Christmas with all its expectations, hopes and stress. The holiday which should give a great possibility for harmony and energy intake very often ends up in family drama and stress. What could be a better prevention action than to order some of the recently released albums and in my case read about, but not yet listened to. Since, I cannot longer go into a record store to buy new releases (still, used cd’s and vinyls are doing pretty well in Sweden in the old format of a record store managed by a very knowledgeable person), my new procedure of ordering records on the internet works very well. The delivery time is normally 1-3 days and the waiting time brings back the feeling of waiting for the weekly Spiderman magazine I received as a small boy. My order this time was placed a week before Christmas and the pack landed the day before Christmas Eve. The opportunity was then given to wrap the cd’s, put a sticker on with my name with Santa as the giver and to be placed under the Christmas tree just in time for Christmas Eve. At least one Christmas gift had now been secured for the metalhead, the ousider of the family.

I can therefore only promote http://www.ginza.se as a great on line purchase site with a great range of old and new music in all categories. Also their long list of films is impressive. With a very surprised face I opened up the Christmas gift with the following titles:

AC DC, Rock or Bust (Colombia Music, Sony Music, 2014):

The band has a special place in my heart. It was formed in 1973 when I was 12 years old. I picked them up towards the end of the 70’s and has followed them closely ever since. My three time live encounter (Paris, Gothenburg, Stockholm) with the band during their 2009-2010 Black Ice Tour created memories for life. After a first listening of the Rock or Bust album my happy feeling flows in the direction of the Friends arena July 19, 2015. When my whole family and my brother will be happy concert goers among 50.000 more! The album has great potential with its new set up (Stevie Young replaces Malcolm ‘the great’!) and deserves a higher score than the 3 out of 5 as I have seen in most reviews.

Entombed A D, Back To The Front (Century Media Records Ltd, 2014):

Another band with a new set up. The band was formed this year after the former Entombed broke up right in the middle of a very press covered new record production. Alex Hellid, guitarist and a member from the start left the band and concerns have been risen if the sound also would leave with him. After a first listening through at the gym yesterday I must say I have severe body ache and a lust of listening to it again today. The sound is still there and this Death ‘n’ roll still with a cruel L-G Petrov on song makes it listenable for a broader group.

Black Stone Cherry, Magic Mountain (Roadrunner Records, 2014):

When L-G Petrov’s cruel voice has pounded all of my ghosts away Black Stone Cherry’s southern blues oriented riff based rock fits fine. Even lyrics are possible to follow and in some cases to sing-a-long. I like this alot and their live performance at the Store Vega in Copenhagen together with Alter Bridge November 10, 2011, is among the best I’ve seen and heard.

Slipknot, .5: The Gray Chapter (Roadrunner Records, 2014):

My first encounter with the band was at the Metaltown festival in Gothenburg in 2010 visted together with our oldest son. He and his friends had a period end of the 90’s when Slipknot coloured their musical life. This was the introduction for me into the genre of ‘nu-metal’ with the more intense listening to bands like Slipnot and Korn. A review will here come later. Requires some focus and a few times more of listening than normal. The first few tracks now in the background makes me think about trying to get tickets to their concert in Stockholm in February!!

In conclusion, of this post, there will be more concrete impressions from these albums later. The above written may give the impression of a depressed Christmas, still in retrospect it has been good and our house is full of our dearest children, now adults and in great relations. The music here described is not my highest priority, but only a sweet addition to what is the most important in life – FAMILY!