Angry Metal Guy

These last couple weeks have been pretty crazy for this Angry Metal Guy.  I’ve moved south from the fair city of Umeå, to the much bigger (and arguably fairer) city of Uppsala.  While I miss Norrland, I do have to say that I’m quite enjoying certain aspects of the student culture in the city of Uppsala.   I haven’t had a lot of music time, but here’s some of what I’ve been listening to in the last week.

Weekly suggestion: Guilt Machine – On This Perfect Day — Yeah, this record was seriously solid and I strongly suggest you pick it up.

The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate — Oh, this is good.  I wasn’t super impressed with Nocturnal, so I’m pleased.  Watch for a review coming soon.
Gwyllion – The Edge of All I Know — Definitely heard better, but a pretty alright record.  Good vocals.
Insomnium - Across the Dark — Watch for this review.  Out on the 7th of September in Europe.
Isis – Wavering Radiant — These guys are ridiculously overrated.
Havok – Burn — See the review.  Great fucking riffs.
Amorphis – Skyforger — Best album of 2009?  So far.
Anaal Nathrakh – The Constellation of the Black Widow — \m/
Propagandhi – Supporting Caste — It ain’t the glory days, but these guys are still the smartest political band around.
Marduk – Rom 5:12 — I’m getting psyched for the new record, are you?
Falkenbach – Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty — Excellent viking/folk metal record.. addictive melodies.
The Dear Hunter – Act III: Life and Death — Excellent.
Amon Amarth – Live in Bochum 30/12/08 — Seriously, worth buying the reissue for this live record.

Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage
Rating: 2.5/5.0 – Good for a band I thought was a mediocre institution, but not terribly special
Label: Roadrunner Records
Websites: killswitchengage.com | myspace.com/killswitchengage

Killswitch Engage is pretty much the institution of metalcore on this planet, having artistically trimmed the genre into a tightly packaged, perfectly polished formula which appeals to the masses.  When I first heard them they were opening up for In Flames in Milwaukee and I was peeved that they were above Dark Tranquillity and Sentenced despite them being new on the scene.  Their vocalist was solid, but the music wasn’t compelling for me.  I was, apparently, kind of alone, as after that tour Killswitch became a metal “household name,” and even the most death metal of dudes I knew were totally digging on them.

Frankly, I lost track of them after The End of Heartache because I didn’t think it was very good at all (today I’d probably give it a 1.5/5.0).  However, I’m a metal fan and when I saw that these guys had their new album streaming I figured I’d give it a few proverbial spins and write a review, since that’s what I do.

And honestly, I’m surprised.  Despite this being a neatly packaged, highly formulaic and often plastic sounding–it’s enjoyable.  Sure, Killswitch is long past being progressive, new and/or groundbreaking, but they have honed this sound to a fine edge and each song powers through the speakers with a groove and a presence that explains why they’re still signed and selling a lot of records.  Not only that, but the musical approach is a step up from their earlier stuff even though many of these tracks could be interchanged with earlier albums.  It is almost entirely breakdown free, despite having good groove and lots of chunk, and the guitar work is actually super catchy and borderline interesting.  The production is, of course, flawless, but it doesn’t feel sterile like a lot of the new bands that are coming out these days–it’s probably too polished for an old-school hardcore fan, but for the Hot Topic types this is perfect.

Howard, the band’s vocalist, deserves his own paragraph because he’s just really that good.  This guy is a total powerhouse vocalist.  I don’t know if he writes all his own vocal parts, but they’re pretty damn catchy and his screams are tremendous.  Not only that, but it’s nice to hear a strong baritone still carrying the metal banner–since these days it seems like most clean vocals are still done by tenors or by guys who are trying to sound like 90s pop-punk vocalists.  His vocals are flawless, impressive and he even does the low, soft end really well.  If these guys had any other vocalist, I don’t think this record would be as good.

