Trollheart

Yeah. I'm really sorry man, but this was total bollocks. If it had been a pop album or even AOR I'd have said ok. If Schenker had titled it "Schenker goes pop" then yeah maybe. But with a tough-as-nails, come-and-have-a go title like that, and the super hard cover, I was expecting so much more. It's almost like Der Schenk had had enough and wanted to go out giving his fans the middle finger. I haven't been quite so disappointed in a long time.

I'm even considering re-reviewing it for a new section called "Must try harder", which I have yet to start. Good list otherwise though. I really enjoyed the Metal Church album.

Hope we're still pals ....

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Redeemer of souls --- Judas Priest --- 2014 (Epic)
I have to admit it: I’m no fan of Judas Priest. When Bruce was shaking his locks all over the TOTP stage screaming “Run to the hills”, I looked at Halford and thought “The guy’s got short hair! If you’re in a metal band you HAVE to have LONG hair!” Hey, give me a break: I was like sixteen at the time. So that was my reason for shutting Priest out of my metal life, and not listening to anything by them --- though I did of course get exposed to “Breaking the law” and “United” via the charts --- until ast year, when I shamefacedly admitted I really should have listened to “British steel” before I hit my fifties…

I still haven’t listened to any of their other albums --- no time y’see --- but couldn’t really let the release of their latest album be ignored in Metal Month, so this is only the second Priest album I’ll have heard. Hey! Keep that tar away from me! And what’s with the feathers guys? Guys?

The first album without legendary guitarist, songwriter and co-founder KK Downing, this is Priest’s seventeenth album, and it’s pretty crazy to think they started back in 1969, like, ten YEARS before the NWOBHM and a decade before anyone had even heard of Iron Maiden, even in the little clubs. Certainly survivors of the movement that swept so many new bands into the gutters of history, Priest no doubt looked on with the nodding or shaking head of the wise old veteran as these new young guns rose, fell, rose, fell. They’d seen it all before, and did not feel their throne was threatened. In that. they may later have discovered they had underestimated at least one of the bands, who went on to dominate world Metal and eclipsed the old campaigners in just about every area.

But undaunted by the pretenders to their crown scaling the charts and amassing an army of followers across the globe, Judas Priest have continued on a slow and steady path to Metal glory. They haven’t had the chart successes of Maiden, but they’re just as popular and they probably always will be. To underline that, this, their first album in six years, went to number six in the coveted Billboard US charts, number 12 in the UK and took the top slot in the US Rock AND Hard Rock charts, as well as the UK Rock and Metal Charts.

With the ominous sound of approaching thunder, “Dragonaut” kicks into life on the back of new guitarist Richie Faulkner’s axe allied to that of mainstay Glenn Tipton, before Rob Halford’s by-now familiar growl leaves us in no doubt that one of the oldest Metal bands in the world are back! Fretburning solos are the order of the day, and there’s little time to catch your breath as we hurtle on into the title track. It’s a real anthem, swaggering along with a studded, leather-clad fist punching the air, great interplay between the two guitarists. It would of course be wrong of me to say there’s a Maiden influence on the song (though there is) as I know Priest were going long before Bruce, or even Paul, and the boys, so I’ll just say I can see where both Maiden and Manowar got their inspiration, and it’s pretty evident in this track, which could grace any album by either band.

Speaking of Manowar, as I said I know little about Priest, but I don’t think they generally favoured songs about mythology prior to this, so the next three tracks really are something of a surprise, lyrical contentwise. “Halls of Valhalla” recounts the raids by the Vikings, hoping to die in glorious battle and so be admitted into the houses of the brave. With a big chunky guitar fading in it gives a real epic feel, then changes as the guitar becomes a standard hard metal one, Halford letting out a mighty roar worthy of Eric Adams himself, Tipton going wild on the guitar while Faulkner keeps the rhythm going. You can almost feel the ”Spray on the storm’s maul” as the mighty Norsemen fight the ocean on their long trek west in search of booty (not that type, Franco! ) and glory.

