China White Serpentine (2003)

From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature.

Metal For The Masses has a collection of modern metal masterpieces. It's a great mix of Swedish/European bands as well as many great American bands. This album is definitely a must for metal newbies. It gives you a great selection of the various bands going on. Arch Enemy, Lacuna Coil, Strapping Young Lad, Soilwork, Shadows Fall… and many others. If you like metal, this is an excellent choice to add to your collection. Two disc set includes 20 tracks on disc 1 and 160 mp3 tracks on disc 2.

Steve Hackett's solo rock albums have grown few and far between from the '90s onward. So the release of To Watch the Storms was surrounded by a lot of expectations from fans and they shouldn't be disappointed. This is a wonderful record, full of touching, intelligent songs, stellar guitar playing, and great production. It continues in the same direction Hackett has been pursuing since Guitar Noir, a blend of mature songwriting, thoughtful arrangements, and odd rock numbers with progressive rock elements. Nothing needs to be taken out of this album. "Circus of Becoming" adds another example of Hackett's infatuation with quirky circus-sounding tunes, but this one is much better than "The Ballad of the Decomposing Man" (from Spectral Mornings)…

Serpentine, the British quintet who burst on to the scene with two critically acclaimed albums in 2010 & 2012 including the Japanese charting A Touch Of Heaven album - which received a 92% rating in Burrn! Magazine - are back with their latest release and a refined line up. Classic Rock’s legendary wordsmith Malcolm Dome says this about the band: “They appear to have perfected the knack of mixing sumptuous arrangements with enough grit to prevent them from becoming just a rehash of American ideals. Serpentine are very adept at writing songs with patient choruses and then giving these enough kick to deliver maximum impact. If they retain this standard they could be sailing very calm waters to success. At times they’re almost Journey-esque. Close to being melodic rock paradise.”

With a pedigree that boasts all three members of New York’s cult doom band Unearthly Trance PLUS founding Electric Wizard and Ramesses bassist/guitarist Tim Bagshaw, Serpentine Path’s debut self-titled album should immediately top any doom-metal fan’s want-list. Sounding like way more than just a sum of its parts, Serpentine Path’s debut is an absolutely crushing album which both references and reinterprets its members’ previous bands but with a decidedly more punishing death-metal approach. Vicious vocals combine with downtuned guitars that rip out punishingly killer riffs to create an overall evil vibe that’s equal parts Paranoid and Severed Survival–-Serpentine Path is way more than just a super group of underground icons, they are one of the best new death/doom outfits to emerge in many years.

Although the big bands gave the Swing Era its commercial popularity, much of its most inspired music was produced by intimate small group recordings such as the landmark Trio and Quartet performances Benny Goodman recorded for Victor between 1935 and 1939.