Cold’s latest album, Year of the Spider, is a follow up to their 2000 commercial debut, and second full album 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage. With a break out single in the form of “Just Got Wicked” the Florida based band broke into the music scene with a dark, brooding motive to tell the world about the sorrows it creates. All this under Fred Durst’s wing.

Year of the Spider is a much more mainstream album than 13 Ways but that doesn’t mean the group has lost the dark edge they had. With newly emerging bands like Seether and veterans Staind also filling up the dark recess pool would there be enough room in depression for a few more?

Breaking out of the sophomore curse seemed to be the biggest objective for the band as not many are able to top the success they had with their debut album. No Doubt’s Return of Saturn was a disappointment as was Linkin Park’s Meteora when compared to the CDs that preceded them. Luckily Cold’s slight alteration to a more accepted melody plays well in the hands and voice talents of lead man Scooter Ward who’s voice is getting a fair amount of airplay on local radio stations.

The band’s first single, “Stupid Girl” is the most commercially acceptable song on the disc, but not certainly the best. “Don’t Belong” unravels a tale of exile in society for the value of keeping your personal beliefs intact “Well I won’t ever change my ways / and I can’t be strong / That I don’t belong.” “Suffocate” is the albums breakup song and acknowledges the fake facade people display in relationships, “This cloud will always hover over me / I’m leaving you today / ’cause now I see.”

The highlight of the disc is the final track entitled “Kill The Music Industry” which details a general disgust for the big name companies who release CDs. “It’s gone to far to name / the way you see / The things they’ll change / Your life and control / your mind / I can’t relate to it.” It mainly shows that artists can be just a frustrated with the lawsuits, bullying tactics, and general disregard for the public that the record companies are imposing on all patrons because they fail to embrace the digital age. Some people are on the little guy’s side and it’s nice to see bands lining up to support a cause.

As stated earlier Cold’s dark, niche sound on 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage may have kept them from the lime-life early in their commercial career, but that disc didn’t lack polish. As with 13 Ways, Year of the Spider is packaged wonderfully with great artwork including an oriental feel with kanji characters on the cover and throughout the accompanying booklet.

The only downfall to the album is a lack of good singles, as “Stupid Girl” is the only “catchy” tune that may make it on the radio besides the possible track “Suffocate.” Even if they don’t experience another single form this disc Cold should be proud of the accomplishment that is Year of the Spider. Any fan of Cold’s or complimentary bands like Deftones, Seether, or Staind should pick up this disc if they wish to hear a band they have become accustom to with a new edge that only further illustrates their musical talent.

Linkin Park stormed into the music scene in 2000 with their breakout hit “One Step Closer” which was played on so many different radio stations, and so very much that it quickly became a staple rock song for our generation while wearing out it’s welcome rather quickly. Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park’s commercial debut album sung of singles. Nearly every track was radio ready with excellent, catchy vibes, good beats, and the possibility of shooting the group higher into stardom.

Following the immense success of Hybrid Theory, LP released a disc of remix tracks, akin to Gravity Kill’s Manipulated, which has prominent DJs in the music industry remixing a few select Hybrid Theory tracks and giving them a new lease on life. The experiment was a complete success as Reanimation, the disc’s name, featured some amazingly well produced cuts of fan’s favorite tracks.

Linkin Park now steps up to the plate with their latest release, Meteora, and while the disc has its problems, it is new music from a group that three years ago hardly anyone had even heard of, and it sounds great.

Meteora starts out with the faceless prerequisite of an intro track that shouldn’t really be a track at all. Composed of nothing more than some ominous sounds and scratching these types of stunts seem to be done by producers to up the track number on an otherwise lacking album. While this isn’t the case here, such filler material, let it be known, is not welcome by most fans.

Linkin Park is bringing a lot to the table with Meteora as they attempt to break away from the sophomore curse that has plagued so many bands. But like Godsmack and Papa Roach before them, LP manages, again, to rise up against these preconceptions and deliver a likable record that shines with production values, while simultaneously screaming corporate lamb.