For a man reaching his sixty-third year, Rob Halford still has a mighty set of pipes, and he gives them full vent here, a scream that would give Bruce a run for his money! Great backing vocals too. Proghead nerd sidenote: the album cover is designed by Mark Wilkinson, well known to fans of Marillion as being the man behind the first four album sleeves and also many of those released by Fish when he went solo. What do you mean, you don’t care, this is Metal Month, fuck off out of here you prog wank --- that’s not very nice now is it? Okay okay! We know when we’re not wanted. Put that bloody axe down, all right? We’re going.

Another warrior tale is related in “Sword of Damocles”. Whether it references the actual legend or not I don’t quite know; it may be just used as a metaphor. But it’s a slower, hard cruncher with a sense of swinging about it. Again a fine vocal performance from the main man, and an introspective guitar passage in the middle, during which Halford goes all soprano for a moment, which is a little unnerving, but it doesn’t last before his dark growl is back and we’re on track again. I’m not sure if “March of the damned” is about zombies, or again if it’s meant to be a metaphor for all the dead from various wars, but it’s got an odd, almost Numanesque vocal to it. Yeah I know. It’s a mid-paced monster, with a screaming guitar solo and deep, kind of breathing noises which are either made on the drumkit or on Tipton’s synth. Very effective either way.

You know, that vocal is so different I wonder if it’s someone other than Halford singing? Does Tipton sometimes sing? It just does not sound like the usual vocalist, though maybe he’s just that versatile a singer. What do I know? But if anyone does, please let me know. “Down in flames” has a sort of almost thrash metal vibe to it, rocking along well, with some good backing vocals. “Hell and back” thought it would get me, with its gentle, acoustic opening, but I knew. I knew! Marching along as a tough metal cruncher, it gives Tipton and Faulkner a different outlet for their guitar skills as they grind and snarl where before they screamed and shrieked. Sort of a heavy blues feel to this track too with a healthy dose of Manowar. Yeah, I said Manowar. Wanna fight about it?

With a title like “Cold blooded” you’re expecting another slowish cruncher, but what you get, rather interestingly is another slowish cruncher. Yeah, like a slower Tank or a more polished Diamond Head, Priest rack out the kind of lyric you would expect from a DSBM album but hit you with enough killer riffs and crashing drums that you can’t be depressed even though the lyric is very bleak and hopeless: ”You suck my life/ And all that I live for/ I’m left for dead/ Cold blooded…” “Metalizer” then kicks everything back up to ten, hammering along with a big scream from Halford and the kind of guitar I usually expect from Maiden’s poster boys. Kind of a Black Metal feel to the lyric --- Thrusting from a grave of unholy earth/ Giving all his worth let the damned be saved/ All that evil sin buried underground” --- with some truly awesome drumming from Scott Travis that is in danger of knocking you out cold.

“Crossfire” reminds me of the late great Rory Gallagher, with a hard blues edge to it, especially the guitar solo. Sa-weet man! “Secrets of the dead” on the other hand is very progressive metal, though Priest would probably skin me alive for suggesting such a thing! Love the sort of eastern tinge to it, and say what you like but it reminds me of a Kamelot song I know, so there. Well we started powerfully, can we end the same way? “Battlecry” certainly goes for it, hard rockin’ all the way in an almost “Aces high” vibe, but “Beginning of the end” seems like it may close the album with a ballad. Certainly a relaxed opening on acoustic guitar and soft synth, echoing vocal from Halford. Pretty heartbreaking song, which seems to reference the death of a loved one. It is a ballad, and a great one, and though almost out of place, it puts the finishing touch on a great album.

TRACKLISTING

1. Dragonaut
2. Redeemer of souls
3. Halls of Valhalla
4. Sword of Damocles
5. March of the damned
6. Down in flames
7. Hell and back
8. Cold blooded
9. Metalizer
10. Crossfire
11. Secrets of the dead
12. Battle cry
13. Beginning of the end

If anyone thought there was a hidden message in the closer, the band have denied the rumours that this was to be their last album, and yet remain strangely ambiguous about the future: “In a way, I suppose it’s also our farewell album, though it might not be our last one” --- Glenn Tipton. Huh? Whatever the future holds for Judas Priest, having survived the turmoils of the NWOBHM, the punk revolution, grunge and hip-hop, they’re still standing proud, bold and defiant, and this album is their mission statement. In two and a bit words: “We’re back!”

