The Conversation: Midway Through 2019

CHRIS C: The digital revolution has had many effects, one of the seldom noticed being the acceleration of time. Without having physical calendars we use to mark the days, flipping them with each month or tearing a page every day, it's easier for each solar cycle to blend into each other, creating a blur of time our eyes can never quite focus on. That's the fancy way of saying, "it's the middle of the year already?" We say that every year, it seems.

As I'm looking back at this year, so far, I'm struck by a couple of things; 1) There have been very few 'great' albums to this point, 2) There has been a ton of truly awful music, and 3) The trends of recent years have not yet abated. We are still seeing fake retirements, sequels to albums (as if that's a thing), and attention being funneled upward so that only the already biggest names generate any buzz.

But, for the first time in a decade, we can talk about a new Tool album without it being a running joke. I believe that sentence fully satisfies my eagerness to talk about that subject. Meme culture loses out on one of their old standards (they can go back to Necrophagist, but no one cares about them, right?), but I'm sure they'll recover.

Actually, perhaps the thing I wanted to talk about most has nothing to do with music at all, but rather fashion. Bruce Dickinson answered a question about his now long hair in a snarky way, but it did bring up the old questions about the metal 'look', how it ever started, and why the supposed fans who celebrate individualism are so triggered by a musician's hair deviating from the accepted length. What say you?

D.M: Hello!  Welcome to another summer, and here we go again! 

Working backwards through your points - The whole 'look' argument goes back probably several thousand years without any clear resolution or logical basis.  Really, the only thing that's advanced in the intervening time is that we're better at identifying that the entire "look" thing is generally ridiculous.  And believe me, we haven't improved that much - there are still more cultural circles than not where you and I would be thoroughly castigated (at best) for even suggesting the irrelevancy of look (which I will stop putting in quotes, since we've established it.)  Man, everyone wants to be part of something, while simultaneously wanting to not be part of a whole.  We all wear our brands rather literally on our sleeves - Nike, Brooks Brothers, Harley Davidson, any professional or college sports team of any stripe, Kangol, whatever.  At this point, down in the frightening hipster depths of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NOT wearing labels on your sleeve has become its own label.  So what the hell, the problem is older than us, and will likely outlive us.

That said, let me attempt some manner of rationalization here - the metal look actually predates metal, at least as far at the hair is concerned.  It's a direct extension (no pun intended,) of when the hippies grew their hair out in reaction to a society that rejected their ideals.  Metal picked that up and combined it with a lower-rent, motorcycle gang aesthetic, and made a look that was unique unto its time.  It's a crying shame that the image was usurped by and suffered such indignity at the hands of hair metal, but such seems to be the fate of all counter-culture aesthetics - to be co-opted by somebody who has figured out how to capitalize on it and turn it into a tradable commodity.

Nevertheless, that's not what you asked.  Where do I stand?  I couldn't give a rat's ass about somebody's hairstyle.  Some of this may be bitterness on my part - I am incapable of growing long hair, not because I am balding, but because I am genetically predisposed to hair that grows out rather than down.  Even absent that though, Scott Ian wrote in his autobiography that one of the reasons he cut his hair initially was because he was tired of being chased out of hardcore shows with the epithet "poser," which is a sentiment I'm down with.  I mean, nobody at work expects me to be a dyed-in-the-wool metal fan, mostly because of unfair stereotypes toward metal fans, but c'mon, why can't we all be anything regardless of how we look and dress?  And the exclusionary idea that we must look a certain way to belong in a group is laughable.  P.J. O'Rourke once famously said "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please."  Seems easy enough as far as image and fandom is concerned.  We'll get back to this a minute, because I have a question I want to pose to you.

 (The part people conveniently forget and struggle with is the second part of the quote: "And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."  We see this second part in the NHL - the league and its players in some ways still think it's 1983, and as a consequence, the league remains a localized and niche sport.)

Let me zero in momentarily on the fake retirement thing for a minute.  I've come to make a weird peace with this.  It's not my place to tell someone when to hang it up, especially when it's far easier to just ignore or otherwise pretend that the new music isn't happening.  I mean, would anyone but the most fanatical devotee argue that Judas Priest hasn't been 'retired' since after "Painkiller" was released?  And I have as much love for JP as the next guy, hell, maybe more, but they've been retreading and repacking nostalgia (much like Bruce Springsteen! Zing!) since before their actual first retirement.  Like Kobe Bryant but worse, the Slayer retirement tour has dragged across multiple years.  That equine is flagellated, gentlemen.  Say goodnight, if you actually intend to say goodnight (I have my doubts.)  Because apparently I'm in a quotable mode today, I remember waaaay back before Deadpool comics were popular, the assassin Bullseye tells 'Pool that the number one cause of death among the elderly is retirement.  So I get it, man.  Do your thing.  (I'm also surreptitiously embarrassed to admit that I thought the Diamond Head album was alright.  It wasn't a world beater, but it didn't suck.)

That said, we discussed this briefly offline, but yikes, Frontiers Records is having a bad year, aren't they?  They usually manage to pump out a couple gems a year from the part of their catalog that isn't collecting Social Security, but man, it's been a rough road for them in the first six months.

And this tails into your first two points, which I am wholly on board with - music this year ain't been great, and I hate to say that because I'm eternally an optimist that I'll find something to love, but the struggle has been real.  I don't even want to talk about what my top three albums of the year are right now, because I like them, but I desperately hope they're not my top three in December.  And yeah, much in the same way that emo and nu-metal filled in the vacuum following the collapse of grunge, we seem to be seeing a lot of acts who want to try and evolve what was working so well a couple years back.  To the point that I'm seeing more and more promos labelled "post-metal."  Can someone, anyone, explain to me what the fuck that's supposed to be?  I am becoming increasingly concerned that I've crossed the threshold where I'm now an old man who doesn't get young people's music, but I am still holding onto the faith that my judgment is not compromised and that the music around me is getting worse.  My taste is admittedly hard to define, but I know it when I hear it, and I haven't been hearing it.

Circling back to the image thing, I was speaking with another friend recently about the culture of metal as a whole and how the scene offers the celebration of an unreality.  We were speaking in broad terms about how fans (and really, it applies to all subcultures,) laud the ideals expressed in their chosen music, but that those ideals offer little connection to their actual lives.  And so you have a group of people who separate their reality into what they want to be, and then what actually is, and in some cases, begin to ostracize the 'real' people they encounter.  I'm probably not communicating the sentiment we were discussing clearly, but I think you see what I'm getting at, and I would be very curious for your interpretation of the phenomenon.  This certainly plays into the 'image' conversation, but I think it runs deeper than superficial wardrobes.

CHRIS C: Obviously, we are the wrong people to be talking about long hair in metal, as neither one of us has ever had such a style. Your sociological analysis is correct, but what amazes me about how it developed is that metal, of all genres, established essentially a uniform that so many people became devoted to. It flies in the face of everything that metal has always said it's supposed to be. I shouldn't be surprised by that, since every group that has an ethos eventually contorts itself to justify what they want, rather than what they have professed. Look no further than certain political strains here in America right now.

It goes beyond metal, of course. We need to look no further than Hulk Hogan. There we have a guy who was clearly bald, but was so committed to the image of long hair being the sign of rocking power (remember he said he auditioned to be Metallica's bassist?) that he grew his donut ring down to his shoulders. Heck, he now wears bandanas with a wig sewn into them to make it look like he still has even that horror show. Look, I know why wrestlers often had long hair (yes, I was a smark), but the only metal musician who *must* have it for that reason is Dave Mustaine. At least his hair obscures that he's barely trying to sing, if the vocals are live at a show at all.

And no, this is not jealousy over the fact that my hair is not luxurious enough anymore to grow out. I never wanted it, and still wouldn't. You're right that we are certainly un-metal in appearance. I have no tattoos, no piercings, no wannabe Viking beard, and most of my clothes have collars (not the S&M kind). The entire concept of the metal image is a big reason why, along with my other ecclectic tastes, I have never once described myself as a 'metalhead'. A group about not fitting in makes me feel like... I don't fit in. *Paging Alanis Morrissette*

Like you, I have no issue with bands carrying on longer than they should, as long as they're honest about it. We both think Slayer should have hung it up after one farewell tour without Jeff, but they have yet to lie to us, so it doesn't bother me that they stuck around. When I start getting upset is when bands make grand pronouncements about the end, and then backtrack on it. If you don't want to retire, don't retire, but don't sell me a crock of shit. I spent a decent portion of my review of the new Candlemass album on this topic, since they promoted the previous one as the last album they would ever make. I treated it as such at the time, so I feel like a fool going back to that well. Scorpions are doing the same thing. Musicians don't owe their fans much. It's art, or it should be, so there are no guarantees that a band is going to make the kind of music we want them to, on the schedule we want them to. That's fine. All that bands owe us is to tell us the truth.

