Three Big ONES

Come May/June and we are about to witness three big rock/metal releases; Minutes To Midnight--Linkin Park(May 15th), United Abominations--Megadeth(May 15th) and Paradise Lost--Symphony X(June 1st). I have had the good fortune of listening to the promo CDs of all three,the United Abominations disc however, only had 7 demo songs. Anyway, what I'm about to do here is give you a glimpse of what these albums have to offer and help you in spending your money wisely.

Minutes To Midnight

Probably the biggest and most anticipated of the three for most, it was at no.3 on my 'looking forward to'(LFT) list...I'm not gonna explain why. Anyway, the music here is what some might call evolution or some utter crap, I'm with the latter breed. Hybrid Theory and Meteora, though not very innovative and technically groundbreaking did have solid rocking numbers, and were actually fun to listen to. With this album, you feel as if Linkin Park are trying to be the next U2 or something, what's up with the endless number of ballads guys??? Did you forget how to ROCK??? One word review--YUKKKKK!!

United Abominations

Megadeth being my 2nd most favourite band ever, it might come as a surprise to you when I say that it was no.2 on my LFT list. The System Has Failed had not actually quenched my thirst for vintage Megadeth thrash. The album was above average by any standards but it just wasn't good enough to be Megadeth. Anyway, let's get on to the album in question. I dunno what the rest of the 4 songs on the album sound like, but even if they sound crap, the demos of the seven that I've already listened to make this album good Megadeth stuff, not excellent but very good. The opener Sleepwalker is such a hard hitting song with such an infectious riff...the rest of them are good too. One word review--Buy It

Paradise Lost

Now this is what I was waiting for, much more than the Megadeth album. Let me explain why. Megadeth gave their last excellent album in 1992(countdown to extinction)..the albums that followed ranged from above average(Youthanasia) to crap(Risk). Symphony X however, with the exception of their debut album, have given albums ranging from very good(twilight in olympus,odyssey) to excellent(the divine wings of tragedy, v-the new mythology suite) through the ninetines. With Paradise Lost, Symphony X do not disappoint at all. It's a very well structured album with trademark Symphony X riffing, harmonising, dobule bass mayhem, keyboard madness and the immaculate Michael Romeo solos. It doesn't quite have the variety of The Divine Wings Of Tragedy but it's still an excellent album and more grandiose than most of their other efforts, with the exception of V-A New Mythology Suite. All tracks are bludgeoning headbangers, and the title track is a ballad...(they have one on every album). What can I say...it's definitely the best metal ballad I've heard in a long long loooooooooooooooooong time. One word review---If you don't buy it, you're going to hell.

P.S.--If Dream Theater don't salvage themselves from the ordinariness of Train Of Thought or the debacle of Octavarium pretty soon, I'm giving their spot of my favourtie progressive metal band to Symphony X.