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Artist:
Guns N' Roses
If time is the true test, then Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits confirms that they really were one of the greatest rock & roll bands in the world. While, in retrospect, fellow graduates of the class of 1987 are about as cool as poodle perms and spandex, the LA bad boys still rock like gods. Listening to the sun-drenched chords of "Paradise City" and the ensuing stadium-sized swagger is enough to make wearing leather trousers and bandanas seem like a good idea. Of course, it helped that for them sex, drugs and rock & roll was a way of life, not a fashion statement. As Axl Rose wails "I wanna watch you bleed" on "Welcome to the Jungle", like a chain-smoking lunatic possessed, it's hard not to believe he meant it. Yet equally, it was his surprisingly poetic nature that made genuinely touching love songs of "Patience" and "Sweet Child of Mine". Though none of their subsequent albums matched the drug-crazed genius of Appetite for Destruction, they did, as the Greatest Hits reminds, have their moments. From the bloated Use Your Illusion I & II came ultimate rock ballads "Don't Cry" and "November Rain", along with the primal rage that was "You Could Be Mine". And while the covers of the The Spaghetti Incident were largely forgettable, the fact that their final single was a seedy sneer through the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" seems spectacularly fitting. --Dan Gennoe
 Amazing!, 2008-06-07
This is my first album from Guns and Roses and I love it!
Every track on here is one in which you can easily find yourself playing again and again!
Although I like every song on this CD, my personal favorites are the legendary "Sweet Child Of Mine" and "You Could Be Mine".
You really couldn't ask for a better G and R greatest hits CD than this, it's brilliant rock music!
A solid overview of the band and a superb introduction to a newbie fan!
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List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £5.51
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Artist:
AC/DC
Such are the near-generational gaps between latter-day AC/DC albums that it's always tempting to hail the arrival of a new one as a return to form. Black Ice arrives a whopping eight years after the band's last offering, Stiff Upper Lip, but one chorus into "Rock N Roll Train", the wise man would conclude that any evolution here is as slow and incremental as, well, evolution. A punchy, straightforward opener that finds Angus Young in good riff and Brian Johnson preaching a familiar gospel of schoolgirls and schoolboys, fantasy and ecstasy, it's familiar in the best possible way. A little deeper into Black Ice, however, and there's evidence of a slightly altered approach. Producer Brendan O'Brien softens and fleshes out the stripped-down, electric blues sound AC/DC rediscovered on 1995's Ballbreaker, and in places the band follow suit--take "Anything Goes", a poppy stomp that recalls O'Brien's other recent charge, Bruce Springsteen. Elsewhere, "Stormy May Day" and "Money Made" find Young taking up the slide for a few Zeppelin-flavoured licks. A few new paths, then, but all in all, the destination is pretty much the same: another solid late-period AC/DC album that, while unlikely to dislodge Back in Black from the fan's pedestal, finds its makers rocking into ripe old age. --Louis Pattison
Album review, 2008-11-28
Some may think the aged aussie hard rockers would now probably be concentrating on other things in life, like bus passes? Long sensible walks in the country? Collecting food vouchers maybe? NO WAY!
The best band to ever emerge from Aus are back touring round the world spreading the word of the rock gospel to many.
OK, it was always going to be difficult to top their back catalogue standards of such immensely tremendous and popular albums. I think its safe to say that 'Back in Black' seems to be the most highly regarded and iconic album by AC/DC, but 'Black Ice' has still got its mark to leave and its Pretty Damn Good! It's exactly what you'd expect from AC/DC.
After giving 'Black Ice' a whirl on the hi-fi I can now tell you expect nothing less than a classic rock CD full of upbeat songs about the typical AC/DC subject matter. ROCK N ROLL!
The no nonsense fifteen track album is in your typical AC/DC style, simple yet awesome Angus riffs accompanied by Brian Johnson's screaming vocals under a flat cap.
All fifteen songs are top-class typical AC/DC songs. Track one 'Rock n Roll Train' is a complete belter of a song to start off the new album, just leaving you wanting more.
Shrewd shredding and heavy backing vocals throughout then leads to track five, 'War machine' a slightly new slant for AC/DC with a heavier feel.
