One middle-aged headbanger goes where no man has gone before. This is an attempt to listen to and review every album I own, from A to Z. This could take a lifetime...
As a band gets older and has been together
longer, and tours become more prevalent than releases of studio albums -
mainly, one assumes, because the audience still wants to hear the same
old songs rather than newer material at the concerts they go to - then
there has to be something that fills the gap created by less albums. The
solution is release live albums of archival concerts (something Deep
Purple has been very good at over the past two decades) and live albums
of recent gigs. Which is where we are here, with From the Setting Sun... In Wacken.
Recorded
at Deep Purple's appearance at the ever increasing popular music
festival held at Wacken Open Air in 2013, this double album covers the
band's entire set list, one that mixes the old and the new almost
seamlessly. And one should never under estimate how difficult it is for a
band like Deep Purple, with 19 studio albums over almost 50 years, to
find the right mix in the set list to ensure that they satisfy their fan
base, young and old. To have the hits, but also to showcase their newer
material so that it is not just a forgotten moment. I think they've
done an excellent job here on this release. The newer material from
the band all sounds terrific here in the live environment, and really
brings to life these songs that may not be as well known by most fans as
their classic hits. "Vincent Price" from Now What?!
sounds awesome, with Airey's keys combining beautifully with Glover's
bass line and Morse's guitar riff. I love the studio version, but the
live version really brings this song to life. "Contact Lost" from Bananas
is an instrumental focusing on Steve Morse's wonderful guitar playing,
and showcases his talent perfectly, as does the following "The Well
Dressed Guitar" from special versions of Rapture of the Deep,
where guitar and keyboards dominate in a brilliant flurry of
musicianship. "Hell to Pay" and "Above and Beyond" from NOW WHAT?! both
come across excellently live, and more than hold their own in this
brilliant setlist. Of the older classic material, it was a real pleasure to hear "Into the Fire" and "Hard Lovin' Man" from Deep Purple in Rock
starting off the album after the typifying brilliance of "Highway Star"
opens the show. Both of those songs are from the great Mark II era, and
aren't necessarily the songs you'd expect the band to play, so hearing
them again was just terrific. Ditto with "No One Came" from Fireball.
It's still great to hear songs from these albums. "Strange Kind of
Woman" and "Lazy" are always great staples, especially when the band
tends to freeform through "Lazy" in whatever mood they happen to be in.
"Perfect Strangers" is always a welcome addition, especially with that
Hammond organ at the start. Don Airey does a great job staying true and
trusted to Jon Lord's original keys, both here and throughout the album
and performance. "Space Truckin'" still sounds great after all these
years, and "Smoke on the Water" features a guest appearance by Uli Jon
Roth to help add to the most played song of all time. The encore is
kicked off by covers of Booker T and the M.G.'s "Green Onions" and then
"Hush", which is still a great song after all these years, and completed
by "Black Night", that old staple that still has people jumping 40-odd
years later.
As always the performance of the band is faultless.
They could probably do this in their sleep, but they sound as brilliant
as ever. The great mix of songs, and the ability of the band to still
play around with the tracks without changing them so much that people
won't enjoy them is fantastic. You may have heard similar on other
recent live releases, but they still never fail to amaze you with their
performance. It may not be an essential purchase, but you certainly
won't be disappointed if you do.
With the dust having settled on the split
in the Queensrÿche ranks, and with each party having released on album
in the interim, in a lot of ways the future direction of both bands was
going to come down to their next release, and what direction the music
went in and how it would be accepted by fans on either side and those
somewhere in the middle. As with the 2013 releases of Queensrÿche's
eponymous album and Geoff Tate's Frequency Unknown,
Tate got in early and had his album out first, no doubt a ploy to
ensure his name was well and truly in the headlines. What mattered more
was always going to be what the album sounded like. The so-called
Operation: Mindcrime's The Key I have recently given my opinion on. This one is most definitely different in many ways.
Queensrÿche's
members, Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson, Scott Rockenfield, Parker
Lundgren and Todd La Torre, have consistently spoken of wanted to go
back to the sound the band had in its earliest days, to a time that the
majority of the fans remember them most fondly. It wasn't about
reproducing what they had done in that time, but finding their roots and
rediscovering their mojo, and using that to produce their new songs.
Given the recent history it was no mean feat and Queensrÿche
was a solid start to that path, showing enough promise is what was
written to have fans thinking they may just be able to do what they
promised. In essence, as a fan, I was looking for a tempo, I was looking
for an attitude and a direction, and I was looking for a commitment. To
me, there had to be a significant movement away from what the band had
produced in the last twenty years if they were going to regain my faith
in them. It was as simple as that. I have a shelf of Queensrÿche
releases rotting away because I could never bring myself to listen to
them again. Forking out hard earned cash for albums that were so far
away from what I wanted to hear that I may as well have just burned the
money instead was something I was not willing to sign up for any longer. What Queensrÿche has produced here with Condition Hüman is perhaps as close as they can ever come to reproducing the same vibe and aura that came with albums such as Rage for Order, Operation: Mindcrime and Empire.