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Trollheart

Okay then, time to roll up my sleeves, gird my lions (no I don't mean loins: have you not met Ben and Jerry?)

grit my teeth and head into the maelstrom again, hoping to the metal gods that I don't end up having to listen to any more grindcore. Yeah, it's time for our second visit of the month to

Enter password: password entered. Password accepted. Engage Random Selection Function: Random Selection Function Engaged. Processing... processing ... please wait ... processing... Band found!

Well, at least it isn't grindcore! These guys hailed from Russia --- and I don't mean the USSR, for anyone as old as me, as they have only been around since 2010, although they were known as Prostan from 2008 to 2010, so technically they've been in existence six years. Still, that's pretty young for any metal band, and as a consequence they only have the one album. Can I find it? Well let's see. Spotify: negative. Grooveshark: negative. YouTube: negative. No luck then, though I did find one video of them, playing oddly enough under the name Miliard...

So we'll have to go again. Enter details etc and what have we got this time?

Already split up over twenty years, and with one demo to their name --- with the picture of it showing a cassette tape! --- Ah, I'm just not even going to bother looking. Next!

You know, that's mighty weird! Not only are this band split up, not only do they have demos and nothing more to their name but they formed in the same year as Endless Dawn, despite being American and therefore thousands of miles apart. What else have they in common? Yeah, they're no good to me. Mind you, with their two demos entitled “Gloating over corpses” (Oh! You heartless gloater! --- Blackadder joke) and “Slaughtered for food”, I don't think I'm missing too much. Push Random button to engage...

Another American band, another Black Metal band. What is it with my luck? Why can't I get a single progressive, power or symphonic metal band, or even a good ol' thrash or speed metal band? I ALWAYS get bloody extreme metal! Well, by the rules I set this is my last chance. If these guys --- who have three EPs, and therefore the largest output of the four choices I've hit up here --- can't be located then it's over for this week. Where's my shotgun and hunting dog? Oh no! Jerry is after him! DOWN! BAD lion! Down! Don't you glare at me like that... um .... good lion ... easy now ...

Right, now that I'm safely locked in my Panic Room we can get down to business. Although there is no sign of this band anywhere on my usual sites, I have managed to find about seventy percent of their second EP on YouTube, so we'll have to go with that.

Well first of all they're Black Metal, so hooray for that I don't think. I also get the feeling, from what I see of them, that they're not going to be leaning anywhere towards the more atmospheric, ambient side of the scale. I think brutal and nasty and savage are words I could probably rely on here. As I say, they have three EPs but no albums, but appear still to be active. They're also a he, as in, they're a one-man band, where one Marius Koslowski does, apparently, “everything”. Whether this means (just!) guitar, bass and drums or whether he throws in keys and other instruments I don't know. Is he another Panopticon? Can we expect ambient passages among screamed or growled vocals, or will this just be a blinding, hammering, exhausting guitar-led dash to the finish line, with added snarls to go?

There's little real information on him, other than the bands he's played in or been part of previously, where mostly he seemed to handle guitar, keyboards in some and also bass, and that he's from Tampa in Florida, so maybe he and Austin Lunn could growl to each other across the states. The last of his EPs came out in 2011, with nothing since, so I don't know whether he's working on an album, or even another EP, but here's what I can find out about him.

Band name: Mondhaurn
Nationality: American
Subgenre: Black Metal
Born: 2009
Status: Active
Albums: None, but three Eps: “Demonizing passions” (2009), “Maze of desolation” (2010) and “Cursed blessings” (2011)
Live albums: None
Collections/Anthologies/Boxsets: None
Lineup: Marius Koslowski (“Everything") F

He can't be a superstar at any rate: of his three EPs, two of them were limited to a pressing of 33 and 66 copies respectively; whether this is all he could afford or that was all the discs he had I don't know. It doesn't mention how many copies, if any, the third one was restricted to, but somehow I don't think you're going to find him playing Giants' Arena or Madison Square Gardens any time soon. But should be be regarded as an undiscovered gem, or is he just another guy messing about in his garage/basement/bedroom, making music and running off copies for his friends? The fact that he's here at all, on EM would indicate that he has some sort of following, but then again, you never know. I guess I'll have to make my own mind up.


