Loch Vostok

So, normally when I do these, I try to find records that are really the crème de la crème that we’ve simply just missed. This record isn’t quite there. But it is really solid progressive and/or power metal record with some death metal influences that sound quite Gothenburgy. With a vocalist who sounds like.. well, kind of every Swedish progressive or power metal vocalist ever, they deftly wander between Dark Tranquillity or Scar Symmetry kind of melodic riffing and choruses and more traditional prog/power sound. Tracks like the ripper of an opener “A Mission Undivine” even hint at an almost black metal influence at times before settling into riffing that is reminiscent of Nevermore or maybe a bit of Symphony X.

These guys also have a slower speed to them as well, and that’s a bit of where I lose them a bit. “Navigator” is kind of a mid-paced rocker/borderline ballad that has some good melodies, but it so unabashedly 80s hair band that I have a bit of trouble with it. The other issue I have with these guys is that the lyrics get a bit ESL and/or preachy at times. I get that it’s tough to write good metal lyrics, particularly in progressive metal and in another language, but sometimes the lyrics here are just, well.. bad. Not good. Obra. But these moments are mostly few and far between, honestly. And really, I’ve heard worse and even the best bands (*cough* Pain of Salvation *cough*) have shitty lyrics sometimes. It really only kills one song for me, “Taste the Flame” which just.. stinks.

With the notable exception of “Taste the Flame” though, this record is really great. It’s got some great songs, some excellent ideas and lots of awesome choruses. I personally love the tracks “Disconnection,” “A Mission Undivine” and “Repeat Offender” and the album feels a little front heavy, but there are some good moments on the back end as well. Overall it’s something worth checking out for fans of progressive metal, melodic death metal fans and all the fanboys of modern Swedish metal who love poppy, catchy tunes and aren’t expecting these guys to be rocking Liquid Tension Experiment chops when one talks about being “progressive”. Did I narrow that down too much? Just check the shit out.

Related posts:

1. Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Nami – Fragile Alignments
2. Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Mythological Cold Towers – Immemorial
3. Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Immolation – Providence

#10: “Storytime” — Nightwish — While the record wasn’t exactly the greatest thing I’d ever heard, “Storytime” totally got me really fucking stoked to hear the album. This song is just everything Nightwish is and should be sort of boiled down to a fine paste. And man, they did such a good job of it. This track is like the unholy union of ABBA and Nightwish, thereby creating an Angry Metal Kryptonite that I fall victim for every time I hear it. It’s like I don’t want to listen, but then suddenly I’m knocked onto the floor singing “I am the voice of Neverneverland!” Due to these sort of obsessive compulsions, I cannot deny that this track belongs on this list. But know that it’s grudging.

#9: “The Violation” — Fleshgod Apocalypse — Alright, so I wasn’t blown away by this album as everyone is aware. But man did I love this song. I don’t have a ton to say about it beyond “wow, listen to those orchestrations!” So, wow! Listen to those orchestrations! While the drums kind of piss on the production a lot, the chorus was definitely cool and the song writing was smart, concise and enjoyable. This is just a kick ass song that definitely ranks among the best and most memorable of the year. By the way, it would have been just as (or more) awesome if all that melody had been played on the guitars instead of keyboards. Just a thought.

#8: “FFF” — Shining — I cannot explain why this song really stuck with me more than the others on this album (or this year), but it just did. I think partially it’s because I turned the chorus into a bit of a joke with Angry Metal Girlfriend when she wanted me to do things I didn’t want to do (“Jag säger nej [NEJ!] till diskandet!”) but this track with its creepy 70s sounding keyboards and its creeping pace just settled in under my skin and stuck. The riffs are memorable and slick, and while the solo is maybe even a tad much, the acoustic parts and melodies are just fantastic. There’s a bit of an Opeth vibe going on here and I straight up dig it.

#7: “Frost upon Their Graves” — Crimfall — By now it should be well known that I think that Helena Haaparanta is the most talented vocalist in metal. It’s tracks like this that make me feel that way. While Crimfall‘s newest album was not as good as its previous one, this song definitely kept me coming back and back.. and back…. and back again. This was everything that I was looking for from this band—melodic, epic and well-constructed, and making you want to do a folk dance. I love, too, that it builds up to a crescendo right at the end. So powerful. Just let it sink in for you as you listen. Folk metal lives! And Crimfall is its name!

