Unchanged Melodies

One of the most polarizing names in rock music right now, Greta Van Fleet, released their lengthy promotional single, "Age of Machine," around a week ago. Along with "My Way, Soon" from last October, "Age of Machine" will appear on their upcoming album, The Battle at Garden's Gate, in April of next year. Even now, the comparisons to Led Zeppelin haven't died down, with some likening the album's title to a combination of the classic Zeppelin tunes "The Battle of Evermore" and "Stairway to Heaven." But the band is definitely showing signs of breaking away from being a Zeppelin carbon copy, though the signs are still there. In contrast with the upbeat, jangly sound of "My Way, Soon," "Age of Machine" is a slow, haunting adventure describing the life of those who have grown up, or will grow up, in the digital age. Many have already compared this to Zeppelin's own semi-marathon of "The Rain Song,...

Roughly a week ago, the Smashing Pumpkins released their latest album, the double-album Cyr. The band has once again recovered from instability in their lineup, bringing back the "core" of vocalist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin that played on their high-water mark albums of the 1990s, but also on 2007's critically panned but still completely serviceable release, Zeitgeist.  Interestingly, this album marked an abrupt pivot into synth-pop territory, something you probably couldn't anticipate even from their more recent material, particularly its direct precursor, 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1, which stayed true to their guitar-driven sound. Also in sharp contrast are the two records' lengths -- Shiny and Oh So Bright runs for just over 30 minutes, while Cyr runs for 72. Though the more subdued instrumentation by itself isn't terrible, it doesn't work very well with Corgan's voice (incidentally, an opinion ...

In yet another of 2020's musical comebacks, Australian rock legends AC/DC have released a new album, Power Up. The past few years for the band have been fraught with a myriad of troubles, in between drummer Phil Rudd's house arrest for trying to make "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" a reality, to lead singer Brian Johnson's vocal issues that led to Axl Rose temporarily taking his place live, and co-founder and guitarist Malcolm Young's battle with dementia and eventual death from lung cancer. Despite all this, Rudd has come back, Johnson has recovered, and Malcolm's nephew Stevie returned from assuming his duties on the previous record, Rock or Bust. And two months after they announced the end of their hiatus, they've put out a release that somehow after nearly 50 years of being around, still sounds as polished as ever. The first three tracks, including lead single "Shot in the Dark," are the type of AC/DC songs casual listeners would probably b...

In an age where most people have somewhat forgotten about the concept of a rock "supergroup," yet another one has arisen -- sort of. Enter Suspect208, a band composed of the *sons* of famous rock musicians: Noah Weiland, son of the late Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots; Tye Trujillo, son of Robert Trujillo, most notably the bassist for Metallica; London Hudson, son of Saul "Slash" Hudson, departing from his father's footsteps to play drums; and the odd one out, Niko Tsangaris, who has definitely held his own on his guitar work in their debut single, "Long Awaited." The track immediately brings to mind the sound of mid-2000s supergroup Velvet Revolver, which notably features Weiland and ex-Guns N' Roses members, including Slash. Though the lyrics definitely recall the erotic energy present in many a Scott Weiland song, like STP's "Sex Type Thing" and a good portion of Velvet Revolver's debut, Noah's voice is a lot cleaner t...

It's been mere weeks since the world of music has been shaken by the loss of yet another pillar of rock music, legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Now, his son Wolfgang, the bassist in modern incarnations of the band, has released his thoughts about his father's passing into his debut single, "Distance," released under the name Mammoth WVH as a tribute to the first name Eddie and his brother Alex used as a band. Lyrically, it's about what you'd expect from a tribute song -- lines about Eddie being in a better place and the struggle of coping with his loss, but still finding solace "no matter what the distance is" between them, juxtaposed in its YouTube release with old home movies and footage of live concerts together. Musically, you'd be right to observe that it doesn't sound much like any era of Van Halen -- but it doesn't really need to. If anything, forgoing the bombastic self-indulgence that the band as a whole was known for, and dr...

In the midst of what might be the tensest Election Day aftermath since 2000, legendary metal band System of a Down released their first new material in fifteen years. Although it's a valid assumption considering their history, you'd be mistaken if you thought this was a response to the state of the USA in 2020. Instead, #SOAD , entirely composed of Armenian Americans, wrote these in response to the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (or the Republic of #Artsakh ), a territory that nominally belongs to Azerbaijan but is mainly settled by Armenians and is currently being attacked by both Azerbaijan and Turkey as deep-seated ethnic tensions have flared up once again. Proceeds from the sale of this release, as well as any additional donations, will directly benefit Armenia Fund, an organization aiming to help those in Armenia and Artsakh. These songs, "Protect the Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz," have shown that despite their long period of dormancy, System of...