The_CrY Music Reviews

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell 3: The Monster is Loose (2006)

2011-11-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

1. The Monster is Loose
2. Blind as a Bat
3. It's All Coming Back to Me Now
4. Bad for Good
5. Cry Over Me
6. In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King
7. Monstro
8. Alive
9. If God Could Talk
10. If It Ain't Broke Break It
11. What About Love
12. Seize the Night
13. The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
14. Cry to Heaven

Third Time's The Charm – 8,2/10

Meat Loaf was just doing his thing with all kinds of other albums when suddenly, out of the blue, the third installment in the Bat Out of Hell series was announced. Even noted composer of the first two albums in the series Jim Steinman was apparently caught off guard as lawsuits between the two occurred soon after. What was Meat Loaf thinking using the Bat Out of Hell name for a third time, and this time without new genuine material from his longtime friend Steinman?

Our dearest Meat Loaf has carefully picked a few Steinman songs from the past that he would cover on this album. It was a Bat Out of Hell album after all and it required some over-the-top rock ’n roll epics. Most of it, however, was taken from Steinman’s solo record Bad for Good from 1981 and Pandora’s Box’ sole album Original Sin from 1989. Other tracks like “Cry to Heaven” or “In the Land of the Pig” were demos for a Batman musical due in 2003, but which was cancelled eventually. Steinman’s songs are huge and make the Bat Out of Hell part of this record. The other half is taken care of by notable songwriter Desmond Child and his team. This is what makes the Monster Loose. They introduce a new, catchy, modern rock sound for Meat Loaf that makes him almost sound nu-metal at times. The combination is very refreshing and actually just what the Bat-franchise needed. Where Bat 1 was a downright classic, Bat 2 was a dull attempt at copying part 1 and Bat 3 makes a suiting close to the series and ends it on a high level.

“The Monster is Loose”! Deep, heavy guitar riffs welcome us into this dark track and a bombastic chorus totally masks Meat Loaf’s usually light and cheerful atmosphere. If the name wasn’t on the album cover, we’d hardly recognize his voice. “Blind as a Bat” continues on the dark, modern vibe the title track ignited and shows us Desmond Child has penned Meat some tunes totally equivalent of the post-1977 songs by Jim Steinman, who debuts on this album with 1989’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”, made famous by Céline Dion. Meat’s rendition sounds very theatrical as he engages in a duet with Marion Raven. The second Steinman track is “Bad for Good”, featuring Brian May on guitar. This track was actually meant for the second Meat album and you can hear this old school rock ‘n roll vibe throughout, but the modernized sound doesn’t conceal the song’s a downright epic with energetic themes. Had they used this for Bat 2, that album would’ve been a lot better. These first four songs show the beautiful contrast between Child’s darker, heavier and more modern songs and Steinman’s over-the-top stash of melodic, theatrical rock ‘n roll.

Other notable moments on the record are the previously unheard Steinman track “In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King”, featuring the celebrated Steve Vai on lead guitars. It contains some good punch and a haunting atmosphere that fits this record’s dark environment. Desmond Child delivers to highlights with the catchy “Alive” and the gripping “If God Could Talk”. These songs have those bombastic choruses that get stuck in your head without becoming nuisances, if you know what I mean. Steinman again proves himself a master with 1989’s magnum opus “Seize the Night”; a beautiful orchestra introduces the piece that goes through many themes; from small piano-driven passages to dark symphonic rock riffs; from traditional Steinman verses to Latin-choirs at the chorus. From the songs not mentioned, they are almost all a joy for the ear. With talented songwriters like Child and Steinman delivering some of their finest works on this record, you will hear only one track you might want to skip. “If It Ain’t Broke, Break It” is a rock song by Steinman, but has a very weak chorus trying to be heavy and hard but failing completely on both platforms.

In the end, Bat Out of Hell 3: The Monster is Loose is the ultimate classic of modern Meat Loaf. It contains al the Steinman-ness of the previous Bats in high quality, but doesn’t lose its potential of being a rock album first and foremost; something which Meat Loaf is focusing on a lot on his newer records. It’s what I’d call a suitable disclosure for the Bat Out of Hell series and I would highly recommend it to any fan of this singer.

Strongest tracks: “Bad for Good”, “Alive”, “If God Could Talk” and “Seize the Night”.
Weakest track: “If It Ain’t Broke Break It”.

Wayne Static - Pighammer (2011)

2011-11-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

1. Pighammer
2. Around the Turn
3. Assassins of Youth
4. Thunder Invader
5. Static Killer
6. She
7. Get It Together
8. Chrome Nation
9. Shifter
10. Slave
11. The Creatures are Everywhere
12. Behind the Sky

Static without the X – 7,2/10

This little piggy had candy…
This little piggy comes home…
This little piggy went around the turn…
And this little piggy went …!

And with this twisted version of the famous little piggy poem Wayne Static introduces us to his long-awaited solo record Pighammer. After the sad breakup of Static-X, Wayne decided to go solo and if anything, Pighammer testifies how Wayne was responsible for Static-X’s trademark sound. The album might not be covering a lot of new territories for Static, but honestly, did anyone ever really expect that?

Static’s career with Static-X had seen highs and lows but ended on a definite low with 2009’s Cult of Static. They were out of fresh ideas and the whole band sounded tired as well. Maybe the breakup was necessary. With Pighammer, Wayne definitely proves he is not weakened by the break-up of his former band. In fact, he just goes on where Static-X left it: heavy industrial metal. This time around, the elements that required the other members have either been erased or replaced. The low growls of Tony Campos, the guitar solos by Koichi Fukuda and the drums of Ken Jay are all gone. Instead we have a drum computer throughout the album and increased electronic elements are passages. This last element is actually quite refreshing and even a little experimental in some tracks.

Wayne doesn’t want to alienate us loyal fans. “Around the Turn” features his trademark barking and a march-like industrial tune to warm us all up for the adventure that is Pighammer. Though the song stands its ground, things are getting more intense with the single “Assassins of Youth”, a song about Wayne’s drug use and how he got rid of his addiction. It’s very powerful and full of adrenaline, which is continued by the energizing “Thunder Invader”. “Static Killer” takes us back to Wisconsin Death Trip-styled industrial with the typical computerized keys and the sexual moans of pornstar Tera Wray-Static in the intro. The song itself is okay, but with “She” the album steps up again. With the spoken word-styled verses and a danceable groove at the chorus, it’s quite a unique song for this record. Further highlights include the hard-as-hell “Chrome Nation” and the very experimental “The Creatures are Everywhere”, which makes more ambient use of the electronic elements. The other tracks are all fine, except for “Get It Together”, which gets on my nerves.

In short, Wayne Static got himself a nice solo record out and it’s not bad at all. If you like Static-X, there is no reason why you wouldn’t like Pighammer, because it has the typical Static-X vibe to most of the tracks. It’s actually a whole lot better than 2009’s Cult of Static and in a way also it’s follow-up. There’s nothing more to say about this album than I already have.

Strongest tracks: “Assassins of Youth”, “Thunder Invader” and “She”.
Weakest tracks: “Get It Together” and “Slave”.

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell 2: Back into Hell (1993)

2011-10-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

1. I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)
2. Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back
3. Rock 'n Roll Dreams Come Through
4. It Just Won't Quit
5. Out of the Frying Pan (and Into the Fire)
6. Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are
7. Wasted Youth
8. Everything Louder Than Everything Else
9. Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)
10. Back into Hell
11. Lost Boys and Golden Girls

A Pathetic Attempt at Reliving Old Days – 6,5/10

Not many will have forgotten the huge impact the first Bat Out of Hell made on the music world. Well, at least Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf haven’t. After Meat Loaf’s announced hiatus from recording in 1987, he said he wanted to wait for more Steinman material to work with. While some of his albums since 1981’s Dead Ringer did feature a single Steinman song, he thought it was time to record another full Steinman album. And what better way is there to attract attention than to name your new album to the most successful one?

Seriously, what does album have to do with the first Bat Out of Hell? Apart from Steinman and Meat Loaf, absolutely nothing! It’s not as if the first part was a concept album to be further explored on this release. It’s a purely commercial move. And that just stinks. It makes the listener expect the album to be just as good as the first part, which… it just isn’t. It’s not a bad record, but not quite outstanding either. Jim Steinman was even that lazy that he used songs from his 1981 solo album Bad for Good for this release. He only wrote half of the songs especially for this album. How motivated was he on this reunion? Seeing as he hasn’t released anything significant since, we might as well conclude he was hoping to get one more quick cash grab and then disappear. It’s really a shame, but Meat Loaf is not to blame. While all Steinman does nowadays is boasting about the first Bat Out of Hell and its success, Meat Loaf still releases good records and updates his sound every time.

Bat Out of Hell 2: Back into Hell doesn’t start off that disappointing actually. The intro to “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” is a downright reference, or copy, of the intro to the title track on the 1977 album. The rest of the song takes a different approach though; it’s a twelve-minute over-the-top piece with gentle, epic, obligatory and wilder passages. It basically contains all the composed elements that made the first album so great, but it just sounds forced on a certain level. The spontaneity is gone and the two are turning into a cliché. “Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back” travels down the same road, but instead of piano-driven rock ‘n roll we get a mean guitar riff instead. That sounds quite refreshing, but the song continues for eight minutes, which is actually a little too much for this track, although it’s quite a good one. Absolute highlight of the album and one of the best tracks Steinman ever penned is the classic “Rock ‘n Roll Dreams Come Through”. Not surprisingly, it’s been released by Steinman himself on his solo record back in 1981 before, so this one hasn’t been put together hastily for a commercial cash grab. No, this song sounds honest, pure and Meat’s voice just sounds so beautiful on this song. Now this is what we want. Is the album getting better now?

We basically had the three best songs of the album now. From now on we mostly get mediocre concepts and agreeable melodies stretched and repeated to death on songs that peak on mostly six, eight or ten minutes. While not all of them are truly bad, it’s not enough as a sequel to one of rock’s most classic albums. “It Just Won’t Quit” has a nice melody in the chorus, but really mostly plods along without ever really bursting out. “Objects in the Rear View Mirror…” tries to crawl into the skin of “Heaven Can Wait” and would’ve succeeded at that if it wouldn’t last over ten minutes with the last three minutes being solely repeating of the chorus over and over again. “Wasted Youth” is a monologue of Steinman that serves as an intro to “Everything Louder Than Everything Else”, which is quite a good rock song not unlike “All Revved Up…” from the first album, except for the stretched structure. “Good Girls Go to Heaven” is the worst song on this record and is so terribly happy you’d just want to skip right away… to the title track “Back into Hell”; an instrumental interlude echoing the main melody of the previous track, which makes it an instant failure. So many fine melodies on this album to chose from and then they pick the worst one to reprise here. Luckily “Lost Boys and Golden Girls” ends the album on a relatively high note, even though it’s another “Heaven Can Wait”-clone.

What happened after this album? Meat Loaf went on to release more albums, each one better than this one as a whole and reinvented his sound, trying different things and styles and different songwriters. What about Steinman? Well… see his website and conclude how he is living in the past… We all know he can write another good album, but if one isn’t trying to, one will never succeed. This album is only to be recommended to big fans of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. Don’t be deluded by the title; this comes nowhere near Bat Out of Hell. I guess with some editing here and there, it’d still be an enjoyable record, but in current shape it is one of the weaker Meat Loaf releases.

Strongest tracks: “Life is a Lemon”, “Rock ‘n Roll Dreams Come Through” and “Everything Louder Than Everything Else”.
Weakest tracks: “Good Girls Go to Heaven” and “Out of the Frying Pan”.

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell (1977)

2011-10-28T03:27:00.000-07:00

1. Bat Out of Hell
2. You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth
3. Heaven Can Wait
4. All Revved Up With No Place to Go
5. Two Out of Three Ain't Bad
6. Paradise by the Dashboard Light
7. For Crying Out Loud

Classic to the Bone – 8,6/10

Nothing is more justified to start a string of Meat Loaf reviews with his most successful and unquestionably classic debut album Bat Out of Hell. This legendary album was the brainchild of composer Jim Steinman, who also performed keyboards on a few tracks. It was the first, but certainly not the last time Steinman and Meat Loaf would work on an album together, but I think it’s safe to say the two of them never succeeded topping the very first Bat Out of Hell; a milestone in the history of rock ‘n roll.

What is it that makes this classic album so worthwhile? Where Steinman’s trademark songwriting is a little too calculated and too forced on later efforts, Bat Out of Hell captures a few of his most spontaneous compositions in the genre. The songwriting is very over the top to begin with. These melodies are very catchy and the arrangements show a bombastic sound, but Steinman never finishes a song until you’ve got the tune in your head. This results in lengthy tracks that never get boring, because they all remain catchy as hell in every verse, chorus or interlude. Another nice flavour to the album is the theatrical influences. Steinman is a composer for musicals as well and it shows. The title track alone is a long, twisted tale about a motorcycle-crash; changing in tone from rebellious to heroic, from sad to real rock ‘n roll and overcoming death. Another sign of Steinman’s musical career is the club favourite “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, whose epic boy/girl duet has become a standard in rock ‘n roll history. And the second mainman of the album is of course Marvin Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf. The man has a voice so unique and so strong; he’s bound to get your attention on this album. Since he too was involved in musicals a lot, his voice tells a story so powerful you don’t need to pay attention to the lyrics. Unfortunately, Meat Loaf suffered vocal problems not long after this album and his voice never returned to the magnitude it portrays here.

So, what does this supposedly amazing duo bring us on Bat Out of Hell? Let’s begin with the amazing title track. A few numb chords enhanced by drums welcome us into the album until a loud piano takes over from the drums and the song turns into an almost ten-minute piece of melodic and heroic rock ‘n roll. This is one of the best songs ever penned by Steinman and ever sung by Meat Loaf: epic guitar leads; soaring high vocals; catchy chord progressions; and a story that strings every theme and every melody together. A dark, somewhat creepy conversation precedes “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth”, which explores more cheerful melodies and more contemporary atmospheres that don’t question why this became a hit at the time. It’s a simple tale of love, but the way it’s packaged and sung, it becomes much more than that and it holds epic lyrics such as in the chorus:

"You took the Words Right Out of My Mouth
Oh, it must’ve been while you were kissing me"

“Heaven Can Wait” brings us the first ballad and proves Steinman also knows how to maintain enchanting atmospheres on quieter songs. Meat Loaf’s voice guides us gently, but steadily, through this landscape of powerful pianos, soft string ensembles and gospel-esque backing choirs. “All Revved Up…” brings back the 70s spirit we also found on the second track. It’s tracks like these that make the album one of a kind, even within the Meat Loaf discography. Again, Meat’s voice is the main attraction, especially in the pre-chori. The epic acceleration at the end just gives me shivers. Another hit single we find in “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and again does the trick. “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” needs no further introduction; it’s the most well-known rock ‘n roll anthem and frequently played on radio station to this very day. “For Crying Out Loud” ends the album on a high note with another piano-driven power ballad that unfolds into a bombastic epic later up.

Honestly, the way Meat Loaf sings on this album is just amazing. Such a shame he suffered vocal problems a short time after the release of the record. He still sings very well nowadays, but the energy isn’t as pure as on Bat Out of Hell. If you haven’t heard this record, it’d be time for you to finally do listen to this. This is a classic through and through and deservedly so. I highly recommend it to fans of music.

Strongest moments: “Bat Out of Hell”, “All Revved Up…” and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”.

Queensrÿche - Dedicated to Chaos (2011)

2011-09-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

1. Get Started
2. Hot Spot Junkie
3. Got it Bad
4. Around the World
5. Higher
6. Retail Therapy
7. At the Edge
8. Broken [*]
9. Hard Times [*]
10. Drive
11. I Believe [*]
12. Luvnu [*]
13. Wot We Do
14. I Take You
15. The Lie
16. Big Noize

Very ‘Now’ Indeed – 9/10

Merciless have the ‘fans’ and critics been as they relentlessly denigrated this album and the band’s current status, citing reasons as ‘weak, boring songs’ or ‘commercial sellout’ for the album’s lack of quality, or even the ‘lack of metal’. How could Queensrÿche, which should be a metal band, make fine albums if it’s not metal? And then there are people claiming the lack of metal is not why they failed on this album. Want to hear my side of the story? These ‘fans’ and critics don’t have large fantasy or the capability to empathize with a band or that band’s full-length, when it doesn’t quite match their expectations. Allow me to explain to the very detail.

How many times have (or haven’t, takes less time to count) we read how weak and useless opener “Get Started” is and especially as the opening track for this infamous record. Reasons as ‘mellow riff’ or ‘no balls’ were used to point out that the song is quite numb. Well, the song indeed doesn’t kick your balls off and it doesn’t go right in your face. Even more, it’s not metal. The Rÿche have made albums before that evaded the metal genre, but never have they sounded so tame, especially not on an opening track. What is wrong here? And have you heard that single? “Wot We Do” is its name. I have read tons and tons of people hating that song for the very R’NB influence that flows throughout. How on earth could the creators of masterpiece Operation: Mindcrime (only the first part) have decided to throw in a brass section and to leave out the distorted guitars? I have also seen multiple criticisms about lyrics to the song “Retail Therapy”, which deal with apps on a phone. It is said this item is not worthy to put in a song as lyrics and it might be proof that Queensrÿche is trying to connect to the younger audience, thus selling out commercially. That statement would be supported heavily by the popular song titles (“Hot Spot Junkie”) and especially the wrongly (read: popularly) spelled ones like “Big Noize”, “Luvnu” and the previously mentioned “Wot We Do”. And if that wasn’t enough, we would be to believe that the album wouldn’t get exciting at any point and that, an essential piece of criticism, the guitar sound is weak and forced to the background or even replaced (by a brass section for example). Michael Wilton even stated in an interview that he didn’t really like the album, but was reprimanded by the rest of the band and was forced to state on the band’s site that he enjoyed the album a lot.

Phew… if that all were to be believed, one was to think Queensrÿche lost their mind; made one hell of a sucky album; were no longer a cohesive unit as a band; and were trying to connect to younger audiences and to make hit singles. It probably takes a very strong and open mind for a Queensrÿche-fan to be able to like this record. I guess I probably am. Let me explain to the very detail why Queensrÿche chose this direction and let me explain as equally detailed why I like it so much.

Queensrÿche is a band with the will to experiment. They almost never do the same thing twice and the one time they did try to with Operation: Mindcrime 2, they failed shamefully. No, this band is better off treading new grounds and finding new ways to play music for themselves. If they left the metal scene it’s because they have nothing more to say in the metal language and learn to speak new languages. The experiment of 2011 is the present. The now. You walk around town in a random street. Look around you, what do you see? A car driving past you; the wind blowing; the occasional passer-by, possibly with headphones plugged in; mothers that just dropped off their kid at school, determined to quickly pick up some groceries and then head off for an appointment with a good friend, a dentist or a pedicure. Either way, you’ll get my point: life is hectic nowadays. It moves fast and there’s little time to just do nothing. With internet, everything is possible and within reach. There’s no excuse not to have done something these days because it is all possible. Everyone is reachable at all times, as everyone carries their mobile phones with them day and night. The band took this very theme as the main theme for the album and you must understand it is a very important aspect of Dedicated to Chaos. Today’s life is fast and we find ways to speed things up: faster internet; multi-tasking; special abbreviations and orthography for text messages and chat sites and what not. To capture the spirit of the themes, song titles in these so called ‘popular languages’ were used. The title “Luvnu” for example fits perfectly within this concept.

‘Rock music is no longer the music of the times,’ said Geoff Tate in an interview. He is right. In order to stick more to the concept the band decided to structure their songs around the rhythm of the now. Drummer Rockenfield and bassist Jackson have developed a rhythm section as solid as ever, but now built around the alternative world of today. Guitarist Wilton might not be as much in the spotlight as he was back in the metal days, but he plays a role reminiscent of any guitar player in a alternative/pop band and even though his playing is more subtle here, it adds so much to the music and he has a beautifully tight guitar sound. Vocalist Tate is in an ever-inspiring shape as he leads us through this new-found landscape with his warm, recognizable and above all outstanding vocals. If there’s any singer who I’d never get tired of it’s Geoff Tate. He’s really got the groove. The multicultural, ever-changing society of today results in the huge diversity of the songs themselves. We have laid-back grooves on “Got it Bad”; a Coldplay-ish pop song in “Around the World”; alternative rock on “Hot Spot Junkie”; classic Queensrÿche on “At the Edge”; a funky track with “Drive”; the hip-hop/R’NB influenced single “Wot We Do”; and an atmospheric, hypnotizing and very intense album closer “Big Noize”. It requires a tolerant taste, but if you can let go of your stylistic principles you should find yourselves enjoying the album, even though “Wot We Do” sounds sinful at first.

Yes, it’s chaos. Life is chaos. Queensrÿche dedicate this album to chaos. But it’s albums like these that make this band to one of my all-time favorites. Experimental to the full and totally dedicated to the concept. The most important part of the album for the listener is to understand the concept before criticizing lyrical content. As a suitable close to the review, let me cite a few of the lyrics, which are by the way outstanding, that can be interpreted to be about the album.

“We can’t get what we’re looking for unless we break some rules.” – Get Started
“All these changes, all these re-arranging starts with me if I want more” – Around the World
“Time to look at what’s behind closed doors” – At the Edge
“When you’re backseat driving keep your hands off the wheel” – Drive
“It’s much more fun when everyone surrenders” – Wot We Do
“Time to change the view” – Get Started

Strongest tracks: “Hot Spot Junkie”, “At the Edge”, “Drive” and “Wot We Do”.

System of a Down - Hypnotize (2005)

2011-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

1. Attack
2. Dreaming
3. Kill Rock 'n Roll
4. Hypnotize
5. Stealing Society
6. Tentative
7. U-Fig
8. Holy Mountains
9. Vicinity of Obscenity
10. She's Like Heroin
11. Lonely Day
12. Soldier Side

Mezmerize Part Two – 6/10

Alternative metal giants System of a Down released two albums in the same year. First came Mezmerize, which is arguably their finest album, and second came Hypnotize… their final album before their long hiatus, which has ended a few weeks before I type this. It certainly matches the success its predecessor had, but does it match its quality?

No. Where Mezmerize sounded new, fresh and inventive, Hypnotize sounds like the band going through the very same motions, with a few exceptions of course. The good side is that the album is not really bad either. It’s actually quite ok from a certain angle. It contains the same formula of wacky, psycho metal as Mezmerize, with perhaps a less slick production. Malakian and the guys give us time to adjust with the bombastic “Attack”, which attacks you right in your face with the blastbeat intro. Its verses are very catchy and melodic, but the chorus is once again aggressive and bombastic. “Dreaming” is equally aggressive and bombastic with blastbeats and all, with a catchy hook hidden within. The middle section features an attempt at en epic bridge; something which works quite well. The shared vocal duties of Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian work remarkably well here, and on “Kill Rock ‘n Roll” as well. The latter track is comparable to the last few tracks of Mezmerize, with a very melodic and light ambience throughout. The title track “Hypnotize” is a lot more ambient and to the point than the tracks before and perfectly paints the face this album is about to adapt.

It is at this point that a few tracks start to become tediously dull and would receive the ‘filler-tag’. This tag will be awarded to: “Stealing Society”, which is a rather standard System song with nothing really memorable except for a short Malakian-rap about halfway through; “Tentative”, which actually reminds of the very first album in its intro, but quickly takes the modern System route; “U-Fig” … just another System song without anything memorable, which by the way also has verses that remind of the debut album; and “She’s Like Heroin”, with highly annoying vocals by Malakian. These songs aren’t necessarily bad, but are dull, unmemorable and forgettable. Furthermore we have System going for longer tracks with epic structures, as previously heard on songs like “Forest”, “Lost in Hollywood” or “Streamline”. This time that song is “Holy Mountains”. The track unmistakably has a killer chord progression as the main theme, but sounds a little forced throughout and never really stands out. “Vicinity of Obscenity” is one of the weirdest songs I ever heard and I wouldn’t know how to describe it. I can just say it’s wicked and features many weird and odd themes that are seemingly impossible to coexist within one song, let alone in less than three minutes. It is one of the few good tracks of the album’s second side though. All that is left now is the very commercial and somewhat tedious single “Lonely Day” and the epic album closer “Soldier Side”, with its strong lyrics.

I don’t want to dedicate more time for this album’s review. It’s pretty much System doing what System does. The result? There’s a few outstanding tracks, a couple of nice songs and a lot of forgettable tracks. I wouldn’t really recommend Hypnotize to anyone unfamiliar with the band. You’d have a better start with Toxicity or Mezmerize. If you know the band this album definitely got some gems on it.

Strongest tracks: “Attack”, “Dreaming”, “Vicinity of Obscenity” and “Soldier Side”.
Weakest tracks: “Stealing Society”, “Tentative”, “U-Fig” and “She’s Like Heroin”.

Gothminister - Gothic Electronic Anthems (2003)

2011-07-10T03:56:00.000-07:00

1. Gothic Anthem
2. Angel
3. The Holy One
4. Pray
5. The Possession
6. Devil
7. Shadows of Evil Sins
8. Hatred
9. March of the Dead
10. Wish
11. Post Ludium
12. Angel (Club version)

The Gothminister’s Debut – 7,8/10

The first album of Gothminister finds the man still having some kind of one-man-project with a message to all Goths in the world. He boasts heavily to be proud of what you are and to face the darkness within on this first album, which is appropriately entitled Gothic Electronic Anthems.

As you might expect, the album features a strong blend between electronic music and gothic rock. Gothminister’s use of a drum computer adds more to the techno-feeling throughout the album. Especially the first few tracks feature a heavy dance-beat with a strong offbeat computerized hi-hat to begin with. Strong trance-like synths bring an even more techno feel, but are often compromised with a heavy guitar riff underneath. Alexander Brem’s deep, low, crunchy voice makes it sound like another Rammstein-clone, but this act is surely bringing some new sounds to the table. As for the gothic elements; especially in the more quiet parts choirs attend to add more ambient backing vocals and of course the lyrics are all aimed at Goths all around the world. The booklet is filled with text about being proud of what you are and not letting anyone exclude you for being different. And they are told that interest in the dark and unknown will make you stronger than avoiding the unknown, which I guess is true. The fact that Brem calls himself the Gothminister would appeal to some, but would sound very arrogant to others, so this preaching to Goths perhaps doesn’t really appeal to non-Goths like myself, but I respect his vision Happiness in Darkness. It fits the music as well and at least this is not depressive dark metal.

The album kicks off with the peculiarly titled “Gothic Anthem” which kicks some serious ass with the heavy techno-beat underneath and the simple-but-effective guitars. The barbaric voice of Brem gives the song some extra kick a clean voice wouldn’t have been able to. “Angel” and “The Holy One” continue in the same vein, both being really worthwhile and some of the album’s finest tracks. “Pray” finds Brem going all-electronic with an even harder beat, which is a little too electronic for my taste. I find it to be one of Gothminister’s weaker tracks. “The Possession” blends nicely with “Devil”; a more upbeat track with another great offbeat industrial beat. This one has a really nice riff as well, which kind of makes up for the weak chorus. “Hatred” and “March of the Dead” both carry on with the goth/industrial blend, but lean more to the gothic side of the mixture. Then there are ballads. “Shadows of Evil Sins” feature a soft guitar plucking at the background with choirs performing and a dirty, evil whisper on the foreground. Since the song doesn’t really build to anything beautiful, it sounds more like Brem telling a ghost story over a backing track. The man has written way better ballads with “Wish” and “Post Ludium”. On “Wish” we have a beautiful chorus sung by female choirs and a definitive building within the song and a nice instrumental part in the middle. “Post Ludium” features these auto-tuned vocals like in “Pray”, but this time around it blends in nicely with the epic instrumentation. That’s a satisfactory disclosure to the album of anthems.

All in all, Gothic Electronic Anthems is not a bad debut album at all. While Gothminister presents himself as a teacher and preacher, he does know how to write good music with a good blend of gothic and industrial. The man has a vision with his music and that is respectable. This album is heavily recommended to fans of the goth/industrial genre.

Strongest tracks: “Gothic Anthem”, “The Holy One” and “Post Ludium”.
Weakest tracks: “Pray” and “Shadows of Evil Sins”.

Gothminister - Happiness in Darkness (2008)

2011-06-29T05:56:00.001-07:00

1. Dusk Till Dawn
2. Darkside
3. Your Saviour
4. Freak
5. Sideshow
6. The Allmighty
7. Beauty After Midnight
8. Emperor
9. Mammoth
10. Thriller

Gothic Electronic Metal – 8,6/10

Though this album is by no means the first Gothminister effort and therefore not at all the first album to combine trance-infused industrial with a dark gothic flavour, it is by far the best I ever heard. The band and the genre are very much underground now about ten years after their peak, but there’s still some high-quality music produced here.

The band, usually dressed up like any gothic band, with white faces and dark accents, has blended the pumping industrial with gothic on this album better than ever. There’s a great balance between danceable tracks and metal tracks, which means more diversity and that is mostly what makes or breaks an industrial record, although I must admit vocalist Bjørn Alexander Brem’s low, crunchy voice is a love-it-or-hate-it factor. Opener “Dusk Till Dawn” reintroduces the trademark Gothminister sound with trance-rhythms covered with a heavy metal guitar to make the metalheads approve it as well. The explosive sing-along chorus makes a fine and memorable opener to the band’s finest album yet. Lead single “Darkside” totally differs from that formula and sounds more like a radio-friendly but very catchy single with a stronger gothic ambience. It is however the song that got me into Gothminister and still stands tall with its amazing chorus and climax. We get back to the pumping industrial with “Your Saviour”, which plods along nicely in the shadow of “Dusk Till Dawn”, whereas “Freak” sits strongly in the shadow of “Darkside”, both sharing a similar structure and atmosphere. “Sideshow” finds good compromise between the four tracks and has really commanding verses with a chaotic and symphonic chorus and features, once again, a great climax in the bridge.

The second half of the album is a lot more experimental for Gothminister’s customs. “The Allmighty” is a resting point on the album with a small choir of female voices taking care of all the vocals, which they do very nicely. Even better is the transition to “Beauty After Midnight”, which amplifies the contrast between the nice and peaceful and the once again pumping trance-like fury. This is my favourite song of the album as it features once again a great danceable rhythm but soon turns into pure metal fury in the verses. The chorus is good, but I feel it could’ve been better as Brem doesn’t really sing as powerful here as he does on practically every other song he recorded, which is a shame. We are given an electronic ballad with “Emperor”, which starts off with a peaceful melodic theme before it goes into the hypnotic electronic beat that lays the foundation for the verses. The melodic intro is eventually used as a bridge, which is the intro to a very powerful chorus, thus making this one of the album’s highlights as well. And before we know it we have arrived at the album closer “Mammoth”, which has a much more conventional industrial vibe to it, but still carries that Gothminister sound and an even epic ambience in the chorus. It also features this powerful line in the chorus: ‘the Minister will watch over your soul’. It was a rather short album, perhaps due to lack of material, but clearly the band saw this too and recorded a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and included it on the album. This song is perfect for the band to convert it to their sound, but I wouldn’t have missed it.

In the end I am more than thrilled for having met the music of Gothminister. It is by far one of the more original and inventive industrial acts today. I highly recommend the band and their sound to anyone in for danceable metal and gothic looks.

Strongest moments: “Darkside”, “Beauty After Midnight” and “Emperor”.

System of a Down - Mezmerize (2005)

2011-06-02T06:11:00.000-07:00

1. Soldier Side (intro)
2. B.Y.O.B.
3. Revenga
4. Cigaro
5. Radio/Video
6. This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song
7. Violent Pornography
8. Question!
9. Sad Statue
10. Old School Hollywood
11. Lost in Hollywood

A Few Changes Here and There – 7,7/10

And here we have another album by nu-metal giants System of a Down. Will they have changed their sound now? Toxicity and Steal This Album! looked a lot alike in terms of sound and production. I’m glad to say Mezmerize shows progress in the band’s writing process. Where the first three albums were mainly focusing on head banging and primitive riffs that were heavy is hell, Mezmerize focuses on other things. Read on if you’re interested.

Let me begin with informing you that either the band collectively decided to try something new or that Daron Malakian’s arrogance has grown enormously. Serj Tankian has to share his lead vocal duties with main songwriter and guitarist Daron Malakian, which is good for a change, but Tankian remains a way better vocalist. Malakian has a very sharp voice and it doesn’t sound cool at all. He sounds wacky and like a joker. Which brings us to the next new element. There is way more emphasis on wacky songs and jokes. Of course, there wasn’t much seriousness about “Deer Dance” or “Prison Song”, but they showed the band being original and raw. It’s beginning to sound a little forced here, but since it’s System, I’ll cut them some slack. The production has been altered as well, with the band sounding really tight now. Toxicity sounded very loose, raw and primitively spontaneous. Mezmerize sounds more contemporary in terms of sound, very tight and still spontaneous, but also less heavy. It might also be noticed that Tankian no longer shouts primitively. He now is a civilized vocalist with vocal techniques and range. Actually the new sound is quite nice at times, especially with the high-quality material the disc is filled with.

