Premature reports of their demise found their way down U.S. 63 to Columbia last fall, and many were bummed.

But as it turned out, the only change was Chad Price replacing Scott Reynolds on vocals. His voice is much rougher, lending to an almost retro-ALL sound.

Even as they returned to their roots, ALL also managed to make their most relentlessly heavy album. Some might even call at least a couple of these tunes "metal". Not a bad thing, but a little odd for one of the finest pop-punk outfits the earth has known.

Never miss an ALL show in your neighborhood.

Barkmarket used to be a noise band without real oomph to the sound. Not any more.

This gets positively heavy at times, and with all the feedback and squeals going on, a rather pleasant vibe escapes.

Remember Bullet Lavolta's The Gift? I can't put my finger on it, but this reminds me of that a lot. It probably has something to do with the hoarse shouting vocal style and coherent lyrical thought.

Gimmick is not the kind of album a first-time listener will appreciate. That's a good thing, of course, because it means you have to crank a great album five or six times to really appreciate it. Sounds like a plan to me.

Of all the bands on Grind Core, this is the one I liked the least. Of course, it was one of their stronger performers. Oh well.

This is, of course, much better produced than the GC disc, but the music is still caught in a vicious boredom cycle. Too many people have called them Cannibal Corpse Jr. for me to forget. I just would like to forget this album.

Find some creativity, boys.

Preachier than your average punk band, D.O.A.'s new single (with an album due later this month) is a benefit for the Friends of Clayoquot Sound. That's the big body of water near Vancouver, if I can read a map correctly.

The rant is a fun one against rich people who like to fuck the environment to make more cash. Let's all go grab some 12-gauges and shoot out the windows of the local Wal-Mart (not mentioned in the song; just my idea).

The flip is yet another cover of "Folsom Prison Blues". I guess I never realized how influential Johnny Cash was to the past two generations of loud music heroes (not to mention pretentious Irish twits). Smiles all around.

Absolutely, positively the heaviest instrumental band in the universe. Bar none.

The sound here is incredibly thick. Think Melvins, circa 1989 or so. With more tempo variations (read: they get fast sometimes). No vocals to fuck things up. Just a thick sound that won't dry up and get all crusty.

Every once in a while I like to compare an album to a nice, long shit. I understand from comments some of you have made that this is an almost uniquely male thing, probably relating to some sort of repressed homosexual desire.

I don't care. I like my long shits, and I love this album. It will pound your brain into jelly, which you can then spread on a nice peanut butter sandwich.

Music like this makes good food.

More of what has become standard: Rollins-style rants and slow, pounding chords. Except that I actually really like these guys's riffs, and things progress at an acceptable speed. Fairly tight, actually.

Four songs with no clunkers. This is brutality that makes me smile. I would not have believed it if I hadn't heard it, but I do like the way these guys put the brakes on hard core. Amazing.

Engine Kid walks the fine line between brilliant and pathetic. Any fool can pick out the right three chords and plow them to (fleeting) platinum fame. But it takes real inspiration to do something rather strange, and that's what we have here.

I don't know how to vote, except that with each succeeding release, I seem to be getting these guys a little better.

The obvious radio pick is the bizarre cover of (Rocky) "Mountain High", but again, it would take an innovative soul to delve even deeper. You should. There are a few treasures within.

While Getting Even (released not four months ago) was a sloppy return to his hard core roots, this album thrusts itself right into today's industrial melee.

This is about as self-indulgent as the last one, but the incessant beats are a much better backdrop for Ginn's meandering and feedback-laden guitar work. In other words, I think he's found his genre.

There seems to be no production, really, as the levels kinda flake on occasion, but that makes sense. This is a nice extract of vitriol, and unlike Getting Even, I think this Greg Ginn release is masturbatory and excellent. Check it out.

Produced by Jon Auer of the Posies, Gnome really kick out all the jams on their sophomore disc.

Despite this odd affliction the nation seems to have with pop-grunge music, Seattle, as we all know, is really the world's capital of pop music. And Gnome are pretty close to the top of that heap.

I'm not going to name names, because that would take too long, but C/Z has been a great showcase for many of those folk. On to the real review, then.

Heavy pop, a little less melodic than Six-Hi Surprise Tower. The songs seem a little more thought out, but not contrived in the slightest. Where as My Name has fallen under the expert tutelage of ALL, Auer seems to have honed Gnome into a tight, fighting pop machine. I would not be surprised if this is the finest pop album of the fall (yes, better than Nirvana or Pearl Jam). Really.

Frontier worked their last album to a few stations at a time it seemed, and everyone I know who heard it responded with a hearty "holy shit!".

The only complaint I had was a fairly muddy production, but that is corrected here. The songs are more coherent, but just as amazingly crunchy as No Fish Shop Parking. You'll be amazed at the sparseness found in the center of such a sonic maelstrom. That sounds awful pretentious, I know, but it's true. This is a really heavy album without overly thick guitar or bass. You hear everything move about and it still amazes.

