Nice take off on the original Alien movie poster artwork! "Alive" is the twelve-song audio portion of a DVD sporting the same name (featuring an assortment of live video clips off the ’09 North American tour and ’08 Loudpark festival, in Tokyo).

While never having been a fan, some band monikers need no explanation: Slayer, for instance. That’s not all gingerbread houses and sugar plum fairies! Same goes for Sweden’s Meshuggah, a slightly metalized-misspelling of the Yiddish word for "crazy." Lest you think they’re totally about barked (bordering on hardcore) vocal delivery, speed and odd time changes (which is generally the rule), there’s the aptly titled ‘Lethargica’, plodding for nearly six minutes and seemingly even longer. ‘New Millennium Cyanide Christ’ is replete with all sorts of squawking guitar effects, albeit paling in comparison to ‘Mouth Licking What You’ve Bled’. Speaking of the red stuff, a concluding ‘Bleed’ recalls the recent Lamb Of God output.

The success of bands like Dillinger Escape Plan and Cephalic Carnage (particularly in Meshuggah’s near absence from these shores) proves there’s a market, having kept a similar sound alive.