Trollheart

Sailing out of the lawless port of Sao Paulo, Barbaria have been together since 2008, and had their first demo in 2011 (incidentally called Under the Black Flag, third time that phrase has been used by a Pirate Metal band; seems to be more popular even than “Jolly Roger” or “Walk the plank”!) but their debut album proper hit in 2013, and some of the songs from that demo found their way onto it.

Barbaria are:
Draco Louback (Vocals)
Marcelo Louback (Guitars)
Carlos Veraart (Bass)
Anderson Moraes (Drums)

So for the last time, me hearties, raise the mizzemast and split the tops'l, or something, and raise yer glasses high! Keep a sharp lookout for Navy frigates as we make one final voyage to line our coffers and sate our bloodlust! Ha-har! Mateys. Possibly.

Watery Grave --- Barbaria --- 2013 (Independent)

Thankfully, YouTube has it and it kicks off with the sound of a hornpipe before a cannonball smashes it to pieces and growling, snarling guitar and hammering drums take over as we launch into “Blackbeard”, a kind of death/power metal song which unfortunately makes it sound as if the singer is chanting “Behold the blackbird!” when I'm sure he means Blackbeard. Sadly not too many lyric sheets for this album, but this one is easy enough to work out, reciting the legend of the deadly and feared Edmund Tench. Good guitar solo, and the vocal is dark and growly enough to be suitable for Pirate Metal without being completely indecipherable.

“The piper” has a kind of western feel to it almost, though I'm not quite sure what it has to do with pirates, if anything. Good powerful song, nice sort of a reel on the guitar then sounds of surf, seagulls and wind open the very Maidenesque “Bucanneers”, one of the few songs I have lyrics for, though I don't see anything there, other than the title, that refers to pirates. It's a good tune though, with the vocal sort of shouted in a strident growl by Draco Louback. The same problem rears its head with the title track, again no mention of actual pirates, though the inference is made but I don't really think that's good enough. It's a good thrashy metal tune, decent vocal but not too much more than that really.

There's a nice soft acoustic guitar running “The Flying Dutchman”, and the vocal is quieter, though I have to admit Draco does not seem to be up to it; he's more comfortable growling or roaring, and he sounds like someone with laryngitis as this starts, to the point where he quickly returns to his gruff snarl, and indeed the music takes on a harder edge too as he sings of the famous cursed sailing ship of seamen's lore. Other than “Blackbeard”, and despite the title of “Buccaneers”, this is the only truly pirate themed song I've heard from them as yet. Next we're “Under the black flag” with a pretty cool heavy marching beat and a snarled vocal, some sharp searing guitar solos, but I'm concerned by the lyric ”March to war!” Pirates don't march. Is this about pirates? I fear it may not be. I guess any army can march under a black flag really.

Surely though “Cutthroat Island” is a pirate song? That practically screams pirates! Well, sadly, no. I don't think these guys have quite got it. There's little to no humour in their songs, and precious few pirates either. They're more like a death metal or power metal band who desperately want to be a pPirate Metal one but are not prepared to make the proper adjustments. I mean, having songs about Blackbeard is all very fine, but one thing I've found during my journey through this not-subgenre is that you need to do more than sing about pirates (and they hardly even do that): you need to embrace the lifestyle, sing about drinking and wenches, and be prepared to do the yardarm dance in payment for your misspent life of crime. You also need to have a great sense of humour. None of these things describe Barbaria, and they're rapidly becoming something of a disappointment. They're too sombre for one thing, and they only vaguely reference elements of pirate lore, almost as if they're afraid to commit to it totally. The last track is called “Merciless”, but by now I've lost interest and can feel quite justified in dismissing these Brazilans as nowhere near a Pirate Metal band. Wonder if the guys who sung in Portuguese would have been any better? Couldn't have been any worse.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Blackbeard
2. The piper
3. Bucaneers
4. Watery grave
5. The Flying Dutchman
6. Cutthroat Island
7. Merciless

A bit of a damp squib (or should that be squid?) to end on, but overall I've really enjoyed my trip through this interesting not-quite-subgenre. One thing is certainly clear though: if Viking Metal is not a subgenre (and it's not) then Pirate Metal most definitely is not. I've heard death, speed, power and even a form of black metal used by the many bands we've heard here, and even non-metal too, so the music absolutely does not define what Pirate Metal is. Neither, indeed, do the lyrics, on their own. If Bruce and the boys started singing pirate songs you wouldn't suddenly call Iron Maiden Pirate Metal. It's more a philosophy, a way of living the pirate life.

You have to immerse yourself in it. Some bands here got it, some didn't; some got it better than others. Running Wild prefer to be accurate and historical with virtually no humour, The Dread Crew of Oddwood explore flights of fantasy (sometimes literally) but consider a good ribald sense of humour with some well-placed smut more important than dates and figures and battles. Alestorm kind of get it the best out of them all, straddling that gap between history and humour while still managing to play great power metal. But if I have to rank the bands I've heard, based not only on their music but more on a general “pirate frame of mind”, in other words, the bands I'd much prefer to see live and know I'd have a good time, that list would look something like this, in ascending order.

