Bloodstock Open Air 2011 - New bands announced

After completely failing for the last two years, it is time for TME to finally get round to going to Bloodstock Open Air; Derbyshire's premier metal festival. Tickets have already been bought and are sat on the desk awaiting August 2011 and 3 days of pure metal.

But what's on? Not much yet. Bloodstock announcements always seem slow at first and pick up in the new year. Perhaps this is related to the pre-Christmas "early bird" discount. If they announced the big names up front, there'd be a rush on the cheaper tickets. We're not that bothered about waiting for lineup news. We're going anyway.

However, quite a few bands have been announced, including some just this morning. In my review of Gravity of Light I said that "I'd love to be in the crowd when they play [Rise!] live." And soon I will be, when they play the Ronnie James Dio stage on the Friday night.

Other names confirmed so far include Therion, At The Gates, Triptykon, Morbid Angel and Lawnmower Deth. Crikey. Stay tuned for further excitement.

Season of Riffs and Black Metal Folkiness

Winter holds a mystique all its own. The darkness creeps into all aspects of life, the cold biting and drawing the warmth out of every living thing. There is an almost palpable menace in the air, and tales of winters long past hang heavy with fear and foreboding. Pagan ritual and ancient folklore anthropomorphise this sinister essence and give it an almost spiritual quality.

Perhaps, then, this begins to explain the draw of black and folk metal at this time of year. More sombre, more haunting than folk music, and yet less raging than other forms of extreme metal. A genre that fits the mood of this frigid, disquieting season.

Over the last week I have had the pleasure of listening to several albums that capture the atmosphere of bleak and desolate winter cold. One of these that I recently reviewed, the stunning Marrow Of The Spirit from Agalloch, is perhaps the quintessential winter metal album. With heart-rending melodies and chilling vocals, it embodies the very heart of a winter dense with legends, ghosts and mythology.

Another recently reviewed album, Abrahadabra from Dimmu Borgir, is a very different sort of beast. Soaring orchestral scores punctuated by hard hitting black metal and rasping, eerie vocals. Where Marrow Of The Spirit captures the claustrophobia of winter snows, Abrahadabra covers vast landscapes, epic vistas and an angrier, more direct threat.

The most recent addition to my collection of black folk metal is Monuments, the new album from Northern Oak. While not capturing the essence of winter within the album itself, it is nonetheless an album heavy in folklore and emotion. A full review will follow, but for now suffice to say that it is easy to soak up this album and get lost in it, or to read carefully into the lyrics and follow the stories told within.

Last comes Eluveitie, who were the first folk metal band to catch my attention. Using traditional folk instruments mixed with melodic death metal, combining that with Gaulish vocals and Celtic themes, this is perhaps the most widely varied and complex folk metal band in this list. Their 2010 album Everything Remains (As It Never Was) continues this theme with evocative whispered passages among death metal riffs and intricate folk melodies.

Perhaps it is the weight of the air, the cold's constant nipping or simply the almost perpetual dark, but at this time of year I feel a certain morose wistfulness. Black and folk metal plays on that emotion and turns it into something beautiful. Something I can lose myself in, and let the music carry me away.


* With apologies to John Keats

Doozr's Top 10 of 2010

It's December again, and so it must be nearly time for yet another best-of list. I already made a list of my top 5 from the first half of the year back in July. Do my decisions still stand? Has enough awesome music been released lately to knock some of those five off the list?

While I chose my top five, I also included five that didn't quite make the grade. These were fine albums, but fell by the wayside to make way for the top five. Since making that list, my horizons have broadened, my collection has grown and my ears have been treated to a vast array of new musical morsels.

Picking the top ten has been tricky. I've had to base my decisions on initial impact, longevity and how much I just randomly decide to play it. So without further ado, in no particular order, here is my top 10 of 2010.

Crystalic - Persistence

What to say that I haven't already said? This album was released for free due to lack of label interest, which is a travesty because it's awesome.

Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

A Last.fm recommendation come good. Death metal with a hint of black metal who happen to also be great live.

The Hoosiers - The Illusion Of Safety

It's cheesy, it's retro, it's silly and it's good. Enough said.

Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt One

Sometimes I listen to an album, and it's good. Sometimes, it's amazing. And just sometimes an album comes along that completely takes me by surprise at it's sheer brilliance. Road Salt One is one such album.

Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void

One of the first albums I got in 2010, and still one of the best. Loved it from the very first time I saw the teaser video for Shadow In Our Blood.

Volbeat - Beyond Heaven / Above Hell

Part rock 'n' roll, part metal, part blues and part country. Quite a mix, but brilliant.

Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here

A wistful, contemplative, yet cheerful melancholy. The sort you might feel on a quiet summer's eve when the world is at peace, and everything, just for that moment, is okay.

Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

A magnificent conglomeration of orchestra and black metal. Think Lord Of The Rings crossed with the more classically inspired bits of Nightwish. An album that is both exciting and satisfying to listen to.

Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

An album rich with images of life and light being torn down by the heavy, unbearable weight of the physical and metaphorical winter. Dreamy, sombre black/folk metal at its best.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

A great third album, all the better having seen it played live. Nostalgia and melancholy about the ways and whys of childhood, growing up in a rapidly changing world.

Sadly not all the great albums from 2010 can go into the top 10. Well, unless there were only 10 of them. But there aren't. There are loads. Here are some of the runners up.

Northern Oak - Monuments Finely crafted folk/black metal from Sheffield's finest purveyors of black metal and waistcoats. (review coming soon)

The Birthday Massacre - Pins & Needles Great dark synth-rock and an obsession with purple bunnies. (review)

Mostly Autumn - Go Well, Diamond Heart The first album with their new lead vocalist, and a good start it is, too. (review)

Martriden - Encounter The Monolith An album that has got me through many a torturous train journey. Just great music. (review)

Disturbed - Asylum Loud and brash American heavy metal. (review)

Dream Theater - Octavarium Twiddly, complicated and totally prog.

Engines Of Armageddon - Self-titled A hella-tight Thrash/Power/Doom/Groove METAL BAND from Nottingham UK.

