My Favorite Vocal Performances

Often, I feel like the way we talk about music is too reductive, and we paint with too much pigment in the brush. Great bands are always making great music, great voices are always giving great performances, and so on and so forth. But even for those who we consider great, or our favorites, there are certain moments and performances that stand out even from the others. Sometimes it's even a singer you normally wouldn't put high atop a list, who just so happens to have voiced one song in a way that captures your heart.

Today, that's what I aim to do. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are some of my favorite vocal performances. And while I won't be able to fully convey what it is I love about them, maybe it can continue to explain a few things about the way I see the world.

Dilana on "Dirty Little Secret"

If you ask me what pouring your soul out through your voice sounds like, it would be this. From tender cooing to earth-rattling volume, Dilana gives a tour-de-force as we orbit her heart, leaving us feeling as if we know every side of her in just four minutes.

Kelly Clarkson on "Maybe"

This is a raw performance, from a raw record, and that's what I love most about it. Whether it's the soft resignation at the beginning, or the defiant volume toward the end, Kelly is in full 'don't give an eff' mode, telling us her truth matters more than putting on a pretty air. She's right.

Jim Steinman on "Bad For Good"

It would be easier to pick a Meat Loaf performance of a Steinman song, but I love Jim's version of this song so much. It's rough around the edges, for sure, but no one else can match how much he believes in this music. All the idiosyncratic things no other singer would do are what make it so special. Jim wasn't a great singer, but he nailed this one.

John Popper on "Once You Wake Up"

On "Zygote", John sang almost as a voice actor, molding his approach to the character of the songs. Every twist was interesting, but my favorite has always been this, where power is used in just the right way. From the dreamlike verses to his rousing bellow in the chorus, his voice alone tells the story of the song. That's impressive.

Dan Swano on "Patchworks"

The best harsh vocal I've ever heard. Dan's voice sounds pained and tortured, but never inhuman. It's as if we can hear the rust scraping off his throat with every note, throwing a cloud of rot into the air. There is a remarkable clarity to his voice, and it makes the hell that much more real.

Lzzy Hale on "Innocence"

Picking one Lzzy performance is difficult, but I have to go with the first one that squeezed my heart. Lzzy's tone is amazing throughout, but when the band backs down to give her room to scream into the last chorus, it's magic. When Hall & Oates sang about a maneater, those couple of seconds are what they meant.

Joakim Nillson on "Slow Motion Countdown"

Graveyard plays with dynamics, and on this song Joakim's vocals have never better exemplified that. His low tones are beautiful, and when he lets loose as the song builds, he has the perfect amount of grit to sand off the polish. His voice becomes a howl, and it echoes through the still night air.

Phil Mogg on "Dancing With St Peter"

Voices age just like we do, but few of them get better when they get technically worse. Phil Mogg's did, and this song couldn't have been what it is if he sang it when he was younger. The weariness in his voice is perfect, and captures the the essence of love and loss, using the limitations to wring more emotion, to great effect.

Howard Jones on "Lost"

Singing at full power, but retaining emotion, is hard to do. Howard is able to belt this song, but have his voice resonate in a way that cracks open and lets the emotion seep out. I can feel this song through the speakers, and that feeling has never dulled.

Elton John on "Original Sin"

What I love about this song is how much Elton is able to get out of so little. He sings quietly, lower in his range, and yet the song carries a full range of drama. It's as if Elton reduced the power so you can hear the nuances of his performance, like how a whisper can sound more important than a scream.

Natalie Imbruglia on "Torn"

I've said before I find this song to be the epitome of sex appeal, and Natalie's vocal is a big reason why. Her breathy, innocent tone that builds throughout the song has the same feeling as a whispered breath in your ear. How can that be beat?

VK Lynne on "Bromelaid"

I could give VK credit just for making photosynthesis sound amazing, but what kills me are the little yelps she lets out at the end of the choruses. They're unexpected choices, and so damn charming. Is that perhaps the sound of cute?

