German power metal/freak show act Powerwolf have been perplexing me since their 2005 debut. All corpse painted up and evil looking, they look like a black metal band but actually play sub-par power metal with traditional metal elements and coat the whole thing with cheesy theatrics and goofball pomp. I attempted to get into what they were doing on several occasions due to the buzz they were receiving but aside from a few scattered tracks, it was rough going. To me they always seemed generic and silly, though I appreciated their zest and zeal for entertaining. With this back-history, I naturally chose to approach their fourth album, Blood of the Saints with muted expectations. As usual, Steel Druhm is proven wise indeed. Blood of the Saints is arguably Powerwolf‘s best release thus far and packs several amusing and respectable songs, albeit, still laden with cheese and cheap theatrics. However, as a whole, its still the same Powerwolf product and that can’t lead too far down the road to the land of 5.0. For every decent song, there’s an equally painful one and a few are just laughable. While I know they don’t take themselves too seriously, sometimes silly is too silly and that’s the case here more often than not.

Blood of the Saints may not be a concept album per se but it has a cohesive element stringing the material together. That element being church-themed music, religious ritual samples and lots and lots of church organ music. While it works fine at first, I found it growing tedious by the half way point and by the end I thought I was listening to “Ina Gadda Da Vida”. When they just play their simple, stripped down power metal meets Iron Maiden, its tolerable but the embellishments are too much. After an intro steeped in religious pomposity, they dive into “Sanctified With Dynamite” and its a basically cool song. Zippy, aggressive and straight forward and oddball frontman Attila Dorn does a respectable job of delivering his lines without getting too hammy (the man likes to overact like Nicholas Cage). Its got a catchy chorus and things are silly but enjoyable. It sounds a little like mid-period Running Wild at its core but wimpier. Follow up “We Drink Your Blood” is a return to the old Powerwolf I know and giggle at. Its slower, features uber silly lyrics and is tough to take seriously. Making that job harder is them singing “we drink your blood” in a way that reminds me far too much of Faith No More’s “We Care A Lot.” Unintended hilarity thus ensues. That’s the story playing out for the rest of the album. Good song, silly song. While tracks like “Murder at Midnight, “Night of the Werewolf” (which rips off Maiden‘s Fear of the Dark” so badly that Eddie is surely coming to scalp them) and “Phantom of the Funeral” are all respectable, the rest of Blood is generic and dimwitted tomfoolery (especially “Dead Boys Don’t Cry” and “Die Die Crucified”).

Its finger pointing time and Attila Dorn is on the receiving end. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a decent enough singer and his mid-range sounds a bit like Piet Sielck (Iron Savior) and Joakim Broden (Sabaton). He can also channel a  bit of youthful Ozzy when he needs to get up there. However, his compulsive need to overdo things with theatrics, odd voices and sundry antics hurt the songs and takes the focus off the music. Also burdensome are the lyrics which run the gamut from silly to stupid (its a short trip). When you have a chorus of “die die crucify, hallelujah” and you’re over the age of 15, there’s a problem to address.

There are some legitmately well down moments like the lead guitar lines in “Murder at Midnight” which rock muchly and the sparkling power metal attack in the background of ”Dead Boy’s Don’t Cry.” Their problem is putting all of it together into songs that aren’t half baked or too goofy to deal with. Most of the time they sound like an off off Broadway musical and its far too easy to imagine them dancing and acting these tunes out onstage. Now see Powerwolf starring in Lycanthropy: My Pack or Yours. No thanks.

I know Powerwolf has their supporters and while I’m not sure what they hear that I don’t, they should be thrilled by this. I will probably listen to “Murder at Midnight” on and off but otherwise, this just didn’t put hair on my back like it should. Woof.

Related posts:

1. Iron Savior – The Landing Review
2. Primal Fear – Unbreakable Review
3. Artillery – My Blood Review

U.D.O. is back! The diminutive Teutonic terror who’s gravelly cackle defined the sound of Accept for decades has resurfaced with yet another solo album (his thirteenth!). This time out however, he does so in the very large shadow cast by his former unit’s 2010 release Blood of Nations. That opus was a classic metal monster and ended up near the top of my best of 2010 list. Since Rev-Raptor will inevitably be seen by many as Udo Dirkschneider’s return salvo, the obvious question becomes, how does it measure up? Well, in all fairness, Mr. Udo has released far more records under the U.D.O. moniker than he ever released with Accept. That said, he’s still famous as the “voice” of Accept so the comparison is to be expected. In short, no, this isn’t on par with Blood of Nations, but its still a solid traditional metal album with some entertaining numbers that will make you bang your head the old fashioned way. If you’ve heard any of the prior U.D.O. albums, you know what to expect here since there’s been scarce variation across his long and storied discography. Its raucous 80′s style classic metal, much like classic Accept, with few frills but plenty of balls (to the wall) and the man’s trademark screech. If that sounds good to you, read on (AMG has already left the building and set it on fire).