Barbaria
Red Rum
Verbal Deception
Running Wild
Swashbuckle
Lagerstein
The Dread Crew of Oddwood
Alestorm

So now it's time to weigh anchor an' head off into the settin' sun as the Royal Navy tries to keep up with our fleet ship. Till we meet again, me hearties! What? Who forgot to stock up on cannonballs afore we left port? I'll keelhaul ye, ye scurvy dogs! Avast there! Make ready the plank! Yo ho ho and off we go!

And now, to finish off, some pirate humour. Ha-haaar!!!

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

We haven't been exactly lucky with mythsofmetal's selection this year, so let's hope that the last of his, and indeed the very last of the recs, can turn the tide.

Aealo --- Rotting Christ --- 2010 (Seasons of Mist)

Rather oddly, the album opens with what almost sounds like that chant the Hare Krishnas sing, then guitar and percussion picks up and the vocal, when it comes in, is harsh but not as bad as it could be, given that this is black metal. There's also a lot of melody in the title and opening track, and tha chant continues on through the song, the guitars nowhere near as brutal as they often are in this subgenre, though still sufficiently heavy. Good marching chant at the end, then we're into “Eon Ænaos” which is a little faster and more powerful, while there's a really nice keyboard intro to "Δαιμόνων βρῶσις" and then it goes into a sort of traditional rhythm, coming closer really to power metal than black.

Most of the work here seems to be undertaken by Sakis Tolis, who plays guitar, keys and also sings, while his brother (I assume) Themis keeps the beat on the skins. “Noctis era” has a great marching, triumphant feel to it, like a celebration before or after battle, with some great guitar work, then “Fire death and fear” is sandwiched in between two instrumentals, the first of which, "Dub-Saĝ-Ta-Ke", rattles along at a faster pace than anything so far with an ethnic feel to it --- I wonder if some strange instruments not listed here are being used? --- and though it's listed as an instrumental there appears to be some basic vocal going on. The pace stays high then for “Fire death fear” which cannons along on a really nice guitar riff, certainly not what I would consider black metal of any stripe. Even the vocal sounds only as “black” as Bruce Dickinson does on “Weekend warrior” off Fear of the Dark, and that's not very black I can tell you!

The other instrumental is “Nekron lehes” and is shorter, just over a minute, and really it's just a vocal chant, like a lament or something, all acapella, taking us into “...Pir Threontai”, which returns to the kind of marching, rolling rhythm but with the vocal even more understandable now, Sakis Tolis's voice deeper for a time before it ascends to that kind of high-pitched growl he uses normally, then switching from one to the other. The guitar riff in this song is pretty special here. Alan Nemtheanga from Irish metallers Primordial guests on vocals on “Thou art lord”,where the music runs on a slower, warrior-chorus style rhythm, and it's hard to work out if they're praising or reviling Jesus, though given their band name you'd have to expect the latter, although the last line ”Now I see the light” does leave it a little ambiguous and open to interpretation.

“Santa muerte” kicks everything up with a fast, hammering guitar and a kind of barked vocal from Tolis, and I must admit his lyric questioning the existence of God is better thought out than Slayer's ”There is no fucking Jesus Christ/ There never was a sacrifice...” There's a great powerful rhythm to this song too, really intense and crushing, a lot of anger in the lyric. Themis Tolis fairly gallops along on the drums, and all in all it's a pretty powerful song. Speaking of powerful, it's been said that Diamonda Galas can convey “the most unnerving vocal terror”, and it's she who takes guest slot for vocals on the closer, one of her own songs, “Orders from the dead”. It runs on a native tribal chant, slow but intense, with Galas almost a high priestesss, offering the sacrifice to cold dark and uncaring gods. It's the longest song on the album, almost nine minutes, and my god does it have a lot of lyrics!

My only quibble would be the that very woman whose music they're covering is singing the song here, so really, is it a cover or is she just playing her own track and it happens to be on this album? Are they just backing her? Even so, very impressive, kind of disquieting, tremendous and scary, glorious and terrifying, a fitting end to an album that really quite impressed me more than I had expected it would.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Aealo
2. Δαιμόνων βρῶσις
3. Noctis era
4. Dub-Saĝ-Ta-Ke
5. Fire death and fear
6. Nekron lahes
7. ... Pir Threontai
8. Thou art lord
9. Santa muerte
10. Orders from the dead

I'd certainly be interested in exploring this band more. For one touted as being black metal, they seem very far removed from that subgenre. The music is nothing like I have come to expect from black metal --- though I freely accept that I have realised over the last two years that there are differing types of black metal --- and even the vocals don't put me off. Nothing on this album was too long or indeed too short; everything seemed timed perfectly so that it neither overstayed its welcome nor finished too soon.

I guess in the end then, mythsofmetal succeeded in pulling it off at the eleventh hour.

