Coma Therapy

Well, it appears I've been in a musical coma for the past year (or maybe just a coma in general, lolz), but being unemployed off and on and going through a divorce will do that to you. Anyhow, here are some excellent CD releases I recently learned about in no particular order.

Since October: Life, Scars, Apologies ( I definitely recommend getting the full CD--it contains 3 extra tracks--one of them being an acoustic version of "Guilty" from their first CD. The original was a 'heavy' track, but this version is heavy in a totally different way.)
Also Red: Until We Have Faces--I'm def a fan of their heavier stuff, of which this release has plenty, but like their past CDs all of the tracks tend to grow on you after a few listens.
Then there's Sixx: A.M.: This Is Gonna Hurt. The former Motley Crue bassist follows up his musical opera that chronicled his descent into heroin use and abuse with a fairly good sophomore effort, but in all honesty I need to give this one a few more spins before I can say if it's as good as the first CD or not.
Ill Nino: Dead New World is an awesome release for those into the heavier spectrum of things. I had purchased their debut CD back in the early 2000's and was immediately impressed by their rhythm section, but honestly forgot about them after that. Well, I'm happy to say they've been releasing CD's steadily since then, and their awesome rhythm section is still intact. As if to prove that point, they do a cover of The Smashing Pumpkin's "Bullet With Butterfly Wings." Not only do they change it up a bit instead of doing a note by note cover tune (something I couldn't despise more), but Jimmy Chamberlin is one of my favorite drummers of the 90's and I don't take anyone playing his parts lightly. Suffice it to say, while the basic beat is still there, they somehow manage to make the song heavier and at the same time put their own stamp on it.
Sick Puppies also released an EP titled "Polar Opposite," which is just that--7 of their tracks done not only unplugged but rearranged and in most cases have violins/strings added in certain sections, etc. Very cool listen, especially if you're at all familiar with the original material. It definitely takes a listen or two to wrap your head around what they've done with the song "You're Going Down," which was one of their heavier tracks off of TriPolar, yet somehow it works. Definitely nice to hear Emma doing a little more vocal work on this as well. However, if you don't have the EP yet, I definitely recommend getting the Deluxe Edition of TriPolar instead--it comes with this EP plus some additional extras that you don't get if you just buy Polar Opposite by itself.
There have also been a couple of fairly new bands that I'm still diggin on, one of which I just did a short blog about and still listen to at least once per day--Alien Breed, who's CD "Antidote" practically begs to be cranked. The other is from a group called Cage the Elephant, a young band who's already developed their own sound and can only go up from here.
I may try to do more in-depth reviews of these releases if I get time. However, I just started back up again on (what I hope to be) the final edit of my book. I'm on Chapter 5 (out of 10 chapters) and that will keep me pretty busy in addition to continuing my search for an agent to publish the Space Opera.

Peace Out.