Maze of desolation --- Mondhaurn --- 2010 (Svartgalgh Records)

As I say, this guy's music is not easy to track down --- and little wonder, considering how few copies of it got out to the public --- so I've only been able to find a total of four tracks from him, three of which appear on this EP, which is why I've chosen it out of the three. According to the tracklisting the EP opens with “Dawn of devastation”, which is one of the tracks I've been able to locate on YouTube. It's a fast guitar all right, but definitely some melody in there, almost thrash I would say, the drums as fast as if not faster than the axe. Then it sort of slows down a little into a hard and heavy riff reminiscent of the likes of Metallica or Slayer. The vocal when it comes in is not in fairness the worst I've heard. Yes, it's that scratchy, scary sort of growl-hiss that seems to permeate so much of Black Metal --- or at least, the little I've heard --- but I've experienced much worse.

The guitar work is very accomplished and technical, even if it is superfast most of the time. Don't hear any keyboards, never mind cellos or piccolos, so it's probably going to be the Unholy Quartet of guitar, bass, drums and vocals again, but that's ok: that's the format upon which Black Metal --- indeed, thrash, speed and many other subgenres --- is founded upon. Great solo there in the fourth minute, and while I would not of course be a fan of Marius's singing, it is mostly recognisable as such. The next track is “In the light of deception”, but I can't find that one so we move on to “Redemption through darkness”, which has a harder, more sort of marching guitar and is slower, though no less heavy, than the opener. I certainly wouldn't call it a cruncher by any means, but it pulls back the speed a decent amount.

Now it speeds up on the back of the hammering percussion, with guitar fusilades going off all over the place. Good decent solo there again in the last minute or so, and the vocal has fallen away as Marius concentrates on cranking out all the riffs he can from his guitar. Oddly enough it fades out. Hmm. And into what sounds like violin too, with dark thunder and wind noises. In a way it's possibly a pity that we don't have “Damnation”, the next track, as I wonder if that unexpected strings ending was leading into something similar for the fourth track? But we don't have it and so we close on “Kiss of the plague”.

Another fine heavy guitar intro with battering drums, then a big roaring growl from Marius before he gets into the vocal properly, snarling all over the place. There are no lyrics so I don't know what he's singing about, but maybe the Black Death? Or it could be that humanity is the plague? That's certainly a favourite subject among Black Metal bands. Then again, it could be about Judgement Day, or who knows what? I certainly couldn't determine it by listening to his singing, so we'll have to remain in ignorance I'm afraid. Nice almost power metal riff there in the third minute, and develops into a pretty fine and impressive solo. This track also fades out, which is odd given the power and anger in the song.

TRACKLISTING

1. Dawn of devastation
2. In the light of damnation
3. Redemption through darkness
4. Damnation
5. Kiss of the plague

I'm not for a moment suggesting that I'm getting into Black Metal, for who would believe that, least of all me? But for what it was, this album was not too bad. When I think back to the likes of Sauron, who kicked this whole section off (literally) a year or two ago, and some of the other bands I've had to suffer through in the name of randomness, this is by far not the worst band I've ever stumbled across in The Meat Grinder. Sure, I'm not gonig to be playing this while doing the dishes or when I'm out and about, and I wouldn't play it at the New Year's Eve party --- If I went to any New Year's Eve parties. Or any parties --- and in fact, there's probably a 99% chance I'll never even play it again. But if it happened to come on, I wouldn't immediately rush to shut it off.

And that, my friends, is about as much progress as you'll get from me in terms of Black Metal. But it's better than I used to be.

So, all things considered, and with the fact that even the vocals, though not my style, were not terrible, I think I can safely award this EP, possibly to my own surprise as much as anyone else's



So that's it for the second foray into the unknown during Metal Month II. Hey, here's a thing: do you notice how, when all the bands I picked were Black Metal, their logos were all kind of similar? All have that kind of spiky, spread-out-wings sort of thing going on. What's with that? Is it mandatory if you're in a Black Metal band to have your band logo in that format?

