Janszoon

You know you posted the googly eyes version of that Behemoth cover, right Satan?

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Trollheart

RAAAGGGHHHHH! CURSE GOOGLE! CURSE IT TO THE DEEPEST HELL!!!!!!!!


Now I have a fucking headache! Gragghh! Where's my CD of relaxation music? What do you mean, you stood on it????

GRAWWWWWWWWWWWGGHHHHH!

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Trollheart

As we start to wind up our brief excursion into the metal of Spain, I'd like to change tack completely and go in a totally different direction. David Valdes began playing guitar at the tender age of thirteen, found he liked metal best and joined some bands of whom you nor I has ever heard. He then got into the neoclassical guitar of Yngwie Malmsteen, and through the virtuoso guitarist discovered a love for classical music, which he has imbued his own output with. All his compositions are instrumental, so no problem with trying to decipher lyrics, though as I have already pointed out many times reviewing an instrumental album is a lot harder than writing about one with vocals.

I had wanted to take his latest effort, 2013's “World i obscure”, but Spotify only have one of his albums --- to be honest, I'm surprised they even had one! --- and so this is the one I'm going with.

Imhotep --- David Valdes --- 2006 (Heavencross)
Nice keyboard opening to “Beyond the universe”, then it kicks up on a heavy guitar with very much metal credentials, driving the piece along nicely. Some nice runs and solos, with percussion provided by Ferren Roch, fretwork acquires a touch of Arabic style in the last minute, and we move on into “Run up the melody”, where a real rippling solo takes the tune, much faster and more in the style of power metal here as Valdes lets himself go and Roch thunders along behind the drumkit. Things slow down in the middle with a pretty expressive piece of playing, double or triple-tracked guitars creating quite a wall of sound. “Return to the shadows” rocks everything along nicely, with a sort of dark growling guitar sound allied to a wailing keyboard. This man can certainly play! Touches of progressive metal about this, nice lush keyboard and acoustic guitar melding in the last minute with a hint of Gilmour thrown in there, not to mention some Spanish guitar --- well, you'd expect that, wouldn't you?

The title track is up next, and it's a quiet, reflective opening with acoustic guitar and choral vocals on the synth, little or no percussion for the moment, then as we move into the first minute it growls up and becomes a hard stomping metal monster, Roch punching in the beat as he charges in on the drums. I'm really enjoying this, but so far I haven't heard anything that could be described as neoclassical. Still, we're only four tracks in, of thirteen, so plenty of time for that I guess. For now it's just straightahead heavy metal, and very satisfying it is too. Think he might be using a talkbox there, but it's very subdued if so. A return to the quieter tone of the opening in the third minute as it all slows down and the choral vocals rise to the fore, then we're back rocking with one hell of a solo to take us to the end of the track.

I'm sure a guitarist could wax lyrical for hours about the techniques used here, the equipment and the way the effects are employed, but I couldn't play a guitar to save my life and understand little of their workings, so I'm left to just try to describe the music and how well it's played. “Bouree”, the shortest track here at just over two minutes, sounds like it's played on a lute or lyre, and is very medieval in nature. I could almost hear flutes and whistles coming in as accompaniment. No? No. The piece is over pretty quickly, and I guess to a degree, with its somewhat baroque style could be said to be the first indications of neoclassical on the album. “Lake of silence” turns out to belie its title, as it's a romping rocker with galloping drums, while “In darkness” seems more of a candidate for a slow song, with its deep stately synth opening. It's not though, as it quickly ramps up to a serious metal fret-out with dark elements. It does slow down in the end though, floating out on a really nice pastoral acoustic guitar, bringing in “Heart of pharaohs”.

Another rocker, this one features some pretty dirty guitar and a rising synth line with some effect on the guitar that makes it sound like it's snarling a vocal, unless Valdes slipped a sneaky one in (stop it, Batty! Settle down...) and develops into a mid-paced kind of a tune with some really nice shredding, some of it quite Brian May in tone. Rather disappointingly though, there's nothing the faintest bit Egyptian about it. Maybe he felt it would be too much of a cliche, but I would have liked to have heard a “Powerslave” or even Santana-style riff, maybe a Dio? Seems a lot of Mike Oldfield circa “Tubular Bells II” in “Castle in Heaven”, but to be brutally honest it's a little boring. In fact, the whole album has sort of begun to peter out for me now --- it's always hard holding the interest in an instrumental album I know, much more so a guitar one, but still, it sounds like he's just on autopilot now --- so I hope we can get back to the quality for the last four tracks.

The next one up is called “1099 Adagio”, so I'm hopeful for some neoclassical, or even just classical, to come into Valdes's music, and indeed here it comes: one of the best tracks so far. He really handles the Greats so well, putting his own slant on music that has been around and enjoyed for centuries, that he should do more of it. He's a great guitarist, but some of his more metal stuff on this album has definitely started to bore me, as it's beginning all to sound too much the same. This is nice though, and an example of what he can do when he steps outside the often rigid boundaries he has constructed to work within. Rather surprised to hear “Speed metal cop” begin with a gentle flowing passage before it kicks up into something more akin to progressive then power metal, but it's pretty alright. Lot of tension in it and, oddly enough, I hear the Egyptian sound here!

“Voices in a deep” starts with slow dark synth but that's quickly left behind as we head into another fretfest, the keys joining in and pursuing the guitar as it chugs along. Some screaming solos but then it quietens down nicely in the midsection, where Senor Valdes gets all reflective before knocking it back up a notch, and we close on “Far away”, a nice sort of relaxed atmosphere to it. I'm a little disappointed though that there were no real ballads on this, and as I said earlier, more neoclassical should have been a must. Started off very well indeed but pretty quickly got old and a little stifling. Guess it's hard to keep the interest unless you play yourself.