Courteeners - Falcon A bit of chavvy pop. A guilty pleasure. (review)

65DaysOfStatic - We Were Exploding Anyway An altogether more dance oriented album from the band who brought you the soundtrack to the end of the world. (review)

Tarot - Gravity Of Light It's metal. It's heavy. It's got Marco Hietala in it. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? (review)

Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

Following a recent trend of trying a bit of commercial metal to see if it's any good, I've recently been listening to Dimmu Borgir's latest opus, the obscurely spelled Abrahadabra. Originating from Aleister Crowley's The Book Of The Law, Abrahadabra loosely translates as "I will create as I speak".

I've actually seen Dimmu Borgir live at Bloodstock Open Air 2008 and didn't reckon much to it, but this new album piqued my interest. The band is missing a couple of members, down to three from five. After a bit of a shake up two long standing members, ICS Vortex and Mustis, were dismissed. This has left the remaining members free to create this orchestral masterpiece.

And a masterpiece it is. When thinking about commercial metal I usually think about nu metal, hardcore and "pop" metal. Take the musical styles that identify metal but put them to use in bland, repetitive songs. But the label is Nuclear Blast, home of some of my other favourites including Nightwish, Sirenia and even Amorphis. With the way people cry foul against Dimmu Borgir I thought they must have signed with Sony on a million dollar pop contract.

This album does not sound "commercial". The 100 piece Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Kringkastingsorkestret) provide the epic classical movements while the band provide the melody, metal and vocal for the songs. Right from the opening orchestral track I had visions of the icey vistas portrayed by the band's stage gear. Think Lord Of The Rings crossed with the more classically inspired bits of Nightwish.

It's not all classical, of course. The melody and lyrics are harsh and grunting, even using animal sounds to enhance the already complex and layered production. In parts hard, heavy black metal, and in parts sounding more like choral chants, this is a very complex record.

Lyrically it's sometimes clunky (the rhyming scheme in Born Treacherous being amusingly simplistic), but one advantage of having the commercial success and backing that Dimmu Borgir have enjoyed is the ability to really polish the final production. The production values on this record are incredibly high and the mixing and arrangement does every song justice. The hissing, grating vocal fits right in and as individual lyrics catch the ear the mood of the song comes across.

Perhaps the album's high point comes in the eponymous track Dimmu Borgir. Presumably using the Icelandic or Old Norse translation of "Dark Castles", this is a war song, much like many of the others on the album. Orchestral and choral elements combine with chants and the drums of war. Heavy guitar riffs and an up-tempo melody make for a song epic in scale.

I was surprised by this album. Instead of cheesy pop metal, I heard epic, complex symphonic black metal. The scale is grand, the riffs are strong and the soaring orchestral arrangement adds to the imagery to make an album that is both exciting and satisfying to listen to.

Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

Winter is upon us once more, and the world has taken on a grim blankness that chills the soul and tires the spirit. Agalloch's latest release, Marrow of the Spirit, is a fitting album for these bleak and dreary times. Continuing the black folk metal style of their preceding 3 albums, Marrow captures the sleepy, dreamlike quiet of winter.

The album opener, They Escaped The Weight Of Darkness, is a forlorn, sombre folk instrumental. A lone cello over a backdrop of rippling water and birdsong laments the onset of winter. A slow and saddening start to the album but one that captures the mood of the piece.

The segue to the next track, Into The Painted Grey, is a thundering drum intro with an intricately detailed black metal guitar riff. The song seems to be about the lost majesty of an extinct volcano; once a Pagan god of power and fire, now sleeping in an icey shroud of cloud and snow. The quiet rasping of the vocal over the ever-building melody and thundering drum has a soporific, yet disquieting quality.

The album continues in this vein, drawing on Pagan mythology for it's imagery, yet maintaining the overarching theme of decay, loneliness and a forgotten past. From runic monoliths, cursing sticks (or Nidstång) and ghosts in the fires burning in the mid-winter night. The album is rich with images of life and light being torn down by the heavy, unbearable weight of the physical and metaphorical winter.

The folk melody and darker riffs combine to capture the listener and to impress the gravity of the songwriting on them. All tracks were recorded on vintage analogue equipment which adds to the soft, earthy feel of the instruments and the results are an album that is very easy to listen to, or to simply put on and allow to wash over you.

Buy SSOGE on pre-order, get a free amulet

Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy's new album Návaz is now available for pre-order directly from their label, Season Of Mist. At just over a tenner, it's as cheap as you're ever going to get one of their albums in England, and you get a snazzy amulet mimicking the album art in the package.

Due for release 17th January 2011. Mine will be in the post.

The Birthday Massacre - Pins and Needles

I discovered The Birthday Massacre by complete accident.  They were touring in 2009 and I was invited to go along.  As it happens I didn't end up going.  I then forgot about them until Last.fm recommended them to me some 6 months later.  Although not a genre of music I have previously been overly enthusiastic about, The Birthday Massacre's synth-rock style has completely grown on me.

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for pretty album art.  The Birthday Massacre have brilliant album art that maintains a bunny rabbit and purple theme throughout their releases.  The artwork for Pins and Needles is a little darker than the others but is truly stunning nonetheless.  The music isn't bad either!

The album opens with In The Dark.  This is one of my favourite tracks from the album filled with  the trade mark heavy guitar riffs and the stunning vocals of lead singer Chibi.  The album is filled with these riffs, electronic elements and that voice that makes me literally stop and just listen.  Shallow Grave is a great example of this.  Electronica mixed with really neat guitar riffs and intermingled with Chibi singing in the cute and angsty style she has adopted so wonderfully.

New TBM T-Shirts!

Pins and Needles is of course the title track from the album and is without a doubt the standout.  Like those that have come before I find there is always one track which I really love from each of their albums.  Pins and Needles is that track.  Really heavy riffs, criss-crossing with softer, almost pop like interludes.  Just awesome.  Other tracks that deserve a mention are Sleepwalking, Always and Control.

Although there is nothing particularly new or different about Pins and Needles in comparison to their previous albums I have to wonder whether I'd want anything new or different.  They have a winning formula and I don't think that they feel the need (and neither they should) to deviate too far from what they have been successfully doing to date.