Nothing they do can (likely) come close to what they released on those
albums. But what they have done is moved forward, and put together a
variety of material that bets serves to showcase Queensrÿche in 2015.
Indeed, unlike their erstwhile former lead singer, the music has crawled
out of the slow paced grunge-like material that had been prevalent and
infused some energy back into the mix. Most certainly, the vocals alone
can be pinpointed for this. La Torre's vocals may ring like Geoff Tate
from the 1980's, but his power behind them is what is driving this new
frontier. While the guitar harmonies have returned, and Rockenfield's
drumming is as precise and powerful as it has been, it is the vocals
that help drive these songs into your consciousness. None of the
songs here are particularly fast, if that is what you are looking for.
Over the course of this album and the previous album, it doesn't appear
that excess speed is a part of the band's writing process. The
progressive nature of the music however has returned, with plenty of
melody from the guitars and vocals. Songs such as "Arrow of Time" and
"Guardian" are the most upbeat of the selection here, and they start the
album off on the right foot. "Hellfire" sits back into a heavier riff,
mid-tempo song with Todd hitting those scream notes throughout to drive
it along. It has been a long time since I've heard a Queensrÿche riff
like this. "Eye9" is similar, with its unique guitar and bass chords
settling on a heavier scale, with those amazing guitar harmonies through
the middle of the song. Songs like "Selfish Lies" and "Bulletproof" and
"Just Us" are more of the real comfort nature, settled back in tempo
and sliding along without the big riffs or standout solo breaks - not
power ballads, but tending in that direction. The closing track
"Condition Hüman" has touches of Dream Theater to it, and moves through
many different acts in a similar way, almost like a four seasons song.
Like
a few other bands of their vintage, this is easy listening heavy metal,
very much more in the direction of progressive metal than anything on
the heavy scale. Queensrÿche was always of this inkling, but this
continues that direction. It is a massive step forward from just about
everything they have done this century previous to this, and while fans
of the band will no doubt breathe a sigh of relief that some order has
been restored in the House of Queensrÿche, you may still be left with
that nagging feeling that there is still something that would make it
better than it is. The time for that may well have passed. Nevertheless,
we can be thankful that we can again have an album that isn't just
taking up space on the shelves.
Rating:Do we take for granted what some may dream to have? 3.5/5
So yes, you are right. After the break up of Queensrÿche, and the release of Frequency Unknown
by Geoff Tate's side of the break up, and the extreme averageness of
the music written and performed on it, I did vow that I would not be
seeking out anything further along this path. It had been an epiphany,
that the recent spate of Queensrÿche albums had obviously been
engineered by Geoff, and that style was not for me. I would no longer
have to follow his releases. But I couldn't shake the curiousness. What
if, by some small miracle, Geoff and his new band actually produced
something that came back to the roots laid down over 30 years ago? What
If they did and I missed it? So despite my better instincts, I delved
into The Key to see if I could be transformed.
So
once again I've gone in with an open mind. I've got a pretty fair idea
of what I might find, and I have no preconceptions that this will be a
great album, or a piece of crap. I've played the entire album in my
general 'album listening' places, each one giving me a different
perception of what is on the album - at work at my desk, in the car
while driving, in my 'Metal Cavern' at home while writing, and in my
wingback chair in the lounge room. In doing so I gave the album every
chance to find its way into my psyche, to find its way into a vein that
would deliver it to the correct processing parts of my body, and be able
to take hold. I gave it every chance. Part of the process that was
distracting was Geoff's insistence that he was writing a three part
concept story. Really? Haven't you done this already? Oh well, I guess
Alice Cooper does it every couple of albums so let's just get past that
and listen to what has been afforded us. I guess I'm going to have to
get used to the tempo, which is slow to a maximum of mid-range. No
doubt I also have to get used to the bass guitar rumbling quietly along
the bottom of the album, and the keyboards floating along at the top.
Yep, I've heard this before, but probably not in the degree it will come
across here given the Geoff now has complete control of the direction
of the music. "Choices" acts as the entry point to the story, musically
in just this way. Once it segues into "Burn", the guitar joins the party
in that same grungy way that Tate has made synonymous with his music,
while the drums roll in with the time-keeping role. It's catchy enough,
but what's missing here? What's missing is any urgency in the music, we
just flow along like a slow moving river. No worries, "Re-Inventing the
Future" sounds a bit more like what you would like to hear... in fact...
it does sound like a poor man's version of something from... well...
maybe Operation: Mindcrime II?
Hmmm... yeah, I remember this feeling of slight disappointment before.
It starts off with the right moves but soon loses its mojo in the mix.
