ROCK/METAL/AOR:
ABOMINABLE IRON SLOTH: S/T CD
With 9 tracks in 27 minutes, here's a band that starts at nuclear intensity - then proceeds to pile it on by the shedload. Right from the start it's a monster of slowly grinding riffing with thunderous electric bass, crunching drums that sound like they'll fall through the floor any minute and some positively electrifying guitar riffs that fill the spectrum, while the shouted but absolutely glorious vocal just tears its throat out on top, the whole marching maelstrom sounding like an unstoppable heavy metal army on the move. Things carry on in very much the same vein for 'Id Rather Die Than Fly', and here the intensity goes up a notch from last time as the vocals roar, the lyrics a little difficult to discern, but that's hardly the point, as the band go into thrash-stoner hyperdrive with this muscular ocean of slow-riffing spewing forth from every pore and just sensational. 'I Am The Carcass' opens with disemboweling bass as the band roar in and the whole steaming cauldron of slow-metal proportions, lays waste to everything in its path, the massive metal beast beating its chest as it chews and spits out any opposition that dare to stand in its way. This is one huge-sounding mutha of modern Sabbath-inspired hardcore stoner doom that is simply awesome from beginning to end.
AMOKI: Prototype 1 CD-EP
The band claim that their music is "different" and "out there" with "a shared love for crunchy guitars, digital noise, punishing bass-lines, hard-hitting beats and soaring vocals" - while this is all true, they've also just described Dundee's very own Hanney, to a tee. But whereas Hanney go for a greater degree of dynamics, this lot provide an intensity that immediately hooks you into a world of storm-force rhythms, massive guitar assaults and dramatic, insistent rhythmic hurricanes. But they don't forget the song-writing, and it's a series of 6 top notch songs that is first and foremost on this CD, played, sung and arranged to perfection, with a top flight production providing the icing on the cake.
Five of the six songs rage with a ferocity that's pure hardcore yet hardcore with a decidedly commercial front, as anthemic song after anthemic song, simply roars into life with a density that's both pure and crushing. The vocals are absolutely brilliant, with tons of harmonies alternating with shouted but sung leads that holler at you with force and demanding you take notice - and you're not about to disagree!! Meanwhile this immense sea of instrumentation from an arsenal of guitars, bass, drums and programming, unleashes a spectacular and structured assault on the senses, but with arrangements that make them positively commercial as you leap about the room to devastating effect. Pointless to single out any track because you simply have to listen to the whole 27 minutes in one fell swoop - and that you will, as it all becomes so addictive, you'll be needing a chemist's prescription and a course of treatment to come off the thing.
This is one incendiary red-hot cauldron of a band with a heady brew that will explode your mind and make you dance, take you over and leave you breathless, all on a debut EP that takes no prisoners, is quality with a capital "Q" and deserves to be heard in heavy rock emporia from one end of the globe to the other. World domination beckons.
AOR: L.A. Attraction CD
Featuring the talents of many great AOR/melodic rock stars such as Tommy Denander, Steve Lukather, Philip Bardowell, Michael Landau and more, this is a 12 song, fifty-three minute slice of pure AOR with strong vocals, lead work from keys, synths and guitars, solid rhythms, anthemic songs and generally solid arrangements that keep you hooked. With four vocalists at it, the lead vocal of Bardowell is of the more husky variety, while the vocals from Rick Riso are more bluesy and wide-ranging. A third vocalist, J Lynn Johnston, gives a more John Waite-esque take on things with the album ending on the only track to feature Dane Donohue on brief vocals, as a more ballad-like song mixes sultry Whitesnake-esque AOR and blues, the piece dominated by this wondrous bluesy guitar workout that just soars. Elsewhere, it's a strong sounding, take on class AOR songs that can't fail to warm the cockles of any AOR fan's heart.
