Well, here’s a release I can easily see falling through the Angry Metal Cracks. One is the first (and maybe last) release by a supergroup of sorts led by Michael Andersson, vocalist for Swedish melodic metallers Cloudscape and featuring members of such renowned acts as Dream Evil, Hammerfall and Yngwie Malmsteen. Now, we all know supergroups can be very iffy propositions and Fullforce is no different. It seems whenever a group of talented musicians get jammed into a room to write and record, disaster is as likely to result as triumph. So where does this one fall? Pretty much exactly in the middle of the two extremes. There’s some top notch, super melodic metal here and some rather generic, boring duds. What makes this album of particular annoyance to Steel Druhm is how good the good stuff is. With some real winners on display, its a total buzz kill to have roughly half the album fizzle out and fail to keep the momentum going Fullforce (yeah, you knew it was gonna happen at some point). OK, it’s time for your slightly bitter host to examine One in a non-bitter fashion.

Having been familiar with Michael Andersson’s work with Cloudscape and enjoyed much of it, I was interested to hear what direction he would go with One. Well, its not much different than Cloudscape stylistically. As opener “Mythomaniac” washes over the listener, they’re greeted with brisk, energetic metal with a major emphasis on melody, catchiness and classy performances. As openers go, it’s a very good one and it straddles the line between the AOR hard rock sound of the Allen/Lande albums and the crunch and prog of Symphony X. Andersson’s vocals are well done and compelling and his band backs him up admirably. However, its the followup “None of  Your Concern” that really grabbed me and smacked me silly. This is humdinger of a ditty and super addicting. Again in the vein of the Allen/Lande albums, it takes an infectious hard rock style and gives it just enough metallizing to kick copious ass. Great guitar work, excellent vocal phrasing and a big hooky chorus that will keep you coming back for lots more. With “Heart and Soul” they pump up the heaviness and intensity and its another instantly accessible gem with a winning chorus. Clearly these guys can bring the tools to the tradeshow and by this point I had visions of 4.0′s and 4.5′s dancing in my iron head.  The next two tracks are also rock solid and keep the winning streak alive and then, it comes to an abrupt halt.

The album’s second half feels like it was written by a completely different group and the intensity, catchiness and overall quality take a significant step backwards. Songs like “Rain” and “Suffering in Silence” have moments of quality but feel flat, sterile and bland. Worse yet, numbers like “Wall of Secrets,” ”Father Spirit” and “Into the Cradle” never seem to get going at all. There’s a partial recovery near album’s end with “I Bleed” but by then, I’d been ravaged by the Filler Gremlin™ and I was greatly displeased by this.

In fairness, the performances themselves are great from beginning to end. Andersson is a very good vocalist and his professionalism is always apparent. While he doesn’t possess the most unique style or delivery, he makes the most of his voice with a lot of excellent vocal choices. Likewise, the guitars by Stefan Elmgren (ex-Hammerfall, ex-Lost Horizon, ex-Cans) and Carl Johan Grimmark (Rob Rock, Narnia) are impressive and they do their share to keep things lively, provide meaningful solos and sundry noodlings. These guys are all solid, experienced musicians and the first half of One shows the great things they’re capable of doing together. Sadly, their songwriting lets them down badly on the back half.

Half a great melodic metal album, One is a  paean to iTunes and such similar MP3 tools that allow the buyer to cherrypick tracks. If the first half was released as an EP it would get a big fat 4.0 or better. While the second half is a downer, I’m impressed enough with Fullforce to hope for a second album and more consistent songwriting. If you like melodic metal with a hard rock vibe, give this a sampling but avoid the second half if possible.

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So there Steel Druhm was, sitting with a promo entitled Steel by the unknown Finns called Battle Beast. A quick perusal of the song titles made it clear they graduated Summa Cum LOUDLY from the Manowar School of Song Namery, as the numerous mentions of “metal,” “steel” and “iron” attest. The cover features a lion man fighting a robot as drawn by a ten year old at metal summer camp. Despite my renowned power metal geekdom, I felt a sense of dread and apprehension as I pressed play. Well damn it all if this thing isn’t full of surprises. Steel is a raging slab of frenetic, over-the-top 80′s metal worship that ladles out heaping helpings of thick cheese sauce and demands that you take seconds. Raging twin guitars, heroic solos, uber dramatic song structures and the vocals, Dear God the vocals!! The singer has a huge set of lungs and an even bigger set of balls which are frequently stuck in a vice! From gravelly, rasping shouts, air raid siren screams and superior singing, he can do it all and its so damn metal it kills my neighbor’s lawn. Imagine my shock to find out there are no balls to put in the vice because the HE is actually a SHE! That’s right, Nitte Valo is a true metal queen and she’s flat out brilliant on this album. However, unless you love the classic sounds of 80′s metal (think Grim Reaper, old Grave Digger, Accept) mixed with a smattering of power metal, this will leave you running for the door but quick. It revels in all the cliches and idiocy of that era and these folks certainly aren’t trying to be the next Opeth. You still with me? OK, stay with me.

