Monday 31 October 2011

Week 44: Helloween - Giants



The artist: So much can be said about this great band. Helloween are highly considered to be the pioneers for power metal and have influenced many bands from it. They had their golden days in the 80s with Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath on guitars, Michael Kiske on vocals (after Walls of Jericho), Markus Grosskopf on bass and Ingo Schwichtenberg on drums. They were at full force with the Keeper albums but Kai Hansen sadly left due to unhappiness with his position in the band and formed Gamma Ray later on (a great band regardless of this event). Kiske and Schwichtenberg would leave the band as well after Chameleon making Weikath and Grosskopf the only remaining founding members of Helloween. Sadly, Schwichtenberg committed suicide a few years later due to further depression with his mental issues.

Andi Deris replaced Kiske and has remained a loyal member ever since. Some may not like Mr Deris but personally, he's a great vocalist who has a unique character to him. The fact that Helloween have lived on today despite the fallout in 1993 and the unthinkable change of direction for The Dark Ride shows how strong this one particular band are. Maybe they should have gone under a different name due to how different they sound now in comparison to the 80s but that argument is for another day. Today is Halloween and it's only appropriate to talk about Helloween on this day.

The album: Chameleon is Helloween's controversial album. With the poor success they had with Pink Bubbles Go Ape, an experimental album wasn't the best decision to keep the band stable. Michael Weikath even admitted to wanting to make this like a Beatles album and does acknowledge how farfetched his idea was. Even so, this album wasn't all bad. It doesn't deserve to be at the bottom of the barrel along with Metallica's St. Anger and Cryptopsy's The Unspoken King. Although there are songs such as Crazy Cat and I Believe that don't really work well, there are still some great tunes that deserve respect and that is why Chameleon is the featured album out of 14 different albums to choose from (counting the Helloween EP).

The song: Giants is one of the few songs that sounds more along traditional Helloween but still taking some experimental routes. The songs offers the listener some heavy riffage and some solos throughout the song are nicely done when they are launched in the air. Credit has to be given to Weikath and Grapow here. Michael Kiske's voices have an echo to them and gives off quite a mood to the song. The song even incorporates some keyboards, even though there's never been a member in Helloween to play them full-time. These keyboards match the lyrics to the song quite well which is about slavery and the corrupted power of the rulers. It also shows how much they abused their people and makes the slaves hope for a better place to see someday. Overall, Giants is one song that shouldn't be ignored from Chameleon because it's a song that makes corrupted leaders fearsome and it's a damn rocking tune. Happy Halloween!

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Manilla Road to the World - Part 9: Megalodon (Atlantis Rising)



Atlantis Rising is Manilla Road's comeback album after the hiatus in the early 90s. Mark Shelton reformed the band with a whole new lineup featuring Bryan "Hellroadie" Patrick on drums as well as vocals and Mark Anderson on bass. This is Bryan Patrick's debut and his contributions to the band as a vocalist only became greater after this release. Amazingly enough, Hellroadie has the exact same vocal characteristics as Mark Shelton meaning he sounds exactly like the Shark so the introduction of a second vocalist could easily slip through the crack if little to no research was done on the band.

After a 10 year break, Mark Shelton struck back the music industry with this monstrous album. The concept of the album alone instantly marks this album as heavy metal. Atlantis Rising tells the tale of the lost Atlantis re-emerging with a war between the Norse Gods and the Great Old Ones over the continent. If this isn't metal, nothing in this world is! This album comes with a few interludes but it's hard to overlook the great work of this record with the harsh opener Megalodon, the fast and aggressive Siege of Atland and rifftastic tracks including March of the Gods, Decimation and Resurrection.

Starting off with a familiar verse (think Open the Gates' opener Metal Storm), Megalodon strikes with some distorted guitars and still maintains the rough sound productions from the earlier releases but at the same time modernizes it. It's not long until Mark Shelton offers a new flavour of vocals to his music with his very harsh voice. With this combined with the introduction of the concept, you can be sure that he makes the big blue sea so brutal that you wouldn't want to touch a drop from the ocean. The solos find themselves to be the screams of the monsters coming to battle. This only marks the beginning of the return of Atlantis and you can bet the war will not get any easier later on and neither will the music.

Monday 24 October 2011

Week 43: Immortal - Antarctica



The artist: Immortal are one of the most well known black metal bands who contributed to the second wave. The 1990s was a very dark time for black metal where some of the major acts committed church arson and even went as far as murdering individuals (most notoriously Varg Vikernes of Burzum for both cases). Black metal has been heavily linked with Anti-Christianity. However, Immortal are an excellent contrast to all the controversy in black metal. They've stayed away from Anti-Christianity as well as church burnings at all costs and despite these differences, Immortal are still one of the most respected bands by black metal fanatics. Ironically enough, Abbath was the one who got Varg into black metal but Abbath never wanted to follow the bandwagons going on back then.

