Two things. One, I seem to remember you digging In Flames, but their newer stuff is kind of crap. Not that I'm making a dig or telling you to listen to their more "death metal" records, but if you like their melodic side then their are albums far superior. Clayman was the first album by them I ever heard and I have a soft place in my heart for it. It's no more death metally than their newer stuff, so that shouldn't be a problem, but it has much more of a Maiden vibe. It also reminds me of a vaguely extreme metal version of Cheap Trick with it's relatively simple, poppy approach to metal. This should make your head bang as well as your toe tap.





And secondly, all of the Bathory albums I suggested are about vikings. It was sort of Quorthon's thing.

This was the point that I was making earlier on with you. For example, you've chosen not to review the really well known Motorhead albums but instead have gone with one of the lesser known ones. The simple fact is, you know the Motorhead discography and so you know how "Bastards" relates to the rest of it. Whereas with Sepultura you don't know and avoided the albums most representative of the band. It's ok veering left of field but it will hardly give you the true picture of the band, if you weren't already familiar with them.

Nice review and I normally call them Alternative Metal (that complicates stuff though as so types of modern metal can fall under this) I still wish you'd give a mark or quick indication of how good you think the album is, as you do on your bite size journal.

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Okay, now somebody is messing me about! What are the chances that on three separate instances I could come up with three separate random bands, all from Brazil? Well it's happened: here's another one, and yes, they're unsigned.
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However there is literally no musical output mentioned from them, despite the fact that they have been together since 2001! So moving swiftly on, and this time we have our first Russian band, this time an actual signed band, but I would think the chances of getting any music from them are slim to say the least.
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Daemonlatreia have one album, released in 2002, and then a compliation released in 2005 --- hold on a moment! How can you compile from one album?? Well, as expected there's nothing to be had from them, so on our way we go, and the next one up is another unsigned band, this time from merry old England, little closer to home.
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Sadly, Taurea only have two demo tapes and the chances of any of their music being on YouTube are, as expected, minimal. Sigh. Fourth time lucky?

Doubt it. We're back in the land of Mardi Gras, with a death metal band who have one EP to their name. Oh cruel Metal Gods, why do you mock me? Is it because I hate death vocals so much, or laughed at Morbid Angel? :(
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Well... surprisingly, I see YouTubes! So let's see how much of it there is. Meh, about three vids. Not enough to even review their one and only EP. Well, from the sound I'm not too disappointed that we can't sample the full delights of "Danse macabre". But here are two videos to give you an idea what Dissidium are like.

Yes, very nice guys but we have places to be, people to meet. We must move on. So push the button baby!
Okay, our last foray into the world of random bands brings us to Italy, and though these guys have an album (released this year) I can't find it and there are only two YouTubes available, which I'll drop in here.
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They're shown as "progressive melodic death metal", and hail from Venice. They've been together since 2009, and look to be a sixpiece.


So that's it for another week. Total failure this time around: didn't find even one band with a catalogue, album or EP I could review. Still, took us a little around the world, eh? Yeah I know: you've gotta smile, otherwise you'll be firing up the chainsaw and heading out looking for victims! Ah well, one more week to go. Perhaps we'll have better luck in the final week of Metal Month.

Yeah, but that's cos I know Motorhead reasonably well. If I knew Sepultura I could have chosen a better/more relevant album, but since I didn't, and time was after all pressing on me, I looked in most cases for something that just drew me to an album: I like bright shiny things! Sometimes it's a sleeve, sometimes a title, sometimes the subject matter. Then again I often go for debut or last album, or as I already said it could be that I need an album recorded in a time period different to the one for the album I've just reviewed, ie I don't like to review three albums from the 80s together, or whatever.

Also, I'm not trying to build up a picture of any band I don't know, just attempting to include as many diverse bands and subgenres as I can, so that nobody can say they were left out. Though of course some will --- "Why no pirate metal? Why no stoner doom? Why no ---" SHUT UP!!!

Thanks! I pretty much hated that album I must say. Had no idea what to expect, which is an interesting position to be in when reviewing. I'm not sure what way you do it, but for new albums, generally, I tend to review on the first listen, so I get all my first impressions down from the word go. Probably not the best way to do it, but it works for me more often than it doesn't.
Oh, okay okay! Watch this space...

Okay, well as most of you know here I'm a huge Iron Maiden fanatic, and have already reviewed "The number of the Beast" here

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1199777,

their debut self-titled here
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1140045,
"Brave new world" here
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1049293
and even "Virtual XI" here
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1101902 (a less than glowing review, I'll admit).

I've even written an entire section on them in my "Taking centre stage" series, back in 2011, here
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1105793,
and I would not be at all surprised to find me reviewing "Killers" before Metal Month wraps up.

But right now I'd like to take a look at one of their most famous and loved albums. Although it's true that "The number of the Beast" is my favourite of theirs, and is, as the section claims, one of the "Albums that changed my life" and awoke in my heart the delights of Heavy Metal, this must also go down as a very instrumental part of the
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Powerslave --- Iron Maiden --- 1984 (EMI)
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Any Maiden fan will tell you --- hell, any metal fan will tell you --- this was the album where Bruce and the boys really hit the pinnacle of their creativity. Sure, I love "Number of the Beast" and "Piece of mind" was a great album, and "Somewhere in time" had its moments, but nothing ever quite got it as perfectly on the nose as this, their fifth album overall and their third with Dickinson. After the immense commercial success of the prior two albums, they perhaps took a chance by having one with only eight tracks, one of which was almost fourteen minutes long, but though the singles from this album would not perform perhaps as well as had previous ones, it was a critical and fan favourite, with its varied themes and references to classic literature and history.

With its striking cover fans were left in no doubt that Eddie was back in power; having been depicted as a madman on the cover of the previous album he was now shown as a god being worshipped in ancient Egypt. With no lineup changes and the band seemingly happy to be playing together, this is one of the tightest performances Maiden have achieved on record. It opens with "Aces high", a tribute to the fighter pilots who fought the Battle of Britain during World War II and foiled Hitler's plans to invade England. Kicking off with the traditional twin guitar attack the band has become famous for, it's not long before Bruce screams in like a diving Spitfire himself, his voice never in better shape. Nicko McBrain on the drums sounds like shattering flak in the sky as the clouds light up with tracer fire. Like many of Maiden's songs it has a really great hook in the chorus, and of course a superb guitar solo as throughout the album Adrian Smith and Dave Murray good-naturedly struggle to one-up each other with the most fluid and effective solo. The tempo doesn't slow for a moment (this is an Iron Maiden album, after all!) as we hammer into "Two minutes to midnight", with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

With something more of a sense of boogie in it, it's somewhat less frenetic than the opener but still heavy as hell as Bruce yells "We oil the jaws/ Of the war machine/ And feed it with our babies!" There's a lengthy solo on it which is more like an instrumental break than just a guitar riff, and the song is followed by one of the few Maiden instrumentals of their career. There hasn't, at this point, been one since "Killers", and so far we've yet to hear another one as of the time of writing. It's of course a vehicle for Smith and Murray to show off what they can do, ably aided by the somewhat nuts Nicko, and "Losfer words (Big 'orra)" is good, but I would perhaps have preferred a full song. Still, what are you going to do? It does lead into the powerful "Flash of the blade", which allows Bruce to indulge, at least lyrically, his love of fencing. With a great rolling guitar intro it's mid-paced for Maiden, with guitars changing to grind mode as Dickinson begins the vocal, and the lyric pays I believe something of a nod back to "Sun and steel" from the previous album.

Not surprisingly, it's written by the vocalist, one of two on which he writes solo, though he does collaborate on two others. I must say though I find "The duellists", which comes after it, extremely similar in lyrical theme and yet it's Harris that writes this. It's almost as if he said to himself, well if Bruce can write a song about fencing and duelling, so can I! Trouble is, he's not nearly as good at it, and I say that knowing how great a lyricist Steve is, but Bruce has practical knowledge and experience of fencing, and though this is not the same song it is quite similar. It's almost "Tailgunner" to "Aces high", and I just don't see why two songs so near to each other in theme had to be on the same album? It is a great song though and Bruce excels himself on the vocal, with the boys racking out solo after solo.

Then we're looking back again, to the seminal "Number of the Beast" album, as we find ourselves "Back in the Village", a sequel to "The Prisoner" of course, from that album. It's a continuation in every way, as the protagonist tries to escape from the mysterious place in which he has found himself, knowing it's unlikely he ever will. A big barrage of guitar riffs opens the song, and it trips along at mega-fast speed on the back of McBrain's manic drumming. In structure and melody it's actually fairly close to "Aces high", showing up a slight flaw running through this album, classic though it certainly is. There are a few ideas which appear to be recycled through the album, and I'm not sure why that is. The title track then looms large with its dark voices, wind effects and spooky noises, as a dark evil laugh gets the song going, a definite eastern tinge to the melody as we hear the lament of a god who does not want to die: "Tell me why I have to be a powerslave?/ I don't want to die/ I'm a god, why can't I live on?" The song rattles along on the twin rails of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray's guitars, while Bruce revels in the dark persona of the pharaoh he portrays. Steve Harris keeps an ominous bassline going like a guard at the mouth of the tomb, maintaining watch for the return of the god.

Nice introspective guitar solo in the middle as the whole thing slows down, then the solo changes to a fast metal one (possibly the two lads taking turns, I don't know) as it takes off again, thundering towards its conclusion with a big hammerpunch at the end. At just over seven minutes this would be the longest track on the album were it not for the closer. Closely modelled on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem of the same name, "The rime of the Ancient Mariner" runs for a total of almost fourteen minutes, twice as long as "Powerslave". It starts with a galloping guitar intro as Bruce sings the opening verses, slightly modified for the lyric, telling the tale of the unlucky sailor who kills the albatross and thus brings a curse down on his fellow crewmen, their ship becalmed in strange seas.

The most effective and memorable part of the song is in the midsection, where Steve Harris's bass takes over, pulsing like a slow heartbeat, and the sounds of creaking timbers and the wash of the still sea paints a deathly scene as the mariner watches his friends die before him as Death extracts his toll, but he does not die himself. Bruce's voice intoning the verse is like a pronouncement of doom upon the head of the Ancient Mariner, as he wonders what will happen to him. By now we're halfway through the song and on the back of guitar it begins to pick up again, Harris's bass still carrying the tune until Bruce screams in triumph as the albatross falls off the mariner's neck and the ship begins to move, the wind starting to blow again, taking him in the direction of home. A fine solo from one or the other (impossible to say which) covers the ninth minute of the piece and takes it into the tenth, then in the eleventh it returns to the original melody from the beginning of the song. A real triumph, the longest Maiden song ever written, a fan favourite and a storming way to close a brilliant album.

TRACKLISTING

1. Aces high
2. Two minutes to midnight
3. Losfer words (Big 'orra)
4. Flash of the blade
5. The duellists
6. Back in the village
7. Powerslave
8. The rime of the Ancient Mariner

Just another of the many reasons why Iron Maiden rose to, and remain at, the top of the heavy metal tree. This album is a true classic, an amazing achievement and a real crosssection of what this band is capable of. Scoffing at the erroneously wideheld belief that metal bands only sing about women, beer, motorbikes and fighting, Maiden showed the power and breadth of their songwriting skills on this album, and that they could stand toe to toe with the best of them. They introduced culture into the lives of fans who had, probably, in the main, not been exposed to or interested in it before. Hordes of headbangers who before this album had no idea who Samuel Taylor Coleridge was, and cared less, now sing at the top of their lungs lines from a poem written in the nineteenth century. How's that for progress?

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Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Maiden

I'm starting to think about doing a themed week or month. Any advice?

You sound like a magpie.

