Living Colour - "Shade"

Living Colour - Shade
2017, Megaforce

1. Freedom of Expression (F.O.X.)
2. Preachin' Blues
3. Come On
4. Program
5. Who Shot Ya?
6. Always Wrong
7. Blak Out
8. Pattern In Time
9. Who's That?
10. Glass Teeth
11. Invisible
12. Inner City Blues
13. Two Sides

I mostly remember Living Colour from their stint in the 80's that began with the single "Cult of Personality." I loved that song. Still do. I also remember my dad watching the music video with me. He thought they were saying "culture personality" and then had to give me a lecture about why the band was a bunch of degenerates and blah, blah, blah. That was my dad for you. Anyway, recently Facebook was like, "Hey Old Man, remember Living Colour? Well... they have a new album out. And it's really good!" And lo and behold - Facebook was right on both counts. Shade really is good. It's heavier than I remember Vivid being (but that was years ago). What I like is the variety. This is one of those albums that has a lot of influences but is still very cohesive. So you'll have some blues numbers ("Preachin' Blues," "Who's That"), some funk ("Blak Out"), some hip-hop ("Who Shot Ya?" - which is a cover, I think), and some plain old rock/metal ("Pattern In Time," "Glass Teeth"). There's also a cool rock cover of "Inner City Blues." All this variety is tied together by solid instrumentation (it's mostly hard rock, venturing into metal sometimes) with good hooks. Vernon Reid is a guitar hero in every sense of the word and Corey Glover's vocals are still on point after all these years. Doug Wimbash (bass) and Will Calhoun (drums) carry the rhythm with style and finesse. This album was a delightful surprise that I wasn't expecting and worth checking out - especially if you forgot about them after "Cult of Personality."

Useless Fact: The video for "Who Shot Ya?" features photos of people who have died from gun violence from recently headliners like Trayvon Martin to people like JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Deliverance - "The Subversive Kind"

Deliverance - The Subversive Kind
2017, 3Frogz/Roxx Productions

1. Bring 'Em Down
2. Concept of the Other
3. Center of it All
4. The Black Hand
5. Epilogue
6. Listen Closely
7. The Subversive Kind
8. The Fold

Welp...

No one should be whining about how the new Deliverance isn't heavy enough. 'Cause, dang. I don't think it's a stretch to say that this is probably the band's heaviest album - and I include Greetings of Death and What a Joke in that statement. Jimmy has assembled a crack team of thrash specialists from the old guard. Jim Chaffin and Greg Minier (formerly of the Crucified) are manning the drums and lead guitar, respectively. Victor Macias (ex-Tourniquet) is on bass. Greg Rogers has even been enlisted for live shows and such. Did I mention this is heavy? Those who've been pining for the old thrash/speed metal days should be overjoyed. The songs are fast and furious and Jimmy's vocals are the harshest they've ever been. The focus here seems to be a little less on intricate thrash riffs in favor of sheer power and passion a la Sepultura. Not to say that there aren't cool riffs here because there definitely are it's just that you won't hear a more technical riff like, for example, "Solitude" or "Flesh and Blood." Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Take "Center of it All" - a blazing thrash tune that won me over with its sheer ferocity. "The Black Hand" has a cool little intro before blasting off at a breakneck pace. The title track echoes "Weapons of our Warfare" a bit in the beginning while being one of the more "melodic" tracks on the album. I put "melodic" in quotes because, as I've said, speed and power are the name of the game here. Songs are very focused here. They have a job to do (namely, kick your head in) and they bust in, do that, and get out. So there's no acoustic interludes or extended classical guitar passages. Also... I think there's a little bit of punk attitude in here too, just a touch, to make things interesting. One of the things that I really like about this album is that even though it's a brief eight tracks long (about a half hour running time), there's still a lot of meat here. I've listened to it several times and I still don't feel like I've got all it has to give. That's quite impressive considering the length. As one of the backers I am quite pleased with the finished product and I can't imagine anyone who was a fan of the band's earlier material wouldn't be pleased as well.

So it seems like Jimmy just can't release anything without some controversy. People complained about the cover. I'm not sure why... I guess it made them feel weird feelings and they just couldn't handle that. Then people where complaining because they thought the album was already out. As of this writing it is not. The only reason why I have it (just the mp3s too, not the physical CD) is because I was a backer. It seems like when it comes to Deliverance people just lose their minds or something.

Useless Fact: There were originally supposed to be ten tracks on the album (one was a cover), they decided to leave the cover off. Then it went down to eight. Not lying... I'd still like to hear those other two songs.

The Blamed - "21"

The Blamed - 21
1994, Tooth & Nail

1. Abuse
2. Help Yourself
3. Testimony
4. Drunk
5. Separation
6. A State of...
7. From Me To You
8. Rainbow
9. 3 A.M.
10. God Is Alive
11. Walkabout
12. The Ballad of the Blamed

This album is one of those treasures from the early days of Tooth & Nail... before they got all corporate and everything. The Blamed are raw and gritty punk rock with little polish. The production is similarly rough but in this case it actually helps the music. There's a definite Crucified vibe here but that's probably because Jim Chaffin is the drummer. I'm not sure it quite reaches the heights of some of the Crashdog albums in terms of genuine punk - but it's a good, fun album with some good hooks. "The Ballad of the Blamed" is an interesting song in that it's this melodic, acoustic number that really shows that the band has some genuine chops when it comes to their instruments. They released a second album called Frail but for some reason I never liked it.

Useless Fact: The Blamed contributed a song to the Sweet Family Music Stryper "tribute" comp.