It's a shame, but perhaps there is still better to come? In "Ready to
Fly" my initial reaction was, "What's that keyboard? It sounds like Jeff
Wayne's "War of the Worlds!!" Perhaps I am to be mistaken about the
chance of better to come. The story-joining "Discussions in a Smoke
Filled Room" leads into "Life or Death?" which features a guest vocal
from Mark Daly. Despite the slight increase in an upbeat song, and
Daly's welcome cameo, the momentum of the album is barely able to lift
itself from the canvas. "The Stranger" isn't able to improve the mood. "Hearing
Voices" is perhaps the closest Tate comes to an old style song from his
previous band, with the harmony guitars through the middle of the song
certainly showing a significant similarity to the Queensrÿche sound.
"The Queue" puts a stop to this immediately, with the slow treacle-like
music stretching out to eternity, while Tate quietly manoeuvres his
vocals within, and the strange keys and that saxophone moving this song
into waters that are somewhat indefinable. It suddenly sounds like we
are in a 1940's detective show, with the star wandering the darkened
streets trying to find some clue as to where he is going. Yikes. "An
Ambush of Sadness" is a minute and 41 seconds of an inconclusive
instrumental, which is followed by "Kicking in the Door" Where it sounds
like they are bringing in the string instruments, but perhaps they are
just using the keyboards in a different way. Again though, we are just
creeping along, almost lulling the listener off to sleep such is the
slow pace and mostly uninteresting style of the music. Oh, but when the
saxophone comes out in "The Fall", it pretty much puts a big full stop
on all of this. If it wasn't too much of the big atmospheric keyboards
trying to dictate the flow of the song, once Geoff pulls out the sax it
all becomes a bit too overblown and cringe worthy for my taste.
Everyone
who goes to listen to this album should know what they are in for. The
equation is pretty simple. If you enjoy Geoff Tate's stuff, not only his
solo stuff but the last half a dozen Queensrÿche albums, then the odds
are in your favour that you will enjoy this. Any one who feels the polar
opposite of this will no doubt find more disappointment in store if
they venture into this first album of what will no doubt be countless
more with the same modus operandi.
Rating:This ain't nothing, this ain't even a chore. 1.5/5
During the course of every band's career,
given that the course has managed to stay on track for more than a
single album release, there comes a time when it is decreed that their
live shows should be recorded and have it released as a live album. The
live setting is a band's workplace, where the majority of the sweat and
tears are exerted, occasionally stopping in to a studio to record all of
their new ideas to release, before hitting the road once again. The
live setting is where a band is judged, where any flaws are bared naked
for all to see, and where greatness will shine. Eventually, this is
where the top bands showcase their wares.
It has been just over a
decade since Masterplan formed, and while there have been comings and
goings within the group, the music that comes forth continues to be
amazing. Though only Roland Grapow and Axel Mackenrott remain as
original members, the band sounds quite magnificent here. The quartet of
Martin Skaroupka on drums, Jari Kainulainen on bass, Mackenrott on
keyboard and Grapow on guitar sound magnificent in this performance.
Skaroupka's drumming is crisp and penetrating, with every roll as
precise as the studio recordings, which is quite an effort in
translating what Uli Kusch did on those first two albums. His double
kick work is superb throughout, driving each song perfectly. The
combination between both guitars and the keyboards also perfectly
illustrates the initial recordings of each song. The keyboards create a
wonderful atmosphere through each song, while also allowing the bass and
guitar to maximise the bottom end of the live sound. I admit openly
that I was surprised by how full and awesome the band sounds in a live
environment. I honestly thought that with only one guitar in the mix
that it could be missing something. Completely incorrect. The guitar,
bass and keys combine brilliantly and perfectly and boom out of the
speakers. Fantastic to listen to. I mentioned in my review of Masterplan's most recent studio album, Novum Initium,
how impressive new vocalist Rick Altzi was, and that his voice was
similar (if not quite as brilliant) as former lead singer Jorn Lande's
voice. Well, it shines here on this live recording. There are few times
when he has to change his key to avoid replicating the initial songs,
and those few times are completely understandable, and are brushed over
without a fuss. And the rest is just brilliant. It is a similar fit that
Queensrÿche has discovered in hiring Todd le Torre as their vocalist, a
man whose voice has very similar tendencies to former singer Geoff
Tate, but Todd hits all of those notes live and means he can sing their
whole back catalogue without missing a beat. The same works here for
Rick, who is so faithful to every song on those first four albums that
you can barely notice any difference. It's a great talent, and his
performance here cements him as a lead vocalist of massive talent. The
set list is superb, covering every era of the band, and giving the fans
exactly what they want. It starts off with the big hitters from the
debut album, "Enlighten Me" and "Spirit Never Dies", performed with
passion and desire. "Lost and Gone" sounds great, with Altzi crooning
away over the keyboard-dominant song. "Crystal Night" is as hauntingly
beautiful as ever, while "Betrayal" from the most recent album sounds
even better live than it does on Novum Initium. "Crimson
Rider" kicks the set back into high gear, blazing along with the power
and energy it always has, and is followed by the slow burner "Back For
My Life" and "Time to be King", in which Altzi possibly outdoes the
song's original vocalist Jorn Lande. The mid-tempo song trio is
completed by the live album's "title" track, "Keep Your Dream Alive". The
next quartet of songs showcase everything superb about this band and
their music. "Heroes" lifts the tempo again, with Roland filling in the
vocals performed by Michael Kiske on the studio version. This is
followed by the passionate rendition of the magnificent "Soulburn",
which has immense justice done to it in the live setting. I'd have ever
believed that this could be performed so well live. Back into high speed
again, the band clips into "Kind Hearted Light" before the riff
chugging "Crawling From Hell" brings the set to a close. To complete the
album, the encore of "Black Night of Magic" tops off what must have
been a brilliant gig to watch at the Masters of Rock.
