Angry Metal Guy

It’s hard to make this kind of broad list, I just want to say that from the get-go. How do you do this? Do you choose your favorites, or do you choose the genre defining records? Because saying, for example, that some of the following records are really genre defining wouldn’t be true. On the other hand, these are the records that when I go back and look at the 2000s I think of pretty immediately as some of the best stuff and the things that I keep coming back to.

But the 2000s have been an interesting time for metal in a lot of ways. One of the things that happened was that death metal and death metal-influenced music really hit the mainstream in a lot of ways. For the first time since the 1980s there were larger groups of young people who really started getting into metal and there is an entire generation of musicians who have been influenced by the heavy metal of the 80s and the underground of the 1990s (particularly black and death metal). While I believe that metal is on the ebb again (in a popular music sense) and will once again retreat underground to lick its wounds and come up with something fascinating, interesting and new, the 2000s have been a great time to be a fan of the genre.

This list is going to take a lot of hits. I can already hear some of them, and some of them will come out of left field. But, as usual, I refuse to apologize for my taste. The focus on “magazine metal” bands will probably irritate some, and others will argue that my choices from one genre or another aren’t representative of the best of that genre during the period (specifically death metal in this case). But when I look back on the last 9 years, these are the ones that stand out. And trust me, there’s some stuff that I wish I could get on there, but I didn’t include an honorable mentions section since I expanded the list to 15. But there are some amazing records (Moonsorrow‘s Hävitetty, Anata‘s Under a Stone with No Inscription and The Conductor’s Departure, Agalloch‘s The Mantle, Turisas‘ The Varangian Way, Necrophagist‘s Epitaph, Ásmegin‘s Hin Vordende Sod & Sø, Absu‘s Tara, Rhapsody‘s Power of the Dragonflame, Anathema‘s A Fine Day to Exit, Nile‘s Black Seeds of Vengeance, Otyg‘s Sagovindars Boning, Obscura‘s Cosmogenesis, Watain‘s Sworn to the Dark, Akercocke‘s Antichrist, Enslaved‘s Below the Lights are just a few of my major oversights) that came out during this period that haven’t ended up on this list and I’m aware of that.

Anyway, I hope you find this list enjoyable, shocking, provocative and maybe even dead on. Backwards this time…

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Tarot // Gravity of Light
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Good moments but too inconsistent
Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | US)
Websites: wingsofdarkness.net | myspace.com/tarot
Release Dates: EU: 23.04.2010 | US: 06.18.2010

Talk about a long-suffering, unheralded and unsung band! Tarot has been slogging through the metal trenches in relative obscurity outside of their native Finland since 1986. For many non-Finnish folk (myself included), Tarot was an unknown quantity until lead singer and founder Marco Hietala joined up with Nightwish in 2002 for their Century’s Child outing, thereby drawing much needed attention to his primary recording outfit. It has been nearly four years since 2006’s Crows Fly Black, but finally the metal underdogs of Tarot are back in action with their eighth album, Gravity of Light.

Tarot is easy to like and even easier to root for. They are not a “thinking man’s” metal band nor a “post rock/blackened jazz fusion blah blah blah” band. No, Tarot slings the metal hash, kicks your ass and lets Satan sort out the mess thereafter. Tarot is not a crushingly heavy band and generally walks a line between power and traditional metal while tossing in more than a little melody (i.e. lots of keyboards). In fact, one of my issues with Tarot has always been wishing they were slightly heavier. When they want to tear it up, they do it well, but all too frequently for my taste, they dial back and move into more mellow and sedate musical territories. Sadly, that pattern continues here and Tarot teases with some solid heavy metal before drifting back to an almost hard rock style at times.

Gravity of Light comes barreling out of the gates with an energetic Accept/Judas Priest/Euro metal attack while utilizing a killer dual vocal attack by Marco and Tommi Salmela. Marco possesses a seriously unique set of pipes (like the evil spawn of Blackie Lawless and Udo Dirkschneider) and his voice may be a love or hate proposition, but he surely can let it rip when the song calls for it. It helps that the production places Marco’s patented squeal front and center while leaving enough emphasis on the guitar so it’s still prominent rather than muted in the background (which kills a metal record faster than having the name St. Anger on the cover).

The first 4 songs on Gravity of Light all show Tarot in top form with catchy, rocking, classic metal moments that get your head shaking and fist pumping (especially “Satan is Dead” and “Pilot of All Dreams”). Sadly, the level of these songs isn’t maintained throughout and several just seem to drag on without much energy (ex. “Magic and Technology”). Further unhinging the album, some tracks, although energetic enough, are simply lackluster. This brings me to my second and far more serious issue with Tarot. While they definitely have what it takes musically, at times on past albums and here again on Gravity of Light, the songwriting has been far too inconsistent. For every quality metal stomper (“I Walk Forever“, “Sleep in the Dark”) we get one or two tedious, lethargic tracks.

It’s a very frustrating experience to wish a band was better than they really are, but you simply can’t overlook the fact that some of Tarot’s output is just plain and generic. This is even more troubling because I think Marco is one of the more interesting singers in metal and I really want to hear him on better material than this.

Gravity of Light is a weaker album than Crows Fly Black and although there are a few worthwhile songs on display, this is neither exceptional nor essential. In a market as crowded as heavy metal has become, I can’t see this gaining much attention outside of Finland and in some ways that is a shame. I firmly believe Marco and company have it within themselves to write a monster metal album, but this is not it.