#6: “On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood” — The Black Dahlia Murder — Holy shit. The riff on this track is just crushing. I think that this was the song that kind of showed that Ritual really was a different beast than earlier albums and this is the song that I come back to when I want to show people how fucking awesome this record is. The chorus is also awesome with the bass work and Trevor growling the words “On stirring seas of salted blood…” Oh right, and the fucking solo. Seriously, this is just a stellar track. Good on these guys for switching it up and writing some amazing stuff this year.

#5: “Antebellum” — The Human Abstract — I wholly expect Digital Veil to be a one shot, now that the vocalist is already no longer in the band and the guys seem to have gotten their neo-classical bug out of their system. But it’s too bad, because this record produced some of the best material of the year. While the production is really not my style, Travis Richter nails home the vocals in a way that sort of walks the fine line between pop punk vocals and Muse and the melodic structures and melodies are awesome. Combine that with amazing guitar work and some progressive composition and this little epic piece is one of the best songs of the year.

#4: “Fight ‘em ’til You Can’t” — Anthrax — OK, rarely do I fall for the single track from an album, but man this one just rocked my socks off. I’m not even a huge fan of Anthrax or a big fan of Worship Music, but this song with its trend-hopping zombie apocalypse theme and still adorably mulleted vocalist just worked its way into my brain like some sort of… zombie song, and stuck there. Eating. My brains. … OK, that analogy sucked, but this song didn’t. Seriously, it was just everything I wanted to hear from these guys and it really worked. So congrats to the boys from Anthrax.

#3: “Klippor och skär” — Vintersorg — So, for the first time in a long, long time Vintersorg reclaimed his ability to write some of the best melodic black metal or.. whatever the fuck this is. Anyway, back in the day we all fell for Vintersorg choruses like “Astral and Arcane” and “Till fjälls” and “Klippor och skär” continues this tradition in fantastic form. While the track may be a tad busy at times (as I complained in the original review), it still inspired me to go and frolic in the forest and has been on constant rotation all year.

#2: “Ego” – Omnium Gatherum — Omnium Gatherum‘s New World Shadows came as a big surprise to both myself and to my colleague Steel Druhm. Neither of us expected the tour de force that was this Finnish melodic death record. But while he was impressed with the title track, the song that I got stuck on immediately was “Ego,” a 4 minute rocker with some of the catchiest melodic guitar I’ve heard in a long time and a fairly straight forward chunkity chunk chunk going on. I never saw the lyrics, but the chorus is like the ultimate pep song for a person on the brink of something (“SO DO IT!”). Add a sweet solo and smart segues and a Eurovision key change in and this is a recipe for success. This song could’ve been #1, but there’s just one that I like just a tiny bit better.

#1: “To the Shoreline” — Pain of Salvation — As I commented upon in the review, this song outshone the rest of the record in its geniusity. That’s right, geniusity. It’s like the unholy combination of Camel and Ennio Morricone. Then, make it about as awesome and catchy as possible and you’ve got “To the Shorline”. The biggest problem with the song is that it is short as hell, but actually that might be part of why it was so good. In any case, I’ve listened to this track about a bajillion times this year and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Ok, so there were of course more than 10 tracks that deserved to be mentioned here. So I decided that I would mention 5 songs here. Three non-metal songs that I really enjoyed, and a couple of tracks that weren’t quite good enough for the list but that I thought deserved a special mention.

Kyarypamyupamyu — “PONPONPON” — That’s motherfucking right. This song just totally rules and if you don’t like it, well, that’s probably pretty understandable.

The Dear Hunter — “She’s Always Singing (Yellow”) — So this year, these guys put out a huge vinyl box set that they released with a number of EPs in the colors of the rainbow. This track is probably my favorite from the whole collection and has a nice 1960s surf rock vibe to it. I dug, dug, dug it. And still really dig it. The guy who writes this stuff is a seriously talented musical omnivore and I’m always impressed by the stuff he’s doing.

My Brightest Diamond — “Be Brave” — Angry Metal Girlfriend turned me onto this lady and I have to say I’m really impressed. This track is dark and progressive and fascinating. The video is weird and hard to watch, but it’s worth giving a shot if you’re a fan of that kind of stuff.

Falconer — “O tysta ensamhet” — So, this didn’t deserve to be on the list because the band didn’t write it, but man this track really rocks my world. It’s originally a traditional song and there are a ton of different arrangements of it and stuff, but I actually loooove this version of it. It totally kicks you in the junk once the guitars kick in. Great stuff.

