Before I really tear this apart, I must say that Acrimony has replicated Tony Iommi's late 60's guitar sound better than any band I have ever heard.

And that's the only thing going for the boys. They rip Black Sabbath off so shamelessly even Cathedral would be impressed. One track reshuffled from the last album, a live track and two new piece make up this EP. The cover is cute, but the insides are only for those who truly covet every Sabbath ripoff there has been.

Admittedly, they really sound like Paranoid-era Black Sabbath. But then, where is the art?

Some may not believe it, but there is a difference between mellow and cheesy. Mellow can be soft and slow and still have artistic quality. The Flying Monkey Orchestra achieves this with the instrumental parts of this disc.

But when the voices or lyrics come in, everything slides right on down the road to cheesyville. The latin grooves are nice enough, but those lyrics are just terrible. And the voices have that dreaded adult contemporary feel.

It didn't have to be "happy jazz". But that's where Flying Monkey Orchestra ends up.

Well, this is the typical Headhunter album: wall-of-noise punk-styled rock, with cool riffs, insightful lyrics and an overall exciting feel.

And, of course, Garden Variety has managed to carve itself a niche in this rather tight field. More distorted and less accessible than many Headhunter bands, Garden Variety really piles on the noise at times, even while sticking to basic pop conventions. A nice trick, that.

And the head keeps bobbing along. Yeah, it may be cliche by now, but Headhunter keeps finding some of the coolest rock bands out there. Garden Variety may not yet be one of the best bands around, but you never know. An album like this shows definite potential.

Another Lawrence (Kansas) band signed in the wake of Paw and Stick and all the rest. Thankfully, Hostility doesn't stick to the "little grunge" formula.

No, these guys have completely appropriated the Pro-Pain sound (which some will say is an appropriation of the old Biohazard sound, which some will say...). Indeed, Hostility plays that card well, and the riffs are as crunchy and tight as the best in NYC metalcore.

Fun, in a brain-limited way. I enjoyed the disc, but the sound gets increasingly generic as it rolls along. It seems like a mantra in this issue, but Hostility really has to find its own sound if it wants to really get anywhere. The band has proven it can write good songs, even if the style is not its own creation.

Catchy, if forgettable in the end.

That would be Danny and Scott of Brutal Truth and Shane from Napalm Death. In case you were curious.

The basic tracks were laid down three years ago, and then finished up earlier this year. Not like there aren't enough side projects out there, eh?

The reason this one got finished, though, is because it does truly threaten the very existence of life on Earth. Heavy, and yet still strangely club-accessible at times, Malformed Earthborn cranks into Dead World territory with purpose and intent.

Not exactly nice, but certainly exquisite. Malformed Earthborn tracks into the world of vicious industrial noise and helps blaze a trail. A sheer joy to experience.<

Well, God-DAMN! Another retro-glam band that tried to make grand statements while sounding like Law and Order (the MCA band).

Now, wait a minute. I liked Law and Order, and this stuff doesn't grate on my ears. The rhythm section keeps the songs from cheesing out too much, though I have pass on silly stuff like "Thinking About You".

And the album veers between wanker tracks like that and cool stuff like "Red, White, Black and Blue". It sure takes balls to play this sort of music when the trends are so diametrically opposed, but what the hell, right?

A better than average glam album. Plenty to enjoy, if that's your bag.

A bunch of Swedes who emulate Fear Factory more than Entombed. This sort of thing could certainly help the death metal balance of trade.

And while Mourning Sign really doesn't have the chops or innovation to match Fear Factory (perhaps the top death metal band in the world at the moment), at times the sound is pretty cool.

Perhaps if the guys stuck to the more industrial side of things and did more Maiden-esque choruses (as on "Ashes of My Relics", which also sounds a lot more like Entombed), they might find a little more of their own sound.

Merging the Swedish and NYC death metal traditions can be a bitch. On the previous EP and this album, Mourning Sign has shown real progress towards that goal. Only time will tell.

Nine songs that clock in at a little over 14 minutes total. Pure snot-bred California punk-pop that bears a passing resemblance to Green Day. And there's a good reason for that. This project also features members of Monsula and Crimpshine and was originally released on 10" vinyl last spring on Too Many Records.

Gotta love the wacko cover of "Mahogany", too. In all this is simply cotton candy, caramel apples and funnelcake on a late summer evening at the county fair. Don't eat too much, though, or you'll get sick.

Dancey ambient or ambient dance? Somewhere between those two lies the truth.

Reverb Sleep cranks out cool sound sculptures and then turns up the bpm. Not house enough to be trance, but the more industrial rhythms are still rather addictive.

Not spacey enough to be terribly trippy, the disc still comes off as some sort of strange field trip to the frontal lobe. I might use this as my Halloween music to scare off the kiddies.

