Fucked Up - David Comes To Life

Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
Always ones to confound expectations, these Canadian prog punkers followed up the disappointing 'The Chemistry Of Common Life' with this concept album which tells the story of a factory worker called David and a doomed love affair he has.

Queen Of Hearts takes a punk rock backbeat and overlays it with psych pop guitar lines while Pink Eyes bellows away with simmering rage. The female backing vocals even add a Juliana Hatfield '90s indie vibe to the mix. The Other Shoe has a similar stylistic mix with Skids style punk meeting '90s American indie whilst the vocals add a hardcore edge. Elsewhere, I Was There is swinging Fugazi-ish art core whilst the swirling sound effects give it a spacey feel.

Turn The Season is Gaslight Anthem's blue collar rock gone hardcore whilst  the Gaslight style guitar licks make A Slanted Tone very memorable. That Gaslight Anthem influence runs throughout much of the album which is surprising. Running On Nothing even has a country twang to it.

Ship Of Fools is more typical Fucked Up with that classic old school punk tempo and tone stretched to breaking point. A Little Death has a killer chorus while Remember My Name's obtuse chords give it a Fugazi-esque late '90s emo feel.

This album is a lot more melodic than previous releases although this melody comes largely from the guitar lines. It is essentially American radio rock filtered through Black Flag. The lyrics are excellent as always and really add to what is, overall, an ambitious and dazzling piece of art.

Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights

Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights
The opener, Sound Guardians, really sets the tone for this album. It's a heavy wall of swirling, psychedelic, fuzzy as hell bass guitar punctuated by the chaotic, freeform drumming of Brian Chippendale. It is exciting and inventive, and this continues throughout the whole record.

Nation Of Boar is a meaty biker rock riff fighting its way through layers of swirling noise and clattering percussion. Colossus starts like one of Nirvana's more maudlin numbers before the whole thing is fed through Earth's backline and piloted to the sun by Dave Wyndorf. The Sublime Freak is wild Acoustic Ladyland style post jazz pushed into overdrive with a huge amount of distortion. Rain On Lake I'm Swimming In is the craziest hoedown you've ever heard while S.O.S. is a much gentler form of weirdness.

This album is crazy and that is a large part of its appeal. They say there's a fine line between genius and madness and this band straddles the two camps fairly comfortably. The whole album comes across like a deranged Big Business. Excellent.

Double Dealer - Deride At The Top

Double Dealer - Deride At The Top
This is a side project featuring members of Japanese bands, Concerto Moon and Saber Tiger (no, me neither!). This is melodic metal somewhere between power metal and hard rock.

The first three tracks, My Straight Shout Squeezed My Soul, Draw The Curtain and the title track, are high octane tracks which sound like a cross between Coverdale era Purple and Savatage. It's a really good start with some top notch playing and reasonable yet distinctive vocals. Vocalist, Takenori Shimoyama, wails away throughout the record like Ian Gillan with a body part (choose one!) trapped in heavy machinery. I don't mind them but can see why people would dislike them.

The rapid fire and theatrical Petal In The Palace has a hint of King Diamond about it and features some great prog tinged keyboards in the middle eight. Cosmos Filled is slower, chugging metal with keyboards and a solo Ozzy vibe. Love Is Not An Indulgence features some lightening fast fret wizardry. Moon Beyond The Glass is '70s hard rock, think UFO meets Uriah Heep.

It does, however, have a tendency to be rather overblown. The ballad, If Fate Includes All The Love, is hideous. Imagine a cross between one of the tracks at the end credits of a Studio Ghibli movie and Celine Dion performed by Kiss at their most pompous. Lay My Hand On My Heart is the longest track and it is prog metal similar to Time Machine, although in the softer passages it comes dangerously close to being overwrought and bloated. The Pain is a mixture of Liberace's pomp, Meatloaf's theatricality and Joachim Cans' melodic metal nous and I'm as torn on this track as I am on those references. Oh well, I guess two out of three ain't bad!

This album is front loaded, with the best tracks coming in the first five numbers but overall, this is still pretty decent.