Radio Silence... 8 tracks of darkened Las Vegas Punk with a dash of Metal… this thing starts off with an instrumental, then the moshing breaks out, & you better stay up because eating shit out at Pabco fucking sucks… Falling face first into glass, rocks, & germs from decaying dead bodies is a quick way to ruin your night. One time I was in a fight at Pabco & a guy broke a 40oz over my head, he thought he was bold 'till I picked up a rock and smashed it into his face. Oh, the joys of being young. Nowadays I am too weak & too old to pick up a rock.

When listening to Radio Silence I can’t help but think of Pain Of Mind era Neurosis & if you are keeping track, I fucking love that album! You already know and love the bands these scene veterans have been in, so you might as well check this out… Hell, there is even a cover of the Rudimentary Peni tune Blissful Myth so if you are a dick and hate the originals, the R.P. cover will make you shut the fuck up! I look forward to hearing more from Radio Silence & catching them live, but since I work all the time & I am too drunk to drive that will probably never happen.

Available from Radio Silence at every gig they play, and they gig around a lot, so grab one from the band when you can. They call this release a demo, but a better sounding demo I've never heard before, so I dunno. It's streaming for free on ReverbNation, and you can click here to check it out for yourself. Don't know if it's available digitally, ask the band and see. "Like" Radio Silence on Facebook by clicking here.

Metal... you know I love it.

Actually, no I don't. Not a lot of it anyways. So knowing that fact begs the question to be asked, which is, why am I giving the new Armored Saint release, Win Hands Down, a write up on this here website?

Hmmmmm...

Well, I like Anthrax as much as the next Metal dude. Maybe more so, I dunno, but I liked it when John Bush was singing for them. His gruff, passionate vocal work made Anthrax songs like Hy Pro Glo and Only really pop and shine, making them sound fresh and not dated. John Bush left Anthrax for Armored Saint, and there had to be a good reason why, and after giving this album a few listens, I can see why he was so quick to jump ship. Armored Saint are a much more classic Metal band, with more diversity and musical exploration allowed than he ever would of gotten in Anthrax. The story of Armored Saint is a tragic one, haunted by Death, but yet they carry on, making music for mutts who truly like Metal, and on this album Win Hands Down, they deliver the goods tenfold. Guitar work on here is great, with longtime members Phil Sandoval and Jeff Duncan (Odin! hahaha) noodling and riffing all over the place, mixing bone crushing riffs with intricate, almost classical music sounding lead runs, all nicely punctuated with guitar squeals and soars and divebombs galore. Check out In An Instant for examples of their varied guitar work.

I remember that all the times I've seen Armored Saint, I'd be watching their drummer Gonzo just pound the shit out of his kit, and the man hasn't lost a thing, laying down some kick ass groovy drum work, like he does on the song An Exercise In Debauchery. Cool stuff. Original bass player Joey Vera does what bass players do, which is to provide the deep bottom end and thump and boom along to the songs, and punctuate things every now and then. He's no John Entwistle, but he gets the job done. And again, John Bush on vocals brings it all together, shining on songs like Muscle Memory and That Was Then, Way Back When. Yeah, I probably wasn't the best guy to review this release, but as far as Metal bands or albums go, I don't have a problem with Armored Saint or their latest album, Win Hands Down. It's Metal, dude. Either you Love it or Hate it. If you love it, you'll dig this. Definitely.

Released by Metal Blade Records, if you can believe that. CD available from them by clicking here. Also available on iTunes by clicking here. I'm sure this release is available wherever Music is sold as the commodity that it is. To keep up on all things Armored Saint related, just "Like" the band on Facebook by clicking here.

Available from The Civilians at every single gig they play, so grab one while you can. Available on limited edition vinyl very, very soon. You can stream this release for free on Sound Cloud by clicking here. "Like" The Civilians on Facebook by clicking here. Thank you come again. :-)

There is nothing worse for a band than to receive a bunch of Hype before they've even played one note of music live on a stage anywhere. Ask Vegas Threat about that. ;-) And there's nothing worse than some band using The Simpsons as an angle to push their shitty music onto the masses. Punk bands have been doing it for years, and now some Metal band is giving it a go, and it's all over the Interwebz like the 2nd coming of El Duce or something, and I feel compelled (HA!) to give my 2 cents about it, because, as anyone who knows me knows, The Simpsons are near and dear to my heart, and I always got something to sat when it come to The Simpsons.

That being said, this stuff on here sucks ass. I'm not a Metal dude, per se, and I'll be the first to admit that maybe I don't know what's cool and what's not cool with Metal. When I think Metal I think Black Sabbath, Slayer, Saxon, (early) Iron Maiden, (early) Metallica, Mastodon, Anthrax, etc., and I don't hear anything like that on this 4 song demo. Plus it's really, really boring. Maybe that was on purpose, to emulate the whole Ned Flanders thing they got going on? I dunno, but I was falling asleep while listening to this. And am I supposed to ignore the fact that the second song on here, Nothing At All, has the same melody and notes as The Offspring's Gone Away tune? They sound so similar I had to check to make sure it wasn't some Heavy Metal cover of the song. Ugh! I read on the Interwebz that the best song on this demo was the last song, All That Is Left, and after hearing the song for myself, all I can say is that they're right about it being the best song on here, but that's not really saying much about the other 3 songs, now is it?

Yeah, nothing worse than an unsubstantiated, unproven band getting a bunch of undeserved, unearned Hype about their music, because as is usually the case with matters such as these, they usually end up disappointing  everyone and falling flat on their face. All Style, No Substance. Avoid the Hype. Avoid this musical mediocrity at any cost. If it wasn't for the kitschy Ned Flanders angle, no one would give a crap about Okilly Dokilly or their crappy music. Must of been a slow day in the news today... LOL

Available digitally via Bandcamp for a 'pay what you want' price, so click here and check this out if you are so inclined. I'd say it's available from the band at every gig they play, but they haven't played one yet. ;-) "Like" Okilly Dokilly on Facebook by clicking here.