Tag: Metal
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Soul Blind ‘Feel It All Around’ (2022)
The shoegaze offshoot run continues this week, with Soul Blind’s debut album Feel It All Around our next stop on the dreamscape journey. Soul Blind is definitely on the heavier side, more oriented on modern metal, but incorporates just the right blend of shoegaze haziness and a surprising little dash of mid-aughts post-hardcore emo energy…
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Rage Against The Machine ‘Rage Against The Machine’ (1992)
Rage Against the Machine is synonymous with my experience of becoming politically aware during my early teen years. I’ll never forget borrowing their album Evil Empire from my friend Ryan Polk in seventh grade, sneaking it into my house to avoid the peering eyes of my mom (who definitely wouldn’t be happy with the rabble…
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Alien Ant Farm ‘Anthology’ (2001)
If you’re anywhere near my age you’ll fondly remember Alient Ant Farm’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” which became the band’s biggest hit of their career. The song is awesome in a couple of ways– it is equal parts rock and roll shreddability and comedic relief, because nowhere in music history should a nu-metal…
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Vains of Jenna ‘The Art of Telling Lies’ (2009)
I’ve been getting into sleazy 80’s inspired glam rock a bunch lately (inspired in no small part by the return of the HBO show Peacemaker, of which Season 1 is low-key one of my favorite shows released in the past five years) and Vains of Janna is a perfect band to fit that vibe. They’re…
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Primus ‘Sailing The Seas Of Cheese’ (1990)
In the ether of avant-garde funk metal there exists one band whose gravitational pull is undeniable. That band is Primus. The plucky guitar of Larry LaLonde, obscure time signatures of Tim Alexander, and virtuosic bass playing of the one and only Les Claypool have combined to create a uniquely “Did someone put a psychedelic in…
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Metallica ‘Ride The Lightning’ (1984)
1984’s Ride The Lightning was an ambitious next step Metallica following the release of their debut album Kill Em’ All. Whereas their debut album was just an absolute slugfest of heavy overhand rights, Metallica took greater artistic chances with their second album which ultimately paved the way for them to release their magnum opus Master…
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Dream Widow ‘Dream Widow’ (2022)
Dave Grohl’s love for all things rock and roll comes through in every single project he touches. Whether it be his documentary on Sound City Recording Studios, his numerous contributions to rock through bands like Foo Fighters and Nirvana over the last 30 years, or just a casual interview over a plate of hot wings,…
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Guns N’ Roses ‘Appetite For Destruction’ (1987)
No album for me better represents all the glorious excess of the hard rock in the 1980’s combined with a heavy dose of top-tier musicianship than Guns N’ Roses 1987 magnum opus Appetite For Destruction. Slash and Axl Rose have become somewhat of a minor punch line in recent years due to a variety of…
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Metallica ‘Master of Puppets’ (1986)
Master of Puppets is a hallmark album in metal history that is often lauded as one of the genre’s most important albums of all-time. Along with going six times platinum (which is insanely impressive for a thrash metal full-length) it has the unique distinction of being the very first metal album to be selected by…
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Dokken ‘Under Lock and Key’ (1985)
Dokken comes from the iconic era of glam metal bands like Ratt and Poison, where image was nearly as important as the music. Big hair, big drums, big vocals, big guitar solos— if everything is in fact bigger in Texas, then everything was indisputably the biggest in 1985 when hair metal stood on top of…
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Thin Lizzy ‘Jailbreak’ (1976)
Thin Lizzy is one of the most underrated bands in rock history in my opinion. Whether it’s the super smooth vocal stylings of Phil Lynott, the twin guitar harmonies of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson that remain to this day the sound of their generation, or the pulsating rhythm section of Brian Downey, there is…
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Dream Theater ‘Images and Words’ (1992)
Dream Theater is one of the “Big Three” in prog metal, and alongside Queensrÿche and Fates Warning helped prog metal become more than just a small niche genre stuck in between the demise of 80’s glam metal and 90’s alternative rock. Images and Words is an eclectic grab bag of prog rock influences– from New…
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Mastodon ‘Crack The Skye’ (2009)
Mastodon’s excellent 2009 album Crack The Skye sounds like Ozzy Osbourne did some LSD and decided to write a sludge metal record. That’s the best way to describe it in a nutshell, but peek under the covers and there is an incredible amount going on as Mastodon’s mastery over metal is the stuff of recent…
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Dio ‘Holy Diver’ (1983)
Dio was formed after Ronnie James Dio left to pursue a solo career following his (first) stint as lead singer of the eminent metal band Black Sabbath. Replacing a legend such as Ozzy Osbourne in a band that was notorious for its substance abuse issues was bound to be a herculean task, and despite a…
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Iron Maiden ‘The Number of the Beast’ (1982)
Iron Maiden is one of the all-time metal greats and I’m beyond pumped to see them live for the first time alongside AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Tool, and Guns N’ Roses later this year at PowerTrip Live. I just booked my tickets last week and have been on a metal kick ever since. I literally…
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Suicidal Tendencies ‘Lights…Camera…Revolution’ (1990)
We’ve established that we love a good album opener here at Music of Matthew dot com, and Suicidal Tendencies kicks off Lights…Camera…Revolution with one helluva opener in “You Can’t Bring Me Down”. It has all of the elements that make thrash metal great– moody delay guitars, huge fuzzy melodic guitar solos, an absolutely ripping rhythm…
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Killswitch Engage ‘The End of Heartache’ (2004)
I was a sophomore in high school when The End of Heartache first dropped. It represented my first foray into what I would call pure modern metal. I’d been listening to the forebears of metal like Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy for a minute, but hadn’t quite dabbled in the true dark arts yet. And…
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Between The Buried And Me ‘Colors’ (2007)
When one of Dream Theater’s co-founders names your album his favorite of the year you know you’ve made it in the prog metal scene. That was the case for Between The Buried and Me and their album Colors when prog-rock legend drummer Mike Portnoy (along with numerous other publications) named this 65-minute eclectic journey the…
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