GOOD MOURNING ALKALINE TRIO VAGRANT/UNIVERSAL
Alkaline has one connotation to most folks: Batteries.
And sure enough, Chicago's Alkaline Trio are a fittingly energized ensemble that cranks out vibrant, high-powered pop-punk tracks charged with punchy beats, hooky melodies, crisp vocal harmonies and plenty of ernest emo sentiment.
But the chemistry majors in the class know alkaline also refers to base elements and compounds -- entities that neutralize acids, but can often be pretty corrosive on their own. Alkaline Trio fit this profile, too. After all, there's no more basic unit in music than the power trio. And you'd have a hard time finding more caustic lyrics than those on their striking fourth album Good Mourning.
Start with the sarcastically titled lead-off track This Could be Love. Carry on through 11 more poisonous tracks laced with nightmares, grief, addiction, anguish, blasphemy, betrayal and death -- usually set to misleadingly dynamic melodies -- and you have one of the most multi-faceted and engaging bands to come down the punk pike in some time.
CLICHE EMOTIONALISM
14 SHADES OF GREY
STAIND; ELEKTRA/WARNER
We all have people like Staind singer Aaron Lewis in our lives. They're the ones who take everything way too seriously. The ones who act like nobody else in the world has ever fallen in love or been dumped. The ones who just can't get over anything -- or over themselves.
Well, here's an idea. Next time the Aaron Lewises in your life start mewling about their latest trauma, give them Staind's third major-label disc 14 Shades of Grey, an aptly titled set of turgidly cliche, ploddingly earnest grudge-rock emotionalism. Then give them a guitar and urge them to purge their traumas musically, just like Lewis does.
SHADES OF SABBATH
THE BLESSED HELLRIDE
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY; SPITFIRE/EMI
Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist, Zakk Wylde, pays the bills by hauling his trademark bull's-eye Les Paul all over the globe, cranking out Iron Man and Paranoid for arenas of Ozzy fans. Then, between tours, he cranks out solo albums, mostly under the moniker Black Label Society. Blessed Hellride, his latest, delivers everything you would expect: Dark, Sabbath-inspired guitar riffs, manic fret-burning solos, hard-hitting beats, death-obsessed lyrics and vocals that are obviously influenced by Ozzy, but delivered with more aggression (Oz sings on one track). But even if it's unlikely to indoctrinate his detractors, it's equally unlikely to alienate fans.
TURNING UP THE HEAT
DO RABBITS WONDER?
WHIRLWIND HEAT THIRD MAN/V2/BMG
Whirlwind Heat's debut album, Do Rabbits Wonder?, was produced by Jack White, the White Stripes' singer-guitarist. But anyone going in looking for the blooz-rock fuzz of the Stripes will leave disappointed. The Michigan Moog-rock trio (who lifted their name from Sonic Youth's Goo) prefer to take their cues from the jittery, synth-crazed post-punk of the late, great Brainiac. Compensating for the lack of six-string licks with loads of buzzy, revved-up basslines, Whirlwind Heat stack outlandish synth bursts and vocals atop spasmodic grooves to create anxious, off-kilter tunes that move and evolve in fits and starts. The 13 cuts are all named after colours -- Orange, Black, Purple, Tan, etc. -- that have little relation to their content. But despite all this deliberate weirdness, there's no denying they kick more butt than a gang of three-legged bikers.