That actually dovetails into the most disgusting story of the year. Manowar guitarist Karl Logan is sitting in jail as I write this, charged with possessing child pornography. The band announced when the story first came to light that he wouldn't be performing with them, but there has never been word he is out of the band officially. Manowar is on tour, they just put out an EP (worst music of the year, by the way), and they can't tell us if a sex offender is still an official member of the band. Of all the things to not be honest with, siding with child victims is as hard to explain as any.

Yes, Frontiers has had a bad first half of the year. Now they're pulling bands out of mothballs that haven't recorded in thirty years, and who weren't popular then. Nostalgia is a drug, apparently. How else can you explain all the bands trying to copy the 80s sound. I remember (barely) when that sound phased out, and we were all happy to see it go. Why do people like it again now?

Post-metal, to me, has always meant post-songwriting. It's an excuse for making drawn-out noise that doesn't bother with things like being interesting, or having riffs and melodies you can remember. It's sort of shoegaze, but for people who hate shoegaze. I've actually wondered the same thing about myself, given the lackluster results so far, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel on new music yet. I am leaning towards the belief no new music will ever be able to make a deep impact, given how crammed my mental jukebox already is. We've reached the point where we've heard so much music, we aren't willing to put up with anything but the best anymore. When I'm looking through my CD pile to find something I want to listen to, there are hundreds of them I wouldn't bother with if they came out today, but back then they were exciting enough to keep around. I don't believe there's any limit on how much great music we can carry, but my back is breaking from mediocrity.

Metal has been 'aspirational' for a long time. The 80s, in particular, were filled with it. The people who were filling stadiums to see hair bands weren't actually partying every night and banging strippers, but they wanted music that gave them hope they could do that one day (maybe another reason I don't like much 80s metal?). People who thought the answers to their problems could be found in sex and drugs gravitated to bands that told them they were right. People who thought the answers were in rejecting the shackles, namely religion, gravitated to the anti-religious message of black and death metal. People who thought the answer was in projecting strength until the lie became real gravitated to things like viking metal, and the historical bands that tell tales of war. We use music not only as an escape, but as a mask to hide when we get stuck. Records become a security blanket, reinforcing whatever beliefs we already hold about the world. They serve as stand-ins for the people we want to be, but don't think we can become. It helps to hear someone telling us we're right, even when we know they're putting on an image as much as we are. It is mob mentality, but why should music be any different than politics?

D.M: I begin by saying that I understand I was the one who lobbed the first stone at Frontiers, but allow me a small hypocrisy in attempting to come to their defense just a little.  From a strictly business standpoint, the people who listened to Ratt back when they were a thing may (and I wouldn't lump everyone in here, but I'm willing to bet it's a sizable percentage,) be listening to Ratt now, or at least in absence of that, are looking for the sound of their youth.  That was what, thirty, thirty-five years ago that the the sound was in heyday?  Isn't it possible, if you're Frontiers, that you've recognized that in the modern music distribution model, that's the only age group that still regularly buys music, rather than stream it from some other source?  I mean, that must have some hand in the process, right?  That these are people you can still sell huge numbers of physical copies to?  Maybe I'm out of my depth.

Addressing your first point, someday, when I have free time and and am independently wealthy, I'll write my doctoral thesis about the things metal is, the things it should be, and the thing it should not be.  You are, of course, correct (we're agreeing and awful lot this year, we should be careful to simply not pat each other on the back.....uh.....the Orioles suck and the designated hitter is stupid!) metal, as the voice of the no ones, the nobodies, the last in line (to steal from Saul Williams, who is NOT metal,) should not have a codified stance on anything, but rather, should be accepting and blending of all underrepresented ideals. 

The reality is, this can't happen, because the genre is just that - a genre.  That's a limiting factor by the very definition of the term, since the sect can proclaim to represent all the misrepresented, but so long as it is bound by the subjective art underneath, it will automatically attract some devotees, and those devotees will, by their human nature, exclude others.  The fact that metal takes this several steps down the line, and has become the single most combative and exclusionary range of fan bases is a separate and more serious issue, but that's not what we're talking about.  To your initial point, there was a brief golden heyday in the late seventies into the early eighties when punk, hardcore, metal, hip-hop and even reggae all ate from the same mutually respective table, but that period was all too brief.

So what happened?  Well, it seems simple, and I'll draw this out to get to my point.  A bunch on visionaries came up with the initial metal sound and image.  The general consensus is that this begins with Black Sabbath, which I agree with, but by the time we've scripted the visuals and the scene has come together as an even semi-united front, we've worked into the late seventies.  There's a proliferation of leather jackets and spikes and torn jeans and mohawks and whatever else (headbands, maybe?) and now we have the prototype 'look.'  Fast forward, and once the visionaries blazed the path, the new- and late-comers enter the fold and adopt the same image, but without adding their own likeness.  Whoever was adopted into the scene after the initial push lacked the creativity to expand upon what already existed, and pretty soon, the initial pattern attains its own self-sustaining momentum that moves from prototype to stereotype. 

I bring all that up to tie together several of my points and hopefully boil down all of our conversations into one grand postulate that I've been chewing on a lot lately, especially when mired in the depths of what we both seem to perceive as a sub-par musical year:

President Harry Truman (here I go again with the quoting,) once opined that "the 'C' students run the world."

Are we simply seeing a manifestation of that treatise?  The whole world is seeded through with C students, why would music be different?  It stands to reason that there are C student record execs, C student A&R people, and that they would contract and endorse C student artists.  That chills my spine with its simple, horrible and crushing inevitability, but I can't escape the idea.  When we first started this musical journey of ours some ten years ago (or thereabouts,) I think we were mired in a fallow period for great, creative music.  Since probably, oh, 2012 or so, I would argue that we've had a pretty good run, and then we started to see the seams last year.  Perhaps we're just regressing to the mean?  I'm normally an optimist about these things, but I'm obsessed with this idea that we can ask all we want for transcendent, imaginative and genre-bending musicians to step up all we want, but maybe there just aren't many out there right now.  Maybe we're sodden with C students while we want for the top scholars to come around to another album cycle?

I have one potential saving-throw of a caveat here, but I'll keep it in my pocket until you've had a chance to address my overbearing pessimism.

CHRIS C: The business model makes sense, of course. Frontiers goes out and signs any 'name' they can get their hands on, knowing there's at least some number of people who will buy a record with that slapped on the front cover. You're right that the older generation are the only ones who regularly buy CDs, so throwing them a bone isn't a bad business move at all. I totally understand why they keep cycling through the same stuff, hoping that the appeal of those nostalgia acts will translate in some part to the new bands they also have on the roster. Again, from the perspective of the bottom line, it makes sense. The problem is on the artistic side of the ledger, because Frontiers has done what other labels have always been afraid to; turned music into a true conveyor belt. There's no way to argue whether or not these are genuine bands and projects coming together to put out more 'great' old-school music when the press releases for half of them outright say they were put together by the head of the label. They have a roster of people who are happy for the payday of spending their time writing as many songs as they can, then giving them to assorted projects to fill out the busy release schedule. That's how we end up with certain singers appearing on three records in a year, or one songwriter having credits on half a dozen records.

And who is to blame? It's the fans. The fans, like the RATT fans you mentioned, are too willing to put up with anything that comes down the pike. Let's take RATT, for an example. That band has broken up and gotten back together, sued each other, shed members who claimed they had to be part of a 'true' version of RATT, and only released one album in twenty years anyone thought was better than utter crap. And yet, RATT still has enough fans to tour and justify a record deal. I'm not going to use the obvious metaphor, for obvious reasons, but fans of those types of bands are too forgiving. When you have been mistreated, and the bands all but admit they're fighting for who gets a bigger cut of your money, there has to come a point where you cut them off. I fear an entire generation, or at least those who haven't given up on music yet, will never do that.

If we don't want to keep agreeing all the time, those examples didn't work. Of course the Orioles suck, and the DH is stupid. I may be a fan, but the only surprise of the last twenty years was those three years the Orioles didn't suck. I was fully ready to say they would never make the playoffs again in my lifetime, given the money in the division. Things have reverted back to the mean. The DH talk doesn't directly have anything to do with it, but I realized I haven't watched a baseball game all year. I remember I used to, and then somewhere along the lines I stopped. In fact, there's a lot of stuff I used to follow more closely that I no longer do, and it isn't because I've simply run out of time. I suppose I prioritized music over some other things.

What you're saying, essentially, is that fashiona and music follow the same trend that we've talked about. In both cases, the originators pulled together wide influences, and those who came after were influenced only by the originators. On more than one occasion, we've talked about how it has been limiting on the potential of genres, but I think this is the first time we've made the connection to the fans' behavior. I do wonder, though, how much of the people following the musicians was natural, and how much was directed by releases such as "Hell Bent For Leather", "No Life Til Leather", and the like. The people were not without their marching orders. I can say, no matter how uncool my (lack of) style might be, it's entirely my own.

