Angry Metal Guy

Thunderstone // Dirt Metal
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – They’re going through changes.
Label: SPV
Websites: thunderstone.org | myspace.com/thunderstoneband
Release Dates: Out Now Everywhere (I think!)

Whenever an established band parts ways with their original vocalist and brings in a replacement, long time fans rightfully get concerned. How will the new singer impact the band’s sound and style? Will he fit in or change the dynamic too much? That’s the situation facing Finland’s Thunderstone for their fifth album, Dirt Metal. After four pretty solid albums of Euro power metal with original frontman Pasi Rantanen, Dirt Metal starts the era of Rick Altzi on vocals. With this new era also comes the much dreaded and despised shift in sound and approach as well. Are you scared? Are you on edge yet? Read on.

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Stormzone // Death Dealer
Rating: 5.0/5.0 – It’s raining true metal!!
Label: SPV / Steamhammer
Websites: myspace.com/stormzoneuk
Release Dates: EU. 03.05.2010 | US: 05.04.2010

Neal Kay, for those who don’t know, is widely credited with discovering and championing Iron Maiden way back in the day. Well, if that wasn’t service enough to the metal world, now he has helped bring us Northern Ireland’s classic metal masters Stormzone and their new album Death Dealer. This is no small accomplishment because, quite simply, this album is an absolute masterpiece of classic metal and full to the brim with top quality metal anthems. Stormzone is a band deeply entrenched in the early NWOBHM style and composed of musicians like vocalist John “Harv” Harbinson, with ties to bands of that era (Sweet Savage, Fastway). All the trappings of the British metal invasion are here and fans of that sound and seminal masters like of Saxon and Grim Reaper will immediately hear it in the sound and attitude exhibited on Death Dealer.

Stormzone sets the mood quickly with the title track, a muscular, battlefield tough rocker that showcases their stripped down, no nonsense instrumentation and the outstanding vintage metal vocals of Harv. This is the kind of song made to pump you up and perfect to roar down the highway blasting at top volume. The guitar work from Keith Harris and Chris Polin recalls the dueling guitar work of Judas Priest at their best and really keeps the show moving and shaking as Harv spins his tales of war, battles, heroism and loss. Harv bases his vocals mostly around a mid-range, tough guy delivery style not too dissimilar from Blaze Bayley, but he can hit the higher notes when the songs call for it. Time and time again, his phrasing and vocal choices further elevate already superior songs to a superb level while adding that extra layer of coolness and punch. Lyrically, Death Dealer borrows heavily from the old Manowar albums with odes to courage, bravery, warrior spirit and all such Angry Metal Guy Approved Topics™ but none of it comes across as overly corny or cheesy.

Song after song on Death Dealer showcase a writing and performing prowess that has to impress since all twelve songs are addictive, hook-laden metal monsters. Over the 70 plus minutes of Death Dealer, things never get boring or stale and you get treated to one huge vocal or guitar hook after another. Although this is great from start to finish, extra special gems include the title track, “Secret Gateway,” “Immortals,” “The Legend Carries On,” and “Greatest Sacrifice.”

The mighty Neal Kay himself assisted with the production and he has carved a sound that is completely bare bones and devoid of any trace of modern elements or studio wizardry. This is a minimalist work of metal genius. Sound-wise, Death Dealer seems to purposely mimic the production found on metal albums recorded in 1980-1984 and sports that odd, tinny but cool sound Carl Canedy frequently gave albums he produced around that time (think Overkill’s Feel the Fire or Anthrax’s Spreading the Disease).

Death Dealer is top quality metal from beginning to end with everything coming together exactly right. Importantly, you don’t have to be a fan of the retro metal movement to appreciate what these guys have accomplished here. This is an album for any fan of the metal genre and is a strong candidate for best metal album of the year. This gets the highest possible rating and recommendation. Don’t miss this release for verily it doth rock. Thanks again Neal!!

