Album Review: King's X - Three Sides Of One

King's X is one of those bands that seems to be adored by every 'real' music fan. The people who fall under the category of 'music nerd' have always held them up as one of the most underrated bands of all time, but for whatever reason, I don't think I've ever listened to one of their records. The closest I have come is the side-project Supershine, but that was because it featured one of the guitar players from Trouble, and not anything to do with King's X. I wasn't avoiding them out of any sense of contrarianism, but I didn't have any desire to to hear what I was supposedly missing out on. That changes today.

Right off the bat, I'm left rather confused by what is supposed to be so amazing. "Let It Rain" gets off to a slow crawl of an opening, and the chorus is an odd dirge of swaying notes and a not very memorable melody. The production of the record isn't helping, but everything sounding a bit muffled and unpolished. It almost sounds like a demo, which is only reinforced when the guitar solo comes in and feels like it's out of tune. Perhaps there are some deeply theory-centric chords being used, but nothing about this song is impressive to me as someone listening without that deep well of musical knowledge.

Up next we get "Flood Pt 1", which has a riff that should be deep and heavy, but the production leaves it feeling flabby instead. There's enough fuzz where it comes across to my ears like it was improperly recorded. I find it deeply unpleasant to listen to, and I didn't want to keep going. There's also the nit to pick where the song is named as part one, but there is no part two on the record. So what is it the first part of? It doesn't make any sense, but at least it gives me something to think about while the song is busy failing to impress me.

The trend continues through the whole of the record. The songs are only decent as best, and I don't hear a lot of great guitar or bass playing to point me in the direction of the band's supposed greatness either. To my ears, this sounds like one of the bands that never made it big for obvious reasons. If this is in any way representative of their career, I'm at no loss to explain why King's X has spent these decades in the underground. There simply aren't any songs here that are going to compete with the best everyone else is putting out.

"Give It Up" has one of those 'whoa oh' choruses that comes across like a pastiche of classic pop music, by people who don't understand what made that music work. This album is a dirge to sit through, between the slow tempos, the sludgy production, and the lack of a bright side (in both meanings of the term).

I'm not going to spend any more time dwelling on this, because the album isn't offensively bad in the way that inspires creative thinking. This record is just dull all around, and one of the most forgettable pieces of music I've heard this year. I know a lot of people treat King's X as legends, but this record doesn't give me any reason to believe them.

Album Review: Blind Guardian - The God Machine

I would say I have an odd relationship with Blind Guardian, but that would imply I actually have one. The fact of the matter is that even though Blind Guardian is in may ways the single biggest power metal band in history, I have seldom cared at all about them. I wasn't listening during their early speed metal period, the Tolkien-inspired concept albums are soooo not my thing, and their recent orchestral stuff is too overblown and down a road they probably shouldn't be taking. In fact, the only time I thought I really liked them was on "A Twist In The Myth", and since that album is roundly disliked by their fans, I'm once again in the position of being the weirdo who clearly doesn't align with anyone else.

This album opens in very odd fashion with "Deliver Us From Evil". The first minute involves a riff being played at an odd tempo, while Hansi whispers in the background. I don't know what stage it is supposed to be setting, but it sounds like the band screwing around before starting to play the track, and I really don't think that was the intention. It also sounds like they are trying to blend some of their early speed with their later progressiveness, and it makes for a rather disjointed song. And with the choir singing against Hansi in the chorus instead of with him, it also doesn't have the triumphant feeling the band's best songs have. It's just a strangely flat way to start the record.

Not helping matters is the mix of the record. At least on the promo I received, the mix is so flat it has to be turned up to ridiculous volumes for any of the details to become audible. Even Hansi's voice gets obscured by the guitars. That leaves the record sounding noisy when it really isn't, and a demanding listen even when the arrangements are obvious. I don't like having to work to be able to hear what's going on, and it definitely affected my enjoyment of the album.

Luckily, in an ironic sense, the album isn't really engaging enough that I would want to go back and fight through that hardship. By trying to be heavier and more aggressive, a lot of the grandeur that only Blind Guardian can bring is lacking. At least for me it is. They are supposed to be the band that sounds like a fantasy movie come to life, even if I don't care for the genre, but this record can't do that. The sound is more like a made for tv miniseries, where it might be good enough, but we know it could have been done on a more epic scale.

Maybe this all comes down to a matter of tone. With this being a more aggressive album, Hansi has to try to match that output, and I've never heard him as being good at that sort of thing. His voice is unique, but when he tries to project power and anger, it's when he veers closest to Muppet territory. He can do cleaner and more melodic things far more effectively than his role playing, so perhaps I find the songs dragged down just by the unnecessary warble of his voice.

In the end, I think it still comes down to songs. Blind Guardian simply don't deliver the kind of epic choruses I was expecting of them. These aren't songs that beg you to sing along with them, the way a crowd of 80,000 will the next time they play Wacken. These songs are more insular, and less memorable for it. By getting heavier, Blind Guardian weighed down the songs too much for them to rise above their mediocrity.

Yet again, it seems, Blind Guardian just isn't a band for me. But at least I tried.

Album Review: Dynazty - Final Advent

I find it rather interesting when there is a band who makes music I think it good, and I do like, yet I never find myself listening to them. Some bands slip out of my thoughts as soon as I'm not being prompted to remember them, and they stay in the ether until the next time someone mentions their name to me. I don't quite understand why that is, and I'm not sure I could explain the feeling either, but bands like Dynazty have never made a deep impression with me, even though I think they should have. Music is a funny thing, and our tastes are fickle, so maybe all of this is written off as coincidence.