I'm not as pessimistic about the C-students as you are, but what you're noticing isn't wrong. Let's be real; the world has always been filled with them. We need look no further than 1977 for this. Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman peddled "Bat Out Of Hell" to every record company under the sun, and they all laughed them out of the offices. The visionary would have seen the potential far earlier. And we can't forget that we look at the past differently. The olden days released a substantial amount of terrible, forgettable music as well, that just so happens to have been forgotten, while today's crap is still fresh in our minds. There's certainly more of it now, but there's more music overall, so I'm not sure the proportion has changed.

If I can take the cynical note for a second, I wouldn't be surprised if the changes in delivery have impacted the music itself. If I was in a band, I could easily see how putting my every effort into making a great record wouldn't be worth it when I'm only getting a few pennies from album royalties. As long as touring, and t-shirt sales, make up the base of income, the music is going to be secondary. Once a band has their two or three songs to pull in the crowd, they can almost go on cruise control from then on. I don't mean to keep shitting on RATT, but even their fans don't care if they ever write another good album. They show up to hear "Round & Round" again. We're at a point where making truly great music is mostly a point of pride, and I think what world politics have shown us the last few years is that a huge number of people have none.

That said, I can't say whether or not it's the reason why the quality has taken a general downturn this last year or so. I'm sure it's a factor, but I also think that we have our own cycles, and they might not be aligned with the industry at the moment. I went through a power metal phase (you remember me playing Edguy in college) that ended, I had that stretch where I was our designated prog guy, but that has cooled off considerably, and I just got through a period where I was much more into hard rock. I'm not sure where I'm headed right now, and that indecision about my own musical identity at the moment must also contribute. Perhaps everything (with a few exceptions) sounds dull to us because we don't know what we want to hear, at least not until we hear it.

Somehow, I think that sounded both bleak and optimistic. How did I become the optimist?

D.M: Let me say unequivocally, for the record, that I have no problem with this becoming a Ratt-bash.  (By the by, are they always spelled with capital letters like that?  Have I been wrong all these years?)  Because we needed a recognizable name to scapegoat, and as much as Whitesnake’s new album was the perfect target, the pre-adolescent in me who didn’t know any better in the middle 90s still has a soft spot for some old Whitesnake tunes (but probably not the ones you think – they cut some stuff with Steve Vai that was legit and doesn’t get talked about at all.)

Also, tossing out one thing quickly – I give you credit for sticking with the O’s as long as you did.  I’ve been a Mets fan forever, and that comes with its own self-flagellations, but with the Mets there’s always the hope that they can pull together the resources to make a run.  They may sign stupid contracts, but at least they sign them.  Baltimore’s ownership group, Albert Belle that one time aside (and now Chris Davis, I suppose,) hasn’t shown the wherewithal to pony up in what is among the toughest divisions in sports.

You make an extremely valid point, one worth repeating and remembering.  That every era has produced piles of crap music, which gets thoroughly forgotten.  It would probably serve me well to remember that I (we) am in a unique position to be exposed to everything that’s out there (or at least, a much greater sample size than the common consumer.)  and thus we are overloaded with material that most people never realize exists. 

I remember all that Edguy, though!  Here’s the thing, though – I remember all that Edguy fondly, even if it was never my particular taste (not that it wasn’t.)  It was quirky and different and popped in all the right places.  By contrast, I am now pretty much done with power metal as a genre, outside of Powerwolf, depending on your opinion of it they qualify as power metal.

As a genre, power metal is about out of ideas (which we’ve discussed before.)  That doesn’t mean it can’t be great again at some point in the future, but right now every band who professes to that title is mired in mediocrity.  Hell, how many times can we listen to Sabaton release the same damn album?  These are the C Students I’m talking about; artists who are content to re-create the same thing over and over again.  This ties into your point about us not necessarily knowing what we want to hear, except to me it proves the opposite.  You and I and many other, svelte, urbane, visionary geniuses may be searching for something and not finding it, but at least we know we’re searching for something.  I think there are whole genres of music right now where fans and musicians and labels alike are convinced that what they have is good enough, and the talent pool is shallow and stagnant.  It’s not malicious on anyone’s part – they’re doing the best job they can, there just isn’t much out there right now.

As perhaps an overly simplified analog to what I’m talking about, I point to the running back position.  For years, we heard about the death of the workhorse running back, that it was a relic of a bygone era that would never return to league.  Fast forward to 2019, and teams are running Todd Gurley and Le’Veon Bell and Leonard Fournette and Saquon Barkley and a host of others who are electric and enjoyable to watch.  Suddenly running back is in vogue again – could it be that all that changed is that a better caliber of player started playing the position.

To come full circle, as a partial side note, you and I, as you say, may not know what we’re searching for except when we stumble across it, but that very fact implies that we’re still growing and evolving as music fans.  We haven’t confined ourselves to a single identity.  WHICH ACTUALLY (by our self-important definition of the ethos,) MAKES US THE MOST METAL OF ALL!

Anyway, I said I had a Dungeons & Dragons saving throw, and I do.  Is it me, or are there a huge number of albums this year where bands want to sound like old Nine Inch Nails?  Now, that’s not a new sound in and of itself, and I’ve been banging on this drum for a long time, but to me, the next frontier of heavy music lies in the continued synthesis of metal and electronic.  The Browning and Fear of Domination and a hundred others are dancing in concentric circles around whatever the evolution will be, and I look forward to hearing something I haven’t heard before.

But what the hell do I know?  The next big thing will probably be Stream of Consciousness Ozark Jazz Metal.

Go!

CHRIS C: Since you brought up Whitesnake, can we talk for just a second about how dishonest a percentage (majority?) of music fans are? I listened to that album, and afterwards the main takeaway I had was that Coverdale sounds like a shell of himself. He's not the only one in that boat. Geoff Tate has a new project out this month as well, and I can obviously hear he's a guy who spent two decades smoking and not taking care of his voice. Yet when I hear reaction from fans, they still say those guys sound really good. No. No they don't. They don't sound as bad on record as they do during some live shows, or as bad as they have when they weren't trying hard enough, but they don't sound good either. Forget Tate, since I don't care about his career, but Coverdale used to be a great singer. Those Whitesnake hits from the 80s are still omnipresent because they were good, and because Coverdale had the voice. Now he doesn't, and fans keep pretending it's 1987.

I've got it double bad; though an early O's fan, I adopted the Mets as my NL team once cable started to carry every one of their games up here. I've gone through the phases of hope and realization many times with both of them. I think that's why football has managed to separate itself from every other sport. At least if you follow a terrible NFL team, the salary cap gives you a shot of getting better much faster. There aren't as many decade long stretches of truly horrific, fan-destroying craptitude.

Oh dear god is there a lot of crap we get sent. We've talked about this before, but things got much better once I decided to never listen to anything that says 'death' or 'black' in the description, unless I already know something about them. Beyond that, there are too many albums each year to list that are either too generic to even be generic, or so amateurish it makes me wonder how bad the musicians need to be. I am not a great musician by any means, nor do I have any actual recording equipment, but even I was able to lay down some rock tracks that didn't sound like they were recorded in a wind tunnel. It's not that hard these days to make a record that sounds decent.

Power metal is weird, because there's two completely different styles of it, and neither one is exciting right now. You're thinking about the traditional stuff, and yes, it is beyond stale. Everyone has been copying the same three Helloween songs for thirty years, and it's led to an entire genre that seems to take pride in being retrograde. Edguy are about the only band who started in that realm I still enjoy, and that's because by the time I was bugging you with them, they had moved on and put a lot more rock and classic metal influences in the mix. But there's another variety of power metal you might not be as familiar with. We can call it either modern, or heavy, power metal. In my mind it started with Bloodbound's one-off album, "Tabula Rasa", which was essentially mid-era Soilwork with all clean vocals. There's now a ton of bands aping that instrumental approach, but because they have heavier influences, they miss the melodic part they need.

Powerwolf is absolutely power metal, in that second style. They are also one of the best out there, given the competition. Myself, I've never heard the appeal of Sabaton. They have always struck me as a band that is metal in image only. They wear camo gear, and they sing about war, but their music is almost pop when you break it down. Also, are you as sick as I am of bands singing about military history? There was one album a little while ago that caught me at the wrong time, and it really pissed me off that they were basically singing about the glory of going to another country and killing a bunch of people just because they had political or religious differences. Saying your country was better at creating death doesn't seem like a point of pride to me.

Talking about running backs points me in a different direction; how did athletes become so fragile? Cy Young had 800 decisions in his career, pitched every four days, and looked a bit like a lump. Today's chiseled specimens pitch every six days, throw fewer pitches than ever, and can't make it through a season without getting hurt at least once. RBs can no longer run the ball twenty times a game without breaking down, even though everyone used to do it, and careers for them aren't any longer now than before. NBA players play fewer minutes, get to skip games, and play a season with more off days than ever, yet they still complain they're too tired. Heck, Porzingis said he was tired halfway through his second season, and he was only 20 or 21! Can you imagine if a guitar player today said he/she couldn't play more than one gig a week because their hands are tired? Look, I'm not saying the old days might not have pushed people too far, but today's 'better' athletes make it sound like what we all grew up seeing wasn't even possible.

