Angry Metal Guy

Devin Townsend Project // Ghost
Label: InsideOut
Websites: hevydevy.com
Release Dates: EU: 2011.06.20 | US: 06.21.2011
By: Natalie Zed

It’s impossible and incorrect to review Ghost or Deconstruction as entirely antonymous albums. Even if they were released years apart, they exist in the same milieu as the other Devin Townsend Project releases, Ki and Addicted. But being released on the same day, these works are more than just musical siblings; they are twins and therefore share a deeper accord, recontextualizing each other. Ghost is definitely the lunar half. While Deconstruction is all white-hot, blistering intensity, bright and complicated, demented and noisy, and as over-caffeinated as the hottest day of the year at a carnival, Ghost is a deserted beach at twilight. Rather than a roiling explosion of energy, Ghost is careful and measured, gathering strength. It’s sweet, dark and deceptively strong. There is something about the pronounced plucking of the strings on “Heart Baby” that breaks me. This is an album that gently but inexorably gets around your defences and demands you listen to the last few, soft, unscarred parts of your heart. There are also numbers that ebb and flow, swelling into immense crescendos, like “Dark Matters” and “Texada” (which also happens to feature some of the loveliest flute playing I’ve heard on a metal album, courtesy of Kat Epple). Sometimes the emotion is as cute and pert as a sparrow, other times it’s as overwhelming and crashing as a tidal wave, but it always comes through as genuine and that’s the key to this album’s success. Where Deconstruction is a tribute to the shambling, noisy, mechanical monster or the urban, man-made world, Ghost is everything wet and green, alive and vibrant, the elemental strength and delicacy of the natural world.

Devin Townsend Project // Deconstruction
Label: InsideOut
Websites: hevydevy.com
Release Dates: EU: 2011.06.20 | US: 06.21.2011
By: Natalie Zed

Thinking of Devin Townsend as a musician no longer works. While his command of his instruments is awe-inspiring, to confine him only as such would be a disservice. With Deconstruction, Devin Townsend has ascended to the level of mad scientist; he’ll be aiming an interplanetary weapon at us next. Released simultaneously with Ghost, Deconstruction is part of the four-album the Devin Townsend Project cycle, which also includes the vibrant, poppy Addicted and the much softer (but still complex) Ki. Like much of Townsend’s oeuvre, Deconstruction is a concept album; it loosely follows the journey of a man who descends into hell. There, he meets the devil, who offers him a cheeseburger that contains all the secrets of the universe. Like any devilish generosity, it’s a cruel joke: the man is a vegetarian and cannot partake of the cheeseburger epiphany. Does that sound ridiculous? Of course it is, but this is a project from the man who brought us a rock opera about a megalomaniacal alien willing to wage interstellar war over a cup of coffee. In that context, it feels perfectly reasonable. Continue reading

Above Symmetry // Ripples
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Same damn record, re-issued
Label: InsideOut
Website: abovesymmetry.com | myspace.com/abovesymmetry
Release Dates: EU: 2011.04.25 | USA: Digital: 04.26.2011

Progressive metal isn’t an easy place to be. Let’s face it, much of the world of progressive metal is a tussle between an old guard of old fans (the Neanderthals of Metal) who really like bands that sound like Dream Theater, Queensryche, and so forth, and then there’s kind of everyone else. It’s disparate, difficult to define and often pretentious as hell with little logic as to what is in fashion with which group. This is the natural outcome of genrefication, in my opinion, and part of that is a question of where a band can actually progress to. You’re either not heavy enough or you’re too heavy and you never please anyone. Few bands ever really manage to fall outside of these well-worn ruts in the road, but there are some fantastic bands in those ruts—Above Symmetry is one of those bands. Continue reading

Spiritual Beggars // Return to Zero
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Who said doom couldn’t be fun?
Label: InsideOut [EU | US]
Websites: myspace.com/spiritualbeggars
Release Dates: EU: 30.08.2010 | US: 10.12.2010

