I don’t believe that the Offspring are sellouts even though they did leave Epitaph for the bigger, more financially secure Columbia/Sony. There is only so far you can go on a independent label (don’t tell that to Pennywise, because they have proved me wrong already), but the Offspring saw a changing in the wind and decided to leave the home of Smash and release Ixnay on the Hombre as a full commercial release with the help of a major label.

What people did was label the CD, without listening to the music on it, and this CD is certainly not Smash II proving that The Offspring still have it, even on their fourth album release. Ixnay features both catchy punk tunes (“Don’t Pick It Up,” “Meaning of Life”) and songs that almost seem like 80s hair-band rock ballads (“Gone Away,” “Amazed”). The Offspring continue to change up what they are doing to stay with the times, while not compromising who they are.

Ixnay on the Hombre further diversifies the Offspring’s music. With “Don’t Pick It Up” they speak of not always believing what something is until you further examine it, or they could mean you shouldn’t think a piece of shit is really a candy bar. With “Gone Away” (my personal favorite song) lead singer Dexter Holland tells of losing a love, and asks to trade places with his lover who has passed.

Trendy or not, the songs on Ixnay show that the Offspring have the staying power to be around eight years after the release of Smash.

While Ixnay on the Hombre doesn’t diversify upon what has already been done in the punk genre, it further intensifies that the Offspring are a band to contend with, and they will continue to make good music far into the next century.

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.

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.

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.

Five years, it’s been five years since the release of the last Nine Inch Nails’ album. After all this time after The Downward Spiral and the classic single, “Closer,” Trent Reznor finally releases a new NIN album. Complete with 2 CDs and one huge CD pullout booklet, the album doesn’t disappoint.

One thing you will find in this album is a constant reminder of how much life sucks. Constant words like decay, damaged, and void will lead you in a direction of pity, and self-deluded depression.

The amazing sounds, ambient or not, make this CD a true industrial masterpiece.

This album, does have one downfall, that isn’t that much of a big deal, but it does need to be mentioned. Unfortunately for this CD set, it doesn’t need to be a CD set. Most of the stuff on the second disk is just repeats of the stuff on the first. Sure they are different songs, but it is mostly the same stuff again. This isn’t a really bad thing, because the stuff on the first disk is very good.

Also, as you listen to the CD you will notice that only in one song does Trent refer to the word “we”. This would be in “We’re In This Together.” All of the other tracks on the CDs refer to “you” in the singular form. From high screams of intensity to low bows of soft comforting music, then have both going on at the same time, and you have have the picture of this new CD.

After hearing numerous CDs from them, The Downward Spiral, Pretty Hate Machine, and Broken, I can honestly say that The Fragile is the best of the them all.

A few songs stand out on the CD. The recently released single “Into the Void” stands out on the 2nd Disk along with a chopped up vocal-fest of “StarF*ckers,” Inc.. The first disk contains songs like “We’re in this Together” and “The Day the World Went Away.” All with the beauty of the everlasting gloom upon them.

If you do like Nine Inch Nails in the slightest then you need to pick up The Fragile, for 18 dollars you get 2CDs packed with awesome tracks from one of the best trend-setting bands in today’s music industry.

It is sad to say that the sales of this record have been slow to pick up since the albums release. When the CD debuted at number one on the charts late last year, everyone thought the best, but as it slipped further and further down the charts, the sales began to dry up. Trent, himself, has spoken about the current industry and the situation of his latest CD in an interview with CD Now.

Gravity Kills broke into the music scene with their high powered hit “Guilty” which propelled their debut album up the charts. The song was also featured playing in the background of the David Fincher hit Se7en. Gravity Kill’s self-title album spawned a serious of singles that found their way onto soundtracks and remix albums. The Mortal Kombat soundtrack featured a demo (and edited) version of “Goodbye” while the Lords of Acid created one of their best known remixes with their song “Down,” and an even cooler remix was released from the song “Blame.”

When Gravity Kill’s second album, not counting the remix CD Manipulated which featured no new work from the trio, came into stores it was met with high expectations, but those who expected Gravity Kills to escape the Sophomore curse were wrong, and Perversion was a major disappointment to some die-hard GK fans.

This brings us up to their third release, Superstarved* which puts the band back into the so-called saddle that they rode so high upon with Gravity Kills. Superstarved* is more of a mix between the guitar-laden first album, and the techno/industrial influenced second release. Superstarved* surprising first single “One Thing” is so reminiscent of “Guilty” that you might even mistake them from coming off of the same album together.

“Love, Sex, and Money” sounds eerily like a Marilyn Manson song even by the title. The cover song “Personal Jesus” makes you wonder what CD you actually inserted into your stereo with it’s very country guitar, that skips away and makes way for a very hard guitar. Earlier last year Gravity Kills posted demo versions of “Enemy” and “Personal Jesus” for fans to download. A demo version is an unmixed song, and it shows. The new tracks differ quite a bit from the originals even by name. A track named “Shake It” was also demo-released, but it doesn’t have appeared to make it onto the final album.

All in all the CD will make you somewhat forget about Perversion and remember how good Gravity Kills was. While the albums only fault is sounding maybe a bit too much like the previously mentioned discs, that is nothing hard to come by for true fans of the band.

