The Random Album Club: Week 1

Trollheart · 09-06-2017, 02:20 PM

Title: 2013
Artist: Vive La Fete!
Year: Uh, 2013?
Genre: Electronic
Nationality: Belgian
Discography: Eight albums
Position in discography: Eighth

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/7dQWuG6zZgdF6oDMq8gNJG
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoTLLvOvvLk

Zhanteimi · 09-06-2017, 04:59 PM

.

Trollheart · 09-06-2017, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mord

Wait. Why is mine up so soon?

Premature ejaculation?

Dunno; I just threw a thread together for every album that has been suggested yet. Apart from that demo, which appeared neither on Spotify nor YouTube.

~~MicShazam~~ · 09-07-2017, 01:15 PM

Before the first song was over I checked to see how long the album was. 53 minutes... ugh...

I can tell already what's going to sink this ship for me: The useless singer.

Lady, you're no Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Donna Summers, whatever-the-ladies-in-Abba-are-called. Her voice is limp and has no body to it. Her careful approach could work if she was expressive, sexy or anything else, but she's just weak and vaguely out of tune. Sometimes she even finds a way to make some incredibly annoying sounds with her mouth ( after the 12:40 mark of the album). I don't know why so many bands get singers that can't sing. I'm just picky that way.
In any case, this genre needs a good singer. You can't just moan and pose your way through a disco record.

The music is mostly lame and cheesy. Sometimes it surprisingly starts sounding a bit fuller and nicer, but this really isn't anything to write home about.

Everything after this point is written after the album is over:

Well into the album, something really unexpected starts happening. Things go quiet. There's some piano in the background. Some sound effect. It's mostly just some mild atmosphere building. Then some tinny, fake sounding jazz rounds things off and ends with a DJ talking and another bite sized piece of music. Not rally a point to any of it, but it did mean the album was a good 20 minutes shorter than expected, so I'm not complaining.

I don't listen to disco, but I can't imagine this is anywhere near the best the genre can do. Very, very weak music in my irrelevant opinion.

2/10. Profoundly unimpressive.

Trollheart · 09-08-2017, 09:14 AM

Maybe it was just the effect of listening to this after suffering through Parasitic Wotsit, but I really enjoyed this. Sure, it's nothing special or clever, but it's catchy and listenable. I'd disagree that she can't sing; disagree strongly. I'm sure there are "stars" in pop today who sing much worse. She's no virtuoso, no, but she can hold a tune and for me, has a sort of bouncy, almost innocent, even childlike tone. She just seems to be enjoying herself.

Nothing really stood out to me as great, but the same is true for bad tracks. Overall a very enjoyable listen and I would certainly consider hearing more of their work.

7/10 easily.

~~MicShazam~~ · 09-09-2017, 01:04 PM

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 · 09-09-2017, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MicShazam

dude with high pitched squeals in his arsenal.

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.

~~MicShazam~~ · 09-09-2017, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I'll give this a shot later and see if I have anything different to say than you do,

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

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.

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 · 09-09-2017, 03:40 PM

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.

~~MicShazam~~ · 09-09-2017, 04:09 PM

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?

View Poll Results: It'd be cool if we could remove this poll huh
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09-06-2017, 02:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	The Random Album Club: "2013" by Vive La Fete Title: 2013 Artist: Vive La Fete! Year: Uh, 2013? Genre: Electronic Nationality: Belgian Discography: Eight albums Position in discography: Eighth Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/7dQWuG6zZgdF6oDMq8gNJG YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoTLLvOvvLk __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-06-2017, 04:59 PM	#2 (permalink)
Zhanteimi Mord Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Tokyo Posts: 4,873	. __________________ Zhanteimi LetsTalkMusic Last edited by Zhanteimi; 02-07-2018 at 06:25 PM.

09-08-2017, 09:14 AM	#5 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Maybe it was just the effect of listening to this after suffering through Parasitic Wotsit, but I really enjoyed this. Sure, it's nothing special or clever, but it's catchy and listenable. I'd disagree that she can't sing; disagree strongly. I'm sure there are "stars" in pop today who sing much worse. She's no virtuoso, no, but she can hold a tune and for me, has a sort of bouncy, almost innocent, even childlike tone. She just seems to be enjoying herself. Nothing really stood out to me as great, but the same is true for bad tracks. Overall a very enjoyable listen and I would certainly consider hearing more of their work. 7/10 easily. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-09-2017, 01:04 PM	#6 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	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. Last edited by MicShazam; 09-09-2017 at 03:01 PM.

09-07-2017, 01:15 PM	#4 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Before the first song was over I checked to see how long the album was. 53 minutes... ugh... I can tell already what's going to sink this ship for me: The useless singer. Lady, you're no Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Donna Summers, whatever-the-ladies-in-Abba-are-called. Her voice is limp and has no body to it. Her careful approach could work if she was expressive, sexy or anything else, but she's just weak and vaguely out of tune. Sometimes she even finds a way to make some incredibly annoying sounds with her mouth ( after the 12:40 mark of the album). I don't know why so many bands get singers that can't sing. I'm just picky that way. In any case, this genre needs a good singer. You can't just moan and pose your way through a disco record. The music is mostly lame and cheesy. Sometimes it surprisingly starts sounding a bit fuller and nicer, but this really isn't anything to write home about. Everything after this point is written after the album is over: Well into the album, something really unexpected starts happening. Things go quiet. There's some piano in the background. Some sound effect. It's mostly just some mild atmosphere building. Then some tinny, fake sounding jazz rounds things off and ends with a DJ talking and another bite sized piece of music. Not rally a point to any of it, but it did mean the album was a good 20 minutes shorter than expected, so I'm not complaining. I don't listen to disco, but I can't imagine this is anywhere near the best the genre can do. Very, very weak music in my irrelevant opinion. 2/10. Profoundly unimpressive.

09-09-2017, 03:40 PM	#9 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	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. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-09-2017, 04:09 PM	#10 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	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? Last edited by MicShazam; 09-09-2017 at 04:18 PM.