RoemerMW

I really like the Christmas album reviews, you're doing the lord's work. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I have a soft spot for "All I Want For Christmas is You", mainly because Love Actually made me cry like a little bitch.

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My Music Collection

Trollheart

Thanks! Glad they're appealing to someone. Just wanted to do my little bit for Christmas, ya know, but in a, well, alternative way. Getting close to the end now. Wish I'd thought of it earlier so I could have rated them, but I wouldn't have had the time for that. Maybe next year. Or on second thoughts, maybe not.

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Trollheart

After a brief hiatus to allow me complete, insofar as I could, my reviews of 2012 albums, "Bitesize" will reopen for business in January, and I'm planning a whole new journal separate to this one, details to follow soon. There will be some major changes coming to "The Playlist of Life", now running into its third year of operation. There are lots of new sections planned for the new year, many of which I had intended to implement before now, but hey, there are only so many hours in the day! So, look out for these new features in the coming months...

ROSES AMONG THE THORNS --- Focussing on the distaff side, the ladies of rock and other music genres, the women who have made it in what is primarily a man's world.

WHERE IT ALL STARTED --- I write about the first album I bought or heard from a particular artiste who impressed me. It may not have been their first, but it was where I was introduced to them, and in most cases made enough of an impression on me that I bought the rest of their catalogue.

THE STRANGE WORLD OF THE SESSION MUSICIAN --- The life of the wandering minstrel, eh? Some people were better known as session men (Steve Lukather) before they joined their main band, others still survive by playing with just about anyone they can (Michael Landau) but it must indeed be a strange thing to be going from band to band, gigging with maybe a jazz troupe this month and a hardcore metal next, or whatever. This section will be my attempt to look into the often long and varied careers of these temps of the music world, and see just what makes them tick, why they don't settle into a band or what makes them so much in demand.

POWER BEHIND THE THRONE --- Some people are just made to produce and direct, create and compose, and have their work disseminated through others. Sometimes these people are content to work from the shadows, like maybe Steve Lillywhite, never attempting to come out from behind the curtain, and sometimes they make a bid for personal glory, like Jim Steinman. But one thing is certain: without these men and women, there are many acts that would not be where they are today.

THAT ACOUSTIC FEELING --- Exploring music you can play even when the power is out. Some of the most beautiful and soulful music has been made, and is made, without the benefit of a single piece of technology. A guy/girl, a guitar, a piano, a violin: one person and their instrument can, often, wring more emotion from an audience than a whole philharmonic or an eighteen-piece band with three guitarists and banks of keyboards. I'll be exploring some of that very music in this section, later in the year.

THE ALBATROSS --- That "one-hit wonder" tag, or more specifically, the single that was a hit and now defines the band, even though they may have created some truly excellent albums since, or even before. Think of Genesis' "Follow you follow me", A-ha's "Take on me" or Europe's "The final countdown". I'll be looking at these "career-defining" singles in depth, and asking the question, does this artiste deserve to have this hanging around their neck for all time?

MUSIQUE SANS FRONTIERES --- Already hinted at during the year, I'll be travelling (metaphorically) far and wide to investigate and sample the music of countries beyond the usual. So expect to hear music from Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and some tiny little island somewhere in the South Pacific that has a population of about a hundred. Well, maybe not them. But a lot of what I hope will be unknown and obscure music. Widen your knowledge, you know? Broaden the horizons?

All this and, as already mentioned and intended, ICONS and GUITAR MAN, plus the return of THE TWO HUNDRED WORD ALBUM REVIEW. And that's not all. Lots to keep you hopefully checking out and coming back to the Playlist of Life in 2013. It's gonna be a blast!

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Unknown Soldier

Upto Page 148:

Nice reviews of Tank and Saxon as part of your NWOBHM section. Also liked your review of Zoom one of the few ELO albums that I haven't heard.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Trollheart

What better way to close my reviews of albums released in 2012 than with another effort from a relatively young Irish band?

