Next two!
#48
GREEN DAY - AMERICAN IDIOT
Punk rock/Alternative rock, 2004
Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait
STOP mashing that keyboard with insults. Ahem, yes I like Green Day. Yes, I know their latest three albums are absolutely atrocious (apart from a few songs). But American Idiot? American Idiot is great.
It’s their most proggy album too, given it is a concept album and given that there are two relatively long songs, with movements. But, honestly, the ”””””prog””””” elements are what I care the least about this record.
You see, the thing is, this was basically my first album as a whole. Ten years ago, when I was 5, all I listened was this and a bit of U2 and Muse, as I’ve already said in the U2 write up before – and being a little kid this record was the right one: it is energetic, even the ballads are a bit uplifting and overall it’s just fun.
From the infamous opening title-track all the way to the emotional finale, Whatsername, AI tells the story of this guy, Jesus Of Suburbia, who escapes from his town, and he makes various encounters throughout his journey.
This record is pretty varied: we have straight punk pieces like St. Jimmy, long suites like Jesus Of Suburbia and Homecoming (best song of the record), the four singles that everybody knows: American Idiot, Holiday, Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (the outro of that song is as heavy as Green Day can get) and Wake Me Up When September Ends, and some underrated ballads like Give Me Novacaine and Whatsername.
So yeah: energetic, straight to the point and overall fun.
Tracklist: Personnel:
American Idiot Billie Joe Armstrong – vocals, guitar
Jesus Of Suburbia Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals,
Holiday vocals on Homecoming
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams Trè Cool – drums, backing vocals,
Are We The Waiting vocals on Homecoming
St. Jimmy
Give Me Novacaine
She’s A Rebel
Extraordinary Girl
Letterbomb
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Homecoming
WhatsernameFavorites:
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams St. Jimmy Give Me Novacaine Homecoming WhatsernameHow I've discovered Green Day:The song American Idiot was
EVERYWHERE at the time. Then Holiday was. Then Boulevard was. Then Wake Me Up was. You get the idea.
#47EVILE - ENTER THE GRAVEThrash Metal, 2007 The next album is pure, raw, heavy and fast classic tharsh metal… done in 2007.
Evile is an English band, capable of taking each historic thrash metal band’s best characteristics and mix ‘em up together to create awesome thrash stuff.
We have Testament-sounding riffs, Metallica/Slayer vocals, Megadeth solos and some Iron Maiden-ish lyrics. Really a nice bundle of stuff.
Even though all the album is pretty similar, each song is memorable and there’s at least one riff per song that makes you go nuts.
The lyrics take inspiration from movies and facts: the title track talks about a serial killer, First Blood talks about Rambo, We Who Are About To Die is taken from The Gladiator and so on.
The not so good thing with Evile is that IMO, this is their only pretty good album. They wrote too much samey stuff, they should explore more.
So if you wanna listen to something heavy, fun while drinking beer, but still modern, put on some Evile and rock on. I know, it’s a pretty short review but that’s all there is to say.
Tracklist: Personnel:
Enter The Grave Matt Drake – vocals, rhythm guitar
Thrasher Ol Drake – lead guitar
First Blood Mike Alexander - bass
Man Against Machine Ben Carter - drums
Burned Alive
Killer From The Deep
We, Who Are About To Die
Schizophrenia
Bathe In Blood
Armoured Assault
Favorites:
Enter The Grave Thrasher Burned Alive SchizophreniaHow I've discovered Evile:Back in November ’13 IIRC, I was in a plug.dj page and someone put on an Evile song called In Dreams Of Terror. I was hooked since then.