Lead track “Rev-Raptor” is one of the album highlights and has a huge, crunchy main riff and a full throttle approach that perfectly compliments Udo’s famous snarl. He sounds nasty and venomous and its a very good classic metal ditty. Follow ups “Leatherhead” and “Renegade” keep the heaviness going with simple but heavy riffing and catchy choruses and “Renegade” even evokes recent Grave Digger with the extra heavy guitar tone. Later, we get to see the more sensitive side of the Udo with “I Give as Good as I Get” which is essentially a power ballad. Although the softer numbers like this were never Udo’s forte given his limited vocal range, this has a certain, boozy barroom charm and it works well. Other standouts include the testosterone filled stomper “Terrorvision” (which gets extra Angry Metal Points for the line “cyber-kinetic fuck machines”) and the classic 80′s flavor of “Underworld” which could have been on a 86′-88′ Ozzy album. Sadly, there are a few cheeseball numbers (Dr. Death” and “Rock n Roll Soldiers”) and some are decent but on the bland side (“True Born Winners”). That inconsistency drags the album down a few notches.

Besides Udo, who is in fine form throughout Rev-Raptor, the guitar tandem of Stefan Kaufmann and Igor Gianola acquit themselves well with a collection of simple, heavy but effectively memorable metal riffs straight out of the 80′s. They also uncork a few exceptional solos here and there (“Terrorvision,” “Underworld”). The production is big and loud and at times even gives the music a Rammstein/industrial quality which beefs up the heaviness factor. However, a nagging problem across the album are the lyrics, which range from cliche to cringe inducing. Not every metal song needs poetic and profound lyrics but there’s a point where they get so childish here it verges on laughable and it doesn’t help things.

Maybe U.D.O. lost out to Accept for best recent album but if you enjoyed any of U.D.O.s prior works or traditional 80′s metal, there’s likely to be some entertainment value for you. He doesn’t stray far from his stylistic wheelhouse but why should he? He’s a metal institution famous for exactly this style of music so why fuck with the winning formula? If the song level remained as solid as on the first four tracks, this would bump up closer to 4.0 but too much cheese contaminates the later proceedings. Still, its not bad and the guy deserves respect for his commitment to all things metal. Cheers, you little  rock dynamo!

Related posts:

1. Bullet – Highway Pirates Review
2. Accept – Blood of Nations Review
3. Bloodbound – Unholy Cross Review

#50: Europe – Wings of Tomorrow – “Wings of Tomorrow” — Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone laughs about Europe, sure they were cheesy as hell, but these first two records they released had a good, classic metal approach and they were excellent song writers. This is still one of the most underrated heavy metal songs ever as far as I’m concerned and let me say something else: Norum is another retardedly underrated guitar player. Sure, this is the top 50, you say, this can’t be better than ALL the other heavy metal from the 1980s! What, did you ever fucking listen to 80s metal? Europe was better than most of that shit. So eat it.

#49: Opeth – Morningrise – “The Night and the Silent Water” — This track is probably a good place to start the list, don’t you think? Whether or not people like it Opeth in the early ’90s helped redefine what we thought of when we think of metal, and while there are plenty of other songs one could choose, a track that stands out for everyone I know who loves Morningrise is “The Night and the Silent Water.” Also, this was from the early 90s, and has had a much more profound on metal than Tool, don’t you think? I sure as hell do. What a great career these gentlemen have had.

#48: Sonata Arctica – Silence – “San Sebastian” — Many have done Europower, but Sonata Arctica perfected the art. With easily the best power metal vocalist (at least in range and tone) in the business and with songs that are so poppy and ridiculous that it’s hard to get over them, it’s basically impossible to deny that this song is better than say, for example, second rate AC/DC tracks because only fucking idiots would vote for those for a top 50 list of metal tracks. And just listen to that guitar solo! It’s got “The guys at Gibson are douchebags” written all over it!

