Dimmel's Albums

  Barenaked Ladies are an Alternative Rock / Pop Rock that formed in 1988 in Canada. I know very little of their music and don't care much for it.  The only album in my collection is owned by my wife. Albums Owned: Stunt - CD Albums I Want: None

  Stunt was released in 1998. Track Listing: 1. One Week 2. It's All Been Done 3. Light Up My Room 4. I'll Be That Girl 5. Leave 6. Alcohol 7. Call and Answer 8. In the Car 9. Never Is Enough 10. Who Needs Sleep? 11. Told You So 12. Some Fantastic 13. When You Dream Genre: Pop Rock Here is another from my wife's collection.  This is the Barenaked Ladies 4th album.  I know very little about this band so I'm going in blind here. This album starts off with One Week, I'm pretty sure their biggest hit.  Its... fine?  The lyrics are meh and the guitars are a decent, funk tinged sound.  Pretty inoffensive.  But it sets the bar too high, nothing else on Stunt has this energy. That funk tinged guitar sound carries throughout the album.  Mostly its slower songs like Light Up My Room and I'll Be That Girl, but they don't really do much for me.  They just feel like bland placeholders to fill space. This feels similar to bands like Third Eye Blind, and H...

  Calling All Stations was released in 1997 Track Listing: 1. Calling All Stations 2. Congo 3. Shipwrecked 4. Alien Afternoon 5. Not About Us 6. If That's What You Need 7. The Dividing Line 8. Uncertain Weather 9. Small Talk 10. There Must Be Some Other Way 11. One Man's Fool Genre: Pop ...and then there were two.  For a bit.  Collins is out and Banks and Rutherford decide to carry on.  Why?  Probably money but who knows.  Either way in comes Ray Wilson to handle vocals. Calling All Stations is typically considered Genesis's worst album, and it's clear why, this album is garbage.  It does have one thing going for it though they managed to nail that generic, directionless, overlong, and boring motif that they were aiming for on We Can't Dance. Congo is passable, not good, but passable.  Alien Afternoon kept my attention the whole almost 8 minutes.  Not because it was good, but because it was so actively bad.  I couldn't begin to guess wh...

Concrete Jungle [The OST] was released in 2024 Track Listing: 1. C:\Projects\CJOST\BEATDEATH 2. V.A.N 3. The Drain 4. Terms & Conditions 5. Hedonist (Recharged) 6. Even 7. Loading Screen 8. Anything > Human 9. Digital Footprint 10. Nervous System 11. C:\Projects\CJOST\FINDPEACE 12. Artificial Suicide (Unzipped ) 13. The Grey (Unzipped) 14. The Death of Peace of Mind (We Are Fury Patch) 15. The Death of Peace of Mind (So Wylie Patch) 16. Bad Decisions (Lofi) 17. Just Pretend (Credits) 18. C:\Projects\CJOST\CLEARMIND 19. Artificial Suicide (Live 2024) 20. Like a Villain (Live 2024) 21. The Grey (Live 2024) 22. What do you want from me? (Live 2024) 23. Nowhere To Go (Live 2024) 24. V.A.N (Live 2024) 25. The Death of Peace of Mind (Live 2024) 26. Just Pretend (Live 2024) Genre: Metalcore Concrete Jungle is a weird one.  1 part new songs, 1 part remixes and 1 part live album.  Its a bit of a mess but there's some quality here.   BEATDEATH is considered "new songs"...

  We Can't Dance was released in 1991 Track Listing: 1. No Son of Mine 2. Jesus He Knows Me 3. Driving the Last Spike 4. I Can't Dance 5. Never a Time 6. Dreaming While You Sleep 7. Tell Me Why 8. Living Forever 9. Hold on My Heart 10. Way of the World 11. Since I Lost You 12. Fading Lights Here is Phil Collins last album with Genesis and right off the bat you can tell they should have called it quits with Invisible Touch.  We Can't Dance oscillates between boring and more boring.    There's some decent songs here.  Jesus He Knows Me is at least memorable, if a bit inconsistent.  I Can't Dance is a fun song.  Not fun enough to be good, but still not too bad. But thats about it.  The rest of the album is full of garbage like Driving The Last Spike and Dreaming While You Sleep.  Just way overlong songs that lack basically any substance.  They've have like one or two of these an album for a while now but man they really outdid themselves h...