TRACKLISTING

1. Beyond the universe
2. Run up the melody
3. Return to the shadows
4. Imhotep
5. Bouree
6. Lake of silence
7. In darkness
8. Heart of pharaohs
9. Castle in Heaven
10. 1099 Adagio
11. Speed metal cop
12. Voices in a deep
13. Far away

I actually had expected to be raving about this guy, from what I had read and from my initial listens, but as it went on his music just seemed to get a little samey and I was waiting for something to happen. It didn't. He's still a great guitarist, of that there's no question, though he's hardly quite in the Plankton league just yet. Better than Neal Schon, certainly his solo work anyway. I didn't find myself falling asleep halfway through like I did when listening to “The calling”. But metal is either about (mostly) excitement, speed, aggression and power, or in some cases a cosmic shift towards the quiet, pastoral and quite often utterly beautiful. This had flashes of both, but really settled more on the former than the latter, and even that was a little cliched.

Hard to rate I'll admit, but for me this just didn't shine the way I had thought it would. I've said it before more than once: an instrumental album really has to work to keep my attention all the way through, and this one just started to coast along in the latter half, whereupon I began to care less. Finished well, and started well, with some good stuff in between, but sadly, just not quite enough good stuff.

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Trollheart

Hey! How freaky is this? Not only is the next album on the list by a Finnish band, recorded in the same year as Finntroll’s, but it has a logo which looks like that of ReinXeed, who I only reviewed a day or so ago!

Wintersun --- Wintersun --- 2004 (Nuclear Blast)
Recommended by JustinJJustin
We are however back to melodic death metal, though with a symphonic thrown in too, so to be honest I’m not sure what to think! At least these guys sing in English, assuming I can understand the vocal, which given the subgenre is by no means certain. This is their debut album, and they’re a spinoff from some other Finnish outfit --- Ensiferum, I think: yeah, Ensiferum --- who are themselves a Folk Metal band, so there may be some interesting mixes in here. But I’ve not had the best luck with death metal --- melodic or otherwise --- so I’ll reserve judgement for now.

Starts off oddly enough like a Power Metal song, then dark but not (!) growly vocals intone some lines before they break into a big scratchy scream. But hey, it’s not too bad and “Beyond the dark sun” opens the album well. Some great guitar work from I would assume two axemen? Wow, no! It’s another two-man outfit, with mainman Jari Mäenpää taking everything bar the drums. That’s guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals. Impressive. “Winter madness” is a longer song, mostly riding on the frenetic guitar and blastbeat drums, but it’s a little hard to pick out any highlights as it’s all just fast and powerful with no specific melody or passage I can nail my flag to. Good though.

Seems Mäenpää was fired from his parent band when he tried to record this album, so I guess it’s very personal and important to him. As he told Metaleater.com: ” Lyrically it's quite a personal record, but there's a little bit of fantasy also. Actually, you can understand the songs by many ways and meanings, which is great. But underneath all the metaphors to stars, space, vast and cold winter landscapes, it's all about my personal life: my feelings, emotions, thoughts, dreams, visions and hallucinations. [...] Every song is a highlight and important to me in their own ways. "Beautiful Death" and "Battle Against Time" were therapeutic to write, because they deal with the negative sides of my life and it was good to get those feelings on paper and into music. "Death and the Healing", "Sleeping Stars" and "Sadness and Hate" are very old songs that still live on, so they have sentimental value.” (Copied direct from Wiki page Wintersun (album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

“Sleeping stars” sees a departure from the frantic, breakneck speed of the first two tracks, with a slower, swinging rhythm that’s almost, but not quite, in ballad territory. Kind of like a saga or something, very stately and majestic with a lot of keyboards and more restrained guitar for the most part. There’s a really nice orchestral style keyboard to end and then we ramp the tempo back up as we engage in a “Battle against time”, with a very effective male chorus in the opening and a return to that dark, intoned vocal we heard at the beginning of the album. Picks up speed then and the vocal goes back to Mäenpää’s “normal” style, though the chorus/choir helps to dull the edges of that sharp, acerbic voice a little.

A very personal song to Mäenpää, “Death and the healing” recounts his own recovery from TB, contracted during his compulsory service in the Finnish military and which necessitated the removal of part of his lung. I may not like his singing, but he has a strong voice and you would not think he had anything wrong with his lungs, so fair play to him. Great guitar and keyboard intro with those choral vocals, and Mäenpää drops to the lower register for the vocal on this most intimate song. He compares himself to a wounded bird as he sings ”A windstorm dropped a bird from the sky/ It fell to the ground and its wings broke and died/ But when the time got by/ Back to sky it flied (sic)/ Cause the wings healed in time and the bird was I.”

Although only just short of eight minutes, Mäenpää has created his very own death metal version of “2112” by Rush in the five-part “Starchild”, with part I (“Wanderer of time”) opening with a big hammerfist guitar rocking along in a very Power Metal vein, then part II (“Burning star”) is much slower and more pastoral, with a hard guitar edge as Mäenpää drops momentarily to the more recognisable vocal before ramping back up for part III (“The Creation”). Letting loose on the keys he blasts along like some demented carny, Kai Hanto struggling to match him on the drums. Part IV (“The sea of stars”) seems to have a violin leading the melody, though I guess it’s on the keys and part V (“Finale”) wraps everything up in one last fretfest.

The two longest tracks close the album, with “Beautiful death” allowing Mäenpää to slip the leash and allow his fury full vent with the darker, higher vocal, guitar holding court as choral vocals swell in the background like a supporting army. Some really nice church organ is soon kicked aside by Hanto’s percussive fusillade, indeed Hanto really shines on this track, showing us what he can do when he’s given his head. The closer then is the longest track, just over ten minutes. “Sadness and hate” opens with a doleful guitar that quickly kicks up into a hard, angry one but when it gets going, with a big scream from Mäenpää, it has a really nice swinging melody, almost balladic, though not really. For a ten minute song there are not that much in the way of lyrics, so I expect some interesting musical interludes.

Happily, Mäenpää either changes his vocal style here or it is augmented by another as the lyric prepares to run out and swaying guitar takes the tune, getting sort of medieval at times with a lilting, almost pastoral melody. Actually it seems the lyric is repeated during the song, lasting up to the ninth minute, leaving us to fade out on a celestial, ethereal keyboard passage

TRACKLISTING

1. Beyond the dark sun
2. Winter madness
3. Sleeping stars
4. Battle against time
5. Death and the healing
6. Starchild
(i) Wanderer of time
(ii) Burning star
(iii) The creation
(iv) The sea of stars
(v) Finale
7. Beautiful death
8. Sadness and hate

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the vocals ruined this for me, but I would probably have appreciated it a lot more if I could have understood what was being sung. Okay that’s not fair: I could understand it (mostly through having a lyric sheet) but it wasn’t the sort of singing I like to listen to . That aside, there is some excellent music on this album and it’s well worth a listen if you are into this particular subgenre, or even if you’re not. For a man with a repaired lung, Jani Mäenpää sure knows how to give it his all, and I just wonder if his previous band are regretting the decision to let him go now?