True album opener is “B.Y.O.B.”; a heavy, wacky track that goes from aggressive verses to a dance-vibe in the chorus. It’s still amazing what these guys can do in a short track of three minutes. They blow every minute full of energy, literally jump from theme to theme, make sure every second is stuffed with sound and then put it on an album. And the funny thing is it doesn’t get old. Never. One thing that will be noticed is the more radio-friendly choruses on the songs like “Radio/Video”, “Revenga”, “Violent Pornography” and “Sad Statue”. While the riffs are still brutal and heavy, the melodies are increasingly sweeter and soft. Especially when sung by Malakian. Notable tracks include the two album closers. “Old School Hollywood” is surprisingly synthy, which is a fresh sound on the album, while “Lost in Hollywood” is not a Rainbow cover, but a true attempt at an epic album-closer. Maybe if Serj Tankian would have sung it, it could have been a classic.

Well, I’m done. I have nothing more to say. It’s basically System doing what System does, with the few changes I indicated. If you love the band and their sound, you will still love this record.

Strongest tracks: “Cigaro”, “This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I’m On This Song”, “Sad Statue” and “Old School Hollywood”.

Wintersun - Wintersun (2004)

2011-06-02T05:05:00.001-07:00

1. Beyond the Dark Sun
2. Winter Madness
3. Sleeping Stars
4. Battle Against Time
5. Death and the Healing
6. Starchild
7. Beautiful Death
8. Sadness and Hate

The Epic Definition of Scandinavian Metal – 10/10

It’s not very often that I reward an album with a perfect score, but Wintersun’s debut album really earns it. As we’re all still waiting for over seven years for the second album to be on the way, just one glance at this record reminds us why the hell we still hope for that second album to come out. But most of all we want to know how the hell Jari Mäenpää can top this masterpiece of epic power metal.

Nothing but good words from me about this record. From the opening track “Beyond the Dark Sun” on you will be bombarded with epic chord progressions, strong melodies straight from the gut and in-your-face heaviness combined with virtuosic solos. Mr. Mäenpää sorted his songs from short to long and released them in exactly that form and surprisingly the winning formula of variation coincides. After the fast, epic introduction of “Beyond the Dark Sun” we get to know the heavy side of Mäenpää and the true nature of drummer Kai Hahto as furious blastbeats dominate the track, ironically topped with a melodic, icy ambience. Mäenpää’s screams sound very convincing and full of emotion; not something I often experience when hearing screams, growls or grunts. The great solo in the middle also deserves a little mention. From fast and melodic to heavy and aggressive to the third song of the album: “Sleeping Stars”. As the title might suggest this song tends to be an epic ballad-ish type of song. Given that Mäenpää still uses his screams might indicate this is not truly a ballad, but we also get to hear him sing here and he does it alright. Too bad his singing voice is mixed a little to the background so it doesn’t fully come to its right. With these three first tracks, we’ve seen the many-sidedness of Wintersun and the next few tracks will blend these elements to longer tracks with worthy mentions being the epic ballad “Death and the Healing”, the progressive “Starchild”, the blackened “Beautiful Death” and the beautiful album closer “Sadness and Hate”. I could write another paragraph to describe each and every one of them, but it will contain the word ‘epic’ a little too many times.

Instead, I’ll focus upon what makes this album thrive so much. The concept of a dark sun, a winter sun, is nothing new within the Scandinavian metal acts, but I have rarely seen an album so obsessed by eternal winter, by epic darkness, that it actually brings a melancholic element to the band. Within this aggressive record of despair, grief, anger and regret there’s a very strong longing for light; a desperate cry to reach the warm sun, which is a source of positive energy. I think it might very well be a feeling familiar to many inhabitants of northern Scandinavia and other countries close to the North Pole. For me, someone who doesn’t know the effect of the dark winter sun in my country, the feeling is still familiar, but not the literal phenomenon. On pictures it always is a beautiful sight to see such an image, but in reality, such a long period of darkness affects your mood. This album totally captures that mood. Its melodies and sounds are beautiful, but in reality Mäenpää and Hahto want to make us feel like they do and the lyrics are as dark as the night. I think it’s a really thrilling concept and they did a good job bringing that concept to a credible and terrific end.

In short, if you want an album that not only sounds original, but also has a thrilling concept combined with excellent music, executed by virtuosos, this album should be on your ‘to-get’-list. Today, almost five years after I discovered this album, I still listen to it and enjoy it to the full. I have different favourites every time I hear it though.

Strongest moments: “Winter Madness”, “Death and the Healing” and “Beautiful Death”.

Earth & Fire - Song of the Marching Children (1971)

2011-05-14T11:48:00.001-07:00

1. Carnaval of the Animals
2. Ebbtide
3. Storm and Thunder
4. In the Mountains
5. Song of the Marching Children

Makes me Proud to be Dutch – 8,8/10

If I look at the music artists from The Netherlands, I’m not quite a patriot. Most of what I like to listen to comes from abroad. But there are a handful of Dutch bands or acts that really makes me proud to share their nationality. Of course, Kayak is one, but Earth & Fire certainly is too. Or at least early E&F… I’m not a fan of their post-1975 works. I know I’m a little late with discovering a masterpiece from 1971, but good quality prog never gets old, which only proves how well this record has stood the test of time.

It’s only been a year after their debut album, but you can already see changes in musical style… for the better. There’s a big emphasis on the building of the songs and there’s a strong symphonic edge to the album. Big orchestra’s and old synthesizers often take an important role in texturing the songs, but not as much as Gerard Koerts’ little organ, which leads every track to a satisfying end. It’s also notable how Van de Kleij’s drums sound very powerful and bombastic, which brings me to another powerful side of the album: its production; it’s easily one of the best productions possible in 1971. Every instrument sounds clear, powerful and authentic in the way it’s supposed to sound. And then we have Jerney Kaagman providing lead vocals to the music; she sounds quite odd, but after a few listens she really fits to the music. Her voice is technically not the best you’ll find, but she certainly has the power to bring Song of the Marching Children to a more than satisfying end.

The album opens with the cheery “Carnaval of the Animals”; it has a theme you’d hear through merry-go-round speakers on a fancy fair. It is on this song that Kaagman makes a somewhat weird first impression; a soft and subtle voice on the verses, but a hard and shrill falsetto at the chorus. It is mostly her voice why I think this song is the weakest on the album. But don’t worry, it’ll all go top notch from here. “Ebbtide” is beautifully peaceful with Chris Koerts’ vibrato guitars and the softer side of Kaagman’s voice, however, the best is yet to come. “Storm and Thunder” enters with a strong but calm organ solo by Gerard Koerts, before starting a gentle verse part. But don’t be fooled, for hell breaks loose afterwards in a powerful, bombastic part that finishes this song off in epic mode. Kaagman proves she can sing powerful in her higher regions, as long as she doesn’t go falsetto. The band showcases their instrumental magic on the magnificent “In The Mountains”, which features a brilliant shifting of lead patterns by organ and guitar. Then there is the magnum opus of the album: “Song of the Marching Children”; an eighteen-minute piece with many different faces. It starts off with a calm intro tune, but quickly turns into the symphonic bombastic verses and chorus of the second part, before going completely off the chart. With that I mean the song falls silent and begins with completely different themes. They can be forgiven for merging it into one track by adding part A to G on the track list description. The other themes are adventurous, but the song won’t reach the quality of the first few parts again. The end of the march-like snare-hits does give a possibly desired feel at the end and making it fade out slowly automatically makes you silent for a while.

The album is a true adventure and gets better with every listen. It screams masterpiece at every note. I strongly recommend this record to every fan of early progressive and/or symphonic rock. As for me, I’ll probably be off to listen to other Earth & Fire albums.

Strongest tracks: “Storm and Thunder” and “In the Mountains”.

Killing Joke - What's THIS for... (1981)

2011-04-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

1. The Fall of Because
2. Tension
3. Unspeakable
4. Butcher
5. Follow the Leaders
6. Madness
7. Who Told You How?
8. Exit

Well… what is this for? – 7,2/10

For the real Killing Jokers! It’s the year of 1981 and there are a bunch of frustrated adolescents with a record deal and a debut album just released. They’re about to release their second LP and are confident about putting their frustration in that record. Yet, they do not want to get enormously heavy and/or turn their sophomore album into metal or hard rock. How did they do this? In a way only Killing Joke can.

Killing Joke is a very fascinating band at every stage of their development. Especially the early albums in the original lineup, including this one, share a very interesting atmosphere, mixing anger, frustration, disappointment and pure, primitive emotions with the hypnotic, entrancing rhythms of tribal drums, 80s dance-beats and hooligan-like vocals on top. They emit the all-for-one-attitude. Top that of with Geordie’s high, soaring guitar riffs and Youth’s independent bass lines and you have a very intriguing result. What I find really well done was the inclusion on this record of frustration and anger, without making the music too heavy and hard. We are taken into a trance by the monotonous, tribal drums of Big Paul Ferguson while being brainwashed by the rebellion-lyrics of Jaz Coleman, whose vocals are mixed surprisingly to the background of the music. As if he is not the main focus of the album. While I first disliked it, it actually added to the atmosphere of hypnotism. After the classic debut record this album really was a lot less accessible partly due to the vocal mix. Other reasons are probably the lack of hit singles.

But a lack of hit singles has never stopped us from liking a record before. “The Fall of Because” is threatening throughout, but never bursts into the explosions you’d expect it to. “Tension” showcases a catchy drum rhythm, very similar to Queen’s “Party” of their 1989 album The Miracle. Coincidence? Anyway, the ambience is similar to the opening track and never bursts out into that aggression you just feel there is. Especially when Coleman tells us that ‘the tension builds’. But then comes “Unspeakable”; a song lead entirely by the tribal rhythm our dearest Mr. Ferguson brings us. The riff is just furious here and the chorus also has difficulties containing the fury of the band. But then “Butcher” takes a few steps back. Instead of finishing what they started, they backfire before the anger really comes out. It’s still a threatening track though, but quite a relief after “Unspeakable”. Back to the concept we go with “Follow the Leaders”; a danceable and catchy song that certainly doesn’t have the threat of the first few tracks, but does contain the magic of the previous moments. “Madness” is one of my least favorite songs of What THIS for… and it sounds like it’s a leftover from the debut album for good reason. It peaks almost at eight minutes and is monotonous and totally unadventurous and especially throws away all the frustration built up by the previous few tracks. The meaningless instrumental “Who Told You How?” is followed by “Exit”, which closes the record at a high level, re-establishing the threat and reminding us of the Killing Joke.

This album is a fine record, but not one of Killing Joke’s finest. They are clearly frustrated and found a unique way to let us know, but the fact that there’s a constant threat, a constant tension that builds, builds and builds but never unleashes the fury, never reaches its peak is quite unsatisfying. The inclusion of a few mediocre tracks even more diminishes the quality of the listening experience. This is an album I’d only recommend to the real Killing Jokers, to the die-hard fans.

Strongest tracks: “The Fall of Because”, “Tension”, “Unspeakable” and “Follow the Leaders”.
Weakest tracks: “Madness”.

System of a Down - Steal This Album! (2002)

2011-04-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

1. Chic 'n Stu
2. Innervision
3. Bubbles
4. Boom!
5. Nüguns
6. A.D.D.
7. Mr. Jack
8. I-E-A-I-A-I-O
9. 36
10. Pictures
11. Highway Song
12. F**k the System
13. Ego Brain
14. Thetawaves
15. Roulette
16. Streamline

Turn in the Thieves – 7,8/10

The follow-up to System of a Down’s breakthrough record Toxicity had an odd story to accompany its unique packaging, which was to mimic a burned disc. I won’t bother you with that tale, but I can assure you those who stole this record have now sinned even worse for Steal This Album! turns out even better than its predecessor. Since it was not supported by a tour, some people believe this to be a bunch of leftovers from the Toxicity sessions. It’s partly agreeable, for this album is not very coherent, but it’s mostly very disagreeable since this record contains some of the finest System tunes you’ll ever hear.

Demos of this album once surfed on the net as Toxicity II and that still left its marks on the final album. It literally picks up where Toxicity finished. It’s equally barbaric, primitive and heavy, yet also mean, political and thought out. Even the structure of the album shows similarity. Opener “Chic ‘n Stu” is as wacky and chaotic as “Prison Song” and “Innervision”, “Bubbles” and “Boom!” show equal amount of barbaric metal as “Needles”, “Deer Dance” and “Jet Pilot”. Then “Nüguns” parallels with “X”, and so on. If you’d mix up the two records, you wouldn’t tell which song is from which album production- and sound-wise. It really looks like they were trying to get that sound they got famous with one year ago.

The main difference is the amount of tracks on this record, which is a lot and which does mean a higher amount of filler tracks. Tracks like “Mr. Jack”, “Pictures”, “Highway Song” or “Thetawaves”, but also the very short “36” just don’t add a thing to the record and become sources of irritation for your ears. That is quite a lot. Luckily the other material is very strong and original. In particular the politically aggressive “A.D.D.” is very powerful, as well as the anthem “I-E-A-I-A-I-O”. Towards the end the songs start becoming a bit mellower but also a little flash-forward to the Mezmerize/Hypnotize records is being given in tracks like “Ego Brain” or “Streamline” where they tend to focus more on song structure and melody rather than the barbaric power of “A.D.D.”. What also adds to the flash-forward is the increasing presence of Daron Malakian’s voice next to Serj Tankian’s, which blend uniquely if you can bear Malakian’s sharp voice for so long. Near the end I find the wacky “F**k the System” and the ballad “Roulette” to be the highlights.

In the end, Steal This Album! may well be System of a Down’s finest moment if you reduce the amount of tracks to twelve. I recommend, however, not to steal this album but to buy in your local store if you love System of a Down or nu-metal.

Strongest tracks: “Chic ‘n Stu”, “A.D.D.”, “I-E-A-I-A-I-O” and “Roulette”.
Weakest tracks: “Pictures”, “Highway Song” and “Mr. Jack”.

Ultravox - Vienna (1980)

2011-03-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

1. Astradyne
2. New Europeans
3. Private Lives
4. Passing Strangers
5. Sleepwalk
6. Mr. X
7. Western Promise
8. Vienna
9. All Stood Still

This Is How It’s Done – 7,7/10

Let me take you back to the very early eighties and the very beginning of the eruption of many so called new wave and post-punk bands. Though in my reviews I often referenced to these genres simply as synth-pop, there’s a lot more to them you might think at first sight. Take Ultravox, one of the most well-known eighties new wave groups with extensive use of the synthesizer as a prominent instrument. Their most successful full-length release to date is and will possibly always be Vienna.

I personally found it hard to believe, but Ultravox actually began their career as a punk band. Their first three albums had a slightly different lineup as well, with the most notable difference the vocalist. Vienna marks the debut of new guitarist/vocalist Midge Ure; a man whose vocal talents would take Ultravox up the charts. There are still traces of the punk-past to this album and then I mean the less-is-more attitude in rock songs like “New Europeans” or “Private Lives”. The entrance of Billy Currie’s synthesizer is what makes Vienna stand out as well. This is innovating because never before has the instrument been used to texture the songs this way before. It can be on the background filling up the emptiness with soft chords, but it more than often treads to the foreground to dress the song up with a catchy theme or a modest solo. Currie sounds more comfortable in doing solos on his violin or piano though. But what makes me happy the most is the combination of a raw guitar sound with these synths. Ure throws in some really raw riffs to, in turn, texture the background while Currie is on the foreground. And there’s where the strength of this record lies. On Vienna, Ultravox know how to combine the raw sound of rock with the newer, more robotic sound of the synthesizer.

Opening track “Astradyne” is the perfect example. It’s a seven-minute instrumental which perfectly gets you into the Ultravox mood. There’s interchanging catchy synthesizer themes all around and a brooding solo at the end to top it off. The guitars have not yet kicked in on this song yet, but they are bound to blow you off your chair when “New Europeans” kicks off… at least, if you play it on high volume. The riff is delightfully punchy and very catchy. The warm voice of Midge Ure invites us further into the song unto the climax and a very melodic instrumental theme completes this track. Currie’s synths really shine on the rocker “Private Lives”, whereas the guitar riff and offbeat drums in “Passing Strangers” blows you away. It’s been a pretty powerful start of the album and “Sleepwalk” doesn’t let you rest in an upbeat synth-rock track; or more an experiment to rock without guitars. Surprisingly it sounds very fresh and uplifting. On “Mr. X” I think the experiment has been taken too far. It’s a dark, synth-only track (even drums have been mimicked) that stays the same for six minutes long. This is the reason why I usually don’t listen to eighties new wave. Fortunately we have the strongest song of the record straight ahead: “Western Promise”. The violin leads us to a beautiful exotic theme, right before we crash into one of the most powerful, almost industrial, themes that are the verses. “Vienna” needs no introduction; it’s a very atmospheric pop song with a catchy chorus and a classic right after it was released. With “All Stood Still”, a track that tries to go back to the power of the first four tracks closes the record, but it’s not one of the most memorable tracks on this album.

All in all, Vienna is a pretty solid record. With only one real flaw on the album I can really recommend it. If you are really into the genre you probably have already heard this album but if you haven’t, you definitely should check it out.

Strongest tracks: “New Europeans”, “Private Lives” and “Western Promise”.
Weakest track: “Mr. X”.

System of a Down - Toxicity (2001)

2011-03-19T12:06:00.001-07:00

1. Prison Song
2. Needles
3. Deer Dance
4. Jet Pilot
5. X
6. Chop Suey!
7. Bounce
8. Forest
9. ATWA
10. Science
11. Shimmy
12. Toxicity
13. Psycho
14. Aerials

Political, Wacky and Heavy – 7,6/10

System Of A Down really need no introduction, yet I will still give one. Founded in the nineties, they did not need long to convince the world they were one of the most relevant nu-metal bands from their time. The very heavy sound of the band sometimes even resembling barbaric wardances combined with the often political lyrics of frontman Serj Tankian, but melted into one insane, wacky formula by guitarist and main songwriter Daron Malakian, has laid a powerful mark upon the music business with their self-titled debut album from 1998. It was heavy as hell, made a clear political statement and was very, very original. Its follow-up, Toxicity, was, however, the main breakthrough for the band, both critically and commercially.

Yes, this was commercially successful indeed, especially with the two hits “Toxicity” and “Chop Suey!”. The big change from their debut is immediately noticeable: it’s less heavy. How else can you make hits of course? Still, this is a heavy record and even primitive at times. Take for example the main riff of “Prison Song” or “Deer Dance”; they clearly show the more-is-less attitude of the band and the production adds to that a very back-to-basic feel, especially in combination with Tankian’s barbaric shouts. But it’s all less primitive than the debut album still, mostly due to the clearer production by the famous Rick Rubin. They clearly commercialized the sound they established on the debut album, but still tried to keep the essence of that sound intact, which succeeded quite well and made the sound more accessible. Not to mention Tankian’s grunts have decreased notably. Only “Prison Song” features those grunts and they sound more like someone left the window open on a windy day. What stays the same from the debut is the wacky song structures, the chaotic variation of lots of different themes all stuck together in a two- or three-minute song.

With “Prison Song”, the band creates the perfect ambience for the album: heavy, aggressive, crazy, wacky, and of course topped with a spicy political theme. The wacky structure of this track and the merciless heaviness is the true charm of Toxicity’s strong opening phase. “Needles”, “Deer Dance”, “Jet Pilot” and “X” all plainly exist just to pound your brains out with simple, primitive riffs and mad shouts, but somewhere also with sheer genius. Middle-eastern melodies like those on “Deer Dance” or “Jet Pilot” give more credit to the band’s Armenian origin. “Chop Suey!” is righteously a hit with its extremely catchy chord progression, speedy lyrics and of course great chorus. In between the heaviness of this record so far, it’s really refreshing to hear gentler verses that actually sound very well. It’s the proof this band can do more than just make your head bang. Later on “Forest” is a relatively lengthy track with its four-minute length. Its vocal melodies are very praiseworthy as this song sounds close to being an epic. Later on we get pounded once more with “Shimmy”, the popular “Toxicity” and “Psycho”, which has a title that suits the track rather well. “Aerials” closes the album rather well with a threatening attempt at going epic.

You may have noticed I skipped a few tracks. That was not by accident. “Bounce” is a short track with nonsense lyrics that I find hard to enjoy as it doesn’t really have a head and tail to it and seems just plain noise. “ATWA” or “Science” really fail to deliver as well as they have gone by so many times and still I have not noticed a hook or a catchy fragment on those tracks. In a defined music style as the one System Of A Down has, this is essential. Every song has to matter or else the album has a sleepy moment. The biggest downside of this, rather good nu-metal record is not the lack of good tracks. No, quite the contrary. The main problem is the lack of variation and the feeling the follow-up to this album should be really special and new again. Steal This Album! is a really fine album, but doesn’t add much new to the sound established on Toxicity and therefore they will always belong together.

In short, Toxicity is quite a good album. Though lack of variety and repetitive moments may occur, there are not much weak tracks and especially in the first half it’s extremely useful for wrecking someone’s mind. This album is absolutely essential to fans of the nu-metal genre.

Strongest tracks: “Prison Song”, “Deer Dance”, “Chop Suey!” and “Toxicity”.
Weakest tracks: “Bounce”, “ATWA” and “Science”.

Static-X - Machine (2001)

2011-03-12T02:52:00.000-08:00

1. Bien Venidos
2. Get to the Gone
3. Permanence
4. Black and White
5. This is Not
6. Otsego Undead
7. Cold
8. Structural Defect
9. ...in a Bag
10. Burn to Burn
11. Machine
12. A Dios Alma Perdida

Machine Metal – 7,3/10

As industrial metal gained popularity in the late 90s, most bands of the new industrial released their first album in that decade and so made a footprint. The follow-ups to those records, however, are almost notably worse. Why? Mostly the bands seemed to be one-trick ponies or they did try something new but failed horribly. Machine is definitely no competition for Static-X’s debut record Wisconsin Death Trip, which is a very powerful milestone in the industrial metal genre. Yet Static-X was no one-trick pony and Machine doesn’t completely fail. Then what does the album do?

They basically saw the path they walked on with Wisconsin Death Trip and walked a lot further down the same road. Machine clearly builds on the grounds made by the debut album, but yet takes it to newer areas as well. The album’s title perhaps best describes what it contains. The band sounds way tighter and the electro samples have become more dominant. The riffs are all very… angular… very choppy and above all aggressively heavy. At times it sounds more like a machine making music in a factory than in a band, which at itself is quite a nice concept and its fairly well executed as well. After the goofy intro “Bien Venidos” the extremely heavy “Get to the Gone” literally kicks in with machine-like riffs and the equally machine-like monotone voice of Wayne Static, which only adds to the concept and also to the listening experience. Tracks like “This Is Not”, “Black and White”, “Structural Defect” or the danceable title track really expand upon the machine concept and are downright Static-X classics. “Permanence” features hard industrial at its best.

While the entire record basically consists of killer industrial tunes and rhythms there is an overall vibe to the album that doesn’t make me want to rate this higher. The concept is a machine and they mimic machinery very well and combine it with music perfectly, but a machine-vibe to your album makes it sound a little artificial. This is great music to kick ass to on some action video game or something, but to regularly listen to this adrenaline-filled hyper-angular type of industrial… it mostly gives me headaches… I also get headaches in factories when the machines make huge noises.

In short, as a sophomore studio album, Machine is not a very disappointing record. It does not match the brilliance of the first album by far, but we’re not given a bad album at all. I highly recommend this to fans of the industrial genre and fans of Static-X in general.

Strongest tracks: “Black and White”, “This Is Not”, “Structural Defect” and “Machine”.

Killing Joke - Killing Joke (2003)

2011-02-24T06:21:00.000-08:00

1. The Death and Resurrection Show
2. Total Invasion
3. Asteroid
4. Implant
5. Blood On Your Hands
6. Loose Cannon
7. You'll Never Get To Me
8. Seeing Red
9. Dark Forces
10. The House That Pain Built

Manic Maniacs Maniacally Making Memorable Music – 8.5/10

Alright, all jokes aside, prepare for Killing Joke’s ruthless comeback after a short time of absence. After Democracy, which I see as one of their weaker efforts, the band disappeared into the clouds again only to emerge fresher, more powerful and above all heavier than ever before. That’s right. Killing Joke are taking their trademark danceable vibes more into the savage world of metal than ever before on their self-titled eleventh full-length. Most bands that emerged in the early eighties are not really adding anything memorable to their often impressive catalogue, but Killing Joke never stops writing new classics.

And so we have another terrific album by industrial rock pioneers Killing Joke. Do they ever stop? Not if it’s up to them. Coleman, Geordie and both Youth ánd Raven, which is odd since they’re both bassists, have reunited only to show that Killing Joke is still as relevant in 2003 as they were back in 1980 when they released their self-titled debut, which still holds the most classics. With Coleman slowly turning into a monster by increasingly using his bellowing voice, this album is very aggressive. They hired Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl to play drums on this record, which sounds very good. The combination of Killing Joke with Dave Grohl turns out to be aggressive with very punctual rhythms without losing that dance-vibe the band always had. Perhaps this is also the most industrial album they’ve recording, after 1994’s Pandemonium of course.

So then as “The Death and Resurrection Show” kicks in it sounds like an occult ritual. A threatening monotone voice takes you into a trance with the punctual vibes of the guitars on the background. Quickly enough the drums join in and Coleman turns into a monster, giving the song a bit of ‘summon-the-beast’ ambience. One song you can’t evade is the in-your-face “Asteroid”, starting of quite chaotically before an aggressive load of choppy, punctual riffs and rhythms kicks in. With “Implant” we once more have a similar riff and rhythm and the trick is getting old here. When the chorus mainly features Coleman bellowing without the music underneath the track really can annoy me. “Blood On Your Hands” is a totally different kind of song and is mainly driven by the anger about the way of the world in 2003, which is exactly the entire feel of the song and provides it with a lot of energy. One of my personal favourites would be the single “Loose Cannon”; it’s very industrial, very groovy and has a slow but certain headbanging-vibe to it. This track really stands for ‘simplicity is the key’. There’s a ballad in “You’ll Never Get To Me”, but it doesn’t stop the band from making it rough. It’s slightly more melodic and gentler than the other tracks and at times even tends to be epic, but is not at all a black sheep on this album, for it’s equally heavy and anger-fuelled. “Seeing Red” also sounds like a single and is similar to, but notably less than, “Blood On Your Hands” as it has the same upbeat rhythm with aggressive tone. The album does end on a high note with the, yes, epic “The House That Pain Built”. It so powerfully concludes Killing Joke’s plea of anger you’d instantly want to put the album on repeat again.

You might have noticed that I ‘accidentally’ forgot to mention two tracks. Don’t get me all that wrong, they fit well within the concept of this record and there is some very nice riffage on “Total Invasion” as well as a great dark atmosphere in “Dark Forces”, due to the low orchestral themes of the intro. But they both contain a new experiment by vocalist Jaz Coleman: the whisper-grunt, as I like to call it. He never truly grunts, but likes to bellow monstrously every now and then… now imagine that in a whisper. I absolutely hate it and I’m glad he didn’t do it more often.

In short, Killing Joke for a change decided to make another great album with again a very distinct sound and its fair share of classics. It’s not sure to please Killing Joke fans of the early hours, but those that loved their 90s work should definitely dig this. Highly recommended.

Strongest tracks: “The Death and Resurrection Show”, “Loose Cannon” and “The House That Pain Built”.
Weakest tracks: “Total Invasion” and “Implant”.

Steven Seagal - Songs from the Crystal Cave (2004)

2011-02-18T03:15:00.001-08:00

1. Girl It's Alright
2. Don't You Cry
3. Music
4. Better Man
5. Route 23
6. My God
7. Lollipop
8. Not for Sale
9. Dance
10. Jealousy
11. War
12. Strut
13. Goree
14. The Light

Spiritual Steven goes music…?! – 6,5/10

Yes, you are right. This is an album by the infamous martial arts fighter and actor Steven Seagal. This guy can fight like no other, he can produce movies like farts in terms of quantity, originality and quality, and now he’s into music too?? Mostly, actors that go music I hear and after five minutes I shake my head and turn it off due to a big lack of catchiness or originality. You’d be very surprised, but Steven Seagal’s debut album Songs From The Crystal Cave is somewhat different from albums by… say Bruce Willis or Jennifer Love Hewitt. I feel this album should be taken seriously.

What?! Did he say Seagal must be taken seriously?! Yes, for he is not immortal on this album and most importantly he does not practice the martial arts here. But do not get me wrong. I am extremely generous with this rather high rating. This is nowhere near a classic album, nor has it any potential to be and as for Seagal, it’s nice that he can show us some of his hobbies outside of acting, but we could live without it. That being said, what does our Under Siege-star do? Steven likes playing guitar and though it seriously looks very clumsy on stage (thumb-plectrum and holding his guitar with pink and ring finger), he clearly knows his instrument and provides solid backing for melodies. He also goes lead guitar at times, which he does well, but it’s nothing really spine-shivering. But most importantly, the man sings on this record. How does his voice sound? Ever seen his movies? He talks with a husky voice, almost a whisper. That’s exactly the way he sings, but for the music he likes to make, his voice actually fits very well. Seagal jumps from style to style on this album, most notably country, blues, soul and reggae. That makes this album a bit of a mash-up and it’s hard to find cohesion. Not to mention he only takes the clichés of each musical style, which is actually plain boring, but if you’re not a regular listener of the genres, like me, they might not be all that bad.

Seagal opens the album a little country-ish and could be mistaken for a singer-songwriter on the catchy, radio friendly “Girl It’s Alright” and “Don’t You Cry”. The former most notably features a gospel-esque backing choir, while the latter was the lead single of this album and it’s not too hard to know why. The arrangements sound very acoustic and intimate, with Seagal’s voice clearly on the foreground. With “Music” he shifts the direction a little more to soul or reggae with a bluesy and gospel-esque ambience. Say what you want but Seagal’s got some soul in his voice and the backing choir really adds to his voice as a counterpart. Highlight of this track would be the break in the middle with a Jamaican reggae vocalist called Tony Rebel, who does a little rap, before the song goes back to the chorus, after a little guitar solo by Steven. “Better Man” goes a little back to what the first two tracks stood for, but this time it’s less interesting, though still a solid track. “Route 23” is the first real low. Steven Seagal goes total blues here, but it can’t possibly be more cliché. The overload of guitar leads here seriously gets annoying, not to mention Seagal’s voice doesn’t match the song. After that track the music style changes to some uplifting world music or reggae. “My God” is a real relief after the boring quiet track before. This song is really uplifting and its lyrics are remarkable, to say the least.

Now, the second half of the album isn’t half as good as the first. Not to mention the lyrics quality is going down fast, most notably in “Jealousy” or “War”. Talk about cliché. Now, that is not to say all is awful after “My God”. Seagal performs the traditional “Lollipop” with Jamaican reggae vocalist Lieutenant Stitchie and it has this so-bad-it’s-good touch to it. With “Not for Sale”, we have really one of the stronger songs from the crystal cave. It starts with these (cliché) eastern percussions but has a really nice groove to it and there’s one of Seagal’s strengths again. The chorus, and especially the guitar-driven pre-chorus, is definitely one of the strongest of this album. With “Dance”, the bad side of the album really kicks off, but whether it’s bad or not really depends on your mood. “Dance”, “Jealousy” and “War”, all suffer from clichés, both musically and lyrically, but don’t really harm anyone, unless you’re in a bad mood and can’t find the skip-button. The latter two feature more Jamaican guest artists, respectively Lady Saw and Lieutenant Stitchie again. Lady Saw also features on the second single “Strut”, which seems to be a reggae-hip-hop hybrid. This is one song that brings me headaches. Seagal really sound poor next to the mighty voice of Lady Saw. Then the album ends more like it started with the very poor “Goree” and the very strong “The Light”. Seriously, if he’d just stick to that genre this album could have become very known.

In short, yeah I’m very generous when I give this album a 6,5. Yet I think going lower wouldn’t do justice to this album. It’s really not that bad as a whole, if you can overcome the lack of cohesion, of professional musicianship and original ideas. This is just a feel-good record, not made to be groundbreaking. It’s just a man’s hobby and at least it sounds like he’s having a lot of fun.

Strongest moments: “Don’t You Cry”, “Not for Sale” and “The Light”.
Weakest tracks: “Route 23”, “War” and “Strut”.

Killing Joke - Pandemonium (1994)

2011-02-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

1. Pandemonium
2. Exorcism
3. Millenium
4. Communion
5. Black Moon
6. Labyrinth
7. Jana
8. Whiteout
9. Pleasures of the Flesh
10. Mathematics of Chaos

Long Live Industrial – 9/10

Killing Joke is one of those bands that never let you completely down. Okay, perhaps some considered the 1988 album Outside the Gate as a letdown, but all the others are never total disasters. Still, they manage to release totally stunning albums from time to time and Pandemonium is definitely one of those. With 1990’s Extremities album, the band wanted to return to form and show the fans they were back to making anger-filled rock again. Its success gave them more room to engage new experiments.