So sure, Killswitch is about as close to “bubblegum” pop as one actually gets in metal.  And yeah, they’re not doing anything super amazingly neat or new and yet… I’ve listened to this record about 4 times and I don’t have a headache, I have no desire to teach anyone in the band the meaning of pain and I don’t feel robbed of time or my personal honor.  That’s better than I can say for the last record of theirs I listened to, which means that these guys have really progressed as a band.  Like I said before, not ground-breaking, but fun to listen to and enjoyable.  What more can an Angry Metal Guy really ask for?  Well… a lot.  But I never expected it from these guys in the first place, so color me pleasantly surprised.

I was looking at my stats today and was surprised to see a site that I hadn’t been anticipating: an incoming link from Wikipedia. I was pretty stoked to see this, apparently I’ve been referenced on Wikipedia in reference to my Amorphis review!  I had been in contact with their webmaster, and I’ve had tremendous success with that review (as in, people find it randomly on search engines more than any other post I’ve produced thus far).  I actually revealed on this website, before any other site, that they had problems with the digi-pack CDs, but not only that they referenced the citations about the theme of the album.

I gotta say, I’m pretty stoked.  It’s hard to be angry when you’re contributing references to Wikipedia.  Check it out here.

Amorphis - Skyforger (2009)
Rating: 5.0/5.0 – Perfect
Label: Nuclear Blast
Band Website: amorphis.net | myspace.com/amorphis

Amorphis is easily one of my favorite bands producing metal in the 2000s.  Over the last few years I’ve seen a lot of the bands that I really got into when I was a young, impressionable metal guy start to get more and more popular as they got picked up by bigger labels, got put out on the market, and as metal got cool again (who’da thunk it?)–bands like Opeth, Enslaved, Amon Amarth and others.  Amorphis, however, had fallen off my radar, and I think a lot of people’s radars, before they got themselves a new vocalist.  A man of small stature, and huge personality and voice: Tomi Joutsen.  For whatever reason, this breathed life into the venerable, and quite excellent, band taking them out of their temporary lull and pushing them to the forefront with the bands putting out the best modern metal has to offer.

I managed to listen to this record about 6 times on the day they finally took it down from their MySpace and, while I was disappointed that they took it down, I was incredibly stoked to get to hear the thing in full.  And damn, how impressed I was.  First, let me say that I think Amorphis is performing like a lot of bands perform in their earliest days.  They’ve put out three records since 2006, and each one has been has fantastic.  Eclipse, their output from 2006, blew me away because I wasn’t at all expecting it at all, and it has stayed on my playlist pretty much constantly since then.  I had very high expectations for Silent Waters from 2007 and it didn’t let me down, and I think that Skyforger is even better than the other two–and quite possibly the finest record they have ever put out.

The production, of course, is pristine.  And the song writing has developed to the point where, while maintaining some of their more traditional and progressive roots, these guys have managed to start writing really fantastic “pop form” type songs.  But that doesn’t mean that they’re imitating H.I.M. or Sentenced, but instead they have managed to blend a lot of the more mainstream elements into a heavily melodic, and thoroughly enjoyable format.

Another great aspect is the fact that death metal vocals, which had sort of disappeared on the “in between” records (that is, between the Tales era and the current era), have come back with massive power.  The track “Majestic Beast” illustrates with, quite possibly the heaviest song that the band has put out in a very, very long time.  It’s on par with “Perkele” and “Weaving the Incantation” from their previous two records, and illustrates the power that still exists in the band.  But the variation of great instrumentation, the excellent choices of vocal styling and the heavy melody that define this album just impress me.

Unfortunately, something that I didn’t get from this record is the backstory.  I read somewhere that this is a concept album, and I would love to know more about the background information so I can judge it.  The lyrics are apparently based on a section of the Kalevala (the Finnish national folklore), and the album flows like a story.  But I haven’t been able to piece together exactly what’s going on.  However, the performance and writing are so strong that even if the lyrics are uninteresting and droll, the album itself is so musically killer that for me it doesn’t matter at all.

