CD of the month (January 2006): Crimson by Alkaline Trio

A triumphant return by the Trio. Their last disc, Good Mourning was a tale of two cities. The first half of the disc was great, the second half was OK at best. With Crimson, the classic Trio sound is still there but the songs on this album are stronger and more even throughout the disc. Every song is very good here, you won't find reason to skip any. Their lyrics are still as ghoulish as ever, with visions of drowning, murder and suicide playing key roles. The production on the CD is crisp and clean and the band sounds more polished than ever. This disc certainly picks up where the first half of Good Mourning left off. This band deserves more recognition than they get, especially when there are bands out there that are nowhere near as good getting tons of airplay. Crimson drips a pool of ****1/2 out of *****.

DVD Review: The Path of Evil

Sorry, but this one should have been titled "The Path to Boredom". Never before has an hour and a half long movie felt like four hours! I will say this, when the killer was involved, it made for a decent slasher film. Unfortunately, the killer shows up every 20 minutes or so. And those are some long, tedious minutes in between. The story goes like this: twenty years ago, a killer called "the keyhole killer" terrorized a little hamlet. The cops caught who they believed was responsible. Present day, the killings begin anew. But how can this be? The killer is behind bars. Could it be the son of a slain policeman, who happens to wallow in liquor and looks miserable all the time, while he's giving everyone attitude? Or could it be the current sherrif? Maybe the Fred Flinstone look-alike Mayor? or maybe the volitile medical examiner? And why is the new killer called "The Harvest Killer"? We may never know. And you won't! Skip this try-to-be-character-driven borefest, unless you just want to fast forward to the killer scenes. ** out of *****.