Kill Craft

Feast, the 14th album from thrash veterans Annihilator, finds the stalwart band sticking to what they do best with an album of driving and slickly produced classic metal. Much like their contemporaries Overkill, Annihilator have found solace in staying the course, refining their sound, waiting out the storm, and honing their craft while giants like Metallica fall flat while taking risks. However, while Overkill have been in the midst of a career revival, putting out some of their best work yet, Feast feels more like a reminder, letting fans know that they're still alive and kicking. And while what they do is still solid, there's a sense of vitality missing. Sure, there's plenty of aggressive and intense thrash to be found on the album, but it doesn't feel as though Annihilator are really pushing themselves very hard, giving the impression that they're reluctant to really put the pedal to the metal despite having plenty of fuel in the tank…

Feast, the 14th album from thrash veterans Annihilator, finds the stalwart band sticking to what they do best with an album of driving and slickly produced classic metal. Much like their contemporaries Overkill, Annihilator have found solace in staying the course, refining their sound, waiting out the storm, and honing their craft while giants like Metallica fall flat while taking risks. However, while Overkill have been in the midst of a career revival, putting out some of their best work yet, Feast feels more like a reminder, letting fans know that they're still alive and kicking. And while what they do is still solid, there's a sense of vitality missing. Sure, there's plenty of aggressive and intense thrash to be found on the album, but it doesn't feel as though Annihilator are really pushing themselves very hard, giving the impression that they're reluctant to really put the pedal to the metal despite having plenty of fuel in the tank…

Original Album Classics contains five albums by Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill (1991), Black Sunday (1993), Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom (1995), Cypress Hill IV (1998), and Stoned Raiders (2001). That's the group's first four albums, plus its sixth – 2000's Skull & Bones was presumably left out because it's a two-disc album. For most casual fans, 2005's Greatest Hits from the Bong will be adequate, but this is a rather affordable way to obtain a major chunk of the group's catalog. The discs are presented as they were originally released, within standard jewel cases that slide inside a basic cardboard sleeve.

Christine, based on Stephen King's novel about an unusual kind of car repossession, was taken by John Carpenter from book to screen in a blazingly short time. Rather than bypassing his usual methods, as he did with The Thing, Carpenter once again chose to do the score. The original soundtrack released from the movie was a brief affair indeed, offering up a small selection of rock & roll tunes used in the movie, plus a short selection ("Christine Attacks," here with the subtitle "Plymouth Fury") from Carpenter's score. As it is, this Tangerine Dream-influenced, mechanically pounding number is probably the best thing in the score, highly visual, threatening, and relentless. As with the best of Carpenter's work, it's enough to haunt your dreams for a few days – a property shared by the scores for Halloween and The Fog (both on Varese Sarabande).