  Invisible Touch was released in 1986 Track Listing: 1. Invisible Touch 2. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight 3. Land of Confusion  4. I n Too Deep 5. Anything She Does 6. Domino 7. Throwing It All Away 8. The Brazilian Genre: Pop Now we have Invisible Touch.  This sounds like the logical next step for Genesis.  Another album driven by simplistic beats, gentle synths and occasional guitars. The title track's lyrics are meh, but the song is infectious.  This is pop after all, what more could you want than a high energy sing along.  Same with Land of Confusion (but with less shit lyrics) The main issue is how dated this album feels.  Something about the production, coupled with Banks's synth sound and those atrocious electronic drums, makes this feel so much more of an 80s album than their self titled.   The slow songs are still bad to meh.  Tonight, Tonight, Tonight is eh.  In Too Deep is so sappy its nearly vomit inducing. Throwing it All A...

  The Death of Peace of Mind was released in 2022 Track Listing: 1. Concrete Jungle 2. Nowhere to Go 3. Take Me First 4. The Death of Peace of Mind 5. What It Cost 6. Like a Villain 7. Bad Decisions 8. Just Pretend 9. The Grey 10. Who Are You? 11. Somebody Else. 12. IDWT$ 13. What Do You Want from Me? 14. Artificial Suicide 15. Miracle Genre: Metalcore Here we have Bad Omens masterpiece.  What was hinted at on Limits/Never Know is fully realized here.  First, the music.  Bad Omens has moved further away from the heaviness of their last two and more into a radio friendly sound.  Normally I'd hate that but they do it very well.  Noah's singing voice is much stronger than his screams.  His quavery, almost fragile, singing adds a lot of emotional depth here.  See Just Pretend for a good example. Not that the heaviness is gone.  Songs like Artificial Suicide are still face melting.  But, his screams have majorly improved.  There much mo...

  Genesis was released in 1983 Track Listing: 1. Mama 2. That's All 3. Home by the Sea 4. Second Home by the Sea 5. Illegal Alien 6. Taking It All Too Hard 7. Just a Job to Do 8. Silver Rainbow 9. It's Gonna Get Better  Genre: Pop Genesis continues on the pop path, eliminating any semblance of prog from their sound.  Starting off this album is Mama, which seems like and odd choice.  Mama is a slow burner and nearly 7 minutes long.  The energy gets there, but I can only listen to Collins cry for his mama for so long.  Also the weird laugh solo? is off putting.  It gets there, it genuinely builds into a good song, but this feels like it should have been the closing track instead of the intro. What stands out here is their reliance on simpler, punchy-er beats.  Look at That's All, Mama, and Home By The Sea.  All barely do anything on drum.  BUT, for the style they're going for it works well.  Collins is a great drummer, but his prog s...

  Limits / Never Know came out in 2020. Track Listing: 1. Limits 2. Never Know Genre: Metalcore Yeah, a short one today.  This is a single released after their second album Finding God Before God Finds me.  I got this as a Christmas present and its excellent. Basically, they decided to do a deluxe edition of Finding God so they added these two songs and a Duran, Duran cover.  But, these two songs ended up being the best ones on Finding God.  There's some great songs on that album (The Hell I Overcame, Dethrone, Mercy) but Limits and Never Know are the best songs they've done so far. Never know is a direct bridge to The Death of Peace of Mind.  You can hear their style start to coalesce here.  The quiet vulnerable vocals, the heavy guitars punctuating the heartfelt lyrics.  This is the first step into their arena days. Limits is similarly a step towards TDOPOM.  This feels like a spiritual predecessor to Like a Villian.   What really...

  abacab was released in 1981 Track Listing: 1. Abacab 2. No Reply at All 3. Me and Sarah Jane 4. Keep It Dark 5. Dodo/Lurker 6. Who Dunnit? 7. Man on the Corner 8. Like It or Not 9. Another Record Genre: Pop Fresh off the heels of Collin's solo album which churned out his biggest hit ever, Genesis return with a very similar in style album.  (The band insists they all worked together and that they're great friends, they didn't just let Collins dictate everything) abacab is their first full pop album, and it shows it right of the bat.  The title track uses some very dated sounding keys and guitars to sing about abacab?  The song itself is okay, if middling.  The energy is high, but it definitely overstays its welcome, cut out 3 minutes and this would be a solid song. Unfortunately that energy doesnt keep up.  Songs like Me and Sarah Jane, Man on the Corner, and Like it or Not are slower less punchy songs. They also seem to be playing around with disco sound...

