Gutter Ballet (Digipak)

I'm not the biggest fan of speed metal but this one is surprisingly good.  Almah features former Angra lead vocalist Edu Falaschi.  The music has good intensity and movement.  Lots of hooks, staccato crunch and shredding solos.  I'm suprised at how melodic it is.  Falaschi was always a more than able replacement for Andre Matos and he does a great job here fronting his own band."Allow me to begin with a quote: "There comes a moment in a man’s life when it is necessary to make a radical decision in order to move forward with dignity and renewed energy”. This is from the statement that famed Brazilian Metal vocalist and composer, Edu Falaschi, released, upon his departure from home country metal giants, ANGRA. I had been a fan of them for a long time, and also Falaschi's newer solo work. His leaving of one of my favorite bands managed to turn from a disappointment to a renewal of hope for some of my favorite music, for he, if I may say, as one of the musicians I most genuinely admire (that title does not get thrown around) continued on with his solo band, ALMAH. The previous releases with the band, now a permanent act, marked a step away in style from his ANGRA, not only in compositional style, but also in vocals; no longer was he constrained to the high-pitched, soaring melodies 'required' by a power metal band; in ALMAH, as he has already said, he has found his niche.This brings me to the release of the band's latest release, "Unfold". Different again from the modern, progressive and heavy "Motion", this new piece appears to combine the elements most exquisite found in his previous solo work, and even some ANGRA-like hints. As I could have expected, it was a thrilling experience; and yet, not one piece of it was predictable. "In My Sleep" is one hell of an opening track, that is riled up with a technical drum roll by a monster on the battery, Marcelo Moreira, that explodes into a lightning-fast and energetic power metal riffage, that tends to (rightly) dominate most of the song. Falaschi once again proves his vocal abilities are nowhere near restricted, and floats between gruff baritones and soaring melodies; this kind of versatility is found on each of the album's exquisite tracks. Upon listening to the balladic "Warm Wind", I am pleasantly reminded of ANGRA's "Wishing Well", one of my favorite ANGRA tracks of all time. In part, this new piece is stylistically similar, but retains that slightly heavier, slightly more unpredictable, "ALMAH" touch, and is smoothed over by one of my favorite Falaschi vocal performances of all time."Raise the Sun" rightly chosen as the single to showcase "Unfold" in all its glory. It begins mid-tempo and graceful, but quickly ascends to a progressive grove rife with riff mastery that pops up from time to time, and contains some beautiful bass lines. Raphael is certainly an expert at his instrument, which is saying something, since ALMAH's former (and current ANGRA) bassist, Felipe Andreoli, is a bassist most influential to me. "Believer" once again pushes the musical envelop within this album, and is a brutally intricate and furious track, full of powerful, thrashy riffage, yet also infectiously catchy vocal melodies; one of my two most favorite track on the album. Finally, I cannot finish writing this up without touching on "Treasure Of The Gods", a meaty, nine-and-a-half-minute composition, made up of many passages that, while are stylistically different, amalgamate to create my other favorite piece. On this track, I hear some of the most complicated and intricate drum, bass and guitar interplay, and beautiful guitar solos, and stellar vocal belt-outs. This song is metal personified."Unfold" is one of the albums I have ever had the most pleasure writing about and listening to. It is a reminder to myself and other fans why Brazil is ultimately a metal powerhouse; after leaving ANGRA, continuing ALMAH was the best thing Falaschi could have done, and I hope 'that, with them, he continues to belt out more masterpieces in the future." - Metal Temple

What would you call a power trio that veers seamlessly between shredding peaks, jazzy moods, and fat funky grooves? Mörglbl of course! Often compared to Primus meeting Steve Vai, Mörglbl hits like a heavyweight jab and makes you laugh while you bleed! Mörglbl is the punch you don't see coming! Packaged in a limited edition digipak, "Jazz For The Deaf" is the fourth album from the world-renowned French jazz metal trio. This band with the unusual name is led by virtuoso guitarist Christophe Godin. Virtuoso bassist Ivan Rougny is complemented by the double bass of new drummer Aurelien Ouzoulias. With the release of "Jazz For The Deaf", Mörglbl has created an album with cross genre appeal. Fans of shred and fusion Gods like Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai or Freak Kitchen's Mattias Eklundh will find much to sink their teeth into. After entertaining crowds around the world, Mörglbl performed at Nearfest in 2008. It was the first time in the 10 year history of the festival that an opening act received two encores. This amazing performance sparked a flurry of interest from other festivals, culminating with Mörglbl receiving an invitation to appear at Progday 2009 in Chapel HIll, NC on 9/5/09.