Like I said
at the beginning, a live album gives you nowhere to hide - unless you
start dubbing in post-production as often seems to be the case these
days. What does that prove? Surely the fans what to hear the real band
playing, not one where any errors have been touched up later on to cover
them up. The best don't need that, and the best want their live
personas to be out there to show exactly what they can do. Masterplan
has succeeded magnificently with this release, and surely cement their
place in the higher echelons of the European power metal community. This
is a triumph, and all I can ask for now is for the band to tour
Australia so we can all experience the joy.
Rating:And the world is like a shiny diamond, the way it glitters if you polish it right. 5/5
Spirit on a Mission
is the third album released by Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock, a
stable group of old friends that have come together to record and tour
and generally enjoy each other's company (or so I assume). No doubt the
labelling of the group with Schenker's name attached is to ensure that
people who know and respect him and his previous work (i.e. people like
me) realise he is still out there doing his thing, and will therefore
seek it out. Well once again this method has worked, and another
Schenker-related project finds its way to my stereo.
You cannot
argue with the quality of the band itself. Former Scorpions members,
drummer Herman Rarebell and bass guitarist Francis Buchholz are known
quantities, having been plying their trade for 40 years all over the
world. Guitarist and keyboardist Wayne Findley has been in various
Schenker projects before, while lead singer Doogie White has not only
sung with Schenker, but with Blackmore and Malmsteen, so he knows a good
guitarist when he sees one. Michael Schenker himself needs no
introduction. The group of musicians is second to none. So why is there
little excitement in the music they produce here? Perhaps excitement
is the wrong word. There doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for the
task at hand, or any inspiration. That may seem unfair, given the
careers most of these gentlemen have had in the music industry, and
certainly given the score of brilliant songs and albums that Schenker
has co-written and played on. At some point you have to have run out of
ideas, and in recent times that waning has appeared to occur. It's
not a complete loss, but doesn't it sound to you like they are just
going through the motions on some tracks? "Live and Let Live" opens the
album harmlessly, "Communion" is very blues rock based, "Vigilante Man"
has good pieces but no range of emotion in either vocals or music. "Rock
City" is very tame, a song that in days or yore would have been a lot
more raucous and out there, and here is played like a nursery rhyme.
"Saviour Machine" sounds like a heavy riff machine, but one with the
silencer on to snuffle out that hard rock edge. "Something of the Night"
kicks in more like what you are looking for, with Schenker riffing hard
and continuing once Doogie comes in. Here's that passion and energy,
finally! Certainly the best song on the album by a long shot. While "All
Our Yesterdays" remains back in the pack, "Bulletproof" has some
promise, but really just becomes nagging, as Doogie's vocals seem to go
in a different direction from what the song demands. "Let the Devil
Scream" and "Good Times" both seem to me to be at the wrong tempo and
intensity, and while I have grown to take them as they are over multiple
listens, i can't help but feel with a tweak here and there they would
have been much better. The album concludes with "Restless Heart" and
"Wicked", which again have the best of intentions without providing that
vital ingredient that would have made them memorable rather than just
this side of average. There have been times in his career when you
assume Schenker has been looking to crack the radio market, because his
trademark guitar riffs and solos were pared back so much that you would
wonder whether he was playing on the album at all. In a away this album
is a bit like that. The riffs through the verse and chorus parts of each
song are generic, not flashy, and certainly not showing any real
Schenker trademarks. Sure, in the standard solo sections that come in
the middle of the songs, and the fade out at the ends, there comes a
little bit of the lead guitar work, but even it doesn't SOUND like
Michael Schenker, it pretty much comes across as an every day,
lead-guitar-by-numbers kind of stuff. It is completely unfair to judge
and compare, but you really want some of the power and originality that
came from those 1970's UFO days and the 1980's MSG days. The rhythm
section does its job but doesn't create much else. Doogie croons over
the top and sounds fine for the most part, but there's nothing
passionate about it, no Phil Mogg or Graham Bonnett energy.
