Blake - Shelter

Blake's new album Shelter is definitely worth listening for even though it's filled with only cover songs. Strong start with Black Sabbath cover Wizard opens the album. You can't really go wrong with that. And these guys really honor the originals on the album. Gotta love their singing. Janis Joplin cover Move Over gets a new life from this group, I guess Janis never rocked like this. Although Finland is known the promised land of metal, I was surprised to find out this band is Finnish and just had its 10th anniversary. How on earth could I have missed this one?!

And Blake seems to be more than just these cover songs on their latest album. They've shared stage with such big names as Black Label Society, Therapy?, Mustasch and Iggy Pop. But with singing like their's it really shouldn't be such a big surprise. What's good about this album is not only the chosen songs but also that the band haven't taken the easiest route with the songs: the album sounds like Blake instead of sounding Black Sabbath or any other of the original performers. I certainly enjoyed these songs, especially the Joplin cover as well as Demon's Eye (Deep Purple) and Let There Be Rock (AC/DC). Moody Blues cover Melancholy Man is probably the only one I would've left out of the album if given the chance but over all this album is worth listening to. Bonustrack Bloodtrails ends this album as it started: strong, rocking and filled with manly attitude.

http://www.blake.fi/

http://www.myspace.com/blakeband

Hell - Human Remains

The name of the band lead me expect a lot from Hell. Even the name of the album Human Remains gives the image that this one is tough and it has gotten some pretty good reviews in the internet as well. Like said, this one is tough. Tough one to deside whether this is for real or just a joke. The history of the band and the songs is more or less disturbing to me.

Correct me if I've understood this all wrong, but this is a band that hasn't actually done any album before Human Remains. And Human Remains is mostly old demos from 1982. The music is quite good throughout the whole album no complaints about that. Could have been saved on that aspect. But I have to disagree with some of the reviews about the singer. He's good at times and really, really bad at times. And what is the catch with all the speaking and news broadcasts in the beginning of almost every song? I guess it is meant to sound all dramatic and theatrical but to me it makes most of them just boring or ridiculous. For example what were they thinking when recording Macbeth? Or The Oppressors? I lost my interest in Macbeth at the very beginning and The Oppressors is just boring. Surprisingly though I did like one of the most massive tracks on the album, 10 minutes and 14 second long The Devil's Deadly Weapon. And I found a couple of tracks that weren't that bad. But not enough to save this review. This is NOT my cup of tea.

http://www.myspace.com/hell