I love SOD but I suggest for you to really appreciate the album's quality it needs a few listens. How often do you listen to a new album before reviewing it? I ask this as I often find that I've been too hasty sometimes in dismissing certain albums and also it's important to be in the mood to listen to certain albums as well.

Well the obvious would be the beatles, but why not maybe do four (if there are) one on each Beatle's solo work? You know, Lennon one week, McCartney next, then Harrison and ... oh. Well, maybe three. :D

It's hard to say. Sometimes it's nice to go for something a little unexpected. People knew I was into metal but not the heavier/nastier stuff, which I'm not, so I thought it might be good to do a whole month which would allow me to explore bands I have never heard, see if I could hear what the likes of the Batlord hears when he racks up High on Fire or Morbid Angel (I don't) and also to prove I wasn't afraid to at least listen to bands like Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Slipknot and Carcass. Now at least I can say I have.

But it would have been much more predictable for me to have done a Prog Rock month (may still do) or even an AOR one, because these are my primary areas of interest. I don't know yours, so really, as a certain Samuel Clemens once said, or to paraphrase him, the best person to make that decision is you. You know the music you're into better than anyone. Maybe you're a closet jazz fan? Into punk? Hardcore electro? Without knowing your tastes it's impossible to know. I saw you did a thing on video game music, but would that stretch for a whole month? A month of solo artists? A month of instrumental music? A month of music from around the world, a different country every day?

The possibilities are endless, but if you do a month rather than a week you'll have to bear two things in mind: one, you will pretty much need to update every day to keep the interest going. Two, you'll need more than album reviews or people will get bored. You need some sort of overarching theme to link the weeks, like I did with The Meat Grinder and to a lesser extent The Metal That Made Me. Oh, and it'll need to be a subject popular enough to again keep the interest, so a month of Norwegian Noseflute Music probably ain't gonna cut it. I know, that's three things: I suck at maths.

Just think about it and see what you decide on. Maybe signpost it a while beforehand as I did, see what if any interest there is. And be prepared if you go for the big one: I researched and reviewed for two months before I let Metal Month hit the journal. There's a lot of work involved, and once you start you're in; there's no turning back!

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DEATH: Considered one of the earliest and most revered Death Metal bands. Death (metal band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DEATH METAL: Subgenre characterised by rapid-fire drumming, speed guitar playing and growled vocals. Death (metal band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DEEP PURPLE: Seminal metal band who defined much of the style of what followed. Notable members were Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore and Dave Coverdale. Deep Purple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DEF LEPPARD: Though later scorned as taking the AOR route to commercial fame, Leppard began as a hard rock/heavy metal band and are seen as one of the leading lights of the NWOBHM. Def Leppard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DeMAIO, JOEY: Bass player with Power Metal band Manowar. Joey DeMaio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DIAMOND HEAD: A band who never quite made it but were very popular initially. Still around today but nobody seems to really care. They were, however, an influence on one of the biggest thrash metal bands of the 80s/90s, Metallica. Diamond Head (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DICKINSON, BRUCE: Frontman and vocalist for Iron Maiden. Bruce Dickinson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DIO: Band formed by Black Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio which became a massive influence on the metal scene then and afterwards. Still cited as a big influence by most bands. Dio (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DIO, RONNIE JAMES: Creator and founder of the band Dio, Ronnie sadly passed away in 2010. Ronnie James Dio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DOOM METAL: A subgenre that typifies slower, more plodding and grinding music, with melancholic or despairing vocals and lyrics usually about hopelessness, dread, death and fear. Doom metal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DRAGONFORCE: Poster boys for poseur metal, Dragonforce get a lot of stick for "playing at" being metal, running off searing riffs but not really creating much in the way of song structure or melodies, and basically copying other bands. "Metal 101" or "Shredding 101", in other words. DragonForce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DREAM THEATER: Progressive Metal band who polarise opinion: you either love or hate them. Known for long, convoluted instrumentals in long, convoluted songs. Dream Theater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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EDDIE: Massive and often animatronic mascot of Iron Maiden, who has appeared on every album cover since the first one, in various costumes and identities. Eddie the Head - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ELLIOTT, JOE: Lead vocalist with Def Leppard. Joe Elliott - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ENTOMBED: Death Metal band from Sweden. Entombed (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EPICA: Progressive Metal band from Holland. Entombed (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EUROPE: "Hair metal" band best remembered for the smash hit "The final countdown". Europe (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EVANESCENCE: US Gothic Metal band who had some chart success initially but have faded mostly away from the public eye now. Evanescence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EXTREME METAL: Not so much a subgenre as a sort of catch-all description covering the likes of Speed, Thrash, Death and Black Metal, often taking influences from each.

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FATES WARNING: American Progressive Metal band. Fates Warning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

FEAR FACTORY: Influential Metal band who disbanded in 2002. Fear Factory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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GIRLSCHOOL: One of the first all-female Heavy Metal bands, they were identified closely with Motorhead and flourished around the time of the NWOBHM era. Girlschool - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GRAVE DIGGER: German Power Metal band. Grave Digger (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GREAT WHITE: American Metal band sadly best known now for the tragic gig they played at Rhode Island in 2003 in which fireworks were used and the place burned down, taking the lives of one hundred people. Great White - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GRINDCORE: An extreme subgenre of an extreme subgenre, Grindcore takes noise to new levels, with incomprehensible vocals, distorted guitars, blastbeats and songs that are often less than a minute long. Grindcore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GUNS N ROSES: One of the most famous recent and most commercial Metal bands --- some would say they weren't even true metal. Possibly more in the Bon Jovi category, whom nobody would class as any sort of Metal! Guns N' Roses - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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HALFORD, ROB: Legendary singer with classic Metal band Judas Priest. Rob Halford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HAMMERFALL: Power Metal band from Sweden. HammerFall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HARRIS, STEVE: Bass player, songwriter, creative force and founder of world superstar Metal band Iron Maiden. Steve Harris (musician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HEADBANGING/HEADBANGER: Also known as Headshaking (though not Headshaker), this is the process by which fans, usually with long hair, shake and sway their heads from side to side and up and down while listening to Heavy Metal music, usually live. Headbanging ranges in levels of ferocity, from gentle swaying to violent, brain-jarring reflexes. Headbanger is also a term for a Metal fan, though these days Metalhead has taken over mostly. Headbanging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HELLOWEEN: Revered Power Metal band from Germany, a huge influence on the subgenre and on Metal in general. Very instrumental in the rise of Power Metal as a force in Germany. Helloween - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Super collider --- Megadeth --- 2013 (Tradecraft)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_Megadeth.jpg
So what would Metal Month be without something from Metallica? Well, that's coming later, but right now I want to look at the new album from their "sister band", which some might consider the evil or ugly sister, Dave Mustaine's Megadeth, who released their latest album a few months ago. It's the first one to be self-released on his own label after he had problems with longtime label Roadrunner, and Megadeth's first return to the studio since 2011.

"Kingmaker" opens the album with an ominous little bassline and the sound of helicopter blades before the guitar and drums crash in, pulling the song along in a nice uptempo but not breakneck speed. I've always liked Mustaine's voice, and prefer it in fact to that of James Hetfield . He has a growly tone to his voice which makes it menacing without descending into the sort of snarls that so often make metal vocalists indecipherable. The guitar work is great too, both from Mustaine and Chris Broderick. I hear little snatches of the melody from Motorhead's "Ace of spades" in here, and it's a great opener, smashing into the title track which rides along nicely on a thick guitar line, and it's guitar that opens "Burn!" which rocks along with a sense of a harder, heavier ZZ Top meeting Deep Purple.

"Prepare for war" is the fastest and heaviest on the album yet, but it's not for me. Bit too simple in its construction and well, just doesn't do anything for me. Even the addition of the Shannon Irish Rovers Pipe Band can't rescue it: hey, I hate bagpipes! Bagpipes? On a metal album? Better believe it! Much better is the almost melancholic "Off the edge", even given Mustaine's frankly annoying rhyming verses. There's cello and violin (yeah) in "Dance in the rain", with a guest vocal from Disturbed's David Draiman. I haven't heard Disturbed before, but I'm not mad about the semi-rap vocal, although it gets a little better as the song picks up.

Great guitar solo and it really kicks in for the last minute, notching up the speed seriously. Great drumwork from Shawn Drover, really driving the rhythm, then a thick dark bass opens "Beginning of sorrow", which actually sounds quite symphonic/gothic. It features some backing vocals from Mustaine's own daughter, Electra, one of two songs she provides backing vox on. Things get weirder with banjo in "The blackest crow", also fiddle, the song providing a dark, dramatic sort of sound. Quite a commercial sound, if that can be said of Megadeth, to "Forget to remember": could be a single maybe? The second track on which Electra sings backing vocals, it's one of the better tracks with a really cool hook that remains with you after the album is over.

Speaking of the end of the album, we're nearly there, with just two tracks to go. A deceptively gentle opening to "Don't turn your back", slide guitar from Mustaine in a very bluesy feel, then it pumps up to full speed, Drover hammering the beat like a man possessed. Great anger in the song, and we close on a cover of Lizzy's "Cold sweat". It's a good version, but nobody's ever gonna beat John Sykes on that solo. Plus given that it was inadvertently part of Phil Lynott's swansong, it just feels, well, wrong to hear anyone else sing it. Great track though.

TRACKLISTING

1. Kingmaker
2. Super collider
3. Burn!
4. Prepare for war
5. Off the edge
6. Dance in the rain
7. Beginning of sorrow
8. The blackest crow
9. Forget to remember
10. Don't turn your back
11. Cold sweat

So it's another fine album from the people who brought you "Peace sells", "Rust in peace" and "The world needs a hero". Nice to see Megadeth experimenting with some instruments usually considered outside the sphere of heavy metal --- unless you're playing progressive metal --- like violins, cellos and banjos. Perhaps not so much of the bagpipes next time though, eh guys? All in all though a good album; perhaps not a great album but certainly not a disappointment. Very solid, with some very decent tracks and some quite excellent ones. Proof that Megadeth can still hold their heads up as one of the major metal bands of the last quarter-century, and go toe to toe with any newcomer who cares to try his luck.

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Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megadeth

Me too, but what do the Stormtroopers of Death have to do with System of a Down?

I'm sure someday I'll listen to more of Megadeth's newer material. I used to be a hardcore Megadeth fanatic when I was in high school after all. But The System Has Failed and United Abominations are the definition of mediocre. If any other band had released those albums they would have been dropped by their label and been back to flipping burgers. The third rate political/religious ranting doesn't help either.

Reckless and relentless --- Asking Alexandria --- 2011 (Sumerian)
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A band formed in Dubai in, uh, sometime before 2008, they reformed -- that is to say, re-formed not reunited: this is a new band with only the founder Ben Bruce remaining from the original lineup, and he is at pains apparently to make it clear this is NOT the same band --- back in good old Blightly in 2008 and have so far released three albums, the most recent of which came out this year. They're described as both Metalcore and Electronicore, which is intriguing if not a little confusing. Let's see if we can solve the mystery.

With a sound like marimba or vibraphone or something, "Welcome" is a short, gothic-sounding little instrumental moving at mid-pace with what sounds like strings of some sort, but of course it's an introduction to the album and things get going properly with "Dear insanity". The guitars are hard, the drumming powerful, the pace pretty frenetic and the vocals, well, completley indecipherable, somewhere between a scream and a growl, sometimes with both. Oh, and then clean vocals too, so that I can at least hear that the guy can sing. Whether this is the same guy singing all the vocals or not I don't know: Danny Worsnop, who also plays the synths, seems to be the main vocalist with Bruce providing backing, so maybe it's he that's growling and/or screaming?