Shining  — “I nattens timma” — This is exactly the same as the previous Falconer track. It was written by another band in the 1990s, and Shining just did a really great rendition of it. Again, in my time of darkness and horrible burnout, this is a song I was listening to quite a lot.

Related posts:

1. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2011
2. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2010
3. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 15(ish) of the 2000s

In 2010 Pain of Salvation, best known for their progressive stylings and vocalist who wishes he could talk rhythmically like Mike Patton, released a record that blew me away and shook their fanbase: Road Salt One.  It was shocking mainly because it was a largely not tech-geek-progressive and it was very 70s rock influenced. This left some long-time fans peeved, at best. They wanted something different. Well, Road Salt Two is definitely not that something different. It is stubbornly more of the same and it may have lost a bit of its luster with a year to sit on it.

Road Salt Two is yet again a dirty 70s rock influenced record without a metal riff to show for the 51 minutes of music that are contained within. It starts out with the “Road Salt Theme” (which, actually, doesn’t appear to be thematically in context with the first disc) and drops right into blues-based rock riffing in “Softly She Cries.” While a tad banal at first, it gently transfers back into the “Road Salt Theme” so smoothly that the inattentive may straight up miss the development. This exemplifies the writing on this album, actually. As I pointed out in reference to Road Salt One, Gildenlöw takes the most hackneyed, clichéd and overdone genre in the entire world (blues rock) and adds a personal twist to it that makes it not only enjoyable but deep and fascinating. “Conditioned” works like this as well. It starts out like a fucking Lenny Kravitz song and then morphs into something sinister and/or melancholy.

The record also has its more “downy frowny” parts like third track “Healing Now” or “1979,” which borders on nostalgic crap but has its own naïve charm. “Through the Distance” is reminiscent of “Sisters” in tone and vocal performance, but it doesn’t have the same emotional poignancy. These tracks work to build the valleys in the grittier, more progressive landscape that is this second Road Salt installment and they work well in that. The peaks, then, are “Eleven,” “The Deeper Cut,” “Mortar Grind” and the 8 minute and 43 second “The Physics of Gridlock” which is a particularly excellent song. These show off a more progressive Pain of Salvation than we saw on Road Salt One. On these tracks the rhythm section performs admirably and really convincingly, making for some fantastic, driving and yet subtle music.

What finally makes this album a great record is that the songwriting is top-notch and the feel is spot on. Gildenlöw’s vocals steal the show again, but unfortunately the entire album doesn’t live up to what I see as the best track “To the Shoreline,” which should be the marquee track from this album (and should be their 2011 Melodifestivalen entry). It’s a faster track with a flute part that sounds like something that comes straight off of Camel‘s Snow Goose. The track is only 3 minutes long, but it’s just a tremendous piece of writing that I have listened to probably 300 times since I got the record. Unfortunately, that means that the rest of the record pales in comparison, and that kind of sets it back.

The other major critique that I had of this record was that the “characters” if you will, sound like case studies from someone’s book on personality disorders. Really? She feels empty inside? Like a black hole? Has she been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, by any chance? Her unpredictable mood swings definitely seem like they fit the criteria. And the main dude sounds like he has a hell of a Jesus complex, out saving the ladies left and right. While this was definitely there on the last record, it didn’t feel as hackneyed. On 2 we’re forced to sit through three songs where Daniel rhymes “cry,” “die” and “why” in a number of different constellations and it comes off as a bit uninspired at best.

Even if it’s a lyrical bust, musically Road Salt Two is a smashing success, even with all the caveats. I understand that it can’t be easy to do a project like this and I think others who have tried to do similar things have also probably looked back on them and felt like they didn’t come off as well as they could have (Opeth, and Guns ‘N’ Roses both come to mind). And really, it’s tough for me to listen to both records all the way through in a single sitting. But on its own, Road Salt Two is an enjoyable disc from a talented group who has now definitely lured me in. I’ll be checking out whatever they do next and hoping it will be as great as this is.

Related posts:

1. Pain of Salvation – Road Salt pt. 1 – Ivory – Review
2. Pain of Salvation – The Second Death of Pain of Salvation
3. Wuthering Heights – Salt Review

Progressive music is a vast category filled with all sorts of various constellations of bands from Dream Theater to Symphony X to Rush to Opeth to Death to Pink Floyd to Pain of Salvation to Coheed & Cambria (arguably) and so forth. It can be very difficult to keep all that shit in order and, frankly, to find good progressive bands because it’s such a huge category. Despite the fact that progressive music should be the biggest, best and most original music in the world it suffers from some serious problems. The first is a tendency towards living in the past (för svenskar: bakåtsträvande) and the second is unoriginality, oddly enough. So finding a progressive band that is excellent, modern and original is still a hard thing to do. But you’ll never guess who has some angry (but good) news!

