Trollheart

Heaven sent indeed!


Artiste: Millenium
Nationality: American
Album: Angelfire
Year: 1999
Label: Frontiers
Genre: AOR/Melodic metal
Tracks
Nations
Shaman
Beyond the pain
Until the end of time
Angelfire
Heaven sent
Julia
Bound for glory
Run
Waiting for Godot
Remember
Saving grace
The colour of night
Hide behind my face
Dawn
Return (hidden track)

Chronological position: Second album.
Familiarity: “Millenium”, “Hourglass”
Interesting Factoid: The way this band insist on spelling their name makes it next to impossible to Google them: Did you mean “millennium”? No I bloody didn't!
Impression: Superb. Stunning. Sumptuous. Superlative. And a lot more words beginning with S.
Best track(s): Hard to pick out one, as they're all pretty damn good. Opener Nations, despite being a short instrumental, is very effective and a great beginning to the album. Then Shaman, Until the end of time, Angelfire, Julia, Run, the amazing acapella breakdown Remember … hell, it's all good!
Worst track(s): Whatchoo talkin' bout? Ain't no bad tracks on this baby!
Intention: One more album and I'll have heard everything to date in their catalogue.
Comments: It's quite a crime that these guys aren't better known, as Millenium play excellent power AOR, verging into metal territory on occasion. My introduction to them was via the album “Hourglass”, and that just blew me away. I'm tempted to say this is better. Chock-full of hooks, great vocal performances, even the obligatory power ballads which somehow don't sound that cheesy. Not to mention fifteen tracks, which is good value for anyone's money. But more importantly, not a bad track in all of those fifteen. It just keeps getting better the more you listen to it. It truly is the album that keeps on giving! I kept waiting for a bad track --- surely there had to be something lower quality here? --- but was happily disappointed. And the album ends with a gorgeous guitar instrumental, bringing everything full circle. Could probably have done without the silly few seconds of “hidden track” right at the end, but if that's the worst I can say about “Angelfire”, then it's only a tiny little flaw in an otherwise perfect album.

Look, I know I said these reviews would be very short, but hell, this album deserves a little more devotion. You need to hear this. Even choosing one YouTube was a job, but I eventually decided to go with this. I think I love this album!

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Trollheart

The Cookie Monster cometh!

I know I usually don't bother with ratings for the albums I review, but this is a whole different journal with a completely different style of review, so for these I will be rating them.

And for no reason you will ever know, I'm using a "Cookie" rating system. Hey, I found some really cool cartoon cookies and they looked, well, cool, so I decided to use 'em. Plus I owe the blue guy, okay?

Albums will be rated from one cookie

right up to five cookies

with obviously one cookie being an absolute crapfest and five being an album you have got to listen to. Because not every album will be categorisable in terms of cookies, there will also be half-cookie ratings, so an album that's better than three cookies but not quite four will be rated at three and a half cookies

(Hungry yet?)

Most albums are probably gonna fall between the 3-4 cookie mark, with some really bad ones maybe going down to 2 or even 1 cookie. It's highly unlikely, but if you ever see this symbol on its own

avoid coming within even a hundred miles of this album, and saw off your own head with a spoon rather than listen to it. Seriously, it'll be that bad!

But such a thing is unlikely to happen. Similarly, very few albums are going to attain the five-cookie mark (although it looks like one has already): these will be albums that can do no wrong, have no bad tracks, albums I love and you should love too. They will, in all probability, be few and far between, but you never know.

So since I only started this journal this week, I'm going to go back and "cookie-up" the albums I've reviewed so far, and from then on every album will have a cookie rating shown before it. I may expound on why this or that album has attained the rating it has, or I may not.

Now, where's me tea?

