cd reviews

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
Alchemy (Dream Catcher)

Track
01. Blitzkrieg
02. Leonardo
03. Playing With Fire
04. Stand (The)
05. Wield My Sword
06. Blue
07. Legion of the Damned
08. Deamon Dance
09. Hangar 18, Area 51
10. Voodoo Nights
11. Asylum

Never known as the most diverse or commercially accessible recording artist around (well, not outside Japan, at least), YNGWIE was still able to deliver rasonably enjoyable albums troughout the late '80s and most of the '90s, even when he would change his bandmembers like most people change their underwear. At some point, however, the fire and passion that always existed in his music dissipated, and he began regurgitating his ideas in a way that turned off even his most ardent fans (hence his diminishing popularity in the Far East). His eleventh studio album (by my count), Alchemy sees the return of vocalist Mark Boals to the fold (14 years after his appearance on Trilogy)and a switch to a more "uncommercial" direction, one that was intended firmly to recapture some of the excitement of YNGWIE's early recordings. Unfortunately, YNGWIE's efforts fall well short of the mark, with his substandard attempt at rehashing the neo-classical complexity of his first couple of albums sounding contrived and not entirely effective. As superbly performed as the likes of "Leonardo" and "Playing With Fire" are, they simply sound like they were thrown together in a hurry, and they lack the spark that made 's earliest output so special.

If you're a die-hard YNGWIE MALMSTEEN fan, you probably already own this record and love it for what it is. The rest of us, however, will want to spend our dollars elsewhere.

- Borivoj Krgin
AC/DC

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Deluxe CD/DVD Set Includes:

-3 Bonus Tracks
-DVD of 10 In-Studio Videos
-Expanded Artwork

Their ninth offering, 'Korn III -Remember Who You Are,' is their first effort for brand new label home, Roadrunner Records, and it bursts at the seams with that very feeling that defined the band from the get-go. Each song unleashes an uneasiness reminiscent of Korn's earliest and most unbridled material, but there's also a modern refinement that's epic in its execution. Korn definitely don't lose sight of their roots on 'Korn III - Remember Who You Are,' but they also venture into uncharted darkness. All that truly matters is where they're going. The album strikes a balance between their past and their future, as it finds the band reuniting with producer Ross Robinson, who manned the boards for their first two records, all the while joining forces with Roadrunner Records, the world's leading rock label. With 'Korn III - Remember Who You Are,' it's their time...

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
There are few artists that need no introduction, but Sweden's Soilwork are definitely one of them. Their reputation as one of the country's finest exports (aside from mustaches, meatballs and Swedish fish) is well-deserved. Few bands have properly melded the aggressiveness of thrash with genuinely catchy choruses with such impressive results. Before you start name-dropping the latest metalcore sensation, let us just get one thing straight: Soilwork did it first and continues to do it better! Soilwork, their name itself a nod to their journey from the ground up, have followed in the footsteps of countrymen like In Flames, Meshuggah, Arch Enemy and Dark Tranquillity. Now with the return of guitarist and founding member Peter Wichers and a invigorated sense of purpose, The Panic Broadcast is the strongest album in their aresnal since the groundbreaking Natural Born Chaos in `02. Limited Edition CD/DVD includes a bonus song, Extended Studio Footage, High-Definition Drum Video, Photo Gallery

SOILWORK
Sworn to a Great Divide (Nuclear Blast)

SOILWORK sounds like SOILWORK at this point — whether that's a good thing to you or not is another story, but the fact remains that you could pick this CD out of a lineup in about three notes. For all the talk of returning to form or getting heavier, the band still builds what amount to chrome-dipped AOR songs, verse/chorus/verse pop tunes driven by the vocal melodies and made incidentally heavy by the guitars. For the most part, this makes for some pretty predictable music, to the point where this many albums into the band's career, it can be hard to care.

But if they're working from a comfortable groove (who said "rut?"), they're at least putting a lot of high-gloss texture onto the same old skeletons. These songs are produced within an inch of their lives and performed flawlessly, and it sounds like they still care even when they're busting out an utterly paint-by-numbers cut like "I, Vermin" or "20 More Miles". The solos are good, the riffs sound great (even if you don't remember them five minutes after the album ends) and "Speed" Strid does both his "yelling death metal guy" and "guy from TEARS FOR FEARS" vocals with conviction and power (I actually checked the liner notes to make sure that wasn't Chuck Billy supplying the occasional bellow, such as the chorus of "The Pittsburgh Syndrome").

While there does seem to be a self-conscious effort to make things marginally heavier here, it just means a few more death metal vocals and a few more musclebound riffs in a few verses. Too much of "Sworn To a Great Divide" is squandered on formulaic tunes too beholden to the band's already-established sound to seem fresh, and not clever or inventive enough to make them interesting despite that fact. Even the token throwback thrash song, "The Pittsburgh Syndrome", seems a bit forced and obvious, a hook upon which to justify the "back to the roots" claims, but without the vicious edge that propelled "The Chainheart Machine" or even "Natural Born Chaos" into glory.

"Sworn to a Great Divide" has a pleasant, mildly enjoyable sound, but it all kinda dissipates into a fine mist after the record ends. Glimmers of the band's creative fire pop up here and there, like in the surprisingly emotional solo of "20 More Miles" or the halting attempt at a moody atmosphere in "Sick Heart River". But this is ultimately the sound of a band wearing out their own blueprint, too ensconced in their Gothenburg-lite world to shake off the torpor of the studio and jam out something with, if not blatant originality, at least a little bit of metal heart to it. Very professional, in a not so good way.

- Keith Bergman