Beatles Proving yet again their willingness to dice 'n' slice their burgeoning legacy into new—if not exactly fresh—product, the Fab Four Minus One released this single disc compendium of their No. 1 hits. Though obviously superfluous to long-time Fabs faithful (who may also find themselves quibbling over the precise definition of "No. 1 hit" and the exclusion of seeming contenders like "Please Please Me" and "Strawberry Fields"), newly arrived visitors from the Pleiades star cluster and other neophytes will find it a concise and generous (nearly 80 minutes) single-disc introduction to the band's career-spanning, unparalleled dominance of pop music in the 1960s and beyond. But more than merely a trophy case of commercial success (and it won't be hard to find people to argue that these singles aren't even the band's best work), 1is also a quick sketch of a remarkable seven-year musical evolution, one that stretches from the neo-skiffle of "Love Me Do" through a remarkable synthesis of R&B, rockabilly, Tin Pan Alley, gospel, country and classical that still defies efforts to effectively deconstruct it. —Jerry McCulley

Muse With Absolution, size is most definitely an issue. Hoping that it will finally propel them into the musical major leagues, Muse have set out to create a cross-genre monster, a contemporary meisterwerk, the biggest-sounding album in years. That they almost succeed is testament to their sky-high confidence and unarguable abilities. With just three members to draw upon, they've individually stretched themselves to fill in the inevitable sonic gaps. Bassist Chris Wolstenholme, in particular, does sterling work, producing a driving buzz to lift "Time Is Running Out" to a massive crescendo, then a rush of distortion that pushes "Hysteria" to Queen-like levels of ecstasy.

Throughout, Matt Bellamy adds classical grace with his tinkling, rolling grand piano, all the while moaning and shrieking out his fear of decay, destruction and death, like a traumatised Gene Pitney. Indeed, aside from their classical leanings and clear kinship with the prog-rock likes of Queen and Rush (there are some outbreaks of metal here), Muse often draw on classic pop, employing lush 1960s-style arrangements. With "Blackout" they go even further, daring to conjure Bacharach's "Magic Moments". If there's a weakness here, it's that the songwriting remains inconsistent, but this is usually covered up by musicianship and studio wizardry that leave Coldplay languishing in Muse's dust. —Dominic Wills

Killswitch Engage

Rivers Cuomo Rivers Cuomo, Weezer's front-man & song-writer, released some of his home recordings earlier in 2008. The release was so successful that he has decided to release even more. Includes demo tracks written from 1992-2007, a cover of the Beach Boys' song "Don't Worry Baby", & the three song mini suite from the highly sought after "Songs from the Black Hole". Great addition to any Weezer fan's collection.

Shadows Fall

Kinks

Killswitch Engage

Intense

Trivium

John Frusciante

Dream Theater Some rock & roll purists consider the term "progressive rock" an oxymoron. After all, rock & roll is supposed to be about feeling, not thinking. Prog rock bands miss the point by taking the soul out of a musical form that's purposely crass and anti-intellectual. All the precise, long-winded arrangements, keyboard flourishes, wailing vocals, and over-orchestration of groups like Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and, to a degree, Rush suck the soul out of something that should be less head and more body. Dream Theater, though they possess many of the same characteristics as these bands, still manage to maintain a human element in their music. Awakeis at times self-indulgent and pompous, but songs like "Lie", a passionate crusher that finds guitarist John Petrucci launching riff after thunderous riff in a cacophonous volley of crunch, ring true with real passion and base emotion. It's the depth and tonality his guitar brings to the music that keeps Dream Theater from falling into the Styx-isms they often veer dangerously close to. A very solid record for those who don't mind thinking while rocking. —Adem Tepedelen

36 Crazyfists

Muse Black Holes and Revelations finds Muse finally achieving their full potential, producing an album that is their biggest yet. And for a band that was responsible for the grandiose Origin of the Symmetry, that's no mean feat. In a time when lo-fi and acoustic acts are devouring the charts, Muse are resolutely swimming against the tide. Black Holes and Revelations is an epic album, and it sounds huge—listening to it, it's difficult to remember that Muse are just a trio. This is a band who enter a studio determined to get their money's worth—it wouldn't be a surprise to hear a kitchen sink clanging away in the background. In the hands of a lesser band, Black Holes and Revelations would sound either ironic or silly, with songs like "Starlight" sounding like a beefed-up ELO track, right down to its lyrics about spaceships. And that's not the only 1970's British rock band that's referenced here: by the end of "Soldier's Poem", you'll swear that Freddie Mercury and Queen are providing the harmonies. And the influence of Queen sticks around right through the energetic rocker "Assassin". Black Holes and Revelations wears the comparison well—this is an arena-rock album, carefully constructed by a band who by having no fear of the absurd, manage to transcend it. Quite simply, this album rocks. —Robert Burrow

Red Hot Chili Peppers With valuable assistance from producer Rick Rubin, the Peppers find just the right blend of punk, funk, and hip-hop. Even with a running time of 74 minutes, this 1991 breakthrough has continuity and cohesion both within and across the 17 cuts. Riding Flea's surging bass, Anthony Kiedis delivers his explicit lyrics with a rapper's flair, extolling the virtues (and outlining the dangers) of sex and drugs. Plaintive ballads such as "Breaking the Girl", "I Could Have Lied", and the hit "Under the Bridge" give the album depth and provide contrast to the raw energy of "Mellowship Slinky in B Major", "Funky Monks", and "Give It Away". Rubin masterfully fuses John Frusciante's raunchy guitar with the irresistible grooves. —Marc Greilsamer

Original TV Soundtrack While the idea of infusing a weekly TV series with a Broadway-musical ethos isn't exactly a new one, it became something of a turn-of the-century television mini-trend. But few have reached as far—or succeeded—like this 2001 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Penned by series creator-producer Josh Whedon and performed by Sarah Michelle Gellar and cast, it's a loving, loopy musical pastiche that takes pot shots at everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber to indie-rock. Paralleling the show's lovable pop culture tweaking, the musical styles here (the episode's musical conceit is a curse visited upon Buffy's hometown of Sunnydale) range from a patent footlight chorus of demons being interrupted by Gellar's hard-rocking stake thrusts on "Going Through the Motions" to Spike the Vampire's goth-metal complaint "Rest in Peace", with everything from parking tickets and mustard stain removal to climactic duels with the supernatural getting the Broadway send-up. Also includes strong orchestral score-suites from three other episodes, as well as Whedon and wife Kai Cole's demo for "Something to Sing About". —Jerry McCulley

Machine Head

Machine Head

Red Hot Chili Peppers The problem Anthony Kiedis and his supremely dysfunctional musical family faced when beginning work on their eighth album, By the Way, wasn't so much how to top (or even compare) to the critical and commercial euphoria of 1999's superb Californication, but more how to avoid the comedown that followed their other highpoint—Blood Sex Sugar Magik—where One Hot Minuteturned into several long years that nearly finished them. They decided, it seems, to just shut their eyes, press pedal to metal and continue as before. It's worked magnificently—no small thanks to the canny production of Rick Rubin again and the cohesive gelling Frusciante back into what has now emerged as a tight, focused unit (despite the album being, as ever, about five songs too long—"Midnight" and "Minor Thing" for instance). Minor quibbles though, for when the Chili Peppers are average, they still tower over most other bands.

