Harbour 81
Live Your Dreams
Warbird Entertainment
Street: 05.20
Harbour 81 = Sick of It All + H2O + Good Riddance
I don't even pretend to know what's going on in hardcore these days, but I can tell ya that Harbour 81's debut is pretty damn good. Live Your Dreams recalls the driving energy of Sick of It All and the melodic intensity of Bad Religion, and though they may not be the most original band around, it's certainly refreshing to hear a hardcore band rooted in punk and featuring comprehensible lyrics. The album is chockful of standard hardcore rallying-cry songs ("Break Down the Walls,” "Live Your Dreams,” "Feel the Hurt") but they're delivered well enough that they don't seem unoriginal. "Queen of Hearts" has a similar feel, but it's a lame and cheesy love song that seems silly coming from the gravelly-voiced lead singer. Apart from that, Live Your Dreams is a great album full of songs to get your skull bashed in to. –Ricky Vigil

Harvey Milk
Life… The Best Game in Town
Hydra Head
Street: 06.05
Harvey Milk = KISS (with integrity) + Black Flag (with maturity) + Melvins (without the giggles)
In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that I absolutely adore Harvey Milk. Their breakup in the late 90's after "The Pleaser" rent my heartstrings, and their reformation in 2005 to record "Special Wishes" filled me with anxious joy. Of course when one so loves a band, one is susceptible to the worst kind of disappointment. Well, it is 2008 and I'm extremely pleased to report that Harvey Milk's newest release "Life… The Best Game in Town" not only fulfills my hopes, but maintains their unblemished legacy. The addition of bassist Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth) hasn't altered their winning formula of off-kilter, angular and obtuse pisstakes on the hardest of hard rock. Harvey Milk still splice together orchestral arrangements, morose dirges, fistfuls of classic-rock guitar, and the bleakest, most intelligent lyrics found outside of a John Fante novel. Opening song "Death Goes to the Winner" closes with smeared lyrical snippets from Velvet Underground, giving the classics their firmest kick to the ribs since Black Flag updated "Louie Louie." Buy this album, and then buy the entire Harvey Milk discography. In this reviewer's opinion, they're as good as heavy music get. –Ben West

Headhunter
Parasite of Society
Candlelight
Street: 06.10
Headhunter = Destruction + Saxon + German power metal
To sum up the history of how Headhunter came to be in 1990, here’s a short history. Bassist/vocalist Schmier was fired from Destruction and went on to form Headhunter. Three albums were recorded and toured for. Then in the late 90s, Destruction reformed with Schmier back at the helm. Well, now, Headhunter has been reformed, giving Schmier an outlet to play and sing for music that doesn’t fit what Destruction is. Headhunter is a hybrid of traditional German thrash and power metal. There are moments on the album that most definitely sound like they could be coming from Destruction, but those moments are far less than the originality factor that Headhunter displays on Parasite Society. Schmier’s vocals take a different route than they do in Destruction and it’s actually fun to hear him do it and use some clean singing styles and different ranges of growls and snarls. The whole record has a great classic metal appeal that fans of thrash and power metal can enjoy; there’s also plenty of easy sing-along moments. The guitar/bass-playing is full of catchy moments, wailing solos and plenty of great riffs. The drumming is what you’d expect from Jorg Michael, who has been a force in a massive amount of German metal. Parasite Society is a great throwback to classic metal, yet retains a modern sound that culminates in a fresh-sounding record. –Bryer Wharton

Hollenthon
Opus Magnum
Napalm Records
Street: 06.10
Hollenthon = Therion + Haggard + Battlelore
Sometimes I just feel like I have no idea about what’s going on in the international metal world as well as at home; maybe it’s because I don’t feel like reading pages and pages of useless factoids on Blabbermouth.net. This is my first experience with Austria’s Hollenthon, what I do know is that vocalist and guitarist Martin Schirenc fronted acclaimed grind act Pungent Stench during their on-again off-again career. I didn’t know that Pungent Stench is broken up now. Makes sense that Schirenc would come back to his other band, Hollenthon. Both bands are entirely different. With Opus Magnum, you have an epic symphonic death/black-metal mastery. This takes anything Therion have done in the past, say, five years, to school. There are a wide variety of elements put forth in just the guitars alone. But the main focus in the music is definitely in its orchestrated parts; the record truly sounds like it has an actual orchestra behind it; not at all synthesized. The sound is huge, like rattling-your-walls-till-every-picture-falls-off big. There is a wide range of vocal performances, from choir-type operatic female moments to (the bulk of it:) death growls, snarls and clean moments from Schirenc. The diversity in every song is the driving force behind wanting to listen and listen to Opus Magnum again and again. –Bryer Wharton