UMUR "Superunknown (Redux)" is a various artists tribute album released through Magnetic Eye Records in July 2023. It´s a tribute to Soundgarden´s fourth full-length studio album "Superunknown" (March 1994, A&M Records) and it features all fifteen tracks from the original album covered by different artists. The tracklist order is the same as on the original album, but most of the artists manage to put their own spin on the songs, which makes "Superunknown (Redux)" an album worth your time. There´s nothing less interesting than listening to covers which are 100% true to the originals.

Ufomammut opens with a heavy and psychedelic stoner rock/metal cover of "Let Me Drown", and it´s such a cool and different interpretation of that track. High Priest´s cover of "My Wave" is great too and the dusty low-key recording of "Fell on Black Days" by Marissa Nadler is also a good quality cover. Unfortunately Somnuri falls into the catagory of artists who have created a cover of "Mailman" which is too close to the original. The same can be said about Valley of The Sun´s cover of "Superunknown". It´s competently performed and well produced, but it´s not particularly different from the original.

Next up is Frayle covering "Head Down", and that´s a great female led doom metal version of that track. It´s nicely dark, heavy, and creepy. To my ears it´s one of the highlights of the album and it´s a great example of a band making a cover their own. So how does Spotlights fare covering the most famous and iconic track from "Superunknown"? Well... "Black Hole Sun" is thankfully covered in a both respectful but also heavier and different version from the original. The cover is almost 7 minutes long, so Spotlights have also added some parts to the original track (basically just an outro guitar solo, but it´s still pretty great), which was only 5 minutes long.

"Spoonman" is covered by Horseburner and it´s different enough from the original to matter (it´s actually one of the better covers on the album). It´s harder edged and heavier and thankfully featuring a vocalist who doesn´t try to sound like Chris Cornell. I like the harmony guitar part around the 3 minutes mark and the blistering lead guitar work throughout the track. Oregon based doom/stoner rock/metal act Witch Mountain covers "Limo Wreck", and it´s another great female led cover track. Heavy, organic, and delivered with great vocal attitude by Kayla Dixon. It seems Soundgarden´s songs lend themselves well to female vocals. Beastwars covers "The Day I Tried To Live" and it´s one of the few covers on the album, which my ears don´t agree much with. The original version of "Kickstand" is a short, fast, and energetic rocker, but Jack Harlon and The Dead Crows have chosen to make the song much slower, more heavy, and four times as long. The heavy psychedelic cover version is quite different from the original, which is a plus in my book, but unfortunately it´s not a particularly great cover.

"Fresh Tendrils" is covered by The Age of Truth and it´s a decent if not great cover. "4th Of July" is one of the standout tracks on the original album, because of its heavy and bleak nature, so I was interested to hear what Marh Ursellis Steppendoom could do what it. As it turns out this cover is slightly less heavy (although definitely still pretty heavy), and a little more atmospheric and eerie sounding than the original. This cover has character and I respect Marh Ursellis Steppendoom´s decision to try and give the song a twist. "Half" was always one of the least remarkable tracks on "Superunknown", but Dozer at least try to make it more interesting and succeed in doing so. I´ll go as far as to say that this cover is almost more interesting than the original. Darkher closes the album with their cover of "Like Suicide", and it´s arguably one of the highlights of "Superunknown (Redux)". Again it´s a female led cover and it´s quite different from the original. It´s sombre, atmospheric, melancholic, and the instrumentation is different from the instrumentation on the original too.

So upon conclusion about half of the covers on the album are either great or even brilliant, and the other half are at least decent (some are even great but a bit too close in sound to the originals), so "Superunknown (Redux)" is overall a good quality release and it´s definitely worth a purchase for fans of Soundgarden. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Core" is the debut full-length studio album by US, California based hard rock act Stone Temple Pilots. The album was released through Atlantic Records in September 1992. Stone Temple Pilots were formed in 1985 by lead vocalist Scott Weiland and bassist Robert DeLeo under the Swing monicker (they later recruited drummer Eric Kretz), but changed their name to Mighty Joe Young (after Robert´s older brother guitarist Dean DeLeo joined in 1989 and suggested a name change). The band recorded a demo under the Mighty Joe Young monicker and made a name for themselves on the San Diego club scene using that name, and Atlantic Records eventually took notice and signed the band. While in the studio with producer Brendan O´Brien recording the material for "Core", the band were told that a blues band existed using the Mighty Joe Young name, and the band were therefore forced to another name change. They settled for Stone Temple Pilots.

Stone Temple Pilots are often lumped in with the contemporary Seattle scene and artists like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains (and were often criticized for it by the contemporary music press), and while there is certainly some truth (ok, a lot of truth) to that Stone Temple Pilots were not a worsphipping clone act. They had a enough original musical elements to stand out and it´s predominantly the voice and singing style of Weiland which point toward Seattle (and especially Alice in Chains lead vocalist Layne Staley). The songwriting is also top notch and "Core" features many standout tracks and it´s through and through a high quality hard rock release.

Radio/music video hits like "Plush" and "Sex Type Thing" are among the best known tracks off the album, but there´s not a single sub par track on the album and I could just as well have mentioned tracks like "Dead & Bloated" or the 8:25 minutes long "Where The River Goes" (which are the two tracks bookending the album), or the hard rocking and faster-paced "Crackermann" as some of the highlights. Stone Temple Pilots can also do melancholic ballads which they prove with "Creep", but their greatest success is actually the tracklist flow. Even the two shorter interlude tracks "No Memory" and "Wet My Bed" serve a breather purpose and work well in transitioning the album to the next phase.