The band has always been a major influence to industrial rock and metal, mostly because they were making danceable rock in the 80s long before the genre came to exist. By the time of this album, bands like Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Godflesh had grown out to be the big industrial rock acts, but Killing Joke shows with Pandemonium that they are absolute masters of the genre they helped arise. This album shows clear signs of adapted 90s dance influences, which might make it sound a little outdated, but if that doesn’t bother you it makes you move. Within the danceable riffs and tunes lie the anger, frustration and dark fantasies we know so well from previous albums. To this date, Pandemonium stands as one of the strongest Killing Joke full-lengths and certainly as one of the most classic ones. It also marks the first return of original bassist Youth to the band since he left in 1982 and the album features multiple drummers after the departure of Martin Atkins in 1991. The record features middle-eastern influences as well, spread throughout the record, but most notably found in the title track’s synthesizer intro.

As soon as the drums and lead guitars kick in at the opening and title track and the rhythm section slowly builds up you know you can’t escape. It cools off a little in the short verses, but the chorus only adds to the groovy madness, which goes on for about six minutes, which might seem to long since the song doesn’t change, but this is all about ambience. Same goes for the very aggressive “Exorcism”, which peaks at seven-and-a-half minutes. This is a very strong way to kick off the record. With the heavy “Millenium” the band got themselves a single. It’s basically a very heavy, dragging track, leaning a lot to metal, with a catchy chorus… if you like Jaz Coleman’s bellowing voice. This is by the way the first Killing Joke record where he regularly uses that bellowing voice of his instead of a clean voice. “Communion” drags along nicely with the eastern influences clearly audible here. Then there’s “Black Moon” to raise the tempo a little. It really sounds like a song from the classic Killing Joke from the early 80s. You’ll be confused by the chaotic synthesizer theme of “Labyrinth”, which makes you feel like you’re in a maze and you can’t get out. It even tends to go as far as being annoying. You’re glad you’re out of that maze when the song is over… but the album quickly recovers itself with the ballad “Jana”, about a girl that’s been tested positive on AIDS. You can hear the despair in Coleman’s vocals.

More towards the end of the album things are getting more and more serious. On “Whiteout” we are being tempted to dance with a serious beat and a delightful guitar riff, but as we dance you’ll see how dark this really is when you read the lyrics. “Pleasures of the Flesh” is one of the more passionate mid-tempo tracks with its very powerful chorus. If you think nine of the ten tracks is about the best it can be, you should hear the tenth track, for it takes the whole record to a new level. “Mathematics of Chaos” extends what we’ve heard on “Whiteout” to an epic level. Prepare for another delicious guitar riff accompanied by true dance beats. The chorus is downright epic. There’s absolutely no better way to close this album.

Without a doubt, Pandemonium is one of Killing Joke’s strongest releases to date and that says something, especially because the band very rarely releases weak albums. I highly recommend this album to fans of industrial rock and to fans of Killing Joke. This album is definitely a must-know.

Strongest tracks: “Pandemonium”, “Exorcism”, “Whiteout” and “Mathematics of Chaos”.

Killing Joke - Outside the Gate (1988)

2011-02-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

1. America
2. My Love of This Land
3. Stay One Jump Ahead
4. Unto the Ends of This Earth
5. The Calling
6. Obsession
7. Tiahuanaco
8. Outside the Gate

Killing Joke’s Black Sheep – 7,8/10

Every band intending to sound different with each new record will have an album almost officially declared as ‘the band’s worst’. In a time where a lot of rock bands included more synthesizers to smooth productions to their music, Killing Joke, or at least Jaz Coleman and Geordie Walker, become creative with this synth-full sound they developed on 1986’s Brighter Than a Thousand Suns. Instead of replicating “Love Like Blood” a couple of times again, they took a radical step into experiment.

It is often said this should have been a Coleman/Walker collaboration and not a Killing Joke record, which I agree with most dearly. This simply does not sound like Killing Joke at all, except for Coleman’s ever-threatening voice. Here, you won’t experience the fury of the wardance, the call for help in desperate situations or the feeling that something is not right. That is not to say they delivered a bad record here, but it’s just a black sheep in the Killing Joke family. Coleman and Walker took a conscious step to experiment with different, less obvious song structures, more focus on melody and odd time signatures. This album heavily leans towards progressive rock. That said, I don’t think Coleman’s voice has ever sounded as beautiful as on here, where he actually sings melodies. Drowning these ideas in a pool of synthesizers and 80s slick production and there you have Outside the Gate. Though it will never be one of my favorite Killing Joke records, it’s certainly not one to be forgotten. Sadly, the band is not proud of this record. It was the time original drummer Big Paul Ferguson was kicked out of the band and bassist Paul Raven (R.I.P.) asked to remove him from the credits.

The album begins with two singles that flopped. “America” has a catchy synth-theme and has a driving pace throughout. A good candidate for a single it is for sure; it is catchy, short and probably the most straightforward track on this album. “My Love of This Land” then shows a continuation of the sweeter side of Brighter Than a Thousand Suns and turns out to be a nice gentle track. Then the album becomes more inaccessible, starting off with “Stay One Jump Ahead”; a really funky track with slapping bass underneath all the time and with Coleman sounding like Freddie Mercury on his solo record. It’s certainly one of the more kick-ass tracks. “Unto the Ends of the Earth” really steps into the prog direction with its weird song structure and rhythm changes. It’s quite atmospheric, but is possibly the least song on the record, though far from a bad track. Mysteriously “The Calling” sneaks into your ear and continues in the same vein as the previous track, but leaves a more spontaneous impression. “Obsession” is as an uplifting track, but not as catchy as “America”. It’s rather prog-esque and has a powerful chorus. The last two songs are probably the best. “Tiahuanaco” is one that comes to your attention immediately with its catchy melody and its bombastic nature. But still, the title track is the most bombastic track on the album. It lasts over eight minutes and its eight minutes of pure ear candy. It starts off gently with water sounds and when the music kicks in the verses create a mysterious ambience until suddenly the mighty chorus kicks in. The bombastic, instrumental theme easily takes you into hypnosis and if you weren’t attracted by the other tracks, this theme will make you want to give the album another chance. The piece closes with a beautiful classical guitar-piano piece.

Yes, I think Killing Joke fans who dislike this record should give it another chance. If you don’t like progressive rock, there’s a good chance you will never get the feel of this record, but I hope fans of prog will once find this album and give it the credits it deserves.

Strongest moments: “My Love of This Land”, “Tiahuanaco” and “Outside the Gate”.
Weakest moments: “Unto the Ends of This Earth” and “The Calling”.

White Lies - Ritual (2011)

2011-01-27T13:09:00.001-08:00

1. Is Love
2. Strangers
3. Bigger Than Us
4. Peace & Quiet
5. Streetlights
6. Holy Ghost
7. Turn The Bells
8. The Power & The Glory
9. Bad Love
10. Come Down

Even Music is Plagued by its Past – 7/10

The White Lies are your best example of a today’s band with a yesterday’s sound. Having released merely two albums, To Lose My Life from 2009 and this one, it’s safe to say the 80s synth-pop is on full comeback now. Ultravox got back together in 2010, Duran Duran is back in the picture with All You Need Is Now, Keane has dropped signs of 80s synth-pop on their Night Train EP and of course the White Lies have been given a record deal. There’s nothing wrong with a little nostalgia, is there?

“Not at all”, you’d say when you hear the White Lies. On their debut album To Lose My Life they showed a good combination of today’s Britpop mixed with the 80s synth-pop style, which was to large success. Heavy guitars, dominant synths, explosive choruses and a typical 80s pop-vocalist. To big fans of To Lose My Life, Ritual ought not to be a disappointment, although some changes have occurred since 2009. Most notable are the even more dominant synthesizers. A lot of these songs are downright Ultravox songs in terms of sound. You could wonder if you are listening to a new album by a relatively new band or to Rage In Eden. Nope, this is definitely a new band, says the front cover. The guitars have also been mixed a lot more to the background, letting the synthesizers gaining the upper hand on rhythmic and melodic ground. The vocals by McVeigh are still as dreamy and typical as before and also the choruses are still as explosive as ever. But, this album has one problem… it is a lot less catchy.

Yes, you need to listen at least a couple of times to each song to ‘get’ it. It’s a lot less straightforward than To Lose My Life, which opened massively with “Death”. Ritual’s opening track “Is Love” doesn’t brag strength or fire power at all, but rather takes it the ambient way. Actually, I would not say it’s a good way to open the album. It’s a real fine track, but does not set a mood at all. The bridge of this song is really annoying, courtesy of McVeigh. With “Strangers” the White Lies perfectly introduce their newer sound by using a chorus of the type that featured a lot on the debut record, but infusing it with the Ritual sound. The result is quite nice, though arguably outdated. The same goes for lead single “Bigger Than Us” with its grand chorus. “Peace & Quiet” takes things into the new direction. Computerized drums open the song and the sound becomes more subtle and relies on the cold atmosphere of the synthesizers. This is followed with the equally cold “Streetlights”, which is notably less notable than the previous track. “Holy Ghost” and “Bad Love” are two highlights on this cold album, each standing out for, respectively, their danceable rhythm and nostalgic ambience. “Turn the Bells” and “The Power & The Glory” are two nice examples of ‘how to create your atmosphere with synthesizers’. Perhaps it’s a bit lame to constantly mention the synths, but at times when listening, that’s all you really hear. “Come Down” ends the record very gently and ambient, but not very strong. It seems the bad side of this album is the weak start and the weak end.

In short, I think this album should not be neglected by the fans of To Lose My Life. The album is weaker at the debut’s strongest point, but this shows other strong sides of the band, which makes it worth listening to, though I must warn you, don’t expect anything highly original. Most of it you could have heard in the 80s a thousand times or so. Still, I recommend this to fans of synth-pop and to pop/rock fans in general. It’s worth a few listens at least.

Strongest moments: “Holy Ghost”, “Bad Love” and “Strangers”.
Weakest moments: “Streetlights” and “Come Down”.

Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent (2010)

2011-01-23T06:49:00.000-08:00

1. Absolute Dissent
2. The Great Cull
3. Fresh Fever from the Skies
4. In Excelsis
5. European Super State
6. This World Hell
7. Endgame
8. The Raven King
9. Honour the Fire
10. Depthcharge
11. Here Comes the Singularity
12. Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove

Killing Joke’s True Comeback – 9,5/10

Oh how a feast it always is when an ‘old’ band reunites in its original line-up again. It’s often even most successful. See the return of Dickinson to Iron Maiden, the return of Halford to Judas Priest, the reunions of Black Sabbath, Kiss and many more acts. Killing Joke has never been truly gone as they continued making high quality records even on different line-ups. Nevertheless, after the somewhat disappointing Hosannas from the Basement of Hell from 2006, you’d like to think the reunion is the best that could’ve happened to the band.

The last record Coleman, Geordie, Youth and Ferguson played together was 1982’s Revelations. Youth’s last appearance was on the heavy self-titled release from 2003, while Ferguson was last heard on 1986’s Brighter Than a Thousand Suns. Killing Joke has always been known for that punch and drive in their songs that’s sometimes very danceable, but at other times very raw, mean and relentless. They sound like an odd combination of post-punk, new wave, metal and dance music. While the previous records focused a lot more on industrial metal, Absolute Dissent proves the joke is still as deadly as ever. The trademark sound from the eighties has returned, combined with the harder sound and better production of 1990’s Extremities and with the rawer and monster-like voice of the aged Jaz Coleman. This highly unique combination of the said genres still works and still showcases much more power than the hardest of metal. Killing Joke have been an influence to numerous of bands, like Nirvana, Ministry, Lamb of God, Nine Inch Nails and to industrial rock in general. Still, none of the industrial/alternative acts knows how to bring the music as persuasive as the original Killing Joke.

Absolute Dissent is a highly varied album. It opens with a clash of melodic, heavy new wave that truly shows signs of the classic Killing Joke sound, while “European Super State” is a lot more dance-influenced with the catchy beat reminding of the Night Time record from 1985. As a counterpart to that eighties sound there are some heavy-as-hell metal songs like “This World Hell” or one of my favourites “Depthcharge”. The monstrous voice of Coleman plays a great part in these heavy tracks. Then there’s a catchy anthem called “In Excelsis” with its somewhat hypnotizing vocal melody. It’s a true sing-along song. A track like “Fresh Fever from the Skies” sounds like a clash between the eighties Joke-sound and the 2003 self-titled album: heavy industrial rhythms with the new wave-esque keyboards on the background. This band’s reunion was actually caused by a not so great event. Long time bass player Paul Raven died in 2007 and on their funeral they met and decided to reunite. The result of that event is audible in the epic “The Raven King”. Never has a tribute to someone’s principles been such an emotional song. Those soft of heart, including myself, will shed a tear or two when hearing the powerful vocals of Coleman, sung from his heart, about everything that Paul Raven stood for. The songs not mentioned would have formed a decent album, but this song takes it all to another level. Album closer “Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove” holds a powerful ambience and ends the record on the highest level possible.

In short, Absolute Dissent is a Killing Joke fan’s wet dream. The original line-up and the best of every sound they ever had are featured here. There not one weak song to be found. Personally, this is the best Killing Joke album I’ve heard. Therefore I highly recommend this to each and every fan of Killing Joke, industrial music, new wave, post-punk and good music in general. This is your must-have album. One of the best full-lengths from 2010.

Strongest tracks: “European Super State”, “Depthcharge”, “Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove” and “The Raven King”.

Maximum the Hormone - Buiikikaesu (2007)

2011-01-23T06:06:00.000-08:00

1. Buiikikaesu
2. Zetsubou Billy
3. Kuso Breakin Nou Breakin Lily
4. Louisiana Bob
5. Policeman Benz
6. Black Yen Power G-man Spy
7. Akagi
8. Kyoukatsu
9. Bikini Sports Punchin
10. What's Up People!
11. Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura Purin Purin Boron Nururu Rero Rero
12. Shimi
13. Koi No Mega Lover

ADHD Japanese Band on Crack – 8/10

Sometimes we meet bands or artists that produce music we deem classics. These are mostly very serious artists that make their work sound very thought out and brilliantly composed. Well… Maximum the Hormone sure isn't anything like that. In case the front cover didn’t already tell you, this is freak rock at its freakiest and at its most Japanese. In their spontaneous enthusiasm, Maximum the Hormone cover more musical styles and genres one this single album than most bands do in their entire career.

The sheer image this band has adopted is one that makes anyone smile: a big friendly guitarist, a psycho metal-rapper frontman, a bass player with a strange haircut and a female drummer with dyed hair. They each represent one element of the band’s sound. The friendly guitarist Ryo Kawakita stands for the friendly sound they adopt when they go punk rock all the way; the psycho rapper Daisuke Tsuda comes in when they’re up for some serious ass kicking metal; the bass player Futoshi Uehara shows they go know what they’re at when you hear him slapping in a metal song and the female drummer Nao Kawakita represents the softer side with her voice. On drums on the other hand, she is as crazy as the others. The band flies from one style to the other and adopts many faces without losing their own face. Musically they have a real chemistry as they easily know how to perform these weird pieces live on stage in the same insane atmosphere. Technically, they all know what they’re doing. Combine both and Maximum the Hormone becomes one of the better bands from Japan you’ve heard.

With “Buiikikaesu” we are immediately exposed to the band’s inventive sound. Heavy guitars, the weird rap-grunts and a really funky bass underneath. If you thought that was it, they go towards a catchy punk rock in the chorus. We get to hear the Ryo’s more friendly voice on “Zetsubou Billy”, which is more or less part of the soundtrack to the famous Death Note anime. Nao’s voice on “Kuso Breakin’ Nou Breakin’ Lily” instantly turns the song into a cute children’s anthem and the catchy punk rock once again takes over in the chorus. After that “Louisiana Bob” shows the real metal side of the band with the harsh vocals of Daisuke Tsuda spicing up the song. The chorus once again takes the song to a happy end with punk rock influences. Basically the album further consists of these metal/punk hybrid songs, executed in a crowded and energetic way. The exotic sound of the Japanese language helps providing the uniqueness in the songs. Further highlights include the heavy-as-hell “What’s Up People!”, another song from the Death Note soundtrack, the childish-sounding “Chu Chu Lovely […]”, which just brings a smile to anyone’s face, and my personal favourite “Koi No Mega Lover”, which starts of with a punk riff, until a dance-theme takes over in the chorus and then goes heavy metal. The quick pronunciation of the Japanese language adds a lot to the metal part.

While basically every song is worth listening on this album, as a record it becomes a little tedious on “Kyoukatsu”, “Akagi” and “Bikini Sports Punching”. Every album has its weaker tracks and these songs just lack the inventiveness and intensity the other tracks have so much. What more can be said about an album that’s basically a great album? I’d recommend this to each and every fan of experimental music genres and J-rock in general. Personally, I would love to hear more of this unique band.

Strongest tracks: “Buiikikaesu”, “Louisiana Bob”, “What’s Up People” and “Koi No Mega Lover”.
Weakest tracks: “Akagi”, “Kyoukatsu” and “Bikini Sports Punchin’”.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T02:05:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! And of course welcome to 2011.

What will happen on this blog this year? As you might have noticed the amount of reviews coming in has dramatically decreased since we finished the Kayak/Queen months. With an average of 3 reviews per month since, that's a difference of about 15 reviews. I hope to increase the amount of reviews again. I won't be getting to 18 reviews per month anymore, but more than 3 must be possible, don't you agree?

The hardest part of maintaining such a review blog is often "what album must I review now?" In the beginning of the blog I received a very few requests on which full-lengths I should consider writing a review for. These were the sole Amon Amarth review I did and the Perfect Symmetry by Keane review. Therefor I would like more readers to request a review by simply e-mailing me through this blogspot site. If the album is way out of my taste I would reject it, but if it is not then I will probably take the request. I would encourage all you readers not to hesitate to request reviews.

That being said, enjoy the new year 2011 and hopefully you'll all be reading this blog same time next year.

The_CrY

Coldplay - Prospekt's March [EP] (2008)

2010-12-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

1. Life in Technicolor ii
2. Postcards from Far Away
3. Glass of Water
4. Rainy Day
5. Prospekt's March/Poppyfields
6. Lost+
7. Lovers in Japan (Osaka Sun mix)
8. Now My Feet Won't Touch the Ground

Now it’s Complete – 7,8/10

On its own, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends didn’t really feel like a whole full-length release, even though I said it was their best at the time. I am probably biased in my judgement of that album alone, because I never knew the album that well without the Prospekt’s March EP attached to it. This little addition to the main album made it complete as this would probably have been on the album itself if the record label would have shown a little more patience.

In terms of sound, ambience and songs, this little EP picks it up where Viva La Vida Or […] had left it. There’s the intimate and somewhat experimentally acoustic sound again. This even features a new, finished version of “Life in Technicolor”; this time appropriately entitled “Life in Technicolor ii”. This version further expands the instrumental concept of the first edition and adds vocal melodies and lyrics to the song. Now the song is finished it has become one of my Coldplay favorites. “Postcards from Far Away” is purely an instrumental resting point between the drum-heavy “Life in Technicolor ii” and the explosive “Glass of Water”, another one of Coldplay’s best tracks ever. The verses feature a somewhat funky rhythm and the chorus explodes with the bombast of the X&Y album and the intimate sound of the 2008 album. “Rainy Day” further expands into unusual rhythms with its computerized intro and uses the same synthesizer-sound as in “Viva la Vida”. “Prospekt’s March/Poppyfields” is a beautiful ambient ballad, somewhat reminding of the gentle tracks from the Parachutes era.

Then come the rehashes. “Lost+” is a new rendition of “Lost!”, this time with rapper Jay-Z contributing some raps on the bridge. His voice wasn’t mixed properly in the music, not to mention “yeah, uhuh, I got you, uh” doesn’t match Coldplay’s attitude. In other words: this version pretty much fails. Then there is “Lovers in Japan (Osaka Sun mix)”, which is just the same song as the album version, but just without “Reign of Love” attached to it and with an extra voice dub in the second verse. “Now My Feet Won’t Touch the Ground” has this typical bedroom-ambience they also created on X&Y’s “Til Kingdom Come”, except that this time there are additional instruments that join the track about halfway. It’s a quite satisfying closer to the “Viva la Vida”-era of one of the most relevant bands of today.

In the end, Prospekt’s March is a very welcome addition to the Coldplay discography, even though most of the tracks featuring here simply should have been on the actual album. Still, I’m glad they were released, even if eventually. Highly recommended to fans of Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends.

Strongest moments: “Life in Technicolor ii” and “Glass of Water”.
Weakest moment: “Lost+”.

Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

2010-12-22T05:31:00.000-08:00

1. Life in Technicolor
2. Cemeteries of London
3. Lost!
4. 42
5. Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love
6. Yes
7. Viva la Vida
8. Violet Hill
9. Strawberry Swing
10. Death and All His Friends

Well Worth the Wait – 8/10

Coldplay albums have always shared one thing: they were always well-received and always very different from the previous release. Not to mention every album has its fair share of big hits. Yes, commercially, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends was no different in those aspects. After all, there’s probably not a single soul in the world that hasn’t heard “Viva la Vida” at least once in their lives. Having worked with producer Brian Eno on this album, expectations were high and I think they’ve been lived up to.

Where to begin with describing the differences with previous efforts? There’s so much difference. First, the band experimented with different recording locations, which is quite evident in the somewhat intimate sound they developed. It all comes right at you. Vocalist Chris Martin more often uses his lower register and only rarely uses his trademark falsetto, which made famous hits like “Talk” or “Clocks” so memorable. No, it’s quite evident Coldplay wants to take a different approach this time. Compared to X&Y, the album is a lot gentler. There are no rock tracks like “Talk” or “Speed of Sound”. Instead you get these modest songs like “Cemeteries of London” or “Lost!” that show a completely different side of the band, but it’s one side that’s been quite fully explored on this album.

The album opens with the somewhat exotic sounding instrumental “Life in Technicolor”. It’s a brilliant intro to the album and is built up really well with a great climax just before we pass on to “Cemeteries of London”. This track is quite uplifting but very ambient at the same time. Since the whole album relies on ambience, this album really is a grower and needs patience. “Lost!” is a drum-heavy song that somewhat takes the listener into a trance with its ongoing rhythm. Then with “42” we get ourselves a mini-epic sharing the same build-up as X&Y’s “Fix You” by first being extremely gentle and in the middle burst out into a more upbeat middle part. One of the album’s highlights is the uplifting “Lovers in Japan”, another song in which drummer Will Champion shines. Watch Jonny Buckland’s guitar riff as well, it’s extremely catchy. It’s a bit of a shame that this song is tied to “Reign of Love”, a very gentle ballad that’s not a bad song by itself, but these should be available for separate listens instead. The same is there with the brilliant “Yes”; another ambient track with very inventive acoustic instrumental arrangements. Tied to this track is a hidden track called “Chinese Sleep Chant”, which is not bad but doesn’t add a thing to “Yes”.

Next is “Viva la Vida”. Need I say more? A four-chord quick-hit that stormed the charts all around the world and marked the band once more on the map. After the very intimate “Yes” it’s quite refreshing to hear the song kick off, but the true beauty of the track has been taken by the local radio. And of course it’s always fun to know the vocal melody of the song is mysteriously similar to Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly”. Sorry, I just couldn’t leave that out of my review. “Violet Hill”, the album’s first single, takes this record into a gentler direction, which is followed as well by “Strawberry Swing” and the dreamy “Death and All His Friends”. These last three tracks I mostly listen to as one, because they all carry on the atmosphere created by “Violet Hill” as it’s quite gentle but still holds power. The lyrics are also quite interesting here.

Now, where does this album go wrong? Although I think this is Coldplay’s finest album to date, an album like X&Y seems a lot more solid. Maybe that’s because this album wasn’t really finished yet? Later in 2008, the band released the Prospekt’s March EP, containing some songs that weren’t finished when the album had to be released. I daresay if some of those tracks would feature on Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, this album would be even better. But for now, it’s just looking forward to their fifth full-length, due for release sometime next year. This album is essential to every fan of Coldplay or modern pop-music.

Strongest tracks: “Lovers in Japan” and “Yes”.

Queensrÿche - Hear In The Now Frontier (1997)

2010-12-05T02:35:00.000-08:00

1. Sign of the Times
2. Cuckoo's Nest
3. Get A Life
4. The Voice Inside
5. Some People Fly
6. Saved
7. You
8. Hero
9. Miles Away
10. Reach
11. All I Want
12. Hit the Black
13. Anytime/Anywhere
14. sp00l

A Sign of the Times – 9/10

Just like a lot of 80s bands that entered the 90s, Queensrÿche felt it was no longer the time for their kind of music. Haven’t we been here before? Yes we have. A lot of bands made albums in the 90s that are not well accepted by the fans, like Scorpions’ Eye II Eye, Megadeth’s Risk, Dio’s Angry Machines or Iron Maiden’s Virtual XI. Queensrÿche were not much different, oh well perhaps the main difference is Queensrÿche never fully returned to their old status. With 1994’s Promised Land lacking commercial success, these gentlemen seriously considered making music that was more in the picture at the time.

Hence, Hear In The Now Frontier basically contains Queensrÿche’s interpretation of alternative rock and grunge. They reinvented their entire sound as a band and redeveloped their formula of songwriting. If it wasn’t for Geoff Tate’s trademark wailing vocals, you would never have recognized the band. Gone is the colour palette with which they painted classic, colourful releases like Rage For Order, Operation: Mindcrime and Promised Land. In return, the album contains down-to-earth straightforward songs with a very intimate production. Everything is close to the listener. Straightforward and heavy guitar riffs with relaxing and mostly groovy drum rhythms are the main focus on this record, with the necessary catchy vocal melodies on top. The band focuses a lot more on the feel of the songs, rather than the instrumental performances. We still have the great guitar leads by Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton to make this stand out from the other alternative albums and the star on this album really is drummer Scott Rockenfield who once again proves to be an amazing drummer and handles these grooves just as well as he handled the metal material on previous releases. Really, this band makes a change too huge for most fans to grasp. It’s not really a surprise that therefore this album is not quite popular. Nevertheless, once you get the feel of it, you will know it’s outstanding.

The album begins very direct with lead single “Sign of the Times”; a catchy and quick introduction to the new Rÿche with the catchy chorus and straightforward-sounding guitars. Most naysayers of this record will say this song is the one to get, but it’s not more than an introduction as it’s not getting as intense as later songs. “Cuckoo’s Nest” begins quite dry and doesn’t really suit as a second track, but nevertheless has a nice groove. The real thing begins with “Get A Life”. Though lyrically it’s a true failure, the song itself really kicks in with a heavy riff and driving rhythm. This is where the album truly starts. “The Voice Inside” and “Some People Fly” are two tracks that actually sound like Queensrÿche but are still unmistakably on this album; two little highlights though. With “Saved” we hear another song like “Get A Life”, but this time a little less aggressive. “You” is one of my favorites, containing a bit of an industrial rhythm and the best guitar riff. We get some rest on the ballad “Hero”, before we hear a very dry and direct intro to “Miles Away”. The dryness of a lot of songs is actually very much in favour of the intimate ambience. The track contains one of the finest choruses on the record. It's time to kick some true ass again with the heavy and groovy “Reach”, before we get to hear Chris DeGarmo sing on the power ballad “All I Want”. “Hit the Black” and “Anytime Anywhere” are more of those heavy, groovy tracks, which in the end are the best ones on this record. “sp00l” concludes the record in a classic Queensrÿche vibe like we heard on Promised Land. Its lyrics are critical towards modern day society, like we hear a lot from the band.

In the end, Hear In The Now Frontier is far from a bad album. It’s just a little hard to accept this change if you were expecting the progressive metal from the previous albums. Once you are open for Queensrÿche’s ‘obscure’ period, this record would be a good start; it’s easily the one that bears the most resemblance to the classic Rÿche sound at some tracks, possibly due to the presence of guitarist Chris DeGarmo, who called it quits after this record. This album is highly recommended to those that liked what they just read.

Highlights: “The Voice Inside”, “You”, “Hit the Black” and “sp00l”.

Edward Reekers - Child of the Water (2008)

2010-11-14T08:04:00.001-08:00

1. Inside the Pain
2. Stop the Time
3. I Love You Anyway
4. Never a Moment
5. Belle of the Ball
6. Child of the Water
7. Breathe
8. Eyes Like Twins
9. When Wise Men Say
10. Strawberry Blonde
11. Long Ago, Far Away
12. The Best of Me

Sweet! – 7,8/10

Yeah… that pretty much sums up Edward Reekers third solo album and possibly even his character. As we all know from his vocal duties at Kayak, the man has the sweetest voice in all of Holland and certainly one of the most beautiful voices. It seems he is well aware of that and makes his solo material a bit more adept to the sweet sound. Even though it has been sixteen years since his previous solo full-length Stages, Child of the Water is without a doubt a Reekers album through and through and certainly is a better overall record than Stages.

At Kayak, he mostly gets to sing symphonic rock, which has become quite bombastic on their last two albums. To add the contrast, Reekers chose to maintain a more acoustic and intimate setting with the piano and acoustic guitar as the main instruments. Sometimes even recorders are heard where you would’ve expected a lead guitar or a synthesizer. He again distances himself from Kayak by not going symphonic at all. This album is full of these sweet songs with sweet little melodies that would remind slightly of Kayak’s Periscope Life, but this time it’s not as bad. Most songs really go by at ease without adding any tension for the listener. Reekers must watch out not to go auto-pilot too much at times, but vocally he’s done an amazing job at each and every track.

The album opens with “Inside the Pain”, which really sounds like an acoustic Kayak classic, mostly because it’s quite an adventurous song with inventive and tense melodies. Hearing this track, you’ll have high hopes for the following tracks, but with “Stop the Time” we already get a sign it might end differently. It’s a nice and poppy track with a nice saxophone-solo, but the melody in the chorus tends to get annoying after a while. The sweet poppy tunes continue with lead single “I Love You Anyway”. Possibly another highlight from this album it is, and that chorus is hard to forget. “Never a Moment” takes it easy and slow as our Kayak vocalist presents us another love song. Edward Reekers is quite a Romeo as he appears to have written some of the finest love lyrics I have heard; like this fragment from the waltz-like “Belle of the Ball”: ‘the stars were no match for the look in her eyes tonight’. Title track “Child of the Water” falls more under the same category as “Inside the Pain” with its enchanting melodies of both the vocals and the recorder. It is tracks like these that keep all songs together.

Next are two covers. “Breathe” is originally written by Ultravox-vocalist Midge Ure and Reekers’ version sounds very real. We never leave the acoustic setting, but it’s still true to the original. Amazing how Reekers uses his falsetto voice. “Eyes like Twins” was covered from Wilson Phillips, but I never heard that version. There’s a very good contrast between the verses and the more bombastic chorus. One of my favorites and another track to feature a great recorder melody is “When Wise Men Say”. I love it how this song stays very acoustic and intimate but yet contains such a powerful climax. The lyrics are also very strong with lines like ‘when wise men say this man arose from nothing but clay, our statue makes the day’. Back to sweet poppy tunes with the Pim Koopman-penned “Strawberry Blonde”. Since Koopman was very active in Kayak as well this song has somewhat of a Kayak-sound at some points, but it’s still very understandable why this was not included on a Kayak record. And then we conclude the album with “Long Ago, Far Away” and “The Best of Me”; two great ballads with both very enchanting melodies. You can’t deny Kayak influenced Reekers’ songwriting at least a little since Stages.

In short, Edward Reekers delivers a strong solo record. But why not a higher rating then? What the man released here is a good album, but is it really anything we’ve never heard before? I don’t think so. His solo records never tend to be groundbreaking in any form and I don’t think that’s what he’s trying to accomplish either. Still, I’d highly recommend this record to fans of his previous solo efforts and to fans of Kayak.

Strongest moments: “Inside the Pain”, “Child of the Water” and “When Wise Men Say”.

Boy Kill Boy - Civilian (2006)

2010-11-06T13:20:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Back Again
2. On And On
3. Suzie
4. Six Minutes
5. On My Own
6. Ivy Parker
7. Civil Sin
8. Killer
9. Friday - Friday
10. Showdown
11. Shoot Me Down

The Typical One-Off Artist – 5/10

Ever heard of Boy Kill Boy? No? Not very surprising. I guess they had a small hit in the United Kingdom called “Suzie” and a song added to the popular game FIFA07, entitled “Civil Sin”. Actually, it was the latter that made me hear the entire album. And, frankly, this is one of the best examples of a one-off artist. They recorded only one album after Civilian, but it completely failed to impress so the band called it quits. That doesn’t take away that their debut album is good listening material and to a certain extent is quite impressive.