Leprous hails from Norway (and seconds as Ihsahn‘s live backup band, apparently), and they have made a fantastic impression upon fans of progressive music everywhere. Their first record Tall Poppy Syndrome hit in 2009 and they have made their mark both with that record and their live show around the world. Now they’re back in 2011, signed to InsideOut and putting out the record Bilateral which is one of the coolest and most original records I’ve heard this year. Coming in at 58 minutes long, Bilateral is a journey through sometimes groove-tinged basslines, nerdy polyrhythm, diverse songwriting, poppy choruses and melodies and a smooth but varied vocal approach from singer/keyboardist Einar Solberg.

Leprous really sounds like a mix of the best progressive metal bands around today. The vocals are reminiscent of Riverside‘s fantastic singer, though Einar isn’t nearly as modern rock. But while he pulls off the melancholy in tracks like “Forced Entry,” he also has a very cool flare for the almost oriental sounding melodies that come through in the aforementioned track as well as most memorably in the track “Thorn”. There are moments where the songwriting and style reminds me a lot of more recent Pain of Salvation, as well, blending in what feels like classic rock elements techy time signatures (like on “Painful Detours”), but never wandering into the kind of djent territory of never developing a melody while playing a polyrhythm. One can even hear an Opeth kind of vibe on some tracks where the lead guitar floats above the other parts with simple melodies that stick in your head. Finally, there’s a bit of a funk vibe that actually reminds me of Faith No More with a bass heavy kind of approach that works spectacularly well.

But of course if you blend all of this together it doesn’t sound like any one of those bands really, instead it is a blending of excellently written, addictive tracks that ooze charisma and technical prowess. Leprous jumps through the Burning Hoop o’ Progressive Doom in that they are able to blend both the technical and interesting with smart melodic writing. Even though the record is an hour long, the listener doesn’t really want to hop off until the end. Though, personally, I find that an hour long record tends to be sort of inconvenient from a lifestyle point of view and I found that I really didn’t listen to the last two tracks as many times as the ealier tracks. This is not because they’re bad tracks (they’re really great tracks), but the whole thing is a bit much to chomp down in a single go. I’d like to know how this record would sound if they’d had to edit it down to 45 minutes.

Still, there’s very little negative that I can say about this album. The choices are great, the melodies are fantastic and the writing is as intelligent as the best among the progressive scene since the 1990s. Leprous is a band with a bright future if they can keep up this kind of output. So buy this album (despite the bad art) and see them live (and buy a shirt). This is definitely August’s Record o’ the Month.

Related posts:

1. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2011
2. Above Symmetry – Ripples Review
3. Three – Revisions Review

Now this was a tough album to review. I had a devil of a time trying to get through the music and honestly couldn’t even figure out what genre, sub-genre or sub-sub-genre these Chicago progressive metallers belonged in. You see, The Living Fields are so all over the place with their sound on their sophomore release Running Out of Daylight, they utterly defy conventional pigeonholing. At various times during the album’s playtime, they touch on ambient, darkwave, post rock, black metal, death metal, doom metal, folk and power metal. Yes, they cover their bases fully. In some ways these chaps could be called a more linear and rational version of Therion. They have all the same orchestration, pomp and variety and sport multiple vocalists of varying styles. However, they lack Therion‘s lunatic charm, off the rails approach and overall entertainment factor. Although far more restrained in their songwriting, their compositions have a cold feeling and lack of cohesion that made it very difficult to get into. While I can’t dispute their creativity and musical ability, this is a strangely distant album that has resisted all my efforts to enjoy it in a meaningful way. It’s also a very challenging album to describe so stick with Steel Druhm and he will do his bestest.

