Very boring but they did their best
354030
This was purchased for school, but it's incredibly boring to read. Then again, it's not like you can make this particular course interesting... The authors did the best they could with what they were given with...
2910617
Let's start off by saying that I own their two full records, their EP plus the remixed collection and I can honestly say that their music on the said albums was one of the most inspiring and haunting I have ever come across in my entire life.

As for the new album...I had really high hopes of this one...but my excitement had quickly dwindled away once I heard the lastest work 'Immolate Yourself'.

I have listened to it extensively over a period of last four weeks and everything I can say is that it's really frustrating to listen to it knowing that it came from this superb duo.

I found that most reviewers fully appreciate thier new direction but frankly there is nothing here what ties me to them anymore.
There are merely a few good moments on this album which I would normally classify as average, the last track is decent but that's it.

The distinctive sound from previous albums was abruptly torn apart and replaced by some really sissy and rather tedious arrangements. What was amazing about their sound has totally collapsed on this recording.

When you change your direction drastically there is always a risk that some of your followers will disapprove and walk away. Unfortunately for me the band's new robe don't fit me at all.

In the light of Charlie's recent passing I want to say that I have greatly enjoyed their music and the way how it was made. Surely, I will spread the word about their legacy. Sadly, this will not apply to this album.

All the best!
4095328
I read the other reviews, and I must say that the people who wrote them  must have been really stoned at every concert they ever went to, and never  listened to the studio albums.  First of all, for a "best of the best,  greatest hits, thanks to the fans" album it does not contain many  great songs.  There are no songs from Dark at the End of the Tunnel.  Private Life, Nothing to Fear, Just Another Day, Pain, and Good for Your  Soul are all missing.  They have been replaced by such loser self indulgent  tunes as I am the Walruss, Clowns of Death, and Water.  Moreover, the  recording sounds like it was done by some guy with a micro cassette  recorder stuffed in his pocket.  The crowd noise is a nice idea, but it  gets in the way of the music.  If your are looking for a good compilation  try Boingo Alive or Best 'o Boingo.  They were obviously put together by  people who understood that a greatest hits album is not an opportunity for  the band to indulge its own desires, but rather is a vehicle for compiling  the songs people like.
1619532
I cannot fathom how this got released and no one put their foot down and told the boys having the same exact tempo (slow as well) on every song is pretty much suicide. These are good to great songs, but side by side they become nondescript. I hear no link to their past, and no I am not just talking their 80s past. Where last album had hooks and intrigue, this sounds like paint by numbers. The knick knack store magnets on the cover (horrible) are more exciting than the content, so that is no help getting into their state of mind. Again, it is not bad. The songs are there, it's just grouping them together like this was a giant mistake. I can take any one track and know the whole album from it.
1627528
I was a big fan of Prong when they released 'Force Fed' and 'Beg to Differ', but when this CD came out I lost faith really quick. It is just flat out BORING. One thing I definitely require in my metal is that it not be boring. It is the same band, but with all of the energy sucked out of them. The only song that is actually good metal on here is 'Unconditional'. So save your money and just buy that one track.

I was a staunch metalhead back when this came out...so I thought that maybe now that my tastes have expanded that I would give this release another try...so I did, and it's STILL boring. Some of these reviews calling it a masterpiece just blow my mind.