And that takes us, as I said, to the end of the albums you guys have recommended for me this year. Also as I said, a relatively paltry showing from the metal fraternity of Music Banter, with only really Frownland, mythsofmetal and of course Batty providing any real ammunition for my review gun (we'll say nothing of Ki's effort) and one or two from Violet too. But though I enjoyed (well, in some cases enjoyed is perhaps too kind a word) doing these albums I was a little disappointed, given the amount of lead time from Metal Month II to this year's effort, in how few people recced albums to me. Hoping for better next year, but as always, thanks to those who dug into their record collections and gave generously. There are those I can always rely on, and if my reviews didn't exactly praise your albums to the heavens at times, I hope you can forgive me. Honesty is my policy, always has been and always will be.

Thanks again to you all and hope to sample more of your metal collections next year.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Time for our final foray down the dark metal corridors and over the tripwires and booby traps, into the echoing chambers of eternal hope, where the walls are stained with the scarlet and green juices of my broken dreams and the smell of disappointment and frustration hangs like a thick miasma in the air. It could only be last orders down at the bar we like to call


In fairness, we've had two out of three visits that were a lot better than expected, and we've done better this year than at any other time really in the history of this feature. Will it continue to the end of Metal Month III? Only one way to find out.

Well, first off we have a Brutal Death Metal band, which is great news for me () until I realise they're another one that only have two demos, so we won't be checking out

and will move swiftly on.

Hmm. These guys are signed, and have an album, though only the one. If I can find it then I guess they'll do.

Well I can't. Apparently some band called Eternal Tears of Sorrow (don't think they're a J-Pop band!) have a song called that, and other than one or two tracks I can't find anything on YouTube. Naturally, Spotify and GPM profess complete ignorance, so we must push the button once more.

Well this is odd. A band called Iron Thumb, no logo shown. Power metal (at last!) but Japanese, so all their releases are in that language, which may make it hard to find them. Well, let's give it a go. Yeah, as expected, no luck. One or two tracks but that's not enough. So this then is our last chance, as I have always limited myself to four attempts.


That's a pity. A black/death metal band from Singapore, of all places, might have been really interesting. But they only have one album, and it's a split with another band, and anyway I can't track it down. So this final quarter comes up blank I'm afraid.

So that's it for another year, though The Meat Grinder will surely make a few appearances in this journal independent of Metal Month. Hope you enjoyed my attempts to stumble through the vast plethora of metal there is out there, in the hope of chancing upon something great. We hit the mark, actually twice this year, which is a whole lot better than last year. But as always, it's a gamble, it's random, you pays your money and you takes your chances .... what do you mean, you didn't pay? Guards!

We now return you to the remainder of Metal Month III, already in progress...

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Family Guy is not a show renowned for its music guests. While they do run big music numbers and feature famous tunes, they rarely if ever seem to actually invite the band or artiste onto the show, or if they do they are turned down. The best I can come up with at the moment is an artiste who was parodied on the show, but not voiced by the star. It's this guy:

Yeah. Marilyn Manson either wasn't interested in appearing or they never asked him, but they still used his image, whether with or without his permission I don't know. Basically though in the season five episode “Saving Private Brian”, which is mostly about Brian and Stewie accidentally signing up for military service (the idea that a baby and a dog could be accepted into the US Army, while already invoking the suspension of disbelief that MacFarlane's shows demand, perhaps says something about the eagerness of military recruiters), Chris joins a heavy metal band and starts exhibiting typical antisocial behaviour. Tracing the problem (they believe) to a poster of Manson, Peter and Lois seek him out and he agees to come back to Quahog and set Chris straight.

The portrayal of Manson as basically a down-to-earth good guy, a sort of Alice after he retired figure, is in ways something of a nod to (or theft of) the Korn idea from South Park, and to be honest it falls pretty flat on its face. If the episode were based around this alone I feel sure it would have bombed, but it's only a sideplot, and not a very good one at that. It annoys me too that Manson himself did not play the part, but that didn't seem to stop them.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

I'm sure nobody will be surprised at my second choice for September, and final review for Metal Month III.
Warning: Long, long LONG winded review ahead!

The Book of Souls --- Iron Maiden --- 2015 (Parlophone)

I've read a lot of reviews about this album, and while most of them are glowing with praise for it, with a few (a very few) giving it somewhat shorter shrift, most are agreed on one point: after five years, the release of a new Iron Maiden album is something of an event. And it's more of an event than any of the previous albums, because for me anyway, after the triumphant return of Bruce Dickinson on 2000's Brave New World, things slid rather badly. Now, I have already mentioned in my “Aces High” feature that I'm none too familiar with the last three albums, but the very reason this situation exists is because when I did listen to them I was not too impressed. Hard to imagine not wanting to hear, oh, let's say Seventh Son of a Seventh Son again. Or Piece of Mind. Or even Somewhere in Time. Maybe.

But while I can't speak at length about Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death or The Final Frontier, and while, when I do eventually put the time aside to listen to them in depth I may end up loving them, the very fact that I “have to put time aside” for a Maiden album shows how little impact recent releases have had on me. There was a time when I jumped up and down (when I was much younger of course and didn't have this problem with my back) whenever a new Maiden album came down the line, but now it's sort of, oh well here's another one, wonder what it will be like, ho-hum? And in general, the reactions to the last three albums do seem to have been mostly lukewarm. I mean, I have not seen any Maiden fans raving about DoD, or any critics heaping praise on AMoLaD. And TFF more or less came and went without really a ripple in the lake of Heavy Metal.