I wasn't going to say it, but since you did, yes, I am more metal than the 'true, kvlt' metal fans, because I don't care about being metal. It's a riff on Socrates' "the man who knows nothing" paradox. It also is a side-effect of coming up before hyper-genrefication. We were exposed to a little bit of everything, because anything could have been popular back then. We got pop, rock, a little metal, hip-hop, and everything in between. When "TRL" was a thing, it was amazing to see how Korn and The Backstreet Boys could show up on the same countdown day after day. But now, everything is much more siloed, and more fans are trained early to like only one thing. That makes them happy hearing the C-students rehashing yesterday's leftovers, while we have other interests that make second-rate music unappealing. If we were becoming teenagers now, I don't know if I would be able to become a music fan.

Hmm... I'm not sure if there are more bands now trying to bring electronic sounds into the mix, or if they're finally getting better at it. There are certainly bands doing the pure industrial thing (Rammstein is back), bands doing the mix of guitars with electronic pop, and I've heard more than one bringing bits of dubstep into the mix as well. That could very well be the next big trend, especially since it plays into the DIY ethos of not needing a studio and a budget to make records. Simple economics might push us in that direction. That's interesting, now that I think about it.

So, do you have any hopes for the rest of 2019?


D.M: I mean, I think I get it.  People don't want to be honest about Coverdale and Whitesnake (or Danzig, if we're being honest,) because to admit the aging and faltering of their hero is to admit the aging and faltering of themselves.  It's a tough place to find yourself in.

It's funny you mentioned your personal restriction on black and death records.  Some time ago, I had to make my own limitation on what I was willing to listen to, and I ended up drawing a line at bands with bodily functions or derogatory names for anatomy in their title.  So, no more Vomit Fist or Piss Vortex or Maggot Twat for me.  I don't feel as though I've missed out on all that much.

Isn't the history of metal and war themes interesting?  At the advent of the genre, you had bands singing about war as a warning to the young generations - there was a pervasive theme of "please don't reduce us to atoms with an abundance of nuclear weapons."  In this way, as much as genre die hards may never admit it, metal was essentially a heavier alternative to the hippie-powered folk rock that was its contemporary (you know, when the genre wasn't singing about Tolkien novels - looking at you, Cirith Ungol.)  As we moved into metal's golden era in the early '80s, we see a definitive split in the relationship between war and metal.  The thrash pioneers were maintaining their anti-Cold War messaging, while Iron Maiden was concurrently starting to lionize the RAF and other brave souls who had defended Britain against Nazi aggression.  That same thematic dichotomy still exists, though now its division is much more clearly defined by the tenets of sub-genre.  Power metal, as you noted, has gone from celebrating defending heroes to celebrating, in some ways, the glory of the act itself, which is rather unique in the history of human storytelling.  Even the Germanic Epics, while focused on a conquering hero, were still focused on one man, and not on his actions.

As for the fragility of modern athletes, I defer to the expertise of Dr. James Andrews (the three scariest words in sports.)  He suggested, that as far as baseball is concerned, the two worth things to ever happen to the sport are the radar gun and winter league baseball.  The former because it made velocity a prized asset, and eliminated the possibility that a guy could pitch his breaking stuff in the middle innings to relieve pressure on his arm, and the latter because it meant the shoulder and elbow joins of young pitchers never got to rest.  The repeated wear and tear, when combined with the strategy of asking players to go at full velocity all the time, results in athletes with a shorter shelf life.

For the rest of 2019, I'm hopeful in that I know there are six months still to go.  Which is a lot of time left for good things to happen.  Even just in the last few weeks, there have been a couple unexpected gems (I surprisingly really like the Royal Republic album, and the Combichrist cover of "California Uber Alles" is badass,) so the calendar is still in my favor. 

Also, in perhaps the biggest news of the year (or several years, based on my commentary in these semi-annual conversations of ours,) Blackguard has released the first single from their long-shelved album "Storm," with promises to release the full album soon.  My wish may finally come true!

And you?

CHRIS C: We may not want to admit the shortcomings of our heroes, but at some point we need to be honest with ourselves, and not live inside a delusion. Look, if fans still want to enjoy Coverdale, Tate, and Danzig (yes, he sounded truly awful on his last album - the upcoming Danzig sings Elvis album is going to be a disaster), that's great. Go ahead and eat it up, just don't try to sell me that they're still at their peak. Flawed musicians have made plenty of great music, and sometimes the flaws can even enhance the experience. Then again, I don't have deep ties with bands/guitarists/singers, etc. I connect with songs and albums, so I'm looking at it differently.

What I didn't mention the first time is what I call my 'intelligence test'. If a band's name, the album title, or the artwork give me the impression it insults my intelligence, it also gets thrown on the discard pile. All of those bodily function/secretion bands are on the list, for sure. I don't know why 'pornogrind' exists as a genre, but I'm never going to know what it sounds like. Sorry any band that intends to make an album called "Crucifixes For Tampons", you're not welcome here.

Here's what bothers me about the war themes; given what metal so often is, I don't know how much stock to put in them? I mentioned in the first paragraph that I don't have deep ties to bands, and this is a reason why. When we're talking about metal, I get no sense of who the people are. Let's take Sabaton, for an example. I've heard a few of their records, and I don't have a damn clue who they are. Their songs are abstract stories about history, so if I don't have a connection to the battle/person they're singing about, what else is there? I don't even know if they honestly are fascinated by the stuff, or if it's all a gimmick so they don't have to write anything personal. That even gets to Iron Maiden, to a lesser degree. All those songs about history are great, but they aren't songs you're going to hold dear, because they got you through a moment in time. War is inhuman, and in a way, I find singing about it strips the human connection out of the music.

Yeah, the radar gun is a demon. Greg Maddux is the greatest pitcher of the last forty years, and if he was coming up today, he'd never make it out of the minors. Most sports have had the nuance taken out of them. It might make for some more impressive feats, but it also makes for a less enjoyable product, as a spectator. Since The US Open is on as I'm writing this, and I'm going to absorb as much golf coverage as I can, even I will admit the 'bomb and gouge' style of play now, where everyone is hitting everything as far as possible, substituting strength for technology, isn't as fun as it used to be for me. Like the people who set world records by putting as many live squirrels down their pants as possible, something impressive isn't the same as something interesting.

Honestly, I can't say I have much on the horizon I'm looking at. The Frontiers factory is going to have the new one from The Dark Element, featuring the best Nightwish singer, and there's a young pop/hardcore band whose debut could be really good, but either I forget the news as soon as I hear it, or the schedule is a bit bare right now. I'm not won over by the two Volbeat singles, Tool is likely going to bore me, and I never cared about Slipknot at all, so the big names everyone is talking about won't be what I am. There is a new solo album from the leader of my favorite band due sometime before the end of the year. However, he's firmly in middle-age now, and it's supposed to be a reflective story about the cycle of life and aging, so I don't have my hopes up there. And with that cycle only beginning, I've given up on hoping he'll ever put out another record with the band (heck, he now plays occasional shows under the name without the other two).

My wish is for no more bad music to come out. I've already got more than enough competition for the worst of the year. I don't want to have to expand the list, or listen to much more terrible music.

D.M: You know, maybe it's reflexive - maybe the fact that you don't know much about Sabaton after all these albums tells you what you need to know.  The absence of something could in and of itself be something.

Not much in the way of closing thoughts from me.  The one thing I keep coming back to is that for me, 2019 stands on the edge of a musical precipice.  This year could either be the last strong year for a while (which is starting to trend toward,) or could mark the beginning of a new weak, un-creative era in music.  I certainly pine for the former, as that allows for the possibility that 2020, the ultimate hindsight year (sorry, awful joke there,) could carry the torch and be faced with the same dilemma in twelve months' time.  Either way, much as in the immediate aftermath of grunge, it feels like a musical market correction may be in the offing.

But I don't want to be too pessimistic.  As my Dad once told me, the disco era seemed like a never-ending hell while you were living through it, but in retrospect, a lot of memorable records were released during that same time.  So brace for impact, but don't forget to treasure the jewels.

The Best/Worst Of 2019... So Far

Just when it feels like the year is just getting started, at least around here, we're actually hitting the halfway mark. That makes it a good time to take stock of where we have been so far, to give ourselves an expectation for the rest of the year. There has been a lot of music to get through, and the results so far have been a mixed bag. There haven't been as many great albums as I would have hoped for, and there have been more terrible ones than I wanted to sit through. Here's how they break down, in alphabetical order:

The Best:

Any Given Day - Overpower

Here's an example of how faults can be overcome. I wish this record didn't bother with the metalcore convention of growling/screaming the verses, but the choruses are so glorious, melodic, and memorable that any complaints are easily forgiven. More than anything, this record feels and sounds like the Temonti record Tremonti has not been able to make for himself. Surprise of the year, so far, for sure.

Forever Still - Breathe In Colours

Coming off a promising debut album, Forever Still stepped it up and delivered an even better sophomore outing. They were able to make dark rock both heavy and beautiful, in no small part because of the fantastic vocal abilities of Maja Shining. 'Mainstream' might be a dirty word, but Forever Still have nailed everything that's good about it. This record should continue their ascent.

