Metal Monday #6

The first song in discussion this week will be our first live track, usually id try and avoid live material as the recording quality is never really up to scratch and the band never really sounds as perfected as they do on the studio, however this track is a testament to how brilliantly such a well rounded band can perform under live circumstances. The band is Vanden Plas and the song is the opening track on their Spirit of live album. The track opens with a the crowds chanting the group's name and the listener is instantly transported into the crowd, a nice touch by the producers. The track is very much a perfect sample of what you are going to hear from the rest of the album, tracks from the 4 albums preceding the recording. Andy Kuntz delivers a memorable performance during the track especially during when delivering the higher and more harmonized notes which seem to always compliment Stephan Lill's guitar work throughout the track.

Vanden Plas - I Can See (live)


This track is slightly different in that it is not technically metal, but hip-hop. The track, Awaiting the Hour, heavily samples Slayers Rainning Blood and the name has clearly been taken from the lyric within the song "awaiting the hour of reprisal". The song hails from Ill Bills 2007 mixtape Black Metal and is very typical of the artist, featuring heavy hitting lyrics that justify the heavy riffs playing over them. The name of the song and the lyrics they were derived from were later re-used as Ill Bills second studio album "The Hour of Reprisal", also featuring heavy metal orientated tracks such as War is my Destiny, i haven't went into too much detail on ill bill here so i can do a profile of him sometime in the future, for now enjoy the track.

Ill Bill - Awaiting the Hour


The next track I want to talk about is Megadeth's Insomnia. To most people it almost seems to be an accepted realism that a band older work usually seems to be better and their new work is unlistenable, Metallica being a prime example, another being Dragonforce, however a few artists do seem to mature as they get older and have not only listenable albums, but albums that destroy previous endeavors, The Beatles, Jurassic 5, Common and Savatage being just a few examples. I am not going to state that Megadeth's later albums are perceivably better than their earlier work, however I still find their later work pretty damn good and very listenable, especially when you consider Megadeth's long time rivals pitiful attempts at making music. Insomnia come from the groups 1999 album Risk, which was a critical and commercial failure, with fans complaining about the lack of metal, however I feel that Insomnia really stood as a testament to the group and to what the album was trying to do, even if it was slightly experimental. The band would return to form with later albums which provided touring grounds for the band especially after their brief breakup in 2002-2004. Insomnia has a seeming organic flow to it which seems to stem from the violins that are heard backing the track throughout. I really enjoyed this track from this ill fated album, so I urge you to give it a chance.

Megadeth - Insomnia


Next I want to talk about Tool's memorable song Hooker with a Penis. I was first introduced to this song (and the band) through a cousin of mine, being a big tool fan he naturally wanted to spread the word about the group, I listened, I enjoyed and I wanted more. The song is from their critically acclaimed album Ænima and after hearing it I was satisfied. I felt it was a very accessible album and still do, especially compared to a slightly more conceptual Lateralus. The song was one I ended up listening to a lot over the years and was probably one of the key songs that got me interested in the progressive metal genre, even if I didn’t consciously link the two at the time. The song is very typical of the time it was written in and of Tool themselves, containing slightly irregular drum patterns that a few bands seemed to be experimenting with at the time and also containing Keenan's signature vocal style dominating the track and almost sounding like an instrument itself due to the aggressive tone and meticulous timing of his words.

Tool - Hooker with a Penis


The last track is another entry from Dream Theater, a band who seem to, unsurprisingly, keep making appearances in our list of featured artists. This track I want to talk about is The Mirror from their 1994 album Awake. The song is a lot heavier than the majority of the band's songs and heavily leans towards the thrash metal genre that they would explore further in later albums which I personally felt came full circle within Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, most attempts at the heavier Prog Metal just didn’t seem to work out for the band which Train of Thought seemed to prove, this doesn’t however mean that all albums after Six Degrees were bad, with Octavarium providing some great tracks. The mirror opens with a very distinctive riff that carries though as a theme of sorts to the song, running and appearing throughout it. LaBrie's vocal work seems to work here better than it does in the groups later attempts at the heavier genre, mainly because he's signing more naturally and seemingly passionately. This brings me onto some of the bands later work, specifically Systematic Chaos, were LaBrie seems to drown out the instrumentals on the albums (which just don’t seem loud enough), and he sounds like he's just reading the lyrics off the page, putting no passion into the words he's singing, therefore creating no story or musical flow for the music to follow with Petrucci just masturbating on the guitar in the background for the sole reason that he can. The Mirror is a prime example of when Dream Theater were an American muscle car speeding down the highway in what can only be described as progressive beauty. LaBrie balances his "metal" vocals well in this track and doesn’t go overboard on trying to tackle a genre he clearly can't, which as described above, he later goes on to do. The track also features exquisite work from Kevin Moore, from what would be his last album with Dream Theater. I personally think that Moore was one of the best things to happen to the band, Sherinian would prove to be an admirable follow up in the albums he was featured in, as for Rudess, I feel he was Dream Theater's Night of the Long Knives. Enjoy the track.

