New Videos - May 2022!

End of the month means it's time for another batch of videos!  I think there's a lot of great stuff here, mostly metal, but there is some rock in there for good measure.  There's certainly a lot of stuff to look forward to this year, that's for sure.  Check these out and see if you agree!

Another champion of the melodic prog metal style, Seventh Wonder's new single is pretty standard for the style, but it works!  Tommy's vocals remain expressive, the band show some dynamic playing and songwriting, and it's even a bit catchy!  I'll have to find some time to catch up on more of their stuff!

Yet another track from new symphonic metal band Shield of Wings.  I really like their sense of scale with their songs, making me think of Antti Martikainen in a way.  They also use some harsh vocals (from the keyboardist, I believe), but they're mostly in the background to add a bit of extra spice, which is interesting.

I featured this band back in November, and it's taken this long to get to their next song, and I enjoy this one as much as the last one.  I got Twilightning vibes from this track this time, but that's a good thing.  It just means that this is some solid power metal I'll need to take the time to check out.

After a three year gap, Tobias Sammet is back with another Avantasia album, and for the lead single, he's tapped into the incredible Ralf Scheepers to join him on vocals.  While there are some of the typical symphonic flourishes one expects, this song mostly stays in the heavy/power style that fits Scheepers like a glove.

After some controversy and a new singer, GloryHammer carries on their quest to be the cheesiest power metal band in the world.  While they may still have their tongues becoming permanent residents in their cheeks, I can't deny they still have a knack for some catchy melodies and epic vocals, and newcomer Sozos Michael seems to be fitting right in.

While GloryHammer continue crafting their own stories, Blind Guardian has once again found another novel to inspire new epic tunes of their own.  Building off of the book American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Kürsch and company have crafted yet another bomastic epic, with some pretty solid guitar solos.  Perhaps nothing new, but when they do it this well, I can't complain.

Good heavens, Moonlight Haze has been prolific.  Once again, they're back with their catchy symphonic metal, featuring quite the flurry of notes to kick this one off.  This really does have a lot of good, uplifting energy, with some great singing by Chiara Tricarico.

Harry Hess is back with more First Signal, and this track has some great rocking energy.  Great use of layers for something really driving and anthemic.  I know AOR can get a little samey, but I think this is a great example of how to make this genre really stand out. 

Anniversary Series - 2006!

While these anniversary articles are fun to do, they also reveal the gaps in my musical awareness, and it turns out 2006 is a pretty sparse year for me.  Looking it over, I mostly had a handful of power metal albums, Daughtry's debut album, and of course Twisted Sister's iconic Christmas album.  So I thought I'd repeat a tactic I used last year and instead treat it like a Last Played article with the focus on 2006 stuff specifically.  Here we go!

Seventh Wonder - Waiting in the Wings

After checking out their debut album last year, I listened to their second for this article.  Right off, the production is definitely better, and we get their iconic singer Tommy Karevik for the first time (he would later go on to be Kamelot's current singer as well).  Overall, this album is a big step forward for the band.

Seventh Wonder's sound here really locks in on the spot between the technical chops of Symphony X with the melancholy of Evergrey or Darkwater's Human.  Johan Liefvendahl really gives his fingers a workout on his guitar frets, and Andreas Söderin is right with him on the keys as they trade solos a la Stratovarius.  And with Karevik on vocals, they really do have the melodic prog soundscape down.  The songwriting has also improved from their first album, though they do still fall into the trap of adding more sections to their songs for their own sake, but I suppose that's to be expected with this kind of metal.

Still, there is a lot to like on this one.  The songs themselves are quite dynamic, often telling little stories of their own, with plenty of opportunities for the band to show their talents.  I quite liked the title track as well as "Taint the Sky" and "Banish the Wicked."  Honestly, fans of melodic and dynamic prog metal will enjoy this album quite a bit, if they haven't found it already.

Jorn - The Duke

My first experience with Jorn was from the Allan/Lande project popping on a power metal station I had made on Pandora radio (remember when that was a big way to discover new artists?), and that first album became a quick favorite.  Over the years, I'd hear him pop up again here and there, with bands like Masterplan and Avantasia.  However, in more recent years, I've come to realize just how good of a singer he is.  He really has a classic kind of rock voice, sitting somewhere between David Coverdale and Ronnie James Dio.  So when I was looking over what to cover for this 2006 article and saw that Jorn had an album for this year, I decided it was time I gave his solo stuff a shot.

What I got was pretty much a mix of Whitesnake and Dio, with a heavier chug in the guitars.  Most of the songs are slower, at a mid-tempo pace, but that just gives Jorn more space to croon his way through it all, and he certainly makes the most of it.  Honestly, it's a pretty solid collection of straight-forward metal, without any surprises, really.  The riffs and solos were decent, and the lyrics are pure 80s metal cheese, but in a good way.  The songs that stood out to me are "Blacksong," with its interesting melodramatic bridge that changes things, and "Stormcrow" which was more on the energetic side.  The Japanese version of the album features a cover of the song "Noose" from Jorn's previous band Ark, which I thought was one of the better tracks as well.  Overall, it just provides more proof that Jorn is one of the best in the business, even if what he's doing isn't breaking the mold at all.  Sometimes, you just need someone keeping it classic.

Dragonland - Astromony

Back in early 2019, I started relistening to Dragonland, reviewing their first three albums in quick succession.  I had planned on carrying through, but I guess other bands grabbed my attention instead.  However, when I decided to write up a few reviews, I realized that Dragonland's fourth landed on 2006, giving me an opportunity to pick them up again.  I really do think the band has matured by this point, resulting in some solid symphonic power metal.

