Key

The Greatest Show on Earth is easily the best album Nightwish have released so far. The track by the same name is also easily the best track they've ever done. The whole album is fantastic the more you listen to it.

The Batlord

Damned by faint praise.

__________________

Trollheart

Um, the album is called Endless Forms Most Beautiful. I might get more into it on other listens, but definitely up the final track I was not sold.
And incorrect too.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Key

I don't know what this means.

The Batlord

Nightwish ****ing sucks, so saying that it's their best album is like saying that it's better than getting shot in the stomach.

__________________

Trollheart

Sorry man, somehow I missed your post. Don't want you to think I was ignoring it. I see what you mean, though for me there's a lot more I like Sabbath for. I understand as a guitarist though there are certain things you like, which is all good.

Dopesmoker? Yes I've listened to it. You'll have to wait to see what I thought of it though...

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Killing machine/Hell bent for leather --- 1978/1979

While US fans will always know it by the latter name, Priest's fifth album came out under the name of Killing machine over here. You can see, I suppose, why CBS in America was concerned about an album with the UK title, having recently been through a lawsuit that alleged the band's culpability in the suicide of two guys. Though that suit was dismissed, the stigma no doubt hung over the band and they may have been gaining a reputation for being reckless about their lyrics, so to title an album Killing machine might have been a step too far for the touchy-feely American market. Over here, we lapped it up. Maiden had Killers, or soon would have, and English audiences were used to, or becoming used to, the often explicit imagery in Metal. With only the likes of Zep, Purple and BOC to draw their experiences from --- none of whom had really what could be called violent overtones --- a band like Priest was something of a culture shock to America, and they reacted as they usually do, by ensuring the offending article was either banned, protested against or watered down, in this case the last.

But whichever title means the most to you, whichever side of the water you're on, this was the album where Priest ditched entirely the progressive rock influences, and started writing much shorter and tighter songs. They also adopted the leather-and-studs image now forever identified with them, and enshrined too in one of the tracks here, as well as the US title of the album. It still failed to break them in the USA, but that was really more a case of a nation getting used to something new, and in time Americans would rock out and punch the air to the likes of Metallica and Slayer; just right now though, they were still working up to it.

“Delivering the goods” gets us underway, and lays down a marker for the band's new sound as well as roaring their mission statement. Right out of the gate it's a fast, snarly rocker with great boogie guitar from Tipton and thumpalong drumming from Les Binks, who would leave after this album. Halford's voice is darker, deeper and more of a growl at this point, but you can hear the strength in it, being held in check. Great solo and a powerful drumroll bringing this to an end then we're into a real boogie with “Rock forever”. Okay, so the title is hardly original, but then Priest were at this point going for a more commercial line. I find the riff in this very close to “Don't believe a word” by Lizzy, but it's a good rocker for sure. “Evening star” starts off as if it's going to be a ballad but then it turns into a kind of Southern rocker and it's very catchy: I would have said they could have had their first hit single with this, but I don't think it happened.

Kicking the speed right back up then for the title track (if you're in the USA) as “Hell bent for leather” sounds like something Bruce Dickinson must have listened to before cutting the first Maiden album he was involved with. I could hear Di'anno singing this too to be honest. It's a simple song but really gets in there, and there's a warbling guitar solo from Downing that just punches your face in. Then they try to copy Queen with “Take on the world” and to be honest it's a bit of an embarrassment, but if you like metal excess meets power anthem, then it may be for you. Great marching drum beat and a shouted chorus; sure this went down great onstage. Good god, they even use a gong at the end!

“Burnin' up” rides in very slowly, almost forty seconds before it gets going on barking guitar and then just flies along, a real headbanger, menacing vocal from Halford, then the next track is only on the US version and is a Fleetwood Mac cover and is pretty rockin' to be fair. The “other” title track is a stomping, grinding snarler as “Killing machine” keeps things heavy. “Running wild” makes me feel that Maiden really ripped Priest off a lot; this is really like “The Prisoner”. The boys finally take a breather with the only ballad, as “Before the dawn” looks back to some of the material from the first two albums, very pastoral, very progressive rock in its way, nice acoustic guitar and a very melancholy feel to it. The album closes then on “Evil fantasies”, a big growling stomper of a rocker where Judas Priest let their darker side out, and maybe it's a bit of a middle finger to those who don't understand their lyrics. Good ending.

