December 2 2002

Grandmaster Flash and the
Furious Five, Run DMC, and
Cybotron abound. There are
funky beats, scratch sessions,
synthesizer laden melodies,
and rhymes that could be the
distant ancestor of today’s
popular hip hop. It’s hard to
say how popular the album
could be, most people evolved
past the 80’s a long time ago,
but if you are yearning for a
trip down memory lane, then
this disk is for you.

-Dana

HAMMERFALL

Hammerfall
Crimson Thunder
Nuclear Blast 2002
Kkilkk
(Co-Reviewed!)

Ah, Sweden: you have
blessed us with ABBA, Ace of
Base, and that old “Ooga-
Chucka, ooga-chucka” song.
Now, from this small country
of snow and Norsemen comes
Hammerfall. Made up of
members of other bands,
Hammerfall has gone through
a long and arduous trial of
changing their roster over and
over and over and over and
over. And over and over and
over. Finally deciding on a
permanent cast, Hammerfall
recorded several albums,
finally ending up with their
fourth studio album, “Crimson
Thunder”

Now that the exposition is
out of the way, | would like to
state for the record that this
CD has already made the
rounds around the office.
About nine people were asked
to review it, and all of them
said no. Finally, it came to me,
and | (naive as | am) said
sure. What | got is an album
with substandard guitar, whiny
vocals, and unintelligent lyrics.

On the other hand, what they
lost in lousy sound they made
up for in goofy image. Much
as | hate to give negative
reviews, this CD does not
have the together and inter-
esting sound needed to keep
an audience.

-Josh

Well, what can | say about
Hammerfall? Josh certainly
didn’t like it, and | must agree
with him also. Crimson
Thunder just doesn’t get
going. What | mean is that the
CD never picks up the right
amount of steam to carry the
listener through. While cer-
tainly better than Hammerfall’s
last effort, Renegade,
Crimson Thunder continues to
prove to me that Hammerfall
are just not able to get it
together. While a couple of
tracks on this disk seem to
grab my attention, too many of
them seem to be pointless
exercises in futility. What else
can | say? Better luck next
time guys?

-kathleen

(Editors Note: Last month,
while hanging out in a local
metal bark in their native
Sweden, the lead singer of
Hammeriall, Joacim Cans had
a beer glass smashed across
the side of his face, resulting
in him requiring numerous
stitches. The reason why?
Apparently, the assaulter did-
n't like Hammerfall’s music...)

; we ke
os

ev PNA THE COANE

Grave
Back From The Grave
Century Media 2003
kkk

After making their mark in
the death metal community in
the early and mid nineties,
Grave decided to lay low for
awhile. Grave’s latest release,

a

aptly titled ‘back from the
grave’ is an obvious reference
to their six-year hiatus. What
Grave have returned with
doesn’t deserve to be buried
(what a horrible pun...) and
forgotten about. Grave’s brand
of death metal is simple yet
solid, combining some lethal
drumming and the required
deep and menacing death
metal vocals over simple yet
powerful guitars and bass.

Back from the Grave is an
excellent way for a band to
return from a hiatus. The
songs are all simply arranged,
focusing on being catchy and
intensely heavy, which is a
good thing for a death metal
band to be doing if you ask
me.

Back from the Grave is a
solid death metal release,
sure to please fans of the
genre, but despite being bru-
tally heavy, back from the
grave is strangely addictive
and accessible, even for peo-
ple who don’t usually listen to
death metal. Back from the
Grave is going to find itself in
regular rotation in my CD col-
lection, and when it comes out
on January 28th, you should
add it to yours.

-kathleen

2: . OOORS
|) Fae

AWAY FROM THE SUN

Three Doors Down
Away From the Sun
Republic 2002
*

lf you thought you had
heard the last of painfully
generic alternative
music......think again. 3 Doors
Down is back with a whole
new album full of kitschy sin-
gles which, undoubtedly, be
forced to endure in the coming
months. Words cannot

ee) Se

express the anguish that | felt
every time | heard the
“Superman” song after it had
been in heavy rotation for
what seemed to be months on
end. The hit singles are con-
veniently located at the begin-
ning of the album possibly due
to low attention span of the
Ritalin taking adolescents for
whom it will be marketed to. |
have to admit though, | do
enjoy the song, “Away From
the Sun”, but other songs of
this calibre do not exist on this
album. On a lighter note, 3DD
placed a gimmicky DVD in the
CD set that may be intended
to compensate for the lacklus-
ter musical content. Not only
does this band produce unin-
teresting music, the lead
singer has to be one of the
most terribly wretched individ-
uals | have ever laid eyes
upon. At least Las Ketchup
has gorgeous women to go
with their horrible music. Two
Thumbs Down!!
-Philip Lowry

Local Bands:

Want some exposure?
Drop off your CD’s to Over
The Edge, and have them
featured in Indie Spotlight.

Honda North

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V2L. 2B2

Over The Edge Page 9

FOO FIGHTERS CON-
TEST WINNERS:

Holy moly, did we have a lot
entries for this contest! By far,
the most popular answer was
A) Foo fighters fight FOO.
However, | must warn you, no
matter how cute and inven-
tive your answers are, if don't
give us your real name, your
not eligible to win the prize,
since we can't know if you're
serious. So without further
ado, here are the winners!

Walter McFarlane
Colin Phillips
Milton Jaycox
Olivia Lestideau
Erika Anderson

Drop on by to pick up your
free CD's! And remember,
please print clearly, since |
am illiterate, and can’t read
any of your writing. Trust me,
I'm talking to you, MC DJ
Astro Weasel Ferret thing.

Sales: (250) 562-9391

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Email: info@hondanorth.ca