Before I leave, let me just try one more thing. I'm finished, and have found and reviewed the band I was looking for here, but just for the craic .... yeah, another Black Metal band! Looks like I'm doomed to forever walk the dark paths. Still, at least the scenery has a sort of savage beauty to it, and it beats going in to the office!

Hey, anything beats going in to the office...

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Isbjørn

Dude, you've only heard 2 Priest albums? The hell? I thought you had listened to, like, every rock album of the 20th century..!

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Trollheart

Haven't done this for a while so let's have a bit of fun with it. The theme this time out is places, the only stipulation being that, of course, they all have to be Heavy Metal songs of one stripe or another.

Let's kick it off with Manowar's classic “Gates of Valhalla”

Follow that up with the title track to Axxis's “Doom of destiny”, which is subtitled “Arabia”

Interesting one from Anthrax, from their debut, this is “Across the river”

Can't forget good ol' Black Metal! This is “Witchery”, with “Midnight at the graveyard”

Something more progressive, and totally the other end of the scale, from Christian metal band Theocracy, this is “Bethlehem”

One of Batty's favourites, this is Suffocation, with “Images of Purgatory”

And one of mine. Straotvarius, with “The hills have eyes”

One from the undisputed masters of Metal, this is Black Sabbath with “Jerusalem”

Bit of fun from Tankard, with “Cities in flames”

and we close on another Batty favourite, soon to be featured in the Viking Metal section, Bathory, with “Oden's ride over Nordland”.

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Trollheart

No, like I said, I always discounted Priest simply because of Halford's hair. Ah, the stupidity of youth...
Also, I started getting into progressive rock about 1983/4, so leaned a little away from metal. All I had was my CD collection (and vinyl) with no real recourse to downloadable music till Audiogalaxy came along, then Napster, so I was kind of in a rut up until then. And then suddenly I had more metal, prog rock and every other type of music than I could ever possibly listen to...

I'm not the rock vampire you seem to think I am, you know...

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Trollheart

In the run-up to Metal Month II, and in an effort to make it more participatory, I asked for recommendations for albums I should feature. You responded strongly, and I received a lot of tips on what albums to review. I also asked for top ten lists. Again you responded well, and I chose three, two of which have now been run. Finally, I asked if anyone would like to write a short --- or long --- entry on what metal meant in their lives? How does it make you feel? I asked. How does it affect your life? Have you favourite albums, fond memories, gigs you've been to, moments in your life when metal has been the soundtrack? Why did you get into it, and how? Any or all of these questions could be asked and answered, I said, or you could write whatever you wanted.

The response was this time very low. I think I had two people who said they would participate. Now that's fine: not everyone can or wants to write on demand, and many of you may prefer to keep your innermost secrets, you know, secret. But thanks to those who did respond, and if you still want to, there's time yet. Just scribble down whatever you want to share with the world --- or at least, the readers of this journal --- and pop it over to me either in PM or with a link from which I can download it, and I'll run it before the end of this special.

First up to the bat was our old friend Briks, and this is what he has to say...
(Note: to preserve the spirit of what was written I have not changed anything in the text other than incorrect spelling (of which there is none). I have left the formatting as it is, not changed paragraphs except once where I think it needs to break up the flow, and have done my best to leave everything as it was written. I think it's only fair, given the time and effort that must have gone into this, that I don't fuck with it.)


A brief history of my metalheadship
by Briks


Picture this. You're eleven, you only listen to whatever's on the radio, the stuff your parents play in the car, and some albums that are on on your little 2GB MP3 player. You've just gotten home from the mall, where your father bought you a sweet-looking CD by a band you'd never heard before. You put it on, and are totally overwhelmed. The vocals are more energetic than anything you've ever heard, the guitarists are unbelievably skilled and the riffs are hella technical, the choruses are catchy and make you want to sing along, and it's live, so the chanting and clapping from the audience enhances the whole experience. It just feels like you're there.

