 What's up everybody? Not much here. I wanted to drop a line into the "Drew Speaks" column of Metal Shrine. A little something for all those that were hoping I was gone for good. It's been awhile since I've sent in anything. I haven't been lazy, there has just been a lot goin on. So here's the deal, the last two things I've sent in to the Shrine have been pretty negative. I'm not a negative guy and I don't want to come across that way, so this next little installment is going to be positive in nature. I am not going to talk about how disappointed I am in Iron Maiden's new album. I am not going discuss how the disc and inside sleeve looks like a 3rd grade art project and how the music sounds like a high school marching band, a bad high school marching band. Bruce Dickenson's voice is obviously going. I can deal with that, you can't stay young forever. But, where's the rest of the band? Since I am not going to be negative I do not want to talk about how Steve Harris's signature bass sound has all but disappeared on what, the last 3 or 4 albums? Don't even get me started on the lame ass riffs, solos, and lyrics. Staying with the positive theme, I wanna give some praise to a band I've been into lately named Killswitch Engage. They have a little piece of music out now entitled "Alive Or Just Breathing". This is a good slab of metal here people. Very aggressive guitars bass and drums. Awesome riffs, very cool harmonies. One thing I really like in music is when you have some nasty distorted riff goin on and underneath you have a real pretty clean tone backing it up. This, if done right, can really make a song. How do I know it's been done right? Because this is my column, and I like it, thank you. These dudes pull it off, without making the song sound weak. The disk has a modern sound to it with some down tuned guitars but also features some old school style riffing. I'm not a big fan of the dog growling over a food bowl style of vocals, and this disk unfortunately has a lot of that. This method of "singing", in my opinion, can get old. But, there are a lot of good vocals on here that offset all the screaming and it's easy to tell that the singer does have some talent. I am aware that after this disk was recorded, the band switched singers. So I don't know what the new dude´s vocal style is like. Overall this is a pretty badass cd, one of the best I've purchased lately. I think anybody that is into aggressive music is gonna like this one. The first time I listened to it, I was in the kitchen making my standard bacon and eggs breakfast. I slapped this bad boy in and started the full on air guitar on my spatula, it's that good! 'Till next time, Later. Drew Blast from the past recognition: Kreator, a 90's retrospective. I was listening to this the other day and was totally into it. Look for it in bargain bins everywhere.
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