As ever, it's a pity because when the vocals are sung properly the songs seem quite decent, but when those growls, howls, screams and roars cut in it just ruins it for me. Yes I know: don't you have a pretty dress to put on? :rolleyes: Look, I just hate vocals I can't make out, all right? "Closure" starts out with sort of an industrial, mechanical feel on the synth, hard churning guitars and more growls, though my copy says Ben Bruce takes the main vocal here. Doesn't sound that much different I have to say. Lots of power, anger and energy with some fine guitar riffs and a sense that this could be almost commercial if it wasn't for the, ah, unorthodox vocals.

Beautiful atmospheric synth with bubbly sparkly keys jumping along it and a drumbeat that would surely be more comfortable in a trance or techno record --- guess this is where the "electronicore" tag comes in --- which makes it a little confusing as to whether this band can really be taken to be metal at all. "A lesson never learned" has some very orchestral synth, and too much ragged growling for my liking, but quite a decent hook, with a sort of vocoder part that wouldn't be out of place in a song by one of these modern boybands. Wow. Confusing it certainly is.

That confusion grows with the onset of "To the stage", which has so many different elements in it that it's just hard to pin down, and then "Dedication" is, well exactly that: a spoken dedication backed by a heavy synth line and slow thumping percussion. Short, but it's actually very good. It's some guy called James Murray speaking. Then "Someone, somewhere" is a good rocker with still quite a bit of electro in it, and "Breathless" kicks up the tempo a little more. Ah yes, there are the growls. Why don't these guys just get a job on "Dr. Who" and be done with it? ;)

Growls and vocals kick off "The match", with a galloping drumbeat, then it slows down into something of a --- well, not quite a grinder, but slower certainly. Uh, yeah. Then it speeds up again and kind of metamorphoses into a trance track? Um. Great metal guitar work as "Another bottle down" gets going, then it goes into a kind of indie/post-rock vibe, throw in some orchestral synth and neoclassical piano, and I'm just about swamped by influences here. Powering on into the title track which has a good rock/metal feel though a little too much screaming and "Whoa-oh-oh!"s for me, to finish on "Morte et dabo", which goes all gothic again, with a choir opening it then descending into a breakneck metal track with screaming, growling and shouting. Yeah, okay: I'm done.

TRACKLISTING

1. Welcome
2. Dear insanity
3. Closure
4. A lesson never learned
5. To the stage
6. Dedication
7. Someone. somewhere
8. Breathless
9. The match
10. Another bottle down
11. Reckless and relentless
12. Morte et dabo

Problem as I see it with this band is that they're trying to be all things to all men. Maybe they have a huge following, but to me the mix of electronic, pop, rock, metal, punk, indie, gothic, semi-classical and even more is just too bewildering to sort out. I mean, in the same song they're singing like a boyband, blasting beats and screaming and yelling then bringing in a choir! It's just too much for this girl's brain. Maybe I'll just go try on that dress after all. Maybe I don't have what it takes to sort it out and enjoy them, which is a pity because behind all the growls and screams and the confusion over genre influences I think there's a pretty decent band there.

It's just not worth all the time and effort digging down through the crap to get to the gold, in my opinion.

http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver2.jpg
Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asking_Alexandria

http://www.trollheart.com/brainhurts.png
"It's only rock'n'roll ... isn't it?"

During my research for Metal Month I came across something that concerned me, and it's been niggling at me ever since. You can say of course that it's a knee-jerk reaction, that I'm just being a girl, or that I'm taking things too seriously, but I wonder. Most of you presumably reading this know of the band Mayhem. They're not my poison at all, but that's beside the point. The Batlord mentioned them some time ago, in particular the fact that their lead singer, who called himself Dead, was, well, dead. I wasn't that surprised, reading of his habit of breathing in from a bag containing a days/weeks/who knows-old dead crow before going on stage, and thought at the time that he had just died from being an idiot; had contacted some sort of disease as a result of doing something patently stupid that basically flips the finger to the Grim Reaper and says "Come on you big pussy! Take me if you can!" And the Hooded One had obliged.

That was what I assumed had happened. But no. Turns out Dead wasn't happy with living, so killed himself. Cut his throat with a razor and then blew his head off with a shotgun. How, as Dougal Maguire once wondered about Kurt Cobain, had he managed to survive that? Well, he didn't, and he had now made his pseduonym literal. He was dead. But even that didn't faze me too much: Mayhem were Black Metal, and odd things go on in such bands, as each tries to outdo the other in terms of being "evil". Even the fact that his compatriot in the band, a guy who went by the name of Euronymus, thought it was "so cool" that he had killed himself, wasn't too surprising, though a little unsettling.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Euronymous.jpg
No. It was when I read deeper into the philosophy of Mayhem, or at least Dead, real name Per Yngve Ohlim, known to his small circle of friends and his family as Pelle, that I began to worry. You see, Black Metal bands have never concerned me but I do wonder about the idea behind them. Some, like Venom, wanted really nothing to do with Satanism and the occult, and used it only for shock value and to sell records, a cheap marketing ploy, while others, like Watain, to whom I will return later, are deadly serious about what they see as their religion. Extreme Metal bands of most stripes, be they Death, Doom, Black or whatever, often subscribe to odd notions and roles, holding themselves up as the "blackest", "doomiest", "angriest" or "most evil" bands in the world. But mostly, so far as I can see, it's empty posturing.
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...XoutXKJZrM8QTA
I mentioned it with Manowar in my review of "Hail to England". They espoused fighting the good fight, keeping metal pure and killing the unbeliever. But did they strap on broadswords every time they went for a walk or limo-ride through Manhattan? Did they arrive at parties loaded down with shields and helmets? Did they ride the streets of New York on fiery battle chargers? Well no they didn't of course, because however serious Manowar were about their music, they knew that the image behind it was nothing more than a gimmick, a ploy to draw the fans in. Most likely Eric Adams, Ross the Boss et al never handled a real sword outside of a photo-session for an album cover or during an onstage performance, and would not know what to do with one if they were actually faced with a situation that required real combat. It's all fantasy; a joke, a PR stunt, and they know it. They know when to turn it on, and when to switch it off. They don't take it seriously, outside of the band dynamic.

Mayhem, it seems, do, or did. I'm still not sure whether to take the words of Dead at face value, but it seemed he declared his hatred for fun, enjoyment, peace, happiness, laughter. Euronymous, the guitarist (who is also now dead, surprise surprise) claimed he wanted to spread sorrow, hatred and evil through his music. He claimed to be against freedom, to worship death, oh, and Satan. For real.

Now, you may say and you may be right, all of this was theatre, that neither Dead nor Euronymous meant what they said. It could, indeed, be the Manowar idea: all an image created to sell records. The problem lies in this: although people may have been suckered into believing that Joey DeMaio went to bed in a lionskin loincloth and with a dagger at his side and a sword under his pillow, and may even in extreme cases have emulated such behaviour, Manowar never preached anything except rock and roll. Oh yes, they said "death to false metal!" but they just meant --- and it was understood --- don't listen to that sort of music, ridicule and revile it. I think everyone could see they were just playing a part, revelling in the roles they had created and having one hell of a time doing so.

But Mayhem, whether or not they were serious, held some very dark beliefs and --- and this is extremely important --- made it seem like they meant every word they said. Now, we all know kids are impressionable and who's going to fall under the spell of Black Metal --- or any really aggressive, angry music form --- more than kids? Teenagers, adolescents, in some cases even younger. People who are very open to suggestion and to some degree take an awful lot literally. So if your hero is Dead, or Euronymous, and they say life is wrong, everyone should worship death and spread evil and misery, how are the kids going to react to that? Oh for certain, the larger percentage will not do anything: most people know, even at that age, that music exists within often the framework of its own fantasy world.

But for the small, perhaps miniscule percentage that believe, truly believe, every word that falls from their idols' mouths, how are they likely to respond? Can we be certain that no Mayhem fan took their own life, or killed someone else, in reaction to what they were told was "the way to be"? Well no of course we can't, and if there were instances they could hardly be traced directly and provable beyond a reasonable doubt back to the utterances of some unhappy rock star. But that's not the point.

The point is: these guys have to realise that they are standing up there as an example, an influence, role models. Anything they say, any feelings they espouse or any "directions" they give to their fans can be misinterpreted with tragic consequences. I don't know; from what I read of Mayhem, I think Dead and Euronymous (God not rest their dark evil souls) would possibly be delighted to know that their "teachings" had resulted in deaths, injury, sorrow and mayhem with a small "m". But if The Stones or U2 or Metallica started telling people at gigs or in interviews to kill their parents, don't you think there'd be an outcry and wouldn't this be irresponsible behaviour? And yet, because perhaps Mayhem were part of a smaller, more insular scene in the Black Metal movement in Norway, and never grew into a global phenomenon like the three bands mentioned above, they never seem to have been taken to task for their views. Mind you, I can't say that Mayhem ever encouraged anyone to kill their parents, but they were seemingly all about evil, and spreading that message so that sort of influence could certainly --- theoretically, at least --- lead to such misunderstandings.
http://www.revolvermag.com/files/images/Watain2.jpg
Then you have Watain. Their frontman, Erik Danielsson, seems to be seriously into Satanism and black magic. He literally worships the Devil. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not saying who can practice what religion and I'd never interfere in anyone's beliefs, no matter how opposed to them I might be. But again it's the impression this can make, the example to fans, the message sent. If Venom laughed at Satan, their fans knew it and though they all made the sign and pretended to worship Lucifer, they knew it was a crock. But now you have Danielsson telling his fans that Satan is real (which he may be, I don't know) and that he should be adored. Mind you, let's be fair: in an interview with Metal Hammer he did make it clear that he does not expect anyone to follow him, and he is not a dark messiah of any kind. But you know, kids will think what kids will think, and if they think "Oh cool! Satan's real and we should worship him!" then who knows where that might end?

The point I'm trying to make here is that I believe that public figures of any kind have a responsibility to be, well, responsible for what they say. Whether you're a politician or an author or a musician or a football star, you need to realise that people hang on your words, and something you say which is not perhaps meant in an offhand or casual manner, or even in humour, if not explained properly or contextualised, may very well ne taken literally. Words have power, and fame has power, and put the two together and you have one hell of a dangerous weapon. I just think it's incumbent upon those who stand up on the soapbox to realise that what they say reverberates through their fans, perhaps even down through years, perhaps even in the case of Mayhem's Dead and Euronymous, beyond the very grave.

The old cliche, with great power comes great responsibility, is never truer than when dealing with rock icons, and the more influence you have, and the larger and more malleable your audience, the more careful I believe you have to be not to give the wrong impression and start in motion a chain of events that can have tragic and unforseen consequences. After all, why give the Moral Majority and those who denounce rock --- and Metal in particular --- as "the devil's music" any more ammunition? Doing what Mayhem were doing is I believe playing right into the hands of those who would expunge rock music from this Earth, had they the ability, and showing those who do not hold those views that, you know, maybe these guys have something after all. I mean, who wants their kid coming home saying "I'm just going out to bury my clothes in the ground so they'll make me smell like a corpse"? And if you read into the history of Mayhem, that seems to be the least of what they expounded.

Music is, in the final analysis, to me at any rate, meant to heal, to help, to bring together, not torture, destroy and rip apart.

That ain't rock and roll, and I don't like it.

Nah, the black metal clique in Norway didn't mean it. The real difference between them and Manowar is that those kids were legitimately disturbed. If black metal had started out as a bigger scene then it wouldn't have been so bad, but it was a very small, insular scene at first so it was capable of being influenced by a few charismatic nutbags like Varg Vikernes and Euronymous. I don't understand why everybody says "RIP Euronymous". Dude was a loser and a cunt.

