Defying all expectations, the one and only Rock(jock) makes it back again! (You know you’re excited…or something). He even brings a special guest, who, if you have been listening, was mentioned in last two shows. With that, we also have a diverse review line-up, which includes one album where I guarantee some of the ratings given will shock you (hint: stick around to the end). In the middle of the show, we “rapid fire” 10 new singles giving our first impressions of new albums dropping in the coming months. Yes, TEN! And we have more coming next week, so make sure you stay tuned.
Want to listent too all of the new music as it comes out? Then makes sure you’re following The Sideshow on Google +!
Reviews: Alice In Chains – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (Capitol); Kylesa – Ultraviolet (Season of Mist); Scale The Summit – The Migration (Prosthetic); The Ulex – Old Giant (independent)
Previews: August Burns Red – “Spirit Breaker”; Autopsy – “Arch Cadaver”; Battlecross – “Force Fed Lies”; Darkane – “The Sinister Supremacy”; Havok – “Give Me Liberty…or Give Me Death”; Kalmah – “Seventh Swamphony”; Masterplan – “Keep Your Dream Alive”; Mercenary – “Through Our Darkest Days”; Newsted – “Heroic Dose”; Orphaned Land – “Brother”
Scale The Summit – The Migration
Alice In Chains – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Kylesa – Ultraviolet
The Ulex – Old Giant
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
August Burns Red – “Spirit Breaker”
Havok – “Give Me Liberty… Or Give Me Death”
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Kalmah – “Seventh Swamphony”
Battlecross – “Force Fed Lies”
Mercenary – “Through Our Darkest Days”
Orphaned Land – “Brother”
Masterplan – “Keep Your Dream Alive”
Darkane – “The Sinister Supremacy”
Autopsy – “Arch Cadaver”
The Sideshow Podcast 
The new tagline of the Sideshow Podcast: “We’re big with one guy on the Upper West Side.”
You got me on the wrestling references. If they were old school wresting references, I’d be sure to get it but I haven’t watched wrestling in quite some time.
Nick, how can you hate “Rooster” by Alice In Chains? That song is great! I also like Black Gives Way To Blue, which is a decent album if not spectacular.
Another rating of a 1 from Brian! That’s like only the second time ever (I think). I said this over on Google Plus, but I’ll repeat it here: you guys should review the new Megadeth album just so I can hear Brian give something else a rating of a 1.
No European bands at all on your ipod, Kyle? Not even Tesseract, which you spent all of last week gushing about how Altered State might be the album of the year? What happened? Did you get tired of it after only one week? Or more likely you are geographically challenged and didn’t know that England is a part of Europe.
I’m with Brian and Nick on Kylesa. I’m not even that big a fan of those other bands that are similar to Kylesa. I guess I’m not really a fan of that whole “sludge” thing. Give me polished European metal over that any day!
Yeah, I know, it’s kinda blasphemy, but “Rooster” never connected with me. Some of that is definitely context – before I actually got Dirt or Jar of Flies (the first two AiC albums I got) the ONLY song I recognized as theirs was “Rooster.” Obviously after getting the albums and listening to them I connected that I knew “Them Bones,” “Down In A Hole,” and a few others that had some radio play up here as well. Before that though I associated Chains as that “that kinda whiney band that sings about farm animals.” I didn’t know the story behind it, hadn’t seen the music video, and was too young to put together the war references. Though I get all that now, I still can’t hear that song and not think of all the reasons I didn’t enjoy it before.
As for “Black Gives Way To Blue,” it’s not a bad album, but it definitely has it’s issues. My biggest problem with it on the whole is that is sounds like “Degradation Trip 2.0.” I love both of Jerry’s solo albums, and I know he is the main songwriter for the band and always has been, but the tone and some of the composition were lost when he stopped having collaborative input from Sean and Mike. Coupled with the fact that they only let Duvall sing by himself on “Last Of My Kind,” it just didn’t sound like Alice in Chains. Not a bad album, but lacked some feeling. While Jerry desperately needs to let go on singing a bit – they have worked out a lot of those kinks on “Dinosaurs.” If you liked the last album, then you should definitely like this one more. ymmv.
As for Kyle’s iPhone – I’m guessing he’s geographically challenged. You know Kyle, he’s not exactly banging on all cylinders.
-n
While I have all the AIC albums, I have not heard any of Jerry’s solo albums. I’ll add those to my never ending list of old albums to listen to one day!
Pick up the double volume of “Degradation Trip.”