This
is a very safe album, one that doesn't extend itself too much into
experimentation, and to be honest after 50 years in and around the music
business who can blame Schenker for that. The fact that he and his band
mates are still out there writing and recording new music every couple
of years, while a band like Metallica has released two albums of new
material in almost two decades, at least gives them plenty of brownie
points. If only this album made you feel like banging your head or
moving around more, rather than settling back in your comfy arm chair
and being lulled off to sleep, it would be more likely to entice me to
play it more often in the future.
Following 2010's amazing At the Edge of Time,
which completely revitalised my belief in Blind Guardian after some
years of despondency, it has taken five years for the band's next album
to come to fruition. The band's announcement that they were withdrawing
from touring for two years to concentrate on writing and recording an
'orchestral' album was both disappointing and intriguing. It felt like
an inordinate amount of time to have to wait around for new material and
new shows. Of course, as with most things, before you could blink the
album was here, ready to be played and enjoyed.
From the outset
this is an amazingly written, produced, thought-out and recorded album.
The construction and detail in being able to combine and incorporate
three different choirs from around the world, as well as two full
orchestras, into the framework of the songs on this album is staggering.
This, along with the layered vocals and other tricks and gadgets that
Blind Guardian has added into its repertoire in recent years make for a
full blown recording coming out of the speakers at you. Musically and
instrumentally, it is overblown extravagance, sometimes not allowing you
to know where to turn in trying to decipher what is hammering you.
Lyrically, you want t follow what is being sung, as this concept album
takes up the story first started in the wonderful Imaginations From the Other Side album, and the chase to find the Red Mirror and where it leads forms part of the mystique of this recording. Don't
be fooled by the talk of choirs and orchestras, the members of Blind
Guardian still punch through the exterior and are front and centre all
through the album. I still get shivers listening to Hansi Kursch when he
sings in those dominant passages, his vocals layered each and every
way. André Olbrich and Marcus Siepen's guitars crunch their way into
"The Ninth Wave" with authority while Frederik Ehmke on drums doesn't
miss a beat, holding the whole procession together like a good drummer
should. The songs are all lengthy, and come together in their own Acts
in the telling of the story. "Twilight of the Gods" was the single to be
released from the album, and is a more familiar Blind Guardian song
structure, replete with duelling harmony guitars and double kick drum.
"Prophecies" melds into the brilliant "At the Edge of Time" where the
focus comes in the orchestral backdrop. Any doubts on the band's ability
to produce the heavier side of their psyche are put to rest in "Ashes
of Eternity", where Hansi also utilises the full range of his vocals to
its potential. So too with "The Holy Grail", which rips along in classic
style, a modern version of anything that can be found on those early
albums. "The Throne" and "Sacred Mind" carry the album in the same
mindset. There is a change in tack with the slower and shorter "Miracle
Machine", and finally into the concluding narrative of "Grand Parade" to
finish the album. If I have any major qualms about this album it is
with these final two songs. To me the momentum of the album is hindered
here by "Miracle machine", and "Grand Parade" is unable to completely
recover from this.
As with many new albums in this day and age,
this took me awhile to get used to, and a time to get into it. I can
understand why some long time fans of the band are not as enamoured with
this as others. I can also understand how it would be difficult for
anyone not familiar with the band to try and take this in. There is a
lot there, and familiarities and differences alike can combine to throw
the average listener a curve ball. As with so many albums, if you can
take the time to sit down and listen to it uninterrupted, without
distractions, and be able to hear the different levels and planes of the
music, take in the orchestral movements that are woven within, and
allow the multitude of voices to blend themselves into the voice of one,
then I think many doubters will be able to hear what is special about
this album. There has been a lot made of the orchestra and choir pieces
on this album, but to be honest they don't form as much of the album as
you be led to believe. There is still so much of the Blind Guardian you
know and love here that if you are averse to the other introduced
pieces, you will barely even notice them. This is not a standard metal
album or even a progressive piece. It is Blind Guardian's creation of
rock-operatic proportions, something not to necessarily compare to their
previous work, but to take as a stand alone piece, and marvel at the
talent that it took to create it. If you can do that, then you will hear
an amazing album - one you can enjoy for what it is designed to be.
Rating:They'll wait and sleep, until a new dawn'll save us from the dark. 4/5.
There is always something faintly exciting
about firstly hearing about the possibility of a group of musicians that
you admire getting together to form a project as such, and then
awaiting the prospect of an album being produced by said collected
artists. The fact that the Metal Allegiance idea has been floating
around for a few years with the odd performance around the place means
that this is a fly-by-night operation. The fact that it has now reached
this stage, where an album has been released, is not only a good thing
but bodes well for future collaborative efforts. In theory.
