Motley Crue - Motley Crue (1994)

Okay, let's pretend Vince Neil never existed otherwise every die-hard Crue fan is gonna find this record a hard one to fathom. On one account, it's ridiculous to suggest the band could do a record with out Vince Neil and his sleazy whine, but on another note, this is one hell of a metal album, but as Motley Crue, it just leaves me scratching my head. After the wholesome juice of 'Dr Feelgood', yet five years later, the band go all bombastic, combing slamming heavy rock with Beatles-esque trips. As a record away from the rest of the Crue discography, this rocks big time and in John Corabi they found a true voice of power, but not a frontman. Crue have always been about the sex, the drugs and the rock 'n' roll and even in the past if such image often clouded the music, Crue have always been able to party, churning out anthemic lipstick rock combined with oily glam, but this record is far from those days and remains their darkest effort to date. Corabi sings with iron lungs, and it's actually difficult to fault the album as a heavy metal platter, but as a Crue record it almost doesn't make sense, and that's why so many hardcore fans were pissed off, but I think such judgement was a little unfair considering this was seen as a step forward for the band. If Vince no longer suited the band, or didn't want to be in the band, then splitting up was the only other option. Thankfully they didn't, and when you hear the boom of 'Hooligans Holiday', the '60s sway of 'Misunderstood' and riffage of 'Poison Apples', you'll see why this band has more faces than many people give them credit for. It's not always been about cheesy glam rock songs, Nikki Sixx is a classy songwriter, and this is a truly ballsy display heavier than most records of the time, and when the band look back on this effort they can be very proud, although I'm sure that Vince would beg to differ.

8/10

Liquid Jesus - Pour In The Sky (1991)

It's records like this which epitomise that late '80s, early '90s too cool for metal feeling, as countless other bands emerged with records that were simply all too different for your average metal fan to grasp. Liquid Jesus slot nicely alongside the complicated dryness of I Love You, the swagger of Mother Love Bone, the mysticism of Jane's Addiction, and were able to compete with every other hip band at the time with a brand of rock 'n' roll psychedelia that must have been lost on most. I don't know how the album sold, not well at all I imagine but it's an essential purchase for anyone hoping to track down a gem of record that combines Hendrix groove with a bluesy twang. Every track is pretty unpredictable, but it's not fake or trying to be strange for the sake of it, it's naturally surprising and wonderfully gifted, from the funky 'W.H.Y.B.' to swaying 'On My Way', one moment its momentously trippy, the next stomping with the hardest. Vocally, Buck Murphy is somewhere between Cher and Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, prancing as a frustrated glam star, and that's pretty what Liquid Jesus are about, with a sound that is inventive, cool, sexy and smooth, but a little less rocking than your average metal band.

Stand this alongside Kik Tracee, Mindfunk and Saigon Kick and scratch your head and wonder why these kind of bands weren't massive.

8/10

Darkthrone - Panzerfaust (1994)

Okay, lock up your children once again, Norway's finest kings of unholy black metal return with, what for me, remains one of my favourite black metal albums of all time. This time, the band combine the sonic, wintry assaults of the earlier efforts with true Hellhammer/Celtic Frost morbidity, and vocally is grimly, raw and rough more than ever before, bringing a level of decipherable yet gravelly gloom. Only the first cut, 'En Vind...' and 'Hans Siste Vinter' bring back that nocturnal, freezing speed that made you feel so remote on previous outings, but you'll become drowned in the crushing weight of 'Beholding The Throne Of Might' and 'Triumphant Gleam' which borrow heavily from the black metal days of Venom/Celtic Frost and the likes, in the sense the riffs are grey and warped, but this is just taking from the old school black bible and re-inventing, making 'Panzerfaust' a wonderfully eerie and gritty trip through the icy tundra only Darkthrone can create.

The back of the cd may state, 'THE MOST HATED BAND IN THE WORLD', but Darkthrone will always remain one of the most potent, scathing and brilliant.