With opener “Enter the Metal World,” you get big, fist pumping 80′s metal riffs and Ms. Valo quickly introduces herself with authority by hitting some crazy high notes and being bad ass in every way a singer can be. So impressive is her performance that she makes the ultra cheesy Gamma Ray meets Manowar chorus actually work instead of triggering gales of laughter. There’s even that cool ohhh-ohhhhh-ohhh chanting in the background as Valo tears things up like Godzilla. As good as this song is, its just an appetizer for the metal gems that await. “Armageddon Clan” is one of the best classic metal songs I’ve heard in forever and its been in non-stop rotation for a week. Valo’s vocals are double tracked for the chorus with one clean and one super raspy/harsh like on old Grave Digger albums and it works to perfection. “The Band of the Hawk” and “Iron Hand” go for a more epic approach which works well and tracks like “Justice and Metal,” ”Die-Hard Warrior” and “Victory” are the most sincere, brilliant yet cheeseball tunes since the Lost Horizon days (Valo even channels the mighty Daniel Heinman at times). Even the power ballad ”Savage and Saint” is rendered positively molten by the ear-shredding vocals in the back half of the song. Ten out of the ten songs here will kick your fanny and call you granny. Its a win from start to finish.

Ms. Valo is obviously the focal point and secret weapon as she employs every vocal trick in the book with aplomb and savage grace. Her voice comes closest to Jan Thore Grefstad (Saint Daemon/Ex-Highland Glory) but she also has similarities to Heinman and Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger). In a nutshell, she’s a metal titan. The guitars by Juuso Soinio and Anton Kabanen also lift the material up with consistently solid, catchy riffing and foot-on-amp soloing. Even the freaking keyboards are fun! I don’t think I ever wrote that before. Rounding it out is a production far better than the album cover would have you expecting. Everything is crisp and clear but a bit raw in that good metally way.

Its been awhile since I had this much fun listening to an album. It goes from deadly serious to painfully cliche but its impossible to turn off. You can rock out, sit in awe of the vocals and laugh at the occasional cartoonishness but you’ll be having tons of fun and you WILL be hooked. This is a great debut that puts these guys way ahead of the other retro 80′s acts like Enforcer, Steelwing, etc. etc. I love this and I think I love Ms. Valo too. Call me!

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Bullshit. First, even by that logic, tracks from At The Gates and Blind Guardian, having been released in the mid-90s could easily have made that list. But I think the other thing that people forget is how metal is no longer as unified then and therefore it’s much harder to come up with newer songs that unify large buying publics. There’s a reason that it’s Korn and Tool that make those lists and not Opeth or Primordial (though arguably Opeth is one of the most popular metal bands in the world today), and it’s because metal doesn’t have the same kind of commercial power that it maybe once did. But does that mean that we should cloister ourselves in stupidity and only pay attention to records that went gold and songs that even people who don’t like metal have heard? This Angry Metal Guy says “Hell no!” And thus I have presented this list (here’s: 50-41 and 40-31) parallel to Steel Druhm’s lists (50-41 and 40-31) with an eye to what has happened in metal since then. Of course not everyone is going to agree—but that is simply because we live in a post-modern metal world, where not everyone is able to get the same metal.

But ask yourself this; which of these bands will be looked back upon fondly, and which of them will be looked back upon with shame. There’s a reason that Warrant and Stryper didn’t make Gibson’s list, and it’s the same reason that Korn shouldn’t have and Papa Roach wasn’t anywhere near it: because these were trends, they were bad, they were cheesy and they are to be looked upon with proper contempt and shame for having ever existed. The same cannot be said of Ulver or Opeth or Primordial or Vintersorg. These are united in excellence and artistic expression, even if they don’t all reach the same listeners.

