Dinosaur Jr /Beyond Fat /Possum Records

Finally! A band reunion that doesn’t suck or is totally about making some quick cash for the band members. Thank god! The original Dinosaur Jr line up is back together and making the 70’s style rock infused with sub heavy metal riffs and sung in a lethargic, mumbling manner that you know and love. (It’s the very same formula that Nirvana stole and then watered down to the ninth degree and became world famous with back in 1991, don’t you know.)

However, J Mascis and crew rock it the fuck out with slightly less “oomph” these days. I mean, look at the man: he looks like he has aged 50 years over the past decade and a half! However, Low Barlow has managed to still look like a teenager after all these years. What the fuck! Someone please explain this to me.

Croatan/ There Can Be Only Two/ Laguna Sunburn Records

I have  personally known Croatan for many years. However, I became lazy and lost contact with them for the longest time. Thankfully through the internet, I reestablished contact and lo and behold, I’m reviewing their newest offering.

I’m glad to see that they haven’t sold out their principles and stayed true to their noise rock roots. But I’m glad that their sound hasn’t gone stagnant either with the addition of extreme Black Metal influences. Think godheadsilo crossed with the fury of Celtic Frost. Ooh, yeah! The only weak point about this album is album cover artwork, which really shouldn’t matter unless you are like me and like to look at the album cover when listening to an album. I believe this album has limited distribution so interested parties should go to www.croatan.com for more info.

Black Sabbath /Best of The Dio Years /Rhino Records

As I have stated elsewhere, Black Sabbath wasn’t truly a “metal” band until Ronnie James Dio joined the group. We now have the evidence ( FINALLY!) in the form of this best of album, to prove my point exactly! About time, too.

Plenty of tracks from the 3 studio albums that Dio sang on, however, there is only one track form the Live Evil album included. My major compliant is that the song, “Sign of the Southern Cross” was left off this compilation. Sacrilege! Blasphemy! How could they do this to me!?! However, my anger was abated by the 3 brand new studio tracks with Dio at the microphone stand teaching us kids how the fuck Metal should be done. I don’t know about you, but I think this album is bigger than Jesus!