For its ambition, The Black Parade echoes that other rock record of Oct., 2006, the Killers' Sam's Town: brash guitars, brassy horns and Gerard Way's adenoidal yelp drive a concept album about a cancer victim's ghost (or something). Unlike their Vegas brethren, though, MCR don't switch up styles in an effort to squeeze a little gravitas out of their glossy rock. On this follow up to their 2004 breakout, they're slam-dancing with the vaguely gothic, amphetamine-laced sound that brung 'em. See if you don't do a spit-take when the titular single storms the ramparts toward the end. Epic and gutsy.
"I used to give a f*ck / Now, I give a f*ck less," Jay-Z states on "Success," and here he's abandoned Kingdom Come's beach chair for a spot on a dirty street corner. The album is painted in washed-out grays and dark blues, drained of hooks and informed by the loss and soulful sway of soaring horns and rattling bongos. This is nostalgia as blood lust, gangster rap as social commentary, and Jay wears his politics on his sleeve throughout, aiming at Imus on "Ignorant Sh*t" and licking shots at Reagan on "Blue Magic." This is an excellent return to form.
The third release from this barely legal Denver emo sextet is a concept album about a serial killer terrorizing a fictional town called Saylor Lake. Fans are encouraged to figure out who the murderer is, with an almost unheard-of level of hype culminating in some interactive online contest. But Worse Than A Fairy Tale may not need all the hoopla. With seriously impressive guitars, dynamic, spittle-y vocals and frequent codas you'll sing along with, the songs, especially the opener, are far better than the usual "crappy guitars with wimps singing" of most Warped Tour faves.
While there's no escaping the fact that the most hardcore drug referenced on this sequel to the 1975 album is, uh, caffeine (track 2), at least former members of the Alice Cooper Band are playing the music. And even though there are both Auto-Tune vocals and rapping, there are moments when the group's '70s ferocity is recaptured, sort of. Their proclivities for cabaret music and Broadway dramatics are also touched on. To be fair, that rapping ("Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever") is done as a joke, and Cooper's trademark sly humor is everywhere here.
Voted 2004's Album of the Year in Kerrang!, Terrorizer and Revolver magazines, Leviathan is a concept album based on Herman Melville's Moby Dick. The Atlanta prog-metal band's critically acclaimed combination of sludge-metal punch and Thin Lizzy-harmonized guitar leads made just about every metal fan in America say "UHG2BFKM!" when the album appeared and promptly began embarrassing everyone else in '04. Its only failing is that you can't actually toss harpoons at sperm whales while listening to "Seabeast."
Waters' first after the (temporary) demise of Floyd came a year after The Final Cut, and, with a conceptual thread and Gilmour-ish guitarwork courtesy of Eric Clapton, Pros & Cons looked, sounded and felt like a new Pink Floyd record. The dialogue underneath the music and plot shifts cued by sound effects and explosive guitar moves were the very apex of what people thought you could do with rock music in 1984. While another tale of a rich guy's midlife crisis may not have been so necessary and also may not have aged so well, the sonic aspects of the album are irrefutable.
Three 6 Mafia's soundtrack to the straight-to-DVD flick Choices offers the debauched Memphis gangster raps you've come to love (or hate). There are a few snippets from the movie, but they don't preview any major plot points. Meanwhile, the group engages in a battle of the sexes with La Chat on the rap hit "Baby Mama" and "2-Way Freak." It's the best aspect of a Hypnotize Minds showcase that has standout beats (check the crunk romp "We Shootin' 1st") and largely disposable raps, with T-Rock's grizzled vocals on "Slang & Serve" and "Wona Get Some, I Got Some" an exception.
One look at the art work and you can tell immediately that Blood Mountain is a concept album about the life-and-death struggle faced when one is lost in the wilderness, climbing a mountain at night and under the influence of some kind of transpersonal shamanistic sacred cacti. Right? Also, the album (their second concept attempt; 2004's acclaimed Leviathan, was about "Moby Dick") represents the elemental nature of the earth. Yeah, these guys are weirdos. You might want to avoid "Circle of Cysquatch" and "Bladecatcher" until the cactus has left your system. Or not.
Ridiculous and brilliant -- OK, maybe not brilliant -- the appeal of Cooper's most ambitious concept album can't be denied. Mixing cabaret, gore and hard rock, Welcome To My Nightmare is a record that could only have come out amid the weirdness of the 1970s. "Only Women Bleed" is one of his very best songs.
While it may not be easy to figure out what the members of Mastodon are talking about -- tsarist Russia, Rasputin, astral travel, wormholes and Stephen Hawking are tied together -- the important thing is to be open to the ideas they are exploring in Crack the Skye. It doesn't hurt that opener "Oblivion" is descended directly from Pink Floyd's Animals and that half the time you think you're listening to Blue Oyster Cult. The genuinely far-out groove-jam "The Last Baron" brings everything together with an effortlessness only Mastodon can offer.
Zombie has a heavier Slayer influence than past albums, five songs focused on faster speeds and, of course, zombies, zombies, zombies: songs about the coming zombie apocalypse, what zombies look like, being outnumbered by zombies and surviving the aforementioned zombie apocalypse. Singer Mike Hranica got the idea while reading The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. Why it took so long for somebody to come up with such a perfect idea for a metal record is beyond us; we're just glad The Devil Wears Prada finally did.
With Crazy Horse behind him and a fire underneath him, Neil Young has made a rolling epic to rival any of his triumphs. Greendale tells the saga of a family caught up in media hysterics and environmental woes. It's like Thornton Wilder's Our Town amidst an expanse of cracked, rumbling guitar and folk music.
Led by the killer title track, American Idiot finds Green Day sounding as vital as ever. Told through the character "Jesus of Suburbia," the concept album, released just prior to the 2004 presidential election, is nourished by the trio's vitriol over America's political climate and overall malaise. Rock-opera riffs complement instantly gratifying pop hooks that extend well beyond the band's punk roots. Even when they slow it down they still pack a punch. The album won a Grammy for Best Rock Album and reignited the band's flagging career all while spreading its message far and wide.
At the Drive-In members Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez regroup with this experimental project, which combines the Emocore of their past with 1970s psychedelia and a conceptual subtext. Heavy. At times Mars Volta sound like Hendrix's "1983...A Merman I Should Turn To Be." At other times they sound as good as Trail of Dead.
Three of hip-hop's most creative left-field visionaries join forces to give you a taste of the world to come. The Automator cooks up lush soundscapes overflowing with fresh beats and hyper-obscure samples. Del gets seriously loose with the verbals, smashing wack emcees while traveling through the post-apocalyptic 30th century. Koala goes off on the tables slicing and dicing like an intergalactic prep cook. While super-abstract space-rhymes are strangely popular with a number of subterranean squads, none are up to this level of technical genius and sonic superiority. The future is now.
