More Zeppelin

Last week I listened to disc 1 of Physical Graffiti.
Yesterday I listened to disc 2.

No wonder Robert Plant denied the claim that Zeppelin is a heavy metal band, his reason being that over a third of their music is acoustic. I dunno if disc 2 is mostly acoustic, but lemme tell you, the first six tracks are definitely NOT hard rock. The only tracks that had Zeppelin's trademark hard rock sound were "The Wanton Song" and "Sick Again." Now, I'm not a hard-rock whore; I can appreciate basic rock. But disc 2 of Physical Graffiti I did not.

Presence was next. Now I didn't dislike Presence at all. It was a return to riff-driven rock for the Zeppelin crew. "Achilles's Last Stand," the ten-minute album opener, is epic. "Candy Store Rock" is a cool song. Now this is one of those exceptions where I don't remember any of the songs but they were still good. I give Presence a thumbs-up.

Next was In Through the Out Door. This is their final real studio album. In Through the Out Door is diverse. I say this mainly because there's a bluegrass song on here. Bets are you don't know the song "Fool in the Rain," but when you listen to it you'll realize that you do know it. "All My Love" is a good track, a sad one. It was written for Plant's son who died around that time. This is no Houses of the Holy or IV but it's not a bad way to end their career.

Finally, there was Coda. "Wait, didn't you say In Through the Out Door was their final studio album?" Indeed. Whether Coda is a studio album or a compilation is up for debate, but I see it as a compilation, because the crew didn't sit down and write a bunch of tracks. No, they sat down and compiled a bunch of old demos and outtakes that were never released on their albums. If you're still digging some hard rock, look no further- this stuff is from the good ol' days. Plus, there's a track that is described as Zeppelin's answer to punk rock- "Wearing and Tearing." I'll be honest, even though I can't remember each song clearly, they're all great. This is a must for any fan's collection.

----------

I'll admit it, I'm a big fan of Korn. I've got all of their studio albums except Issues, See You on the Other Side, and Untitled. Well, you guessed it, Korn's on the harddrive. Issues? No. See you on the Other Side? No. Untitled? No. Greatest Hits? Yeah. And, whaddya know, there are four tracks from Issues on Greatest Hits.

The tracks from Issues- Make Me Bad, Somebody Someone, Trash, Falling Away From Me- are kinda different. I've read that Issues shies away from nu metal, and leans towards alternative metal. Sounds right. The tracks aren't bad, but they don't receive my praise, either. Not to say that I'm a nu-metal whore, because I'm not, but Korn should really stick to what they're good at. After all, they started nu metal.

Plus, there are two exclusive songs on Greatest Hits, a cover of Cameo's "Word Up" and Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." At this moment I can imagine hordes of Pink fans shouting "blasphemy!" To be honest, I haven't heard all of the original, but I don't have to listen to it to know it's better than Korn's version (but I'll let you know when I get to Pink Floyd). Why? 1) The original (almost) always beats the cover, 2) Pink Floyd is almighty, and 3) Korn isn't the right band to cover such greatness anyway.

-Ben