Enough of being critical, if you're an AC/DC rock fan reading this review with the purpose of deciding weather or not to buy the album, you don't need all the technical stuff of past album sales, the quality of songwriting in previous albums, the history of the band and various name dropping...
All you want to know is whether the album is worth a bloody good head banging session when you're alone in the house to let loose. Well, the album is in fact brilliant; it's a fist pumping, extremely energetic exciting compilation of fifteen AC/DC songs you haven't heard before.
Though the band may now fit into the coffin dodger category concerning their ever increasing age along with the Stones, Sabbath etc, here's one of the classic acts from the past that are still proving, The oldens are the best!
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List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £5.98
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Artist:
Guns N Roses
17 years in the making and beholden of a level of hyperbole verging on mythology--one that couldn't even be derailed by Axl Rose staffing his ever-changing troupe with people named Buckethead, Bumblefoot and Brain--Chinese Democracy would disappoint even if it arrived in a puff of smoke and nullified the impact of The Dark Side of the Moon, Revolver and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (not to mention Appetite for Destruction). And it doesn't do that, obviously. In fact, straight off the block it's in danger of rear-ending the Guns N' Roses legend, with the title track offering little beyond big production and "Shackler's Revenge" and "Better" emulating Linkin Park's industrial block building with a guttural vocal that threatens to turn the whole thing into a parody. But a desire to progress the G N' R template finds its feet as "If The World" unfolds into an improbable eastern drum 'n' bass orchestral trip-hop odyssey with some coarse riffing and the attitude of old is run through Pro-Tools and made 21st Century-proof on "Scraped" and "Raid N' the Bedouins". But if this album is to be remembered for anything in particular it will be the sky-reaching ambition of the balladry; "Sorry" with its "Nothing Else Matters" vibe and interlaced vocal choreography is cathartic and proud, "This I Love" sees Axl's larynx stretched and twisted, literally wringing the emotion from within, and "Catcher in the Rye" is one real moment of universal appeal. Chinese Democracy tries to be a lot of things but really works where Axl is left to be Axl and "November Rain" is left sounding like "Kumbaya". --James Berry
Truly awesome, 2008-12-03
As a fan of GNR from back in the day, I was pretty skeptical about this epic. When the six or so tracks were leaked a couple of months back, I was still a little skeptical. They sounded okay, but were clearly unfinished. I got the album yesterday, and have just finished listening to it. Wow. It's quite literally the best album I've bought in years (and I buy a lot of music). Superb stuff, truly superb. How many albums do you know that feature 5 (that's 5) stand out tracks: Better, Street of Dreams, Madagascar, This I Love and Prostitute. The last three songs on the album are Madagascar, This I Love and Prostitute, building to an amazing emotional crescendo. Clearly, a lot of the material is about Stephanie Seymour. In This I Love (probably the gentlest song Axl has ever done), he sings "If she's somewhere near me, I hope to God she hears me, No one else could ever make me feel so alive". There's just so much on the album worth praising that it's difficult to sit down and write a review having only just listened to it (hence the disjointed nature of this piece). The basic facts are these however:
1. There's no other album like this around at the moment, it offers a unique sound.
2. Axl sounds amazing.
3. The production values are extraordinary. On a really good speaker system, where you can differentiate different sounds, you can really see why it took so long to put together as the music moves around from speaker to speaker. Amazing aural experience
4. Is it a GNR album? That's open to debate, some say yes, some say no. Me, I'm not really pushed, I was always a bigger fan of Axl than the band so it doesn't bother me one way or the other. But one thing is for certain, this album contains some amazing music. And that's all that really counts in the end.
Epic stuff. Believe the hype.