No excuse to miss them this time around. Jacob's Mouse is one band to absolutely pick up on.

Coming on with more cliches than a latter-day Aerosmith song, the dumbest white rapper in the world continues to make me wonder if his I.Q. enters double digits.

Not just stupid in the lyric sense, but moronic riffs and posing make this an amazingly stupid persona. Good for a laugh, as long as you're really drunk at the time.

Dim the lights and chill the Spam, cuz' Killdozer is back in the house.

This is just a taste of their soon-to-arrive full-length. My buds are already roasting.

On my first radio shift, a listener called in and requested "that hamburger song somebody called Killdozer does". I said sure, found something that fit the description and was treated to a string of obscenities even I could not replicate without straining my tongue. Needless to say, I was transfixed.

As goofy and foul as ever, Killdozer rolls through the two songs here with their concrete guitar sound and ready-mix vocals intact. Just like Jesus told me last week.

Didn't like the advance at all. Psycho told me to give it another listen, because "everyone" else loves it. Okay, here goes.

Highly anthemic fare that staggers in somewhere between today's Cathedral and Rush. Why Rush? Why not? I could also mention ELP, but the songs aren't that long. Just rather self-indulgent.

Someday folks will realize that bombast does not mean great music. And just because someone tells you (honestly) that he or she believes something is the next big thing, remember that you don't have to sign on. We coulda nipped that Stone Temple Pilots shit in the bud with enough independent minds.

I loved their first album. The second was almost as good. Now this. It's like they've taken every death metal cliché and melded them into an album.

Too bad, because this is the sharpest production MC has enjoyed thus far. Three albums in a little less than three years is a lot, and I think the inspiration took a little dive this time out.

Better luck next time, guys.

Their debut was some of the nastiest shit I have ever heard. Not pornographic nasty, but mean nasty. The music came out and plain bit your ass off.

Less emphasis on pain and more on song structure. It should lead to more commercial acceptance. I don't think it is as good as Lowest Common Denomenator, but then most of you ignored that disc. You can't miss this one. It's a high-quality version of the hip sound these days. The only reason this one flops is if it isn't promoted. No other.

Let me say first off that this album should be the biggest thing to ever some out of the death metal community. It's not a death metal album by any stretch of the imagination, but at one time...

At one time I think these boys might have called a sound like this something akin to sell-out. I won't, because I think such terms are sorta silly. What we have here is a merging of latter-day White Zombie bombast with a few touches of that doom thing that has been coming back strong.

As tightly produced as any Bon Jovi album, this thing has massive commercial appeal. I see lots of Beavis and Butthead appearances and big sales. By the time they figure out where they are, Paradise Lost will never be able to claw themselves back to the underground.

Our loss is AOR's gain.

A couple of Fetchin' Bones types get together a new band that really doesn't remind me at all of their previous work. Absolutely stunning rhythm-oriented pieces crashing at my brain. Not industrial, really, but just throbbing. Sure, there are a few machine parts, but for the most part it's the live instrumentation that impresses.

A creative club dj could certainly find ways to get this on the floor, as should the innovative radio pud. Just because it doesn't fit any convention doesn't mean it sucks. Rather the opposite, usually. And Sugarsmack makes great music.

One of the finer pleasures in my life is leaning back after blasting my ears off and digging the latest disc those cool folks at Doctor Dream have sent me.

Southern California's finest pop outlet has dropped off the latest from the Swamp Zombies, which calls for a beer. Well, I would if it weren't one p.m. on a Monday. I should wait until two, at least.

Mostly sixties-style garage pop, with touches of blues and a few other, more obscure, influences. Always interesting to listen to, sometimes absolutely mind-lifting.

If you have heard of a (former) K.C. band called the Coctails, then you know just what to expect. Compellingly goofy.

Back from the dead and sounding better than ever (not just hype, but true), Victims Family crank this single out to prep people for their new album (due next year). The A is a new one, the flip new versions of old chestnuts.

This sounds, um, really great. Can't wait for the full-length. Wish I could say something more original.

Unlike some stuff recorded at this club that was almost unintelligible, the engineer got good sound.

Warzone in good form, and you get five songs, which probably makes this an EP kinda thing.

While I've never been a huge fan, this is a good representation of their work, sounding perhaps even a little better than recent recordings.

Michelle T. Clinton
Blood As a Bright Color advance cassette
(New Alliance)

While Jello Biafra may express a certain disaffection that white males feel for our society, Michelle T. Clinton gives a distinctive black female spoken word perspective on this fucked up world we live in.

This is called "Blues Theater", and it sure is. Lista is a great harp player, and he can relate a good story, not to mention history.