Instead of just listing my top 20 albums of 2001, I’m going to list all the 2001 albums I’ve bought up until now. It turns out I bought 47 CDs from 2001 (which is down from previous years) and if forced to rank them in some order, this is how I’d do it.

I’m starting with my least favorite albums at the top, and will continue until I get to my most favorite albums at the bottom. So if you just want to hear about the albums I really like (which is probably the more useful endeavor), feel free to scroll straight to the end. As usual, there’s nothing set-in-stone about this list, and if you asked me to remake the list today, the same album could easily differ by five places or more. I wrote some comments about each album, but they generally aren’t very descriptive in nature; they’re more in the form of comparisons to other works, or simply semi-related ramblings that popped into my head. So if you have any questions about any of the bands/albums, feel free to ask!

Ok, on with it!

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First, the boring statistics.

This year I saw thirteen shows. That includes two two-day festivals (ProgPower USA and Milwaukee Metalfest). That’s considerably more than the seven shows I saw in 2000, but doesn’t reach my sixteen-show record in 1999.

In all those shows, I saw 39 different bands (44 performances in all). Fifteen of those bands were from foreign countries, including Sweden (5), Norway (3), Germany (2), Finland, Portugal, Italy, England, and Colombia (1 each). Also, most of these shows were in venues around Chicago, USA.

Now the short recaps. Overall, I don’t remember too many mind-blowing performances, instead, the year was characterized by a large number of “very good” sets.

ProgPower USA (2/23-2/24): Hard to believe this show was in 2001, isn’t it? It was a good show all-around, although I’m not head-over-heels in love with any of the bands I saw. Pain of Salvation was the most impressive, and it was nice to be able to see “big names” like Symphony X and Evergrey.

Amorphis/Opeth at House of Blues (4/12): Opeth was great, although their set didn’t measure up to their first American show at the Milwaukee Metalfest the year before. Amorphis is worth seeing just because they’re Amorphis, but I don’t think they’ll ever be known as a great live band.

Nevermore/Opeth/Angel Dust at Hard Rock Cafe (4/26): Second show for Opeth in downtown Chicago in two weeks, and like the first one, the audience thought they should have been the headliners. Angel Dust was a nice addition, great presence and very heavy. Nevermore was Nevermore. Very good as always, with the “as always” being the only problem.

Savatage/Fates Warning at House of Blues (5/6): An unexpected pairing. Savatage was incredible, just as good as the first time I’d seen them, three years before, with both shows ranking near the top of my all-time list. I’m not much of a FW fan, so their set has pretty much faded from my memory.

Mayhem/The Chasm/Disinter at Riley’s Rockhouse (7/1): Mayhem put on a hell of a show, and Maniac didn’t even cut himself, beyond driving barbed wire into his arm. Hellhammer is an amazing drummer, Blasphemer is very innovative guitar player, Maniac is very bizarre presence, especially up close, Necrobutcher was just having a hell of a lot of fun. Hard to believe that they were the worst thing I could imagine when seeing them three years previously at the Metalfest. The opening bands were blah, although Disinter played an At the Gates cover, I believe.

Aterciopelados (and some other bands) at Aragon Ballroom (7/6): A large “Rock en Espanol” concert, which I attended just to see Aterciopelados. They gave a very entertaining performance, but the best part was being a 6’4″ white guy standing out of a sea of Hispanic people. The crowd gets into the show just as much as a metal crowd, but in a completely different way.

G3 at Riviera Theater (7/10): My brother convinced me to go to this one with him. I guess it wasn’t too bad, but I don’t need to see another one. I liked Petrucci the most by far, Satriani was pretty good, and Vai just made me giggle.

Estradasphere/Tubring at The Note (7/27): Fourth show of the month, and Estradasphere probably put on the best performance I saw the whole year. Simply an amazing group of players, and a hell of a lot of fun too. Tubring was a great opener as well.

Milwaukee Metalfest (8/10-8/11): Overall it was a pretty good fest, I would rate three of the performances “very good” or better (Anathema, Einherjer, and Amon Amarth), which is more than most Metalfests. Other bands I watched that didn’t suck were Darkane, Helstar, Steel Prophet, Grey Skies Fallen, Jag Panzer, Maudlin of the Well, November’s Doom, Primal Fear, Rain Fell Within, and Soilwork.

Savatage/Nevermore at Riley’s Rockhouse (9/18): Very strange to see Savatage downgrading to a venue like Riley’s. I’m sure they had more guitars in there than they’d ever had at any time. However, although the performance was good, for some reason it didn’t come near the two previous times I’d seen them. It’s still quite amazing though how “Morphine Child” is 150 times heavier live than on CD. For Nevermore, see above.

Megadeth/Iced Earth at Midway Theater, Rockford (11/1): Iced Earth blew me away as always, even with their short opening set. Megadeth was pretty disappointing, especially since nearly every other review I’d seen from the tour said how great they were. I’m still not sure if it was their performance or if it’s just me.

Megadeth/Iced Earth at Kitt’s Korner, Cross Plains, WI (11/9): Iced Earth blew me away as always, even with their short opening set. I was right up at the front for their set, and I was sqeezed like I hadn’t been squeezed since I saw Iced Earth in Athens. So obviously people were really into them and hopefully they made a lot of new fans. I actually didn’t stick around to watch Megadeth this time.

Moonspell/Lacuna Coil/November’s Doom/Avidost: Rockhouse USA (12/13): An extremely well-balanced show and while none of the performances would reach the top of my all-time list, it was easily the best string of four bands I’ve ever seen playing together (ok, second best string, I forgot about Sentenced/Demons & Wizards/Dark Tranquillity/Iron Maiden). And that’s far more enjoyable than seeing one great band with three shit openers.

I believe Marduk/Amon Amarth is on the table for this month, so it looks like 2002 will be getting off to a good start soon…

Anathema – A Fine Day to Exit: At first listen, I recognized the first track (“Pressure”) from the Milwaukee Metalfest; it’s an excellent song, and the rest of the album sounded pretty blah compared to it. After a few more listens, I really started to like the final track (A Temporary Peace) as well, making for an album of blah sandwiched between two great songs. But I kept listening, and the greatness of the bookends bled in towards the middle, and now I think the whole thing is a very fine album. Definitely very relaxed and very un-metal, the only uptempo and heavy song is really more punk than metal. It probably won’t top Judgement, but it makes an extremely strong set of three consecutive albums from Anathema.

Evereve – E-Mania: Finally got my hands on this Massacre Records title. It’s fairly similar to their previous album (Regret), which means it’s again quite a bit different than their first two. But I think it’s a definite improvement over Regret. In a nutshell, it’s rather heavy yet danceable goth-metal. It’s mainly “goth” just because of the clean, low-to-midrange vocals, which come from a “new” singer (the band’s keyboard player and founding member) who sounds remarkably similar to their previous singer. Musically, it’s quite a bit more ambitious than the “goth” label suggests. Not necessarily in structure, but in instrumental flavor. Every instrument plays an important role, with keyboards and guitars especially adding constant blasts of color into the basic mix, blasts of ever-changing tone and style. Drumming is also unexpectedly complex, and the bass provides a fat bottom end. I’d say if you’re curious what Samael’s Eternal might sound like with different vocals, this is for you.

Sleepless – Winds Blow Higher: Here’s a band from Israel, but they don’t sound like Orphaned Land, and they aren’t even really metal. They’re definitely dark though, and The End’s “Tiamat, Ulver, and Pink Floyd” comparison is pretty much dead on. That would be Perdition City-era Ulver, in case you’re wondering. However, there’s a more direct, if much more obscure comparison: the band is surprisingly similar to Maudlin of the Well, if you take out all their heavy parts. The arrangements are generally very sparse, but surprisingly musical. And they manage to pack in a lot of different instrumentation when you aren’t looking. One of the main highlights is a lot of lead bass playing, much of it fretless. There isn’t a lot of guitar, but there is some sax, flute, classical guitar, and a good bit of synth electronics, although the album maintains a very organic feel. There are a couple parts where the music suddenly becomes heavier, and even though it’s still somewhat subdued, the juxtaposition makes the effect very intense. Cool stuff.

