Trollheart

To whoever changed the poll (probably Frown) thanks. Appreciate the joke too.
On we go.

Title: American Dream
Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Year: 2017
Genre: Synthpop (correct me if I'm wrong)
Nationality: American
Discography: Four albums
Position in discography: Fourth

How weird is it that this, of all albums, came up on the random link? Weird, right? Well, now that we've established that, and agreed how weird it is (it is weird, isn't it? Just, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah: weird) what's it like? My own experience with LCD Soundsystem is limited to the recommendation of our own JTF in the late and lamented "Love or Hate?" thread, and I don't believe I was too impressed with the one he recced - I think it may have been This is Happening? Not sure. Anyway, right from the off I'm pretty impressed here. I note influences of 80s new wave bands like Human League, Visage and Depeche Mode, while I can also hear Talking Heads, Bowie and Eno in some of the tracks. I love the opener, the second track is a little more meh for me, but I have yet to hear anything I don't like. "Change Yr Mind" sounds a lot like Bowie's "Fashion" (isn't that the guitar riff from it there?) but manages not to sound like a ripoff of it. Like this album so far. Favourite tracks: "Oh Baby", "How Do You Sleep", "Tonite", "Call the Police" "American dream" .. pretty much all of it really. Great album.

Note: Personally, I'm sick of scoring out of ten so I'm reverting to a system I trialed on the now-defunct 1001 Metal Albums You Must Hear Before You Die journal. It's pretty self-explanatory, and nicely visual and immediate: the faster the speedometer hits, the more I like the album, and vy-see ver-see.

Yeah yeah: they're shit graphics. What do you expect from me? Eat glass. (If anyone wants to use them, I'll link you in.)

This one gets

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Justthefacts

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The Best Collection You'll See Today

MicShazam

I made a RYM account and got this: https://open.spotify.com/album/1kSjiB7DQZYkP1Td78lUVC

Triaxis - Key to the Kingdom

Genre: Power metal/heavy metal
Year: 2009
Nation: UK

What is it?
A bunch of pretty straight forward of fairly minimalist power metal (as far as power metal goes, anyway). There's not any pseudo operatic pretensions or wild neoclassical wankery here. Just some pretty basic riffs and driving rhythms topped with some fairly straight forward vocal melodies.

Production wise, it has the sound of an album produced for not a lot of money. The guitar riffs and drums have a sort of small room ambiance to them. The bass guitar comes through quite loud and clear, unlike a lot of metal made since... the beginning of the 80's, really.

The vocalist is a woman with a fairly plain voice. She doesn't have a lot of range but she does have a good command of tones and a fairly forceful voice. Not the most characteristic voice though. She sounds like a woman that could comfortably sing some bluesy hard rock music.


Any good?
A lot of the riffs and vocal melodies aren't exactly winners. Sometimes something memorable happens, but mostly it is a pretty vanilla offering. It isn't bad, really. I kind of like the lead guitars most of the time they appear. A lot of the verses are just somewhat heavy power metal riffs without any frills. I like the album better when it gets a bit more ornate.
Decent solos with some feeling to them and a nice sort of sound that I can get behind. The way the solo's sound can best be described as a pretty prototypical "metal" vibe.

That kind of sums up the album, really. If you replaced the vocalist with a stereotypical metal dude with high pitched squeals in his arsenal, this would be American Style Power Metal 101.

Rating
It's allright. I can't see myself returning to this repeatedly, but it's well made and fun enough for what it is. It's just unambitious and kind of lacks in the memorability and personality department.

6/10

An album that comes to mind as a much better example of something similar, done way better is the album Helion Prime by the band of the same name.

Trollheart

Deliverance comes to mind!

I'll give this a shot later and see if I have anything different to say than you do, but generally, power metal is as power metal does. I don't go looking for any great revelations even from the best PM bands out there. Occasionally I'm surprised, but very seldom. The subgenre leaves very little room for any sort of experimentation or variety. Doesn't mean I don't like it, I just kind of know what to expect going in, and usually that's what I get.

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MicShazam

Curious to see what you think since I can imagine this album both being seen as sort of amateur and as being very well made. No idea if my take on it would be near a consensus among MB listeners or power metal fans.

I mostly agree, but I have heard some takes on the style that have a lot of personality and unique stylings. Pharaoh comes to mind.

Trollheart

Title: Key to the Kingdom
Artist: Triaxis
Year: 2009
Genre: Heavy Metal
Nationality: Welsh
Discography: Three albums, one EP
Position in discography: First (debut) album

First of all, let's get one thing straight: this ain't Power Metal. Firstly, there are no keyboards. No. None. No keyboards at all. What's a PM band without keys, huh? Secondly, the sound the band appear to be going for is more Iron Maiden-lite than Stratovarius, Blind Guardian or any other Power Metal band you wish to name. It's a pity the new vocalist isn't on this, if only for her name: Angel Wolf-Black! Seriously. Well, it's not her real surname, but that's unpronounceable, for me anyway. They also later recruited a female bassist, but again she's not here. The singer we do get is Krissie Kirby, and I'd say she's up to the job, but really nothing special, as MicShazam pointed out.