Bonus Track: Ok, so I've had this song in my library for a long time, a good few years ago it was put onto a compilation cd that I'd listen to in school and I thought it sounded very familiar, then I listened to The Mirror again and I thought they sounded similar, after some time I actually sat down and compared the two tracks and I founded that they sounded almost exactly the same. The song in question is Darkane's "Chaos vs Order". I am almost certain that Darkane just flat out stole this song from Dream Theater, they open the same way and have pretty much the exact same song structures with all the same instruments appearing at the same times and so on, I'm not sure if anyone has actually looked into this but I feel it they are way too familiar to be a coincidence, have a listen and see what you think.

Dream Theater - The Mirror
Darkane - Chaos Vs Order

Easy Like Sunday Morning #5

Regular visitors to the blog will have noticed that I didn't post last Sunday's blog, this was due to the storm that occurred on Saturday evening that fried my router. Nonetheless things are back on track this week.

The first song I'm going to post is one from a band that had a great influence on me about 5 years ago, and whom I still hold a great deal of respect for, even if I'm not a fan of their more recent material. The band in question is the highly successful American progressive metal/rock group Dream Theater. I first came into contact with this band through an instrumental piece from their 1994 album Awake, called Erotomania, also being the song that consciously introduced me to the prog scene in general. The song I'm going to post comes from the bands 2002 concept alum Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, an album which tackles the struggles of life, with the first disc dealing with morality, death, alcoholism, loss of faith and such issues, while the second disc deals with struggles of the mind in the form of mental disorders. The 6th and final track of the album fills entirety of the 2nd disc and is split up into 8 movements, the track I am wanting to profile is the 6th movement of this track, known as Solitary Shell.
The track deals with a person living with autism (degree 5) with the story explaining his life and progression of the illness, starting off as appearing normal then slowly showing signs of the illness, with James LaBrie singing about different aspects of the disease such as extreme concentration and withdrawal from social contact. The song is a typical prog rock piece that seems to appear at least once in every one of Theaters album's to contrast the prog metal that dominates each of them. The song, from the opening chords is very reminiscent of Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill and seems to be an homage to the track (even in name), when LaBrie enters it is clear that his vocals aren’t up to the standard that they had been in previous years, obviously due to the infamous food poisoning incident(however it should be noted that after the tour that accompanied this album, la brie claimed his vocals skills returned after time and trained, which although sounds suspicious, I think was proven with his best work on Ayreon Human Equation album). The song continues to reference the Gabriel song by incorporating a very similar sounding chorus which continues to build up to roughly the 4 minute mark were we have the second instrumental break of the song were we hear a some heavier instrumental work before Petrucci treats us with some flamenco style guitar work. The song continues to build as nears the end of the track which has been written as the lead-in to the next track. This song may be a bit "out there" for some of the people who may visit this blog, but our goal is to ultimately expand peoples horizons and giving the structure of the song I think this makes it a perfect way to open the Sunday post, enjoy.