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When you’re a kid and have little or no disposable income, or when you’re a teenager with just as little, you don’t have the luxury of buying all the new albums. As I’ve mentioned before, when I was growing up there was no internet as such, and certainly no itunes, YouTube, Spotify or Grooveshark. There were no torrents. If you wanted to hear an album you either bought it, borrowed it or, if you were lucky, got to hear it at a listening post in a record shop. If that last sentence made no sense to you, you are too young. I officially hate you.

So you had to be careful how you spent your money, and one of the ways I found to get the best bang for my Irish Pound was to buy compilation albums. This was a way to hear bands I did not know of, and see if I liked them. It meant there could be a lot of dross of course, but the chances were that I would get at least two or three decent songs off the record, and maybe an introduction to a new band or two I could follow later when I started earning properly. There weren’t too many Metal compilations about at that time, but three I recall having, and as they turned me on to many new artistes (and off others), over the next three days I will feature them as the final trilogy to wrap up


Metal for muthas, Volume II --- Various Artists --- 1980 (EMI)

For years --- and I mean years --- I wondered idly what a mutha was? I thought it was pronounced “myoo-taw” and that it was some secret name of Heavy Metal heroes or something. Of course, I eventually got the joke. Strangely, I never bought or even heard volume I --- I think I bought this second hand with a pile of other records, in the days when you could go into the city with twenty quid and come back with a bag bursting with albums --- and it seems to be acknowledged as the better of the two, with contributions from Iron Maiden, Praying Mantis and Samson, whereas the bands here are all, or were all at the time, pretty much unknown to me. But in a way, that’s what made it such fun, discovering new music.

As well as briefly running through the tracks here, I’m going to be checking in on each artiste, to see how they did after this album. Did they go on to great things? Did they have a moderately successful career? Or did they vanish without a trace? Some I know the answer to, some I don’t. We open however on a band that not only bookended this album, providing both the opening and closing tracks, but who became a firm favourite with me. Which is unfortunate, as they never seem to have gone on to have released any albums and I never heard from them again.

Track one: “One of these days” by Trespass.
They were a short-lived band from Suffolk who all had day jobs. Of course, after the release of this single they all …. kept their jobs. Yeah, they were never even moderately successful, and recorded little material, making it all the weirder that they not only ended up having an anthology but also at least three compilations, most if not all of which were bootlegs. Still, I loved what I heard here, and “One of these days” gets the collection going with a jangly, Lizzyesque guitar before the guitars kick up and take the song into a rockin’ hard boogie rhythm. Oddly, this was their most famous (as such) and successful track, and while I like it I much prefer their other one. But I think this really shows a band who could have broken through but somehow just never got the breaks, despite being managed at one point by The Enid’s manager. Guess it was never meant to be.

it’s nothing revolutionary but it’s clearly good enough to stand beside the likes of Praying Mantis, Samson, Xero, White Spirit and the slew of others who rode the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the early 80s, and with a few exceptions the contributions from Trespass stand head and shoulders above everything else on this album. But sometimes it just doesn’t happen, and barring the closing track, and despite much frenzied searching, I never found anything else by them until about a year ago when I pounced on their “anthology”, also called “One of these days”.

So where are they now?

Having failed to make the big time (or even the slightly smaller time) Trespass broke up and later three of the band members formed a new band, which itself broke up after about three years. The guys then released an album called “Head”, which is said to contain new Trespass material, but despite a lot of searching and many sacrifices offered to the metal gods, I have never been able to track it down. That came out, apparently, in 1993, since when the band have just fallen off the edge of the world, and have not been heard from since. If anyone has information on them I’d love to talk to you.

Track two: “Telephone man” by Eazy Money.
I’m always (was even back then) sceptical of bands who replace an “s” with a “z”. Can’t find much information on them, which probably means they’re no longer around. In fairness, from what I remember of their track here that was not too surprising because I recall it being distinctly under-par. Mind you, maybe I was just seriously disappointed after having heard Trespass to be shackled with a much inferior band. Perhaps time has changed how these ears will perceive this song. Let’s find out.

Interestingly, it opens on a soft keyboard and organ line, then the guitar cuts in and the song very much reminds me of Deep Purple. It’s not bad, very American sounding and the guy certainly has a good voice, though it’s not anything that terribly special. The constant beep-beep from the synth, mimicking the sound of a telephone, gets annoying after a while. Yeah guys, we got it: even ELO only used the sound of the phone once on “Telephone line”. No need to beat us over the head with it! Good chorus to be fair, but it’s much more verging towards AOR than NWOBHM. Picks up at the end with a fine guitar and keyboard solo which quickens up the tempo and helps the song end really well. You know, I need to revise my opinion even from a few lines ago: this is fucking awesome! Just shows how a song can develop and suddenly kick you right in the ----

So where are they now?

Well, as I said I can find nothing about Eazy Money, but their vocalist, Marc Storace, did go on to front one of the bigger rock/Metal bands of the 80s in Krokus. So in one way at least, the spirit of Eazy Money lives on.

Track three: “Cutting loose” by Xero

Now this band I have been finally able to dig up some information on, oddly enough through the Answers.com website, and thanks to a guy called Eduardo Rivadavia. Seems that Xero (pronounced “zero”) were set to break into the big time, being championed by rock’s biggest fan on the radio, DJ Tommy Vance, but they unfortunately ran afoul of Iron Maiden’s management when they tried to release a song they had played live but which was a cover version of a song which had had Brucey involved in (for the full story see here Xero: Information from Answers.com and their label dissolved under legal pressures. That was the end of Xero, and a salutory lesson in naivete.