What has made this album even more special was seeing it performed live in Corporation on the 17th October.  I would say that it was the best gig we have been to this year (and having seen Lacuna Coil a few weeks before, that is really saying something!)  They played a lot of new tracks from Pins and Needles as well as some older favourites.  I haven't danced so much at a gig before. There is something about The Birthday Massacre that draws me in and I just can't help myself.  I love having more of their tracks on my iPod and can't wait for another opportunity to see them live.

So this is the way that music business works these days ... - Crystalic

With traditional media gatekeepers now in decline how has the music industry changed? How do artists generate interest in themselves, reach the general public and become famous?

When John Lennon and Paul McCartney met in 1957 and started making music the answer was simple: get noticed, get a manager, get a record deal, and become rich and famous. After a shaky start, The Beatles rose quickly to fame with proper support from their label.

When Alex Turner and his school friends started messing around with musical instruments in 2001, success was so rapid that they barely had time to consider how they were going to get there before they arrived. The Arctic Monkeys are widely regarded as the first Internet music sensation.

Before the Internet musicians were heavily dependent on the backing of record companies to record, promote and tour their music. Platforms from which to broadcast were also limited, and they were reliant on media giants such as the BBC to positively support their music. Large corporations ruled the music world; dictating rules, handpicking artists, writing contracts and fixing prices. Without this backing, artists were unable to reach their potential audience and wallowed in obscurity.

The music industry is renowned for its desire to make vast quantities of money and control the choices available to consumers. Numair Faraz, advisor to the late Geoffrey Frost, former Chief Marketing Officer for Motorola said that "Record companies like to make money, and that is their only goal. They do not care about the content that they sell - they care about maximizing their profits. ... It is more profitable for the record company to sell a few decent records in bulk than to have a vast array of cult hits that sell decently. ".

In the case of The Beatles this was very true. The band toured relentlessly and were even rejected by Decca Records before they were finally picked up by EMI Parlophone. They were then shaped and moulded to meet the requirements of the record label. They were advised on how to behave, how to dress, and even their line up was changed. When their music was released for the US market, it was repackaged to suit the label with no concern given to the artist’s original intentions. The Beatles were swallowed up into the corporate music industry make-money mentality and throughout their long career The Beatles ‘brand’ has often been seen to put profitability before artistic merit.

The Internet was always intended to act as a medium for sharing files and information, but when Napster launched in 1999 the world realised they could access music in a new way. The Internet has gone on to provide artists the means to bypass the traditional gatekeepers and get their music into the public domain quickly, easily and cheaply. It takes a lot less time and money to let fans hear a new track by providing it on a website than it does to play a live gig.

The rise of the Arctic Monkeys demonstrates the rapid shift in music distribution. When they recorded and gave away copies of a demo CD during their gigs, they couldn’t have known that their music would be shared online via BitTorrent and MySpace. More importantly, they couldn’t have known that the positive reaction to their music, shared online without financial reward, would result in an overwhelming popularity that ensured their rapid commercial success. In an early interview Arctic Monkeys said they hadn’t known about the Internet’s involvement in their popularity. They never opposed it, stating that it “made the gigs better, because people knew the words and came and sang along.”

Illegal filesharing has been a topic of debate since Napster was closed due to numerous claims of copyright infringement. David Lammy, minister for intellectual property, said: "Illegal downloading robs our economy of millions of pounds every year and seriously damages business and innovation throughout the UK. It is something that needs tackling, and we are serious about doing so."

Some believe that, rather than hindering sales of music, filesharing is an opportunity to try before you buy, and that it does not necessarily mean the loss of a sale. Web services such as Spotify have sprung up to support this common use of music distribution, offering users the ability to listen to whole albums for free and without restriction before going out and purchasing the CD or downloading the MP3s. Alternatively, users can pay a subscription to stream as much music as they desire. This “music rental”model is picking up steam, with over half a million users already paying for the service.

Since 2005 there has been an ever increasing influx of ‘Internet sensations’. Justin Bieber was discovered on You Tube, and Lily Allen was picked up on the strength of samples she posted to MySpace. Any artist worth their salt has a MySpace page, a Facebook profile or twitter feed to communicate directly with their fans.
Some artists, after failing to spark interest from record labels, are releasing their material as free downloads online. Finnish metal band Crystalic recently released an entire album as a free download after a year of fruitless negotiation with record labels. Websites such as CDBaby are enabling artists to distribute their music without the need of record labels using digital distribution partners such as iTunes and Amazon, or more traditionally in the form of CDs and vinyl.

Music journalism has also seen a meteoric rise in the number of independent blogs. Consumers can now write about the music they like and champion artists and their music without any bias towards a specific record label and without the restrictions placed upon the more traditional journalistic outlets.

As the Internet continues to showcase new music freely to the general public, the traditional gatekeepers appear to be in decline. Music journalist no longer have the monopoly on opinion about music and traditional print media publications such as NME are seeing a rapid decline in their readership. The major music labels, or the “big six”, (Warner, EMI, Sony Music, BMG Music, Universal Music and Polygram) have reduced to the “big four” (Sony Music, EMI, Warner Music and Universal Music) over the last 20 years. The number of smaller, niche record labels catering for specific markets such as Nuclear Blast and Season of Mist are increasing. Record labels still have a vital part to play in the financial backing of an artist, but those artists no longer have to wait until they fit into a perceived gap in the mass market or until they take a major record company’s fancy. Instead they can put their music out there on their own terms, and give the public the freedom to listen, share, and ultimately buy.

A Comedy Of Errors

It's been a rubbish week for live music. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, one way or another. Here's a quick rundown of why I haven't seen any live music in the last five days.

Thursday - Opinicus @ West Street Live


Fellow Sheffielders Opinicus put on a live gig at West Street Live. This is a good thing. It was a free gig. This was a very good thing. I went alone, and took my camera in case I got an opportunity to try out some shots with my fancy fast lens. All set for a reasonable night. Unfortunately the first support came on.

