Darryl Dodson: Reality Check
This CD/DVD set sees DD doing his best avant-garde noodling. His guitar work is heavily influenced by Hendrix at his most flamboyant and "Voodoo Child" gets an airing on this nine track CD. This is out there stuff on the guitar. Really bit guitarists will love it, no doubt. Not exactly what you would put on in the car for a good listen but quite good nonetheless. The DVD is handy for those of you who are guitarists who want to figure out what exactly this bloke is doing. Not for everyone, but a quality release nonetheless.
Sirrah: Acme & Did Tomorrow Come…
Re-releases by Metal Mind of Polish band Sirrah’s late 90s releases, there is a difference between them. The band has ceased to be but these are two examples of Polish metal’s rise post-Communism. Acme is textured with female vocals and is a far more trad metal style while Did Tomorrow Come is far more experimental and drifts into electronica/goth metal territory. As a result the second album is a bit less focused than the first one.
Members of these bands have gone onto to greater things such as The Man Called Tea. It might interest some to know that the latter album has retained its previous title with the MFN change dropped. Not exactly essential, that is for sure, but an interesting insight into the Polish metal scene.
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.
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