The Champagne Charade
“Glitter City”

North Jersey is hiding Rock and Roll’s best kept secret. Fronted by the lovely Saetia LaReoux, the Champagne Charade are unapologetic with their poppy metal assault. Guitars blaze, drums and bass thunder and LaReoux can fucking sing her heart out. This band is the real deal and everyone should take notice.

TCC is obviously built from an impressive mix of metal, 80’s rock and hardcore roots, but the band are more than that. They’ve developed a unique sound that is entirely their own and are an absolute breath of fresh air in a scene that is muddled with clones and rip-offs. Instantly you’ll be reminded of other female fronted metal bands like Evanescence and Lacuna Coil…hell even Paramore, but there’s something so damn charming about this release and this band. Read the rest of this entry »

Throwdown
Venom and Tears
Trustkill

The O.C.’s toughest straight edge boys have completed their full transformation into Vulgar Display of Power-Era Pantera. Over the years Throwdown have gone through many lineup changes, but this one is the tightest. With producer Mudrock (Avenged Sevenfold) at the helm they’ve finally gotten it right.

“Holy Roller” sets the pace with quick thrashy bursts of power and mosh. Vocalist Dave Peters sounds exactly like Phil Anselmo. It’s frightening, but welcomed. The groove heavy “Day of the Dog” chugs along and has a catchy group chorus. Not until the somber “Cancer” does the listener catch their breath from this sonic assault. The mid-tempo heaviness continues with “No Love.”

As a whole Venom & Tears builds off the Pantera influenced hardcore of Vendetta and ditches the hardcore part. Think Pantera with all the heavy riffs and gruff vocals, just without the Dimebag solos. Maybe they should get a second guitarist to fill that void for the next record. This is highly recommended if you like metal and will surely fill the Pantera void for the jocks, tough guys, and rednecks of America.

Doesn’t Rock l Kinda Rocks l Rocks l Really Rocks

Bedlight for Blue Eyes
Life on Life’s Terms
Trustkill

Bedlight for Blue Eyes is a rotten band. Plain and simple there really isn’t a single redeeming quality about them. The press release talks of their “insanity” and “passion.” What we get is painful boredom and a lot of piss poor ballads.

New singer Daniel Rinaldi, who apparently responded to a Myspace post to become the band’s new singer, offers a lot of whining and stereotypical emo boy crying. As the 14 year-old female demographic goes bananas for shit like this, I’m left scratching my head.

I should note that before the band released this second full length on Trustkill their original vocalist and bassist ran for the hills. What is left is the hollow shell of a band with no direction or soul.

These songs will generally be featured in prom scenes of the next slew of bad teen movies. The band will go on to be a semi-popular opening gig for bigger emo bands around the country, then they’ll finally grow up, realize all of their music is bullshit and hang it up for good.

Trustkill should have sent this band packing as soon as the original vocalist left. “Waste My Time” is the standout track and ironically that’s exactly what I’ve done with your time with this review.

Doesn’t Rock l Kinda Rocks l Rocks l Really Rocks