Dynazty now, like always, make slick pop metal that blends mechanically heavy riffs with bouncing choruses designed to worm their way into your head. They are, in that way, similar to Amaranthe, minus the multiple singers. Pop and metal put together, especially if done well, should be right up my alley. So why do Dynazty always seem to be forgotten?

I think it comes down to the lack of something unique to make them stand out from the other bands that are doing much the same thing. Their guitars seldom play the sorts of riffs that bury themselves into my consciousness. With the focus firmly on the vocals, Nils' voice is wonderful, but it's also very conventional. He sounds similar to many other metal singers, and picking out what 'the Dynazty sound' is proves rather difficult. Most great bands have something about their sound you can pick out right away as being them and no one else. Dynazty doesn't.

If we take this album in a vacuum, the judgment is very different. For the most part, Dynazty delivers strong melodic metal that has plenty of charm, and a high enjoyment factor. Sure, there are some moments that don't work, like the vocal cadences in the verses of "Advent", but the band generally knows what they're doing, and deliver what we are expecting of them.

This is an album that's slickly produced, sounding absolutely massive. It's powerful, and the choruses are layered for even more power. There's not much to fault in the way this record is put together. And yet, I still find myself not being as drawn in by the songs as I should be. They tread the same ground, but Amaranthe's songs have deeper hooks. Another of the benchmarks for this sound, James LaBrie's "Impermanent Resonance" also grabs me far harder than Dynazty is able to. The quality is there, but something intangible is missing.

So what I can say about "Final Advent" is that Dynazty continue to deliver quality pop metal, and I'm sure it will hold a lot of appeal for the majority of the people inclined to that sound. For reasons I'm not going to be able to fully explain, I'm just not one of them. I won't deny their craft, or their ability, but their voice doesn't resonate with me. Dynazty are good, and I like this album just fine, but it's never going to become a part of me.

The Spider Accomplice Implore Us To "Fight"

Voltaire said he would fight to the death to protect someone's right to say something he disagreed with. Our current political landscape is calling for us to fight to protect the soul of democracy. And yes, The Beastie Boys said we had to fight for our right to party. The common theme is that fighting is a reality of life in every facet, wherein we have to struggle against the forces that seek to constrain and control us. Fighting is the ugliest thing humanity has ever undertaken, when for the wrong reasons, but the basis of heroism, when for the right ones.

After "Rebels And Riders" implored us to band together under our various freak flags, because we are always stronger when we embrace what ties us together, "Fight" points us toward our future.

"I cannot die, no matter how hard you try", VK sings to open the chorus. On the band's heaviest and hardest song to date, it sounds like a rallying cry for sure, as if we are riding the lightning that gave life to Frankenstein's creature. In this case, the creature is the rather progressive song that has captured our attention today. The sound is impeccable, Arno's guitars ring out with the power of a thunder clap, and everything carries with it the HD sheen of a 4K video. We'll get to that in a moment.

The Spider Accomplice is fighting for their future, and fighting for the sake of art. Would a normal band put out a song that has this much artistic exploration? No, I can't imagine you would hear your run-of-the-mill radio band daring to throw a shredding guitar solo, complete with tempo change, and a poetic soliloquy into a song released as a single. But isn't that the point? We fight to break out of the mold, because when we think inside the box all the time, we are trapped by its edges.

The vibe I get from this song, and the accompanying video, is quite similar to the seminal "The Black Parade". What we have are songs that are using the power of alt-rock to make a larger artistic statement. How I'm reading these songs is as part of a larger thought; art is too important not to throw your whole self into. VK sings, "in every song, in every line, I'll go on forever." That is the key to all of this. No matter the size of the audience who is listening to you right now, no matter how many gate-keepers at record labels would rather find something easier to sell, the music we make is going to be around far longer than any of us. Someone can try to cut us down, can try to drag us into their own self-loathing, but art is immutable.

"You know the words don't age. You know the truth lives on," VK continues. When you fight for something righteous, whether that fight gets you where you want to be or not, stories will endure about the struggle. Don Quixote tilted at windmills, but we still remember his name. (Quick aside - shouldn't the word 'quixotic' be pronounced like his name, since that's the etymology of it?) The people who fight against windmills today will go down as jackasses who think you can actually ground the jet stream. That's the difference between fighting for the right side, and fighting because being belligerent is your only personality trait.

Putting out music is a struggle, especially when you don't cater to the masses that expect to hear the same thing over and over again. The Spider Accomplice are persisting, they're fighting, and when you see and hear something like "Fight", it's easy to see why all the sweat and tears are worth it. "Fight" is a quick upper-cut of a song that then bobs and weaves, jabbing us over and over. And just when we think we're seeing stars, well, maybe we are. VK and Arno look the part in the video, with the lined tunnels of light showing us the darkness lives on the outside, and the band is where all the brightness is. They look like stars, and sound like them too. All that's missing is the black sky to put them against so they stand out. That's rock radio's playlists, right? I kid..... I think.

The point I'm making is that once again The Spider Accomplice does something rare; they surprise us with new facets to their personality. It's not something I'm artistically capable of, but I'm glad they are. They're a group I feel like I learn more about every time I listen to their music, people who have depth to them beyond simply wanting to rock. That is certainly a part of the fight, but it wouldn't be enough to push us forward.

"The Venomous Montage", when it arrives, sounds like it will be. Viva, las Spiders!

 "Fight" releases on Friday. Pre-save it, find the video, and more, here!