The album: Sons of Northern Darkness is the last Immortal album before their break up in 2003 due to personal reasons which the band would later unite a few years later after a reunion special. Sons of Northern Darkness follows the musical style from At the Heart of Winter with more complex song structures whilst containing the thrash metal elements Immortal have adapted with since At the Heart of Winter. Some of the highlights in Sons of Northern Darkness include One By One, Tyrants and In My Kingdom Cold. This week's song Antarctica is also another strong track in the album.

The song: Antarctica begins with an arctic ambience (well, what were you expecting). It's not quite as eerie as Unearthly Kingdom but to make that up, Abbath breaks in with his frostbitten guitar and he does go all the way to make this intro well established. Horgh does some damn good drumming. It's not the typical blast beat black metal drumming but it does have some sweet rhythm to the intro sequence. Abbath doesn't kick in with his vocals until around 2 1/2 minutes in where he talks about how cold, vicious and metal Antarctica is. He describes it as a very harsh place. 5 minutes in gives us the dark acoustic guitars where Abbath summarizes Antarctica as dark, cold and massive. Heavier guitars make a comeback as well as the drumming that have a nice pace of hits on the Tom-tom drums. Overall, Antarctica is that ideal frostbitten song that black metal is often associated with, particularly Immortal. Who needs to sing about opposing Christianity and worshipping Satan when you can make something evil-sounding with a very bitter place like Antarctica?

Thursday 20 October 2011

Manilla Road to the World - Part 8: Forbidden Zone (The Circus Maximus)



The Circus Maximus can simply be described as "Manilla Road's Seventh Star". It was the side project Mark Shelton formed after disbanding Manilla Road. This was going to be labeled as a Mark Shelton solo project but after the stronger contributions from the other two bandmates, the Shark insisted this should be a band rather than a solo artist and named themselves The Circus Maximus. However, when it came to release, Black Dragon Records shoved the name Manilla Road on the album just so they'd get more sales on the record. That didn't do well, though since the album shows this was never intended to be a Manilla Road album. However, you will get a track or two where you can relate it to Mark Shelton's main band. The songs with Shelton on vocals are generally the better songs on the album. The rest don't sound that focused and seem to be contributing to something else rather than this album. This is only recommended for the hardcore fans.

Forbidden Zone has Mark Shelton as the only vocalist in this song and the atmosphere of the song is a big surprise. This sounds like it came from an album that had a mixture of The Courts of Chaos and The Deluge which isn't what you'd expect when the band had no intentions to sound like Manilla Road. The song starts off with a clean guitar intro which is something you'd expect to hear from the 'Road. There's plenty of great guitar work to be found here whether it's the leading riffs or the grand solo halfway. The mid section even takes it time to have a highly audible bass and this is a goldmine. The chorus is definitely one to sing to. It'll make you mystified but it does take you to the darkest place that no-one should dare enter. In conclusion, Forbidden Zone is the ultimate saviour for The Circus Maximus. This may have not been a great side project but at least it had a beautiful and epic song like this.

Monday 17 October 2011

Week 42: Savage Circus - Waltz of the Demon



The artist: Savage Circus was founded by former Blind Guardian drummer Thomas Stauch after his disatisfaction with the new musical direction with Blind Guardian. He formed the band with Iron Savior and Persuader members including Iron Savior guitarist Piet Sielck (who traits all the way back to Kai Hansen with Gentry in 1978) and Persuader vocalist Jens Carlsson. From this band, Thomas Stauch wanted the band to sound like Blind Guardian during the Imaginations From the Other Side days. Sadly, after one album Thomas fell to long term sickness and eventually leave Savage Circus, thus defeating the main reason to even form this band in the first place.

The album: Dreamland Manor is Savage Circus' first album containing many great power metal tracks such as the speed metal opener Evil Eyes, the album's ballad Beyond Reality and slightly more complex tracks with Ghost Story and Waltz of the Demon. With Jens' voice sounding very much like Hansi Kursch and Persuader's musical style being similar to Blind Guardian, this is the ideal album for Thomas Stauch and how he wanted to sound mid era Blind Guardian. This may be a Blnd Guardian rip off but this was formed by a former member of the band so there's every right to immitate their style with this album.

The song: Waltz of the Demon starts off with a dark acoustic intro speaking about solitude and illusions. The song strikes with a heavy riff that can rival with the heaviness Blind Guardian provided in Follow the Blind. The prebridge, bridge and chorus sections shows some multi-layering that Blind Guardian (again) have done with the later albums but it all works here. The true highlight of the song is the section after the second time the prebridge-bridge-chorus part is played. Emil Norberg (of Persuader) and Piet Sielck play along together on their guitars for some impressive solos but it isn't too long when the song gets even heavier at 5 minutes in with a crushing riff and yet more solos. The song required to repeat the prebridge-bridge-chorus one more time to finish things off. Overall, Waltz of the Demon offers different sections of the song that make it worth listening to over and over again and if you're one of those who aren't fond of Blind Guardian's music post-Nightfall, hopefully this makes up for the wind of change in Hansi Kursch's band.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Manilla Road to the World - Part 7: From Beyond (The Courts of Chaos)



The Courts of Chaos is Manilla Road's official last release prior to splitting up in the early 90s. This album continues the thrash metal roots as found on the previous two works but not only that, you'll even hear keyboards from this release which weren't familiar in their territory until this record. The best use of them is for the appropriate named instrumental track Road to Chaos which leads the listener to full of mayhem with Dig Me No Grave, From Beyond and The Books of Skelos). The Courts of Chaos has several bizarre moments to make it stand out very well from Manilla Road's back catalogue.