A wise and Angry Metal Guy once said (earlier this week) that “retro is the new new” and the trends in the angry metal world are surely proving those prophetic words true. We are up to our collective arses in retro thrash, retro power and retro retro. While new is always great, even the “new” new can be mighty fine as with the latest release from Sahg and this wicked mother, Return to Zero from Sweden’s own Spiritual Beggars. This is the seventh full length from Michael Amott’s long running side project and respite from the melodic death metal world and although it’s as retro as retro gets, this is one slamming, jamming slab of heavy stoner/doom rock n roll! Continue reading

Pain of Salvation // Road Salt pt. 1 – Ivory
Rating: 5.0/5.0 — A stellar re-invention that should bring you to tears
Label: InsideOut
Websites: painofsalvation.com | myspace.com/painofsalvation
Release Dates: SE: 14.05.2010 | EU: 17.05.2010 | US: 06.08.2010

One would assume that an Angry Metal Guy wouldn’t be handing out high scores willy nilly, something I seriously try to avoid doing. But apparently 2010 is a year filled with really fantastic albums by bands doing the things that, as a reviewer, and more specifically, as a music-lover, I have trouble not totally falling for. Pain of Salvation has never been a band that I personally fell for. Scarsick, the band’s 2007 release, was a record that I had issues with and I’ve had some personal gripes about Daniel Gildenlöw’s vocals on the older material (specifically his wannabe Mike Patton rappy/talky vocals). But, that said, Pain of Salvation has long been the darling of the progressive rock and metal scene, with legions of fans who love their technical prowess and pop sensibility.

Road Salt, then, stands to be a great disappointment for a large number of fans who are looking for neo-progressive sensibilities. This is simply not the same band that put out The Perfect  Element (Part I). There is nothing on this record that should outright appeal to metal heads and fans of tech music. But there’s something else, and something that in my opinion places this album on a different plane than 99% of albums released this year, an emotional depth, beauty, fragility and, lastly, dirtiness that makes this album a fantastic journey and easily my favorite Pain of Salvation to date.

Road Salt is still a prog record, however, it’s just way more a 70s rock influenced album that places the band into the same arena as bands like Porcupine Tree, Anathema, Guilt Machine and their ilk. And when I say “70s rock influenced”, let me be totally clear: this is an album that is built to sound like it was recorded on analogue equipment in a room with brown shag carpeting, made by bearded men in bell bottoms who’d smoked a little bit too much hash. The guitar tone screams Hendrix, the vocal harmonies mimic the soul harmonies of folk musicians like Kris Kristofferson and the moog organ is something that you’ve heard a million times while digging through your dad’s record collection. Hell, even the build at the end of the first track “No Way”, sounds like it came off a Trettioåriga Kriget record. And there’s nary a technical wank solo to be found on this album. No, instead the album is based a lot around blues rock—a thing that this Angry Metal Guy hates with a total passion.

But from the opening notes of this album, I was moved emotionally in a way that I think no record has done almost ever. Gildenlöw’s vocal performance is perfect—it is emotionally evocative, huge and sweeping and amazing. His emotional performance reshapes good (or excellent) music into something that is epic and transformative. By bringing his prog and non-blues rock influenced sensibilities to the entire genre and then placing his vocal perfection over songs like “She Likes to Hide”, “Sisters”, “Linoleum” and probably the most evocative of  all the tracks on the album “Road Salt”, Gildenlöw and Pain of Salvation create a sound all their own in what is easily the most overdone genre in the history of mankind. Turning the sounds of 60s and 70s rock and blues into something unique in 2010 is a magical feat, honestly. I have trouble wrapping my mind around how it was done.

In the end, this is an album that should make your heart ache. There is a sadness that really permeates the album. And in an era when hard rock and metal is so incredibly impersonal, when every other record is faux hate and anger or clichéd nonsense, it is beyond refreshing to have band produce material that is so emotionally poignant and beautiful. On top of that, of course, is the fantastic production of this album, mixed with the superb quality of musicians involved in the whole production and you have the formula for what is easily one of the best albums of the year—and one of the best albums I have heard in a really, really long time.

