New Videos - March 2019 Part 2!

Well, so much for being in a groove.  At least I have more videos to share.  Here's what's rocking lately!

A real solid piece of AOR from First Signal.  Full of anthemic melodies and a driving rock sound, this one will fit right in your melodic rock playlists!

The End Machine consists of the fellas from Dokken with Warrant singer Robert Mason, and they sound really good together!  This has a bit more of a 70s rock vibe, but Mason really belts it out!

Iron Savior is back with another slab of epic power metal, this time in 6/8.  What's different here is the video, which is . . . . peculiar.  Love the guitar solo though.

Scott Stapp may not be everyone's cup of hot chocolate, but as fan of classic Creed, I can't deny his voice still works for me.  Here we have him banging out some more hard rock, and while there aren't any surprises, I find it to be pretty solid work!

More power metal from Bloodbound!  While the lyrics do feel a bit like fantasy fill-in-blank, but the tune is catchy and epic.  A nice piece of mid-tempo metal!

Yeah, more power metal, but it's such good stuff!  I really need to listen to this album.  Between this song and The Raven Child, it just sounds like great, symphonic stuff.

Last Played - March 2019

Time for another round of "Last Played."  As always, these articles are about older stuff, but good music doesn't get old, it just ages with grace, right?  Here's what I've been listening to lately!

The Alan Parsons Project - Pyramid

When I was working on the final installment of The Big Three here, I decided I needed to listen to some Alan Parsons to get into the mood, and decided to go with this one.  It’s one of the earlier ones, so we get more of a progressive rock feel with the symphonic flourishes and the songs blending from one to the next.

As I mentioned in that other article, the APP tend to focus on topics for their albums, and this one is obviously about the Egyptian Pyramids and Egyptology in general.  Using this material, the songs focus on the eventuality of humanity’s mortality and how even the things we build will eventually crumble or lose their original meaning.  Even the song “Pyramania” focuses on the silly and shallow nature of how the symbols of Ancient Egypt still crop up on modern culture.

However, don’t get the impression that the album is downer.  It’s more of an observation on how much this one culture has affected so many others, and made us wonder.  Even the instrumental songs portray the grandiosity of Egyptian folklore and mythology, tying the whole thing together.  Definitely a great album from beginning to end!

David Gilmour - On An Island

Despite being a big Pink Floyd fan, I admit that I haven’t really bothered much with the solo work of any of its members.  I knew that of the members of Pink Floyd, I would be most interested in David Gilmour’s solo work, so I decided to give On An Island a shot, as I’d heard good things about it.

As expected, I got a set of some nice, mellow bluesy pieces, full of nostalgic moods and textures.  However, I noticed there wasn’t any of the Floyd’s melancholy or bittersweetness, with this one settling in to something more calm and leisurely.  It does have its darker moments, but they are often swept away by the breezy, almost pastoral vibes.

I don’t know if there is anything really mind-blowing here, but I do think I need to give a few more spins before I can really collect all of its pieces.  It’s certainly nice to hear Gilmour play his seemingly effortless licks, but the song-writing doesn’t seem to be as strong as the playing.

Dragonland - Holy War

Last time, I listened to Dragonland’s first album, so now I’ve giving the second one a go, and to be honest, it’s really more of the same.  Epic grandeur, lighting fast guitar riffs and solos, sweeping symphonic scores, all telling a fantasy story.

This album does seem to have some better songwriting than the first one, though.  There are still a few rough lines, as the lyrics are forced into melodies, but things seemed to shift from moment to moment a little more naturally, making it easier to follow.  No real surprises, but a better effort from clearly talented musicians.

Oh, and their cover of “Neverending Story” is amazing!

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy

While I know I focus on classic rock and melodic metal sounds, I wouldn’t want anyone to think I’m above styles and impact of alternative rock, especially grunge.  I’m always in for good, crunchy riffs.   That being said, I admit that my knowledge base for this genre is not as strong, so every now and then, I’ll pick something up from the early 90s sounds to try and broaden my horizons, and (due to other circumstances) I decided to give this one a shot.

