A little over two years ago, I posted an article celebrating the fact that I had reached 100 posts. In that article, I talked about how I wanted to celebrate that as it had been the most consistent blog I had worked on in my life. Now that I'm at 200 posts (as of this one), I do feel impressed that I've continued to be pretty consistent about posting all these music reviews and articles. I also find it kinda crazy that I've been doing this for about 4 1/2 years (as I didn't start in earnest until November 2018). I've listened to a lot of music and discovered some new bands, as well as taken opportunities to check out classic bands of the past. That being said, I don't think I have much more to add to what I said for the 100 posts article, so I'm just going to keep right on going and dive into some reviews!
After there was a seven year gap between Heaven & Earth and The Quest, I didn't think we'd be getting another album from these guys so soon. Yet, just in two short (or long, depending) years, we have another one. The early singles left me feeling a little underwhelmed, but now that I've jammed the album a few times, this does feel like another small improvement for this particular era of Yes.
The lack of energy is felt once again, and there isn't anything quite as driven as "The Ice Bridge" from the last album, as the Mirror to the Sky seeks to match its cover art with a lot of laidback, spacy songs. "Cut from the Stars" is a decent opener, setting the stage for the rest of these symphonically layered songs, and "All Connected" holds together pretty well for it's nine-minute runtime. However, the energy takes a bit of a dive with songs like "Luminosity," "Circles of Time," and "One Second Is Enough." They're not bad, but their more chilled-out soft rock vibe makes it hard to really follow their progressions and ideas. "Unknown Place" tries a few different things, but never really comes together. These are then contrasted by some of their weirder ideas, with "Living Out Their Dream" having this satirical, rockabilly style, and "Magic Potion" bring out some 70s funk. It seems like they can only be lively if they're being a bit silly. Not that I think they need to be serious all the time, but it does make it hard to feel like they're not just wasting my time.
However, much of this is made up for by the title track. This thirteen minute epic is definitely better than anything else on the album, as it has some solid ideas, great dynamics, and a better sense of what it's trying to be. They let the song build on its own, having good energetic moments followed by moody passages that reminded me of some of the mysterious sections on "Machine Messiah." They even use their symphonic arrangements well on this song, helping to bolster the melodies and transitions. While I do think the ending could have been helped with something a little more epic, or even just a reprise of some earlier lyrics, I do think they have hammered out a pretty solid song here.
So overall, another mixed bag. The production also has some blending that once again uses the lushness of Open Your Eyes or The Quest, but here it's starting to muddle together. It makes me wonder what these songs would sound like live without all the production, if they wouldn't sound a little stronger. Nevertheless, there are signs of a band figuring out what their sound should be, and if they do choose to write another one in the near future, I would hope they bring back some of the classic punchiness of their earlier albums. They seem to have the prog side figured out, but they're still struggling with the rock side.
Starset is band I had been hearing about here and there. While I had checked out a few songs and thought they were fine, I hadn't really dug in and given them a serious listen. However, when an online listening party group gave me an opportunity to check out their debut album, I figured it was as good a time as any to give this band a chance. What I didn't expect was all the production on the music, making this album quite the cinematic experience, for better and worse.
First off, this sounds just plain huge. Making the most of both orchestral strings and synthy ambience, the album goes for the melodramatic and simply doesn't let up at all. It even has a story concept, though the lyrics don't make it immediately obvious. In their story, Starset is an organization set to interpret a set of message from the future, trying to fix their past into something better. However, many of the lyrics also focus on personal relationships, usually discussing about how much another person means to the character singing the song, especially now that they're gone. It's never clear if it's romantic or platonic, but the personal connection seems vital none-the-less, making it seem like a main motivation to affect the timeline.
As for the music, it's an interesting mishmash of bombastic movie soundtracks, synthwave, and melodic alt metal (think Breaking Benjamin or mid-to-late Linkin Park), with a dash of prog as it drifts from song to song. In fact, most tracks have these long, ambient segues that bring the energy back down before the next anthem, but they go on for quite a while, some of them even being 3 minutes long! While it certainly makes for an interesting album-listening experience, the songs start to blend together into an emotionally intense blend, with very little sticking out. "Let It Die," ended up being the most memorable, mostly because of the sudden synthy arpeggios on the chorus. It's certainly not a bad set of songs, as it has a very concrete idea of what it wants to be, but with all the production this album has, it feels like it has as much in common with Two Steps From Hell or Audiomachine as it does with rock music.
Despite being such an iconic album from the legendary band, I hadn't listened to this album beyond the title track until now. After some interesting attempts to lean more into the pop metal style, the band bring in Scott Travis from Racer X to play drums, and completely blow up everyone's speakers with tons of epicness and aggression!
Right from opening title track, this album was different. Travis's drumming kicks things into high gear, and Rob Halford's wails make it clear that this wasn't going to be just any metal album. Things carry on with more high octane riffing, with "Hell Patrol," "All Guns Blazing," and "Leather Rebel." The second half of the album gets more dramatic and dark, as the band drift into themes of horror and evil. "Night Crawler" in particular feels like it was based on some 80s slasher movie, which brings me to the lyrics. To be fair, they have abandoned a lot of the glammy topics in favor for some of the more classic metal tropes, but they do get pretty cheesy here and there. "Metal Meltdown" feels a little weak as a speedy metal anthem, and "A Touch of Evil" drifts into metal-based synth pop territory. They aren't bad songs, necessarily, but they do feel weaker compared to the songs that really excel.
Speaking of excelling, I can feel that Tipton and Downing wanted to prove they were the iconic metal duo, and they succeeded! They provide not only some great riffs, but the solos are technical and frantic without going out of control, and they often trade back-and-forth on the songs. Travis's drumming is also all over the album, and seems to be the force that really drives this album forward. Halford also gives a great performance, often going to his shrieking wail that we would later return to on his first solo album Resurrection. I can see a lot of old-school metal fans seeing this as a great comeback after the lackluster Turbo and Ram It Down. Looking back on it now, it's easy to see this album as redefining traditional metal and being influential on many other bands.
Only three this time, as I have been pretty busy. Also, I haven't forgotten about doing an Anniversary Article for this month, it just turns out that needed some extra time to come together, so it should be done by the end of this month. Once I get into July, things should normalize (I hope). I know there's a lot of albums that came out this year that I want to catch up on, but we'll see what I get around to. Until then, rock on! \m/
