8-Album Mind: I've Already Died

System of a Down - Toxicity ♠♠♠♠♠
System of a Down - Steal This Album! ♠♠♠♠
System of a Down - Mesmerize ♠♠♠♠♠
System of a Down - Hypnotize ♠♠♠♠♠
Tenacious D - Tenacious D ♠♠♠
Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny ♠♠♠♠
Terror - Always the Hard Way ♠♠♠♠
Metallica - Death Magnetic ♠♠♠♠

Let me get this out of the way first: I was so god-damn psyched about the new Metallica album, it's nothing short of amazing that I didn't crap my pants while waiting for 10AM to come and I could buy the album. Despite that, I'm not doing a review tonight and I'm just going to say this: BUY IT.

System of a Down is a band I greatly admire and love, but it hasn't been easy; in 2005, Casey Chaos, the man behind AMEN, announced that he was angry that he didn't get a writing credit on the album for writing the Grammy-Winning song "B.Y.O.B." Being a major fan of Casey, as well as wanting to make sure he received the royalties he was due (which, at the time, he wasn't)... well, it was hard. I found out late 2005, after I had seen them live and right after "Hypnotize" came out. I decided to do what I could to not support SOAD... at least until they did the right thing. They did, and it's history, but Scars of Broadway... no, I can't listen to it. That was Casey's project, and I wouldn't feel right.

But that aside, Mesmerize/Hypnotize is THE GREATEST Double-album in this decade! PERIOD! Normally the second disc kills an album, but it worked well here! Meanwhile, Toxicity is a classic, period, and I'm glad to see it still holds up great. Same with "Steal This Album!"

8-Album Mind: Correction, I Need No Direction!

SUM 41 - Half Hour of Power ♠♠♠
SUM 41 - All Killer No Filler ♠♠♠♠
SUM 41 - Does This Look Infected? ♠♠♠♠
SUM 41 - Chuck ♠♠♠♠♠
SUM 41 - Go Chuck Yourself ♠♠♠
SUM 41 - Underclass Hero ♠♠
Superjoint Ritual - Use Once And Destroy ♠♠♠
Superjoint Ritual - A Lethal Does of American Hatred ♠♠♠♠
Symphony X - Paradise Lost ♠♠♠♠♠
System of a Down - System of a Down ♠♠♠♠♠

10, count them, TEN ALBUMS! AWESOME day!

SUM 41 is amazing, and despite my fears that "Underclass Hero" would still suck after over a year of not listening to it... I was pleasantly surprised. I had written before that the album was pure shit, but instead it proved to be... well, different. It's a concept album in a sense, and the music direction is stripped of nearly any and all metal leanings and instead relies on the same pop-punk done by Green Day and Blink-182.

Superjoint Ritual was actually a double-surprise: I wanted to sell "Use Once and Destroy" for a while because the album always felt WAY too long (it clocks in at over 55 minutes) for a punk/metal album. Instead, I discovered things I never did before. In contrast, "A Lethal Does" didn't age as well as I thought. I loved the album for the longest time after it came out... but now, the album can start to wear on after a while.

But THE biggest hit today is very simple: SYMPHONY X.

I had the album for over a year and hadn't really listened it more than once. Today, I discovered why I'm an idiot for not listening to it more! The album is a concept album based on the epic poem "Paradise Lost". Imagine Dave Mustaine of Megadeth playing the guitar for Nevermore and the singer for Yngvine Malmsteen into the mix. The reuslt? THIS ALBUM.

And, as always, System of a Down delivers an incredible album. In 1998, while Rage Against the Machine were more than happy to cave into capitalism, a group of Armenian metal heads came to the US with just one agenda: Make political metal GREAT! The result is a debut album that triumphs and towers over that of Rage's, taking on subjects such as the governments use of mind control, the World Helath Organization, and exposing to the world the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. This is a band not hell-bent on destroying the government; they want to make it better and make the citizens more aware. For that alone System of a Down is worth the world, so guys, thanks for the album!