Necrogrinder. The name should tell it all, really. They were "extreme metal", which I've come to realise means "not very good metal". While the lead singer alternately screeched and belched into the microphone, the three guitarists hammered their instruments while apparently ignoring the fretboard entirely. I've no idea what the drummer was doing. But with their mercifully short (circa 20 second) songs at least they got rid of it quickly.

Sadly they decided to take their "extreme"ness to an, erm, extreme and went for deliberately and boringly tasteless song titles. Not that the titles had anything to do with the songs, all of which sounded the same and had no discernible lyrics.

Anyway, that went on a while and I decided that I couldn't sit through any more of that hoping that the good stuff would arrive. I was on my own so couldn't even chat to people while waiting. Very dull indeed.

Sunday - Volbeat @ Corporation


I was looking forward to this one. Having recently discovering them, and previously reviewing the album, I was in the mood for some relatively up tempo rock and roll metal. Sadly vocalist Michael Poulson is unwell and the band have been forced to cancel the entire first week of the UK tour. And to top it off, there were literally no other gigs in Sheffield that night except a folk supergroup at Plug. Rubbish. We went to see Skyline at the cinema instead. It was rubbish.

Monday - Vampire Weekend @ O2 Academy


Nothing technically wrong with this gig. In fact, I should be there as I write this post. But I'm not. Because for the last two days the city has been at a standstill due to snowfall, and we know for a fact that if we venture into town and the snow comes down, we ain't getting home again without a very long walk. So we're missing it, despite nary a flake to be seen.

Next March - Within Temptation @ Shepherd's Bush Empire Brixton Academy


We got the tickets early for this one. A two day trip to the capital for a night of music, fun and drink and a leisurely drive home the next day. Great idea. Thankfully we didn't book the nearby hotel because a couple of days after buying the tickets, the venue changed. Dodged that bullet.

Then we discover that not only has the venue changed, but so has the date. Onto the one day in November we simply cannot go. And to top if off, further dates in Manchester and Birmingham have been added. If they had been an option in the first place, would the original venue have sold out? Probably not.

The reason for the shift is genuine enough. Sharon den Adel is pregnant and can't be touring next March. Can't really argue with that. But the planning and communication of this entire tour has been a nightmare. Changing venues, moving dates, adding more venues after months of ticket sales ... it's just not helping the fans support the band.

And so there it is. In a mere five days I've managed to see no live music (I don't count Necrogrinder as music) and found that the big gig of 2011 is in question. Hopefully we can get tickets for the Manchester show.

Meh.

Disturbed - Asylum

Disturbed are not a band I've ever bothered with before. They're commercial, they're derivative and they are that most rash-inducing of genres, nu metal. Just the word "nu" is enough to make me laugh uncontrollably and shake my head in dismay. Ever since the heady days of Limp Bizkit, when nu metallers wore their sk8r boi chic and everything felt far too twee and ridiculous, I've had a lingering distaste for it all.

That all being said, I heard good things about the new album, Asylum. Dispensing with the nu metal sound, this was to be a heavy metal record. Loud, brash and bleak. I love me a bit of bleak. So bolstered by my possibly misguided confidence, I picked up a copy. And why not?

But I was surprised. It's actually pretty bloody good. No, it's not melodic. No, it's not subtle. No, it's not proggy or complex or any of the other things I look for in my metal. But what it is is simple, to the point, and catchy as hell. I defy even the most ardent of commercial nay-sayers to resist nodding a head to it.

I know many have said that it's just Disturbed doing their thing; competent but nothing groundbreaking. I know that many have panned the simplistic song structures, and still others have berated the "ooh look how angry I am!" vibe. This last point I can understand. Like many commercial metal bands, the front is too exaggerated to be realistic. Where I can easily believe that Mikael Akerfeldt or Tuomas Tuominen live and breathe metal, it's easy to think that Disturbed is just an act. A bravado, if you will. But let's not let that get in the way of the music just for the moment.

The songs on the album are all very bleak. Every one of them drawing inspiration from real events from lead singer David Draiman's life, although sometimes somewhat obtusely. From the Holocaust at one end, the pain of miscarriage in the middle, and the breakdown of a relationship at the other end, such is the breadth of bleak evident throughout.

In many ways the album seems emotionally confused. There are songs like The Infection, dealing with the quiet coping and the need to get out of a downward spiral. And then there are songs like Warrior or The Animal; losing control, giving in to it, and embracing the anger. It is reminiscent of a depressive's worldview. On the one hand introverted and hurting, and on the other hand driven, furious, absurdly confident.

There is a place for quiet, contemplative metal. There is a place for progressive, intricate and melodic metal. But sometimes the best therapy is to throw on something loud and heavy and thrash the shit out of it. That's where Aslyum comes in. And it fits the bill nicely.

Mostly Autumn's triumphant return

It's never easy for a band to replace their lead singer, and when that singer is as long-standing, popular and talented as Heather Findlay, it's just that bit harder. When Heather left earlier this year it cast a shadow of doubt over the future of the band. Fortunately backing-singer of 5 years Olivia Sparnenn stepped up to the plate and took over duties at live shows throughout 2010, all the while recording the band's new album.

I have been fortunate in recent years to have heard album tracks live before listening to the studio albums. In 2008 I attended the Glass Shadows launch tour, purchasing the album from the merch stand on the way in. And last weekend, we attended the first gig of the Go Well, Diamond Heart tour in Wath-upon-Dearne.

As is usual for Mostly Autumn gigs, there was no support. Instead, the band played a 2.5 hour set with half an hour break in the middle. Covering some classics from earlier in the band's career, and even throwing in one of Olivia's own songs, the set list was, of course, predominantly concerned with the new material.

Dressed in her trademark thigh-length boots and tiny dress (no hotpants this time), this was Olivia's first time playing the new material live, and she seemed a bit nervous. A few early sound issues caused problems, but by the end of the first half she had found her feet. After the short interval she returned to the stage confident and comfortable. This is a transition period for the band, but based on their "first night" performance, things are well in Mostly Autumn.