Album Review: GWAR - "The New Dark Ages"

Is it weird to suggest that GWAR is going back to their roots?  

It doesn’t seem strange to say when measured against the nearly forty-year career of the world’s favorite and longest-running shock rock band, but it does seem out of place when reflected against the mirror of GWAR, who have never been anything but GWAR.

Perhaps the greatest adjustment to the band’s aural idiom over the years was the transformation from a punk band into a metal band, which was initially the product of Cory Smoot (may he rest in peace.)  Musically, the band has never looked back from that flux point circa 2001, and it’s within reason to suggest that GWAR from that moment forward had become more than just an elaborate, can’t-miss stage show.

But what lay truly at the root of GWAR’s legacy is their ability to tell stories, whether that be an utterly ridiculous interpretation of the terribly mundane, or an utterly ridiculous, space-faring story of unfathomable silliness.  GWAR has perpetually been comfortable in both phases, and that’s been the backbone of all their success.  Lesser bands like Lordi have attempted to copy some aspects of GWAR’s implacable stage show, but without the context of the theater of the absurd, it all boils down to a bunch of grown men jumping around in molded foam and plastic.  

“The New Dark Ages” is GWAR’s best storytelling album in more than a decade, easily the most accomplished in this field since “Lust in Space,” and likely going all the way back to 2004’s “War Party.”  Thematically, we see GWAR again as anti-heroes, fighting off insidious forces from deep within the earth that seek to destroy humanity, etc.  

What made the narrative, for lack of a better term, on “War Party” work so well is that events on the real-life planet earth had come to a head in such a way that GWAR was able to easily craft an angry, expressive album.  Through the lens of GWAR’s comedic nonsense, it was easy to decipher the not-at-all-subtle message the band was trying to get across; that they were mad at a world gone crazy with an inexhaustible thirst for conflict, in all forms.

“The New Dark Ages,” by contrast, clearly emotes with obvious exhaustion.  Their first album in five years, and first since the global pandemic, sounds tired.  “Unto the Breach,” which given the band’s usual epic themes would stand to be a rousing metal mosher, is a chugging burn, sounding strained and strung out at even its most spry moments.  It’s as though not just the characters but the artists themselves are weary from picking up their weapons.

Continuing with the theme of throwing up one’s hands and throwing in the towel, “Unto the Breach” is followed by “Completely Fucked,” which actually is the album’s best cut.  It’s the sharpest song on the album, the place where GWAR seems to recover some of their stride and crafts a memorable and infectious riff that will carry the day in concerts for years to come.

Overall though, if it sounds like this review has been preparing to soften the blow, that’s because it is.  “The New Dark Ages” succeeds greatly in constructing a poignant message, but the music also, frankly, sounds tired.  This is as stripped-down and thin a GWAR production as there’s been in recent memory, in some regards taking them all the way back to the early days of low-budget punk.  “Venom of the Platypus” is a fun punk rawker for what it is, but that’s also all it is.

Pushing aside the frailties of the production, there’s nothing musically inspiring here.  Except for those mentioned above, the riffs are all common stock for punk or metal or hardcore, and they just sort of amble about while vocalist Blothar gathers us around the campfire for another depressing story.  Even singles like “Berserker Mode” are instantly forgettable, living in that worst-case scenario of purgatory where the songs are neither memorably good or memorably bad  “The New Dark Ages” possesses little snap, little fanfare, and lacks much of the tongue-in-cheek humor that has always made GWAR’s ongoing telling of the apocalypse seem like such fun.  It is also a startlingly long record, even without the eleven-minute throwaway outro of “Deus Ex Monstrum.”

It’s not hard to imagine why GWAR might be fed up with the whole bit at this point.  It’s fair to reason that nearly every person of comprehending age is world-weary for a variety of reasons, from the menial to the disappointing to the societally critical.  We’ve all been through a lot and even GWAR, at day’s end, is human.  So it makes sense that in 2017 GWAR was willing to rant and rage and sing “Fuck This Place,” and now in 2022, that fire has been quelled.

