Hahahaha, I had a funny time listening to the re-issues of the New Jersey based Mucky Pup's albums "A boy in a mans world" (1989) and "Now" (1990), a total of 29 songs all remastered on 1 CD. Mucky Pup was active between 1985-1996 but reunited in 2009 for a tour, their comedic hardcore/punk/wackopop paved way in the 90's for acts such as Bloodhound Gang and Green Jelly. And by the way, Green Jelly stole "Little pigs" off Mucky Pup's 1989 album and made it their own with their 1993 hit "Three little pigs". Bastards!

I'm not the biggest fan of this type of music but it sure was entertaining to hear some of these tracks, "U stink but I love you" is really good and their version of the classic "Batman" theme is lovely. I think you can call their sound a mix of 70's police television themes, Spinal Tap, Weird Al Yankovic and Offspring.

Markus Baltes aka Sideway Town is a German artist that is heavily influenced by Sigur Ros, Oceansize and Death Cab For Cutie. He calls his latest album "Years in the wall" a post rock symphony and I am willing to agree because it sounds like Pink Floyd meeting Radiohead and I do like his whispering vocals. There are some songs that tend to be monotone but the positive parts are in majority here, if you're a fan of dreamlike alternative rock - then you should check out Sideway Town.

Highlights: Paper walls, Beautiful accident, Outpatient Voice

Death By Stereo is a hardcore/punk band from Orange County, California. They formed in 1996 and has released 5 studio albums up to now including this new one "Death is my only friend". Their name is taken from a scene in the movie Lost Boys and vocalist Efrem Schulz is the only original member left in the band but drummer Jarrod Alexander (also with A Static Lullaby) has returned to the band for this new album.

They were more of a hardcore band on their earlier albums and even if there's still traces of hardcore in their sound on "Death is my only friend", the new one is definitely more heavy metal/punk and quite melodic too. The first half of the album is pretty good with highlights such as "Opening destruction", "The ballad of Sid Dynamite", "I sing for you" and "The last song". The album falls on the second half where the songs lack of good melodies but the band still deliver energetic rock throughout the whole album. A solid piece of work for sure.

Edgehill Avenue is a rootsy rock band that has moved from their acoustic roots to a more rock oriented sound, this quintet is fronted by Drew Perkins and he definitely has a voice made for this bluesy southern rock with traces of country and folk. The album starts really good where my favorites are "With these hands" and "Just another day" that both bring thoughts to Tony Carey's solo career.

The mid section of the album is a bit weaker though and more country inspired, track 8 "Holding on" and track 9 "Out of time" can be described as Van Morrison meeting Allman Brothers Band and both tracks are very nice. An uneven album with a few good moments!

Seasons Lost has done a strong debut with "After the storm" that is a well produced album with both ballads and heavy rockers, I really like the combination of modern hard rock and melodic metal and even if the opening track "To hell and back" is the weakest track of the album - the band shows a lot of potential on the following 9 tracks. The 2nd track "Confession" is a great rocker and the ballad "The big empty" is huge! There are 2 more ballads with "Dry ground" and "Taken away" that does not match "The big empty" but they're ok songs. We get a taste of the orient in "Predenatural" that also bring thoughts to Staind, get this album at cdbaby!

Paincraze is a thrash metal band from the northern parts of Sweden, these guys grew up listening to Metallica, Annihilator and Judas Priest and after a lotta hard work since the formation a few years ago, they have now become a tight band which can be heard on their debut "Hellbound". I think of them as Metallica's Kill em all album sung by the singer of Mustasch, "Black day" is a great track and there are some hard hitting machine gun riffs on the album but I'm not the biggest fan of the band's vocalist so I have a hard time liking the music completely. However, I think fans of Slayer, Anthrax and early Metallica should definitely check out this album.