Doozr's Bi-annual Review, part 1

Yes, it's that time again. July is almost upon us, the longest day has been and gone, and it's all downhill from here. So it must be time to take stock of the first half of the year. What has taken my fancy, and what has left me flat.

It's not been particularly tricky to pick the top 10 for this, the first half of 2011. I had some hard decisions to make around about numbers 8, 9 and 10. Some stuff that I would have liked to be in there was just pipped to the post and got left in the "honourable mentions".

Top 10

Overall, it's not been a terrible year for music. Some new stuff coming out of nowhere, some long standing greats continuing to be great, but some other lacklustre performances. So without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my top 10 of the first half of 2011.

Sylosis - Edge of the Earth
One of the earliest albums of the year, this monstrous melodic thrash/death metal epic had me hooked immediately. It was a shoo-in for the top spot on this first top 10 of the year. Nothing has budged it yet, except maybe the atmospheric stylings of ...

Moonsorrow - Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa
Another epic album, and another that I would consider a perfect production. Four massive, immersive tracks of tragedy, doom and despair that carries you along whether you like it or not.

Wolverine - Communication Lost
A bit of a grower, mostly due to it being the follow up to Still, a simply magnificent record. I was both tremendously excited, and very nervous about it. Fortunately Wolverine have more than lived up to their own potential and produced this emotive, progressive masterpiece.

Chaos Divine - The Human Connection
A slow grower, this one. Took a couple of weeks to really get into the frame of mind required. In fact, I was rather disappointed with it at first. But when it clicks, it sticks. Great prog noodling complements death growls and hard metal riffs.

Amorphis - The Beginning Of Times
Described variously as "epic", "magnificent", "awe-inspiring" and "tinkly tonkly", this is a definite for my top 10 of 2011, even if it hasn't quite reached the heights attained by its predecessor, Sky Forger. I have also gone and bought a copy of the Kalevala, from which the last 4 Amorphis albums draw their inspiration. It's a very strange tale, but has inspired some great metal.

Devin Townsend Project - Ghost
Possibly the most relaxing, chilled out experience so far this year. It's taken me several goes just to listen to all of it and not fall asleep in some kind of tranced out bliss.

Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction
The soundtrack to going insane. Densely packed, massive in scope and scale, and by the time you've got to the end of this album you won't know where you are or what you're doing. You will want a cheeseburger, though.

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
Folky Americana courtesy of the band who brought you The Hazards Of Love. Completely different in sound, and with a similar outlook to Fleet Foxes. A rather pleasing, gentle interlude to all this shouting and hard riffs in the rest of the list.

Before The Dawn - Deathstar Rising
A good but of straight up melodeath. Good riffs, good vocals, both clean and growled, and good songs that it's easy to sing along with. Apparently it hasn't gone down well with all critics, but I find it a very enjoyable record to listen to.

Ador Dorath - Adon Nin Edelith Ador Dorath
Perhaps the strangest sounding operatic death metal band on the planet. If you can understand more than 1 in every 10 words you're doing well, but even in its barely comprehensible state it's a roaring, bombastic gothic metal album with loads of good riffs and heavy, chugging beats.

Honourable Mentions

The Top 10 is quite a decent list, I think. These records have had plenty of play time over the last few months. But as I previously said, not all of the good records can be in the top 10. That would be silly, because there are more than 10 of them. Here are a few that didn't quite make the cut, but deserve a mention anyway.

Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy - Návaz
The latest album from these Czech doom/folk metallers does away with some of the doom and adds more Moravian dance. A great record, but a little disappointing to lose some of the better sounds of Relic Dances.

Sanctorum - Semper Fidelis
Sanctorum return with a third album that, while great, suffers from a couple of tracks I just couldn't get along with. Having seen some of it played live I can attest to greatness of the rest of it, though.

Anvil - Juggernaut of Justice
14 albums, 1 riff. Tried and tested, and if it works, keep on doing it. 34 years in, and still going strong. Picked this album up from the Corporation during their UK launch tour. A bit of heavy metal fun. Not too taxing, but just enough rocking.