As far as I'm concerned anyone who is that open to suggestion isn't worth worrying about. Nazism is also a big thing in the black metal scene to this day and dumb kids are still latching onto that. Do we really care about these people? If they wanna off themselves then good riddance.

Besides, if art has to cater to morals then we'd have a pretty limited scope of creativity. If making the world a little more unsafe is the price we have to pay for a more diverse, interesting world then so be it.

Oh we already know.

Varg Vikernes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Faust (musician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Absurd (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (also a good band to look up if you want to learn about Nazism in black metal)

Jarno Elg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I see. Well, that just sort of proves my point then, doesn't it? I get what you say about people being influenced by neo-Nazi ideals and all that, and that you don't think the bands should be responsible, but I disagree. If you know someone has a propensity for murder do you hand him a knife and then not worry about what he'll do with it? Or someone with a chronic alcoholic problem and you take him to a free bar? I mean other people, Batty: I know YOU would... ;)

I think, as I said before, a certain sense of responsibility is required from our musicians, no matter what genre they work in, and the more famous and therefore more influential they are, the more careful they should be of what they say and how it could be misinterpreted.

Well I've been thinking about doing a week of classic (rock) albums people will be shocked I've never heard.

So basically, TH ripoff week! :D

That's cool. I'll even endorse it for you. Here, have one of my forms:

"I, Trollheart, completely and unreservedly endorse this event/procedure/person/place/vehicle/delete or add as appropriate." :D

But if you're doing Classic Rock, beware the wrath of the Unknown Soldier... :shycouch:

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ICED EARTH: American Power Metal band. Iced Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IN FLAMES: Massively popular Metal band from Sweden. In Flames - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IOMMI, TONY: Legendary guitarist with Black Sabbath. Tony Iommi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IRON MAIDEN: One of the biggest and most famous, and most commercially successful, Heavy Metal bands of all time. Iron Maiden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IRON MAN: Classic song from Black Sabbath, one that helped birth the subgenre of Doom Metal.



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JONES, JOHN PAUL: Bass player and keyboard player for Led Zeppelin. John Paul Jones (musician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

JUDAS PRIEST: One of the original Heavy Metal bands, who predate the NWOBHM but are often linked with it. Judas Priest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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KAMELOT: American Progressive Metal band. Kamelot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KILLERS: Seminal second album from Iron Maiden, last to feature Paul Di'Anno. Killers (Iron Maiden album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KING DIAMOND: Lead vocalist with Black Metal band Mercyful Fate, he also performs solo under his own name. King Diamond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KING, KERRY: Guitarist and co-founder of Thrash Metal supremos Slayer. Kerry King - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KISS: Glam Metal band who made their name by wearing elaborate masks onstage. Kiss (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KORN: One of the big names in the Nu-Metal movement. Korn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KREATOR: One of the "Big Three" Thrash/Death Metal bands in Germany. Kreator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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LED ZEPPELIN: Primarily a rock/blues band, Led Zeppelin's influence nevertheless helped lead to the creation of the Heavy Metal genre, and so with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple they are looked upon as fathers of Heavy Metal, even if they weren't Heavy Metal themselves. Led Zeppelin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LEMMY: Legendary bass player, singer and founder of British noise merchants Motorhead. Lemmy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LIVE AFTER DEATH: Seminal and revered live album from Iron Maiden, professed by many to be the best live album ever. Live After Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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MANOWAR: Power Metal band from New York, Manowar utilise a lot of mythic and warrior-type imagery in their songs and stageshow. Manowar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MEGADETH: Spinoff band from Metallica, now considered one of the "Big Four" thrash bands. Megadeth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MERCYFUL FATE: Black Metal band from Denmark, whose vocalist King Diamond went on to have a successful solo career. Mercyful Fate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

METALCORE: Want hardcore punk with extreme metal? You got it. Metalcore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

METALHEAD: A follower and fan of Heavy Metal music. Heavy metal subculture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

METALLICA: One of the "Big Four" Thrash Metal bands, best known for tracks like "Enter Sandman" and "One", and albums such as "Ride the lightning" and "Master of puppets". Metallica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MORBID ANGEL: American Death Metal band whose guitarist is considered among the top in his subgenre. Morbid Angel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MOTORHEAD: The granddaddies of British Thrash/Speed Metal, still one of the loudest bands around. Motörhead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MUSTAINE, DAVE: Onetime guitarist with Metallica, he left (ahem!) to form Megadeth. Dave Mustaine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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NAPALM DEATH: Grindcore band from the UK. Napalm Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NIGHTWISH: Symphonic Metal band from Finland. Nightwish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NINE INCH NAILS: Usually abbreviated to NIN, this is an Industrial Metal band from Cleveland Ohio. Nine Inch Nails - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NU-METAL: As annoying as its spelling, nu-metal features the younger bands who think they're metal, and add in elements of grunge, funk, rap and other genres to their music. Nu-Metal is generally derided by all true Metalheads. Nu metal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NWOBHM: The New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a tag given to the phenomenal and simultaenous rise of new Heavy Metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Tank and Saxon during the early 1980s. New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm sure you could make the case that any number of things in pop culture might incite people to do this, that, or the other that might be negative. Breaking Bad might not be telling someone to do or sell crystal meth like black metal is telling people to be "evil", but I'm sure that someone has gotten the idea to do one or both of those things merely by watching an episode. The point being that if artists let the marginal freaks decide how they express themselves our world will be lessened. Personally I'd rather have a few deaths than a creatively restrictive world, even if the restrictions are self-imposed.

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Over the course of three years I put together what I believe to be a fairly comprehensive look at the phenomenon of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. It's in five parts, four of which have been written, and you can access them here:

Part I: Features Angel Witch, Praying Mantis and Trespass
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1107941

Part II: Features Venom, Raven and Cloven Hoof
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1132041

Part III: Features Saxon, Tank and Wolf
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...st1211687(Tank
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1212201
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1212518
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1212918

Part IV: Features Sweet Savage, Girlschool and Diamond Head
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1332505
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1335844

Tales from the kingdom of Fife --- Gloryhammer --- 2013 (Napalm)
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Hold on just one minute there squire: a power metal band from Scotland? Well, not quite. Apparently this is a) the side project of Chris Bowes from Alestorm (who are, or were, Scottish) with some other international members on board and b) meant to be something of a piss-take on the often po-facedness of some power metal bands we could mention. This I did not know when I pressed play, and to be perfectly honest it doesn't matter. Others may scoff at their version of power-metal-by-numbers, or wildly predictable lyrical content like dragons and unicorns (and princesses) but I still think this a great album, especially for a debut. It certainly is capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the bands in the genre, even kicking the arses of some.

If you can stop tittering at the hilarious name, we'll get going then shall we? No? Still laughing? All right then, go ahead. I can wait. But not that long. Time to get this show on the road if I want to be home in time for tea.

Starting off with a big booming orchestral sounding intro, a dark voice intones "The prophecy is written: Dundee shall fall!" though why anyone would want the small Scottish city is beyond me, and rolling drumbeats punctuate layers of keyboards with choral vocals as "Anstruther's dark prophecy" gets us in the mood with a very Game of Thrones feel, then the unbelievably hilarious "The unicorn invasion of Dundee" hits, and the tempo goes up about ten levels. Great shredding and sonorous keys is the order of the day, and Thomas Winkler has a rough, ragged edge to his voice that often suits this kind of music, while nobody can deny it's catchy as all hell. It does sound derivative, but apparently that's the idea, so if so then it works perfectly. Just to add to the send-up feel of the album, the band have all taken elaborate fantasy-themed stage names which apparently identify them as characters in the story. But if you look beyond that you'll find some really competent musicians who seem to be having a blast doing what they do. This must be how Manowar felt when they first recorded "Battle hymns".

Fans of Rhapsody or Freedom Call will feel Gloryhammer are copying them --- pehaps mocking them --- on "Angus McFife", and they probably are, but there's a great sense of fun about it and the guitars from Paul Templing are certainly serious enough. Great keyboard backing from Bowes, who surely is winking at the audience as he runs his fingers up and down the keys delivering arpeggios and runs, and Winkler belts out the cliched lyric which you still can't help but smile at. "Quest for the hammer of glory" has Manowar's fingerprints all over it, and maybe Virgin Steele's too, and is a slower, slightly grindier piece telling of the quest to, oh you know... It has a very triumphant and majestic air about it, one of those songs you imagine playing as armies ride to battle, preferably against insurmountable odds. Some good orchestral style keyboards utilised well on this song, with trumpets and fanfares thrown in too, and I must mention the heavy basswork of James Spicemaster Cartwright --- no, that's not his stage name!

Great neoclassical piano starts "Magic dragon" and then it kicks into high gear in true power metal style, and even though it's hard to believe that you're listening to a song that includes dragons, wizards, demons and warriors in the lyric, somehow it's just too good to ignore. Almost like the cliches --- and this album is packed so full of them it's bursting at the seams --- don't really matter. It's all about a feeling, an atmosphere being built, and just having a good time without worrying too much, or at all, about the semantics. Great keyboard solo here too, wouldn't be out of place in a progressive rock album, and followed by a super one on the guitar. Bliss. And then of course there's the, as Fish once wrote, obligatory ballad.

"Silent tears of frozen princess" has a lovely violin and strings opening, with soft piano and perhaps harp in there too, although I suppose these could all be synthesised. They sound real though. Slow, heavy percussion then cuts in and the song's moved into its second minute before the vocal comes in. As expected, it's a restrained croon, but demonstrates at least that Thomas Winkler can handle ballads as well as bellowing anthems to power and glory. And he handles it well I must say. I have to say I like this, and it could be a decent single, if chosen, though I doubt any of the tracks here will see the light of single release. Foot hard down on the accelerator and we've off roaring down the highway with "Amulet of justice", triphammer drumming driving the song, and "Hail to Crail" is good fun too while "Beneath Cowdenbeath" is a fast and furious instrumental driven on racing guitar and powerful keys.

We end on, perhaps rather predictably, the final cliche. An epic song, which even has "epic" in the title! "The epic rage of furious thunder" starts off with a big bombastic introduction, choral voices and a deep, rich vocal from Winkler, almost operatic as he praises the city of Dundee and the band winds up behind him. I have to say, it's hilarious when he sings "Mighty Dundee!" I mean, Rome, London, even Avalon, okay, but Dundee??! You might as well sing mighty Dublin! It rocks out then for a minute or so, fades down to a female spoken vocal and then kicks off again. Good vocal harmonies and great pounding rollicking percussion with a slick little guitar solo in about the fourth minute. I'll give it this much: the lyrics may be contrived and cliched all through this album, power metal-by-numbers, but they make more sense than many a German or Danish power metal album I've listened to. The whole thing would appear to follow a basic concept which ends with the taking back of "the great city of Dundee", and the rippling soft keyboards in the seventh minute presage a triumphant power metal climax (ooer!) that carries through to the end of the song, although it does end with a rather silly dark voiceover (presumably the same evil chappie who foretold the doom of Dundee at the beginning) and a rather unnecessary acoustic guitar fade.

TRACKLISTING

1. Anstruther's dark prophecy
2. The unicorn invasion of Dundee
3. Angus McFife
4. Quest for the hammer of glory
5. Magic dragon
6. Silent tears of frozen princess
7. Amulet of justice
8. Hail to Crail
9. Beneath Cowdenbeath
10. The epic rage of glorious thunder

Okay would you please stop laughing? Thank you. Now, it's true this can be seen as a parody --- which is, I think, how it was intended --- and a sendup of the often up-its-own-arse-ness of power metal, but you can't fault the musicianship, the hooks in the songs or the overall production and execution of the whole thing. Let's look at it this way: if this was the first power metal album you'd ever bought or heard, you'd probably think it was great. And in many ways it is. You can laugh at the cliches all you like, but the fact is that this is a well put-together and cleverly-written piece of power metal that, while it's not exactly going to dethrone the likes of Hammerfall or Blind Guardian, and won't find a place alongside "Keeper of the seven keys" or "The marriage of Heaven and Hell" in the annals of power metal, is still an album that no metal fan should be ashamed of owning. And it's a rollicking good ride, into the bargain.

