Crushed: My Machine

Mike Clink produced modern sounding metal with a touch of funk ala Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is melodic modern metal that never veers into the boring territory. "Leaving" clearly demonstrates all these influences yet retains that certain bit of individuality you really want. There is enough on here to satisfy mainstream tastes but enough to peak the interest of the modern metal crowd as well.

There are even touches of metalcore on here as well as alternative touches (like "Follow You Down" with a hint of Morrissey vocal warbling) that would please the college crowd. If anything is wrong with this CD, it's that it can be a bit too eclectic at times. You are actually not sure what you are going to get next. There is a lack of overall style. There is a clear stream of talent here and one could see them doing really rather well indeed. A bit more focus on the next CD might help though.

Ghost in the Machine: The One Within

With a name like Ghost in the Machine, you would not be shocked to hear this lot do electronic goth now would you? Not another bunch of Trent Reznor inspired wanna-bes, this lot strives to do something different with the genre. It's very much catchy and dance oriented; you can truly imagine the goth kids dancing madly to this at your local goth club. True, their predecessors on the dark edge are hinted at but then so are bands like Dead or Alive and even a hint of Erasure’s dead cert catchiness.

The band has licensed music to the Sci-Fi channel, MTV, Nike, VHA, and Spike TV so you may have already heard from them. Then, of course, they end the trip into their world with a frankly bizarre, but truly great, cover of "Sharp Dressed Man" by those Texan bearded blues goons ZZ Top. If you thought that electro-goth had hit the buffers in terms of originality think again. Think Ghost in the Machine.

Well that is your lot for this week. I still got a whole mess of CDs to get through, as well some interesting prog DVDs to take a gander at, including the likes of Rick Wakeman. I promise the next column will be sooner and shorter.

As always stay safe and rocking. Check out live music, whenever and where ever you can.