So in some part this even begs a bigger question: when all of us are looking for artists to pull us up out of the hole and give us some hope, who do the artists turn to for the same?  “The New Dark Ages” doesn’t offer us an answer.

Album Review: Donna Connone - Donna Cannone

I can get jaded by the number of people in music who are in multiple projects at the same time that all do very similar things. There's both a law of diminishing returns and familiarity breeding contempt, so at a certain point hearing what I've already hear so many times becomes tiring. In the case of Donna Cannone, the participation of Bjorn 'Speed' Strid does not fall into this category, because this is not just another band that he lends his voice to. He has become rather ubiquitous, but in this case he joined the band as a guitar player, which is the sort of shake-up that makes this interesting.

Or at least that was supposed to be the case. The rest of the band features a couple former members of Thundermother, a band I have to say has gotten better in their absence, if I'm being honest. Combined, the band's efforts sound a lot like The Night Flight Orchestra, but with just a hint less of the 'yacht rock' slickness to the mix. They are calling it power-pop, but we're splitting hairs what label we should use.

So why do I seem down on Strid's involvement? That is due to this band not really being as different from The Night Flight Orchestra as I was expecting, but also because that band's vocals sound a good deal like Strid's own, run through a filter. Even when he is not the dominant presence on a song, everything still has his feeling about it. That does away with much of the uniqueness I was looking for, and puts this album firmly in the camp of 'heard it before'.

The bigger problem, though, is that if this is what the band considers power-pop, it's lacking a whole lot of the 'pop' to it. Simply put, these songs aren't very catchy. They're trying, and it's not as if they want to be boring, but little about these compositions is going to hook you, or stand out as an earworm. The story goes that Strid heard the band practicing, and loved what he heard so much he had to join. I don't know what he heard, because I can't hear any of that on this record.

What I do hear is a record that sounds like the sort of thing a group of friends would have fun banging out in their rehearsal room. It doesn't feel like a fully fleshed-out record that knows what it wants to do, and has the ability to do it. "Is It True" is one of the softest numbers, and not only does that give it the strongest hook of the bunch, but it's a duet where Mia Karlsson's gravelly voice has tn times the character the band has on any other song. Perhaps bringing in a singer like her to front the band would have made all the difference. The band's identity is easier to hear when she is singing, and she's not even a member.

As a side-project, this is perfectly harmless stuff. It's a decent enough time to listen to, but because of who is involved, this record is going to get more attention than it probably should. It's decent at best, no matter what the pedigree behind it might be. I love great power-pop and pop-rock, and this isn't it.

Album Review: Spill Your Guts - "The Wrath It Takes"

 

Holy crap, this almost got past me.  Full disclosure, and at the risk of complaining, it’s hard to maintain a full life with all the associated occupations, responsibilities and relationships, and still keep abreast with all the movements in an ever-expanding and de-focused musical landscape.  Sometimes things fall through the cracks for a while.

Released just about a month ago, we come to Spill Your Guts’ new album “The Wrath it Takes,” the newest effort in blackened hardcore from a band hailing from just about every corner of the world.

Teamed up with the Scott Middleton, so recently departed from the Cancer Bats, Spill Your Guts offers up a refreshingly honest take on hardcore…through the lens of classic punk rock?

It sounds practically impossible, particularly with the additional adjective ‘blackened’ in the descriptor, but we have culturally moved far past the constraints of such restrictive genre definitions.  Just hit play on album opener “Die, Unified,” and you’ll see all the requisite elements performed in abundance.  And then, right there in the middle, as part of the hook, a melodic riff that sounds instantly familiar and reminds of the heady days of the Clash or Ramones, albeit better produced.  It’s just a small handful of notes, but it unlocks everything that happens before and after.

