Megadeth: ‘Warchest’

Artist name: Megadeth Album name: Warchest Label: EMI Gender: Heavy Metal Release date: October 9, 2007 ZMErating: 10/10 Website: http://www.megadeth.com/ The tracks here are hand selected by frontman Dave Mustaine, including 30 audio and video tracks making their global release debuts, and an additional three tracks that have never before been released in the U.S. They have been cleaning out the vaults lately. This includes digitally remastered album cuts, soundtrack and compilation songs, unreleased live…

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Vanessa Carlton: ‘Heroes & Thieves’

Artist name: Vanessa Carlton Album name: Heroes & Thieves Label: The Inc Records/Universal Motown Gender: Pop Release date: 9 Oct 2007 ZMErating: 9/10 Website: http://www.vanessacarlton.com/ According to her this is “the best patch of songs I’ve ever written”. She also describes it as “pretty uplifting” and as having “a lot of layers … [There are] very complex arrangements but everything just makes me feel good and not in a simplistic way.”. She also says that…

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Katie Melua: ‘Pictures’

Artist name: Katie Melua Album name: Pictures Label: Dramatico Gender: Acoustic/Jazz/Blues Release date: 1 Oct 2007 ZMErating: 10/10 Website: http://www.katiemelua.com/ There are those who admire and find great rewards in listening to Katie Melua and there are others who find that her music is just for your grandmother. But most listeners are just not understanding her. Her songs are not just sung, but emoted. They bind naivety, innocence, loss or hope and many other feelings…

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Nightwish: ‘Dark Passion Play’

Artist name: Nightwish Album name: Dark Passion Play Label: Nuclear Blast/Roadrunner Records Gender: Symphonic Metal Release date: September 26, 2007 ZMErating: 8/10 Website: http://www.nightwish.com/ Three years have passed since the previous release of the band. In 2004 the finnish quartet gave Tarja Turunen over 60 minutes material which is more than hard to play; it was so hard it could break the neck of almost any mezzo-soprano in the studio and she sang it in…

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Bono troubled by Myanmar violence

Things are not looking any better in Myanmar and a solution without help from the outside seems unlikely. But there are people who care about what the situation is outside of LA and other big cities. [tag]Bono[/tag] says he had “slept uneasily” since seeing extraordinary photos and TV footage of the violence in Myanmar. After a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations against Myanmar’s military government the militaries opened fire and a big part of the…

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Arcade Fire, LCD team up

There are not so many things that are similar about Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem. They are an anthemic Montreal-based indie rock band whose dress and instrumentation is more Baroque and a dance punk outfit whose fusion of synthesizers and rock sensibility is unquestionably contemporary. So the fact that they are doing something together may seem strange. But the two bands have proven unlikely friends and collaborators. They are currently touring together and that is…

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Black Eyed Peas hold benefit show

The Black Eyed Peas have showed interest in the problems of the world in their songs. They also took part in some charity but this time it is something big for them. “Being in Mexico is special to all of us, being from Southern California,” singer Fergie added. “They call Will a “blaxican” because he grew up with all Mexican friends and family. Taboo, of course, being of Mexican heritage. My great-grandmother is from Guanajuato…

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Ryan Adams has meltdown at show

Ryan Adams has some very good live acts and he has pleased the people who came to his concerts many times. But Minneapolis is just not a good place for him to sing. A a few years after his last local meltdown he sang Thursday night at the State Theatre. But he complained about the sound monitors onstage and then he moved two monitors, his microphone and his guitar pedals. He was very displeased. The…

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Bloc Party beats sophomore slump

The good thing is that their site has individual blogs from Kele Okereke, Matt Tong, Russell Lissack and Gordon Moakes; the four members of the band. The bad thing is that you can learn little about the band’s activities during 2007 because, of the four, only Moakes has updated his diary since summer 2006. That does not mean that things are not going the good way for the band. Since they made it big with…

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Kravitz talks about new album

His upcoming album is titled, “It Is Time for a Love Revolution,” with songs including “Love Love Love” and “Will You Marry Me.”. But his romantic side is a bit more mature and he said the album focuses on many aspects of love, and not just romantic love. “There are spiritual love songs, and social love songs, political, sad, happy and everything in between – it’s about a lot of things,” the 43-year-old rocker said…

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