Dream Theater - Solitary Shell


The second artist I want to talk about is an artist who most for you will be all too familiar with, The Chemical Brothers. Being slightly more upbeat that is usually for the Sunday post I wanted to put this in as I feel it incorporates the feel of a Sunday pretty well, or it at least holds some sort of nostalgic Sunday feeling to it. Star Guitar comes from the Brothers fourth album and was released as a single in 2002 were it gained a lot of prominence in the club scene, the song also re-gained a lot of this prominence in 2007 when Shinichi Osawa did a cover version that took the clubs by storm which also produced many remixes. The song is very typical of the chemical brothers electronica, big beat and very psychedelic sound that the band has become associated with combing and establishing over the years. The song contains a sample of Bowies Starman which is looped and repeated throughout the song, with other instruments mimicking this and then going off into their own musical journey, with vocals coming into it at the halfway point that give the song a depth that only the chemical brothers seem to know how to deliver.

The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

The next band and song I'm going to discuss is almost a guilty pleasure and a band I haven't actually properly listened to in a long time. Down were formed in 1991 by vocalist Phil Anselmo of Pantera, guitarist Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity, second guitarist Kirk Windstein of Crowbar, bassist Todd Strange of Crowbar, and drummer Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod. The band seemed have a more southern approach the bands previous endeavors and really concentrated more so on their lives and their where they lived. It was also took a step back from the heavier stuff that each member and their respective bands are known for, even taking an acoustic and more rock orientated approach in many of their songs. The song I'm going to profile is from their first album and is titled "Jail". My greatest memory of this song is when I went to see the band play in June of 2006 in Belfast's Mandela hall, the band dimmed the lights, filled the stage with smoke and Bower came of the drums and went center stage with the rest of the group, brining a bongo with him, Anselmo go the audience to clap in time and the band performed what I thought was probably the best song of the night. They played again a few months back (with Static x), however I felt the group was charging an extortionate amount to see them and I refused to pay it. Jail truly stands out among downs songs as it isn't really like anything they have done since and really does hold a certain atmosphere to it. The song is very reminiscent of music you'd expect to hear in a dream sequence during a movie and I can't quite describe how it sounds so I suggest you listen to it yourself and form your own opinions.

Down - Jail


In 1998 a show was conceived from the mind of Shinichirō Watanabe, an aspiring anime director, created the show "Cowboy Bebop", an anime about bounty hunters (or "cowboys") in space. Without going into too much detail the show basically pursued a bunch of vagabond bounty hunters on their ill-fated and unsuccessful missions within space and on colonized planets within the solar system. One reason I was attracted to the show was because of the washed out and very used look everything seemed to have in the show, everything look like it had been lived in/on and used many times, this wasn't a future presented to us as fresh and out of the box. Another reason I was attracted to the show, was because of the music used within it. Bebop's episodes are self-referred to has sessions, rather than episodes, this being an obvious homage to music in general. Every episode name had a musical theme, wither it be the name of a famous song (Bohemian Rhapsody) or a slight reference to a genre (mushroom samba). The primary attraction of the music within Bebop, is that it's all performed by The Seatbelts, led by Yoko Kanno. The Seatbelts could probably be best described as a handpicked bunch of session musicians, created specifically for the series, the majority of the songs they create are within the blues/jazz genre's, however their songs cover pretty much every genre there is and cross between them creating their own unique sound. I don't want to go into too much detail on the band or their origins as they will definitely be getting a profile piece in the future on the blog. One of my favorite songs of theirs falls perfectly into the Sunday category and has been riffling through my playlists for years. Ask D.N.A is one of my favorite treacks by the seatbelts and has a very upbeat tempo, with a similer sound to the some of the beatles later work. Ask D.N.A is a song that is not actually in the series, however it is the opening theme for the movie and is a easygoing track to define your Sunday.