New digipak remastered edition featuring extensive liner notes and new bonus cuts.

Remastered edition with two bonus tracks."After the failed experiment of Turbo, Judas Priest toned down the synths and returned to the basics, delivering a straight-ahead, much more typical Priest album with Ram It Down. The band's fan base was still devoted enough to consistently push each new album past the platinum sales mark, and perhaps that's part of the reason Ram It Down generally sounds like it's on autopilot. While there are some well-constructed songs, they tend toward the generic, and the songwriting is pretty lackluster overall, with the up-tempo title track easily standing out as the best tune here. And even though Ram It Down backed away from the territory explored on Turbo, much of the album still has a too-polished, mechanical-sounding production, especially the drums. Lyrically, Ram It Down is firmly entrenched in adolescent theatrics that lack the personality or toughness of Priest's best anthems, which -- coupled with the lack of much truly memorable music -- makes the record sound cynical and insincere, the lowest point in the Rob Halford era. Further debits are given for the cover of "Johnny B. Goode."" - All Music Guide

"Massive Addictive won’t do anything to improve Amaranthe’s relationship with their haters, but the diehard fans will fall in love with the band all over again. The vast majority of fence-sitters, meanwhile, will find themselves drawn in by what is, quite frankly, a surprisingly addictive listen that justifies the wonderfully arrogant album title. Still pop metal to the core, Amaranthe’s all-important third album kicks off by putting the fans in the comfort zone with ‘Dynamite’, a track echoing the band’s previous album, The Nexus. It’s the neck-wreck-bounce of the following track and first single ‘Drop Dead Cynical’ – imagine Marilyn Manson’s ‘The Beautiful People’ as a song on the Grease soundtrack – that sets the tone for Massive Addictive. The vocal melodies are infectious to a fault, the riffs are bold, all supported by steel hard backbone seemingly yanked from Hypocrisy frontman Peter Tägtgren’s command center for his industrial-rocked metal outfit Pain.‘Drop Dead Cynical’, ‘Unreal’, ‘Trinity’, ‘Massive Addictive’ ‘Skyline’ and ‘Digital World’ are guaranteed to become fan favourites, charged with more adrenaline than some folks give Amaranthe credit for. There are two ballads to be had this time out – ‘True’ and ‘Over And Done’ – both of them loaded with radio potential and too smart for the suits making programming decisions. The album winds down with the heaviest song of Amaranthe’s career to date, ‘An Ordinary Abnormality’, featuring the sextet pulling out all the stops and crushing any ridiculous notions that pop metal has no balls.It’s nice to hear how Amaranthe avoided disaster by not rehashing the formula of their first two records. Their three-vocalist attack (female, male, cookie monster – in that order) added a certain level of unique from the get-go, but wouldn’t have been enough to make Massive Addictive the sleeper hit it is. This time out, clean singers Elize Ryd and Jake E. show up where you least expect them, harmonizing and trading-off vocal parts more than ever before. And their voices are huge. Case in point on ‘Digital World’ – one of Amaranthe’s strongest songs ever – the exchanges on ‘Unreal’, and Ryd’s vocal nuances and insane range on ‘Danger Zone’. New resident growler Henrik Englund Wilhelmsson (Scarpoint) is a major player on the record rather than merely a hellish enhancement, even taking the lead and stealing the show on ‘An Ordinary Abnormality’. And with guitarist Olof Mörck being one of the primary songwriters, the album boasts riffs and leads by the truckload.What makes the new album work ultimately is the live feel of the music. It’s all well and good to produce polished commercially appealing metal in the studio, quite another to take it out of the can on stage and blow an audience away with a full-on musical performance. Amaranthe have done just that for years, and the material on Massive Addictive is begging to be unleashed live. It’ll go over a storm and then some." - Carl Begai

New remastered edition of Sirens and The Dungeons Are Calling. Originally conceived as all of their debut album, the material was split up because it was too long for vinyl release. Jon Oliva states that this is the first time the material is appearing as it was conceived. This "complete session" release includes one new bonus track recorded by Oliva in 2010.