This Year's (Re)Model

Indeed, the formula of lightning-fast riffs, thundering blast beats and neoclassical flourishes and interludes (frequently provided by real orchestras and choirs, to label owners' dismay) has been expanded to include thrashy, more traditionally metallic guitars. This, in turn, has changed the atmosphere at shows quite a bit.

"There's a whole front row of kids headbanging, which was never the case at any of our gigs before," says Allender. "It gives you a major buzz to be playing and see a whole bunch of eighteen-year-olds swinging their hair around. You think, "Fuck me, I used to be like that when I was their age.'"

Thornography is Cradle's most mainstream effort to date. Although still ferocious, the album finds the band straddling the same line between extremity and pop that Celtic Frost did on its classic Into the Pandemonium. — Phil Freeman THE DOWNLOAD

The Smashing Pumpkins just aren't what they used to be. The geeky space-rock charm of Gish and Siamese Dream began to die shortly after Billy Corgan shaved his head and uttered, "The world is a vampire." The more recent Zeitgeist reunion drove another nail into the coffin. Relive the band's glory days at its official Web site. The audio page includes a stockpile of live shows (some better quality than others) spanning the Pumpkins' career as well as the 25-track album of b-sides, Machina II: Friends and Enemies of Modern Music. The band asks fans to upload their own audio bootlegs onto the site, so expect the selection to get even better in the future — which is more than we can say for Corgan. (smashingpumpkins.com/audio)