#47: My Dying Bride – Like Gods of the Sun – “The Dark Caress” — See one of the things that Black Sabbath and St. Vitus and the like spawned was this amazing thing called doom metal. From this, one of my favorite bands ever is My Dying Bride and the record Like Gods of the Sun and really any track on here could’ve been on this list, but I just love the riffing on here. Really, if you haven’t listened to much doom, this album is as good a place as any to start. And apparently not enough people have heard them, because despite their amazing output they somehow never end up on people’s “best of” lists.

#46: Sacred Reich – Surf Nicaragua – “Surf Nicaragua” — One of the most overlooked thrash bands of all time, Sacred Reich produced one of my favorite thrash albums, The American Way but of course it hit too late and was never really considered among the “classics,” until much too late. Certainly this is too much of a deep cut for a ‘best of’ list, right? I don’t think so. But actually, despite thinking that record is classic, it’s the track “Surf Nicaragua” from the EP of the same name that belongs on this list with all it’s thrash awesomeness and irony. These guys were dead on and cool as hell.

#45: Old Man’s Child – In Defiance of Existence – “Black Seeds on Virgin Soil” — Whether or not you like later Old Man’s Child there are few people who rip out riffs like Galder does, and this track “Black Seeds on Virgin Soil” is a fucking riffy song that deserves to be on this list, for sure. I hardly listen to OMC anymore, but I will always come back to this track as its definitely one of my favorite. And the guitar solo is like an old school trash solo over such a riffy and epic track. I love it.

#44: Metallica – Ride the Lightning – “For Whom the Bell Tolls” — Well, c’mon. These guys had to end up somewhere on the list. They have their uses and Ride the Lightning still lives on as a classic heavy metal record in my opinion. Oh, and get this, I think it’s way better than Master of Puppets. Apparently metalheads are fucking sheep. Wanna know what I think of Master of Puppets?

#43: Ozzy – Blizzard of Ozz – “Crazy Train” — Well, Ozzy did have one really solid record and it was his debut. And basically it’s Randy Rhodes that made this record so fucking good. I mean just going back and listening to this stuff, you have to admit that his stuff was so solid. And this guitar solo probably influenced heavy metal in ways that we’ll never understand. I’d go so far as to say that he was one of the first heavy metal guitarists who was more ‘heavy metal’ than blues rock, which is what makes this special. Still, there’s been a lot of awesome stuff after this. Just thought I’d point that out.

#42: Primordial – The Gathering Wilderness – “Coffin Ships” — One of the things that Primordial has that, for example Ozzy or Metallica never did, is thoughtful lyrics and a sense of atmosphere. Sure, this isn’t going to unite the masses into a buying frenzy and make stupid rockstars rich enough to drink themselves into stupors, snort ants or bite heads off of shit, but this is certainly one of the finest songs ever written and belongs on this list. Such an emotionally poignant song from such an incredible band.

#41: Agalloch – The Mantle – “In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion” — Once again taking on the more atmospheric and beautiful, Agalloch signaled the rise of the American northwest as a scene which has spawned a lot of music—like it or not—and is very prolific now. But Agalloch was at it first, and even if their sound (in my opinion) is derivative of early Ulver, it’s hard to find a metalhead who listens to real metal these days who doesn’t speak of The Mantle as one of the best records of its era and as being tremendously influential. And I’d say that this track is the band’s magnum opus.

The next list, 40-31 will be posted when I get the fuck around to it. [Edit: It can be read here. And Steel Druhm's can be read here.]

Related posts:

1. Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 30-21
2. Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 10-1
3. Steel Druhm’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 40-31

Retro is the new new, apparently. Everyone and their dog is doing retro bands doing old school things with better (or at least louder) production and with the sensibilities of generations who have listened to a lot of music and decided that it’s time to come back to the thing that really seems to unite them: the 1970s. I, myself, have been listening to a lot of stuff from the 1970s lately, and especially the progressive rock movement that influenced many of the musicians from Scandinavia seems to be rearing its head in an interesting combination of traditional hard rock, heavy metal sensibilities and dudes who used to play black metal. Sahg‘s III embodies this movement sonically—and does it very, very well.

To give you a general idea of the sound that Sahg approaches the listener with, I would describe it as a mixture of a band like Grand Magus with 1980s Ozzy. The tracks are pretty straight forward and simplistic, and the vocals of Olav Iversen (Manngard) actually throw themselves right into the Ozzy territory and this is basically clear from “Mortify” forward for the rest of the album. These vocals, mixed with mid-paced groove and some very Randy Rhoadsy guitar solos, left an indelible impression on me which screamed “OZZY!” While he is not a dead ringer for the man vocally, his sound is close enough that I have trouble not imaging the band wearing tights and snorting lots of coke.