  Bad Omens was released in 2016. Track Listing: 1. Glass Houses 2. Exit Wounds 3. The Worst in Me 4. F E R A L 5. Enough, Enough Now 6. Malice 7. Hedonist 8. Broken Youth 9. Crawl 10. The Letdown 11. Reprise (The Sound of the End) 12. The Fountain Genre: Metalcore Bad Omens debut album starts off strong.  One of the things I love about them is their album art work.  This one is a haunting image of a women draped in a red cloth.  It fits the mood of the album well. Right off the bat they're showing what they're about.  Heavy guitars, some cleans, vicious lyrics and plenty of electronics.  Their self titled is as heavy as they get. The lyrics here are big standout (as they always are with Bad Omens).  Noah writes very personal lyrics that deal with his mental struggles and overcoming difficult obstacles.  Exit Wounds is about leaving his last band who he clearly has some bad blood with.  Worst in Me is about a toxic relationship.  They'r...

  Bad Omens is a Metalcore band that formed in 2015 and are currently one of the biggest bands in the metal world.  They started off with a fairly straightforward Metalcore sound and have since evolved into a more electronic, Alternative Metal style. Known for Noah Sebastian's incredible vocal talents, his wavery, almost fragile singing that he seamlessly pairs with top notch screams, the band has skyrocketed since the release of their third album. I first heard Bad Omens's The Death Of Peace of Mind as the leadoff single for the album of the same name and thought it was decent.  It wasn't until I stumbled upon an acoustic playthrough of TDOPOM on the radio that I really was hooked.  They add a lot of depth to their sound, which lesser bands use to mask faults, but here they add a depth an richness to an already incredibly talented group. Of course as a newer band that has developed a sound and made it popular (so many current imitators), they're regularly dismissed...

Here we are at the end of the numbered bands and bands that start with A.  Some of my absolute favorite bands are here, mostly Arch Enemy and Architects.  But what's surprising is the bands I've somehow managed to miss while collecting. At The Gates Avenged Sevenfold Both bands that are still on heavy rotation, but sadly missing from my collection.  Some day they'll make it here. Here's the progress.  Buckle up, we have a LONG way to go:

  Krüller was released in 2022 Track Listing: 1. Drone Carrying Dread 2. Incinerator 3. Centurion 4. Maiden Star 5. Misery 6. Glorybox 7. Blacksmith 8. Krüller Genre: Industrial I bought this album on a whim thinking I was getting into Author & Punisher and I thought the leadoff single Drone Carrying Dread was pretty good.  And it is, its a solid song.  The programmed drums, the drone-y bass and the airy synths all mesh together well.   The problem is I can say that for the majority of the songs he's written.  They all plod along at a similar pace with the droning bass and programmed drums carrying the song.  This time though, the album has an almost synthwave tint to it (Perturbater was involved with the production here, which probably explains that). The first A&P song I heard was Nihil Strength from Beastland.  This is relevant here because every time the next track starts I think it's Nihil Strength.  The album is very same-y. Th...

  Duke was released in 1980 Track Listing: 1. Behind the Lines 2. Duchess 3. Guide Vocal 4. Man of Our Times 5. Misunderstanding 6. Heathaze 7. Turn It On Again 8. Alone Tonight 9. Cul-de-sac 10. Please Don't Ask 11. Duke's Travels 12. Duke's End Genre: Pop  And Genesis are back after a very short hiatus.  Banks and Rutherford both put out solo records before this and were mostly out of ideas when it came time to write.  So the bands brilliant idea was to each put up 2 songs to work on, and then write a few more in studio. The result is an interesting mix of songs that are either loosely connected (like the opening three) or just kind of show up (like the rest of the album). A big issue is they haven't really learned how to write pop consistently yet.  They hit it big with Follow You Follow Me from their last album, and they have a couple here, Misunderstanding mainly, but more often than not they just miss the mark (looking at you Man of Our Times).  Mayb...

Author & Punisher  is an industrial band that formed in 2004.  Calling them a band is a bit of a stretch, this is a one man project headed by Tristan Shone. This is the kind of band that really appeals to me. A one man project, headed by a guy that builds his own electronics to get a unique sound and has been referred to as 10 inch nails.  What wouldn't I love? But, in practice, something is lacking.  They don't have Nine Inch Nails ferocity (or Trents lyricism).  They feel similar to 3TEETH (Another industrial band) but without the political lyrics (I guess Beastland was somewhat political, but less direct).  They have a similar feel to Godflesh, that repetitive pounding style to each song.  But where Godflesh manages to keep it interesting over the course of an album, Author & Punisher tends to get exhausting. Is it the pacing? The lack of discernable guitars? All of the above?  They tend to get monotonous which hurts the whole album lis...

