New Videos - July 2021 Part Two!

Squeezing this one in before the month ends!  I've got a few artists coming back, plus some new names, and a new single from my favorite band: Yes!!  Here's the latest videos I've been jamming to.

I don't think I've missed any of the singles from these guys.  Starting off with an acoustic intro, it goes into some aggressive riffing, making me think of the melodic prog from Italy, but the chorus eases up for some anthemic pop metal sounds.  These guys really have an interesting approach to songwriting, but it still results in some awesome rock music!

Here's another band that I've been liking a lot lately!  This is more of a mid-tempo anthemic stomper.  The chorus gets pretty somber, but that only makes the chorus all the more epic.  Sometimes a power metal band player slower song can be a bit of a crapshot, but this is quite solid.

Now this is just plain fun.  Sabaton doing a Manowar cover is not really that surprising, as both bands excel at epic mid-tempo metal, but it's a solid rendering, and a loving homage to a band that is clearly a major inspiration for them.

New Yes will always get my attention, but I wouldn't be posting it here if I didn't think it was also good.  While I don't know if it's amazing, it has been growing on me quite a bit.  It definitely has more energy than the sluggish Heaven & Earth, which is a good sign for this new album.  Hopefully, the rest will be as good.

Mark certainly knows how to make crunch songs!  This is from his solo group Tremonti, and it's a great piece of mid-tempo hard rock.  You'd think that between this, Creed, and Alter Bridge, it would all blend together, but somehow he makes each one sound a little different, and here, it's just straight up post-grunge crunch, and I love it!

Let's finish with some proggy power metal from Costa Rica!  This one is on the dense side, making me think of the styles of Kamelot and Symphony X.  The vocalist sounds more than a little like Russell Allen, actually.  The keyboard runs also make this some pretty epic stuff.  

Last played - July 2021!

This heat is still bearing down on me, but I was able to put on some new tunes this past month.  I've got some new stuff and a classic power metal album, this time around.  Here's what I've checked out lately.

Orden Ogan - Final Days

While I had heard good things about this band, I had never sat down and listened to an Orden Ogan album before this one.  I had liked the singles for this as they came out, as I felt they had some promise, but now that I've listened to the whole thing, I feel kind of underwhelmed.  Not that it was bad, just less than what I was hoping for.

I understand the band generally does concept albums, and this is no different, focusing on an apocalyptic war between humanity and the AIs that have taken everything over, mostly by pitting people against each other.  The result is an interesting mix of power and prog metal, with Evergrey being a good point of reference.  I felt the lyrics were pretty depressing as well, often focusing on the inevitability of humanity's failure, which felt odd with the more dramatic, anthemic layers they were building.  And those layers are lush, with lots of symphonic strings as well as some square-wave synths to amplify the sci-fi aesthetic.

However, the songs feel kind of lackluster.  There's some decent riffing and noodly solos, but it just kinda plods along, mostly at mid-tempo pace.  "In the Dawn of the AI" and "Hollow" had some decent energy, and the ballad duet with Ylva Eriksson on "Alone in the Dark" was nice, but otherwise, not much really stood out to me.  Maybe I'll check out their earlier albums to see if they are better, but for now, this is some pretty mediocre power metal.

Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side

Let's go from modern power metal to a power metal classic!  I'm still working my way through Blind Guardian's catalog, but I knew a few tracks from this already, mostly the title track (which is great!).  At this point, they're clearly hitting their power metal stride, with some great riffing and double-kicking drums.

However, there are still a few stumbling blocks.  The production isn't as clear as it could be.  I felt the drums would get muddy at times, blending with the guitars.  It does create a nice wall-of-sound effect, but I guess I'm used to clearer production for my power metal.  Also, the lyrics feel a little clunky, which has been normal for the band thus far, but there are times where some of the word choices will throw me out of the song.

That being said, Hansi Kürsch is crushing it, really giving his vocal chords a work out!  I wondered if his throat didn't get soar from all that harsh singing he was doing!  As for the rest, the band remains quite talented, with some solid solos from André Olbrich.  There's also a decent amount of variety, with some folky ballads and mid-tempo stompers.  The standout tracks were the title track, "I'm Alive," and "Bright Eyes," though the album was largely pretty good overall.  It's easy to hear how influential this band was on the years of power metal to follow.

Arc of Life - Arc of Life

It took me some time, but I've finally put together my thoughts on the new Yes spin-off project: Arc of Life.  While it has a few proggy moments, most of this seems to fit into the AOR vibe of the Yes album Open Your Eyes, which makes sense given that Billy Sherwood was heading up this one, both in the songwriting and production.  However, despite all the talent on hand, it feels like Sherwood's production is smothering everything.