Favorite Artists, Least Favorite Songs

No matter how great an artist is, nor how much I may love them, no one is perfect. No two people will ever have their taste align perfectly, so there is an inevitability that at least one song over the years is going to annoy, disappoint, or even anger me. That's normal, and it's natural, so let's not take this as anything more than it is. While I'm going to say these are my least favorite songs by my favorite bands and artists, they are outliers in catalogs that have meant the world to me, those rare missteps that remind me I am not one of those reflexive lovers who sees people through unrealistic eyes.

If anything, not liking a song here and there only makes the love for all the others that much stronger. Does that make sense?

So here are my least favorites:

Tonic - Irish

Of all the bands I can mention, Tonic comes closest to being perfect. In fact, "Irish" is the only song from their four albums I can honestly say I don't like. So why don't I like it? For one thing, it doesn't sound like a Tonic song. The repetitive nature of the song is annoying, but if it was a classic Tonic melody, I could live with it. Instead, it sounds like a weird folk music hybrid, and being that it is all about Emerson's heritage, and I am not Irish in the least, I can't even connect with the lyrics. The whole thing is as if it was designed to alienate me as much as possible. And it does. I don't think I've listened to the song in fifteen years, even though the album continues to climb toward the top of my all-time favorites list.

Dilana - World Party (Free Love)

This is another relatively easy choice for me to make. I'm not a fan of world music, or music built off rhythmic bases, so compared to everything else on the "InsideOut" album, this is the one that stands out as being the least engaging. Maybe it's because the song is also trying to be happier, hence the party in the title, and I'm simply not one for that kind of thing. It's hard to tell.

Meat Loaf - Do It!

I could have gone with the song where Meat bragged, "I can barely fit my dick in my pants", but that one line can't compare to the all-out misery that is "Do It!" Coming at the end of the criminally underrated "Couldn't Have Said It Better" (whose failure robbed us of a decade of potentially great Meat Loaf albums), I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to have Meat go through this wholly unmelodic cadence, along with a grinding riff, and no chorus whatsoever. It's short enough to be able to ignore, but just knowing it's there is enough to make me sigh every time I listen to the album.

Jimmy Eat World - Goodbye Sky Harbor

There are times when I listen to something deigned a classic, and for the life of me I can't understand why. This is one of those cases. I'm not all that keen on "Clarity" to begin with, but "Goodbye Sky Harbor" is considered one of Jimmy Eat World's greatest achievements. I don't get it. The first three minutes are a fine enough little song, but then it drones on, playing the same guitar riff for the next eight minutes. Uninterrupted. If ever there was a song that proved a twelve minute song needs to have twelve minutes worth of ideas, it's this one. It's so hard to listen to, I've stopped trying to listen to "Clarity" anymore, just because it feels hollow to listen to an album where you ignore a full quarter of it.

Elvis Costello - Pump It Up

I'm sure there are other songs I think are worse, but few annoy me quite as much as this one. There's something about the organ swell, and how repetitive it is that rubs me the wrong way. I don't think the rest of the song is anything great either, but it's that organ that does all the heavy lifting. It's a combination of a circus tone and a swirling rhythm that almost sounds like it's floating around the speakers that is off-putting to me. Rather than wanting to do what the title implores, I would always rather turn this one down and move on to the next song. The comparison to "Radio, Radio" only made it worse, as that song took the same blueprint, and did it far more successfully.

Halestorm - I Like It Heavy

Songs about rocking are always among my least favorites, because they fall into that category where if you have to brag about something, it means it isn't obvious. So for this song to be so consumed with telling us how much they like to turn it up and rock out undercuts the whole purpose. It's the principle in writing; show, don't tell. This song tells us they rock, rather than actually rocking. It's also a completely boring blues song that doesn't offer much in the way of a melody either. It's a definite skip every time for me.

Blues Traveler - Free Willis

Bad ideas are not always obvious until long after the fact, but this one should have been. To put a song on an album where Bruce Willis goes into a spoken word performance is the sort of thing I didn't think anyone could think was a good idea when sober. At some point in the process of making the album, someone must have been lucid enough to hear this for the truly awful and unmusical thing it is, and yet they went and put it on the album anyway. It's a good thing I don't like the record, otherwise it would piss me off every time I had to think about it.

Edguy - Save Us Now

Comedy songs are hard, because jokes wear out the more you hear them. And if the joke isn't funny to begin with, there's no hope at all. That's where this song falls, as it's an ode to Tobi thinking drummer Felix looked like an "alien drum bunny" behind his kit. Yeah, I don't think that's really a funny joke, and with the album being twenty years old now, it hasn't gotten any funnier. It's also a pretty lousy song, with plenty of shrieking vocals I detest, and not much in the way of a hook. Edguy has other songs people hate, but that I can usually find the appeal of. Not this one.

Singles Roundup: New Year's Day, Megadeth, Avantasia, & Chez Kane

Let's take a moment to see what this week's collection of singles has in store for us:

New Year's Day - Hurts Like Hell

I really liked the latest New Year's Day album, which I think melded heavy modern alternative with huge pop hooks about as well as can be done. For their first song in several years since then, they are back with the same formula. The guitars drive with deep tones, and a few skittering riffs that borrow from djent-iness. Ash's voice is cutting, and sells the heck out of the melody. It might be considered a bit sharp or strident, but I don't think it goes too far in that direction. It's a powerful song that serves as a nice reminder until the band is ready to to deliver a full album.

Megadeth - Soldier On!

