs well developed and beautiful to just sit down and listen to. There are numerous albums to choose from. I own two and I suggest to buy "Inferno" being that it is my favorite one. You can find these albums for sale on Isolation Tank's Home Page to which there's a link on my main page. If you don't like to mail order that's fine, but it's worth it when talking about this band. I only hope that one day, Lacrimosa will travel to the U.S. to play a show.
W.A.S.P.
W.A.S.P. is possibly the best band to come out of the 1980's pop/heavy metal genre. In fact they are one of the best bands to come out of the 80's in any genre. Although often catagorized with such bands as Poison, Cinderella, or Motley Crue, they are truly more unique sounding. They also have something that those other bands don't have-a distinct doom feel to their music. They are gloomy and pissed off, and the vocals and music show it. I feel they are one of the bands that led to much of the doom metal we listen to today. From the vocals and lyrics of Blackie Lawless, to the excellent guitar work of Chris Holmes, W.A.S.P. portrays songs about sexual perversion, violence, and indulgence into the realm of alcohol and drugs. Other songs discuss a tendency toward the somewhat supernatural. There is little to discuss about their instramentation. Two guitars, Bass, Drums, na doccassional keyboards rounds out your basic heavy metal band. It's the music itself that makes W.A.S.P. so unique and powerful to listen to. The first release by this band is a single entitled, "Animal (F*ck Like a Beast)". THe next was a self titled album which was probably their most original album being that nobody had really done what they were doing up until that time. THe next release, the one that I consider to be their best is entitled, "Last Command". It contains the song that became their biggest hit, "Wild Child" and my favorite W.A.S.P. song, "Widowmaker", a doom like epic of destruction. "Inside the Electric Circus", and "Live, in the Raw" were their next two releases, also both excellent as any before. Then an album entitled, "The Headless Children" was released. It is an excellent album overall, but it was not as popular as any before. This album marks a point in W.A.S.P.'s history where there was a dramatic style change. This album is not the one where it was forever non-remeniscent of old W.A.S.P., but there are clues here. After tis album, Chris Holmes left the band, and Blackie was now the sole song writer. The next album is a concept cd, "Crimson Idol", which tells a story that sound somewhat similar to the actual life of Blackie Lawless. It is a much different, more complex sound than anything they had done in the past. There is a lot more keyboards, some acoustic guitar, and the vocals are more trained sounding than ever before. It is the most unique W.A.S.P. album before or since it's release. The next was a greatest hits release, and then another album was put out on market. "Blacker than Black" is a good album, sounding similar to Crimson Idol, but different in that it is less complex. This is probably the best production job on any W.A.S.P. album, but some of the songs begin to sound like each other. Minus of course the acoustic ballad which will make you cry it's so sad, and another song which is so extremely depressing, you might even kill yourself to it. The next release and perhaps the most anticipated W.A.S.P. album ever is entitled, "Kill, F*ck, Die". It is almost industrial sounding, and can get a bit extraneous, but it is overall their most inventive stuff since the original self titled release. I'd give some thought into aquiring any of the aformentioned albums and if not, well then get off my web page!
Paradise Lost
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson is my favorite bands to see live. I've gone to a manson show six different times since they first openned for Nine Inch Nails at Madison Square Garden. I began listening to Marilyn Manson before they ever released their first album, "Portrait of an American Family", and I have been a huge fan since. There is just one thing I hate. Mansonites. Those are the people that began listening to the music after the cover of Sweet Dreams was released. It is an excellent cover, but that is what it is. A cover. Those who pretent to worship a stage show are pathetic. I have been a huge supporter of the band since I first received a basement demo of the band in 1992. It contains some really bizaar music on it. The Portrait album was their first LP and at the time was my favorite album to listen to. I listened to it constantly, everyday. It is a well produced (Trent Reznor) album with spooky samples and shock lyrics. The vocals are sung and yelled in a great mixture of tones and textures, and the music itself is obscure. It is the most original album I'd ever heard at the time. The music is spooky and it is all together only for those who can handle the wicked. The next release was the EP, "Smells Like Children". It contains no new songs, but remixes of old ones from the portrait album. There are some covers included on it (Sweet Dreams, Rock n Roll Nigger, and I Put a Spell on You) and also some new wacky, hauntingly diranged keyboard and sample tracks. Over all it was a really cool EP. Finally the new album came out entitled "Antichrist Superstar", and it is a concept album telling the story of a worm who sprouts his wings and becomes a rock star. Interesting storyline, the music is better. The vocals are yelled more on this album because the songs required it. The production is as sweet as ever, and the music and lyrics are the most anti-social as ever written. You have to be messed up to write something like this. I kind of like that about Marilyn Manson. The songs on this album represent all that is wrong with society and I strongly agree with Manson's political views. Unfortunately you have a lot of little Mansonite children running around carving the name Marilyn Manson into their arms, chests, and anything else they feel like. The songs since the new album are on a couple of sountracks. "Apple of Sodom" is an excellent song from the Lost Highway soundtrack, "The Suck for Your Solution" off of the private parts soundtrack and the number entitled "Long Hard Road Out of Hell", from the Spawn soundtrack featuring the Sneaker Pimps are the three to be released so far. I guess I can only wait until more are released. With a little luck, maybe a cool home video featuring the music videos will come out. The videos are the best ever made. Search around cause it might come out as a huge money maker.Marilyn Manson's newest release, "Mechanical Animals" is a very good album. But it's not great like their others. A little more laid back, they seemingly have gone for the glam look, and have written much more radio friendly music. It's worth owning though.
White Zombie
Pantera
Ozzy Osbourne
I can't believe I waited this long to mention the master. I'm not going to tell you about the albums or the songs of Ozzy, just simply because if you don't yet have them, you should leave my web page and never return. I want to tell you about the experience I had when I saw Ozzy live. I went to Ozzfest '97 at Giants Stadium this past summer of 1997, and present at that show were Type O Negative, Pantera, Marilyn Manson, and a few other descent bands (Machine Head). The acts were all phenominal, and I was having an awsome time with my friends Paulette, Quinn, Ian, and some others. The pits were fun and the crowd was cool. The fact that we were high made it an even better experience. But nothing compared closely to the moment when Ozzy first came onto stage. I remeber how I was just in awe of this one person, who is outright responsible for so much of the music I listen to today. His presence was amazing to me. It was the feeling that someone would have if they had just met their god. The show was the best I'd ever been to just for the sheer emotion it had for me. I can't say anything else except for the Black Sabbath reunion being a great ending to the whole night. I leave you with these images of one of the masters of all that is music.