BRIGADE: Magneto CD Single
From the moment I heard the album, this band catapulted themselves ahead of the opposition to become the band most likely to succeed in 2006 and beyond. That this one track encapsulates all of that in just over three minutes, is testament to every facet that makes this band the undeniable second coming of metal. First off, it's a song - a real piggin' song - with a sung vocal that's powerful, heartfelt, yearning, soaring and just tailor-made for rock radio. But it's backed by a powerhouse of metal proportions, but if you listen carefully, you'll hear so much subtlety in there, past the riffing thunder that drives the track, thunder to which you just have to do the whole air guitar bit - there's simply no choice in the matter. The subtlety comes in the form of the backing guitar leads that ring out and act as the icing on the solid and sumptuous cake, the whole brew coming together to make a track that you play and play and play, never tiring of what is an undoubtedly quality slice of songwriting and arranging that achieves everything it sets out to do. Demolishing the likes of other daytime radio friendly acts such as Bullet for My Valentine and FFAF, this lot really make you sit up and take notice - if this got played on daytime Radio, just watch the thousands and thousands of texts that will come in. Make it so!
BRIGADE: Lights CD
Not since the early days of Fony have I so eagerly awaited an album to land on my doormat, as this. On the mat - then on the player. Opening with the awesome riffing and soaring vocals underpinned by strong rhythms that is the opener, 'Magneto', the album immediately starts to pay dividends and justifies your expectations, as the track is taken through a twisting route of nu-metal proportions but one that takes you and it, ever higher, with guitars and vocals ringing out in this gorgeous maelstrom that is cooking to perfection, the song strong the vocal stronger and all positively anthemic - a brilliant way to begin. From here it's directly into the glorious 'Meet Me At My Funeral', this time a more direct fast track to storming emo heaven as the band surges ahead. The lead and multi-tracked vocals are full of rage but seriously well sung, while the track itself suddenly decelerates into a more reflective mode around the two and a half minute mark before then exploding back into the driving mass of wall-to-wall guitars and spiraling rhythms. 'Assemble/Dissemble' opens in a more studied, slower but still strong manner as th vocals cruise above the band, but then this guitar suddenly blazes a trail of wild riffing as the band turn up the heat, and a huge tornado of vocals and band spirals round to immaculate effect, the rest of the song bouncing between the two styles to magnificent effect and every bit as anthemic a slice of immense nu-metal emo as you'd hope to find. The song, like their output so far, doesn't actually have any hooks, but a wealth of stunning chorus and verse sections as the overtly commercial side of rock gets a whole new makeover and you just know that if daytime radio can play FFAF or Bullet FMV, then this would be immense if given similar, and deserved, treatment. 'Made To Wreck' opens with another blazing guitar riff as it, too twists and turns through staccato rhythms and thundering drums, spiraling, chiming guitars and anguished vocals before another salvo of muscular guitar and bass riffs, is fired off and the band once more, take off to the skies, as further guitars soar overhead and the vocals become ever more passionate. Just awesome - as is every single one of the tracks that follows.
It's absolutely safe to say that if you like any one of the songs on this album, you're going to love the album as a whole, and play it long, loud and often. It's hard, it's commercial, it rocks, it's metal, it's emo and it's absolutely brilliantly played, sung and produced. Only March, but if a band in this genre produces a better album than this, then miracles really do exist. Essential? As breathing!! You have to own this album - your musical satisfaction depends on it.
BUDGIE: The BBC Recordings DBLCD
The whole of the 'We Came, We Saw….' CD and about half of the 'Heavier Than Air' CD, all gathered together on a brand new double CD. The joy here is that there are no fillers - it's all cracking vintage Budgie performances. From the early splendours of the four tracks from the BBC Radio One In Concert performance from 1972 that ends with a seriously smoking rendition of 'Docker' through a "comeback" John Peel session that showed they'd lost none of what made them the force in seventies metal that they became, to a couple of BBC recorded live Reading Festival concerts from '80 and '82 that continue the rock with class and quality exploding from every crevice.