I haven't been won over by the previous singles Megadeth has released, and this one is not going to turn the tide. The biggest issue this time isn't even that it has a rather tuneless vocal line that lets the song be entirely defined by the guitar playing, it's that the main riff of the song is pretty much the exact same riff from "Kick The Chair". And that was a far better song. Dave Mustaine goes through these phases where he's either trying to write radio songs, or he's only concerned with being heavy enough to still be considered thrash. If he could combine the two, which is what he did when he was at his best, Megadeth might have a chance of being good. This certainly isn't.

Avantasia - Misplaced Among The Angels

The more I'm hearing of this new album, the more worried I get. The long gap between records is already a cause for concern, but this is the second song to be released where I hear bits and pieces of melodies I swear have already been on Avantasia records. I know sounding like yourself isn't a bad thing, but when it's to the point where I'm immediately recalling other songs to try to place what I'm hearing, it isn't the reaction a new song should get. I'm finding myself rather disinterested in what Tobi has offered us so far, and I'm wondering if this is another case of the singles being the weaker songs (which has happened to him several times), or if all signs pointing toward trouble are indeed pointing toward trouble. We'll find out soon enough.

Chez Kane - I Just Want You

I've made my distaste for the 80s nostalgia wave plenty clear by now. That said, every so often a song is done so well, it transcends time and space. This is one of those songs. It is obviously a pastiche of 80s power ballads, but I'm not going to try to say Chez' voice and that hook aren't absolutely incredible. Put this song in a playlist with songs like "Listen To Your Heart" and the like, and you won't even notice when this new entry kicks in. Even though it's something I shouldn't like so much, it's absolutely perfect. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but if more nostalgia delivered like this, maybe I wouldn't write it off so quickly.

Album Review: Thundermother - Black And Gold

It's always encouraging to see a band grow with each and every album. Thundermother has been doing that, with their last album finding a wonderful blend of melodic songwriting to go with their AC/DC roots. They found the balance between hard rock and heavy hooks, and put their best foot forward. They were already a good band, but with Guernica's amazing voice now having stickier melodies to sing, they seemed poised and ready to make the jump to the next level. This album is where they will prove if they have the mettle to do so, so let's get right to it.

Things kick off with "The Light In The Sky", which is an odd blend of stomping in the verses like "We Will Rock You", paired with a melodic chorus and bridge that doesn't quite sound like it belongs together. I don't think I would have led off the record with this one. It might work as an opener for a live show, because of the way it builds, but the record needs a faster start than this. At least in my opinion.

The title track follows, and is another odd lot. The vocoder in the beginning is unnecessary, and after a solid verse, the chorus resorts to chanting the title over and over, followed by some 'whoa oh' vocals. It lacks all the elodic flair that made "Heat Wave" so wonderful. I know the 80s are totally in vogue right now, but this feels like stepping backwards in the development of rock songwriting. It's a disappointing way to start off, having your hopes dashed so quickly.

After just two songs, it's clear this album is not going to take the next step from "Heat Wave". Sure, Filippa throws out a nasty riff to open "Raise Your Hands", but too many of these songs build to more of what I would call a 'shout chorus'. It can work for arena rock, but it's primarily a live show thing. Without the energy of a crowd, it doesn't translate to a studio recording as well. Many of these songs will go over far better, I feel, when th eband hits the road. But since that isn't what I'm reviewing, I can't give them credit for what I'm not experiencing.

I do, however, love "Hot Mess". It has the sound of those cheesy Aerosmith ballads like "Crazy" and "Cryin", which are songs I've always loved. Geurnica is able to sing the hell out of the song, and with just a bit more classic melody to this one, it hits the spot. It's so good, in fact, I almost get a sense of deja vu from it, as if it's actually a classic 80s ballad I somehow forgot about. It might just be one of the best songs of the year.

If anything, how good that song is makes the rest of the album even more disappointing. It isn't that the album doesn't have its charms, but when I hear Thundermother absolutely nail it, all the other songs where they don't make me wonder why the divide exists. "Heat Wave" was a more consistently enjoyable album, and I'm not sure if it has to do with the people they have chosen to work with in the writing and production, or if they just wanted to rock out more this time, but their decisions have led them away from where I thought they should be headed.

I still think Thundermother has a lot of talent, and Geurnica is a phenomenal singer (this might actually make me more interested in what she will do with the solo record deal that was announced for her), but I would have to point you to "Heat Wave" before listening to this album. Thundermother had been growing with every album, and now they have seemingly reached their limits. That's a shame. I've already been disappointed enough.

My Take: Five-Star Albums

I don't use a rating system. That is obvious to anyone who has read a single review I have written. In the past, I have noted the reasons for that decision, but there is one I don't think I included in that discussion.

If I did use ratings, you would never see me give out a perfect score.

That's a strong statement, so let's back it up a little bit. I am well aware I have a reputation for being a hard grader, and for not liking nearly as much of the music I hear as a lot of people seem to. I don't have any issue with that, but many have, and somehow I have gotten myself in trouble for not heaping praise on anything that is merely enjoyable.

Regardless, the fact of the matter is that I don't believe in the concept of the 'perfect album', and as such, any score that would be perfect would have to be exceedingly rare. I am a critic, and I am a nit-picker, so there is almost always something in the course of an album I would disagree with, or would have changed if given the chance. So, that sort of thinking makes it incredibly hard for me to justify handing out a score that carries with it the connotation of being flawless.

There is also something to consider about time, and how a perfect score classifies an album as a classic, which isn't something we can really know in the moment we are judging it. Plenty of records have stunned me when I first heard them, but faded as the years have gone on. As much as any review is only a snapshot of my thinking at a particular moment in time, at least words can be massaged and re-contextualized. A hard-and-fast number is harder to put into context in hindsight.