That certain extent is the fact that one of their songs at the time, any song, is perfectly okay. A track like “Civil Sin” is one of the finest tracks from the game I heard it in, but would you like an album by an artist recording eleven exact same songs? There we go. Technically, this band is top-notch. Every musician knows what he does; it all sounds very tight and difficult to play as a band. The production is very slick, but at the same time very clear. Every instrument is heard the way it’s supposed to be heard. So that’s not the issue. Every song sounds the same; and if all of these songs were “Bohemian Rhapsodies” you would not have me complaining about that. Every track is upbeat, uplifting, cheery, slightly epic, catchy, compact and unbelievably crowded. You hardly get the chance to breath between the tracks. Oh, and did I mention a few clichés? The chorus melody of “Six Minutes” or the keyboard theme on “Friday – Friday”, for example, is just made before. Perhaps not released before, but that’s quite understandable. Add to that the length of every track; they’re all over before you know it. Now I don’t deny that I slightly enjoy hearing this record once in a while, with the consequence of fatigue afterwards. But with every song being the same, you can’t expect this band to grow and live up to the current pop legends like Coldplay, Keane and U2.

That being said, this record will not be of great interest to anyone. I can’t believe these guys would’ve had die-hard fans crying when they decided to invest their efforts in other projects. If you fell for the minor hit “Suzie” or for the song from FIFA07, the best you should do is stick to that single song. Play it eleven times if you really want to have a clue about how the album sounds.

Strongest tracks: All of them.
Weakest tracks: All of them.

Amy MacDonald - A Curious Thing (2010)

2010-11-02T05:28:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Don't Tell Me That It's Over
2. Spark
3. I Got No Roots
4. Love Love
5. An Ordinary Life
6. Give It All Up
7. My Only One
8. This Pretty Face
9. Troubled Soul
10. Next Big Thing
11. Your Time Will Come
12. What Happiness Means To Me

The ‘Difficult’ Second Album – 7,2/10

In modern popular music it’s quite hard to stay alive. After a very successful first record, it’s is absolutely necessary for your second to be a smash as your survival in the music industry depends on it. So what did Amy MacDonald do after her debut album This Is The Life? Did she just continue to do more of the same or did she succeed in her struggle to survive? Where one might’ve expected her to do the former, it’s the latter that she actually did.

When you say Amy MacDonald, you say acoustic pop/folk guitar girl. This album totally changes that image. While she, surprisingly, wrote every song on this record herself, she really only sticks to the mike and her acoustic six-string. This is so surprising, because the album has a very full, electric sound similar to an album like X&Y by Coldplay: dominant synthesizers and heavier electric guitars. Where her debut album sounded like folk-rock, this album sounds more like ‘plain’ pop-rock with at first listen only her very recognizable voice as the connection between the two albums. After a few listens you’ll notice there are similar writing techniques between the albums, but I think it’s safe to say MacDonald survived the second round. What will be a disturbing factor on this record is the way most songs sound alike. Each and every track here is catchy in some way and has its charms, but they all share something very similar. It’s hard to hum a certain song when you just heard the album in its entirety.

The highlights of the album are almost the same as the singles. “Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over” is unmistakably one of the most smashing songs on A Curious Thing; it really showcases every aspect of this record’s sound. We get to hear a new and fresh side of Amy, but unfortunately after five tracks in this sound that side’s getting less and less fresh. “My Only One” really stands out in the way it’s crafted; with tense and unexpected chord progressions and good vocals. The absence of the drums in this song was a great choice. On “Next Big Thing” you will instantly recognize MacDonald’s trademark upbeat pop tracks and you will once again know that those never get old. “Your Time Will Come” reminds slightly of 2007’s “Run”, but still sounds refreshingly good. Album closer “What Happiness Means To Me” is also one of the better compositions on A Curious Thing with its slightly epic atmosphere and the dominant synthesizers; it also contains a live recording attached as a hidden track which is really one of Amy’s best vocal performances. Also worth mentioning is the guitar solo in “Troubled Soul”; otherwise a quite bland track. This solo is not spine-shivering or any of the sort, but it certainly lifts the track to another level and shows how little effort it takes to make your tracks become more than they are.

And that brings us the downside of this album. With most of the songs sounding very alike, they are all very compact once again. While this may not bother fans of the genre, as a self-proclaimed music critic I would like to see more of that instrumental magic we heard on “Troubled Soul”. Still, Amy MacDonald did a great job on sounding different, but still the same and I guess that’s all we can ask for as long as she falls under the pop category. I highly recommend this album to fans of her debut record and to fans of popular music in general.

Strongest tracks: “Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over”, “My Only One” and “What Happiness Means To Me”.

Halford - Made of Metal (2010)

2010-10-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Undisputed
2. Fire and Ice
3. Made of Metal
4. Speed of Sound
5. Like There's No Tomorrow
6. Till the Day I Die
7. We Own the Night
8. Heartless
9. Hell Razor
10. Thunder and Lightning
11. Twenty-Five Years
12. Matador
13. I Know We Stand A Chance
14. The Mower

Better Than I Expected – 8/10

A new Halford album… what could we expect from the Metal God at this stage of his career? Would it be as heavy as his previous two solo efforts? Will it be as cheery as Winter Songs? Will he continue what he did on the latest Priest release? When “The Mower” was released I had almost lost hope for a decent album. It seemed obvious his voice was gone; the live performances were dreadful… how the hell could a next solo release from Rob Halford be good?

Apparently, I was very mistaken about the Metal God. His voice is not gone; it’s just as good as it has been on a release like Painkiller. Only his high-pitched trademark screams are not as good as before, but hey the man gets older too and luckily there’s only one track with these screams and that would be “The Mower”, a track full of bland low e-picking and directionless screams. But apart from that, Rob Halford is absolutely not a has-been singer. He sounds so alive and fresh on here, at times you’d even forget he is close to 60 years old. At tracks like “Hell Razor” he even sings like he did in the 70s. Combine these fresh vocals with a very fresh sound of the instruments. Unlike on Crucible or Resurrection, the main focus is not a heavy guitar-sound. Made of Metal sounds very much like 80s Priest classics like Screaming for Vengeance or Defenders of the Faith. Tracks like “Speed of Sound” or “We Own the Night” might as well have been Priest classics. I think a lot of people who hear this album will feel this should have been the previous Judas Priest effort, and not Nostradamus, even though I really liked that one. This is also the first album to feature tracks that have been written entirely by Rob Halford. Mostly he co-writes them with his band mates. Talk about his band-mates, they are in great shape too. The album is full of inspiring riffs and terrific solos, especially on “Fire and Ice”.

Unlike the previous solo efforts, this album does not begin with an in-the-face heavy killertrack, but with “Undisputed”, featuring lyrics about boxing, Halford presents us the intro to a more melodic release with still enough power to fill your veins with adrenaline. A track like “Fire and Ice” sounds like an Yngwie Malmsteen classic, probably due to the neoclassical riff combined with the epic vocal melodies at the chorus. The title track is quite a standard track with a four-chord chorus and monotonous verses, but later on we’ll be pleased with superb tracks like “Speed of Sound”, “Like There’s No Tomorrow” and “We Own the Night”. “Till The Day I Die” is a real stand-out track. It’s very bluesy and clearly shows Halford’s interest in the genre. With tracks like “Heartless” and “Hell Razor” the album collapses a little. These tracks suffer from less originality and have a ‘been-there-before’-feel to them. With “Thunder and Lightning” Halford gives us another epic with certainly one of the finest choruses on this release. “Twenty-Five Years” is the only ballad on the album. It lasts seven minutes and perhaps that is a little too long for this song, but then again, it’s a good track and a very personal song. With “Matador” we get another track about racing, but it has these very catchy melodies and even reminds me a bit of “Nostradamus” in the chorus. The final epic “I Know We Stand A Chance” could’ve been expanded upon, but it’s a good track and should’ve been the last track. “The Mower” closes the album, and surprisingly the song is a grower. It’s obviously the least interesting track of this release, but the quality of the album lifts this song up and makes me able to enjoy it even if only a little.

In short, Made of Metal is nothing like Resurrection or Crucible in terms of sound. It sounds a lot more like 80s Judas Priest with a dash of new Halford. Were you disappointed with Nostradamus? Do you want some more kickass old school metal? Then you’ve got to listen to this record, ‘cause it’s Made of Metal!

Strongest tracks: “Fire and Ice”, “Like There’s No Tomorrow”, “Till the Day I Die” and “Thunder and Lightning”.
Weakest tracks: “Heartless”, “Hell Razor” and “The Mower”.

Scorpions - Pure Instinct (1996)

2010-10-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Wild Child
2. But the Best for You
3. Does Anyone Know
4. Stone in my Shoe
5. Soul Behind the Face
6. Oh Girl (I Wanna Be With You)
7. When You Came Into My Life
8. Where the River Flows
9. Time Will Call Your Name
10. You and I
11. Are You the One?

Hidden Genius – 9/10

Isn’t it surprising how almost every 90s album by an 80s metal band gets bashed nowadays? And you should know most of that isn’t even deservedly. Take this album for example; the Scorpions take a different step in their career than cheap, commercial hair metal and in an instant the fans bombard this album as one of their worst. Lucky for this album there is still someone like me to stand up for this hidden gem.

Hidden behind the abominable cover art are eleven great tracks; all of them containing a lot of colourful themes and arrangements. There’s just one problem for our everyday Scorpions fan: there’s a certain lack of heavy rockers. Predecessor Face The Heat had enough of them and is perhaps the heaviest Scorps record to date. What better solution for a follow up is there than to release the inevitable opposite? Oh yes, there are a few rockers on the album, and probably some of the best the Scorpions have written. “Wild Child” with its drum-heavy verses and very catchy chorus is an instant Scorps classic, “But the Best for You” rolls on tightly with a friendly riff and “Stone in my Shoe” is a relaxing track with a typical 90s-Scorpions feel to it. Said quite blandly: the rest of the songs are all ballads. Now don’t you dare to trash this album just because of that. These eight ballads happen to be some of the finest the Scorpions have ever put together.

The first you’ll come across is “Wind of Change”-clone number two: “Does Anyone Know”; to sum this one up it’s a sing-along track with similar styled lyrics to the aforementioned track and is probably one of the less original songs on here, but still not bad. “Soul Behind the Face” takes the album to a whole new sound with its bluesy lead guitars at the intro. Given the often cheesy lyrics to ballads, it’s safe to say this one features some of the most thoughtful love-styled lyrics they’ve written. A lot of arrangements have been done with the clean and acoustic guitars, though the electric guitar still mostly blinks at us from the chorus and the solos. “When You Came Into My Life” is a very passionate one with a great build-up with very persuasive spine-shivering vocals from Klaus Meine. That brings us to another element in favour of this album: Klaus Meine is in a great shape. Combined with the very colourful and intimate arrangements of the songs, the result is breathtaking. We are surprised by Matthias Jabs when he plays some slide guitars on “Where the River Flows”, my favourite track off the album. In this track Ralph Rieckermann proves that he is the only worthy successor to Francis Buchholz and his bass-lines make the song. He does so much more than just accompanying it.

A little bit of guts are added with the acoustic swinger “Time Will Call Your Name”. Very catchy chord progressions vary with the inventive vocal melody in a way that is neither cheesy nor cheap. Note that this track’s chorus is one of the catchiest on Pure Instinct. “You and I” is the lead single from this album and somehow the Scorpions always succeed in writing an amazingly catchy ballad and making it so memorable at the same time. This is one of their finest ballads ever, even topping classics such as “Still Loving You” or “Wind of Change”. The almost orchestrally arranged “Are You the One?” closes this album and might seem like a weak track, but when you listen the album as a whole it perfectly closes the album as it actually sums up the record.

So in fact we have a pretty good Scorpions album here. Hell, on of the finest they’ve released I’d say. They might not be playing metal here, but that shouldn’t matter and it doesn’t. This collection of pop/rock tracks deserves to be much more than just another album in the Scorpions discography nobody knows. Underrated and highly recommended.

Strongest tracks: “Where the River Flows”, “Time Will Call Your Name” and “You and I”.

Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns (2010)

2010-10-06T03:08:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. The Requiem
2. The Radiance
3. Burning in the Skies
4. Empty Spaces
5. When They Come For Me
6. Robot Boy
7. Jornada Del Muerto
8. Waiting for the End
9. Blackout
10. Wretches and Kings
11. Wisdom, Justice and Love
12. Iridescent
13. Fallout
14. The Catalyst
15. The Messenger

Best Surprise in a Long Time – 9/10

How everybody had lost hope for the American sextet known for combining electro, rap and metal under the name of Linkin Park. After Meteora, which sounded almost exactly the same as the debut album Hybrid Theory, the band really needed something new to their sound and they knew it. In 2007, they released Minutes To Midnight and it was one of their biggest mistakes. You don’t change your style from kickass nu-metal to cheap radio hits… that’s just unethical. But then they said they were going in a completely different direction again and at that point you have got to stop hoping for Hybrid Theory III. A Thousand Suns is totally different from anything Linkin Park has released before, but it’s still unmistakably the same band.

It’s really a shame a lot of “fans” gave up on this album after only a few listens. I have reasons to believe this is their strongest album to date. The approach for this album is without a doubt very different than their previous efforts, with Mr. Hahn in the leading role. The entire album is very dominated by electronic sounds, drums and effects. It seems drummer Rob Bourdon and especially lead guitarist Brad Delson were on holiday during the recording sessions for this album clearly was not in need of a lot of drums and guitars. Most drums are done by the band’s DJ Mr. Hahn. A more positive move from the band is the more dominant position of the band’s rapper Mike Shinoda. After having very few space on Minutes To Midnight it is a good move by the band to bring the raps back in. It’s one of Linkin Park’s trademarks to mix the raps with rock and at least they didn’t give up on that. Mr. Hahn’s DJ-scratches have returned from absence as well; even as far as a scratch-solo on “Wretches and Kings”. Chester Bennington’s screams have not returned as persuasively as on the first two albums, but they did return on the aforementioned track and on “Blackout”.

In order to embrace this album you need to understand it and I think that’s where most fans decline. A Thousand Suns is a concept album and it deals with quite a serious, though not original, subject: a possible third world war, which would be a nuclear war. As a concept album, it’s brilliantly built up. Of the fifteen tracks present there are only nine full songs, but it doesn’t disturb because the album feels as one. The many interludes really add to the concept and to the feel of the album. Loose excerpts will not be half as impressive as the album in its entirety. Once you get that, you can enjoy this.

The journey begins with the electro-dominated introludes “The Requiem” and “The Radiance” which set the right atmosphere for the modest opener “Burning in the Skies”. This modesty of this opening track is a real strength of A Thousand Suns; it keeps the mystery of the album intact and brilliantly introduces the concept. Mike Shinoda gets to dominate on the drum-heavy “When They Come For Me”, featuring middle-eastern rhythms and chants in the chorus. A track like “Robot Boy” doesn’t really add a lot on its own, but in the flow of the album is fits perfectly. The song itself is mostly electronic with the exception of Bennington’s mellow vocals. My personal favorite part of the album begins with “Waiting for the End”, a great duet between Bennington and Shinoda. It opens up with some experimental electronic rhythms and Shinoda imitates a Jamaican accent for some catchy raps, only before Bennington takes the song and turns it into an electronic rock track. The reprise of Shinoda’s intro is the highlight of the track. Next is “Blackout”, probably very notable due to Bennington’s aggressive vocals like he did them on the first few albums, but this time the background music is not guitar but some kind of beat or autotune, which only adds to the concept and the atmosphere of the album. About halfway the song turns into chaos and after that into a gentle track. The album does not handle with standard song-structures.

One of the best moments on this record is “Wretches and Kings”. It takes off with a long speech by Mario Savio before we begin with the first and only guitar-heavy track on this album. It’s a bit of a catchy hip-hop beat portrayed by a heavy guitar and computerized drums. Shinoda handles the verses extremely well with some inventive raps before Bennington gets his chance to scream at the chorus. This song truly feels like the good ol’ Linkin Park. After the second chorus we get a small sort of bridge before the speech returns and a good scratch-solo by Mr. Hahn. A speech by Martin Luther King Jr is included in the interlude “Wisdom, Justice and Love”; a real resting point after the violence of previous songs. Here is where the album reaches its climax. The rest of this speech is reflected in the Coldplay-influenced “Iridescent”. And then the interlude “Fallout” reprises some of the most important lyrics from earlier tracks before we enter the grand finale “The Catalyst”, which begins with electronic beats and some panicky vocals by Shinoda predicting our end. Bennington joins him and the panic starts to rise until halfway the song where the full band joins them in some sort of prayer for survival. Album closer “The Messenger” features nothing but acoustic guitar and Chester Bennington with his very powerful voice; this time preaching there’s still hope for mankind.

Now, I see in my enthusiasm the review has been given quite a length. I will say no more. A Thousand Suns is not for everyone, but only for those that can look beyond what they hoped it would be. This is not Hybrid Theory III and there never will be. Accept that and take Linkin Park for what they are now. This album is a grower and will grow on you if given the chance.

Strongest moments: “Waiting for the End”, “Wretches and Kings” and “The Catalyst”.

Rammstein - Mutter (2001)

2010-09-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Mein Herz Brennt
2. Links 2 3 4
3. Sonne
4. Ich Will
5. Feuer Frei!
6. Mutter
7. Spieluhr
8. Zwitter
9. Rein Raus
10. Adios
11. Nebel

Bombastic Industrial, with a dash of Mediocrity – 6/10

It’s been four long years since Rammstein’s previous effort Sehnsucht. Why on earth they waited so long with their third effort is beyond me. I guess they were working hard on a new sound to depart from the basic industrial metal they created on their previous releases. But the times changed to 2001 and so Rammstein updated their sound a little. Would this band work with a different sound or did this mean the end of the band?

Yes it worked and blimey this sounds so refreshing. It’s still undeniably industrial in terms of riffs and samples. These are still riffs to dance to while banging your head and in essence this all still sounds very Rammstein. Perhaps not all songs are alike this time, but there’s definitely some formula stuck in the band’s heads again. But first the sound. Where Sehnsucht mostly featured a killer riff with some nice grooves and then the monotonous vocals by Lindemann, Mutter has a lot more depth in the songs. The use of synthesizers is a little more refined than just the samples this time. A good example is the chorus of “Links 2 3 4”. The riffs are less notable this time, but contribute more to the overall sound of the song. This combination of slightly more dominant synths and pushed-to-background guitars results in a bombastic sound. With some tracks this even leads to a slightly gothic sound, like on the choruses of “Sonne”, “Mutter” and “Ich Will”. Now, about the formula, even this formula tends to get old in terms of the band’s creativity. After the sixth track “Mutter”, the album goes downhill quickly and that’s where the mediocrity part comes in. A refreshing sound is one, but if one uses it with mediocre tracks it only gives the listener headaches.

The album opens with the bombastic “Mein Herz Brennt”, which begins gently with Lindemann’s trademark monotonous voice muttering a few words before the chorus bursts out with an evil synth melody on the lead. The march-like “Links 2 3 4” also has its verses gently with a more bombastic marching riff in the chorus. Then some new aspects to Rammsteins repertoire are the sing-along tracks “Sonne” and “Mutter”. Both have quite unimportant verses but shine in the catchiness of the choruses, which are, perhaps, even epic. “Ich Will” is another high quality standard industrial track, with some highly entertaining lyrics. One of the finest tracks would be “Feuer Frei!”, the famous hard-industrial up-tempo anthem. This is truly a great kickass song, except for the annoying vocal performance at the break. Lindemann is not a singer, he should just be monotonous and not try to sing. If he’d just do that, Rammstein can’t go too wrong on the vocal department, except for the metrics. The metrics in his vocals are often similar and formulaic, which makes many tracks from this album predictable. After “Mutter”, the album goes downhill fast. The riffs have suddenly become boring, the vocals predictable and the synths have disappeared... It suddenly lacks all the catchiness, all the inventiveness and all the quality. Maybe only the narration at the beginning of “Spieluhr” is worth a listen. Even “Nebel”, what instrumentally is not that terrible, is totally ruined because this ballad would require a singer, and when somebody who can’t really sing takes the job... you’ll guess the result. It’s a bit of a “Klavier II”.

In the end, Mutter is not a bad follow-up to Sehnsucht, but gets so damn weak after track #6 that I can’t call it good. The first six tracks on the other hand are worth checking out if you like Rammstein. The other tracks will be reserved only for those who like everything the band releases. But to new ones it’s not recommended.

Strongest tracks: “Feuer Frei!”, “Mutter” and “Ich Will”.
Weakest tracks: “Zwitter”, “Rein Raus” and “Adios”.

Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (2000)

2010-09-07T07:57:00.002-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Papercut
2. One Step Closer
3. With You
4. Points of Authority
5. Crawling
6. Runaway
7. By Myself
8. In the End
9. Place for my Head
10. Forgotten
11. Cure for the Itch
12. Pushing Me Away

An Innovating Combination of Genres – 75%

When you think of Linkin Park these days you immediately think of hits like “In the End”, “Breaking the Habit” or “What I’ve Done”. You can’t help to think of the commercial rock meets rap combination that somehow works remarkably well. But once, Linkin Park were a part of the nu-metal movement and one of the most innovative bands in that very genre. A combination of DJ, rap and raw metal screams... how on earth would that work commercially?

This band did it. Where Rob Bourdon delivers some solid drums, Brad Delson and Mike Shinoda take care of some asskicking guitar riffs and to top it off there’s Joseph Hahn adding keys and samples to give the music a more DJ-like approach. Vocally we have Chester Bennington with his aggressive screams and at the same time his beautiful singing voice, nicely varied with Mike Shinoda’s rap. Normally I don’t like rap, but Linkin Park proves anything can be cool as long as the song that features it is cool. And that is the strength of this band. The songs are simple in structure, but undeniably catchy and heavy. Opening song “Papercut” gives us a perfect overview of the potential of this band’s formula. Computer drums open the album, soon to be accompanied by catchy lead guitar melodies and some rap. Bennington shows up two words at the chorus and at the bridge. The song is rap, metal and a bit of trance all within three minutes! And then they didn’t even show their full capability of voice combinations. Shinoda’s rap and Bennington’s screams are varied so greatly they finish eachother's sentences and feel as one. It’s highly unique and I haven’t heard anything like this anywhere else.

After the rap dominated “Papercut”, Bennington gets his proper introduction in the metal dominated “One Step Closer”. “With You” is more of a combination between the two with Shinoda and Bennington swapping vocals in the verses. The downside of the album is perhaps the alikeness between the songs from number four to nine. However, since the formula is so inventive and never heard before, the album loses almost none of its greatness. The instrumental “Cure for the Itch” is the moment of Mr. Hahn to show off his DJ skills. And then the last song “Pushing Me Away” is a true highlight with its epic chorus. Lyrically, the entire album is very depressing, dealing with adolescent problems, which commercially would connect perfectly to their adolescent fans.

I cannot find more words to describe the content of the album. It’s a really good album and I would definitely recommend this album to fans of nu-metal and to people who seek innovating albums. This one is definitely one to check out.

Strongest tracks: “Papercut”, “Place for my Head” and “Pushing Me Away”.

Disturbed - The Sickness (2000)

2010-09-07T07:21:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Voices
2. The Game
3. Stupify
4. Down with the Sickness
5. Violence Fetish
6. Fear
7. Numb
8. Want
9. Conflict
10. Shout 2000
11. Droppin' Plates
12. Meaning of Life

Music for Children with ADHD – 45%

In the late nineties, a lot of industrial metal and nu-metal acts came up. Most of them were seen as a threat to “real” metal, as they were more commercial in style and a lot less riff-based. One of the nu-metal acts you can not have missed would be Disturbed. Whereas their debut album The Sickness is generally looked upon as the bands best effort so far, I must disagree heavily.

Today, Disturbed is quite far from their roots, from The Sickness, and I’m glad they are. The four-piece from Chicago are definitely renewing and innovating within the genre, but on this album their lack of experience makes the whole sound way too crowded, too raw and too filled up. The entire music is build around the rhythmic and charismatic voice of David Draiman, who really likes to make odd choppy guttural sounds, which is unique to this man. He is the one who carries each and every song and he rarely shuts up. Then there are the chaotic riffs of Dan Donegan, the man behind the guitar. His riffs on this album are mostly quite wild and unoriginal, with some exceptions. For example, his riff on the lead single “Down with the Sickness” is simplistic but so damn effective and unique with the use of natural harmonics. Bassman Steve Kmak is hardly hearable throughout the mix and mostly just follows Donegan in the accompaniment. Drummer Mike Wengren is a bit more notable though. At times he can be modest and just guide the song like on the groovy “Stupify”, but he also knows how to make the song rise above the others with his drums like on “Down with the Sickness”. This sounds like a band that at least can create a decent album.

Well, that moment is not now. Most songs sound a lot the same and are very crowded, in short. Within the nu-metal genre, this is not uncommon. Riffs often are carried by a groove you’d normally hear in RNB music. Also, there are almost no tracks that really blow your mind. The opening track “Voices” for example features some wacko chaotic riffs and some harsh shouting but fails to deliver a good song. The same problem features in “The Game”. Even in the instrumental parts of a riff, we have Draiman making stupid noises. These tracks are also way too compact and lack calmness. “Stupify” is a much better track with a good groove but doesn’t sound right. It’s a lot better live. Then there’s the lead single “Down with the Sickness” with its genial drum intro and great riff. It’s just a killer riff with the harmonics and Draiman’s voice shows a more mature side in the verses. A true letdown is its interplay, where we would want a solo or perhaps something calm, but over a crowded and chaotic riff Draiman continues to shout manically which perhaps fits the lyrical theme of the song, but only adds to the chaotic nature of the album. This way the album continues with some nice riff here or there but with almost only shouting choruses and crowded song structures.

The point when the album reaches its worst is two tracks. “Conflict” is the only song that annoys me so much I’d want to delete it from my memory. It misses every direction and lyrically Draiman never stops shouting ‘enemy!’. Then there is “Dropping Plates”. As the song is nothing special, just another chaotic failure, Draiman, again, decided to ruin the song even further by using harsh language in the lyrics. He also does that in the interplay of “Down with the Sickness”, but that one is saved by its great verses and chorus. “Dropping Plates” has nothing decent to it. Then there’s the Tears For Fears cover “Shout 2000”. Disturbed has a talent for doing covers. It really changes an 80s pop song into a modern metal track. But if I remember correctly the original had a synthesizer interlude... unfortunately Draiman can’t shut up even when that interlude begins. It would add so much more depth if he would just shut his mouth for a few seconds.

In short, this crowded and chaotic debut album of every child’s favorite metal band is worthy only of the trashcan. Perhaps you should get “Down with the Sickness”, but for the other tracks, don’t bother. And don’t even think about getting the 10th Anniversary edition... it features two more of these tracks... what a way to treat fans. As if these twelve weren’t enough yet. ‘Nuff said.

Strongest tracks: “Down with the Sickness” and “Stupify”.
Weakest tracks: “Conflict” and “Dropping Plates”.

Static-X - Wisconsin Death Trip (1999)

2010-08-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Push It
2. I'm With Stupid
3. Bled for Days
4. Love Dump
5. I Am
6. Otsegolation
7. Stem
8. Sweat of the Bud
9. Fix
10. Wisconsin Death Trip
11. The Trance is the Motion
12. December

Industrial at its best – 8,5/10

In the late nineties there was a major uprise of industrial metal bands and within the genre a lot of albums within the period of 1997 to 1999 are classic industrial albums; among them Wisconsin Death Trip. Few fans of the genre have not heard of Static-X and their promising debut. This is arguably one of the best albums the genre has to offer and the best album Static-X would release until this very date.

We’ve seen a lot of ‘classic’ industrial albums on this site such as Rammstein’s Sehnsucht or Rob Zombie’s Hellbilly Deluxe. Needless to say all three albums rely on the brilliant combination of heavy metal and dance rhythms by means of metal guitars and computer samples; Static-X is no different. We’ve also seen that vocalists never really sing, but merely emit the lyrics as monotonously as possible; Wayne Static is no different. Then what makes this album so much better than most of its contemporaries? The difference lies in a few corners. First, Static-X is much heavier than other industrial acts and therefore a lot less commercial. They call themselves ‘evil disco’ and that is only the right way to describe them. Where Rammstein or Rob Zombie still sounds disco-friendly, Static-X distances themselves from the mainstream sound and becomes more of an underground industrial act. Second, Wayne Static has a lot more ways to express himself than the other vocalists I’ve heard in this genre. He combines raw vocals with various emotions and tone-heights, while not really singing. Apart from that, he has a loyal bassist at his side in Tony Campos who adds some extra dimensions with his low growls. All these elements combined make Static-X one of the most unique bands in the music world.

There’s also a lot more variation among the tracks themselves. While the first ten tracks are basically to-the-point industrial tracks with heavy riffs, groovy rhythms and unique vocal performances, with a few absolute highlights such as the classic “Push It”, “I’m With Stupid” and “Otsegolation” with its killer groove. Near the end we see some atmospheric industrial, which I’ve never heard before. “The Trance is the Motion” takes us to a relaxed track with soft grooves and a sudden outburst of Static’s vocals. The so beautiful “December” ends the album with style in an industrial ballad. It’s a very silent track with softer vocals than heard before and a bit of an epic feel to it. I believe this is the first industrial ballad I’ve heard. The rest of the album mostly continues to combine simple-but-heavy guitar riffs with the most extreme of grooves. The unique combination of that type of songs and Static’s vocals is certainly promising, but it’s hard to think of what the band would do next as this is one of the hardest genres to be inventive in.

In short, this is the best industrial album I’ve heard so far. It’s got everything a typical album of the genre needs and way more than that too. I would gladly recommend this to any fan of industrial metal or to people who are new to the genre. It’s a perfectly accessible album if you can appreciate the vocals.

Highlights: “Push It”, “Otsegolation” and “The Trance is the Motion”.

Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe (1998)

2010-08-17T12:55:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Call of the Zombie
2. Superbeast
3. Dragula
4. Living Dead Girl
5. Perversion 99
6. Demonoid Phenomenon
7. Spookshow Baby
8. How to Make a Monster
9. Meet the Creeper
10. The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore
11. What Lurks on Channel X?
12. Return of the Phantom Stranger
13. The Beginning of the End

Horror Metal...?! – 7/10

In search for some good industrial metal, I came across Rob Zombie’s debut album Hellbilly Deluxe. While this album is mostly industrial in terms of style, Zombie’s name already suggests he won’t be singing about ladybugs and flowers. The lyrics are true horror tales in itself, which gives a dark-but-not-depressive tone to the album. As for the music; it was probably one of the biggest industrial metal albums to be released in the late nineties. Let me tell you what to expect...

This is industrial in the very meaning of the genre. It’s metal to dance to. It mostly relies on grooves and rhythms that encourage you to dance. Think of offbeat drums, cool keyboard samples and simple catchy anthems. That is basically what every song on this record is about. The riffs are very simple, quite heavy and undeniably catchy. Now, all you need is a simple and obvious song structure and you’ve got your average Rob Zombie track. This all sounds pretty plain, but that’s exactly what this album is, which makes sure you will like this album but later totally forget about it. As for Rob Zombie himself; the man has a very low, bluesy and raw voice. Basically he can’t sing, but he can hold the tone, which is alright for this kind of music. Still, he can be a real pain in the ass when you’re not in the mood for his voice.

What could have made the album more interesting or more memorable is more variation among and more substance to the songs. Now, “Superbeast” is an excellent opener with its drum-heavy verses and brilliant build up. From here on we get a lot of tracks that in essence sound the same, such as “Dragula”, “Living Dead Girl”, “Demonoid Phenomenon” and “Spookshow Baby”. I’m not the type of listener that’s easy to please with ‘more of the same’. Every time the songs begin with some theme that’s alright, and then go to the monotonous but groovy verses with low vocals from Zombie, we sometimes get a pre-chorus of some sort and then there’s the chorus with that temporal attractive force. There are not really songs with reasonable sustainability. “Return of the Phantom Stranger” on the other hand is clearly different with at least an attempt at creating an epic in the industrial genre. Furthermore there are some fragments of uselessness like “Perversion 99” or “How to Make a Monster”. Personally, if one song on the album is not a song but some intermezzo, I don’t mind, but there are at least three of them on here. A bit too much for me that is.

In the end, it’s a solid industrial album, but not really fascinating on the long term. That being said, it is a must have for any fan of industrial music. If you expect ear candy rather than food for the masses in the disco, then you shouldn’t try this album.

Strongest tracks: “Superbeast”, “Dragula” and “Return of the Phantom Stranger”.

Judas Priest - Jugulator (1997)

2010-08-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Jugulator
2. Blood Stained
3. Dead Meat
4. Death Row
5. Decapitate
6. Burn in Hell
7. Brain Dead
8. Abductors
9. Bullet Train
10. Cathedral Spires

There’s no excuse for this – 3,5/10

When you say Judas Priest, your mind instantly travels through time and you name up classics like “Tyrant”, “Beyond the Realms of Death”, “Metal Gods”, “Love Bites” or “Painkiller”. Without hesitation you think about Rob Halford’s high-pitched vocals and the superb guitarduels between Glenn Tipton and KK Downing. But there’s a darker side to this band and it came right up when Halford called it quits. As a result Tipton and Downing, both accustomed to writing good songs, took Halford-wannabe Tim Ripper Owens to replace the Metal God on vocals. Don’t you want to know how that turned out? No you don’t. I usually dig albums other people loath, but Jugulator just lacks creativity in every corner and sounds terribly uninspired. It’s been seven years since previous album Painkiller, which everyone remembers as one of Priest’s greatest. Whether Downing and Tipton wanted to create something in the same vein or something totally new is not clear. The music sounds like a parody of what Priest was before and I daresay the band just needed a reason to tour. And of course, there are enjoyable parts on this album, but most of it’s pushed towards the end of the record or it’s ruined by what follows.