"By The Way", by far not the best cut here (those would be the quite wonderful "Tear" and widescreen "Don't Forget Me"), picks up where Californicationleft off, but is not representative of an album that frequently revisits the sunshine harmonies of "Road Trippin'" and desolate landscape of "Scar Tissue". Endlessly surprising and hugely engaging, the Chili Peppers have opened their eyes and found themselves with a another great record on their hands, solidifying both themselves as a group and their position as one of the world's best rock bands. —Ben Johncock

Thelonious Monster

Red Hot Chili Peppers Following a string of unsatisfactory replacements (including former Jane's Addiction alum Dave Navarro), Californication—the band's seventh album—saw them reunited with both errant guitarist John Frusciante (hauled out of a long and debilitating heroin addiction) and producer Rick Rubin, whose mixture of commerical nous and sonic smarts helped make 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magiktheir breakthrough set. It's a welcome reunion: Frusciante's playing, in particular—tight, yet lyrical—fits these songs like a second skin, lending them a sensual sort of ease that is perfectly in keeping with the reckless hedonism of their lyrics. The songs themselves are much the same mixture of adrenalised swagger and high-tensile funk as ever. And typically, there are two or three fillers here ("Emit Remmus", "Purple Stain") which probably should have been left on the shelf. Ultimately, though, it's their ballads ("Road Trippin'", the moody, desolate "Scar Tissue") which really demonstrate their strengths, both as songwriters and arrangers—and reveal, albeit briefly, the hearts this crew normally take such pains to conceal. —Andrew McGuire

Dream Theater

Avenged Sevenfold

In Flames Asian edition of the seventh album, originally issued in 1990, for the Swedish dark metal act, featuring Jesper Stromblad (ex-Ceremonial Oath), includes one bonus track 'Strong & Smart'. Slipcase. Dream On.

36 Crazyfists

In Flames

In Flames

Ill Nino

Coral While the fiery rock & roll spirit of The La's Lee Mavers courses through their veins, the debut album by youthful Liverpudlian mystics the Coral proves they are far more than Merseybeat chancers. The opening "Spanish Main"—"We've set sail again! / We're heading for the Spanish Main!"—casts the sextet as marauding scally pirates, out to pillage musical history for any loot they can lay their hands on. Magnificently, it's possible to hear the influence of everything from Captain Beefheart to Miles Davis, from Spanish mariachi guitar to rambunctious Cossack dance rhythms surfacing between the tight, ragged grooves of "I Remember When" and "Shadows Fall". But the staggering thing about The Coralis that it's stuffed to bursting point with ideas, yet presents them all in such stark clarity. It's hard to pick an album highlight, but it's probably a toss-up between the curious, swooping fable of "Simon Diamond" and the unfettered insanity of "Skeleton Key", which finds frontman James Skelly croaking "Solid gold skeleton key / opens the most intricate lock / Brother roll another for me/ I am shipwrecked on the rocks!" as his bandmates caw like parrots in the background. The Coral are off on a totally mental trip. It would take a fool, however, to choose not to join them. —Louis Pattison

Pantera Even those who scoff at the idea that rock & roll is the devil's music have to think twice when listening to Pantera. The pill-popping, strip-bar-ogling, beer-guzzling Texas combo takes Metallica's speed-metal cues to new heights of brutality and sacrilege. Fortunately, they're extremely good at what they do. The polyrhythmic complexity of Vinnie Paul's drumming in "Psycho Holiday" and guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell's breathtaking solo in "Heresy" are examples of state-of-the-art metal musicianship. Vocalist Phil Anselmo often sounds like Metallica's James Hetfield, but his brooding croon on "Cemetery Gates" and his falsetto screams on the blindingly fast "Shattered" are more like vintage Deep Purple. Released in 1990, Cowboysmade Pantera one of metal's top draws during an era in which it was almost eclipsed by alternative rock. —James Rotondi

Mastodon Mastodon has taken hold of the leadership of the New Wave of Progressive Heavy Metal. The band's 2006 major-label debut Blood Mountain spun off a Grammy nomination and earned Top 5 Best Album Of The Year nods from Kerrang!, Revolver, and Metal Hammer, and a Top 10 at Rolling Stone. Now Crack The Skye, its fourth original studio album, mines subject matter from czarist Russia and astral travel to out-of-body experiences and Stephen Hawking's theories on wormholes for an unrepentantly heavy aural assault that will shake the heavens.

John Frusciante

Pink Floyd One of the most famous albums of all time, Dark Side Of The Moonsold 25 million copies in its first 25 years of release. It continues to be a favourite, with 20 per cent of those sales occurring in the period since it first came out on CD, a medium to which it is ideally suited, especially in its current carefully remastered form. Dark Side Of The Moonwas the first album that Pink Floyd decided to break in live before attempting to record, with the debut performance of what they then called Eclipsejust over a year before the final release date. When they finally retired to Abbey Road with top sound engineer Alan Parsons, state-of-the-art 16-track recording equipment and the new Dolby technology to hand, it was to produce one of the great pieces of studio art. Covering a range of styles, this was the last album (prior to Roger Waters' departure in the early 1980s) to whose writing the other members of Pink Floyd contributed significantly. Nevertheless, it remains a stunningly coherent package, bound together by surreal fragments of speech (mostly gleaned from asking questions of the doorman at the studio) and Waters' bold and bleak lyrics. Often reputed to be about former member Syd Barrett's decline into schizophrenia, in fact Waters has said the lyrics "were a lot about ordinariness" and dealt with people's responses to the increasing insanity of the pressures of everyday life. Some of the extraordinary sound effects used came from the most unlikely sources—the coins at the start of "Money" from Waters tossing handfuls of change into an industrial food-mixer that his wife, a potter, used to mix clay. Whatever the medium, a new standard for attention to detail and production values had been set and the world of studio recording would never be the same again.—James Swift

John Frusciante

Green Day Punk had flirted with mainstream attention before—the Clash and Sex Pistols had hits—but didn't fully advance from the underground until this pure-punk 1994 album. In singing catchy, tight rock & roll tunes—including "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise" and "When I Come Around"—Green Day sneered its way into the hearts of millions. The Berkeley, California, trio also ignited a debate: Is it selling out for punks to sign with a major record label and become multi-platinum stars? Fortunately, this band didn't seem to care as much as Kurt Cobain did. —Steve Knopper

Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian Grammy award winning maestro of rock Serj Tankian is releasing his first live album that features a full orchestral performance of his critically-acclaimed debut solo rock album 'Elect The Dead' which showcased the writing and arranging prowess of a man best known for his inimitable vocals, incisive lyrics, and unwavering dedication to humanitarian causes. He then took the stage at the majestic Auckland Town Hall in New Zealand with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra to perform a very special orchestral interpretation of his critically acclaimed debut solo album 'Elect the Dead'.
With The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at his side, Tankian's epic songs and operatic vocals take on a whole new sense of grandeur when accompanied with a full 70 piece orchestra. This unique meshing of two very different worlds of music was a vision Tankian has long wanted to make a reality.
The show also features two previously unreleased tracks in 'Gate 21' and 'The Charade'. Both tracks are included on all release formats (CD/DVD, CD, and Vinyl).
CD is audio from the live performance
DVD is live performance with some bonus b-roll footage.

Killswitch Engage

Who Nearly a quarter-century (and bassist John Entwistle) passed between what had been considered the Who's career-capping album, It's Hardand this 21-song epic, which at its best has the band of two pining for the days of Who's Next. Built from the triumph of the mini-opera Wire & Glass EP(included here in its entirety), Endless Wiremixes metaphors of music, war, and religion, while showcasing Roger Daltrey's ageless vocal cords and Pete Townshend at his windmilling best. Launching with a "Baba O'Riley"-like synth break in "Fragments," Daltrey asks "Are we breathing out or breathing in?" and Townshend answers with a thrashing, crashing Gibson. When the volume is turned up, there are echoes of three decades ago. "It's Not Enough" and "Mike Post Theme" conjure images of Entwistle and Keith Moon—the latter song, with its quiet verse and thunderous chorus, recalls "Going Mobile" and longs for Moon to whack it into shape. But the linchpin remains Townshend's songwriting, whether he's questioning faith ("Man in a Purple Dress"), showing gratitude for support ("You Stand By Me"), or dreaming of entertaining immortals into eternity ("Out on an Endless Wire"). By the time it wraps up, Endless Wiretells two things. No, it does not quite rank with the band's best work. But yes, as long as Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey walk the earth in tandem, the Who live on. —Scott Holter

