Ayumi Hamasaki – I am – Review August 2, 2002 Hamasaki’s delivery is intense and emotional and the music is never generic. She can make you cry, even if you don’t understand a word she’s singing.
Chara – Madrigal – Review August 2, 2002 What she lacks in vocal range, Japan’s Chara has always made up for with her diverse songwriting, and she continues this tradition on Madrigal.
Visual Chaos – The Video Collection – Review August 2, 2002 16 videos for $10. There’s a little blurb about each band in case yer unfamiliar, but most of these bands are pretty well-known in the underground.
Songs for Cassavetes – An All Ages Film – Review August 2, 2002 Inspired by late independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, the film forks up the most raw, gritty reality of being a do-it-yourself musician in America.
Cradle of Filth – Heavy Left-Handed & Candid – Review August 2, 2002 This three hour video contains 11 live tracks – or burial masses, as they call them – and videos for “Born in a Burial Gown” and “Scorched Earth Erotica.”
Cannibal Apocalypse – Review August 2, 2002 A zombie gore-fest without the supernatural element. This 1980 film was released, minus mucho red stuff, in America as Invasion of the Flesh Hunters.
Virgin Black – Sombre Romantic – Review July 12, 2002 With symphonic magnificence and technical proficiency, song strength is emphasized over virtuosic tendencies.
Fin Fang Foom – Texture, Structure, and the Condition of Moods – Review July 12, 2002 Fin Fang Foom weave labyrinth guitar work and off-time signatures into a very calculated, methodical, but no less free-flowing mixture.
Filthy Thieving Bastards – A Melody of Retreads and Broken Quills – Review July 12, 2002 This California Irish folk-ballad offshoot of Swingin’ Utters is following a well-traveled rock road.
Halfway to Gone – Second Season – Review July 12, 2002 Southern by way of New Jersey (and by the grace of God), Halfway To Gone are ‘roid-driven power-trio crossing of Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd.