Music Reviews

Steve Vai has always been more expressive and creative than most guitar gods that had surface in the decade when whammy bars were cool and every teen wanted to play guitar. With plotted schemes like his recent melodic Seventh Song (Epic) release and several legs of G3 tours behind him and a current tour underway, one could only wonder what he’d have up his sleeve next. Read the complete Steve Vai - Alive In An Ultra World review...

The sophomore release from 40 Grit should find a wide amount of appeal with the Pantera / aggressive metal crowd. While most bands that attempt to fill the niche with this style tend to be rather uninteresting to me, 40 Grit actually writes songs with melody and are not afraid to show some good guitar chops as is obvious on “Bomb Bottom”. “Only Human” is a mellower (within this genre) track that would probably appeal to fans of P.O.D. (thankfully without the rap vocals). Read the complete FORTY GRIT - Nothing To Remember review...

Like most tribute CD's, Twisted Forever includes some killer covers and some that are just better left to the skip song button on the CD player. High points of the CD include Motorhead performing "Shoot Em Down", Overkill shredding "Under The Blade" and Sebastian Bach's screaming version of "You Can't Stop Rock N Roll" which would make one of his heroes, Dee Snider, proud. Read the complete Twisted Forever - A Tribute To Twisted Sister review...

Though the music industry fought to give Tesla a link to the glam scene of the late eighties, the California boys never lived up to the comparison. As a stripped down, bare bones rock ‘n roll band, they delivered memorable hits like “Love Song,” writing countless familiar melodies of there own, while throwing in enough well-liked cover tunes like “Signs” that they initially delivered a live acoustic album filled with several more than a decade ago, and even considered releasing an entirely new album of covers earlier this year. Read the complete Tesla - Re-Plugged review...