8/10

Morbid Angel - Covenant (1993)

The band take the speed up a notch, combining the warped weight of 'Blessed Are The Sick' with even more streams of brutality, Trey's guitaring is alien in its extremity, opening cut 'Rapture' is a monstrous slab of death metal that only Morbid Angel could truly construct. 'Covenant' remains my third favourite Morbid Angel simply because 'Altars...' and 'Blessed...' were so mighty, but on its own 'Covenant' is a writhing, seething mass of fetid chords, twisted vocals and churning grind. The speed is intoxicating, on a few tracks, such as 'Angel Of Disease' there is certainly a punky influence but this is ultra heavy Floridian death metal which will certainly please anyone with a taste for human flesh and black witchery.

Morbid Angel have always effortlessly spewed out truly satanic metal without ever sounding corny or losing their edge. 'Pain Divine' is gale force speed, 'World Of Shit...' a slow, pounding trudge and 'Vengeance Is Mine' breathes life back into that old Slayer trademark of wayward riffs and slamming rhythm.

8/10

Mudhoney - Mudhoney (1989)

A fine follow up to the dirty 'Superfuzz...', this has Sabbath mixed with The Stooges, providing the speakers with some superb groove distortion that only Sub-Pop could have produced. Forget grunge, there was no such thing during the late '80s, the sound WAS 'sub pop', a brand of punky, oily, greasy, fuzz that brought with it a variety of bands from the gargantuan Tad, to the lesser known acts such as Blood Circus and Catt Butt, all influential as a scene. Mudhoney were the kings of the sound, 'This Gift', 'Flat Out Fucked' and 'Here Comes Sickness' are sweaty, chaotic heaps of noise, three-minute pop fuzz that'll make you want to leap around and just be caught up in the scene of grime. Great while it lasted.

7/10

Soulfly - Soulfly (1998)

By the mid' to late '90s I was pretty disillusioned with the metal scene. Everything had a clean edge and anything that tried to be controversial was either completely fake or a regurgitation of a time long gone. Yeah, rock was hitting the mainstream big time but alot of the band's crossing styles were so clean cut and Americanized that the image, sleaze and true shock value had completely lost its way, even the black metal bands were producing symphonic, epic and clean sounding trash. Soulfly were thankfully one of the bands to rise above the quagmire of repetition Max Cavalera leaving the Sepultura camp but continuing the angst of 'Roots' with this rumble of a debut. Yes, there was alot of crossover on the record and collaborations with alot of artists I was never interested in, such as Fred Durst of the appalling Limp Bizkit, but the tunes were in your face, and the tribal machine kept rolling.

Max on fine form, his venemous tongue spitting out each lyric amidst a glorious sound of streetwise brutality, at times not too far removed from Sepultura's 'Roots' venture but yet maintaining and also seeking a new edge. 'Eye For An Eye' and 'Tribe' are monster tracks that could easily have fitted onto the 'Roots' album, but there's an urban edge here, not quite hip-hop but in its chops and licks there's a ghetto feel as the riffs bruise and drums pound like jungle thunder.

Experimentation is quite high on the agenda here and the instrumental 'Soulfly' track is a perfect example of that, but there's still such a strong element of fury that makes this one of the records, alongside Machine Head's 'Burn My Eyes' that makes for essential listening.

8/10

The Black Crowes - By Your Side (1998)

Part Stones, part Faces, this is pure American, yet British influenced bluesy rock. Wasn't really into the bands other records although I do own them, the debut 'Shake Your Money Maker' was a little derivative, but on 'By Your Side' I'm liking the swagger and the sway, it's all very Rod Stewart prancing around in the form of Chris Robinson, self-confessed diva, but not all the band look good in the white suites and frills! Tune wise, it's nothing original but it's good rock 'n' roll, nice production and some tearaway anthems, favourites being the oomph driven 'Kickin My Heart Around', the brillaint title track, the drunken 'Only A Fool' and the rush of 'Welcome To The Goodtimes' with its "nanana" Beatle chorus.

It's all pretty predictable stuff after a while, but with the Crowes you know what you're getting, cock swinging, hip-shaking rock 'n' roll, it's as simple as that so just enjoy the ride.

7.5/10