This week we review the latest albums from Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters, Mastodon, Rykarda Parasol, Ben Kweller, and Static X.
4 stars (out of 5)
Former Mutton Bird Don McGlashan has morphed into a musical magpie on his second solo album.
It is three years since he released Warm Hand and he has assembled a new band, the Seven Sisters, who in fact number five.
With Sean Donnelly (aka SJD) co-producing, songs that might have remained on the straight and narrow are ever so slightly skewed.
Some, such as excellent opener The Switch, simply repeat a chord progression, bringing to bear the full weight of the lyrics.
It's a dynamic trip through a wide range of styles, capped off by McGlashan's classy falsetto on the re-recorded Bathe In The River.
Single download: The Switch
For those who like: The Finns, mature pop
- Shane Gilchrist
4 stars (out of 5)
All hail the mighty Mastodon. There is no other metal band making a statement as significant.
Following the critical success of 2006's Blood Mountain, the quirky quartet from Atlanta delivers a set near as good as the genre gets.
Oddly enough, it took a head injury to guitarist Brent Hinds to give the band the time to cultivate this magnum opus.
The trademark pulsating growl mutates magnificently with layers of seriously supercharged funk while producer Brendon O'Brien dials in some of the tastiest vocal arrangements to grace a metal album.
Step aside Metallica, Mastodon is the future.
Single download: Oblivion
For those who like: Tool, The Melvins, Rush, Sepultura
- Mark Orton
4 stars (out of 5)
San Francisco-based miserablist Rykarda Parasol delivers her songs with a heavy hand and heart, never once lightening the mood on this 15-track goth-folk epic.
That makes for pretty tough going, which is presumably the desired effect.
With more than a hint of Siouxie Sioux about her, Parasol sings of such things as loneliness and KKK lynchings with woman-scorned conviction, employing Bad Seeds-like discordant crashes and bangs to drive home the drama.
But there is beauty to be found in these dark corners for those with the stomach for it.
Single download: Hannah Leah
For those who like: PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Lee and Nancy
- Jeff Harford
4 stars (out of 5)
Ben Kweller'S first full foray into country music is a not-entirely convincing collection of saloon-styled songs that tips more than a passing hat to the Gram Parsons school but ultimately fails to leave much of an impression.
Slow-moving tear-in-your-beer tracks sit alongside mid-tempo rockers as Kweller does it by numbers, though it would be unfair not to acknowledge the lyrical deftness he brings to some of these songs.
The album's not without its charms - Kitt Kitterman's tasteful slide work, for one - but it's a little shy on invention.
Single download: Old Hat
For those who like: Gram Parsons, Beck, Ryan Adams' country leanings
- Paul Mooney
4 stars (out of 5)
Modelled on the sound pioneered by the likes of Ministry and Skinny Puppy, this package is more a triumph of marketing over substance.
Led by the excruciating, indecipherable vocal style of Mr Tony Static, Static X churns through song after song like a heavily over-driven click track.
Cult of Static has enough catchy moments to be palatable as an EP. Unfortunately, staunch dudes and salvos of jackhammer riffs for 50 minutes can get very tedious.
Although, the self-declared purveyors of Evil Disco probably get the metallers in the mosh-pit moving.
Single download: Lunatic (Dave Mustaine makes a guest appearance)
For those who like: Rammstein, Godflesh, Seether, Ministry
- Mark Orton
