593. Primal Rock Rebellion / Awoken Broken. 2012. 4/5

Being the middle aged father of three working class husband that I have become over recent years, I knew nothing of this collaboration until its full announcement on the Iron Maiden website just before the album was released. I can honestly say that I was pleased to hear of it.
Adrian Smith is a giant in the industry, and his song writing has always been fantastic. Being a part of Iron Maiden, it is possible to see that he can have his creative talent hamstrung by the fact that Steve Harris has a stranglehold on the writing and performance part of the recording process. In the past he has had other creative outlets outside of his time with Maiden, including A.S.a.P and Psycho Motel, as well as his time with fellow Iron Maiden alumni Bruce Dickinson.
Mikee Goodman is formerly of the band SikTH, which I cannot say I have heard any of. However, his credentials were certainly top shelf from what I have read elsewhere.

From the very beginning, this comes across as refreshingly different and pleasingly not cliched in its approach. Those of us who know Maiden can immediately recognise the traditional Adrian Smith style, and yet it is much different from what most would know from that band. The guitars are a grungier heavier style through the meat of all the songs, and yet still melodically so. The solo breaks are typically brilliant Adrian. Through this, the songs are a different style and yet comfortably familiar. Mikee Goodman is no less important in this collaboration. His vocals fit like a glove to the music, and though I have not heard him on anything but this album, I must say that I am impressed with his singing and writing. Smith and Goodman's vocals also combine beautifully in some of the songs (see especially in "Tortured Tone"). Add to this the drumming of another original SikTH member Dan "Loord" Foord, which is terrific, and this is really comes together as a complete package.

Songs like "No Friendly Neighbour", "Bright as a Fire", "Tortured Tone" and "Awoken Broken" are my favourites (so far) on this album, as much as for the variety they showcase. Goodman's vocal ability is perhaps best appraised in "Awoken Broken", when he gives half a dozen different techniques in the one song, which only enhances the song, not detracting from it. There is almost as much variety in Smith's guitaring technique, and not forgetting the bass lines that he also plays on the album.

Apart from showcasing the members obvious skills both in musicianship and writing, this feels like more than a side project. This feels like a fully fledged band, that has the ability to go as far as the members want it to. Maybe - probably - that won't occur. No matter what, this is brilliant debut album, one that transcends many musical genres, and that will grow on you the more you listen to it.

592. Wolfsbane / Wolfsbane Save the World. 2012. 2/5

To be honest, I always thought that this was a strange move. I guess in the current music environment, where so many bands appear to be reforming to do tours that a tour by the band with a 'greatest hits' package was always possible. But after 18 years, a new album? Could there be anything new? Could there be any magic? Was Wolfsbane that good to begin with?
Anyway, the decision was made, and here it is, the 2012 version of Wolfsbane. And to be honest, it still sounds like Wolfsbane, which to me always sounded like a Van Halen cover band without the brilliant guitar solo's (sorry Jase, but it's the truth) and without being able to pull off the sexual innuendo like David Lee Roth (sorry Blaze, but it's the truth).

This is really the case here. The music on this album could have been pulled straight off Down Fall the Good Guys, such is the sound produced. It all has a very 1980's character about it (and yes, I know their albums were recorded in the 1990's), and it really is out of place in 2012. Perhaps if you hadn't followed the career of Blaze Bayley since 1994 it would have more substance to it. But Wolfsbane's lead singer has done much better for himself over those 18 years, performing not only with Iron Maiden for five years, but producing his own heavy thumping albums under his own moniker. To listen to Blaze's Blood & Belief album, and then listen to this, is to wonder how it could be the same person involved in the writing and singing of those songs.

So this is very tongue-in-cheek, and should be taken that way. But with almost no discernible changes in music or lyrics or subject matter, despite the long gap between albums, this really is an album that is stuck in the wrong time of music history. It is dated even though it has only just been recorded and released. It's fun enough to listen to if you are a fan and know the band, but those from the outside may find that this sits uncomfortably. Even for someone who owns all of their albums, this doesn't sit well.

