The Resistance - Muse - Right off the bat, I’ll admit that this has been on a loop on my iPod in my car for the nearly two weeks that I’ve had it. Seriously, I dig this album a lot. I’m not an old school Muse fan, having only been introduced to them with their previous album, Black Holes and Revelations, so I can’t compare it to anything they did before that. However, when this album is mediocre, it is hitting at the best of BH&R; when it is good (tracks “The Uprising” and “United States of Eurasia”) it is superb. The whole thing is catchy and has a tendency to get stuck in my head. Highly recommended.
Black Gives Way to Blue - Alice in Chains - Wow. New Alice in Chains sounds more like regular Alice in Chains than any of the leading competitors. Which I’m not sure is good or bad at this point as I’ve only listened to it once all the way through. Sure enough, the album sounds exactly like Alice in Chains’ other albums, but at the same time, it sounds so much like them that I’ve yet to truly be able to differentiate it from their previous endeavors. There’s not enough that stands out to make me go “Oooh! Nice” and instead I feel more or less like I’m on a nostalgic flashback to the grunge-era. Not saying that it’s bad - it’s nice to know that these guys are at least performing at the same skill level that they were when they left us - but it’d be nice to hear their sound progress and evolve. I suspect that if they do another album it will, as my gut tells me that this album was more or less about getting back on their feet and reestablishing the identity of the band after Layne Staley’s death a few years back. Recommended for the heavy metal, grunge, or Alice in Chains enthusiast, but not to many others.