Album opener “Remnant” makes it easy to believe you are in for a treat along the lines of Agalloch‘s timeless classic The Mantle. The very catchy and brain sticking strains of string instruments and timpani drums that lead things off are joined by both clean male vocals and black metal shrieks (these sound like a cross between Tim Baker of Cirith Ungol and Dani Filth). Ambling along in a slow, orchestral funeral march, there’s some decent riffing and plenty of vocal change ups. The focus is on the symphonic aspects more than the metal guitar so it never feels particularly heavy even with the blackened croaks. It’s an odd song but it works although it feels overly long. With “Perseverance” the pace picks up and there are some very neat string and guitar harmonies. The same clean/black vocals are present and there’s a great symphonic black metal march at 0:32. This eventually segues into a minimalist stretch of clean singing and slow doomy riffing. While it works at first, it starts to feel uninteresting before very long. Although things eventually ramp up into something like power metal, by then I was drowning in apathy (great title for an album right there).

Other tracks like “From Miseries to Blood” and “Bitterness” bear sharp similarities to the early works of My Dying Bride with somber strings, dirgy doom riffing and death metal vox but the songs drone on for too long and often try to go in too many disparate directions without a cohesive flow. Strangely enough, the best track is the shortest. “When The Walls Go Up” features a stripped down, acoustic approach and pseudo-folk vocals. It manages to be catchy, poignant and sound like something off the soundtrack for Lord of The Rings. Yes, I know that won’t be easy to imagine. The title track attempts pretty much every genre of metal during its WAY overlong sixteen minutes and it has interesting moments but as a “song” its simply not compelling.

That’s the big problem with this album. It has a plethora of cool musical moments and ideas but few legitimately good songs. I’m not one to bash genre hoping or blending but they try to smush so many ideas and styles into the   songs that they seem to lose focus on the overall direction. Its fair to say there’s something here for everybody but not enough for anybody. This results in a disconnect and an inability to be moved by the material. It feels remote and unfocused. While I want to like it and appreciate their vision, I just don’t.

Also an issue is the way the album is mixed. Through 85% of Running, the guitar is relegated to a second seat and its the strings and symphonics that command center stage. This weakens the material and I kept wishing things were heavier and more “metal” in presentation. Additionally, the clean male singer with the high pitched voice tended to annoy me more often than not. The death metal vocals alternate between convincing and cartoony and that further knocked me out of synch with the music.

This is a long winded album and it triggered an equally long winded review. To sum up, this is a dense, experimental and progressive album with lots going on. I do appreciate how creative this group is, I just couldn’t fully get behind the finished product. If you like the works of Pain of Salavation, Therion and Grayceon, its worth a looksee and maybe it will blow you away. As for me, I was bored bored bored. Even the album cover bores me!

Related posts:

1. Manilla Road – Playground of the Damned Review
2. Sinister Realm – The Crystal Eye Review
3. Deicide – To Hell With God Review

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.

Above Symmetry (formerly 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 Above Symmetry 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 “Above Symmetry 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 Above Symmetry 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 Above Symmetry, 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.

[Disclaimer: This record is a re-issue of Aspera - Ripples, but the band has changed their name. I like these guys enough to re-post this so that people know that it's coming out, but it's the same record, so I just re-issued my review.]

Related posts:

1. Aspera – Ripples Review
2. Scar Symmetry – The Unseen Empire Review
3. Scar Symmetry – Dark Matter Dimensions Review

Well, either way, now that I’ve given your children nightmares that they will never get over, I’d like to say THANKS. Thanks to everyone for reading this blog of mine (and Steel Druhm’s—who gets a special thanks for writing for this blog of mine). Thanks for responding to posts, for donating to the website to help keep it afloat and thanks for your patience when I can be a little bit inconsistent due to having a life and not doing this for a living (and thanks to Mr. Steel Druhm especially, but also Lord Doom and the others who have helped pick up the slack). It’s really cool that you do that. That you get an RSS feed of reviews that we write. That you debate and that you feel as passionately about metal as we do even if we don’t all agree. That’s awesome.

Also, a big WTF to Southern Lord and Profound Lore for not sending me promos despite repeated requests. What’s an Angry Metal Guy gotta do to get some love from y’all? I’m not going to download your shit illegally to review it, but I’d like to review it! So send me promo already for fuck’s sake!

Lastly, I want to say a word first about the fact that 2010 saw the loss of two of my personal heroes: Ronnie James Dio and Peter Steele. Let’s not forget both of these metal icons who gave in their own very unique ways to the fabric of the thing that we all love. Metal will definitely not be the same with them gone.

In honor of 2010 being a pretty good year (aside from the untimely deaths), I’ve got to present my top 10. And more importantly I have to declare the Record o’ the Year!