If you were a fan and lost track of the band, never have been a fan, or have been waiting for a new album from these guys for a long time, you won’t be let down, Superstarved* is an awesome album.

Final Destination 2 opens with one of the best action sequences you will ever seen on film. The pile-up sequence puts this movie in a class with The Matrix’s lobby scene as just one of the coolest things ever shot on film. The writers of FD2 should be patting themselves on the back for thinking up such a clever, amazingly fun way to see a chain of events unfold with so much precision and absolute amazement from the audience. I was left with my mouth wide open as the cars exploded, crashed, and impaled members of the cast and opened the sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the original Final Destination featured Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) seeing a premonition of his plane exploding just after take off one year before the events of this movie. By him seeing Death’s design and cheating his way out of that design he caused a rift of events the put everyone he saved in danger. This lead to some very creative death sequences and a generally great movie in a genre that had become stale with too many Scream-wannabe’s and slasher-bore-fests.

Final Destination 2 picks up, as mentioned, one year after the events of Flight 180 in the first movie (you will see a reoccurring theme of 180 throughout the film). Kimberly Corman (the beautiful A.J. Cook) has a premonition while waiting to get onto the freeway about a huge pileup that claims her life, and the lives of everyone behind her on the on-ramp. So she positions her car to block traffic and spare the people’s lives from a horrible death, but what she does is start a chain reaction that causes Death to catch up to each and every one of the survivors and take what is his.

Final Destination 2 left me with an overwhelming sense of awe as the movie played out better than I could have hoped. I knew it would be hard to top the original, in my mind, and the mind’s of the casual movie fans. FD2 managed to impress me, and everyone in the nearly packed theatre that I saw it in over the weekend. The script, clearly and cleverly done, features many throwbacks and acknowledgements to the first movie, something that I was initially worried about. For those of you who saw the first movie, you know that the ending was both open ended and closed at the same time, so would FD2 go back and explain what happened after Final Destination faded to black? Yes, and no.

Yes, comes from the fact that they acknowledge what happened to each of the remaining principle characters by way of references, newspaper articles, and what Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) explains to Kimberly early in the film. No, stems from the way they went about doing it. While the death of one character is completely obvious at the end of Final Destination, the death of another is unforeseen and it seems as more of a way to cop-out of having him in the movie than anything else. It feels like a cheesy off-screen death that is briefly mentioned and forgotten.

To those of out there that are worried about having no creative death sequences, let me assure you that Final Destination 2 tops the original in both creativity and gruesomeness. We have decapitation, disembowelments, crushings, skull penetrations (yes more than one), and drownings to contend with this time around and through several of these the audience all cringed at the same time, while highly enjoying the whole thing.

Final Destination 2 ranks very highly with me because of it’s excellent, creative nature and how it breaks the mold for the generic horror type movie. FD2 sports an unknown, but talented cast who are able to give some characterization before becoming canon fodder. The original Final Destination reached cult status fairly quickly and see the sequel doing the same as a very successful, and enjoyable follow-up to a very entertaining original.

On Tuesday, October 3^rd, 2000, Green Day released their highly anticipated follow-up to Nimrod and this Green Day offering is awe-inspiring. They have managed to make an album that doesn’t have a bad song on it. Hey, it’s Green Day, would you expect any less? They retain their classic style with songs like “Minority”;. Unlike other bands that try to adjust or moderate their image to atone to the majority (::Cough:: ::Cough:: Offspring ::Cough::) [Editor’s Note: Shut Up Tom],  which isn’t a bad thing, but it can disgust the true fans. Warning is one of the best Green Day albums.

Green Day is the greatest band on earth! For those that have been under a frickin’ rock for the last ten years, Green Day is a punk rock band out of Rodeo, CA. The band consists of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass, vocals), and Tre Cool (drums). Think Blink182, only much better and less trendy. They’ve been known to have some recurrent suggestive themes in their music, including, but not limited to: life-changing events, rebellion, love, heartbreak, and being “all by myself”; (wink, wink). What some of you might not know is their original name was Sweet Children.

Let’s look at the tracks, shall we? The five best songs on the album in descending order are as follows: (11) “Minority”, (6) “Misery”, (3) “Church on Sunday”,  (1) “Warning”, and (7) “Dead Beat”. “Minority”; is my life’s new theme song. Why be the majority when you can be the minority, go against the grain, and do your own thing? This is the ultimate Green Day song! “Misery”; reminds me of The Beatles’ “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”;, only much, much cooler. “Church on Sunday”;, “Warning”;, and “Dead Beat”; are just plain cool. The best thing about “Warning”; is that those songs aren’t only entertaining tracks on the album.

ALL OF THE SONGS ON THIS ALBUM ARE AWESOME! Every time I listen to it, it gets better. By the way, according to nme.com the beginning of “Blood, Sex and Booze”; has a clip of “a very professional dominatrix, Mistress Simone”;, whipping Tone, Green Day’s 19-year-old engineer. Do I completely like this album? Damn Skippy! It has great lyrics and vocal work, awesome themes, and pointless cursing! There is no downside to this album. Get it as soon as you can! Run! Go! Stop reading this article and get the #$%@ing album!