This has that early-eighties American guitar pop. You know, REO, Cheap Trick, Night Ranger. That sort of thing.

And they don't try to make it pretentious or anything. The music and lyrics are light. Bordering on cheesy at times, I suppose.

On the other hand, this is the first kind of music I got into. It rings a bizarre chord with me. Night Ranger is playing a K.C. bar this weekend (really), and I considered going. They were, after all, the first concert I went to (after Petra). Boy, I hope I don't reveal too much of myself here.

Nothing spectacular or even original, but reasonably fun.

This is the fifty-seventh time I've listened to this. I kept track.

At first it sounded forced, though "Recipe for Hate," "Skyscraper" and "American Jesus" are definite BR classics. Especially galling was Jonette Napolitano's anthemic wail on "Struck a Nerve". And "All Good Soldiers" seemed awful crafted.

At this point, however, I must say I like this album almost as much as Against the Grain, a good two steps better than Generator. The dirge-like pace of their last album has been abandoned for traditional BR speed and even tighter harmonies.

It is absurd to put any other punk band in the same sentence with Bad Religion. They're leading a punk renaissance, selling a shitload of records. Yes, this stuff can be played on a commercial station. And it's heavy enough for the meanest alternative outlet.

Five albums in six years. Seventy-two songs and not a bad one in the bunch. NO ONE ELSE can make such a claim. To overlook these guys would be a terrible mistake.

I think a lot of the obvious emotion present got lost behind this wall of fuzz left by the production. The vocals are just a bit too far removed from the mix.

But I do really like the songs. My aversion to dirge-like hard core aside, this seems to make all that work. At least better than the Dog Eat Dog reviewed elsewhere in this issue. It sure is a lot more interesting. And things are sped up much of the time, anyway.

As you know, I'm no advocate of clean production, but it is nice to hear the vocals, especially if they are as interesting seem to be.

Much better production than the 7" also reviewed. This is a bit more metallic, too, but I like the heavier direction. The songs are tighter and more intense. I like the versions of songs on the 7" that are included here much better. I can hear the vocals!

All you folks who are tired of gratuitous female flesh on record covers can glory in this release. The inside picture has the three (male) members of the band playing cards in a shower. Completely nude. Special note to parents: there is at least one penis in plain view. Circumcised.

The music? Glorious noise. None of it seems to make much sense and I kinda prefer it that way. Things are quiet, loud, in and out of tune (though mostly out). In a way it could be compared to that pop psychedelia stuff (like Engine Kid), but I like what they do with it.

This is more aggressive and less calculating. Actually, if this was planned at all I would be rather shocked. Sometimes things are much better that way.

This underground series has turned up great music. Many of you grooved on the Disembowelment (they have a full-length album coming out soon), and now you should get into Convulse.

Matt sent me a tape of Dead World advance tracks and dropped a few Convulse tunes on there as well. This is not ordinary death metal. Take some basic grunge, add elements of doom and the regular vocal style. You will dig! As I've heard other tracks, I'm sure an album will be coming one of these days. This is solid all the way around.

I've heard many of the tracks from their upcoming album, and they are amazing. Side one here does what Godflesh used to do well: slam your head into a brick wall and pulverize your ears. Altogether vicious.

The flip is a presentation of a great poem over chamber music. This is what I think Dead World does best. Make you distrust reality. Just when you think you know where you are, their music can strip away your perceptions and drive you to despair.

Cool.

If I'm not mistaken, the last Warrant album was called Dog Eat Dog. I guess that's a joke.

I wish the music was. I've never been a fan of dirge-like hard core. The last Rollins album didn't really appeal to me, and this doesn't either. I've heard so many bands that sound like this, I can't find anything real interesting to latch on to.

This is just an EP. Maybe an album will show some growth.

Their seven-inch was the first C/Z release I ever did not like. And the first two tracks from that are on here, so I'll just skip them.

I was the first to rejoice in the apparent slowdown in the pop psychedelia revolution. No new Ride and My Bloody Valentine and Blur (pronounced bleah) for a year or so. Thank God.

This stuff is pretty slow, mostly quiet and kinda interesting. If I were drunk (as it is physically impossible for me to get stoned) and contemplating the universe, perhaps I might dig it more.

They dig out the grunge for a cover a Neil Young's "The Needle." And they even try to sing, something notably absent from the other three tracks.

Um, I still don't like 'em. Life goes on.

Riff-heavy metal with pretty cool vocals, switching from gruff to melodic as the mood dictates. A lot of you have asked where all the thrash went. While this isn't real thrash, at times it gets there. A lot of it does have that Armored Saint/Non-Fiction groove, and I really like that.

The production is great. Not laboratory clean, but good enough to sound great.

For a first effort, this is pretty impressive.

