Angry Metal Guy

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Agony
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — A Step Backwards
Label: Nuclear Blast [US | EU]
Website: myspace.com/fleshgodapocalypse
Release Dates: US: 08.09.2011 | EU: 19.08.2011

In 2009 a record came sort of out of nowhere that really took me by surprise, and frankly, kicked my ass something fierce. It was from Italian technical death metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse and the record was called Oracles. What I loved about the album, and the thing that made it so addicting, was that it was beautifully melodic and unabashedly technical at the same time. It blended these two things into what was easily the most unique technical death metal or melodic death metal record that had been released in a very, very long time. I was blown away (and still am). I didn’t review it at the time, but it made the #3 spot on my Top 10(ish) of 2009 and I have been waiting for the follow up ever since. Agony, the band’s first record on Nuclear Blast records, is that follow up and it’s a great album that bugs me.  Continue reading

Rhapsody of Fire // From Chaos to Eternity
Rating: 5.0/5.0 — From awesome to better!?
Label: Nuclear Blast [EU | US]
Websites: rhapsodyoffire.com | myspace.com/rhapsodyoffire | facebook.com/rhapsodyoffire
Release Dates: EU: 17.06.2011 | US: 07.12.2011

Rhapsody of Fire is like the kyrptonite of Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings™. While they did have diminished recordings when they signed with Magic Circle Records (PRO-TIP: the “magic circle” in question is your anus… which will get fucked by Joey DeMaio), the last two years have been tremendously productive for these Italians. First, they came back with 2010′s The Frozen Tears of Angels which was an amazing success by all accounts and received a raving 5/5 review from me. Then they released The Cold Embrace of Fear which wasn’t exactly the greatest thing they ever did, but it was good and had some solid songs even if it contained far more voice acting than I’d've liked (“IT’S AN AVALANCHE!!”). And they managed to drop a guitarist and pick up another one (by the name of Tom Hess) on the way. But now this. From Chaos to Eternity. Continue reading

Rhapsody of Fire // The Frozen Tears of Angels
Rating: 5.0/5.0 — The Rhapsody record you’ve been waiting for…
Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | US)
Websites: rhapsodyoffire.com | myspace.com/rhapsodyoffire
Release Dates: EU: 30.04.2010 | US: 06.29.2010

It seems forever since Italian power metallers, and just generally over-the-top crafters of Symphonic Hollywood Metal (or as I called it in one of my very earliest reviews “Sword Swinging Elf Metal”) produced an album. And really, in terms of the modern music industry it has been a very long time. Rhapsody of Fire‘s last album, Triumph or Agony, was released in 2006 to almost no fanfare. I didn’t see a single advertisement for the album, I never knew that it was being released and I had no idea that they had even been working on a new album at all. One day I just walked into my local record store and saw it on the shelf there. The total lack of build-up foreshadowed how I felt about the album, and frankly the record that had gone before it: it lacked what I was looking for in a Rhapsody of Fire album. The guitar orientation was gone, the songs were not as huge, the guitar not as bombastic and the feel was generally one that I just could never really get into. Both Symphony of Enchanted Lands pt. II and Triumph or Agony, while technically filling the standards set by the band, certainly didn’t live up to what I see as the band’s crowning jewel Power of the Dragonflame.

So, that should give the reader the standard by which I judge The Frozen Tears of Angels. How does it compare to Power of the Dragonflame? Well, I can proudly say that this is the record that I expected Symphony of Enchanted Lands pt. II to be. The music is huge, fustian and exaggerated, just like you expect, but it is also the most guitar oriented record that the band has ever produced. It is this element in front of all things, that will make the average Rhapsody of Fire fan jump for joy. Gone are the slower passages, gone are the questions of where the guitar solo is because Luca Turilli, as he stated in his interview with me, “rediscovered his first love,” and this record is littered with some amazing guitar solos. My personal favorite comes from the fairly simple, but fragile and beautiful passages in “Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio” a song similar to “The Village of the Dwarves”. But every song has amazing solos, the amazing harmonies and intertwining neo-baroque melodies on “Crystal Moonlight”, the great Iron Maiden double lead from “On the Way to Ainor” and so on and so forth. This record is a triumph for every neo-classical guitar loving nerd out there. Not just because of the standard solos, but because Turilli’s creativity lies in how well he blends his virtuosity in with his overall compositions.