Although together since 2007, Northern Irish band Two Door Cinema Club only released their first album, "Tourist history", in 2010, to some great acclaim. They've taken their time over the followup too, though not quite as long has elapsed between albums, and this year they released their awaited second album. When I reviewed "Tourist history" in March, as part of Irish Week (how original, eh?) I pointed out that Irish music in general, unless it's the big names like U2, Gary Moore, Rory and the godawful Westlife tends to get ignored outside our island. Christ! To think we're now synonymous with those arsewipes Jedward! But I noted that bands like Two Door Cinema Club are helping to reshape that thinking, and even making an impact on the charts outside their home country. This practice continues with their second album.

Beacon --- Two Door Cinema Club --- 2012 (Kitsune)


Not entirely sure why a band like this has to be signed to a label I originally assumed to be Japanese, but which I now see is French? Are the big names not interested? They should be. However, to be fair, Kitsune have supported 2DCC since the start, releasing and promoting their debut, and I'm gratified to see that this, their second album, has made a much more impressive showing, both here and abroad. Whereas "Tourist history" hit the top 20 in Ireland and just scraped into the top 30 in the UK, "Beacon" debuted at number 2 in the UK and took the top slot in Ireland. Not bad for a band with only two albums and no hit singles to their credit.

There's an electronic, dancy start with "Next year" before the vocals of Alex Trimble come in against just low synth and then the whole band pile in on a real poppy rocker with a great hook, Trimble's voice kind of reminding me of Ricky Ross or Paddy McAloon. There's some technical guitar work from Sam Halliday and a nice bassline from Kevin Baird holds things together nicely. The band worked on this album with Irish producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee, who has worked with the likes of Snow Patrol, The Cars and Robbie Williams to name but a few, and his input on the album shows in a much more polished, professional feel and sound. This is more than just three guys trying to get their music out there; this now sounds like a proper band with a proper plan. And that plan is to take the world by storm with their music. Not a terribly original one, granted, but one they have every chance of achieving on the strength of this album.

The tracks on the album follow the same basic pattern as the debut, all short with only one, the opener, over four minutes. They're catchy, memorable pop/rock songs, most of which you can dance to and most of which you are probably likely to remember, or at least recognise when they come on, surely half the battle. "Handshake" is a mostly keyboard driven song with some very trance-style drumwork from Trimble, the true multi-instrumentalist, who plays guitar, piano, synth, drums and of course also sings. "Wake up" rides on an infectious little bassline joined by multiple guitars and bops along at a fine pace, with a sense of U2 and Big Country while the second single, "Sun", opens on soft digital piano with an almost acapella vocal from Trimble before the busy bass again kicks in and the song becomes a funky little rocker with some really nice hooks. Halliday proves he's no slouch on the guitar here, running off some fine riffs almost in a Steely Dan style, while Trimble's vocal presence is lighter and more carefree than on the previous tracks. Quite a happy song really, probably a good choice for a single, with some interesting brass lines thrown in on the synth.

None of these songs would be out of place on your local dancefloor, and if that's how 2DCC are to get their exposure and have people buy their records then all the best to them. However "Someday" is much more a rocker, again quite in the Big Country mould with a sharp, fast guitar and ticking bass, and a punchy, thumping beat. A great midsection led by bass, percussion and some growling guitars would seem to provide a point where the traditional "introduction of the band" would take place onstage, amid much hand-clapping, and this takes us into "Sleep alone", the lead single from the album, which sadly did terribly when released. Still, singles are secondary to album sales, and since "Tourist history" went gold, on the basis of sales and chart positions this album should equal if not improve on that. It's another fast rocker with great guitar that to be fair owes a lot to The Edge and the late Stuart Adamson, but then the guys do appear to be influenced by bands like Big Country and U2. Nice big synth passage near the end, adds a lot of emotion to the song before it closes.

