Albums Out This Week: W/C 24th November 2008

Not since the Millennium Dome has a project proved so overtime and overbudget as Guns 'n Roses perennially delayed album Chinese Democracy.

While it is doubtful that the release could ever live up to the momentous hype which accompanies it, it is still more likely to gain love than the newest offering from increasingly insipid Las Vegas outfit The Killers. Also, hot on the news of their imminent split in 2009, Coldplay expand upon this year's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends with an E.P which will be concurrently released with a reissue of the album itself.

The realm of Christian rock also gets a shout-out with both the poppier and the darker elements being represented. Remedy Drive take the former, whereas Becoming the Archetype fulfill the role of the latter.

Castanets: City of Refuge

Ray Raposa of Castanets locked himself in a Nevada desert motel room for the recording of the project's fourth full-length album for current label Asthmatic Kitty. Features an uneasy asymmetric weave of sung songs, chants, electronic noise solos and spaghetti-western guitar interludes which evokes the sense of an epic imaginary landscape. Useful if you don't have any landscapes of your own, or you live in New Jersey, or Ipswich.

Shiny Toy Guns: Season Of Poison

Now onto their third vocalist, there could soon be a shortage of women with odd names for them to recruit. Having finished with Ursula and Carah, now it's on to Sisely for the synthpop band's fourth studio album, and first one not to be called 'We Are Pilots'.

Kellarissa: Flamingo

Kellarissa explains it all by way of keyboard driven indie-pop. Despite living in Canada, she sees fit to make 'Flamingo' a multi-language experience, delivering in both Finnish and English.

Frost: Experiments In Mass Appeal

Second album from the UK neo-prog rock artist Jem Godfrey and his band of misanthropes. Taking time out from his pop-writer (he composes songs for the likes of Atomic Kitten) status to concentrate on his own interests.

The Killers: Day And Age

What happens in Vegas in promptly distributed to the world in the case of The Killers. The Brandon Flowers band unleash their third studio-album, a pop-rock release which is certain to be bought by at least a few people.

Guns 'N Roses: Chinese Democracy

Said to be the first in a trilogy of upcoming Guns 'n Roses albums, Chinese Democracy represents the first album from the band in seventeen years and the first with the new incarnation of the band after front-man Axl Rose parted ways with the rest of his bandmates.

Coldplay: Prospekt's March E.P

London's Coldplay release E.P 'Prospekt's March' which consists of seven tracks that were left over from the Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends sessions. These tracks will also be featured on the deluxe version of Viva La Vida... which will also be released this week.

Malcolm Holcombe: Gamblin House

North Carolina American folk singer song writer Malcolm Holcombe  presents a twelve song album and has captured the respect and attention of the musical world.

The Lines: Flood Bank

Indie rock band The Lines from Wolverhampton have turned around another album. Clearly their time with the West Midlands Learning and Skills Council's European Social Fund (ESF) programme did not go to waste.

Vetiver: More Of The Past

After Thing of the Past dropped in May of 2008, Vetiver bring us More of the Past (get it). Headed by American folk songwriter Andy Cabic this latest release gives five more tracks to those who weren't satiated from the album that gave this mini-album its name.

The International Noise Conspiracy : The Cross Of My Calling

The fifth album from the Swedish prog-garage rock band probably best known for featuring the former vocalist with endlessly popular hardcore band Refused. While the two bands may share a political identity, the music couldn't be more different... well, unless it was bal-musette deathcore.

Remedy Drive: Daylight Is Coming

Their first album release on a record label, the DIY spirit of the band's previous decade together gives way to glossy and spiky pop-punk for those of the Christian disposition.

Becoming the Archetype: Dichotomy

Operatic metal which seeks to propagate the message of peace and the saving grace of Jesus Christ via very loud screaming, obviously.