in Flames Subterranean

In Flames debut album, Lunar Strain, has often been likened to Black Metal and Goth, which is understandable in some ways (Mikael Stanne's croak and the slower, moodier riffs laced with keyboards,) but the fact is, this was just a varied though somewhat disjointed first attempt at creating their sound.
Rooted in Power Metal more than anything, Lunar Strain kicks off with Behind Space, the albums most concise, aggressive song. A great folk melody ends Space and we move on through the title track, Starforsaken, and Dreamscape, of which the first two are fine examples of this album's merit, though the latter is my least favorite from this record. On to the apex of the album, the two parter, Everlost…

Just about any genre or style of music has had skillful crossover artists who managed to win won over some nonbelievers. Grover Washington, Jr.'s tasteful jazz-funk reached a lot of people who hadn't necessarily developed a taste for the straight-ahead bop of Clifford Brown and Sonny Stitt; Willie Nelson's country-pop reached a lot of listeners who weren't necessarily into the hardcore honky tonk of Buck Owens and Lefty Frizzell. And in the metal world, In Flames has served as a bridge between the death metal/black metal underground and the more melodic power metal of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Queensrÿche. Originally released in Europe in 1994, In Flames' debut album, Lunar Strain, attracted an interesting mixture of death metal/black metal, power metal, and thrash metal enthusiasts. Like the early releases of At the Gates, Lunar Strain helped write the book on what came to be known as "melodic death metal"…

There's something about sixties music, a simplicity that appeals and makes for easy listening. This is a great collection for relaxing to, dancing to, or just having on in the background. It's an equitable selection with a lot of very well known songs. So get out your gogo boots and mini skirt, and go for it!

From the backwoods brimstone labyrinth comes 'Hillbillies In Hell: The Rapture' - a blazing collection of psychedelic pedal-steel guitars, rapturous Gospel odes, She-Devils, possessed minors, hayseed barroom homicides, hallucinogenic nightmares and desperate souls. Originally waxed on microscopic labels and distributed in minuscule amounts, these troubled and forgotten troubadours sing of drug-fueled delusions, suicidal ideation, deathly rivers and Satan's perpetual torments. Years in the making 'Hillbillies In Hell: The Rapture' presents 34 testaments of benighted sinners, timeless tribulations, bottomless graves and the tall, tall flames of eternal damnation. A Luciferian cache of subterranean 45s - some of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. All for your primordial listening pleasure.