As a
solid core of the band, it is pretty hard to go past the quality of the
three main recording members here. Mike Portnoy plays in his fifteenth
different group since his departure from Dream Theater, helming the
drums. Dave Ellefson of Megadeth fame takes on the bass guitar duties,
while the other guitars are left in the capable hands of Alex Skolnick
from Testament. What they have produced sounds fantastic here, with each
individual stamping their mark on the music. Portnoy's drumming is at
times electrifying though without the time changes his previous band was
renown for. Ellefson's bass guitaring rumbles underneath the surface
like a stalking shark. Skolnick's guitar work is precise and clean, and
technically as brilliant as always. Woven throughout this base are the
assorted guest vocalists on each track, and in places some accompanying
extra instrumentalisation from other guests. No doubt they were able to
apply some of their own style to each track, and in general this comes
across in the final product. Does it all work? As always that is in
the ear of the beholder, because many people will consider this to be a
triumph for the spirit of heavy metal, with so many great artists coming
together and producing an album that combines so many talents, while
others will listen and wonder just how this collection of songs is
anything more than just a compilation. If you aren't huge fans of the
artists involved, or certainly of the vocalists at the very least, then
you will likely not get much out of this at all. Of course, those that
have an abiding love affair with said artists may consider they have
reached nirvana. Lamb of God's Randy Blythe growls his way through
the crunching opener "Gift of Pain", bringing his unique power to the
song, which has the added highlight of a lead solo from Exodus' and now
Slayer's Gary Holt. "Let Darkness Fall" is helmed by Mastadon's Troy
Sanders, with the song started off with a bang before the slow and
quietened middle section showcasing Skolnick's acoustic classical
training, and then building to return to the heavy conclusion you would
expect of the song. "Dying Song" is classic Phil Anselmo, formerly of
Pantera and now of Down. The clean guitar opening that morphs into
Anselmo's deep vocals acts as a lull, drawing you in with its unexpected
slow mellow feel. As the song progresses Phil slowly adds more
intensity to his vocals, and the guitars slowly grow more prominent and
powerful, faster and heavier. It's a real creeper. Multiple listens
allows you to become used to its structure and appreciate it even more.
Impressive. "Can't Kill the Devil" may as well be a Testament song,
because I'm sure this is the way Skolnick wanted to write it, and with
his vocalist mate Chuck Billy on board it tops off the cast. Portnoy's
drumming here is spot on and superb, galloping along in perfect
synchronicity of a Testament song. In contrast, "Scars" combines the
vocal talents of Death Angel's Mark Osegueda and Lacuna Coil's Cristina
Scabbia in a duet of sorts. My favourite song on the album is
"Destination: Nowhere", with Trivium's Matt Heafy on vocals and also
providing a lead guitar break as well. It is not in any way a Trivium
song, and I think the change in style is what impresses me most, as the
combatants fly along on their instruments while Heafy contributes vocals
that are not out of character, but would be somewhat out of the comfort
zone of the songs he writes for his band. This is followed by "Wait
Until Tomorrow" which combines the interesting combination of
Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta and Kings X's Doug Pinnick. This didn't grab me
early on, and I felt that it was perhaps the only song here that didn't
work. Over time however this too has grown on me, and I find it now not
as boring or uninteresting as I did initially. "Triangulum" is an
instrumental, in a very Dream Theater-ish three movements entitled "I.
Creation", "II. Evolution" and "III. Destruction". There is plenty of
scope for additional lead guitar pieces, with six guests given their
chance to perform some free reign, including Matt Heafy, Bumblefoot and
even Anthrax's Charlie Benante, one of the instigators and driving
forces of the Metal Allegiance project from the beginning. "Pledge of
Allegiance" sees the return of Mark Osegueda, and more guitar work from
Benante, Holt and Sepultura's Andreas Kisser. The closing track on
the album is the bonus cover of Dio's classic "We Rock", with a plethora
of artists joining in to pay tribute to one of metal's greatest voices.
Lending their own vocals are artists such as Chris Jericho, Mark
Osegueda, Tim "Ripper" Owens, Alissa White-Gluz, Chuck Billy & Steve
“Zetro” Souza. There is also a bonus drawn out solo section to give
extra guitar solo sections for Andreas Kisser, Phil Demmel & Gary
Holt.
Despite the solid base of the band of Skolnick, Eleffson
and Portnoy, the variety in music here is larger than you would think.
It's not just the vocalists, but the style of each song that differs
accordingly, which means that this isn't what you would call a
completely cohesive album. But that doesn't really matter, as with an
album of this nature it isn't about finding a flow within the
songwriting and performing, it is about being indulgent, and enjoying
the performance rather than trying to balance it out through having a
solid flow on in the music. There is little doubt that if you aren't so
much into the artists that perform here you will struggle to enjoy what
has been put forward. But for anyone who has any notion of whom these
artists are, and what they stand for in the world and history of heavy
metal, then you will enjoy this for what it is - a bunch of mates coming
together to jam, and releasing it for all of us to hear.