For the record, I have been a fan again of everything they released AFTER 'Prove You Wrong'.
4936325
It's definitely not some of their best work.  I only listen to it once in a while and a lot of times I stop half way through.  They just weren't quite "on" when they produced this work.
2506062
It was OK, but only because I grew up around their music.  I would imagine anyone not growing up around their music would be bored.
2471824
they portait themselves as great musicians but at the end they are just a bunch of guys playing. didn't like it. Only one song OK
4871438
Rush came back to the public with Signals, which was the follow up the their masterpiece Moving Pictures (5 stars).  Signals may not have been such a let down, if it had followed just about any other cd of theirs, but on the heels of Moving Pictures, just about any cd would have been a let down.
  Signals starts out with the teenage, I'm different, song Subdivisions.  From the opening keyboards of this song, you know that this cd is different from any other RUSH cd.  The cd has a lighter feel to it, some songs have an almost danceable groove to them.  This cd also spawned their first top 40 hit New World Man.  The songs are more keyboard driven, and the axeman Alex, plays a back seat.  The production on this outing, doesn't do the cd justice, producer Terry Brown, who has been with Rush since the beginning, seems to be losing it on this one.  The sound is a little muddled, instead of being distinctive.
  Suddivision, New World Man, and The Weapon are the highlights of this rather dull effort from RUSH.
2351255
Two (maybe 2,5 if I'm stretching it) stars for the effort.

When Europe returned in 2004, they were very different, but still OK. They still had some melodic sense and Joey still sounded like a great singer. Well, I think they are losing it more and more. After "Last Look at Eden" it seems like Joey's singing has changed, sounding darker, cracked and lazy - Go back to late 80's, early 90's his vocals were bright, strong and energetic, simply perfect. All I hear is a total decline.

Moving on - I don't get any of these songs. There's nothing there that sticks with me. If they try to sound like Deep Purple they probably succeeded, but then again, haven't heard much of them that I like either. I think even the production here is 70's inspired, to me it sounds tiresome and boring. So - don't like the songs, don't like the production, don't like Joey's vocals. Anything more? Well, they look kind of boring as well compared to how awesome they looked in the 80's and 90's.

My favorite period with Europe is 1988-1991. Joey's vocals was on top. The clothes - the hair was pure awesomeness. The sound was great. Not only are Out of this World and Prisoners in Paradise two masterpieces (5 stars) but even the demo songs from 1989-1990 that never made it are almost as good as those two albums. In fact, they're magical and certainly miles better than War of Kings.

Nothing that they've done after the reunion in 2003 comes close to anything they did before it. In early days they had soaring choruses with great melodic hooks, beautiful melodic guitar solos that you can even sing along with (because they're so melodic), a singer with a divine voice and lots of keyboards in the sound with some fanfare influences. On top of that, they looked great and even lyrically there were more interesting things going on. Unusual lyrics like Seven Doors Hotel, Cherokee, Tower's Callin', The King will Return and Seventh Sign really captured my interest.

