I have a problem with overlong albums. It’s rare for a band to come with more than 50 minutes of good music in each release. In the vinyl era, the artists were forced to choose the best material to fill an album, and the “fat” would be used as B-sides or never be recorded at all. When CD arrived, many bands tried to put many songs as possible in their albums, and frankly, that was a unnecessary move by most…

Anyways, here we are, with Hushed and Grim, the most recent release from the prog/sludge band Mastodon. A double album with some great tracks (Pain and Anchor, More Than I Could Chew, Gobblers of Dregs, Gigantium) and many not so great songs that I don’t even remember the name. This is a more mid-tempoed album, with some furious and fast moments scattered through the songs. I would like to hear more faster tracks, to add a bit more of variation. And surely this album would benefit from some editing – pick the best music and put the rest in an EP or in the aforementioned B-sides.

Mastodon never made a bad album, but their last great release (and masterpiece) was Crack The Skye. I still recommend this one, but it’s a tiring listening.

Few metal styles captures the zeitgeist like the "punkish" ones. It's way more common to hear thrash metal, crossover and grindcore talking about about social and political issues than, let's say, power metal or death metal; a punk rock legacy that survives not only the music but in the lyrics too.

This is the case in the most recent album of Ratos de Porão. The legendary brazilian band blends the aforementioned genres to protest against the chaos created by the neo-fascism inspired government of Jair Bolsonaro. Every song deals about an aspect of Bolsonaro's administration: the scientific negationism, the corruption, the economic crisis, the environment destruction (which increased abnormally during these last four years) and the monstrous health crisis, that made the pandemic kill way more people than expected in such scenario under any other president.

So, as expected, this is a furious album, even more violent than the most recent releases of the Ratos. And it's glorious, recommendded to any grind/thrash fan out there. I only lament that the lyrical content feels so close to home for me... Anyways, I hope anyone has fun with this short but fierce release!

Ok, I never was a fan of Limp Bizkit. Always thought about them as the worst that nu metal can offer – and I simply plain hated nu metal for a long time, haha. I don’t hate the genre anymore, there are some good things there. Although I am convinced that the “nu metallers” never fullfiled their potential. There were never a band from this genre I can say “Wow, they make amazing music!”.

And after listening to Still Sucks, the most recent release of LB… Well, I don’t changed my mind about the genre, haha! I haven’t found that GREAT nu metal album yet. But I do changed my mind a bit about this band. Still Sucks is a decent album, actually. It’s varied – there’s even a good ballad, Don’t Change, and a pleasant poppy tune, Goodbye – and don’t overstay its welcome. In fact, this is probably their shortest release ever, barely passing the half hour mark.

I must praise the work of Wes Borland, he creates some good riffs and nice acoustic passages, I would even like to hear some solos… The electronics are well used, the rapping doesn’t annoys me that much. Unfortunatelly, there’s not a great track here. Surprisingly, the best thing their ever made, the track Endless Slaughter, isn’t here.

Anyways, I can revisit this album in the future, but it’s not an essential release. 3 stars.

The first Metallica album, like most debuts, has the energy and excitement generally found in young musicians. The sound is rougher and cruder than any of their late albums, the songs have an urgency that would be more polished later. We are talking about thrash metal, so these aren’t bad characteristics in this context.

And like most the debuts, their early influences are more obvious here. Kill E’m All is basically a mix of Motorhead, Diamond Head, Budgie, Misfits, even some Iron Maiden… Again, nothing wrong, they manage to package all these influences with a Metallica flavour after all. Songs like Seek and Destroy and Whiplash would become immortal thrash classics, and other less known tracks, like Hit the Lights and Metal Milita are pretty great too! There’s even some experimentalism, with the instrumental (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth.

And I have a personal story with this album. When I was a kid, I remember seeing a brazilian TV show named Fúria MTV. It was, for a long time, one of my only sources for metal these days, since the radio was crap (still is…) and only few friends shared my musical tastes. Anyways, the opening theme of this show was Metal Militia, the closing track of this album! And only years later I would know it, because in that pre-internet era all we could listen were the songs from the Black Album onwards, which played ad nauseam in the media at the time. So, Kill ‘Em All has a place in my metal heart since I’ve listened to it first time. Recommended!

I never was a fan of Manowar. In fact, I despised them when I was younger, thought they were overrated. The only album I listened was their debut, which failed to impress me: some good songs, but most average hard'n'heavy rock.

I never cared to listen their other albums, until now...

...let's say I changed my mind a bit!

For example, this Sign of The Hammer, is actually a good album! Excellent songwriting, powerful tracks, and the band seems actually excited to play! This albums irradiates that raw energy who every headbanger loves to hear from an eighties album. Even the cheesiness of some lyrics is an inseparable part of that "thing" that makes this release one of the best from Manowar. There's no filler here, but tracks like Thor (The Powerhead), Mountains and the instrumental Thunderpick are my personal highlights. Check it out!