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Expect the ... uh, expected


Artiste: Axxis
Nationality: German
Album: Utopia
Year: 2009
Label: AFM
Genre: Heavy metal/Power metal
Tracks
Journey to Utopia
Utopia
Last man on Earth
Fass mich an
Sarah wanna die
My father's eyes
The monsters crawl
Eyes of a child
Heavy rain
For you I will die
Underworld

Chronological position: Twelfth album.
Familiarity: “Kingdom of the night”, “Axxis II”, “The big thrill”, “Matters of survival”, “Voodoo vibes”, “Pure and rough”, “Back to the kingdom”, “Eyes of darkness”, “Time machine” and “Paradise in flames”. Also the live album “Access all areas” (shoulda called it “AXXIS all areas...”)
Interesting Factoid: This album marked the twenty-year anniversary of the band. Their latest, released this year, is a collection of covers of … disco hits! I kid you not!
Impression: No disappointment if a little predictable.
Best track(s): The monsters crawl, My father's eyes, Fass mach in, Heavy rain
Worst track(s): No, not really any. Some are a little weaker than others, but nothing I would categorise as bad.
Intention: Just keep listening to everything this band turns out.
Comments: Look, no-one (least of all me) is going to suggest that Axxis are going to change the face of heavy metal. At best, they're a decent metal band with a good line in hooks and some great guitar, complemented by excellent keyboard licks and the occasional foray into the orchestral/operatic sort of territory more confidently trodden by the likes of Epica, Within Temptation and Nightwish, and at worst they're a generic metal band, one among thousands. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them. A band doesn't have to be totally experimental, change the game or open up new horizons for me to like them. Were that the case, there are a whole lot of bands --- metal and otherwise --- to whom I would not give the time of day. But for what they do, Axxis do it as well as anyone, and better than some. I'm not entirely sure what a seamonster has to do with Utopia, though, but this is a decent album. It's not anywhere near as impressive as “Paradise in flames”, but then, nothing before or since has been, in my opinion. But it's well up there with the best of the rest.

It's interesting to see Axxis include a German-language song on the album, and though I have no idea what the title means, it's good enough that you quickly forget it's not in English. Elsewhere there are great rockers like “The monsters crawl”, “Last man on Earth” and the title track, not to mention the moving ballad “My father's eyes”, which is where I see Axxis standing just a little apart from the rest of the crowd. They have a talent for melding hooky, almost AOR-style keyboard runs with the heavier guitar work to form something that is more than the sum of its parts, and makes Axxis just that little more than another run-of-the-mill heavy metal band.

This album is unlikely to make you a fan if you're not one already. On the other hand, if you are one of those who, like me, enjoys their music, you'll be happy with this album.

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Look, it's Bowie, it's classic: what more do you want?

(The album is not really worthy of 4 cookies, but it's a Bowie classic, so it earns one extra just for that.)

Artiste: David Bowie
Nationality: British (English)
Album: Aladdin Sane
Year: 1973
Label: RCA
Genre: Art rock/Glam rock
Tracks
Watch that man
Aladdin Sane
Drive-in Saturday
Panic in Detroit
Cracked actor
Time
Prettiest star
Let's spend the night together
The jean genie
Lady grinning soul

Chronological position: Sixth album.
Familiarity: “Ziggy Stardust”, “Diamond dogs”, “Low”, “Heathen”, “Let's dance”, “Never let me down” and of course the greatest hits packages. I know, I'm ashamed: I should know a lot more Bowie than this!
Interesting Factoid: For anyone who hasn't figured it out years ago, the title is a pun on “a lad insane”, and Aladdin Sane was the extension of Bowie's character Ziggy Stardust as he moved out across America.
Impression: Hey, it's Bowie, it's the seventies, what more do you need to know!
Best track(s): Aladdin Sane, Drive-in Saturday, Time, The jean genie (obviously), Lady grinning soul
Worst track(s): How could you say such a thing about Bowie? Though I admit I could have lived without the cover version of the Stones' Let's spend the night together, fun as it is.
Intention: I need to hear more Bowie!
Comments: Like I say, I haven't listened to enough Bowie, and this album proves it. The mad piano solo on the title track is itself worth the price of admission. After the monster success that was “The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, Bowie needed to follow up that groundbreaking album with something really special. And he did. “Drive-in Saturday” puts me in mind of “Five years” from the previous album, and was one of the three singles released, while there's even a preview of a far later hit, “Absolute beginners”, in “The prettiest star”. As with most Bowie albums, it's a mixture of styles: soul, rock, doo-wop, blues... the Thin White Duke was never one to restrict himself to one genre. And as with many Bowie releases there are stories in the songs, with cautionary tales and morbid visions of the future. I particularly like the dates in brackets after the title track --- 1913, 1938 and 197? --- where he noted the year before each of the two World Wars, convinced another one would break out in the seventies.

