Having volunteered for Blogcritics.com (see

Having volunteered for Blogcritics.com (see Eric Olsen's blog for more about this), I must decide what to review in time for the launch. Searching through recent purchases, I've come up with these four from the last couple of months. At the moment I'm unsure which of these to go for as my sample review for the site's launch. (I'll add a lot more, including a track-by-track review of the one I've chosen). Or perhaps go out and buy something completely new. As ever, your comments will be appreciated.

Rush - Vapor Trails

I've been a fan of Rush since the beginning of the 80s. One of the great bands of the 70s, 80s and 90s, Rush had been on hold for several years while drummer and lyricist Neil Peart recovered from being devastated by the deaths of both his wife and his daughter within a few months of each other. While bandmates Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee had both recorded solo albums in the interim, the return of Rush to active service has been eagerly awaited by all fans of the band.

This album isn't what you might expect. They've made a deliberate decision on this album not to use any keyboards, and to have no conventional guitar solos. The latter will no doubt be a disappoinment to fans of Alex Lifeson's fluid style, but there are plenty of other things to recommend about this album.

The album opener, "One Little Victory" starts with a fusillade of drums, just to remind us all the Neil Peart is back. This intro, especially when joined by Geddy Lee's bass, reminds me of Motorhead's "Overkill", although the intro is as far as the comparison goes.

Overall, I'm not sure how to sum up this album. It's not Rush's best, no "Moving Pictures" or "Hemispheres". But Rush have never been a band to retread their own past.

Rhapsody - Power of the Dragonflame

Fourth full-length album by Italy's "Symphonic Epic Hollywood Metal", it's another slab of operatic pomp-metal with lyrics so strongly influenced by DnD you can almost hear the polyhedral dice rolling.

Really should be released under the d20 licence - Requires the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook in order to listen.

Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Space Metal

New project by the Holland's Arjen Lucassen, the man behind Ayreon. This album sees Arjen steering more towards melodic metal rather than progressive metal of Ayreon, with lyrics inspired by easily-recognisable science-fiction films and novels. The heavy sound, with a lot of hammond organ in places, should appeal a lot to fans of Uriah Heep, although the 80s sheen on the production sounds a bit dated at times.

Muse - Hullabaloo

My only recent album purchase by a fashionable young band who's members weren't even born when I started collecting records. A double album, the first disk made up of collection of B-sides and outtakes, the second a live performance in Paris. I'm amazed at the combination of energy and virtuosity of this trio, with some great neo-classical guitar flourishes, and some fantastic keyboard work as well. The vocal style invites comparison with Radiohead in parts.

Meanwhile, in the news

This news story about the "vampire murderer" from Anglesey is worrying. Not that the murder isn't shocking (and 12 years seems a light sentence for murder), but what worries me is the conclusions more hysterical sections of the media are likely to come to. I would expect the ever-toxic Daily Mail to call for the immediate banning of role-playing games, heavy metal music, and the Internet. After all, the Daily Mail is more dangerous than, say The Sun, because unlike the red-tops, the Mail's readers seem to take that paper's Manichean world-view seriously.

Why is it when something bad is done by someone from an obscure sub-culture (heavy metal fans, roleplayers, train-spotters, what have you), that subculture is placed under a distorted microscope and blamed?. When a boy-racer runs kills someone when driving at three times the speed limit, or a football hooligan stabs a rival fan to death, the media doesn't blame car culture or football in general.

I would guess boy-racers are responsible for far more deaths than wannabe-vampires...