And then we come to “Reaper’s Toll,” and we’ve forgotten some of the pomp and circumstance of opening an album, but with good cause, as it makes way for the joyous smashing and banging of a mosh pit revival accompanied by a deep-seated groove that is difficult to shake.

We’ve only gone through two cuts at this point, and already “The Wrath It Takes” demonstrates versatility within its sphere.  The next two cuts offer variations on the theme – “Lift the Curse” could, frankly, be a Cancer Bats song, and then “Prey for Death” (which begins exactly the same as The Toadies’ “Heel,” just a touch faster, and I can’t break the connection in my head,) gives us what we were all expecting, a larger-than-life outro complete with easy scream-able lyrics that would make for good fist-pumping concert fodder.

What follows after that is more of the same, and I say that for efficiency’s sake, not as a discredit to the album.  If you’ve found something to like on the record to this point, you’ll enjoy the rest.  And if you haven’t found any aspect that appeals to your fancy, then it’s time to move on.

There is only one real pitfall on “The Wrath It Takes,” which is the song just about dead in the middle. “Blood Soaked Wolves.”  It’s the only song on the album that weighs in at more than three and a half minutes, which is fine, but by comparison to the rest of the record, this song is a screamy dirge, and it just plain carries on too long.  The point was made at the three minute mark, and after that we’re flagellating a deceased equine.  

But don’t let that minor criticism dissuade you from what otherwise is a fantastic experience.  Pick your associated genre: punk, hardcore, black metal, whatever – they could all use a shot in the arm, and Spill Your Guts, through their unique fusion of elements, offers just that.  It won’t be for everybody, as the performance is abrasive by its nature, but if you’re patient with it, there’s a lot to enjoy.

Album Review: MSG - Universal

With each passing year, I grow more annoyed at Michael Schenker. Despite being a legend among guitar players, anytime he opens his mouth, it's to run down how everyone who's ever picked up a guitar was copying him, especially his brother Rudolph. I get the impression he's never gotten over the fact that Scorpions have achieved far more fame and success, despite having the 'less' talented Schenker in their band. Michael does himself no favors when he keeps churning these albums out, with a new cast of characters helping him out, trying to make it look like something more interesting than yet another collection of his songs written just so he can solo.

This time around, Ronnie Romero gets to handle majority of the vocals, with Ralph Scheepers and Michael Kiske chiming in. Before even addressing the quality of the album, this combination leads to the single most head-scratching element of it all. "A King Has Gone" is a song dedicated to the memory of Ronnie James Dio. Leaving aside why he's chosen now to do that, when he has put out so much music between Dio's death and the present day, the song is not voiced by Romero, who even Ritchie Blackmore thought sounded enough like Dio to be the new frontman of Rainbow. How was the obvious not done here? I would say he shot himself in the foot, but he's so short-sighted in his decision making I'm not sure he could even hit that target.

Missing from the music this Schenker makes are riffs. You know riffs, right? Those are the things guitar players play that are heavy and memorable. Michael plays none of those of note. The riffs are mild chugging that mostly bide time until he gets to play his solo. Listen to "Under Attack" and tell me anyone involved cares. The whole thing is both played and sung with such little passion it's as if you can see them falling asleep as they record it. They then follow that up, after only two f'n songs, with forty seconds of bleepy, bloopy noise. What the hell?

The whole thing comes across to me as the sort of record made by someone who can't see past their own ego. I've heard Michael say before he doesn't listen to anyone else's music, so as not to taint his art, and it shows. Only someone who hasn't heard music in the last forty years would think this is impressive stuff. The aforementioned "A King Has Gone" has lyrics stitched together from old Dio songs. It's the sort of thing that was cool, the first time anyone thought to do it. It's been done to death so much it sounds lazy and out-of-touch. That's becoming a mantra here.