It is obvious to me that Finland’s greatest relic after the Kalevala is Amorphis right now.  There is a huge scene in Finland right now with some amazing bands, but one band that is absolutely at the top of it’s game right now is Amorphis.  I have trouble imagining that these guys can keep it up–but let’s hope that they can.  For those traditional fans who couldn’t get enough of Tales From the Thousand Lakes and The Karelian Isthmus and Elegy, I can’t promise that you will fall in love with this record.  This is definitely not the same band that was putting out those earliest records, but for those who are willing to give these guys a fresh listen, I strongly suggest it.  This is definitely looking like it will fit into the Top 10 of 2009 for this Angry Metal Guy.

Edit: According to Amorphis’ very helpful webmaster: “As for the background story; unlike the two previous albums it’s not based on a single Kalevala episode, instead its different parts of the epos from one character’s point of view (Ilmarinen the blacksmith; an exception is “From Earth I rose”, which is the song of iron itself). The cycle of poems the lyrics are based on (http://www.amorphis.net/?page_id=230) goes a good deal beyond the actual Kalevala text, which names Ilmarinen as the forger of the sky in various places but never goes into details about this role of his.” – Oh, the wonders of editing and e-mail.  Go and read those poems, they’re quite fascinating.

Also, buyer beware!  Since you WILL be going out and BUYING this album for sure! ;) Apparently there is “a little warning before you enter the record shop – of the album’s two current editions, the digipak batch has turned out to contain a glitch, so at the moment I’d rather recommend the jewel case version. I hope the corrected digi version will be available soon though, it’s very nicely done and contains a bonus track.“

OK, so I literally just made a post about MySpace having the whole Amorphis record up, but now apparently it’s gone, which is totally lame.   And when I say totally lame, I mean, totally lame.

On the other hand, I got to listen to the whole damn thing about 6 times before hand, so it wasn’t the end of the world.  I was just a little peeved.  Anyway, I got to hear it enough time to get a good review of it up, so that should be pretty cool.  I’ve also updated the website so that one can go directly to the Reviews and/or Interviews if one would like to.

Yay for the world of the internet, and boo for the short attention span of the average MySpace visitor!!

First, it has come to my attention that Amorphis, the venerable and excellent Finnish band that is madly in love with the Kalevale have, in fact, uploaded their entire new album to their MySpace.   I just want to say for the record that I think this is totally cool of them as I have been craaaaving a new Amorphis record since the last one came out.  These guys are so good, and so much better than they have been arguably since their creation back in the olden days.  This is not to say that their old stuff wasn’t good, but they’ve really gotten into their style and they’re kicking major ass up-and-down throughout Europe and the USA.  I hope that they continue kicking this much ass, because it’s like watching a new band with a ton of energy pumping out amazing records.  Think: Maiden in the early days, or Amon Amarth.. just pumping out excellent record after excellent record with practically no break.  That’s when you see a band at their stride: and wow, is Amorphis ever hitting their stride.

That said, the album sounds pretty awesome and I’ll post a more official review later, but I just want to point out that I’m so incredibly disappointed by the average myspace user.  Seriously, give a damn band a chance.  As of this instant (9:58 AM, GMT +1), 40,962 people have listened to the first track, whereas only 25,705 have listened to the next track.  By the time you get to what I think is easily the best track, those numbers fall off.  Now granted, the band still has over 15,000 people listening to the whole album, but that’s pretty fucking weak.  Since when do metalheads have the attention-span of small children?  I thought people who dug metal had gotten there through being willing to give things that other people automatically turn off a chance.  Is it that Amorphis isn’t EXTREEEEEME!!!!!!! enough anymore?  Or, what the shit?

Anyway, total props to Amorphis for the third totally kick ass record in a row.  Also, for the kick ass cover art. That said, kiddies, Skyforger is out on the 27th (i.e., today) in Finland (lucky bastards), the 29th (i.e., Friday–woo hoo!) in the rest of Europe and you suckers in the States have to suffer through to the 16th of June to appreciate the glories of Skyforger.  Poor guys.