Album Review: Royal Thunder - CVI

It's time to don the devil hands as I take a look at CVI an album but stoner metal band 'Royal Thunder'. I had never heard of this band until this album came about so forgive me if my knowledge of the band is pretty much bugger all but what I do know is this band are sludgy, progressive, hypnotic, stoner rock fun with a powerful female vocals. Now this album is by no means anything out of ordinary for the genre, it's mostly slow and very grungy discords playing over some anguished vocals but it does the formula very well especially in the 2nd half where an above average album becomes a very good one. The album seems to take more life when it experiments a bit and from   'Blue' onwards you get driving rock, stoner rock bliss in the fantastic 'Sleeping Witch' and even some calming melodic tones in 'Black. Yes this album is good and if you're looking for something to do this to \m/ you could certainly do a lot worse & for what it's worth I think this is one of the better heavier releases from the year. 

                                                                                 

Album Review: Tenacious D - Rize Of The Fenix

I'm not going to beat around the bush, to this day I still love the self titled 'Tenacious D' album and I frankly will never get over how perfect a song 'Tribute' actually is & the original TV series involving the duo is still to this date an incredibly funny & one of the best band based sitcoms I can think of. Truth be told though somewhere around 2006 when the album & movie double 'Pick Of Destiny' came out it all became apparently clear that the joke had long outstayed its welcome & 'the d' gracefully faded into obscurity. Is 'Rize Of The Fenix' even necessary? Well no it isn't at all necessary but to say it was bad would be a disservice to the album it's self, whilst not nearly as fun as charming as the debut the are a few giggles to be had out of this album and for the most part the song writing here is solid. 'Rize Of The Fenix', 'The Roadie', 'Death Star', '39' and the surprisingly hilarious skit 'Flutes & trombones' does justify it's existence somewhat but on the whole this album is one from a band of diminishing returns, a must for fans but those with a passing interest needn't bother.