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Trollheart's Listening List 2015/2016
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Robbing this idea slightly (ie completely) from our Goofle, I'm going to use this thread as a way of making sure I get through my massive backlog of recently purchased music, which at the moment I am still in the process of downloading. As I listen to each album I'll do a short(ish) review of it and rate it. I'll be publishing the list shortly. Note: this is NOT a rec thread. I have more than enough albums for this thread and I don't want any more. However if you know any of the albums I'll be listing and want to offer comments/advice/warnings, by all means go ahead. Further Note: Though generally these will all be 2015 (and later, 2016) albums, this list is a record of what I am listening to/have listened to/will listen to this and next year, not necessarily only the new albums. So from time to time the odd album from 2014, or perhaps even further back, may creep in. One more further note: Just to be different, I'm going to show where each album comes in the artiste's discography by inserting a big red number, 1 for debut, 2 for second album and so on. Bear in mind that 99% of these I have not listened to, some I have but have not reviewed, and the odd one may have appeared, or will appear subsequently, in one of my journals. Many I chose on the basis of name or cover of album, and after listening to samples, so god knows what I may have in here. I'll be doing these in order. I'll try to do one a day, but who knows how that will work out? This list will be updated as I go along. Albums reviewed will be marked in Green (this does not reflect a "Love" status as in my other thread, merely that they've been completed) and their images will be removed from the OP here and replaced by the next one. I've decided to change the "Familiarity" category, as it's a little vague. In future, I'll be assigning a Rank to this. I may do this retrospectively too. They will run thusly: Noob: Have never heard anything by this artiste before. Novice: 1 album only heard from the discography. Not very familiar with the artiste. Apprentice: 2 or 3 albums heard from the artiste. Reasonably familiar but need to hear more. Adept: More than four, or more than half of the discography, whichever is greater. Quite familiar at this point. Master Adept: Have heard all their albums and know the artiste really well High Priest: Have heard all their albums and know the artiste inside out. As I have just merged this thread with my older review thread, the reviews from that thread will appear here shortly. Because of this, I have changed the running order below slightly to accommodate the albums from that thread. Not that you care. http://www.wilsoninfo.com/buttons/ne...e-animated.gif http://rs1012.pbsrc.com/albums/af249...ones2.gif~c200 http://www.progarchives.com/progress...32282014_r.jpg Men Who Climb Mountains - Pendragon (Progressive Rock) http://www.progarchives.com/progress...22102014_r.jpg The Ghosts of Pripyat - Steve Rothery (Progressive Rock) http://edisonschildren.com/shop/Pled...ull1_7_202.jpg Somewhere Between Here and There - Edison's Children (Progressive Rock) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ten --- The Dragon and St. George Lanterns on the Lake --- Beings Riverside --- Love, Fear and the Time Machine The Blues Overdrive --- Clinch! Waken Eyes --- Exodus Time Horizon --- Transitions Mystery --- Delusion Rain Julia Wolfe --- Anthracite Fields Half Moon Run --- Sun Leads Me On Panic Room --- Satellite Don Henley --- Cass County Antimatter --- The Judas Table Jeff Lynne's ELO --- Alone in the Universe Dark Symphonica --- Immersion Gregg Lake/Geoff Downes --- Ride the Tiger Gazpacho – Molok Funeris --- Act III: Bitterness Panopticon --- Autumn Eternal Draconian --- Sovran Baroness --- Purple Eluvium --- Nightmare Ending Comedy of Errors --- Spirit Cynara --- There's No Beginning Steve Roach --- Bloodmoon Rising --- Night 4 Gloryhammer ---- Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards Leaves Eyes --- King of Kings Kinetic Element --- Travelog Progression by Failure --- Sonic Travelogue Trespass --- Trespass Unified Past --- Shifting the Equilibrium Colin Bass --- At Wild End A-Ha --- Cast in Steel Gert Emmens and Ruud Heidj --- Echoes from Future Memories John Grant --- Black Tickles, Grey Pressure Bon Jovi --- Burning Bridges Shadow Gallery --- Digital Ghosts Threshold --- For the Journey Arena --- The Unquiet Sky Ten --- Isla de Muerta Lunatic Soul --- Walking On a Flashlight Beam Pendragon --- Men Who Climb Mountains Steve Rothery --- The Ghosts of Pripyat Edison's Children --- Somewhere Between Here and There Millenium --- In Search of the Perfect Melody Europe --- War of Kings Tiger Moth Tales --- Storytellers, Part One Karfagen --- 7 Newman --- The Elegance Machine Midas Fall --- The Menagerie Inside Stratovarius --- Eternal The Sword – High Country Elegy --- Reflection House of Lords --- Indestructible Detune Distortion Despondency --- Compilation 3.3 Praying Mantis --- Legacy Spock's Beard --- The Oblivion Particle Avenguard --- Epic Tales II Royal Hunt --- Devil's Dozen Echolyn --- I heard you listening Constanzia --- Final Curtain Dead Letter Circus --- Aesthesis Hank Williams III – Take as Needed for Pain Edison's Children --- Somewhere Between Here and There Avenguard --- Epic Tales Offramp --- The Road Goes On Motorhead --- Bad Magic Xandria --- Fire and Ashes Iron Kingdom --- Ride for Glory The Smokering --- Nothin' Comes Easy Nelson --- Peace Out Killer --- Monsters of Rock Borealis --- Purgatory Burning Point --- Burning Point Backbone Blues Band --- Which Way to the Blues Stormhammer --- Echoes of a Lost Paradise Virgin Steele --- Nocturnes of Fire and Damnation Luca Turilli's Rhapsody --- Prometheus-Symphonia Ignis Divinus Steve Earle and the Dukes --- Terraplane Millenium --- In Search of the Perfect Melody The Dreaming --- Rise Again Forever's Fallen Grace --- Ascending the Monolith Sigh --- Graveward Cairo --- A History of Reasons Glacier --- Ashes for the Monarch Ghosts of Eden --- What Makes You Happy Fever Ray, Trevor Morris --- Vikings OST Steven Wilson --- Hand. Cannot. Erase The Storyteller --- Sacred Fire Guthrie --- Painted Words Graal --- Chapter IV Glass Caves --- Alive Detune Distortion Despondency --- Thought in the Form of Snow Beyond the Black --- Songs of Love and Death The Adventures --- Supersonic Home Crown of Twilight --- Cold Late Winter Europe --- War of Kings The White Birch --- The Weight of Spring Flying Colours --- Second Nature Saracen – Redemption Pineapple Thief – Magnolia Blush --- Lifelines Boduf Songs --- Stench of Exist Koolsax --- Beyond the Sunset Natalie Prass --- Natalie Prass Black Whiskey --- Heavy Train Funeris --- Funereal Symphonies Blackberry Smoke --- Holding all the Roses Winterage --- The Symphonic Passage Impera --- Empire of Sin Edenwar --- Edenwar James Taylor --- Before this World |
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lol'd at both of the above posts.
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I still say you should add Big Bear to your listening queue.