But this one is different. You can just feel it. It's not just that it's their first ever double album, or even that it contains their longest ever song. It's not even the fact that it's been half a decade since we had a Maiden album, or that it's the first time we've heard Bruce since his cancer scare. There's something ... portentous, magical, mystical even about this album, as if it's going to be the one that will redress all the substandard songs we've had on previous albums, blow the competition away and re-establish Iron Maiden at the top of the heavy metal tree, where they have always belonged. It kind of puts me in mind of visiting an old friend who has fallen on hard times, to find he is rejuvenated and raring to face life again, or trudging downstairs as a kid on Christmas morning, expecting the usual socks and gloves from Auntie Pam and discovering instead that she has sprung for the latest video game console. It's the feeling that this one is going to be the album that will paper over any cracks, pull the loose strings in the tapestry together, and reassert the dominance and beauty of a true masterpiece.

But is it? Is it that good? Or am I just overhyping it, based on reviews I've read and the few listens I've given it? The lead single was, in fairness, nothing to shout about, and I made my feelings plain about it, as did Batty, in whatever thread we were watching it in. It didn't sound like the precursor to a real cosmic shift in Maiden's fortunes, the single that was going to remind us why we all fell in love with this band in the first place. It sounded tired, bereft of ideas, going through the motions. It even inspired Batty to opine he might end up not getting the album, or any future ones. How serious he was about that, or whether he has changed his mind as I assume he has already listened to the album by now, I don't know, but I do know my own faith was tested, and “Speed of light” did nothing to bolster it up. Another uninspired Maiden single, I thought. I hope the album is better.

Is it? It is, as mentioned already, the first ever double album from this band of completely new material. Obviously they've had compilations and live albums, but never a new studio one that ran to two discs, or four sides if you're one of those newly interested in collecting vinyl. It's also the first actual album where the cover is designed and drawn by Mark Wilkinson, well known in prog rock circles for his work with Marillion and, later, Fish. But compared to previous covers, even on what I would deem sub-par albums, it doesn't scream classic, does it? But then, Maiden albums don't sell on their covers. If you're a fan, you would buy the album even if the cover were completely black, or red, or yellow. Yes, we all expect to see Eddie on the cover (and he always has been, and hopefully always will be) but the cover is very much secondary, though it has been the subject of some controversy among fans, many of whom think it is too “plain”, given the brightly coloured sleeves of previous outings. And I'm sure we all remember the last “dark” cover, don't we?

So which would you prefer? A garish, exciting cover with bland, insipid music (or in the case of The X Factor, a bland, insipid cover with bland, insipid music!) or a sedate cover which masks tremendous, exciting, pulse-pounding and thought-provoking music? An album that looks good but is all show, or one that looks okay but once you start to listen, your faith is joyfully reaffirmed?

Neither question of course matters if the music inside matches the cover, so let's dig beneath the skin, so to speak, and see what Eddie's mascots (sorry, should that be the other way around?) have for us. I am glad to see that, though it was the lead single, “Speed of Light” does not start the album, as I already know that and having to listen to it kick proceedings off would be something of a struggle. But no, we instead get “If eternity should fail”, an eight-minute epic which is in fact the shortest of four monsters on this behemoth. It is something of an odd opening, with dark synth, fluting keys which kind of recall the title track to Powerslave, and the the strong, clear voice of Bruce singing and showing that he has fully recovered from his run-in with the Big C. With an echoing, slightly delayed vocal it continues for almost a minute and a half with just Dickinson and Harris before the guitars blast through and Nicko slams in with the percussion and we really get going. I can see this being a great opener on the tour, Bruce standing alone front and centre, (or even singing offstage in the wings before walking on) as Harris caresses the keys in darkness, then the whole band bursting onstage as the song kicks in and the lights blast up.

When it gets going, it's classic Maiden with elements of “new” Maiden woven in there too, but the star is definitely Dickinson, who dispels any premature rumours that he might never sing again --- or even be here --- as he gives it all he has. It's not as fast a song as some openers like “Aces high” or “Invaders”, but it weaves its own special spell over the album from the first. I must admit, when I heard it initially I thought it came across as a weak opening; I see now what they were and are trying to do, and it makes sense. Great solos as ever from the titanic trio, and there's definitely a sense of eastern mystery running through the riffs here. It's interesting too that it's a Dickinson solo penned number that both opens and later closes the album; I think that's the first time that's happened. Yeah, it is. The spoken bit at the end, the bit about Necropolis, does nothing for me and I'm not sure what it's meant to convey, but it's a small niggle on an otherwise excellent song.

