Members' Top Ten Lists
And so we come to Mondo's top three, and at number
3
Souls at zero --- Neurosis --- 1992
I've heard quite a bit about these guys, so I'm interested to see what they're like, especially given the “post-rock” tag Wiki has ascribed to them. Nice kind of ambient opening to the first track, “To crawl under one's skin”, then a voice speaks with some weird sound effects in the background. Okay, thought that was building to a big heavy guitar there, but it's quite melodic even though it is guitar. Heavy enough, but not the assault I had expected. The vocal takes me by surprise, and is something of a disappointment, being a yelled, screamed one as the music gets much more chaotic. Not a fan of this method of jumping from one style to another, as I mentioned with Maudln of the Well.
Second track starts off well, but now I'm wary of those crazy vocals, just waiting for them to jump out at me like some madman wielding a knife in the darkened alleys. Where is he? Where is he?He's there isn't he? I know he is. Why doesn't he just get it over with? It's the waiting that ... oh, there he is. And the vocal is not anywhere near as bad as on the first track. Shouted yes but intelligible. Listenable. Much better. Like the use of flutes in the quieter section of “Flight” but “The web” (not the Marillion song, I hasten to add!) does nothing for me. Too loud, abrasive and loose. Some nice strings there at the end section of “Chronology of survival”, but this album is boring me now. I get the impression this is another album where the band try to do too much, be too clever and miss the mark more often than they hit it. Not for me sorry. The closing short instrumental gives a tantalising glimpse of what this album could have been, but it's already over.
At number
2
Mondo originally had Powerslave, but changed it to
Piece of mind --- Iron Maiden --- 1983
Probably my third favourite Maiden album after the two obvious, "Piece of mind" is not gold all the way through but it's very close to it. Opening with the powerful "Where eagles dare", the album tends to go through a series of "Boy's Own" adventures, as we scale forbidding cliffs with the SAS and take on the Nazis, fight and die as an ordinary soldier, and wreak our revenge, Conan-style, or perhaps not quite. That's it though: the stories are flavoured with realism and are not just gung-ho tales of bravery. In "The Trooper" the eponymous soldier dies, not particularly bravely, in fact possibly futilely, and though such a death is lauded in "Die with your boots on", the revenge of the unnamed (but surely based on Conan the Barbarian) man in "Sun and steel" is not realised, as his enemy
"Take you and your blade/ Break you both in two." Not to mention the story of Daedalus's overconfident and arrogant son coming a cropper in "Flight of Icarus".
But it's an album full of catchy songs, killer riffs and of course Dickinson's trademark "air-raid siren" scream. There are surely bad tracks. I was not impressed with "Revelations", the aforementioned singer's only solo effort on the album, and the less said about "Quest for fire" the better, proving that even godlike Steve Harris can occasionally write a duff tune! And boo to Frank Herbert, whose intransigence over allowing the band to use the name "Dune" led to the closer being titled "To tame a land", the second epic track to close a Maiden album.
Basically, "Piece of mind" built on the phenomenal success of "Number of the Beast", solidfied the band's lineup and paved the way for one of their greatest albums a year later, leading to this period, 1982-1988, being seen as Maiden's golden era, when they could barely put a foot wrong.
And so we come to his number
1
which is from these guys
When the kite string pops --- Acid Bath – 1994
Says they're a sludge metal band, and as of now I think my only real experience with that subgenre is Conan, who did not impress me. Oh, and it has fourteen tracks! Thanks man!
Well it starts off at a snail's pace and I wonder if it will remain like this? Then there's a rough but not indecipherable vocal with Sabbathy guitars --- and now it's kicking up in speed a little as “The blue” gets goi --- no, now it's gone back slow again. This could be a long --- what? Seventy minutes, almost? Lord preserve me! With titles like “Finger paintings of the insane”, “What colour is death”, “The bones of baby dolls” and (ugh!) “Cassie eats cockroaches”, I'm not exactly looking forward to this. Could Mondo's top album be worse (to me) than Janszoon's?
Well a measure of how bored I am with this album is that it's now five tracks in and I haven't noticed. I can't pick out anything interesting about any of the songs. I know it's seen as an underground classic and I'm sure it's well played and written; I just really don't care. It's doing nothing for me. The tempo comes and goes but the songs just blur by. Alright, “Jezebel” has a nice sort of spoken vocal against a cool bass line, and ... yeah, I like the bassy opening and sweet guitar on “Scream of the butterfly”. A lot better; restrained vocal, no mad hammering drums and I could really get into this. Don't expect it to last of course...
Well it did, and I must say that's the first track on the album I've a) noticed and b) enjoyed. Could this be a turning point? Um. no. The next track goes back to the slow, grindy, sludgy feel of the opening few songs, and it's just terribly plodding and boring to me. And we're back to me not caring. Honestly. I'm reading the paper as this continues. That's how interested I am. Oh wait: the last two tracks were good. “The colour of death” and “The bones of baby dolls” especially. Lovely acoustic piece with what sounds to be maybe mandolin?
Okay, so the last track was horrible and now it's over. Sorry Mondo, but this album just did absolutely nothing for me. A few good tracks but most of it passed me by, the ones I didn't actually hate. Not going to be a fan of these boys any time soon!
So that's it for your top ten lists. Thanks to all who submitted theirs, and sorry I couldn't choose them all, but I do have to eat from time to time! Maybe next year. I may --- I haven't decided yet, lots yet to do --- throw my own list in at some point before the end of Metal Month II. Hope nobody took offence if I didn't like their selections; I realise you all put a lot of work into your lists and that these albums mean a lot to each of you, so please don't take my criticisms as putting forward a view that there is nothing good about these albums. Where I was not impressed, it was and is purely a personal opinion, and not to be taken as anything else. Thanks again and see you next year I hope!