FOREVER NEVER: Aporia CD
There is something about the UK bands that play the harder side of the metal market - a quality that really separates them from any other country's output. Every month, a band will come along who are not only THAT good, but rise above the opposition like a bird in flight, and this is one of them. In many ways, it's like a more intelligent thrashy cross between "Black Album"-era Metallica and early FFAF, to name but two that haunted my brain as it ran, but a sign of the sheer quality of writing and arranging that pervades this album. The opening two tracks just begin to tell the story - songs that are driven by heavy but constructive rhythms, something that isn't just one-dimensional thrash, above which this wall of dense twin guitar leads riffs and solos to take you onto an altogether higher plain, while the vocals howl and then sublime but solid vocal harmonies counterpoint the wild rage to jaw-dropping degree, as two fantastic slices of real metal spring into life in songs that are immediately the ort of thing to lead you into the rest of the album. The third track, "Better The Epic", then hammers down the power button even more than before, as this rampaging juggernaut of thrashing metal thunder is unleashed amid a howl of a vocal, a full-throated roar, as the guitars twist and turn all over the place, one minute intense walls of searing heat and then scything soloing that flies like splinters off a buzz-saw all around the mix , the rhythm section laying down such awesome rhythmic force, it's almost crushing. "Never" wraps all this up in a less pacy but no less powerful metal jacket and introduces even more twists and turns as the song rages to hell amid tight instrumental ensemble work, spiraling guitar leads and predominant howling vocal, punctuated by the excellent choral harmonies as the more mid-paced but still crushing might of the band, continues unabated. At this point, you're already on a high with this album, and still have 8 tracks to go. If I tell you that every one of those 8 tracks is every bit as incendiary and attention-grabbing as what you've already heard, you'll see clearly that this band are simply awesome and that this is a must-have album.
FUELBLOODED: Inflict The Inevitable CD
Although playing as a band since 1989, they changed their name in 2002 after several line-up changes and, three years later, comes the debut album. Worth the wait? Ohhhhhhh yess!!
Staking its claim as a raging slab of roaring metal at the thrashier end of the scale right from the start as the band liberate a caged beast of riffing metal power to shredding effect as this monumental sea of guitars, drums and bass, thunders out of the speakers with a clarity that is a hallmark of the superb production that this album exhibits throughout. At a variety of paces that are predominantly thunderous, a monster of metal mayhem assaults your senses, track after track. With vocals that holler, shout, sing and growl, you have to hand it to the band for turning in a set of compositions that really hit the spot, the sort of album that is both immediate but into which you can sink your fangs, good and proper. Although a crowded field in this area of metal, this band have all the necessary writing, playing and singing qualities to jump the queue, somewhat substantially.
GET AMPED: Postcards From Hell CD
Melodic hardcore, anyone? Anthemic emo? You can call it what you like, but what you have to call this album, is a collection of great songs superbly played, arranged, produced and sung. After a brief intro, this band gives us the title track of the album that exhibits more maturity of composition in its three minute or so running time, than many a band get to show on an entire album. First off, it's got stunning vocals in a sort of emo vein but then it really rocks out on a sea of blazing riffs before launching into a multi-tracked chorus then dropping down briefly only to take off in furious fashion once again, the band's guns blazing. The next track, "Reject and Sterilise" is just as anthemic - even moreso - and is a song that really sticks in your head without being overly commercial, as the riffs drive, the rhythms propel and a roaring set of guitars, superbly produced, provides a groove that is set of metal heaven as the vocals just soar over the top, and at slightly less than three minutes, manages to fit more quality into a small package than most bands manage in twice that time. Thereafter, it's song upon anthemic song - most memorable enough to stick inside your head, all so well executed that they carry you inexorably along in a stream of passion, dynamics, harmonies, solid rhythms, commercial emo arrangements and a set of songs that just shine with vocals set on a gloriously harmony-laden and high-flying state of heartfelt indie-rock euphoria. This is a class album, brilliantly delivered and one that dares you not to play it at least once a day without feeling that there's something missing from your life if you don't.
MONSTERWORKS: The Precautionary Principle CD
From farthest New Zealand comes a new hero in the thrash/death/black metal arena, and all I can say is if this is the gladiator, then god help the lions. For this mighty warrior of a band could tear the lions to shreds just by looking at them, as they fight their way through with an arsenal of electric and electrifying intensity that makes guitars, bass and drums as good as any weapons, that they use to lethal and brutal extent. Yes, the album is full of supercharged thrash mayhem, with vocals that really roar and rage, the range here being somewhat different from most as the singer delivers a performance that is not only on fire but sings at both ends of the vocal scale, growls mixing with high-end screams to provide a style that instantly rates it as something different in a seriously full arena of competitors. That the band also then exhibit a good degree of serious guitar soloing in among the immense and mighty songs, also makes this something a bit different and if you combine that with arrangements that are purposeful and driven yet challenge and deliver, then you have an undoubted force to be reckoned with. Every track is a veritable powerhouse of raging muscle and destruction incarnate as this band go for the kill, without a second thought, yet at the heart of it all beats a passion, a way of thinking, a desire to show the world that they have something to offer that conquers all in its path. That they deliver all of this by the shedload and more on an album that is spectacular every time you play it, being testament to the fact that the new hero has arrived - all hail the conquering force.