Borknagar – Empiricism: It’s so crazy how this band started off as a “supergroup”, and now, with completely new members from it’s original days, it’s probably the most “super” metal band ever. Look at all the bands just one degree away: Vintersorg, Otyg, Havayoth, Solefald, Emperor, Satyricon, Spiral Architect, Enslavement of Beauty, Dodheimsgard, and probably some more I’m forgetting. Anyway, Borknagar continue their tradition of putting one amazing song on each album that greatly overshadows all the rest. Previously they were “The Dawn of the End”, “Ad Noctum”, and “The Presence is Ominous”; this time it’s “Genesis Torn”. However, this time the shadow cast might not be as dark as before. The rest of the album seems filled with pretty good songs, the music is probably the most ambitious they’ve done so far, the sound is considerably more open than Quintessence, and I have a hard time deciding which of Vintersorg’s vocal styles (clean or growled) are more impressive. So that’s good.

I ordered 7 CDs from The End Records last Wednesday, got them on Friday.
They were out of stock on one of them (Dusk), but as usual their service
was top-notch. 6 CDs for $60. I imagine you could pay that much for
only three CDs at a mall store, with the only difference being the mall
store CDs wouldn’t be nearly as cool.

Misanthrope – Immortal Misanthrope: Yeah! With their fifth album,
it seems like Misanthrope has continued with their streak of improving
with every album. And no, their first album doesn’t suck. Anyway, it
continues pretty much where their last album (Libertine Humiliations)
left off: Avant-garde melodic death metal, albeit less avant-garde than
in their early days but still very unique. Think Dark Tranquillity’s
“Haven” with twice the speed, twice the intensity, four times the synths,
and a bit more showmanship. Would have most likely been near the top
of my “best of 2000” list if I had gotten it in 2000.

Odes of Ecstasy – Deceitful Melody: Somewhat different than what I was
expecting, since dweeb kept describing it as “festive”. Thus I was thinking
it would be something pretty happy, but it’s really mostly in line
with their first album, just maybe a bit more developed. Basically it’s
beauty & the beast metal, with a good emphasis on “metal” rather than
“goth”, which is how I like it. I also like how they sneak in a creepy
song near the end of the album like they did on their first one.

Love History – Anasazi: A Czech band, which, as far as I can tell,
automatically makes them good. They have the characteristic sound that
all Czech bands I’ve heard seem to have; it’s very hard to describe,
but I really like it. All types of singing (male, female, growls),
a solid metal base, and things just seem to be written and played more
creatively than most bands. But it’s not creativity just to be different,
it seems like their natural way of writing music. Cross Root’s The
Book with Forgotten Silence’s Senyaan, and you’ll get something
pretty close to Anasazi.

Enid – Abschiedsreigen: From The End’s description and the sound clip,
I was expecting something similar to Angizia: piano/keyboard-led classically
influenced music with a Germanic touch. It’s that, but more. Unlike
Angizia, it gets both fast and heavy, sometimes sounding something like
a cross between Haggard and Dimmu Borgir (ok, maybe that’s a stretch).
Very interesting.

Let Me Dream – Greyscales: The End called them “Uptempo death rock with
growly and clean vocals” which sounded good to me, and Dark Symphonies
saying the album was a must for Vintersorg/Havayoth fans sealed it for
me. It doesn’t really sound like Vintersorg or Havayoth; rather, it falls
somewhere in between. It’s covered with Havayoth-like synths, has a
mix of black, rough-sung, and Viking-style vocals, and pretty much a
solid metal base. It does sound Finnish, since it’s Finnish.

Dawnbringer – Catharsis Instinct: American band playing melodic death
metal, perhaps with the goal of sounding Swedish, but thankfully since
they aren’t Swedish, they’re unsuccessful at that. If they had a clean
singer they might be called an American power metal band (like Iced Earth,
Nevermore), but their growler, even though he’s very low in the mix,
takes them out of that category. I think all of the interesting and
creative riffs will help this one stand out from the pack a bit.

==========

Now, the CDs I got from Napster. I figured it out how to get it running
at work this week, so it was my first time actually trying it out. I
downloaded 3 albums, and I fully intend to buy at least two of them.
Since my players at home and work can read CD-RWs, it makes it pretty
nice because I can just burn a temporary copy until I buy the real thing,
or just erase it if I don’t like it. The only reason I bothered to
get these albums is because it’s easier than it is to get a hold of the
real versions. Since I don’t have golden ears, I can’t really tell the
difference between high-quality mp3s burned to CD and real CDs, and thus, I
would gladly just pay the record companies to download the songs from them.
Unfortunately, there’s no one ready to accept my money yet, so I’ll have
to eventually pay them the old-fashioned way. Obviously I realize not
everyone feels the same way as I do, which is why Napster is such a big
problem. Anyway, it was interesting to actually try out Napster finally.
Here’s what I got:

Skyclad – Folkemon: This one grabbed me immediately, unlike the last two
Skyclad albums (which have never completely grabbed me). At first I
thought it must be a whole lot different than Vintage Whine, but upon
going back to VW, I realized it’s pretty similar. The difference
seems to be in the energy, which is just bursting out of Folkemon. I’d
say it combines the style and heaviness of Silent Whales… with the
attitude and vibe of Oui Avant Garde a Chance. It might become
one of my favorite Skyclad albums.

Helloween – The Dark Ride: Yet another winner from Helloween. As usual,
they make steps forward and do something different, while still hanging
on to bits of what they’ve done before. Cool atmosphere, and it’s
Deris’s least-annoying performance yet, as he uses a lot of his lower
range and does a lot of cool whispering.

Opeth – Blackwater Park: Ok, I’ve only listened to it once, which is a
stupid time to say anything about an Opeth album, but I’ll say something
anyway. So far it’s pretty much what I expected. Which is something not
too exciting, and something that sounds very familiar. Sure, it’s well
played and well produced, but I don’t really hear anything significantly
different than what they’ve done on their last two albums. The change
between Morningrise and My Arms, Your Hearse was huge, but since then
it seems like they’ve just been doing the same thing. What I would love
to hear is where Opeth would go next if they were to make another stylistic
change similar in magnitude to their first one. But the band seems happy
treading water, or maybe that’s just what happens when you quickly churn out
album after album. I guess if you loved Still Life, you’ll love this too.
Me, I’ll give it plenty more chances to grow on me, but I think at its best
it can only stand as the most refined variation on a theme rather than an
outright masterpiece like Morningrise.

Top Ten albums:

o Mayhem – Grand Declaration of War
The world’s most notorious black metal band has historically also been the most overhyped, since their musical output has never been as big of a draw as their non-musical affairs. Apparently Mayhem was sick of this situation, so they decided to do the impossible: create an album that would instantly make everyone forget about their past and say “Holy crap, these guys can play!” It’s still black metal, but taken in an entirely new direction (quite a difficult task in today’s crowded post-black metal scene). Production is perfectly clear and powerful, but still cold and grim. Riffs and rhythms are insanely complex and precise, but still create a feeling of chaos. Drums are incessantly creative and intricate, but still blast away with blackened fury. Vocals are sung and spoken, but still the tortured screams remain. Lyrics are intelligent and even form a concept, but still present black metal ideals. Simply one of the most progressive (in both senses of the word) and surprising releases this year. Too bad not enough people understood this achievement.

o Iron Maiden – Brave New World
Even through the much-maligned Blaze years (which produced some of my favorite Maiden material), Iron Maiden always knew how to write songs that would catch my interest. Things are no different with this one. Not every song is pure genius, but it never is with a Maiden album, and it doesn’t have to be. The return of Bruce and Adrian was fairly inconsequential for me from a musical standpoint; they’re plenty good but I don’t feel anything was lacking without them. This is still Steve Harris’s band, and he’s still doing things the way he wants them done. “The Thin Line Between Love and Hate” is easily my favorite song of the year.