From Beyond starts off with some very weird acoustic guitars that give off a sci-fi feel and rightfully so. For a song that sings about different dimensions and scientific experiments, there better be a sense of science fiction here or it wouldn't work at all. As a song that has a situation of failed experiments, the song takes the route down to chaos further and further thus Shelton intensifying with the riffs. The first riff has quite a rhythm to it but the second one goes full out thrash as the whole song goes to well, chaos. To finish it off with "No, nothing can save you from beyond" is rather evil but Manilla Road show no mercy! Overall, From Beyond is a fantastic song with some strong riffs and making its way to gradually intensify the music.

Monday 10 October 2011

Week 41: Death - In Human Form



The artist: Death were no doubt an iconic band in heavy metal. They made way for tons of death metal bands and are highly regarded as one of the death metal pioneers along with Morbid Angel and Possessed. Despite the critical acclaim for being a major influence on death metal, the frontman Chuck Schuldiner was always modest about his band and declared it as a metal band and nothing more. Chuck may have disagreed with the death metal label but the rest of the world sure as hell thinks otherwise but not in a way against him. It's very unfortunate that Chuck passed away almost a decade ago and this week's Metal Monday will pay a tribute to the band who did a lot to death metal despite Chuck's modesty.

The album: Individual Thought Patterns is a highly technical album from Death. Technical death metal is described as having more complexity for riffs, rhythms and song structures and Individual Thought Patterns fits that to a T. The amount of riffs this album alone contains is insane. Within 39 minutes, Death have managed to fit in at least 30 riffs in one single album and the longest track out of them all is Mentally Blind clocking in at 4:45. Considering that thought, you know there has to be many changes in song structures throughout the album and to remember every moment in this album as well all the great riffs heard in one single album has to be the best reason to listen to this album many times throughout your life.

The song: Any song from this album can be used to show the insane constant change of paces over a few minutes of music but one grand example is In Human Form. This song starts off with one riff to attack the listener right away but will be far from done. This riff is only an introduction to the song which is immediately dropped just 15 seconds in and it's a riff that could have been used on any other death metal song and stick to it. You're not even given enough time to hear Chuck's extraordinary vocals for death metal. The solo is very, VERY short but you know what, it happens to be very sweet as well. Chuck returns to vocals once again but it's not long until he takes the band to another vocal break and then back to him again. He does pack the second solo together with a lead to prepare yet more barrel rolls for the song. It should be noted that Steve DiGiorgio on bass is crystal clear at all times and you can be sure that he makes some memorable basslines for this song alone.

The lyrics may tell of extraterrestrial going undercover as a human being to fool humanity but actually that was just a metaphor. What he refers to as aliens here are the corrupted human beings that exist in the world. To Chuck, they are not human beings and rather aliens who must be stopped. Overall, In Human Form is a very intense song. The multiple song sections make it feel like Chuck Schuldiner wrote four songs and merged them into one song lasting only or a mere four minutes. For that, there is no padding in the album at all and the pace is so fast that it makes four minutes seem like fourty seconds. That with sinister sounding lyrics, you can bet this is top notch for death metal and this is only one song from the album analysed!

Monday 3 October 2011

Week 40: Angra - Unholy Wars



The artist: Angra are one of the key metal bands from Brazil along with Sepultura (although they don't have as much fame as them). They've released some killer releases such as Temple of Shadows and Rebirth, a personal favourite. The band would take a more progressive approach with the later releases. However, the change of direction wasn't done well when they recorded Aqua. It was a poor record and had a huge lack of energy and passion. Angra need to listen to Rebirth and remember what made them great.

The album: Rebirth is Angra's first album with Eduardo Falaschi on vocals who has remained in the band ever since. Angra provides fast numbers with Nova Era and Unholy Wars, slower melodic tracks with the title track and Heroes of Sand and then there's the more epic and complex works including Running Alone and Unholy Wars. These make Rebirth a versatile album and doesn't make themselves repetititve.

The song: Unholy Wars starts off with sounds of a Brazilian dance which is followed by the band themselves and with Edu Falaschi making some chanting voices. The band then picks up the pace with the guitar riffs which is where we learn the young warrior fighting his way through the war. The music takes some progression routes, particular in the centre where you hear a bass lead. The bass makes itself prominent during the break and actually gives the listener time to sink in with this segment. The solo makes its fine way to show itself up but it's not long until we're back to revisiting the horror of the unholy wars one last time. Unholy Wars is a beautifully complex track from Rebirth and offers a lot for the listener. It's a shame they didn't do anything this magnificent on Aqua.