There's little bad you can say about a classic Bowie album, just as you would be hard-pressed (and brave, if not foolish) to give “Dark side of the moon” or “Led Zeppelin IV” a bad review, but I don't get the same feeling of immediacy from “Aladdin Sane” as I do from “Ziggy Stardust”. Maybe that's because I know the latter album much better, and this is my first time to hear this one. Still, an impressive follow up to an album I'm sure many thought could not be followed. It doesn't outshine or even match the glory of Ziggy, to be sure, but neither is it left languishing in its shadow.

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Somewhat short of their usual high standard


Artiste: Heart
Nationality: American
Album: Jupiter's darling
Year: 2004
Label: Sovereign
Genre: Rock
Tracks
Make me
Oldest story in the world
Things
The perfect goodbye
Enough
Move on
I need the rain
I give up
Vainglorious
No other love
Led to one
Down the Nile
I'm fine
Fallen ones
Lost angel
Hello moonglow

Chronological position: Twelfth album.
Familiarity: “Bad animals”, “Brigade”, “Heart”, “Desire walks on”
Interesting Factoid: Despite Heart's popularity, this album only sold 100,000 copies, possibly due to the record company shortly thereafter going broke. Heart are apparently still owed thousands of dollars for the album.
Impression: A very fresh album, very different from the Heart I've come to know.
Best track(s): Things, The perfect goodbye, No other love, Lost angel
Worst track(s): Not really any bad tracks. Not mad about Down the Nile or Oldest story in the world but they're still not bad.
Intention: Perhaps look into the older Heart stuff: this is good!
Comments: It's interesting to hear Heart return to the basic rock roots of their earlier albums, which although I haven't heard I believe this album closely emulates. There's certainly a less commercial feel to this (perhaps an additional factor in its poor sales), a lot of acoustic stuff alongside some very hard-edged rock, and even some country-style mandolin and violin on “No other love”. Some nice love songs, and the whole thing is played in what comes across as a more honest vein than some of their previous work, good though that is. Pity the record company folded and left them high and dry, but they were back six years later with another chart-busting album, and a new one this year, so it seems their appeal has far from dried up.

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Nothing to get too terribly excited about


Artiste: Avenger
Nationality: German
Album: Prayers of steel
Year: 1985
Label: Wishbone
Genre: Heavy Metal/Power metal/Speed metal
Tracks
Battlefield
South Cross union
Prayers of steel
Halloween
Faster than Hell
Adoration
Rise of the creature
Sword made of steel
Bloodlust
Assorted by Satan
Chronological position: Debut
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting Factoid: This was the only album recorded by Avenger, but they later changed their name to Rage and have since had over twenty albums released and are still going strong, with a new one out this year.
Impression: Don't take it too seriously and this is fun metal. They're not reinventing the wheel, but sure, who wants to go to all that bother?
Best track(s): South cross union, Halloween, Faster than Hell, Prayers of steel, Assorted by Satan --- Hell, most of it is pretty good, while not actually verging into great.
Worst track(s): Not really any bad tracks.
Intention: Add to metal playlist. Probably not go much further than that though.
Comments:At first I thought this doesn't look good: any band who titles their album like this has got to be a joke. Then I read about their namechange, their output and their links with bands like Motorhead, Helloween and Saxon, and I decided to give them a little more credit. Besides, any band that has a Wagner in it, and also someone called Jorg Micheal (!) has got to be worth investing a little time listening to! And on first listen I can hear the similarities with Saxon: fast, powerful guitar riffs, a singer who actually knows how to sing and be understood, growly without falling into the “death” style of grunting vocals, similar themes. A smattering of the old black metal, with songs about Satan and Hell, but it's more a nod in its direction than anything serious.

It's fairly generic metal, but then, so is a lot of the music out there, and some not done as well as this. For what it is it's quite good, certainly nothing new or amazing, rooted in the traditions of Sabbath, Maiden and Saxon, with quite an NWOBHM feel to it. Peter Wagner comes across as sort of a viking god or norse warrior, and it's all good fun: lots of fretburning solos, heavy drums, a few neo-classical snippets thrown about in Rise of the creature, and not a keyboard in sight! Good stuff!

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Who says Christian Metal has to be boring?