I haven't been fond of any of these records Schenker has been making recently, and this one doesn't break the mold. Whether it's the stale songwriting, the bad decisions, or the piss-poor vocals Scheepers delivers on "Wrecking Ball", the album tries my patience at every turn. With every one of these records, it makes Michael's ego harder and harder to put up with. He sounds more concerned with settling scores, and making sure people know the black-and-white Flying V is his look, than he does with making great music. His priorities aren't aligning with making records worth listening to.

There isn't much about this one to care about.

Singles Roundup: Avantasia, Pale Waves, Yours Truly, & MCR

We have some big names with new songs this week. But are they any good?

Avantasia - The Wicked Rule The Night

I'm not afraid to criticize those who have made so much of my favorite music, and that's the case here. The first song from a new Avantasia album cycle is here, and it's..... so depressing. First of all, it sounds far more like "Hellfire Club" era Edguy than it does Avantasia. That isn't a problem by itself, even if it does undercut Tobi's own rationale for Edguy no longer being active. The bigger issue is that the chorus of the song isn't very strong, which it needed to be, becaue Ralp Scheeper's shrieks his way through the verses with some deeply unpleasant sounding vocals. My first reaction was to turn the song off, and I don't see myself warming up to it. On first reaction, this is easily the weakest song ever released as an Avantasia single. If this is what the album has in store for us, it's a good thing I'm used to being disappointed.

Pale Waves - Lies

Album number three is coming this summer, and the first track from it seems to be pointing us in yet another direction. They had quite the change in sound from album one to album two, and while this one isn't as dramatic, it is still another shift that makes it hard to pin down who Pale Waves are. This is headed back in the synth direction of the debut, but with a completely different feeling behind it. This song is almost entirely driven by the mood,  as Heather gives us a vocal melody with little hook to it. It's as if the band is now purposely trying to make their music inaccessible as a response to the backlash their last album received. Whatever the reason, this is a dull song, and it portends more issues of identity the album probably won't be able to answer. I'm not looking forward to this one.

Yours Truly - Hallucinate

With a new EP now scheduled for release in July, this single is keeping the hype train rolling. Written to express what an anxiety attack sounds like, it finds the band continuing to sound darker than they did on "Self Care". While I wouldn't mind a bit more pop fun thrown into the mix, they're striking the right balance between confronting the ugly issues of life and sounding confident we can move past them. This isn't as addictive as "Composure" was as a single, but the upcoming EP still sounds like a possible highlight of the summer.

My Chemical Romance - The Foundations Of Decay

Oh boy. After more than a decade away, MCR has finally released a new song. Look, I like "The Black Parade" like everyone else, but I don't understand why the band are talked about as legends. Everything else they've done isn't that impressive to me, on its own or compared to their peers, and this song is further evidence a lot of people listen to music with their hearts and not their ears. If this wasn't MCR, it would never get any traction at all. It's six minutes of slow build, no hook, and a piss-poor mix. I would say the band is trolling the fans by intentionally putting out something terrible, as if to prove a point, but that would require me to think more (or is it less?) of them than I do. This song is terrible, and the love it has gotten is totally baffling.

Album Review: Evergrey - A Heartless Portrait

Oh look, it's another Evergrey album. For a band that has been around twenty-five years, they have done very little to ever impress me. There's a trifecta of things working against them. 1)They are now putting out albums too quickly, leaving me tired of them before I ever hear each new one. 2)They are the brand of 'progressive' metal that isn't progressive in any way, so I get frustrated trying to wrap my head around why our nomenclature is so stupid. 3)Tom Englund's voice rubs me the wrong way. I know he is widely regarded as one of the best singers in metal, but not to me.

This album adds a fourth issue that the last couple of records didn't have to worry about; production. While the guitars have all the mechanical heaviness you could want from a metal record of this kind, Tom's vocals are buried in the back of the mix, especially in the choruses, which leaves everything sounding small and muffled. What is supposed to be epic instead sounds tinny, and tiny, and I grow tired of straining my ears to make out what he's trying to sing.