The Seatbelts - Ask D.N.A

The last song I want to talk about could possibly be considered one of my favorite songs of all time and it is on an album that is being considered for the Excellence of Execution (in close contention with one other by the same artist), but due to the nature of the Sunday post I thought I'd post this particular song now. Also, once again due to the nature of the Sunday post, you'll probably find that this particular artist will be featured many times and probably more than any other, not only because of how ell suit the bill but because of their overall progression as artists and how they moved music on in more ways than one. If you haven't already guessed by now, I'm talking about The Beatles. In JUNKER's first Sunday post he wrote about blackbird from the highly influential self titled album, which many saw as the Beatles truly progressing as an artist by differing from what they had done before with Sgt. Pepper and Mystery Tour, with the former mirroring this very same progression on their earlier work. For me Abbey Road really stands out and I'm still not entirely sure why (im not saying its my favorite, as i don't even think i could choose) , but I believe it is because the Beatles seemed to mature more as a band, appearing and sounding more accomplished and rounded. The Beatles work is unique in that you can look at the albums and see the changes between them, they almost seem like a road trip with it being very evident from the white album that they were beginning to come to the end of their trip.
The song I'm wanting to post about here is the unforgettable Here Comes the Sun, a masterpiece penned by George Harrison with a back story that suitable acts as a prologue to the song . According to Harrison, the song was written during somewhat of a depression for the man, it had been a tough year with him getting his tonsils out, being "busted" for marijuana possession and when their record label was becoming too much of a chore, this on top of a typically long British winter set the stage for Harrison writing the song in spring of '69 while taking a break from work with Apple at a close friends house, with the song obviously talking of the good times ahead. The track, along with the album in general (in particularly the end), contains some of Ringo Starr's best drum work, even though many criticize him on his skills in general, personally I feel Starr's drum work was perfect for the Beatles work, if it had have been any more prominent it probably would have taken away from the content of most of the band's songs. The song , keeping in line with Harrisons style of writing, opens with a single acoustic guitar singing out the main riff of the song with Harrison soon coming into the song vocally singing the title of the song, with McCartney soon joining in backing. The song is one i've listened to a lot and will continue to listen to as I grow older, I hope it rounds of your Sunday is it did mine.

The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun

(Links fixed)

Metal Monday #3

You may have noticed that we haven't been updating this as regularly as we'd like to. These things happen. It isn't necessarily laziness per say, but rather a combination of unexpected events and dilemmas occurring that were both unforeseeable and unexpected. Though readers would be justifiable in expressing their discontent at leaving such a long gap between posts, it is out of our hands. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. We figured throwing up a Metal Monday post on a Wednesday or Thursday would not only be disrespectful to anyone who actually follows this blog but it would also kind of defeat the purpose of the post. Regardless, we hope we can make amends today and hopefully there won't be a repeat occurrence in the future.

Onto the tracks. First up, we have the first song from the revolutionary album Alaska by Between The Buried And Me Though I had been a fan for a few months before I saw them live, it was only when I saw them supporting The Dillinger Escape Plan that all of the pieces of the puzzle fitted together. Here was a band that could very much send shivers down the average metal bands' collective spines, yet at the drop of the hat they could switch up their style to fit just about anything from Progressive Metal to Power or Death Metal. This fusion of genres was what really made this band stand out to me. Diversity is a rare thing in metal these days so it was an absolute pleasure to hear a band who were not only instrumentally extremely tight but who were branching out and doing their own thing irregardless of what the metal community thought. The song, All Bodies, in particular, was chosen due to it demonstrating their versatility on a grand scale. For example, on this track, one minute the song will be building up to a crescendo of riffage when suddenly it'll breakdown and the focus will be placed on keyboards which sound like something out of a Vanden Plas album. On a similar level, vocally, Tommy Rogers puts ex-Scar Symmetry frontman Christian Älvestam to shame by not only going lower than him but also hitting the higher octaves seamlessly, which is itself a huge testament to his ability because Älvestam is one of the pioneers of this technique. Musically, the band themselves have described their album Colors as "new wave polka grunge" and "adult contemporary progressive death metal" which should give you some indication as to how unique they are.

Between The Buried And Me - All Bodies

This next choice is mostly for nostalgia more than anything else. It is, of course, Fear Factory's Linchpin, a song which I first familiarised myself with in my teenage years at The Venue (R.I.P.) Interestingly enough, I get the impression that this song (and a bunch of others) will forever be intertwined with fond memories of moshpits and headbanging in this particular club, which is both saddening and satsifying. Fear Factory as a band never really reached this high point again in their career and appear to have slipped into obscurity in recent years due to creative rifts between the members. The song Linchpin itself is characteristic of the type of metal music that was being produced in the early 2000s, culminating heavy riff and drum patterns with borderline-growling vocals that eventually and inevitably manifest into a more tame vocal chorus. I'm guessing this is how the majority of metal bands crossed over into the mainstream consciousness. As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage and more recently Slipknot have all been guilty of this, not that I blame them, but it does take away from the music at times. In spite of this, Linchpin remains a track that still gets put on rotation every now and again and not solely for nostalgic reasons either.

