I haven't been following 'new' releases, I stopped trying to follow everything that came out back in... 2013. It's better that way, I believe, since nothing ended up impressing me. But every now and then, when I see a newly released album that I haven't really heard about, curiosity kicks in and off I go to see what was released.

That was the case with Nashville Pussy's latest album, Pleased to Eat You. I ended up skipping the band's classic phase and had only heard their previous album, Up the Dosage, which was ok, and the impression I was left with was the same with the new album: OK!

Is this a bad thing? I don't think so, it's a strong album, with good songs and everything a fan of the band could hope for. There's nothing new, it's the AC/DC school of making music. If you're a fan you will find the sound you like in here and there's no reason to change it.

Sometimes, I confess, I don't really understand the band's proposal, I know that everything revolves around sex, drugs, booze and Rock 'N' Roll, but sometimes they seem to be typical rockers from the south of the USA, along with everything that goes with it, but at the same time they record tracks like 'Just Another White Boy' criticizing the typical useless North American Redneck and 'We Want a War' with its anti-war message. It seems to me that Nashville Pussy is really an atypical case of a book that is judged by its cover, but it is necessary to read the content to understand that the book shouldn't have been judged by its cover, but it should... Go figure.

I respect Opeth very much! And I still believe they are one of the most important/innovative bands of the last 30 years. As the world sank with regrets over the group's changes since Heritage, I was curious to know where the band was going. It turns out that the band... keeps going! After the great Pale Communion Opeth released a very weak album with Sorceress and I really didn't have much hope for the next album, but here they are with In Cauda Venenum!

First of all I need to get out of my head two little things that I noticed right away that are little easter eggs in the album (maybe there are more): The title of the album was obviouslyce mezzo-stolen from Italian Jacula's In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum. The album's opening track, Livets Tr'dg'rd, is a clear 'tribute' to the Swedish group 'lgarnas Tr'dg'rd. Being Mikael 'kerfeldt an avid 70s Prog collector this is no surprise. This makes me a little unquiet, I still don't know why.

In Cauda Venenum is a record that should please fans of the band's new phase. Despite the completely unnecessary introduction (an instrumental introduction only makes sense if it is linked to the concept of the album, it is not the case here, at all) the album brings variety, weight and also a little freshness to the band's sound. The fact that the album was composed in Swedish is extremely pleasant to my ears (yes, there is an English version, but Mikael himself in an interview said that for him the official album is in Swedish). There are several times when the weight takes over the songs, but there are parts with strings and many vintage keyboards.

The production of the record did not please me completely, the sound seems too compressed, there is the attempt, it seems, that everything has to sound vintage, but obviously recorded in digitail system. The drums suffer the most, a shame as Martin Axenrot did a fantastic job. But at the same time the insertion of voices and dialogues in Swedish throughout the album comes in quite well done.

Now, speaking about how long it is... 67 minutes! Needlessly long, at least 20 minutes longer than it should and this weighs on the end result: hearing fatigue.

Nevertheless, in the end, the Swedes delivered an exquisite work that requires some auditions to enjoy the album (I needed 4 and counting) and can easily reach the ears of the band's Prog period fans.

It is not every day that we found great Hard Rock/Heavy metal albums sung in Portuguese. But here you go: Carro Bomba, from São Paulo, Brazil!

Usually Heavy Metal, at least in Brazil, is synonymous with imitating everything that Iron Maiden did. This includes the clothes, the riffs and the lyrics, which are generally shameful, to say the least.

Not here! Carcaça has a heavy, ripped, nervous, angry sound and the lyrics are highly intelligent, talking about daily life and social criticisms without falling into 'boremdoness' and that are pertinent.

Another thing that stands out, a lot, in this fourth album of Carro Bomba are the vocals of Rogério Fernandes! With his tone à la Ronnie James Dio he does not exaggerate in high notes (a fatal error and very common in bands of the genre) but also does not exaggerate in the 'torn' moments of his voice!

Perfect balance between vocal and powerful instrumental. Basically the best album released on Brazilian soil in this genre!

The record is available at ONERPM (https://onerpm.com/disco/album&album_number=7619371758) for a very cheap price and is worth it!

Go for it, you know you want to!

Australian Gothic Metal... those words alone should have been enough for me to know I should move away from such a band like Virgin Black (what a fantastic and original name, right!?)!

Gothic Metal for me is the most unbearable atrocity that music, and Metal, has ever invented. The guy who decided that it was a good idea to join Heavy Metal with classical music, 'erudite' singers (read erudite with a lot of irony) and the whole 'Goticity' thing should burn at the stake.

But I must say that "Requiem: Mezzo Forte" is not the worst record I've ever heard in this genre (the title goes to anything Leaves' Eyes has ever recorded), being very well produced and full of interesting moments. Truth is that the album has very little Gothic Metal in it, it's more like something Therion would do, more Symphonic Metal with Doom Metal blasts I guess. But there is just no way, in the end, that this is any good in the end. You listen to it and it doesn't make you listen again, ever!

This style of Metal just doesn't do anything for me. What fans of the genre take for beauty I see only nonstop boredom. But I recognize the Australians' effort and maybe fans of the genre will like it.

Black Metal, in general, is a genre that does not work for me. Several times I tried to listen to the classic bands of the genre and never really liked anything. What is considered the nature of the genre (the precarious, amateur and coarse production) is for me a destruction of the ears.

I had no idea who Panopticon was, and I thought 'Kentucky' was one of those one-man-band thing that Black Metal has so much. When I was reading about the album I saw that people use the term 'Atmospheric Black Metal' for it (a pompous name that it means not so violent). However, 'Kentucky' is different! The production is not so bad and for Black Metal standards is even good. But not only that, Austin L. Lunn (the name behind the project) tried to merge Black Metal with ... Bluegrass ...

Okay, I admit, that caught my attention alone. But the truth is that 'Kentucky' does not mix both genres at all. I hoped Black Metal would be overrun by banjos and acoustic guitars, what we have instead are Bluegrass vignettes between the Black Metal tracks, which makes the album clumsy at times. There is not a fusion of the two genres, what we have, in fact, are two genres in the same album, we could even separate the album in Part 1 and part 2, who likes Black Metal hears one part, who likes Country another.

But in the end Kentucky surprised me, I (save rare exceptions) had never managed to make sense of Black Metal (still don't), and it's the first time a record of the genre has provoked a feeling that is not dislike. Actually 'Kentucky' is a good record. It suffers from the evil of the century, it is too long, it should have been shorter, no fillers, because Black Metal can be very tiring.

But it's worth a listen, even just out of curiosity.