A good heavy fast rocker, “Cutting loose” is a decent track with a lot of blues Rory Gallagher about it, and maybe early Free, kind of more hard rock than Metal really. It has perhaps one of the silliest lines ever in a Metal song (and that’s no easy feat!) --- ”They used to call me boomerang/ Cos I kept coming back!” Gods preserve us! Goofy lyric aside though this song shows a band who were just really getting it together and could have been big. With a guitar riff very reminiscent of NWOBHM giants Iron Maiden, this song keeps the quality high on the album, and singer Moon Williames certainly knows how to scream in a Dickinson style, while Bill Liesgang is no slouch on the guitar either.

So where are they now?

Well, as I mentioned Xero the band did not last beyond about 1983, but again thanks to Eduardo I have information on what happened to them in later life, and it’s a somewhat varied result. Moon Williams hooked up with prog rock icon and ex-Asia man John Wetton, while Liesgang got plenty of session work. Strangest of all, bass player Boon Gould joined Level 42!

Track four: “High on high” by White Spirit

Another band who released one album only and then split, but whose members all did okay for themselves afterwards. White Spirit also share the distinction of being the only artiste here, other than Xero, to appear on two out of three of the albums I have chosen to end this section. If they have a claim to fame it must surely be that from their ashes sprung later Maiden guitarist Janick Gers.

With an intro more out of something you’d expect to hear on a prog rock album than a Metal one, it’s a pumping, boppy start but you really would think you were listening to Kansas or REO Speedwagon here. It’s a good song but very wimpy in terms of metal. Don’t get it. I hear elements of Asia and Yes in it, but not Maiden or Motorhead. That said, it’s a great song, just not what I would consider a great Metal one. Vocalist Bruce Ruff certainly has an interesting voice, but then just to reinforce the prog rock idea there’s a very proggy keyboard solo in the song, and no guitar one really.

So where are they now?

Like so many bands, White Spirit became just another casualty of the NWOBHM, unable to capitalise on their debut album sales --- not surprising really, as it sounds like they wanted to be more a prog/AOR or even soft rock band more than a Metal one, and they were never going to survive among the likes of Leppard, Girlschool, Angel Witch and even Praying Mantis. In musical genre terms, White Spirit were the dolphins among the sharks, and they got torn apart.

But as I said, their big star was Janick Gers, and he went on to work alongside Ian Gillan in the ex-Deep Purple vocalist’s eponymous solo band, also spending time with Fish on his debut solo album and Bruce Dickinson on his before joining Iron Maiden proper, where he has remained to this day. Of the rest, Bass man Phil Brady joined Therapy, an English band not to be confused with the Irish one Therapy? while drummer Graeme Crallan can be heard playing on Tank’s 1984 album “Blood and honour” but left after that. He sadly then passed away after an accident in 2008.

Track five: “Lady of Mars” by Dark Star

Here we have finally a band who recorded more than one album, though in fairness they did split after the first, reforming in 1987, two years later, to record a second album. Having no luck with that they then split for good. Again this is more in the melodic, almost AOR vein than out-and-out Metal, and I doubt too many metalheads would rate it. However it became and remains one of my two favourite songs on the album, even beating out Trespass’s “One of these days”. I really loved this. Though it starts off with a good, punchy guitar and indeed rides on a heavy riff, and the vocalist has a great rough gravelly voice, there’s something too poppy about it to make it a proper Metal song. It’s infectiously catchy as Ebola in Sierra Leone (What? Too soon?) and there are great backup vocals. It also ends with a really heavy guitar and crashing drums.

So where are they now?

After the second split following the lack of success of their 1987 second album, Dark Star stayed together, minus their singer, who went on to management, while his bandmates formed a new outfit called Poker Alice, a primarily blues-based band.

It’s my recollection from my youth that from this point on the album dipped seriously in quality, though as has already been proven, my memory can’t always be relied on, as I thought “Telephone man” was crap and it wasn’t. Nevertheless, I have a clear remembrance of a sense of disappointment till we got to the closer, the second Trespass song. But we’ll see how time has treated that memory.

Track six: “You give me candy” by Horsepower

The only thing I can find out about them is that, uncharacteristically for an NWOBHM era band, they were not in fact English or even British, but relocated to the UK from Philadelphia. Perhaps they saw or heard of the burgeoning Metal scene across the ocean and thought “We’ll have some of that!” Well, this is more like it! Much as I loved Dark Star, this is more like the kind of Metal you’d expect to have found on an album like this. With a big, fast, rocking beat very reminiscent of the likes of ZZ, Horsepower rock unashamedly on with good-time guitars and who-gives-a-shit drumming.

It’s like Horsepower brought a sense of American fun and freedom to a subgenre that was often at this time in danger of taking itself too seriously. As bands struggled to get noticed, many aping or in some cases copying the established or rising bands --- often note for note and riff for riff --- some of the enjoyment in the music got left behind. These guys from the city of brotherly love remind us that music is to be enjoyed, and they’re like the best of Blindside Blues Band, ZZ and Lynyrd Skynyrd all rolled into one. With a healthy dose of Southern Boogie this track not only rocks but is enormous fun.

Let me see if I can encapsulate it in one sentence. Oh yeah. Fuck, I love this! How could I have thought this was the begining of the slide? The equine ones remind us this is supposed to be a party, and they’re makin’ sure everyone has a real good time! Sure, it’s not what I’d call NWOBHM in any way shape or form, but then neither were White Spirit, and if they belong here then sure as there’s shit on their shoes, Horsepower do too!

So where are they now?

Sadly, after setting our shores alive with their own brand of Yankee fun rock, Horsepower headed back over to the States, where they released their first album and obviously stayed together throughout the 80s and 90s, as they recorded a song in memory of the victims of 9/11.

Track seven: “Open heart” by Red Alert

Really, really hard to get any proper information on this band, as not only was there a punk band of the same name operating at the same time (the Wiki link on the album goes erroneously to their entry, which confuses things further) there were two Metal bands called Red Alert. Add to that the fact that it’s also the title of a song and it makes it next to impossible to find an entry on them. All I did find is that they were yet another of the jetsam of the movement, releasing just the one single, the song here, and then changing their name, after which nothing more is known of them.