Luca Turilli – The Infinite Wonders of Creation
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Band Website: http://www.lturilli.com
Label: Magic Circle

One thing I don’t think Joey Demaio was counting on when he signed Rhapsody [of Fire] to Magic Circle Records was the whole lot of them pussing out and making records about dolphins, love, and other totally un-metal things. While he got the worst record Rhapsody ever wrote, he didn’t get that. However, with Luca Turilli he got the sissiest record ever recorded—including dolphins and love, among other things (the majestic call of whales!). I, of course, was excited about the new LT because the Demonheart EP was fantastic. It basically got me my Rhapsody [of Fire] fix between Rhapsody [of Fire] records! Unfortunately, Luca has started to take himself seriously, and when this happens with power metal musicians, only bad things can come of it. That, of course, is the result of his newest release The Infinite Wonders of Creation; bad things.

See, the problem here is not that he’s stopped writing super over-the-top epic pieces of music; every single song on this record sounds like it was taken from a badly written opera (just like the fans want). But this record has no testicles. It lacks those critical elements that actually make Luca a respectable… OK, amusing and/or interesting writer that the power metal niche fan-base has heretofore worshipped. Some examples that will make a grown metal-guy weep: there are only 2 or 3 guitar solos on the whole record; he uses female vocals more than male vocals (don’t think Lacuna Coil or The Ottoman Empire  [Luna Mortis now] where the vocals are good heavy metal vocals); and I don’t recall having heard a single double-kick drum on this entirely too-long and self-gratifying record. The The Infinite Wonders of Creation is far too slow and serious, but on top of it he wrote some of his worst lyrics ever about the “beloved majestic dolphins,” and even extends the torture to the absolutely fantastic movie Stargate. It’s lyrically ridiculous—but not in a good “dark Lord Akron” kind of way. That, compounded with it being slow and plodding makes it seriously boring—bordering on torturous—at times.

The band is actually very good. Sascha Paeth (who produced all of the old Rhapsody [of Fire] stuff) appears on this again playing bass. However, since the infamous situation with an un-named South American power metal band who claimed that Mr. Paeth wrote the majority of Rhapsody’s music, Mr. Paeth seems to have been relegated a much smaller role in production and arrangement. LT utilizes 2 vocalists on this album to good use. Both of them are fairly talented, although some of the woman’s high stuff would make any vocally-trained person cringe when she swoops into notes and sings straight from her nose. However, the two vocalists have a very good blend and when they’re singing together they do a very good job of creating the sound that LT was probably going for. The harmonies are great, and they both (for the most part) have good, solid tone. To fit in with my complaints that the record lacks any real metal “spice,” the drums are slow rock-beat kind of stuff and don’t really exude the kind of energy one has come to expect from LT’s stuff.

In his defense, Luca has backed off of the guitar god thing a bit, which I think has helped him move away from overly-long self-gratifying guitar solos that plagued some of his earlier stuff and has contributed to the writing style on both the last Rhapsody [of Fire] record and on The Infinite Wonders of Creation. The melodies are good and the composition is passable (and excellent for a metal band, really), but it doesn’t pass my attention-span test; I find it terribly boring. All-in-all, if you’re a die-hard Rhapsody [of Fire]/Luca Turilli fan, you’ll probably dig this record (you’ll also probably call me names for panning your favorite group for changing their sound). The song-writing is very much LT, but it’s just not energetic or silly enough for me to really enjoy it. Without the cheesy voice-overs, the Dungeons & Dragons™ lyrics, the neo-baroque guitar solos and the never-ceasing power metal beat… what’s the point?

Unexpect – In A Flesh Aquarium
Rating: 4.5/5
Band website: http://www.unexpect.com
Label: The End Records

In ages past super-grindy sporadic insanity was really the territory (should I say.. TERRORtory!! *cough*) of grind bands and then, more recently, it became part of the ‘metalcore’ scene as bands like Into the Moat and Between the Buried and Me began co-opting the sporadic nature of super tech bands into their sound. Apparently, however, Unexpect missed the memo that you need to either be grindcore or have a sentence for a name to sound like they do. And how do they sound? Aside from sounding totally awesome, they sound like “sporadicore meets how-Arcturus-wanted-to-sound-but-never-had-the-production-for meets Mr. Bungle/Primus.”

But really, In A Flesh Aquarium is probably one of the freshest things I’ve heard in the metal scene in a long time. These silly canucks have really managed to piece something together that is both creative and progressive while being terribly heavy and managing to avoid ubiquitous metal cliché. They blend a fine variety of creative instrumentation with a vocal approach that involves about 3 vocalists (from the sounds of it), including death growls, black metal screams and female vocals–but they don’t just rely on instrumentation and differentiated vocals define their sound; they write truly interesting and innovative music. They combine in jazz elements as well as sporadic grind stuff and they occasional nod towards good old-fashioned Norsky black metal and older goth stuff like Moonspell or Theatre of Tragedy. This dark, near goth, feel that they create is often offset by a grind aspect and then re-built with subtle violin melodies and female vocals or keyboards. Somehow all of this is seemlessly built into a sound–probably the most impressive part of the whole project–somehow they manage to make all of these sporadic influences part of a cohesive whole.

The album flows very well, though because of my admittedly poor (read: no) experience with French a lot of the lyrics are pretty much gibberish to me. There is a sense of insanity that permeates the whole record and doesn’t need lyrics (a conveniant blend of English and French) to get across. Each song is individual, but the whole album is definitely a cohesive point of excellent heavy metal writing. However, this is definitely an earphone album, if one ever existed. Because of how much differential instrumentation there is, the number of changes in voicing, etc., it sometimes is very hard to follow unless you’re listening to it very closely. The intricacies will be totally lost on you if you don’t really give it a serious, close listen. Those who have the patience to do so will be greatly rewarded by one of the best albums to have been released in the scene in a very, very long time.