John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess

Dream Theater

Shadows Fall

Shadows Fall

As I Lay Dying

Red Hot Chili Peppers With their second album, Freaky Styley, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were still growing into their oversize funkdafied britches. The polished funk-punk-metal-rap hybrid of later albums was still in its seedling stage here, with the group yet to successfully merge those elements. Still, there's a consistent old-school garage feel. Flea's bass lines, normally in hyperdrive, are clipped and springy, like bare feet hopping on a hot Los Angeles blacktop. Lead singer Anthony Kiedis risks sounding like a parody of the vocal styles he's trying to emulate but commands the songs with every variation of bravado his voice can muster. And finally, the merit of this album could stand solely on the talents of the late guitarist Hillel Slovak, who infuses the tracks with resonating harmonics, psychedelic screeches, and righteous riffs. As disjointed and occasionally amateurish as this album was, it was also groundbreaking and captured the undivided attention of the rock world. —Beth Massa

God Forbid

Apartment 26

Spineshank

Machine Head A live album capturing the brutal majesty of Oakland metal veterans Machine Head playing at London's Brixton Academy back in 2001, Hellaliveprovides a fine opportunity to take a look back at the career of one of heavy rock's most underappreciated acts. It's true, Machine Head have never quite been able to top their fantastic debut, 1994's Burn My Eyes—right here, totally blistering takes on the brooding heresy of "I'm Your God Now", the pogo-thrash of "Old" and the Ministry-style jackhammer nastiness of "Davidian" only confirm that to be the case. But there's plenty here to demonstrate why we shouldn't let Machine Head get lost under the pile of generic rap-rock acts. "The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears" carries the gruesome, thick heaviness of Pantera like a torch. And on "Crashing Around You", frontman Rob Flynn launches into a chilling spoken introduction that broadens its misanthropic edge into an anthem to the grey, dispossessed ranks of old-skool heavy-metal. "I used to think I was the only weirdo in the world that has thoughts like this," he ponders. "But now I know I'm not alone." Live albums are so often a hollow excuse to fleece money from obsessive fans. Roadrunner, however, do them with a little care and attention—see also Sepultura's Under a Pale Grey Sky—and Hellaliveis no exception. —Louis Pattison

Ayreon

System of a Down The second in System Of A Down’s projected 2005 two-album set picks up where its predecessor Mezmerizeleft off, melding together bug-eyed political rage, complex prog-metal, and incomprehensible lyrical absurdities and packaging them all together in one of the ugliest sleeves ever seen in Christendom.

Mind you, to be aesthetically pleasing is not System’s way: "She’s On Heroin" and "Stealing Society" are lurid snapshots of society at its most grotesque, schizophrenic canvases of thrash metal and dizzying Cossack rhythms as warped and twisted as the drug addicts and insane dictators they inevitably depict. A bizarre highlight comes in the shape of "Victim Of Obscenity", where frontman Serj Tankian chants "Banana banana banana terracotta/ Banana terracotta pie". As with Mezmerize, Hypnotizefinds guitarist Daron Malakian handling many of the vocal duties: he takes the lead on "Kill Rock’n’Roll", declaring "I felt like the biggest asshole/When I killed your rock’n’roll", and again on the uncharacteristically slow, emotive "Lonely Day". If anything, though, this is a heavier, more bewildering work than its predecessor. An album to sort out the men from the boys – Louis Pattison

The Libertines

Dream Theater Not since 1980 and Yes's Dramahad progressive rock dared to show off quite so unashamedly: Dream Theater's 1992 Images And Wordsis not so much an album of songs as a series of showcases for instrumental virtuosity. For many listeners that sounds like an instant recipe for disaster, but for die-hard progressive-rockers weaned on the glory days of Rush and Yes, Dream Theater were a shining throwback amid the low-fi wasteland of the 1990s. Images And Wordsis the kind of album that amateur musicians listen to with a mixture of awe and despair at the effortless display of fretwork pyrotechnics (it's also the kind of album that non-musicians listen to with blank incomprehension at why anyone would bother producing such endless widdly-widdly stuff). If the guitar work of John Petrucci (whose notes-per-second ratio puts Steve Vai to shame) isn't enough, just listen to drummer Mike Portnoy (who clearly models himself physically and emotionally on Animal from The Muppet Show) playing like a demented Neil Peart, thrashing his kit with every ounce of his strength while maintaining utterly baffling 15/8-metre rhythms. But what really makes this album work is that the whole band play together so well: they actually function as a single unit and consequently the music is much more than the sum of a series of individual solos. Production, too, emphasises the democratic balance within the band, giving due prominence to all. And unlike British wimps such as Genesis, you can also file Dream Theater under Heavy Metal, since not only can they out-play any progressive rockers you might care to mention, they can out-thrash Metallica whenever they feel like it, too. A slice of musical Hell, or a marriage made in Heaven, Images and Wordsdoesn't exactly break any new ground, but it's a landmark in the history of progressive rock nevertheless. —Mark Walker

John Frusciante

God Forbid

In Flames

Killswitch Engage

John Lennon

The Beatles How much better, you could be forgiven for wondering, could Let It Bebe? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is "a bit". Let It Be, while obviously better than almost everything ever recorded by anyone else, was compromised by the fact that the Beatles were disintegrating as a unit during the recording sessions, the rancour most famously illustrated by John Lennon calling in Phil Spector behind Paul McCartney's back to rework "The Long and Winding Road". Let It Be... Naked, then, is the album as the Beatles would have heard it while they were making it.

The tracklisting on this version of Let It Bediffers slightly from the original—there's no "Maggie Mae" or "Dig It", while "Don't Let Me Down" has been added. The rest of the songs, shorn of Spector's decorative flourishes, confirm that although the Beatles were having occasional difficulty speaking to each other during these sessions, there was no problem about playing together. The only two minor quibbles are that "The Long and Winding Road" is still McCartney at his most saccharine, and that any Beatles version of "Across the Universe" is never going to hold a candle to that by Laibach. —Andrew Mueller

Libertines Rock'n'roll can pretty much burn off pure mythology alone, but what happens when the soap opera of drug abuse and broken friendships threatens to overwhelm the music? That's the problem the Libertines' eponymous second LP must face up to – and while it sometimes struggles to live up to the magic of its predecessor, 2002's Up The Bracket, it's still peppered with enough inspiration to explain why people still care about this band. Co-frontmen Carl Barat and Pete Doherty tackle their problems head on with the opening "Can't Stand Me Now", an anthemic, harmonica-accompanied number with echoes of The Cure's "Lovecats", that sees Barat sum up The Libertines' troubled history in the album's most quotable line: "The boy kicked out at the world/ The world kicked back a lot fucking harder". Further rollicking moments come on the Barat-sung "Narcissist" and knockabout closer "What Became Of The Likely Lads?" But there's some workmanlike moments, and almost inevitably, they feature Pete at the helm: see the hoarse, off-key "Don't Be Shy". All told, a merely good record. If The Libertines truly want a place in rock history, they'll have to prove they have the discipline to channel their undeniable inspiration. —Louis Pattison

Liquid Tension Experiment Over-wrought, self-indulgent, bombastic—hurl every clichéd prog-rock epithet you can think of—this group will suck 'em in and spit 'em right back in a deafening flurry of notes plucked, struck, hammered, and slapped. Without question, these guys (Dream Theater's drummer and guitarist Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci respectively, keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and bassist Tony Levin) are masters. And they make no apologies for having recorded an album of intensely virtuosic instrumental hard rock. Armed with chops, taste, and panache, LTE groove seamlessly from the lightning-fingered metal-fest "Paradigm Shift" to the comical drum & bass duet "Chris and Kevin's Excellent Adventure"; from the full-throttle jamming on "Universal Mind" to the house-crushing mayhem of "Three Minute Warning". Throughout, the staggering speed and technique of both Portnoy and Petrucci consistently grab centre stage. It's a riveting work from start to finish and a scorching testament to the power of musical inspiration and collaboration. —Michael Mikesell

Liquid Tension Experiment

Dream Theater

The Who Anyone who owned the vinyl copy of Live at Leedswill barely recognise its digitised namesake. While the 1970 record offered a mere six selections, the 1995 CD reissue is fleshed out with a full 14 tracks. Revelling in the augmented Leedsprompts one to wonder why in the name of "Heaven and Hell" they didn't put out a double record in the first place. No matter. This Live at Leedsis actually superior to its revered predecessor. The Who are at their Maximum R&Bpeak here, bringing an almost proto-metal aggression to supercharged covers of "Young Man Blues", "Summertime Blues", and "Shakin' All Over" (all from the original record) and treating fans to originals familiar ("I Can't Explain", "My Generation", "Magic Bus") and less known ("Heaven and Hell", "Tattoo", "A Quick One"). An improved-upon classic. —Steven Stolder

Red Hot Chili Peppers Taken from their mammoth shows in June 2004, Live in Hyde Parkcaptures the Red Hot Chili Peppers at their very best. The scene was set by changeable weather, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown and Chicks on Speed being unfairly jeered off the stage.

