Albums Listened To In March (65)

1. Adrenaline Mob - Adrenaline Mob (EP) - New
2. Alestorm - Back Through Time
3. Alestorm - Black Sails At Midnight
4. Alestorm - Captain Morgan's Revenge 
5. Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet
6. Asteroid - Asteroid
7. Asteroid - Asteroid II
8. Backwoods Payback - Momantha - New
9. Backwoods Payback - Use Magic To Kill Death (EP)
10. Baroness - Red Album
11. The Black Keys - The Moan (EP) - New
12. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
13. Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell
14. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
15. Black Sabbath - Never Say Die!
16. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
17. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
18. Black Sabbath - Sabotage
19. Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
20. Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
21. Causa Sui - Causa Sui - New
22. Causa Sui - Free Ride - New
23. Cinder - House Full of No Trust
24. Colossa - Born To Make A Sound - New
25. Colossa - Colossa (EP)
26. The Company Band - The Company Band
27. The Company Band - Sign Here, Here & Here (EP)
28. Corrosion of Conformity - America's Volume Dealer - New
29. Corrosion of Conformity - Animosity - New
30. Corrosion of Conformity - Corrosion of Conformity - New
31. Corrosion of Conformity - In The Arms of God - New
32. Crippled Black Phoenix - A Love of Shared Disasters
33. Crippled Black Phoenix - Night Raider
34. Devil - Magister Mundi Xum (EP)
35. Devil - Time to Repent - New
36. Elf - Carolina County Ball
37. Elf - Elf
38. Elf - Trying To Burn The Sun
39. Gentleman's Pistols - At Her Majesty's Pleasure - New
40. Ghost - Opus Eponymous
41. GiantRider - GiantRider - New
42. Huntress - Off With Her Head (EP) - New
43. King Giant - Dismal Hollow - New
44. King Giant - Southern Darkness
45. Lamont - Thunder Boogie - New
46. Low Sonic Drift - Shadows of The Titan (EP) - EP
47. Luna Mortis - The Absence - New
48. Megachurch - Megachurch - New
49. Megachurch - Megachurch 2: Judgement Day - New
50. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter - New
51. One Day As A Lion - One Day As A Lion (EP) - New
52. One Inch Giant - Malva - New
53. Orchid - Capricorn - New
54. Ramon Zarate - Oyster - New
55. Ramon Zarate - Ramon Zarate - New
56. sHEAVY - Celestial Hi-Fi
57. sHEAVY - The Electric Sleep
58. sHEAVY - The Machine That Won The War
59. sHEAVY - Synchronized
60. Sherman Burns - The End Is All
61. Spelljammer - Inches From The Sun (EP) - New
62. Spelljammer - Vol II (EP) - New 
63. Smoke - Smoke Follows Beauty
64. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - "The West Will Rise Again" (EP) - New
65. Wizard Rifle - Speak Loud Say Nothing - New

New Album: Lamont - Thunder Boogie

Lamont caught my eye with their humorous artwork: a seemingly white-trash man (sorry if that offends someone out there, but come on) with a pair of shotguns/rifles, a dog/pit bull in the background, and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. It made me chuckle, give the album a second look - quite the feat with my huge collection, and the 96 artists (and 358 albums, give or take a single or two) that are waiting in my 'Must Listen To' list - and then the album title, Thunder Boogie (ignore the second album at AllMusic, obviously that is for a different band), lead to a listen. So there is something in the title and artwork: Bands take heed!

I was initially quite impressed with Thunder Boogie; the first track, "Hot Wire," was a down-and-dirty rock n' roll song. It had my head bobbing right from the start, and my brain rattled by the end. It was followed by the slightly less-energetic "Vegas," which I had a really hard time deciding if I really enjoyed the song or not. I literally changed the ranking of this song four or five times, before settling on a '5 Star' ranking by the end of the fifth track on the album. That song was succeeded by "I Saw Red," an equal step-down in energy as it's predecessor was from the previous, but this time, much more well delivered. Right from the get-go I had something that was kicking my ass (even with the rough patches)!