Really don't know what people hear on this that makes it so great - but those frequencies are clearly inaudible to me.
2483132
It has most of their early songs and many are practice recordings. Not what I was anticipating. Definitely not the best of their recordings either.
3721564
Yep, you read it right!
First of all I want to say that the spirit of 'Those...' and especially 'Opus...' Marduk will NEVER be able to reach again,NEVER! Why? Because those albums were written with a heart and a soul and the boys lost that LOOOOONG time ago. And of course Joakim was singing on those albums.
So this was the first release with the new singer - Legion. The man did a good job, no word about it...but something else happened to the band also. They got stuck into that mud of boredom widely known as constant blastbeat crap! OK, it's brutal,blah blah...but it becomes boring and kills the atmosphere Marduk once possessed - total f***ing darkness. Soon lots of their countrymen followed their steps (Dark Funeral, Setherial, etc.) and to me the whole Swedish scene became boring. OK, I guess that was some sort of respond to their Norwegian neighbors who watered down their style one way or the other, but still - it sucked big time!
Soon all their albums ,after this one, became almost the same... until Mr. Mortuus came to the band, but that's another story. The only one worth a mention is 'Panzer Division Marduk'.
So, get this one if you want just enough dose of brutal blastbeating and their first 3 albums to hear how it was ment to be done.
1351756
I am a big fan of the books and soundtracks, and to a lesser degree the movies. The first 3 soundtracks produced for this saga were phenomenal. They remain among my all time favorite albums. This is the first flop they have had. Christina Perri's song is the only song worth having. I can see how some of the songs may fit the movie, but they do not have any merit on there own. They are boring and do not compare to the talent seen on the previous soundtracks such as Muse, Florence and the Machine, and the Black Keys (only to name a few). I was also terribly disappointed that there was no Muse song on the album at all. They have been on all the previous soundtracks and Stephanie Meyer said they were a large part of her inspiration while writing the books. They should have had a song on every soundtrack. I hope for BD part II they manage to get back to their usual greatness.
4307036
Finally free from the recording contract that made them loose the royalties from their two biggest albums and licking their wounds after being battered both by a disappointing tour and the backlash caused by their belligerent front man's badmouthing campaign, the Quiet Riot boys (minus Rudy Sarzo) hoped this would be the album that would stop their downward spiral into irrelevance and let them regain their footing as leaders of the radio friendly metal pack. Alas, while recording this much maligned album, the band made two crucial mistakes that would eventually end their career. The first one was adding a keyboard player to their lineup while burying Carlos Cavazo's guitar in the mix, effectively turning the band into a Bon Jovi soundalike minus the catchy arena ready pop metal anthems. That said, an even worse mistake was deciding not to record a Slade cover for this album. Lame songwriting was a problem the Quiet Riot had to contend with since their beginning, and up to this point, they managed to get past this hindrance by recording a Slade cover and penning a decent single on each album while keeping their reputation of being a great live band through energetic and charismatic performances. This time, without the customary Slade cover to guarantee a radio friendly hit and featuring a lead single only memorable for its utter blandness, there was no way in hell QR III could ever take off. To add insult to injury, the disk's ten remaining tracks proved to be even worse filler than all the non singles from their previous two albums combined.
As expected, the album's disappointing sales and the complete failure of its support tour heightened internal tensions to the point that Kevin Du Brow was unceremoniously kicked off from the same band he once founded and sometime later, a version of the band led by ex Rough Cutt's Paul Shortino on vocals released an even blander album that went completely (and thankfully) unnoticed.
3846584
If you are expecting an album that's anything like their later music, save your money or buy something else.  Very rough production and generally so-so music makes for a major disappointment from this band.

Everyone has to start somewhere, of course, and it's great that their later albums have been so outstanding. This one, though, isn't.
1883700
While the Backstreeet Boys have always stayed with the same sound, this album plunges into new territory, which is not a good thing.  The Call is hard to be taken seriously, and It's True is flat out boring.  Get Another Boyfriend and Shining Star are the only highlights of the album, since many of the songs are mediocre.  They have matured however, so it's a bit interesting to hear that in their songs.  Also some of the members co-wrote some of their songs as well, so listen for that.  If you really love the Backstreet Boys, get this CD.  If you haven't, but are curious about purchasing an album, stick with Millenium as this CD is not a great example of their style.
2449641
When Difford and Tilbrook started talking about making the best album they ever made with this most recent offering, I was skeptical but no Squeeze album has ever been outright awful. Even the first album and Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti are about 50% to 75% effective in terms of the number of good songs on them. I was a little more optimistic when I saw them do "Cradle to the Grave" and "Happy Days" on a show - pretty good songs, I thought.

The problem with Cradle to the Grave is that these are the only two songs that even approach Squeeze's former greatness. I wasn't expecting Frank or Babylon and On or even Some Fantastic Place, but I thought it would be somewhere near Ridiculous or Domino. Unfortunately, with the exception of the two aforementioned songs, Cradle to the Grave is packed with utterly tuneless, forgettable songs. I have recorded better songs on my 32-track in my basement and I am in no way a professional songwriting musician.

Minor quibbles include using Tilbrook's band to substitute for Squeeze - they are no substitute for some of the luminaries who have passed through that band, although I'm glad John Bentley plays on a few tracks. Furthermore, Difford should have sung at least one song for some variety. Even the cover is repulsive rubbish. Squeeze have never been know for great album covers but this one is the worst.

Cradle to the Grave is essential only to complete a Squeeze collection. I would have much preferred a remastered Babylon and On reissue with a massive expansion of bonus tracks like B-sides, unused tracks and a concert like they did with Argy Bargy.

God bless.