Heralded by a tense intro, the funky, fists-in-the-air sound of "Can't Stop" cutting through the ether is one of those moments that make live albums so compelling for those who were there andthose who weren't. The Peppers go on to play through 2 CDs' worth of favourites from By the Wayand Californicationplus newer material such as "Fortune Faded", "Rolling Sly Stone" and "Leverage of Space".

It's difficult to pick highlights, as the level of musicianship from the four was high as ever but unexpected, quirky numbers such as John and Flea's rendition of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" stand out as memorable euphoric moments. Sadly, the only pre-Californicationsongs were old favourites "Under the Bridge" and "Give it Away", both sounding fresh despite being 13 years old.

Live in Hyde Parkis definitely a worthy addition to any record collection. It's amazing that a band in their third decade of success can release theirfull debut live album, but the Chili Peppers prove that they've still got it (now, more than ever) and will be around for a very long time to come. —David Trueman

Dream Theater

In Flames

Weezer

Weezer With the release of Maladroit, just over 12 months after The Green Album, Weezer appear to be in the midst of a particularly fertile creative period. After taking five leisurely years to follow up on 1996's Pinkerton, the Los Angeles power-pop band is apparently on a roll. "Dope Nose", which is easily stronger than anything on the last album, flexes a sinister shout-along chorus and vintage Van Halen riffs, while the potent garage-punk blast of "Fall Together" wipes out any lingering discomfort over the thoroughly Sugar Ray-sounding "Island in the Sun" (which, incidentally, is included again on this album). In a sense The Green Albumwas just a taster for this, the blissfully thunderous main dish. Sure, there are some deadpan emo moments ("Death and Destruction") littering the course, but mostly Maladroitis Weezer doing what they do best—inverting and embracing dumb rock stereotypes and somehow making them sound smart. —Aidin Vaziri

Dream Theater There's always been an element of slightly camp theatricality about progressive rock—witness Peter Gabriel dressing up as a giant hogweed—so the idea of a progressive musical isn't too much of a stretch. Dream Theater's Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes from a Memorytakes the progressive rock staple of a concept album in a stagy new direction. You know they're up to something when the booklet divides the album into "Act One" and "Act Two", the lyrics are told from the point of view of a cast of characters, and the band credit themselves as "The Orchestra". In the hands of almost anyone else this would seem risibly pretentious, but Dream Theater somehow manage to carry it off (just) by virtue of their uniquely heavy metal slant on the old progressive format. Their blistering, even-louder-than-Metallica riffing takes the dainty edge off the proceedings (most of the time) as the story of dying and "learning to live" unfolds.

Both their fans and the band seem to agree that 1992's Images and Wordsis their finest work to date, so it's only fitting that the plot here is an extension of the track "Metropolis, Part 1" from that album. The extraordinary virtuoso musicianship of the band is, of course, abundantly on display again (amateurs can only shake their heads in despair when players this good let rip), and James LaBrie sings all the "roles" with real gusto. With a new keyboard player to fill the talent gap left by the departure of Kevin Moore, and studio production that rightly gives all the individual instruments their due, Dream Theater seem finally to have found their musical feet again. —Mark Walker

System Of A Down The first instalment of a projected two-album set, Mezmerize sees System Of A Down, an American band of mostly Armenian heritage, further distilling their unique formula of thrash metal, socio-political rage, and Eastern European vocal melody into ever-more fiendishly complicated and white-knuckle exhilarating forms. Moreso even than 2001's Toxicity, this is a album of intense complexity: crammed with whiplash-inducing tempo-changes and a schizophrenic mood that sees sing-a-long, poppy choruses segued effortlessly into breakneck speed-metal, it's as bewildering on first listen as it is addictive after three.

Like Rage Against The Machine, SOAD are a fiercely moral band, but they never let their message stagnate through po-faced delivery: see, for instance, "Cigaro"—ostensibly a song about abuse of power, but one which opens with frontman Serj Tankian yelping "My cock is much bigger than yours!" Musically, too, they're not without an occasional lightness of touch: see the excellent "Radio/Video", riding along on a bouncy ska rhythm. But it's perhaps inevitable that Mezmerize should climax on a note of epic disgust, in the shape of "Old School Hollywood" and "Lost in Hollywood" - two songs that rage against the glossy materialism of their Los Angeles hometown, taking down a regiment of Z-list celebrities and "maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica boulevard" in a firestorm of righteous fury. —Louis Pattison

In Flames

Machine Head

Red Hot Chili Peppers The Chili Peppers finally hit their stride with Mother's Milk, for the first time making their breakneck mix of funk, rap, and metal smooth enough to attract the masses, while keeping it raw enough not to alienate old fans. They've straddled that edge ever since. It didn't hurt that they offered a pretty mainstream cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" to introduce the album. That single though, and the rest of Mother's Milk(including "Knock Me Down" and the randy "Sexy Mexican Maid") is pure Pepper—from Anthony Kiedis's in-your-face vocals to Flea's chattering bass. Milkwas also guitarist John Frusciante's debut with the group. —Michael Ruby

Who My Generation, The Who's first album, has little of the roaring, raging quartet heard on Who's Next, Live at Leedsand Quadrophenia. But the Mod-fuelled, American R&B-inspired sense of ambitious pop that powers A Quick One, Sell Outand even Tommyisn't so hard to find here. This reissue not only expands the original with a bonus-disc treasure trove of 17 outtakes and rarities (including the Pete Townshend-penned, previously unissued "Instant Party Mixture"), but has been remixed from the original 1964-6 session tapes by producer Shel Talmy and released in true stereo for the first time. Anchored by early Who/Townshend anthems "My Generation" (also included in an instrumental version), "I Can't Explain" and "The Kids Are Alright", disc one's original LP set veers somewhat schizophrenically from Townshend's nascent power-guitar thrashing on the anthems and Roger Daltrey's ill-advised James Brown and Bo Diddley impressions on "Please, Please, Please" and "I'm a Man", respectively, to the surf-inspired John Entwistle-Keith Moon instrumental showcase, "The Ox". Not surprisingly, it's the Townshend originals (like "It's Not True", "Legal Matter" and the proto-psychedelic "Circles") that point to what the band would become in a few short years. The bonus material on disc two leans equally heavily on covers, but also contains its share of signposts to the future Who, including a rare, alternate version of "Anyhow, Anyway, Anywhere". Also included is a new booklet with many rare photos and a history of the album's recording by Andy Neill (coauthor of Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who 1958-1978). —Jerry McCulley

Hell Is For Heroes Prior to the release of their own debut, The Neon Handshake, it must have been a bittersweet experience for Hell Is for Heroes to watch kindred spirits Hundred Reasons crack the UK Top 40, securing their critical position with a superb debut album. On one hand, it no doubt gave them hope that their own brand of intelligent, impassioned, post-emo breast beating could enjoy a similar fate. But on the other, they probably worried they were a crucial twelve months behind the zeitgeist. With two of Symposium in their ranks, they surely know how important timing can be in rock. Inevitably, The Neon Handshakeis an extremely accomplished album that lurks a little too self-consciously in the shadow of Ideas Above Our Station. Songs such as "Out of Sight" and "Cut Down" follow the British post-hardcore model to the letter, lurching and screaming in all the familiar places. Far more affecting are the songs that strive to reach some kind of maturity. "Disconnected" is slight and subtle, while the singles "I Can Climb Mountains" and the particularly excellent "Night Vision" show an encouraging ability to layer musical and emotional tension. It's not quite the startling album that was hoped for then, but far worse debuts have led on to earth-shattering careers. —Ian Watson

