Album Review: Tech N9ne - Special Effects

The much awaited album Special Effects!  I've been pretty excited about this for a while now.  You know why?  We've got both Corey Taylor and Eminem on this.  Those two are the collabs that Tech has wanted to do for a while but wasn't able to for whatever reason.

So with my initial listening I'm gonna call this a really solid album.  Tech puts out so many albums (on or two a year) I find it a little hard to keep up, but here this is, and I'm actually able to listen to it.

This was released on May 5th, just in case that matters to you.

For real, there's not too many tracks I don't care for.  I'm personally not a fan of the skit tracks, but I get that they help set the tone for the next song without messing around with the actual track itself.

I think I'm gonna do this the same way that I did the A to Z.  Rather that go through each track one by one, summarize the album, or give it vague, I'll just list my favorite tracks.

Here we go, the list in album order.

On The Bible

Shroud

Psycho Bitch III

Wither

Hood Go Crazy

Bass Ackward

Speedom (Wwc2)

Give It All

Roadkill

Ok, so it might seem like I chose almost every single track off the first half.  I didn't, but it's a really good album.  It's got a lot of stuff that I really like on it, so no ragrets.

Album Review: Insane Clown Posse - The Marvelous Missing Link (Lost)

Yeah yeah, ICP sucks, I know.

You know what though, I only have a couple artist that I'm legitimately embarrassed that I like, and these guys are one of them.  I really want to review this though, cause it's only been out for something like 5 days.

So the first thing you should know is that each album seems to follow a central theme.  Even if it seems to lose it at any point you can be sure it'll resurface later.

This album starts out with a much darker sound than most of their other material.  The music itself that is, back in the day they started out with some reasonably dark lyrical themes.  This is heavy dark sounding synths though, it's a bit different.

After Shock though, the album starts to sound a little different.  It takes a slightly more "traditional" path, and is a generally enjoyable experience.

Falling Apart is a weird song.

I think the new Miracles/ Ghetto Rainbows would be the song How.  It's got that vibe going on, though it's not nearly as quotable as that immortal phrase "F*cking magnets, how do they work?"

Explosions kinda reminded me of Mushroomhead's song Bwomp, just a little bit.

After that song though it kinda takes a "downhill" path to a more traditional ICP sound.

Flamethrower is reminiscent of Bazooka Joey, but only in subject matter.  The song sounds very different, but I suppose it's not too important.

If you like ICP at all, I'd advise you to check this out.  I give it a 7.5/10, so not really too bad considering.  I feel like their music has actually taken a turn for almost legitimate talent.  Bits of this album actually reminded me a bit of Hollywood Undead.  Some of their new album reminded me of this too, but we'll talk about that in a week or so.

Have a good Sunday!

Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser (Album)

EDIT:  I really feel bad, cause I accidentally released this on October 24th when I was writing it and people were trying to read it during the "Week Of Evil".  Sorry if that was you!

Ok, back to the real thing.

You know what's really nice?  Jazz.  I like jazz.  But not crappy jazz.  If there's a girl singing, then she'd better leave right away or else that band hits my list of "I don't like it".

So other than Fats Waller and Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk is one of my top jazz acts to listen to.  Despite the fact that I've only just started recently listening to them, the band quickly climbed my list of jazz favorites for one good reason.  No singing.

While I like some "singing jazz", I really feel like it distracts me from the music I'm trying to enjoy.  Either way though, instrumental; music is a really nice thing to have on in the background no matter what you're doing.

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Album)

So there is actually quite a story behind this.  Mayhem was meant to be the most extreme band that ever existed when it was originally formed, which is quite a bold statement to make really.

The lineup on this album has quite a list of people.  With Hellhammer on Drums, Euronymous on Guitar, Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Count Grishnackh) on bass, and Attila Csihar as vocalist, the band recorded what is considered by many to be one of the best black metal albums ever.

Funny thing though, the band has quite an issue with death in it's early years with their longest lasting vocalist (at the time) named Dead killing himself before the recording of this album, and Varg stabbing Euronymous to death after the recording.

Though Euronymous' family requested that the bass tracks be re-recorded on the album, Hellhammer thought it would be appropriate to keep the killer and the victim together forever.  Though originally telling the family that it was changed, he kept it on and only revealed it at a later date.

With the exception of one other band, these guys are probably the most "evil" band I can think of.  Not due to the killing or anything, but the content.  The albums name literally translates as "Lord Satan's Secret Rites" as a prime example.

Having listened to it, this is actually one of my favorite metal albums I've heard in a while.  Remember though, don't worship the devil kids.