My other main gripe with this album - I think it's actually quite decent - is that the tracks are generally too long. Only one under five minutes, and the closer is almost eight. That's not a problem, per se, but these songs frankly aren't good enough to be stretched to lengths like that. They're ok, but a little pedestrian. 3-4 minutes would have been better. There's some good guitar work, but it's hard not to see the ghost of Smith, Murray and even Gers here in nearly every solo or extended instrumental part.

Do we get the obligatory ballad? Yeah, the last one, also the longest, "The King and the Geisha" (what?) is their slow song. It's decent enough I guess and a good closer. Okay, i posted this before I had finished listening to it, and it seems it speeds up halfway but, you know, I don't care. Again, eleven tracks for an album that just is not that interesting is too long, and it becomes a bit of a slog to get through the whole thing. Does it change much/any over the course of those eleven tracks? Hmm, seems not. I thought for a moment there "Lord of the Northern Sky" was going to be something different, but it quickly devolved into just another pumping metal track. Yawn.

This is their debut so maybe they got better, dropped the Maiden influences and struck out for their own signature sound, or at least some sort of individuality, but I'm not impressed enough to check any further. It's a good album, but that's about it really. Oh dear: even the start of "Submission" is basically ripped off from "Out of the Silent Planet". Sigh.

It's okay as an album, just nothing that I haven't heard before, and not an album I'll be telling you you need to listen to. Cos, you know, you don't.

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MicShazam

I agree that there's some Iron Maiden in there, but Stratovarius isn't the only way to do power metal. I'd say there's a sliding scale that starts with heavy metal and ends with power metal.

I'm not one to nitpick genres, but lots and lots of bands that are more Maiden than Stratovarius gets labelled power metal. I'd say Stratovarius and Dragonforce represent the decidedly more frilly and over the top corner of the genre. Lots of bands are in the opposite end, Mastercastle, Pharaoh and Helion Prime, for example.

At least that's how it seems other people define it and I'm not one to argue.

When in doubt: Just look after whether there's a constant, fast bass drum underpinning most of the songs. If there is, it's power metal!

But yeah, the band above are kind of borderline. RYM said power/heavy, but I just don't know anymore. What is the actual definition of power metal?

Trollheart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_metal

I just personally feel it's not PM unless there are keyboards and a much more symphonic, often orchestral feel to the music. There's nothing to say that's right, but I'd definitely categorise this more as traditional heavy metal than anything else. One thing we can agree on though: it's pretty bog-standard fare, yes? As for the definition, I guess we need to ask the Oracle, when he drags himself out of his pit. Yo! Batty! Your expertise is needed here!

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Trollheart

Next up


https://open.spotify.com/album/4zU90fvRnqX8lBjeP91U2r

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Trollheart

Title: Woman Mother Earth Sky
Artist: Roberta Chevrette
Year: 2003
Genre: Folk
Nationality: American
Discography: Two albums
Position in discography: First (debut)

Female folk acoustic acts are ten-a-penny, so why is everyone (apparently) raving over this one? Not sure to be honest. It's decent music but nothing that, so far (only three or four tracks in) makes me really sit up. She plays the guitar well, but it's a little annoying that there's no information on her either on Wiki or Discogs, and nothing really on RYM either. Searching on Google brought me to the bio of a chemist, Dr. Roberta Chevrette, and it took some filtering before I could find out who the hell this was. Honestly: if you want to be known, get your ****ing information out there, you know? It's very frustrating, digging through pages of irrelevancies to try to find out who the **** this person is? Sort of puts me in a bad mood, which isn't the best frame of mind when reviewing a new album.

Anyway, there appear to be Country/Bluegrass influences on this album, which gives it a nice rustic feel, kind of stripped down as it were. "Restless" is the first track that really stands out to me, bringing in the influences mentioned above. After that I begin to wilt a little; it's getting quite boring now. It's not that it's necessarily bad, it's just all a little too much the same. I don't see why anyone's repping her: nothing new here. So far anyway. Oh Christ! Now she thinks she's Gil Scott-Heron. I'm almost ready to bail at this point.

Okay, "Can you hear this" is quite nice, soft and haunting with some really nice flute. Yeah, next one's good too. Maybe I'll hang around a little longer, see where this goes. "Indulge" is good, getting somewhat of a slightly harder edge as the album goes on. Oh dear, another spoken word piece again. Sigh. These really don't work, not for me anyway. Feels like she's trying to be edgy just to be edgy. Oh, and the delayed echo is really ****ing annoying too. All right, maybe it was clever how the two voices suddenly merged into a double-one, but I still don't see it. "Enlightenment" just annoys me even more. What the **** is this? Really losing interest, and patience, now. "Bending" is better, and we're near the end now, but it's been a bit of a struggle. Not really for me.

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