591. Blaze Bayley / The King of Metal. 2012. 3/5

Given Blaze's track record in the early 2000's with his initial releases after leaving Iron Maiden, he has had plenty of credits in the bank with me. The albums Silicon Messiah and Tenth Dimension and Blood & Belief were all super albums that at least matched what Iron Maiden were putting out at the same time. The last two albums have been good without the spectacular nature of the afore-mentioned albums, and so perhaps Blaze has been eating into those credits.
Still, given that he has come out and named this album The King of Metal he has either put himself under enormous pressure to match the title, or he has succeeded.

As much as I would have liked to be able to report that this was indeed a return to the best that Blaze can produce, it isn't in me to do so. That isn't to say that this is a bad album - it just isn't a great album. No doubt that one of the things about not having a stable band line-up is that you can't co-create an album, and have a vision of this album and future albums. When you only have hired hands, they can't always be involved in the creative process. In this case, I think that has affected the content of the album.

I think the songs vary in great degree from the good heavy material that Blaze has become known for ("The King of Metal", "The Black Country" and "The Rainbow Fades to Black"), to the very ordinary slower ballad like material ("One More Step" and the closer "Beginning") to the confused 'not really sure what this song should be like' material ("Fighter").

I admire Blaze for the way he is continuing his career, and doing so in a cost effective way so that he can get to all his fans all over the world. To be honest, I think that to stretch himself in the future he needs to find himself a collaborator, much in the way Bruce Dickinson and Roy Z worked in the late 1990's together. Someone to help filter the good material he is still coming up with, from the filler that just isn't up to standard.
The King of Metal doesn't quite come up to the standard of his previous material, but it is a damn sight better than the stuff that was recorded on the new Wolfsbane album that came out at about the same time. Stick with your own stuff Blaze, and steer clear of that rubbish!

590. Adrenaline Mob / Omerta. 2012. 3.5/5

Given the calibre of the musicians in this 'project' band (and surely that is all it will be) it was hard to go past it when the album was finally released. Even the announcement that these musicians from 'progressive metal' bands wanted to do a 'straight metal album' helped to excite me. Honestly, how could it miss?

So i get the album, throw it on in anticipation, and the first two listens, I wonder what has happened. I just didn't get it. Russell Allen's vocals just didn't seem to fit at all. What was happening there? The guitars and drums were good, but what was the style of music? It wasn't what I'd call straight heavy metal. Mind you, I am old and a teenager of the 1980's metal scene, so my interpretation of this would be somewhat different from others.

Leave it for a week. I come back to the album with a fresh mind, and suddenly it has changed, mostly for the good. Now I am actually looking forward to the grunging screams of the chorus of "Undaunted". Immediately the album clicked. I got what they were aiming for. The style is so different from what these individuals had done before in their other bands that I just hadn't been able to get past that. With the benefit of having heard the album two or three times, and coming back with a clear head, I could appreciate the music so much better.

So how does it rate? In terms of musicianship, this may well end up being the album of 2012. Russell Allen's vocals have a harder edge to them than is absolutely apparent on his Symphony X work, but they work wonderfully well, and are the driving force behind the best songs here. Mike Orlando's guitaring in places is spectacular, and his work on his solo's in the majority of the songs is stunning. Mike Portnoy's drumming may be surprisingly free of some of the ludicrous rolls and fills that encompassed most of his work with Dream Theater, but its (comparative) simplicity is perfectly suited here, driving each song without taking away the focus of the other members. If there is a drummer out there with a better drum sound than Portnoy, then I don't know who it is, because as per usual it is immaculate here.

Songs like "Undaunted" and "Psychsane" and "Hit the Wall" and "Come Undone" are fantastic songs that have a great feel and groove to them. They are my favourites from the album.
In the long run, only two songs from the album are a disappointment, the ballad-esque "All on the Line" and "Angel Sky", and this is only because I'm not a fan of the power ballad. Most fans of power metal will probably think they are great. Don't get me wrong, the musicianship is brilliant on these songs, they just aren't my style of metal.

Most metal fans will find something on this album to enjoy. It's well worth the few dollars you plonk down at the record store to find out for yourself.

589. Therapy? / A Brief Crack of Light. 2012. 3/5

It's probably not a good sign if your first reaction to hearing of a new release from one of your bands is "wow, are they doing another album!" with a slight touch of cynicism in your voice. Which is pretty much how I came into this album. Following on from their live release of 18 months ago which I had enjoyed, and their previous album Crooked Timber which had had its moments, I was still curious to see what the band could come up with in the new decade.