o Einherjer – Norwegian Native Art
Many Einherjer fans didn’t much like their second album “Odin Owns Ye All” (which I loved) because it was “too happy” or not heavy enough. Well, Einherjer must have listened, since they made their most aggressive and in-your-face album yet. It’s still epic Viking metal at the core; the biggest changes are more due to the production than the songwriting. The drums are heavier, faster, and more complex. The guitars have much more bite, but are also now playing some pretty proggy riffs. Vocals are also darker, and a range of styles is present, from black rasps to clean singing; however, the majority of the vocals are halfway between the two. The keyboards are pretty unique and play an important role in creating melodies. The cover features the band looking all wet, dirty, and really pissed, and that sets the tone for the album perfectly. Unfortunately this didn’t see wide distribution, so not nearly enough people have heard it.

o Primordial – Spirit the Earth Aflame
I didn’t much like the last Primordial album (“A Journey’s End”), as it was a bit too dreary and depressing for my tastes. Apparently Primordial didn’t like it all that much either, since they returned with a mighty and epic slab of burning and smoldering metal. Everything about this album suggests “power”, and when listening to it it’s hard not to become suffused with that power. I don’t mean the kind of power that makes you want to jump around; rather, it’s a power that makes you stand and raise your arms spread wide in a defiant challenge to anyone who may oppose you (like your mother telling you to turn your stereo down, for example). I’ve always found this band somewhat similar to Borknagar, with the pseudo-black riffing style, mix of vocal styles, and their ability to give a slight folk-ish flavor to things without going overboard or using non-standard instruments. On this album, all that exists, but these Irishmen have also managed to capture a glowing fire that’s quite a contrast to the iciness of their Scandinavian counterparts.

o Ayreon – The Dream Sequencer
In my estimation, people I know (especially those into more extreme metal) have greatly preferred this half of the “Universal Migrator” 2-CD set. That was a bit unexpected as it’s the other one that’s supposed to be “metal”, and “metal” is what’s supposed to be good. Well, this proves that a lot of people find songs more important than musical style and big names, which is pretty nice to know. Anyway, there are just some fantastic songs on here. “My House on Mars” with Johan Edlund is the highlight for me, but there’s plenty of other great ones (“One Small Step”, “Dragon on the Sea”, “And the Druids Turn to Stone”) to keep my interest high for the whole thing. In contrast to the “metal” CD, I think the songs here just have a lot more room to breathe, and thus to show off their melodies as well as the skill and character of their vocalists. And while the lyrics/story may be cheesy as all hell, listening to the songs makes me want to read the lyrics, which is very rare for me these days.

o Source of Tide – Ruins of Beauty
This one is hard to describe. Since it comes from Norway and has some instances of grim vocals, I tend to associate it with black metal, but it’s really not. It’s basically symphonic heavy metal, with a lot of creative songwriting and originality to it. I originally called it “gay beauty and the beast metal”, since it’s somewhat similar to a band like Tristania, but uses theatrical, operatic male vocals to carry the majority of the melodies instead of the now-expected female vocalist. Anyway, the point is, it’s good enough to be in my top 10 of 2000, and it would make a good starting point for someone starting to get into more extreme and darker music.

o In the Woods… – Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage
This is a strange CD to have in a top 10 list since it’s not an album of new material. It’s a collection of ITW…’s three 7-inches (3×7, get it?), which were recorded over the course of their soon-to-be-ended career. “Omnio”, their second release, remains their masterpiece, but since this release culls material from all portions of their history, it has plenty of moments of brilliance on its own. Three of the songs are covers, but I wouldn’t know it if I didn’t read the liner notes, since everything fits so well together as an album. At this point, I suppose they pretty much play psychadelic prog-rock, but given their black metal background, I always hear it as something more than that.

o Borknagar – Quintessence
Once promoted as a black metal “supergroup”, Borknagar has proven over the course of four albums that they’re much more than just a flash-in-the-pan thrown together by a greedy record company. Of course, they’re still a supergroup of sorts (not really black metal), although the members are almost completely different. This is their finest release yet. The characteristic Borknagar guitar sound still exists, but by now they’ve completely abandoned the folky influences of “The Olden Domain”, and have gone for a more dense and somewhat futuristic vibe. The impassable wall of guitars on this CD may take some getting used to, but in the meantime you can focus on the amazingly creative multi-multi-tracked (clean and grim) vocals of ICS Vortex, and the Solefald-ian keyboards brought in by Lazare.

o Enslaved – Mardraum
I’ve never been able to develop an interest in Enslaved before this album, mostly due to their frequent use of extended blast beats. On this album they toned the blast beats down a bit, but in all other respects, unleashed a monster. This is more death or heavy metal than it is black metal, although it’s still quite epic, and contains a lot of excellent clean vocal passages. There is also a lot of psychadelic guitar noodling and soloing effortlessly interspersed with jackhammer riffs. In a day when a lot of metal songwriting consists more of rearranging old riffs than creating new ones, there are a surprising number of times on this album where I say “where’d they come up with THAT?!?” This one could easily move up in the list, but I’ve only gotten it recently so I don’t want to rate it too high just yet.

o Nightingale – I
Dan Swano’s dark rock project returns once again with an album significantly different than the previous one. The songs here are much more direct and focused than they were on the darker “The Closing Chronicles”. In some ways, that’s a disappointment, but some of the songs are so good that the disappointment is easily forgotten. Excellent vocals throughout, and excellent melodies. And that’s about all there is to say about an album like this.

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I left off any bands I happened to see but didn’t really enjoy, and five of the bands listed I saw at Gods of Metal in Italy, but that still leaves 23 sets from quality mid- to big-name metal bands. And 14 were from Europe.

Opeth: Exceeded my expectations (Milwaukee Metalfest)

Anathema: Amazing emotional performance, exceed my expectations by about 10 times. (Metalfest)

Dark Tranquillity: Highlight of the Gods of Metal fest, Stanne just rules.

Iron Maiden: Their show in Chicago wasn’t nearly as cool as their one in Italy, but it’s Maiden, so both shows still rank near the top of the list.

Arch Enemy: 2 shows in one weekend, blew headliners Nevermore away both times.

Immortal: Great stage presence from three guys, and I’m pretty sure guitarist Abbath is really Jon Schaffer in corpsepaint.

Mayhem: Blood, corpsepaint, and black metal. Plus, they can play! (Metalfest)

Demons & Wizards: Hansi and Jon in Italy, yeah that’s fun.

In Flames: Their music might be a bit stagnant, but it’s still fun to hear at a show.

Moonspell: What a good-looking band.

The Kovenant: Cool show, not enough of a crowd there though, and not enough songs.

Sentenced: One band I would have rather seen on a small stage rather than at Gods of Metal

Maudlin of the Well: Ten people on stage, it must be good!

Shadows Fall: Good live band, I should probably get their CD.

Children of Bodom: Like In Flames, not the most exciting music on disc, but it’s good for banging your head to.

Amorphis: Cool stuff, maybe a little too laid back though.

Dream Theater: would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t so far back in the crowd.

Nevermore: Always decent, never mind-blowing. Think I’ve seen them too many times.

Rain Fell Within: hooray for skinny chicks!

Garden of Shadows: hooray for guitar-playing chicks!

Edguy: The only Euro-power-metal band I’ve ever seen.

Queensryche: just seemed soulless.

Halford: Eh?

Ok, I think I got ’em all. If I’m able to see this many good bands next year, I’ll be quite happy.

This was the third Milwaukee Metalfest I have attended. For many years, the show has been somewhat of a joke that I’ve felt has never lived up to its potential. While there is always a huge number of bands, the percentage of bands worth seeing is rather low. There also have been chronic difficulties with the advertised bands not appearing for various reasons, and the schedules are always a bit chaotic. The old venue, the Rave/Eagle’s Ballroom, was quite unsuitable for a fest like this, and sound quality was generally poor. Adding wrestlers and porn stars didn’t really help too much. Still, it has always been worth going to, simply for the “event”.

This year, however, many of those complaints I had were eliminated or greatly reduced. Last year’s confusing, eleventh hour change of venue from the Rave to the Milwaukee Auditorium is the best thing that could have happened to the fest. It stayed there this year, and the band list remained surprisingly consistent leading up to the show. The venue is huge, air-conditioned, has plenty of space to sit down, and the sound quality was amazingly good for the most part. Although there were still plenty of useless bands (no less than five bands with the word “flesh” in their names), there was a great pool of international talent as well as a nice selection of up-and-coming American bands. The four stages generally did a pretty good job of sticking to their schedules, and creative scheduling put “headliners” on at different times of the day to avoid major conflicts. Even the wrestling and the porn star seemed to be a little less annoying than last year.