Much larger niggles about the next one. Like many Maiden fans it would seem, when I heard the lead single I was not impressed, as I have outlined above. I'm still not crazy about it and I find it to be one of the weaker tracks on the album, but I don't hate it as much now on repeated listenings as I did originally. I have no idea what it's about though, which is unusual as Maiden songs are normally relatively straightforward. That said though, what did the opener seek to convey? I guess nobody really cares as long as the two songs rock, and one thing you can say about “Speed of light” is that it does rock, but to me it still sounds like the boys are just going through the motions here. Thankfully, that's a complaint that hardly bothers the rest of the album. The lads have great fun with it, and I guess that's about as much as you can say about it. It does grow on you though. Powerful ending, though I wonder if, were this ten years ago, Bruce would have finished on a rising high note? Again, a small complaint, and not even such: more an observation really.

One thing this album is going to live or die by is the length of the tracks. Since his return in 2000, Bruce and the boys have written longer and longer songs. Yes, there was of course “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” all the way back in 1984, but that was conspicuous by being the longest track they had written at the time, and over the next six albums, though there were the odd longer track (I think “Sign of the cross” off The X-Factor was eleven minutes long?) there was nothing too long and certainly if there was, it was the only very long track on the album. Here, we have three --- count 'em, three! --- tracks that sail well over the ten minute mark, with of course the by-now well-known closer being the longest Maiden song ever, at a staggering eighteen minutes! Before we get to the first of those though there's “The great unknown”, which kicks off with Steve Harris's signature bass pulse, and slowly builds on lush synth backing. This is, surprisingly, given his usual almost tyrannical control over songwriting on the albums, the first song on which Harris is involved, writing it with Adrian Smith, and as it kicks up on guitar and drums I feel it puts me somewhat in mind of the title track to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, though that could just be me.

The usual expected solos abound of course, and Bruce is in good (though I would not say perfect) form here,then in the last minute it slows right down, to ride mostly on Steve's bass again as it heads into the final minute of the six plus it runs for, guitars slowly gathering behind it and preparing for a big finish that doesn't come; it just sort of fades out on ringing guitar and Bruce's final vocal. That takes us then into the first of the epics, and it's a Harris solo affair --- the only one on the album --- so naturally opens with a growling bass solo before the guitars pile in and “The red and the black” gets going. This runs for over thirteen minutes, so in this one song Maiden have already come close to eclipsing their longest ever track. In fact, to be completely fair, there's a lot of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in this song, particularly the opening guitar riffs and the vocal delivery. Of course the “Whoa-oh-oh”s are there in abundance, and naturally this will go down great with the audiences on the tour, but how does it play over its thirteen minutes and thirty-three seconds here on the album?

Well the lyric reads like something more out of a progressive rock album than a Maiden one, as in ”The black jack king and the red queen clash, the artful dodger he counts his stash/ The joker's wild like an impish child, while madame fortune she waits inside/ The good luck charm is overkill, the tired old soldier says fire at will/ Planes overhead go search destroy, the ones below human decoy.” Um, yeah. Whatever happened to ”Rolling, turning, diving” or even ”Soldier blue in the barren waste”? It's a little overblown lyrically and very effective and immediate, but a little pretentious I feel. Not to mention godawful bad English; this sounds like some Czech band or other non-English-speaking one wrote this! Where's the poetry, the cadences, the belief that words should flow first and rhyme second? Man, I have to be honest: this is awful lyrically! Is Harris losing it? Luckily enough, the lyrics more or less run out at the seven-minute mark and we're then treated to a virtuoso display of fretburning excellence from the three guys. If this ends up being in the encore, Bruce can take a well-earned break for about six minutes and leave it to them before coming in for the final line. In a way, the dearth of vocals, or at least lyrics, in the second half of the song kind of save it, but it is pretty overlong for what it is. There's plenty there to keep you entertained, sure, but does there need to be? This song could probably have been half its length. Can you say bloated?

It should be noted that though this is the only song Harris writes on his own, he is involved in both the next two, and three out of five on the second disc, so he's by no means hanging up his pen, tablet or whatever he uses to write songs. And it's odd that this is so bad lyrically, cos I remember him writing great music: he did after all pen “The number of the beast” and of course “Hallowed be thy name”, though that was a long time ago now. “When the river runs deep” powers along nicely with classic Maiden influence, again reminding me of Seventh Son, particularly “The evil that men do”, and it's a good song but somehow it doesn't make the impression on me that I had expected it to. Gentle guitar and synth opens the title track, another of the long ones, but the shortest of the three at a mere (!) ten minutes and change. Very much a sense of “Powerslave” and even Rainbow's “Gates of Babylon” about this; a slow, marching, punching rhythm with that eastern tinge Maiden can infuse their music with. It concerns the fall of the great and ancient civilisation of the Maya, as reflected on the cover, and has touches of “To tame a land” in there too. On balance, overall, Maiden are certainly playing to their strengths so far on this album, looking back to their classic albums for inspiration for what may be destined to be a future classic itself.