In “Breaking the Habit” Chester Bennington’s feel good lyrics, which try to hammer the song to a greater meaning feel out of place on an album with the amazing “Session,” and the breakout hit “Somewhere I Belong” which many may mistake for “One Step Closer 2.” As a whole the rap side of rock/rap is handled very well by vocalist Mike Shinoda and DJ Mr. Hahn does an excellent job of scratching and mixing each track in a memorable way, but your memory may become cloudy at time.

Meteora is not immune from the “sound alike” curse which plagues most bands. Usually they sound too much like themselves on follow-up CDs to their breakout and are ripped by critics, bands who try to reinvent are called sell-outs, so rather than a sudden change, or a progressive one, Linkin Park opted to keep things constant which makes Meteora merely an extension of Hybrid Theory rather than a full blown follow-up. But not everything is more of the same. The excellent use of Japanese flutes invigorates several tracks on the album giving them a distinctive sound in a pool of sound-alikes.

Obvious high production values, excellent videos, and a full color pull out booklet aren’t enough to hide a record that sounds, well, sounds like Linkin Park and while the ultimate lack of originality on some tracks may hinder the belief that these guys are capable of staying around as long as Trent Reznor or The Offspring when something sounds this good it doesn’t really matter if you have heard it before.

Papa Roach publicly stated that they wanted the follow-up to their debut album, Infest, to have a much more mature tone, and on that point they rightfully succeeded. By creating a healthy mix of rock and rap-influenced-rock lead singer Jacoby Shaddix (formally Coby Dick) is able to sing more, and rap less, which, depending on your liking of Papa Roach’s music, is good or bad.

To those missing the hard-rock, rap-stunts aspect of Infest, you will find a much older band with much more melody. lovehatetragedy‘s first single, “She Loves Me Not,” is a pop-inspired romp through a troubled relationship which feels somewhat alienated on the CD. The real winning tracks come in the form of “Time and Time Again,” which has been recently featured in Pepsi Blue commercials, and the title track “lovehatetragedy.”

As a prerequisite for most bands in this day and age, Papa Roach decided to feature a cover track of the Pixies “Gouge Away.” As an example of the new emotional tone to Papa Roach, the song “Dark Clouds,” Jacoby proclaims:

“This is making me crazy / These black clouds following me / So I look for signs of light / But rarely I see them.”

You can see that things are much more organized, it almost feels as though the album was designed with a clear mind, instead of the disjointed Infest which stuck with a general tone, but featured ideas all over the place. With lovehatetragedy, things appear more concise with several ongoing themes present in each song including references to skin, depression, and love.

With a more emotional sound album, Papa Roach no longer becomes mixed in the shuffle of “hardcore bands” who scream, whim, and come off with a bad attitude. While the latest addition is not quite punk, it’s not quite nu-metal, and it’s not quite straight rock and roll, it does feature elements from all three of those genres and melds them together in a sometimes melody filled, sometimes beat filled rock session that brings Papa Roach to the surface of MTV wannabe’s and rejects. Not saying that Papa Roach is wanting to be on MTV, it just may be better to remove them from that mindset and let them creatively explore their music rather than think about what some inane VJ thinks.

As a follow-up to Infest, lovehatetragedy proves that the sophomore curse isn’t always as bad as some band’s make it out to be. Even with the more emotion filled music with may drive off longtime, hardcore Papa Roach fans, this CD proves that bands get better with age and maturity.

This CD Rocks!

Why did I miss out on this band the first couple of times through? How could I have been so naive to miss one of the most intriguing and entertaining bands this side of The Bloodhound Gang? That question may never be answered, but what has been shown to me is one of the greatest CDs I own, and while some may pass them off as two-bit performers in a world surrounded by the Brittney’s and the Christina’s, Reel Big Fish and their latest album Cheer Up! is a pleasure to listen to.

