Punk veterans Bad Religion don't rely on bankrupt laurels, nostalgia, or a facade of long-expired cool. LP after LP, they just set vicious hooks, a blitzkrieg attack, and potent lyrics to soaring singer Greg Graffin's piledriving passion. It's easy to take them for granted, to view Recipe as just another red-hot LP (ho hum) by the last and best band to survive the '80s L.A. punk explosion. And on first listen, it's tarnished by their previous mild malaise: everything sounds alike, and some e...   [ read more ]

CD $7.58

At first, The Telescope Dreampatterns seems to be willingly designed so that you don't like it. The crude quality of the recording (especially in the opening track, "Into the Blacktrees"), Donovan Quinn's voice (too much of a Bob Dylan pastiche), the rather shaky playing (some instruments simply refuse to come in on the beat) -- everything seems to conspire to turn your ears off. And then you start noticing the strange but far from stupid lyrics, the alluring melodies (however amateurishly sket...   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Domination is the sort of grandiose, overblown power metal offering that most rock critics -- not all, but most -- loved to hate back in the '70s and '80s. Loosely based on H.G. Wells' {-1984} and Aldous Huxley's {-Brave New World}, this highly conceptual, sci-fi-minded effort brings a strong progressive rock influence to metal; think Iron Maiden, Queensr che, King Diamond, or Judas Priest with elements of Rush, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, or Genesis. That's a recipe t...   [ read more ]

CD $39.88