LYNYRD SKYNYRD - Thyrty (3oth Anniversary Collection)

Well, they put on the best live show I've seen in 15 years, they released a fantastic new CD, their finest in 25 years, so naturally it's time for another record company collection.

At least this time it is truly representative, encompassing old and new record labels, with a sprinkling of rare (but not unreleased) material. Things might get confusing for the oldtimers amongst scanning the tracklisting, as a fair number of the live tracks on CD2 are first generation Skynyrd tracks performed by the reformation line up, but we'll let that slide. I suspect the band have had little input, otherwise that might have ben a tad different. At least it comes right up to date with a track form this years classic "Vicious Cycle" closing the set.

Should you buy it? I'd rather you bought the new release, it is a modern southern classic. But this is probably the best of the many, many, many compilations on the go. The 30 tracks almost make up for the unimaginative sleeve notes, but how can you not have "On The Hunt" here. Skynyrds finest moment is sadly lacking. And old fans should note that 10 of the 20 tracks are Johnny not Ronnie Van Zant vocals. I'm more than happy to howl along with Johnny and remember that hot summer night when the band turned a corner of Scotland a litlle bit Dixie.


FREYA / DARKEST HOUR – split sampler

A 4 track (2 tracks each) promo from Victory Records highlighting the Freya album “As The Last Light Drains” and the Darkest Hour release “Hidden Hands Of A Sadist Nation”.

Freya are a melodic offshoot of hardcore veterans Earth Crisis. As well as throwing off the brutality they’ve also ditched the political element. Which either makes them sell-outs or people in touch with their humanity. Either way, the two tracks on offer are excellent examples of melodic hardcore.

Darkest Hour have been on the go for ages beavering away with their Gothenburg-style Swedish death metal. So it makes sense for them to invite a who’s who along to their latest recording. “Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation" includes performances by Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates), Peter Wichers (Soilwork), Anders Bjorler (The Haunted), and Marcus Suneson
(The Crown). Which is nice. This is intense, brutal heavy metal, from
start to finish, the way it’s supposed to be. You should buy this.


CALMUS ENSEMBLE - FARB TONE

A sideways step for us here at Zeitgeist Towers, the Calmus Ensemble was founded in 1999 by
five former members of the St. Thomas Boys Choir, and now offers the apparently unique combination of a pure soprano voice (Anja Lipfert) with five male voices ranging from bass to countertenor. Which I'm sure means a lot to people who know about that sort of thing. All I know is it sounds splendid.

Not confining themselves to music by dead blokes, the harmonised voices of the Calmus Ensemble cover a wide range of vocal music, including works by contemporary composers such as Fredo Jung (‘The Year in Song’), Andre Asriel and Ludwig Bohme. They also hark back to the aforementioned dead blokes including Robert Schumann (‘Toothache’, part of his Five Songs by Robert Burns), Mendelssohn (‘Water Journey’), Brahms (‘To The Homeland’ and ‘Nightwatch), Schubert (‘Alder King’) and Hugo Distler (‘The Fire-Rider). Excellent and unusual


LAYNE – 3 track demo

As you can probably guess, Layne are a grunge band who quite readily admit "Hi, we are a grunge band from around Newcastle." Now grunge may have been responsible for moody, ugly blokes somehow becoming interesting to attractive young women, and for that should be castigated endlessly. But now that the movement has justifiably died, it's probably safe to admit that the odd good record sneaked out courtesy of Alice In Chains and the Stone Temple Pilots.

Fortunately for us, 3 piece mononomenclatured Layne (Rory - Guitar, Vocals, Matt - Drums and Danny - Bass) have picked up on the good melodic bits and ignored the pap (pap=Nirvana). They avoid the self proclaimed worthiness of dullards like Pearl Jam and instead concentrate on down tuning their guitars and singing catchy choons. Which is as it should be. Along with growing their hair and looking scruffy. Very promising.

http://www.layne.org.uk/