#1: Orphaned Land // The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR — I can tell you that I was skeptical about this record. I really, really was. The name turned me off, plus it had been 5 years since Mabool was released and I wasn’t sure that they could grip me like they had the first time around. Oh how horribly wrong I was! The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR is the best record that came out in 2010 hands down. I’ve heard all sorts of different critiques of it, but I don’t understand any of them. Every note on here is perfectly placed, the instrumentation is perfection and the mix is astounding. The level of creativity, bound up with the message and the political “movement” this represents means for me that this record deserves to be the best record of the year. I strongly recommend you read my review, read the interview I did with Kobi Farhi and purchase the record. It is a testament to this amazing band and to the global nature of heavy metal in 2010.

#2: Rhapsody of Fire // The Frozen Tears of Angels — Oh man. Rhapsody of Fire is back in a big way. While the EP they released later in the year could never live up to this record, The Frozen Tears of Angels blows everything the band has done since Power of the Dragonflame out of the water. The record is a pure neoclassical guitar orgasm, with the orchestrations making it back to interesting again and a high energy attack! This is everything Rhapsody of Fire is supposed to be and hopefully it is everything they will be long into the future. It’s possible that this record may also set a standard so high that anything they ever release again will never live up to it. But I suspect that this energy that they’ve got after being stranded for a few years due to a stupid lawsuit has more fantastic cheese in store for us! Bring on the cheese (OF FIRE!)!!

#3: Sigh // Scenes from Hell — You know what I don’t fathom? How this record has missed people’s lists and hasn’t even been mentioned near the top of these discussions that I’ve held on Facebook or Twitter! I cannot fathom how this record is being overlooked. It is easily the coolest orchestral black metal record to be released in years. People have complained about the production—but those people are stupid. What’s so cool about this record is how incredibly claustrophobic it sounds at the same time as having some mind-blowing tracks including “L’art de Mourir” and “The Summer Funeral”. I have come back to this record repeatedly throughout the year and I have continued to be impressed with the consistency and sophistication of this record. I cannot wait for more if they keep heading down this path. Hangman’s Hymn, eat your heart out!

#4: Finntroll // Nifelvind — Oh, you didn’t see this one coming, did you? The metal scene has been rather quiet about the new Finntroll since it came out, but not this Angry Metal Guy. Nope, this Angry Metal Guy has been listening to a shit ton of Finntroll just wishing that they’d tour Sweden (seriously, dudes! Do Finnish bands have a fucking Swedish boycott or something?). This record officially is the best Finntroll record in my book—it doesn’t shame Nattfödd, but it definitely makes their other stuff just not look nearly as good as I thought it was. It’s everything I was hoping it would be and, frankly, it was more. Plus, the band’s new image is totally wicked. Like they’ve been reading Changeling books or something. No matter what the causes are, these guys still rule in my book, even if they’re not in vogue anymore.

#5: Barren Earth // Curse of the Red River — OK, so since my favorite bands in the world are pretty much Opeth and Amorphis it should come as no surprise that this record makes my top 10. It’s funny because I haven’t really had the chance to come back to too many records this year, and this one is no exception. But when looking at my list of the stuff that I genuinely loved from this year, these guys immediately came back to me. Breaking it out again, there’s no doubt in my mind that my review was totally correct. Barren Earth‘s Curse of the Red River is a truly enjoyable CD that will live on in my playlist. Sure, it feels like Amorphis! Yeah, it’s a super group! But who cares? It’s awesome and worthy of your consideration when thinking about the best records of the year.

#6: Solefald // Norrøn Livskunst — I did just write this review, so the blurb probably won’t be as long because there should be no need to remind you of how amazing this album is. There may be a moment or two of non-perfection, but it’s pretty few and far between and what’s left is one of the most addictive records I heard this year. The beauty of this album is that it surprised the hell out of me! I was honestly expecting that Enslaved would be the Norwegian band that made this list (or Borknagar), but instead it ended up being Solefald who I have been pretty lukewarm on in the past. But this album just nails it home. How do you argue with this approach? It is truly a magnificent record and one of the best progressive offerings of the year.