My only real knowledge of Pearl Jam was listening to Ten a few years back and thinking it was okay.  This album, while still very grungy, has the band dipping more into late 60s psychadelia for inspiration.  While I think it works for songs like “Not For You,” “Tremor Christ,” and “Corduroy,” they do take it pretty far, with “Bugs” being a strange, accordion-driven track, and “Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me” being more of a sound collage of psychiatric patients.

Still, there’s good rock to be heard here.  While your mileage with grunge may vary (and depend on your nostalgia for the time period), this album serves as a solid example of the sound at its peak while also trying to break out of the box at the same time.  Perhaps not something I’d listen to often, but not bad while it’s on.

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I feel like I'm getting into more of a groove with this blog.  I admit I haven't been covering new stuff as I would like, but I'm getting there.  Hopefully, I can maintain this kind of consistency moving forward.  Until then, rock on! \m/

New Videos - March 2019

Another month, more videos!  Let's get into it!

As mentioned before, I'm a pretty big Alan Parsons fan, so the fact that he's finally coming out with a new album after 15 years has me pretty excited.  That being said, this song does feel a little lackluster.  While it has a classic Parsons sound, it doesn't seem to do much more.  Hopefully the album will have more going for it.

Here we have a new band The Brink playing hard rock like it's 1982, where the anthems of the 70s meet the crunch of the 80s.  I'm not sure if I like the waaaa-ing underneath the whole song, the rest of it is great, fist-pumping rock!

Battle Beast is back with another anthemic rocker, but when they're this good, how can you go wrong?  Seriously, though, if you're in it for uplifting, melodic metal, you can't go wrong with these guys (and gal)!

Another banger from Japanese band Anthem!  This upcoming collection of re-recorded greatest hits is sounding better and better!  Just full of power and, well, anthemic riffs!

This one is a live recording of Riverside, playing the title track off their last album.  Riverside is a name I've seen around, but I've never really listened to them.  Here, we get a nice, moody piece that later explodes into a proggy metal jam.  Check it out!

Let's go with some classic party rock to finish this list!  Here we have a very AC/DC inspired track from Treatment, with a guy who can actually sing!  No disrespect to the gritty tones of Scott and Johnson, but hearing this style of music with clean vocals is just as catchy!

The Big Three - The Alan Parsons Project

Finally, here we are at the last of the big three.  I've already covered the first two (Yes and Pink Floyd), so let's get into the final band that had a major impact on my childhood: The Alan Parsons Project.

Compared to the other two of my Big Three, the Alan Parsons Project is probably not as well known, but I'm sure you've come across some of their songs from time to time.  And while Yes was known for their expansive songwriting and Pink Floyd their experimentation, The Alan Parsons Project is considerably normal.  Their angle has always been about concept albums and using music to explore various ideas, ranging from literature to archaeology, and from gambling to architecture.

While the Project started out as Alan Parsons just deciding to get a bunch of session musicians and guests to work on a group musical interpretations of stories by Edgar Alan Poe, over time a band did coalesce from the first Project, bringing together Parsons's interest in keyboard's, Eric Wolfson's lyrics and vocals, and Ian Bairnson's iconic guitar work.  These days, it's Bairnson's solos that really stand out to me, as they're so simple and clean, while still being an expression of skill and character.

Like with Pink Floyd, I don't really have any concrete memories of when I started to notice The Alan Parsons Project; they just were always there.  And by the time I was paying attention to music, the Project had broken up, with Alan Parsons moving on with a solo career.  Still, those songs bring a lot of nostalgia for me.  Of the Big Three, it's The Alan Parsons Project that feels the most like home.

As for Parsons's solo career, it's been on the eclectic side.  While Try Anything Once felt like a good continuation of the Project's sound, Parsons began expanding out, picking up more electronic influences, with his last album, A Valid Path, being a strange mix of trance and rock music.  In the last fifteen years, Parsons has been content with going out on tour and playing much of the classic material from the Project years, and only just this year has there been talk of a new album.  While I don't know what to expect, the lead single does seem like a return to form.