The formula for this album should be more up my alley. The construction of the songs is closer to the "Torn" era, which is looked down upon by a lot of fans, but it's when the focus on tight songwriting was strongest. These songs don't meander nearly as much as many of the recent records, but having the hooks come out sounding this flat defeats the entire purpose. It certainly makes it harder to embrace a song like "Ominous" where the chorus is so bland. Instead of being a change of pace, it merely uses a different shade of boring to paint with.

The title track gives us a horribly stilted segue from the verse to chorus, where it sounds like two separate songs being grafted together with duct tape, with the band trying to pass it off as if it was meant to be that way. A times, it feels like they think as long as they have a heavy riff and Tom wailing, nothing else matters. It's true that there will be people who can look past all the rest, because they enjoy the Evergrey sound. That isn't a very convincing argument to me.

Perhaps the issue stems from Tom's side project, Silent Skies, where everything is ambient and subtle. That subtlety of melody turns into a flat-line when the music amps up to Evergrey's metallic roar, and that makes up a majority of the album. "Heartless" is a really good song, but it's the outlier, as more of the record falls into the mediocrity of "Call Out The Dark", where the entire chorus is flatly repeating the title. I think I know what the band is going for, but they are so far off the mark it's hard to know for sure.

Every time I listen to Evergrey, it's a matter of what direction the flaws will take me. They have corrected course in some respects, but drifted away in others. Like always, Evergrey is a band with a great sound, but in search of great songs.

Album Review: James LaBrie - Beautiful Shade Of Grey

When it comes to the modern version of metal, the one that fuses Soilwork's melodic death metal foundation with a heightened sense of pop melody, there are few example of it being done better than the last two James LaBrie solo albums. That might sound strange if all you know of him is Dream Theater, but his recent solo work has been an amazing reinvention, and showed there is far more to him than he is required to be in his main gig. "Impermanent Resonance" is one of the most perfect metal records of recent years, and is a personal favorite, which makes this new album an interesting deviation.

Despite having that winning formula, this album sees James working with a new songwriter, and taking a new approach. Gone is the aggressive chugging, and instead we get lush acoustic guitars. Gone are the occasional barked vocals, and instead we get soft melodies. I know James has said he considered those previous albums to be a 'band effort', and only used his own name because it would get more attention, but that decision now makes this album seem curious when perhaps it shouldn't.

We heard this on "Devil In Drag", where the bluesy riff is played on an acoustic guitar, when I could easily hear it being turned into a djent-ish monster akin to the last albums. Instead, James and his band on this record decide to play things easier, focusing on harmonies and an older vibe. There are even hints of Opeth's softer moments, especially in the short turnaround guitar figure right before the solo. The song could be thought of as something from "Damnation", if it was a sunny day album instead of one obscured by rain clouds.

With softer instrumentation, there's more room in the mix for James' voice, and he sounds fantastic. These songs fit right in the sweet spot of his range, and he doesn't have to oversing to stand out, so he is able to shine in a way we don't always hear in Dream Theater.

There's another comparison that comes right to mind. Earlier this year, Neal Morse, Ross Jennings, and Nick D'Virgilio also released a song-based album that was primarily acoustic. Listening to the two albums back-to-back, there's an obvious similarity in the prog legends going softer, but also a drastic difference in the approach they take. James' record is more somber and dotted with pensive melodies and emotional guitar solos, while the album the other three produced was more joyous and veered more into 'dad rock' territory. Both sound like guys of their age knowing who they are, but one is trying to be more fun, while the other is trying to resonate more. While I enjoyed "Troika", I have to say the stronger focus at tugging on the heart-strings James LaBrie is engaged in speaks to me more.

But it isn't just James doing the heavy lifting here. The catharsis on "Hit Me Like A Brick" is absolutely the fluid guitar solo, which releases all the tension of the song in its weeping, clean-ish tone, letting the last run through the chorus be a joyous refrain. That's a perfect example of a guitar solo adding to the song, and not feeling like a required piece that is there mostly for the guitar player's ego. The payoff wouldn't be the same without it.