Soen - Lotus

With their last album winning AOTY from me, the follow-up would have to be something stunning to stand a chance of a repeat. They delivered exactly that. Evolving into an even more focused, melodic beast, Soen has made a record that is both melancholy and optimistic. It's music that captures the feeling of seeing the sun breaking through the storm clouds, knowing it will soon rescue you.

Vanishing Signs - Vanishing Signs

I am a vocals-first listener, and Vanishing Signs delivers unto me my favorite voice of them all. Playing some darn solid old-school rock with plenty of killer Hammond organs, they have given us an album that does vintage the right way. No frills, no gimmicks, just good songs and great performances.

Yours Truly - Afterglow [EP]

From their first EP to this new one, Yours Truly got even more pop. Their music is shinier, bouncier, and even better. Of all the bands out there right fronted by women who are writing riotously catchy pop/rock, none of them are doing it better than Yours Truly. The only criticism I can muster is that they haven't given us a full-length to truly satisfy us.

Just missing out: Avantasia - Moonglow, Within Temptation - Resist, The Beautiful Monument - I'm The Reaper

The Worst:

Arch/Matheos - Winter Ethereal

John Arch is a terrible singer, I say objectively. His shrill tone is like nails-on-a-chalkboard to me, but the bigger problem is how he slurs his way through melodies, obscuring his lyrics to the point they could not exist and mean just as much. His performance on this album is so terrible it ruins what could have been a good progressive metal album.

Devin Townsend - Empath

"Will It Blend?" was a viral hit on YouTube. It doesn't carry over to music, where Devin Townsend threw together every idea he's ever had, resulting in an album that makes no sense whatsoever. Jumping from death metal, to children's choirs, to cat's meowing, it's an insult to the audience how little he cared to put his craziest ideas in any sort of context.

Manowar - The Final Battle I

I can't tell you how much I hate sharing a hometown with this band. This collection of 'songs' is among the worst music I've ever heard. It's lifeless, boring, recorded terribly, and a complete waste of time. And considering the band continues to dodge questions about their (accused) child-porn owning former(?) member, it's also morally bankrupt.

The Three Tremors - S/T

Three singers get together and shriek their lungs out. No thanks.

Weezer - The Black Album

I know better than to get my hopes up anymore, but I always wonder if this is the time Weezer is going to turn things around. Not here, their worst album yet. Rivers Cuomo is in full mental decline on this collection of pop cynicism, where he bitches about his fans, continues to act like a teenager (despite being middle-aged), and now thinks it's edgy for him to start swearing. It's pathetic, as is the fact I ever liked Weezer as much as I did.

Album Review: The Beautiful Monument - I'm The Reaper

I've heard people say that Paramore kicked off the golden age of women in and fronting guitar music. That isn't wrong, but it's incomplete. Those who say that are likely not old enough to remember the last time such a thing was true, which was more of a golden age, because those women were getting on the charts, not just making records fans love. Alanis Morisette and No Doubt had huge hits, even Meredith Brooks was able to score a hit with "Bitch", and then there's the one I fell for; Natalie Imbruglia's cover of "Torn". That one isn't really 'rock', per se, but it's the one that won me over.

I say this to point out The Beautiful Monument is the sort of band I've been searching out for twenty years now. Whether it be Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" album, or more recent outings like Shiverburn's "Road To Somewhere", pop-leaning rock with a great female voice is one of those things that I'm a sucker for.

So when I heard the singles from this album, "Deceiver" and "Stay", I was instantly on board. Those tracks were propulsive rock when pop sheen, and melodies that quickly became earworms. Perhaps the saddest thing I can say about this job is that finding hook-laden rock music is a rarity, so it's appreciated even more when it comes along. Those singles, with the bright melodies, deep lyrics, and heavy riffs in the bridges, pointed to exactly the kind of album we need more of.

That made it rather surprising to hear the record kick off with "Give Up", which is a softer, far more electronic-leaning song than what we were previewed. It took a minute to get, but that more atmospheric introduction to the album serves as a way of setting the stage for what is to come. It's a song that can probably only work in the leadoff slot, so credit goes to the band for making a smart decision putting it there, even if it does catch you a bit off-guard. Perhaps that was even the point.

I mentioned Shiverburn in my introduction, and it's a shame practically no one knows who I'm talking about, because that record is what The Beautiful Monument most reminds me of. Their music has plenty of guitar crunch to be rock, but the melodies are so lush and sticky you can mistake them for pop. Or at least the kind of pop I used to like, and that Pale Waves brought back last year. They perfectly straddle the line between rock and pop, where the balance lets them sit on the razor's edge. They could easily fall in either direction, but they hold their footing like a mountain goat on a rocky crag, which leaves them standing with few peers who can play this sound, and play it well.

I'll be honest here; "Deceiver" and "Stay" are the strongest songs on the album. The latter, in particular, is one of the most infectious songs I've heard all year. The remainder of the album is still really good, but the band put their best foot forward, for sure. That's the way it should be, really, as if they didn't do that I might not have heard them, and I certainly wouldn't have been pulled to listen to the record. I'm glad they did, and I did, because this is an album that hits the spot.

Lizi sings on "Cursed" that "you never get over the pain inside". That can be true, but it's easier when you can share it, and that is made easier when it gets put in a package that draws people in, rather than push them away. "I'm The Reaper" is an album working through demons, but the band does so with a sound that throws an arm around your shoulder, telling you we're all in this together. It's a far more effective way of dealing than being so cold and miserable it drags you further into the darkness with every note.

The Beautiful Monument has given us a tight, alluring record with "I'm The Reaper". If this album does indeed carry a schythe, the band's swing has buried it in my heart.

Album Review: Doll Skin - Love Is Dead And We Killed Her

When Sleater-Kinney returned from their hiatus, it was a huge deal. The punk attitude that got thrown under the label 'riot grrrl' had been missing from the mainstream for quite a while, and what they did was update it with a more mature, and *frankly* better written sound. They showed that punk, feminism, and damn catchy rock music could all coexist in one beautiful mixture. I don't know if Doll Skin takes that influence directly, but that's the point of reference my thoughts start from as I put on their new record. Here, we have a band of young women who are open about their beliefs, fearless about using their voices, and who also happen to be writing some great rock and roll.

They caught my attention with the first single, "Mark My Words", which was a bit of a bolt from the blue. It was a propulsive track that had palpable energy, just enough attitude, and huge melodies. I wasn't familiar yet with Doll Skin, but it put them on my radar. The second single, "Empty House", was even better. Those two songs showed a band that could straddle the line perfectly of writing pure rock that is as catchy as pop, without ever making you think it is. They have true sing-along rock.

What makes Doll Skin stand out from so many other bands with prominent women is the skill spread out among the members. This isn't the case of a great singer with great melodies singing over some bland rock instrumentation. All four of these women bring their absolute best, so while Sydney Dolezal's voice will get the lion's share of the attention, Alex Snowden, Nicole Rich, and Meghan Herring are every bit as important to making this record work. From the groovy riff of the title track, to the searing solo in "Empty House", there's so much more to Doll Skin than I usually hear from bands that can be labeled mainstream.

In "No Fear", there's a definite mid-90s vibe to the guitars, as the tones and chord choices have echoes of Weezer (when they were good) to them, which along with the hand-claps makes it a charm offensive. That's contrasted with "Outta My Mind", with its almost surf-rock meets grunge riffs, and backing vocals that are slightly snotty (in the good way). There's a diversity to the songs as the band explores the shades and contours of their sound, which makes for an interesting ride. Even with the best bones, eleven songs built on the fame framework can be a bit tiresome as a record, but that's not an issue we have to worry about here.

Track by track, the album gets stronger as each and every song reveals a message and a hook sharp enough to pierce straight to the heart. One can be a fluke, two is a trend, and a whole record is a sign of greatness. Doll Skin has grown into a formidable band with this record. They've written an album that is loaded with potential singles, and practically guarantees they move up at least another rung on the ladder. Very few rock bands like them are making records that are this powerful, and this well-crafted. There's a killer instinct that turns melody into a hook, and Doll Skin have it in spades on this record.

Doll Skin twists the old Nietzsche line on "Love Is Dead And We Killed Her", but they are wrong. Love is not dead, because I love this record.

Album Review: Slough Feg - New Organon

I'll get this out of the way early; I've always thought Slough Feg is a radically overrated band. I like them, but the underground of people who claim them to be one of the best bands going are out of their minds. They're a solid band, and they've made a couple of decent records, but they also write tons of filler tracks that are empty skeletons around a guitar harmony. If not for their penchant for taking licks from Thin Lizzy, and the very unique vocals, Slough Feg would have faded into obscurity long ago. Oh, that and their name.

But after taking considerable time off, Slough Feg tells us they have only returned becaue they have a collection of songs good enough that they had to be released. This isn't an album put out to go through the motions of the release cycle, but the very best material Slough Feg has come up with in the years since we last heard from them. Now that they have set the bar so high, don't blame me if they fail to clear it.