TY TABOR: Safety + JERRY GASKILL: Come Somewhere DOUBLE CD
Solo from the King's X bassist, singer and composer, and it's absolutely fantastic. It's fantastic because it's not just a heavy rock album, although certain tracks are very powerful. No, it's fantastic because it is song-writing at its absolute finest, the mix of song, delivery and arrangement being a mix of exquisite, heartfelt, strong, muscular, tender and downright awesome. It's the same effect you must have got in the sixties when you heard the Lennon-McCartney partnership when it came into its own, and every track on this album is a rock/rock ballad gem that transcends its genre to become simply a set of songs that are not only totally addictive, but an album that you will derive years of pleasure from hearing. Full of passion, some steaming guitar, bass and drums work, superb vocals, fantastic harmonies, superb arrangements and just the sort of album you cannot fault. It is that good, possibly better.
'Come Somewhere' is the debut solo album from King's X drummer, Jerry Gaskill, and if there's one album in the world that disproves the age-old joke of there being no such thing as a good solo album from a band's drummer, then this is it - and then some. With fifteen songs on here - yes,SONGS!!!! - a vocal that is somewhere between that of Ty Tabor and the band's guitarist Doug Pinnick, and arrangements that rely as much on dynamics as rock strength for their effect, a track such as the excellent electro-acoustic 'Johnny's Song' an ample illustration, this is as consistent an album as they come and every bit the album for anyone into King's X or any of the solo or offshoot albums. Largely gentler sounding but with the same sense of atmosphere that the band's songs provide, this is sublime throughout with solid work from the bass, drums and guitars, wonderful sounding vocals, great harmonies and songs into which you dive and listen to very attentively since the lyrics are well written and worth hearing. There are plenty of tracks that take off into electric guitar heaven and thy provide the contrast that makes this work so well.
SYNTH MUSIC:
LAURENT CALOMNE: Monstres Et Chimeres CD
Fear not, good people, for this is an instrumental album from a French synthesist. Tracks average around the four minute mark, save for 2 at nine and twelve minutes respectively. Taking the shorter tracks first, they have the richly textured symphonic appeal of Vangelis combined with the more commercial appeal of early Jarre but with a much more solid sound than either tended to possess, courtesy of some strong work from sequenced and percussive sounding rhythms. Occasionally, as on the four and a half minute 'La Licorne' the rhythm will subside to a whisper as string synths fill the air, rippling piano chords echo around the mix as synth choruses and deep rivers of flowing bass paint a picture that is both substantial yet cosmic. Throughout these vari-paced tracks, melodies dominate and anyone liking their synth music on the more sedate side, would do well to check this out. Of the two longer tracks, the nine minute 'Les Nerides' spends the first three minutes very much in Vangelis mode before suddenly shifting to a more symphonic sounding Edgar Froese kind of thing as sequenced rhythms bound along under a series of symphonic synth melodies and leads, the addition of solid sounding drums giving extra strength to a track that now sounds like it came out of the 'Ages' album, as much as anything. Just short of eight minutes, the mood becomes slightly sparser as the slowly flowing rhythms take over and push the lead tune to the distance as the whole thing decelerates and stops. The twelve minute 'Petite Suite Chimerique' goes down a much more string-laden, almost classical-cosmic route, with some strong , slowly flowing melodies, rich sounding backdrops, a distant deep bass undercurrent, and a track that is manna from heaven for those who like their synth music on the symphonic side. Overall, a fine album if this is your sort of thing.
MARK JENKINS: Space Dreams CD
A collection of 14 tracks over just under an hour and, true to the title, the pace is languid, the mood atmospheric and the compositions full of movement, the feeling is of wide-open spaces and vast galaxies. Some tracks reminded me of the cosmic-y bits that Tangerine Dream used to do mid-tracks or between tracks, live in concert, when the sequencers and rhythms had subsided. But the flavour that runs throughoutwhat is a quality album, is that of cosmic electronic music at a most soothing, serene and and multi-layered level.
