Monte Pittman - The Power of Three

Monte Pittman may not be a household name in the metal world, but maybe he should be.You may not have heard of Monte Pittman, but he's been around. Having left for LA to become a rock star at 24, he ended up working in a music store and giving guitar lessons to Guy Ritchie (Madonna's ex), which led to meeting Madonna herself and eventually forming a very fruitful musical relationship that even saw him playing solo with her on David Letterman. Not bad for a boy from Longview, Texas.

What really matters though is Pittman's approach to songwriting. Rather than amaze you with fretboard virtuosity (not to say he doesn't have chops), shifting time signatures, or arcane conceptual storylines, he just writes highly listenable heavy music. There's some really great grooves that will stick in your head for days after listening, and that's just the kind of music I dig the most.

Having played with Prong (with writing credits) on a couple of their albums you can definitely hear that influence on tracks like Delusions and End of the World where Monte throws out some sweet down-tuned riffage. But there are lots of other great influences that come together here, including aspects of Motörhead and Alice In Chains, as well as a Guns and Roses feel that all mix together perfectly into a hell of a musical stew. I know I'm ready for another helping.

The Bottom Line: Pittman's The Power of Three is one great, modern, metal album, filled with crunchy riffs, great grooves, and a terrific sense of "the song matters most". I can't wait to hear whatever he does next.

Tracks To Make You Wonder What The Hell You're Doing Not Songwriting: A Dark House, On My Mind, and End of the World

- Genghis is *really* digging this album...

Primal Fear - Delivering the Black

Now THIS is some bad-ass power metal. Squire! My sword!One of the reasons I never tire of heavy metal is that it endures so heartily, and it's because of bands just like Primal Fear that continue to fly the flag of musical irrepressibility. Those crafty Germans have been cranking out quintessential power metal for nearly 20 years, and they're nowhere near done yet, as exemplified by their 10th studio album, Delivering the Black.

Ralf Scheepers and company have fashioned yet another tight production of unstoppable force that kicks off with the thundering beat of King For A Day and only lets up once for the quasi-ballad, Born With A Broken Heart - as every other track on this 52 minute release comes at you like a tornado of flaming circular saws (no wonder metal guys wear so much leather).

While Ralf rocks the vocals so mightily you have to wonder why Judas Priest passed him up when they had the chance, you can't ignore the killer guitar work of Alex Beyrodt and Magnus Karlsson, whose razor sharp rhythms feel like they could cut through a battleship. Now this is power metal!

The Bottom Line: Fans of straight ahead, no bullshit power metal simply must check out Primal Fear's latest album. It's the kind of stuff that reminds us that all of the various subgenres and offshoots that crowd the genre today started somewhere, and this is it. Excellent work, boys!

Tracks To Make You Want To Tear Down The Highway Brandishing A Broadsword: Rebel Faction, Alive & On Fire, Delivering the Black

- Genghis would look *terrible* in all leather...

We Hunt Buffalo - Blood From A Stone (EP)

What, you don't like Canadian nuclear fuzz grunge collectives like We Hunt Buffalo? Take off, you hoser!Hot damn, who knew that Canada could still turn out some truly great fuzz grunge like We Hunt Buffalo? Seriously, this trio of Canucks knows their way around some stoner metal, with riffs so thoroughly enveloped in thick, pillowy fuzz it borders on the insane. Not bad for some dudes from the 'burbs of Vancouver, eh?

Just to be clear, I love this shit. It's like cranking some 90s era Seattle sound through an amplifier made out of cotton candy, with its warm, sweet, decadent droning forming a glorious wall of sound. See? Now I'm getting incomprehensible too. Listen, don't trouble yourself so much with the particulars, this is just all about bathing in the sheer psychedelia of sonic waves that WHB is throwing down. If you dig stoner metal, you gotta check them out.

The Bottom Line: There are a lot of bands that're basically putting out primal scream sessions set to music these days that just end up sounding like they lowered a mic into a dyspeptic robot's gullet. We Hunt Buffalo, however, just makes good fuzzy stoner grooves - with actual melody no less.

Tunes to Crank Up While You Twist Open Another Mickey's and Load Up Your Vaporizer: The whole damn album

- Genghis can't wait for a full length from these cats...

EtHERSENS - your wandering ghost

Ethersens returns from France to rock you with some powerful shoe-gazing tunes. Cela semble bon pour moi!There's some interesting music to be had out there on the heavier side of things without it all being emo. And I find this latest penchant for mixing heavy rhythms with shoe-gazing is a pretty good way to spend idle time. Think of it as the anti-progressive vibe, where listeners can get back to just experiencing music as a backdrop to life rather than having to concentrate on its intricacies and decipher the meanings of arcane plots and concepts.

French alt metallers Ethersens know how to craft some great music that entertains without demands, as exemplified by their sophomore effort, your wandering ghost. It's a great groovy soundtrack to a road trip or working from home, full of introspective moments of textured guitars and keyboards that occasionally break into waves of crunch and tribal rhythms. In short, I'm loving this stuff.

The Bottom Line: Ethersens is another talented band in a growing subgenre of what I'm calling ambient metal, and makes for an entertaining soundtrack to your daily grind. Vive la France!

Tracks To Enjoy While Spending A Winter Weekend On The Couch: This is Where You And I Part Ways, Livin' Memory

- Genghis could use a little more down time...

Thunder Tribe - War Chant

It's always nice to get some variety on an album, but Thunder Tribe may need to cut back on the influences a bit.The thing about the retro craze is that most of it is fashioned after the grooves of the 70s, not so much with the 80s and 90s. And I'm not saying that this sort of music has no ideas of its own or anything, I'm simply trying to give you a feel for the sound of Kentucky's Thunder Tribe. But let me be more specific...

The music on their debut album has many different sounds in terms of influences - maybe too many, but I'll get to that. Tracks like Echoes of a New Day has a Pink Floydish intro that melds into something more melodic in the vein of Extreme mixed with Enuff Z'Nuff followed by a more traditional metal sound a la Savatage. But on cuts like the title track, and the Black Velvet-inspired Above The Blue, the Kentuckians give way to a more Southern style (and effective) metal groove that fits the Native American vibe you get looking at the album cover. And then you get a track like Believe with its NWOBHM feel that brings to mind classic Judas Priest. Ultimately, this is either something great or it collapses under the weight of its influences as a single cohesive album depending on your tastes.

The Bottom Line: Personally, I dig War Chant for the songs, but I think that if Thunder Tribe wants to have a shot at success, they need to sharpen their musical focus. They've got the goods, they just need the direction. All in all, an impressive debut.

- Genghis will keep an eye out for this band's stuff...