Xmas Haul Part 3: The New Shit

The last part of my Christmas Haul trilogy. This post is for the newer releases.

It took me some time to warm up to Iron Maiden's new album, The Final Frontier. Face it, Maiden are never going to give us another Piece of Mind or Powerslave, instead they choose to write the long epic songs...hell, 7 of the 10 songs on this album are over the 6 minute mark. Nope, no more facemelters like 2 Minutes To Midnight or Run To The Hills. Iron Maiden aren't going to give you what you want, they are going to write an album the way they want to do it. No compromise on their part. Once you accept this fact, and stop comparing them to what they used to be, you may see that they can still write good Metal songs.

The Final Frontier may be the best album that Maiden have released since reuniting with Bruce Dickinson back in 2000. Seriously, the first three songs on this album are just so good. The intro of Satellite 15 is so un-Maiden-like...it really took me by surprise, because it doesn't sound like anything the band has done before. I just wish that they would stop releasing their vinyl on picture discs.

While not technically a "new release", this was the first time that I've really listened to Propagandhi's 2009 album, Supporting Caste. At one point, I loved this band, but I started to cool off on them shortly after they released Today's Empires back in 2000, and was never interested enough in checking out their last couple of albums. My brother was always a big Propagandhi fan as well, and when I was wondering what to buy him last Christmas, I decided to get him the CD for Supporting Caste. When I was purchasing it for him, the clerk at the record store told me that the album was really good and the band had a bit more "radio friendly" sound. I immediately regretted buying it, and before I gave it to my brother, I checked out a couple of the newer Propagandhi songs on their myspace page. Phew, nothing "radio friendly", about this. This is a solid punk rock album, with no compromise, and I was happy to receive it for Christmas this year.