A somewhat introspective song without being anywhere close to a ballad, "The world is watching" features sparse guitar and a great hook in the chorus, heavy percussion and moves along at a nice fast pace without being too fast. Great backing vocals from someone called "Valentina", but don't ask me who she is. Has a lovely voice though and really supports Alex Trimble well here. Bubbling keyboard run from Sam Halliday gives the song a lot of commercial appeal, and I'd wonder if, along with its again dance-oriented rhythm, it might end up being another single? "Settle" comes across to me as the most similar to Big Country yet, with a thrumming bass and squealing keyboards at the beginning, then it breaks out into a great guitar powerslam with the synths backing it nicely.

"Spring" has a lovely busy little guitar riff going through it, with a gentle vocal from Trimble, more fine bass from Baird, the song pumping up as it goes along, and "Pyramid" then built on Baird's bass and Halliday's swirling keys and pizzicato strings in a sort of striding boogie tune. Some great brass touches again on the synth, elements almost of swing in the song, and certainly one of the standouts: very catchy and with a great hook in the chorus again. Ends way too abruptly though unfortunately. The album then ends on the title track, pure eighties new wave with great vocal harmonies, reminds me of Fiction Factory or Depeche Mode in places. Even the guitar, when it cuts through, sounds electronic and synthesised. Nice digital piano from Sam Halliday; another catchy little tune but perhaps a shade weaker than some of the better songs on this album, and not one I would have chosen to have ended on.

TRACKLISTING

1. Next year
2. Handshake
3. Wake up
4. Sun
5. Someday
6. Sleep alone
7. The world is watching
8. Settle
9. Spring
10. Pyramid
11. Beacon

There are definite signs of Two Door Cinema Club improving here, though perhaps they need to move slightly away from the over-influence of the bands I mentioned and find their own unique sound. That said, this is a good album though not really what I'd class as a great one. The placing of the title track at the end is for my money a bad move, as I have already forgotten what it sounds like, but I remember the prior track, so I think "Pyramid" would have been a better closer. But they're getting there. Certainly, the chart positioning and album sales would seem to indicate that this little-known band from 'cross the border will soon be taking their first steps out onto the wider world stage.

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Trollheart

Thanks man. I learned a lot about Saxon doing that section. Brought back some memories too! Surprised to see how Tank went; certainly progressed there's no doubt of that.

Yep, that "Zoom" album is definitely worth listening to. Just a pity it's only Jeff Lynne, otherwise I'd have it down in my top five favourite ELO albums!

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vivianne

I LOVE ELO. My favourite band of all time. Specially liked the song with the lyrics,"wish I was back in 1981. just to see your face instead of this place". I think it was called What life was meant to be. Has been a long time since I heard it.

vivianne

I LOVE ELO. My favourite band of all time. Specially liked the song with the lyrics,"wish I was back in 1981. just to see your face instead of this place". I think it was called What life was meant to be. Has been a long time since I heard it. I also think it was from the "Time" album.

Trollheart

Yes, definitely one of my early favourites, and that's a great album. Here's that song you were talking about. Enjoy!

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Trollheart

Okay then, it's a new year, we've struggled through the festivities and it's time to return to what is laughingly called normal around here. Dedicated to Blarobarg, who seems to like these entries, here's our first look at

for 2013.

And so I head to Encyclopaedia Metallum Heavy Metal Bands more in desperate hope than expectation that I won't get yet another screamy, noisy, thrashy metal band of the genus speed, thrash or black. Will the new year start off kindly for me? Who would take that bet? Calling up the site I head to the "random band" tab and click. This year, I'm going to take an actual screenshot of each selection that comes up, just so you know I'm not making these bands up! Even if the artiste can't be featured due to lack of recorded material, unavailability of their music or zero information on them, and I have to make another choice --- as I have done last year --- I'll still show the screenshot.

With that in mind, here's the first selection for 2013, whether they turn out to be a usable choice or not.

Cyclope Vision (note that "e", it's important!) hail from the mecca of Death Metal, er, Belgium? Well, they're apparently a "melodic death metal" band, and seem to only have been together for a few months, though they've already released one album, entitled "Hammersmith". The cover is funny, with a cyclops swinging an axe and looking all scary and --- nah, he just looks silly. With titles on the album ranging from "Burn the village" to "Killing my friendly enemy", and "Meet Hell before you die", I'm guessing these guys aren't big on love songs or eleven-minute compositions about clouds and rainbows!

