SEPTEMBER AMG UPDATE

New month, new batch of reviews for All Music Guide. Enjoy!

Apocalyptica, 7th Symphony
Boris/Ian Astbury, BXI
Christian Mistress, Agony and Opium
Drunken Bastards, Horns of the Wasted
La Otracina, Reality Has Got To Die
The Royal Arch Blaspheme, The Royal Arch Blaspheme
Klaus Schulze, La Vie Electronique, Vol. 3
Svanfriður, What's Hidden There?
Chris Washburne & The SYOTOS Band, Fields of Moons

I also wrote a review of Hawkwind's new album Blood of the Earth that didn't run:

Hawkwind
Blood of the Earth
Eastworld
Hawkwind’s 2010 album serves mostly as a warning—that too much drug-taking will permanently destroy your aesthetic barometer, and your ability to recognize when it’s time to pack it in. None of the churning hard rock vigor of their early ’70s work (when the bass was being manhandled by one Ian Kilmister, who’d go on to form Motörhead) is present here; the drums on opener “Seahawks” are a loop, over which some chanting, bits of noisy metal guitar that are way too low in the mix, and heavy-handed synths are laid. Oh, and ocean sound effects. Can’t forget those. The title track is nothing but whooshing and humming synths; it sounds like a slice of a boring in-between passage from a particularly uninspired DJ set by The Orb circa 1993. Things do finally rev up to Space Ritual levels of intensity on “Wraith,” but while the band’s talent for writing garage-rock riffs and riding them to the edges of the universe hasn’t abated, modern production techniques make the music too slick. “Green Machine” is a journey to the land of synths, ’80s Tangerine Dream style; “Inner Visions” features more looped percussion and synth electric violin; while “Sweet Obsession” tries to rock and fails, as does the band’s re-recording of “You’d Better Believe It,” an anthem from the glory years. This isn’t a good album, but it will only disappoint people who thought Hawkwind still had something to offer post-1975.