Let’s begin with Halford’s replacement Tim “Ripper” Owens. Some people praise his vocal talents and his range, saying he resembles Rob Halford. Well, he tries very hard to resemble the man, but he does not really succeed. Halford could actually sing in the higher regions of his range, while Owens only screams and he doesn’t even hit half the height Halford does. Not that it matters, but the man really is annoying to listen to. His screams sound fucked up, his lower voice sounds cheesy as hell and sometimes he just sounds like a barbarian that’s about to attack a wild boar. Then there’s the boring songwriting. There are riffs I made up the first year I picked up a guitar. The best example is the opening track “Jugulator”. It begins with a nice machine-like rhythm (could make you think Priest is joining the industrial rise), but is quickly ruined by a cheese-evil theme and eventually bursts out into a three chord riff that is just too ridiculous for words. The lyrics on the song are so wannabe Halford, about freaky monsters and terribly beasts. But this is not convincing. The same formula of boring riffs and annoying vocals is used at tracks like “Dead Meat” or “Decapitate”. It sounds just so unprofessional it’s like a textbook “How to make my first metal song”. Then there’s “Death Row”, which actually flows pretty well if you don’t count the tiresome fragment at the beginning... that is, until you hear the chorus. Are we listening to a band playing (or trying to play) metal or is this a child’s party and we’re singing nice cozy songs?

Then the positive side of the album... I’ve been negative for far too long now. As I mentioned before there are some better songs near the end of the album with the exception of “Blood Stained”, which is number two. The said song is not really different from the others around it in terms of sound, riffage or structure, but the major difference is: it flows and stays cool ‘til the end. This is also what makes “Abductors” and “Bullet Train” more successful creations than crap like “Burn in Hell” or “Dead Meat”. And if a song doesn’t flow, it’s not a good song. If it does, then you can be proud like on “Bullet Train”, which is full of adrenaline and deserves to be written by Judas Priest, and “Abductors”, which begins evil and stays evil. And when you’ve achieved that, you find you can also like Owens’ vocals. Then there’s “Cathedral Spires”; the long song of the album. Peaking at a little over nine minutes, this song is a true epic consisting of three parts: the first part is a ballad, the second a rocker with an anthemic chorus and the third is a mesmerizing continuation of the anthem from part two. And when you’re done listening to these tracks, you begin to wonder why they didn’t bother to write more songs that actually sound good?

In short, Jugulator is a bad album with some positive surprises. This is Judas Priest being totally confused about what the hell they are, what they’re supposed to do and what the hell metal is. Still, I would recommend the last three tracks to any Priest fan, since they are really good tracks. As for the overall album; avoid it. Don’t be seduced by the cover.

Strongest tracks: “Bullet Train” and “Cathedral Spires”.
Weakest tracks: “Jugulator”, “Dead Meat”, “Death Row” and the others minus “Blood Stained” and “Abductors.

Amy MacDonald - This is the Life (2007)

2010-08-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Mr Rock 'n Roll
2. This is the Life
3. Poison Prince
4. Youth of Today
5. Run
6. Let's Start a Band
7. Barrowland Ballroom
8. L.A.
9. A Wish for Something More
10. Footballer's Wife

A Young Scottish Guitar Girl with Talent – 7,5/10

Back in 2008, it was very hard not to have heard of Amy MacDonald. Her big hit “This is the Life” was played to death on every radio station and no matter where you were, you were bound to at least here her name. At such a point, it is impossible to ignore the release of her promising debut album, released a year before the single under the same name. The question you will ask yourself at first listen is: will this be a one-off artist or will she come back strongly on her next album?

Amy MacDonald herself is playing the acoustic guitar and mostly bases her songs on what she figures out on that very instrument. This keeps the overall ambience very acoustic, even though the electric guitar regularly bumps in for additional accompaniment. Her voice sounds quite raw and relatively low for a female voice. This whole combination of acoustic elements and this rough alto voice sounds quite unique and differ her from most pop bands and artists, and above all distances her from all the other female solo artists such as Beyoncé, Rubyn or Lady Gaga by not adding elements of R&B. Add a good amount of catchy chord progressions, upbeat rhythms and tempting arrangements and you’ve got a #1 album, which is exactly what this album was destined for. The album opens with the swinging “Mr Rock ‘n Roll”, which is a perfect introduction to MacDonald as a singer. Her voice sounds very powerful as she reaches for the higher notes. Her trademark type of song must be the four-chord acoustic indie rock tracks like “Poison Prince”, “This is the Life” and “Let’s Start a Band”. These tracks are all uplifting in both the drums and the vocals, but sound a bit similar as well, which is something MacDonald needs to watch out for. There are some very powerful ballads like “Youth of Today” or “Footballer’s Wife” with lyrics that sound a bit oddly critical towards certain types of people, but it’s not disturbing.

The downside of the album is the compactness of all the tracks. While some tracks are really outstandingly performed, it’ll always remain very compact as most of it is just intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-end. Sometimes I could use some more listeners challenge in the songs, but of course, one cannot expect that from simple pop music. Overall it’s highly recommended to fans of the genre.

Strongest tracks: “Mr Rock ‘n Roll” and “Footballer’s Wife”.
Weakest tracks: none.

Keane - Night Train [EP] (2010)

2010-08-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. House Lights
2. Back in Time
3. Stop for a Minute
4. Clear Skies
5. Ishin Denshin
6. Your Love
7. Looking Back
8. My Shadow

Musical Confusion – 6,5/10

After hearing 2008’s Perfect Symmetry, I was positive about following further Keane releases and when I heard they would release a new EP entitled Night Train, I was pretty curious. The mini-album on the other hand was pretty much a letdown. I bet a lot of fans wanted to hear more of the great piano rock the guys made their mark on the music world with. But unfortunately, Keane tried very hard not to use their trademark here. The positive step: they try to renew their sound.

It’s pretty much a continuation of what we’ve heard on Perfect Symmetry’s lead single “Spiralling”. A lot of synthesizers dominate the scene combined with bombastic, sometimes beat box-like drums. Actually, most of the material on this EP sounds like recycled 80s synth pop, with a dash of Keane, mostly only to be recognized by the voice of Tom Chaplin, which saves most songs from being totally unbearable, and the trademark bombastic drums by Richard Hughes. On one particular song, keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley even takes the lead vocals, to even take away from the song what it needed the most: a sign to make sure this is Keane. Rice-Oxley does not have a bad voice, but it sounds a bit too standard, whereas usual singer Chaplin has a very unique voice with lots of possibilities and even some similarities to early Freddie Mercury. More songs feature different vocalists as Keane chose to collaborate with other artists. Japanese pop artist Tigarah features on the abominable “Ishin Denshin”, which has the most annoying and happy chorus in the world and is not at all enjoyable in the verses, where Tigarah groans a few words in Japanese. This song of all makes it clear that Keane is just trying to find the boundaries of their can, which in itself is not bad at all.

Examples of good or at least better collaborations are those with Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan. Now, I’m not at all a fan of rap music, mostly because it’s all just some beat and some rambling about chicks. K’naan is different; on the lead single “Stop for a Minute” for example, he sings a verse which he does very well, and later he raps the bridge. His voice is not low and pimpy like most rappers, but rather high-pitched and fragile. It really fits the song, which is easily one of the best of the mini-album, not because it’s so much trademark Keane, but because it’s very catchy. The second collaboration with K’naan is “Looking Back”, but this one is not as mighty as the other. As with “Your Love”, as with “Back in Time”, as with “Clear Skies”, the song has some nice hooks here and there but in fact it’s just a piece of 80s synth pop with a modern touch to it. And this really does not attract me. Especially “Your Love” is the worst, due to synthesizer overload. The EP ends with traditional Keane style in “My Shadow”. At first it’s a ballad but later the epicness of the chorus embraces you.

So in fact this EP is not really a worthy follow-up to Perfect Symmetry, mostly because it is influenced too much by the 80s synth pop bands like Duran Duran, early Talk Talk and Ultravox. Still, Night Train contains enough to fascinate for a few listens. Afterwards, you’ll just put it in a drawer and never take it out again. Recommended only to die hard Keane fans.

Strongest tracks: “Stop for a Minute” and “My Shadow”.
Weakest tracks: “Ishin Denshin” and “Your Love”.

Summer Break

2010-07-14T02:47:00.001-07:00

As you might have noticed not many new entries have been written in the past month. This is all due to summerbreak. You can expect new entries near late august.

~The_CrY~

Halford - The Mower [Single] (2010)

2010-06-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. The Mower

What’s the fuss? – 3,5/10

There’s absolutely no reason for you to hold on to your seats. Nothing exciting has happened in the past few weeks and now we’re even starting to worship songs that are in fact ships lost at sea lead by a broken compass. And as soon as this compass tends to point north for only a few seconds we immediately convince ourselves that the Metal God is back. He is not. Only now, we are sure that he is gone for good.

This song is different from other Halford releases in terms of sound. It’s also the first time a Halford song begins with narration. When we’re done telling bedtime stories we receive an outburst of heaviness and the guitar and bass drums smoothly fire a round of bombastic heaviness. Not really original, but never seen before at Halford. Then, our beloved vocalist Rob Halford comes in. The last time he used his convincing screaming falsetto was on the Crucible record in a song like “Betrayal”. We heard him at two Priest albums and a holiday record since, and wise men have already concluded Rob Halford to be too old for this. Yet he manages to release a studio recording such as “The Mower”, this one, featuring his high screaming falsetto. Except, there’s something wrong... it’s even painfully wrong. It doesn’t go as fluent as ever before and this just seems as an obligation to the fans. The man is old, but still doesn’t want to admit it. His screams do reach his notes, with the help of some studio editing, but it truly sounds as if the man squeezed it out of himself, thus giving his last breath.

Alright, the rest of the song. Well, it pretty much doesn’t really get interesting. The bombastic salvo of guitar and bass drums continues to merge with Halford’s deathscream to the mid of the track. At that point, the song speeds up a little and lets Mike Chlasciak and Roy Z give us a one note palm-mute riff. In the meantime they sometimes play some random powerchords and Halford screams a bit maniacally and out of control. After a while the drum becomes bombastic with its tom-toms and the noise continues. Then the guitarists enter with a mediocre riff and a non-impressive guitar solo sounds through the speakers. And so it goes on a little with some variation in the drumming pattern and some more headaching screams from our has-been Metal God. Frankly, at the end it even starts to become a little cool, but that was only just a few seconds before the end, which is celebrated with a grunt from Halford?! Anyway, I guess it’s pretty clear now that the track is not really a reason to bang your head, unless you would bang it to the wall, but I assure you that deleting the single will be more helpful to the situation.

In short, this is quite a boring song that could sound impressive if you never heard Robbie Halford or metal before in your life, but for experienced listeners this should be a real letdown. If, however, the upcoming Halford IV album features inventive material in the same style, I could still be interested. But “The Mower” ain’t doin’ it for me.

Rammstein - Sehnsucht (1997)

2010-06-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Sehnsucht
2. Engel
3. Tier
4. Bestrafe Mich
5. Du Hast
6. Bück Dich
7. Spielt Mit Mir
8. Klavier
9. Alter Mann
10. Eifersucht
11. Küss Mich (Fellfrosch)

Good for what it is – 7,2/10

When it comes to commercially successful bands in the present, the metal band you’ll first think of is Rammstein. Said to be making industrial metal they strangely reach the ears of people sworn to hate metal. Rammstein really isn’t any less heavy or less noisy. It’s probably the trance influences that sail through every riff combined with the unique low German voice and a few catchy anthems that make commercial music fans think Rammstein is different from the ‘other’ metal. This band’s most successful effort would probably the notorious Sehnsucht as this record features industrial metal at its purest and Rammstein at their finest moment.

What is being done here is quite unique but is relatively annoying after a while. Trance rhythms with often the use of off-beat drums and synthesizer themes combined with a heavy cool guitar riff for the metal of it, and then we ‘sing’ with a very low voice that portrays evil itself. It’s quite ear-friendly as there are no astonishing guitar solos or shocking differences between the songs. What you hear at the first song is exactly what you hear at the last song. The trick with this album is not getting bored as the end gets nearer. Of course there are a few differences between each song, such as an epic synth-theme at the chorus of “Tier”, different tempos, different riffs, but the idea with each song is exactly the same. Just kick the hell out of a riff with a trance-like beat and silly lyrics. Sounds boring and I assure you that’s exactly what it is when you listen to it too much. But I won’t deny it could be very appealing at the first listen. It will not be helpful at all if I would describe this album track by track, as I covered most tracks already. Only “Klavier” will deviate from this formula by being a ballad.

With this being said, there’s nothing more to add. Sehnsucht is exactly this. Even when I listen to the album right now I agree with myself. In the beginning I am amused, but after song seven or so, I’m bored to death and reach for a different album by a different band. I would recommend this album to people curious about industrial metal or about the band Rammstein, but if you’re not then stay away.

Strongest tracks: “Tier” and “Du Hast”.
Weakest tracks: none.

Kayak - Letters from Utopia (2009)

2010-06-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Rhea
2. Because I...
3. Turbulence
4. Before the Angels Fell
5. Breaking the News
6. For All the Wrong Reasons
7. Under the Radar
8. Hard Work
9. Nobody Wins

1. Circles in the Sand
2. Never Was
3. Glass Bottom Boat
4. Horror in Action
5. A Whisper
6. Parallel Universe
7. Let the Record Show
8. Brothers in Rhyme
9. When the Love Has Gone
10. Letters From Utopia

Good, but could’ve been better – 7,5/10

The celebrated lineup that produced Coming Up For Air has hereby released their second and last album. This is the last album ever to feature drummer, composer and founder Pim Koopman, which makes this album quite special. A quick listen lets us conclude that the band continued in the same vein of the previous album. Yet there is one thing... it is a double album?! And there’s not even a concept... They must have a VERY good reason for doing this. Coincidentally, they stated on the site that they simply recorded too many songs. And that’s just the reason why this album is not as great as it could’ve or should’ve been.

Oh yes, there still is that heavy prog sound of deep and heavy guitars combined with the clear and fresh synthesizers. There’s a good variation of the powerful voice of Cindy Oudshoorn and the sweet voice of Edward Reekers, with the occasional entry of the somewhat hoarse voice of Rob Vunderink. Surely, the vocal performance on most of the songs is absolutely great and one of the stronger elements of Letters From Utopia. Only Edward Reekers sometimes seems to let himself go on auto-pilot, thus sounding rather uninspired at for example “Circles in the Sand”. This album mainly expands on the sound of the previous album, but this time also includes true epics and anthems such as “Before the Angels Fell” and “Nobody Wins”. Also, Pim Koopman seems on fire with his compositions as they are among the best songs. They are few, but great. The majority is written by Ton Scherpenzeel, who is responsible for some true gems, but also for the mindless filler material. It’s also good to see Edward Reekers having written his first song for Kayak. “Horror in Action” that is, and it’s got a bit of a nostalgic early 70s sound.

This album is overlong. We’ve got 19 song spread over two discs, but I can tell you it would’ve been a better idea to release one disc with a little less tracks. They could’ve used the other tracks as bonustracks or b-sides, if they wanted. Now let’s begin with the album-worthy tracks. “Rhea” opens the album with an insane synth-riff and some wah-wah guitar underneath. The verses are a real treat with cool guitarlicks by Joost Vergoossen between the words. “Because I...” is the first Koopman song you’ll meet. It’s an enchanting ballad with the heights on Reekers’ voice instantly reminding of the good ol’ 70s period. The transition from Reekers to Oudshoorn on vocals is a brilliant move. There’s the 8-or-9-minute epic “Before the Angels Fell”. All three vocalists feature here, beginning with Oudshoorn and a piano background, which soon turns into Reekers and a cheerful dragging synth-rock accompaniment. Not long after it becomes a truly symphonic masterpiece when the epic guitar melody is blown into your ears. Soon Oudshoorn comes back for some rock, and a little later Vunderink will accompany you through a fast-paced rock piece. And then it goes back to Reekers, the melody, Oudshoorn, a climax, and a sad instrumental outro. Without a doubt it’s one of the best songs Kayak released since 2003’s rock opera. “Under the Radar” sounds very nostalgic and sounds like it could’ve been released in the early 70s, just like “Horror in Action”. Other great tracks will have to be the Koopman tracks “Nobody Wins”, “Brothers in Rhyme” and “Let the Record Show”. The first two are downright epic, and the third is a pop song that just sounds very fresh.

Then the darker side of this album... I appreciate Kayak is trying to grow balls and implements more hard rock tracks on their albums, but “Turbulence” is not the way to go. It features a non-catchy synth-theme with VERY boring and hectic drums. There’re some perhaps funny things in the chorus, like the little screams by Rob Vunderink, but overall it’s just not well found. There are some good hard rock tracks on this album though, like “Hard Work” and “Glass Bottom Boat”, although they might not always fit in between the other tracks. “Circles in the Sand” is a ballad without power. That being said it mainly features Scherpenzeel on piano and synth and Reekers on the microphone; there’s no build up, which I take it, was done on purposely to let the lyrics gain a climax, but it’s the worst way ever to open a disc. “Never Was” sounds like it could’ve been epic and I guess it is a little, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before on this 2CD. “Parallel Universe” is a power ballad with Oudshoorn on vocals, but again we’ve heard it before. We don’t want too many of the same, and that’s this album’s biggest mistake.

All in all, this is not a bad release, but it contains too many songs. Luckily, modern technology allows us to delete those tracks we don’t want to hear in any media player, thus giving us the destined but subjective tracklist of Letters From Utopia. Here down below I will put my suggestion of the tracklist. I sincerely recommend this album to Kayak fans, since it’s just another good album, really.

Strongest tracks: “Because I...”, “Before the Angels Fell” and “Nobody Wins”.
Weakest tracks: “Turbulence” and “Circles in the Sand”.

Suggested tracklist:
1. Rhea
2. Because I...
3. Under the Radar
4. Before the Angels Fell
5. Breaking the News
6. Hard Work
7. For All the Wrong Reasons
8. A Whisper
9. Glass Bottom Boat
10. Let the Record Show
11. Brothers in Rhyme
12. Letters From Utopia
13. When the Love has Gone
14. Nobody Wins

Kayak - The Anniversary Box (2008)

2010-06-07T02:19:00.001-07:00

The Fan's Choice
1. See See the Sun
2. Lovely Luna
3. They Get to Know Me
4. Mountain Too Rough
5. If This Is Your Welcome
6. Life of Gold
7. Still My Heart Cries For You
8. Relics From a Distant Age
9. Daughter or Son
10. Phantom of the Night
11. Daphne
12. Anne
13. Lost Blue of Chartres
14. Love's Aglow

1. Frozen Flame
2. Forever
3. Icarus
4. Tradition
5. Avalon
6. The Last Battle
7. Friend of the Stars
8. When Hearts Grow Cold [live 2006]
9. Broken White
10. Cried for Love
11. Love Lies
12. Never Before
13. Dear Lover

The Anniversary Concert
1. Alienation
2. Time Stand Still
3. Man in the Cocoon
4. Merlin
5. When the Seer Looks Away
6. Niniane
7. Freezing
8. Sad State of Affairs
9. Medea
10. Behold the Firelight
11. Hold Me Forever
12. Only You and I Know
13. Where Do We Go From Here

1. Medley: Lyrics/Mammoth/See See the Sun
2. Irene
3. Close to the Fire
4. Undecided
5. Coming Up For Air
6. Celestial Science
7. Pagan's Paradise
8. Settle Down
9. The Flying Squadron
10. Act of Despair
11. Starlight Dancer
12. Chance for a Lifetime
13. Sad to Say Farewell
14. Selfmade Castle
15. Ruthless Queen

Rejoice... or perhaps not – 7,5/10

Kayak’s Anniversary Box is perhaps the most expensive Kayak item to be found in the store. As soon as I see a price tag that high, you’d want to conclude that the content of this Box must be pretty special. Well I’m here to reveal the mystery for you all... it’s not that special really. What we’ve got is a fan-assembled double compilation album and a concert from the Anniversary Tour on 2CD and DVD. That makes it five discs to enjoy or endure.

Really this Box is quite interesting, even though I might sound a little unenthusiastic towards it. It’s just not something you’ll be likely to listen to a lot. Let’s begin with the compilation album The Fan’s Choice. They were allowed to pick their favorite track from each album, and so the songs with the most votes made it to this album. It’s practically a time travel from 1973 to 2008. A true collector would already own most of these songs, but it’s good to hear them in remastered state for once. The best thing about the compilation is the inclusion of three rare tracks and one brand new song. The Japanese bonus tracks from Close to the Fire and Night Vision were included here. “Cried for Love” and “Love Lies” are from the former album, and are quite good songs with a little bit of a poppy sound, while “Never Before” from Night Vision doesn’t really fascinate me. The new track called “Dear Lover” is a very ambient power ballad with Cindy Oudshoorn on the vocals. The song is definitely worth checking out.

Then we get to the live part of the Box. The 2CD version of the Paradiso concert makes the exact same mistake as done with 2001’s Chance for a LIVEtime. They cut out all the talking in between the songs, while the DVD testifies that there in fact were conversations with the crowd. Now it’s just the new Kayak lineup playing their songs and older songs with applause in between. Perhaps it’s Eyewitness part III, you’d think if you would not have seen the DVD. The DVD gives us the full concert experience and shows perfectly how Kayak was on stage in 2008. Having been at a concert in that very tour, I can say it’s just a perfect rendition and reliving of the show I attended, which is exactly what the DVD should be all about. A shame I can’t say the same thing about the 2CD. Kayak need to understand what live albums are all about; it’s not about the songs and the applause, it’s about the ambience and the live feel of the album. Just songs and applause do not create a live atmosphere.

With possibly one of the most time spanning compilations of Kayak ever and with an excellent concert on DVD, The Anniversary Box makes a good Kayak collector’s item. I wouldn’t recommend this to the new fans though, simply because the price you could invest in this Box should go to the full-length studio albums instead.

Queen + Paul Rodgers - The Cosmos Rocks (2008)

2010-06-04T11:27:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Cosmos Rockin'
2. Time to Shine
3. Still Burnin'
4. Small
5. Warboys
6. We Believe
7. Call Me
8. Voodoo
9. Some Things That Glitter
10. C-lebrity
11. Through the Night
12. Say It's Not True
13. Surf's Up... School's Out!
14. Small Reprise

Ouch... – 5/10

What a big sensation was there when the two remaining Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor announced to record a full-length studio effort as Queen, albeit with a different singer. Can Paul Rodgers live up to the expectations of Queen fans, and most importantly, will the album relive or destroy the image of the legendary quartet known as Queen? No way.

That being said, The Cosmos Rocks would probably never have enjoyed as much success as it did, were it not Queen who released it, but May, Taylor and Rodgers. The Queen-level of the album might also be questioned. Does this album still qualify as Queen? Is Queen minus two members still Queen? Probably not. This album does not differ a lot from the so called ‘comebacks’ of famous old bands. As a Queen album, The Cosmos Rocks is average with almost no memorable moments, and as a stand-alone album, it’s a little better, but still nothing to write home about. Apart from that, it’s also all just loose song material on record that doesn’t complement each other. The Taylor-penned tracks are Taylor solo tracks, the May-written songs are May solo songs, and the Rodgers-composed tracks are bluesy little anthems and gimmicks that never belonged to Queen. Rodgers’ voice sounds very whiny and uninspired to me, probably because you always keep wondering what the great vocalist with the big range Freddie Mercury would’ve done with the songs. That’s one thing that’s hard to face; this is Queen + Paul Rodgers, and not Queen. Therefore, I will stop questioning the Queenness of the album, and review it as if it were a debut album by a brand new band.

The album is quite bad, but still not dreadful. The opening on the other hand is strong. “Cosmos Rockin’” is a true Taylor-penned rocker, quite reminding of a track from his latest solo album in terms of style. It’s a fast-paced and uplifting rocker carrying a lot of adrenaline along with it. Rodgers’ vocals sound quite calm and cool here and really fit the song. Second is a Paul Rodgers track “Time to Shine”, instantly setting foot on new area. It’s a bit of a slow-paced track build largely around the vocals, which lead the track. Whiny in the verses, hopeful in the chorus. May’s “Still Burnin’” sounds like written for 1992’s Back to the Light, his first solo record. A driving rock song with some glam-ish influences. It’s got a good beat to it though, but isn’t very interesting in the end. This is where the album causes mixed feelings. “Small”, written by Taylor, reminds of his 1994 album Happiness?. We’ve got here a mellow ballad with a more uplifting chorus, and of course the song’s got a positive message. Rodgers gives us a rocker with the somewhat cool “Warboys”. It’s a strong rocker with a tense drumming pattern and an active vocal performance. The last of the enjoyable tracks for a while.

Now we’re really entering a few lows. “We Believe” is a May-written ballad with another goodwill theme but some less memorable themes, though it isn’t bad, could’ve been a Queen song. Rodgers kills a possible respect for the album with his blues songs “Call Me” and “Voodoo”. The former features a very happy and uplifting ambience with some incredibly cheesy performances by our vocalist Paul Rodgers, while the latter is a true homage to boredom and annoying vocalists. Rodgers sings through his nose over a backing track where every musician is sleeping... I’m sorry; you’ve got to make a song more interesting in order to keep people’s attention and respect. After having fallen asleep during “Voodoo”, Brian May says hello with a ballad called “Some Things That Glitter”. While the track actually is pretty strong and once more could’ve been a Queen song, it still features the same sleep-inviting and annoying vocalist as the previous song. “C-lebrity” should wake us up with its strong and pounding guitar riff that reminds us somehow a very lot of... Judas Priest’s “A Touch of Evil”...?! Is Brian May stealing riffs from the Metal Gods? Aside from that, it’s a pretty obvious Roger Taylor song with a strong and present-day theme, lyrically something we would’ve seen on his solo records. “Through the Night” features more of the nose-singing boredom, and “Surf’s Up... School’s Out!” sounds like a forced attempt at trying to relive the old days where Taylor wrote these songs about youth and freedom... now he is old and matured. Imagine how that would sound. “Say It’s Not True”, another track by Taylor, is a ballad dedicated to Nelson Mandela’s AIDS foundation 46664. Lyrically it’s typically Taylor, and as a ballad it’s just another solo song. It features Taylor and May on vocals though, and even though alongside Rodgers, it finally signals you’re listening to something Queen members worked at.

Well, as you can see the album is not dreadful... but it’s just not Queen. The name of the product is not nearly as important as the quality of the product, but the name often invites us to have a peek inside the product’s packaging. I would love to hear the May- and Taylor-penned songs being sung by their writers on a solo record... I could imagine them sounding a lot more convincing. Apart from the quality everything points out that this album was not a serious effort to release something great, but only a moneymaker and a reason to continue the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour. As possible proof for this statement, take a look at Live in Ukraine’s setlist and tell me how many new songs were played.

Strongest tracks: “Cosmos Rockin’”, “Warboys” and “Say It’s Not True”.
Worst tracks: “Call Me”, “Voodoo” and “Through the Night”.

Kayak - Undecided [Single] (2008)

2010-06-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Undecided
2. Beat the Clock
3. [enhanced cd-rom part]

Great Track and Great Extras – 8,5/10

After hearing the Coming Up For Air album a few times, it’s not really a curious decision to release “Undecided” as a single. It’s catchy, well-composed and has a quite modern sound. If it was not Kayak, but some top 40 band who released this, I think it would even have been a hit.

The song starts with an intro played on acoustic guitar, accompanied by the piano. Towards the chorus more weight is thrown in in terms of guitars and drums and in the chorus there are obvious signs of the modern radio ballads in the arrangements. It holds a bit of a catchy epicness inside, but at the same time sounds a bit cheap. Of course, Kayak hides the cheapness with multiple voices, irregular drum patterns and a shrieking guitar solo by Joost Vergoossen.

This is one of my favorite Kayak singles due to the b-side. We got a totally new song here! “Beat the Clock” is understandably not on the album, yet still is a great track, featuring Rob Vunderink on lead vocals. It’s an up-tempo rock track with a steady pace and contains a lot of energy. It’s no earkiller, but it’s certainly enjoyable to say the least.

Other extra’s are featured in the enhanced part. Put the disc in your CD-ROM drive and you’ll be allowed to watch a part of the Nostradamus live show! It’s only a bit of backstage footage and a large part of the second CD of Nostradamus performed live with the cast and crew. It’s really awesome to see this, recorded from the audience by a Kayak official. Where I think the Nostradamus album was dull, it totally comes to life when performed, and this release gives us a teaser of how great a possible DVD could have been.

Conclusion: this is a great release. I don’t doubt this is one great release. With a great lead track, a very enjoyable previously unreleased b-side and very rare and previously unreleased footage to a Nostradamus performance, I can safely say this single is worth every cent of your money. Highly recommended to Kayak fans; this is essential.

Kayak - Coming Up For Air (2008)

2010-06-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Alienation
2. Man in the Cocoon
3. Time Stand Still
4. Freezing
5. Medea
6. Daughter of the Moon
7. Undecided
8. Sad State of Affairs
9. About You Without You
10. The Mask and the Mirror
11. Selfmade Castle
12. What I'm About to Say
13. Wonderful Day
14. Broken White
15. Coming Up For Air

Back to Business – 7,5/10

Kayak decided not to continue the line of rock operas and released a ‘normal’ album with Coming Up For Air. Such a normal full-length album with concept-less tracks shows the true capabilities of the lineup, just like Close to the Fire and Night Vision showed what that very lineup was capable of at that time. Coming Up For Air is no different and features another totally new lineup, one that would last for two studio albums, which hasn’t happened since 1978-1981. Bert Heerink has left the band again and Edward Reekers is now a full member of the band again, and the male lead singer; Cindy Oudshoorn decided to stay with Kayak after having sung roles in the rock operas; the new bassist found to replace the departure of Bert Veldkamp in 2005 is Jan van Olffen, one who deserves the spot without a doubt. The lineup is technically very strong and the success of the album would have to rely on pure songwriting.

In this department Kayak almost never disappoints and so this album did not do so either. They’ve adopted quite a heavy progrock sound, but still very different from the sound on Night Vision, mostly due to the changes on vocal area and the lead guitarist. There’s a bright atmosphere, partly due to the bright and clear use of synthesizers combined with often quite heavy guitar riffs in good variation with softer ballads with a lot of emotion. And still, the trademark Kayak sound is throughout every note they play. Even though there’s so much difference with the Kayak from the 70s, it still sound like it’s that very band after all. The album opens most impressively with the bombastic “Alienation”. A burst of melodic synthesizer melody combined with a heavy guitar blows in your mind and the heavy prog tunes are impossible not to notice. The verses are quite mellow, but the chorus quickly links to that killer synth-melody. What comes to mind quite instantly is the privilege of Cindy Oudshoorn to sing all the heavy rockers such as “Man in the Cocoon” and “Selfmade Castle”. These songs might even remind of progressive metal if not for the Kayak-esque arrangements. It is to Edward Reekers to sing the typical Kayak progrockers such as “Time Stand Still”, “About You Without You” or the cheery “Wonderful Day”. Vunderink does not get to sing lead very often, but does a good job on the funny “Sad State of Affairs”.

Interesting on this album are the ballads. Oudshoorn gets to sing two of them, “Freezing” and “What I’m About to Say”, two of which hold great power and epicness, especially the former. Oudshoorn holds this power in her voice Reekers lacks, which is probably why she is chosen to sing the more powerful songs. Reekers gets to sing the sweet ballads, which he does very well, as we already know from his earlier recordings with Kayak. “Medea”, “Daughter of the Moon” and “Broken White” are excellent examples of his great vocal performances, but he tends to sound uninspired at times, depending on the mood of the listener. I think it is safe to say he lost some of his vocal abilities throughout the years, but that still doesn’t mean he can’t sing; he sings outstandingly, just not as well as I remember. Notable is the album single, “Undecided” sung by Oudshoorn, which is a surprising track as it sounds very modern, which is probably the reason it was released as a single. “The Mask and the Mirror” is an odd track as it at first seems like a(nother) good pianoballad with Reekers, but later all five vocalists go wild in a chaotic scene just before an instrumental outburst of guitar solo. From there it repeats a few times and closes with an accordion melody. Last, not least, the title track is the only track longer than four-and-a-half minutes, peaking at a little over six. The song has just started or Oudshoorn enters in panic and soon it turns into a true heavy progrocker. There’s a great riff, a great melody and everything to turn this into a good song... until the break comes. Some waltz-rhythm takes us to Reekers and some stupid rhymes, just before we go to the reprise of the rock riff and guitar solo (which is good again). How you can force a long song like this? And then ruin it with a waltz that totally doesn’t fit the rest of the song? ...