Now, on to the bands. As usual, I actually saw only of the small percentage of the bands performing at the Metalfest. I was there for only about 16 hours of the 27 hour fest, so that eliminates a lot of bands right there. And I’ve never really been one to run around to as many bands I can see, as listening to brutal death metal band after brutal death metal band can quickly dull your senses. It’s really quite easy to fall asleep there with bands blasting in your face; I took a little nap during Destruction’s set.

This year, the three biggest highlights for me were Opeth, Anathema, and Mayhem, in that order. Some thoughts on each, as well as the other bands I saw:

Opeth – Although Opeth is one of my favorite bands, and Morningrise is my favorite album, I wasn’t expecting too much from them, since I knew they didn’t have too much live experience, and I didn’t think their music would translate too well to a live environment, particularly the Metalfest’s live environment of shitty sound and bad lighting. Well, it’s rare for me to admit being wrong, but damn, what a dumbass I was, because they totally ruled. Sound was just about perfect, and they really rocked the place. Their execution wasn’t flawless, but some of their start/stop/guitar explosions were just awesome. It was fun watching the guitar interplay and seeing who does what. They played Moonlapse Vertigo, Forest of October, Advent, White Cluster, and Demon of the Fall, in that order. Forest of October and Advent were the obvious highlights for me, and even though My Arms, Your Hearse is my least favorite Opeth album, Demon of the Fall absolutely crushes, and was a great way to end the show. Mikael’s clean vocals weren’t quite as perfect as they are on record, but his growls were great, and it showed that his shift to a lower growl is a style choice rather than a physical change. Also, hearing the new stuff back-to-back with the old stuff really highlights how much the band has changed musically. Their stage presence was nothing special, but Mikael walking out and simply saying “Hi, we’re Opeth” got a tremendous response and chant from the crowd. One of the best sets from a band I’ve seen in a long time.

Anathema – I own the two latest Anathema albums, and I think they’re fine pieces of work, but the band has always remained only semi-interesting to me. No longer. Seeing them perform live totally ignited my interest in the band, and now I wonder why I never noticed how great they are before. Upon arriving home I read a whole bunch of interviews and album reviews and definitely plan on getting some of their other releases. I haven’t done anything that “fanboy”-ish in a long time. So what was the powerful force that converted me? Simply their undeniable emotional presence and their uncanny ability to create a nearly tangible two-way connection between the audience and the band. The focal point of the band is singer/guitarist Vincent Cavanaugh, and while it’s difficult to compare the personal, emotional Anathema to other metal bands, I think Vincent is probably the best frontman I’ve ever seen. Anyone who doubts that Anathema is still a “metal” band only needs to see Vincent’s left hand shaking violently behind his fretboard before grabbing hold and launching into a powerful riff. His brother Danny is no slouch either, pouring his soul into each piercing guitar lead. Seeing Lector (ex-Cradle of Filth) on stage with them playing keyboards was just an added bonus. And what other band besides Anathema would be drinking bottles of wine and champagne on stage? They played two songs from Judgement (“Deep” and “One Last Goodbye”, the latter of which was the obvious highlight of the show), “Fragile Dreams” from Alternative 4, and then the rest were songs I didn’t know from their other albums. At the end of the show they found out they had 10 extra minutes to play, so they had a little conference and played Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and then bashed through the Misfits’s “Halloween” with bassist Dave Pybus on vocals to close things. If I had been familiar with their older material, I’m sure it would have been my favorite set of the fest. From seeing other opinions around here, it seems like they had a similar effect on everyone.

Mayhem – I’ve always thought Mayhem was pretty much crap until I got their latest album, A Grand Declaration of War, which is a great concept album of well-produced, adventurous, and progressive post-black metal. I watched Mayhem’s set two years ago at the Metalfest just so I could say that I’d seen them, and it was just terrible, one huge mess of random noise. They were about a million times better this year. They still managed to sneak in all of their, um, “classics” amidst cuts from the new album, including “Chainsaw Gutsfuck”, “Under a Freezing Moon”, and “Pure Fucking Armageddon”, but even they sounded decent enough with the good sound and top-notch playing of the band. Their new stuff was great. Super-tall singer Maniac was the only one who was really corpsepainted up, and halfway through the set he lived up to his name by slicing open his left forearm with a large knife. Nothing like a little blood and black metal! Who knows, if Mayhem keeps going like this, someday people might not even remember who Euronymous and Dead were.

Children of Bodom – I ran down to catch their set already in progress right after Anathema finished. Now THAT’S quite a contrast. Once again the sound was amazingly good, and I could actually hear all six of the instruments clearly. The band was pretty intense, and was playing great, even the seemingly 12-year old keyboard player. Alexi strangely reminded me of Larry Tarnowski of Iced Earth. The band and the crowd appeared to be having a great time. “Children of Bodom” was the highlight for me, although all the songs sounded great.

Maudlin of the Well – I saw this strange and unique band with 10 members after watching Hate Eternal’s 3-man approach to death metal. Once again, quite a contrast, and a bit too much of a contrast for many in the room. Definitely not for me though, as Maudlin’s album rules and they did an admirable job reproducing it live. I’m really glad that they had the balls to play their wussiest song, “Blight of River Systems”, since it totally rules, both on record and live. Female vocals were unfortunately a bit quiet, but they’ve got this big lead guitarist dude who just nails that shit. Three songs doesn’t sound like too much, but they did a good job with the time they had.

Rain Fell Within – These guys ‘opened’ for Anathema (and were obviously quite pleased about that). They did a nice job, and like Maudlin, only managed to make it through three rather lengthy songs. I figured super-skinny singer/keyboardist Dawn would have a hard time reproducing her vocal lines live, but she seemed to be dead-on as far as I could tell. Interestingly, they had another female singer to do backups, harmonies, and tradeoffs with Dawn, and I thought that worked out really well. It was also fun watching one of their guitar players who appeared to be a total posing rock star.

Garden of Shadows – This is an American melodic death metal band who I really wanted to see. They’re somewhat similar to Rain Fell Within, except with death growls, and the female in the band plays guitar, believe it or not. They were scheduled for really early on the first day, so I thought I’d miss them, but somehow they ended up with a slot later on the second day. They only managed to play two songs, neither of which was one of the better ones from their album, but they were still cool and I’m glad I was able to catch them.

October Thorns – We were waiting in the hallway after Children of Bodom, waiting for OT to come on. Suddenly some pretty serious death metal came blasting out from the stage, and I was sure that there had been some kind of mixup. Nope, it was really October Thorns, wisely playing to suit their audience. They put together a nice stage presence with the outfits, the OT logos, and the crazy bassist. The guys can play the shit out of their instruments, and when they’re doing the dirty, heavy stuff, they’re awesome, but I just can’t handle Paul’s high, “prog-metal” vocals. Normally I like high-pitched vocals just fine, but these seem so generic and characterless, especially when contrasted with all the other really cool stuff he can do with his voice. While metal fans are getting more and more open-minded, there still aren’t a lot of death metal fans who can handle high vocals like that, and not a lot of prog-metal fans who can handle the death vocals. It’s great to see a band like them taking chances and mixing stuff up, I just hope the metal world is ready for them.

Hate Eternal – I watched this death metal band for no particular reason, but they were great. An incredible amount of sound coming from three guys, mostly from guitarist Eric Rutan. Not only was his playing hand a constant blur, his fret hand was also nearly invisible flying up and down the neck. Pretty amazing to watch. The dual vocalist attack was pretty cool too.

The Chasm – I’d seen them open for In Flames when they were without a bass player, and strangely, I think they sounded better then.

Immolation – Saw them play on the main stage to a couple thousand people for the second year in a row, and I still have no idea why anyone likes them.

Destruction – Also drew a huge crowd and had quite a light show. I wonder if their fans realize that there are a bunch of new bands out there who actually make interesting music.