So my goal here is not to construct the list of the most accessible stuff, it’s the stuff that I see as the best. That means when it comes to songwriting, presentation and, of course, memorability. And now, 30-21.

#30: Manowar – Kings of Metal – “Hail and Kill” — This, my friends, is fucking heavy metal. While Manowar‘s discography is choppy (at best) and I’m pretty sure that Joey DeMaio is a high-functioning psychopath (from everything I’ve read and given his history of fucking bands who work for him in the ass), that doesn’t mean that these guys didn’t write one of the best heavy metal songs of all time. Because man, they really did. This is a song that I would love to see live just so I could chant along with it in the chorus and headbang like mad. This track and “Thor” are pretty much the best thing the band ever did, but when they hit the ball they really hit it out of the park. Extra points for the line “May your sword stay wet like a young girl in her prime.” Ha! — Also, RIP Scott Columbus.

#29: Bloodbath – Nightmares Made Flesh – “Eaten” — The first time I heard this song, I just had to laugh. And then I had to listen to it again. This is everything that old school death metal should be, except being done with an amazing sensibility that I think is hard to find in the death metal scene. The riffs here are amazing, the chorus here is hilariously awesome (“Eaten! My one desire, my only wish is to be eaten! The longer I live the more I’m dying to feel the pain!”) and the feeling is extreme, heavy and creepy. This song is total win and I love it. When turning people onto more traditional death metal I actually think that starting with Bloodbath is a good way to go because they’re oddly “poppy” for a death metal band. As has been made abundantly clear with this song.

#28: Morbid Angel – Covenant – “God of Emptiness” — Morbid Angel is a band that has an undeniable legacy in death metal and “God of Emptiness” was a bit of a gateway record for dudes like myself who were exposed to it and went “Whoa. That was fucking evil.” The final clean vocals are great, the video is awesome and the song is just crushingly heavy. Some may debate whether or not this is Morbid Angel‘s best stuff, but I think it definitely ranks up there and it’s got added nostalgic value. In fact, I think it’s one of the best death metal tracks ever and it puts into perspective how much thrash metal changed death metal over the years, doesn’t it? This shit was sloooow. Oh, and Azagthoth is a ridiculous guitar player.

#27: Taake – Over Bjoergvin Graater Himmerik - “IV” — Probably the best Norwegian black metal band since early Ulver, Taake‘s first three records are fucking phenomenal, but one track just stands out of me on this one. With its icy cold riffing and its intelligent melody, while having great bass work and feel, this song gets stuck in my head whenever I listen to it. So there isn’t a ton more to say, but the writing is magnificent, the riffing is outstanding and the mix of extremity and melody with sort of a NWoBHM sensibility makes for what is one of the most enjoyable metal songs ever written. The riff that starts at 4:07 is largely why this record stands out for me. Two of the best minutes of black metal ever written.

#26: Blind Guardian – A Night at the Opera – “Battlefield” — So, when A Night at the Opera I fucking hated it. I really did. Even all these years later, I don’t like it as well as the band’s earlier stuff. But there is one song on this record that has stuck with me since then and has never let go and that is the track “Battlefield,” which is just epic in proportions that I cannot even begin to express. You just need to listen to this song to get a sense of how huge it is. And at the same time, it’s got this Celtic Riverdance kinda feel to it and it.. fucking works. The guitar solo is excellent, the arrangements, too, are awesome and this is just a powerhouse of a song. “Battlefield” stood heads and shoulders over the other songs on that record, and earns a well-deserved place on this list.

#25: Faith No More – Angel Dust – “Land of Sunshine” — I guess it’s hard to choose when it comes to the record Angel Dust, but one thing that shouldn’t be denied is that these guys had a sound all their own that was kind of post-metal but oh-so-metal at the same time and Mike Patton is such a unique and cool vocalist and the whole “self-help” talk that goes through this song makes it awesome. I love the maniacal laughter and the guitar solo, the bass heavy approach, and.. well.. ALL of it! These guys were really ahead of their time and really underrated, despite having had some big hits and having been pretty popular. And this is my favorite FNM track and one of the best metal tracks ever written.

