A.C. is Anal Cunt's radio name, of course.

And as with any A.C. release, you have to pick out the real songs from the nameless filler. Obviously, anything with "Hits" in the title can get old quickly. But just go through the disc and listen for the songs with demo-quality production. You can skip those right off.

But that leaves plenty of stuff to choose from, including weird (much shortened) grinding covers of "I'm Still Standing", "American Woman" and, of course, "Staying Alive". Oh yeah, and the "Theme from the A-Team" (songwriting credits to "some guy").

By all merits: music, humor, whatever; this is far superior to Everyone Must Be Killed. Sure, A.C. is pretty much still a joke band. But you have to laugh sometimes.

After a bazillion albums, Coroner finally feels the need for an eponymous release. Whatever they want. Probably has something to do with Noise deciding to clear out the vaults as the band heads to a major label.

But after leaving that problem in the dust, this album finds Coroner staking claim to the territory they owned before Prong came along and ripped it out.

Alright, Coroner has always been more technical and progressive than Prong, but the heavy use of repetition, etc., sure does ring a bell. And now that Coroner stuff can finally be had again in the U.S., perhaps the kiddies will notice as well.

Us old folks have known Coroner as perhaps the best practitioners of the heavy prog metal genre. Not many bands tread in this area, because you not only have to play well, but you also must play with emotion and flair. Not an easy task.

But Coroner has been doing just that for years. This is better than Grin, and I'd put it up against any Coroner record, period. Sure the extra tracks are kinda cheesy, but there's plenty to sink your teeth into here. Don't miss.

What if King's X grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple instead of the Beatles and Sly and the Family Stone? Well, they might have turned out like D.O.P.E.

J.C. Stokes does a passable Doug Pinnick imitation (and he does sound a lot like Pinnick), and the rest of the band cranks out bass-heavy metal anthem after metal anthem. Sorta like if Pantera lost the guitars or something. And when you hear a guitar, it sounds like a pale imitation of the effects Ty Tabor puts on his.

King's X is a fine band to emulate. But D.O.P.E. needs to expand its sound past the anthem stage and find its own niche. These folks make up a good band. They just need to mature a little.

After years of seeing albums destroyed through the major label system, Die Warzau got smart and joined the real world.

The result? A lessened focus on hot singles for the kiddies, and a chance to really explore the outer limits of the industrial genre. As in, "How many sounds and ideas can we dump into one album?" A question I enjoy hearing answered.

Obviously talented producers, Die Warzau explores the worlds of jazz, various world beat sorts and good old "get down get funky" American funk of the 70s.

Which brings out the product that is best achieved in the industrial genre: a symphony of cacophonies. Harsh beats, sweet riffs, distorted everything, and you still want to dance. The different sounds reacting to each other and synthesizing something new in the swirling mist. That's what I call good work.

Since the album did so well, AT licensed this live recording from a Dutch label, unleashing even more caustic swing on the U.S.

The recording quality is very high in both the treble and bass ranges, which compliments the chaotic nature of the Hermans very well. Every little noise (not to mention the big ones) bounces out of the stereo with aplomb.

Only a couple of the songs from the studio album appear here, so you get nine new visions of cacophonous glory.

Sure, the Dog Faced Hermans are an intense experience, but you have to live sometime.

Even as the original concept of black metal sinks slowly into the sunset of (relative) mainstream acceptance, U.S. folks are just getting their first tastes.

This disc sounds a lot like the first Darkthrone record, which I liked. The music is pedantic (pretty much the same riff over and over again) and the vocals are sorta yippy, but as a mess of noise it satisfies reasonably.

Nothing to wet your pants over, but this is about as good a black metal album as I've heard. It's not scary at all, but then again, that's better than being completely silly.

Now signed to Elektra (their second full-length comes out this year), I can still gladly review FLNL's indie 7"s.

For the uninitiated, FLNL merges pop, hardcore and grunge in a furious fashion, throwing riffs in and out of the mix and still coming up with a glorious product.

The two songs here are no exception. I don't know if this is a pre-release 7" or what, but For Love Not Lisa is a great band, no matter where these guys hang their hats.

Jangle-pop that sounds midwestern, but with that southeastern melancholy turn (insert whatever bands you like into those designations). Of course, Holden hails from somewhere near Philadelphia. So much for my geographic analysis.

