The mail has been kind to me with quite a nice pile of new material to review developing. Always wanting to keep things eclectic I have slipped a copy of Artic Monkeys into the music mix. I gave it a chance and ignored all the (over) hype this lot has been getting. Read on to see what I think of the lads.

CD Reviews

Dio: Holy Diver Live

Recorded at the historic Astoria here in London; this is one of those live CDs that has you kicking yourself for not going to the gig. Seventeen tracks (on two CDs) of classic Dio firing on all cylinders. As you can tell from the name this is Holy Diver played in its entirety by Dio and the boys. The fact Ronnie James Dio, who is in his 60s, can still belt the tracks out with such force is damn impressive. He tosses in a few crowd pleasers from his time with Black Sabbath in the form of "Heaven & Hell" and "Sign on the Southern Cross." And a trio of Rainbow tunes in the form of "Tarot Woman," "Man on a Silver Mountain," and "Long Live Rock & Roll."

All of Holy Diver live plus a bunch of classic metal tunes with his other bands...what is there not to like. While maybe not a classic live album it certainly is a must for any fan of Ronnie James Dio that is for sure.

Venom: Metal Black

The name is their first album's name back-to-front and that is about the only joke on this album. It suffers from the same thing that hurt the second Spinal Tap CD; it is too bloody good. Venom were known and loved for being loud and crude and crap — this ain't Venom. This is merely a good death/black metal album of the type that, thanks to the inspiration of Venom, fills the pages of Metal Hammer and Terrorizer. Stuff like "AntiChrist" and "Lucifer Rising" are wonderful slabs of Black metal goodness. In terms of quality it is by far the best Venom album ever...hold on maybe that's the joke!

Carmine Appice Project: Ultimate Guitar Zeus