John Frusciante

Dream Theater Prog rockers Dream Theater tallied 16 years as a band with the release of Octavarium, but in listening you're apt to suspect otherwise. As a collective they remain as tight as they were on 2003's obsessively dark Train of Thought(like all music-school outfits, they've exacted an all-for-one formula that doesn't allow a single player more than his share of swagger), but a post-hardcore edge—call it a leap into 2005—has invaded their pledge of allegiance to theatrical heavy rock. Hear it on "I Walk Beside You" and "The Answer Lies Within," both of which, at under five minutes, play like charming haikus from a band known for its epic poetry, and also on the orchestra-backed 20-plus-minute final cut, which skips around from Pink Floyd to Rush to Black Sabbath influences, stopping off every so often at a place fans of My Chemical Romance might find familiar. As with all the band's discs, guitars loom large and both doom and redemption seem no further than the next twisted verse. What's changed is Dream Theater's commitment to carrying on their reputation as underground progressive rock's classicists, and it seems well-timed. —Tammy La Gorce, All Music Guide

Still Remains

Unearth

Red Hot Chili Peppers One Hot Minutewas the first and only album to feature the talents of guitarist Dave Navarro, formerly of Jane's Addiction. A difficult sixth album, especially after the phenomenal success of Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik; in true form, the band beats a p-funk groove, be it bittersweet ballad or abrasive punk. More progressive than their previous offerings, songs like "One Big Mob" and "Warped" blur the fine line between frenetic power-metal and intense psychedelia. At the quieter end of this infinitely coloured spectrum are the signature ballads for which they are so revered and "My Friends" does the job perfectly. One Hot Minutehas got everything a Chili Peppers record should need and then some, as their music grows in all manner of wondrous new directions. —David Trueman

Muse Pomposity, bombast, pretension and prog-rock: they're four crimes that blight the landscape of modern music and Origin Of Symmetry—the second record by Teignmouth angst-rockers Muse—is guilty of every single one. But the truly astonishing thing about this record is the way it twists every one of these cardinal musical sins into spectacularly silly and starkly individual strengths. Where their debut album Showbizwas rightly dismissed as little more than Radiohead-lite, here Muse sound defiantly like their own band: on "New Born", they're torn somewhere between the purity of front man Matt Bellamy's angelic vocal tones and the corruption of a huge, dirty, distorted bass riff that electrifies the sound into crackling life; on the fraught, operatic "Bliss", they sound like an unholy—but very welcome—cross between synth-heavy Krautrock legends Tangerine Dream and youthful choirboy angst-peddlers JJ72; and even a wonderfully dippy take on the Nina Simone-popularised jazz standard "Feeling Good" is carried off with the requisite deadpan countenance. Bellamy's impassioned voice, in particular, is on spectacular form, soaring skywards until it cracks into a beautiful falsetto reminiscent of Jeff Buckley's greatest vocal moments. So gloriously overblown, it deserves to be huge—Origin Of Symmetryis a fascinating, flamboyant and satisfyingly individual album. —Louis Pattison

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Black Sabbath Though most of Black Sabbath's classic material from this album ("War Pigs,""Iron Man,""Fairies Wear Boots," and the title track) can also be found on the collection We Sold Our Soul for Rock & Roll, Paranoidis essential for the completist. One of the best albums from one of the bands to define heavy metal, this album is chock-full of the best stuff from Sabbath's Osbourne years. (Where else will you be able to hear "Rat Salad?") The music isn't exactly complex, but it doesn't need to be; its importance lies in its evocative power, with which any teenager will be able to identify. —Genevieve Williams

Weezer A hit single can be a bit of a mixed blessing for new bands, especially if said song gets you firmly lumped into the "novelty band" category. Such was the case with Weezer, whose runaway hit "Buddy Holly" touched a global nerve upon its release, then got on everyone's nerves after months of radio saturation. However, it did ensure that they sold millions of copies of their self-titled debut. Which is why it's so strange that their second album, Pinkerton, was soundly ignored. Perhaps it was down to that album's wilfully non-commercial first single, "El Scorcho", which crashed and burned out of the charts at a rate of speed usually reserved for the likes of Gary Barlow. Whatever the reason, Pinkertonsoon disappeared without a trace, which is a shame because it's actually a great album. Whereas Weezerhad the band revelling in their geek rock image, Pinkertonsaw singer / songwriter Rivers Cuomo maturing as a lyricist: From opening track "Tired Of Sex", which rants about the frustrating easiness of groupies, to the New Wave pop of "Getchoo", to the sheer, unadulterated epic genius of "The Good Life", the songs are much more diverse than the Pixies-influenced bouncey grunge of their debut. With the closing solo acoustic lament of "Butterfly", Rivers Cuomo hints at his mastery of the pop song as an art form, suggesting great things from this reformed geek in the future. —Robert Burrow

Queen

Muse

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Pantera

In Flames

Muse Following seven years of near solid touring, Muse escalated from being the biggest band in Teignmouth in 1997 to one of the biggest bands in Europe by 2004. With each successive album, they pushed the musical envelope with a fusion of progressive rock, electronica, and Radiohead-influenced experimentation, creating an emotive, passionate sound. Muse's reputation as one of the best live rock bands in the world is well deserved with their exhilirating live performances drewing critical acclaim, industry buzz, and a loyal and rabid fan base.

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Shadows Fall

Ill Nino On the evidence of Revolution Revolución, the New-Jersey-based Ill Niño fit very neatly into the Roadrunner label's aesthetic, while still providing enough of a twist on the metal genre to carve out their own niche. While the influence of everything from Korn to Machine Head to Sepultura marches under the banner of their debut album, it's Ill Niño's Latin heritage—many of its members hail originally from South America—that makes this much more than another monochromatic nu-metal effort: the billingual "Nothing's Clear" opens with a battery of punishing percussion and frontman Cristian Machado's phlegm-spattering, pig-throttling vocals, but two minutes in it's ready to break for a surprisingly virtuoso Spanish guitar interlude. Ill Nióo's powerful Sepultura-heavy impact is hardly blunted by such bursts of startling melodicism, though;"No Murder" slips effectively between bursts of gutteral howling and passages of Tool-like anthemics with ease. The closing "With You" is the real surprise, though—a soulful, restrained four-minute long Flamenco love song that might skirt the borders of cheese, but ends Revolution Revoluciónon a satisfyingly light, and characteristically eclectic note. —Louis Pattison

The Beatles There are only three stories worth knowing from the last 2,000 years of history: the life of Mohammed, the life of Jesus and the career of The Beatles. They invented all music ever. John was the best one; but Paul is—despite the knighthood and everything—still the most under-rated songwriter of the 20th century. This is the album with "Eleanor Rigby", "Here, There and Everywhere", "For No One", "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" on it—but then, you knew that anyway. We presume you have this album already and you're just getting a second copy in case you lose the first. —Caitlan Moran

Spineshank For Self-Destructive Pattern, Spineshank have moved on from 2001's The Height of Callousnessand mostly ditched their head-spinning electronics, replacing them with a raft of high-quality vocal melodies sure to make their second album a major hit. The opening "Violent Mood Swings" and "Slavery", both featuring heavy-duty riffing and a shredded grunt of a vocal, lead directly into a frenetic run of top class modern metal, the briefest of gaps between tracks giving the listener no time to catch breath. "Smothered", "Consumed", "Beginning of the End" and "Forgotten" are all misanthropic anthems, bludgeoning but tuneful enough to have you thinking of a hi-octane (and homicidal) Journey.