There's a standard Maiden rockout of course, and again “Rime” gets its nose in, particularly around the eighth minute or so, but it's pound for pound a better song than the longer “The red and the black”, and it doesn't feel like dragging once, unlike its stablemate. And that's the end of the long songs for now, and indeed the end of the first disc, as we burst out of the sun with “Death or glory”.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Now to be fair, I feel I need to point out that I think Maiden have overused this dogfight motif: we've had “Aces high”, “Tailgunner” and now this, and to be fair again, the latter was kind of a rewrite of the former. Still, it's a good rocker and after some pretty extended tracks it's nice to just headbang and forget about everything.

But I can't, can I? Because the opening riff sounds like it's borrowed directly from “Losfer words” off Powerslave, though that does fade out as the song gets going, this time an ode to the famous Manfred von Richthofen, the World War I fighter ace known as The Red Baron. At least the lyric is pretty simple and straightforward, and given that this is Dickinson and Smith combining again, it's nice to see we don't get the confusing narrative we saw in “Speed of light”. Yeah, it's good fun and it's one of the things Maiden do really well. I just hope it's the end of the fighter plane songs, as it's wearing a little thin now.

Harris reasserts his grip over the songwriting, collaborating with Janick Gers on the next one, Adrian and then Dave, but he must feel ashamed that the opening riff is “Wasted years” and then the main melody again steals from “Seventh son”, so that “Shadow of the valley” is really more an amalgam of older songs with a few new bits thrown in. Is this about the Charge of the Light Brigade? Didn't they do that on “The Trooper”? It's a good enough song, but it's so derivative that it's almost embarrassing. The lyric don't inspire either: ”Ask them the questions/ Tell them no lies”. Really, guys? That's the best you could come up with? I don't want to dampen the enthusiasm for this album, but I definitely have to point out some really poor decisions and some sticking points, and this is one of them, this cobbled-together mess of other songs that drags on for over seven minutes. Oh, and throw in a few “Whoa-oh-oh-oh”s while you're at it, why don't ye?

Better is “Tears of a clown”, with its references to depression and specifically to Robin Williams, (though he's never mentioned the band have confirmed he was the inspiration for the song, or at least his suicide earlier this year was) and its slower pace and darker tone. It's interesting to see a metal band, particular one of Maiden's calibre and standing, attempt to take on the touchy subject of depression and suicide, but I feel they do a very good job with it, and as much as I've slagged him off on most of his songs, credit must go here to Harris and also to Adrian Smith for managing to write a touching and yet not sentimental or sugary tribute to one of the world's best and most missed comedians. I think he would have approved. A soft, wailing guitar opens “The man of sorrows”, and I immediately did a double take. Didn't Bruce have a song called almost this, minus the definite article, on his third solo album, Accident of Birth? It's not the same song, but it's odd that they would title it as such. It's a dark, moody grinder, perhaps one of many songs on this album showing how the age of the bandmembers is affecting them and turning their thoughts to themes of mortality and death. It's a good song, but it's quite bleak and it fades out in a way I don't usually expect Maiden songs to.

And then, there's the elephant in the room. No metalhead can at this point be unaware that this album closes with Maiden's longest ever song (if you are, were you not paying attention earlier? I mentioned it at least twice) and that it's a solo Dickinson penned number. Most of you also know that it opens mostly on piano (which has been up to now unheard of for Iron Maiden; I don't think they've ever even used piano before) and is about the R101 disaster. But in all the reviews I've read (and I've read many in preparation for writing my own) nobody has bothered to explain what the R101 disaster was. Well, I will. If you want to skip it and get to my dissection of the track itself, feel free.

R100 and R101 (the “R” presumably referring to “royal”) were two competing airship projects, one government driven, the other privately funded, and at the time it flew, 1929, R101 was the largest airborne object ever built --- 731 feet long --- and flew a full seven years before the famous Hindenburg, whose crash was to dominate world news in 1936. Eager to make a crossing from England to Karachi, the airship took off on October 4 1930 and after experiencing bad weather and with the crew either misdiagnosing or ignoring several problems, crashed in a field near Beauvais in France almost eight hours later. 48 of the 54 passengers and crew were killed, including almost all the development team, and the crash brought to a halt forever Britain's attempts to enter the airship business.

That's the short version: you can get the full story here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R101#Final_flight

As for the song, well as already mentioned over and over, its' Maiden's longest ever by a long way, clocking in at an impressive eighteen minutes and five seconds, a length that would even raise the odd eyebrow on a progressive rock album, never mind a metal one, and “Empire of the clouds” opens on Bruce Dickinson's recently-won piano, (a strange sound on a metal album to be sure) with scant accompaniment from the band, plus violin, and runs for about two minutes before the vocal comes in. It's slow and stately, grand and majestic, no doubt seeking to represent the gliding, sailing giant of the skies as it made its unhurried progress across the sky. Bruce's vocal is in fact here one of the best I've heard from him; maybe it's because this song is entirely his baby. He wrote it, he plays the piano, and it seems he guarded it jealously, playing his piano in a glass box and only letting the guys in on the melody once he was finished with.