  ...and then there were three... was released in 1978 Track Listing: 1. Down and Out 2. Undertow 3. Ballad of Big 4. Snowbound 5. Burning Rope 6. Deep in the Motherlode 7. Many Too Many 8. Scenes from a Night's Dream 9. Say It's Alright Joe 10. The Lady Lies 11. Follow You Follow Me Genre: Progressive Rock Now with Hackett out there are only three members left.  This is what the title is alluding to if you didnt know. Interestingly, the album starts out strong, Down and Out is genuinely interesting.  The interplay between drums, guitar, and keys is fun.  The keyboard solo is pretty meh, but overall a great starting track. Unfortunately, that turns out to be just a tease of what could have been.  Instead they slip into more Wind and Wuthering style, go nowhere songs like Undertow, Snowbound,  and Deep in the Motherlode.  They meander for a while all while having absolutely no depth. Occasionally they hit a more upbeat note, like Ballad of Big, but even...

  Constellations was released in 2009 Track Listing: 1. Thirty and Seven 2. Existence 3. Ocean of Apathy 4. White Washed 5. Marianas Trench 6. The Escape Artist 7. Indonesia 8. Paradox 9. Meridian 10. Rationalist 11. Meddler 12. Crusades Genre: Metalcore And here we have it.  August Burns Red's peak.  They're still putting out albums nearly 20 years later, but they all pale in comparison to Constellations. In form this is very similar Messengers.  Not a whole lot of variation.  The production is slightly better and I think Luhrs vocals sound a bit better. But they managed to write most of their best songs here.  Thirty and Seven is such a good opener, White Washed and Marians Trench are undoubtedly their biggest songs. Here they have more hooks, more bits to keep the album memorable.  Like the outro to Ocean of Apathy or the intro callback in White Washed.  They're playing to their strengths of intricate riffs and plenty of chugging, but adding m...

  Wind and Wuthering was released in 1976 Track Listing: 1. Eleventh Earl of Mar 2. One for the Vine 3. Your Own Special Way 4. Wot Gorilla? 5. All in a Mouse's Night 6. Blood on the Rooftops 7. Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers... 8. ...in that quiet earth 9. Afterglow Genre: Progressive Rock And now we're on to Hackett's final album.  Not sure why they thought putting out a 2nd album in 1976 was a good idea but here we are. Evident from the get go is how much they let Tony Banks write here.   The keys are front and center.  One for the Vine is a great example of this.  The first half is boring as hell keyboard that eventually picks up into another keys heavy section (faster paced but still not great).  The whole album feels like a solo act at times. Which really detracts from the album as a whole.  Banks is decent but he's not INTERESTING.  The extended keyboard parts just drag the album down. Its no wonder this album drove Hackett off....

  Messengers was released in 2007. Track Listing: 1. The Truth of a Liar 2. Up Against the Ropes 3. Back Burner 4. The Blinding Light 5. Composure 6. Vital Signs 7. The Eleventh Hour 8. The Balance 9. Black Sheep 10. An American Dream 11. Redemption Genre: Metalcore A tighter band, a better vocalist and more cohesive song structures.  They took the lessons learned on Thrill Seeker and put out an excellent follow up. Melodic sections, previously only used sporadically become a much larger part of the album and give the songs room to breathe and make this a much more memorable album. Even chug fests like Up Against the Ropes sound better here, and I'm not entirely sure why.  Better production? More consistent structure? It does still suffer from ABR's biggest problem.  Sameness.  When you put on an ABR record you know what you're getting.  They have a formula and rarely deviate.  The riff salad approach is great, but for a whole album it gets a bit tiri...

  A Trick of the Tail was released in 1976 Track Listing: 1. Dance on a Volcano 2. Entangled 3. Squonk 4. Mad Man Moon 5. Robbery, Assault and Battery 6. Ripples... 7. A Trick of the Tail 8. Los Endos Genre: Progressive Rock And now we have the first post-Gabriel album.  This one was critical to the bands continued success because Gabriel had really set himself up to look like the main force in the band. It feels like they set out to prove they can still so everything the band is known for up to this point.  Prog songs like Los Endos, stupid voices like on Robbery, Assault, and Battery, snooze fests like Entangled (and the first half of Mad Moon Man), and wild story telling like on the title track. Oddly Squonk has an almost 80s feel to it.  The guitar tone has an almost synthesizer sound and paired with the driving bass it wouldn't feel out of place alongside some 80s classics. I do miss Gabriel's rougher edged vocals.  He has a raspy quality that he put on di...