Anyway, how can you resist an album with a song title like "The unicorn invasion of Dundee"? Come on! Give in! You know you want to...
http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver5.jpg
Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloryhammer

Are you dead yet? --- Children of Bodom --- 2005 (Spinefarm)
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"Melodeth" is apparently the accepted name for melodic death metal, and by all accounts Children of Bodom have risen to the melodeth throne. This is their fifth album, on which I'm advised the previous influence of power metal and keyboards was toned back, so it'll be interesting to see how the album sounds. CoB come from Finland, which is known for some of the best power and progressive metal out there, but then it is also part of Scandinavia, where both black and death metal are enjoying something of a revival.

Hmm. Starts off like a new wave electronic band with bippy keyboards and squidgy bass, then guitar kicks in properly and the tempo goes skyhigh, so you're in no doubt you're listening to Metal. Screamed vocal from Alex Laiho but it's not too bad and the music is certainly heavy, after uncertain beginnings as "Living dead beat" gets underway. There's certainly more than an element of Power Metal in the title track, with some good keyboard work from Janne Wirman, but it's quite grindy in its way too, however the next one up could not be described that way at all, as it flies along on twin guitar rails and thunder drumming from Jaska Raatikainen.

Slowing right down with a marching, thumping beat is "Punch me I bleed" and you can definitely hear the "melo" part of melodeth coming through here, quite a bit of progressive metal too in the last minute or so. A machine-gun guitar riff and sparkly keyboards carry "In your face", and there's some good shredding in "Thrashed, lost and strungout", but generally a lot of this sounds quite similar, leaving me unfortunately not all that much to write about it. At least they made me smile with their cover version of Britney's "Oops ... I did it again!", which I already featured.

TRACKLISTING

1. Living dead beat
2. Are you dead yet?
3. If you want peace ... prepare for war
4. Punch me I bleed
5. In your face
6. Next in line
7. Bastards of Bodom
8. Thrashed lost and strungout
9. We're not gonna fall

Yeah, not a lot to say really. Not music I hate but nothing terribly original about it and nothing that much that stands out for me. A decent album, but not that much more.
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Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Bodom

Bastards --- Motorhead --- 1993 (ZYX)
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The godfathers of thrash, the original noise merchants, the metal elite, call them what you want, Motorhead have been around a long time. They've seen it all and done it all --- and probably given some of it up! --- from the birth of metal in the late sixties/early seventies through the NWOBHM and on into the rise of grunge and the decline, then partial rebirth of metal, and through it all they've adapted, changed their sound and moved with the ...

Hold on just one fucking minute! This is Motorhead we're talking about! Motor. Head. These guys never have, never will, change to suit any fad, trend or changing attitude. As immovable as a mountain, as unchanging as the tides, as stuck in their ways as a constipated elephant, Lemmy and the boys have charted a career down over thirty years which has never wavered, never changed, never fucking adapted one little bit, and they're as popular now as they were back at the height of their career, when albums like "Ace of spades" and "Overkill" were giving Metalheads wet dreams. Some things never change, and never should.

But though the music doesn't change, the lineup has. Conceived originally as a power trio, Motorhead built their popularity on that model, but in 1982 their beloved guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke departed to form Fastway, and was replaced originally by Thin Lizzy's Brian Robertson, then later by Phil Campbell, also joined by Wurzel as a second guitarist for a period lasting two years, and even Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor was replaced on the drumseat, leaving the band in 1991. This album is the first to feature their new four-piece lineup, a short-lived one to be sure.

There's an almost slower sense to the opener, with a boogie rocker more reminiscent of a faster, dirtier ZZ in "On your feet or on your knees", and you can't help feeling that "Fast" Eddie might think this a little limp. It chugs along nicely though, Lemmy's sandpaper-raw voice as powerful as ever. Right off I don't hear a huge difference in the extra guitarist but we'll see as the album goes on whether it was a good idea or not. It's a short song, the shortest on the album at barely over two and a half minutes, then the real speed kicks in as we hit "Burner", and new guy Mikkey Dee does his best to follow in Taylor's shoes --- yes, Tommy Aldridge played the drums on the previous "March or die", but we all knew he was little more than a placeholder, and were still mourning the loss of "Philthy", weren't we? It's more like the Motorhead of old as we steam rather than chug along, the pace reaching frenetic levels, another short song as we plunge into "Death or glory".

The tempo, once reached, seems likely to keep going and in a similar vein lyrically to Lizzy's "Angel of death", this track seems to be written from the standpoint of an immortal being who is doomed to fight forever through history. The lyrics namecheck various historical figures, such as Hitler, Napoleon and Roman gladiators, and the song somehow both reviles and glorifies war with a sort of fatalistic acceptance. Powerful percussion from Dee on this one, then Lemmy puts on an almost death metal growl for "I am the sword", which paradoxically sounds more thrash metal and even has its own sense of melody going on. Not too often you mention that word in conjuction with Motorhead! And it fades!

The only song on the album written by the big man solo, "Born to raise Hell" starts with a drumbeat quite akin to the opening of "Run to the hills" then rocks along steadily in an almost commercial rock vein, again I could hear ZZ singing this. Shot of the Ramones and Slade in there too. Next up is a real departure for the guys in the acoustic ballad "Don't let daddy kiss me". With a title like that it's going to come as no surprise that we're talking about child abuse and paedophilia/incest here, and Motorhead have my respect for tackling such a serious and taboo subject. It works really well, the drum kicking in halfway through as the electric guitar also pounds in and the song takes off on the back of a searingly emotional solo, underlining the seriousness of the situation Lemmy is singing about. As for the man, he puts in a brilliant, restrained and low-key yet menacing performance. Superb song.

Back rocking then with "Bad woman", a lot of Lizzy in this along with a smattering of the Crue, the tempo not quite as fast as it has been before the ballad, but pounding along nicely, till they go all Metallica with "Liar", Lemmy's growl one of anger and derision, with sharp guitar from the boys backing him up. Keeping it slow, for Motorhead that is, "Lost in the ozone" reintroduces acoustic guitar and could in some ways qualify as a ballad, though not in the same vein as "Don't let daddy kiss me". Nice sound to it overall and another quite introspective vocal from our man Lemmy. Oddly enough it's almost steel guitar adding a Country sound to "I'm your man" -- thankfully not a cover of the old Wham! song! --- which reminds me of those old campaigners, Blackfoot, and keeps the tempo relatively low.

Dare I even say that "We bring the shake" sounds more AOR than metal? Yeah, well it does. Really rocks along but I could hear this on radio and some DJ coming on afterwards going "Uh, that was ... Motorhead? No, I'm not reading this incorrectly. Definitely Motorhead. The guys who brought you "Ace of spades". Yeah, them." Way to stick it to the establishment, Lemmy! Love this. Sadly we're almost done as "Devils" wraps the album up, but at least it is the longest track, six glorious minutes of pure rock'n'roll goodness with a feel of Gary Moore-era Lizzy about it, some fine guitar work from the two boys and a growling, snarly vocal from Lemmy. Sweet.

TRACKLISTING

1. On your feet or on your knees
2. Burner
3. Death or glory
4. I am the sword
5. Born to raise Hell
6. Don't let daddy kiss me
7. Bad woman
8. Liar
9. Lost in the ozone
10. I'm your man
11. We bring the shake
12. Devils

For those who find it hard to contend with the "wall of noise" Motorhead are usually associated with, "Bastards" is a good chance to hear what they can really do when they tone back the noise a little and really play. Despite its iconic status, "Ace of spades" never really did it for me, and though I love "Overkill", "Bomber" and others, this album comes across to me as the closest to an almost commercial side to Motorhead. Not saying it would play on any top forty station or anything, but there's a lot of the melody I like so much in this album.

Again, not a word you would expect to link with this band, and given the title of the album you would be expecting a no-holds-barred, all-out fret frenzy that just puts its head down and charges through the tracks till it reaches the end, breathless, sweaty and grinning. Although it's no slouch in that department, it's probably the most accessible I've heard Motorhead. And I've heard a lot of Motorhead. If all you know is "Ace of spades" then this would not be the worst place to begin your journey into the wild, loud and wonderful world of Lemmy and Co.
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Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mot%C3%B6rhead

Actually, how 'bout this?

Straight up TH ripoff month! I make my own versions of several of your segments. Whaddya think?

Sure, why not? Just make sure you put one of these on each entry... ;)

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Sound of white noise --- Anthrax --- 1993 (Elektra)
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Another giant in the Thrash Metal arena, Anthrax have been around for over twenty years now, and indeed their debut "Fistful of metal", was an early purchase of mine and I loved it. This is their sixth album, almost ten years later, and featuring not Joey Belladonna, beloved of the Batlord, but John Bush, who would stay with the band for three more albums up to 2003. I haven't heard this one, but it's said to show a different side of Anthrax with a change of direction musically. Does it then belong here? Let's see.

"Potter's Field", the opener, despite sharing a title with a Tom Waits song, is not a cover of that track but their own composition, and opens with a very English cultured voice remarking "This is a journey into sound". There then follows some sort of ambient noise until Dan Spitz's guitar hammers into the tune, then Bush comes in but I must say, heavy though the song is it has an unmistakable hip-hop rhythm to it, this possibly confirmed by "scratching" on a later track. It's Anthrax, Jim, but not (quite) as we know them. A decent song though and I would harbour the hope Bush is not going to bring rapping to this, one of the "big four" thrash bands.

"Only" has a good hammering drumbeat from Charlie Benante and some powerful solid guitar, and John Bush is certainly a strong singer, but I have to wonder does this still qualify as thrash metal? It's a bit, how you say, melodic? Still heavy as hell but rather catchier than I would expect from a band of Anthrax's reputation. Hmm. Well, "Room for one more" has more of the hard punching sound we've come to expect from the guys, with some fine soaraway guitar. Nevertheless, the vocal still puts me in mind of what a metal rapper would sound like, if such a thing existed. I know Limp Bizkit exist: I said if a metal rapper existed! Holy hell! Is that a version of the "Magic Roundabout" theme opening "Packaged rebellion", or is it just me? Just me then.

Yeah this is more like it. It's like ZZ and Bad Company got together and invited Lizzy along for the ride. Good old-school heavy metal with some great guitar licks and what I'd consider a proper metal vocal this time round. My worries were fading about the influence of hip-hop on the album but they're kind of back a little with the rap-style vocal on "Hy pro glo", though it's still a heavy song certainly. Great staccato guitar that punches like a studded fist, John Bush sounding a little like Ozzy on occasion! There's a real heads-down, kick-it-out fretfest then in "Invisible", really gets the blood pumping, while the freight train gathers speed and hurtles down the track as "1000 points of hate" rattles by, and at this point you'd have to admit John Bush is a decent replacement for our man Joey.

There are synthesisers, of all things, on "Black lodge", wherein the band enlist the services of composer Angelo Badlamenti, who I know best for the theme music to "Twin Peaks", and it's the first, probably only, ballad, the title itself based on a location in that TV series. It's not so much a ballad really, but for Anthrax it's about as slow as it's likely to get, with definite grunge influences in the melody and rhythm. It's good but very reserved for Anthrax and just doesn't really suit their sound. I'm not going to write down the chemical formula that forms the title for the next song, so I'll use the actual name, Sodium Pentathol, which is of course also known as truth serum. It gets things rocking and racing again, back to the kind of Anthrax I grew up with. One of Bush's best vocal performances on the album: he's absolutely manic!