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List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £7.82
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Artist:
Queen
What once seemed Queen's greatest liabilities--a preening flamboyance and pompous, overwrought theatricality--have ironically become their most enduring charms in a grey, postmodern pop-music landscape. While it eschews the glammy, pre-punk hard rock of live faves such as "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Tie Your Mother Down" for the band's more quirky club-beat string of latter-day hits , this 51-track triple-CD anthology goes a long way toward documenting the true dimensions of the band's music and fame. It even includes some solo work by Brian May and Freddie Mercury, whose duet on "Barcelona" with diva Montserrat Caballé transcends boundaries of both time and genre. A previously unreleased live performance of "The Show Must Go On" featuring Elton John on vocals is also included. --Jerry McCulley
Bow down to Rock Royalty!!, 2008-03-27
The best, most flamboyant, most spectacular, most amazing rock group ever!! Queen are just brilliant. In Freddie Mercury, they had a frontman who had it all. He could command the stage like no one else, had a voice that was so incredible, a style that was so unique, and a talent that can never be dimmed. Brian May is a guitar genius, able to make the instrument speak, and being a good vocalist in his own right. John Deacon is brilliant on bass, and Roger Taylor a diva on the drums, each member stamping his own individuality on the band. Their music is so intense, so haunting, so fantastic, so QUEEN!! This band are THE Royalty of Rock, and as such, deserve all the homage that is offerred to them. They rock,their music rocks, they certainly rock my world, and I'm sure that everyone who listens to them will find their own world rocked too. God Save Queen!!
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List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £12.99
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Artist:
Metallica
As many of their early fans would agree, Danish-Californian quartet Metallica seemed to lose it around the mid 90s. Dropping the hard-nosed, blue-collar appeal they had cultivated with their initial slew of albums, the band began to pander to a more commercial audience with diluted outings such as Load, Re-Load, Garage Inc.--not to mention 2003's risible St Anger. Death Magnetic, Metallica's first album in five years, is hence much anticipated. Will it be a long-awaited return to form, or a failed attempt to rekindle their inaugural power? In truth, it's a bit of both. Helmed by veteran producer Rick Rubin, Death Magnetic reinstates many of Metallica's early motifs--searing riffs, shredding solos, pounding drums--and even updates them with a huge, 21st century sound. The album has a decent selection of heavyweight thrills and spills, from the haunting, evocative opener "That Was Your Life", the live jam groove of "The End of the Line" and the flesh-ripping "Broken, Beat & Scarred". While Death Magnetic doesn't come anywhere near the smouldering genius of Master of Puppets or other formative Metallica records, the band haven't sounded this vital for many years. Reason enough for fans to rejoice. --Danny McKenna
The Kings Of Metal Are Back, 2008-11-25
This was probably Metallica's last chance to make a record that would hang to the fanatical loyalty of their dwindling fanbase. Their 1990s output, while for the most part pretty good, took them in a direction that your average headbanger didn't want to go in, and 2003's disastrous St Anger and the accompanying documentary Some Kind of Monster should by rights have been the end.
This is Metallica though and they're not going down without a fight. Death Magnetic has got the thrash riffs and long complex song structures of their beloved first four albums, the melodic sensibility and songwriting nous of the Load era, and with the exception of the mastering being a little loud it's been properly produced.
Job done - the kings of metal have resumed their throne.
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List Price: £17.99
Our Price: £7.86
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Artist:
AC/DC
The death of the lead singer would spell the end of most bands. But most bands aren't AC/DC. After Bon Scott's overindulgence in alcohol lead to his undignified end, lead guitarist Angus Young and Co. simply found a singer that sounded exactly the same and carried on. The result: Back In Black, the most successful album of their lengthy career. Like every other AC/DC album, it doesn't deviate from their trademark sounds: loud guitars, basic boogie and vocals that sound like they are being screamed out by a buzzsaw. But never before (or since) have they gotten the formula so consistently right: "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Rock 'N' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution", "Hell's Bells" and the title track are among the best hard rock songs ever. AC/DC never experiment and never innovate; they just rock. No other band even comes close. --Robert Burrow
Where Have You Been?, 2008-09-26
A rare review in that I won't even metion the music. Search the web and you'll find that this is the world's second best selling album ever (second only to Thriller). You don't need a review, you now know everything you need to know. If you're still reading this you simply need to get a copy of the album and catch up with the rest of the world - you can't fool a planet - it really is that good.