Ok, enough music. How about the people? First, the Milwaukee newspaper said their were 5000 people there the first night, which sounds about right to me. But what was cool was all the great people I knew/met there. I went up with Goughmer, and met up with Jen G and dweeb as soon as we got there. Dweeb sneakily tried to get us all wasted, but only really succeeded with Jen. After reading all the Powermad stories, I knew it might not be a good idea to try and keep up with him, unless I wanted to be the subject of embarassing stories for years to come! 🙂 I think we did a good job of showing him the darkside, he bought a Mayhem CD after all! We also spent a lot of time with Greg Massi, the famous celebrity from Maudlin of the Well, and it was nice to see that he was just as cool in the U.S. as he was in Italy. Also spent some time hanging out with the conspicuously white-shirted mental hygiene, who was just as cool and contrary as he appears on the board. Definitely fun to see some more PM-ers there, and hopefully there will be more next year. Oh yeah, the picture above is one of the promo shots for the newest and best metal band ever. Left to right is Jen G (lead vocals and hiding), Goughmer (lead posing, phat beats), Greg (guitar, solos only!!!), and dweeb (gangsta rapping and sissydrum). Sadly, they disbanded seconds after the photo was taken, well before they could even think up a name.

Oh yeah, can’t forget about the cool vendors too. I got:

Primordial – Spirit the Earth Aflame
Primordial – The Burning Season: both better than A Journey’s end
User Ne – Nibelum Das Uhort: Cool weirdo black folk metal.
Haggard – Awaking the Centuries: much better than their first, mostly because of the great production
Rajna – Yahili: non-metal Tibetan music from Holy Records
Lux Occulta – My Guardian Anger: symphonic yet original black metal
Havayoth – His Creation Reversed: The best of the bunch so far, gothic rock/metal with Vintersorg on vocals, singing English and sounding a hell of a lot like Dan Swano. A must for Nightingale fans.
The Black League – Ichor: Taneli Jarva’s new band, seems like it pretty much takes off from where he left Sentenced.

It was definitely the best Metalfest so far, and I’d like to hope that it’s turned the corner into becoming something even better.

No, this post isn’t really about loving or hating Iron Maiden, it’s just gonna be a long Maiden-related post, and that song is going to be featured. Sumeet asked about my opinion of Brave New World a few days ago, so here it is, along with a bunch of other stuff. If you’re not Sumeet, you may just find this a bit boring, believe it or not.

Basically, I think BNW might be my favorite Iron Maiden album. The common line people have been using (so much that it’s become cliched) is “It’s their best since Seventh Son!” For me, sure, maybe it is. But in that case, it’s also the best since their first album, as I think The X Factor is better than Seventh Son, or any of their previous albums. By the way, is Seventh Son EVERYONE’s favorite Maiden album? If so, that would be one of the strongest general agreements ever in the metal community; if not, it seems like I would have heard someone say “It’s their best since Number of the Beast” or something like that.

So at the moment, the crown of “Neil’s favorite Maiden album” is being tossed between The X Factor and Brave New World right now. Only time will tell the victor of that battle, as I recognize that right now BNW has a host of environmental factors in it’s favor. First is the season. I wonder if record companies ever decide to release albums at a particular time of the year, and I don’t mean just so they match up with other releases or something like that. I mean do they match albums to the weather and climate? Because BNW appeared at the beginning of summer (in the Northern Hemisphere), and if there’s a better album to crank up on a sunny day while cruising down the highway with the top down, then damn, I’d like to hear it. By contrast, something like The X Factor would clash with the season; that album does it’s best magic in the darkness and cold. The second environmental factor is my purchase and first impressions. I bought the album while on vacation in Venice, Italy, and the first couple times I listened to it was while sitting outside on a bench in a classic Venetian campiello. Wonderfully, BNW and Venice are now inextricably linked in my mind. Finally, three days after purchasing the album, I saw Iron Maiden perform live on one of their first shows of the “Metal 2000” tour in Monza, Italy. Seeing the songs so soon in such a fantastic live setting is also obviously going to change my impressions. Anyway, none of this really has too much with Iron Maiden specifically, but I’m always curious of other people consider these kinds of things when reviewing albums. There’s plenty of people around here who seem to post their thoughts on an album after listening to it one time, and I find opinions like that to be completely worthless. For me, there’s a whole lot more involved in figuring out what I’ll think of an album in the long term.

Now, how about the album itself? It’s definitely met or surpassed my expectations, which were admittedly a bit low. Since The X Factor was my favorite Maiden album previously, and I’ve never been as enamored of Bruce as most, I was a bit afraid that they’d go and wreck all the things that I’d grown to love about them. Thankfully, the music didn’t go retro; it pretty much continued along the path Maiden has been going on. And Bruce sounds fantastic. I find the production to be perfect, nice and clear but not squeaky-clean, and not as punchy as more modern bands. I like Bruce’s harmonies, how the higher line is pushed really far back in the mix. The drumming totally rules, and anytime I specifically listen to that part of the band, a grin spreads across my face as I can see Nicko bouncing in his chair, constantly making faces with each flourish. Here’s a quick runthrough of the songs, where as usual, my opinions seem to differ a fair bit from the standard.

The Wicker Man: I couldn’t imagine a better first track for this album. Perfect leadoff, and the ending rules.
Ghost of the Navigator: One of the highlights of the album. In addition to the whole song being unique stuff, some of Bruce’s vocal melodies must have come from somewhere no one has looked before.
Brave New World: Another strong one to keep the pace going.
Blood Brothers: I read a pre-release interview saying how great the orchestration in this song was, so maybe that’s why I’m a bit disappointed with it. Still, a good song.
The Mercenary: Not bad, but it seems pretty much like a filler song to me.
Dream of Mirrors: This one seems to be a favorite of a lot of people, but it fits somewhere in the middle of the pack for me. I love long intros and repetition, but Maiden’s done it better before.
The Fallen Angel: A good bit better than The Mercenary, but still behind Wickerman, amongst the three “standard” songs.
The Nomad: Another general favorite that I’m not as crazy about. The rhythms are great and the mellow section in the middle is awesome, but all the “NOOOOMAD!!!!” gets to be a bit much for me sometimes. It’s the same reason I’m not too crazy about “The CLAAAANSMAN!!!”
Out of the Silent Planet: One of my favorites; great groove, great pace, great melodies.
The Thin Line Between Love & Hate: Finally, the track that has me completely baffled. In nearly every review I’ve read of this album, opinions of this song have ranged from “forgettable” to “terrible”. For me, it’s the best song on the album by far, and possibly my favorite Maiden song ever, right up there with Hallowed Be Thy Name and Afraid to Shoot Strangers. The song has great variation, cool use of the three-guitar attack, an awesome change near the end with some beautiful leads, and when Bruce soars “I will hope / My soul will fly / And I will live forever”, I swear it nearly brings a tear to my eye. What more could you ask for in a song? I’m beginning to think I must have a different version on my CD that everyone else does.

Incidentally, doesn’t it say a lot about Maiden that they get so many song-by-song reviews? I don’t see that so much with too many other bands. For those disappointed with the album, I don’t find that all that surprising, since this is a prog-metal board, and Maiden isn’t all that much of a prog-metal band. As I’ve said to people for their last few albums, if you don’t like the new Maiden stuff, go back and listen to the old Maiden stuff, and you may discover you don’t care for that too much anymore either. I maintain that Iron Maiden hasn’t changed nearly as much as some of their listeners have.