The CD brings you in with the first single “Where Have You Been?” that introduces you to the band in a way any well knowing record exec would. Throw a pop-like track on the radio and draw in the kiddies, and this song does just that. With a more mellow tone than the rest of the CD, “Where Have You Been?” has just the right formula to draw in fans, and draw in fans it does.

What most people don’t see is the rest of the disc is just as good, if not better, than the first single. With the overtone of dateless, loser type twentysomething prevalent on most of the album “Suckers,” which deals with people who still believe in true love, “We Are the Dateless Losers,” doesn’t really need too much explanation, and “Valerie,” which the band relives a very one-sided relationship. Funnier songs come in the form “Ban the Tube Top,” and “Rock n Roll Is Bitchin’” as well as the acapella “New York, New York.”

The more serious stuff finds its way onto the album in the afore mentioned “Where Have You Been,” that details a long lost girlfriend trying to come back to a man she left for another, “Brand New Hero,” and “Drunk Again.” Each of these songs changes up the CD to keep things fresh and new.

The best part of this CD is the lasting quality of the songs. Each has its own unique flavor that makes theme completely sing able, and completely enjoyable for the 50th time you listen to the CD. With such style and finesse as Reel Big Fish have, it is very good to know this CD won’t be collecting dust after the first few listens. If it were a cassette, I would have already gone through two by now.

Don’t do what I did, jump into Cheer Up! with with both feet and enjoy what music can be in the twenty first century.

Oh how long we have waited. After what seems like forever, Goldfinger has released their newest album to the streets, entitled Open Your Eyes, and it brings the Ska/Punk band back to the day’s of Hang Ups.

The discs opening two shots “Going Home” and “Spokesman” are a good inclusion into the discs seemingly non-stop Ska explosion that engulfs the listener. The real winner is the CDs title song, “Open Your Eyes” which states:

“Open your eyes / To the millions of lies / That they tell you everyday / Open your mind / To the clever disguise / That the advertisements say / How do they know / What’s good for you?”

The song fits in with the entire albums portrayal that everyone is their own person. In “Spokesman” the band talks about wanting to hear what you have to say, not what we are told to believe by representatives and people paid to say things.

The rest of the CD flows great and when you get to “Woodchuck” this Disturbed meets a kindergarten class explosion is one of the funniest moments in music in my opinion. The band rocks out to the old tongue twister and nails it dead on, I would like to see practice recordings of that song, it could prove to be hilarious.

For fans there was a song on an old Maxi single entitled “Ted Nugent” which poked some serious fun at the old rock singer. The song returns on Open Your Eyes with good old Ted getting torn up, but instead of our favorite Charlie’s Angel getting the second blow, Jennifer Lopez gets taken to town when punished about her dress, and packing on the pounds. It proves for great hilarity.

Topping out the rest of the CD is two bonus tracks. One is a recording of several prank phone calls the band recorded and performed, not quite Jerky Boys quality, but close, and the last is a standard Goldfinger track.

Besides “Open Your Eyes” my favorite song would have to be “Radio,” which seems to just jump out at you off of the record.

The only major problem with this CD is actually finding it, it took a number of stores and phone calls to find a Best Buy in the greater Phoenix area that actually carried the CD in stock, most were sold out, or had never received any. If you can find one, definitely worth picking up.

Back in December, No Doubt, the Ska/punk band that stormed onto the music scene with the lead vocals of Gwen Stefani, released their fifth studio album, entitled Rock Steady. The band thus far has received minor criticism for this album, many people saying it is far too “poppy”; (whatever the hell that means) and is a long way from the heavy Ska people are used to from this band. I will choose to ignore those people for the remainder of my review.

If No Doubt and Garbage had a party, followed by a mass orgy, this would be the album that would result. This album combines both the sounds found on Garbage’s new album Beautiful Garbage and the intensity that lives within Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, and Adrian Young.