ROBERT RICH: Electric Ladder CD
New studio album featuring 7 tracks over fifty five minutes and it's essentially space music with a rhythmic presence. The opening track, 'Electric Ladder', features an ever shifting sea of soundscapes set to a cyclical electronic rhythm that's got definite shades of seventies Riley/Glass to it, although a lot more sedate than that implies. The rhythm itself is made up of electronic and percussive layers, while the presence of a deep resonant synth bass thunders around the bottom of the mix and all sorts of guitar and synth textures make their appearance on top and around this central core. Towards the end of the track the rhythms die away to leave a gorgeous se of space synth drifts to see things out around the ten and a half minute point. For 'Shadowline' another rhythm from sequencer-styled synths starts off the piece as the string synths, drifting space-tronics and deep bass all emerge and unwind, the icing on the cake coming from what sounds like a sliding, gliding Gong-like glissando guitar line that rises and soars through the heart of the track as it travels its determined but sedate way forward, all manner of gorgeous layers added to its near nine minutes of splendour. More cyclical rhythms begin 'Poppy Fields' only here things are more subdued, with the rhythmic presence more buried as the main soundscapes consist of violin-like lead synths, which seem to turn into more sax-like synths as the piece continues, miles of electronic drifts, more deep bass and quite a busy panorama of synths that stretch out in front. The track has a very haunting quality to it with lots of different textures to keep your attention firmly focused for its seven minute running time. The nine minute 'Sky Tunnel' has a seriously strong, choppy, cyclical electro-percussive sequencer rhythm at its forefront, while below it the bass bongs along in subdued thunder fashion, while overhead, the massed ranks of wind-like synths and even more rhythmic layers, serve to propel the track purposefully forward yet still retaining the necessary atmosphere that ensures you remain transfixed. 'Concentric' is more relaxed in every way - still rhythmic, but with this slight tinge of Far East and sinuous flute leads adding to the undulating rhythms and soaring synth backdrops. 'Aquifer' is a virtually rhythm-free slice of slowly drifting, multi-layered space music which sails unbroken into 'Never Alone' to form a continuous twelve minutes of cosmic delight. Overall, a fine album that marries relaxing cosmic synths with well arranged rhythms, the whole thing possessing structure and a sense of purpose.
V/A: Close Encounters Of Electronic Music CD
It was only a matter of time before this happened - luckily, it's come out just fine!!
What am I on about? The fact that a bunch of French bands has gone and done their "let's sound like Tangerine Dream' "Berlin School" bit. With 6 tracks, each around ten minutes long, from 6 artists of which I've only ever heard of 1 (B. Loreau), it's a really excellent album from start to finish - solid, constructive, cohesive, not the "same old thing" and really a gem of an album. It opens with Awen doing 'Witche's Trance' and is underpinned by one of those brilliant, chunky solid sequencer rhythms that you "Berlin School" people just can't get enough of, as the track rolls along in strong-sounding, multi-layered, rhythmic and soundscaping mode. The first five minutes of the ten minute 'System Merge Part 1' from Nightbirds is a sequencer-lover's dream track as this mighty, rolling, cyclical sea of sequencers turns your knees to jelly as they drive forward, and around three and a half minutes into the track being joined by a huge-sounding string synth expanse that gradually spreads itself across the background. Then all this dies away to leave the most fantastic sea of cosmic soundscaping that is just heaven itself as the early seventies are conjured in layers of assorted synthscapes to wondrous effect. Loreau's ten minute 'La Dixieme Dune' provides a melodic respite, coming across as a mix of 'X'-era Klaus Schulze & Jean-Philippe Rykiel with some warm sequenced synth rhythms, orchestral sounding string synth backdrops, ethereal floating melodies and deep rivers of bass to wrap it all up, a track that just gets mightier and more addictive with every play. The following three tracks all cover different territory from the hugely powerful, almost industrial sounding, electronic soundscapes and throbbing electronic rhythms and sequenced beats of C Richet, prefaced by the more early seventies Kraut synth textures and layers of O. Briand's 'Libourne Dream's' and finally, the ten minute return to sequencer drive, sequencer cascades and rich melody lines that is the romping 'Fairway/Seabirds' from JC Allier. Overall, a meaty, solid substantial, varied and consistent monster of an album that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish, as I hope you will, too.