For those interesting in getting into the Alan Parsons Project, it's actually kind of hard to recommend a single album, as all 10 are so solid.  (I admit I haven't gotten to Freudiana or The Sicilian Defense yet, but they seem to be more like spin-offs than anything else.)  For the early, more progressive rock style, the first three of Tales of Mystery and Imagination, I Robot, and Pyramid are great works.  As for more of the later, pop-style of the Project, albums like Eye in the Sky, Ammonia Avenue, and Gaudi are probably the best albums of that style, with Turn of a Friendly Card being an excellent blend of the two styles.

So, that's the end of the Big Three.  I could certainly go on and cover other bands that I love, but I felt like these three bands deserved to be covered first because they have meant so much and will continue to mean so much to me, and they serve as a kind of foundation for my tastes in my reviews and other opinions.

In any case, I seem to be doing a pretty good job of posting stuff on this blog.  I don't know where this is going to take me, but in the mean time, I'll keep talking about great music, and hopefully you'll like the stuff I say.

Until then, rock on!  \m/

Last Played - February 2019

Yeah, I know it's March now, but I forgot to put this article together before the end of last month.  Cut me a break!  February is always short!  Anyways, here's the latest stuff I've been listening to.

Airborune - Breakin’ Outta Hell

When I first came across this band, I mostly dismissed them as an AC/DC clone, a comparison that is not hard to make, in all fairness.  However, when “It's All for Rock N' Roll” was used in a commercial, I was impressed and decided to check this album out.  First impressions were decent, but as I’ve listened to this album more and more on my iPod, I’ve really come to like it quite a bit!

For what it’s worth, I do think they add something extra to the AC/DC formula, mostly unbound energy.  These songs don’t just rock, they blow up in your face without remorse!  There’s an almost reckless drive to the whole thing that makes it very fun and exciting, nearly infectious, really.  Just one of those times where the more I listened, the more it clicked!  If you’re looking for some real straight-forward, fist-pumping rock music, pick this up!

Dragonland - The Battle of the Ivory Plains

I remember coming cross Dragonland when I first discovered power metal and was just checking out any band with fantasy elements. At the time, I didn’t think much of them, but liked a few of their songs, and then moved on to other bands.  It had been quite a while since I’d really listened to them, so I decided to revisit their first album.

And it’s pretty much what I remember it being: epic, cheesy, and clunky.  While the band clearly shows talent, with lightning fast guitars and a sweeping symphonic scope, the songwriting and lyrics never seem to find a good flow, which makes following the story and melodies difficult.  The songs require close attention to really piece it all together, but it rarely feels rewarding, resulting in an album that’s overall quite mediocre.

Evergrey - Glorious Collision

Another album I listened to once when it came out and then kind of forgot about.  However, watching these latest videos of theirs for their new album got me curious about them again, so I went back and gave this another listen.  

What Evergrey has going for them is mostly tone.  They really do a good job of creating an atmosphere of epic hopelessness, while still retaining the chops for progressive metal.  As a consequence, none of the songs really stand out, as they all sound very similar to each other, but as a whole, it holds together.  In any case, it makes me want to consider giving their new album a shot, though I don’t know when I’ll get to it.

Apocalyptica - Reflections

Apocalyptica is a pretty unique band, primarily consisting of cellos, and this album really shows it, providing a mix of driven metal and haunting ballads.  This was the first album of theirs I ever listened to, and I was really blown away by what a group of cellists could do.  I’m not sure if the ballads totally work, but when these guys decide to really kick it up, it’s some pretty good music.

It’s also worth noting that it’s their first album with a drummer, bringing in the legend that is Dave Lombardo for some of the tracks.  While their earlier albums were able to get away without having a drummer, it was mostly because they were covers.  When it came to their original music, it wasn’t quite a strong.  Here on this album, having a drummer really makes their original material shine, with songs like “No Education,” “Drive,” and “Toreador II” really standing out to me.

I get that Apocalyptica might not be for everyone, but I really like what they bring to the metal genre, making the most of the cello’s unique textures while still making some hard rocking music!

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Well, that's it for February.  Maybe this month I'll catch up on some of those new albums coming out.  Until then, rock on!  \m/