I have been a critic now for over a decade, and in that time I have probably reviewed a number of albums approaching 1,000. Thankfully, I am not obsessive enough to keep count. Of that huge number, how many of them would I have handed out five-star ratings to? Let's find out.

We'll start with the winners of my Album Of The Year prize.

In 2010, that was Tonic's self-titled record. While I love that record, and still listen to it regularly, it is not a five-star album to me. It isn't as good as "Lemon Parade", nor do I have the same connection to it that I have with "Head On Straight". If those records are both clearly better to me, I can't say this one is worth a perfect score.

In 2011, Dream Theater took the crown with "A Dramatic Turn Of Events". There's no chance it gets a perfect score, since it's at least two songs too long. The album didn't need the segue "Far From Heaven", the closing ballad "Beneath The Surface" always gets skipped, and I can do without "Lost Not Forgotten". There's an hour of transcendent music that might be close to perfect, but the bloated presentation is far from it.

In 2012, we have two to consider. Halestorm released "The Strange Case Of...", and Graveyard countered with "Lights Out". The former is not a perfect album, partially for some lyrical proclivities that haven't aged all that well, but mostly because a couple of the bonus tracks on certain versions of the record are better than many of the songs that made it. If the best song isn't included, it can't be perfect. "Lights Out" is the strongest case for perfection. Even as a nit-picker, I struggle to find anything to complain about. We now have one potential perfect score.

In 2013, Dilana released "Beautiful Monster". This is the one open-and-closed case. Yes, given how the record echoes in my heart, it is undoubtedly a five-star record, and a personal classic of mine.

In 2014, Transatlantic gave us Kaleidoscope. This is a record I was in awe of, and may have given the perfect score to in the moment. However, the years have not been as kind to it, as I have grown rather tired of the stitched-together nature of the prog, and find myself far less patient in waiting for the best parts to come along. It's still great, but it's far too flawed to even consider as perfect anymore.

In 2015, Jorn Lande took part in the absurd "Dracula: Swing Of Death" album. I would be tempted to give it a perfect score simply for being able to pull off such a ridiculous feat, but that wouldn't be fair. It was one of my favorite albums of the entire decade, but it's surely not perfect. A narrative concept album with a guitar instrumental makes no sense at all, and I so want that slot to be filled by another proper song. Maybe then it would be perfect, but it isn't as it sits right now.

In 2016, Zakk Wylde shocked me with "Book Of Shadows II". It's a remarkable record that still comes at me from an angle nothing else does, but it really doesn't need to be more than an hour long. Taking the ten best songs, it would absolutely be a five-star affair. Points get docked for overstaying your welcome, and there is too much of a good thing. This record is an example.

In 2017, 2019, and 2021, Soen took top honors. "Lykaia" is not perfect, as there is one track that would have been better served being replaced by a bonus track. "Lotus" is not perfect either, as the album has one too many moody ballad, when one of the bonus tracks could have given the record even more power. "Imperial" comes closest to perfection, and honestly, finding fault with it is a difficult task. So perhaps we have one here.

In 2018, Halestorm once again won with "Vicious". That record made it onto my latest list of all-time favorites, but I can't give it a perfect score. "Painkiller" is such an obvious weak track to me that I just can't say the record is flawless. Perhaps is one of the bonus tracks replaced it, but that's not the album we got.

Finally, in 2020 Yours Truly released "Self Care". The only real nit I can pick is that the ending of the album is a bit disappointing, never returning to the massive chorus of "Heartsleeve" one more time before fading out. Is that enough to dock a quarter star? Actually, I think it is, so cross that off the list as well.

So here we have twelve albums that were the best of the years they were released. We have one lock as a five-star record, and two more I could potentially give such honors to. Clearly, it would be foolish to think any albums that finished lower on the yearly lists would get a full rating, so that's the extent of more than a decade of writing and reviewing. Three albums in my career as a critic that could get five-stars.

Is it any wonder why I don't put numbers at the end of each review?

But it's even more than that. Looking at my most recent list of all-time favorites, many of those wouldn't get a perfect rating from me either. Let's take a look at a few of those.

Elvis Costello's "King Of America" is one of the most important albums in my life. It's also not even clsoe to a five-star record, as I have never much liked the couple of up-tempo country songs scattered through it. I could turn it into a perfect record with some editing, but that's not the point.

Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell" is one of the first albums I ever bought, or loved. It's not perfect at all. The baseball section of "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" is only fun the first few times you hear it. After decades, it gets in the way of a good time. Hmm... kind of ironic, given the song's narrative.

I can do without the instrumentals on Killswitch Engage's "The End Of Heartache", and the less said about how "Misery" mars Green Day's "Warning", the better. Even my beloved Tonic doesn't escape, as "Irish" annoys me so much, there's no chance I can say the album is perfect. Likewise, Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell II" runs on far too long, far too often. Brevity was never Jim Steinman's thing, but a bit more of it would have been welcome.

On that list, the only albums I could give the perfect ratings to are Black Sabbath's "Heaven & Hell", The Wallflower's "Breach", and Jimmy Eat World's "Futures". So even if I'm being generous, that's only three more perfect scores coming from my favorite records of all time.

There might be a couple more I can't find fault with, but didn't make the list, such as The Jayhawks' "Hollywood Town Hall", or Bruce Dickinson's "The Chemical Wedding", so let's throw those into the mix too.