That just leaves two tracks to close with. "Burst", the shortest track on the album at just over three and a half minutes, opens with an odd little synthesiser "chime", then thunders along on galloping drums and sharp guitar with a growling backing vocal thrown into the mix. The album ends with a nod to the movie "American psycho" (which I personally hated) as the boys warn "This is not an exit", a sort of a slower grinder with heavy feedback guitar reminding me rather a lot of Metallica. It's quite long for a closer, in fact the shortest track is followed by the longest, as this just falls short of seven minutes. It's a good grindy, snarly way to finish the album and it speeds up as it nears its climax, ending in something of a cacophony of noise, with a (to me) pointless little sound sample tacked on right at the end.

TRACKLISTING

1. Potter's Field
2. Only
3. Room for one more
4. Packaged rebellion
5. Hy pro glo
6. Invisible
7. 1000 points of hate
8. Black Lodge
9. Sodium Pentathol
10. Burst
11. This is not an exit

There are definitely new influences leaking in on this album --- vestiges of hip-hop as I already mentioned, and which will probably be laughed at for, and grunge too --- but "Sound of white noise" is still a major heavy album. John Bush brings something different to the sound of Anthrax, and there are some surprises here, but basically it's still the same band I learned to love and who helped teach me to headbang way back in 1984.

I don't headbang anymore --- no hair, you see, or at least not the luscious mane I had in my teens --- but I can still be rocked. And this album rocks me. Still deserving of their place among the big four, even after all this time.
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Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrax_%28band%29

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So here we are, in the closing week of our month of metal, and our final edition of "The Meat Grinder". The series has been less than generous to us over the course of this last three weeks, so let's hope we can go out on a bang, eh? Hope springs, as they say...

Well on the face of it we would seem to have done well, but I'm not taking anything for granted. I know how this works. It's like a sexy woman who beckons you into her bedroom and just as the door closes a heavy object hits you on the back of the head, and when you wake up your wallet is gone. I ain't falling for that one again! Well, not for the sixth time, anyway...:shycouch:
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Let's see. Death Sentence come from the Czech Republic, so expect many names with "z", "v" and "k" in them. They are signed, so that's a plus, and they have albums. Can I find any? What a surprise. No. Doesn't help that there's some punk band of the same name. Here's the only video I could find of them. Sounds okay. They're described as "melodic death/doom metal". Could have been interesting. Oh well, up stumps and on we go.

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Down south we go, and we come to the sub-continent, where from Bangalore we find Eccentric Pendulum, a name perhaps better suited to a progressive metal or even rock band. But these guys are described as thrash/death metal/metalcore. Hum. They have an album. Can we find it? Well, praise be to Dio, we can! Some kind soul has put the whole thing up on YT! Well, I say kind soul, but of course I don't know what the music is going to sound like. I may regret this. In any case, we're gonna focus on these guys so here goes.
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This is them. Founded in 2008 in Karantaka (how's that for a prog-rock reference?) in Bangalore, India, and I can't really tell you much about them, other than that one review describes them simply as "weird". Hmm.
Band name: Eccentric Pendulum
Nationality: Indian (Bangalore)
Subgenre: Not sure -- elements of progressive metal, groove, funk, ambient, more...
Born: 2008
Status: Active
Albums: "The sculpture of negative emotions" (2009) "Winding the optics" (2011)
Live albums: None
Collections/Boxed Sets/Anthologies: None
Lineup: Nikhil Vastarey (Vocals)
Arjun Mulky (Guitars)
Arjun Natarajan (Bass)
Vibhas Venkatram (Drums)

Like I say, there's not too much information about these guys. They did play the Wacken Festival in 2010 and seem to have gone down well, but other than that: hey, they're a metal band from India! Whattya want? Let's see if their music can do the talking for them.

Winding the optics --- Eccentric Pendulum --- 2011 (Self-released)
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First thing I notice here are the odd names of the tracks, which make this seem more like some sort of psychedelic album than metal, and the opener is no exception. "The axioms of aphotic expression" starts off with heavy guitar and drumbeats, kind of mid-pace, then it all gets ruined by a growly vocal, for me. Ah well. Decent music and Arjun on the guitar certainly knows what he's doing, while Arjun on the bass keeps it tight with Vibham on the drumstool. The addition of a new guitarist here in Faheemul Hassan shows, particularly in "De-engineer the prevalent" (yeah...) which rattles along nicely.

"Paragon impermanence" (again I say, yeah...) is a faster, more uptempo and heavier song with driving drumbeat, but I must admit I see nothing of the jazz, fusion or ambient influences alluded to in the review I read, nor do I find these guys weird. In fact, if anything I find them generic thrash metal, nothing progressive about them at all, not to me. Ok, nice bit of acoustic guitar there, that's a little different. Some nice ambient guitar too in "Become me". Yeah yeah, okay: It's quite progressive, I'll give you that. "My eucalyptine depth" (what?) is a faster track but nothing much to write home about, while "Mathematicans of ambient waters" is an interesting track, rocking along with a very Dio-esque arabian style rhythm, touches of Maiden in there too. Great guitar solo. Speeds up a bit and gets a little crazy at the end. The closing track is a ten-minute instrumental, but the only version I can find online is a live one and I think it loses something due to the sound quality, so I won't comment on it.

TRACKLISTING

1. The axioms of aphotic expressions
2. De-engineer the prevalent
3. Paragon impermanence
4. Become me
5. My eucalyptine depth
6. Mathematicians of ambient waters
7. Anonymous existence

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Yeah, again this is not my thing, though the musicanship is quite good and the ideas are there. The vocals put me off as usual. So it's not been the greatest of successes for this month of "The Meat Grinder", but it's been interesting. We now return you to what remains of Metal Month.

MMXIII --- Stormbringer --- 2013 (Transcend Music)
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Do you know how hard it was to track these guys down? There are, according to my good friends at Encyclopaedia Metallum no less than fifteen metal bands called Stormbringer, many of which are defunct, some of whom have -- perhaps wisely -- changed their name to something else. I found them through a process of elimination, as any band who is split up will hardly have an album coming out this year! Turns out this is in fact the debut for this particular Stormbringer, who hail from the UK.

So who are these non-smiling metalheads from darkest, er, Northampton? Seems they're a five piece, all of who appear to have been founder members except Mike Stockley, who only joined in 2012. As he's the vocalist, and none other is mentioned, I wonder if they were an instrumental outfit prior to his arrival? Still, this is their first album as I said, so maybe they were just waiting for the right singer to come along. I must admit, I'm not too hopeful, with the sleeve looking like something Venom thought about but discarded as too obvious, and titles like "Gazing at the grave", "Welcome to Hell" and "Destroy"; surely this guy is going to be a death growler? Smart money says yes. But what the hey, let's give it a listen anyway.

Rather cliched opening, I have to say, with thunder, the sound of falling rain, then a big heavy guitar kicks your face in as another harmonises with it, Ash Smith and Dom Wallace setting the music backdrop as Jon Paul Quantrill hammers out a doomy beat on the drums. Glad they're not using any stupid made up names like "Abaddon", "The Destroyer" or "That guy from the Matrix": always seems a little hard to take a band seriously when they use pseudonyms. Right, well the first track turns out to be an instrumental, but to my delight when "Gazing at the grave" opens Stockley turns out to have a clear, sweet voice perhaps better suited to melodic or progressive metal. Hey, this may turn out to be good after all!

Great driving beat and despite the doom metal title the song is very rock, very metal and almost Def Leppard/Bon Jovi in feel, albeit with much heavier backing. This guy could be dropped into any AOR band you care to mention and nobody would know he came from a metal background. Great guitar solo, though I could do without the "metal-rap" (raptal?) but I can ignore it because this band are grabbing me so immediately and positively. And so we head into "Mark Antony", with a screeching guitar intro and a lot of Zep in it; another slightly nu-metal style vocal but there's no way I'd consign Stormbringer to the fate of being a nu-metal band. They've definitely got something. Great rousing chorus in this, and tough grinding guitar characterises "Save me" with a sort of funk/groove rhythm. Great stuff.

With a title like "Destroy" you think you know what to expect, but it starts on a gentle blues riff and then explodes into a powerful melodic metal anthem with a superb performance from Mike Stockley and some incisive guitar from the two guys. Guess I know nothing about stoner metal, as this is supposed to be how it sounds. Maybe I was mixing it up with sludge. Anyway I really like this, it's far more on my side of the melodic preferences I have for metal. Bit of a drum solo from Quantrill then to kick "Grinder" off. This was the lead-in single and it's a whole lot heavier than a lot of other stuff on "MMXIII" which makes me wonder why they thought it would be a good choice? Great low, almost muttered vocal though again it's a little rap-oriented.

"Sanity" is another hard and heavy number, while "Submerged" puts me very in mind of Threshold, with a marching, swaggering, boogey line. "Darker days" and "Control" keep the quality high, the latter with a sort of chanted, shouted backing vocal which is a bit punk-rockish. Above all soars the powerful voice of Mike Stockley, delivering every line with perfect clarity and passion. The album closes on the longest track, "Welcome to Hell", thought I doubt Venom would approve! There's nothing black about this metal: it's as melodic as they come, with nevertheless a hammer punch from the twin guitars and the rhythm section keeping everything heavy, right up to the last riff and note.

TRACKLISTING

1. MMXIII
2. Gazing at the grave
3. Mark Antony
4. Save me
5. Destroy
6. Grinder
7. Sanity
8. Submerged
9. Darker days
10. Control
11. Welcome to Hell

Definitely a case of incorrectly judging a book by its cover. From the album sleeve I had assumed a dark, doomy, grindy thing full of sludgy hooks and plodding bass, with definitely a deep-throated growler or a whispering screamer for a vocalist. Completely amazed by what I found. A really excellent debut from a band who -- given all the other Stormbringers around, living and dead --- may find it prudent to do like some of the others have, and change their name to something less common.

The music, however, speaks for itself, and I for one am already looking forward to their next outing.
http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver5.jpg
Read more here http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/...ger/3540368184

You got it, TH!