Holden isn't particularly tortured or pissed off about much, but his easy delivery and solid songwriting are kinda irresistible. You'll be singing these songs in your head until you go insane.

Nothing terribly barnrattling or anything, but then, sometimes it's nice to just enjoy a pop album. Excuse me while I enjoy this one again.

A stunning industrial grind morass of the kind Winter showed us a few years ago. If that reference fails you, go back, listen to the first Type O, and then imagine another whole load of viciousness dropped on top.

Quite a sundae, eh? I have a feeling It Is I has one thing in mind: total world domination. Evolve is a stunning statement, with all of the sonic construction coming from instruments rather than samples and production room edit tape.

This is music for those heavy at heart. Don't play this for the cousin who likes R.E.M., or even the Iron Maiden fiends. It Is I has a mission: to be the heaviest band in existence. There are many moments here which rival Streetcleaner (which is still one of the heaviest albums ever recorded), and dare I say it, a couple moments that even surpass.

If you dug the Glazed Baby last year, this is just as heavy, but in a more distortion-industrial sense. It Is I is not clean, but loaded down with the pain of the world. No, wait. That's someone else's slogan. Oh well. It sure is appropriate here.

Much more than many industrial acts, Killing Floor sounds very much like a band.

Killing Floor lays a thin veneer of heavy funk over traditional industrial riffs and production (distorted vocals-and everything else), providing songs in which the average metalloid and club type can find common ground. Plenty of slamming action ahead.

Killing Floor sounds very much like the typical Reconstriction band: danceable tunes with an attitude. The production is superb, bringing the proper feel to each tune. Nothing in the sound shrinks from exposure; all components are properly acknowledged.

A good debut. Killing Floor now has to build on this. Not easy, but the best manage somehow.

I don't know where these sounds are from (though the band is from Italy), but Klänge puts a space face on ambient in a fun way.

Playful is not a word often associated with ambient (trance, whatever) music, but I can't really think of a better adjective. This music toys with your subconscious, daring you to dig deeper. And when you think you're at the center, there's something facing you that makes you laugh.

Or something like that. This isn't music for the coffee achiever, obviously. But if you want to sit and contemplate reality for a while, Klänge will help as well as anyone.

Just when I thought KMFDM had run themselves into a deep rut...

Maybe I just wasn't paying attention. I liked the EP quite a bit, but it sounded like the same-old same-old. I can hear touches of newer industrial ideas (plenty of NIN and others), some gothic influences (which showed up occasionally in the past, but still) and an overall aggressive approach I haven't heard since UAIOE (remember "Thrash Up"?).

And then after the breathless, breakneck cruise through Nihil, I say, "Had to be KMFDM". This is catchier, heavier, more danceable, more experimental and more adrenaline-pumping than on any previous single album. A true amalgam of the KMFDM eras, Nihil shows why you still have to pay attention to those German industrial bands.

Messiah A.D. has been around almost forever. Members come and go, but the sound remains mostly the same.

This time, the guys try and merge a little of the trendy hardcore sound to their usual sauce of euro-metal, but the result is the same: it sounds fine, but there is just no personality.

And that's been my knock on them every album I've heard. Technically proficient, played with verve, but Messiah A.D. sounds faceless (talk about mixing metaphors).

This is journeyman music. Nothing wrong with it. Just no real spark, either.

The title is also descriptive, as Norman Feller is the DJ behind this project.

He takes a space-style approach to the purely ambient tracks, but on songs like the title track, he spins in cool rhythmic ideas that help define his ideal universe.

Feller is much more interested in finding exploring a vital part of space, as he keeps new ideas flowing into the songs. Repetitions keep running over each other, until an synthesis is achieved. This is not an unusual technique, but Feller uses it with the skill of an old hand.

I've heard better and worse. Mr. Magic's Nightflight (or Norman, if you prefer) should satisfy those who dig the ambient, but it won't bring in any new converts.

Heavy as sludge, but this moves along with an industrial dance beat (albeit often at dirge speed) to produce a real anthemic effect that even KMFDM won't inflict on us.

For having such a tight and controlled hand at the knobs, Oomph! manages to slam vicious industrio-metal anthems time and time again. The guitars change sound all the time, the drums go from real to machine (and back) and the bass can be nonexistent or overpowering. But the final result is the same: true sonic turbulence of the sort that can toss airplanes.

