On a recent trip, I made a pawn shop run on the search for some music. Being sick of everything i had and hoping for some random cool music, I grabbed 5 cds that could have potential. I picked a cd each that looked like:

• death metal
• guitar-based rock/jazz
• soft rock
• alternative rock
• techno/electronic

I've heard 3 of the five and none of them suit me. Here's a brief review of what I heard.

Alien Factor - Arterial Spray: With a song named "Ants, Sheep, Drunks, and Whores", I thought I found something worthwhile. What it really turned out to be was a lot of drum machines, samples, guitar chords distorted to the point of noise, and distorted, unintelligible vocals. And I did listen to the whole album. I was waiting for anything to happen and make me go "cool." It didn't happen. I'm certainly not a fan of lyric lines sung (shouted) and one word per beat, or one per bar in some songs. You have to have a bit of thought in your lyrical rhythm.

Cud - Asquarius: I though this was alternative rock. I guess it is. It was done in 1992 and the group had 4 other albums at the time. The singer's voice was starting to grow on me near the end, but the music didn't have anything interesting in it.

John Sheldon - Boneyard: I thought this would be guitar rock. It turned out to be kind of blues/borderline country. Like the others, there was nothing exciting or interesting on the album. This was the best produced and sounded radio-worthy, but eh... who to play it to.

I have two more to go. Soft rock, which looks like a female keyboardist, and electronic, which will probably be the winner in my $10 investment.