One of the wonderful things I have always found about Mostly Autumn songs is that, even after only hearing them once, they are familiar. Like I've always known them, but didn't realise it until now. Even after only listening to the songs during the gig and briefly glancing the liner notes, putting the album on was like revisiting an old friend I never knew I had.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that, despite being a very different singer, Olivia is more than capable doing classic songs justice. Passengers and Evergreen, in particular, were familiar yet subtly different. And very enjoyable to hear.

The album title itself is clearly a nod toward Heather Findlay. A final farewell, if you will. Nostalgia abound, the first track is named for the band's first album, For All We Shared. Starting out with one of Mostly Autumn's signature instrumental intros, slowly building into a beautiful opening track. Both Olivia and Bryan sing on this one, and Olivia is certainly making the role her own.

There are several themes to the album, ranging from the deeply pessimistic [Something Better] to the melancholic [For All We Shared and Violet Skies] and the very optimistic [Go Well, Diamond Heart and And When The War Is Over...] War is central to many of the songs, specifically dealing with the futility and waste. Recycled a little, maybe, but very much consistent for Bryan's songs. Even cowboys and Caesar get a mention in Something Better. I don't think he's denying Hitler a sausage this time, though¹.

Go Well does seem to dispense further with  the folk sounds of previous albums. In fact, the band's entire direction seems to have changed from Prog Folk to pure Prog Rock. The lineup on stage consisted of guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. And of course a tambourine. But no flute, for example, to complete the folk line up. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, seeing as I am a fan of rock music, but I'm sure others are irked by it. Apparently Glass Shadows received some mediocre reviews, but I loved it.

So I suppose the big questions need answering. Can Olivia take Heather's place? Most definitely. In fact, I would question whether anybody else could even try. In both vocal talent and style she is a perfect fit. And can Mostly Autumn continue to thrive? Of course. This is a new era for the band, but also a continuation of trends evident in the last few albums. And they still put on a great show.

1. Knowing  Josh & Co reference. Listen to Through These Eyes to find out what I'm on about.

Lacuna Coil @ The Corporation, 28th September 2010

They said it would never happen. They said we were dreamers. But on September 28th, 2010, Lacuna Coil returned to the Corporation, their first visit since the heady days of 2006 when I first ever saw them live. Of course, we've seen them since. Back in January we hauled ourselves over to Manchester for the Shallow Life launch tour, but here they were playing our favourite local metal venue, next door to one of our favourite pubs. How could we possibly miss it?

Mark from Troika

Two support acts were playing that cold Tuesday night; Troika, a local band, and Slaves To Gravity, who were supporting the whole tour. I really enjoyed Troika's set. The band have a quirky amateur demeanour but the music is amazing. Really talented local bunch of Sheffield lads. I'll be checking their music out again in the future for sure. Possibly find a gig to go buy CDs direct from the band.

Slaves To Gravity were up next. They're not really my cup of tea, I'll be honest. Little bit too much grunge and posturing for my taste, but the crowd loved it. I love finding that a band I would never normally listen to put on a show that gets the crowd going. The atmosphere is what makes live music special.

Slaves To Gravity

After a wait that felt like an eternity, as it always does while waiting for Lacuna Coil to come on stage, the house lights dimmed. A hush descended, just for a moment, and the crowd went wild.

And what a show they put on! Starting out with Underdog and I'm Not Afraid from Shallow Life, this proved to be a very varied show with some delving into the band's back catalogue. Classics like Honeymoon Suite and Half Life made an appearance, as well as long standing favourites Swamped and Heaven's A Lie.

Karmacode stole most of the show, with eight of the eighteen tracks played from that album. Fragments Of Faith and Our Truth are a must, and of course, what would a Lacuna Coil show be without a sing-along to Enjoy The Silence? Shallow Life came in second, with six tracks including I Won't Tell You and Spellbound. The setlist was expertly put together, effectively mixing classics and recent fan favourites to keep the pace throughout the entire set and into the encore.

The Corporation once again shone as a live venue. While Manchester Academy 1 was an impressive venue, it lacked the intimacy of the Corporation. At the larger venue, you watch a show. At the Corp, you are part of it. I was very excited when I found out about the gig, and now I can safely say it's the best Lacuna Coil gig I've ever seen. Simply awesome.

Crystalic - Persistence

The music industry is a funny old beast. While your Justin Biebers and Lady Gagas are getting multi-million dollar/pound/groat deals (depending on locality), there are talented metal bands literally giving their albums away because they can't get a label to back them. Crystalic are one such band. After three years of trying, and failing, to get a decent deal from record execs, they'd done the only thing left; released Persistence, their aptly titled new album, for free via their website.

The band's lyrics deal with such topics as philosophy, society and the human condition. Pretty standard death metal fare, and fitting to the hard, heavy chug and the fast-paced, intricate riffs. The staccato blasts of the drum behind the driving rhythm of the guitars has an urgency that is infectious. Even the guitar noodling during the solos carries the mood. It makes your heart skip and your stomach tie itself in knots as you feel the energy of the music.

The album seems split in half, the first being a series of hard hitting death metal tracks to showcase the band's musical talent, and the second being a more commercial selection. Between the two halves is the album's only instrumental track, Eulogy. It's dedicated to the memory of Chuck Schuldiner, the father of death metal and founder of Death.

Every track on this album is great, but the stand-out tracks for me are Wall Of Sanity, Voiceless Army and Blastbeat Of My Heart. Blastbeat is an ear-worm of a track, and gets itself inside your head and stays there. That track alone has prompted me to play the entire album numerous times after subconsciously singing it to myself while walking around Tesco.

For fans of melodic or progressive death metal, this album is about as pure as it gets. And those who are not might as well have a listen. It's free, after all. Put your headphones on, crank up the volume, and get ready to detonate the blastbeat of your heart.

ʇɐǝqVol

My Volbeat CD arrived this morning! Been having a read through the lyrics and noticed quite a few recurring elements. Who is Mr Cadillac, for instance? Lots of angels turning into devils and the like too. And 16 Dollars, the track that sounds like Walk This Way, actually references Aerosmith and Walk This Way in the first verse. I'd completely missed that when listening to it. That proves that it's homage, rather than coincidence or plagiarism.