From here on, it becomes ever more aggressive, with Tommy Decker's occasional thrilling effects buried beneath the noise as singer Jonny Santos's over-riding sense of bitterness and paranoia takes over. This is the album's main problem. Spineshank have it in them to produce serious-minded melodic metal to rival the best of Alice in Chains yet are held back by Santos's tediously blinkered worldview. On Planet Santos everyone is out trick, blame, sedate or ruin him and he's thoroughly peeved about it, so peeved that he allows his lyrics to become a monotonous and graceless diatribe, meaningless to anyone outside his immediate circle. Let's hope it was cathartic, for Spineshank have huge potential. —Dominic Wills

In Flames

As I Lay Dying

John Frusciante Rather than dwell once more on John Frusciante's problematic narcotic history, it's far healthier to report that Shadows Collide—the fourth solo album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' guitarist—sports a thoroughly clean bill of health. Unencumbered by narrow rock strictures, Frusciante seems to have excused himself from the Chili's staple funk-punk approach (his recent listening preferences span early OMD, Van Der Graaf Generator, Roy Wood and Steeleye Span) and Shadows Collideis all the better for the change of scenery. Yes, there are nods to the parent band ("Song to Sing When I'm Older") and both Flea and Chad Smith are participating guests of honour, but this is Frusciante's show.

While there are interludes of electronic Eno-esque oddity (the squall of static and synth choirs on "00Ghost27") this is mostly strident, neo-psychedelic rock begging comparison, vocally and musically, with some of Grant Hart's post Husker Du solo work; a song such as "Carvel" apes the pre-Gillan pomp-opera approach of early Deep Purple. Elsewhere, fascinating treatments (the electric seabird guitars on "Second Walk", the spin-dry vocal oscillations on "Regret") abound and Frusciante's love of the mellotron (flutes, choirs et al) lend proceedings an alluring antique appeal. Think of this as a spiritual halfway house between Candy Apple Greyand In the Court of the Crimson King. —Kevin Maidment

Hundred Reasons The second album from Home Counties emotional hardcore stalwarts Hundred Reasons, Shatterproof Is Not a Challengesees them consolidating the punk-rock revolution they partly sparked off on these shores: one that rejects the snotty rush of UK punk, instead harking back to American post-hardcore touchstones like Fugazi, Quicksand, and At The Drive-In. Hundred Reasons offer a poppy, mainstream take on this most defiantly underground of musical genres, but no qualms, they do it very well: the production clarity demonstrated on "What You Get" and "The Great Test" renders hirsute frontman Colin Doran's skinny roar in spittle-flecked high-resolution, and supplies an agreeably punchy presence to the twin-guitar interplay handled by Paul Townshend and Larry Hibbitt. And while often vague, Doran's lyrics frequently attain a sort of tear-pricked emotional resonance: "Sing this with me now/ Try to harmonise this," goes the mantra-like 'Harmony', gaining strength in every plucky repetition.

If there's any criticism here, it's that Hundred Reasons appear to have found a successful formula and stubbornly stuck to it: "Pop" sounds uncomfortably like a band ripping off themselves, and even a pair of ballads, "Still Be Here" and "Makeshift", appear to be tacked on just because that's what well-rounded rock-albums are supposed to do. In future, a touch more variety would prove a real boon. But in short bursts, Shatterproof Is Not a Challengeremains a bracing example of sturdy, cathartic punk-rock, and we very much suspect that's exactly what Hundred Reasons were after all along. -– Louis Pattison

Muse It's practically impossible to mention Muse without also bringing up Radiohead. Listening to Muse's debut, it's easy to see why. Showbizwas produced by John Leckie, the producer of The Bends, and features the frightfully Yorke-esque choiral falsetto of front-man Matthew Bellamy, running the whole emotional gamut of unhappiness from sincere upset to outright dysfunction. New ground, it's fair to say, remains distinctly unbroken. To Muse's credit, though, they do this angst thing pretty well. "Cave" is a wonderful, terrible epic, replete with rank after rank of bludgeoning guitars, "Muscle Museum" builds up swathes of complex baroque noise, and "Escape"—well, it's a surrogate "No Surprises" with a firework finale, and should keep us ticking over until the next Radiohead album, thank you very much. See? You can't escape the comparison. But at least Showbizwears it well.—Louis Pattison

Dream Theater Never a band to do things by halves, Dream Theater's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a two-disc extravaganza with a title track that clocks in at a prog-tastic 42 minutes. Following very much in the style of their previous studio release Scenes from a Memory, the "Six Degrees" piece, which occupies the entire second disc, is divided into eight movements beginning of course with the now-obligatory "Overture". It's all good, meaty stuff, but the quasi-symphonic structure isn't really justified by the music, which alternately noodles and thrashes about in a somewhat haphazard manner; while singer James LaBrie's elliptical storytelling struggles to make an impression over the rest of the band's stunningly virtuosic onslaught. The other disc has five chunky shorter pieces (averaging about 10 minutes each) which hearken back to the grungier sound of their Awake album. Guitarist John Petrucci dominates proceedings here perhaps more than he should, and only fearsome drummer Mike Portnoy can compete in the sheer volume and notes-per-second competition. The result is an album that fulfils all the fans' expectations of what this band do best. Despite the "progressive" tag, Dream Theater have, it seems, found a formula and they're sticking to it.—Mark Walker

John Frusciante

36 Crazyfists

Shadows Fall

Avenged Sevenfold

John Frusciante/Josh Klinghoffer

Original Television Soundtrack

Red Hot Chili Peppers Four-year career hiatuses followed by sprawling double-albums could spell trouble for a band of the Chili Peppers' stature: consider they'd originally recorded enough for three discs. The restless, trouble-plagued outfit that helped break alternative rock into the mainstream with a potent fusion of punk 'n' funk in the '80s finds itself two decades on almost completely devoid of the former's energetic abandon, while the latter's effusive rhythms are considerably subdued over the course of this two-hour, 28-track collection. It's not so much that the Peppers have lost their muscular, often uber-macho edge as they have willfully tamed it in service of mature reinvention here. The mellower, often introspective, if no less potent pop ethos that characterized the crossover hit "Under the Bridge" blossoms fully here on tracks like disc one's "Snow,""Wet Sand," and the jazz-cool of "Hey."

The title track, "Desecration Smile," and "She Looks To Me" finds them venturing further into laid back pop ballad territory, while the tricky rhythms of "Dani California,""Charlie," and "So Much I" eventually kick into familiar top gear on the pop-savvy "Tell Me Baby" and hip-hop seasoned "Storm in a Teacup." It's not that there's a paucity of musical adventure here ("If" and "Animal Bar" finds them wafting into Floydish neo-psychedelia while "Make You Feel Better" seems to channel no less than Joe Jackson) but that it's delivered with a subtlety—and dare we say it?—tasteful musical restraint that's a stark contrast to the band's early, overly overt nature. There's perhaps too much mid-tempo simmering and reflection going on; like most double-albums it could be focused into a much more compelling single disc. But that seems largely beside the Peppers' hooks-over-histrionics point here: an unlikely record to kick back to, and one that both challenges assumptions and eases the band into middle age with an oft languorous, if undeniably savory groove. —Jerry McCulley

System Of A Down

Machine Head Machine Head's Superchargeris, at its best, a monumental success. Since their searing debut Burn My Eyes, Machine Head have continuously exhibited that sadly rare quality—musical ambition. Not for them the post-Bush bleatings of Creed or the dumb bulldozing of Limp Bizkit. Machine Head attempt to create ever more varied and meaningful rock soundscapes. Take "Trephination" for example: as Robb Flynn pants his desperate tale of childhood abuse and a consequent self-hatred that can only be cured by a drill to the skull, the guitars buzz like medical instruments before reaching an awful sawing crescendo. It could so easily be clumsy and silly, but the execution is tasteful and effective. Elsewhere, there's the semi-humorous "American High", where a scratcher duels with the lead guitar, and "Nausea" where a horribly distorted guitar engages in a series of deeply unsettling descents—as with "Trephination", the music cleverly and admirably mirrors the lyrics. Elsewhere, there are extraordinary individual performances. During "White Knuckle Blackout", Flynn passes from a Dani Filth shriek through Layne Staley melodics to a furious rap, backed by a mighty guitar and what sounds like the buzz of a printer. During the maudlin "All in Your Head", the guitars rise from staccato riffing to a magnificent, near-orchestral sweep. Unfortunately, these exciting innovations make Machine Head's lapses into bog-standard contemporary rock all the more disappointing. Nevertheless, they should be proud of an album that's three-quarters brilliant. —Dominic Wills

