This is one of Buckethead's more experimental releases. The inclusion of circuit-bent instruments is certainly unique and does make this album feel more fresh. There were quite a few great moments, like the closer She Sells Sea Shells, as well as some more fun and funky moments on tracks like The Slunk and Frankenseuss Laboratories, but as a whole, this album just doesn't impress me as much as other Buckethead projects. The circuit novelty wears off after a few tracks and ends up getting ... read more

I'm not gonna lie, for the first couple of listens this didn't really click with me. There was no doubt in my mind that it was better than No Prayer For The Dying, but it just didn't strike me as that good of an album by Iron Maiden's standards. But after my third listen, and reading through the lyrics, everything about this album just clicked with me.

For the first time since Powerslave the songs are all interesting listens and are all extremely well-written (keep in mind that I don't mean ... read more

Well, unlike Ozzmosis, at least this actually sounds like an Ozzy record.

This is an album that I can't say I dislike, but there isn't anything I like about it either. I mean, it's listenable music, there's no doubt about that, but it's just so dull that it falls into the background. I don't hate it, but I don't love it.

There are some good ideas presented here. Dreamer, for example, is often seen as one of the better solo Ozzy songs, and I can kinda see that. I mean, I wouldn't say it's ... read more

Who would have thought that the only Buckethead album to feature Serj Tankian - singer for System Of A Down and one of my favourite frontmen - would actually be my least favourite from him?

This album isn't awful, but it is bad. The inclusion of many vocalists is something that I don't think really suits Buckethead too well. There were times before where he used vocalists, like in both Bucketheadland albums, but here it just seems odd. There are some vocalists that do well, like Serj Tankian ... read more

Thank you Ozzy for sending me to sleep twice with one album.

So, I knew that this would be Ozzy's worst album. It's the one album by him that is consistently labelled as his worst work yet. And yet, I had a slight hope that this would at least be tolerable. I mean, the worst thing I had heard from him yet was still a good enough album. And after doing some research and seeing that this is the only solo Ozzy record to include Geezer Butler - bassist of Black Sabbath - my hopes for this album ... read more

This is considered by fans to be Buckethead's heaviest album, and I have to agree. With pummeling guitar riffs from Buckethead, as well as Brain pounding his drums so loud I felt like I was on the verge of a headache, this is by far the most heavy release that I've heard from Buckethead. As soon as the first track started, I was taken aback and was in pure awe of what I was listening to. I have heard some heavy albums from Buckethead before, but nothing to this extent. And I loved most of what ... read more

Opeth continue to slowly improve themselves with every release, and with Blackwater Park we see what many consider to be their peak performance. Whether it is or not, I'll have to see, but so far in their discography, this is definitely their best.

Something that sets Opeth aside from many other progressive death metal bands - and something that makes me like them just that little bit more - is their use of cleaner vocals. While I do think that Mikael Åkerfeldt excels at his death ... read more

Yeah, this is now my favourite solo Ozzy record. There may have been some aspects to his first two albums that were better, and they are certainly seen more as the classics and held in higher regard, but this album is just so much better for me.

No More Tears is a very much needed return to form for Ozzy, albeit brief (because, let's admit it, he isn't going to get better than this. His follow-up to this is seen as his worst work yet, for chrissakes!) And when I say "return to form," ... read more

One of the best Buckethead albums I've heard yet. This album is so much fun and just makes you want to jam out! As usual, Buckethead is phenomenal on guitar, but Travis Dickerson's contributions to this record really shine through, bringing some amazing keyboard work. With so many funky tracks like Unrestrained Growth and Too Many Humans, it's difficult not to move along to this. I do have to say that the final three tracks did make the album feel more of a drag than it needed to be, but as a ... read more

As much as I don't care for this album, I do have to give it to Iron Maiden for being able to go eight albums before reaching their first dud. Every album before this was so good that it's a surprise that they didn't make something like this sooner.

But with that said, this album really isn't all that good. It's not exactly bad, but it is just incredibly boring. So mind-numbingly boring.

