Music For All

The AC/DC Box Set is a hard rock collector’s dream. The box contains 17 albums--running the length of the Australian rebels’ legendary career--and Epic Records has remastered each of the titles from the original mix tapes onto heavy vinyl for optimum output performance. Every AC/DC hit imaginable is present in this collection, including the platinum sellers HIGHWAY TO HELL, BACK IN BLACK, and THE RAZOR’S EDGE. The package comes in a hard-shell box with the silver-embossed AC/DC logo proudly stamped on the side.

A sequel to the 2004 set Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978, Rules of Hell rounds up all the Black Sabbath albums with Ronnie James Dio, beginning with 1980's Heaven and Hell and its 1981 follow-up Mob Rules, spending two discs on the 1982 live album Live Evil, then skipping forward a decade for Dehumanizer, Sabbath's reunion with Dio. Some may complain that this skips over a large chunk of Sabbath's latter-day history but 1983-1990 was a time when singers passed through the lineup like grains of sand, and the results were equally transient, leaving these Dio-fronted albums as the last great albums Black Sabbath recorded. Well, at least that's true of Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules; opinion is divided on Live Evil and Dehumanizer but taken altogether, these records form a legacy. Although it is not expanded upon with bonus tracks, that legacy is treated well on Rules of Hell as the four albums are remastered, the set is given good liner notes for each album and it's housed in a slipcase.

Disc one covers the classic make-up years (1974-1979), disc two features the years where they could have been just about any hair metal band (1982-1990), and disc three covers the last bit of the non-makeup years plus the reunion of the original group (1992-1999). If you want a set that takes equal shares from all eras, this will do...

"Russian Roulette," released weeks prior to Rated R, just hinted at Rihanna's sudden desire to provoke. Even with the realization that it is metaphorical, the song startles with its hesitant gasps, spinning cylinders, and verses that are glacially paced, where a cold piano line and the slight inflections in Rihanna's voice are front and center. And then there’s an audible shudder followed by a discharged bullet -- the abrupt end to one of Rated R’s most restrained moments. It’s not the only instance where Rihanna’s rise in fame, combined with being the victim in the decade’s highest-profile felonious assault, added up to a perfect-storm scenario for a creative overhaul. Rated R is more like Good Girl Gone Evil, or Abused Girl Full of Vengeful Rage, not Good Girl Gone Bad, where the only casualties were some dishes.

Songs About Jane is the debut studio album by American pop rock band Maroon 5. It was released on June 25, 2002 by Octone and J Records. The album became a sleeper hit with the help of five singles that attained chart success, including the Billboard hit "Harder to Breathe" and international hits "This Love" and "She Will Be Loved".

Finnish symphonic metal gods Nightwish released their brand new best-of compilation "Decades" on March 9th through Nuclear Blast to celebrate more than two decades of their career.

It appears as though many metalheads lost track of the Scorpions after their whistle-heavy ballad, "Wind of Change," hit in 1991. But as fans who have faithfully stuck by the group's side will tell you, they have continued to issue new albums and tour on a regular basis since then. And while there have been quite a few Scorpions compilations issued over the years, none traced their career over a 30-year span from 1974's In Trance through 2004's Unbreakable. But all that changed with the arrival of 2006's three-disc overview, Platinum Collection. What you get is quite a lot of the expected fare -- some of arena rock's most foundation-shaking anthems ("Rock You Like a Hurricane," "Big City Nights"), as well as Bic-hoisting power ballads ("Still Loving You," the aforementioned "Wind of Change").

Album - Deep Cuts, Vol.1 [1973-1976]. Ever since Freddie Mercury's passing in 1991, fans have seen countless Queen compilations and reissues come their way. And in early 2011, another one arrived, Deep Cuts 1973-1976. As its title suggests, the 14-track compilation is comprised of tunes that were not hits (in other words, don't expect the likes of "Killer Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," etc.). But as longtime Queen admirers know, Queen was always an "album rock band," meaning that many of their albums were all killer-no filler from beginning to end. So as a result, many of their uncommon tracks were quite strong on their own. Spanning the group's first five albums (1973's Queen, 1974's Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack, 1975's A Night at the Opera, and 1976's A Day at the Races), the track list was compiled by Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, as well as Foo Fighters drummer/Queen super fan Taylor Hawkins.

Talk about rockers rollin'! This fantastic four-CD set from the veteran British rockers includes all 75 of their A-sides (many of them being radio edits not available on the original albums) plus Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want), their 2008 collaboration with the German techno act Scooter. Love 'em or hate 'em, Status Quo have been rockin' the charts for four decades. While they remain living legends and rock icons in the U.K., Europe, South America, and elsewhere, they can't even get arrested in the States! The "hip" U.K. press love to take as many potshots at them as possible, which is all the more reason to love Quo.