#7: Demiurg // Slakthus Gamleby — It’s been a weird year for me and death metal. I have yet to find that technical death metal record that drives me to angry glee like I did last year (really it was two tech death records that made up 2/3 of my top three in 2009). No, indeed, this year the death metal records that I’ve liked have been of a decidedly more old school approach—and Demiurg has a nice blend of doom in it as well. This whole record is a masterpiece, in my opinion. I know that fans of the old school death metal Rogga Johansson projects were particularly critical of this album, but I think that it’s a well-constructed record that is worth every cent you would pay for it. The touch of Swanö, the vocal arrangements of Warby and the unique approach really made this record a shoo-in for my top 10 list. And 7 seems too low. Gah.

#8: Blind Guardian // At the Edge of Time — Sometimes, it’s hard to admit when you’re wrong. In some cases, it’s even harder when the people who are saying that you’re wrong are douchebags on the Internet who are convinced that “objectivity” means “agreeing with me.” But in this case, I have to admit that I was wrong. This record has drawn me back again and again and it has grown on me. I still think that it has some weak tracks, but the more and more I listen to it the less and less I care. The well done parts are really well done and the parts I didn’t like at all have started to grow. To be honest this one surprised me because it grew like a power metal record has rarely done for me. Power metal has long been binary choices in my opinion; but with Blind Guardian it turned out to be a much different experience. And I’m glad I kept giving this record a chance.

#9: Iron Thrones // The Wretched Sun — I thought about whether or not I should include this one because these guys aren’t signed, but in a way that should make me put this record even higher on this list. These guys aren’t fucking signed! It blows my brains! Away! Anyway, this record fucking rules and that you don’t own it yet makes me question your metal cred. The tracks are tight, heavy and these guys blend the best of a lot of different worlds to make a really fantastic and solid record. If you’re disappointed that In Mourning isn’t on this list, then you should go out there and find this record. Because it will blow your brains away, too!

#10: Torture Division // Evighetens Dårar — #10 is always the hardest to choose, isn’t it? I mean, there’s a ton of records that could go in this spot. And I weighed at least 4 different records that I felt could have gone here. I know that technically Evighetens Dårar is a compilation because it’s made up of three demos (Evighetens Dårar I-III), but those demos put together into a long play format are stunning, excellent death metal that I have listened to quite a bit since I got it. Really, this record has gotten under my skin. I know that there are some non-believers out there who aren’t convinced by this one and think their first demo set was better—but I don’t think they’re listening to the same record that I am, because Evighetens Dårar is awesome.

#(ish): Fejd // Eifur — I’ve been beating around what I should do with it and I really couldn’t decide. This list was finalized before I even took a listen to it—having just gotten swamped down in the day-to-day of being an Angry Metal Guy. What a miss I made. I really whiffed on that one and for that I apologize. If you’re a fan of folk metal you owe it to yourself to check this record out. It isn’t what you’re used to and that’s what makes it the best. This band is sophisticated, interesting, intelligent and fun. The melodies are amazing, the production is perfect for the material and the talent of these musicians should impress the hell out of you. I can’t recommend highly enough that you give these guys a chance. It has been a long time since I’ve heard a folk metal band that really nails it home like these guys do. And unless you already listen to Hedningarna you probably haven’t heard anything quite like this before.

It goes without saying that by its very nature a Top 10 leaves out great records. Because I don’t want to do that, I’m also going to include some honorable mentions that could have made the list and maybe even should have made the list. Though, if they didn’t, then you’re probably wrong. Also, you lack objectivity.

Honorable Mentions:
Rage // Strings to a Web — This one was weighed for number 10. I had a hell of a time not including it on that list because this record is just loaded with fantastic riffs, great choruses and blistering solos. It is probably the most traditional power metal that I’ve liked in years and I highly recommend it to everyone. It is a fantastic album and you should own it already. Why don’t you?
Grand Magus // Hammer of the North — I weighed this one for #10 as well, and man, that was a tough decision. Grand Magus is just an awesome band doing traditional metal in a way that is super convincing, incredibly enjoyable and very addictive. This record fucking rules and you are definitely encouraged to go and check it out.
Winterhorde // Underwatermoon — Oh man. This record rocked my world. I definitely feel bad about leaving this one off the Top 10(ish).
Watain // Lawless Darkness — Having already lost my metal cred for not making this #1, I probably shouldn’t include this. If you don’t know already, you probably shouldn’t, as they say.
Deathspell Omega // Paracletus — This record is an aural mindfuck. I haven’t had time to let it sink in long enough to make sure it belongs on this list. But it is definitely something that I will be listening to a lot in the coming year. Best black metal record of the year?
Pain of Salvation // Road Salt One — I’m not going to make any friends by including this only on the honorable mentions list because I had given it a 5/5 early this year. I still think it deserves to be towards the top of my list, but in the end other bands just pushed it out for various reasons. This doesn’t stand up quite as well as it did when I first got it, but I still love almost all the tracks and think that it is a triumph for the boys from Eskilstuna.
Istapp // Blekinge — Penalized for being a compilation, but still a pretty wicked record. This isn’t exactly in the same league as bands like Watain or Deathspell Omega or Arckanum when it comes to being black metal, but it’s an incredibly entertaining record.
Vex // Thanatopsis — This record cannot come highly recommended enough for me. This band has been sorely overlooked because they’re just on a tiny label from the US, but it is an album that you should own.