It’s more straightahead metal this time. Whereas “She gives me candy” was a great rocking tune and a rollicking good ride, it could not really be called Metal, much less NWOBHM, but this can. With a killer riff driving the song and a singer who sounds like he chews cigarettes for breakfast, it’s rough and raw and just the right side of punk that would allow it to fit right in among the many hundreds of bands all pushing and shoving for a recording contract, or at least recognition, in those heady days. It has to be said that it’s nothing special, but it’s not bad. I remember it as a little forgettable, and this time it would seem my memory is pretty much right on the money.

So where are they now?

Absolutely no idea.

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Track eight: “Chevy” by Chevy

For once, it’s nice to see that someone has compiled a decent amount of information on a band I hitherto knew nothing about, so I can tell you that Chevy began life as 4 Wheel Drive in the sixties and played pop songs until they caught the metal bug in the wake of the NWOBHM and decided to change their playing style. They released one album but were another band to fall prey to a clueless label who had no idea how to market them, and possibly no interest in doing so. They did play with some giants, Hawkwind and Gary Moore to name two, but split in 1983 after their first album “Taker”.

A big screeching guitar leads in a real three-chord boogie that just has your head moving right away, and with a lot of Springsteen in the feel. Odd that they would change their name to Chevy, a recognised symbol of American motor power, when they came from the metropolis of … Leamington Spa. But I suppose Transit or Vauxhall wouldn’t have had quite the same ring to it! I hear traces of Lizzy here, and again ZZ, even if the song is a little repetitive. I could see this having been very popular onstage though.

So where are they now?

Well again there’s a lot of information and I’m not going to bore you by telling you the separate path each band member followed, but suffice to say one still plays with Dr. Feelgood, one is a guitar teacher and the others all went on to play with well-established bands including Badfinger, Atomic Rooster and the Steve Marriott Band. Humorous aside: their record label, Avatar, who caused them so much trouble and possibly cost them a chance at fame and success, went bankrupt and apparently formed a company producing porn videos! Ah, revenge is sweet!

Track nine: “Hard lines” by The Raid

Actually called Jameson Raid (sounds like a heist at an off-licence!) the band had been around since 1973 and were annoyed that EMI remixed their song, without their permission, and according to them it was ruined. Apathy seems to have been the big killer of this band, and they began to fragment shortly afterwards, with two of the founders leaving. By 1983 the band was effectively dead.

The song opens on a thick bass line, and runs almost like a Metal version of bluegrass for a moment before it takes shape. I don’t really like the singer’s style, but if I had to compare him to anyone it might be Bowie? It’s a pretty intense number, almost claustrophobic with the heavy guitar riffs pounding down and the vocalist almost seeming like his voice is coming through a phaser or some effect. Seems to be based on an accident taking place in deep space, from what I can gather. A very dark, bleak song which belies its mostly uptempo style. Certain touches of the Clash or a slower, more restrained Tank about it.

So where are they now?

After the two founders quit the band in 1980, the remaining two members, Phil Kimberley and the man whose name should have been synonymous with Metal, Terry Dark, continued on the band. Although all four original members have now left, Jameson Raid continues with an entirely new lineup and is the only band on this compilation to be able to say they are still active.

Track nine: “Stormchild” by Trespass

They saved the best till last. This song will forever be in my top ten metal tracks, even though most people would look at it and say “Stormwhat? Who the hell are Trespass?” Despite that I’ll always love them and this remains one of the best Metal tracks I’ve ever heard. It opens with a lone guitar riffing, then another, harder single chord joins it, so two guitars are now riffing separately but in the same melody. Drums cuts in after a short moment and the song takes off, rising on a completely infectious guitar line. Vocals come in, though only after over a minute of guitar riffing, and just complete the song: strong, powerful, clear. Not a hint of rawness or roughness in the voice. A superb, fluid solo bisects the song and it ends in a storm of guitar riffs with a final fluttering cymbal and a vocal that sort of echoes out, leaving you wanting more, even though the song is easily the longest on the album, at just over five minutes. Shouuld have been an NWOBHM classic and a Metal standard. Life’s cruel, y’know?

So where are they now?

Already told you. Please check the writeup on the first track.

TRACKLISTING

1. One of these days --- Trespass
2. Telephone man --- Eazy Money
3. Cutting loose --- Xero
4. High upon high --- White Spirit
5. Lady of Mars --- Dark Star
6. You give me candy --- Horsepower
7. Open heart --- Red Alert
8. Chevy --- Chevy
9. Hard lines --- The Raid
10. Stormchild --- Trespass

When I bought this album as an impressionable teenager/passing over into twenties all I saw it as was a collection of Heavy Metal songs. I didn’t even know, probably, despite being in the middle of it, about the NWOBHM. But looking back on it now, thirty-some years later, I can see it for what it is: a partial encapsulation of that era, a showcase of some of the bands who never made it, and a repository of examples of how naive bands were back then, how greedy and often incompetent record labels were, and how unprincipled managers can be. If the labels and management teams behind some of these bands had been better, or cared more, or knew how to do their job, some of these artistes could have been huge, or at least survived.

Instead, we have a vinyl graveyard littered with the musical skeletons of those who were thrown in the deep end and found they either could not swim or were forcibly dragged down under the water by the incredible pressures put on them by those around them, fans, managers, labels and indeed the climate itself. To survive and make your mark in the NWOBHM you had to have something special, you had to be able to work hard (no problem there mostly) and you needed a good team around you, a team that could support, market and sell you.

Without these crucial elements, most of these bands were doomed to failure, and to be remembered only as a track or two on a compilation album that most people have forgotten about, or like me, remember with fondness. But ultimately, fame was never to be theirs and in the case of just about every band here, that really is the world of Heavy Metal’s loss.

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For my final look at Spanish metal I want to take a Doom Metal band, so let's go looking for recommendations huh? OK, well Google was about as much use as a barber shop on the steps of the Guillotine, so back to my metal encyclopaediac friends I go. Just gonna have to choose one. Let's see... ippy dippy, my space shippy, on a course so true. Round Neptune's moons and Pluto too, the one I choose is .... you!

