Album Review- Avenged Sevenfold’s “Nightmare”

Not quite "Waking The Fallen", but I'll take this over Nickelback any day of the week.

Even though it’s happened in rock history before, it has been a while since a band in their prime of their commercial success has lost a member. Mourning the December 2009 death of drummer Jimmy ‘The Rev” [...]

Review: Scorpions @ DTE Energy Music Theater- July 1st

Klaus Meine & the Scorpions live in an earlier date in 2010 (Photo: www.scorpions.com)

For most bands getting on their years, sometimes the stage show and showmanship starts to dwindle off a little- something that definitely was not the case for the longtime German band The Scorpions. The band’s nearly two-hour set [...]

MCB Review: Against Me!- White Crosses

Against Me! hits the Fillmore Detroit on July 2nd.

Fans of the Gainesville, Florida band Against Me’s earlier material were probably selling “sell-out” when the band worked with ex-Nirvana producer Butch Vig on their stellar 2007 album “New Wave”. So, when the band picked Vig once again to produce the band’s [...]

The MCB Review: As I Lay Dying- The Powerless Rise

"The Powerless Rise" cover art.

I know many of the band’s longtime fans will disagree with me on this- but As I Lay Dying’s last album “An Ocean Between Us”, came out as the band’s most complete and full bodied work. It added more melody to the band’s fierce sound, which [...]

The MCB Review: Local Natives @ Blind Pig

Local Natives' Taylor Rice & Baba Booey from "Howard Stern"- seperated at birth? Maybe. (Photo: Christian Spencer & Nicole Cummings)

The Local Natives are commonly compared to their contemporary indie peers—Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Yaesayer, etc.—the very convenient list goes on to capture just about every band that has [...]

The MCB Review- Deftones’ Diamond Eyes

"Diamond Eyes" is a well done return to form for the Deftones.

After listening to the very ho-hum new Godsmack album (between you and me- I might be generous by calling it “ho-hum”), I was hoping that the Deftones weren’t going to let me down with their first album in four years, [...]

The MCB Review: 3OH!3/ Cobra Starship @ Fillmore Detroit

3OH!3's "Streets Of Gold" is out June 29th.

The “Too Fast For Love” tour has started just started, and the lineup of 3OH!3, Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy and I Fight Dragons made for quite the entertaining bill for the mostly teenage crowd of 2,200 or so at the [...]

MCB Album Review: Bullet For My Valentine- Fever

"Fever" is solid, but nothing out of this world.

If Bullet For My Valentine’s second album, “Scream Aim Fire”, seemed a little off, a little too polished to you- you definitely weren’t in the minority. Given the excitement a lot of people showed after the success of their 2006 debut “The [...]

The MCB Review: OK Go @ Magic Stick

OK Go during their Magic Stick performance April 22nd (photos courtesy of Christian Spencer & Nicole Cummings.)

There is a certain wildly popular independent music website that absolutely loathes OK Go; too contrived, too formulaic, too campy. Their albums get completely blasted for trying too hard to be commercially successful. The most positive thing [...]

The MCB Review: Saving Abel @ Crofoot Ballroom

Saving Abel prepares to release their sophomore release, "Miss America" June 8th. (Photo: www.savingabel.com)

Mississippi natives Saving Abel had been on tour most of 2008 and 2009 in support of their debut album, which reached gold status last summer and is inching towards platinum status. So now that the band has had [...]