It's certainly a dynamic album with a good variety of tones and moods, but things aren't as tight as they could be, as the songs tend to float on by rather than feel unified.  The production doesn't help much as it's going for something more atmospheric and broad, but this just makes the instruments feel muddled and lost in the mix.  Dave Kerzner is a great keyboardist, but I never felt like I got to hear him much outside of contributing to the general wall-of-sound.  The songwriting is a little clunky as well, with parts not quite working together, and some sections just kind of lingering longer than they need to.  It mostly feels like a collection of sound collages inspired by 80s and 90s Yes, instead of properly structured songs.  Finally, Sherwood takes the lead vocals on most of the tracks, and it made me wonder why they even bothered to bring in Jon Davison (who I would have liked to hear more of).

That's not to say that the album is completely bad.  The vocal harmonies are lush, and there are plenty of layers to spare.  It's just feels like it's hard to really grasp what's going on and sometimes the lyrics are hard to make out.  I admit there really isn't much to recommend, but "You Make It Real" is a decent AOR track, and "Therefore We Are" represents the best of the proggy side of things.  Maybe I just got my hopes up too high for this one.  Here's hoping the Yes album that comes out later this year fares better.

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I apologize for cramming everything in here at the end of July.  I've got one more New Videos article that I'll put up before the end of the month, and then maybe I'll get back to a more regular schedule.  There is still plenty I'm looking forward to for the second half of this year, and I'll try to get to as much as I can.  Until then, rock on! \m/

New Videos - July 2021!

Sorry for the delay on more articles.  I guess the heat (along with a bunch of smoky haze) really ruined my motivation to get these done.  Still, I was eventually able to find some pretty awesome stuff, pulling this collection of great songs together!

Despite being a big post-grunge fan, Tantric isn't a band I'm very familiar with.  However, they seem to be carrying on pretty well, if this solid track is anything to go by.  Kind of standard for the genre, but it crunchy and has a solid chorus.

After listening to their last album, Paradigm, these guys are at the top of my AOR/Hard Rock watchlist now, and it looks like they have a new album coming soon.  This single is more of the same: straight-forward anthemic rock, with tons of energy.  Definitely looking forward to this!

Here's another barn-burner from Brainstorm.  I know I've listened to this band before, but I remember thinking they were just okay, but stuff is great!  Full of epicness and high speed crunch, their upcoming album is starting to sound like a must-hear for 2021!

Vega is just so good!  Their music always seems to have a lot of energy, and this one is no different.  Just another great, stomping straight-ahead rock song.  I mostly can't believe they're putting out another album already.  I feel like I can barely keep up with these guys!

Despite the ridiculous name, this is another side project that involves a few Yes folks, with singer/guitarist Craig Maher (who I've never heard of before).  They released one single before this one, which I found lackluster, but this one is definitely better, featuring a lot of Yes-isms, if you will.  There's certainly some promise here, but we'll have to see if a full album comes out of this (no announcements from them yet).

I admit I don't know anything about Flostam and Jetsam beyond the fact that's where Metallica got Jason Newstead, and I'm wondering if I've missed an interesting band.  This is some melodic thrash, much in the vein of Metal Church, but much more uptempo, as they really tear this one up!

Anniversary Series - 1996!

Time for another anniversary article, this time for 1996!  Once again, as we get closer to the present, it becomes harder to focus on the year as a whole.  Looking over it, I'm realizing that I actually haven't listened to much from this year that my blog covers.  Still, some really great stuff came out this year.

First of all, there's a lot of solid power metal that came out this year.  Stratovarius finally gets their iconic lineup together and release an iconic album, Episode.  Featuring speedfests like "Speed of Light," "Will the Sun Rise," and "Father Time," as well as epic tracks like "Eternity" and "Babylon," it's an album with plenty of great tracks, full of Tolkki's solid riffing and iconic solos.  Definitely a power metal classic.

Of course, these Finns weren't the only ones providing some epic power metal.  Germans Helloween followed up The Master of the Rings with Time of the Oath, with "Steel Tormentor" and "Power" as standouts.  They would also release a live album this same year called High Live.  Brazilian Angra would also give us Holy Land, a power-prog concept album I reviewed two years ago!  Trans-Siberian Orchestra would round things out with their debut, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, ensuring that the holiday would never sound the same again.  This year also features Apocalyptica's debut, made up of fascinating covers of Metallica songs on nothing but cellos.  While they would go on to write interesting stuff themselves, their debut is still an interesting listen to this day.  

Other records of note include the Flower Kings Retropolis and Nickelback's Curb, both of which I reviewed here on the blog last month.  The first is a solid representation of third-wave prog, while the second is an early step of what would become a giant in the post-grunge scene.

To cap things off, I'll talk about two of my big three (well, sorta).  Alan Parsons solo group released On Air, bringing back the concept album motif, this time focusing on flight for its theme.  Meanwhile, Yes reformed a classic lineup from the 70s and released Keys to Ascension, a strange combination of some solid live material, and a few new studio tracks that have never really stuck with me.

As always, I've got a playlist for they year, featuring all of the above plus a few extras.  However, I make lists to help me with these articles, and I know I've missed a lot of stuff.  Maybe I'll get to more of it in the future.  Until then, rock on! \m/