Although No Doubt does stray a bit from their usual musical tones and influences, Rock Steady is a wonderful follow-up to Return of Saturn, their previous release. It is packed with dance hits such as the first single “Hey Baby,”; which features the reggae artist Bounty Hunter, “Hella Good,”; and “In My Head.”;

The band collaborated with several artists for this album and incorporated a lot of reggae sounds into their songs. An example of this is the song “Underneath it All.”; This sound features heavy reggae influence and features Jamaican singer Lady Saw. For me, this song most resembles the old school No Doubt people are used too along with “Don’t Let Me Down.”; However, above all, the best song on the album is “Detective.”; This song is a totally new type of new sound for No Doubt, but it definitely proves that this pant does not need to stick to one thing to make it work.

This album gives Return of Saturn a run for its money in my liking, and was a kick-ass follow-up. But, I urge those closed-minded No Doubt followers who criticize this album to beware of their fragile little asses. It’s definitely something different and you might not be able to handle it. But, keep in mind, change isn’t always bad. Look at Madonna: She turned in her virgin wedding attire for a cowboy outfit, and I don’t see her losing momentum. Keep your negativity somewhere else. No Doubt about it.

People once thought that American techno bands couldn’t stand up to the bands of Britain with the likes of the Chemical Brothers, and Fluke as well as the all American Gearwhore. The Crystal Method emerged four years ago to prove that American’s could come out and deliver to the genre. While their first album showed amazing promise (and was very good, still in my CD player) critics and techno fans could tell of the Chemical Brother influence.

The techno duo, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland, returned to their aptly named studio, The Bomb Shelter, to produce their second major-label record. With collaborations from the likes of Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave) and Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), the Method reemerged this year with one of the most hardcore albums I have ever heard.

The discs first single “Name of the Game” is a hard bass pumping, guitar ripping tune that reintroduces the world to a band they have missed for the past four years. The song sounds tremendous playing on even a not-so-decent sound system with heavy bass and guitars provided by Morello.

The second single, and new video, is for the Weiland collaborated “Murder” which features a return to the rock influenced sound that was featured on Vegas.

While the album isn’t the most revolutionary, or as stunning as the duo’s first label CD, it does feature plenty of the standard Crystal Method flair that will keep fans of the first CD happy, while attracting a new audience with the new sounds pumping out of your stereo. The Crystal Method has broken the staple of just being another Chemical Brother’s rip off, they have found their own sound, and I like it.

The Offspring’s last release was panned by critics and some fans as a turning for the band. Since their highly publicized departure from Epitaph Records to the Sony owned Columbia, they have been labeled sell-outs, traitors, and trendy. But it just goes to show that a band’s real fans are the one’s who stand by them no matter how bad an album they put out, or how different they change.

I am a true Offspring fan, and I totally loved their last CD, Americana. Sure, it wasn’t their best CD (that honor belongs to their breakout hit, Smash) but they made an honest effort to return to the style that made them famous with the afore mentioned Smash and Ixnay on the Hombre.

Conspiracy of one was originally intended to be released online through the band’s website in MP3 form in order to show their support for Napster and the whole file-swapping digital revolution online. Sony didn’t like that idea much. But the band did manage to release their first single from the album, “Original Prankster” on their site to help promote the disc and it’s impending release. The Offspring are only one of the bands (Including Limp Bizkit and others) that have publicly stepped up and supported the near-defunct swapping pioneer service.

Conspiracy of one features everything the Offspring are known for. There is the catch “Original Prankster” that reminds you more of “Why Don’t You Get A Job” and “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” than traditional old-school Offspring. But the CD does have it’s share of hard hits. “Special Delivery” brings back the days of Smash’s “Bad Habit” and “Million Miles Away” brings you back Ixnay on the Hombre’s “Staring at the Sun” and “Gone Away.”

If anything the Offspring have the ability to test different styles of music, just as they did with “Pay the Man” on Americana. While the disc is not their best effort, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still good. Smash was so good that they would be hard pressed to find a way to top it, but I’m egger to see if, and when, they do.