I'll start off with the few positives first, and that's that, when they try, it's clear that the ... read more

Yeah, this album isn't bad at all, but it can be a very tedious listen at times. I just can't get into this the same way I can Paranoid or Blizzard Of Ozz. It's just too repetitive and boring.

When I say 'boring', I mean that very lightly. Outside of my first listen, this album doesn't really get intolerably boring. But, good god, some of these songs are the definition of boring. Whether it's Bloodbath In Paradise or Demon Alcohol, some of these songs sound like they're just B-sides of ... read more

I'm not gonna lie, this was very difficult to get into. The distortion is so heavy that by the third track I was starting to get a headache. As it progressed, though, it did start to grow on me. I have to say that it is actually really good, but that initial reaction I had to it really drags down the score a lot. The heaviness of this record is unlike a lot of what else has come from Buckethead, which may be part of the reason why I ended up with a headache in the first place. Still, tracks ... read more

Buckethead's most heavy and experimental release that I've heard yet ultimately becomes an incredibly mixed bag. Buckethead's electric guitar work is some of the best, most surprisingly good and infectious riffs he has produced yet. However, with a ton of spoken-word segments as well as poorly performed acoustic sections with annoyingly awful vocals from one of the guests all throughout the tracklisting, filling the tracklist that should really only be fifteen tracks so that it's instead thirty ... read more

This is the first of what I assume will be many Ozzy records that I just couldn't care less about. The thing is, this album is actually good, but there is one major problem with this making this the most difficult to sit through Ozzy album I've heard yet.

Instrumentally, this album is exceptional. Jake E. Lee really proves his worth on this record, even more so than he did on Bark At The Moon, which is unfortunate considering this is the second and final project he worked on with Ozzy. It ... read more

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Iron Maiden in the '80s were undefeated! Their time in the '80s held some of the most consistently fantastic records in metal history, and definitely solidifies them as one of the greatest in metal. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son marks the end of this amazing decade for them, and now I'm onto their '90s releases, which - from what I've heard - has some of their more lackluster outings, so I can't say I'm looking forward to that.

When I initially found ... read more

The first of the four major metal releases over the next couple of months: Slipknot come back after five years of no new music. This band is not usually seen in a positive light by music listeners. Most people group them together with a lot of other nu-metal outfits who most only listen to in their angsty teenage phase, and are usually seen as embarrassing to listen to. However, I'll be the first to say that I'm actually a fan of these guys. While they've never made the greatest music, and it ... read more

Yeah, this album isn't all that good. I have to give it to Buckethead, because, as always, there are some moments of guitar genius. Tracks like Phantom Lights and Jabbar On Alcatrazz Avenue had some phenomenal guitar work, but considering he is seen as one of the best it is to be expected. Most of the album however, is just dull. It's uninteresting and bored me, and considering this is one of the shorter projects I've heard from him, that isn't a good thing. There's also The Triangle Part I ... read more

The Shaggs - perhaps the most divisive band to ever exist. Despite them only ever releasing a single album, they have managed to both be one of the most praised artists out there, while at the same time being one of the most despised artists out there. I have to hand it to them, you need to have some sort of talent to be THAT divisive. This is a group that really should have stayed in the '60s. In fact, I'm sure that they would have been forgotten long ago if not for the musicians who have ... read more

Another good album from metal legend Ozzy Osbourne, but it's also another one which I feel fails to live up to its 'classic' status.

Bark At The Moon is the first of two Ozzy albums to feature Jake E. Lee on guitar, replacing Randy Rhoades who had been killed in a plane crash a year earlier. So how does he hold up? Really, it is an impossible job living up to someone who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in metal, so just how good of a job does Lee perform? Well, it is very obvious ... read more

Another good album from Buckethead. This one remains consistently fun throughout. With it's heavy and distorted guitar work, it does sound like it would fit in well as a fighting video game soundtrack. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was having an extremely fun time throughout, so it's very safe to say that this is an incredibly enjoyable listen. However, it's unignorable that this thing is bloated. With 49 tracks, it can be very overwhelming at times, and it can even sound a bit ... read more