a Perfect Circle

A place for Tool and A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan’s musical explorations, Puscifer is a project that, by its very nature, has that free association vibe around it. On his second album under the Puscifer moniker, Conditions of My Parole, Keenan continues to his unfettered explorations, seeing where a sound will take him without being tied down by the expectations that would be present if he released these songs with any of his other projects. A departure from the angst of Tool and the esoteric darkness of A Perfect Circle, the synth-heavy album has a more autumnal feeling about it, combining layers of electronic ambience and programmed drums with the singer's yearning vocals to create a kind of cold loneliness. It’s this isolated sound that Keenan thrives in, with his trademark vocals adding just the right amount of drama to the mix and acting as the glue that manages to hold everything together when the mood strikes him to drift into more aggressive territory on songs like “Toma” and “Conditions of My Parole”.

Argentina's metal heroes Helker have signed a record deal with AFM Records and they are ready to unleash their power with their pure power metal stuff full of great heavy riffs and big arrangements along with some very nice melodies.The album starts off with the thunderous "Modern Roman Circus". This song brings back memories from the great R. J. Dio's (R.I.P) earlier works. And that's a thing is due to Valdez's powerful vocal performances. "Just Be Yourself" features some excellent riffs and solos and it's again a perfect example of classy power metal stuff with attitude!! In the epic tune of "Begging For Forgiveness", we have the participation of Tim "Ripper" Owens and Ralf Scheepers. The Rainbow-esque "Flying" is another killer track from this new effort while in "Dreams" the melody and the chorus line are both stunning!!