Holding Steady and Growing Pains
Remember last week when hit that milestone number and had Kyle back on? While it was a blast and there was some good stuff, the chips fell just wrong when it came to releases – we didn’t have the big guns we had hoped for. Well, fear not freaks, because we make up for it this week with three very notable names, and a name new to us that turned out pretty solid. So get listening and let us know in the comments what you think this week’s albums!
Reviews:
Lamb of God – VII: Sturm Und Drang (Epic)
Symphony X – Underworld (Nuclear Blast)
Kataklysm – Of Ghosts and Gods (Nuclear Blast)
Kronos – Arisen New Era (Unique Leader)
Lamb Of God – VII: Sturm und Drang
Symphony X – Underworld
Kataklysm – Of Ghosts And Gods
Kronos – Arisen New Era
The Sideshow Podcast 
I’m loving the new Lamb of God as well. I will admit that I was prepared to disagree if anyone called it Lamb of “Godsmack” this time around. You hit on a number of things I was going to point out, including the use of the talk box. I tend to think of “Rocky Mountain Way” by Joe Walsh when I hear a talk box instead of “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi.
Another thing I wanted to point out about Lamb of God’s Sturm & Drang is the guitar riff on the song “Embers”. When the vocals come in, the guitar sounds like Psycroptic. Psycroptic! How awesome is that! Now if only Psycroptic themselves had written a riff as good that that for their last album, that last album might have actually been decent instead of it being the disappointment that it was.
Here’s a tip how to pronounce the Lamb of God album name: just call it “Storm” and Drang. Sturm means storm and it is pronounced “stoorm” which sounds like storm more than stuuurm. “Sturm and Drang” refers to a style of various forms of art that came together in the second half of the 18th century around Germany and Austria characterized by more emotional and even violent expressions in art than had ever been expressed before. But compared to today it seems very reserved. How violent a Haydn symphony can be is still pretty tame. Since Kyle isn’t around this week someone has to drop this kind of knowledge on you guys.
I’m rather surprised you guys reviewed the Symphony X album. And I’m even more surprised that Nick liked it. But Nick, you might need to go back and listen to Sabaton because in no way does it feature the high swooping vocals that you described.
I share many of the same opinions about Unique Leader that you guys expressed. I got into tech death from listening to bands such as Necrophagist, Psycroptic, Gorod, and Obscura. Then when I heard Allegaeon it blew my mind that someone could take that type of guitar playing and musicianship and combine it with excellent songwriting. But Unique Leader presents a sort of “sameness” to all of it. When there is a new album of this style of music every month, it ceases to be something special that seemingly only a handful of musicians can do. It still seems like it is a very rare skill to bring some sort of memorable songwriting to this type of music that so far the Unique Leader roster has failed to do. But I still enjoy listening to the Unique Leader roster of bands even if most of them fail to separate themselves.