We immediately get classic Slough Feg on the opening "Headhunter". The intertwined guitars mix doom with the folk flair, and Scalzi's gravelly voice is exactly what we remember. It takes two verse cycles before we get to the crux of the song, which is a Celtic/folk melody that's precisely the kind of thing that makes the good parts of Slough Feg good. It's hampered by a production that puts the vocals far enough back in the mix they're difficult to make out, which is a shame. Also a shame is that the best part of the song is only played in the foreground once, while nearly two minutes are handed over to meandering guitar solos. In the classic Slough Feg tradition, the band can't help but handcuff their own songs.

In the second tracks, "Discourse On Equality", there's a reprehensible stretch of time where the guitar 'solo' is made up of squealing and feedback that is entirely unmusical, and painfully unpleasant. There is simply no excuse for putting pure noise into a song, other than being a dick.

Songs like "The Apology" are much better. That still doesn't hit the best marks that most of "Down Among The Deadmen" did, or songs like "Free Market Barbarian", but it has some nice playing, and a solid hook. It's quirky while still being digestible.

As is often the case with Slough Feg, I get the feeling from many of these songs that they aren't songs as much as they are excuses to play a lot of guitar. They do that, and if you're someone who thinks riffs and solos are all that matters, then you're probably going to like this record a lot more than I did. I certainly don't hate it, and I see the charm in a few places, but by and large I don't hear fully fleshed-out compositions that have instrumental and vocal parts that have strong appeal. A lot of the vocals and vocal lines here come across like afterthoughts, which as mentioned before, could be in part from the vocals being too far back in the mix. That single choice turns everything into a wash of sound that does the band no favors.

Ultimately, Slough Feg is who they are. They're a solid little band that puts out wildly inconsistent records that have a certain appeal. That's not nearly enough for me to say this record is worth your time. The writing is rough, the production is rough (it's more than the low vocals), and frankly, they've put out several records much better than this one. They set the bar high, so all I'm doing it not bending down to save them. This one fails on its own accord.

Album Review: Royal Republic - "Club Majesty"

A brief preface – nearly everything in this review will sound like a backhanded compliment.  But that’s sort of the point of “Club Majesty” in the first place.

Throughout the history of popular music, there’s always been a place for bands that aren’t meant to be taken totally seriously.  Ghost is the most recent headline example, but GWAR certainly falls on that spectrum, as well as S.O.D, Big Dumb Face, Lordi, Green Jelly, Haunted Garage, and…….well hell, there’s got to be one non-metal one....They Might Be Giants (phew, that was close.)  Anyway, add Royal Republic to the list.  Done poorly, tongue-in-cheek rock is frankly awful, but there’s a narrow trench leading to an exhaust port less than two meters wide that if you can successfully navigate that, you’ve got gold on your hands.

Royal Republic, for their new album “Club Majesty” threads that needle almost flawlessly, which is a rare feat in and of itself, but they accomplish the task by combining tenets of pop, rock, disco and blues and blending them into a slurry that’s one part high-octane Reverend Horton Heat, one part the Spinners, a splash of the Bee-Gees and just the barest, barely perceptible hint of the rock side of Bruno Mars.

It takes a little patience to unlock.  The first play-through sees the listener taken aback, the general reaction being “what on earth IS this?” because the album comes full force from the beginning of “Fireman and Dancer” and never lets up on the combination of catchy rock and unapologetic campiness.  Once the initial shock wears off, the layers start to peel and it becomes more accessible.  Make note though, the camp never lets up, so prepare yourself accordingly.

Where “Club Majesty” first finds some purchase is in the well-arranged and mixed choral vocals of “Can’t Fight the Disco,” which leads to involuntary toe-tapping and head-nodding.  These songs are capably constructed and designed to be earworms, which is exceptionally hard to do on such a consistent basis.  For songs that lack bridges in the traditional sense and never change their idea or theme once they’ve started, they still hold attention through sheer force of personality.

The album is never better than it is on “Like a Lover,” which is the perfect synthesis of all the band wants to be – rocking, simple, sleazy, infectious.  The giant hook chorus, complete with choral backing vocals and simple but soaring melody, makes for a nearly perfect rock banger in four-four time.

Vocally, Adam Grahn lives, however unlikely, at the crossroads of Jyrki 69 and Dave Wyndorf.  He dances with brilliantly dumb puns and lyrics barely fit for a high school kid’s ruled notebook pages, and all of that is to the album’s betterment.  One need not get farther than the pleasantly bumping “Fortune Favors” to see the finest example of the outlandishly simple executed at a professional level.  The rhythm is infectious enough as it is, but it’s sold by Grahn’s matter-of-fact delivery.

A note of caution – while “Club Majesty” is a rollicking, fun ride, it also possesses the strong potential to be the most goddamn annoying album in your collection if the timing is bad or you’re in the wrong mood.  Any album with an affect like this balances precariously on the precipice of being too much, and if you’re not looking for this specific brand of beat-driven campiness, it can go badly.  To wit, my phone was shuffling songs through the Bluetooth connection to my car’s sound system, and “Bulldog” came on while I was (parked) trying to dial into an important but stressful conference call for work.  And as I’m hastily hunting through my contacts for the call-in number, the song starts yelling at me “YOU TAKE A DUMP I PICK IT UP IN A BAG!” which is categorically the last thing I wanted to hear in that moment.  So, listener be cautioned.

“Club Majesty” is just that – downbeat-heavy pop rock that engenders majesty through sleazy themes and catchy arrangement.  It’s probably not for everyone, but the people who won’t dig it probably aren’t any fun.  And if music isn’t fun, then what the hell are you even doing?

Album Review: TheNightTimeProject - Pale Season

When a band has a sound that is entirely their own, the inadvertently create a niche that conditions the audience to expect more of the same. So when that band decides to take some time off, there is a gap that needs to be filled in, and often no one to do it. That's the case with Katatonia, who are a unique entity that has more or less defined what the word 'melancholy' sounds like. Others do sad rock, but none quite like them, so their current hiatus (on the heels of what I think is their best album) has stirred a hunger. What can be done about that? When it comes to TheNightTimeProject, a couple former members of Katatonia do their solid best to recreate the magic.

Getting the sound right is the easy part. Fredrik and Mattias Norrman spent fifteen years playing guitar and bass in Katatonia, so putting together instrumentals that carry that familiar sound is easy. The guitar tones are just right, and the playing is slow and somber in all the proper places. The feeling of melancholy permeates the music, even when it gets heavier and tries to pick up the pace. The hard part is finding a voice to give the music life, and in Alexander Backlund they have one that shares a tonal similarity to Jonas Renske, which locks down the necessary elements.

There's a fine edge when making music that is downcast. It's easy to let things get away from you, and have the songs wind up being too slow, too sad, flat when they are trying to be stirring. The thing about painting in dark colors is that if you aren't careful, you wind up with a black canvas. TheNightTimeProject learned from the right sources, and put their knowledge and experience to good use. Their songs are sweeping and melodic, with soft edges to obscure the creeping shadows.

That being said, the similarities extend to the same issue I have with much of Katatonia's work; namely, as much as I like the sound and mood the establish, and as enjoyable as the records can be as I listen to them, the songs are as ethereal as a shadow. Once the light rises and the mood lifts again, these songs dissolve into the air. It's not that every song needs to be an inescapable earworm, but the laconic tones and melodies here are not the kind that are likely to get caught in your head if you aren't searching for them. That doesn't make them bad, far from it, but it does mean this may not be a record that sits in the forefront of your mind, nagging at you to listen to it again and again.

But for a gray morning, this is the perfect soundtrack. "Pale Season" is the kind of album that creates a suffocating haze of an atmosphere, the kind so thick your thoughts can't escape. It is an album for reflection, for rumination, for feeling. I'm not always sure how to judge albums like this, where the feeling the evoke is almost more important than the songs themselves. What I can say is that if the mood is the key, TheNightTimeProject absolutely nails it.

The other thing I will say is this; as I mentioned previously, I found "The Fall Of Hearts" to be the best Katatonia album yet. "Pale Season" is a more compact version of that album, hitting all the same melodic notes. It's a beautiful record that stands toe-to-toe with the behemoth. That's all the praise you need, right?

I would mention one other concern, yet again shared (sorry to keep banging that drum); the timing. When I received this record and first played it, the weather was mired in a stretch of gloomy clouds and non-stop rain. Hearing this record for the first time in the beautiful summer weather, with sunny skies overhead, might not be the best way for this music to sink in. The music doesn't match the time, and at least for me that can make a difference. I know it took me until the start of autumn to fall for Katatonia, and the same could have been true for TheNightTimeProject, if not for rotten weather here.

So with all that said, here's the bottom line; whether it has claws that will dig into your flesh, or merely a ghostly hand that creates a chill, TheNightTimeProject has made a beautiful album that fills a niche you might not know is there. But when you need an album like this, you'll be glad to have "Pale Season".