In the end, this album is far from bad. But I wouldn’t rank it with the best albums ever either. Even though I have constantly been quite positive, there’s something on the album that’s unlikable. Perhaps it is the ballad overload; perhaps it is the song quantity; perhaps this is more just a collections of written-and-recorded songs rather than an album... ah well. It doesn’t matter. Though it might be bit messy, long and balladish at times, this album is a true definition of Kayak in 2008. This is what this lineup is capable of. I would still highly recommend it to true Kayak fans; they would probably like this.

Strongest tracks: “Alienation”, “Freezing” and “Broken White”.

Kayak - Kayakoustic Live (2007)

2010-06-01T03:07:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. See See the Sun (intro)
2. What's in a Name
3. Only You and I Know
4. Anne
5. Threesome
6. Hold Me Forever
7. (You're So) Bizarre
8. Land on the Water
9. First Signs of Spring
10. Daughter or Son
11. Want You to be Mine
12. Ivory Dance
13. The Fate of Man
14. See See the Sun
15. Royal Bed Bouncer [*]
16. When Hearts Grow Cold [*]
17. Act of Despair [*]
18. Chance for a Lifetime [*]

The First Real Kayak Live Album – 7,8/10

After the frustrations of the financial problems concerning a possible second leg of the Nostradamus tour, Kayak decided to take it easy and do an acoustic tour with many old hits that have not been played in the tours of the rock operas. This album introduces the new bassist Jan van Olffen, who does a good job playing his instrument. Vocalist Bert Heerink has left the band and is now fully replaced by Edward Reekers, the man who sung “Ruthless Queen” in 1978.

In a way this is the first real Kayak live album. That title was something the band gave to 2001’s Chance for a LIVEtime, but with all those cuts and edits it could’ve easily been Eyewitness II. Kayakoustic features less edits and has got true speeches and words of thanks. Apart from that it’s got the greatest tracklist, featuring a lot of uncommon tunes from both the 70s and the 00s. It even goes as far to add a guitar solo, or at least a solo song by guitarist Joost Vergoossen, called “Threesome”, which serves as a beautiful intro to “Hold Me Forever”, now sung by Cindy Oudshoorn, who decided to become a permanent Kayak member after the last rock opera. As the name of the album might suggest, it’s all acoustic. Shows in the tour featured one half entirely acoustic, and the other half entirely electric. This album features half a concert, with four bonus tracks from the electric half including great surprises such as “Royal Bed Bouncer”. I am also very glad to see “Land on the Water”, “(You’re So) Bizarre” and “First Signs of Spring” on the acoustic side. All of them are true album tracks and true gems, and I’m glad Kayak decided they deserved to be played live twenty years after they were written. Another great surprise is the inclusion “Ivory Dance”, originally an instrumental b-side to “Phantom of the Night”. When b-sides get a live version, anything is possible. Perhaps a bit of a downside to this album is the sound quality. Everything sounds perfect, except Rob Vunderink, he is a lot softer than the other vocalists. Actually the whole backing vocal-section can use a bit of an overhaul.

You see, I don’t need a Freddie Mercury type frontman to make my live albums enjoyable; I just don’t fancy too much edits. This album features the necessary edits, but still maintains its live ambience by keeping some speeches intact and by letting the vocalists thank the audience for their applause. These are two necessities live albums should have, and this one has both. If you need a live album by this band, then it’s this one I’ll recommend, even though it’s acoustic.

Highlights: “Threesome/Hold Me Forever”, “Land on the Water” and “Ivory Dance”.

Queen - Queen Rock Montreal (2007)

2010-06-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. We Will Rock You [Fast]
3. Let Me Entertain You
4. Play the Game
5. Somebody to Love
6. Killer Queen
7. I'm in Love with my Car
8. Get Down, Make Love
9. Save Me
10. Now I'm Here
11. Dragon Attack
12. Now I'm Here (Reprise)
13. Love of my Life

1. Under Pressure
2. Keep Yourself Alive
3. Drum and Tympani Solo
4. Guitar Solo
5. Flash
6. The Hero
7. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
8. Jailhouse Rock
9. Bohemian Rhapsody
10. Tie Your Mother Down
11. Another One Bites the Dust
12. Sheer Heart Attack
13. We Will Rock You
14. We Are the Champions
15. God Save the Queen

Another one? – 7,5/10

For those who love Live at Wembley ’86 and Live at the Bowl so much and can’t get enough, there’s another live album released. This time it’s a concert from the The Game tour. I really like good live albums, but I never find myself listening to them again and again, which is the case with studio albums. You can imagine I’m not particularly fond of a company shitting out live albums like they’re breeding them. At least, it’s not the way to make me enthusiastic.

We all know Queen is great live; we heard it before on the earlier live releases. So what NEW does this album bring us? The tracklist is vaguely similar to Live at the Bowl, except for the disappearance of the Hot Space tracks, which have been replaced with some older classics, which is exactly why you could think of getting this album. “Let Me Entertain You”, “Killer Queen”, “I’m in Love with my Car” and “Keep Yourself Alive” are the only new songs, and they are performed quite well. Needless to say, the other tracks are also performed well, with the ambience, the speeches and games we all know by now.

Conclusion: another good live album by Queen. Recommended if you really need more live albums by the band or if you are a collector. As for me, I’ll pass. I hope the next live album released will be featuring a totally new tracklist with some more surprises.

Kayak - Act of Despair [Single] (2006)

2010-05-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Act of Despair
2. The Inquisition [New Edit Version]
3. The Fate of Man

An act of despair? – 7,5/10

To release this single from the Nostradamus musical from all the other songs, was that an act of despair? Perhaps. Although the musical contained a lot of single-worthy material, there’s no surprise the old symphonic rockers chose this very song to promote their album. It pretty much sums up Kayak as a band and it features Edward Reekers, the man who sung on the big hit “Ruthless Queen”. What better promotion is there? If fans who disbanded the band when Heerink joined would have heard this on the radio they would certainly need to come back to the band instantly.

Yes, I am convinced “Act of Despair” was the proper track to be released as a single. It’s a beautiful piano ballad with a slightly sad tone featuring our beloved Edward Reekers on vocals and boy he can still sing those ballads with so much passion. A really fine guitar solo by Joost Vergoossen adds the finishing touch to another Kayak classic. It’s accompanied by two b-sides. The first is a new edit version of “The Inquisition” with Rob Vunderink on vocals. I never was struck by the album version, but all this version seems to change is to shorten the Gregorian chants in the middle. The vocal performance is great; the riff is great; but the finishing is poor. The chorus lacks a lot of originality in the chorus, which just ruins the song. The second b-side is “The Fate of Man” with Cindy Oudshoorn on main lead vocals. It’s a good epic ballad with a sad tone and concludes the single release well. It’s quite funny they chose to add three songs each featuring one of the three remaining vocalists on the lead vocals. This single was probably released by the time the tour was over and Bert Heerink had left the band to record with his sister.

All in all, this is a good single. Though the b-sides may not be all that original, it’s good song material for two-third anyways, and it will do well to promote the album and the band’s current status. Highly recommended for those who collect Kayak singles.

Queen + Paul Rodgers - Return of the Champions (2005)

2010-05-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Reaching Out
2. Tie Your Mother Down
3. I Want to Break Free
4. Fat Bottomed Girls
5. Wishing Well
6. Another One Bites the Dust
7. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
8. Say It's Not True
9. '39
10. Love of my Life
11. Hammer to Fall
12. Feel Like Makin' Love
13. Let There Be Drums
14. I'm in Love with my Car
15. Guitar Solo
16. Last Horizon

1. These Are the Days of Our Lives
2. Radio Ga Ga
3. Can't Get Enough
4. A Kind of Magic
5. I Want it All
6. Bohemian Rhapsody
7. The Show Must Go On
8. All Right Now
9. We Will Rock You
10. We Are the Champions
11. God Save the Queen

Champions? What champions? – 6,5/10

After more than eighteen years, Brian May and Roger Taylor dare to tour under the name of Queen again, this time with Paul Rodgers replacing Freddie Mercury and Danny Miranda from Blue Öyster Cult replacing John Deacon. The first question you will ask, is this still to be called Queen? My answer will be, NEVER! Queen was a famous quartet of four great musicians and the loss of two of them cuts them in half, and half a queen does not equal Queen. And this Paul Rodgers guy is good at what he does, but not at aping Freddie Mercury. Can this album be saved?

Oh well, there is ambience alright. From the beginnings of Paul Rodgers’ vocal yearnings in “Reaching Out” all the way to the familiar outro of “God Save the Queen” the crowd feels the music and responds to it perfectly. Speeches are all intact, but there’s one thing missing. I know it is comparing apples to pears, but Queen just is not the same without Freddie Mercury as a frontman and John Deacon seemed to be the only one of the three remaining members to understand that. Paul Rodgers has to squeeze out some notes in “Tie Your Mother Down”, which sounds just terrible and Brian May gets an acoustic solo suite with “’39” and “Love of my Life”, which is just too boring. Roger Taylor’s “Say It’s Not True” is a new song to be released as an electric version on the upcoming album The Cosmos Rocks, and sounds remarkably better than May’s solo section. The version of “Hammer to Fall” is surprisingly nice, on the other hand. It was done before in Brian May’s solo concerts, but not with Queen. It begins as a ballad and later explodes. It’s a nice duet between Rodgers and May as well. Another great addition to the setlist is “I’m in Love with my Car”. And mixed with the familiar Queen songs are some songs of bands Paul Rodgers once was a member of (think Free and Bad Company). These songs are downright BORING. They are waaay bluesier than the Queen tracks, and therefore aim for a different audience. In other words, they don’t mix. Last, there’s a solo track by Brian May added, “Last Horizon”. Why Roger Taylor always takes it that his solo material never makes it to Queen setlists or Queen greatest hits compilations is beyond me.

No, this live album is not bad, but don’t expect something in the league of Live at Wembley ’86. Paul Rodgers is NOT Freddie Mercury, that’s something to remember. This is NOT Queen the way we know them, and these people are not the champions whose return we awaited. Recommended to collectors only.

Highlights: “Say It’s Not True”, “Hammer to Fall” and “I’m in Love with my Car”.

Kayak - Nostradamus - The Fate of Man (2005)

2010-05-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. The Secret Study 1
2. Overture
3. Friend of the Stars 1
4. Celestial Science
5. The Student
6. Dance of Death 1
7. Fresh Air, Running Water, Rose Pills
8. The Monk's Comment 1
9. Seekers of Truth 1
10. Dance of Death 2
11. Save my Wife
12. The Monk's Comment 2
13. Pagan's Paradise
14. The Inquisition
15. The Wandering Years
16. The Monk's Comment 3
17. If History Was Mine Alone
18. Friend of the Stars 2

1. A Man With Remarkable Talents
2. Settle Down
3. The Monk's Comment 4
4. The Flying Squadron
5. Dance of Mirrors
6. A Royal Invitation
7. A Cruel Death + The Monk's Comment 5
8. Tell Me All
9. The Tournament
10. The Golden Cage
11. Seekers of Truth 2
12. Living in Two Realities
13. Act of Despair
14. The Secret Study 2
15. The Centuries
16. (You Won't Find Me) Alive at Sunrise
17. Friend of the Stars 3
18. Epilogue - The Fate of Man

From Rock Opera to Musical... – 6,8/10

I always like to think of Nostradamus as a rock opera gone out of hand; Scherpenzeel and Koopman’s enthusiasm that took the project too far. The success of Merlin – Bard of the Unseen probably caused them to go this far. They released another concept album; a double album. And this time it’s not 14 tracks of sheer brilliance, this time it’s 36 tracks with lots of tracks containing just some storytelling. A limited edition containing 12 tracks (or so) has also been released, for those who can’t stand musicals... maybe I should take a look at that.

The problem with this musical is not that it’s boring or badly composed; it’s just overlong. I love concept albums, but the problem with each and every single one of them is the unity as an album, thus making it almost impossible to single out standout tracks, since they’re all part of the album. At the time of release, I couldn’t really grasp this album. I have less trouble with it now, but it won’t be one of my favorites. There is a very large role-playing aspect to the album; Rob Vunderink takes care of all the enemies of Nostradamus; Bert Heerink plays Nostradamus; Cindy Oudshoorn (again) sings as Nostradamus’ second wife Anne Ponsarde; Monique van de Ster will star as the queen of France Catherine de Medici; Syb van de Ploeg plays the part of Jules Cesar Scaliger, Nostradamus’ friend and later enemy; and we see a returning Edward Reekers as a monk who comments on the story from heaven and is the storyteller. Apart from that, there are a few backing vocalists and Bert Veldkamp left the band so Ton Scherpenzeel plays bass here. Not that it matters; I hardly noticed Veldkamp’s bass playing anyway.

The first CD starts off quite fresh, but soon becomes dull and uninspired, with a few exceptions. The musical is introduced with “The Secret Study”, featuring Edward Reekers on vocals for the very first time since 1981. “Friend of the Stars 1” is the true entrance of the cast with each party introducing themselves a bit in a verse in a cheery ode to Nostradamus. The atmospheric “Celestial Science”, which contains a great melodic guitar solo by Joost Vergoossen, begins in the youth of our seer and the uplifting pace in “The Student” with Vunderink on vocals promise us a nice journey. Both “Dances of Death” feature depressing and slow signs of the plague entering the city, but are oh so tempting to skip. The beginning of “Fresh Air, Running Water, Rose Pills” features organ and lead guitar, and soon evolves in a melodic and slightly epic rocker to show how Nostradamus thinks the plague must be fought. A few chit-chats by Reekers later Van de Ploeg makes his entrance in “Seekers of Truth 1”, whose instrumental theme sounds like a rip-off of ABBA’s “Supertrouper”. The song itself sounds more straightforward rock than others, but ends up without having anyone impressed. “Save my Wife” is a highlight of the first CD, being a sad piano ballad where Nostradamus’ first wife and children have died. Heerink portrays the man and his situation expertly; he sounds as if he’s almost crying, and that works contagiously. “Pagan’s Paradise” is an uplifting introduction to queen Catherine de Medici disguised in a synth-rock track with slight resemblance to “The King’s Enchanter”. Then “The Inquisition” features a nice Hammond riff and verses, but blows everything with lacking originality in the chorus and an annoying Gregorian chant in the break. The rest of this album is not worth mentioning or listening; they don’t get stuck in your head anyway.

The second CD also begins strongly and gets weaker. “A Man with Remarkable Talents” sounds like an 80s disco track with Vunderink really starring as a vocalist. Nostradamus gets married again in the romantic duet of “Settle Down”, a piano ballad with an epic touch and a wonderful guitar solo. “The Flying Squadron” increases the pace with a touch of up-tempo rock. Highlight here would be the instrumental “Dance of Mirrors”, featuring a violin in the main theme, a driving rhythm on the drums and a disarming theme. “A Royal Invitation” shows the quality of Kayak’s ballads and “Tell Me All” takes it all back to rock ‘n roll, though beginning with a piano intro. An instrumental depiction of battle later we have a great power ballad in “The Golden Cage” with Van de Ster shining on vocals. Later songs really focus on the pathos and are increasingly depressing. Better tracks are the classic Kayak ballad “Act of Despair”, classic mostly due to the familiar vocals of Edward Reekers, and the instrumental “The Centuries” with its uncommon rhythm and time signature. Tracks like “Living in Two Realities” tend to rock but just sound like one chaotic mess, partly good because that’s probably what Nostradamus’ head is like at that time in the story, but partly bad because it really lacks any hooks. The “Epilogue – The Fate of Man” is a good closing track, though I find it wanting to be as good as 2003’s “Avalon”, while it doesn’t even come close.

There you have it. I see this album does not work as an album. If performed as a musical, which Kayak did, it could be great and unforgettable, but as an album it bores halfway and just is too long. I never liked listening to musical CDs anyway, and this is a musical only performed for one year and without a DVD performance... If all we have of this musical is this album, then the memory WILL fade away. Recommended to advanced Kayak fans.

Strongest moments: “Save my Wife”, “The Golden Cage” and “Act of Despair”.
Weakest moments: “Dance of Death”, “The Inquisition”, “The Wandering Years” and “The Tournament”.

Queen - On Fire: Live at the Bowl (2004)

2010-05-31T06:06:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Flash
2. The Hero
3. We Will Rock You [Fast]
4. Action This Day
5. Play the Game
6. Staying Power
7. Somebody to Love
8. Now I'm Here
9. Dragon Attack
10. Now I'm Here (Reprise)
11. Love of my Life
12. Save Me
13. Back Chat

1. Get Down, Make Love
2. Guitar Solo
3. Under Pressure
4. Fat Bottomed Girls
5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
6. Bohemian Rhapsody
7. Tie Your Mother Down
8. Another One Bites the Dust
9. Sheer Heart Attack
10. We Will Rock You
11. We are the Champions
12. God Save the Queen

Queen on Fire – 8,7/10

Hot Space is truly one of the oddest Queen albums and is not mixable with the other studio releases because it’s so different. This album, recorded on the Hot Space tour, shows us that these songs always sounded better in live. There’s still difference with the old songs of course, but they mix remarkably well with the older material. Apart from that the live album is filled with all the energy and games a real Queen concert must’ve had.

The crowd goes insane as the band finally enters with opening track “The Hero”, thereby concluding their Flash Gordon intro suite and they pump some adrenaline with the fast version “We Will Rock You”, which just never looses its power. There are the necessary Space-songs like “Action This Day” that are sounding surprisingly better with the louder guitars and the acoustic drums. The ambience is unbelievable on this album with Freddie Mercury making the listener of this concert feel as if he were there with his eyes closed. His games with the crowd are also never getting old. The setlist is also quite refreshing with more older songs included than on Live at Wembley ’86, like “Fat Bottomed Girls”, with the great harmonies of the Queen choir being great as well live, “Play the Game”, “Somebody to Love” and “Save Me”. To my regret “Get Down, Make Love” seemed to be a live favorite in those days, but it’s at least fun to hear the audience go crazy at the sounding of John Deacon’s famous bass notes.

Not much can be said about this album, except that it’s a great live album and once again shows that Queen is one of the greatest live bands ever. This live album especially is great because it finally contains more than just one song from Hot Space. I will highly recommend this album to every Queen fan; it is essential to your live collection.

Highlights: “We Will Rock You [Fast]”, “Staying Power”, “Fat Bottomed Girls” and "Somebody to Love".

Kayak - Merlin - Bard of the Unseen (2003)

2010-05-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Merlin
2. Tintagel
3. The Future King
4. The Sword in the Stone
5. When the Seer Looks Away
6. Branded
7. At Arthur's Court
8. The Otherworld
9. The Purest of Knights
10. Friendship and Love
11. The King's Enchanter
12. Niniane (Lady of the Lake)
13. The Last Battle
14. Avalon

Kayak goes Rock Opera – 8/10

Now Rob Winter left the band and is replaced with soon-to-seem great guitarist Joost Vergoossen, thus leaving Kayak as unrecognizable to the older lineups. The reunion only lasted for one album since almost every lead instrument has seen multiple musicians (except for the keyboards of course). Especially after the estranging Night Vision I bet Kayak wanted to show the fans they were still Kayak and not just a Scherpenzeel/Koopman collaboration, so they took an old idea from the shelve. Remember the LP Merlin from 1981? They decided to take this story, rework all the old concept songs and include lots of new ones as well, thus creating their first rock opera ever. They even started dividing roles among the singers and hired Cindy Oudshoorn as a guest singer to play the role of Morgan LeFay. Promising, isn’t it?

This might all seem like a lame publicity stunt among the fans, but the funny thing is this trick does work and the band has become Kayak again. The fact that opening song “Merlin” is the same track as on the 1981 album is recognizable, albeit that this version is re-recorded and a true old-men’s version. It’s as slow as a snail but has a little more balls to it when it comes to solo guitars. Heerink’s vocals do not reach as powerful as Reekers, but we must not set too many demands and give Heerink a chance on the new songs. “Tintagel” has been transferred from piano ballad to synthesizer-atmospheric track and again lacks the strength of the original. “The Sword in the Stone” is actually a little improved. In the old version’s break we had a few barbarians shouting some words and cheering, but here we have Heerink singing the same words so we can hear what they are in a nice melody. “The King’s Enchanter” has been transferred from medieval panflute rocker to modern synth-guitar rocker with Oudshoorn singing it, which also makes a little more sense when looking at the story. “Niniane” did not change a great deal, except for the higher sound quality and the different vocals. It still holds all the magic it did when first released in 1981. The best thing about the album is that the new tracks have the same medieval atmosphere as the old tracks and mix quite well. Perhaps it was a good thing to change the things changed in the old songs just in order to make them sound better with the new ones.

Now the concept is complete and we finally know how Arthur came to die. The roles are Heerink as Merlin, Oudshoorn as Morgan and Vunderink as Mordred. This results in great duet songs of two enemies such as in “When the Seer Looks Away” or “The Last Battle”. Heerink and Oudshoorn take the roles of Lancelot and Guinevere for one song, which is the sweet little love ballad “Friendship and Love”. Oudshoorn soon proves to be able to sound very scary as Morgan in “When the Seer Looks Away”, as soon as the song explodes halfway. Vunderink gives us a taster of his voice on the fast-paced rocker “Branded”, filled with the anger of Mordred, but it all goes wild in his duet with Merlin in “The Last Battle”, an 8-minute epic with the war of words at first but soon the music will depict a true battle with both guitarists going wild in their solos and the wild themes flying in. The death of Arthur will be ‘celebrated’ in the closer “Avalon”, a very touching ballad which made me weep when heard for the first time. It once again features a duet between Merlin and Morgan, but this time without them being enemies. There are of course some other tracks worth mentioning. “The Otherworld” is another 8-minute epic (how does Kayak manage to get all their long songs last around 8 minutes?) disguised in a mysterious piece of progrock, featuring an intro of at least three minutes. An ode to the great adventures of the Knights of the Round Table is “The Purest of Knights”, featuring this heroic main theme and powerful knight-worthy vocals by our dearest Bert Heerink.

It’s a funny thing, really, how I came across this album for the first time. Someone once let me hear a cassette tape featuring Kayak’s 1981 album Merlin. I really liked it and decided to go and buy it. He never told me there were two versions of Merlin, so I got this one instead. It never disappointed me, except for the speed difference on the title track. Other than that this album is worth the price tag and the name Kayak. This was my first Kayak album, and I really recommend anyone who is curious to start with this one. It gives a good example of the more modern Kayak.

Strongest tracks: “When the Seer Looks Away”, “The Last Battle” and “Avalon”.

Kayak - Night Vision (2001)

2010-05-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Icarus
2. Miracle Man
3. Cassandra
4. A Million Years
5. Water for Guns
6. The Way of the World
7. Hold Me Forever
8. Tradition
9. All Over Again
10. Life Without Parole
11. How
12. Carry on Boy
13. Good Riddance
14. Rings of Saturn

Still Kayak, yet different – 7/10

After a very successful comeback it’s hard to hold on to that line of success, especially when you just changed vocalist. Really, for the first album after a success you need some good ideas to at least compensate for the lack of familiarity in sound. After all, the addition of second guitarist and backing vocalist Rob Vunderink, who also featured on the previous live release, also gives a whole new dimension to Kayak, and a whole different sound. Well, the ideas are present, but they’re not half as good as they should have been. Yet I don’t understand one thing of it. When I look at the tracks there’s always something positive to say for each track, yet as an album it doesn’t work. On this record, Kayak sounded a lot less like Kayak by sounding real solid and sometimes even heavy. Alright, now they got two guitarists they need both of them to play something, and there are two different vocalists in the band, so it’s not very surprising this sounds all different. The name Night Vision suits the album very well, as it might be Kayak, but looked at through night goggles and thus sounding different.

Night Vision begins with “Icarus”, a track somewhat like “Close to the Fire” as they both open with 8-minute mid-paced epics with their somewhat mysterious atmospheres. “Icarus” is a good way to open this album as well since it shows us some well-composed progrock and some powerful vocals by newbie Heerink. The piano (and later synth) accompaniment sounds a bit stressful and knowing what will happen to Icarus in the myths there an excellent attempt at making the lyrics come alive. Somewhere in the middle the song collapses a little and falls into a depressing and sad prayer for Icarus not to fly to close to the sun, which is again a great lyric-theme-cooperation. “Miracle Man” is a mid-paced heavy song and a pretty dragging one. Place a heavy guitar underneath the song and you’ll get a downright metal song. It’s a pretty killer track but sounds very unlike Kayak at any point. Again there’re sad and depressing breaks after each chorus, and don’t worry, we’ll see more of those on this album. There are a few ballads on the album that don’t really stand out and are thus labeled as filler. Under this category fall “A Million Years”, “All Over Again” and “How”. All three are good to hear, but none of them will get stuck in your head. Fourteen songs after all is a lot and obviously do not contain solely diamonds. However, ballads like “Cassandra” and “Hold Me Forever” have a lot more character, thus resulting in at least one of them being played live in later years.

We return back to rock ‘n roll songs with fast-paced tracks such as “Water for Guns” and “Life Without Parole”. The former stands out with its great contrast between verse and chorus; swinging staccato in the verses and chaotic symphonic rock in the chorus, where Rob Vunderink grabs a piece of the lead vocals. The latter of the two features a good guitar riff and a light atmosphere with again Vunderink sharing lead vocals with Heerink. The two voices do sound very well together. Lesser rock songs turn out to be almost total failures, such as “Good Riddance” and “The Way of the World”. While I really don’t mind brass being added to rock music, they do, believe it or not, totally ruin the kickass ambience a good rock track has. Both these songs suffer enormously from the addition of brass, albeit synthesizer-fake brass. Apart from that, the songs are not very nice either. In the middle of the album Pim Koopman presents us with another 8-minute song called “Tradition”. The guitar riff is downright awesome and the song itself turns out to be among the better ones on the album, if only the depressing break would’ve been omitted. The “boy wants girl, girl wants boy”-part is not very bad in itself, but it returns quite often and there’s actually not a valid reason for the song to last 8-minutes. In “Carry on Boy” and “Rings of Saturn” we see catchy and AOR melodies we would have never thought Kayak would write, or record. Funny enough, I like them. The melodies are somewhat catchy and cheap, but they are cheerier than most of the album’s ballads and carry a positive ambience with them. They are unique for Night Vision.

Having given these descriptions, I don’t think this is a bad album at all. Sure, it’s not Kayak the way you are used to them (with exceptions), but that’s no reason to discard this album. I would definitely recommend this album to those interested, unless you are getting to know Kayak for the first time.

Strongest tracks: “Icarus”, “Miracle Man”, “Water for Guns” and “Tradition”.
Weakest tracks: “How” and “All Over Again”.

Kayak - When Hearts Grow Cold [Single] (2001)

2010-05-28T10:46:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. When Hearts Grow Cold (live)
2. See See the Sun (acoustic live)

Nothing to see here – 6/10

When a live album is not that great, it’s worth to be spat at, but when a live single lacks what the album lacks, it’s less of a deal. After all, here we have only two songs, so we’re not expecting anything, especially not because there are no new songs on the b-side.

We have two tracks taken from Chance For A LIVEtime, both with Heerink on vocals, who tries hard but can’t top the original vocalists on these classics. The performance of the band is quite fluently, there are no mistakes as far as I can hear. “When Hearts Grow Cold” is amazing in studio, but I fear this live version does not capture the same magic. The second voice added to the chorus quite decreased the beauty, even though they did try. The acoustic version of “See See the Sun” is quite nice, as it’s good to hear the multiple voices work quite well in live. So in fact these two tracks CAN make you have a good time for as long they last.

The big question is, why release this single? What is so great about the main song that it needs a single release? If you would release the studio version with Max Werner as a single, now that would make sense. It could even become a small hit. But this version just doesn’t add anything, doesn’t do anything stunning and in the end is just reduced to being essential for extreme completists, to which I would recommend this. If you’re not like such, then ignore the existence of this very item.

Kayak - Chance for a LIVEtime (2001)

2010-05-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Close to the Fire
2. Crusader
3. When Hearts Grow Cold
4. Mammoth
5. Wintertime
6. Periscope Life
7. Sweet Revenge
8. See See the Sun (Acoustic)
9. Anne (Acoustic)
10. Anybody's Child (Acoustic)

1. Two Wrongs (Don't Make a Right)
2. Forever
3. Merlin
4. Niniane
5. Chance for a Lifetime
6. Starlight Dancer
7. Ruthless Queen
8. Full Circle

Chance Wasted – 3/10

What better way to celebrate a successful comeback is there than to release a live album where the fans can enjoy the classics mixed with the new songs and a good live ambience? It would also be the first REAL live album by the band and definitely something to look forward to. That’s exactly what I thought when I got this double-disc album from the store after managing to decrease the price, which was a good thing, since this is not something you’d want to waste much money on.

Kayak is a great band, with great and unique vocalists, but this live album just doesn’t capture it. The first thing you’ll notice immediately is... where is Max Werner? During the tour Werner was backed up by ex-VanderBerg singer Bert Heerink, and halfway he left the band and Heerink fully replaced him as the singer of Kayak. He doesn’t sing awful, not at all. But there’s something missing as he sings Werner songs. Above all, why not add some material with Werner; there have to be some recordings. It all sounds like one edited piece of pie anyways. And that’s the second problem, which I really dislike at live albums. They once again cut out all the communicating with the audience; the songs aren’t even announced, never! In the liner notes Ton Scherpenzeel so praises playing live with Kayak again and especially mentions the interaction with the audience as one of the highlights. Well show us how you do that then. Don’t fade away after a song; just let Heerink do a speech ON RECORD. This ruins entire albums. Scherpenzeel’s notes add: “This is for you to relive the memory of the tour...” Well, how can we relive it when we are estranged by the singer and we don’t hear audience speeches? There’s no live atmosphere. For all we know this could be Eyewitness Part Two.

Here’s a reason why Kayak should include the speeches, even though they’re in Dutch. Not only do they give the impression we’re listening to a live concert and not a studio LP with clappings, but also do they show how Kayak interacts with the audience. I’ve been at Kayak concerts and the speeches and talks are mostly funny and very nice to hear. So far I’ve heard only one live album by this band that understands what a live release needs, but the other joy I had to have from bootlegs. Recommended? No way. No wonder this abomination has been out of print, no one ever listens to it.

Kayak - Dream Child [Single] (2000)

2010-05-27T12:13:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Dream Child
2. Starlight Dancer (live)

A Surprising Dream – 7,4/10

When you hear the entire Close to the Fire album, you start to wonder if some songs would’ve made it as singles... but not this song. It’s a good track, nevertheless, but a single has some things a single needs to be a successful single, but this song lacks those things. It’s not material for airplay, it’s not that catchy at all and it’s just too mellow. Apart from that, the song still is good, just not good as a single.

The A-side features “Dream Child”, a mysteriously arranged ballad about a kid that can’t sleep. That’s about it. It begins with plucking on a synth-drenched guitar and the commanding vocals of Max Werner. In this beginning it even threatens to become a really powerful song, but after a promising break the chorus stays in the gentle vibes and arrangements. The song is not bad at all, but not a chartbreaker and not immensely good as a stand-alone song. It’s an albumtrack, and keeps its power and charms when listened right after “When Hearts Grow Cold” and right before “Frozen Flame”.

The B-side is worth buying this single... the only official true live recording with Max Werner! “Starlight Dancer” is an old favorite and still stands as one of Kayak’s live classics, but no other vocalist can capture the essence of this song as well as Max Werner. There has not been any official Kayak live recording with Max Werner released before or after, so this makes it pretty special.

To conclude this review, if you are a Kayak collector, you should get this for the live b-side. If you are not a collector, then don’t bother searching for this single and you won’t find it either.

Kayak - Close to the Fire (2000)

2010-05-27T11:53:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Close to the Fire
2. When Hearts Grow Cold
3. Dream Child
4. Frozen Flame
5. Forever
6. Worlds Apart
7. Crusader
8. Two Wrongs (Don't Make a Right)
9. Anybody's Child
10. Here Today
11. Just a Matter of Time
12. Full Circle
13. Ruthless Queen [*]

The Great Comeback – 8,5/10

About eighteen years after the breakup of Kayak in 1982 there finally appears a new studio album in store. It features almost the same lineup as on Royal Bed Bouncer and The Last Encore, which is my favorite lineup. The only difference is the absence of Johan Slager, who has been replaced with Rob Winter, thus not recapturing the magical sound of that very lineup. Furthermore, this was an album many looked forward too, and I don’t think they would have been disappointed.