Kabát - Banditi di Praga
Another Czech band, which makes 3 in this post. This one I actually got from a holiday to Prague, after deciding to try something that might not be available in the UK. I was not disappointed. A sometimes confusing set of songs (all in Czech, of course) but each with an infectious rhythm and great riffs.

Disappointments

While it's been a good year so far, it's not all coming up roses. There have been a few disappointments on the way. These are albums that, for one reason or another, I expected to be much better than they actually turned out to be.

Arch Enemy - Khaos Legions
With a massive publicity campaign, this was supposed to be a magnificent album. It's actually just an Arch Enemy album. And I already have some of those. They even nicked a riff from Nightwish in the process, which I found bizarre.

Scar Symmetry - Unseen Empire
I heard this album before I bought it. On first listen, it sounded pretty good. On each subsequent listen, it got more and more boring, and I cared less and less about hearing it again. I've listened to it 3 times, then gave up. Dull.

Within Temptation - The Unforgiving
A comic book, videos, a massive concept album with a coherent story arc and loads of accompanying extras. It should have been every metal geek's idea of perfection. It actually turned out to be a confusing mass of boring pop-metal and euro-dance. As I said once before; About as metal as plaid, and makes as much sense as fish trousers.

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
I so wanted to love this album. After discovering Fleet Foxes, the debut, I wanted that experience again. All the reviews said it was like rediscovering the band. I wanted it. And, well, it's ok I guess. I just don't get the horrendous cacophony of instruments being tortured to death about half way through. People often say it of metal, and I'm saying it of this; it's just noise!

In the scheme of things, a few disappointments are inevitable. For the most part, I've very much enjoyed this year's voyage of discovery. I've got some great new music and, thanks to an increased list of reading material in my RSS reader and a new subscription to Terrorizer, I'm finding more stuff I actually like and less stuff that annoys or bores me. This is all good.

Gig Photography - Technicalities

In my last post about the explosion of gig photography in the last few years, I gave my list of ways to avoid being hated by the rest of the audience. An important skill, I'm sure you'll agree.

This time, I'll go through some ways that I like to ensure that the pictures I take come out well and don't look like rubbish. I'll also give a brief overview of my gig photo gear, and why I like it.

There are a few common problems with gig photos. Each of them has a solution, but most people just let the camera pick the settings and hope for the best. At some gigs this can work really well, because the lights are bright, and consistently so. But at many gigs this simply doesn't work at all. The list of common problems, as I see them, is as follows:

1. Underexposure - The pictures are too dark
2. Slow shutter - The band is blurry due to moving around too much
3. Position and zoom - The band is tiny
4. Rapidly changing lighting - Shots are unpredictable

1. Underexposure

This would be Anvil, if you
could see them ...

Underexposure is a common problem in live music venues. The house lights are off, the stage lights are unpredictable, and the camera's built in metering just can't cope with it. There are a few ways to deal with it.

Before I go on, and referring back to my previous post, I'd just like to point out that using flash is *not* a solution. It's annoying, and it usually won't work unless you're right at the front. And if you are, you risk annoying the band.

With that off my chest, here are a few ideas. First off, raise the ISO. I referred to this in my last post, too. It really does work. Pushing it up from ISO 800 (usually the highest a compact camera will go to automatically) to ISO 1600 will double the brightness of the pictures. Even when I use my dSLR with a fast lens I use ISO 1600 because it allows me more control, and gives some leeway.

Secondly, try boosting the exposure compensation. Even the £15 Praktica compact I have for a laugh can do this. Most cameras let you increase or decrease exposure by up to 2 "stops". This means up to 4x brighter than the camera thinks it should be. I can definitely help, although it might cause the shutter speed to slow down. This might lead to blurring due to movement.

2. Slow shutter

Purified In Blood? More
like Purified In Blur.