An easy, glib characterization would be German industrial output, but through experimentation and sheer talent Oomph! jumps ahead of the crowd.

Meandering pop music punctuated by Annette Kramer's willowy, swooping vocals.

When the music connects with Kramer, as on "She", the effect can be chilling and otherworldly. On other tracks, it sounds like the band and vocalist aren't even performing the same song.

Such unevenness can be expected from a young band, and Opium Den has plenty here to build from. Even when things do not click, the performances are technically quite good. It's just a matter of merging diverging ideas, always the most difficult part of making music.

Plenty of good reason to dig into this disc, though. Don't let the growing pains scare you.

Spoken word from a survivor of the L.A. scene. You've probably never heard of her bands (Raszebrae, The Ringling Sisters and now Holy Water), but her stories sound very familiar.

Patino writes prose poems, free-form observations on the condition of the nation-state of Los Angeles: The jaded realities of growing up in suburban Los Angeles, the nasty realities of trying to "make it", the sordid details of everyday life. Patino tries to cover it all, and she does quite well when she is speaking from the third person.

I think her first person bits read very well, but she puts too much personal emphasis into them (I know, they're her stories, after all) to make them sound real. But overall, Patino paints accurate and moving portraits of some of the individuals she has passed by, makes all of us understand a little better why things are.

Epitaph has always meant good punk with pop overtones. But there have been sloppy exceptions; L7 and early NOFX come to mind. And you know how those stories have come along.

So there may be hope for the Red Aunts. The music is sloppy, the same chords relentlessly pursued, the production a mess. But if you can get past all of the crap, there are decent cores of songs in there. Alright, it takes a little work to clear the brush. Don't blame me.

Maybe the Red Aunts will clean up their act and join the respectable face of pop punk. Or maybe they'll continue to spew venom and vomit with aplomb. Perhaps that's what punk is really about, after all.

Boy, have I been waiting for this one.

Out of the box, it leaped up towards the top of my chart. But still no disc. I finally get it, and no disappointment. Lean prog-metal that had a couple nods towards industrial death, but doesn't get hung up on technical jibberish.

In other words, a sound right up-to-date in the 90s. Sure, most of the songs are quite long, but you're shorting yourself and the album if you stick to the two "radio-length" songs. Don't give in to the temptation. Cycle through the whole disc.

Enough soapboxing. This album has impeccable production, every bit cleanly in place, just the right amounts of distortion at times, etc. No complaints.

And the music? Quite inventive and adequately aggressive. Reign knows how to put together great songs, and that's what Embrace has. If you're as late as I am, don't let that stop you.

More of the psychedelic-pop wave that still has the U.K. in its throes. But unlike the bands that have been brought over by the U.S. biggies, Slipstream is more stripped-down and earthy.

Plenty of emphasis on acoustic instruments and less on studio-enhanced distortion. So it sounds like, say, music created by humans.

The songs have a definite Neil Young feel in their construction-plenty of focus on the dominant riff, and enough asides to keep you interested. Sure, they get a little too trippy for me at times, but overall Slipstream has the right idea.

Psychedelic pop music that can be played live without a cabal of cables. What a concept.

Lying just one step away from the grind, Soilent Green has an amazingly technical approach to the whole death metal idea.

Brian Patton of Eyehategod hangs out on guitar, but this isn't just his project. Soilent Green is tightly produced, and the playing is immaculate (as opposed to EHG's approach in those areas). This is what happens when you spend too much time in Louisiana.

Differentiating between the songs gets a little difficult by the end, as the same grind and death metal conventions keep getting repeated, but Soilent Green have a good feel for what really kicks, and the guys follow those instincts. Now, will they tour?

Winding prog-funk (really) with strained and sometimes whiny vocals. It all sounds so... earnest.

This isn't cheesy at all, but with titles like "Tiny Little Super Guy" and "The Advertising Song (Burning Painful Product)", you know Swaybone isn't opposed to using a little humor in order to make a point.

And for some reason I quite like this sound. Kinda like if Rush replaced Alex Lifeson with Bootsy Collins' kid by Steve Harris (well, just imagine). This isn't alternative or anything on the cutting edge, but it is an interesting blend of commercial sounds. I approve heartily.

Electronic anthems in the ambient universe. Indeed, mood music that insists you pay close attention and DO NOT space out. There's a concept.