But unlike those early Ozzy records, which are hit and miss, Sahg‘s III is a stone cold example of consistency from a band of high quality musicians and writers. The songwriting is traditional, it’s true, but the pop sensibility with which the songs are written, that is, the complexity of catchy melodies, the structures of the songs and even the flow of the album, are definitely what makes this record crackle. Aside from just “Baptism of Fire” and “Mortify”, which lead the record off with a catchy of driving tracks for your headbanging pleasure, the record also contains tracks like “Mother’s Revenge” and “Spiritual Void”, which are doomy, mid-paced tracks that hold a bit of Norwegian melancholy in their thick grooves.

It’s hard to even say that there are any filler tracks on here. Every track is constructed well, with an eye backwards without sounding like a dead ringer for any of the major bands of the 1970s or 80s. But don’t expect there to be a lot of feel good driving heavy metal. The feel on this is a lot more similar to Soundgarden (actually, the track “Spiritual Void” reminds me of a Soundgarden track, but I can’t put my finger on which one) and Black Sabbath than the faster variations of traditional metal in the 1980s that ended up giving rise to power metal in its current form. But this isn’t necessarily a drawback: heavy and groovy can be just as entertaining and enjoyable as fast, energetic and melodic and in the case of Sahg, it definitely is.

So, this Angry Metal Guy should probably end this up by saying what you should already know: this record is highly recommended. And if you get the chance to see these guys on tour in Europe with Enslaved and Dimmu Borgir you should really do that, because I’m sure that this music is fantastic live. It seems that while the Norwegian scene has been gaining the scorn of people mourning the downfall of the traditional black metal scene, the musicians went ahead and kept making great music. The Norwegian scene is dead! Long live the Norwegian scene!

Related posts:

1. Indie Recordings 2010 Schedule
2. Spiritual Beggars – Return to Zero Review
3. Nàttsòl – Stemning Review

So I admit, I’ve never heard SoCal pop rockers In This Moment before. This review will be completely devoid of comparisons to their last two records. Nor will it be filled with witty insights into how the band has changed over their time and whether or not this is a darker record (of course, every new record is the darkest, heaviest, etc., that any band has ever done, so trust the bio about as far as you can throw Arnold Schwarzneger). No, this is going to pretty much be a tirade about how much I really don’t like this album at all or the style of music or basically anything about this at all except for Maria’s clean singing voice, which is very good. You are warned. Don’t throw a fit in the comments because I hate your favorite band: I’ve already warned you. If you read past the jump then it’s your own fucking fault.

So wow, In This Moment sucks. This may be the shortest review I ever write because it’s pretty easy to sum up. In This Moment is pop rock, plain and simple. There is nothing even remotely heavy or raw about what they’re doing except for Maria’s screams which are a lot more annoying than heavy most of the time. The riffs are simple nu metal influenced (or I guess hardcore now) riffs that are so simple that they could be played by any breed of ape (not just homo sapiens sapiens) and have been reproduced hundreds of thousands of times before in the basements across America. While there may be a few happy moments of guitar solos or a melody or two that stand out from the herd, for the most part this is totally crap.

The production is fantastic. But I guess, since it’s pop rock there’s not much to comment on there. Though, really, I don’t like the guitar tone at all. It sounds really boxy and weird. But, of course, the vocals are just hyper, hyper, hyper overproduced. I hope this isn’t ’cause Maria can’t sing (’cause then apparently the only thing she offers the band is the ability to be commodified as a porn doll—honestly, when will women in metal be allowed to just be band members and not masturbation objects!?), and has more to do with the fact that the producer (who produced Ozzy and Five Finger Death Punch) is being paid to overproduce this band: so overproduce them he will!

The song writing is banal, contrived and crappy. I was unimpressed with the sappy ballads (“World in Flames”, for example, made me heave up my lunch). I was especially unimpressed with the sappy hardcore screaming love duet (this is not a joke) which popped up on “The Promise”, quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life (aside from Sonic Syndicate and Ravage of course—but close!) and because I feel like I have to be fair, I even forced myself through it more than once.  Oh, there’s a talky cowboy song, too, which is also just lame and irritating. Holy crap. Talking over music stopped being OK in 1950 when everyone thought it was too cheesy THEN. I’m pretty sure that talking over music is punishable by marriage in some countries! The guitar work is occasionally interesting, but most of the riffs are “chug chug chug chugchugchug” that you expect from this kind of metalcore influenced poo. And then the when they do break out guitar solos, they sound like they belong on a butt rock album (see: sappy ballad “World in Flames”).