Slow shutter speeds will cause the movements of people on stage to blur, often turning otherwise clear features to mush. This can result in pictures that, while properly exposed and bright, are indecipherable.

The best way to combat this is by using a high ISO, as mentioned before. Once that's set, you may still be at the whim of your camera if you're still using automatic mode. Switch it, instead, to S (shutter priority) or Tv (time value) mode. This lets you specifically set how long the shutter can stay open, and the camera has to honour that setting. But how long is long enough?

• 1/30th of a second is good for "dramatic pose" moments, and may be the fastest you can manage with slow lenses. More than a tiny amount of movement would be badly blurred.
• 1/60th of a second is the lowest shutter speed that can be safely hand-held without introducing blurring due to shaking hands. You would get more clear shots of the band at this speed and is a little more forgiving.
• 1/125th of a second is what I usually use, because it's quick enough to get a clear shot, but gives some slight blur for very fast movement so it doesn't look like the band has been somehow frozen in mid-air. On slower compact cameras, this might result in images that are too dark because it can't compensate with a wider aperture.
• 1/250th of a second should allow you to get freeze-frame moments with no blurring at all, but you'll need a very fast lens and very bright lights to get this.

3. Position and zoom

Lacuna Coil look very tiny.

There's nothing worse than getting what looks like an epic shot of the whole stage, only to look at it later and realise the band are 8 pixels tall and completely unrecognisable. Getting close is a basic rule of photography, and settling for a huge picture with a tiny person in the middle is hardly worth bothering with. Fortunately there are two main ways to deal with it.

First, you could buy a camera with a good zoom on it. Consumer level cameras with 15x or even 30x zoom at the high end are available, if you have the cash to splash. Although by the time you're spending enough to get 30x zoom you might as well buy a dSLR. But a good zoom, especially one with image stabilisation and a fast lens, is the best way to get the picture you want if you're stuck way at the back.

But what if you're not stuck way at the back, but can actually get closer? That's the second tip. Get closer. Get close enough to fill the frame with the picture you want, instead of settling for tiny images. Get right to the front if you can, although the official photographers, moshers and other people might not like it. Refer to the previous post about keeping out of the way.

4. Rapidly changing lighting

Delain are hidden behind that
unfortunately timed strobe.

This is a repeat of a suggestion I made in my last post. Rapidly changing lighting might mean that what looks great on your little screen turns out rubbish because that vital spotlight goes off just at the wrong moment, or comes on and makes everything go white. That's the nature of the beast, and you have to live with it.

Continuous shooting is the answer. In difficult lighting conditions like those, I use 3 shot continuous shooting, because the chances are that one of them will come good. I don't tend to bother reviewing the pictures in situ, because even a slightly off picture can turn out awesome, and I can generally tell if something went badly wrong and take another.

That concludes my technical tips on getting the most of out whatever camera you take along. With a little practice, good pictures should be easier, and you won't have to spend half the gig staring at the back of the camera instead of at the band.

My cameras of choice

Anathema playing O2 Academy, Sheffield
Canon EOS500D with EF 50mm f/1.8

I have two cameras I use for gig photography. The first, my dSLR, is a Canon EOS500D. A lovely camera, to be sure. Consumer level digital SLR, usually with a 50mm f/1.8 lens stuck to the front of it. No zoom, but I have feet so I can walk. I also have a 28-135mm zoom lens, but it's bloody massive so no good for the "discrete" aspect of gigs.

Unfortunately, I'm frequently banned from taking that camera to gigs. Lots of copyright laws, over-active litigation lawyers and jumpy doormen have resulted in my being escorted off the premises. Not great fun, I have to say. This is apparently because it's deemed to be a "professional" camera because the lenses come off. Be warned.

Delain playing Manchester Academy.
Fuji Finepix S5700.