No it isn't. Man, this is not going well. Three bands chosen, all split up and only one with any sort of an album. I need a current, active band. Let's see. How about these guys? No, close though. Active but with only an EP to their name. Still, maybe ... can I find it? Ah no forget it: it has only four tracks, two of which are Pentagram covers. That's no use to me. Jesus! It's like The Meat Grinder all over again! Another band, active but no sign of their one album. Sigh. Even better! My search for the next band crashed Spotify! Wonder if they're available on the shark wot grooves? YES! A few albums too. Great. They'll do then.

Baal --- Orthodox --- 2011 (Alone Records)
These guys have an interesting way of focussing their audience apparently. They play their gigs dressed in nondescript black cloaks, and say they don't move onstage. In fact, here's what they say, in their own words: “`We play dressed as penitents of the Sevillian brotherhoods. For us is a way to annul the individual at the moment of playing live music. The only esthetic reference are three motionless figures in black. We force the audience to be centered in that side of our shows...`` (From an interview given to Riff fanzine, and taken from the Encyclopaedia Metallum website)

Sounds like an interesting idea. Can't see the crowd getting too out of control and throwing beer bottles at three guys who don't even move! Mind you, this album is pretty short, with only five tracks, although one is fourteen minutes long. That seems to be about normal for doom metal, I'm discovering. To my surprise, given that the song titles are all in Spanish, it looks as if Orthodox may sing in English. Of course, this being doom metal that could be more muttered or grunted in English, but at any rate I have translations so I should be able to tell you a little about their songs. The first one though looks to be an instrumental, as there are no lyrics provided. It's called “Alto padre”, which starts off with a big buzzy guitar and then a second one joins with more in the way of melody. One heavy drumbeat is followed about a minute later by another, before there's a roll and the song gets underway.

It's definitely a lot more tuneful than a lot of the doom metal I've heard up to now --- Conan, I'm looking at you! --- and augurs well for the rest of the album, unless this is a curveball I'm being thrown. Sounds like a violin there? None mentioned but you never know; sometimes these things are uncredited. Drums are really rolling now as Borja Diaz Vera gets into his stride, and the guitars are very tasteful from Ricardo Jimenez Gómez. Tune is a little disorganised, almost like a tuneup at the moment, but not unlistenable by any means. Fairly quickly though it's over and it's not a short song, about five minutes and change.

“Taurus” introduces us to the vocals of Marco Serrato Gallado, and I must say on this song at least they come across more like some sort of Native American chant, though still better than many I've heard. The guitars get going as he drops out and they actually ramp up quite well. I honestly can't say too much about the drummer; he seems to be just marking time rather than following any sort of melody, but again maybe that's how it's done in doom metal. Most of it is so slow, it doesn't exactly lend itself to dazzling displays of percussive genius. There's certainly plenty of talent on display at the frets though, as Gómez does his best to liven up proceedings, and mostly succeeds.

Yeah, the vocal remains as a kind of chant, getting a little more intense near the end, but it really detracts from the pretty good music overall being played. Okay, the guitars. “Intromantes” might read as “introduction” but it's just shy of nine minutes long, so no. I would quote some lyrics but I have no idea what these guys are singing about, and think it may be some druidic verse or maybe something from Lovecraft? Lot of names I don't know. Pace has slowed down a little --- yeah, slowed! --- as Gallado continues to chant, can't really call it singing, lending perhaps weight to my belief that this is some sort of pagan prayer. It's ironic that even though he's singing in English I still can't really make out the words!

Wow! Sounded like my PC had got jammed there for about a minute, or like someone was playing a jew's harp incessantly, but no, it was all part of the song. The end of it in fact. Now we're on to “Hanin Ba'al”, which I guess is as close to a title track as we're going to get. I must say, Gallado's vocal here is much better. Much. He stops the droning chanting and gets into a serious groove that actually makes me want to listen to rather than ignore or strain to hear him. Plus I can now make out the lyric. Still no idea what it's about, but wasn't Ba'al some ancient Sumerian god or something ? It's got quite a bouncy feel to it, almost a doom boogie? Sort of an Iommi-like solo breaking out here from Gómez.

Final track then is that monster, with “Ábrase la Tierra” clocking in at a mammoth fourteen minutes, and right away they throw away the almost carefree, fun spirit of the previous track and settle down to some serious dooming. Bringing the pace right back, it's slow, sludgy and plodding but, as Moe once remarked, not without its charm. Gallado's voice is back chanting but somehow it's even further down in the mix now, or maybe it's just that Gómez's guitar is too far to the front. Either way it's a blistering wall of sound, but for a track this long I hope it changes a little over its run.

Well, rather amazingly after a real crazy solo from Gómez that seems to use a lot of feedback or effect pedals of some sort we're already nine minutes in! I feel it's very much overextended though, running well into the twelfth minute, but then looking at the lyric (which appears to be in Latin) there are less words used here than in a Conan song, so I guess they need to fill up the time with music. But then, why fourteen minutes long? The song then ends on some moans and kind of weird guitar effects and then fades out. Slightly disappointing ending, I feel.

TRACKLISTING

1. Alto padre
2. Taurus
3. Intromantes
4. Hanin Ba'al
5. Ábrase la Tierra

Good for what it is, and not half as crushingly slow or (dare I say it) boring as some of the doom metal I've experienced. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but this was not at all half bad. When Marco Gallado raises his game he's an okay singer, but in fairness nothing much more than that, with the undoubted star here being Ricardo Jimenez Gómez. Orthodox have four albums to their name, with a live one released last year, so are obviously still doing okay. Not bad for three guys who stand on the stage and move as little as possible.

So that's Spain done and dusted. I'm sure there are plenty --- and I mean plenty --- of bands we missed out, but when you're skimming though the music of a country with such a rich musical heritage, you're going to end up, well, skimming through it I guess. If I missed out a band you think I should have included, well all I can say is you try doing the next Metal Month! It ain't easy, ya know!

Next week I'm gonna be right at home as I check out the surprisingly vibrant metal scene in my own homeland. Yeah, Paddymetal closes out Metal Month II, starting next Monday! Ya wide or wot?

