Half-Handed Cloud
Halos and Lassos
(Asthmatic Kitty)

D

Website: www.halfhandedcloud.com

My Darkest Hate
Combat Area
(Massacre/PHD Canada)

C+



Website: www.mydarkesthate.de

This adult contemporary CD is a charming stroll through a garden scented with lavender... OK, this is actually death metal from Germany, and it’s pretty brutal. Think Cannibal Corpse brutal. Guitars buzz and grind, vocals are hoarsely screamed, and drums roll like thunder. It’s all chaotic, but these talented demons can pull it off with ease. Songs such as the thrash-inflected Nothing Lasts Forever are proof of that. Still, My Darkest Hate isn’t offering any new methods of mayhem. This is fairly standard destruction, and fans of Celtic Frost, Napalm Death and other such abominations will no doubt enjoy Combat Area even if they aren’t blown away. Perhaps the best track is Under My Wing, which showcases the range of vocalist Chris Simper. Yep, this is perfect for a walk in the park — by ‘walk’ I mean ‘satanic ritual’; by ‘park’ I mean ‘cemetery.’
Mike Warkentin

Mudhoney
Under a Billion Suns
(Sub Pop)

B-



Website: www.subpop.com

Mudhoney has never been known for making albums that are amazing from start to finish. Under a Billion Suns is their closest to a solid full-length, but it still misses the mark. Everything you want from classic Mudhoney is here — Big Muff distortion, Mark Arm’s nasally rants and the whole Stooges-meets-’60s-fuzzed-out-psychedelia thing. The band even throws in some stuff that you don’t expect, such as a horn section and politically charged lyrics. Quick punk tunes like It Is Us rock hard, and I Saw the Light is as bluesy as Mudhoney has ever been. It should all add up to a killer CD, but songs such as Empty Shells, Let’s Drop In and On the Move sound more like filler.
Ashley McCurdy

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Show Your Bones
(Interscope Records)

A



Website: www.yeahyeahyeahs.com

Live, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ delicious frontwoman Karen O is pure rock performance porn. But listening to Show Your Bones, you might have a hard time believing this is the same woman who saturates herself in beer and fucks dirty with the crowd. The band’s debut, Fever to Tell, was a totally different animal, and it was closer to the live show — scary, spikey and out of control. That said, there’s little to disappoint here. YYYs have matured. Production is lush and the lyrics are discernable. Gyrating opener Gold Lion sounds oddly like sexed-up Tegan and Sara, and the angularity of their debut lives on in Fancy and Phenomena. Honeybear and Cheated Hearts are catchy as hell. The list goes on. Buy it.
Liz Hover

Bow to the Wolf, as you are going to hear it blasting out of every Mustang on Corydon this summer. Wolfmother is a power-rock threesome that throws back to great ’70s bands like Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC or Jethro Tull. Vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale has the pipes to pull it off, too. These Aussies are getting ready to stun North America with their head-banger rock. Huge power chords blast from walls of Marshall amps set to a Spinal Tap 11. Solos feedback and chirp as Stockdale tries to tear off the pick-up switch in Joker and the Thief. To call these guys a cover band would be wrong, because they deliver the rock in the cocksure, strutting, over-the-top manner we expect of our rock stars. These guys are the real deal. Hail the Wolf!
Chris Brown

This one’s gonna cost you — big time. One listen to Metal Black and you’ll assure yourself a great spot in Hell. People with Jesus-fish things on their cars won’t even like the look of this truly pseudo-evil CD. And screw them — Venom’s most recent satanic offering is too cool for Christians, anyway. It’s pretty cool, at least. Muddy, or maybe bloody, production keeps this disc from truly slaying, even though thrashing songs such as Burn in Hell will have your speakers begging for mercy. Cronos is the lone original member here, but he still knows how to craft a solid tune, and this band is still vital 25 years after its debut, Welcome to Hell. And don’t even start with the subliminal-messages shit — I’ve listened to this disc six times and I feel fine, if a little deaf.
Mike Warkentin

She Wants Revenge has come out of nowhere and provided the screaming masses with something to wiggle and shake to. This is dance music for scene kids and vampires. When I first picked up this album, the all-in-white cover girl beckoned for me to come listen (and maybe get stabbed). What I found inside this tight little package was pure sex-crazed trance dance music. This album sounds like The Cure, Depeche Mode, Placebo and New Order playing the afterparty for Andy Warhol’s funeral. The two men behind She Wants Revenge are on a mission. They want to make songs that “make girls dance and cry at the same time.” Each and every song is unapologetically about love, whether broken or whole, and the dark imagery of the lyrics is growled out in a monotonous tone that begs for repeat listens.
Brodie Sanderson

This compilation hangs together so well that at times you’d think you were listening to the work of a single artist. This is the third in a series of very fine collections of acoustic-guitar music — the very sort of thing that has made those Folk Fest guitar workshops such a treat. Needless to say, the North of the Border tag points to Canada, but the lineup includes transplanted Brits, Americans and even West African musician Alpha Ya Ya Diallo. I really only have one minor complaint: why is there one tune with vocals included on an otherwise-instrumental CD? Amos Garrett’s Always Got Your Hands on That Guitar places his vocals front and centre, which is fine in the context of his song, but you have to wonder why they bothered to include it on an instrumental album.
Jamie Howison