TRACKLISTING

1. Delivering the goods
2. Rock forever
3. Evening star
4. Hell bent for leather
5. Take on the world
6. Burnin' up
7. The green manalishi (with the two-pronged crown)
8. Killing machine
9. Running wild
10. Before the dawn
11. Evil fantasies

It's another good album, but so far, though I haven't necessarily hated anything I've heard, I have not been blown away either. I don't get the same feeling I did when I listened to Maiden, Saxon, Tank, The Tygers or Motorhead the first time. This certainly steps up the gears and unleashes Judas Priest into the world as a leaner, keener, killing machine indeed, but none of these are albums I'd be particularly bothered listening to again. Next!

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

What artiste do you think least inspires a metal cover? Well, tons probably, but given the fact that they were the mainstay of the disco ,movement in the seventies, I think The Bee Gees qualify to be right there at the front of the queue. And so do these guys, who have built a semi-career on metalling up their music.

We Rock Sweet Balls and Can Do No Wrong --- Tragedy --- 2008

With a new album in the pipeline for this year (the video released from it lampoons the Grease hit by Olivia Newton-John and John Travlota, “You're the one that I want”) Tragedy have released four albums, of which this was their debut. Not all of them feature music by the Bee Gees, but most do, and those that don't tackle the soft-pop/disco music of other artistes such as Neil Diamond, ABBA and KC and the Sunshine Band. They also number a Barry Gibb in their ranks, but although this would be hilarious, I've checked his Wiki page and find no reference to Tragedy (other than the song of course) so must conclude the guy here is just using his name or, perhaps in a staggering coincidence, it's his real name. Either way, they're a five-piece (unless you count “Lance: towel boy, complete idiot”), most of whom use or have a variation on a Bee Gees name --- Andy “Gibbous” Waning, The Lord Gibbeth, Mo'Royce Peterson etc --- and all of whom, of course, sing lead vocals. Sounds like this could be a blast.

Great guitar boogie and then a voice which may not be as high as the original (could anyone be?) but he gives it a go. No idea who's singing of course, but it's really funny. The fast percussion really works. Definite feel of G&R covering this. Great ending and into “Jive talkin'” as you've never heard it before. Big hammering guitar before we move into the main riff, though we only get the main keyboard motif once, which is a pity. Supplemented with a great guitar solo though, so I'll forgive them. Okay, we get it twice; it's also right at the end. Now this is going to be interesting: “How deep is your love” gets another punching guitar makeover and there is of course nothing of the soft, sweet orchestral keyboard from the original; it's like they're kicking and battering it and dragging it through the muck. Lovely.

Some very good vocal harmonies, as I guess you'd expect, but Tragedy really hit their stride in the midsection of this song, and although it's nothing like the slushy ballad it originated as, it's not unrecognisable. Not quite. Great guitar riff to close and we're into “You should be dancing”. Oh this is going to be good. With a power metal march and squealing guitars we suddenly get quite a falsetto vocal (fair play to whoever is taking the mike at this point) and we get a real fretfest in the middle which really rocks the song up. You should be headbanging, perhaps? There's a great guitar-backed section then in the third minute (this version runs for over seven!) which sounds somehow ominous, and then shouted group vocals “Dance!” and then we get a Black Metalesque oration, firmly in its mouth. This is fucking incredible. Dance to the apocalypse. Fuck, yeah! Definite standout so far. It even ends on the riff from “Iron Man”. Unbe-fucking-lievable!

I actually don't know “Our love – don't throw it away”, but it seems to be a ballad and they actually use the piano here, courtesy of Disco Mountain Man, then Mo'Royce Peterson's guitar snarls in and it takes off, a power ballad with real power! Maybe a little too long at just over six minutes, but done very well. Seems like they're putting in a Southern Boogie style guitar solo here at the end. Now that's how to do it! And just when you think it's ending on a soft little guitar riff, they throw in a power chord to bring it to a shuddering close. “More than a woman” thunders along on the guitar, with those great vocal harmonies and then we get one of the centrepieces surely, as they attack “Night fever” with a will. Big roaring guitar and a howling vocal before the song explodes all over the place with a real Iron Maiden feel and a cool solo from Peterson. “Shadow dancing” is, unfortunately, the other track on the album I don't know, so I can't really comment on it, other than to say it's a good guitar boogie with the vocal more or less back in Axl Rose territory.