Ok, and a couple more pseudo-related topics, then I’ll finish this book. First, Maiden live at Gods of Metal in Italy. The 3 bands that played before Maiden were Sentenced (great), Dark Tranquillity (they completely blew me away, amazing performance), and Demons & Wizards (great, but the crowd was starting to murder me at this point). Since I was up front and dying for those three bands, we needed to take a break and go back up into the stands while Maiden set up. I naively thought maybe we could just stay up their for their whole set, it was a pretty good view after all. But as has happened to me before, as soon as Maiden started playing, I had to get down there with the crowd. It was amazing to see the crowd of people down on the field who were previously milling around the t-shirt booths and food stands be instantly drawn into a tight pack before the stage like iron filings to a magnet. As usual, the band was pure energy, and the sound was absolutely perfect. Bruce sounded unbelieveable, literally. I found myself trying to look closely to make sure he wasn’t lip-synching. They opened with the first four off BNW, and the transition from Blood Brothers into Wrathchild (“And now for something completely different!”) kicked my ass. Other highlights were Sign of the Cross with Bruce appearing tied to a cross rising above the stage, and Fear of the Dark with the moon appearing with perfect timing in a break in the clouds. It was the first outdoor metal show I’ve ever seen, and the first real big stage show from Maiden, and my first time seeing a concert in Italy, so all in all it was pretty unbeatable. I have tickets for their upcoming show in Chicago, and I’m sure it will be cool, but I fear it will end up being a bit of a letdown.

Finally, I picked of the new Blaze album, Silicon Messiah, and it seems rather cool. Although there’s one song that’s vocally very similar to Man on the Edge, there really isn’t a whole lot of Maiden similarities, even with the singing (although it’s obvious who is behind the mic). There’s actually one song where they ripped of Helloween. The band seems really good, the drummer is a real ditch-digger. And Blaze’s vocal melodies are both complex and memorable. The production is real nice and heavy, it’s good to hear that they didn’t go retro. Overall, it really seems to me like the type of metal someone like Ralf would like; it doesn’t seem all that different than something like Lefay to me. And it keeps growing on me more and more too. By the way, did anyone else notice Blaze looks really skinny in the photos? You think Maiden would have given him at least enough money to feed himself.

Ok, I’m done (for now). It’s a bit more disjointed than I planned, and longer, but hey, I warned you!

Final thoughts on Brave New World, as it just finished playing: I don’t know if I can claim yet that it’s my favorite album of the year, but I can say that I’ve been playing it more than anything else I’ve gotten.

Compilation produced by Jim Raggi at Lamentations of the Flame Princess

First, Jim did a very nice job putting together these two tapes, I’m sure it was pretty challenging to find stuff that would be interesting to everyone, knowing that his audience knows quite a bit about metal. He was also nice enough to include LotFP #5, and as usual the interviews are the highlight, and I think the reviews should just be scrapped. 🙂

Anyway, some statistics to start out with. If I counted correctly, there are 31 songs on these two tapes. Here’s some broken-down information about where all the songs fit in for me:

I own the actual song on the tape: 11
I own something by the band but not the song on the tape: 6
I’ve heard something from the band before, but don’t own it: 2
Bands and songs that were totally new to me: 12

Ok, I’ve gone through these tapes three times now, so I figure that’s good enough for me to throw out my thoughts. After the first couple songs the first time through, I thought it would be interesting to abandon the nicely provided notes so that I’d be listening to each song without any preconceived notions. That made things kinda interesting.

Oh, also, I know Jim is going to whine and moan about this, but I don’t really give a crap about lyrics. Well, I do, if I have time to read them, and yes, they can definitely add or subtract from my opinion of the band, but that’s only after I’ve formed the majority of my opinion off the music alone. So maybe I’ll read these lyrics sometime, but I just haven’t had the chance yet.

Ebony Lake
‘Author of the Burning Flock’
from Upon the Eve of the Grimly Inventive
–
Hmm, some kind of grindcore-ish stuff, but with cool keyboards and other stuff. Whoa, it stopped. Now it’s horror-film music. Well, apparently this is one of those bands that is all over the place. I can dig that. Although I could do without the grindcore side. Interesting. It’s going to be hard for me to keep this band separate from Ebony Tears and Lake of Tears.

Kari Rueslatten
‘The Homecoming Song’
from her demo
–
I’ve heard this CD a couple times before, and like then, yeah, this chick has a nice voice, but it doesn’t really do that much for me. I guess I might be interested in hearing actual Third and the Mortal stuff, because I’m guessing that has a little more “music” to it than this does. The keyboards are pretty cheesy, but I guess it could be nice when I’m in the right mood. I don’t think I’ll ever have a huge boner over this chick like some people do though (and yes, I know what she looks like).

Ten
‘Red’
from Spellbound
–
From reading the song list earlier, I thought this was Cathedral. So when it came on, I was like, “huh, I never expected Cathedral to be so poppy like this,” and figured they were probably just being goofy. Well, it’s obviously not Cathedral. Anyway, there’s nothing bad about it, it has nice little melodies that make my head bob happily from side to side, it just isn’t really up my alley. At least now I know what “AOR” sounds like. Sounds like 70’s prog-rock to me (which I’m not a huge fan of either), except a little more poppy. There’s almost a “country” feel on this track. This has nothing to do with what I think of as “metal”.

Katatonia
‘Nowhere’
from Sounds of Decay
–
Ok, so NOW came the Cathedral song. Hmm, Katatonia must have really ripped off Cathedral. Oh, wait, this IS Katatonia! I own Brave Murder Day, and it’s ok, but not one of my favorites. I really love October Tide’s Grey Dawn though, and I think this song sounds a lot more like that album, so it’s pretty cool. For you non-goat slingers, the interesting thing to note about this song is that it’s the same guy singing here as is singing on the Opeth song later on (right, Jim?) Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that!

Cathedral
‘Voyage of the Homeless Sapien’
from Statik Majik
–
Finally, the REAL Cathedral! And boy, is it pretty bad! It’s slow, slow, slow, boring, boring, boring. It’s obvious no one in the band has any sense of melody, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t doing it on purpose. Terrible vocals, and for 20 minutes the song just goes nowhere. Occasionally they try something interesting, but it seems to never work out. It’s not really heavy at all, I get zero emotions off of it, it has no groove, no melodies, no technical skill. I just can’t grasp the point. God, this makes me feel so bad for Jim. If he loves this, imagine the things that he heard at this time that he DIDN’T like!

Abwhore
‘The Suffering Has Only Begun’
from their s/t demo
–
Badass goth-y intro, and then a quick dive into black-vocalled death-ish metal. Decent, not terribly melodic riffs. Cool use of clean vocals, kind of like Darkane. Nice grooves and breaks. Pretty interesting for a demo band, but not quite at the level where it’s driving me crazy. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for them though.

Nightingale
‘Still in the Dark’
from I
–
Ahh, Swano! I love “The Closing Chronicles”, so “I” is a much-anticipated album for me. And from this track it sounds like it won’t be a disappointment. Probably one of the most “metal” tracks I’ve heard from Nightingale, very nice and upbeat, much moreso than most of the dark and atmospheric “The Closing Chronicles”, yet still a step below the over-the-top “hit single” of that album, “Steal the Moon”.

Therion
‘Evocation of Vovin’
from Lepaca Kliffoth
–
I’ve had this album for a long time, so I’m quite familiar with this song. “Theli” is still my favorite Therion album, but I’m pretty sure this is my favorite Therion song of all-time (ok, “Siren of the Woods” might have it beaten). I simply love the guitar leads. It’s not a terribly long song, but it has lots of different little sections, and any fan of “Theli” will easily see the connection. And I love the little fake ending before they do the super-sugary real ending.

Arcturus
‘Of Nails and Sinners’
from La Masquerade Infernale
–
One of the best albums ever made, I did a review of this at PM a long time ago comparing it to Dream Theater’s “Awake”, and I still think it has a hell of a lot of similarities. Listen to the drumming, the keyboards, the bass. Sure, the vocals are quite a bit different than LaBrie, but they’re fantastic (and perfectly clean!) The music is complex, dark, melodic, atmospheric, twisted, and perfectly executed. What more could you want?

Sculptured
‘Iron Maiden’
from Maiden America
–
Whoa, the mix of distorted and acoustic guitars at the beginning made me think this band sounded totally like some other band I know. Then the singing started, and I was like “oh yeah, it’s Sculptured”. The beginning is very unlike the original song, but then it’s very much like it when they hit the chorus. It’s quite amazing, because the song sounds exactly like Maiden and no one else, but it also sounds exactly like Sculptured and no one else. A mark of a great cover, if you ask me. Fantastic trumpet-led jazz breakdown in the middle. Great mix of clean and death vocals. Probably one of the best Maiden covers I’ve ever heard.