And in typical fashion, searches for their music leads me to naught. Nothing on YouTube (no, I bloody didn't mean "cyclops"! The band are called "Cyclope Vision"! With an e! Why can't you just accept that, YouTube?!), nothing on any of my favourite online album vendors, and nothing on torrent either. Not a scrap. Of course, given that a) they're from Belgium and b) they only got together last year, that's maybe not so suprising. Perhaps they're big in their home town of, er, Deux-Acren, but nobody out in the real world seems to have heard of them, or have any of their material. So, interesting as it may have been to have listened to what these one-eyed metallers may have had to say, it's a delight I have to pass up, and the search goes on.


Oh good! Just what I wanted! Not satisfied with giving me a "melodic death metal" band from Belgium, the hardcore gods have thrown my way a "Brutal Death Metal" band! Sigh! These guys come from the good old United Kingdom and go by the jolly name of Invocate. They're actually no longer around, having come together --- and, it seems, broken up --- in 2006, leaving behind just the one album. No, no, I tell a lie! It's a demo. Even better. Never signed, never made an album but even at that, they appear to have one entry on YouTube. Amazing! Someone actually cared enough about them to upload a video, one of the three songs (!) on their demo, which they called "Dweller of the shade".

Well, to be fair, I can't review a band who have only the one track and no backstory, with three songs released in total, so what I'll do here is I'll throw the YouTube and you can hear what they're like. As for me, I'll be passing. Brutal Death Metal? I think I can take a wild stab at what it will sound like, and I'd just as soon bang my head off my bedroom wall if it's all the same to you.

(Oh, it's called "He who sleeps eternally", by the way).
Incidentally, I just noticed on the same page a video by a band called Eviscerated, the song called "Gorging on rotting entrails". Why so many horrible subjects for music in this sub-genre I wonder? All I can say is I hope they never invite themselves around to tea! Must be a riot at MacDonalds: "Whaddya mean, you don't serve rotting entrails? I want to gorge! Do you hear me? GORGE I say! Ah **** it let's go to the Wimpy!"

Endlessly I plod on through this sea of unknown and unrecognised bands, and I'm seriously considering finding a virgin to sacifice to the metal gods, that they may hear my prayer and grant my request. Not even a decent band, O Gods Who Sit On High and Riff Off Mighty Solos! Just one I can bloody review! One I can find some music for, and who aren't more obscure than that speed metal unreleased track George Micheal recorded just before retiring --- what do you mean, urban legend? Listen... Anyway, my quest is doomed as reagrds a sacrifice, for where in this city would I ever find a maid unsullied by hand of man? This leaves me no choice but to heave a mighty sigh and hit the "random" button a third time, while wondering if it's worth trying to buy a gun and end it all? Unlike virgins, weapons are readily available on the streets of Dublin, if you know who to go to. Which I don't. Ah well...



Thank you, O Gods! Thank you for hearing my plaintive prayer. You shower of ****ing smart-arsed wankers! You complete and utter bastards! ANOTHER unsigned band! ANOTHER Death Metal band! And ANOTHER band with one ****ing demo to their name! In the name of Steve Harris! What must I do to placate you! What's that? Kill the one known as "The Batlord", you say? Oh I could never do that! Could I? Really? Fire and vengeance would not rain down upon me, you say? You know people, you say? Interesting. Let me get back to you on that one, Ye Who Sit On High and Noodle Incessantly on the Same Three Chords. We shall talk.