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Neither of these suggestions will be taken up by either party. |
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Title: The Dragon and Saint George Artiste: Ten Year 2015 Nationality: English Genre: Melodic Rock/AOR Familiarity: 100%: I have all their albums and they are one of my favourite recent bands, even if none of you proles have ever heard of them... Expectations: Ten have slipped in recent times, and their 2011 Stormwarning was not up to much, the first of theirs to disappoint me, while 2012's Heresy and Creed stepped it up and brought them back to the kind of quality I expect from them. Since then they've had two more albums but in typical Trollheart fashion, I haven't managed to listen to them. However I hope this, as a taster from this year's La Isla Muerta, continues the tradition of excellent melodic rock/metal I've been used to them churning out over almost twenty years now. Note: this is weird. Ten have released I think three EPs in their career, and this one looks to be almost unnecessary. Rather than being, as I expected, a precursor to the album, it was released after it (four months after, to be precise) and contains both tracks from it and the previous album as well as some new material. Odd, to say the least: Ten are not normally into ripping off their fans like this, though I suppose when you calculate up that of the thirty-one minutes of music here, twelve are completely new tracks, while if you add in the special edition only tracks then it brings it to nineteen, leaving only two tracks, one from each album, already released. So I suppose it's not bad value in those terms. Anyway, none of you give a **** about that (or about this review, but that won't stop me) so let's get on to the music itself. 1. The Dragon and Saint George: Good hard rocker to start things off, with that unmistakable Ten sound I've enjoyed over ten albums now (two yet to be sampled) and the vocals from Gary Hughes coupled with new guitarists (well, new to me) Dann Rosingana and Steve Grocutt backing up John Helliwell making a powerful combination. Peppy keys from Darrell Treee-Birch add the expected flair to the song. It's not, to be fair, a classic Ten song, but it doesn't come close to the disappointment I suffered with Stormwarning. A decent start, but I'm hoping for better. This is one of the tracks from the new album, which does concern me slightly. Well, we'll see when I get to listen to the full album, which I'll have to add to the list later. 2. Musketeers: Soldiers of the King: Another fast rocker, driven pretty much on Treece-Birch's jumping keyboards. Gary likes his history, so the subject is not that unexpected. Again, it's a good track but not a great track. Come on guys: you can do better than this, I know you can. 3. Is there anyone with sense: Good sense of hard rock about this, moving a little away from the more AOR/melodic style they usually pursue. Good hook, though it sounds similar to a few other songs of theirs such as “The twilight masquerade” and “The alchemist”. Not so much as to be a rip-off or rewrite of those songs but certainly reminiscent of them. Really nice guitar solo, though who by is anyone's guess with three guitarists, two of whom play lead. Once again though, good where I want great. Still kind of waiting. 4. The prodigal saviour: Very much more into the melodic vein of things, the hook in this one comes close to what I expect from these guys. Could be on to something here. 5. Albion born: Oh, like the choral opening and then the stately keyboards against which Gary can really let loose with his vocal, rolling drums behind him slowly ushering in very Big Country guitar. This could be the one. Sad that it already comes from the previous album, but it may be a pointer to the quality on Albion, which I have yet to hear. Stirring and moving, emotional and powerful. Yeah, this is more like it. Sure, it probably seems cheesy to most people, but this is the Ten I know and love. Reminds me of Return to Evermore. Great stuff. 6. Good God in Heaven what Hell is this: Even with such a weird title as that, brilliant rocker that puts the occasional metal in Ten's description as melodic metal (though I wouldn't really ever call them that) and points back to the glory days of The Robe and The Name of the Rose. 7. We can be as one: One thing Ten do is amazing ballads, and here's a great one to close. Piano-driven, with gorgeous lyric and a passionate vocal from Gary. Simple and perfect. Final result: I suppose in fairness there's a reason why all but two of these tracks were dropped from the two albums. They certainly don't showcase Ten at their best, and one of the tracks that does is from the last-but-one album. However the closer, which is on the new album but only the European edition as a bonus track, reaffirms my faith in this band and I look forward now to experiencing those two albums in full. Rating: :hphones: :hphones: :hphones: |
I'll save you some time and tell you that Time Horizon album is pretty meh whilst the Unified Past album was good enough to get into my top ten this year. Take that for what you will. :wave:
Nice review of Ten there. I love their first two albums to death (particularly The Name Of The Rose), but they sorta fell off for me after that. I'll have to give The Dragon and Saint George a fair go it looks like... |
Thanks for that Ant. As I said, many of these were impulse purchases and could turn out to be terrible, making this into a sort of "Love or Hate?" style thread, so although I'm using the format I'm trying to stay away from making it too similar to that as I can (no recs, no Love or Hate conclusion etc).