Present is once more the somewhat raw and unique voice of Max Werner, who preferred to drum on the last Kayak albums before the breakup rather than sing. But we all rather hear him sing and we are given the joy of hearing him on the studio record for the last time. Bassist Bert Veldkamp and drummer Pim Koopman have both returned to Kayak as well, and this rhythm section still sounds as enchanting and subtle as ever. And of course, the always present Ton Scherpenzeel never dropped the value of his compositions. New guitarist Rob Winter is not Johan Slager, but nevertheless plays very satisfying. We get to hear the very impressive entrance to the album in the epic title track, changing from the mysterious intro with cold winds all the way to the adventurous and epic feel in the chorus. Not to mention the great flute melody that almost makes the song. The melody of the vocals leaves a powerful impression, especially with the power Max Werner gives to them. He sounds a lot fuller and lower on this album than on previous Kayak releases with his voice. The interplay is also nothing but a sign that Kayak returned to their fans not to play, but to demonstrate they are really back and not only for a one-effort. The massiveness of the title track is not really mirrored in the other tracks on the album. However, they’ve got their own beauty. “When Hearts Grow Cold” is a sad song with mostly piano and Werner. Like Kayak can do so well, the melody is incredibly beautiful, original and catchy. It’s magical. Just close you eyes and listen to the crying guitar of Rob Winter in combination to the piano and Werner’s sad vocals.

The album does not consist solely of massive epics and magical ballads. Track like “Two Wrongs” or “Just a Matter of Time” are happy pop songs heard and dismissed before on the Periscope Life album. Apart from that I think I can say there’s really good material on here. “Dream Child” recaptures the mysterious feel of the title track with powerful commanding vocals by Werner. There’s a sad epic in “Frozen Flame”, which might as well be the finest track of the album. Again the crying guitar theme makes the song and recaptures that magical feel of “When Hearts Grow Cold”. When Kayak go up-tempo they often produce less-quality tracks like “Two Wrongs”, but “Forever” is a true exception. It reminds a bit of “Dream Child”, but certainly has an own face as there’s much more energy in this track. The tension is built up brilliantly and this results in a pretty good rock song. Ballads like “Worlds Apart” and “Here Today” don’t end up as good as the earlier ballads, but still are decent songs, with both another sad theme. That’s quite depressing actually; all songs seem to have a theme related to lost love and failed relations (with the exception of “Close to the Fire” and “Full Circle”). “Crusader” gets noticed because of its strong guitars in the intro, soon swept aside by the main panflute melody which adds a cool ambience to the song. Halfway the power of the crusader decreases and there comes a soft break with the guitar weeping gently. After a few tears shed by Winter we get back to the great mid-paced main theme. It’s a great song... only a pity they go back to the guitar-cry-part somewhere near the end... a bit of a nasty way to end the song.

Two gems a bit more near the end are the last of your ear-worthy tracks. “Anybody’s Child” was written by Pim Koopman and is slightly anthemic in the chorus. It recaptures the magic set by “When Hearts Grow Cold”, but in a more cheerful way. A bit of a light between the dark themes of all the other songs. “Full Circle”, the album closer, is among the best tracks of the album. It starts off with a bit of a Caledonian folk gentle part and soon evolves into a wild folk dance with the drummer having a lot of fun. Guitarist Andy Latimer from Camel makes an appearance here, and I guess he does the well-sounding folk melodies. There’s a bonus track added to every edition, which is a re-recording of their biggest commercial hit “Ruthless Queen”, with Syb van de Ploeg from De Kast on vocals. I always hated this version. Van de Ploeg does not sing it well at all. They should not have included it.

All in all, Close to the Fire does not rank up with Royal Bed Bouncer and The Last Encore, but is a damn good attempt at doing so. This album will belong to any Kayak fan’s top 5 without question. Highly recommended if you like Kayak.

Strongest tracks: “Close to the Fire”, “Frozen Flame” and “Full Circle”.
Weakest tracks: “Two Wrongs” and “Just a Matter of Time”.

Kayak - Close to the Fire [Single] (2000)

2010-05-24T05:56:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Close to the Fire [radio edit]
2. Close to the Fire [album version]

Extract from the Comeback – 8,5/10

About eighteen years after the breakup of Kayak in 1982 there finally appears a new studio album in store. The title track was chosen to be the first single. I don’t know whether they expected commercial success again, but I doubt this track, though a masterpiece, would’ve made it to the charts.

There are two tracks on this cardsleeve release. “Close to the Fire” and its radio edit. Since the non-edit version easily reaches the 8-minute mark, it’s not an odd decision to release a radio edit as well. First the album version. It starts off very mysteriously with some kind of storm coming up; later on atmospheric synthesizers join the adventure and Max Werner comes in with his unmistakably recognizable voice, making sure we’re listening to Kayak, and not one of Ton Scherpenzeel’s many projects since 1982. After a commanding first verse, everything falls silent and recorders take over to play an epic melody. And then the song has really started with the same cold and mysterious atmosphere that lasts all the way to the powerful chorus. This is progressive rock at its best. The radio edit cuts away the mysterious atmosphere by completely removing the intro and the first verse. We instead begin straight away with the flute melody, accompanied with powerful drums by Pim Koopman. And the length has been reduced to a little over four minutes, which means an incredibly large part has been removed. Ah well, luckily we’ve got the album version too, which really signifies Kayak is back and strong.

All in all, this promises a lot for the comeback album Close to the Fire. I would gladly recommend this single to you, but since it’s pretty rare and expensive you would rather get a copy of the full album instead (if you can even find that one). The radio edit is not that interesting anyway and is just a little goodie for the real collectors.

Queen - Greatest Hits III (1999)

2010-05-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. The Show Must Go On (live)
2. Under Pressure (Rah mix)
3. Barcelona
4. Too Much Love Will Kill You
5. Somebody to Love (live)
6. You Don't Fool Me
7. Heaven for Everyone
8. Las Palabras de Amor
9. Driven by You
10. Living on my Own (remix)
11. Let Me Live
12. The Great Pretender
13. Princess of the Universe
14. Another One Bites the Dust (mix)
15. No One But You (Only the Good Die Young)
16. These Are the Days of Our Lives
17. Thank God It's Christmas

The Third Chapter... and still not the final – 6,5/10

And then Queen decide to release another greatest hits album with a few more singles released after Greatest Hits II. This album is said to be Queen+, with the plus standing for material from solo careers and guest singers, probably from the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. This does take away the reputation of a title called “Greatest Hits”, but it’s of course another nice compilation, hereby concluding the Greatest Hits series, even though there’s still life to Queen in the future, if only without Freddie and John.

How do you compile a greatest hits album if you don’t want to publish stuff from earlier hit compilations and you have only one new album with not nearly enough hits? Quite simple that is! We’re in the techno age, mind! You make a remix of one of Queen’s bigger hits: “Under Pressure”, but now it’s the “Rah mix”. Mostly the same as the normal song, but with a beat underneath and a firm remastering. And there are some lines twisted and the intro is different. Apart from that I guess it’s nice to hear once, but I prefer the old version. And of course “Another One Bites the Dust” has been given a new face of disgrace with a rapper added... Unlistenable... The original version was pretty boring, but now it’s just repulsive. Alright that’s two songs, but it doesn’t make a compilation album... Take four relatively successful tracks from Made in Heaven, “Let Me Live”, “Too Much Love Will Kill You”, “You Don’t Fool Me” and “Heaven for Everyone”. Let’s see... we forgot some tracks on the previous Greatest Hits release, “Princes of the Universe”, “Las Palabras de Amor”, “These are the Days of our Lives” and the holiday favorite “Thank God It’s Christmas”. That makes ten songs... how do we fill the other half of the album?

Did we release any non-album singles between 1991 and 1999? Yes we did! Remember that live recording from the Freddie Tribute concert? And so “Somebody to Love” with George Michael was added. I guess this version is kind of good. George Michael adds a whole different atmosphere to the song, but that’s good, as he’s being himself. Talking about live, wasn’t there something with Elton John in 1997? Now you mention it, let’s include it too. “The Show Must Go On” with decent but not great vocals was added. Brian, Roger and John were sitting around the table with six empty cups of coffee for hours and hours on and on. Were they ever going to fill this compilation album? Then Brian said:
“What if I...”
“No, Brian!” said Roger.
“But how else...?”
“We’ll find a way...”
They are already a bit moody as we fall in this conversation. Suddenly John spoke:
“Why not? If we’re still finding a way after six hours of coffee then I’m eating my hat I just bought.”
“Yeah,” adds Brian. “I mean, we won’t add a lot of them...”
What are they talking about, you think? They added material from their solo careers... Hits from Freddie Mercury such as “Barcelona” with Montserrat Caballé, Freddie's solo cover "The Great Pretender" and a special remix of “Living on my Own”, and a hit from Brian May known as “Driven by You”. I think this addition is very odd. Wasn’t this a Queen album? Of course, they’re just promoting this stuff, but why isn’t stuff from Roger’s solo career added as well? My humble opinion likes that a lot more than “Driven by You”.

Glad they dealt with this they stared at the current tracklist.
“Something’s missing...” said Brian thoughtfully.
“Yeah, something from my solo albums...” suggested Roger.
“No, I mean something that should be on here... I mean, would you buy this?”
“Not even if it was free. But hey, that’s the record company’s problem. It was their idea after all...”
“What if,” John tried, “we write a new song? I’m sure those silly fans are dying for unreleased Queen material!”
“Yeah,” said Roger. “Probably so... but writing together without Freddie just seems so unreal...”
“Then let’s make a song about Freddie and dedicate it to him! The last Queen song ever as a homage to our friend!”
“Good idea!” said Brian enthusiastically. “I’m starting right away!”
And so “No One But You (Only The Good Die Young)” was born. And boy that song is so beautiful, almost makes me cry. It features a rare sharing of Roger and Brian on vocals with so much emotion put in the creation and just is one of the most beautiful and sensitive Queen songs ever.

All in all, this is a bit of an odd compilation, worth buying only for “No One But You”, since it features only on other out of print compilations. But of course, there are a lot of alternatives to get the song... iTunes, buy the physical single or be very nice to your friend. If not, then this is for collector’s only.

Queen - Made in Heaven (1995)

2010-05-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. It's a Beautiful Day
2. Made in Heaven
3. Let Me Live
4. Mother Love
5. My Life Has Been Saved
6. I Was Born to Love You
7. Heaven for Everyone
8. Too Much Love Will Kill You
9. You Don't Fool Me
10. A Winter's Tale
11. It's a Beautiful Day (reprise)

Heavenly – 8,5/10

After the release of Innuendo in 1991, Queen certainly did not do nothing. In the time remaining Freddie Mercury recorded as many vocal samples as he could for what would later become the posthumous release Made in Heaven. Whether it is ethically right or wrong to let a sick man give all his energy to vocals won’t be discussed here, only the result. And the result is nothing disappointing at all.

Where Innuendo was a bit dominated by the dark luring of the upcoming death, Made in Heaven focuses mainly on the beauty of afterlife, commonly believed to be heaven. There are also messages in the lyrics that reach further than just the simple “It’s a Beautiful Day”. Since this album is a bit of a reprise for Queen in the ways they existed, there are some familiar songs for people who explored solo careers. “Made in Heaven” itself was first released on Freddie Mercury’s solo album Mr. Bad Guy in 1985. They maintained the vocals but filled up the otherwise bland instrumental section. It now sounds like Queen. It has these powerful drums at the beginning and the strong guitar riff to make a difference to the 1985 version. “Heaven for Everyone” was first released on the album Shove It in 1988 by The Cross, a solo band of Roger Taylor. The Made in Heaven version also sounds a lot more filled up and a lot better than the 1988 version. “Too Much Love Will Kill You” was first released on Brian May’s solo album Back to the Light in 1992. A few re-recordings later and the Made in Heaven version was ready. It’s a very strong power ballad with a slight reference to the AIDS disease. Last, but not least, “I Was Born to Love You” also featured on Mercury’s Mr. Bad Guy, but as a dance song. Here, it is a fast-paced rock track and easily defeats the older version, as is the case with most re-recordings here. They have all been Queenified.

The genuine song material also does not disappoint. “Let Me Live” sounds like a bit of a gospel track with a rare lead vocal sharing by Freddie Mercury, Brian May AND Roger Taylor. Only for that this song is worth listening to a few times. “Mother Love” is a more sensitive ballad with Brian May singing a verse as well. It takes the theme to another level, like you are seeing your life fly backwards in front of your eyes. The ending is in that case even more fitting when you hear the baby cry. The end of the song is the beginning of a life. “My Life Has Been Saved” previously featured as a b-side to “Scandal” in 1989 but has also been reworked and has changed the otherwise lead guitar in the intro-melody to a calmer atmosphere with piano and mature synths. With its driving force and lyrics this song becomes one of my favorites off the album. “You Don’t Fool Me” is more of a dance track with its continuous beat-like backing track and vocals. It has a quite good guitar solo though. “A Winter’s Tale” is the last composition ever written by the late Freddie Mercury and is a great ballad with a slight swinging atmosphere. And of course there are the “It’s a Beautiful Day”’s. The first is the album intro with solely piano and vocals (and backing synths). Quite enjoyable I’d say, but there’s a party going on in the reprise version where they added a rock section to conclude the album, according to the tracklist. But the tracklist lies, there are hidden tracks! Track 12 features nothing but a sample of Mercury shouting “Yeah!”, but Track 13 is complicated. It’s a 22-minute piece of music of surprises and outbursts. It’s less loud than the rest of the album in terms of recordings, but worth listening to once or twice. There’s an interesting explanation about this song on wikipedia, if you’re interested.

All in all, Made in Heaven is a good Queen album. It’s not to be looked at as is looked at at A Night at the Opera or Hot Space, because it’s not a normal album. It’s the last studio album to feature Freddie Mercury’s voice and for that fact alone this album is worth having. Highly recommended.

Strongest tracks: “Let Me Live”, “Made in Heaven” and “My Life Has Been Saved”.

Queen - Live at Wembley '86 (1992)

2010-05-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. One Vision
2. Tie Your Mother Down
3. In the Lap of the Gods
4. Seven Seas of Rhye
5. Liar/Tear it Up
6. A Kind of Magic
7. Under Pressure
8. Another One Bites the Dust
9. Who Wants to Live Forever
10. I Want to Break Free
11. Impromptu
12. Brighton Rock (solo)
13. Now I'm Here

1. Love of my Life
2. Is This the World we Created...?
3. (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care
4. Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)
5. Tutti Frutti
6. Gimme Some Lovin'
7. Bohemian Rhapsody
8. Hammer to Fall
9. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
10. Big Spender
11. Radio Ga Ga
13. We Will Rock You
14. Friends Will Be Friends
15. We Are the Champions
16. God Save the Queen

Queen’s First Complete Concert – 8,6/10

So far we have seen two Queen live albums released, both featuring heavy edits, removal of speeches and atmosphere and the fact that they are compilations. The release of Live at Wembley ’86 after the death of one of the greatest vocalists ever Freddie Mercury features none of that. For the first time we have an official live release featuring a whole concert without edits or removals. And now we can finally give a good judgement on Queen’s live performance.

The concert was the concert before the last concert ever with Freddie Mercury. It’s from the Magic Tour, so we would have to count on some songs from that album. And we get them. “One Vision”, “A Kind of Magic”, “Who Wants to Live Forever”... they mix up terribly well with older songs like “Seven Seas of Rhye”, “Tie Your Mother Down” or “Another One Bites the Dust”. Queen is fun to listen to in live. Even though songs like “I Want to Break Free” or “Another One Bites the Dust” are just boring me on the studio record, they’ve got the atmosphere here. Freddie goes wild in his interactions with the crowd, thus making these otherwise quite boring songs come to life. There’s even some fooling around when they do a bunch of old rock ‘n roll covers such as “Tutti Frutti”, “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care” and “Big Spender”. The crowd just goes crazy with the big hits like “We Will Rock You”, “We Are the Champions” and “Hammer to Fall”. It’s just so mighty to hear. This is a full Queen concert, and we missed that on previous live releases. It’s got everything, from Freddie playing the crowd just after “A Kind of Magic” all the way to the infamous Brian May guitar solo during “Brighton Rock”.

There’s no fooling around here: this is Queen’s finest live release for now. More to come, and perhaps even better to come? The main advantage of this one over Live Magic and Live Killers is the full concert experience without edits or removals. Highly recommended for Queen lovers.

Highlights: “A Kind of Magic”, “Hammer to Fall” and “We Are the Champions”.

Queen - Greatest Hits II (1991)

2010-05-14T08:52:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. A Kind of Magic
2. Under Pressure
3. Radio Ga Ga
4. I Want It All
5. I Want to Break Free
6. Innuendo
7. It's A Hard Life
8. Breakthru
9. Who Wants to Live Forever
10. Headlong
11. The Miracle
12. I'm Going Slightly Mad
13. The Invisible Man
14. Hammer to Fall
15. Friends Will Be Friends
16. The Show Must Go On
17. One Vision

The End of Chapter Two – 7/10

As Queen survived the 80s and released lots of singles that became great hits, Queen Productions has decided to release another Greatest Hits compilation, especially after the big success of the first compilation. There’s no other goal to this compilation than to have all the greatest hits from 1982 to 1991 on compact disc, thus you can guess the tracklist without having looked at it.

So are there surprises in the tracklist? No of course not, since Queen wasn’t surprising us anymore in the 80s. Or am I wrong? Yes! The surprise is they included several songs from 1991’s Innuendo, including its title track and “Headlong”. Furthermore there are just the most successful hit singles such as “A Kind of Magic”, “Under Pressure”, “Radio Gaga”, “I Want It All” and “Friends Will Be Friends”. A lot of these songs are not bad at all and there one specific collector’s reason for this compilation: single edits! Yes, Queen decided to edit their beloved compositions for broadcast on air. Often the tracks are shortened and decreased in power, such as “I Want It All” or “Who Wants to Live Forever”, but there’s one song I’d otherwise hate and is quite worth your time on here. “I Want to Break Free” has been given an intro! It’s not really much, but it gives the song more content. Why the hell did this version not make it to the album The Works? Ah well, unfathomable are the ways of Queen...

Anyhow, if you really want to see an album that has all the big hits and single edits together, then I suggest you take a look at Greatest Hits 2. If you already have all the albums you should think very hard first. ‘Nuff said.

Queen - Innuendo (1991)

2010-05-14T08:33:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Innuendo
2. I'm Going Slightly Mad
3. Headlong
4. I Can't Live With You
5. Don't Try So Hard
6. Ride the Wild Wind
7. All Gods People
8. These Are The Days Of Our Lives
9. Delilah
10. The Hitman
11. Bijou
12. The Show Must Go On

Disclosure – 8,5/10

After an uneasy time all the way from 1980 to 1989, Queen has finally created an album that can live up to the classic 70s material. Unfortunately, it’s also the last studio album featuring both vocalist Freddie Mercury and 100% genuine songmaterial. A lot of lyrics feature a hidden undertone about Mercury’s upcoming death, thus making it a quite sad album. That doesn’t take away that this is probably more energetic than any album since Jazz and features progressive influences for the first time since A Night At The Opera. At the time of its release it went platinum and reached #01 in the UK for the third time in a row (or fourth if you count Live Magic).

As said before, the main theme is Freddie Mercury’s upcoming death and therefore there’s a dark atmosphere throughout this album with a lot of ambiguous meanings to the lyrics. Especially in the beginning, the progressive title track, the arrangements don’t hide the atmosphere. A mysterious synth-tone combined with the rolling of the snare drum and an exotic scale creates a haunting atmosphere right away. The song contains a lot of theme and mood changes and refers in the operatic break to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and this track is certainly of the same quality. Having said that, the album immediately sounds more like the classic material than any album released in the commercial 80s. The album continues with “I’m Going Slightly Mad”; a dramatic ballad teaser with quite innocent lyrics, given a negative load with the upcoming tragedy. There’s a special connection between this track and “These Are the Days of Our Lives”. The latter is an even gentler ballad with the potential to bring tears to your eyes. Another great ballad would be the almost instrumental “Bijou”. It mostly features as an interlude with a beautiful guitar solo before the epic end to the album with “The Show Must Go On”.

And that brings us from ballads to epic tracks. “The Show Must Go On” is perhaps one of Queen’s best tracks, again given a dark load in the lyrics. Definite highlight here, and on the entire album, is vocalist Freddie Mercury, who, despite his disease, still has a vocal range of at least four octaves, as he shows here. This is, besides quite admirable, also very surprising. At the time of the recordings of Innuendo he does not seem to have given up any power, feel or range yet. This is also clearly audible in the equally epic “Don’t Try So Hard”. I always have the feel this is the twinbrother of “The Show Must Go On”. Same dark synth-tone used and both are very haunting and impressive. It’s quite unique for this album. There’s also enough rock material on this album, beginning with the May-penned “Headlong”. Together with “The Hitman” these are the most obvious rockers. Tight riffs, good feel, definitely rock songs. The only problem I have with these is that they forgot how to make an end to them. Just repeating the chorus and the riff until we’ve reached the five-minute-mark is not pleasing me. Otherwise great songs though. Less obvious rockers, but rockers nevertheless, would be “I Can’t Live With You” and “Ride the Wild Wind”. Especially the last one is a peculiar track with some of Mercury’s lower notes and an odd atmosphere...

And of course, like on any other Queen album, we’ve got the necessary duds. “All Gods People” sounds like it could’ve been on a gospel, if only for the Africa-sounding rhythms. This song can either be a refreshing spotlight in the middle of the darkness or a returning pimple on an otherwise smooth skin. And there is of course the notorious “Delilah”, Mercury’s ode to his cat. It is, besides terribly boring, breaking the album and especially notable for Mercury imitating the “meow” of a cat on different pitches. Fairly obsolete and totally uncalled for.

Innuendo is an album of differences. While most songs carry the dark atmosphere, there are some songs that deliberately break away from the darkness, resulting in a very varying journey. If you can take the journey, then Innuendo is for you. I recommend this album to all Queen fans and to people who would like to become a Queen fan.

Strongest tracks: “Innuendo”, “Don’t Try So Hard” and “The Show Must Go On”.
Weakest track: “Delilah”.

Queen - The Miracle (1989)

2010-05-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Party
2. Kashoggi's Ship
3. The Miracle
4. I Want It All
5. The Invisible Man
6. Breakthru
7. Rain Must Fall
8. Scandal
9. My Baby Does Me
10. Was It All Worth It
11. Hang On In There [*]
12. Chinese Torture [*]
13. The Invisible Man (12" version) [*]

Magic Accomplishes Miracles – 7,5/10

They’ve given the message now; whatever they were doing or trying in the early 80s, it was all just some experiments. They are really back to rock ‘n roll now, albeit in the style of their time. Though one could think A Kind of Magic was a one-time effort, they actually tried to accomplish the same kind of material for The Miracle. This album, too, contains five singles that climbed various charts, namely “Miracle”, “Breakthru”, “I Want It All”, “The Invisible Man” and “Scandal”. In the eyes of hitlovers this release is just another album they know only a few songs from (albeit this album contained more hits than average), but what is it apart from that?

Let me get one thing straight. Where A Kind of Magic could be seen as somewhat magical, The Miracle is in no way a true miracle. Surely, they managed to entertain once again, but repeating the same formula twice is never a golden idea. The rock ‘n roll meets mature 80s synth pop features once more. There’s one big improvement to the predecessor though: the songs together form an album. They really fit together, which is debatable with A Kind of Magic. The problem of this album is mostly in the songwriting, however. The style might be overall the same; there are some disappointing tracks on here decreasing the value of the album. Good examples are “My Baby Does Me”, which doesn’t really stand for anything. It’s just the cooked synth-sound and Freddie, with a dash of drums from Mr Taylor. “Rain Must Fall” falls under the same category, although this one can be enjoyed at times.

The rest of the album features mostly sugar and spice. The sugar part features sweet tracks like “Miracle” with its cheesy lyrics but addictive epicness, “The Invisible Man” with its driving bass line and “Scandal” with its very melodic verses and supposedly heavy guitars. The spice part is where it all gets more interesting. The album is surprisingly opened by the duo “Party” and “Kashoggi’s Ship”. The former begins oddly with drums only and then Freddie Mercury joins in, with a heavy swinging guitar riff joining in halfway. This description might not suffice, but I can assure you that this move rejected some fans. “Kashoggi’s Ship” is the continuation of the party begun in “Party”, this time packaged in some sort of rock song with heavy chorus on the guitars. There’s a funny ambience in this intro, which makes them special. Furthermore we have “I Want It All”, which is surprisingly heavy for a mainstream rock single, especially the solo part. Also “Breakthru” tends to kick multiple asses at once with a slightly heroic melody in the chorus and a fast-paced rhythm to keep the energy. True highlight, however, is “Was It All Worth It”. I will always keep saying Queen’s better tracks are hidden on the albums, not between the hits. This is a fine example of that very statement. It contains a great heavy guitar riff, an ingeniously epic main melody and unpredictable changes of themes. A great way to close the official album.

Since every CD release comes with three bonus tracks, I might as well involve them in my review. “Hang On In There” is there to add to the spice part of the album and is a nice addition. “Chinese Torture” is probably the latest way of torturing someone’s ear, made in china. But I think Brian May was just moody and was making some loud noise and recorded it for fun. “The Invisible Man (12” version)” is an interesting extended version of the original song, but if you don’t like the original there’s no way you’ll like this one.

All in all, The Miracle is a nice album. It’s great to see Queen is back to making rock music again, even though this album is just a confirmation of that. It’s a good album, but not one of the best, but then again... the 80s aren’t the best of times for music. If you desperately search a Queen album from the 80s, I could recommend either this one or A Kind of Magic. The decision is yours.

Strongest tracks: “Was It All Worth It”, “Breakthru”, “Party” and “I Want It All”.
Weakest track: “My Baby Does Me”.

Queen - Live Magic (1986)

2010-05-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. One Vision
2. Tie Your Mother Down
3. Seven Seas of Rhye
4. A Kind of Magic
5. Under Pressure
6. Another One Bites the Dust
7. I Want to Break Free
8. Is This The World That We Created...?
9. Bohemian Rhapsody
10. Hammer to Fall
11. Radio Ga Ga
12. We Will Rock You
13. Friends Will Be Friends
14. We Are the Champions
15. God Save the Queen

Where’s the magic? – 1,5/10

Remember Live Killers? It didn’t really bother me a lot, but at least we had full songs being performed, though assembled from different concerts. It was a bit of a best of Queen live. If you thought that one was pitiful, then you definitely must consider listening to Live Magic. It adds an entirely new dimension to live albums; a new low in the history of live releases.

Let me tell you about my ultimate live album. What I value highly in live releases is the ambience, the spirit. An obligation here is the presence of an audible audience. Without an audience you can hardly name it live. This audience must be challenged. We don’t only want to hear them clap to the songs; we’d like them to be played. That’s where the frontman comes in. A frontman should play the crowd with games, should comfort them when the guitarist needs to fetch himself a new instrument, should be in contact with the crowd and should involve them in the show. And for fans that do not know every song, or just to get the fans excited, the frontman should announce the next track every now and then. Next, it would be great to have a full concert experience. One full concert on disc, that’s what we want. Full songs, full speeches, full frontman activities and full atmosphere. Apart from that, it’s even better to have the live songs sound differently than on the album. That’s a piece of art and talent, to make the same songs sound different in concert than on the album. If there’s an album that features all of this, you’ve got your ultimate live album.

Live Magic is everything my ultimate live album is not, except maybe for the frontman activities. Freddie Mercury plays the crowd for a short time after “Another One Bites the Dust” and loyally announces the tracks. Furthermore, there’s some cutting and editing in almost every track on the album. Didn’t I say I wanted full tracks? This is awful. The audience is not being challenged. No speeches, nothing. This makes it not a good live recording. There are speeches at every show, even if they’re very short. Though the songs might sound different than on the album for some times, the fact that most of them are reduced to just one verse and one chorus makes it a shitty live release. The song “I Want to Break Free” is being announced by the audience with the band joining them instead of Freddie, which is a bit funny, but clearly proves some editing. Same with “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The middle part is just cut away. A lot of songs have been left out of the album, making this not a full concert. So they left out some songs, they left out parts of songs that did make it to the album and they removed the speeches. How much less inspiring can a live release get?

Still did not get the message? Live Magic is a horrible live release and should never have been released. If you are in search of a live recording from the Magic Tour then get Live at Wembley instead. Avoid this at all costs.

May 2010: Kayak and Queen month II

2010-05-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

Kayak and Queen month part II

May 2010 will be the second month with Kayak and Queen in the spotlights and will cover the remaining items from their discography. For older material from the bands check this post.

Kayak

From Kayak, only material from the reunion in 1999 will be reviewed, all the way up to the present.

2000 – Close to the Fire [Single]
2000 – Close to the Fire
2000 – Dream Child [Single]
2001 – Chance for a LIVE time
2001 - When Hearts Grow Cold (live) [Single]
2001 – Night Vision
2003 – Merlin – Bard of the Unseen
2005 – Nostradamus – The Fate of Man
2006 – Act of Despair [Single]
2007 – Kayakoustic
2008 – Coming Up For Air
2008 – Undecided [Single]
2008 – The Anniversary Box
2009 – Letters From Utopia

Queen

The material that will be reviewed from Queen in this second special month will just pick up where we left in april, in 1986, and then all the way up to the material with Paul Rodgers.

1986 – Live Magic
1989 – The Miracle
1991 – Innuendo
1991 – Greatest Hits II
1992 – Live at Wembley ‘86
1995 – Made in Heaven
1999 – Greatest Hits III
2004 – Queen on Fire: Live at the Bowl
2005 - +Paul Rodgers – Return of the Champions
2007 – Queen Rock Montreal
2008 - +Paul Rodgers – The Cosmos Rocks

Hopefully you’ll like the reviews, and if you have something to say about the reviewed albums than don’t hesitate and please do.

The_CrY

Queen - A Kind of Magic (1986)

2010-04-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. One Vision
2. A Kind of Magic
3. One Year of Love
4. Pain is so close to Pleasure
5. Friends Will Be Friends
6. Who Wants to Live Forever
7. Gimme the Prize
8. Don't Lose Your Head
9. Princes of the Universe

Hahaha, it’s Magic! – 8/10

The 80s period was a time of synthesizers, but when those become boring and old again bands like Queen returned to the good old rock ‘n roll, with the occasional synth still popping up, but in a mature way. A Kind of Magic is in a way more of the synth-oriented pop-rock that featured on The Works, but is executed in a much more bearable way, including one of Queen’s greatest front covers. Lots of hits shot this album to the top position in the charts; at least in the UK. These hits are considerably less cheap and simplistic, leaving quality within the album like we were used to. The sudden recover from synth-addiction, it seems to be some kind of magic...

Some people like to talk of A Kind of Magic as an album that expands the direction of The Works. However, with synths being used much more appropriately and with songwriting being a lot more innovative, I think there is a slight, if not a huge difference. Gone are the synthesizer themes and beats, back are the rock riffs. However, keep in mind that this is 1986 and Queen is not playing material of the likes of Queen II or A Day at the Races anymore. What they now do is still a commercial extract of 80s rock ‘n roll. The album has its fair share of hits, including “One Vision”, the title track, “Friends Will Be Friends”, “Who Wants to Live Forever” and “Princes of the Universe”. “One Vision” is a down-to-the-bone rock track and for the first time since A Day at the Races we get an album opened by sheer rock. “A Kind of Magic” seems based on a looping bass line and a mysterious atmosphere, and additionally a great guitar solo by our dearest Brian May. “Friends Will Be Friends” is a cooperation between Deacon and Mercury. It’s a very hopeful track with a light catchy riff and extremely attractive melodies. No wonder that became a hit. May writes a hit with “Who Wants to Live Forever”; a very gentle track with orchestra. Though some say it’s Queen’s most overrated song, I think it just depends on how much you’ve heard it. Too many listens turn every song into an overrated piece of fruitcake. “Princes of the Universe” is the only composition on this record written solely by Mercury and features a damn good rocker which also became a bit of a soundtrack for the movie Highlander.

Apart from the hits, we’ve got some pretty enjoyable album tracks as well, though some of these tend to be a tiny bit dull at times. Myself I’m pretty fond of Deacon’s “One Year of Love”, which is a very soft ballad with very touching vocals by the late Mercury. It makes good background music as well. There’s of course hard rock track “Gimme the Prize”, with lyrics again forwarding to the movie Highlander. This track pretty much is the heaviest track Queen recorded since Jazz’s “More of That Jazz”. There are two synth-dominated tracks in the shapes of “Pain Is So Close to Pleasure” and “Don’t Lose Your Head”. The former features Hot Spacey arrangements with Mercury’s falsetto voice, but then disguised as a Magic-track, and the latter is just a pop song with no hints of Hot Space or The Works, but just happens to feature quite a lot of synths. The song fits the album well and its bombastic drums quite impress the listener as the title once more refers to the movie whose soundtrack this is.

Funny enough, this album sounds much better to me than the two previous records, even though there might be resemblances between them. The return of real rock to Queen is a real relief though, and I’m glad they from now on stuck to rock again. Of course, they were already showing us they could still rock with “Hammer to Fall”, but with A Kind of Magic they proved to have some magic left within them, which is enough to fill some more albums. If you like commercial Queen, then I would recommend this album to you. If not, you’d better take a listen at the early albums.

Strongest tracks: “One Year of Love”, “Who Wants to Live Forever”, “Gimme the Prize” and “Princes of the Universe”.

