The Batlord

Not a bad deal, but $65 is still an investment for me ATM.

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Trollheart

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Chula Vista

Mike hooked up these guys with a bunch of free furniture from my old office. As a payback, they gave him a set of headphones. OMFG!!!

https://mrspeakers.com/

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

grindy

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Trollheart

Title: Hybris
Artiste: Anglagard
Genre: Progressive Rock (yay!)
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: Grindy

Expectations: From the description of their music --- early Genesis, Yes, King Crimson etc --- I expect to love the bones off this.

1. Jordrök : Beautiful piano intro, I hear the early work of Tony Banks indeed, then it kicks up in more a Yes vein. I see they use instruments such as tambourines, castanets, gongs, even tubular bells! Some lovely flute now, echoing the big G, though this is the nineties and not the seventies. Certainly evokes the atmosphere of albums like Trespass and Foxtrot. Big church organ now; halfway through and no vocals. Will this be an instrumental? Seems to almost stop twice during its eleven-minute run. Doubt there will be any singing now, as we head into the ninth. No, all instrumental.
2. Vandringar i vilsenhet: Soft flute starting this off, with rippling harp (?) then the good old mellotron makes its comeback (shame on you Tony!) slowly marching into the tune like a much slower “Watcher of the skies” before it kicks up and guitar joins in. Another long track, another eleven minutes plus, still at this point no vocals. Oh, there they are. In Swedish of course, so who knows what he's singing but it's getting more frenetic now. Sort of think I preferred it as just the music. Ending now on a kind of slow stately march with flute leading the way to the exit.
3. Ifrån klarhet till klarhet : This one is only (!) eight minutes long and comes in softly on what may be violin then heavy keyboard and guitar as it bounces along in an almost comical way; reminds me of certain parts of “Supper's ready” or “The Knife”. Slowing down now almost in ballad form with an early vocal and now some again very “SR” acoustic guitar. These guys must have been heavily influenced by seventies Genesis. Lovely flute solo now. Heading back to the original bouncy melody with some fine mellotron, winding up for a big finish now.
4. Kung bore: Comes in on a lovely rippling soft acoustic guitar and flute with I think some piano? Hard to tell, it's all so quiet initially. Mind you, this is the longest track at over thirteen minutes, so I'm expecting it to ... and there it goes, romping up on mellotron into a bouncy rhythm with attendant flute,which then takes the tune as it slips into a much softer groove, the acoustic guitar this time playing backup as the vocals come in. It works really well this time. Really nice soft mellotron passage before it picks up again into a long instrumental passage then the vocal comes back in, somehow darker this time, with a harder melody beneath it. Vocal is almost spoken now before powerful keys pound in and then there's a strong instrumental close, before the flute is left to bring the curtain down.

End result: Very good album; definite reminders of Genesis and Yes, but interesting that it's an album from 1992. They evoke the atmosphere and sound of seventies prog very well. Enjoyed that a lot.

So, Love or Hate? Another Love.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

grindy

Good to see you enjoyed it as much as I hoped you would.
They have two other studio albums and both are on pretty much the same level as this one. Give it a try some time.

Fun Fact: Those guys were ridiculously young when they recorded Hybris. The drummer was just seventeen, the others ranged from eighteen to early twenties, if I'm not mistaken.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Chula Vista

Downloaded. Thanks!

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

TechnicLePanther

What the ****.

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Many have tried to destroy it... but... true evil never dies. It is only... REBORN

SUGGEST ME AN ALBUM - I'm probably not going to listen to it but I will if you bother me enough.

Trollheart

Title: Dead Man Walking
Artiste: Arkangel
Genre: Thrash Metal
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: The Batlord

Expectations: Again, you never know: first Batty says “You're not weasling out of it” and then says “You'll love it”. Is the last ironic? Is he chuckling evilly to himself as he awaits my review? Probably, but my enjoyment of heavy metal has been enhanced and expanded over the last few years, so maybe I'll be having the last laugh. We'll see...

1. From Heaven we fall: Sort of atmospheric doomy opening then it kicks up, sort of boogie feel to it. Screeched vocal; these guys are from Argentina, but whether they sing in English or not I guess doesn't matter as I doubt I could make out any words in any case. Great guitar riffs though. Like the spoken part (from the Bible I assume?) at the end, the pealing bells. Good ending.
2. Written in black: This one just goes for the throat from the beginning. Powerful and fast.
3. Harbinger of doom: Unfortunately, the only Arkangel album ****ing Spotify hasn't got, so here I am YouTubing it. I think we moved into track three here. I hate counting up running times. Let's see... yeah this should be it. Slower, bit grindier than the previous track, but hard to pick out anything particular about it. Meh.
4. Day of Apocalypse: Really nice guitar intro here, which, believe it or not, reminds me of the overture to Jesus Christ Superstar (seriously; there's some powerful guitar in that piece!) and rocks much better than the previous. Love the way it chugs along. Guitar work is special here.
5. Behold the face of death: I really need to pay attention here. The tracks are so short, and the transitions so almost immediate, I'm just keeping up by checking on the lyric sheet. This has that heavy doomy feel in parts, but otherwise it's really not that much different from the last two or three. At least I can hear he's singing in English, as I can definitely make out the title. I do like it I must say.
6. Twenty-one twenty-three: Another really nice doomy guitar riff to start off then it trundles along at a plodding pace compared to the previous tracks. Very short, but at least I can distinguish it from the others. Sort of a muttered vocal which is interesting. No idea what it's about, unless that's a reference to a year? Best yet anyway. Does it say anything that it is also the shortest? But that's not why I like it. It shows they can restrain it when required and are not all about mad thrash. Well, not all the time.
7. The darkest crime: I do see a lot of repetition in the lyrics, though then again I don't expect them to be winning any Grammys for songwriting! This has a nice sort of also slower, punchier feel, kind of like a tank rolling over you. And then reversing to make sure the job was done properly.
8. In the embrace of truth: Okay, it jumped into this track while I was writing this, an indication of how suddenly tracks change from one to the other. Faster, great riffs, with a slowing down in the middle which really works.
9. Fearful eye: Are these guys Cattle Decapitation-style Vegans? I think I heard Batty say that, and the lyric of this song seems to bear that out. Have to give kudos to a metal band who support what is generally seen as a “hippy” standpoint: I mean, most metal musicians would rather feature themselves on the cover, eating raw meat or hunting an animal or something, whereas these guys are totally against that. The song? Oh yeah. Forgot about that. It's pretty good really. Slower again with a real grind about it.
10. Within the walls of Babylon: Biggest gap between all the tracks. Must have been two seconds! I thought the album was over. Superb guitar intro, rocks along nicely.

End result: A whole lot better than expected. Some of the tracks were too short, ran into each other a little too much, made it hard to keep up (**** you Spotify!) but overall while it's not an album I'd necessarily be returning to or listening to for pleasure, I certainly didn't hate it.

So, Love or Hate? I'll go out on a limb and give it a Love.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

Psst you forgot to add my torture chamber rec to the queue as you had promised. In case you've forgotten which album it was, here it is:


Tunnel Canary - Jihad

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.