The only reason you should buy In This Moment‘s new record is because you want an example of everything that is wrong with the commercial metal in 2010. Honestly, I can’t even understand who listens to this shit. It just drives me completely insane and unlike other annoying records where I can sort of understand the appeal (Mnemic for example), this one I just don’t get. Have at it if it’s your thing, but I would never recommend this to fans of music that actually has any kind of heart, soul or I dunno, shame.

Related posts:

1. Steelwing – Lord of the Wasteland Review
2. Star One – Victims of the Modern Age Review
3. Lance King – A Moment in Chiros Review

It’s been a long time since a sort of standard modern rock or traditional metal band really showed off anything that this Angry Metal Guy appreciated. For the most part, modern rock has been rehashed BS and overrated post-Seattle scene leftovers. The bands that have tried to convert their sounds (see: the remnants of Guns N’ Roses meets STP or Europe‘s latest incarnation) have really failed at it because the sound is, at its root, boring as hell. Rehashing rock again with thicker guitar tone and a vocalist who will never live up to the classics is pretty much a good way to guarantee that your vocalist buddy goes to rehab, but not much more. Whatever happened to Buckcherry again? Oh right. Flash in the effing pan.

So, it was with great surprise that Audrey Horne is none of these things. Instead, Audrey Horne is a smartly packaged modern rock band with pop, pizazz and some seriously above par songwriting skills. And where are they from? Oh, you guessed it: NORWAY! Wait, you didn’t guess that? That’s right, Audrey Horne, my metal brethren, is made up of a bunch of Norwegian metal dudes who apparently are also suckers for trad rock and metal and who, instead of going the “let’s try to be Iron Maiden” route, went the “let’s make pop rock” route in their quest to pay homage to traditional metal. And they pull it off. It’s just funny to see that Ice Dale (Enslaved) is in this band. ‘Cause he’s in like every project on Indie Recordings. Anyone else notice that? Honestly, I think it’s one of their signing requirements. “Well, we only sign Norwegian bands and you gotta use Ice Dale on guitar.”

But on to the music. This is not a metal album. This is modern rock with pretty good riffs, great melodies and no shortage of wall of sound guitars. This is the kind of thing your buddy would show you and you’d say “Oh, yeah, that’s alright.. but have you heard…”. It’s the kind of thing you’d pick up, but your girlfriend would listen to more than you. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if these guys got picked up by Roadrunner and sent on tour with Nickelback. This is not meant to be an insult (because honestly, these guys put Nickelback to shame in terms of talent, song writing, originality and non-annoyingness), but the sound is palatable, sweet and catchy as hell. However, the listener feels like they’ve heard this before.. but just can’t place it.

That said, we like it! While the record drags on a little at the end, the songs on here are well composed and catchy. The opening track “Charon” bursts out the door to open the record (after the intro track “Vultures”) and had me immediately hooked, largely because of vocalist Toschie’s mix between Ozzy and Scott Weiland and his adhesive melodies—you will have this chorus stuck in your head for days afterwords. The introductory Ozzy channeling isn’t the only time it happens. Instead it can be easily seen on tracks like “Blaze of Ashes” and “Bridge and Anchors”. But these guys are really at their best when they’re doing something that’s a little bit more akin to Tool‘s sound, with sort of atmospheric, melodic verse parts and big, memorable choruses like on the song “Pitch Black Mourning” and “Firehose”. The  only major misfires are ballads. This record contains a couple of them and they are no good.. just no good. Let what is dead stay dead, guys. (Really? “Sail Away”? REALLY?)

Audrey Horne is really good at what they do, but what they do is going to strike different metalheads in different ways. I can see this being really popular with sort of older, more traditional metal fans who are probably in the same age group as the guys in this band. They’re going to find everything they want: catchy choruses, good guitar solos, retro keyboard sounds and highly melodic vocals that harken back to when men were men and they had frills on their jackets. If you’re into that, or into post-grunge modern rock, then we suggest you check this out. ‘Cause, these Norwegians do it better than any American band this Angry Metal Guy has heard in .. well .. years.

Related posts:

1. Sahg – III Review
2. Indie Recordings 2010 Schedule
3. Djerv – Headstone EP Review