I've actually seldom heard a bad Ten record (glad/amazed you've actually heard of them!) other than as I mentioned the 2011 one, but this EP gives me some hope that the last two will be more Heresy and Creed than Stormwarning! Stoked to see I have one of your top albums on the list; looking forward to hearing that. |
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Title: Beings Artiste: Lanterns on the Lake Year 2015 Nationality: English Genre: Indie Rock Familiarity: I've heard and loved Gracious Tide, Take Me Home 3 Expectations: I don't know. There were mixed reviews for the followup, Until the Colours Run, but I've not yet heard that. I'm hoping this will be more in the style of the debut than the second album. Either way it will be great to hear Hazel again. 1. Of dust and matter: After some radio-tuning noises and effects we're greeted by a single acoustic guitar strumming slowly, and then that angelic voice of Hazel Wilde, with crying synth rising behind her like some sort of banshee. Beautiful lonely piano now as Hazel's voice rises in passion, and it's a strong, strong start and augurs well for the rest of the album. Rolling percussion and really sprinkly piano as we rise towards the conclusion of the song 2. I'll stall them: Beautiful piano and sweet trumpet leads this in, then it gets pretty passionate and powerful as it goes along, Hazel's soulful voice taking command with a great sort of again crying synth counterpointing the brass and making this just something quite special. 3. Faultlines: More uptempo with some busy percussion and rolling piano, a stronger vocal from Hazel but I feel it could end at the three minute mark whereas it continues on to five. It's not that it's overstretched, as such, but it does seem a little unnecessarily long. Still a great track though. 4. The crawl: The first since the opener to begin on guitar, joined then by Hazel's piano and another ethereal vocal. Love the sort of militaristic drumbeat that is somehow both incongruous and exactly fits. That rising synth (I'm beginning to wonder if it's guitar?) is back and it slots right into the feel of the song. 5. Send me home: Wondering if that's violin accompanying the piano at the opening of this ballad? Short but beautiful, the way LotL do so well. 6. Through the cellar door: Kind of a slightly Prefab idea about this I feel; midpaced with a really nice just gently riffing guitar that then bursts out in a quite unexpected punch, taking the song by the scruff before Hazel and her piano re-establish order. Nice to be shaken up once in a while. 7. Beings: If there's one thing apart from Hazel's voice that makes Lanterns on the Lake so special, it's her exceptional skill on the piano, and here she demonstrates it once again, almost without guile, like someone saying “Yeah, I can do this. So?” Almost as if it's not a big deal. Talk about self-effacing. More beautiful synth and rolling drums. Just gorgeous. Wonderful rising --- I don't know: guitar? Vocal? Synth? Just beautiful. 8. Stepping down: I think there's some scratching going on here, or maybe it's samples, but against the serene piano line it really is so effective, almost like listening to the wind howling outside on a cold night as you sit by a nice warm fire. Has a very ambient feel to it. 9. Stuck for an outline: This is where Hazel shows she can coax some real power and almost anger out of her keyboard. Violin added in from Angela Chang helps to calm the song slightly, but there's an unaccustomed bitternness in Hazel's vocal here. Powerful percussive ending that almost, but not quite, shakes the overall feeling of serenity this album gives me. 10. Inkblot: This short track takes ethereal to a new level and is an amazing if slightly muted closer. Final result: I'm sort of sorry that I have yet to hear Until the Colours Run, as I might have been able to say this is three for three; LotL got a lot of praise for Gracious Tide.. and sometimes we know the one thing music critics love is to kick their darlings, so the negative reviews of Colours might have been some backlash, the expected thing, the reaction to the dreaded second album: we'd better trash them or we won't be cool. Or maybe it was a disappointment, I don't know. But this one certainly isn't, and leading in my case anyway on from Gracious Tide, Take Me Home it's a pretty phenomenal followup. Rating: :hphones: :hphones: :hphones: :hphones: and a half (Sorry; almost all the tracks on YT are unplayable in my country, so this is the only one I could get.) |
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