In 2004, after Axl Rose hadn’t produced a studio album in well over ten years, record company Geffen decided to release a Greatest Hits album. It was surrounded by controversy however, as Axel Rose tried to sue Geffen in an attempt to halt the album as he disproved of it and it’s track listings. The suing failed and probably had a reverse effect, by hyping up the album so much, and perhaps caused it to go triple platinum in America.

Well at least Geffen started in the right way, with some classic 1987 Slash. The first track is one that everyone knows and one that Rose would be hard put to find a reason to keep out of the album, “Welcome to the Jungle.”  This was the bands first major significant single, and Slash has said he considers it to be the first the band wrote together. It starts off brilliantly, showcasing Slash’s talent straight away, Rose’s voice is powerful  at the start of the song, and only really lightens for a moment in the middle. It’s a great listen, and a classic song, a brilliant opener. It’s hard to believe that the song was inspired by a hobo screaming at kids. MOAR »

Ah Hybrid Theory, the album that made American rock band Linkin Park. Perhaps it was the powerful lyrics and expression in its songs, maybe it was that Linkin Park’s Heavy Metal sound mixed with a synth was considered unique at the time, or it could have just been that millions of teenage kids wanted to scream along with a downtuned guitar, no matter which of the above you pinpoint to Hybrid Theory’s success there is simply no denying that it was huge. Let me define just big this album was, it outsold, Metallica’s, The Spice Girl’s and Lionel Richie’s best selling albums by give or take a couple of million each, . A feat which I doubt many other debut albums can come anywhere to claiming. MOAR »

This is Children of Bodom’s sixth studio album, and is clearly more of a reversal for Bodom, after the “Are you Dead yet?” album, where many felt the band sold out. Returning to a more thrash and aggressive state, I feel this album shows that Bodom still have the ability to crank out a good album. There are several good guitar solos, like in the song “LoBodomy” (which also keeps up the tradition of having at least one song in an album having Bodom in the name) and “One Day You Will Cry”. The production is well carried out, done by Mikko Karmila and Peter Tagtgren, which is too be expected, as Tagtgren has worked with many heavy metal bands. Overall, I liked this album, and feel it is a vast improvement on “Are You Dead Yet?” MOAR »

Indestructible (Disturbed’s 4th studio album) was released on iTunes on the 30th of may. I had high expectations of this full length album - partly brought about by Dan Donegan’s claims that the new album will be more “Ballsier” than the previous 3 albums. When I compare Indestructible to The Sickness I admit I wouldn’t call it “Ballsier”. For one it’s lacking the trademark “Grr” I associate with Disturbed. There are some great heavy metal tracks on there (The title track is a true neck breaker), mixed in with some more mid-tempo general audience songs. The production quality is excellent considering they produced this album themselves. MOAR »