Instead, I take my Fuji Finepix S5700. It's a compact, 7 megapixel consumer camera, but looks for all the world like a tiny dSLR. It's a great gig camera for many reasons. I upgraded to it from the Finepix S5100, which is also amazing if you can but find one. Some of the reasons the S5700 is so good are:

• 10x zoom, so you can get close to the action even if you're right at the back.
• Electronic viewfinder, so you can do literally everything (including accessing menus and reviewing photos) without ever turning the rear screen on.
• f/3.5 constant aperture across the zoom range. Not the fastest (the S5100 opens to f/2.8 at its widest zoom), but most zooms (even the 28-135mm on my dSLR) get slower the closer you zoom. Not this one. I've never known a compact with this feature before, and it's a lifesaver. dSLR lenses that do this can run into the hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds.
• Great ISO 1600 performance. Still noisy compared to your even low-end dSLRs, but compared to pocket-sized cameras it's still more than acceptable. And once they pictures are scaled down to internet sizes it's all but invisible.
• Full manual control, with Aperture and Shutter priority modes if you want them.
• Takes AA batteries. Never worry about the battery pack running out; just carry a 4 pack of AAs in your pocket.
• Several continuous shooting modes, including exposure bracketing, top 3, bottom 3 and full continuous shooting.
• No shutter lag. You press the button, it takes the picture. Most compact cameras have a noticeable delay between pressing the button and anything actually happening, resulting in perfectly timed shots being ruined because the subject has moved by the time the camera responds.

Quite a decent list of features. And to top it off, they can be had from eBay for about £50. The flash is a little unreliable (mine is completely broken) but for gigs that really doesn't matter. Note that I did try to "upgrade" to the apparently superior Finepix S1600. It has 15x zoom and 50% more megapixels. It's also rubbish, with a shutter lag so bad (> 0.5 second) that by the time it actually takes the picture, chances are the subject is long gone. Stick with the S5xxx range.

That pretty much tops off my list of "gig photography tips". I hope some are useful and result in some good pictures that don't ruin the whole gig experience.

Gig Photography - Etiquette

The practice of taking pictures at gigs has exploded since the advent of the pocket-sized camera and the camera-phone. Where once was a sea of cigarette lighters, instead is a sea of square blobs of light as everyone tries to capture the moment on a piece of silicon.

My view of Epica, courtesy of the guy in front of me.

There are many who are annoyed by this practice. I am one of them, to some degree, although I am more forgiving than most. Photographs I can understand; they capture a moment. Videoing the event I don't get. A live music event is right there, in front of you. If you're just going to spend the whole time faffing with a gadget only to watch it again later, without the atmosphere, lighting or volume, then what's the point even being there? Watch it on YouTube the next day instead. It's free, and you also get the added bonus of buffering.

But philosophy aside, there are practical issues that need to be dealt with. These are both social and technical. Much of the etiquette of gig photography is, or at least should be, self-evident. Basically, don't get in anybody else's way, obstruct their view, or otherwise influence the event that they have paid (with money and/or time) to see. Like everything else in life, it all boils down to "don't be a dick." Look at this guy:

He held his camera up for 20 minutes. I know that because there were big numbers on the screen counting how long his recording was. It was long enough that he had to switch arms twice because they got tired. The people behind him were tired, too. Tired of seeing the whole thing through his tiny screen.

There are some key rules that I try to stick to that, as much as possible, avoid getting in people's way. They're very simple, but apparently don't occur to most people.

1. Keep out of the way

Don't stand right in front of somebody and block their view. Try to be discreet (and, indeed, discrete). Stand to one side, or get near the front and get lower down.

I am more aware than most of this because of my height. Even when not taking pictures I have to be careful not to block other people's view. Well, I don't have to; many tall people see to have no problem with standing in front of someone 12" shorter than they are. But I do, so I avoid it.

2. Turn off the screen

Bright screens are distracting. Like fireflies flitting through the audience, they can be really irritating. And like spotlights right in your eyes, if one goes up right in front of you it can incite you to murder. Or at least pent-up frustration.

But what if your camera doesn't have a viewfinder? Well, get one that does. Or if you have one of those micro 4/3rds jobbies, get the optional add-on viewfinder. They're very nice. Alternatively, check out rule 3.