Queen - The Works (1984)

2010-04-29T01:53:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Radio Ga Ga
2. Tear it Up
3. It's a Hard Life
4. Man on the Prowl
5. Machines (Back to Humans)
6. I Want to Break Free
7. Keep Passing the Open Windows
8. Hammer to Fall
9. Is This The World That We Created?

Synths & Commerce Combined – 4/10

If Hot Space was just a big departure from the things done before, then The Works was the return to their more trademark rock sound, this time accompanied with some leftover elements from Hot Space: synthesizers. Oh how I wish those things were never invented. But then again, only in the 80s people really knew how to kill music with them. The Works is such an album featuring a rock band doing what they do, but this time drenched in synths. Commercially, it brought them many big hits, yet these are not really timeless masterpieces. I guess commercial success is just another double-edged sword to be reckoned with.

Hot Space was just a synth-driven album, but not commercial in nature at all in terms of hits. I can appreciate an album at that level, but The Works, which has probably been in the works for a very short time, at least it sounds like that, seems like Queen desperately trying to come back and fill the record space with mindless pieces of music that mostly remind of works of the past. This album feels like it’s all been done before, but then ten thousand times better. For example “It’s a Hard Life”, though a good song, which is a rarity on this album, reminds heavily of “Play the Game”. “Man on the Prowl” links back to “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” with its rockabilly styled composition. Also the other tracks have a kind of ‘heard before’-feel to them. The album begins with the synth-driven “Radio Ga Ga”. The first thing I noticed was the flat drumsound. Hey, these are synth-drums! They should’ve called this album The Synth-Works. The song itself continues along with even more synth-arrangements to create a synth-opener for a true synth-album. No more of that synth, as Roger Taylor would’ve sung in the 70s. What changed his mind? I don’t know, but he’s responsible for “Radio Ga Ga”. “Tear it Up” has some catchy parts but in fact just feels like an incomplete 80s rock song without too much content.

But there are some good sides to this album, even if that’s very hard to believe. “It’s a Hard Life”, though a remake of “Play the Game”, has the same magic of the original and is quite a good song. “Hammer to Fall” is a good example of the Philips slogan ‘sense and simplicity’. The riff is fairly simple, but oh so powerful. It has become one of my favorite Queen 80s songs. Especially Brian May’s solo really stands out. And furthermore I think “Keep Passing the Open Windows” could be a nice track, even though it’s synth-overloaded. Other tracks rank deeper into mediocre such as the famous hit “I Want to Break Free”, which is just another generic hit put together by John Deacon, who seems responsible for the lamer hits of Queen such as this one and “Another One Bites the Dust”. And let’s not forget “Machines (or Back to Humans)” by Brian May and Roger Taylor. The two worked hopefully on this track that pretends to be a potential track with lots of content, but in fact features more of the synth-covered cake we’ve already eaten, decorated with the occasional guitar chord on top. Oh and let us not forget the oh so epic closer ballad “Is This the World that we Created?”! Isn’t it oh so sensitive with Freddie crying about us having ruined this world full of murder and deceit? No it isn’t. I like songs with messages inside them, but I dislike them if they’re as superficial as this one, packaged in a quite boring song.

Need I say more? This album lacks quality in every corner, with the exception of a few songs. If you are really fond of synthesizers and everything that they dominate, and in the meantime don’t mind the extremely commercial, and thus simple, nature of the album, you should buy The Works. I think you’ll enjoy it. If you prefer quality music, then get “Hammer to Fall” and ignore the rest.

Strongest track: “Hammer to Fall”.
Weakest tracks: “Radio Ga Ga”, “Tear it Up”, “Man on the Prowl”, “Machines”, “I Want to Break Free” and “Is This the World That We Created?”.

Queen - Hot Space (1982)

2010-04-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Staying Power
2. Dancer
3. Back Chat
4. Body Language
5. Action This Day
6. Put Out the Fire
7. Life is Real (song for Lennon)
8. Calling All Girls
9. Las Palabras de Amor
10. Cool Cat
11. Under Pressure

The Synths Strike Back – 6,4/10

And finally we’ve come to Queen’s most disliked album of all time, Hot Space. Nevertheless, it did contain one of their bigger hits, “Under Pressure” featuring David Bowie. The album is mostly disliked for its break with the traditional Queen way of making music. It is dominated by disco influences and synthesizers and sounds very different from any other Queen album. Actually I do understand that Queen wanted to experiment for once. You can’t possibly do the same or at least try to do the same all the time. Risks are needed and sometimes a band goes for it. Mostly I like such risks like on the Scorpions’ Eye II Eye, Megadeth’s Risk or Judas Priest’s Nostradamus, but I’m not so sure whether I’m all that happy with Hot Space.

It seems the terror is mainly hidden on the first few tracks of the album. “Staying Power” right away starts with this synth-bass line and a Freddie Mercury who is quite enjoying himself. Actually it’s him who gives most boring songs on here a good lift-up with his ‘yeah’ and ‘woo!’ in between. Synth-based themes come back in the May-penned “Dancer” although this one tends to become more of a rocker when the solo begins. Deacon strikes us with his “Back Chat”, which contains friendly synth-pop with another soaring solo. Apart from “Staying Power”, I could say these tracks are quite enjoyable. They’re perhaps different from anthems like “Fat Bottomed Girls” or “Love of my Life”, but certainly are charming in a way. Especially “Dancer” invites listeners to fill the dance floor. And that’s what Hot Space is all about. It’s about filling the dance floor. But then it’s a very dated 80s dance floor to be filled, and that’s on the negative side of the album. A climax has been reached with the Mercury-written “Body Language”, which is perhaps the most controversial Queen song to date. It’s based around a dirty synth-bass line, which actually is not that bad. What nails the song is Mercury’s longing for sex as he praises ‘your’ body, which he apparently desires. With quite dirty lyrics, executed in an even more dirty way, the song becomes dirty and infects the otherwise cool synth-bass. Perhaps a song like this should’ve been for Mercury’s solo career instead?

The second half is a more familiar side as they make more use of normal bass guitar and add more guitars to the tracks. Roger Taylor saves the day with two splendid songs, “Action This Day” and “Calling All Girls”. The former is easily my favorite of the album, featuring a steady rock rhythm with a cool riff, not to mention it’s another duet between Freddie and Roger, and those always do the trick. The latter is more in the vein of “Dancer”, yet is based on an acoustic guitar instead of synths. Brian May brings us a real rocker with hilarious lyrics in “Put Out the Fire”, being somewhat repulsive mostly due to the flat production and sound, which I think was done on purpose for the disco effect. That doesn’t make it alright, though. Furthermore there’s a slick ballad “Life is Real”, which is good, but slightly to very much ruined by the sudden “Life is a bitch” at the end. All of sudden the atmosphere of a gentle ballad is ruined because of his ““cool”” use of words. “Las Palabras de Amor” is an instant stadium song, which could’ve been a much bigger hit if it were on a ‘normal’ album with ‘normal’ production. It’s a really powerful anthem with a strong synth theme. “Cool Cat” features Mercury on his falsetto-voice, while being accompanied by a very relaxing rhythm guitar. The song isn’t worth more than two listens in your life. And then finally there’s the much anticipated “Under Pressure”. It obviously sounds the most Queen. Despite it being a big hit I think it’s quite obviously one of the better songs of the album, mostly because the rest isn’t really interesting.

Additionally, even though I said about quite a few songs that they were enjoyable, it’s all just not the level it has been. As for the experiment, I think it succeeded. It’s mostly just the genre why I dislike it, not the failure in quality. Now, if all this talk about discos, dance floors and synthesizers has got you all excited, then I could recommend this album to you. Else, be warned.

Strongest tracks: “Action This Day”, “Las Palabras de Amor” and “Under Pressure”.
Weakest tracks: “Staying Power”, “Body Language” and “Cool Cat”.

Kayak - Eyewitness (1981)

2010-04-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Eyewitness
2. Periscope Life
3. Ruthless Queen
4. Want You To Be Mine
5. Lyrics
6. Chance for a Lifetime
7. Who's Fooling Who
8. Irene
9. Only You and I Know
10. Winning Ways
11. Starlight Dancer
12. No Man's Land
13. The Car Enchanter [*]
14. Ivory Dance '94 [*]

Supposed Swan Song of a Great Band – 5/10

Due to Merlin’s lack of commercial success things went drastically wrong with Kayak and before we knew it they were facing their end. The female backing vocalists left the band, reducing the band’s size to five members. They recorded this fake live album just before Max Werner, Peter Scherpeneel and Edward Reekers left. Soon afterwards new members were hired, like ex-member Bert Veldkamp on bass, but they eventually were a different band under the name of Europe. In other words, the original Kayak legend was ended with Eyewitness, a studio live album.

So what does this album feature? There are three songs never heard on a genuine studio album before: “Eyewitness”, “Only You and I Know” and “Who’s Fooling Who”. They could all have been on the Starlight Dancer LP in terms of style. All three songs are worth listening to. The rest of the album is filled with the bigger hits and mostly with songs from their commercial period. It’s sad to see there’s no Merlin material played. Now this is not the only sad thing. A live album can still be saved by the great interaction with the crowd. As I bought the CD with its beautiful front cover, I was expecting to hear the crowd welcoming me. Unfortunately, there’s no crowd. You heard me, there is no crowd! No fans cheering. It seems Eyewitness is recorded ‘live’ in the studio, featuring overdubs and everything. They asked five fans (or perhaps a bit more) to listen to the recordings and clap and cheer as they would do in a real concert. Apparently, Ton Scherpenzeel was ashamed of that decision (and he should be!) and released the CD version without the crowd. So what we have here is a stripped down live performance.

*sigh* Well... yes the performance is tight. Yay, we have three new songs. Even if it were a live album it would be very boring. There is never a ‘Thank You!’ or a ‘This is Ruthless Queen!’ announcer anywhere. Of course, recorded in the studio this is obvious, but hey! If you’re trying to fake a live album than at least give it a good shot! These re-recordings are not at all fun to listen to, even if they might sound good. The only song that is different from the studio version is “Periscope Life”, which now features a heavier guitar riff and some better keyboard arrangements. Apart from that, it’s all the way we know it. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the new songs of course, which are good. But still, I’d like to hear the version with the crowd once. As all CD releases released through Pseudonym records, Eyewitness features two bonus tracks as well. “The Car Enchanter” is just the same as Merlin’s “The King’s Enchanter”, but then with different lyrics to promote a paint-factory. “Ivory Dance ‘94” is a re-record of the b-side “Ivory Dance” and is funny and nice, but not essential. No matter how you see it, this album is far from essential and nowadays it is more of a Best Of than a live album.

All in all, Eyewitness is not a good record. Don’t expect anything breathtaking. The band plays good, the singers sing good, but hey: they always do so in studio. Get the new tracks through iTunes or something like that, and forget about the rest. This album is for collectors only.

Queen - Greatest Hits I (1981)

2010-04-25T07:06:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Bohemian Rhapsody
2. Another One Bites to Dust
3. Killer Queen
4. Fat Bottomed Girls
5. Bicycle Race
6. You're My Best Friend
7. Don't Stop Me Now
8. Save Me
9. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
10. Somebody to Love
11. Now I'm Here
12. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy
13. Play the Game
14. Flash
15. Seven Seas of Rhye
16. We Will Rock You
17. We Are the Champions

The End of the First Chapter – 7,5/10

And that end is celebrated with the release of Greatest Hits, nowadays called Greatest Hits I. We are at the border of Queen’s big musical change and there’s nothing better than to quickly remind how it was before that change. I can’t say I’m particularly crazy for this tracklist, but it’s a solid overview of their greatest hits, as the album title already suggests.

The tracklist is quite pure. We are looking back at the best period in Queen’s life. Everything you’d expect to find is there: “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Somebody to Love”, “Killer Queen”, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, unfortunately also “Another One Bites to Dust”, “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”. As I said, a solid hit collection. There are also a few surprises such as “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy”, “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Flash”. The old songs flow along with the newer songs perfectly, making this a good collection. There’s actually no reason to buy this if you own all the albums. There’s no special edit in either song either, since Queen started with single edits in the 80s.

All in all, this album gives a good overview of the hits of Queen’s finest era. Keep in mind though that Greatest Hits does not equal Greatest Songs. Once you accept that and don’t really want to buy all the albums but just like to have all the hits on a single album I can really recommend this compilation.

Kayak - Merlin (1981)

2010-04-25T05:59:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Merlin
2. Tintagel
3. The Sword in the Stone
4. The King's Enchanter
5. Niniane (Lady of the Lake)
6. Seagull
7. Boogie Heart
8. Now That We've Come This Far
9. Can't Afford to Lose
10. Love's Aglow

A Milestone - 8/10

After two to three substandard albums Kayak delivers Merlin, a return-to-prog record featuring the same lineup as on Phantom of the Night and Periscope Life, how unbelievable it may seem. The first half of the album is led by the story of Merlin, the wizard who guided King Arthur during his reign. For the first time since 1976’s The Last Encore, the band sounds fresh again, and that’s exactly what makes this record stand out. It’s also the final album featuring both female backing vocalists, Irene Linders and Katherine Lapthorn, although the former will remain to write lyrics on later releases. Unfortunately, due to the lack of success at that time for this album, this makes the group’s final full-length release before the reunion in 1999.

We have seen many sides of Kayak, but never a symphonic record with our dearest Edward Reekers on vocals. Therefore the opening track sounds recognizably Kayak, but yet refreshingly new. “Merlin” has this arctic wind intro with Reekers singing the best melodies he has done since he took the vocal duties from Max Werner. After a while the song bursts out into a fast-paced symphonic rocker with heroic melodies and great atmospheric synths. Reekers sounds powerful in the rock verses and for the first time really fascinates me in a rock song. The song also shows the full potential of Kayak’s multiple vocalists. Though they never lent lead vocals to someone else since Pim Koopman left in 1976, they always had backing vocalists. In the break they perform a multi-vocal interplay with great harmonies. “Tintagel” takes the enchanting atmosphere created by the title track even further into a mystic ballad with piano accompaniments. On to a more rock song again with “The Sword in the Stone”, they took some royal melodies and make the listener feel medieval, as if he were living in the medieval ages. “The King’s Enchanter” features more of the catchy melodies and high-quality symphonic music, but the final blow is being given by “Niniane”. An epic end to the sad story of Merlin and King Arthur, depicted by a gentle piano ballad with a stunning reprise of “Merlin”-‘s vocal melodies and a great piano solo by Ton Scherpenzeel. There’s something magic about these five tracks. They belong together as they bear the concept of Merlin the Wizard with them. It’s been a long time since we’ve heard music of this great a quality from Kayak, even though previous albums had good songs.

The second half of the album continues the stuff already heard on Periscope Life, yet is infected with the same freshness of the first half that makes it more worthwhile. “Seagull” is the hitsingle for the album; a yearning ballad with an epic touch. “Boogie Heart” is a relaxing track with a funny hue to it. It’s actually a bit of a hippy song. “Now That We’ve Come This Far” is a ballad with, as usual, great vocals from Reekers and a very epic theme included. This might as well be one of the finest ballads Reekers recorded. There’s a disco-influenced track in “Can’t Afford to Lose”, which might as well be a left-over from Periscope Life, but it’s likeable. Album closer and atmospheric ballad “Love’s Aglow” features Ton Scherpenzeel on lead vocals for the first and last time. His voice has a sound closer to Max Werner than to Reekers, but still sounds different. It’s a bit more hoarse and puffy, yet fits this song perfectly as it goes absorbed in the ongoing atmosphere of the song. It’s a pretty satisfying album closer. The second half is not as good as the first and continues more in the pop-style we’ve already heard on the predecessor. This doesn’t take away that it features some of the more brilliant material of the era of this Kayak lineup.

All in all, Merlin is a true comeback into the symphonic/progressive rock scene and finally features this lineup at its full potential. Unfortunately it’s also the last studio album Kayak would release in the 20th century. The album is however highly recommendable, though very hard to get. Nevertheless I can say it’s worth the trouble to get it.

Strongest tracks: “Merlin”, “Tintagel”, “Niniane” and “Now That We’ve Come This Far”.

Queen - Flash Gordon (1980)

2010-04-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Flash's Theme
2. In the Space Capsule
3. Ming's Theme
4. The Ring
5. Football Fight
6. In the Death Cell
7. Execution of Flash
8. The Kiss
9. Arboria
10. Escape from the Swamp
11. Flash to the Rescue
12. Vultan's Theme
13. Battle Theme
14. The Wedding March
15. Marriage of Dale and Ming
16. Crash Dive on Mingo City
17. Flash's Theme Reprise
18. The Hero

Saviour of the Universe - 6/10

Ah well... I’m not used to reviewing soundtracks and I would rather not do so, but since Flash Gordon is being looked at as a true studio album instead of a soundtrack I will give it a shot. In order to understand the recordings that together form the album, it is highly recommended that you see the movie Flash Gordon first. Only then all the pieces of music gain an identity and only then can one truly say whether it is appropriate or not.

So will I. I rather enjoyed the movie and its music. The tunes are not so much greater than soundtracks of other movies that have gone long out of print, except for the fact that this is written and recorded by Queen. Of course it fits the movie; else it would never have been accepted. The tragic scenes are accompanied with atmospheric sad tunes, the tense scenes have these mysterious tunes and the battle scenes are accompanied by heroic tunes. Yet what makes this soundtrack better than any other is something I do not know. As for this being written by Queen, there is nothing inside the music that could make that clear, perhaps except for the opening song and last five tracks. Also, most of the music has been arranged with synthesizers, which is something Queen has not done before, thus making it not a trademark Queen soundtrack, in contrast with a later movie’s soundtrack like Highlander’s, which just featured music from their album A Kind of Magic. Apart from that the album features lots of voice samples from the movie itself, giving somehow an identity to the song and gives you the proper place in the story to think about, but is quite annoying. “Vultan’s Theme (Attack of the Hawkmen)” is a great heroic theme, same with “Battle Theme”, but why the hell did they implement the shooting sounds from the laser guns? Bad move that is.

The opening song “Flash’s Theme” is based around this monotonous bass line with sudden outbursts of choir vocals and became the lead single of this ‘album’. It’s an okayish rock song nobody actually cares for. It’s reflected multiple times in other themes like in “Flash to the Rescue” and in “Marriage of Dale and Ming (and Flash approaching)” and at the party end “Flash’s Theme Reprise”. I guess it’s okay for the soundtrack. “The Hero” is the real end to the saga of Flash Gordon which also is a bit of a reprise of the main theme but is a totally new track as well complete with verses and vocals that celebrate the defeat of Ming and the victory of Flash. There is some weird playing with Ming’s Theme later on the song and some other themes, but it’s a satisfying end to the story of Flash Gordon.

All in all, Flash Gordon is not an album you’ll be likely to listen to a lot. Perhaps once or twice as you just bought it or decided to review it, like me. It serves well as a soundtrack to the movie, but as an album it just doesn’t gain a higher score than the one I gave. Get the movie for the full experience and if you desperately search for one of those tunes to have on CD, then that’s where Flash Gordon comes in. Otherwise, it’s collector’s only.

Nicest tunes: “Flash’s Theme”, “The Hero”, “Vultan’s Theme” and “Ming’s Theme”.

Kayak - Periscope Life (1980)

2010-04-21T08:50:00.001-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Astral Aliens
2. What's in a Name
3. Stop That Song
4. If You Really Need Me Now
5. Periscope Life
6. Beggars Can't Be Choosers
7. Sight
8. Lost Blue of Chartres
9. Anne
10. One Way or Another
11. Sad to Say Farewell

Chilly, funny, forgettable - 5/10

Periscope Life, the follow-up to the very successful Phantom of the Night, was being looked forward to by many American fans that got hooked by its predecessor. Despite its disappointing charting and success, the album pretty much picks up where Phantom stopped. They’ve continued down the line of commerce and pop music and this time there are no songs like “Daphne” or “Poet” to add some content. With an even more commercial sound than Phantom, this lineup produces its second full-length Periscope Life.

Have you ever heard ABBA? My guess is Scherpenzeel and the guys did so and quite liked it. Add a Dutch touch and what you’ve got are songs like “Stop That Song” or “Beggars Can’t Be Choosers”. Happy sweet and swingy pop songs with a request to be played in the discotheques. This kind of songs doesn’t do it for me, with the exception of the latter. “Stop That Song”, “Periscope Life”, “Sight” and “One Way or Another” all fall under this category. Sweet songs with perhaps a hook or two, but these hooks are not sharp, making you get lose from them as soon as the song is over. These tracks don’t have anything to them that makes you want to hear them all over again. They’re just way too happy, which makes them falter. “Beggars Can’t Be Choosers” sounds nice though; reminds a bit of “Golddust” with its offbeat drums. It also maintains one of the nicer, though happier, themes on the album.

And of course there are these ballads. “If You Really Need Me Now” features some classic Kayak melodies and is soothing. Just like on Phantom, vocalist Edward Reekers mostly shines on the ballads, as is the case here. “Sad to Say Farewell” is so beautiful a ballad that it makes tears come up in your eyes when listening to it. When you hear these songs you’d really think Kayak is back. Of course these ballads are based mostly on piano and synths, mostly due to Scherpenzeel the composer being a keyboardist. “Lost Blue of Chartres” is one of the greatest instrumental songs I have ever heard. Again based on piano, it contains these powerful themes and melodies... Truly amazing. “Anne” features recorders whistling the main theme and Reekers again shining bright. If it were for these ballads, Periscope Life would be a good record.

But there’s more to this record than ballads. “Astral Aliens” is the album opener and again attempts to be a rock song, which we saw failed enormously with this lineup previously with “Winning Ways” from Phantom of the Night. Since the production is just as slick as on Phantom and the lineup is the same, I don’t think they’ve improved that much, and right I am. It might fit in the ‘happy ABBA influenced song’ category again. “What’s in a Name” comes directly after the opener and features a fast-paced track and yet another attempt at a rock song. Though the attempt might have succeeded here, it doesn’t mean the track is all that great. It’s far from bad though, but I guess it’s the same problem as with all the other songs on here.

All in all, I think Periscope Life is a boring album. When it’s in the radio and plays I can enjoy it for the moment, but I’ve forgotten most of it afterwards. The ballads are good, since Reekers has a true ballad voice, but the rest is very forgettable and not worth the trouble it is to get hold of this album. Whether you are a pop-fan, a prog-fan or an ABBA-fan, stay away from this album. Collector’s only.

Strongest tracks: “Sad to Say Farewell” and “Lost Blue of Chartres”.
Weakest tracks: The others.

Queen - The Game (1980)

2010-04-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Play the Game
2. Dragon Attack
3. Another One Bites the Dust
4. Need Your Loving Tonight
5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
6. Rock It (Prime Jive)
7. Don't Try Suicide
8. Sail Away Sweet Sister
9. Coming Soon
10. Save Me

A Half-Baked Queen Classic - 7/10

And that pretty much sums it up. We are at the start of a new decade with Queen’s The Game, and the difference with the past is quite noticeable. As will be clear in a mere listen, half of the album was written in the 1979 and the other half in 1980, which causes the differences in style and songwriting, even among the songs. The album itself contains fairly great hits such as “Another One Bites the Dust”, “Play the Game” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. Actually this album was the only Queen album to reach #1 in the States. I recognize the album as solid in terms of ideas, yet it doesn’t feel all that well at times.

After the experimental Jazz album Queen returned with the crossover record The Game, which is the beginning of what the band would offer on later albums. Luckily we have some tunes on here left over from the 70s. Apart from that, the album is a lot more simplistic in style and is basically back to basic, especially in the dry “Another One Bites the Dust”. There’s an unnoted lack of true rock songs on the album, which mostly features pop tracks, some beautiful, some lame and some alright. At that point, the album falls apart and gets beaten by every predecessor. I don’t mind the fact they chose the more mainstream and pop direction, but the lack of good songs is the main problem here.

There are however some great tunes scattered all across, beginning with opening track “Play the Game”. It’s a very melodic track with a bit of an epic touch to it but drags along the line of anthems very well and makes a good entrance for The Game. Then there is “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. It’s one of Queen bigger hits and not undeserved. They’ve adopted a bit of a rockabilly sound for this song and swinging rhythm guitars and overall created a true party song, perfect for a live concert. Then there’s “Rock It (Prime Jive)”, a Taylor-penned sung with his vocals as well. It begins with some gentle plucking on the guitars with Freddie singing an epic melody, just before it bursts into a driving fast-paced guitar riff with energetic drums. Actually the song is a bit ruined by the end where the familiar Queen choir shouts “we want some prime jive” and everything that follows. The rest of the song is actually good and rocks. Of course Brian May sings us a good song as well with “Sail Away Sweet Sister”. It begins as a gentle ballad with concerning vocals by May but soon evolves into a more explosive chorus, showing signs of the power ballad syndrome. This is surely one of the highlights of the second half of the album, together with epic closer “Save Me”.

That was the good part of the album. The others could be baked a little better. “Dragon Attack” has an annoying riff which is presented as the riff of riffs, while it just isn’t great. “Another One Bites the Dust” has a catchy and funky bass line, but apart from the cool second verse doesn’t hold anything of interest. Hell, the break is even dead boring with the odd sound effects while Taylor just drums the same boring rhythm on and on and on like a machine. “Need Your Loving Tonight” is enjoyable at best but doesn’t feature anything great. It’s one of those songs that depend on the real standout tracks for it to shine. “Don’t Try Suicide” is the dumbest Queen track ever recorded in terms of lyrics. Besides the music being wannabe funny and terribly misplaced at a topic such as suicide, the lyrics show Freddie’s lack of knowledge about the human psyche. I am not a psychologist, but even I know people who want to commit suicide would not be stopped with a phrase like “nobody cares”. If nobody cares then you can go ahead, right? Seriously, for that song only I’d want to throw an album into the trash can. At last we have “Coming Soon”, another Taylor-penned track with vocals shared by Mercury and Taylor. Actually the song is quite nice but fails to really stun the listener, but as most of Taylor’s songs it is fun to listen to and flows along with the album.

In short, The Game is quite half-baked. With one foot in 1979 and the other in 1980 the two faces of Queen meet here. High quality against medium quality. Unfortunately it is the medium to low quality that sets the tone for the whole album, yet The Game is also the last of Queen’s old school records containing real epics of the likes of “Sail Away Sweet Sister” and “Save Me”. Goodbye 70s! On the other hand we will hear more of the type of “Another One Bites the Dust”, which for some will be a delight, but for me a disappointment. Hence I will not recommend this album to new Queen fans. Instead you should have a look at the amazing Queen II or A Night at the Opera.

Strongest tracks: “Play the Game”, “Save Me” and “Sail Away Sweet Sister”.
Weakest tracks: “Don’t Try Suicide”, “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Dragon Attack”.

Queen - Live Killers (1979)

2010-04-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. We Will Rock You
2. Let Me Entertain You
3. Death on Two Legs
4. Killer Queen
5. Bicycle Race
6. I'm in Love with my Car
7. Get Down, Make Love
8. You're My Best Friend
9. Now I'm Here
10. Dreamer's Ball
11. Love of my Life
12. '39
13. Keep Yourself Alive

1. Don't Stop Me Now
2. Spread Your Wings
3. Brighton Rock
4. Bohemian Rhapsody
5. Tie Your Mother Down
6. Sheer Heart Attack
7. We Will Rock You
8. We Are the Champions
9. God Save the Queen

Bleh... - 6/10

Ugh... if there was one album that I did not look forward to to review it’s Live Killers. Despite it being quite a success as Queen’s first live album, it sounds awful in terms of production and sound. Queen’s performance is no doubt excellent, though heavily edited in studio, but fails to impress me because of this terrible production. It’s not as bad as Yngwie Malmsteen’s War to End All Wars, but still annoying. Then exactly what is wrong here? It just sounds like a mess. The vocals seem lost on the background of the mix, the guitars are panned heavily to the right and the drums, especially the cymbals, overrule all other sounds. Deacon’s bass is well audible but nearly merged with the guitars at times. The production is quite bassy.

Alright, on to the actual music. This is all in good condition. Queen is different live than in studio, but not less good. It’s fun to hear Freddie play the audience and the vocal harmonies sound different but has its charms. Since this is still in the 70s, the setlist consists solely of 70s music, which is great. The content is compiled from different concerts, thus not making this album a one-concert performance, which does take away the ambience albums like Live at the Bowl or Queen Rock Montreal do have. According to many sources, testified by existing bootlegs, there were much better concerts in the 70s that could have been released, but instead they assembled Live Killers. I will never say it’s a bad live album, just not good enough for me, despite the good tracks. The one interesting track on here is the opening track "We Will Rock You", which is a fast rock rendition of the anthemic stadium hit everybody knows. But this song also features on later live albums in better production quality.

So, would I recommend this album to anyone? Well, if you desperately search for an official Queen live release of solely 70s material, then I guess you could give Live Killers a go. I would recommend albums like Live at the Bowl or Queen Rock Montreal instead for those who want to hear a good official Queen live album.

Kayak - Phantom of the Night (1978)

2010-04-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Tracklist:
1. Keep the Change
2. Winning Ways
3. Daphne
4. Journey Through Time
5. Phantom of the Night
6. Crime of Passion
7. The Poet and the One Man Band
8. Ruthless Queen
9. No Man's Land
10. First Signs of Spring

Commercial Success Strikes Once Again – 6,5/10

Phantom of the Night is the album to mark a lot of changes concerning both the band and its success. The entire rhythm section has been renewed once again and so has the vocal section; this is the first lineup that would hold on for more than just two albums. With their first release they marked their big breakthrough in the USA with top-5 hit “Ruthless Queen”. Kayak has never succeeded in making a truly bad album, so when they went commercial, they still did it with style. Though not as great as their previous works, they still delivered an album that would top most other commercial albums, yet I don’t believe the current lineup is showing their full potential here.

As said before this album again features changes in the lineup. Vocalist Max Werner suddenly didn’t like his voice anymore and wanted to drum instead. He only sings lead vocals on “No Man’s Land” here. Together with Ton Scherpenzeel’s little brother Peter Scherpenzeel on bass he takes care of the rhythm section. Who’s to sing now? Edward Reekers was promoted from Kayak-fan to Kayak-vocalist and no matter what you say, wow that man can sing! He is totally different from Werner, having a more accessible and less raw voice. His range is impressive and the sound he emits is beautiful. He was the right man for the charts. The backing vocals have been enforced with two ladies, Irene Linders, Ton’s wife, and Katherine Lapthorn, Peter’s wife, resulting in a whole different Kayak sound. All these changes, a more accessible vocalist and a female backing choir, are destructive to the trademark Kayak sound, yet it creates a new sound. Phantom of the Night is a lot more polished, very smooth and very accessible. The only problem is: since when is Kayak accessible? And that’s where this record goes wrong. Though this album made them tour in the USA, they disappointed the progressive rock fans.

It’s all clearly visible with opening song “Keep the Change”. Though it’s a nice song to hear, there is nothing to recognize here. Werner’s voice, the classic Scherpenzeel compositions; it’s all gone. They are truly going mainstream, releasing such hits like “Ruthless Queen” and the title track. Supposed rock tracks like “Winning Ways” have become polished and smooth, resulting in a poppy track. There are some recognizable Kayak themes in “Journey Through Time” and “Crime of Passion”, but they are not executed like in the past. “No Man’s Land” is the sole track to fully sound like the old Kayak, mainly due to the absence of Reekers and the female backing vocals. Since it’s Werner singing here it sounds mostly like a leftover from the Starlight Dancer sessions. Reekers soon seems to shine mostly in the gentle tracks. Ballads like the title track, “Ruthless Queen” and “First Signs of Spring” rely mostly on his voice, but do sound very nice. He has a truly enchanting voice at those ballads, but does less good a job on the more ‘active’ songs like “Keep the Change” or “Winning Ways”. There he is just the singer, not a notable one. The compilation of these tracks sounds good, but not great and do not leave you hungry for more. There are however two standouts.

Every album has their classics, and so does Phantom of the Night. The first you’ll come across is “Daphne”. Lyrically based around the myth of Apollo and Daphne, it has this classic epic formula: it begins gently with gentle pianos and the vocals, which by the way are excellent here, and soon becomes faster and shows Reekers at his full potential. In structure and style it’s a bit of a copy of “Starlight Dancer”, but certainly stands its own. The second classic would be “The Poet and the One Man Band”. It’s quite a strange song with a poppy ambience, but has this special touch to it: a bit of a mix between pop and funk with its fair share of prog. The neat synth solo near the end finishes it with style. And that’s another good thing about the album. How slick the production and the songs might be, Kayak still has solos. They still have songs with substance and that is why this album is not bad. They might have pursued a direction I’d rather not have them pursue, but they do it with style.

All in all, Phantom of the Night is very different from older Kayak albums. The main change would of course be the switch of vocalists. The album sounds quite slick in both sound and production, but that’s probably why the mainstream embraced this album. If you are new to Kayak I guess I could recommend this album, if you are a pop fan. If you prefer progressive rock then check out masterpieces such as Royal Bed Bouncer or The Last Encore.

Strongest tracks: “Daphne”, “The Poet and the One Man Band” and “No Man’s Land”.
Weakest tracks: “Winning Ways” and “Journey Through Time”.