But the most mind-bending bit of the whole presentation is in the little book of lyrics itself. All the left hand pages are printed upside down. At first I thought there was something wrong with it, but no, it's supposed to be like that. It makes it very difficult to figure out whether to turn the page left or right when trying to read it, which I guess is the point. Interesting stuff.

Volbeat - Beyond Heaven/Above Hell

After hearing about Volbeat in September's issue of MetalHammer, I was quite excited to hear what rockabilly metal would sound like. Thankfully Spotify came to my rescue and let me listen to their older albums, and I liked it. A lot. Part rock 'n' roll, part metal, part blues and part country. Quite a mix, but brilliant.

Earlier this week I went back to Spotify and found that the new album, Beyond Heaven/Above Hell, was available for my listening pleasure. I ordered a copy on CD yesterday, but thanks to the magic of the internet this review is brought to you before it even hits the doormat.

The album starts as it means to go on with a stomping, thundering opener. The Mirror And The Ripper has a fast paced verse structure and the slow, heavy chorus will get the feet tapping and set the pace for what's to come.

A host of guest artists and influences make this album incredibly varied. Heaven Nor Hell, featuring Henrik Hall of Love Shop, channels Andrew WK's party anthemics. Jakod Oelund features on 16 Dollars and seems heavily influenced by Run-DMC/Aerosmith's Walk This Way. Mark "Barney" Greenway of Napalm Death features on Evelyn, and it's the only track on the album to include growls of any kind. It works really well, and somehow fits in with the rest of the sound without ever sounding forced or out of place. I was pleasantly surprised.

My favourite track of the album is 7 Shots. Featuring Mille Petrozza and Michael Denner, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Ghost Riders In The Sky. The country style intro and deep blues end to the first verse leading into a cracking rockabilly romp with a thudding bassline that is impossible not to dance to. It can make using a mouse difficult, though, so be wary if you're supposed to be doing something useful!

With so much rock 'n' roll influence, the album gets you in the mood for dancing all the way through, and this is no surprise. Volbeat's name is itself a portmanteau of Volume and Beat and epitomises both the musical style and its effect on the listener.

Luckily for me, I discovered via last.fm that Volbeat are playing Sheffield in November. Will definitely have to go to that.

Bring Me The Horizon streaming new album now!

Bring Me The Horizon are streaming their entire new album, There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret, on their MySpace page ahead of the October 4th release date.

First listen, I'll admit, left me a bit underwhelmed. Possibly because my expectations of it were so high. It seemed that the much promised genre-spanning variety was overwhelmed by their existing post-hardcore sound. Maybe further listening will get me over the first reaction hump.

In other news, I've been listening to Volbeat's latest offering, Beyond Hell / Above Heaven, on Spotify while I waited for pay day to come round, and I love it. Definitely going to splash the cash, as soon as I find someone who has it in stock.

Tarja - What Lies Beneath

Tarja Turunen is the Marmite of the symphonic metal world. Either you like her vocal style, or you hate it. Having been a fan of Nightwish before her acrimonious split with the band in 2006, I've been intrigued to see what she makes of her solo career. With this week's launch of What Lies Beneath, her second English studio album, she continues to define her own style. A genre unto herself, this one promises more of the experimental classical metal she is famous for.

Despite some pretty mixed reviews about her somewhat lacklustre first album, I actually quite liked it. I didn't even mind the utterly bizarre cover of Alice Cooper's Poison. It didn't blow me away, but it was good stuff. Being a fan of metal and heavy rock and enjoying a bit of classical now and again, maybe I was in a position to better appreciate it. The problem, though, is that her voice is so distinctive, and so powerful, that it eclipsed the music that was supposed to be supporting it.

Thankfully with this new release, that problem is a thing of the past. With better songwriting, much better mixing, and a simplification of styles the music manages to shine through beyond the obvious presence of her multi-octave vocals. Swinging between very heavy rock tracks (although I hesitate to call it metal) and softer, more balladic songs, it's a good showcase for both her vocal and songwriting talents. That being said, I don't think that even this one packs the punch of the albums put out by Nightwish during her tenure with them. Tuomas Holopainent's songwriting style more completely encapsulates her vocal and, in turn, makes for more powerful songs.

There is a host of talent brought in for this album, including Joe Satriana on Falling Awake, and Phil Labonte on Dark Star. Given that Falling Awake contains the lyric "All that remains", maybe Phil should have had a part on both? Aside from these two, the German a capella metal band van Canto play on Anteroom Of Death and Max Lilja, formerly of Apocalyptica, plays cello throughout.

Speaking of Anteroom of Death, I can't help but think that it's a very brave track to put as the album opener. The first time the timing shifted to the mind-bendingly rapid chorus I thought my ears were going to explode. It's certainly nothing like any of Tarja's previous songs, and is possibly the hardest to listen to on the whole album. After that somewhat explosive start, it settles down significantly and there are some very good songs on the remainder of the album.

While some of the tracks, specifically Falling Awake and In For A Kill, are reminiscient of My Winter Storm, the rest stand out as being solid heavy rock songs. The harder, heavier tracks are great to listen to and the softer interludes make the album feel more coherent than it would if it were one hard-hitter after another. It's not, perhaps, as cohesive as My Winter Storm but the songs don't feel out of place together.

This album is definitely a step forward in Tarja's career as a solo artist. The whole thing feels a lot more polished than My Winter Storm, and the songs pack more of a punch than her earlier work. Whether or not anyone will enjoy this album, really, boils down to whether they think a voice like Tarja's is a good fit for a metal album. If so, this is a good album. If not, then there's not a lot to save it from its rather strident centrepiece.

Linkin Park - The Catalyst - Mini Review

So I posted on Twitter the other day a link to the new Linkin Park video for The Catalyst. When I first heard the song I wasn't sure what to make of it. I knew that the band had been trying out a new sound and that they were planning on venturing down the electronic/industrial rock route with their soon to be released album A Thousand Suns, but the track was still a shock.