Pharoah
‘Solar Flight’
from Maiden America
–
When this started, I almost thought it sounded like more Sculptured, but it quickly got too fast to be Sculptured. Pretty cool power metal, and there’s not much of this style of music that impresses me all that much these days. I had a fear that I’d find Tim Aymar really annoying, and that kept me from getting Control Denied for a while, but like on that album, he sounds pretty cool here as well.

Cea Serin
‘Holy Mother’
from Chiaroscuro
–
Whoa, is this Godgory? No, it’s not, but the intro is very similar. Very similar tight tight-as-fuck riffing style and drumming. As I love Godgory, this is very good. The more aggressive parts make it un-Godgory-like, but that’s not a bad thing at all, as they kick a ton of ass. Excellent vocals both on clean and growled side. Cool vocal melodies. Damn, and top-notch instrumental sections, great guitars, keyboards, unique song structure. Of course the production isn’t the world’s greatest, but I’m not LarryD, so that doesn’t really bother me. Ah, I see that it’s Cea Serin. I’ve listened to some clips before, but never thought too much beyond that. I think this is something I need to check out. This is the big winner of the two tapes for me.

Lilitu
‘Seventh Aeon’
from The Earth Gods
–
Nice intro. Hmm, when the band kicks in, it sounds a fair bit like Crematory or one of those other heavy-death-pop-goth bands. Cool death vocals, but beyond that there’s nothing that really grabs me about it besides the nice guitar solo. It’s decent, but no better than other bands like this that I don’t really care about. A few years ago it would have been really something. Well, interesting, of the two Atlanta bands, I expected to like Lilitu more than Abwhore, but it turns out it’s the opposite.

Brutal Truth
‘Wish You Were Here’
from some sampler somewhere…
–
Hmm, some nice laid-back rock music. Oh, now they’re singing Pink Floyd, that explains it. Weird vocals though, so I’m guessing it’s a cover. Whoa, the Tasmainian Devil apparently broke into the recording studio, everything is going completely nuts. Obviously not something intended to be “serious music”. Would probably be pretty cool if the “nuts” section went on for about 20 seconds instead of the eternity that it drags for. Good humor, terrible timing.

Iron Maiden
‘The Clansman’
from an OAN boot
–
Ah, good ol’ Iron Maiden. I probably like the last two Maiden albums more than just about anyone (except maybe Sumeet), they’re my two favorite Maiden albums. But I’ve never liked this song quite as much as everyone else seemed to. It’s definitely cool, but I prefer most of the other songs on Virtual XI over this. When I saw them live with Bruce, I didn’t think that Bruce did nearly as good of a job as Blaze did on the Blaze material, and this song doesn’t change my belief at all. Bruce just doesn’t have
that low-end power that Blaze does. Still, a really cool song with nice crowd participation. It reminds me that I’m gonna go fucking nuts when I see Maiden at Gods of Metal in Italy! 🙂

Napalm Death
‘Walls’
from Peel Sessions
–
Ah, good, grindcore, my favorite. The only way music like this can really interest me is if it’s all technical and crazy like Cryptopsy or something. And, well, this isn’t. At least like most shitty grindcore, it’s over almost before you know it. Poor Jim, not knowing that there was metal out there to listen to in the mid-90’s that was actually good!

Ulver
‘some Norwegian word’
from Kveldssanger
–
The second track with Garm singing, the man is a freakin’ genius. This is another album I’ve had for a long time, and what a badass piece of non-metal it is. Relaxed, atmospheric, and dark as fuck. Pure acoustic beauty.

Paradise Lost
‘As I Die’
from Shades of God
–
Heheh, when this one started, I thought it was Misanthrope. That’s because the only Paradise Lost I own is their “Reflections” compilation, and the Holy Records tribute album. Actually it’s Argile that does this song on that tribute, but they’re very Misanthrope-related. Sadly, I smashed that CD in my car when lowering the convertible top. 🙁 Any Paradise Lost fan should seek it out though, it’s a great tribute CD, and a great introduction to Holy Records bands. I think I prefer Draconian Times or One Second-era PL to this slightly more doom-oriented style, but this song is ok.

Paul Chain
‘Living Today’
from Alkahest
–
Maybe it’s just because I have Holy Records on the brain, but this sounds a hell of a lot like Serenity, one of the only Holy Records bands that I have no interest in. It’s mainly the vocals, and the going-nowhere-in-particular doomy riffs. There’s music that I can just ignore, but this seems like it’s actively trying to bore me. The “lyrics” are a pain in the ass too.

OTYG
‘Villevandring’
from Sagovindars Boning
–
I have both Otyg albums and all the Vintersorg releases, and I think I prefer the Vintersorg as a whole. Otyg is cool from time to time, but it’s never blown me away or anything. I’m sure some people looking for cool folk stuff would love it. I think my favorite Otyg song is their Holy Diver cover. I guess I’d like to hear an Otyg song sung in English, and see if that made me think it was better or worse.

Narcolepsy
‘MC Hammersmashed Face’
from the Jesus Fuck demo
–
Ok, um, this is shitty, with a production to match! That’s about all I can say about it. Sounds like something from a Milwaukee Metalfest compilation CD. Completely forgettable. Ah, I see, Narcolepsy, MC Hammersmashed Face, Jesus Fuck. I guess this was our little taste to learn what it’s like being a ‘zine writer. Ah, I see, it’s a rap medley, that’s why it sounded a little familiar. Cool idea, still sounds like shit though. VIP in full effect!

Benighted Leams
‘Wood Nymph of Summer Twilight’
from Caliginous Romantic Myth
–
This is extremely fucked up. I recognize the song, but the crazy distant echoing vocals totally throw it into another dimension. It’s almost sounding like “Kill the Wabbit!” Whoa, now it’s going completely nuts. Oh, I see, this is Benighted Leams, one of the gayest band names ever. Hmm, now I have to try and figure out what song I thought they were covering (any ideas?). A nice mix between relaxed, clean-vocalled sections and harsh black metal. Somewhat interesting, I may have to investigate further.

Orphaned Land
‘Thee by the Father I Pray’
from El Norra Alila
–
Ah yes, another track from one of the best albums ever made. And this is also the track that I use to show people how cool Orphaned Land is. Not that the other tracks don’t measure up to it, but it’s a pretty good compression of the whole album into one song. Fantastic oriental instrumentation, rhythms and melodies. Plus some very good metal. I’m constantly on a search for more bands like this.

Opeth
‘To Bid You Farewell’
from Morningrise
–
Excellent, continuing on with songs from some of the best albums ever made. And no, I don’t say that about everything, Jim and I just happen to have pretty similar tastes. Morningrise has been my favorite album for a few years now. This song isn’t exactly representative of the entire album (except in the undeniable quality level), but if this song doesn’t touch you, well, that’s weird. I can’t imagine anyone listening to this song and not immediately running out and buying the album. Listening to this dub through a somewhat crappy tape player is kind of interesting too, it adds an extra “dustiness” to it, which is kinda cool. It would be cool to hear this song on vinyl.

Ebony Tears
‘Opacity’
from Tortura Insomniae
–
Nice transition continuing on the acoustics. Yet another CD that I own an love. I think this is one of the best (and most unknown) “melodic death metal” CDs. It has every one of the “cliches” of this style that bands use to set themselves apart from the crowd: acoustic guitars, female vocals, clean male vocals, and violin. But they’re all done so well and so uniquely that they don’t sound cliched at all, which I think is sorta what Jim was getting at when including this track. Very aggressive and very melodic at the same time. They even get pretty proggy at times on this album too. Their second album is totally different and far less original, but still pretty kickass.

Amorphis
‘Weeper on the Shore’
from Elegy
–
Hot damn, this guy is finishing up this tape strong! Another song started with acoustics, and another song from one of my favorite albums. I don’t really know what this means, but if I was forced to choose one album that defines metal in the 90’s, this would be it. It’s the old combined with the new, on multiple levels. God, what great melodies, and the fantastically simple bass. And the roars, dammit, the roars, they’re so beautiful!