In the meantime, strike three! Eternal Agony (nice, huh?) are indeed another death metal band. Well, you wouldn't expect them to be anything else now would you, with a name like that? Well, maybe black metal. But they too have come and gone, seeming to have put out their one and only demo fifteen years ago now, although oddly the EM titles show them as "Formed in n/a" and "Years Active n/a", which makes me wonder how they managed to record the grandiosely-titled "The beginning of a new eternal chapter" in 1998 if they were never together? Anyway, they came from Germany, and their demo contained six tracks, of which the titles speak for themselves. "Eternal **** with mutilated matter ****s in Hell" opens it, and then they go into that well-known family favourite, "Necro cannibalistic insanity", throwing in "The xecrement of Jesus Christ" (that's how it's spelled), while perhaps the most prophetic song title goes to "Kill the hope", which they obviously did, and vanished from sight, never to complete or even start the second eternal chapter. Shame!

There's one video on YT, but although it says Eternal Agony is the band the song is not on the demo, and the logo looks different. Perhaps there are two Eternal Agonies out there? Who knows? Probably enough pain to go round. Still, looking at the cover of "The beginning of a new eternal chapter", I'd have to say these guys were out-and-out black metal. I mean, they have an inverted cross on the sleeve, for ****'s sake!


All right then, this is it. One more attempt. For all I know, this section could become a blind grope through the blackest of black metal, the speediest of speed and the thrashiest of thrash with no actual prize at the end. I could go through unsigned band after unsigned band, stepping over the rotting corpses (see? This black metal is getting to me!) of long-dead acts who thought they'd take over the world, only to discover to their dismay that they were missing one vital element necessary to attain at least a recording contract, if not fame: talent.

If that happens, then so be it. Otherwise I could go through ten different bands here and never come up with one I can actually review. But hey, it's all interesting and educational, and as I said before, if it amuses the staff...

So, once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our metal dead! Forward, quite possibly, to death! Cry God for Trollheart, Ireland and Saint Patrick! Or something.



Okay! Okay! That's it! Whoever the **** is having fun at my expense up there can just cut it out, all right? Death metal bands are bad enough, brutal death metal worse, but now you want me to review a band whose lyrics cover rape, misogyny and killing, and who have the wonderful sub-genre "Grindcore" appended? NO ****ING WAY! You are out of your tree! What do you mean, they have a full album, and isn't this what I've been asking for? Crap! You're right. Well I don't care. I have SOME standards after all!

Look, okay, I'll search for their album (probably won't find it) or anything on YouTube. Will that make you happy? Right then, here I go.
Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to


As expected, nothing on them, but here's what I do know. Formed in Vancouver, Canada in 1999, they released their first, and to date only album, "Like a virgin" (yeah!) in 2001. They're said still to be active, but twelve years without any output is surely pushing it. Although maybe they're busy writing their death metal opera, "Les Miserable Bitches" --- hey, it could be a big hit! Anyway, the album consists of such touching heartfelt ditties as "You will submit", "Kill everything", "Carnage for the elderly" and "There's something about rape", and then quite hilariously ask in the second track "Why do women hate me?" Er...

I have to say, I'm glad I can't find anything to listen to concerning this band. And if you have their album and are thinking of sending it to me to review, then by all means stick it up your arse and while you're at it cut out your own heart with a spoon. I'd rather listen to a whole concert of Jedward --- yeah, I said Jedward! --- than five minutes of this misogynistic drivel. True, it could all be tongue-in-cheek, but when they finish their album with the wonderfully insightful "She really meant yes", I think it's hard to see how any of this could be in any way seen as funny or even satirical.

Of course, in fairness I've heard nothing of their music (let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it is music and not just noise and screaming epiteths) so I could be judging them harshly. But going purely by the cover of the book, it's not one I'd want to read, no matter how desperate I got. Oh yeah, here's the cover of the book, as it were. Moderator cut: image removed
Original, yes?

So that's my fourth journey into the world of random heavy metal, and I've yet to come across a band I like or even know. If I wasn't already familiar with some --- more mainstream admittedly --- metal I could fall into the trap of thinking this is all it has to offer, which would be a pity as I know there are so many great metal bands out there. Just can't figure out why I keep missing them here.

Oh well, maybe if I do as the Metal Gods demand and kill the Batlord. Now, how do I set up his speakers so that the next time he plays High on Fire they explode and take out the whole block? Much to plan, much to think on. See you next time, if I survive...

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