Beardfish – Destined Solitude
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Pretty good
Label: InsideOut
Band Websites: myspace.com/beardfishband | http://www.beardfish.argh.se

Apparently, someone forgot to inform Beardfish that 1970 has graciously left us behind to suffer without it.  But, of course, how one actually feels about that is very much a personal thing.  I’m going to try to be as objective about this record as I can be, because while these guys aren’t really my style I do appreciate certain things about them and their new album Destined Solitude.

First, let me say that it has taken me a very, very long time to produce this new review for a couple of reasons, first there are personal reasons (i.e., moving and so forth), but also because Beardfish is a weird freakin’ band and I’ve really had to take time digest this album for what it is.  So what is it?  Well, it’s a lot of fairly young Swedish guys playing 70s influenced progressive rock which sounds pretty much like a blend of the classics, think Yes, Genesis, and so forth.   The band has a harder edge to them, at times, even launching into death metal growls at one point, but for the most part the band’s angel-voiced vocalist waxes not-quite poetically along with winding passages, soaked in organ and, from the sounds of it, bong water.

From a purely musical standpoint, Destined Solitude is a great album.  The musical approach is very much deeply entrenched in the 1970s, but that doesn’t take away from the obvious musical talent that these guys have.  With songs winding up to 15 minutes long, somehow Beardfish manage to really write engaging music which catches one at every single stage of this album.  However, the musical excellence and variability is offset by meaningless and irritating vocals which are unable to compete with the musical technicality, and instead end up winding, amelodic and uninteresting.

Another issue that a lot of modern progressive bands face, I think, is that there was something instrinsically modern about the progressive movement that was happening throughout the world in the 1970s.  Call it the Zeitgeist, but that same feeling is gone, and I think that this is best reflected in Beardfish‘s lyrics.  Ranging from non-sense, to embarrassing lyrics about lone-wolves and life being a long queue to the bathroom, Destined Solitude suffers from what feels like a total lack of lyrical inspiration.  In fact, if I had a choice between vocals and no vocals, I’d definitely go with no vocals for these guys.  The music is great, fun to listen to and interesting but the lyrics and vocals make it worse and even occasionally.. well, bad.

Of course, across the board, if you’re really into progressive rock you’ll probably enjoy this album.  It’s definitely not a metal album by any stretch of the imagination—as the styles range from jazz to rap and only a minor foray into death metal—but the musicianship is both interesting and compelling.  Now, if only they’d take a lesson from Rush and learn that writing good progressive rock is both about being musically interesting and writing engaging melodies and hooks, these guys would be excellent.  But, one wonders if music of this variety hasn’t had its day in the sun already and if bands like Beardfish aren’t the nostalgic echoes of an age long past.

Indukti – Idmen
Rating: 4.25/5.0 – Excellent, but winding and weak at moments
Label: InsideOut
Websites: myspace.com/indukti | indukti.com
Release date: July 27th, 2009

There is a challenge with truly progressive metal and rock and that challenge is, of course, how one describes it in novel terms without sounding like some kind of pretentious ass.   The other major problem as a reviewer is that one has to rely on sort of contrived comparisons, so when a band sort of not comparable to other bands it makes things difficult.  Not just a little difficult, but a lot difficult, because as I sit here I am literally trying to figure out how to describe this record in a way that will sit well, make sense and give an imagine of how excellent this album is.

I guess that’s where I’ll start: this album is, for the most part, excellent.  It is a smoothly progressive blend of varying styles and influences, which are deftly melded into a cohesive whole.  That, of course, brings us to those contrived comparisons to try to get the sound across: basically, if you were to mix Tool with Skyclad (sans the thrash metal, mainly just the violin), Enslaved and Meshuggah, you might have something that sounds like Indukti.  However, unlike a band like Tool or Skyclad there is no pop-song formula involved in the writing of music, here—instead the band relies heavily on improvisation in the writing process, which leads to flowing, linear songs that don’t really repeat parts so much as work in movements (which is becoming more common with modern progressive bands in general). The songs go between tribal soundscapes with folk and classical instrumentation and heavy as a ton of bricks chuggy parts, even with a couple of sickly sweet chorus hooks on “…and Who’s God Now?!” which is easily the album’s best track, with it’s powerful vocal performance and excellent writing.