Anyone interested in experimental electronic music will really dig this, and lots of more commercial types will find agreeable parts as well. Reverb Sleep don't follow any formulas, but the folks may have accidentally created one with this album. A real stunner.

The familiar with Revelation will recognize the sound. Rave-up punk rawk with all the trimmings.

The single is short, sweet and has no real meaning that I can comprehend. The b-side is an instrumental that is far superior to "September Burns", perhaps just because it doesn't have any lyrics.

Bring on the album, boys.

Five Swedes who take the basic sound of Louder than Love and then add a bunch more Sabbath references.

Not bad as all that goes, though I get tired of anthem after anthem very quickly (one reason I haven't listened to a Soundgarden album in years). Sharp Nine has aced the production, giving the sound a full and thick feel. Just like... you know.

For unabashed theft, Sharp Nine is pretty good. As usual with this sorta thing, I just would like to say I hope the band eventually finds its own sound. The guys won't get too far without it.

Lots of thanks to Ben Weasel on the liners, and what do ya know? These Hoosiers (literally) have that straight ahead Boogadaboogadaboogada sound that helped Screeching Weasel to legendary (if not fiscal) success.

Every song is astonishingly catchy, and since the whole disc clocks in at just over 25 minutes, there's plenty of time to play over and over (and over and over).

If pop punk were so simple, a lot more people would do it well. Squirtgun has a handle on the formula, and the guys keep modulating it to keep thing interesting. A couple more albums will tell the story, but this is an auspicious debut.

Excellent hardcore pop three-piece. The tunes whip around with vigor and purpose, fanning the flames of angst and anger.

Heavy? Distorted? Loud as fuck? Um, sure, but the songs are just so damned catchy, even when Stanley fully descends into Chi-core territory.

Tunes like "Cancer" show how it's possible to modulate a potential Green Day song into pounding and furious mess. Sure, it could have been a simple sing along (which does indeed take talent to do well), but Stanley passes on that option and just rips the song a new asshole.

I'm not sure if this is quite accessible enough to get big commercial attention, but for anyone who wants to know what a combination of Treepeople and the Jesus Lizard might sound like, this is your disc.

While Tub and Antimony are the big highlights on this compilation, check out other bands like Ff and Pet UFO. Punk and disorderly all the way.

Double Deuce has a rather strong lineup, and this set takes two from each of eight bands. If you haven't been formally introduced, here's your chance. And let me say, if you like D.C. post-hardcore bands like Jawbox, Fugazi and Girls Against Boys, there's plenty here for you to dig.

Well, I saw Germbox and Sin City Disciples (both long defunct) live, as well as Season to Risk, Molly McGuire and Cher U.K. in my year-long tenure in Kansas City. I've reviewed discs from Boys Life and Shiner. I know of about half the bands here.

Which puts me in a position of the know, I suppose. I should note, for the record, that many of these acts started in Lawrence, Kansas (home of the University of Kansas), if they are not still based there. But since silly bands like Paw and Stick got left off, I'll not gripe.

You might get the idea that Kansas City bands take their musical cue from Chicago and/or D.C. Perhaps, but bands like Pamper the Madman and Tenderloin (what's left of the Sin City Disciples) show some diversity. But while the title of the disc had to come from the (K.C. band) Rainmakers song "Doomsville", there is little left to show for that scene of ten years gone. This is young and angry stuff.

Sure, a few of the tunes are derivative, but I don't mind listening to newer acts who are just feeling their way. If you thought the heartland was merely full of cows and country music (which does indeed rule the commercial airwaves), then dig into this.

Another tribute album from Magna Carta. But this one almost makes sense: Genesis tunes, almost all from the Gabriel era.

But where Genesis succeeded was in keeping Gabriel's histrionics and tendency to excess under control. The bands covering these pieces have taken songs that still managed a sparse, underproduced quality at times and turned them into unwieldy anthems. The latest tune covered, "Mama" has been transformed by Magellan into something even more commercial than the original.

Very few of the acts here have managed to really take these songs into a new direction. While I think this tribute was a better idea than the other recent ones from this label, the execution is still lacking. Perhaps if the Magna Carta stable would do a Willie Nelson tribute album. Cairo doing "Crazy"? That would be interesting.

There have been so many Relapse/Nuclear Blast compilations this year, you'd think they'd run out of unreleased tracks to dump on the public.

And, indeed, very few of the Release disc (UHF) songs are unreleased. For anyone who has not heard some of the cool new bands from the Pennsylvania German juggernaut, then here is your chance to sample Tribes of Neurot, Mindrot and Malformed Earthborn, among others.

It's a compilation that shows off the diverse offerings from this collection of labels. That's all, but that's not too bad.