I have a feeling this album is going to wind up being divisive. I'm not sure how many Dream Theater fans are going to embrace an album that is dominated by acoustic guitars like this, where the 'heaviness' comes in the form of atmosphere and emotion. James' metal fan base might have issues here, but not me. This is exactly the sort of change-of-pace I love. For as much as another album like "Impermanent Resonance" would be amazing, this record is all the better for being something unique. You can't put this on and mistake it for another James LaBrie effort, nor can you say it's running through the standards. It's something fresh and new, and it also happens to be done exceedingly well. Going back to what I was saying earlier, this is the record I was hoping "Troika" would be.

"Beautiful Shade Of Grey" is an album I can play again and again, and get swept up in the beauty of the melodies, and the melancholic swells the album bathes in. Grey is a color that can be flat and soul-sucking, or shimmer with the riches of silver, depending on which light you view it in. I'm seeing the latter, and maybe you will too.

Album Review: The Bateleurs - The Sun In The Tenth House

As I have talked about before, there's a question whether the classic rock of the 70s is timeless because of something innate to itself, or because it is an evolutionary starting point fixed in both time and our consciousness. It was a more organic time for music, even if it was still a business, perhaps because it was a business that was working for the artists. Whatever the case, the 70s continues to be the blueprint by which much of what the layperson calls rock and roll live by. All you need is a guitar, perhaps an organ, and a singer who can fill the space with their power.

That is the formula for The Bateleurs, who imbue the spirit of the 70s into their sound. You can hear the grain of overdrive on their guitars as they run through the well-worn blues scales, and the vocals steamroll over everything with immense power. There is more than a pinch of Led Zeppelin to what they are doing, but the advances of technology mean no Zeppelin record ever sounded this fierce and immense. The hints of distortion that creep in around the edges are remnants of a band giving it their all, not one trying to fake passion by turning up the dials.

I love "All We Are" for its bluesy sing-along chorus, and how the song throws in a swampy choir as the break, fully recognizing what the original church of the blues would sound like. The music keeps a dirty edge to it, not sounding so clean it loses its fire, but also not gritty in a way that is brittle. It's a fine line to balance, and they master the high-wire act.

The same thing was true of Blues Pills' first album, which is where my thoughts tend to go listening to The Bateleurs. Both groups were taking the bluesy side of classic rock, using it as a canvas for howling vocals that go far and above what almost any of the men in the genre are capable of. The difference is that Blues Pills was taking more from the slower and more mystical bits, while The Bateleurs are a full-on power blues band. This album hits hard, and doesn't let up. The sound is loud, the songs are pounding, and this is the kind of blues that is more righteous than sad.

How can you listen to "I'll Go All The Way" and not get caught up in the communal power the sound would have had back in the day? Zeppelin may have been more artsy, but they would have a hard time matching the power that comes from some of the rousing choruses The Bateleurs trade in. That's the reason I have never counted myself as a Zeppelin fan, and The Bateleurs are justifying my contrarianism. Hearing a similar sound done this way, with what I would consider stronger and more focused songwriting, tells me I shouldn't settle with regard to my taste. The Bateleurs have all the power of the past, but they do it with a care for song-craft I don't hear very often from the originators of the style.

The way the balladic swing of "City Of Lights" builds into that epic descending melody is darn near perfect. The band uses the extreme dynamics to build a song that not only crests like the tide, but is perfectly placed to break up the album from becoming overwhelming. It's just beautiful exploitation of everything the blues can be, and while it might not take the same winding path "Stairway To Heaven" does, it sounds just as gargantuan, just in a different way.