Meh, it's okay but I would rather have had, I don't know, maybe “You win again” or something. Anyway we're now into “Too much Heaven”, which gets a total power ballad treatment, with a “Kashmir”-like rising guitar intro that somehow they make fit into the melody of the song. Fucking brilliant. Sitar-like guitar in the middle eighth and a group vocal chorus, be interesting to see if they can hit the high note at the end. Well, fuck me! They did! Back into “Kashmir” for the ending. We close, on what else but “Tragedy” itself, driven on a busy guitar line which does manage to capture the slightly manic sense of the original song as it rises, rises and rises in intensity and the guys certainly rise to the occasion. Superb. What a finish!

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Stayin' alive
2. Jive talkin'
3. How deep is your love?
4. You should be dancing
5. Our love – don't throw it away
6. More than a woman
7. Night fever
8. Shadow dancing
9. Too much Heaven
10. Tragedy

It's hard to know whether these guys are poking fun at The Bee Gees or actually like them and want to record their music. They certainly remain true as they can to the originals, while still putting their own metal slant on them, with at times hilarious results. Whether they have just found a niche they can exploit, or are really trying to start a new subgenre, it would seem that on the basis of this and presumably the rest of their albums, which I intend to explore in due course, the phenomenon of what they term themselves on their fourth album, disco-metal, is here to stay!

And I couldn't be happier!

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

So for once we've actually had a proper band that has a career and though they were not the kind of music I would prefer, at least they weren't some scrotes with a three-track demo from Upper Volta. Let's see what kind of luck we have this week as we take our second trip into


Well, well, well! Looks like we're back to normal. What was that I said about demos? These guys have them, and three of them, but only up as far as 2006, with no albums, and with a name like that I am not going searching for them on YouTube; doubt I'd find them anyway but the idea of what I might stumble across (shudder!) --- no way man. Oh, they're from Brazil in case you were wondering.

On we go then.

Across the road, it would seem, to Chile.

That somewhat hard to read logo says Perverze, and yes, they're split up and have a demo tape. Gods of Metal, take pity on me! Third time lucky then...


Noisegrind eh? Sounds enchanting. Well, at least they have an album. Three, in fact. Guess we're looking into them then.

Name: Knelt Rote (don't ask me!)
Nationality: American
Subgenre: Black Metal/Noisegrind (oh joy!)
Born: 2008
Lineup: Gordon Ashworth (Vocals, Guitar)
Lucas Danner (Guitars)
Kevin Schreutelkamp (Bass, Vocals)
Elias Bloch (Drums)
Albums: From without (2008), Insignificance (2010) and Trespass (2012)
Live albums: None
Compilations/Anthologies/Boxets: None

There isn't too much information I can get on these guys, but from the description of their music I think it may be a short review. However I'm told their early albums were a mixture of “power electronics” (whatever that may be) and noisegrind, while the later ones see a move towards a fusion of noisegrind and black metal. Oddly enough, perhaps, it's that one, their most recent, that I'm going for.

Trespass --- Knelt Rote --- 2012 (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

Several reasons I've gone for this. First, I don't know what power electronics is but looking at the lengths of the tracks (all in the one to two minute range) I feel it may be pretty brutal and hard to even get any sort of idea as to what the music is like. The middle album has a track on it that is fourteen minutes long, and finally this is the only one that comes up on YouTube, Spotify and GPM both hiding and shaking their heads and asking me to please go away when I type the name in. So this is the one, like it or not, that we're stuck with, but in any case if I have to listen to any of Knelt Rote's albums, I would probably have ended up choosing this one.

Well we kick off with “Usurpation”, and it's the standard hammering of black metal guitars and a dark, scratchy voice probably reading a bus timetable or something (no lyrics available). I can hear the occasional riff makes its way through the general noise but there's nothing to write about as such, so far anyway. “Hunger” is pretty much more of the same, with a rather disturbing and disgusting noise at the end, like someone with a bad cold snuffling. Yuck. The next track is slower, more grindy and favours the bludgeoning approach rather than the stab-n-slash of the first two tracks, though “Passenger” does quicken its tempo about halfway through. That nasty sound is at the end of this one too.