This is what happened to me. The album was Flight 666 by Iron Maiden. I didn't really care THAT much about music back then, so this was just another album added to the little stuff I knew, but it sure made a lasting impression. My interest in music started growing when I was twelve, I think, but I was still just listening to Queen, Bruce Springsteen, a little Oasis thrown in there, y'know, some of the big names in rock. But eventually I got the desire to listen to other things, and listening to Iron Maiden felt natural, so I booted up Spotify and heard the studio versions of the hits for the first time. That's how a kid discovers music in the internet era. I ended up buying Powerslave. Yay, my first metal studio album! It was on sale, and it had some of the songs I knew on it, so of course I had to buy it. I had by now gotten used to Iron Maiden, and was curious about more metal. The natural next step was the other classics, and I'm pretty sure Black Sabbath was my second metal band. I started listening to the hits (I hadn't started listening to full albums yet), and dug them pretty hard: “Heaven and Hell” was some of the most bitchin' stuff I'd heard. So, you know, I started listening to the other classics: some Judas Priest, some Motörhead, that kind of stuff.

Late 2012 I registered here on Musicbanter, mostly to ask stupid questions in the emo forum, but I liked it here and decided to stay. New music surrounded me on all sides, and I couldn't avoid stumbling over a metal recommendation or two, so my musical knowledge expanded faster than ever before (and it didn't take long before I started listening to full albums rather than songs). I also got recommendations from one of my friends in my scout group. He liked some cool stuff, so we started discussing music, and soon our tastes were developing parallelly. One day in the fall of 2012, he sent me a Facebook message saying something like this (it was in Norwegian):

Dude, if you want to hear someone who's sick at power metal, search on YouTube: 'Through the Fire and the Flames'. Watch it all, you'll be impressed.

I've already mentioned this in a journal entry I made about Dragonforce. Anyway, I searched them up, and holy mutton, I was amazed. “They're playing so fast!* And the chorus is big and catchy! Did he call this 'power metal'? Gotta look into that.” So both of us started listening to power metal, and it became his favourite metal subgenre as well as mine. Actually, I think it was the first subgenre I got into other than classic heavy metal, but it stayed my definite favourite for a while. And so we went on, both digging deeper into the realm of metal (as well as other genres: both of us were fans of Green Day, for instance). Then quite recently, early 2014 actually, we decided to make a metal album club. It was only the two of us to start with, but soon after, two other metalheads from our scout group joined, and we made a little Facebook group to organize stuff. We were (and still are) using a “pack system”, were we chose around seven albums at a time, each in a different subgenre, and selected new ones when everyone had listened to them. I also opened a journal section named “chunks of metal”, where I would review the albums we chose. Actually, that was my first journal section to not be a Trollheart ripoff. Anyway, the pack system meant that we had to explore parts of the metal realm we had barely dared to touch before, like black and death metal. We started off lightly, with Venom as our first black metal album, but eventually we had to move on to the rawer stuff. I was surprised when we listened to Hvis Lyset Tar Oss by Burzum and I actually enjoyed it, despite it being the work of one of the most infamous Norwegian murderers ever. And now black metal is slowly becoming my favourite metal subgenre. Well, that's the history of my metalheadship. So:

What does metal mean to me?

Warning: This might sound like a Manowar song

It's like the Force, man. Once you learn to appreciate it, rather than use it, it will flow in your veins, and be there for you even during the hardest times. Also, the Metal Gods have something for you no matter what mood you're in. There's thrash metal if you're angry, there's black metal if you're absolutely pissed, there's power metal if you're happy, there's folk metal if you feel like dancing, there's doom metal if you feel like having your soul crushed by blackness and so on. And if I'm faced with a challenge, like having to do something hard in gymnastics at school (well, I'm not really faced with a lot of other challenges), I find myself thinking “what would Dio do?” or “keep running in the name of Dio” and it keeps me motivated. Cheesy? Naah.

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The Batlord

Audiogalaxy? You ****ing dinosaur.

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Trollheart

My first ever introduction into the world of free, downloadable music. I was crushed when it got shut down. Kids these days won't understand, with music so readily available from so many sources (Spotify, Pandora, Grooveshark, YouTube, Torrents etc) but back then this was a seachange in how people got their music. Instead of having to buy, or borrow and tape the music you wanted, you could actually download it for free! Before the Man clamped down on it and burned it to the ground, of course. I learned a lot in those days, thanks to AG and also to the long-lamented Allofmp3.com, first of the Russian "Dollar-an-album" websites. Respect.

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Mondo Bungle

The days when you downloaded songs

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