All told, that's still less than ten records from my lifetime of listening to music I would give the full, perfect rating to.

And I don't think that's a bad thing. I am reserved in my praise, and I save my highest accolades for the music that is most special to me. If I tell you an album is a classic to me, that means something. When I see people handing out multiple perfect scores every month, it makes me question how much they love the music they're listening to. I might be too stingy, but I prefer that to being too generous.

I want my words to mean something, and I think I have shown they do.

Album Review: Pale Waves - Unwanted

I talk often about a band's 'identity'. When we listen to a band, even when they are trying a few new things here and there, it's important to have a core to your sound where anyone can hear one of your songs and know immediately that it's you. It's important for the band themselves, to make sure the public knows when they hear your new song that they are back after however long it's been. It's also important for the fans, so they can feel confident there's a good chance they will still be interested in the next release, even if it brings new elements into the mix.

Pale Waves is still trying to find their identity. Their first album was a cold pop record I described as 'Daria rock', and it really connected with me, even though it felt disconnected. Or maybe because of that. But what's important to note is that everything about that album I would have said were the keys to Pale Waves identity were stripped away for the second album, which sounded like the band trying to get into the headspace of early 00s Avril Lavigne.

The problem was that it didn't sound like Pale Waves being inspired by that sound, but the people in the band trying to be that sound. Does that distinction register with anyone else?

Album number three answers a lot of the questions I still have.

What is clear after listening to this album is that the debut was not them. Or at least it doesn't feel like it was, given how far they have divorced themselves from that sound. The cold, detached tone of "My Mind Makes Noises" is long gone, replaced with a shinier alt-rock sound that makes it hard to remember it's even the same band we're talking about.

The biggest difference isn't even in the harder rock sound of the guitars, but rather in Heather's vocals. She debuted to us as a cooing voice with that early 90s sense of cynicism. She sounded like she didn't care about anything, which was the perfect fit for the aesthetic. Now, she is using her full voice, her full power, for something louder and brighter. She was a vocalist at first, and now she's a singer.

To go with that, the band's second outing in this style feels more confident in every respect. They know how to add in the heavier elements, Heather sounds more comfortable being this version of herself, and the songwriting bristles with a pop energy that is often undeniable. When they kick into gear, they update the sound of their influences into something compelling, and definitely more mature than, say, what Avril herself did this year.

I was far more kind to "Who Am I?" than most people were, but this record is a good explanation as to why those people were so down on Pale Waves transformation. This record feels like the full realization of what they were aiming for, but didn't yet have the confidence to pull off. If this record had followed "My Mind Makes Noises", the shift would have gone down far easier. What drives people nuts isn't when a band changes, but when they don't pull it off. There were questions on "Who Am I?" as to whether they did, but none here. They nail their target.

This record isn't going to have the same impact for me as "My Mind Makes Noises", because that one was something outside my usual listening that opened by ears to a new experience. They are now more into my usual wheelhouse, so while that makes it easier for me to enjoy what they're doing, it also throws them into my memory banks with so much more music.

Bottom line; Pale Waves has rebounded from a stumble, and has planted their flag for this chapter. It's flying high, and I for one am thoroughly enjoying the breeze.

Album Review: A-Z - A-Z

Fates Warning appears to have put things to bed, but the past and present members of the band are as busy as ever doing other things. It's a bit unusual for a band to have run its course, but not because the people are done with music entirely. Retiring is easy to understand, but stepping away from one band to pursue others is a more unique state of affairs, and I'm not sure how often I have come across it.

For this new group, this would entail Ray Alder and Mark Zonder, who reunite in this new group that aims to be more straight-forward, and less obtuse, than their origin. In that sense, the better comparison will not be between this band and Fates Warning, but rather Ray Alder's solo album, "What The Water Wants", which set the bar extremely high for these spin-off projects.

The biggest difference is that for perhaps the first time, these guys are playing music with some energy and vigor to it. The usual morose mood of Fates Warning is gone, replaced with more of a traditional rock spirit. It's a bit weird, after all these years, to hear Ray singing music that isn't clouded with a layer of melancholy. His voice evolved into being a perfect fit for that tone, which makes it a bit of an adjustment to hear him in this new setting. It does, however, illustrate that at least in the studio, he is still a remarkable singer.

With Zonder as the impetus of the band, the songs are an odd mashup of lead drums and lead vocals. The guitars almost fade into the background in places, as the focus is almost entirely on Zonder and Alder. Building melodies atop rhythms is a difficult task, and it's one that even when successful doesn't always yield the best results. I'll be honest and say the drums are the absolute last thing I listen to in a song, so having Zonder's drums leading the way so often is not something I am very fond of. My mind doesn't think in rhythm, but in melody, so every collection of odd hits and fills doesn't nothing for me. Especially when they sound so synthetic and 80s as they do in "The Far Side Of The Horizon", I'm zoning out.

Ray does a wonderful job of pulling the songs up, giving them more melody than nearly anything he has ever done. Between the runs of notes his picks, and the lush layers of vocals he stacks up in the choruses, his voice dominates the record. It is, in some ways, as if someone took his solo album from the shadows and into the light. The melodic ear is the same, and far outpaces anything he ever did with Fates Warning (sorry, but it's true). The question is whether you prefer the fog when it is thick, or when it has burned off.