#24: Helloween – Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. II – “I Want Out” — Actually, I probably should’ve gone with something else from Helloween but I can’t help myself. I love this song (and I love Sonata Arctica‘s cover of it a hell of a lot, too ’cause it’s faster), and despite the band having other great tracks, it’s important to remember that Helloween is basically entirely at fault for what we think of as Europower in its modern form. Now you can debate whether or not that’s good, but you can’t debate that these guys have had a massive influence on that movement and bands like the aforementioned Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius, Nocturnal Rites and so forth. Let the mid-paced catchiness seep into your soul. [Also, while it's not a part of this list, you should definitely check out their overlooked and mightily awesome, but heinously cheesy, Mr. Torture.]

#23: Lost Horizon – Awakening the World – “Sworn in the Metal Wind” — “Hey man what is this? Sounds like wail of a wimp. Did you let loser side take command? Where’s the warrior in you and the spirit he got? You say lost? No! It’s somewhere inside. And you know there’s a force that unites all of us, leave the wasteland we, together, will! If you’re broken remember you have with us! Take now your next deep breath, and revive your old strength!” What more do I actually have to say than this? How about this? “Don’t forget you are metal, not some ass kissing whore!”

#22: Slayer – Reign in Blood – “Angel of Death” — Oh holy fuck did this record change my life. I mean, you can’t argue with Slayer. And for me “Angel of Death” was always one of the songs that did it for me. The riffing is awesome, the chorus is great and the track really manages to piss a lot of people off. And actually, for Slayer this song even shows a remarkable amount of sophistication, given that the rest of their stuff on this record wasn’t quite as… techy. It’s actually funny to go back and listen to this and think about how blown away I was by the extremity of this record, and how now it seems kinda tame when I compare it to other bands that I love now. But “Angel of Death” is a song loaded with great riffs, an awesome sound and maybe two of the least painfully shitty solos that the band ever wrote. Someone should’ve confiscated Kerry King’s fucking whammy bar years ago.

#21: Opeth – Still Life – “Godhead’s Lament” — Well, this song probably needs little introduction from me. Anyone who has listened to metal since forever knows that Opeth is pretty much one of the best bands ever and anyone who reads this blog knows that I’m a pretty die-hard fan. But coming in at number 21 and very deserving of doing so is “Godhead’s Lament,” which I think is the finest track from this record. Unfortunately, the only copy I could find on YouTube is peaking so I’m assuming that this is a remaster. In any case, the whole song is amazing: the riff at 1:43, the solo and the cleans that follow (at 3:27), actually I’m just going to stop. This entire song is just goddamned incredible.

Oh yeah, that’s pretty rad, innit? I thought so. But wait: there’s more! Coming soon!

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Unleashed is not without their appeal. They’ve been around for a couple decades now, putting out their first record Where No Life Dwells in 1991, and they’ve been pretty consistently well-respected in the scene for being among the first to do the whole Viking Metal thing. But they’re a band that this Angry Metal Guy has never been able to get into on the basis of one thing: Unleashed is the Manowar of death metal. Now, some people are going to say “But Manowar are the Kings of Metal! Should we not be praising Unleashed for translating such kinglyness into the Death Metal genre?” To which there can only be one response: “Absofuckinglutely not.”

Like Manowar, Unleashed writes some pretty great metal. Musically, the band produces a melodic form of tear-your-head-off death metal that has been associated with Sweden since the early 1990s. The music is powerful, pummeling and thrashy it makes the listener want to headbang! Like their Swedish brethren Amon Amarth, Unleashed likes trem-picked melodic passages that are littered with good groove and plenty of chances to headbang manically. The guitar solos are wickedly thrashy and, surprisingly enough, the bass is even audible! Musically, there isn’t a song on here that I don’t like! And the record pounds out of the gate with amazing tracks, “Courage Today, Victory Tomorrow”, “So it Begins” and “As Yggdrasil Trembles”.

However, like Manowar, Unleashed has a lyrics problem. This chink in the armor becomes the most obvious when one hits the 4th track on the album “Wir Kapitulieren Niemals”, and Johnny starts screaming “Viking Death Metal!” This is not the first time, or the last time, on this record that there are lyrical issues that stand out and make the listener a little bit embarrassing. This sort of idea that one can write about the meta-aspect of heavy metal is one of the reasons that power metal is considered to be so ridiculously cheesy. How does one take  seriously a band that sings about themselves being awesomely metal? And in some ways, its even easier with a band like Lost Horizon or Manowar because they’re wearing loincloths anyway. Unleashed are just a Swedish death metal band cursed with terrible lyrics.