The style that I have described, however, comes with some weaknesses which the band has sort of fallen into in a couple of places.  The first of these weaknesses is that this writing style can get lost in itself and in a couple of places, most notably the song “Aemaet,” the band really just gets lost in what feels a little bit like running scales.  These places lack the great groove and seductive, hypnotizing melody of the best parts of Idmen.  The second weakness was almost completely avoided by the addition of vocals on three of these tracks—but without these, I get the feeling that a lot of this stuff would start to blend together, and while it would create an interesting soundscape, there would be fewer memorable moments.

However, the weaknesses on this album were entirely mitigated by the awesomeness that also ensued and I have to say that I am very convinced that this album will end up on my “best albums of 2009″ list.  The dynamism and musical skill shown by this band means, hopefully, that they will get more publicity in the next year or so. They definitely deserve it.

So, another Polish progressive metal band, another excellent record.  There must be something in the water. Let me forewarn you—if you’re not really into progressive music, that is, sort of lacking style obsessions or ideas about how a record should sound or how songs should be put together, Idmen may not be the record for you.  While I am blown away by Indukti‘s musicianship and songwriting, this record is almost entirely without vocals and what vocals are on this album are often weird, winding and not entirely a standard sound.  They range between very Maynard James Keenan-sounding vocals on “Nemesis Voices” to thrash and death vocals on “…and Who’s God Now?!”  This isn’t a weakness for me, obviously, as I think the record is amazing—but a lot of people might get lost in the wandering intricacies that make up Indukti‘s newest opus.  If this sounds at all appealing to you: buy this record.  This band deserves all the support they can get.

Riverside – Anno Domini High Definition
Rating: 4.5/5.0 – Excellent composition—stays with the listener for days
Label: Inside Out Music
Websites: myspace.com/riversidepl | riverside.art.pl

Riverside was a band that I approached with some caution.  I’ve often been unimpressed with progressive metal in the modern era.  Not just unimpressed, but often so much as incredibly annoyed with them.  Fortunately, it appears that progressive metal and rock have dodged the bullet when it comes to Poland’s Riverside.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that these guys are bringing something new and cool to the table while being able to maintain a familiarity and compositional approach that does what good progressive rock has done since the 1970s—that is, they write good, interesting music, but manage to make it interesting, memorable and fun to listen to at the same time.

Of course, the name Anno Domini High Definition definitely wasn’t helpful when it came to me being worried about this album. I looked at it immediately and thought “well, that’s kind of a stupid name,” which was followed by “oh, it stands for ADHD, how trite.”  Not trite at all, actually.  The band has managed to produce what I think is a much of a mature, engaging and excellent progressive metal record with its roots in bands as  diverse as Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Dream Theater and Marillion.   Sure, these bands overlap in certain areas, but they are also varied enough that when you think about the combined, you definitely have to spend a couple of minutes pieceing together how that would sound.

But while one can compare Riverside to other bands (they also share a similar sound with another band from Poland called Votum, but they have a more modern sounding vocalist), they stand alone as well.  Every song on this record slowly shifts between different styles, overlapping industrial sounds with varied time-signature keyboards at one point, or even getting to blast beats in ADHD‘s final minutes.  Everything here, though, is pieced together in a very smart way and held together by the glue that is the vocalist.

The vocals on ADHD are definitely unique within the progressive scene, and it’s often times in the area of vocals that I have my biggest disagreements with the scene’s biggest bands (here’s looking at you Dream Theater).  Riverside has a distinctly modern rock vocal approach, which had kind of turned me off in the opening moments of the first track “Hyperactive.”  He sounds more like he should be singing in Nickelback or Puddle of Mudd than in a progressive metal band.  But what I saw as a downer at first, turned into a serious upside.  By distancing themselves from the traditional progressive metal vocal approach Riverside is able to create a modern sound for a music that doesn’t seem to want to leave the 80s behind.   Certainly these guys will not become a radioplay band, but I think that with a vocalist of this style the band will be able to attract individuals who wouldn’t normally listen to a progressive metal band.