Album Review: Baroness - Gold & Grey

I would like to think all that matters when it comes to music is the music itself, that we can look beyond the individual performances, and the recordings, to hear the core of the song. That's what we should be judging, not everything else. Of course, that's not how things work in the real world. When we listen to records, we have to consider everything about what we're hearing, because sometimes we're not allowed access to the core of the songs. Sometimes, we are locked out by a band that, either by choice or by lack of talent, puts up a wall between their music and the audience.

That's what happened with the previous Baroness album. "Purple" was a record I thought was fantastic when I first heard it. The arrival was late in the year, and I didn't have much time to digest it, but it was so strong I gave it a slot on my top ten list that year. What I couldn't have known is that the issue I had at the time with the record would become overwhelming. Since writing that list, I have not listened to "Purple" a single time, nor have I wanted to. Despite the record being excellent, the listening experience is so dreadful I have no desire to revisit it.

That record was even worse than "Death Magnetic" as the embodiment of The Loudness War. Baroness pushed everything so far past its limits the entire record was awash in audible distortion, the guitars and vocals shrill and buzzing as the limits of technology cut off a significant portion of the sound waves. It literally hurts to listen to that music for more than a few minutes at a time, and it was fully intentional. I can't imagine the band, the producer, the mixer, and the label all suffering the same kind of hearing loss that would allow them to not hear what I did. They put out a record that intentionally sounded like garbage, which led to serious questions about how they would move forward.

The answer is that they haven't. The first thing notable about "Gold & Grey" is that the sound is just as bad as purple, audibly distorted at every turn. The guitars can barely be made out above the clipping, which makes them the least heavy guitars I've ever heard in my life. All the work the band put into these songs is for naught, as the details might as well not exist. You get a vocal singing over noise, or a lead guitar so far out in front there's nothing else to the mix. Balance is completely absent, and it gets old before the first song is over, let alone the entire hour long run time.

"I'm Already Gone" is supposed to be a softer song with a spacey atmosphere, but the mix muffles what could be a really good track by not giving the instruments any room to breathe. The guitar figures in the background could be adding texture, but they are swallowed by the wash of distortion. Music that is supposed to be deep is reduced to surface-level. It's a waste, and a shame. Like "Purple", there is good and interesting music on this record, but I can't hear it. Or at least I can't hear it without feeling like I have a migraine coming on.

The music here is a nice blend that retains the sludge Baroness started out in, but has melodic and progressive elements that expand in directions both unique and captivating. With bellowing vocals and powerful arrangements, Baroness is far more interesting a band, to me, than Mastodon are. They both tread in the same style of dirty yet accessible rock/metal, but Baroness does it with a deeper sense of feeling. This album, along with "Purple", would absolutely win me over to a genre I'm not a fan of. It would, if not for everything I've already said.

"Tourniquet" is absolutely amazing. Building from a dreamy acoustic section (the lone but on the record that sounds good) to a roaring full band epic, it's five minutes of music that does everything it can to prove Baroness' chops. It's the complete opposite of "Throw Me An Anchor", which is short and damn catchy, but both can sit side-by-side on the record and work together. Baroness is writing the best music of their career.

Which is why I could say something more positive here. I want to tell you this album is a must-hear, but I would be lying if I did. Not because the album doesn't deserve praise, but because I don't want to hear it again, even though I think it's great. I'm not exaggerating when I say halfway through the record, I felt like I was getting a migraine. It became actually painful to endure the rest in one sitting, which is perhaps the most damning thing I've ever said about an album.

I pretty much said the same thing when "Purple" came out, but I feel like I have no other choice now. Baroness is really good, and they're riding a winning streak, but unless there is an improvement in how they produce their records, this is probably the last time I'm going to give them a chance. Good or not, no music is worth feeling pain to listen to.

So there's what you need to know about "Gold & Grey". It's a great record that I can't listen to. Maybe my ears are too sensitive. Maybe you won't notice the problems I do. If so, good for you. You get to enjoy some good music. I'm not going to lie and say I'll be among you.

Album Review: Sweet Oblivion - Sweet Oblivion

It's been a rough time for Geoff Tate. Since his split with Queensryche, he has put out three awful records under the Operation:Mindcrime moniker, his voice has continued to rot away, and his former band has gotten a fair amount of acclaim for returning to decency. I have to imagine, no matter how much of his own wine he drinks, it can't be easy to swallow losing a split so badly. He's had help trying to rehab his image with guest appearances on the last two Avantasia records, but this is the step that is so obvious, and so cynical, it's amazing it didn't happen sooner.

Sweet Oblivion finds Tate singing a record provided to him that tries to more or less clone Queensryche's period of commercial success. Sure, it might please his old fans, but it also flies in the face of everything he's said over the years about following his muse and evolving as an artist as Queensryche's career fell to pieces. Yes, he can say he didn't write a note of this, and he's only a hired gun, but to knowingly put himself in this situation shows what I believe to be a recognition that the only interest in Tate, at this point, is nostalgia.

That's what this album delivers. The music is that somewhat airy, slightly progressive type of rock/metal that sounds a bit less straight-forward than the usual, but sits in four minute chunks that never ask you to consider if 'prog' was a label thrown on to make the musicians seem more intelligent than they actually are.

The album is centered around Tate's voice, as you would expect with his name singled-out on the front cover. That's going to help sell copies of the record, but it also puts all the emphasis on the weakest aspect. The playing is flawless from the band, and the songs are better written than anything Tate has had his name on in decades (if I'm honest, maybe even ever - I've never heard the appeal of Queensryche), but Tate's voice is still a flawed vehicle. He was sounding better on his Avantasia appearances, but that is likely due to Tobi understanding his limitations and writing simple material for him to sing.

What I can say with certainty here is that this record would be close to something great if anyone other than Geoff Tate was singing it. He tries here, but his vocal tone is now so strained I find it unpleasant and difficult to listen to. These songs are good enough to help a career more deserving than that of current-day Tate. What that means is that for all the people who still love him, and Queensryche, they are going to be thrilled by what they will be hearing. Sweet Oblivion sounds as much like classic Queensryche as the band themselves do these days, and these songs are hookier and more memorable than what his former mates are up to.

I really want to say this album makes up for the last few years of strife and drama surrounding Geoff Tate, but I can't. It can't take back the time that was murdered by those Operation:Mindcrime albums, nor can Tate's voice sound good enough to make me eager to listen repeatedly. Sweet Oblivion has given us a very good album that has one giant, glaring flaw I, personally, can't look past. But hey, if you like Geoff Tate, this album is everything you could ever want.

Album Review: Neal Morse - Jesus Christ:The Exorcist

Neal Morse has made a lot of religious music, which makes it a bit odd that I've been as much a fan of his as I have. I could tell myself that "Sola Scriptura" and "?" were just stories, even if I was deeply uncomfortable with the line about the Catholic church being a whore (not because of my faith, or lack thereof, but because of the intolerance it reeked of). It was harder to understand why I loved "God Won't Give Up", but I could tell myself the songs were just too catchy and wonderful to quibble with the preaching. Yes, I would cringe every time he uses Jesus' name in a lyric, but it was such great pop music.

But what happens when all the good parts of the music are stripped away, and all we have left is the evangelical preaching? The answer is this record.

Neal Morse has put together a double-album rock opera telling the story of Jesus, with a large cast bringing the characters to life. It's clearly a passion project of Neal's, and his faith means everything to him, so I don't want to sound like I'm taking a giant dump on his heart's work. That said, it's pretty much exactly what I'm doing.

Neal is a great songwriter, one of my favorites, but you wouldn't know that from this record. The stage production feeling takes away all of the prog flair and pop hooks his music is known for. Those songs wouldn't work as well in a stage setting, and by writing more generic theater material, Neal has turned himself into everyone else who produces musicals. So unless you already love musicals, this is going to sound incredibly hokey, and a bit like an after-school special.

Even as a stage production, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Neal can't resist, so he throws in a couple of longer prog numbers. Why would there be a two minute keyboard solo while the characters are standing on stage? Unless I'm mistaken, there is no story of Jesus playing a wicked arpeggio in any of the gospels. And that does point to another issue I can't overlook; this is the most overbearing Christian record Neal has ever made. There is no way to tune out the religion, or reinterpret it as metaphorical in your own mind. This record is getting beaten over the head with a Bible, getting a concussion, and then waking up to someone praying over you. I have no issues with anyone having their faith, but there's a line where I feel it gets pushed too hard on others, and this record crosses well over it.

But even with all of that, I would still be able to forgive Neal if these two discs were filled with great Neal Morse songs. They aren't. This is, in addition to the insufferable religiosity, the worst material he's ever put out. Even the weaker stuff he's put out in recent years has been good, so I assume this is because he was writing for a different audience that doesn't translate to record. Regardless, there isn't a single track among these two dozens I would put on any of his best albums. The pop doesn't pop, the prog is out of place, and the rock is so ham-handed.