We’ll stop there with our little Manowar comparison, because frankly Unleashed produces way more consistent and interesting music than Manowar ever has. While the latter has a few good songs on every record and then a bunch of shit that litters the side about how metal they are and about how big their “swords” are, the former writes consistent, enjoyable death metal. As Yggdrasil Trembles is par for the Unleashed course, littered with great songs and solid riffs. If you can bring yourself past the silly lyrics, which is often times pretty easy with death metal bands, and you’re a fan of death metal and viking metal, you’ll probably really enjoy this record. Don’t expect to be wowed by their deep interpretations of the Norse myths in reference to our every day, modern life. But then again, when was the last time any metal lyricist wowed you?

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Epica is a symphonic power metal/gothic metal band from the Netherlands that has really taken the scene and the world by storm since their founding in 2002 due to the amazing voice of their mezzo-soprano vocalist (who also happens to be a hotty, there are no coincidences in metal) Simone Simons and the epic *cough* nature of their music. Design Your Universe is the band’s fifth album, and honestly, the first one I’ve ever sat through assuming the band would be like a mix of old Theatre of Tragedy and Nightwish.

So, I guess the best way to describe Epica is as a mix of old Theatre of Tragedy and Nightwish.  Every track on this album is heavily orchestrated, bombastic and saturated with huge choirs and vocals.  The music is pretty much your standard orchestrated female-fronted metal, except a bit heavier due to the death metal side of the band, which is definitely a welcome change from a lot of these bands that seem to be afraid to actually have anything heavy in their music.

No, Epica is not afraid of much of anything.  It’s almost as though they don’t have any shame or self-insight.  There’s no one in that studio going “do you think this is too much?”  No, this record is pretty much a balls-to-the-wall, over-the-top example of what you can do if you have 256 tracks on every song!  And honestly, it’s pretty good for a few reasons.  Let’s take the most obvious (and red-headed) aspect of the band to focus on first: the vocals.  Often a make-or-break aspect of modern power metal and symphonic metal bands, Simone Simons is definitely a serious talent.  Able, unlike other divas, to wander between poppy sounding smooth vocals and operatics, Simone pretty much wanders the range throughout the album delivering her parts with a sincerity and force that few other vocalists can muster.  In a lot of ways, she really carries this album.  While the music is pretty interesting, it is her vocals and melodies that draw me back to the album time and again.

On the other hand, there are some pretty cheesy lyrics on this thing and vocal approaches as well.  On the 13 minute Kingdom of Heaven, even God shows up to scream at someone “NO! You must continue!”  I’m surprised these guys didn’t call in Fabio from Rhapsody of Fire to cheese it up a little bit more for them.  Yes, it’s that bad.  But aside from a few moments like that, and some lyrics that completely lack subtlety (including a rant about martyrdom at one point), I really enjoyed the vocal approach, which honestly goes hand-in-hand with the excellent musical approach. (Also, for you die-hard Sonata Arctica fans, keep your … ears out for Tony Kakko the track White Waters, where he croons a duet with Simone.)

Part of the melodramatic aspect of Epica means that Design Your Universe has a penchant for hugeness that I just can’t resist.  Sure, they try to convince the listener of their extreme existentialism in any way they can, but at the same time they deliver sickly sweet melodies vocally (and sometimes on the guitar, or in the orchestra) and then they layer the hell out of it!  Some people don’t like this, but this approach has always appealed to me.  Sure, bands can go overboard with it, but for whatever reason one just accepts that Epica can’t do without it.  Of course, this approach also lends itself to a much more dynamic approach to music, which allows the band to go into softer, more subtle pieces well.  In a word, they’re … epic.

Design Your Universe picks up where Lost Horizon left off with it’s theme (“I SEE THE WORLD THROUGH MY FATELESS EYES!!!”), but it is deftly executed and will definitely appeal to the fan of symphonic metal.  Those of you who don’t like chick-fronted bands might find some things you like in here with the death metal stuff, but all-in-all, this band is definitely for the fans of Therion, Trail of Tears, Leaves’ Eyes and so forth.  But honestly, since Nightwish‘s masterpiece Once, this is easily the best symphonic female-fronted band I’ve heard.  But take that for what it is.

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