Albums Listened To In February (48)

This month's list:

1. Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet
2. Bigelf - Cheat The Gallows
3. The Black Box Revelation - My Preception - New
4. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
5. Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle Earth
6. Buddy Revell - Bring Forth The Snake (EP) - New
7. Cinder - Break Your Silence
8. Cinder - House Full of No Trust
9. Cirith Ungol - Frost And Fire - New
10. Cirith Ungol - King of The Dead - New
11. Cirith Ungol - One Foot In Hell - New
12. Cirith Ungol - Paradise Lost - New
13. Cloudkicker - Let Yourself Be Huge - New
14. Cloudkicker - Loop - New
15. Clutch - Strange Cousins From The West
16. Crippled Black Phoenix - I, Vigilante
17. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
18. Eluveitie - Helvetios - New
19. Enos - Chapter 1
20. EYE - Center of The Sun - New
21. Fifty Foot Woman - Fifty Foot Woman - New
22. Lou Reed - Rock 'N' Roll Animal
23. The J. Geils Band - The J. Geils Band - New
24. The J. Geils Band - "Live" Full House - New
25. The J. Geils Band - The Morning After - New
26. James Blunt - All The Lost Souls - New
27. James Blunt - Some Kind of Trouble - New
28. Jeff Loomis - Zero Order Phase
29. Goblin Cock - Bagged And Boarded
30. Goblin Cock - Come With Me If You Want To Live
31. Mechanical Poet - Handmade Essence (EP)
32. Necromandus - Orexis of Death - New
33. Night Sun - Mournin' - New
34. Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At The Moon
35. Root Spirits - Long Road Ahead (EP)
36. S:T Erik - From Under The Tarn
37. sHEAVY - Blue Sky Mind
38. Sleestack - Altrusian Moon: A Lo-Fi Collection Of Psychedelia and Space Rock - New
39. Stonebride - Inner Seasons
40. Stonebride - Summon The Waves
41. Uriah Heep - Demons & Wizards
42. Various Artists - The Wall Re-Built (2 Discs)
43. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground And Nico
44. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
45. Wench - Wench (EP) - New
46. Whores of Tijuana - Psycholongevity
47. Whores of Tijuana - Whores of Tijuana
48. Wino - Punctuated Equilibrium

Albums Listened To In January (52)

Now that I'm back from my self-imposed exile, I really don't know why I couldn't have at least kept up with the 'Albums Listened To' posts. I'm still getting back into the game, regaining my chops (both for typing so much and my attention span to one project), and struggling to keep it going, but so far so good. I'm going to do my best to keep The Guide updated at least weekly - it's the least I could do for all of your continued support!

The Good

I really enjoyed listening to Ape Machine's two albums; their blend of stoner and funky grooves was entertaining and uplifting, guaranteeing them some future replay time. Brant Bjork's various solo acts ('true' solo, with The Bros, and then The Operators) is always worth the listen, and I finally got around to finishing off his discography.

The Bad

After hearing so much positive mention of Acrimony over the years, I really expected something better then what was offered from their two releases; their second album, Tumuli Shroomaroom, had some positives to it, but overall I was disappointed. Both Birch Hill Dam and Camion have the same faults to their music: they are in the groovy-sludge school of stoner which has the needlessly screamed lyrics. Birch Hill Dam had some more reasonably calm songs in its collection, but Camion was nothing but the full bellows of the singer's lungs. Not to my tastes. Bruner was another band/singer that really wasn't for my musical tastes; apparently it was a demo/uncompleted recordings of some singer from the 70s, Linda Bruner (apparently the lead singer from some group called Piscis), that was just recently released (2010). It's a soulful, single-guitar-and-voice EP, but the recording quality isn't great, and frankly, Bruner's vocals aren't all that skilled; if it had been longer then twenty minutes, I probably wouldn't have listened to it all. Find better folk elsewhere.

New Album: Crippled Black Phoenix - (Mankind) The Crafty Ape

With a band like Crippled Black Phoenix, I know of no way to accurately describe their sounds - both off past albums as well as current ones. Their music is different on each release, but somehow keeping the core 'feel' of CBP all the same. If I had to make a stab at labeling them (as I've attempted before), they are a blend of post-metal, ambient sounds, doom, and folk, into an one-of-a-kind sound.

I put Crippled Black Phoenix's release last year, I, Vigilante, on my 'Top 20 of 2010', a choice I still stand behind. While their earlier albums had a slight problem of uniformity (songs were often jarring in combination with the album as a whole), I, Vigilante was a much more accomplished work. I think this is due to the smaller track-listing off that album then the others, with only six songs while most of their other releases are over ten. This more concise selection, 'trimmed the fat' of their previous releases, with little truly ambient songs and sections then otherwise seen, and it is in this direction I hoped the band would have followed.