Chasing Excellent

Recentering themselves over two decades after 2001's excellent but misunderstood self-titled LP, '90s alt-metal survivors Stabbing Westward revive their peak industrial-goth sound to maximum effect on the long-awaited Chasing Ghosts. Following that most recent full-length, this returns the band to the quintessential sound of their heyday: corrosive mechanizations set to driving beats and urgent delivery of scathing, self-flagellating lyrics. For this iteration of Stabbing Westward, Orgy alumni Carlton Bost (guitars) and Bobby Amaro (drums) join founding members vocalist/guitarist Christopher Hall and programmer Walter Flakus. With early producer John Fryer in tow, this is the album that fans were likely expecting as a follow-up to 1998's Darkest Days.

The Happenings are best-known for their hit single "See You in September," which is a sunny slice of sunshine pop featuring happy, bouncy vocals and intricate harmonies reminiscent of great white doo wop groups like the Four Seasons and the Tokens, who were not-so-coincidentally the Happenings' mentors and producers. Collectables has reissued both of the Happenings' records on one disc: 1966's The Happenings and 1967's Psycle. Both discs feature the stunning vocal gymnastics of their hit single and their updated doo wop sound coated with an easy listening gloss of strings on a not-very-thick Wall of Sound. Most of the songs on their debut were written by the members of the Tokens and are not bad but not that memorable, as they follow the formula of their hit but pale in comparison. An exception to this is the strange "You're in a Bad Way," which is a spooky track filled with death-related imagery that sports a surprisingly funky backbeat.

Awesome solo disc by this excellent guitarist from Greece featuring 13 songs of retro-classic, blues-based, soul-powered, dynamic hard rock music that lands with supreme excellence. Stavros Papadopoulos is a modern day Greek guitar hero, songwriter & producer who was born to rock…