Personally, I connect more with the angst and anguish of Ray's darker side. A-Z isn't as beautiful a sound as what Ray did on his own, and it doesn't quite have the pep and power to be the hard rock band they might have set out to create. The elements of Fates Warning's history still can be heard in these songs, and it's the ebb and flow between those and the more straight-forward rock that keep things from ever finding their momentum. It's hard to tell if the band is trying to simply be a slightly more fun Fates Warning, or if they are falling short of being a good-time rock band. Either way, they exist in a middle ground that doesn't satisfy either end quite enough.

That's just my perspective, though. I'm sure plenty of people will love the complicated drum parts, and will find the band a perfect blend of light and dark. I can only say how I hear this music, and I am approaching it from a far different angle than the band did. I'm sure they love the results, and I'm not going to say they haven't done this well, but it simply doesn't speak to me the way I want a record to.

Album Review: Arch Enemy - Deceivers

Some things are rather curious. Arch Enemy is, by their own admission, bigger than ever. And yet, I would say they are less notable right now than they had been in the past. I don't hear their name come up nearly as often, and when I do it's because lots of people are saying their best days are behind them, and yet they are doing huge business right now. I'm not sure how the disconnect happens, whether it really is that unrepresentative to listen to the online crowd, but it makes for a bit of cognitive dissonance. I'm starting out the journey with this record almost asking if the band can recapture their former glory, but that isn't at all the case. They're riding the wave.

The opening "Handshake With Hell" might be the most controversial song the band has ever done, as it finds Alissa throwing out clean vocals in the chorus. The band has always been melodic death metal, but the emphasis has always stayed on the death metal, and this song is the first time I can really recall them fully embracing the duality many other heavy bands have long utilized. And with both the tone of her voice, and the soft distortion on the guitars, it sounds quite a lot like the old Luna Mortis album that sort of got me interested in this sort of music. That was something I wasn't expecting to hear.

"In The Eye Of The Storm" is more of what I expected, that brand of death metal that is darn near triumphant sounding. I believe I have previously described them at their best as being 'arena death metal', and songs like this are why. It's still completely heavy and aggressive, but the chorus is so resolute and enthralling it's no wonder a crowd of thousands will be shouting along with it. Death metal is never 'fun', per se, but when it's this engaging we do get to have more of a communal experience with it. That makes a world of difference.

The double-edged sword of this record is that it might be the closest they've ever come to being 'mainstream'. These songs aren't pop by any means, but the band has upped the hook factor. This album is their most consistently accessible and memorable yet, and I can see how some of the death metal hardcore will be rubbed the wrong way by it. The other side of that coin is how many more fans the band can generate with songs like this that speak to people outside of the traditional death metal fanbase. I would be a prime example of that. I've all but given up on ever giving a damn about extreme metal again, in large part because almost no one can do what Arch Enemy is doing with this record. I am a melody fan, and they are able to soak their songs in enough of it even I can say I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this album.

Part of me wonders if "Handshake With Hell" is the band testing the waters to see how far they can go before they turn off too many of their fans. If that's the case, I'm excited to hear what Arch Enemy could come up with next. As good as this record is, I'm intrigued by the possibility of the band blending more clean vocals into the mix, and taking up the mantle of "The End Of Heartache". If anyone can resurrect the reputation of crushing heaviness with arena-worthy choruses, I think it might be this incarnation of Arch Enemy.

It's a no-brainer for me to say this is the best death metal album I've heard in a long time. Arch Enemy has cured me of my doubts, and they have proven why they are still climbing ever higher. Good for them.

Album Review: Sunstorm - Brothers In Arms

If they are going to keep repeating themselves, I'm going to keep repeating myself. Look, I'm sick to death at this point of these labels and bands pumping out so much of the same stuff. It's too much, and it really has been dragging down even the good stuff as of late. It's hard to enjoy one of these albums when I know there's another one exactly like it coming out next month, and another one from the same project coming out the next year. There's no breathing room, and any excitement is flat-out neutered by the simple accumulation of music.

Sunstorm got rebooted as a vehicle for Ronnie Romero last year, which was ridiculous enough, but now they're back one year later with another album. Maybe this is a means to justify trotting out an old name for something that doesn't actually have a fuck's worth of connection to the 'legacy' contained therein, but if you're asking me to be excited about another assembly line album fronted by Ronnie, so soon after the last dozen of them, there's not a chance I'm going to be.

There's an irony to the album being called "Brothers In Arms", considering that the name Sunstorm was yanked away from the only person left from the band's initial heyday, to be given to a guy who has been on enough records at this point he shouldn't need the boost. Funny how the only actual person Sunstorm is connected to got left behind. Not very brotherly, now was it?

But the big problem with the album is the staleness of it. Everything is pleasant enough, and Ronnie sounds better singing this than he does the heavier metal he has always been miscast for. However, the in-house songwriters pump out dozens of albums every year, so if you can find the difference between this and all the others, or hear melodies that haven't already been used many times over, you're a far more obsessed fan than I am. I know playing basic melodic rock is never going to be an original thing to do, but so much of what comes out on this label is written by the same handful of people that the albums have different names and covers the same way bottled water puts so many brands on the same old tap water.

In fairness, if you're asking why I'm even bother to talk about this album if that's the way I feel, it would be a good question. The answer is that I don't have a good answer, other than being rightly annoyed by it all at the time I sat down to listen to the album. I was hoping something would catch my ear in a new way, but it didn't. While I found the music enjoyable enough, I was also utterly bored by the label's cliches coming out again and again. Albums like this are musical comfort food, feeding us the empty calories of songs we've already heard so many times before. It might satisfy us for a brief moment, but there's nothing I'm going to remember about this record, which is for the same reason.

