No talk, more rock! And gassy-type foods. That are healthy. Promise. Yayyyyyyy farts.

Cajun Pinto Bean Soup

1 tsp veg oil
2 links chicken andouille sausage, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
3 T brown sugar
2 t mustard powder
2 T chile powder (preferably freshly ground)
2 cans pinto beans, drained
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
3 c chicken stock
basil for garnish

Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the sausage in the oil. It should take you about 10 - 15 minutes. You want it to be nice and dark. Remove from pan and add the vegetation. Cook for 5 minutes. Add sugar and spices. Add the tomatoes and stock. If you want your soup smooth and thick, add half of one of the cans of the beans. Cook for 30 minutes.

If you want the soup smooth, zap it with a stick blender or in the blender. Add the rest of the beans and the sausage back. Cook for 5 more minutes. Garnish with shredded basil. If you've ever been to Bojangle's, this is pretty similar to the cajun pinto beans.

Back to Baby Huey's Top 10 of 2006. Today, we will crack the top 5 with one of my absolute favorite bands of all time, making a serious comeback. Let's recap what we've seen so far.

10. Witchery - Don't Fear the Reaper
9. Light this City - Facing the Thousand
8. Cannibal Corpse - Kill
7. Dragonforce - Inhuman Rampage

6. Amorphis - Eclipse
Nuclear Blast Records
Released: March, 2006

Atmospheric metal with a great growly tinge to it, Eclipse is Amorphis's catchiest, if not best, work to date. I'm going to blatantly plagiarize the one sheet that the label sent me, since it has good concise descriptions of each song. I've edited any obvious propaganda.

1 – Great album opener, heavy and loaded with hooks.
2 – Very catchy, this is the first single in Europe. Not the heaviest track, but a fun listen.
3 – Heavy at the beginning, complete with growls which are somewhat rare on this album.
4 - The notable weak spot on the record. It's just kind of there.
5 - A cool, slower piece with a laid-back, damn near reggae feel.
6 – Again, catchy and heavy. This one will be amazing live, and translates well to the studio.
7 – More rock than metal and very reminiscent of their older stuff.
8 – My personal favorite track, it's again very rocking and catchy. The vocals come through incredibly well.
9 – Up-tempo, fistpumping and great progressions that are incredibly intense.
10 – Amazing guitar work on the outtro. Note that there is 2:49 of silence at the end.
11 - Great, heavy, catchy bonus track.

5. In Flames - Come Clarity

Ferret Records (US only, Nuclear Blast worldwide)
Released: February 7, 2006

Ok, I lost my review of the record. I can't find it. I don't want to write it again. Allmusic.com's is pretty darn good, though:

In Flames' most recent LPs, 2002's Reroute to Remain and 2004's Soundtrack to Your Escape, made them poster boys for the dreaded "evolve or perish" maxim in heavy metal -- a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't dilemma, where the din unleashed by jilted die-hard fans usually drowns out any positive overtures from both new and faithful supporters. However, such was In Flames' talent and reputable cachet coming into these experiments that the conflicting parties appeared to have pretty much fought each other to a draw by the time the Swedes unleashed their next opus, Come Clarity, in early 2006.

Pre-release hype had actually hinted at a more uptempo record, and neo-thrashing numbers like "Vacuum," "Versus Terminus," and album opener "Take This Life" certainly delivered on that promise. But perhaps these were merely calculated concessions intended to get the usual grouches off the band's back, because the vast remainder of Come Clarity sees In Flames getting right back to this "evolutionary" business, and looking for new ways to express themselves through bite-sized melodic metal nuggets. Really, that's always been their standard m.o., and if current material like "Leeches," "Crawl Through Knives," and the superlative single "Reflect the Storm" let their catchy choruses speak louder than their guitars, more often than not -- as long as those troublesome flirtations with nu metal are never mentioned again (and they aren't on this occasion) -- there's absolutely no reason to get hysterical here. Sure, "Dead End" gets little to no traction from doing the beaten-to-death guest female vocal thing (provided by Swedish pop star Lisa Miskovsky) and "Scream" is an embarrassing candidate for one of those Jock Rock compilations, but the only overarching criticism that can be leveled the album's way is that some of its more unconventional offerings (such as the semi-balladic title track and atmospheric closer "Your Bedtime Story Is Scaring Everyone") have their full potential edited out of by the band's obsessive succinctness (that too, by the way, a career-long In Flames trademark).

Ultimately, Come Clarity's trump card may well be those frequent -- if altogether brief -- resurrections of the thrilling twin-guitar harmony runs typical of In Flames' melodic death metal glory years (see "Pacing Death's Rail," "Vanishing Light," the aforementioned "Dead End"). Quite possibly reflecting a very considered act of strategic compromise on In Flames' part, it epitomizes this album's very successful reconciliation of past, present, and future, to come out overwhelmingly victorious in the end.

Josh likes to rock out with his cock out and his ass full of gas

-------------------------------------
Baby Huey - deadofthenight@gmail.com
Metal Director and Host of "Dead of the Night"
Every Tuesday, 10pm - midnight
WXDU, 88.7 FM, Durham, NC

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