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Mournin’ --- Night sun --- 1972 (Zebra)
Recommended by Unknown Soldier

So Marillion weren’t the first ones to use that morning/mourning idea? Interesting. Ten years before “Script for a jester’s tear” took the world of progressive rock by storm, this band from Germany was already making that pun. Seems this was their one and only album, recorded a year before they split forever, and for a supposedly prog record it doesn’t have much in the way of long epic tracks, the longest just over seven minutes. That’s barely getting started in prog terms!

We open with stop/start guitar in that particularly proggy way I hate as “Plastic shotgun” is the first salvo Night Sun decide to send across our bows, but it’s definitely of its time, with Robert Plant “wildman” vocals and a very Purple/Zep vibe to the music, plus a rather stupid “dark scary voice” to end the short opener, as lush keyboards from Knut Rossler add a touch of class to “Crazy woman”, but then Bruno Schabb comes in with the vocal and it goes pretty much the same way as the first track. There is some very good guitar from Walter Kirchgassner which really livens up the track, and I take back what I said a sentence ago; this is a whole lot better. Even so, it plays like a bad copy of early Zep, with a mixture of hard rock and blues; can’t really see this as being Metal of any sort, even Proto-metal.

Schaab really does nothing for me, in fact he’s the thing I like least about this album. With a different singer this could be quite good, but he’s determined to “Plant” (!) his own identity all over it, and it doesn’t work. Spacey, weird intro to “Got a bone of my own” with some rising organ (yes ooer I know!) similar to that on the first Supertramp album, very swirly and eerie. The song is the longest on the album, just over seven minutes, so I guess a long intro is in order. Still, we’re three minutes in now as a dirty guitar riff begins and still no vocals. The heavy organ presence has now faded away, stripping the song back and revealing real teeth behind the originally prog-heavy instrumental. Into the fourth minute now and still no sign of Schaab; could this be an instrumental?

No, here he comes. Five minutes in and he makes his appearance, immediately in my opinion dragging down the track. Some nice echoey organ presages a tempo shift to a mid-paced blues boogie, which really is the making of the song as Kirchgassner and Rossler trade licks, then we’re back to the original harder rock riffs as vocals come back into the mix. We are however nearly at the end of the song, and it exits on a powerful guitar riff, taking us into “Slush pan man”, which certainly opens on a much more Metal-oriented guitar. Kirchgassner lets himself go here, channeling Tony Iommi in a dark, grinding riff that almost, but not quite, adds a touch of Doom to proceedings.

Interesting and accomplished drum solo (and that’s saying something) from Ulrich Staudt gives “Living with the dying” more weight than it probably deserves, while Rossler runs off an organ solo to rival Ray Manzarek from The Doors. Well maybe not, but it’s pretty damn fine. That organ is again employed to open “Come down”, where everything seems to slow down in a nice bluesy ballad, which for once softens even Schaab’s annoying voice, making him sound like a cheaper Jon Anderson, and the song itself certainly betrays its progressive rock roots before Kirchgassner kicks it up the arse and takes it in a harder direction. Of course our Bruno can’t keep his voice as it has been for the last two minutes and is back aping the Led Zep frontman, but I’m getting used to that.

Very evocative guitar solo to finish the song off, then “Blind” trips along on a nice boogie rhythm, Rossler’s organ painting the flourishes under his bandmate’s swaggering guitar, while “Nightmare” is probably the closest this band get to true metal, with a rapid-fire vocal delivery and guitars that are fast, but somehow come across as more like a faster Deep Purple, but without the raw talent. It’s actually quite funny. In an annoying way. Closer "Don’t start flying" starts out with a sax break that really sounds like the opening to “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty, although this would not be penned for another six years. It is however too jazzy for me and in my opinion closes the album terribly.

TRACKLISTING

1. Plastic shotgun
2. Crazy woman
3. Got a bone of my own
4. Slush pan man
5. Living with the dying
6. Come down
7. Blind
8. Nightmares
9. Don’t start flying

I have to be brutally honest: I pretty much really hated this album. When a rec comes from such a valued source as Unknown Soldier I'm always eager to give it a chance, but I can’t see how this can be rated as any sort of metal, and even allowing for its age it has really dated. The vocals set my teeth on edge, and though there were one or two good tracks to take away from this experience, it is not one I would wish to repeat. I think I’d rather listen to Grindcore. Well maybe not, but you get the idea.

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Unknown Soldier

Business as usual eh not liking one of my pics Anyway I’ve got crocodile skin (you need that when you’re a Styx fan) so no problem.

Personally I can’t believe that you can’t see the metal link (even if you class it as a hard rock album) here from 1972. The band play like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, and sound like the Flower Travellin’ Band meaning that they sound off their rockers. It’s fairly normal for any German band at this time to have Krautrock tendencies and the jazz is a nice touch.

To say that Night Sun should have no link to say 1980s metal, is to to say that both Deep Purple and Uriah Heep shouldn’t either, as all are bands that share the same principal characteristics of using the same type of guitar and organ sound. Night Sun display real speed on several songs and combine them with mid-paced pounders, I’ve reviewed numerous albums with that same combination recorded quite a few years after this album and the combination of speed and medium pace is a staple for many metal bands, you even mentioned the Tony Iommi inspired doom on one track as well.

Bands like Night Sun are cult bands amongst metal enthusiasts and without these bands I doubt metal in the 80s would have been as interesting.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Trollheart

Blind rage --- Accept --- 2014 (Nuclear Blast)


Say it loud, say it proud: I have always been a fan of Accept. I mean never. Never been a fan of Accept. To be fair, I've heard little from them, other than their supposedly seminal album “Balls to the wall”, which I heard at the height of a particularly nasty houseparty next door as I was trying to sleep, so as you can imagine that album did not exactly leave a great impression upon me. But Accept are accepted (sorry) as one of the premier German heavy metal bands and although I initially had intended to include this as part of the German section of “The International Language of Metal”, I made a decision not to feature any current albums there. However I had already reviewed this before I made that decision, so no sense in all that work going to waste, is there?

