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  <quote><i>Originally posted by Anton</i>: <b>-1) Paradise Lost has at least one good song on that album, "Grey." The chorus is really pretty. Outside of that, the album is not very interesting, but I guess I am not exactly disappointed because Paradise Lost only record the same album again and again--sometimes better, sometimes worse, but I just don't expect anything out-of-the-ordinary from them at this point. I don't know why even I bother with their stuff anymore. 0) Strapping Young Lad almost makes the grade of being sufficiently technically fascinating to compensate for boring material. "Shitstorm" is simply a magnificently executed exercise in inspired excess. "Love?" is a good song, and so is "Possession." I'm not a big fan of Devin Townsend, but I think these songs are among the very best in his oeuvre (at least among the albums I know). 1) Royal Hunt - Paper Blood They just don't have anything to say anymore. All the somgs are tired versions of what we've already heard. Instrumentals are cool, but still I am left asking myself, what's the point? 2) Russell Allen - Atomic Soul I can believe this is basically Symphony X playing, at least all the same musicians (plus some guests from Stratovarius and the like). Boring Deep Purple-style rock'n'roll, with most songs simply lacking a sufficient number of different riffs to be musically interesting. 3) Brainstorm - Liquid Monster Numbingly unoriginal. This band has just settled into doing the same damn thing on every album, and while they're well produced, they are staggeringly predictable and inconsequential. 4) Brazen Abbot - My Resurrection Nikolo Kotzev created a supremely inspired rock opera with Nostradamus, but the two albums that have come out since then are basically pedestrian retreats of the same AORish material. There just isn't enough in this style of music to justify merely following the genre to the letter without in any way pushing the envelope or at least trying to say something new. 5) Pain - Dancing with the Dead Mildly entertaining, but is there really any reason to record these generic songs? "Same Old Song" seems weirdly self-referential in this respect. Could be a guilty pleasure, I guess, but not much more than that. All just goes to show that Peter Tagtren sucks. (Don't even get me started on the collected works of Hypocrisy, esp. from Catch 22 onward.) 6) Extol - The Blueprint Dives Dreadful. 7) Trivium - Ascendancy Less disappointed than not sure what all the fuss is about. "Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr" is by all accounts a spectacular, spectacular song, and I like "Dying in Your Arms" - outside of that, the album just bores me. Neither moving nor original. As with Mastodon, the sudden explosive success and popularity of this band baffle me.</b></quote>

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