While the majors have signed away much of the San Diego scene, a few stalwart people have started to put together something nice.

Mike Monroe (not of Hanoi Rocks), vocalist for Freak Show, owns the Red Eye label. And the three tapes I got to review for this issue are pretty well great. While the first releases are not on disc, if you work with tapes at all you should get a hold of Mike immediately.

Back to FS. Completely in-your-face hard core. Great riffs, great lyrics and an attitude that won't quit. This is a pretty old tape, and their next album will be on disc.

The Red Eye lineup is too strong to miss out on. It is worth 29 cents to write them and hear this stuff.

More medical death metal. But while Carcass started from the grind side, this is more of a doom-influenced disc.

Back to the old school-no enunciation attempted here. Sounds like a lot of belches, really. A pretty neat effect.

There is more than a hint of grindcore, but General Surgery obviously have no need for restricting labels. They play what they like, and do it well.

Named after my favorite dish at the Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque (where my youngest brother now works), these boys crank out a raucous rockabilly thing.

Instrumental rock is a rare thing apart from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, I haven't heard much better. This borrows from Duane Eddy at times, but that is, of course, a good thing. The lord of twang should've been inducted into the RNR Hall of Fame years ago.

Like Evan Johns and Rev. Horton Heat, this stuff is certainly loud and crazy enough to be played on metal shows. It probably isn't the best seg into Benediction, but I could see this leading into the new Bad Religion, for example. As they used to say at KCOU, diversity rules.

After they sent me the EOA, I encouraged Priority to send me their rap stuff as well. Thank God.

While the two album tracks on here are clean for airplay, they're not bad. I prefer the originals. But the bonus track, "24 with an L" is heavier musically and lyrically. Very nice.

While on this tip, you should check out the Onyx-Biohazard remixes. Challenge your listeners and their prejudices. Everything goes back to Chuck Berry, anyway.

A tribute album to serial killers. Each of 21 songs details the attitudes and activities of these guys.

Very intense grindcore sound. My only real complaint is they didn't write a song about Kansas City's most famous serial killer, Bob Berdella. He picked up male prostitutes, chained them in his basement and tortured them to death over a period of months. No one knows how many he killed. When he died in prison, the news anchor said (really), Well, this one's sure to dredge up old memories..."

Great concept, good music. A damned educational disc. Hopefully it will spawn all sorts of law enforcement complaints. Let's roast America's other white meat.

They're pissed and out to get you. This is a vicious maelstrom of rantings and screams. Well, perhaps I am overstating things, but it sounds amazing.

I would put this in the category of Jesus Lizard or Alice Donut, just because those bands are pretty original as well. The command of noise here is simply astonishing.

As this is a Skin Graft release, there is also a great comic book inside. I mentioned this before, but it is such a cool idea, I had to say something again.

Any band who thanks their penises for "all the hours of enjoyment" is certainly worth a listen.

What you'll find is ripping hard core with rather clearly sung lyrics. No growls or howls. After all, this shit is funny! If you can't understand it, well, the effect is diminished.

Do not take that as a rip against the music. It tastes like week-old chili. Everything has finally congealed into a sumptuous feast. No need for cheese or saltines to dress it up, either. Straight.

Like I've noted in the other Red Eye reviews, this is a label to notice. They are just getting started, but the three bands I've heard are amazing. Get in touch.

A low rumble kept a-movin' with an unstoppable beat. My only caveat to a lot of the Skin Graft things: the vocals are sometimes almost mixed out. It goes for here.

Of course, the music will eat its way though diamond, so can't really bitch. I think it's time to flip the record over again.

There is this little blurb from Raygun on the back. "A staggering E.P." Raygun falls back on that tired excuse anytime they hear anything heavier than Porno for Pyros.

Some definite Seattle vibes come through, usually to slow things down even further. I can't find anything unique or even real interesting going on. It's just... okay.

As I've noted many times before, Trance Syndicate puts out some of the finest loud stuff around. And no one in the "metal" community seems to notice.

Well, there should be more to a hard rock show than one type of music. Lord knows, the Pain Teens can't be typecast. Like a Texan version of Alice Donut, their songs swirl around a loose rhythmic core, with the occasional scream to get your attention.

It IS hypnotic, and not in the sleepy way. More of you should be on this music. There is more creativity and energy in one of this album than there ware on the last three releases from Seattle major label types.

Don't worry; just because the songs are different and interesting doesn't mean they don't rock out. Quite the contrary. Pain Teens will pound themselves into your subconscious. Maybe then you'll stop playing Stone Temple Pilots.

Only one new track, really. They redo "Death Walks Behind You" and a live version of "Eternal" is included.

Fairly commercial death-doom. Like their last album: solid and unspectacular. The new track, "Rape of Virtue" reminds me a lot of latter day Slayer. Make of that what you will.