Fear Factory - Linchpin

In direct contrast to the aforementioned compliant vocal melodies of the 2000s is Lamb Of God's Now You've Got Something To Die For, a track which is quite possibly my favourite by them. Believe me when I say that it pulls no punches in any respect. The brutality of what is on offer here would almost make you want to burn down a church out of sheer barbarity (but not quite.) I honestly can't remember how or when I was introduced to this track as it was quite some time ago but I imagine it was through my purchase of their eminent album Ashes Of The Wake which I acquired on a whim when looking for some heavier bands to listen to. Though many consider the standout song on that album to be Laid To Rest, which is in itself an incredible track, Now You've Got Something To Die For just takes it up to another level. In my opinion it not only spoils the album but spoils the majority of their discography due to it being so damn good. Like practically all of Lamb Of God's material, it doesn't compromise for even a second. Just to give you a sneak glance of exactly how uncompromising this track is, I will supply you with a sample of some lyrics:

Bombs to set the people free, blood to feed the dollar tree
Flags for coffins on the screen, oil for the machine
Army of liberation, gunpoint indoctrination
The fires of sedition
Fulfill the prophecy

Enough said.

Lamb Of God - Now You've Got Something To Die For

For the fourth track I've decided to go with something a bit different, a band that appears to have been forgotten about in the past couple of years, Pagan's Mind. Unfortunately I don't get enough time to listen them enough these days but hopefully that will change in the future. Like many bands who have played the illustrious ProgPower festival (and its various different incarnations) throughout the years, I was first introduced to this band by their placement on the ProgPower bill. Though it wouldn't be wrong to describe them as a Power-Progressive hybrid, there is so much more to their music than just being a band who fuses together two different genres. There are many different experimental elements to their music and you can tell they are deeply influenced by Symphonic Metal by their compositions and reliance on grandiose keyboard parts and guitar and bass accompaniment. Though I've been listening to this band for quite a few years now, I first fell in love with A New Beginning in my second year of university after an impromptu listen one morning, much to the deterrence of my housemates. This song not only conjures the spirit of the band perfectly, but it also has one of the best opening riffs of all time. So good, in fact, that that same morning I found myself air guitaring standing atop my bed which I can assure you is an extremely rare occurrence these days.

Pagan's Mind - A New Beginning

Lastly, continuing with the 'different' take I have decided to go with my favourite band, Dream Theater. Anyone who knows me knows that I have been a diehard Dream Theater fan since first hearing Awake around 2002. When that album entered my life I knew that not only had I changed in terms of listening but also that I was developing my tastes extremely rapidly. Contrary to what most people think, Dream Theater was not my first foray into the Progressive Metal genre. In fact, it was Symphony X with their track Eyes Of Medusa that introduced me to the genre. It was Dream Theater, however, who sealed the deal. Though I still think that their earlier stuff is a masterclass in musicmanship, I have been becoming less and less attached to them in recent years. The first album that for me was a bit of a letdown was Train Of Thought, their take on the balls-to-the-wall thrash metal genre. Although the follow-up Octavarium was an interesting return to form in a lot of respects, anything past that has just lost my interest. Recently I have been delving into my CD collection and picking out dozens of albums to listen to over the space of a few weeks. From these lists, Images And Words, Awake, Scenes From A Memory and Train Of Thought have made it onto the shortlist. I honestly don't know why I picked Train Of Thought, its an album I rarely, if ever, listen to. I guess I felt compelled to give it another chance and although it still makes me feel a little underwhelmed, the song, This Dying Soul, really shows what they're capable of. Though it is most definitely on the heavier side, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Just listen to The Glass Prison and then you'll see what I'm talking about. Not only are the instrumental parts of This Dying Soul technically sufficient, but every band member seems to really shine on this track, whether it is through the guitar and keyboards harmonising, the drums not only keeping but dictating the flow and the bass providing a solid foundation. What is also surprising about this track is that James LaBrie provides shockingly good vocals. It is no secret that his vocal cords were damaged in a food poisoning incident in 1994 and they have never truly recovered, but on this track his vocals fit perfectly to the music, proving just how adaptable he can be.

Dream Theater - This Dying Soul