Rating:You see the traces of the things they want to be, but only we can see. 4/5
I can freely admit I had no idea what I was
getting into when I came across, and then got, this album. The majority
of the people and musicians involved in the album I had never heard of
before, I literally had no idea who they were or what they did. There
was only one name I recognised, and it was on the reputation of Jorn
Lande alone that I went ahead and took a punt on this album.
And so we have Dracula: Swing of Death,
a rock opera concept album which is based around the story told in Bram
Stoker's Dracula. The project is a dual effort between Jorn Lande,
whose vocals talents have taken him through many projects over the past
two decades, and guitarist-songwriter Trond Holter, someone I knew
nothing about. A little research led me to find he was a member of a
band called Wig Wam, whose song "In My Dreams" was Norway's entrant in
the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, and which Holter had written. None of
that really helped in looking for what direction this album would
progress. Rock opera's can go either way in terms of overall output.
Some can click together perfectly and work from the outset, conceptually
combining the story and the music in an enjoyable and entertaining way.
Others have good intentions but don't quite hold the interest in one
facet or the other. Tobi Sammet's Avantasia project is one that has
continued to work over the years, both through good writing and the
influx of guest musicians. Here we have the band of Holter, Bernt Jansen
on bass and Per Morten Bergseth on drums, with Jorn providing lead
vocals on half of the songs and Lena Fløitmoen Børresen doing her bit on
the other half. To the album itself, and while it does come across
conceptually well, any more than a few listens begins to sort out the
gems from the chaff, and rather than wanting to listen to the whole
album all the way through you begin to pick and choose those songs that
you enjoy and just want to listen to them at length. Jorn's vocals are
as impressive as ever, but when he does songs such as "Hands of Your
God" it just feels as though it is a waste of his talents, whereas a
song such as "Queen of the Dead", where he really delivers an
impassioned performance, is where his best qualities lie. "Queen of the
Dead" is where the band really breaks out as well, especially in the
final half of the song where they all get to showcase their talents in a
fast-paced heavy guitar oriented fashion, not just holding fort while
the story is told around them. Compare this to "Swing of Death", which
has a very 1970's pop movement about it, both musically and vocally.
Sure, it's a part of the story and this is how it has been interpreted,
and this is what you get in a rock opera, a variety of styles. If you
are listening to this just as an album, it does appear slightly off
kilter and out of place. Lena's vocals too swoon with delight, and her
starring roles in "Save Me", "River of Tears" and "Into the Dark" are
excellent performances. The instrumental "True Love Through Blood"
gives the band great scope to show what they can do, and it is perhaps
the best part of the album. The rhythm section sounds terrific, while
Holter unleashes on his guitaring fingers to provide a fast and
speed-laden track that probably stands out because it is vocal-less. The
final track "Under the Gun" returns us to a mid-tempo range with duet
vocals from the two lead singers, with a grand element of whimsy and
emotion as the musical looks for its grand conclusion. While the
performances are again great, just the melancholic and clichéd way the
song is written and performed doesn't do it for me.
It feels
wrong to not give this a higher rating, because there is no doubt that
the musicianship is terrific, and the vocal performances are wonderful.
Unfortunately, for me anyway, I was unable to get through more than half
a dozen listens before most of the songs bored me despite their
excellence. As a middle-aged headbanger from another era, perhaps I am
unable to compromise to accept what this is and enjoy it for that. The
end result just doesn't drag me back in for multiple listens, which is
as good a sign as you can get that it hasn't grabbed me at all.
Rating:I'll paint the world with the blood from the hands of your god. 2.5/5
The one main thing that Battle Beast has in
its favour is that they don't follow the usual power metal or Euro
speed metal path like many of their contemporaries do. they have their
own unique style, one where they mix different elements of both of these
genres along with a pop influence, and cobble together a sound that
both enthralls and frustrates you in the same instant. I like the fact
that the keyboards are here within the mix, but they do not dominate
like some other better known power metal bands. They enhance what is
there but don't overawe the drums and guitars and vocals, and I think
this works for the best. After the promise of the first two albums there
was some living up to do here.
Everything is in order early on,
with "Lionheart" bursting through the seams of the disc to open
proceedings with a bang. From here it flows into the title track "Unholy
Savior" which also lives up to that promise, utilising speed and heavy
emoting in the lyrics to get the best out of the material. When this
band is on song, they are simply terrific. "I Want the World... and
Everything Else" is a barnstorming stompfest, mixing together the high
ranging vocals with hard hitting drums and great guitar riffs. "Madness"
motors along thanks to the double kick driving the song at a decent
clip and a catchy chorus that has you singing along with gusto. The
downside is the slower, ballad-like, dreary songs that really fail to
bring anything to the table. Seriously, if you are going to harp on the
speed pop metal aspect of the music you are writing, then you should
stay in that form rather than then trying to go for the soft rock ballad
style. "Sea of Dreams" enter the album at about the halfway mark and
completely kills all of the momentum that had built up preceding it. The
fact that I abhor these kind of songs probably doesn't help it from the
start, but the crime of halting what had been a pretty good album to
this point is a mandatory sentence. It makes even less sense when it is
followed by the speed/power metal song "Speed and Danger" which again
blazes along with double kick and extreme pitched vocals combined with
the cartoonish keyboards and then outstanding guitar solo break. Why on
earth throw a slow ballad in to break up these songs? Then there is
the very 1980's ABBA-sounding pop revolution "Touch in the Night".