Perhaps a new album will draw them out of these doldrums. After all, the Benediction EP was pretty dreary, and their new album still drains my ears.

Merging a little Seattle riffage with the current slower hard core trend, Puke Weasel sound awful good to be stuck in the middle of Kansas.

Production is immaculate, keeping the focus on the tight rhythm section. This will grind its way into your heart.

Been Caught Buttering truly amazed me. And I've been waiting ever since for a taste of new Pungent Stench.

This is not what I expected. But it is better. They have no musical core, instead sampling sounds from industrial to seventies rock. And, of course, two dance remixes of "Blood, Pus and Gastric Juice."

The weird thing is, you can dance to all of this. Easily. I'm not talking about thrashing about and crashing into people. Stuff that white people can do and appreciate.

And don't worry, they dance remixes rule. No wimpy revisions; they keep the song whole and just punch the original up a bit. And if you can tell me what the extra track is, please do.

And the cover isn't really disgusting. But check out the inside photos. I haven't seen my balls since.

Seven (well, six really) weren't enough. They'd damn well better start recording again soon!

Where to start. Somewhere in here punk, pop, grunge and some southern comfort harmonies merge into an album that seems to get heavier as it rolls along.

Everything is tight as hell. I suspect a live show would certainly be a treat. I'd sure love to see one.

As for where to stick them, I have a feeling they don't care. Most of the tracks are well-suited to a commercial metal show, and the others would fit well into an alternative format. Of course, on my old show I would have just played the whole thing.

Don't judge this by the first tracks. The more this played, the more I got into it. And the first tracks are great; I just had to figure out where all this was coming from (an unfortunate curse).

Get this. Play it. Loud.

No one outside Nebraska may know it, but one of the strongest musical scenes in the country is in Omaha. It certainly puts Lawrence to shame, and I can only think of St. Louis as possibly better in the Midwest.

Ritual Device hail from that city, playing something that should probably be called post-hard-core. To be honest, the stuff is as close to being undescribable as I have heard, but it's great.

This disc just flows from jam to jam. I couldn't find a weak link (Lord knows I listened enough). To find an interesting sound (and great music), get your fingers on this thing.

A bass-heavy groove permeates, and a high-treble guitar screech adds to the fun at times. This is aggression at its finest.

Check out the flip: a great rendition of "Hot for Teacher", with guitars helping out the drum solo at the start. Perhaps the chops aren't quite there, but the energy more than makes up for it.

As Wrathchild America, they foundered on the rocks of a major label. You know, it is a bitch to be taken seriously at those places if you don't get endorsed by Revlon or write songs about wearing the skin off your dick.

Personally, I thought 3-D was a great album. It wandered everywhere and went nowhere. So after being shown the door at Atlantic, they found Energy.

A good fit. They are in the same musical territory as Piece Dogs and Pro-Pain, although their influences are much more diverse. And even more so than 3-D, everything works together without hurting the brain.

I still don't think they have completely found their collective voice. If Souls at Zero keep putting out albums like this, I hope they don't.

Their first album was a mishmash of stereotypical African rhythms and wailing guitars. No coherence, nothing special.

I'm not sure how special this is, but it is a marked improvement. Everything at least seems to fit together, and some of it is even rather good.

The constructions here remind me, oddly, of the Grateful Dead. A lot of junk piled on top of each other, and the occasional good song. Perhaps this is no coincidence, as the liners thank the Dead for their spiritual guidance, or something like that.

This album is worth playing, something I couldn't say for their first. If their live act is as improved as Love Under Will, Tribe After Tribe could become a formidable band.

Annihilator
Set the World on Fire advance cassette
(Roadrunner)

Annihilator has been so long I figured the folks had been dropped. New singer (I think, he sure sounds different), but Jeff Waters is still in charge of the show. Decent traditional metal.

Take the rhythm section from Badlands and add a dash of commercial blues. That's what it is and that's what it sounds like. Heavy, but decent.

Their last demo blew me away, and a similar result here. Things have solidified, with less meandering lines and more mind-fucking riffs. Of course there are still competing musical points of view, but they live together more harmoniously at this point.

Simply great.

A bit more blues-influenced than in the past, as Howe has cooled off the flash and concentrated on great playing instead. He comes into his own.

While currently hailing from Seattle, this deserves no backlash. It sounds like nothing I've heard from that area. More of a midwestern college rock band, really.

Semi-amusing stuff at times, but nothing that really makes me sit up and notice.

The Shrapnel line-up plus some take on Albert King's legacy of tunes. While definitely produced, this is still rather faithful to King's sound.

Same line-up as the Albert King tribute. Same results: a fine remembrance of a great guitarist and songwriter.