It opens on “Stampede”, with an almost operatic, dramatic intro before the twin guitars of Herman Frank and Wolf Hoffman blast in. This is the third outing for new vocalist Mark Tornillo, and though I didn't particularly like Udo Dirkschneider (what I heard of him), his voice was a little easier to accept (sorry, again) than this new guy. Tornillo seems to come from the school of Death Metal, and he growls and spits out the lyrics without, to me, as much emotion or passion as old Udo. It's a decent opening, powerful and striking though perhaps a little slower than I might have expected with a title like that, and the axework of Hoffman and Frank can't be understated. Still, so far at least they've failed to win me over, but this is after all only track one, and there are ten more to go.

“Dying breed” is up next, and it's more a chugalong rocker, with elements of Sabbath and Maiden at their best; even Tornillo's voice is a little easier to (no, I'm not going to say it again) take this time out, and with some very goth metal style backing vocals it's a decent song, far better than “Stampede”. Again the boys shine on guitar, while Stefan Schwarzmann hammers out the beat and his partner-in-rhythm, Peter Baltes, keeps pace. Yeah, this is much better, but will it be maintained throughout the album I wonder? In terms of value for money “Blind rage” is not bad, with eleven tracks in all, none of which dip below the four minute mark and one or two that edge over six minutes. I don't think there are any instrumentals: I get the feeling Accept don't do instrumentals.

“Dark side of my heart” is in fact one of the shorter ones, just about making it past the four and a half minute mark, and has a certain element of AOR about it, with a great beat and again fine backing vocals. It's kind of mid-paced, rocking but not thrashing and though some people will no doubt headbang to it, I expect there are faster, more headbangworthy songs on this album. A grinder, a cruncher, call it what you will, the next one up is much slower and pounding, kind of reminds me in ways of Sabbath's “Heaven and Hell” or Dio's “Egypt (The chains are on)”. This one comes in on the longer side of things, throwing in some sort of Viking/Goth influences over its almost six-minute run, and “Fall of the empire” has a really great little hook in its chorus. I must say, after what I considered to be a lacklustre opening this album is really shaping up. No bad tracks yet, that one excepted. I said “excepted”!

Nice political/topical lyric in ”Will the mountains crumble to the ground?/Will the Earth stand still?/Will we rise into a mushroom cloud?/Will the mountains crumble?” (Okay, perhaps not the most imaginative of lines, but it surely beats singing about beer, women and fighting?) which does at least show that Accept are thinking about world issues, and I would venture to predict that “Trail of tears” looks at the plight of the North American Indian? Well, it kicks the tempo right back up, that's for sure, as Schwarzmann unleashes his powerful drumbeats, and yes, it's Accept's “Run to the hills”, though perhaps that's not fair: I'm sure many metal bands have written about the disenfranchisement of the Native Americans. But that's the song that comes to mind when I think of the near-eradication of the red man from America. It's a good song, with some fine soloing from Herr Frank and Herr Hoffman, taking us into “Wanna be free”, with a nice little acoustic guitar intro raising the possibility that this may be a ballad.

It picks up in power fairly quickly but generally stays slow, and seems to reference the global cancer of white slavery --- well it does obviously, as the chorus has Tornillo roar ”No more human trafficking!” So that's that sorted then. Fair play to them: a great cause to champion, and it's a really good song too, with again another killer hook. I can just see the audience pumping studded fists in the air as they all yell ”We all wanna be free!” Well, don't we? Seems Accept have tapped into something of a zeitgeist here. Although in fairness it's only the first verse that talks of white slavery, as they they go on to focus on other wrongs such as poverty and homelessness and addiction. And yes, I'm getting more used to Tornillo's voice now, kind of a harsher Axl Rose. Sort of. At least he doesn't scream like Udo did. Well, not yet anyway. Though he does just then go back to that growl he had at the beginning for “200 years”; it's not so bad now. Rocks along nicely, this track with a cool line ”Welcome to the Stone Age/ 200 years after Mankind!” clearly referring back to the lyrical content of “Fall of the empire”. Well, it seems the empire has fallen, and with the passing of Man (”Population zero!”) and all his technology the Earth has reverted to an earlier, more natural state.

I hear echoes of Bowie in here, and Queen, and Balance of Power too. “Bloodbath mastermind” has a really sweet, echoey guitar to open it then a rolling beat from Schwarzmann kicks it all up to ten as the riffs start churning out and Tornillo lets out a few screams, but I don't mind. This is good stuff, though to be honest after the other tracks this is a little below par for me. Not saying it's a bad track, just not as good as any of the six that have preceded it. Tornillo goes into a very Axl/Brett growl for “From the ashes we rise”, another mid-paced rocker with some almost Kansas-style vocal harmonies. One thing this band seems to excel at is writing songs with catchy hooks, which is where the previous one fell down: there wasn't one. Here there is, and it adds an extra layer to an already pretty tasty song. The backing vocals are, again, very effective.

The longest track on the album at just a second short of six and a half minutes, “The curse” starts slowly, with some nice chimy guitar and a sort of tribal drumbeat, almost shades of Peter Gabriel's “Biko” in the guitar riff, then it's another philosophical track with lines like ”Who's the thief, who's the traitor?/ Who's the one who saved the day?/Who will stand in the spotlight/ While the good ones fade away?” Mid-paced again, a grinder and again with elements of AOR or certainly melodic metal in it, this is another winner on an album that has very few bad tracks at all. A really fine solo from one or the other of the guys --- don't ask me which --- and again that killer hook is in evidence, something that's not always the case with metal bands, especially German ones, where often how fast or hard you play seems to be more important than how you craft a song. We storm out in fine style then with “Final journey”, and on the strength of this album I think that's definitely not a prediction, or a threat. Accept prove they have culture too as the guitar solo rewrites Grieg's classical masterpiece “Morning” from “Peer Gynt.” Way to confuse the young 'uns, guys!

TRACKLISTING

1. Stampede
2. Dying breed
3. Dark side of my heart
4. Fall of the empire
5. Trail of tears
6. Wanna be free
7. 200 years
8. Bloodbath mastermind
9. From the ashes we rise
10. The curse
11. Final journey

So has this album made an Accept fan out of me? Well, I think it's difficult to make such a determination on the basis of one album, but one thing I can say about this is that I originally listened to it only for the purposes of review, but I've enjoyed it so much that I think I will be revisiting it purely for pleasure in the future. And that's not a bad start, is it?

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