"Core" features a professional, powerful, and detailed sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. The performances are also strong on all posts. hard rocking and sometimes pretty heavy guitar work, organic and powerful drumming (and some pretty nice percussion too), clever bass lines, and the strong voice and passionate delivery by Weiland in front. This does not sound like a debut release at all. There are no odd experimental tracks (save for "Wet My Bed", but that one fits the concept and atmosphere of the album), inconsistent songwriting, or unpolished musical ideas, which don´t fit in. This is an album which works from start to finish and a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy Although BUCKETHEAD has slowed down in recent years, he still cranks out more releases than many other artists out there. While hundreds were released back in 2015 now in 2022 the chicken lover is only on his fifth album in 2022 which is titled PIKE 307 - MERCURY BREAK.

Like all PIKEs, this one is all instrumental and a one-chicken show. This one is short as it only clocks in over 27 minutes. This one features only two tracks, the 23-minute plus title track and the tiny-in-comparison “Echoing Unicorn.” Ah, i love it when unicorns echo echo echooooo.

For the majority of these PIKEs the chicken lover hovers between angsty alternative metal and a softer form of heavy alternative rock of course those are hardly the only genres he covers but the vast majority fall into either of these. This one is more on the heavy rock side of things.

The cool sounding title track is a nice break from some of the monotony of recent PIKEs. Yeah this one has the same repetitive guitar riffs and accompanying bass and drums but the atmosphere and production is a bit airy with even a bit of processed vocals in the mix.

The guitar tones are pretty cool and some synthesized sound effects are just what the doctor ordered to keep this from being too repetitive. Even the drumming is a bit more complex than the usual canned drumbeat. It actually sounds as if a live being is pecking away on percussion.

Yeah, perhaps the title track is longer than i needs to be with the same receptive riffs chugging along after each breakdown but it is more interesting than normal with some nice processed guitars, a few time signature and tempo deviations and overall atmospheres. Decent.

“Echoing Unicorns” insinuates a psychedelic space rock with trippy reverb and fantasy fueled freakiness but is in fact another one of those heavy alt rock guitar riffing sessions in the vein of the title track with processed talk box vocals in tandem with the guitar. The sound effects are pretty cool but not OMG so. Unlike the title track, this one is the perfect playing length.


Overall this PIKE is a nice subtle shift from previous ones. BH has been ramping up the production values and this one has some interesting atmospheres and cool sound effects. Now he needs to work on more interesting compositions overall. It’s still just repetitive riffs on overdrive. This is a decent PIKE but it’s been a while since i’ve been blown away.

Unitron "The time is right for sonic infusion"

Since We've Become Translucent is one of those albums that makes you wonder why this wasn't a transition into a new sound. The first and last songs both show Mudhoney displaying some classic Hawkwind influence, but with their own grungy attitude to it. It's intense and fiery space rock with a great horn section on Baby Can You Dig the Light?, and fits in with the sound the band already had.

The rest of the album is pretty standard Mudhoney, so basically The Stooges meets Blue Cheer, with Crooked and Wide being the best of that bunch. However it ends up being slightly disappointing with the strengths of the bookends. They could've evolved into a great space grunge band, but I guess they decided to stick with their old formula.

siLLy puPPy BUCKETHEAD has been quite erratic in releasing PIKEs in the last couple of years but it seems like 2022 is when the chicken lover is turning on the spigot once again to let the PIKEs flow! PIKE 304 - RAINBOW BRIDGE features four tracks and only reaches over the 27-minute mark. This one is the second release in 2022 and is the typical PIKE of being digitally downloadable and featuring BH playing all instruments.

The opening title track is a rather generic affair featuring one of those heavy rock riffing sessions and sounds like pretty much a gazillion other eggs that have already hatched. Some of BH’s PIKEs are heavy enough to qualify as metal but this one is a little bit more laid back and should be considered heavy alternative rock. The title track is a throwaway in my book. I’ve long grown weary of redundancy. 
“Toy Museum” is quite a different story however and is quite refreshingly new. Something about the combination of the atmosphere, the guitar tones, the unique style of riffing and steady beat that makes this one a real treat. It has some nice gurgling guitar effects which sort of replicate turntablism. It’s also the longest track at over 10 minutes. BH’s instrumentals are so hit and miss. This one is a hit.

“Water Molecule” is a funky hard rock number that sounds something like the Red Hot Chili Peppers may have conjured up in the 1990s only without the bass guitar antics of Flea. The guitar riffs though are more rooted to 1970s bluesy hard rock like Aerosmith, Robert Trower or UFO. It’s officially OK but nothing outstanding either. It’s a little feistier and fast tempoed than 70s hard rock and this track straddles on the line of being metal and hard rock.

“Invisible Trees” continues the bluesy hard rock riffing but a bit calmer than the previous track. Basically same pattern with guitar riffs, muffled bass and uninspired drumming. This one is probably the most authentically 70s sounding hard rock track. The problem with this is that the lack of vocals make this sound a bit empty. That’s the problem with many of these PIKEs actually. If there are trees somewhere i can’t see them!

Another mediocre PIKE here. Once again, nothing offensively bad or unlistenable but nothing that will blow your mind either. “Toy Museum” is the best track and the only one that offers something a bit different otherwise this sounds like one of those assembly line PIKEs that will be quickly forgotten at least by my ears. Oh well, i’m sure another PIKE will hatch soon. Until then, hasta la vista!