Aspera // Ripples
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Very good band, enjoyable record, but too derivative..
Label: InsideOut
Website: asperaofficial.com | myspace.com/asperaofficial
Release Dates: EU: 25.01.2010 | USA: 01.26.2010

Progressive metal isn’t an easy place to be. Let’s face it, much of the world of progressive metal is a tussle between an old guard of old fans (the Neanderthals of Metal) who really like bands that sound like Dream Theater, Queensryche, and so forth, and then there’s kind of everyone else. It’s disparate, difficult to define and often pretentious as hell with little logic as to what is in fashion with which group. This is the natural outcome of genrefication, in my opinion, and part of that is a question of where a band can actually progress to. You’re either not heavy enough or you’re too heavy and you never please anyone. Few bands ever really manage to fall outside of these well-worn ruts in the road, but there are some fantastic bands in those ruts—Aspera is one of those bands.

Aspera is not like much of the progressive metal that’s coming from Norway (which is where they’re from incidentally), but instead they sound a lot like Symphony X. This will not be the last time I say that—because Aspera sounds like Symphony X. Like, almost exactly like Symphony X. The music is great, heavy and riffy. The band is tight, with great keyboards and a lead guitarist that is just a hell of a player. The guitars and keyboards work together really well and are balanced out by a very excellent rhythm section. Like Symphony X, the writing is intelligent with excellent transitions, good dynamic movements, beautiful choruses and solid hooks litter every song. The choruses are amazingly catchy and will definitely get stuck in your head, and yet the arrangements of the songs are still progressive enough to make you feel nice and superior to your buddies who listen to non-prog bands. On top of all of that the record is beautifully produced—done by the marvelous Jens Bogren (Opeth, Ihsahn, Symphony X, etc.)—everything is neatly organized, tight as hell and the tone is really fantastic.

OK, so what are the problems? Well, I suspect that you probably already sense an issue. When the band’s bio says that the band “quotes bands like Pagan’s Mind, Pain of Salvation, and Symphony X” it’s actually a really nice way of saying “Aspera sounds like progressive metal, you know, progressive metal like you’ve heard before.” And while this is good in some ways, it feels comfortable, it also draws the listener back from the tracks thinking “Huh, don’t I know that riff?” Another major weakness is the vocalist. Unlike many progressive bands, singer Atle Pettersen isn’t a straight up bad vocalist. Instead, he’s a poseur. His performance on the record is spotty because he is at his roots a talented, choir boy singer who is trying his hardest to sound rock ‘n roll. Something his voice doesn’t have—and something that makes him a unique voice in my opinion. In a genre overrun with Rob Halford, Bruce Dickenson and Geoff Tate wannabes, Pettersen has a clean, clear voice that is strong and recognizable without needing to fake balls. Unfortunately, for whatever reason he has decided that in order to be a rock vocalist he has to have a wail and it makes him sound weak and silly, not tough and strong like he intends.

Another interesting point, which drops this record down a bit for me, is that the lyrics are not good. The Steve Harris School of Lyrics Writing is apparently still open in Scandinavia and whoever is writing the lyrics for Aspera has taken all his notes directly from these guys. There is no subtlety, hardly any poetry and nothing remotely new or interesting in them. Lyrics in metal tend to range between the unfortunately bad and the passable, rarely ever being good, and for Aspera, a reading list of good poets and lyricists might be in order. To be frank, I can understand why so many power and progressive metal bands have begun writing thematically (stories, concept records, etc.) because this record which seems a bit more personal, is really just filled with rock clichés.

In the end, however, Ripples indicates what I see to be a bright future for this band of Norwegian youngsters. This is their debut record and they make a really good show of it with catchy tunes, smartly written tracks and they’re tight, tight, tight. One hopes that they begin developing some personality, working on convincing their vocalist that he isn’t Russel Allen and keeps fighting on. These guys have a bright future ahead of them if they can keep it together.

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.

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.