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Old 11-24-2016, 11:09 AM   #41 (permalink)
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Title: “Cry wolf”
Format: Single
Written by: Magne Furuholmen and Pal Waaktaar-Savoy
Performed by: a-ha
Genre: Pop
Taken from: Scoundrel Days
Year: 1986
Acclaim: Top five hit in the UK, top 10 most other territories. Most successful single from the album in the US.

I've made no secret of my love for a-ha. This I must initially attribute to my lovely sister, who was a huge fan (and not, I hasten to add, as many were, just because Morten was “gawjuz!”) and pushed me to get their first album. While I wasn't exactly blown away by it, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't just a vehicle built around their smash hit “Take on me”, and had some great tracks. Then they released Scoundrel Days, their second album, and my whole attitude towards them changed. I've reviewed the album in my main journal, but suffice to say I believe it is one of their best, if not the best. There are better songs on it, certainly, than this, and it's a little too bright and poppy for my liking, as some of their songs (“Manhattan skyline”, “I've been losing you”, the title track) are darker and more mature, but it's a fun little song.

Driven mostly on Mags's bouncy keyboard runs, it opens dramatically enough, with a dark synth line and the sound of wind, powerful but sort of sparse percussion, Morten Harkett muttering the opening line, apparently credited to the woman Pal would later marry, Lauren Savoy, “The night I left the city I dreamed of a wolf”, then there's a sharp hit on the synth, percussion pounds in properly and off the song goes. Once it gets going it's pretty much a dancy pop song, with a very catchy hook in the chorus, and a line I used to mishear as ”Cry wolf, try not to worry” when it is in fact Cry wolf, time to worry.” Something of a difference in meaning, eh?

Anyway, there's a nice low dark synthy line in the midsection, as Morten goes sort of back to the darker, nearly muttered vocal of the beginning, then it bounces back and heads off into a fade. But it's a good song. I can see how it did well in the clubs, and Morten is as ever on top form. Perhaps a little misrepresentative of what this versatile band could do, but hey, it put money in the bank accounts!

Things I like about this :
1. Atmospheric, dark opening
2. Bouncy keyboards
3. Morten's vocal throughout
4. Midsection

Things I don't like about this:
1. It's a little poppy and not quite vacuous but basic for my tastes, given what I know of this band.


Rating:
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Old 11-24-2016, 12:53 PM   #42 (permalink)
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Title: “Going down slow”
Format: Album track
Written by: St. Louis Jimmy Oden
Performed by: Howlin' Wolf
Genre: Blues baby!
Taken from: Howlin' Wolf
Year: 1962
Acclaim: A blues standard that has been covered by more bluesmen and musicians than you could shake a Telecaster at!

Once I decided to focus on wolves for this section, it was inevitable I would check out the blues legend who began life as Chester Arthur Burnett, but whom the world came to know as Howlin' Wolf, perhaps one of the greatest blues guitarists who ever lived. Cited as an influence by just about everyone who ever picked up a guitar, including the likes of Page, Clapton and Beck, he was one of the colossi who straddled the blues scene of the thirties and forties, and was still making music up to the seventies, but his health declined and he passed away in 1976.

I had no idea what song to choose, so once again it was close those eyes and don't even listen to the traffic as you run, so we've come up with a cover of an old standard by St. Louis Jimmy Oden which has been covered by everyone from Ray Charles and Free to Zep and Huey Lewis. Originally written in 1941, it appeared on the third Howlin' Wolf album, alongside a slew of Willie Dixon covers.

Love when these blues songs start with a harmonica! Deep, dark voice that is hard to mistake, some great honky-tonk piano going in the background. A slow blues song, my favourite type, it's the story of a man who has had it all but is dying, and as he looks back on his life he reflects ”I have had my fun/ If I never get well no more/...My health is fading on me/ Yes I'm goin' down slow.” Great rolling percussion underpinning the tune, and though Wolf mostly speaks (or I should say, growls or howls!) rather than sings a lot of the time it's still very expressive. The word repetitive was almost made for the blues, so I won't mention that. As a last will and testament of the guy in the song, it's pretty damn good.