“Succumb” is just a wall of noise, and there's nothing more I can tell you about that, while it battered into following track “Compress” and continued without my even realising we had switched tracks, so that tells you all you need to know. At least “Identical” does not live up to its name, opening with sound effects and then a slow, doomy, sullen guitar riff. It would need to be a little different, as it runs for almost eight fucking minutes! This slow grind lasts for about three minutes, so that's not bad, but then the next four are spent in faster thrash with attendant growls, so we're back to normal it would seem. Luckily for me, this leaves only two tracks, one of which is short, one of which is not.

“Interlude” has a nice sound to the title, and has a relatively restrained and atmospheric guitar opening, and in fact compared to the music Knelt Rote have been assaulting me with since this album began, it's mnelodic and even relaxing, with I think no vocals, which in this case is certainly a plus. As I said, it's short --- at least, in comparison to the closer --- at just over three minutes, while the last nail in the coffin comes in the six-minute-plus form of “Catalepsy”, as the band return to the pummelling attack they seem so used to. There is something of a guitar break in the second minute, but it doesn't last, and the overall effect is of being chopped to death by whirling helicopter rotor blades.

While someone screams gibberish at you.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Usurpation
2. Hunger
3. Passenger
4. Succumb
5. Compress
6. Identical
7. Interlude
8. Catalepsy

Nothing to say really: mostly just noise and anger and aggression and power. I can't even give them a pass based on their lyrics, as I did with Exhumed, because I can't find any. Just not for me, not even with my newfound semi-appreciation of black metal. If this is noisegrind, then file it away with grindcore under the heading DANGER: DO NOT LISTEN IF YOU ARE TROLLHEART!

I don't do half cleavers, so it gets a very grudging

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Another interesting album released in March is this one by a band who, though they're called Viking, are in fact thrash metal. Hmm. Read on...

No Child Left Behind --- Viking --- 2015

Introduction: I don't know if this is the longest a band has gone between albums, but it certainly must be up there among them, as this is Viking's third album, their previous having been released in 1989! That makes a staggering twenty-six years between albums! Some bands don't even last that long. So what have they been doing in the meantime?

Track-by-track

1. 9:02 on Flight 182: Is this a reference to one of the planes from 9/11? Starts with control tower chatter and such, but then the vocalist is singing about 1978, so I guess not. Heavy, pounding track with a fast, rapid-fire delivery at times on the vocal. It's energetic, passionate, but I'd just say all right; nothing that makes me gasp “Where have these guys been all my life?”
2. By the brundlefly: Huh? What's a brundlefly? Well anyway, good driving rhythm that really makes you want to headbang (if only I had more hair!) and certainly has thrash written all over it. Other than that though, meh. Again nothing that gets me particularly wet.
3.Blood eagle:Okay, now this is a great title for a band whose name is Viking. We all know what the Blood Eagle is, right? Well the song rockets along and as you would probably expect has a lot of anger and menace in it, especially in the guitars and the hammering drumbeat.
4. Debt to me: Feel there's a mix of Metallica and Maiden in here. Still not all that terribly impressed though I have to say.
5. An ideal opportunity: Went by without my even noticing. That cannot be good.
6. Eaten by a bear: Like this better. Has a great riff and drives along really well. Great title too. Sort of a moaning, droning, lamenting vocal. I love when he sings “Please don't eat me!”
7. Wretched old Mildred: About a witch? Well it has a nice grindy feel about it and I like the way he sings the chorus. Other than that, it's not too different from the rest of the tracks here.
8. A thousand reasons I hate you: I love this! The lyric is fucking immense! “I hate the way you look and I hate the way you blink, I hate the way you talk too much and I hate the way you think!” Absolutely hilarious. One of the best tracks here. Great aggression but with a large side order of humour to go. Brilliant.
9. Helen behind the door: Meh. Too long by far at six minutes for what it is. Gets very wearing after two.
10. Burning from within: Okay, they're obviously just having fun here but it's a headbangfest and little else. Meh.

Conclusion: It's okay I guess but if I had heard my favourite band was coming back on the scene with a new album after a quarter century absence, I don't think I'd be too impressed after listening to this. For diehard fans of Viking only, I would suspect.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018