I’ve had a lot of trouble finding downsides to this record, actually.  The musicianship is stellar, tight and oh-so-well put together.  The band is definitely on a musical roll, and even with the cheesy name the lyrics (from what I could tell) aren’t super cheesy.  Not only that, but the band is just heavy enough that they’re able to build good, heavy grooves that the fan of heavier music will definitely like, but they never break the extreme metal vocals barrier—so the old fans of progressive music will also be pleased.  This album is a total pleaser and for the fans of almost any kind of modern progressive music, this is definitely a record you’ll want to be buying.

Pain of Salvation – The Second Death of Pain of Salvation
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Live records don’t get much better than just Good
Label: Inside Out Music
Band Websites: painofsalvation.com | myspace.com/painofsalvation

Pain of Salvation is definitely the modern darling of the progressive rock/metal scene for a reason.  Their intense musicianship, varied work and extraordinarily subtle but intense technicality has garnered them one of the most intense fan-bases out there.  Every guy I’ve ever met who was into these guys wasn’t just into them but he worshiped their every note, their every time change and eagerly awaited their every release like giddy little kids on Christmas.  So when I got my hands on The Second Death of Pain of Salvation I was expecting something totally mind-blowing–but instead, I got a live album.

Live albums are OK, but I think that in metal, particularly, a genre where bands often just play what they recorded live, instead of varying it up (see: Iron Maiden), they’re a little excessive and redundant.  This record isn’t really that much of an exception to that rule, but for a person who isn’t really familiar with the band yet, this is definitely a good primer for the future Pain of Salvation fan.

I was only familiar with a couple of these songs before I heard this, but I was pretty impressed with this as a live record in general.  The production is pretty good and these guys are able to re-create their highly-produced music in an effective and representative way live.  This means that it’s a good compilation of the styles and ideas that are available throughout their career.  And the music is pretty solid, honestly.  I think that from the standpoint of just progressive rock and metal these guys are one of the better bands that I’ve heard lately (though, they’ve been around a while).  The variation in song-writing and styles is pretty cool, going from very mellow, ballady sort of tracks to blues-rocky stuff and even to solid melodic metal.

The vocals are probably the strongest aspect of this entire record.  Despite there being too much wanna-be Faith No More Angel Dust going on (with this talky-rappy thing that Gildenlöw does that is a little bit annoying), his voice is strong, clear and defies a lot of the irritating standards of progressive vocalists (here’s lookin’ at YOU Dream Theater).  The tone and range are fantastic as well, and he varies vocal styles very well throughout the tracks.  The band is hyper-talented as well, and that comes through with the perfect performances on every track on this whole record from the excellent (Moth to the Flame) to the more embarrassing (Disco Queen).   And I was personally pleased with the Leonard Cohen cover as well.  That was a nice touch.

This record is pretty good for a live record and this band is obviously excellent.  It loses a couple points because it is a live album and I feel like most live albums are just a waste of time.  But as something you listen to a couple times to get a feel for who the band is, personality-wise, and to get a feel for their discography and their style this album is a success.

Well, shit.  Apparently SPV’s business model, i.e., sign bands after their prime, isn’t working out so hot for them!  Hopefully they’ll make it out of the German equivalent of chapter 11 just fine, but I somehow doubt it.  These guys need to sign new bands, and I think it’s a sign of weak A&R that they’re not doing so.  Of course, maybe that’s just me.  But who cares about so many of the bands that they’ve signed recently?  OK, MAYBE Iced Earth, POSSIBLY Type O Negative.. but honestly, in the world of metal signing to SPV is basically the equivalent of VH1 making a Behind the Music about you: you’re toast.