Biggest Disappointments:
Ihsahn // After — This record never sat well with me. It had moments, but I ultimately gave it a higher score than it deserved. After angL which I thought was pure genius this record was just a massive letdown. I suspect that future Ihsahn records will be better now that he’s gotten that out of his system. Or at least I hope so.
Enslaved // Axioma Ethica Odini — I know, this record was made record of the month and got 4/5. And it’s true, that it’s a good record that fits well into Enslaved‘s discography. This record tops other people’s lists for good reason, I guess. But it was just not at all what I had expected and/or wanted and my expectations were so incredibly high that I just couldn’t handle ‘run-of-the-mill’ when it showed up.

What Am I Looking Forward to in 2011?
Oh man!! There’s a new Rhapsody of Fire coming as well as a new Symphony X! Opeth announced a new record and it sounds like a new Amorphis records is in the works (if I remember correctly) and that would be pretty amazing as well and early on we’ll be getting the newest Vintersorg record. That’s definitely reason for celebration! And what about the new Shining record that should be on its way soon? And Indie Recordings just announced that Einherjer will be releasing their first record since 2004 in the spring! 2011 could be a fucking amazing year assuming that all my favorite bands don’t shit out on me. But the best part will be all the new shit I get to hear. Fuck yeah.

Related posts:

1. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 15(ish) of the 2000s
2. Steel Druhm’s Top 10(ish) of 2010
3. Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2011

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.

Related posts:

1. Pain of Salvation – Road Salt Two [Ebony] Review
2. Pain of Salvation – The Second Death of Pain of Salvation
3. Pain of Salvation in Melodifestivalen?

After the flights back to Sweden we had less than 24 hours at home before taking off for Australia. During those few hours I had to pack, take a bath and prepare the audio CDs and mixes for Melodifestivalen. For those who don’t know what Melodifestivalen is, it is the biggest thing in the Swedish music industry. A huge machinery built to single out the Swedish contender for the Eurovision Song Contest. Out of thousands and thousands of sent in songs, 30 are selected by a jury to participate in this national contest, viewed by half the population when it’s on TV. It’s a big thing, to say the least! Do you recall a week with two Thursdays, some two months back? It was that day when hell froze over, remember? That was the day they told us Pain of Salvation would be participating in Melodifestivalen. It just doesn’t happen.

For those of you who are not familiar with Eurovision or, the preliminaries that are Melodifestivalen, these things are about as metal as, say.. American Idol. That is to say, they are not fucking metal at all. They’re not metal even a little bit. There is not a shred of metal in this stuff. “Sure,” you say, “but Lordi got famous because of Eurovision!” To which I respond “Exactly!” Lordi, while funny, is certainly not a band that anyone over the age of 8 takes seriously at all. And that should give you the idea of what it means that Pain of Salvation, the progressive rock idols that are incredibly well loved in the prog scene (the word “overrated” almost comes to mind, though they are exceptionally talented), are going to be in Melodifestivalen.

The best part about this whole thing is the interview on the SVT site.

Even if you can’t understand Swedish you should check out the end where they slaughter this song (which I was informed of by Angry Metal Girlfriend, who totally knows this stuff.. haha)

Though, he points out thoughtfully that Lena Philipsson should have won with that song, and after listening to it I think he’s absolutely right. One wonders if Daniel Gildenlöw can dance like she can… If so, maybe they can pull off the big upset.

Related posts:

1. Pain of Salvation – Road Salt Two [Ebony] Review
2. Pain of Salvation – Road Salt pt. 1 – Ivory – Review
3. Pain of Salvation – The Second Death of Pain of Salvation

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.

Related posts:

1. Above Symmetry – Ripples Review
2. Leprous – Bilateral Review
3. Three – Revisions Review