Honestly, it sounds like a love theme from a really bad 1980's teen
movie, something like Zapped! or Revenge of the Nerds. The ridiculous
part about it is that it is rather catchy when you listen to it, but
that doesn't change the fact that it is not in the character of the rest
of the better songs on the album. Ditto that with "Hero's Quest", the
instrumental that has those same kind of characteristics, which very
much brings back flashbacks of the 80's for me. And while "Far Far Away"
is a song that holds its own with the best from the first half of the
album, the closer "Angel Cry" harks back to similar territory as "Sea of
Dreams" and completely crushes the enthusiasm one holds because of it.
Again, I cannot understand the thought processes of finishing the album
with this type of song, after the style that had come in the first half
of the album. Desperately disappointing.
The majority of this
album is tremendously entertaining, regardless of the style of music you
prefer to listen to. What probably holds it back from being a better
album is the amount of experimentation that goes on with the songs on
the album. While a third of the album is excellent fast power metal
based music, and a third probably sits comfortably in that likeable pop
metal genre that makes you smile rather than headbang, the final third
drags its sorry arse in the realm of gagging ballads that doesn't mix
well with the other ingredients. In the long run there is enough here
for me that I enjoy the album whenever it has come up in my rotation,
but those few songs that don't agree with me drag its enjoyment levels
down from where they could have been.
Rating:No way I'm gonna let my dream slip through my hands. 3/5.
For
a band that has been around for over 30 years - even given the down
time that it had with John Bush plying his trade in Anthrax during the
1990's and into the early 2000's - it is quite an achievement to be able
to come up with material in the current time that can compare
favourably with that which the band released into its early years, and
with which most fans will identify the band. It's not unheard of, but it
is rare and no doubt difficult. But here is a case in point. Armored
Saint may not have released a lot of new material in recent years, but Win Hands Down makes up for that brilliantly, and contains some of the best work of their career.
The
one thing that the band has done here better than most of their
contemporaries is not forget where they came from. The music isn't the
same as what they produced in the past, but it has all of its roots
there. This is a modern upgrading of the heavy material the band has
always performed, with great production and performances as well as
great songs overall. The most impressive thing about the album is the
way it all fits together, not motoring along like a thrash metal album
but not pausing breath either. The title track "Win Hands Down" starts
the album off perfectly, before great songs such as "Mess", "An Exercise
in Debauchery" and the brilliant "Muscle Memory" crash you through the
first half of the album. "That Was Then, Way Back When" is highlighted
by Gonzo's 16/4 tom-driven drumming, sounding like a freight train,
while "With a Full Head of Steam" moves even faster. This is then
followed by the headbanging beauty of "In An Instant". "Dive" is the
slower and mellower song on the album, with a melancholic feel to the
song and driven by that style of guitar riff. While it generally isn't
my style of song, and on its own I would be rather ambivalent about it,
but it does seem to fit the structure of the album such that I don't
feel it has an overly negative effect on how I feel about it within the
album. The closer "Up Yours" comes back in your face to finish the album
on a positive note. It's a triumph. This is comfortably a heavy
metal album that doesn't go beyond the music the band has always
released. It doesn't pretend to be what it isn't. The energy levels of
all performers is top notch, each SOUNDS like they are having a ball and
as a result they are putting their best musical foot forward. The
drumming of Gonzo Sandoval is awe-inspiring. The sound he has got on
this album is perfect, and along with Joey Vera's bass provide the solid
foundation that keeps the bottom end sounding brutal. His drumming is
terrific, technically using each part of his drum kit without it ever
sounding like he is trying to dominate or overshadow the band. Along
with his bass guitar Joey Vera also rallies to the production table
everything he has learned through the years, and brings everything
together with a great vibe and magnificent sounding album,
instrumentally and vocally brilliant. Phil Sandoval and Jeff Duncan
trade licks and riffs throughout like the well-oiled machine they are.
This is all brought together by John Bush, who continues to impress on
vocals, sticking to his range and his abilities, and belting out each
song with gusto, but still able to sing a song such as "Dive" without
compromising his talents.
As much as I love Armored Saint's early
albums, this came as more than a pleasant surprise when I first got it.
The fact that it still sounds like the classic Armored Saint but with
that modern production makes it an instant classic. As a result it
should appeal to both old and new fans alike, and for me is one of the
best albums of 2015.
Rating:Seeking adventure every which way, knowing full well there may be hell to pay. 4/5