As we reach the fifth minute, the urgency begins to propel the song along in a faster rhythm, Bruce snarling ”We must go now, for the politicians/ She can't be late.” The guitars of Adrian, Dave and Janick now begin to assert themselves a little more, and as trouble shows its head there's a salvo of riffs and heavy drumming from Nicko before an almost triumphant passage from --- I don't know; how do you know who's playing what solo? Anyway, it's very melodic but gets much more intense and powerful as we head into the eighth minute, the piano now faded long away, the tempo picking up on the back of the three guitars, Harris's thumping bass and Nicko's romping drumwork.

Some truly exceptional solos taking the song into its twelfth minute as the pace increases even more, Bruce coming back in with the vocal, the sense of panic and realisation that they are about to crash asserting itself in the faster, heavier guitar work and Bruce's wailing vocal. The piano returns in the fourteenth minute with a spiralling solo of pure fear and panic as the guitars hammer down around it and the airship falls helplessly from the night sky, plummeting down towards the forest. Then it all slows again as Bruce returns to the melody from the opening section, presiding over the wreckage of what should have been Britain's triumph, her finest hour, her dominance of the air, dreams all shattered now, as broken as the bones of those who fell from the sky, as dead as the corpses that now litter a French field, far from home.

Plaintively, he wails ”Dreams live on!” before accompanying himelf on the piano as he pays his final respects to the dead: ”Now a shadow on a hill, the angel of the east/ The empire of the clouds may rest in peace/ And in a country churchyard, laid head to the mast/ Eight and forty souls who came to die in France .” The song has something of a low-key ending, which I guess you would expect when it's such a sad and tragic tale, but somehow it feels to me like there's no real payoff at the end, as it kind of just drifts away on the piano notes. I doubt that will bother most fans though, and this should go down a storm (sorry) onstage when they perform it later in the year.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

Disc 1

1. If eternity should fail
2. Speed of light
3. The great unknown
4. The red and the black
5. When the river runs deep
6. The Book of Souls

Disc 2

7. Death or glory
8. Shadow of the valley
9. Tears of a clown
10. The man of sorrows
11. Empire of the clouds

I will admit I'm slightly torn here. This is a fantastic Maiden album, there's little doubt about that, but is it, as many have perhaps overhyped it, the best Maiden album ever? No, not a chance. There's never going to be another Powerslave. Is it the best of the post-Bayley era? I don't think so; I still believe that, song for song, track for track, Brave New World holds that title. But is it the best since after that? Well, as I already admitted, I have not listened to the last three albums as much as I should, so I can probably not make that determination, but from what I have heard of them, I would have to say this is streets ahead. Put it this way: it's the first Maiden album since Brave New World that has made me want to listen to it again.

There's no doubt that after an absence of five years and considering the scare Bruce had, that this would be greeted with open arms and an almost determination to love and praise it. And it does deserve love and praise. But the kind of messianic rhetoric that is sprinkled through most reviews I've read is I think slightly overdone. It's a great album, but it has its flaws. Some of the songs are unnecessarily long. There are recycled tunes, melodies, solos, ideas. It's a lot to sit through, especially for a review. Maiden were obviously happy with all the tracks and didn't want to drop any, thus the double album, but I could have left out two or three here and still had a pretty damn decent single album.

But in the end, it's great to see Bruce back, and recovered, and it's great as ever to welcome Iron Maiden back after so long. The Book of Souls is not a perfect album by any means, and take with a large grain of sodium chloride any comment that it is, but it's certainly one of the better things they've done since 2000, and going back before that, probably since Powerslave or Seventh Son. That's an achievement in itself. And of course, this is their sixteenth album in a career now spanning over thirty-five years, so you can't expect miracles.

This is about as close as you're likely to get, though.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

You read too much into stuff for seemingly no apparent reason.

__________________

mythsofmetal

I'm glad that you had at least enjoyed this one from me. I can see how you don't see it being very much like black metal. Their later material is of a more rocking melodic black metal, so there's quite a bit of heavy metal and rock-like stuff in their sound. However, some aspects clearly are black metal to me, like the tremolo guitars on "Santa Muerte." Also, I don't see how you see his vocals being as light as Bruce's harsher stuff on Iron Maiden's 90's stuff, 'cause Sakis vocals are quite a lot harsher sounding to me, particularly in how much more distorted and barked they sound, but maybe I need to re-listen to FotD, because I haven't in a while, so maybe I'm forgetting how harsh Bruce had gotten, though I can't imagine it.

On Necrophagia, I was doubtful of how much you would enjoy them, since the production is murky and since a fair bit of it is somewhat samey as you mentioned, and that it's something that the listener really has to be in a particular mood for to enjoyably absorb. It was mostly just recommended because of its historical importance to death metal, though I had hopes you might enjoy it. I think I could guarantee that you would at least find the other album which I had recommended from them more interesting, but how much more it would be may still not result in actually enjoying it. Deathtrip 69 certainly has more apparent variety throughout its whole duration than their debut, but much of it is also somewhat simple death metal, and that might just bore you still, though there's stuff here and there on it which I think you might like which changes and picks things up, but it's still something I would only feel really confident in someone enjoying if they were in a mood for the kinda simple, horror movie themed death metal sort of album, or for someone who has a special appreciation for harsh vocals (since Necrophagia's reincarnation, Killjoy has really developed some awesome harsh vocals, and there're also some good guest harsh vocal performances on Deathtrip 69, too, but I doubt that you would appreciate this aspect very much.)