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List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £6.75
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Artist:
Slipknot
For most bands, the process of experimentation involves infusing more traditional song structures with weirder, or less familiar sonic elements. Not so for Iowa's Slipknot. All Hope Is Gone, the metal neuftet's fourth full-length, finds them further mining the seam that produced 2004's Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses, adulterating their caustic, percussion-heavy take on thrash metal with acoustic guitars and anthemic choruses. Present too, though, is a heaviness that harkens back to 2001's aggressive Iowa, meaning the likes of "Psychosocial" and "Dead Memories" mix big, inclusive vocal hooks with bulldozing low-end and savage percussion breakdowns set to arcane time signatures. Nor is it all set to formula: "Butcher's Hook", for instance, sounds nothing like anything in Slipknot's catalogue to date. It is a slamming funk-metal track not unlike The Rollins Band, with broiling! anti-establishment lyrics and a huge call-and-response chorus. The occasional Nickelback-like chorus might appall the diehards, but Slipknot are still stretching themselves, and All Hope Is Gone stands up to anything in their catalogue. --Louis Pattison
Saving my sanity, 2008-10-25
Thank god for Slipknot!
I was just about going crazy with the lack of new music in my collection as everything sounds the same recently.
In my opinion this is the best slipknot album as a whole. The songs have really catchy choruses and although there are a couple of "softer" tracks, they do fit in with the flow of the album.
The dvd is a 30min short film that gives a visual incite into the recording of the album - with some eerie alien sceens.
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List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £6.91
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Artist:
Nickelback
Nickleback haven't made it this far by throwing their audience difficult curveballs, and All The Right Reasons--the Canadian quartet's fourth full-length--continues their run of uncomplicated, testosterone-soaked hard-rock albums without a wobble. Frontman Chad Kroeger still approaches the act of songcraft like he's chopping wood, grunting and sweating under the weight of gritted-teeth rock-outs like "Fight For All The Wrong Reasons" and "Someone That You're With". Critics have it in for Nickleback for many of the same reasons they have it in for Stereophonics--these songs promise emotional weight and hard-won truths, but have a tendency to mistake joylessness for passion. However, you can spot the hits a mile off. "Side Of A Bullet" is dedicated to deceased ex-Pantera man Dimebag Darrell, and even features an overdubbed axe solo from said guitarist, while "Photograph" sees Kroeger getting misty-eyed--almost whimsical--over an old school photo. Ultimately, though, it's more of the same. Which should suit the Nickleback faithful just fine. --Louis Pattison
Rock Lives .... and is thriving., 2008-07-14
For those who, like me, grew up with the likes of Queen, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, it is indescribably good to hear rock that stands up with the best there has been and is able to look it square in the eye.
I could pontificate on the sheer raw energy of 'All the Wrong Reasons' and 'Next Contender', the deservedly popular 'Rockstar' or the subtle harmonies and just damn good music in 'Photograph', but really, you should just listen to it yourself. Not only is this great old-fashioned rock with good vocals in harmonic depth, it is beautifully balanced as an album between anthems, thrashy head-bangers and non-slushy ballads. To quote an oft-used phrase, it is all killer and no filler, any one of the tracks could be nailed into the Top-Ten.
I like this album ... a lot ... it's definitely one of the favourites and considering the company it keeps in my CD collection next to the affore-mentioned bands that is no mean achievement. This is the first Nickelback album I have heard, it most certainly won't be the last.
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List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £5.51
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Artist:
Nickelback
Going back to old time rock!, 2008-11-28
I am a Nickleback fan and have been from the beginning - yes - I have all their albums and videos - and live they are just superb!!
I have read the reviews for this - and I would just like to say that this album reminded me so much of a time when the charts where filled with rock bands - when rap wasn't even a blip on the radar - and the only "dance" music was disco!!
OK - lets talk about lyrics!! Yes they are a bit on the crude side - but come on!! Have you forgotten rock classics like Touch To Much by AC/DC - singing about sex, drugs and rock and roll is what its all about!!
Chad's singing reminds me of the rough sound they had in Curb and The State, and some of the tracks have a real heavy rock sound to them now.
You can't expect all the songs to have the same impact of How You Remind Me - that is an exceptional song - and the one that put them on the map for those who hadn't heard of them before.
It sounded old school to me - I love it - if they continue to produce albums that sounded like their previous one - you would complain - they are evolving - and for me - this evolution is a good one!!
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List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £7.09
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Artist:
Linkin Park
PROJEKT REVOULTION MK BOWL 2008, 2008-11-02
I was there and this show was amazing, thousands of cheering fans and an unforgettable show. I was hoping they would release a cd/dvd for the show and i am so glad its coming out! One of those shows you just had to see
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List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £11.30
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