After listening to it a number of times it began to grow on me and soon I was completely hooked. Chester and Mike's vocal interplay is as ever crisp and perfectly matched in true Linkin Park style. The song seems to beat and bang and grow and develop to an explosion of immense sound. It just leaves me speechless. The video is dark. Their faces appear to be purposely hidden or obstructed. There are buildings crumbling, smoke everywhere and people are running from something; it is completely captivating.

Of course the change in style may upset some Linkin Park fans but I doubt it will bother many. Their leap from nu metal to alternative rock in 2006 was widely accepted and although there are many fans of their original sound I think a lot of fans will be as excited as I am about the change of direction and growth of the band. Alternatively, they may just be happy to finally have some new material from the guys.

I have no idea what the rest of the new album will be like, I just hope it is along the same lines as The Catalyst. I am literally squirming with anticipation and can hardly wait until 14th September when it is finally released.

To keep you going here is the video of The Catalyst - make of it what you will.

Variety is the spice of life

Over the next few weeks, I shall be looking forward to three new albums by three very different bands. But what makes these albums similar is how very different they are. Not from each other, but within themselves, track by track. In the same vein as Pain Of Salvation's Road Salt One, a mixture of styles is brought together to form a cohesive whole. Not just metal, but hard rock, soft rock, punk and even classical influences.

First up is the venerable Apocalyptica, with their seventh studio album. The cunningly titled 7th Symphony looks set to bring a fresh feel to Apocalyptica's music, with a wide range of styles that marks each song as a unique within the set. I've had a quick listen on Spotify and the results are certainly pleasing. I'm reserving a proper listen and full judgement for the actual release when it plops onto my doormat.

Next is Volbeat with their new album Beyond Hell, Above Heaven. The band are already known for employing a range of styles to their music, with a diverse set of genres including heavy metal, punk and rockabilly under their belts. As well as the genre, tempo and mood of the music changing for each song, there will be several cameos from other artists including Barney from Napalm Death, Miland Petrozza from Kreator and Jakob Oelund from Taggy Tones. Adding these other talents to the mix will certainly spice up the new album.

Finally, a Sheffield band that up until last week I'd never heard of. Bring Me The Horizon have a change of pace in their new, very lengthily titled album, There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret. Having listened to their 2009 album Suicide Season, I'm not all that enamoured with the sound. But it's all set to change. The new album is said to have a huge variety, covering all of the band's influences and personal preferences. It should definitely be worth a listen.

Ping - What is it good for?

Apple released the latest version of iTunes, version 10, to much media hype yesterday. One of the major changes is a new feature called Ping. A social network of sorts, it's like Last.fm but built into iTunes, with hints of Twitter and Facebook about it. You can follow bands or other users, post reviews and look at charts. It's social media, but focussed around the music in the iTunes music store.

At least, that's the intention. I was actually quite excited about it at first, but the reality soon put a damper on it. Many little issues that cropped up during the configuration of my profile that just irked me somewhat.

The first is quite simple; you can only use your iTunes account. So I can have one, and 23inertia can have one, but TME cannot. This is very much unlike Twitter which is pretty much a free-for-all as long as you can keep track of all the accounts you have.

So that aside, I figured I'd just set up my account like I have for Last.fm. I barely use any of the social aspects of Last.fm, if I'm honest. I'm friends with 4 people and use it primarily to track my music listening habits and get new recommendations. I figure that if I can duplicate that functionality then I'm all good.

Unfortunately the parallels with Last.fm fall very short. There is no scrobbling, for instance, or anything like it. In fact, Ping seems entirely unaware of the existence of my music collection despite being in the very same iTunes library. It doesn't use it for recommendations, for populating the "music I like" box, or anything else. And simply listening to songs doesn't make them show up either. I have to purchase, follow or review the album for it to make an appearance. In the end I simply used my Last.fm top 10 artists to manually populate my profile. That I had to use an external service to get that information, despite iTunes holding my play counts, is not a good sign.

So plodding along with the profile creation, I get to set a photo. So far, so ordinary. Except when I chose my photo, it informed me that it had to be approved before it will show up. What's this? The lock-down control extends as far as how you look now? This is getting worse ...

And so the final nail in the coffin for the Ping profile configuration; genre selection. You are allowed to choose a maximum of 3 genres that match your musical tastes. Never mind that my collection spans dozens. I have to limit myself. Uncle Steve said so.

Fair enough, I shall do that. Alternative, Metal, Rock. Sounds like a good combo and relatively representative of my general tastes. And this is where it all goes horribly wrong. There is no way to select metal as one of your three. At all. It simply doesn't exist.

And so here I am. The metal being forcefully stripped from my persona, I am forced to live as an alt-rock goon with no profile picture. Time to follow some bands, I suppose. Let's do a search.

• Dark Tranquillity - No results found.
• Lacuna Coil - No results found.
• Arcade Fire - No results found.
• Nightwish - No results found.
• The Gathering - No results found.
• Lady Gaga - Aha! Here we go!

Except, no. I don't listen to Lady Gaga. But she is my top recommendation. Remember what I said about it ignoring my music library? And no other artist I have yet searched for has a profile I can follow.

Maybe all this will improve in time as more people and artists sign up to it. Unfortunately, though, I fear that it may never encompass my primary interests. I'll leave my profile dormant for a bit and see if anything more exciting than Katy Perry pops up on the recommendations. Otherwise, I really can't see the point.

Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow - Shame

Having been a teenage girl in the early 1990s it is unsurprising that Take That are a big part of my music history.  I am not ashamed of this fact, nor do I try to hide it.  I am quite a sentimental old fool when it comes to music which means that Take That occasionally pop up on the iPod shuffle in-between gothic metal or indie rock to this day.  That's okay, right?  Doozr is terribly mean and pokes fun at me constantly for my Take That fetish but I really don't care.

When they reformed in 2005 I was sucked in.  Desperate for a reunion with Robbie I bought all their new stuff, went to all of the tours, felt like I was 12 again.  The nostalgia faded after a short while, but I still keep an eye on what the lads are up to and  very occasionally I dust off my signed original copy of Take That and Party and have a little boogie.  (My mum also buys me a Take That calendar every Christmas which always takes centre stage in my kitchen).

