Blessed by a Broken Heart-Pedal to the Metal
(Century Media Records, 2008)

While this is certainly a band that has a gimmick and the look of the band is a bit over the top there is no denying that the music is catchy enough to look past some of the more flamboyant aspects of the band. Blessed by a Broken Heart don't have what you would call an original sound but it certainly is fun. Imagine a cross between Children of Bodom and the latest album from Atreyu with flairs of Avenged Sevenfold thrown in for good measure.

If you don't like your music fun and cheesy this is probably an album you will want to avoid. The opener She Wolf is a bit more straight forward and metallic but a song like Move Your Body is extremely 80's in nature complete with cheesy lyrics and an almost obnoxious feel. It's a fun song although is has the heaviest use of electronic drum sounds which are a bit overboard in my opinion. The guitar solos are handled masterfully and are absolutely ripping. The songs themselves are typically built on fairly simple ideas but the solos throw wild fits of sweeping and tapping at the listener and it is simply jaw dropping at times.

The ability to enjoy this album somewhat goes hand in hand with how much fun you want to be in your choice of music. If you are a fan of newer Atreyu you should have little trouble getting into what this band does. Fans of Motley Crue will also be all over this. The song To Be Young shows off the influence the most and probably sounds more like Motley Crue than even the band themselves do these days. This is definitely a modern sounding album and whether or not the album will be timeless is left to be seen. For the time being crank your stereo and enjoy your next guilty pleasure.

Head On Collision-Ritual Sacrifice
(Beer City Records, 2008)

While I am a huge fan of thrash the recent surge of thrash bands is certainly starting to burn me out on the genre. Head On Collision thankfully are thankfully good at what they do and make me forgot just how cluttered the genre has become with Municipal Waste clones. With a raw forceful sound that is somewhere in between Venom and Destruction with hints of the Bay Area sound and Slayer, the band manages to sound a bit more vintage than most newer thrash bands these days. Many bands try to look the part but really fail to capture any of the sonic aspects of classic thrash, this band definitely doesn't miss the mark.

The songs are raw and quite fast for the most part although the band never shies away from throwing in more mid tempo stomp oriented parts. One slight misstep on the bands part is that all of the songs do have a fairly similar feel to them. The guitar leads also suffer from a few sour notes but some may argue that this fact makes the band even more linked to the classic thrash sound. The classic thrash style of guitar soloing was more about all out speed and whammy bar dives than precision playing. The production is also slightly lacking in a few ways. The guitar sound and mix both could have used a bit more clarity as the overall sound of the album is a bit muddy at times.

If you are a long time fan of thrash and you are sick of every new band that comes around having a similar sound, Head On Collision will supply old school ear damage that should sound perfectly at home in worn in ears. It's nice to see a band that doesn't use the tongue in cheek lyrical approach and knows that thrash didn't start with Municipal Waste. If you are a thrash fan this one is definitely worth a listen.

Disfigured-Blistering of the Mouth
(Comatose Music, 2008)

The world of death metal is certainly no stranger to bands using the same name. There are probably numerous bands using the name Disfigured and while I initially assumed this was the New York based death metal band it turns out that this is indeed a different Disfigured. While I was a fan of the New York based Disfigured, this Texas based band of the same name is nothing short of amazing.

Armed with a ridiculously powerful production, the band has a layered and polished style of death metal that mixes blasting, melodic sections and rhythmic crunch to great effect. It's a very US based style of death metal and unlike many of the bands that mainly emphasis the groove aspect of the style, this band really manages to make the songs dynamic and cover a lot of grounds rhythmically. Blasting sections sit next to more note heavy technical sections before giving way to more simplistic rhythmic sections. The fact that the band wants to try different ideas and isn't content with the same recycled ideas makes this a much easier album to really grasp onto making it much more than just another brutal death metal album.

For a debut album this is definitely a band that is not fucking around. The songs are vicious slabs of intense death metal that make good use of varying dynamics and riffs that are actually memorable. The dual vocals, tight drumming and solid production all further solidify just how damned good this band really is. Sure they are using a fairly typical band name but musically this is far from typical of the death metal being released right now.