Things I like about this :

1. Harmonica!
2. Good slow blues tune
3. The kind of story telling that blues does so well
4. Pianner

Things I don't like about this:
Nothing really


Rating:
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Old 11-24-2016, 03:31 PM   #43 (permalink)
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Title: “Unchain the wolves”
Format: Album track
Written by: ?
Performed by: Destroyer 666
Genre: Black/Thrash Metal
Taken from: Unchain the Wolves
Year: 1997
Acclaim: n/a

I don't know whether Batty, who recommended this, intended me to listen to the whole album or just the title track, but at the moment I've kind of decided I'm going to stick with single songs, for now anyway. I must admit, I've never heard of a “Black/Death/Thrash Metal” band before, though Metal Archives lists them as simply (!) Black/Thrash. Either way, I reckon this is going to be loud and fast! AND it's ten minutes long! Could be a return to the old Torture Chamber here (those who remember Metal Month); on the other hand, could impress me so much that I have to feature it in my new Metal journal, to be launched soon. Which way will it swing? Well, with a name like Destroyer 666 they're not leaving you under any illusions as to what to expect, and when you consider the band was put together by an ex-member of Bestial Warlust and that his name is (real or not I don't know but would assume not) KK Warlust, well, let's just say I'm not expecting a love ballad or any heavy orchestration here.

Interesting start, sort of a single guitar riff kicks in, stops, pauses, fires off again, then a blast of thunder and the riffing takes on more of that Black Metal sound I've come to be familiar with, to say nothing of the scratchy, screechy vocal, although so far it's only said one word, so let's give the guy a chance huh? Sounds a little like panting, breathing, a kind of chant behind this, or a drone, something anyway, very low-key and quiet. The juxtapositioning actually works quite well I must say: low vocal and hammering guitars. It's a ten-minute song as I say, so plenty of time for it to change. As it just did, revving into a full speed metal solo and now the singing, as such, is beginning in earnest and yes, the guy has a croaky voice but I can understand what he's singing. Mostly.

Slowing down now as it moves into the sixth minute, then firing off on all cylinders again. Dramatic guitar passage, not a solo, but riffage in a sort of doom metal vein, slow percussion. Almost Viking Metal in a way. Suck it, Batty: it is. Now it's almost a sort of boogie before it powers back up again, our man howling like the very wolves he wishes to set free, and off we go to the conclusion. Have to admit, overall I liked that. Not sure I'd listen to a full album – death/Black Metal vocals still present a barrier to me – but this song was, to quote his Batness, pretty fuckin' bitchin'!

Things I like about this :

1. Good guitar intro
2. The atmosphere, dark, doomy and thick with the promise of evil and violence
3. The original low vocal
4. The boogie section, even if it is quite short
5. Good ending, very powerful

Things I don't like about this:
1. The main vocal
2. The length: I feel though it's well paced throughout it could have been shorter by a few minutes

Rating:
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Old 11-24-2016, 04:32 PM   #44 (permalink)
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Title: “When the wolves cry”
Format: Album track
Written by: Lord Vampyr (with quotes from H.P. Lovecraft)
Performed by: Theatre des Vampires
Genre: Gothic Metal
Taken from: The Vampire Chronicles
Year: 1999
Acclaim: n/a

I heard one other TdV album (think it was an EP actually) and remember being somewhat impressed by their Gothic style. The fact that the title of this album is based on the Anne Rice series of vampire novels gives me heart too, and the idea of there being quotes from Lovecraft used should really seal the deal. But will it? Or will it all seem a little too camp, trying too hard, and end up being a mocking parody? Only one way to find out.

Wolf howling, then church organ? Oh dear. Thick bass while a guitar wails in the background, then the vocal is about as screechy as yer man from Destroyer 666, though still understandable. You can definitely feel the Gothic atmosphere ... oh. Now it's kicked into a kind of power metal vibe, speeding up and actually a good build up. There also seems to be a second vocal, a more, shall we say, ordinary one, which helps. That organ is continuing through the song, so not as much of a cliche as I had initially thought. Great solo there. Overall, pretty damn good song.

Things I like about this :

1. The intro is good if a little cheesy
2. Guitar work is excellent
3. Organ adds something different
4. Nice variety throughout the song

Things I don't like about this:

1. Screechy vocal
2. A little cheesy, as I said above (that can be good or bad, or indeed, as here, both)


Rating:
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Old 11-24-2016, 08:23 PM   #45 (permalink)
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Blackened thrash isn't all that common, but it's sexy when it happens. Aura Noir needs to call me.
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Old 11-25-2016, 06:05 AM   #46 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord View Post
Blackened thrash isn't all that common, but it's sexy when it happens. Aura Noir needs to call me.
I admit, it was a lot better than I had expected.
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Old 11-25-2016, 09:49 AM   #47 (permalink)
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Let's keep it Metal for the moment...