System Of A Down Waaaargh! East-European death-metal in the area! System Of A Down, a collection of Los Angeles-based ex-pat Armenians with a serious fetish for beefing up the black-humoured urgency of the Dead Kennedys into a breed of music so heavy that it attracts small planets as satellites, rather elude the grace of a subtle introduction. Fortunate, then, that an introduction to them is all that you need;System Of A Downis a near-perfect example of late-1990s metal at its most ridiculous, and of course, heavy metal has always thrived on being the most absurd of all art-forms. "Suggestions", for example, encapsulates many great metal moments; bowel-emptying, mountain-sized riffage twinned with lyrics that crossbreed J.R.R. Tolkein with Karl Marx, sung in a mixture of graveyard-friendly goth baritone and genitals-in-a-vice falsetto. Elsewhere, "Suite-Pee" and "War?" (answer in the affirmative, of course) provide some ass-kicking highlights. Truly, this is a killer album. —Louis Pattison

All That Remains

Machine Head With Through the Ashes of Empires, Machine Head appear to be taking stock, looking backwards and forwards. Before this, using scratching, samplers and bewildering distortion, Machine Head strove to rise above the ferociously rocking pack inspired by their 1994 debut, Burn My Eyes. Yet in much of the first half of this album they return to the churning, multi-faceted metal of their early years, as if attempting to rediscover their former flaming spirit. It's not that it's not aggressive—"Bite the Bullet" and "Left Unfinished" are really quite fearsome—just that it's lacking the furious innovation we've come to expect.

Thankfully, this situation changes. "Days Turn Blue to Gray" features what ought to be a crushing riff that's instead hushed and made to back a pastoral interlude. "All Falls Down" veers from crunching metal to melancholy folk, singer Rob Flynn weirdly employing all the seductive softness of INXS's "Need You Tonight" while threatening strangulation and worse. The tough talkover of "Wipe the Tears" and the sub-classical guitar-fest of "Descend the Shades of Night" bring the album to a glorious conclusion. Machine Head still burn brightly, and Flynn, in discussing the birth-parents who discarded him, takes his rage to new levels. You'd think he'd be over it by now. Be glad he isn't. —Dominic Wills

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John Frusciante John Frusciante's first two solo efforts, 1995's Niandra Ladies And Just A T-shirtand 1997's Smile From The Streets You Hold, are obscurities, but To Record Only Water For Ten Days—a title that presumably refers to the artistic strictures involved in such a project—is likely to receive a much higher profile. He is, after all, the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That said, his third solo album is a relatively stripped-back affair, not far removed from a bunch of demo recordings. Taking the idea of a solo album literally, Frusciante is responsible for everything here, playing guitar over drum machines and adding occasional keyboards to the 15 songs, presumably hoping to emulate Bill Callahan's excellent Smog. Opener "Going Inside" promises to make this an entertaining ride, given its typically incandescent fretwork, but the project soon becomes a little one-dimensional, hampered by Frusciante's sub-J Mascis yelp. —Mike Pattenden

In Flames

Who

System Of A Down Those frustrated by metal's alleged role in the dumbing-down of popular music should be forced to listen to Toxicity, the superb second album by System of a Down. Raising the bar for an entire generation of metalheads, Toxicityis an album as clever as it is loud. Weaving together influences as diverse as the dark thrash of Slayer, the ranting political frustration of the Dead Kennedys, the melodic alternative metal of Faith No More and the Eastern European music of their heritage (the four band members all have Armenian roots), this is an album unlike any other—with the possible exception of their own debut. Erratic time changes and staccato riffs are complemented by vocalist Serj Tankian's outstanding voice, which can switch from a high-pitched nasal warble to the darkest of metal growls instantly. Even the songs themselves set System of a Down apart from their nu-metal peers, running the gamut from socio-political themes ("Prison", "Deer Dance") to social observations ("Needles") to cocaine-addled groupies ("Psycho"). And, lest all this seriousness get a bit much, SOAD demonstrate their wittier side on "Bounce", while the three-and-a-half-minute epic "Chop Suey!" is the cleverest metal single heard since Faith No More decided to call it quits. Infact, like FNM's rightly regarded classic Angel Dust, Toxicitymarks a major step forward not just for a band, but for the entire genre of heavy-metal music. —Robert Burrow

Dream Theater With commendable dedication to duty, very little has changed in the peripheral progressive-metal world of Long Island's Dream Theater, but times surely have. Thus, while Train of Thought, the band's eighth studio album since debuting with 1989's When Dream and Day Unitecan hardly be categorised as a stylistic derailment from the combo's grandiose gameplan, it is a record likely to be greeted with rather more of a cordial reception in these muso-friendly times. Afterall, while progressive rock is never going to be as fashionable again as it was in the good old days of Tarkus and Uncle Rick Wakeman, the classical rock bombast of Muse and the hysterical heavy-metal immodesty of the Darkness has thrown a commercial lifebelt to prog rock's more twiddly practioners. To this end, it's hard not to be seduced by the 11 minutes of "This Dying Soul", which at times comes across as a rap-metal version of Richie Blackmore's Rainbow with a piano solo in the middle, or the similarly lengthy and wholly instrumental "Stream of Consciousness" (perhaps a posh way of saying "jam session"), a sonic joust between John Petrucci's screeching fretwork and Jordan Rudess's antique synths. Wholly American in its self-awareness—lyrics about religious fundamentalism and getting along with the family just wouldn't sound right coming from a band domiciled in Weston-super-Mare—Train of Thoughtmight just find a whole new wave of music fans waking up to the existence of "Dream Theater. —Kevin Maidment

Kinks How Ray Davies made it through is anyone's guess. He fought constantly with his brother and bandmate Dave. He received not a penny of royalties throughout the Kinks' late-1960s heyday, due to a management dispute. He endured two divorces—the first of which saw him hospitalised in a suspected suicide attempt—and a painful break-up with Chrissie Hynde. Under terrible stress, he announced his retirement every six months from 1967 onwards. Yet somehow he held together one of the 60s' most stylish outfits, and released a string of hits that rank among the wittiest, most provocative and most socially aware songs ever written.

The first disc of the two-CD The Ultimate Collectionbegins with their third single and first No. 1, the insistent "You Really Got Me", then races through the glory years with the absurdly infectious likes of "Sunny Afternoon", "Waterloo Sunset", "Lola" and "Apeman". Dave's two hits are included, too, and the disc ends with "Come Dancing" and other selections from The Kinks' early-80s comeback. Disc Two includes songs that were hits for others ("David Watts" and "Stop Your Sobbing"), various B-sides and other rarities, including "God's Children", from the soundtrack of Percy, a movie about a fellow seeking the original owner of his recently transplanted penis. The Ultimate Collectionis an excellent addition to the Kinks's cannon. —Dominic Wills

Who The Ultimate Who Collectionkicks off with the three-minute pop gems of their early days such as "I Can't Explain", "Substitute" and the definitive anthem of the time "My Generation". "I Can See For Miles" heralds the band's coming of age preceding songs like "Magic Bus" and the classics from Tommyincluding "See Me, Feel Me" and of course "Pinball Wizard". Further highlights on disc one are "Summertime Blues" from the Live at Leedsalbum where Roger has never sounded in finer voice, and perhaps one of the best rock moments ever "Won't Get Fooled Again".