Borknagar
‘Dawn of the End’
from Olden Domain
–
Hmm, when this one started, I thought “It sounds a little familiar, it’s some sort of melodic black/deathish band, but nothing terribly interesting.” Then it hit me that it was Borknagar. This song is very strange, because the first half is pretty generic, and probably one of the least interesting parts of this album, but the second half is about the 2 coolest minutes of music ever created. It gives me chills, it’s just pure atmosphere. I was pretty happy they did this song when I saw them. Oh, and guess who’s singing here? That’s right, it’s Garm, it’s his third track on this thing. I think that should tell you something about how much ass he kicks.

Sundown
‘Synergy’
from Design 19
–
I’ve heard this album before, and it’s pretty cool groovy-gothy-dancy-sorta-metal stuff. I think I remember hearing songs that sounded a little better than this one before. The fact that Jim likes this (I’m assuming), but hates the Kovenant shows that he’s quite a clown!

Gathering
‘In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated’
from the Kevin’s Telescope single
–
I own 4 Gathering albums, but haven’t been crazy enough to get a single. This is a pretty decent track, nice and heavy and doomy. Anneke is actually sounding a bit like Kari Rueslatten instead of her usual self (or maybe like the DCD chick, but I wouldn’t really know). Too bad I can’t listen to DCD without thinking that they ripped of Tiamat (yeah, I know it was the other way around).

Arch Enemy
‘Cosmic Retribution’
from Black Earth
–
This is the one Arch Enemy album I don’t have because I’m not a lucky bastard who finds it for $4 like Ralf Walter, and I’m not quite willing to pay $1/minute for it. Anyway, “Burning Bridges” was right at the top of my list from last year, and this definitely kicks ass. Melodic death metal done both deathy and melodic like no one else. Of course the vocals are still pretty lame at this point, and it’s not as sharp as BB, but that doesn’t hurt it too much. The classical guitar stuff is a surprise, they haven’t had any of that on their subsequent releases.

Helloween
‘Heavy Metal is the Law’
from Walls of Jericho
–
Helloween was the second band I ever got into (after Queensryche). I remember thinking that Kai Hansen must be the worst vocalist ever born. Hmm, does that mean tastes can change over time? Whaddaya know! Anyway, this is one of Helloween’s best albums (no, actually all their albums are really great), and this is one of my favorite songs off it. Great speed, great melodies, and damn, that’s some kickass bass playing. Of course the fake crowd just tops it off. I’m sure Jim takes these lyrics to heart, but to me they’re just really silly. “Heavy!” “HEAVY!!!” “Met-uhl!” “MET-UHL!!!”

Ok, that’s it! It was a cool little exercise, and although it kind of confirmed that I’m already pretty aware of everything out there that I might be interested in, there are a couple things I can keep an eye out for now.

So thanks Jim!

The band is called maudlin of the Well (I think the capitalization is important), and “my Fruit PsychoBells… a seed combustible” is their first album of what they call astral/metal. On their website, for their influences they list TIAMAT, dISEMBOWELMENT, Faith No More, Tangerine Dream, Oxiplegatz, Jane’s Addiction, The Tea Party, My Dying Bride, the Gathering, Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Esoteric, Entombed, and Gorguts. Of course, they don’t really sound anything like any of these bands. The closest thing I can compare them to is Solefald. They don’t really sound like Solefald (although there’s an occasional similarity), but both bands throw a whole lot of influences in a big pot and mix them together like mad scientists.

maudlin’s most notable feature is their jazziness. I don’t really know what that means, since all I really know about music is metal, metal, and more metal, but I hear things that sound similar to Opeth parts that people call “jazzy”. In fact, some of the mellow sections on the latest Opeth album are pretty similar to trippy, atmospheric sections here, except that there’s less use of acoustic guitar. Some of it reminds me of In the Woods… as well. There’s heavy parts, mellow parts, upbeat parts, doomy parts, all sorts of vocal styles, and generally a bunch of cool things going on. Anyway, since I can’t really describe the music any better than that, I’ll just go ahead and describe the 7 songs on the album for those who like to read a lot.

First, the lineup listed in the album:

Jason Byron – voice
Maria-Stella Fountoulakis – voice
Greg Massi – lead guitar
Tobias D. – guitar, bass, keyboards, voice, clarinet
Jason Bitner – trumpet
D – drums

I don’t think I’m smart enough to tell the difference between a clarinet and a trumpet, so I’ll probably call both things “trumpet” below. The trumpet parts are very well done, they aren’t nearly as in-your-face as the trumpet parts in Sculptured. As for the production, it’s good, but nothing mind-blowing (I also don’t think a mind-blowing amount of money was spent on it). All of the sounds have a nice rough and natural feel to them, there’s nothing slick or processed about the album. The lyrics are the type where they’re probably really cool if you know what the writer is talking about, but in my case, it’s mostly like “huh, sounds cool, I wonder what the hell they’re talking about?” Oh, the booklet also has a really cool pictoral story running through it. Anyway, here goes.

Ferocious Weights (7:30): Searching guitar lines echo their way in from the far reaches of the galaxy until they find their quarry: majestic, epic doom metal, filled out with a tastefully placed trumpet. A female voice opens things up, and as things begin getting really discordant, a male voice takes over and the discord is taken to almost painful levels. Then the speed suddenly picks up and frantic soloing guitars attack each other mercilessly over a heavy groove. A quick stop brings an atmospheric keyboard section with dreamy female vocals. After a minute the majestic doom joins her voice shortly before the song ends.

a Conception Pathetic (7:01): Opens with a ferocious blast beat and a black-metallish roar, but then quickly slides into disjointed, bottom heavy death metal with keyboards (trumpet?) backing it up. Then comes a mellow section with nearly-whispered male vocals and slippery guitars. It continues to groove out for a while, escalating into a guitar solo which slides it back to the death metal and the growls. The song then winds up with only drums and piano.

Undine and Underwater Flowers (8:45): This one starts out very mellow, with a wandering bass line which is soon overlayed with quiet clean guitar. Eventually they join together in a melody, and are joined by an interesting sound which could be either a keyboard, a male voice, or a female voice. Some laid back drumming starts along with some far-away clean male vocals. Various keyboards and trumpet adds to the jazzy feel, and the song ends with several minutes of cool guitar noodling as the rhythm section gradually picks up the intensity and then fades away. A very atmospheric song that somehow reminds me of the songs played during the segments on Sesame Street, like when a kid is talking about how he works on the farm (and that’s a good thing!)

The Ocean, the Kingdom, and the Temptation (11:18): Clean, echoey guitar comes from far away, and is joined by other instruments and a speaking voice. The relaxed rhythm soon picks up intensity, reaches a plateau where someone noodles on guitar from inside a cave. Then come some more heavy riffs and growled vocals. There is a shift back to the mellow part from the beginning, but this time the heavy riffs are coupled with it. Then it’s back to pure laid-back jamming, with layered talking and singing. Then come some more heavy riffs with an extended frantic trumpet solo, which leads into a quiet part with strange sounds making a simple rhythm while piercing keyboard notes drop in from the distance.

Pondering a Wall (6:17): A lone male voice quietly starts things off, but then quickly erupts into a yell as the low, distorted guitars bull their way in. There’s a fair bit of discord, and it almost has a bit of a nu-metal feel to it. Unlike the doomier stuff earlier, there’s some fast and heavy guitarwork here, but it’s also broken up by the usual mellow sections with clean guitar. Some female vocals make their way in too.

Catharsis of Sea Sleep and Dreaming Shrines (9:30): Clean guitar and bass start this one off again, building into a catchy melody with lots of layers. In a rare and really cool occurance, the growls go over this non-distored music for a while, although they are eventually joined by the normal heavy music. Low clean vocals and distorted guitars meander together for a while, until the clean melody from the beginning returns, this time with some dreamy male vocals. Finally there’s some trumpet dancing with some minimal guitar and drums, which drop into heavy doom-death to complete the song.

Blight of River Systems (5:44): This is the second completely un-metal track of the album, and possibly my favorite. It starts of with a jaunty little piano melody, and relaxed male and female vocals groove together along some upbeat jazzy stuff. Eventually comes a great section with more up-front but perfectly at-ease female vocals dancing around the guitar melodies. Finally the song ends with a couple minutes of excellent Santana-inspired guitar soloing.