Right off, the production really stands out.  The guitars really crunch, letting the symphonic flourishes stand out and keep things together.  At this point, their progressive and power metal styles have really merged together, keeping the melodic stylings of the latter, but allowing for good shifts in mood and tempo of the former.  Jonas Heidgert's vocals remain powerful, but he gets a few interesting duets with guest singers Jake E from Dreamland and Elize Ryd of Amaranthe.  They even bring in Jimmie Strimmell for some harsh growling on a few tracks, and it fits.

"Contact" was actually the first Dragonland song I heard and it really blew me away.  It's been a favorite of mine ever since.  Other solid tracks include the symphonic opener "Supernova" and the melodramatic and neo-classical "Beethoven's Nightmare."  It is a bit weird that they end with a three-part instrumental epic, with large symphony-only sections and sound effects.  It's not bad, but definitely goes all over place, like a movie soundtrack, making it hard to follow.  Still, the rest of the album is pretty solid, and shows a band really exploring their sound and improving their songwriting.  

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Well, that should cover 2006 decently enough.  As always, check out the playlist below and let me know if you think I've missed anything.  Until then, rock on! \m/

Last Played - August 2020 Part Two!

Yeah!  You're getting two of these this month!  I ended up spinning a bunch of new stuff this month, for various reasons.  I'm also thinking about shortening my remarks on each album, that way I'm less long-winded and you get more albums per article to check out.  We'll see how well that goes.  Here's what I've been listening to lately!

Seventh Wonder - Become

So this is a band I've been hearing good things about for quite a while.  As is my nature, I've started with their first full-length album, and to be honest, it's not bad, but not really amazing.  The first thing I noticed was that the production is a bit on the muddy side, but it does help the band meld together, in a way, resulting in a mixed experience.

Musically, they're definitely of the same mold as Dream Theater or Symphony X, but I also felt some Angra vibes, largely in the melodies and choruses.  The band is clearly talented, but it does have the problem where the chops seem to come before the songs, and the solos, while many and well-performed, don't really seem to do much more than exercise their fingers.  Overall, it has some nice parts, but doesn't seem to build up to anything really noteworthy.  However, I can see this as just an early effort and the band certainly has the potential grow from here.

Quiet Riot - Metal Health

With the passing of Franki Banali (RIP), I figured I'd go back and actually listen to the record that made them a household name.  While I've heard the two bit hits on classic radio for years, I hadn't really heard the rest of this album before, so I thought I'd correct that.

"Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel The Noize" remain as iconic and fun as ever.  In fact, I think "Metal Health" has a kind of timelessness to it that puts it in the best of 80s metal, period.  As for the rest of the album, it's pretty standard pop metal stuff.  Some upbeat stuff, some mid-tempo stuff, a guitar solo, a ballad or two.  Standouts include the upbeat "Breathless" with it's driving tempo and slick guitar harmonies, and "Thunderbird" which is a tribute to band founder Randy Rhoads who had since left for Ozzy's band only to end up dying in that airplane accident.  Kinda brings things full circle, in a way, since Banali's death is what's compelling me to listen to the album.

Made back in a time when metal and rock was made for fun and glory, it's a decent album of anthemic rockers, buoyed by two hit singles that will remain on classic rock radio for years to come.

Attacker - Battle At Helms Deep

Sometimes, you just have to check something out based purely on the cover, and the cover of this one absolutely screams 80s metal with a heavy Dungeons and Dragons vibe.  And to be titled after one of the most iconic battles in all of fantasy fiction, I just couldn't ignore this.  And the result isn't that bad, honestly.

To be sure, this is very much straight-up US power metal, with a limited budget and plenty of riffs to spare.  The point of reference I kept coming back to was Metal Church, with a noodly dash of Iron Maiden's early work, a la Killers.  The vocalist was also giving me some David Wayne vibes, with a few nods to early Geddy Lee.  There are some interesting riffs and ideas floating around, with tempo and mood shifts here and there, and long solos, but it's nothing you haven't heard before.

There really aren't any stand-out tracks on this, but at the same time, it's never boring, keeping to a decent pace throughout.  If you've worn out your Dio records and want something a little crunchier to play in the background for your tabletop gaming night, Attacker has you covered.

Halford - Resurrection

So after Rob Halford left Judas Priest and spent most of a decade trying to rediscover himself though the groove metal of Fight and the industrial styles of 2wo, he ended up going back right where he started: straight-forward, classic, traditional, old-school, chugging, heavy metal.  Seriously, if I didn't know better, I'd think it was just another Judas Priest record I hadn't heard before.

As for stand out tracks there's the opener "Resurrection" definitely setting the pace and attitude of the album; "Made In Hell" which sees our singer thinking back to the early days of metal; "The One You Love to Hate" featuring Bruce Dickinson in a fun metal duet; and "Cyberworld" with its power metal chugging and double-kicking fury.  The only real criticism I have is that the second half isn't quite as strong as the first.

Seriously, this is just solid, straight-forward, old-school metal that he used to make with his former band, and continues to make since he rejoined.  If there is one other thing to take away from this album has, it's the confidence that Halford brings in his performance.  He is in peak form, wailing like he did in the 80s, and backed by massive sounding guitars and drums designed to fill stadiums with fist-pumping power.

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Well, there you go.  Four more albums at the end of the month.  Things seems to be carrying on around here with no time for stopping.  I think I'll probably be doing more of these articles, both for upcoming anniversary articles, and to try and catch up on 2020 releases (I haven't done well with that so far this year!).

Until then, rock on! \m/