There doesn't seem like there are many more areas that Therapy? can strip back their sound. It's drums, it's guitars, and it's Andy Cairns' vocals and lyrics. And whereas in the recent past the waters have been muddied, it really does appear on this release that there has been a true effort to rediscover the real Therapy?, the one that came together in the early 1990's.

I couldn't tell you if it is a conscious effort on the band's past, but on a lot of the album it can be said to be successful. Everyone knows you cannot catch lightning in a bottle, so comparing albums over eras is just plain silly. But the overall sound of the album brings back memories of former days of triumph.

Songs such as "Living in the Shadow of the Terrible Thing" and "Before You, With You, After You" and "Get Your Dead Hand off My Shoulder" showcase the best that this band can offer. Others on the album seem far too over the top, as if they are trying too hard to prove a point. Still, the overall feel of the album is that there is a significant effort to get back to the basics of their craft.

For those fans that have fallen off the bandwagon over the past decade, this is worth getting back on the horse for. There is nothing new here, and almost zero experimentation. In a lot of ways, that is the best news most Therapy? fans could ask for.

588. Unisonic / Ignition (EP). 2012. 4/5

This single is the pre-cursor to the debut album from the new band Unisonic, and as a taster it succeeds in whetting the appetite.

What this brings to the table is what you are hoping - up tempo songs with that familiar European power-speed metal sound, powered up to 10 by the presence of Kai Hansen on guitar and song-writing duties, and driven by the still wonderful vocals of Michael Kiske.

Backing up the short and sharp single "Unisonic" is another song from the upcoming album, "My Sanctuary", and a fairly substantial demo version of "Souls Alive".

Then, just to prove these guys still pack a punch, there is a live version of the Helloween favourite "I Want Out", which showcases the band perfectly, and proves that they all still have what it takes.

All in all, this is an excellent EP to set up the debut album's release.

587. Van Halen / A Different Kind Of Truth. 2012. 3.5/5

It's a tough gig as a fan when you wait 14 years for a band to release a new album. Especially when the last album they DID release just didn't work, and the new album brings back a long-lost member of the family. And to be honest, Van Halen was really on a hiding to nothing. Bringing Diamond Dave back into the fold was probably their last resort, given the (somewhat unfair) backlash Gary Cherone received after Van Halen III crashed and burned. But could they make something together that not only was new and interesting that also wasn't so radical that it turned away their fan base?

It would appear that, in order to achieve this, much of the album contains material that was either written or originated in some form from their earliest incarnation from the late 1970's. Whether this was a deliberate ploy to ensure that they kept the feel of the original band intact in this new recording, or for some other reason, is not immediately obvious, but is not a bad ploy given the length of time between albums for the band (14 years) and with DLR (28 years).

I have found that the more I listened to the album initially, the more I enjoyed it. Even the lead song and single, "Tattoo", which I found boring and lacking in interest on its release, began to have me tapping along to it in subsequent spinning's of the CD. Not too much though, it is still a fairly average song. However, tracks such as "She's The Woman" and "China Town" and "Bullethead" and "As Is" compensate for the lacklustre tunes that surround them.

There's not a lot new about this album, but there are some refreshing moments. Roth is never really extended vocally here, but he still performs his job manfully, and his attitude still swanks through the album. What IS pleasing is that Eddie appears to have found his guitar again, and his characteristic licks at times explode out of the speakers like the days of yore. It's good to hear him back once again.

While none of the songs here will likely go on to become classics, it is probably enough that this album delivers no more or less than it promises. The fear was always that it could have been a massive disappointment after all the years of waiting. In the end, it's just nice to have the band back together, and producing an album that is more than listenable.

586. Metallica / Beyond Magnetic [EP]. 2011. 3/5

Given that, of the 12 songs that eventually found their way onto Metallica's Death Magnetic album, I found six were in a good-to-excellent catagory, and six were in an average-to-poor catagory, it was always going to be hard to get into this EP. Let's face it, if they didn't make the cut in the first place, and there were average songs on the album, could they be better than those?

 

Cutting a long story short, the four songs here are OK. Not super, not complete rubbish. All four clock in at about 7-8 minutes each, which really is a bit of overkill, especially when you are trying to retain some sort of interest. There are some reasonable ideas here, and some better than OK soloing and riffs. Kirk's solo in "Rebel of Babylon" in particular is memorable.