Thrill Seeker was released in 2005. Track Listing: 1. Your Little Suburbia Is in Ruins 2. Speech Impediment 3. Endorphins 4. Too Late for Roses 5. Barbarian 6. The Reflective Property 7. A Wish Full of Dreams 8. Consumer 9. A Shot Below the Belt 10. Eve of the End 11. The Seventh Trumpet Genre: Metalcore This album was a record store day pick up.  Its a different vocalist than the rest of their discography, the songs are a little rough but its still a fun ride. McManness (original vocalist) is capable, just doesn't have quite the range as Luhrs.  His vocals are muddy and less understandable than Luhrs.  He left shortly after this album and it made a huge difference. The problem with this album, and really August Burns Red as a hole is their lack of diversity.  Most of their songs are chug-fests with some nice riffs occasionally thrown in.  They're at their best when they give the song room to breathe, like Speech Impediment when the intro ...

  Out of Exile was released in 2005 Track Listing: 1. Your Time Has Come 2. Out of Exile 3. Be Yourself 4. Doesn't Remind Me 5. Drown Me Slowly 6. Heaven's Dead 7. The Worm 8. Man or Animal 9. Yesterday to Tomorrow 10. Dandelion 11. #1 Zero 12. The Curse Genre: Hard Rock After their self titled 3 years prior, Audioslave decided they should make an album that was distinctive from their respective bands previous output.  This one isn't just RATM with Chris Cornell, it actually feels like they worked together to make something new. Cornell's instantly recognizable voice paired with Tom Morello's unique approach to guitar is such a good mix.  Unfortunately, they forgot to write anything interesting to use that combo with. Unfortunately, this album feels a little light on ideas.  Songs like Out of Exile and Heaven's Dead just feel like they go nowhere.  They all follow them same verse/chorus/verse/chorus/solo/outro pattern.  And after 8 or 8 songs Morello's co...

  August Burns Red is a metalcore band that formed in 2003. I don't recall when I first heard about August Burns Red, but I think a friend introduced me to them.  Either way Constellations was my 2009 soundtrack.  I saw them in concert once on the Constellations tour and it was a great show.  Unfortunately though we had to sit through Emmure, what a terrible band. Albums Owned: Thrill Seeker - Vinyl Messengers - CD Constellations - CD Albums Wanted: Leveler (maybe)

Audioslave is a Hard Rock / Post Grunge band that formed in 200.  They're basically Rage Against the Machine with Chris Cornell instead of Zach de la Rocha. Cochise, Show Me How to Live and Like a Stone were constantly on the radio, so of course I bought Out of Exile from a CD club.  That's when I learned all of those songs were on their debut. Whoops. Albums I Own: Out of Exile - CD Albums I Want: Audioslave

  The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was released in 1974 Track Listing: 1. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 2. Fly on a Windshield 3. Broadway Melody of 1974 4. Cuckoo Cocoon 5. In the Cage 6. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging 7. Back in N.Y.C. 8. Hairless Heart 9. Counting Out Time 10. The Carpet Crawlers 11. The Chamber of 32 Doors Disk 2 1. Lilywhite Lilith 2. The Waiting Room 3. Anyway 4. Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist 5. The Lamia 6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats 7. The Colony of Slippermen 8. Ravine 9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway 10. Riding the Scree 11. In the Rapids 12. it . Here we have it, Peter Gabriel's final Genesis album, they one they went too far on.  Gabriel took the reins for story and lyrics and devised some wild concept about a guy in NY.  I dont know the story, I'm not a huge fan of rock operas so I'm not going to go in depth there.  The main problem here is the variety of this album.  I know its prog, but the best prog albums ...

  The Sky, The Earth, & All Between was released in 2025 Track Listing: 1. Elegy 2. Whiplash 3. Blackhole 4. Everything Ends 5. Brain Dead 6. Evil Eyes 7. Landmines 8. Judgement Day 9. Broken Mirror 10. Curse 11. Seeing Red 12. Chandelier Genre: Alternative Metal/Metalcore The latest from Architects, and absolutely one of my favorites.  Gone is Josh Middleton (who went back to Sylosis) which is a good thing.  You could see from interviews around the time of TCSOFBS that he didn't care of the style the band was moving into. Either way, the heaviness is back.  Not like All Our Gods or anything like that, they still clearly prefer a more radio friendly but they lean less on cleans here than on the last 2. And Sam sounds incredible here. Elegy might be his most impressive song ever.  Chandelier shows off his cleans, where he still is killing it.   My main complaint is that they can at times sound like a discount Bad Omens here.  Landmines sounds ...