On the part in your post which I've put in bold, maybe you meant not to include them, and I admit that maybe a couple of them were about as much as Arthemesia, which aren't so much, but there were six other albums I had recommended for the Atmospheric Black Metal albums section and I think my recommendation for Schattenvald's III, and Saor's Aura would be well worth checking out just to get a bit more knowledge of the genre. There was also the album Vega by Janvs which I had recommended for the section, and I think you would like it a lot, but it's not as in the vein of Atmospheric Black as others which you've done. I had also recommended possibly taking a random album from Sigh and reviewing it, but I could understand why you may not have wanted to do that, though now I'd like to recommend going through their discography for MM(IV) since I think there'd at least be a couple other albums in there which you would love, and a few more possible loves in there, plus I think that you would at least like most of the rest. Also, I had rec'd Lost Horizon's A Flame to the Ground Beneath as well, as a bonus for after you reviewed the rest of what I had rec'd, so if you wanted to review that sometime soon, you could. I think the LH album would be your favourite of my specific, non-ABM recs, since it's some great progressive power metal, just so ya know...

Trollheart

And so we come, finally, to the end of Metal Month III.

When I began this feature originally, back in 2013, which seems an age ago now, my intention was to dedicate one week to a short exploration of Heavy Metal, something I was calling Metal Week. I quickly realised that that would never do though; after realising that I could get very little done in such a short time, I then decided that giving over a whole month was a better prospect, and the concept of Metal Month was born.

Although looking back on it now, it was laughably loose and with little or no structure (basically a bunch of album reviews taking in as many subgenres as I could), it was such a success and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to do it all again the next year. Now here we are, in the third year of Metal Month, and it's just getting better and better.

While there are of course those who have not the slightest interest in Metal and completely ignore this special, I think it's fair to say that the Metal community on Music Banter tends to look forward to it and usually takes part one way or another. This year we've done a lot; from expanding sections like "When Worlds Collide" to streamlining the "Freshly Forged" section into a more chronological format, and even trying out new things with "Heavy Metal Honeyz", to say nothing of Batty's attempts to break me in his Torture Chamber. We've delved into the discography of another artiste with whom I was less than familiar, and have learned about more interesting subgenres.

We've had the traditional annual knockdown fight as someone tries to convince me their music is worth listening to, and in the best tradition of heavy metal it's all ended in a fistfight, thankfully only verbal. No doubt there'll be another next year.

In many ways, this year has been the most difficult Metal Month I have ever run; as most of you know, my sister was taken very ill last week, and between spending most of my day at the hospital, in addition to feeling under the weather myself, it's a minor miracle it got finished at all! A lesser man (or a less obsessed one anyway) might have decided to end it early, but I don't like to leave things unfinished and so struggled on, even though most of the time I just wanted to fall into bed and draw the covers over my head. I'm glad now that I persevered though, as it would have been a waste of so much planning and effort. It's fair to say, however, that Metal Month III has left me emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it and found something to interest you over this last month. Now all that remains is to unplug the guitars, disassemble the amp stacks and begin to take down the stage as Metal Month III draws to a close. Please drive safely on your way home. Thank you for your company over this month and we'll hopefully see you all back here in 2016. Metal Month IV is already in the planning stages.

For now though it's a well-earned (but short) rest before I launch into my next project. Thanks again for supporting Metal Month III. Whether you contributed or commented, or just read what I wrote; whether you took an active interest or just dipped in occasionally; whether your comments were helpful, pithy or even hostile, whether I made you laugh, cry, or pound your computer keyboard in angry frustration, all your reactions, good or bad, are what help to make Metal Month what it has become.

So thanks for your support, and here's to 2016!
Rock on!

I'll leave the final word to Freddie...

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Well yes, but it's well known the over-enthusiasm of military recruiters, usually on college campuses, or was, during the Iraq War. I was not the one who noted it but it certainly seemed like they were signing up anyone they could to fight in Bush's war for oil, sorry war on terror, and I think McFarlane was hinting at that there. Much of what happens in FG demands you just unhook your brain --- after all, how could a baby operate a time machine? --- but this just struck me as being something of his looking askance at the whole idea of overzealous military recruiters.

Also, what did you think of the Maiden album? Did you listen to it?

@ myths: rather than quote all your text, let me just say that as far as the ABM albums you recommended, yes there was a second batch but I had reached my quota at that point: twelve is usually the figure I work with, three per section, four sections. I may listen again at some point but right now I'm all metalled out. There were other albums from other people I didn't get to, but due to the sudden emergency at home and my required presence at the hospital every day, there was little chance to shoehorn them in and I had to go with what I had done. Thanks for taking the time though and I'll try to get to them at some point.

Note: The comparison with Bruce on FotD is only on that one song, and it's not that close but I just felt that guy's vocals were not as harsh as I would have been expecting on a black metal album.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018