Disc two includes less well known hits but does boast the best bits from their film Quadrophenia. Still as powerful without the visuals, they attack "Love Reign O'er Me" like they really mean every single note and word. During the 70s they toned down the raw rock they captured at the turn of the decade and embraced the pop sensibility of their youth, settling for a handsome blend of very British guitar pop and solid power chords best defined by "You Better You Bet". Unlike the Beatles or Rolling Stones, The Who's image has remained anti-establishment despite being no less gentrified than their wrinkly peers, probably due to their music sounding as angsty and passionate now as it did over 30 years ago. —David Trueman

Libertines Can Up the Bracket, the debut album from London dandies The Libertines live up to the hype? Sure, they walk the walk: it's hard to see how four doe-eyed indie dreamboats with greasy hair, cider-stained leather jackets and a wide-eyed mythology that places them as chivalrous defenders of Old Albion could fail to capture the attention of a nation of students dead-set on aping the Strokes' sense of louche retro-cool.

Certainly, though, there's some fine pedigree to Up the Bracket. With the Clash's Mick Jones at the production helm, gravelly tracks such as "Horror Show" and "The Boy Looked at Johnny" rattle along like phlegmy first-gen punk classics. But like the Strokes, The Libertines manage to imbue snotty garage-rock with a sort of wistful romanticism—an effect that adds genuine soul to their raucous clatter. Although there's no sign of "What a Waster", the snotty single with which the group made their name, there's no shortage of excellent tunes here: "Boys in the Band" is an affectionate hymn to the groupie, with frontmen Pete Doherty and Carl Barat hollering "And they all get 'em out / For the boys in the band". "I Get Along" proves that behind their shambolic veneer these boys have an eye for a tight, nervy but undeniably classic songwriting style that pricks memories of the Jam or the Buzzcocks. Very, very promising. —Louis Pattison

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Kinks Sensing that the Beatles, Stones and Who were radically transforming rock music by turning it literate and conceptual, Ray Davies decided the Kinks should be his vehicle to explore his unusual longing for a simpler time when the English empire was not in decline. A reliance on English music hall tradition and sentiments indicated in titles such as "Last of the Steam- Powered Trains", "Picture Book" and "Village Green" clearly show Davies's nostalgic streak. Davies' singing has always been rough and non-Kinks fans may have trouble getting past his sloppy pitch. But for those listening closely, the tales are one of a kind. —Rob O'Connor

Avenged Sevenfold

Shadows Fall

Weezer Blending the best aspects of pop, punk and grunge, Weezer's eponymous debut came as a much needed bit of relief to the too-serious American indie scene of 1994. Produced (and strongly influenced) by former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, Weezer blends churning, power-pop guitars with Beach Boys harmonies and the awkward lyrics of singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo. On standout tracks such as "In The Garage" and "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here", Weezer introduced the wider world to the then-new concept of Geek Rock. However, it was "Buddy Holly"—and its corresponding Spike Jonze-directed video—that propelled this album into the charts. Unfortunately, this song also branded them as nothing more than another novelty act, an unfair fate for an album—and band— that's since had so much influence. —Robert Burrow

Weezer Widely credited with being the band who kicked off (and merged) the two sub-genres of punk-pop and geek rock, The Green Album is Weezer's attempt to wrestle back their crown from the upstart likes of Blink 182 and Wheatus. The Green Album, recorded nearly five years after their previous album, the widely ignored (but wholly excellent) Pinkerton, sees the band reunited with former Cars frontman Rik Ocasek, who produced their multi-platinum debut way back in 1994. The result is an album of catchy pop gems, more accessible than Pinkerton, and with a quicker pace and more sonic depth than Weezer. Though the high-pitched harmonies of former bassist Matt Sharp are missed (he left to focus on his own band, the Rentals), lead singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo still has a way with an infectious hook and a sing-along chorus, especially on "Don't Let Go", "Photograph" and "Knockdown Drag Out". The album's first single, "Hash Pipe", kicks off with a bass-heavy, 70s-sounding metal riff, while "Island in the Sun" is as summery as its title suggests. At just over 30-minutes long, The Green Album may leave some listeners feeling a little cheated, but overall, this is a gem of an album, small yet perfectly formed. It is also a worthy return for a band whose influence is undeniable, if under appreciated. —Robert Burrow

Weezer Early word on the sixth album from Weezer—and their third self-titled record, although fans, sensibly, are referring to it as 'The Red Album'—is that this is their 'experimental' record. Luckily, Rivers Cuomo isn't interested in penning his own jazz odyssey; for him, experimental is just finding cunning ways to nuance Weezer's stock-in-trade—crunchy, candy-sweet guitars and vocal harmonies—with new pop tricks. The sardonic lyric of "Pork and Beans" hints at a new direction: "Timabaland knows the way to reach the top of the charts," Cuomo sings, "maybe if I work with him I can perfect the art". Actually, Timbaland's not on board, but producer Jacknife Lee brings a variety of drum machines and electronics, and Weezer rise to the challenge with some generally inspired messing around. "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Theme)" sees Cuomo adopt a gangsta rap slur over screaming sirens, while elsewhere, the other three Weezer members take a turn at the microphone. But it's Cuomo's songs that are the winners—notably "Heart Songs", a tribute to the songs that "never feel wrong" that swoops from melodic schmaltz to grunge scuzz with a deft invocation of Nirvana. Skip to the bonus tracks, meanwhile, for a great cover of "The Weight" that takes The Band's original and drenches it in chundering guitars.—Louis Pattison

Who The success of Who's Nextand its slate of classic-rock tracks has often obscured its true roots—Lifehouse, the unwieldy multi-media project that Pete Townshend originally concocted as the follow-up to Tommy. Variously informed by apocalyptic visions, sci-fi notions of interconnectivity that neatly presaged the Internet and, of course, an unwavering conviction that rock & roll would save the world, the core tracks of the sprawling Lifehousewere recorded, cut, re-recorded and finally boiled down into a collection that seems to represent as much alienation ("Behind Blue Eyes") and overweening cynicism ("Won't Get Fooled Again") as it does liberation and unity. Aside from Townshend's own self-released, multi-disc meditation on the project, this expanded new edition is the most rewarding attempt to place Lifehouseand the over-exposed classic it spawned in their proper context.

Six tracks from the album's original but abandoned New York sessions flesh out the familiar material, with previously unreleased outtakes of "Getting in Tune" and a revealing, early arrangement of "Won't Get Fooled Again" warranting special note. The second disc documents one of Lifehouse's most quixotic elements with the first-time release of one of the series of concerts staged at London's Young Vic theatre during the project's gestation—events during which band and audience would somehow mystically become one. Core tracks from the project are interspersed with typical hard-rocking Who fare of the time, resulting in a show whose focus and dynamics belied something very different from the arena-rock clichés that would eventually overwhelm them. —Jerry McCulley

In Flames

John Frusciante

Decapitated

Glassjaw At the vanguard of hardcore’s evolution stand Glassjaw: five Long Island-born straight-edgers sporting a firmly progressive approach to punk-rock, and a fantastic second album in the shape of Worship and Tribute. Frontman Daryl Palumbo is the band’s immediate touchstone: on lyrically adventurous songs like "The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports" and "Trailer Park Jesus" he wages war on American cultural orthodoxy, his rocky, undulating vocal morphing between a raw-nerve croon and a tortured shriek sharp enough to cut glass. Where the band truly differs from their nu-metal and conventional hardcore peers is in the arrangements, however: tracks like "Mu Empire" and "Cosmopolitan Bloodloss" combine Faith No More-style anthemicism with a complex post-hardcore structure that could put Fugazi to shame, while "Ape Dos Mil" reins in the pure noise, guitarist! s Justin Beck and Todd Weinstock turning down and wringing twisted melodies and shimmering walls of ambience out of their instruments as Palumbo weaves a tale of obsessional love in a high, shivery vibrato. They’re a thoroughly uncompromising band, but Glassjaw are as fearlessly individual as At the Drive-In, and every bit as good. Worship and Tributepresents the new hardcore heroes-in-waiting. —Louis Pattison

Bicycle Thief