This is Crowded House's first LP with Tim Finn. Crowded House: Tim Finn (vocals, guitar); Neil Finn (vocals); Nick Seymour (bass); Paul Hester (drums). " Beauty" is not a word often used to describe pop music. But in the case of Neil Finn & the Australian-based trio Crowded House, it is more than appropriate. On WOODFACE, the group is joined by Finn's brother, Split Enz-meister Tim Finn, for an album that's filled with intelligence, grace, & humor, not to mention absolutely breathtaking vocal ...

The title Deathrace King & the back cover's " Born to Race!" credo are early clues. Throw the disc on though & all suspicions will be confirmed by the snare drum's classic hardcore sound: speed is the impetus & Deathrace King is pure killer thrash. The term "thrash" might sound like a relic of the '80s but the Crown are a throwback, the thrash/speed metal spirit infusing their muddy, underground sound. Taking thrash to an extreme, the death metal movement upped the ante on tempos & vocals ...

There's a terrific reason why the triple-CD Crusaders retrospective The Golden Years included six of Free as the Wind's eight tracks -- the material. Indeed, side one of the LP version may be the strongest single side of original tunes that the band ever put together. It opens with Joe Sample's driving, tense title cut, & flows flawlessly through Stix Hooper's subtly funky "I Felt the Love, Pops Popswell's infectiously finger-popping The Way We Was" (a high point in the Crusaders' groove col ...

When lead singer Lord Worm left Cryptopsy for the second time after 2005's Once Was Not, longtime followers didn't know quite what to expect from the next lineup. It is safe to say that hardly any of them expected anything having to do with metalcore, but as it turns out, metalcore is a major ingredient on The Unspoken King, which finds Cryptopsy unveiling a new six-person lineup that

Includes:: newcomer Matt Mc Gachy (who has been with the Montreal-based band 3 Mile Scream) on lead vocals, Flo Mou

...

No matter how much Crystal Castles insist they're named after She-Ra's fortress & not the 1983 arcade favorite, thanks to the Atari sound chips in their keyboards, their music evokes vintage video game soundtracks -- albeit ones that have been folded, spindled, & mutilated almost past recognition. On their self-titled debut, Crystal Castles (aka Ethan Kath & Alice Glass) hurl eight-bit bleeps, bloops, & noise as relentlessly as Space Invaders marching down a screen, turning these sounds ...

In the mid-1980s, the Cult was one of England's leading hard rock revivalists but there was always more to The Cult than met the eyea band with slight psychedelic flourishes, influenced primarily by Native American mysticism that also touched upon post-punk goth rock, fused with the spirit of AC/DC & Led Zeppelin. After going into hiatus twice (once in 1995 & again after the release of ' Beyond Good & Evil' in 2002), The Cult are back
- all swagger & attitude -with ' Born Into This', the
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Image-wise, the Cult still weren't entirely there yet, as the band photos show. Ian Astbury's bandana is more dated than anything else. But it's Billy Duffy's look -- a Duran Duran/ Spandau Ballet wannabe, down to the haircut & suit -- which is terribly amusing in context. Musically, though, on their full-length debut, the Cult were pretty much on their way. Duffy's dramatic, spaghetti Western-tinged, dark psychedelic guitar & Astbury's passionate semi-wailing set the tone from the start and ...