Things I've been listening to a lot over the last week - by Kos...

So what has been floating my aural boat over the last seven days? Read on to find out!

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Amplifier- Amplifier

This is HUGE, HUGE in a they sound like they should be playing Wembley Stadium after Queen and Led Zepplin have opened for them, there's a HUGE laser show that would cure all cateracts known to man and they have lots of HUGE inflatable animals bouncing around the crowd.

It's all very proggy and songs go on for about 7 minutes with lyrics about how we can fly, clouds breaking, the sun and brothers and sisters so yeah I've basically ignored the lyrics as they don't appeal to my self pitying 15 year old mentality.

I saw Amplifier support Therapy? last year and was equally impressed by how good the tunes were and the number of bass and guitar peddles they had, the boards were like something you'd expect to see flying over your head at the start of a Star Wars film...

4 out of 5 PES...

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Slipknot- The Subliminal Verses

I'm biased because I really like this band but this is a FANTASTIC record, there's still the required level of shouting, weird guitar riffs, smacking of oil drums and new scary masks but as well it's a lot more focused and mature (and when I say mature I mean they've gone from 16 year old angst to at least a 19 year old level), I mean there are 2 accoustic tracks on there that are good FFS...

There's no way this'll appeal to many people but it's good to see a band push themselves and put out a track that sounds like an evil Massive Attack...

666 out of 5 PES...

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The Bangles- Everything

This has to be one of the best pop records EVER, I can't think of one duff track on it and normally when everyone in the band takes turns to sing a couple of songs it's a recipe for disaster but it works really well here.

As well it's got some totally miserable songs with really happy jangly guitars, always good, basically everyone should own this record, it's really overlooked.

5 out of 5 PES...

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Killswitch Engage- The End of Heartbreak

I feel that I should really hate this record, cheesey lyrics and galloping double guitars straight out of my worst Iron Maiden nightmare but somehow I quite like it, the songs are all very technical but still have enough of the hardcore leanings for it not to be too annoying.

It's ok stuff, not quite the greatest thing since the last big thing that the metal press were trying to push, it's solid stuff just a little samey but the vocalist has a great voice that reminds me a fair bit of Mike Patton which is always a good thing if his band experimented as much as Faith No More did then I'd be loads more excited.

3 out of 5 PES...

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