Artiste: Narnia
Nationality: Swedish
Album: Desert land
Year: 2001
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Christian Metal
Tracks
Inner sanctum
The witch and the lion
Falling from the throne
Revolution of mother Earth
The light at the end of the tunnel
Angels are crying
Walking the wire
Misty morning
Trapped in this age
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: “Long live the King”
Interesting Factoid: After releasing six albums, plus a live set and a compilation, Narnia disbanded in 2010. I have to say I'm sorry, and will miss them; they were a lot better than I had expected.
Impression: A good follow up to "Long live the King", though a little lacking compared to that album.
Best track(s): Revolution of mother Earth, Angels are crying, Misty morning(find this instrumental very Gary Moore-ish) Trapped in this age
Worst track(s): Not really any bad tracks.
Intention: Find Jesus. There He is! No seriously, I'm going to listen to more Narnia though, especially now that I know that what we have is all we'll ever have of their music.
Comments:Okay, so it's another metal album. I'm in the mood, to paraphrase the Nolan Sisters, for metal! This time, however, I have a good idea what to expect, as I reviewed the album before this, 1999's “Long live the King”, and was surprised to be very impressed with it. So I'm hoping for more of the same. I have to say, initially Christian metal was a foreign subject to me, and I would never have willingly explored the genre, but I stumbled into it via Narnia, who I began listening to before I realised they were that sort of band, and yet found it did not take from the music at all. This album doesn't have the immediacy of “Long live the King”, but it's still not bad at all.

There is, nevertheless, something odd, even somehow wrong about a metal band singing about God. We're much more used to its adherents swearing fealty (however superficially and theatrically) to “the other guy”, and it's both refreshing and confusing to hear a guy like Christian Liljegren sing about meeting Jesus, and talking of “living water from the Father”, but to be honest the music is so damn good that you soon forget what the lyrics are about, if it bothers you, or embrace the subject matter if you're interested in it. Or just ignore it altogether. But you can't ignore the talent and skill of these guys. Switch out the lyrics and throw in some about beer, women and motorbikes and you'd not pick them out from a lineup of some of the best metal bands around. Seriously. Such a pity they decided to call it a day.

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Gabriel's legacy is alive and well and living in Bournemouth


Artiste: Big Big Train
Nationality: British (English)
Album: Goodbye to the age of steam
Year: 1994
Label: Giant Electric Pea
Genre: Progressive rock
Tracks
Wind distorted pioneers
Head hit the pillow
Edge of the known world
Landfall
Dragon Bone Hill
Blow the house down
Expecting snow
Blue silver red
Losing your way
Chronological position: Debut album
Familiarity: Zero, other than a few tracks here and there.
Interesting Factoid: This album was basically entirely the baby of guitarist/keyboard player Greg Spawton, who wrote the music and lyrics to all the tracks save two, on which he collaborated.
Impression: The hype I'd been creating in my head about this band is well justified, and they live up to it without question.
Best track(s): Hard to pick one out, not because there aren't any, but because they're ALL great! I particularly like Head hit the pillow, Landfall and Dragon Bone Hill, but love the rest too. This is one great album.
Worst track(s): Not a single one. Not even a weak one.
Intention: Get into this band the old way, ie chronologically.
Comments:Yeah, I hear so much about Big Big Train, and how their sound changed down the years that I would rather not start in the middle, with some of their more popular releases, like “The difference engine” or “The underfall yard”. In this age of playlists, selected tracks and cherry-picking I want to treat this band the way I used to, which was get their first album and then the rest in order. Nah, I never did that, or at least not always: it was quite often a case of find one album I like, buy a few more either side, end up going back as far as I could and then collecting their more recent releases. But there were a few, like Marillion for instance, with whom I got into their music on their debut and then followed them religiously album by album as each was released. That's how I'd like to approach BBT, cos I think I may very much like them, from the snippets and few tracks I've heard up to now.

And right away I hear elements of Genesis and Floyd in their music, quite relaxed and laidback for the most part, atmospheric and rather entrancing. Vocalist Martin Read has a very engaging and warm voice, kind of reminds me of Francis Dunnery from It Bites. Some beautiful and tasteful acoustic guitar work from Greg Spawton on the instrumentals Dragon Bone Hill and Expecting snow, the latter also containing some soothing keyboard. There's a certain sense of bittersweet melancholy about pretty much all of the album; very gentle, very restrained with some powerful vocal harmonies and great keys. This will definitely be going on the shortlist for full review in my main journal at some point.