3. Be brief

I am aware that not everyone has the benefit of being 6'3", and using a viewfinder would result in lots of backs of heads. Fair enough, I wouldn't deny your picture-taking rights. But be brief. Turn it on, lift it up, frame and shoot. Then turn it off.

When you've taking your shot, avoid chimping. That is, avoid checking every single shot on the back of the camera before deciding it wasn't quite right and shooting another. In fact, best thing is to turn the picture review off altogether, otherwise you're breaking rule 2.

Instead of the usual "frame, shoot, review, frame, reshoot" cycle, use continuous shooting. Even my cheapest compact camera supports continuous burst shooting. If you can limit the number of continuous shots, set it to 3. That way you don't get too many, but the chances of catching the ever-changing lighting just right will be drastically improved.

4. Don't use the flash

Remember rule 2, about how annoying tiny little screens can be? That's magnified by bursts of very bright light from your little compact camera's flash. Especially if you forgot to turn off pre-flash and red-eye reduction. Many small cameras can flash up to 5 times for a single shot, somewhat like a strobe. Distracting, especially if you're unlucky enough to be stood next to somebody with one of those cameras.

And the problem, really, is that even if the flash goes off, it likely won't do any good. The distance between most of the audience and the band is way beyond the range of an average consumer level built-in flash. 10 feet is probably all you're realistically going to get, so anything further than that is just going to be annoying with no benefit.

Instead of flash, bump up the ISO. Most phone cameras have fixed aperture and shutter speed and use ISO control anyway, so leave that as is. Other small compacts have ISO options up to about 1600. Set it to 1600. Leave it there. The fact is that if you get some high ISO grain on a 12 megapixel image, it'll be all but invisible by the time it's scaled down to 1.5 megapixels and put on Facebook.

That's all folks

That's it. That is my list of rules for gig photography etiquette. Four simple little rules that will ensure you get a few good snaps to share with your friends, and the rest of the audience won't hate your guts for it.

Tune in next time, where I shall reveal my hints and tips for getting good pics and extol the virtues of the Fuji Finepix S5700.

Arch Enemy vs Nightwish

Been listening to the new Arch Enemy album, Khaos Legions, tonight and one track is bugging me. Yesterday Is Dead And Gone, which was released as a freebie some time before the rest of the album, bears a striking resemblance (its main riff, at least) to For The Heart I Once Had by Nightwish.

Have a listen. The first 27 seconds are Arch Enemy (released 2011), and the last 30 seconds are Nightwish (released 2007). Can't find any mention of anyone else noticing a similarity, which is ... odd.

plain mp3 version

Opeth - Heritage: Album art and Track listing

In a flurry of excitement, Opeth are releasing more and more details of their upcoming album, Heritage. It should be out in September this year, and to keep us all entertained until then, they've released some goodies.

First up is a full track listing. The titles all seem suitably Opethish and progressive, although with nothing else to go on we can only imagine. I'm assuming it'll follow Opeth tradition, with Heritage opening the album with a loud, complicated and thoroughly growly affair before calming down later on. All speculation at this point, though.

1. Heritage
2. The Devil's Orchard
3. I Feel The Dark
4. Slither
5. Nepenthe
6. Haxprocess
7. Famine
8. The Lines In My Hand
9. Folklore
10. Marrow Of The Earth

The other titbit  to ogle is the album art, again produced by the illustrious and illustrative Travis Smith. See what you think to this:

Click for big

How's about that, then, eh? It's certainly ... um ... not what I was expecting. Pretty cool in an incredibly progressive sort of way. Not sure what the heads in the tree is all about, and the odd little two-face devil seems to imply something. Not sure what, but something. The burning city and the queue of people must be ... something. Picking heads? Discarding skulls? Is it in any way a biblical allegory? I honestly don't know. 

Still, it's pretty. I suppose we'll have to find out what the songs listed in that lovely track listing are actually about before we can even begin to figure this one out.