Arch Enemy Unleash War On New Album

Melodic death metal band Arch Enemy announced in March that their longtime vocalist Angela Gossow was leaving the band to spend time with her family and she was to be replaced by Alissa White-Gluz of The Agonist. Fans weren't too sure about how this would sound but later on in the month the band released the title track and first single off their ninth album War Eternal. This song not only proved to silence the haters, it is one of Arch Enemy's best songs.
"Remember who you are/ This is fucking war," White-Gluz screams during the bridge.
This is a battle cry against all of the haters who didn't think that Arch Enemy would continue to be great. On tracks like "As the Pages Burn" and "On and On" the band shine like they always did.
The music on this disc is at an all time high for Arch Enemy. Songs like "You Will Know My Name" and "Time is Black" have some great guitar melodies and the drums are out of this world. Instrumental tracks like "Tempore Nihil Sanat (Prelude in F minor)," "Graveyard of Dreams" and "Not Long for This World" all show that the band are far from over and that they still have their chops.
White-Gluz is just as great a vocalist as she ever was on any The Agonist songs. Gone are her signature pig squeals and clean vocals. The only clean vocals are heard on the chorus of "Avalanche." The clean singing is layered under harsh vocals and barely noticeable. White-Gluz had great control of her vocals in The Agonist's songs and that is sorely missed here. However her harsh vocals are great and after a few listens you really get used to the fact that her clean singing days are numbered quite easily.
War Eternal is a great record and she opens a new chapter in the Arch Enemy book. Here's to the new Arch Enemy.

Butcher Babies Rock Out On Debut Album

Heavy Metal band Butcher Babies released their mosh pit-inducing debut album Goliath last month. The album was preceded by the single "I Smell a Massacre" as well as the band's reputation for being a gimmick, thanks in part to fromwomen Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey. Harvey and Shepherd are known for performing close to naked, with only black duct tape X's covering their nipples. This took away from their credibility as musicians, but with Goliath, this changed. This record is so face meltingly good that no gimmick can undo the greatness of it.
Every song is a rocker and it shows off the duel vocalist's talents. Their screams recall other female fronted band such as Otep, Kittie, In This Moment, Arch Enemy and Straight Line Stitch, while their cleans recall In This Moment, Kittie and Eyes Set to Kill. Most of the clean vocals as well the more growled harsh vocals are done by Harvey and the more high pitched, In This Moment styled screams are done by Shepherd. The music is a mix of classic heavy metal and thrash metal.
The ladies mix in their clean vocals well with their harsh screams on songs like "Magnolia Blvd," "Grim Sleeper" and the single and best song on the album "I Smell a Massacre." However on the title track, which is one of the best songs, the ladies don't sing one clean note. Screaming aggressively over the metal as fuck guitars. This approach is quickly given up on "In Denial" in which the heavenly cleans of Harvey are heard again. Going on to "Give Me Reason" the ladies sound more like Otep than they have on previous songs. The band also rock hard on "The Mirror Never Lies," which like the other songs is heavy as can be. Harvey's cleans on the chorus of this song are perhaps the best cleans on the entire record.
The next song the slower "Dead Poet." Harvey's cleans are the most prominent vocals on the song. "The Deathsurround" is a sonically different song than the rest. The vocals are different here than on other songs. The album closes with a remake of the song "Axe Wound" from their self-titled 2012 EP.
This album is quite possibly one of the best metal albums of the year so far. Butcher Babies have proved that they are much more than a pair of pretty faces. Here's to hoping the band keep up with this for years to come.

All That Remains take a musical shit...I mean have a new album

All That Remains have always been a good band. While most of their songs aren't classics they do have a few that are unforgettable. Most of them were off of their last album For We Are Many. The band are an average metalcore band with an average metalcore style most of the time. In their earlier albums and on their last record they mixed in some melodic death metal moments. Like if A Day To Remember and Arch Enemy had a strange baby.
Last month they released a new record called A War You Cannot Win. The album only has one good song and the rest are simply okay. The good one is the title track. It features more clean singing by front man and conservative, beefcake, hick Philip Labonte. Labonte is a decent singer but his strength lies in his unclean vocals. This album intends to make use of his cleans more and that's fine but the outcome sucks.
The biggest problem I have with this record is the music. On all of their older albums All That Remains had kick ass music but on this album it's just lame. The same shitty ass double bass drum and guitar chords make up this album. There are two acoustic interludes which suck. One is twenty seconds long and pointless.
Another highlight is the mildly touching "Asking Too Much" which showcases Labonte's sensitive side. His clean vocals actually portray some emotion and the song is decently written. It has some cliche lyrics but other than that it's a decent song.
Hopefully the new All That Remains album is a smaller crock of shit than this one was.