Kik Axe Music and Entertainment

If there were ever a Grammy awarded for 'greatest sonic manipulation artist', KLAYTON (the one man musical army better known by the moniker CELLDWELLER) would win it hands down.   This guy manhandles sound the way Michelangelo proved to marble who its true master was; by bending a seemingly unbendable (to most) material to his every whim in a way few others could.  No scale is safe, no note unmolested, no modulation left unscathed.  And like di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, the man is also a multi-talented wonder, jumping from composer to vocalist to producer to musician to engineer to technician to experimental entrepreneur with the greatest of ease.  And his latest undertaking, the uniquely released Wish Upon A Blackstar, showcases all those fantastic attributes and more… though not without a slight misstep or two (almost all instantly forgivable, save one). 

On EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED, former Lindsay Buckingham guitarist JANET ROBIN mixes just the right amount of country twang, rock & roll hooks, and guitar virtuosity to properly blend the fleet picking of the former and the gutsy blues of the latter.

With producer John Carter Cash of the Johnny Cash legacy, she has put together an album of memorable hooks and texture, certainly showing off the influence of Buckingham, but digging into all sorts of things - even Robin’s former mentor, the late Randy Rhoads.

What a shame. A concept with vast potential is met with poor execution to equal a sonic travesty...

When I first mentioned back in January that there was a metal tribute to FRANK SINATRA on the way, I said I'm not quite sure how I feel about this - curious, worried, or excited. When we previewed the first three tracks a few weeks ago, I was fairly confident that my answer was disgusted. Now, with the release of SIN-ATRA (out today via Eagle Rock), that feeling has been amended to be disgusted and angry.

Nearly a decade ago, I recall seeing a private performance by YELLOWCARD in a non-descript ballroom hidden deep within the bowels of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. It was during my oft-referenced time with the now-defunct Sam Goody, witnessing the tail end of the music industry's self-destructive days of excess. Even with breaking bands, those private performances didn't come cheap, but it was a chance to witness Yellowcard on the eve of their breakthrough success that would be OCEAN AVENUE. Now, returning from a self-imposed hiatus and back on an indie label, Yellowcard have delivered When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes, an impressive set of grown-up pop-punk, laced with their signature blend of sharp hooks and electric violin leads.

Straight Line Stitch has been one of my favorite bands for the last several years, and I had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new disc, ‘The Fight Of Our Lives’, for some time.  Their last opus, ‘When Skies Wash Ashore’, has been tearing up every speaker I own for seemingly forever, so the mere thought of new material had me salivating like an unchained mad dog anticipating the arrival of the mailman.

It would be impossible to discuss the collective works of the Brothers Cavalera without making comparisons to their vast, yet very similar other works. While it would be easy to consider the CAVALERA CONSPIRACY to be "SOULFLY with Iggor (yes, two g's now) on drums," that's not a fair assessment of the situation. Despite the similarities in sound and personnel, there is a certain spark that occurs only when the brothers perform together, and with BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA (out March 29 via Roadrunner), Max and Iggor have returned with a set that absolutely obliterates their 2008 debut, INFLIKTED.

I was working for the now-defunct Sam Goody a decade ago when THE STROKES burst onto the scene with their now-classic album IS THIS IT. The band was instantly compared to a host of acts from the 1970's, but aside from their lo-fi garage rock approach, I could never find a definitive link between them and any of the bands they were supposedly aping. What mattered is that THE STROKES had a sound that was drastically different from what everyone else was doing at the time, and the album rocked. Ten years later, the band has released ANGLES, an album that confirms what many have suspected: lightning does not strike twice for The Strokes.

Forgiving All My Enemies is real title hidden behind the abbreviated F.A.M.E., and love him or hate him, CHRIS BROWN is still a solid player in the music game. His new record (out today on Jive) shows that he's taken the time to step it up to fend off the very detractors he claims to be forgiving.

With a quick rise and fall marked by a pair of Geffen-released albums, Alabama's TRUSTcompany quickly dropped off the mainstream radar, announcing a hiatus in the Fall of '05. Six years later, the band is back with their first album for eOne Music. If you dug TRUSTcompany during their fast burn in the early 2000's, you may love their new album, DREAMING IN BLACK AND WHITE. It's exactly what I would've expected their third album to sound like, circa 2006.

Last month, New York's Nassau Chainsaw DisGraceLanD Demolition Committee (N.C.D.D.C.) released DisGraceLanD, a furious, five-song set of blood-soaked mayhem. As evident in their video for the opening cut called Vomitorium, NCDDC is not you're typical paint-by-numbers hardcore band, but an extended family of musicians and performance artists, collectively creating the NCDDC experience.