Instead of admiring or congratulating a band for commercial success, fans often take the opposite tack and accuse the band of "selling out." Godsmack is one of those very commercially successful hard rock/metal bands that have sold millions of CDs and can fill large arenas, but may not receive a lot of love from critics. However, their rabid fan base will be happy with Live & Inspired, Godsmack's first live CD, recorded in Detroit in 2010. It features live renditions of the most popular tracks from their first four studio albums. The second CD is four cover songs, with their version of songs from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Joe Walsh and Metallica.

Read the complete Godsmack - Live & Inspired Review

Other Recent Heavy Metal CD Reviews:
Allegaeon - Formshifter
Dee Snider - Dee Does Broadway
Dreaming Dead - Midnightmares
Emptiness - Error
Firewind - Few Against Many
Freak Kitchen - Land Of The Freaks
Incoming Cerebral Overdrive - Le Stelle: A Voyage
Kill Devil Hill - Kill Devil Hill
Lahmia - Into The Abyss
Malice - New Breed Of Godz
Mutilation Rites - Empyrean
Saint Vitus - Lillie: F-65
Shadows Fall - Fire From The Sky
Tesseract - Perspective

(CD cover courtesy Universal Republic Records)

Here are the new heavy metal CD releases for this week.   For the most detailed and up-to-date schedule, check out our complete Heavy Metal CD Release Date calendar.

May 15, 2012
Alaric & Atriarch - Split (20 Buck Spin)
Furze - Psych Minus Space Control (Fysisk Format)
I, Omega - The Ravenous EP (Bullet Tooth)
Lahmia - Into The Abyss (Bakerteam)
Marauder - Elegy Of Blood (Pitch Black)
Nachtvorst - Silence (Code666)
Never to Arise - Hacked to Perfection (BadGod)
Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power Re-Release (Rhino)
Philm - Harmonic (Ipecac)
Royal Hunt - In The Heart Of The City (Best Of 1992-1999) (Scarlet)
Shadows Fall - Fire From The Sky (Razor and Tie)
Syn Ze Sase Tri - Sub Semnul Lupului (Code666)
Words Of Farewell - Immersion (AFM)

Brent Jensen grew up in a small town in Canada in the '70s and '80s, and No Sleep 'Til Sudbury is a musical autobiography. It covers both Jensen's formative years as he got into hard rock and heavy metal, and also talks a lot about the music. It's an interesting combination of stories from the author's formative years along with profiles and analysis of the music he was listening to. Any metal or hard rock fan who grew up in that era will find something to relate to with this book, and you may even discover some bands from those days that you missed the first time around.

Read the complete Brent Jensen - No Sleep 'Til Sudbury Book Review

(book cover courtesy Edwards Press)

His day job and passion is as a high school physics teacher, but Dave Schalek's obsession is extreme and underground heavy metal.  Every Monday he holds class in the depths of his underground laboratory, bringing you brief reviews of the latest black, death, grind and other extreme releases.  And since he is a teacher, each CD earns a grade.  Under the microscope in the week's lab are Antropofagus, Kraanium, Havok, Pseudogod, Superchrist and Furze.

The underground lab is always looking for new subjects to dissect, so extreme metal labels, bands and fans, if you know of a band we should include, send me an email!

Dave's Underground Laboratory: May 14, 2012

(CD cover courtesy Candlelight Records)