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Good solid rock from the boys who brought you "Dawn Patrol"


Artiste: Night Ranger
Nationality: American
Album: 7 wishes
Year: 1985
Label: MCA
Genre: AOR
Tracks
Seven wishes
Faces
Four in the morning (I can't take anymore)
I need a woman
Sentimental Street
This boy needs to rock
I will follow you
Interstate love affair
Night machine
Goodbye
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: “Dawn patrol”, “Midnight madness”, “Big life”
Interesting Factoid: Uh...
Impression: Pretty damn good!
Best track(s): Four in the morning (I can't take anymore), Sentimental Street, I will follow you, Goodbye
Worst track(s): I need a woman
Intention: Delve a little deeper into Night Ranger's later material, and get their latest album too!
Comments:Although I probably haven't given them a fair chance, Night Ranger were one of those bands that blew me away with their debut and then just fell apart. I thought “Big life”, their fourth album, was generally terrible, very below par despite having a few (very few) good tracks, and I never went any further after that. I did however miss out this album, so perhaps it will bridge the gap between that nail-in-the-coffin fourth album and “Dawn patrol”. Or perhaps it will turn out that their debut was their only good release...

You know, it's a good album. Not as heavy or immediately accessible as “Dawn patrol”, a bit less commercial than “Midnight madness”, with some pretty catchy tracks and some good down-and-dirty rockers. It's not trying to be something it's not. I like that. No, it's no “Dawn patrol”, but it's a pretty worthy successor, and I think I may be playing this a few more times.

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Why are Irish solo artists so boring?


Artiste: Damien Rice
Nationality: Irish
Album: 9
Year: 2006
Label: Heffa
Genre: Folk/Acoustic
Tracks
9 crimes
The animals were gone
Elephant
Rootless tree
Dogs
Coconut skins
Me, my yoke and I
Grey rooms
Accidental babies
Sleep don't weep
Chronological position: Second album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting Factoid: This album was only released under pressure from Rice's label, as he had intended only ever recording one solo album. It features Lisa Hannigan on backing/shared vocals; Lisa has since left Rice and struck out on her own, doing very well for herself.
Impression: Interesting....
Best track(s): Elephant, Rootless tree, Accidental babies
Worst track(s): Me, my yoke and I, Dogs
Intention: Since he only has the one other album, I expect I'll listen to that, but to be honest I'm in no huge hurry.
Comments:I've heard a lot about Damien Rice, particularly through reviewing Lisa Hannigan's “See sew”, but have not up to now listened to any of his music, and as an Irishman I think maybe it's about time I did that. Apparently his music has been used in a stack of TV shows, including two of my own favourites, “True Blood” and “Criminal minds”, as well as a bunch of films, and yet I've heard none of his songs --- or at least none I recognised as being his. Glen Hansard is another of our native sons I must make the time to hear. As I listen to this album I hear elements of a more restrained David Gray, as well as the late Harry Chapin with echoes of John Martyn and Joseph Arthur. Lovely use of mournful cello, viola and violin gives the album a very melancholic and yet strangely uplifting feel.

The sheer power of Rice's voice, downbeat and understated for most of the album, really comes through on Elephant, when his powerful lungs bellow out the lyric like a wounded animal, the gently-strummed acoustic guitar which carries most of the song getting louder and more insistent until the rest of the band crash in and up the ante in the song, which then drops back off to simple acoustic again for the end. Powerful. Again you hear it on Coconut skins, but most of the time it's reserved, kept in check, only to be unleashed when required. Percussion is sparse across the album, but used very effectively when it's needed, adding an extra dimension to songs like Rootless tree and Grey room, but it's Rice's tortured voice that carries the album and demands your attention, and it's by this that the album stands or falls, despite the excellent band he has assembled. In general, I think it works, but I believe this is an album you need to be in the mood for, and I wouldn't tend to play it too often. I could also have done without the almost fifteen minutes of low whining at the end, which I believe is Damien playing wine glasses for some reason, but it all seems to be the one tone all the way through, so sounds to me more like that sound the telly used to make when the stations were closing down for the night. Yes, TV wasn't always 24 hour! It's supposed to be some sort of Tibetan chant apparently, and that's all well and good, but almost a quarter of an hour of it is a little too much to take when it doesn't even vary from note to note, and unfortunately it ends the album badly for me. Still, it's different...

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