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OBITUARY: American Death Metal band. Obituary (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OPETH: Progressive Metal band from Sweden. They have also used Black and Death Metal in their music. Opeth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ORPHANED LAND: Progressive Metal band from Israel. Orphaned Land - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OSBOURNE, OZZY: Legendary frontman and singer for Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OVERKILL: US Thrash Metal band. Overkill (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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PANTERA: American Metal band active in the Groove Metal subgenre. Pantera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PENTAGRAM: Doom Metal band from the USA, seen as one of the progenitors of the subgenre. Pentagram (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PIG DESTROYER: Grindcore band from the US. Pig Destroyer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

POWER METAL: Utilising elements both from Speed and Progressive Metal, Power Metal usually features some of the same lyrical themes as Prog Metal, with a louder, more frenetic approach than the former and a penchant for neoclassical forms, as well as often a symphonic twist. Power metal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PRAYING MANTIS: NWOBHM band who succumbed to the lure of the US, failed mostly and never quite managed to recover after that. Praying Mantis (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PROGRESSIVE METAL: A genre of Metal closely associated with Progressive Rock, utilising more keyboards and longer songs, with themes more suited to Prog Rock bands, ie fantasy, dreams, literature and so on. Often includes elements from Gothic Metal. A harder form, really, of Prog Rock. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_metal

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QUEENSRYCHE: Progressive Metal band from the USA. Queensrÿche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

QUORTHON: Frontman and composer --- and in the last years of his life, only member --- of Swedish Black Metal band Bathory. Quorthon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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RAINBOW: Set up by Ritchie Blackmore after his departure from Deep Purple, Rainbow went on to become one of the premier Metal bands of the seventies and eighties, and provided the springboard to fame and success for the late Ronnie James Dio. Rainbow (rock band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RAMMSTEIN: Metal band from Germany who usually only sing in their native tongue. Rammstein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RAVEN: Rising stars of the NWOBHM, Raven were an early version of British Thrash Metal. Raven (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

READING FESTIVAL: Huge rock festival held every year in, well, Reading, in the UK. Reading and Leeds Festivals - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

REIGN IN BLOOD: Seminal third album by Thrash Metal giants Slayer. Reign in Blood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RHAPSODY OF FIRE: Formerly known simply as Rhapsody, Power Metal band from Italy who have since split with the founder, Luca Turilli, forming his own band called .... Luca Turilli's Rhapsody! Rhapsody of Fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Korn III: Remember who you are --- Korn --- 2010 (Roadrunner)
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Nu-metal eh? The very name conjures up images of derision and disappointment. Isn't this the sub genre that mixes rap in with metal? How can those two go together? Or am I getting it wrong? Korn seem to be somewhat revered or at least acknowledged by proper metal fans, but are they a metal band or just playing off the tag, trying to reel metal fans in? I've never heard a single Korn song before, never mind an album, so this will all be new to me.

There's a slow and gradual intro to "Uber time", with sound effects, spoken words and what sounds almost like a tuneup but I'm expecting it to explode any time soon. It's getting louder and more powerful and there it goes. Growling guitar and bouncy drumbeat but the vocal when it comes in is --- wow! Clean! --- somehow I expected a growler or a screamer. So who's their singer? Jonathan Davis. Okay, quick check: was he there all the time? Yep. Founder member. So it's fist-pumping, energetic but a little restrained and I don't hate it. Interesting. Oh wait, my mistake. I'm now listening to "Oildale (Leave me alone)", the other was just an instrumental introduction.

"Pop a pill" has an almost heavy Waits vibe to it, sort of reminiscent of some of the darker stuff off "Bone machine" or "Blood money", with a punchy rhythm and a vocal that drips with desperation. Davis channels Bowie then in the final minutes of the song before Jams "Munky" Shaffer lets loose on the guitar. There's more of a dancy beat to "Fear is a place to live", not too much heavy about this at all. Almost new-wave or maybe semi-industrial. Veering rather close to rap in the vocal. There is some growling in it, but it seems silly and out of place. "Move on" then returns to the heavy rhythms with thick guitar and solid drumming and quite a progressive feel to it, then "Lead the parade" is just a complete mess. Awful.

When I say "Let the guilt go" is better, well, anything would be better than the previous track, but it's all right, nothing to write home about really. "The past" is better, with some really hard grinding guitar alternating with some quiet, introspective fretwork, again quite progressive then that sort of style persists for "Never around", and "Are you ready to live" has a certain frenetic energy and enthusiasm about it with a decent hook in there too. The album then ends on "Holding all these lies", a big heavy guitar ender with Davis returning to the Bowiesque style of singing. A pretty cool guitar solo to take us out.

TRACKLISTING

1. Uber-time
2. Oildale (Leave me alone)
3. Pop a pill
4. Fear is a place to live
5. Move on
6. Lead the parade
7. Let the guilt go
8. The past
9. Never around
10. Are you ready to live?
11. Holding all these lies

Having listened to this album I'm not quite sure what to make of Korn. In places it's certainly metal, or close to it, in others it verges towards grunge and in others, gothic or even electronica. Very strange. I'd say there's probably more decent tracks here than terrible ones, but it's not an album that would make me an instant fan of Korn. Then again, it wouldn't turn me off them completely either. Sort of jury still out, to some degree I think.
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Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korn

Cowboys from Hell --- Pantera --- 1990 (Atco)
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From original beginnings in the eighties as a glam metal band, Pantera reinvented themselves as the decade turned and became more a "groove metal" band, with this being considered their first proper release: most fans prefer to forget the glam metal days and concentrate on the heavier stuff. They had four albums prior to this, and four after, so it's right in the middle, and serves as the best example of their work.

Opening on the title track I can hear the idea of groove metal indeed, with a sort of almost funk tilt to the guitar, touches of Zep in there. Vocalist Phil Anselmo has that kind of raspy, ragged sound that just suits this music to a "T" and the late, lamented Diamond Darrell could make a guitar do just about anything he wanted it to. It's a good opener and sets the bar for the rest of the album, as "Primal concrete sledge" rattles along on powerful drumming and harder, darker guitar from Darrell, Anselmo's vocal also heavier and with a much faster delivery than on the title track. For some of the opening it seems Darrell just hits the same chord over and over, which gives a very claustrophobic feel to the guitar.

"Psycho holiday" get more back into the groove (sorry) with a hard-hitting but melodic burst of power, guitars firing off like machineguns then things slow right down for the longest track, the ballad "Cemetery gates", with nice acoustic guitar and a laidback vocal, then some sweet soaring electric ... well. it's not so much a true ballad as it does speed up and get harder as it goes along, but then it drops back to the softer guitar so it has elements of both. Maybe a little in the vein of southern rock standards like "Free bird" and "Boogie no more". Back rocking with rapid-fire guitar then for "Domination", a superb display of guitar virtuoso from Darrell.

The next few tracks keep the tempo and energy high, but they're nothing terribly special, then "Medicine man" has a very groove metal rhythm and a lower, more gravelly vocal from Anselmo with a nice little bassline, "Message of blood" has a nice sort of bluesy opening but then goes into a harder, heavier groove sort of evoking eighties Maiden and some really, er, different guitar work. "The sleep" has a nice laidback guitar intro then explodes into a roaring, snarling puncher and "The art of shredding" is another fast rocker with, well, a lot of shredding.

TRACKLISTING

1. Cowboys from Hell
2. Primal concrete sledge
3. Psycho holiday
4. Heresy
5. Cemetery gates
6. Domination
7. Shattered
8. Clash with reality
9. Medicine man
10. Message of blood
11. The sleep
12. The art of shredding

This is a decent album. I don't know that I'd see it as any sort of classic, but it's certainly competent. I just find it hard to get too excited about it. For me, it's like a hundred other decent metal albums, but nothing more. I wouldn't make a point of not listening to any more Pantera, but it wouldn't upset me too much if I didn't hear any more of their work. In the end, an album I'd listen to once, shrug and move on, not terribly impressed but not repelled either. Speaking of which...
http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver3.jpg
Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantera

Iowa --- Slipknot --- 2001 (Roadrunner)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...pknot_Iowa.jpg
In the wake of the not-so-dearly departed and never missed PowerPunisher, I suppose it would be remiss of me to leave out his favourite band. This is something I'm looking forward to about as much as I relished the prospect of reviewing Slayer for my "Classic albums" journal. Sure, I have preconceived notions of what Slipknot will sound like, and I could be terribly wrong, but general opinion here seems to indicate I'm thinking in the right direction. This is supposed to be one of their most successful albums, the followup to their self-titled debut which apparently made their name.

Hold on: someone running a drill outside? JCB? Oh no wait: it's the opening track which sounds like, well, just noise. Someone's screaming and growling but I have no clue what they're saying, then it goes into the second track and it's more growling and impossibly fast guitar and thunderhammer drumming. Hmm. Apparently this is called "People=shit". Perhaps it should be renamed "Slipknot=shit." Or is that being unfair? To shit, that is. This is without doubt the worst music I've ever heard. It makes Slayer sound melodic and Morbid Angel relaxing. There's no tone, no melody, no structure, just, well, unfettered noise. This is certainly going to be fun.

You have to admire the beauty of the composition here though: "People equals shit, people equals shit, roarrrr, roarrr, growlllll, people equals shit!" Inspired. I bet Steve Harris and David De Feis are quaking. Okay, okay! Let's try to do this properly. Straight face. Serious face. Ah but come on! "Disasterpiece" sounds so much like the previous track that I didn't even realise we'd moved on to another, uh, song. Oh hold on: shock! I can make out some words here and the vocalist actually comes down from his black tower to sing in a normal fashion for about twenty seconds, then he's off ranting and spitting venom again.

Okay, on "My plague" he's doing some passably decent singing again, though still descending into the screams and growls he seems to be fondest of. WTF? Vocal harmonies? Did someone splice this album with ---? No, it seems to be there intentionally. Mucho weird. Okay, what's this guy's name? Corey Taylor. Right. But he and his buddies prefer to be referred to as numbers for some odd reason. He's #8. Well I can see why Slipknot are praised for power, energy, anger and visceral emotion, but among all of that there has to be some music too, and I find very little here. "Everything ends" has a quite decent vocal, again for a few seconds before Taylor explodes again. Wearing a bit thin now, and it wasn't that solid to begin with.

My biggest fear is listening to the closer, as I see it's -- gulp! --- fifteen minutes long! Not sure how that's going to play out, but I doubt it'll be pleasant. Strange that there's actually some melody in this current track, I suppose this is how it and "My plague" managed to garner nominations for Grammys. Maybe. From what I can see from the admittedly little I can pick up from the lyrics, I guess angry, angsty teenagers idenitfied with Slipknot so much because their music seems to contain elements of blaming everyone else for the shit that happens to them. Go, teenagers! It's never your fault, is it?

Sort of a supercharged rap vocal for "The heretic anthem", as Slipknot try to jump on the black metal bandwagon, rather unsuccessfully I think, though I guess they could share a stage with Venom and nobody would know the difference really. I'm tempted to step through the album but I've promised myself that no matter how bad I find the music to be I will listen to the whole thing. This is the first time that resolve has been sorely tested. I've listened to growlers, screamers, spitters and snarlers, but this is pushing me. So where are we now? "Gently". "Gently"? Did I read that right?

Well for once it's slower, with a doomy bass and drumbeat, whispered, sotto voce vocal but I can hear the guitar getting ready to slash into ... hey. This guy can play when he wants to. Name? Either Jim Root or Mick Thomson, numbers four and seven respectively. Taylor's still vomiting all over the microphone like a demented dying beast, but I'm beginning to wonder is this what passes for an instrumental for Slip --- ah. No. Here's a vocal. But again I'm surprised as it's a decent one, for a few seconds again before Taylor growls and screams his usual vitriol. Guess they stayed "gentle" for as long as they could stand it: the final minute or so is a punch-your-face-in-and-gouge-your-eyes-out guitar hammerblow and screamed vocal. Ah, so we're back on track then!

"Left behind" has a decent guitar opening, almost proper metal, and to be fair the vocal is clear and understandable for the most part. It even has some melody! Normal service is however resumed with "The shape", with the first words screamed being "Destroy!" Where do they get their lyrical ideas from? Pure genius! To be fair, there's a decent vocal here too at times, and the guitarists throw in some fine licks and Taylor does a passable rap in which you can actually understand him for the most part. The charming love song "I am hated" is next, with gentle piano and acoustic guitar, and a full orches --- nah, just kidding. It's a fast, frenetic, confused piece with one of the fastest vocal deliveries I've ever heard, also one of the least decipherable.

Almost an arabic style intro to "Skin ticket", then it slows down into a cruncher heavier than a piece of a neutron star. Backed by only percussion Taylor sings in an almost restrained way, then as bass and guitar cut in his voice gets rawer, rougher and, well, more insane. There are times --- few it's admitted, but they're there --- when his vocal performance reminds me of a slightly more unhinged and less talented Matt Johnson. The anger is certainly there, but whereas with The The Johnson is able to control and direct his anger, through sharp comments and stinging observations on the human condition, Taylor seems to just rage at everything around him, like a child lashing out at a world he doesn't understand. Of course, it's hard to be sure, as most of the time I can't make out what the hell he's singing, but that's the impression I get.