That doesn't mean the music can't fly into space realms, of course. And when it does, things get fairly banal. After all, there are only so many times you can hear the same swooping keyboard riff and wonder when will something happen.

But something usually does, and by the end of the song the music has almost mutated into a mellow goth stage. If you were looking for the merging of those two musical universes, I think Trauma has found it.

Construct got a little overbearing for me at times, but the artists involved do have interesting ideas. If you dig this sort of thing, check it out.

Sounds like a slowed-down version of what K.K. Null has been doing for ages. Or maybe I'm completely off base.

Lots of odd noises centering around a mid-tempo pop rhythm section. Speed it up, you get Zeni Geva. Yeah, that's it.

Martin Bisi took the knobs, and he achieved a production sound not unlike the one he got for Alice Donut's "Nadine" single. Noisy, cluttered and really heavy.

A glorious mess worth wallowing in. You might even clear up that nasty eczema.

The first Ultrahead disc was just Doug Carrion. Now he's recruited a band, fleshing out his vision of industrial sludge hell.

Extra band mates give Carrion's songs new bite (two are carried over from Cementruck). As the songwriting was one of the best parts of that earlier effort, this makes Definition: Aggro a fine disc, indeed.

There are times I wish Carrion and Co. would pick up the pace a bit, because I think the band sounds best when the detritus gets moving. Nothing like a little laxative for the sludge.

Yes, we've heard this sort of thing before. But Ultrahead puts things together very nicely, and while this may not be the most original sound in the world, these folks do it well.

When it smells like New York hardcore, well, the band must be from Michigan.

Not normally, but Universal Stomp has the sound of a Big Apple hardcore act on a testosterone overdose. Yipes.

Stomping of Jake is merciless and brutal. Universal Stomp has decided to be the heaviest and nastiest metalcore band around. That is a compliment, folks.

Four songs, all as fire-breathing and vicious as the others. It took me a song or two to get into this, but wow, what a conversion. I love this disc, and once you listen to it at full volume for full effect, you will, too.

If you've been reading A&A for the past couple of months, you've seen my reviews of most of the artists on this compilation. These are the spacier of Hypnotic's vast array of ambient talent.

If you haven't had the heart to wade through all the discs on your own, then this compilation will get you started. Personally, I'm not a space music fan, and even ambient acts who aren't generally spacey picked their most "out there" tracks for this disc, so I wouldn't call all of the tracks even representative.

But if space is your game, I don't know why you wouldn't check this out. Go for the Synaethesia, Cluster & Eno (!), Virtualizer and Nik Turner for starters.

And this is what happens when you cross over past Dr. Demento, into the far reaches of strange (but not necessarily bad) music.

From the Mantovani-esque Nirvana Sitar & String Group's take on "The Letter" to color-coded hep jazz-poetry from Ken Nordine, this is a fun collection.

If you are curious about what all this means, then read the book (for which this disc is the companion). Oh, and a quote from the man extolling the virtues of digging through the Salvation Army record collection (and perhaps finding a Don Ho-Oral Roberts duet) for all you Jello-philes.

This isn't golden throats material. After all, most of these folks weren't even marginally famous. They actually believed in this music. As should we all.

Judging by the catalog, Spill is not so much a label as a nexus through which artists and consumers unite. The 29 songs (!) in this compilation range from simple pop to the extreme of electronic experimentation. With most everything else in between, of course.

The liners say that these artists represent the best of the underground in the southeastern part of Australia. I have no quarrel with that statement. The stuff within is so wildly diverse (not to mention inventive and wondrous) I cannot imagine how this could be improved.

Well, the production values vary (as many of these songs are from demos), but even that has its charm. The best attack: just lay this disc in your player and expect to be mesmerized for the next 80 minutes or so.

The beats are techno, but the music is more ambient. After lengthy mellow intros, the songs on this compilation eventually kick up their heels and get throbbing towards the dance floor, even while keeping much of the ambient attitudes.

And apparently this is called "trance". I'm very ignorant when it comes to trends and their names (I still haven't started calling "goth" by its new name: "darkwave", and I don't plan to any time soon). Life goes on.

A good compilation for those interested in new trends in dance music. This disc is proof for those guitar-types that synthesizer music can be creative and experimental just as much as live stuff can be. Indeed, it is the practitioner and not the practice that determines the quality of the musical ideas.