Title: “Lock up the wolves”
Format: Album track
Written by: Ronnie James Dio, Rowan Robertson, Jimmy Bain
Performed by: Dio
Genre: Heavy Metal
Taken from: Lock Up the Wolves
Year: 1990
Acclaim: n/a

Although I'm a big Dio fan, I've mentioned that I believe they somewhat lost their way after 1985's Sacred Heart, with 1987's Dream Evil showing them a shadow of the band that produced classics like the first two, and the two albums after this way below par. However for a short time they did pull it back together, and 1990's Lock Up the Wolves was the result. It's a great album, and though it would lead on to a ten-year stretch of mediocrity which would yield only two weak albums before they powered back triumphantly as the new millennium dawned with the last three albums they would record before Ronnie's passing, this tended to leaven the sour taste Strange Highways and Angry Machines left in my mouth.

Dio resist the urge to start the song on howling wind or wolves baying, and instead go for a ticking clock that then brings in a low, dark, muted and ominous synth from Jens Johansson, rising in power and volume before big dirty guitars stamp all over the tune, as everything else drops out but attendant percussion, and two full minutes elapse before Ronnie's trademark vocal comes in, the song slow and measured and grinding, with a sense of Led Zep about it.

Nothing could ever keep Ronnie down, and his vocal rises effortlessly over even the best efforts of new boys Teddy Cook on bass and Rowan Robertson on guitar, to say nothing of Simon Wright on the skins. Only eighteen years old at the time of the recording of this album, Robertson certainly makes his mark, pulling off a powerful solo halfway through, and the song powers along to its dark conclusion, eight and a half minutes having seemed more like four. Superb.

Things I like about this :

1. Another great Dio song
2. Excellent intro
3. The stop/start guitar
4. Vocals of course
5. Keyboard intro, organ outro

Things I don't like about this:

Nothing

Rating:
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Old 11-25-2016, 10:10 AM   #48 (permalink)
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And finally, something from a true legend to close...

Title: “The wolf that lives in Lindsley”
Format: Album track
Written by: Joni Mitchell
Performed by: Joni Mitchell
Genre: Jazz
Taken from: Mingus
Year: 1979
Acclaim: n/a, other than that this album was the final project for jazz supremo Charles Mingus before his death.

I know little to nothing of Joni Mitchell, except by reputation, and less of Charles Mingus, but those who are better versed in these artistes than I will tell you Mitchell was a top player in the folk movement of the sixties and seventies and that Mingus was a giant in jazz circles. The two collaborated on this album (the only one they worked on together) and as noted above, Mingus passed away a few months after completing this. Mitchell dedicated the album to him.

Kicks off with a harsh acoustic guitar that then settles down to a soft vocal from Mitchell, very soothing and the guitar becomes, mostly, more gentle, though there are hard riffs being pounded out every so often. A sort of a merging, I guess, of folk and jazz (jolk? Fazz?), neither of which particularly goes down well with me in general. Wolves howling in the background is a nice, if cliched touch, especially given that wolves' howling always sounds like a lament, and you could convince yourself they were mourning the imminent death of the great jazzman. If you were so inclined.

For me, I don't like the sort of sharp, stop/start way the guitar is played, and personally it jars with Mitchell's otherwise soothing vocal. Just does not work for me. She does a good workout on the guitar later in the song, a solo as it were, no singing, and that works ok. Also, the legendary Herbie Hancock is on electric piano on this album, though I don't hear him here. Sorry, though: not for me.

Things I like about this :

1. Vocal is nice
2. Wolves howling. Cool.

Things I don't like about this:

1. It's jazz. Sorry.
2. Stop/start harsh guitar upsets my ears


Rating:
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Old 11-25-2016, 10:13 AM   #49 (permalink)
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So that's it. I feel I've about wolfed myself out now, and that's where I'm going to leave it. Next subject up:

An odd choice perhaps, for music, but I already have several tracks lined up for Silence, and if anyone has any suggestions, feel free.
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Old 11-25-2016, 11:16 AM   #50 (permalink)
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I'm sure you'll be doing the obvious ones so I won't mention those.

I hope you get a kick out of this


There's a chance that you'll enjoy Miles Davis's In a Silent Way.

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