By the time the record plays out, I am quite impressed with The Bateleurs. They have power, they have passion, and they have nuance to their songwriting. They take the conventions of blues-rock, and they elevate them to something we seldom get to hear. At the beginning, I wondered why classic rock is timeless. When I'm listening to an album like this, and a band like this, it's not hard to understand. There really is nothing dated about talented musicians plugging in and rocking out. As long as you have the songs to back it up, it's a formula that is always going to work.

On "The Sun In The Tenth House", it is shining brightly on The Bateleurs. They are making a hugely promising statement.

Quick Reviews: Coreleoni, Skills, & Visions Of Atlantis

Today, let's take a look at three new albums I have something to say about, but not enough for a full-length review.

Coreleoni - III

These sorts of things confuse me. Coreleoni was formed to play covers of Gotthard songs, but now they're playing their own original music. That means their third album isn't really their third album, since the first two were mostly old stuff they were recycling. That's not quite as confusing as when Fozzy switched from being a covers band to an original one, but it's still odd branding. Not that anyone knows who Coreleoni are, but if you happen to have heard the name before, you would be led to thinking this is another album of retreads. But I'm not a marketing genius, so maybe there's something in this I'm missing.

As for the music, there isn't a lot to say. These may be original songs, but they sound like covers. Everything about the album sounds like it was ripped from the past. The songwriting has all the hallmarks of the 80s, especially in the way many of the vocal lines don't even bother trying to be a melodic chorus. It was the way songs were written when rock was in its youth, and I hated it then. I still hate it now.

"Greetings From Russia" is one of the most ill-timed songs of the year. Maybe that lack of insight is illustrative of the entire album, which throws yet another band on the endless roster of them who are retreading the past without adding anything at all new to the mix. These sorts of records are made for die-hard fans of the past, but as we know, those are the very people who don't listen to new music anymore. So who is this for? That's a good question, and after listening to this record, I can't answer it.

Skills - Different Worlds

Yet another 'supergroup', Skills can't live up to that billing, because the most identifiable part of their sound is a relative unknown. Billy Sheehan and Brad Gillis are 'names', even if they haven't been part of many conversations since the late 80s, but it's singer Renan Zonta who makes this group sound like any of the other anonymous new bands, rather than something led by veteran talent. Since Sheehan is in this band, we can draw a comparison to The Winery Dogs, who burst out of the gate with some real fanfare. It's not hard to see why that band was an immediate success, while this one will only be making a second album to prove the first one wasn't a failure.

The Winery Dogs had charisma, and sounded like a band having a ton of fun throwing down some rock songs to distract themselves from their main gigs. Skills doesn't have either of those things. Zonta is a fine singer, but he doesn't have the same level of charisma in his voice, and the songs are played so well they sound more robotic than passionate. It's not bad, by any means, but it doesn't have the spark to make me believe in what they're doing. It sounds too much like musicians going through the motions.

Visions Of Atlantis - Pirates

I don't know why so many romanticize pirates. That life was brutally hard, listing on the choppy ocean under a pounding sun, hoping not to be killed when stealing from another ship. And that was assuming you didn't get scurvy and lose a leg, an eye, or both. Pirate life sucked, and it doesn't have any connection to symphonic metal, so I'm rather puzzled Visions Of Atlantis chose to plaster that imagery on their new album.

"We embrace who we are and we can state it in the eyes of everyone that we are Pirates now", is what the band says. Um... I know they're probably trying to say they are completely untethered to expectations, and are 'doing their own thing', but comparing yourself to murderous thieves isn't going to win many people over to your personalities. I don't want to draw any conclusions about them as people, but their choices are pointing me in the wrong direction.

As for the album, it's solid stuff. It sounds grand and epic, with the symphonic bits adding scope to the metal skeletons, and giving more context for Clementine's semi-classical vocals. Songs like "Melancholy Angel" and "Clocks" have big, rousing choruses that will be sure to please. I don't think the album keeps the momentum up all the way through, but the highlights are certainly worth hearing. If it wasn't for the unfortunate focus on pirates, this would be a charming record.