Undercover - "Forum"

Undercover - Forum
1994, Brainstorm

1. Spill
2. The Moon and the Blue Around
3. Forum (Lullaby)
4. Symbol
5. Carmenita
6. Whoa, Nelly
7. Pocket Full of Money
8. The Overlook (Hosanna)
9. (Tell Me) Everything About You
10. Union

I remember getting Forum from Arrowhead Christian Bookstore. Back in the day Arrowhead (which was about an hour away from my town), was like a Mecca for music - second only to Kingdom Bound. Their selection was a lot bigger than my hometown store and so I was always excited to go there. This time however, I either had everything there or there just wasn't anything new - except Forum - which I wasn't wild about. I remember how disappointed I was at the selection that day. It was also really warm that year for fall and that made me mad too because I get mad about stupid things.

You can probably guess how this review is going to go at this point. Originally, I wasn't thrilled with this album. Except "Spill" and "The Moon and the Blue Around" which is... I don't know what style it is but I loved it then and I love it now. The rest of the album is pretty diverse with a lot of acoustic songs and some country influences. We've also got an electric version of "Symbol" from the Brow Beat compilation. So yeah... I like it a lot better now except "Whoa, Nelly" which I still don't care for but I couldn't really tell you why.

Useless Fact: I believe this was the band's last album. They came out with another one called I Rose Falling but I've heard it's not that good.

Bent Knee - "Land Animal"

Bent Knee - Land Animal
2017, Inside Out

1. Terror Bird
2. Holes
3. Holy Ghost
4. Insides In
5. These Hands
6. Land Animal
7. Time Deer
8. Belly Side Up
9. The Well
10. Boxes

Well, well, well... my You Tube algorithms have doth blessed me. Bent Knee is kind of an enigma. Sure, you can just call them prog rock but there's so much going on here. There's jazz, rock, alt-rock, a dash of metal... just so many different influences. Odd time changes here and there. They almost remind me of Hot Pink Turtle in that they seem to be able to take a bunch of seemingly disparate pieces and put them all together into something weird and wonderful that works as a whole. Courtney Swain's vocals are a highlight as well. She's got great range and can wail like a banshee but also be quiet and subtle. I would not be surprised if this showed up on my "Picks of 2017" list. If you buy this I can guarantee that it will be the strangest, most unique thing you hear this year. The only thing I don't like is the seven or so minutes of dead silence at the end of "Boxes." Why? You can't just end the song? Just end the song. There doesn't seem to be any reason to have that.

Useless Fact: The band released the entire album on You Tube before it released officially.

Undercover - "Devotion"

Undercover - Devotion
1992/2018, LoFidelity

1. Work It Out
2. Man, Oh Man
3. Sea of Tranquility
4. Purple Flower
5. Devotion
6. Promenade
7. Where I Should Be
8. Dark Night
9. All That I Am
10. So Wonderful
Bonus Tracks
11. Cry Myself To Sleep (Live)
12. Witch Hunt (Live)
13. Devotion (Live)
14. Promenade (Acoustic Live)
15. Devotion (Live)
16. So Wonderful (Live)

A long, long time ago...back when the world was new, Undercover's Devotion inspired my youth group's logo. See, there's a song called "Purple Flower" on here and along with the mention of a purple flower in The Choir's "If I Had a Yard" we thought there was some sort of something going on. So a purple flower was our logo for "The Hippy Youth Group." Named that because a bunch of other kids from another district were like, "look at those hippies over there." Yes, I know Circle Slide pre-dated Devotion by two years so there couldn't have possibly been any correlation. No need to send letters.

Anyway, this was my first introduction to Undercover. I saw the previous album, Balance of Power, in my local bookstore but chose something else over it. I came into the scene way too late to have ever heard their more punk stuff. Devotion rocks pretty hard and while I didn't love it originally, I've grown quite fond of it lately. Quite a familiar refrain I've been singing in reviews these days. I blame it on trying to reclaim my lost youth. The original is really hard to find but the band has completed a Kickstarted a reissue and that's where my copy came from. The extra tracks are all right, mostly live stuff. I also appreciate that they recreated the liner notes of the original album. I know it's kind of a weird, small thing but sometimes when these reissues come out they redo the liner notes and often they don't look as good.

Useless Fact: As far as I know Ojo Taylor is no longer a Christian and is a college professor somewhere.

Iced Earth - "Incorruptible"

Iced Earth - Incorruptible
2017, Century Media

1. Great Heathen Army
2. Black Flag
3. Raven Wing
4. The Veil
5. Seven Headed Whore
6. The Relic (Part 1)
7. Ghost Dance (Awaken the Ancestors)
8. Brothers
9. Defiance
10. Clear the Way (December 13th, 1862)

I've got kind of a weird relationship with Iced Earth. If you'll recall I wasn't wild about their last two albums and only bought them because I was on vacation and bored (though I have re-evaluated Dystopia and really like it now). In fact, I wasn't even going to bother with Incorruptible because I'd figure I'd just get it a year later on whilst on vacation. However, I'd been hearing some really good buzz about this one with some fans saying it was their best since Something Wicked. Which is super high praise. So obviously I didn't wait until I was on vacation and I'm glad I didn't. I don't know what got into Jon Schaeffer and the boys, but man... this album rocks. There's definitely an energy and vibrancy that wasn't there on Plagues of Babylon. Everyone is at the top of their game and not one track could be considered "filler." I especially like the finale, "Clear the Way (December 13th, 1862) - a song about an army in the Civil War. I'm actually considering this as one of my picks for 2017 if that's any indication.

Useless Fact: "Seven Headed Whore" is marked as "explicit"... for the word "whore" I guess because there's no actual vulgarity in the song.