Recently the long awaited reunion with Robbie Williams was announced.  Take That fans all over the world rejoiced.  I was less than convinced, slightly excited but trying desperately not to show it.  All I could see was a money making strategy especially as this is for a one off album and tour.  Their reunion is unlikely to be a long term situation.

On the 4th October, Robbie Williams releases his new single, Shame.  This single has been released in collaboration with Gary Barlow.  The song appears to be about them apologising to each other for the public falling out they had 15 years ago and the lack of communication since.  It isn't immediately catchy but is smothered in the distinctive Gary Barlow sound that has made Take That so successful over the years.  On listening to the track for the first time I thought 'meh' and then proceeded to listen to it on repeat 6 times in that same sitting.

The video for Shame has received the most controversy.  It is very Brokeback Mountain and I don't understand why?  Why are they eyeing each other up in a western bar?  Why are they getting undressed and running about half naked together?  Why are they pretending to be gay?  I have no idea what they were thinking when they discussed the concept for this video.  It does work somehow though and I can't help but smile when they look at each other with that knowing glance or at the end when they walk off together with their arms around each other.



To be honest, I am not sure that I care why they have decided to reform, I am not sure that I care why Gary and Robbie have decided to release a track together with a very gay video and I am definitely uninterested in how expensive it will be to see them tour next year.  All I know is that my inner 12 year old is happily singing her lungs out to Shame and desperate to get hold of the new album and tickets for the tour.  I am not sure I will be going as far as the actual 12 year old me by naming my pets after Robbie and Mark or covering my now very grown up adult bedroom with hundreds of Take That posters but still you get the idea.  I am 12 again.  I love it :D

Purified In Blood and Opinicus @ Corp - Photo Review

A few weeks ago I posted about the new camera I bought to try and get back into my waning photography hobby. This was in part to give me something to do, and in part to improve the photos I was taking at gigs. As I said at the time, the Canon A570 I was using just didn't cut it and caused me much frustration.

Sadly the Fuji S5700 I posted about broke after about a day. The flash simply won't pop up at all. This is OK for some circumstances, but for general photography, it's simply no good to not have a flash. So I've replaced it using Fuji's generous "repair or replace" policy with a Fuji S1600, the S5700's more modern descendant. It's a very similar camera, with improvements in some areas and lacking in others. The lens doesn't step down beyond f6.2, for example, but I can get 480mm (35mm equiv) telephoto out of it. The two are about on a par.

To give it a "trial by fire" I took it to the Purified In Blood gig at Corporation to try it out. And trial by fire is right. There were hardly any lights and the conditions were so bad that even people with far fancier kit than I were having trouble getting anything of worth. Even at ISO 6400 (yes, 6400) I could only get shutter speeds of around half a second. Not great when the band are whirling about the stage at breakneck speed. So it came down to patience and just a little bit of cheating.

Up first were Merciless Terror, with perhaps the worst lighting of the lot. I didn't get anything even worth critiquing from that lot. Most of the pictures were a red-hued blur. So on came Opinicus.

I will confess that Opinicus got most of the cheating. With shutter speeds approaching 3 seconds it was impossible to do much of anything, so I switched to ISO 400 and broke out the flash and stepped down the power by about ⅔ EV. Naughty! It did seem to work, though, albeit without the atmosphere provided by the dim lighting in an all black club.

You'll notice the four red lights at the back. Along with two at the front, this was it. Didn't stand much of a chance. So I tried to include as much of the band as possible and see what I could do.

This is what the attempts basically boiled down to. Take a photo with low power flash by waiting for something vaguely cool looking to happen, then crop mercilessly to make it resemble a half decent photo. These are certainly better than the blurry, grainy mess I've been used to, though, so chalk one up for the Fuji.

Between sets I decided to try and take some pics of the stage and capture some of the ambience. I tried to steady the camera by putting it on a flat surface in front of the stage. Unfortunately, the only such surface was on top of a large speaker stack that was playing some random music very loud. The camera shake is not my hands - it's the vibration of the cabinet!

A close up of the drum kit demonstrates the problem with vibration quite nicely. Using a 2 second self-timer to release the shutter, I was nowhere near the camera at the time the picture was taken. The shake is still clearly evident

As Purified In Blood were setting up, I thought I'd just grab one more. After all, even a metalhead has to hydrate. Thankfully, it seems that for the headliners the lighting was brought up substantially. This made for some interesting photographs.

And so Purified In Blood take to the stage. Even with the improved lighting I'm still getting quarter second shutter speeds. But that's not always a bad thing. With creative use of motion blur, some pretty cool pictures can result. And by ensuring that camera shake doesn't ruin it and by keeping the stage area focused and clear, the motion of the band members doesn't look bad at all.

Every so often, though, everything just fell right. A slow moment in the song (of which there were precious few) meant that I could grab pictures like this. Much better!

This one is, I think, incredibly cool. I'm not sure if it was a sudden change in the lighting or somebody else's flash going off, but the bands faces are all but blown out. However, the composition I love, and it really captures the moment. And that, after all, is what a photograph is for.

Once again making use of the slow shutter to capture the moment rather than reducing the picture to a blur of colour. This picture also captures the moment really well. The fact that Glenn Cato Rasmussen stayed mostly still during this shot means that the splash of colour on his jacket ties the whole thing together.

Cheated again for this one and used flash. I don't know why, but I find this photo particularly amusing. Maybe it's the pose? The composition is slightly off, and could have done with being a touch to the right. The flash has completely destroyed any lighting effects. But here it is. It's not bad.

But enough of "not bad". Here is, in my humble opinion, the Photo Of The Evening. A quarter second exposure during a long scream and we have a picture that captures the movement and atmosphere of the moment with clarity and colour. Really very pleased with this picture, and it cements in my mind that it was a good idea to pick up this new camera. Less limitations of the equipment mean more opportunities for cool pictures. I just need to get a little more used to how this particular model behaves in different low light conditions so I don't have 40 terrible practice pics before they start getting good.

And in case you were wondering, the gig was fantastic. The air was buzzing, the kids were (sort of) dancing, the band were amazing. A great gig, and a great evening.