 

If nothing else, given this release and the aforementioned last album, it does raise some hope that Metallica may well be getting back to a place where they were in their infancy. they will never produced another Master of Puppets or ... And Justice for All, but neither will anyone else. Cut off the fat off these songs, pulling them back to 4-5 minutes, and you'll have a much better collection. Getting Hetfield to listen to that advice would of course be the more difficult problem.

585. Deep Purple / The House of Blue Light. 1987. 4.5/5

The work that must have gone into getting the Mark II lineup of Deep Purple to reform, and then record that comeback album Perfect Strangers is staggering, and though that is not part of this episode it will be an interesting one to relive in a couple of years time. However, the time between the end of that tour, and the release of The House of Blue Light seemed to have old tensions resurface when it came to writing and recording. While it was said by Jon Lord that Perfect Strangers seemed to write itself, it was not such easy work when it came to the follow up. Writing and recording of the album took place over six months through 1986, with all members of the band later commenting that there was little cohesiveness within the individuals, that ideas were difficult to cultivate and trying to cobble together all parts of the songs into an album was time consuming and problematic.

In the long run, it appears that many of the same tensions that crept up on the group prior to their first dissolution were back again. Ian Gillan spoke about it being as difficult to write and record as the Who Do We Think We Are album, and for similar reasons. Fatigue was brought up as a factor, as the band had been writing, recording and touring for three years straight without a break from 1984 to 1987. Back when Who Do We Think We Are was recorded the feeling was the same, and Gillan said that if they had proper management, they would have made them all go on holiday for three months. Gillan and Glover left the band after that tour and Blackmore followed 18 months later. In 1987 the band were in a similar predicament, looking to capitalise on their resurging fame. Moreso by this time was the difficulty in the relationship in particular between Blackmore and Gillan, one that caused much friction in the band for close to the next decade.
Despite all of this, the album was recorded and delivered, and the world got another taste of the most famous form of the Deep Purple band.

Whether or not you subscribe to the thought that Deep Purple was looking to modernise their sound on this album, it is certainly a much more 1980’s kind of musicianship than what the band performed in the 1970’s, which is as it should be. From the opening bars of the opening track “Bad Attitude”, both Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar and Jon Lord’s Hammond organ don’t take their usual place at the helm of the song. Indeed, initially the album is led by Ian Gillan’s vocals and Ian Paice’s drums, stamping their ample brilliance onto the tracks. What hasn’t changed for Deep Purple is that everyone has their opportunity in each track to make their mark which is an important part of the continued relevance in the music industry. There isn’t as much duelling between Blackmore’s guitar and Lord’s organ as there used to be, and that perhaps is a shame and an obvious victim of the attempt to update to an 80’s sound. What there is though is excellent. Roger Glover’s bass locks in beautifully with Paice’s drums to hold everything together.
The opening of “Bad Attitude” is right in the wheelhouse of 1980’s Deep Purple, and is followed by “The Unwritten Law” which also is favoured by Gillan’s vocal melody and Paice’s drumming. “Call of the Wild” was the first single from the album, and whether deliberately by design or chosen because of its structure, it sounds like a single. The middle songs of the first side “Mad Dog” and “Black and White” are the solid Deep Purple tracks that bolster the album rather than provide highlights, and by that I don’t mean to say they are average songs, they are good solid tracks that are important in the fleshing out of the album. This is then followed by the faster paced “Hard Loving Woman”, a song that could have come straight from the band’s salad days, combining everything that makes this band great. The playing off of Blackmore’s guitar and Lord’s organ, Paice’s drums locking in with Glover’s wonderful bass guitaring, and Gillan’s vocals perfectly emoting the story of the lyrics throughout.
Not everything works to 100% but they are not so dull that they influence the rest of the album. And any real doubts about the album occur in the second half. “The Spanish Archer”, “Strangeways” and “Mitzi Dupree” all tend to overstay their welcome just a little. “Mitzi Dupree” is a song with a vastly different set up and style from every other song on the album, almost in a swing/jazz style of tempo that feels out of place after the hard rock style of song that dominates the album before it. And for me both “The Spanish Archer” and “Strangeways”, if I am to be critical, are a little long without anything much interesting going on. This is all forgiven once we reach the closing track “Dead or Alive”, which rushes at you at speed and power. It is another terrific Deep Purple song that completes an album that was the second and final studio release by the band for the 1980’s.