And the overall composition of this record is also a major triumph. The use of Christopher Lee and more photorealistic artwork and so forth was all in an attempt to be taken more seriously, and while I’m not sure that this is actually happening, the band has continued to impress with their understanding of the album as a series of symphonic movements. One of the things that makes The Frozen Tears of Angels great is that while the songs stand alone, the album is not an album that you want to break out for one track. Instead, the dynamics make you want to listen to the whole album straight through and just sit in awe of the breadth and depth of the music. And while the band has often lost me in the past on their more epic tracks, even the 11 minute title track was a gripping piece. The album follows an audio story arc, just like the previous albums, but being able to combine these feelings together and turn them into both convincing neo-classical music and awesome heavy metal has never been done better by the band (or any other band, for that matter).

This is getting long, but one more final point: I have focused heavily on the guitar-oriented nature of this album, but there are a few things that stand out. The band elected (probably for  budget reasons) to not go with a full orchestra this time. While Luca Turilli denies it, part of me wonders if that didn’t actually help the sound of this record because it was something that was completely manipulatable by the musicians in the studio. I would bet that there are things that you can write for a symphony that cannot be played convincingly by a symphony and sometimes I wonder if Rhapsody of Fire‘s style doesn’t overpower the musicians they’ve hired to play it. All of the orchestrations are perfect, and the band itself is tight as hell. This is one of the tightest rhythm sections out there, not to mention the vocals of Fabio Lione are accented perfection.

The Frozen Tears of Angels is the perfect Rhapsody of Fire comeback record. After four years of chaos, and the band’s still ongoing legal fight with Joey DeMaio (who signed the band and tried to steal their sound), Rhapsody of Fire is back with a power metal vengeance. They could not have chosen a better time or written better music for this imminent return. I hope this record helps push them back into the spotlight and that the next (at least) year of touring is good for the band, for all the individuals involved and is a kick in the teeth to everyone trying to hold down the most powerful force in power metal.

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?

Overlord’s Perpetual - S/T (Sonic Age, 2005)

Rating: 1.5/5

Some albums are glimmer with light when they’re played.  They radiate with the genius of a prodigy guitarist, they invigorate the speakers from which the colorful, intense luminssence flows. OVERLORD’S PERPETUAL‘s debut (self-titled) record is not one of these records. While there are glimmers of hope that shine through, this is a string of tired metal cliches, excessive sweeping, triplets, and just general self-gratification.

Built on the basis of traditional neo-classical guitar rock (it’s hard to believe that this genre was once revolutionary), OVERLORD’S PERPETUAL go through all the motions of being a neo-classical guitar rock band, the shrill vocalist (with the bad-to-mediocre lyrics), the “rock-beat-plus- double-kick” drummer, the “what-they-have-a-bassist?” bassist, and the “aslo-a-prodigy” keyboard player. Oh, of course, let’s not forget Overlord, himself, the Ego-in-training (who happens to look just like a skinny YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, complete with cross, cream Fender Strat and all).

These guys, however, have a glimpse of hope. A couple of the songs on this record were pretty good. There were times when they broke away from the boring chord based riffing and the excessively shrill guitar solos to do some very cool, technical guitar (and keyboard work) that really showed a modicum of taste and respect for the art of metal.  The fifth track, which lacks vocals, is probably the best one on the record. The keyboards really shine through, and good ol’ Overlord puts his guitar tracking to good work to come up with a fine blend of technicality and melody that made me appreciate the moment.

Of course, aside from a couple of tracks, this was just another piece of the same-ol’ from the neo-classical genre.  The vocals are the traditionally bad, ESL vocals that tend to mar these records. Really, the only redeeming quality in any of the other tracks is the keyboard solos.  The keyboardist can really play, and he also has a good under- standing of theory, while not being a total wanker (and being able to do it well, when he is playing a fast solo).

I’d say, watch and see with this Overlord kid. He’s only 20, and if he can realize that he’s not YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and that he has the talent to really do something unique and interesting, he’ll put out some great records in the future.  However, if he continues down this path of masturbatory self-gratification (and leopard print), I suspect he’ll only be playing with himself in the future.

Written 2005 for Unchain the Underground by AMG