"New abortion" sounds like it should have been killed at birth, then "Metabolic" is pretty br00tal too. And now we're on to that final track, the fifteen-minute title closer. Well it opens with nice wind sounds and picked guitar, restrained percussion and sounds like laughter perhaps in the distance. Nice bassline running through it. Then we get that familiar growl and the guitars get a bit tougher, the percussion kicking in a little more but the vocal when it comes in is not too bad I have to say. So far. You know, for Slipknot this is pretty, well, ambient. I'm surprised. A little impressed if I'm honest. It is generally the same melody all the way through, but any melody at all in a Slipknot song is to be commended.

Okay, well I guess Taylor couldn't contain his anger for fifteen minutes and he has to let rip with a roar or a growl halfway through, but generally the vocals here seem to be sort of ad-libbed, like people just talking to each other and exchanging comments. The basic melody persists right through the song to the end, and well, you know, it's not terrible. Certainly an album that needed something decent to close it, and this is about as decent I think as you're likely to get.

TRACKLISTING

1. (515) (intro)
2. People=shit
3. Disasterpiece
4. My plague
5. Everything ends
6. The Heretic anthem
7. Gently
8. Left behind
9. The shape
10. I am hated
11. Skin ticket
12. New abortion
13. Metabolic
14. Iowa

Although this was not always as horrible as I had thought it would be it did not fall too short of that. I fail to understand how a band (and I use the term loosely) like this can attain worldwide fame and adulation? There are guys bashing out tunes in their parents' garages that are more talented than this. Then again, in fairness it seems that when they want to play properly Slipknot can, just most of the time they seem to be happy just to make noise. And apparently a lot of people like that. Nah, I'll never get it. If I want someone to roar abuse at me I'll go see a dominatrix. Not that I would do such a thing, of course... :shycouch:

Conclusion: Slipknot = too br00tal for me!
http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver1.jpg
Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipknot_%28band%29

I'm pretty stoked to see Super Collider making into this since I was as well pretty impressed with how it turned out. At first hearing when it was going to be released I was thinking "man, another album? Can Mustaine really do another one?" but then it turned out to be one of my favorites of theirs. It's definitely got that gritty heavy feel to it that I really love.

Blackbird --- Alter Bridge --- 2007 (Universal Republic)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._blackbird.jpg
Formed out of the ashes of Creed, and then continued when Creed reformed in 2009, Alter Bridge are a band who have feet in many camps. In addition to working with Slash, other members of the band have solo or associated projects, so they're hardly ever inactive it would seem. This is their second album and was something of a commercial flop for them. It opens with "The ties that bind", nice throaty guitar sound joined by another guitar and then kicking up in an almost progressive metal style. Good vocal harmonies and singer Myles Kennedy has a good clear strong voice. Bouncing, rocky track to get us going, then "Comes to life" has an almost Evanscence feel to it, slower but no less heavy.

Nice laidback track then in "Brand new start", lot of heart and soul in it. It's not a ballad but it is quite relaxing in its way. Kicking the power back up then with "Buried alive" and a feeling of triumph in "Coming home", then you can see why "Before tomorrow comes" was released as a single. Very catchy, very commercial but surprisingly did quite badly of the singles taken from the album. Another such was "Rise today", but this did much better, being used in various TV shows and promos, and is in fact Alter Bridge's best known song. It has a nice laidback guitar line in the intro, and in fact it's the only track on which Myles Kennedy plays guitar. With a theme of doing something to change the way the world is, it's very upbeat in message if not in tempo.

The title track starts off yearning and almost acoustic, but something about it tells you that it's about to flare up into a hard grinding rocker, and indeed it does, though it returns to the somewhat contemplative style of the opener throughout its run. And it's some run: the song is two seconds short of eight minutes and becomes really epic later on, with a fine passionate vocal from Kennedy and a great outro solo from Mark Tremonti. Definitely highlight of the album so far, and I like pretty much everything I've heard up to now. Compared to "Blackbird" the next track is a little tame, but "One by one" has a great energy about it, and some interesting guitar moments.

Lovely acoustic ballad in "Watch over you", very evocative lyric and expressive guitar as the lead is plugged in and acoustic becomes electric, returning to acoustic for the ending. "Break me down" is a good punchy powerful rocker with great vocal harmonies, and "White knuckles" swaggers along nicely with what sounds like keyboards but I think is guitar fills. We end on what starts off slow so could be a ballad, with an echoey guitar and restrained vocal. "Wayward one" has a very dramatic and cinematic feel with a great vocal and some fine guitar work, and though it turns out not to be quite a ballad it's a great closer to a really great album.

TRACKLISTING

1. Ties that bind
2. Come to life
3. Brand new start
4. Buried alive
5. Coming home
6. Before tomorrow comes
7. Rise today
8. Blackbird
9. One by one
10. Watch over you
11. Break me down
12. White knuckles
13. Wayward one

Having listened to "Blackbird" I couldn't say for certain whether Alter Bridge can be considered metal. They're certainly heavy but I don't know if they qualify as a heavy metal band or just a rock one. But they're certainly heavy enough for inclusion here, and whatever they are, I like them on the basis of this album. Feel I may be checking out some of their other material in the near future.

http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver3.jpg

Read more here [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter_Bridge]/url]

Surtur rising --- Amon Amarth --- 2011 (Metal Blade)
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Woo-hoo! More Norse mythology! Yes, I know they're a death metal band and I'll most likely hate them but, you know, Norse mythology! Did I mention Norse mythology? This is really serendipitous, as I have just this morning (at the time of writing) received through the post a book I used to read as a child, that I loved so much I got it out of the library several times, called "The children of Odin", which I had thought I would never have any chance to track down over forty years later. Good on ya, Ebay!

But enough of my childhood memories. This is the eighth album by Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth, and it focusses on, naturally enough, the myths of the Vikings, with the title figure being the giant who protected the fiery realm of Muspellheim, basically the devil in Norse mythos. He had a sword of fire, which is cool, but does this music have fire in its veins? The phrase "melodic death metal" has fooled me before, if you recall, so I'm not putting too much store in that this time around.

"War of the Gods" gets us underway with powerful guitar, trundling drums and a big growling roar from Johann Hegg, and though he growls and I don't like it I can at least make out the words; it's almost like he's just singing in a very deep voice, as opposed to other "death-growlers", who make the lyrics impossible to decipher. It's a good rocking start anyway, galloping along with energy and power, then "Tock's taunt: Loke's treachery part II" is a somewhat slower and heavier piece, with sort of semi-classical touches on the guitar, kind of like a marching song. Don't ask me what happened to part I; maybe it's on a previous album. Oh, all right! I'll look! Yes, it's on 2006's "With Oden on our side", where it's under the title "Hermod's ride to Hel: Loke's treachery part I".

Things get much faster and more frenetic with "Destroyer of the universe" then slow down in marching style again for "Slaves of fear". I can definitely see the melodic side of this particular death metal, and though my preference is still leaning towards a singer whose vocals I can clearly hear and understand, Hegg does a decent enough job here of keeping all the words clearly identifiable. I suppose in some ways his vocal style straddles what I would consider normal or clean vocals and death growls, falling on neither side specifically. Great guitar work from Johan Soderberg and Olavi Mikkonen, who certainly set up a decent wall of sound between them while still maintaing total control over what they play.

The songs on the album seem to alternate between fast headbangers and slower crunchers, which makes it a little sadly predictable, but no less enjoyable for all that. In that spirit then, "Live without regrets" has a lot of Iron Maiden in it, while "The last stand of Frej" is a slow, grinding, tragic dirge with heavy guitar and pounding drumbeat, and the battle continues in "For victory or death", as, as described in the notes to Bathory's "Twilight of the Gods", the immortals of Asgard ride forth to the final battle, which they know they are fated to fall in. A great uptempo track with a real sense of purpose and determination, like warhorses pounding across the battlefield, then "Wrath of the norsemen" trundles along more slowly and deliberately with some great solos from the guys and a grinding, pulsating beat.

Interestingly, penultimate track "A beast am I" mixes elements of both fast shredding and slower grinding, to perhaps construct the most complete song on the album, and it leads to the closer, "Doom over dead man", a slow, grinding finale to a pretty good album overall. Good instrumental intro then even when Johann Hegg comes in with the vocal it's not too distracting. Suspicions of some sort of orchestral or maybe synth work here I would think; can't believe those sounds are made on the fretboard? Well, nothing's mentioned about keys or strings, so you know, maybe, but if so then these guys are excellent guitarists. Song speeds up about the midsection as it takes on new intensity and then rather unexpectedly and oddly fades out. It's not the first song on this album to do that, but I had sort of thought there was going to be a big dramatic ending. Doesn't disappoint me, but it does surprise me a little.

TRACKLISTING

1. War of the Gods
2. Tock's taunt: Loke's treachery part II
3. Destroyer of the universe
4. Slaves of fear
5. Live without regrets
6. The last stand of Frej
7. For victory or death
8. Wrath of the norsemen
9. A beast am I
10. Doom over dead man

Although I can tolerate Hegg's vocals and they're the least annoying of the death growlers I've had to put up with over the last two months as I compiled this special, they still turn me off to the extent that, much as I like this music, I might find it hard to listen to another Amon Amarth album. It's a pity but I think I'm just hardwired to expect being able to understand what's being sung, and if I can't then it takes away from the value of the music and taints the experience for me. That said, this is a pretty fine album and of course the link with Asgard and the Norse gods certainly helped soften the blow. I suppose in light of the subject matter too, the dark, gravelly voice of Hegg was probably more in keeping with what you might expect to hear. I preferred Bathory's take on this though.

http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver3.jpg

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_Amarth

http://www.trollheart.com/THABC.png
http://www.trollheart.com/thabcs.png
SAXON: One of the big Metal bands to rise out of the NWOBHM. Saxon (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SCORPIONS: Popular German Metal band. Scorpions (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SEPULTURA: Brazilian death metal band. Sepultura - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SLAYER: One of the "Big Four" American Thrash Metal bands. Slayer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SHREDDING: THe practice of playing very fast, complicated and technical guitar solos.Shred guitar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SLIPKNOT: One of the more trendily popular nu-metal bands. Slipknot (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SLUDGE METAL: Heavier than Doom Metal and incorporating elements of punk and noise. Yeah. Sludge metal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SPEED METAL: As its name suggests, fast, aggressive, almost punk in style. Very technical too. Speed metal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

STONER METAL: A heavy style of Metal that adds blues, psychedelic and acid rock into the mix. Stoner rock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

STRATOVARIUS: Power Metal band from Finland. Stratovarius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


http://www.trollheart.com/thabct.png

TANK: British Metal band, popular during the NWOBHM. Tank (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

THIN LIZZY: Irish Metal band fronted by the late Phil Lynott. Thin Lizzy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

THRASH METAL: Fast, loud, aggressive but still melodic subgenre. Thrash metal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TWISTED SISTER: Glam metal band active in the eighties. All right: Wiki says they weren't, but come on! READ the article... Twisted Sister - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TYGERS OF PAN TANG: British Metal band who ended up going down the AOR route. Tygers of Pan Tang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think Trollheart not liking something is like my mother not liking something. His review of Slipknot made me listen to them TBH.

Yeah, we're like two completely dissimilar things in a pod. ;)
Very occasionally, our tastes coincide but that's usually foretold by some cataclysmic natural event. Otherwise we just wave to each other (or give each other the finger) as we drift past on opposite sides of the street...