1987 was my final year of high school, and as a result there are a lot of albums that were released in this year that hold special memories for me. And I had really enjoyed the previous album, so the release of this album was an exciting moment, which also brought the hope that the band would tour Australia again as they had in 1984 (they did not, and in fact didn’t return until 1999). Indeed, the album was dubbed ‘The House of the Red Light’ by my friends group for fairly obvious reasons. Ah, teenage boys...
So this album got a lot of listening throughout that final year of school, and there is little doubt that for that reason I hold it in higher stead than I may have if it had been released at a different time. Because I know that there are other people I know who have come across the album in the years since who hold a much lower opinion on it. And it is certainly true that while I still enjoy the band’s future release of The Battle Rages On..., I don’t find it as attractive as this, and when I had occasion to consider why this may have been, my main reaction was that The Battle Rages On... was released at a time in my life that doesn't hold such strong memories as 1987 does.
Is that the ONLY reason I enjoy this album? I don’t think so, but I think it does explain why I rate it much higher than most of the fan base does. In fact, it is hard to find any reviews of the time that give it more than 3/5, and many are much lower. Some have accused the band of trying to modernise their sound on this album, and thus it doesn’t gell with the fanbase as other albums do, and this could certainly be a point. From not having released an album since 1975’s Come Taste the Band, Deep purple had arrived in the 1980’s 9 years later with Perfect Strangers and now were looking to find their path forward with the reunited line up, and that probably meant finding their place in the new decade. To be fair, they went another step away from it with their next album Slaves and Masters before trying to recover ground with “The Battle Rages On”. Realistically they did not find their mojo again until Ritchie Blackmore’s departure and the recruiting of Steve Morse, and the album Purpendicular in 1996.

My own opinion remains that this is a sister album to Perfect Strangers. It has many of the same qualities, with some strong singles and the majority of the songs solid enough to back them up, and then a couple of songs that may be on the average side. If anything perhaps the band’s strengths are not allowed to shine through here, in an effort to not rebrand as such but to modernise their sound. But I don’t think that takes away from some great songs, and an album I still love very much.

585. Queensryche / Dedicated to Chaos. 2011. 1.5/5

Waiting for a new Queensryche album in recent years has been like waiting for the birth of you first child, and wondering will it be a boy or a girl - the difference being, you wonder whether the Queensryche you love will show up, or the one you are indifferent to. Queensryche albums have had a difficult time trying to live up to the band's initial releases, and one could only begin to guess where their latest release would be trending towards.
Simple answer... it’s like listening to a lounge club act. Is it a truly bad album? No, the musicianship and vocals are as good as ever. But it is so radically different from what I love from this band.
It’s just one of those things. 20 years ago, Def Leppard made a permanent move away from heavy music to begin producing the sugar-coated syrupy stuff they have recorded from Slang onwards. There was no pretence on their part. As a band they just decided that this was the music that they wanted to produce, and you either liked it, or complained about it, or moved on. Queensryche has been on a similar path for over a decade themselves, though it has been disguised a little more over the course of several albums. With this release however, they have completed that journey, and again, as with Def Leppard, there is no pretence.

This is almost a grunge album, more than a decade after this type of music really began to phase out. There are no super solos, there is none of the brilliant intricate drumming that Scott Rockenfield is renown for. There are no super soaring vocals from Geoff Tate. Every song blends into the next. On the first five or six times that I listened to the album, I truly did not know where one song ended and the next started.

I think this needs to be approached from a different angle if you are to get anything out of it. Those who listen to this without any ideas of the history behind the band may well find they enjoy it. Fans of the band who are able to roll with the punches and accept that this is the final direction that this band has headed may also be able to find some goodness in it. Many old school fans will be enormously disappointed.

I guess all I can reiterate as a personal valuation is this; technically in musicianship and mixing, this album sounds great. For someone who still believes that Operation: Mindcrime is one of the five best albums ever recorded, this may as well have been a Coldplay album. And I hate Coldplay with a passion. Et tu Queensryche? Et tu...