Due to the subject matter, I wasn't expecting anything going into this record, and that was the smartest decision I've made all year. If I thought I was getting a more traditional Neal Morse album, I would be depressed after listening to this. At least this way I can write it off as a one-off experiment, and push it out of my mind.

I'm sorry to say it, but this experience was one of the worst I've had this year. Roughly two hours of being preached to about Jesus through mediocre songs is not something I ever wanted to sit through. I tried because of Neal's track-record, and I'm sorry I did. I am not a convert.

Album Review: Walkways - Bleed Out, Heal Out

Does it matter where a band comes from? In general, I would say no, it shouldn't make any difference what corner of the world a band happens to call home. Music is music, regardless of where it's made. Of course, that doesn't mean there are times when you're surprised to see some countries pop up on a bio sheet. Take, for example, Walkways. They hail not from any of the usual hotbeds of metal, but from Israel. That is an unusual place to hear this music coming from, and sadly it invites the opportunity for discussions of geopolitics I don't want to get into. Their home is a controversial subject, which may or may not come into play as they carry on and potentially grow their audience.

Walkways has a little bit of everything that currently makes up mainstream metal. There are low-tuned chugging riffs, vocals that range from gruff shouts to falsetto crooning, and a focus on giving every song an appealing hook. It's a strategy that is supposed to spread the band's potential audience by giving everyone something in the mix they can enjoy. That's not wrong, but it also leads to an album that can spend too much time veering away from the band's strengths. When they try to inject atmospheric sections into the songs, it detracts from their more energetic moments.

The other aspect that gets in the way is the band's interpretation of what it means to make emotional music. They take that to mean peppering songs with slower moments, and giving the hooks backing vocals that are soft and somber, which don't boost those parts up the way a chorus should. The songs build to what are supposedly big moments, and the way the vocals are put together sound sad and small compared to what they could be.

Sometimes we complain about music being formulaic, but there's a reason why bands stick to what works. It helps us, as listeners, know whether or not we're going to like what we hear. The singles Walkways put out for this record were solid tracks that sounded interesting enough to get me to listen to the whole thing, but they didn't indicate the full array of sounds the band was going to be using. When we experience the full gamut of vocal stylings, they aren't what I was expecting to hear. Yes, expectations do matter.

But what this record comes down to is a fundamental question, one I'm not sure they resolved. Can modern metal and atmospheric dreamscapes coexist? This album struggles to get the balance right. There is certainly an ebb and flow, a diversity to the tempos and feelings, all of which is a good thing. There is also, however, a disconnect between the parts that are almost dream-pop and the parts that are full-on metalcore choruses. I don't hear quite enough connective tissue holding the two sides of the equation together. This is where a formula would help, where it would be obvious exactly what the aim is.

Walkways do give us some solid hooks through the record, and the idea of emotional heavy metal is one I can get behind. The choruses here give me the same feeling as Light The Torch's album from last year. That's the potential, but the route to get there is blocked off for Walkways right now. "Bleed Out, Heal Out" has moments of potential, but it's not there yet as a whole record. With a little more focus, they might be able to get there.

Album Review: Chaos Magic - Furyborn

A couple years ago, Chaos Magic released a debut record that was supposed to be the launching pad for Caterina Nix. However, the album was a product of Timo Tolkki, a man of zero ideas, so it's no surprise that it has disappeared from our collective conscience. I wish we could make Timo himself disappear, but that sadly doesn't seem to be the case. In a lucky turn of events, this sophomore effort finds Caterina working with new people, which gives us at least the ability to have hope for something better. I've heard more than enough of Tolkki's material to know he's not capable of writing a good record at this point, so kudos to Caterina for being free of him. At least I hope it was her choice.

The result of the changes is an album that is heavier, and more modern than before. The riffs have more of a grinding quality to them, and less melody, which leaves more room for Caterina's vocals to carry that burden. In the same way an album that is relentlessly heavy all the time loses its impact when there are no dynamics, if every instrument is trying to carry the melody, none of them stand out. This record tries to put the focus firmly on Caterina's voice, which is where it should be.

For the most part, that approach leads to an album with meaty riffs and soaring melodies. It's the kind of album that sneaks up on you, and you don't quite realize how much appeal it has at first. Songs like "You Will Breathe Again" and the ballad "Beware Of Silent Waters" have big, bold melodies that are far more epic and memorable than anything from the first record. They fit nicely in the context of what melodic metal is supposed to be at this point in time. It's not enough to just have a pretty voice singing something sweet, which is a mistake a lot of bands haven't yet realized is a mistake.

The best songs on this record are really good, but this isn't without missteps. The middle of the record, when we get to "Falling Again" and "Bravely Beautiful" gets bogged down in songwriting that loses the steam powering the great opening run of tracks. Also, I'm not a fan of half the record featuring guest singers. Having so many of them gives me the impression someone didn't think Caterina was enough on her own, and that's not true. Her duet with Tom England on the title track is great, because of the contrast in their voices, the rest of the duets don't sound necessary to me. If this is Caterina's band, which the branding of "Chaos Magic featuring Caterina Nix" indicates, there shouldn't be so many guests pulling the attention from her.

Those preceding two paragraphs are a mixed bag, and that's what the album can be summed up. The beginning and end sections are really good melodic metal that hits all the right notes. Unfortunately, the middle third drags things down considerably. It makes a good first impression, and a good last impression, but that's only some comfort for the lethargy I had between them. Look, this version of Chaos Magic is an improvement, that's for sure, but there is still work left to be done. The good on this record makes it clear they can get there, but it hasn't happened yet. This is a step forward, but it's still only a good record, not a great one.

Album Review: Timo Tolkki's Avalon - Return To Eden

The comparisons between this project and Avantasia are too many to ignore. You have a power metal band leader who wanted the credit and/or the freedom of breaking away from their original group, you have names that share the same first syllable, and you have a concept album cycle where each record brings in a different cast of vocalists to make everything sound more grandiose and important than another record from the starting point would have generated. Of course, in Tolkki's case, he's doing this because he burned the bridges with everyone who's worked with him before, and his reputation is one that practically requires him working on his own. Still, part of me thinks about this and considers Avalon to be a pale imitation, if not a complete rip-off, of Avantasia.

With the first two Avalon records, Tolkki produced one great song that I still remember, which happened to be the very first one released. "Enshrined In My Memory" was fantastic, and it's funny now to see how much bigger Elize Ryd and her band have gotten, when compared to where Tolkki is. In the Alanis Morrisette sense of the word, isn't it ironic?

For this chapter of Avalon, you need to be deep in the power metal weeds to know the full cast. Of course Anneke Van Giersbergen needs no introduction, but the profiles of Zachary Stevens, Todd Michael Hall, Mariangela Demurtas, and Eduard Hovinga are not going to get anyone but the most hardcore excited. The same can be said of Tolkki, at this point, so maybe it's more fitting than I initially thought. Tolkki shredded his own reputation with the questionable choices he made in his last years leading Stratovarius, and further diminished when that band rebounded without him. On his own, he hasn't made any music approaching his former stature, so I'm afraid he's still treated as a curiosity.

"Promises" gets things started with some generic power metal. We get the fast keyboard runs to kick off the song, and then Hall is led into melodies that are trite, and fit that "Eagle Fly Free" mold that power metal hasn't been able to break out of for nearly thirty years. It's fine, but incredibly bland, and Hall's voice doesn't have the personality to give such a cliche song a character of its own.

The title track improves things, both by replacing the standard keyboard sounds with bagpipes, and with the interplay between the singers. Trading lines back and forth, even if they're not the strongest material, gives the song some give-and-take. Of course, after the solo, there's one section where Stevens' voice has so much echo on it I swear it had to be a production mistake. But that couldn't be, could it? Surely, someone listened to this more than once before signing off on the final mix, so why that effect was chosen is beyond me. Tolkki must have no idea what to do with a voice that isn't ear-piercing, since Stevens' solo outing finds him mixed further back than any of the other singers. If Tolkki was going to bury him, why even put the guy on the record? Maybe he's the only other one willing to return his phone calls.

The best song on the record is easily "Hear My Call", which lets Anneke have the stage all to herself. It still isn't top-tier Tolkki material, but it's the closest he comes. A bit slower, Anneke has enough room to let her voice float above the music, and that tempo also lets the hook dig in, rather than skid off the listener's ears because it's moving by too fast.

The most frustrating thing about this record is the mediocrity of it. Most of the songs are just fine, but when you go through the trouble of bringing these singers in, and your aim is to make something epic, that's not enough. If this was Tolkki's attempt at starting a new band, and there was one voice he was still learning the ropes with, I could see it being a decent starting point. But this is him picking and choosing who he wants to work with for every song, which leads me to believe he considers this material as good as it gets. He's never going to create chemistry with his singers this way, and any future Avalon records are going to suffer the same fate of ill-fitting choices.

So if you're a power metal junkie who can't get enough, sure, check out this one. It'll satisfy those people who happily consume as much power metal as the scene will create. For the rest of us, you can skip everything other than Anneke's songs. The rest of this album is indeed what I thought all along; a second rate copy of Avantasia.