It's like going to a home improvement store and grabbing a handful of paint chips all in the same color range. If you sit and stare at them long enough, are you going to remember what any individual shade looks like? No. They're all going to blend together under one basic color, and eventually you're going to be so sick of them you wind up going in a different direction. That's what Sunstorm is facing, and while these songs are fine, they aren't anywhere near good enough to rise above the 'familiarity breeds contempt' concept.

I'm just being honest.

Album Review: StormbounD - December

I nit-pick. I know I do, and maybe I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. Something about my brain sees something that looks off, and I have a hard time letting it go. Such is the case with this new album, where I'm confused why an album called "December" is being released in the middle of summer, but I'm also quite bothered by the band using an upper-case D at the end of their name. I don't get why the weird spelling. It won't even help with search-engine-optimization, so all it does is drive me nuts.

That's all unimportant, I know, but there is something to making a good first impression. The band and album's names are the first thing I knew of StormbounD, so if that was to raise more questions than answers, it starts us off on a weird footing.

When the album gets started, we're greeted by "Desert's Roar", introducing us to the band's symphonic metal and vocal blend. The orchestrations are a supporting player, popping up to give added color to the songs, but not driving things beyond the band's talents. The blend of Yael and Ofer's voices digs into the 'beauty and the beast' roles, trying to keep the songs from becoming too light and pretty. I'm not sold on his harsh vocals when they pop up, but his deeper clean tone works as a nice balance to Yael.

The band writes solid hooks, giving every song a strong melody to latch onto. The problem is that they almost use their success in that regard as an excuse for going the wrong direction in other places. The verses of "Sacred Lies" are awful. The guitars are trying to be thrashy, but they have too much buzz on them for the picking to be clearly heard. Ofer barks his way through the verses, with no melody to his delivery at all, caught in-between a scream and a growl. It's an uncomfortable sounding version of harsh vocals, and there's no way the song can recover. It was painful to listen to.

The ballad, "Away From Here", is definitely better, but even it has flaws. Yael's voice is the face of the band, so to speak, but she gets relegated to second-fiddle status on the song. There's also the fact the song is supposed to be a sweeping ballad, but it just doesn't hit the kind of emotional crescendo that pays off the build. They have heavy guitars and orchestrations, and yet the song doesn't come off 'big' enough.

As we listen to the rest of the album, the takeaway is that this is a debut album, for all that means. The band is clearly trying to find their footing, and they don't always have the necessary traction. There is talent here, as many of the hooks will show, but the whole package is needing a bit more polish. Personally, I think the harsh vocals are the first thing that need to go. The band is trying to prove their metal cred a bit too much, and those vocals aren't done well enough, or interestingly enough, to sound like a natural and necessary part of the music.

And so, StormbounD falls into the category of bands with as yet unrealized potential. I can definitely hear a bright future for them, but that will depend on what lessons they take from the experience of making this record. The pieces are there, but they have to figure out how to put them together. This version of the puzzle is as yet incomplete.

Album Review: Nordic Union - Animalistic

For as often as I grumble about the put-together groups that are coming out in a never-ending stream of mediocrity, there are occasionally those that rise above all that and work spectacularly. Few of those have been better than Nordic Union, the pairing of Eclipse mastermind Erik Martensson and Pretty Maids singer Ronnie Atkins. Ronnie's gritty voice was exactly what Erik's sugary songs always needed, and the two albums they made together are easily my favorite things either of them have done. I don't know if I would quite say they make up for all the similar projects that aren't as good, but they go a long way toward that goal.

Album number three comes as Ronnie continues to record as much music as he can, making the most of his time. None of that can be heard in the music, as Ronnie still sounds as he always has, anchoring these songs with a heaviness Erik can't achieve in any of his other projects. Both sonically and emotionally, Nordic Union is able to stretch melodic rock further than Eclipse can, and that means these songs are able to hit harder.

The guitars chug through songs like "This Means War" with a deep tone that brings in tinges of metal, and the balance between that heaviness and the melodic songwriting is what gives Nordic Union its strongest appeal. It's easy to be heavy, but plenty of AOR proves being that heavy while still writing catchy and memorable songs is not an easy task. So much of the latter is rock in name only, sounding so soft and fluffy it can almost put you to sleep. Nordic Union is a powerful beast, rolling over us not unlike the locomotive on the cover of their debut album.

The downside to all of this is the sense of familiarity. Erik has written enough songs now that many of his chord and rhythmic patterns find themselves popping up again and again, leaving bits of the album to sound interchangeable with the previous ones. That isn't entirely a bad thing, given how good those records are, but on the few songs that aren't quite as sharp, having a little bit of variety might help spice things up.

If anything, this album feels a bit less melodic and hooky than the previous ones. "Last Man Alive" is classic Nordic Union, and is damn infectious, but some of the tracks in the middle of the record are happy to take a more subdued approach on the melodic front. It doesn't harm the experience listening to the album, but I do get the sense this is a record where the cream will stick in my head, as opposed to the previous records, where damn near every song took turns doing that.

Let's not get lost among the weeds here. I'm nit-picking because that's what I'm supposed to be doing. The fact of the matter is that Nordic Union is still a glorious burst of melodic hard rock, and even if this record isn't the bulls-eye the first two were, it's not missing the the center of the target by much. The bar is high enough, even sliding under it slightly has them well above all the other bands that can't stretch their necks upward at all.

While Ronnie was making his recent solo albums, I was hoping he would have the chance to make another Nordic Union album. Nothing against his solo work, but this is where he sounds most alive. What the future holds is unknown, but the present gave us this record, and that's a gift worth celebrating.