2010 Albums of my Favorite Bands

           As I mentioned in both by first post and in my bio, I will occasionally be doing reviews of music and I decided to give a take on the CD's released by my favorite bands and musicians last year.  I won't give an actual rating on these CD's as my own prejudice for these musicians will likely prevail over any honest rating.  So, this is The Illusive One's Take on the 2010 Albums of Disturbed, Linkin Park, Godsmack, Ozzy Osborne, and Rob Zombie.  And for those of you who don't know who these bands are, my you burn in the fires of hell for all eternity.

           First on my list, is Asylum by Disturbed.  While the songs on it are a far cry from the lyrics and rifts of The Sickness and Believe, I'm pleased to say that Disturbed, after ten years, still has it.  They lyrics still contain Disturbed's trademark animal sounds along with their powerful religious, social, environmental, and political themes infused within.  The guitar riffs are great, as is the bass and drum work.  I can honestly say I enjoy every song on this album and would highly recommend it to any fan of Hard Rock.

            Next is A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park and oh my fucking God!  How the mighty have fallen!  About half the tracks on the CD were intros to the next track and all but one of those songs were just horrible and didn't even sound like Linkin Park.  They either sounded like gospel music, Jamaican music, or rap with guitars and drums put in as an afterthought.  In fact the only song worth listening to or even somewhat sounds like only Linkin Park is the song The Catalyst.  But other than that this CD isn't even worth the time to download off some pirating website.  And it truly pains me to say that.   

           Third on my list is The Oracle by Godsmack.  Like Disturbed and Linkin Park, Godsmack was formed in the late 90's, early 2000's but unlike the first two, their sound hasn't changed in the past decade.  The lyric and instrumental style hasn't changed at all and this can be good or bad depending on the individual person.  But that aside, all of its tracks were great and sill have the same feel they used to.

           Fourth is Scream by Ozzy Osborne.  My thoughts on this CD can be summed up in a single sentence; The man can still sing, the songs are good but it's still not as good as his earlier stuff.  That said, let’s just move on.

           Last on the list Hellbilly Deluxe 2 by Rob Zombie.  What the hell happened to you?  After White Zombie broke up, Rob Zombie made his best solo CD Hellbilly Deluxe.  The Sinister Urge was released a couple of years later and sounded almost exactly the same but was still great.  Educated Horses and Hellbilly Deluxe 2 not so much.  The lyrics are bad, the rifts feel campy, (if you don't know what I mean by that I honestly don't know how to explain it), and the whole think seemed to owe just as much to pop as it did hard rock/heavy metal.  Still, it wasn't as bad as A Thousand Suns and there were quite a few songs on it that I did enjoy. 

           Now as you have probably noticed, there weren’t any rap, country, or pop albums mentioned on this list.  Well, that's simply because I don't like either genera and that's why I don't do too much on music.  So what brought this up?  Well, I found out yesterday that Disturbed and Godsmack are headlining the Mayhem Festival Tour this year and for me that's like a dream come true, (my previous dream of having Disturbed and Slipknot together came true two and a half years ago during Mayhem’s first tour in 2008).

           As far as these CD's go, I'd absolutely recommend Asylum and The Oracle to any Disturbed/Godsmack/Hard Rock Fan.  Scream, only to someone who likes Ozzy, and I'd recommend avoiding A Thousand Suns and Hellbilly Deluxe 2 like the plague.  And those are my recommendations for these albums of 2010.  Until next time this is The Illusive One saying, Rock On!