Alright this is the first time I think I’ve attempted this, a couple notes first here. I’m leaving ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666’ of the list here because Iron Maiden is in a league of their own and will always capture the top spot with an unfair advantage. Second note I’m also leaving off ‘Death: For The Whole World To See’ it was released this year but actually happened in the 70’s, so I’m not sure if it qualifies. If I leave it on it would most likely be in the top 5 because it is amazingly awesome. Also I’m not including 4 that would have most likely made it, “R.A. the Rugged Man: Legendary Classics Vol 1”, “Deep Sleep: Three Things At Once”, “Psyched To Die: Year One” and “Drag the River: Bad at Breaking Up” because they are compilations. And lastly I’m not including “Judas Priest: A Touch of Evil: Live” because it is a live album.
1. Parasites: Solitary
2. Dear Landlord: Dream Homes
3. House Boat: The Delaware Octopus
4. Propagandhi: Supporting Caste
5. Teenage Bottlerocket: They Came From The Shadows
6. Wizard: Thor
7. Chad Price: Smile Sweet Face
8. Jon Snodgrass: Visitor’s Band
9. Mean Jeans: Are You Serious?
10. Del The Funky Homosapien: Funk Man (the stimulus package)
11. Sick Sick Birds: Heavy Manners
12. Jetty Boys: Sheboygan (review coming soon)
13. Anvil: This Is Thirteen
14. The Riptides: Tales From Planet Earth (review coming soon)
15. Del the Funky Homosapien/Tame One: Parallel Uni-Verses
16. The Vivian Girls: Everything Goes Wrong
17. Delay: Plain Language
18. The Riverdales: Invasion USA
19. Spinal Tap: Back From The Dead
20. The Apers: You Are Only As Strong As The Table You Dance On
First off, let me say how happy I am that Spinal Tap is back. I’ve greatly enjoyed this band sense it came into all of our lives with the brilliant movie/mockumentary. Sense that time they’ve seemed to be a metal version of the Monkees, they started out as a fake band but sense then have released some albums, toured and almost become a real band. Granted they’re not quite as true as the Monkees, but the Monkees never had to deal with finding a new drummer so often. Onward to the album however, we’ve got a CD release with an included DVD packed in with some stand up cutouts and a stage of the band on the inside all capped off with some amazingly badass cover art, how can you not buy this? The DVD is about an hour long and features interviews of the band about each song on the album, it’s pretty good, definitely captures the life of what Spinal Tap has always been about, I’m really happy this was included. The CD is nineteen tracks of Spinal Tap, cranked up to 11 awesomeness. They’ve got some new songs on here mixed in with some classics such as the best fake metal song ever written “Stonehenge”. I think my favorite track on the entire album though is the title cut “Back From The Dead”, it’s really just a fucking awesome song. Anyone who likes the essence of Spinal Tap or metal in general should be hurrying to their local music store to pick up a copy today.
Uncle Critic 