A Message to France...

Dear Paris,

You're not very metal so far. The only trace of your love for our sacred music has been a stout devotee in an Iron Maiden shirt. Consider stepping up your game.

Yours truly,
The Metal Advisor

In all seriousness though, the search for metal hasn't been successful thus far. I'll be stepping into a jazz club in the next couple of nights - there's certainly no drought of music. Just metal. Cross your fingers, and pray along with me that some will appear!

Epic Mailday!

Good mailday, folks.

I finally gave up on searching for the new Skeletonwitch album in stores, so I ended up nabbing it off Amazon. I couldn't resist grabbing a few other albums with it - let's see what I got.

The first record, Vader's Welcome to Morbid Reich, has been on my list since I heard a cut from the tracklisting a few months ago. Actually, these Polish death metallers have been on my radar for a few years now because they're one of the old school death metal bands everyone tells you to check out; it just took me a little longer to get around to doing it. You know how it is: there's endless sea of great music to get sidetracked with. And boy, does this record slay. I suppose the cover art fits the title nicely, but the Nazi-inspired theme gives me the creeps. Vader isn't Neo-Nazi in any way, however, and the old school vibe to the art is nice. Purchase success!


Going against my personally set morals, I downloaded the new Skeletonwitch record because I couldn't find it in any store within reasonable driving distance. Shame on me. Typically, I'm against all forms of downloading for one reason or another (You've read my posts ranting on the subject. I'll spare you this time.), but I'll tell you, I was dying to hear the Forever Abomination. The 'witch doesn't have a bad release to their name, and this record isn't any different. Glad I finally have a physical copy of it because those sweet, sweet Lossless files will sound glorious through my audio setup. 

The next record was a blind buy - well, I take that back. Not quite. I sampled a few of the tracks on Amazon and liked what I heard: pure Dissection worship. Sometimes a band's imitation of another doesn't come out as satisfactory as one might hope, but all the goods are firmly in place with this one. Dissection ain't around anymore either, so Thulcandra's Under a Frozen Sun is a worthy successor.




I decided to add another Chthonic album to my collection too. It's a face melter. I can definitely see why people said the band toned down their sound on the latest upon giving Seediq Bale my first listen through. Even though it still has the recognizable Chthonic sound, there's an upped sense of aggressiveness and drive Takasago Army seems to lack. In other words, it's primarily black metal, something the latest only has in minimal doses. Mirror of Retribution clearly bridges the gap between the two stylistically.

That's it, guys. Hopefully I get a chance to review one of them before I head to Europe.
The Metal Advisor

King Diamond and Mercyful Fate Blabbering

Man, oh man. I leave for France soon. Guess I better get another post or two in, huh?

To be honest with you, I'm not quite sure what I want to write about tonight. After I included Abigail in the five heavy metal albums to hear before you die, my interest in King Diamond and Mercyful Fate naturally peaked, a bit closer to their original levels when I first discovered them. For whatever reason, I'm having this weird flashback to a core group of heavy metal albums that helped establish my taste in music; King Diamond's Them was there, along with Meryful Fate's Don't Break the Oath. It almost seems like it was a dream - that was a dang long time ago. How time flies.

In any case, King called Mercyful Fate home before he went on to establish his highly successful and influential solo project. He would have other flings with Mercyful fate, and though they are usually very good, they don't match up to the first two records the band released, and they don't entirely showcase the best they had to offer. Sometimes they sound a tad tired, if you get my drift. I'm not exactly sure which of the two I favor either, but they both offer a surprisingly high number of gems metal fans can feast on in their quest to discover more music.

Now I'm just hoping King can get well enough and/or find enough time to release some music. His last release, Give Me Your Soul.... Please, gives me some fond memories of 2007 when it was released. I used to crank that baby in my car as I drove to and from high school, but going back to it now, it doesn't have the same appeal. Maybe that's because I compared it to his other releases, namely the older ones. I may not listen to those records as much as I used to, but I still hold the utmost respect for what the man did for metal with those albums. Does he really have a bad album to his name anyway?

KIIIIINNNNNNG! We're all eagerly awaiting your next album!
The Metal Advisor

Five Heavy Metal Albums You Should Hear Before You Die

This one has been a long time in the making because heavy metal is one of my favorite subgenres. This ain't no big thang for me to do because this type of music was my intro to the metal world and will forever hold a special place in my heart.

1. Rest assured, you were going to see Powerslave as the sole representation of Maiden here, but since I've already blabbered about it everywhere else, another classic will suffice. While Iron Maiden certainly has a surplus of excellent albums to their name, Somewhere in Time is a particularly flawless release from the band, in both song writing and in new elements introduced to keep their formula fresh. 1986 saw the integration of guitar synths, which you either really love or really hate; they give a unique feel to the music with their flangey textures and add an assertive heaviness decidedly absent on previous records - see "Sea of Madness" for an example. Somewhere in Time is home to a number of Maiden classics, but the best tracks are assuredly the ones that don't always get the top spotlight. "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" and "Deja Vu" are must hears before you pass your soul on to the metal gods.

2. What's a heavy metal list without Judas Priest? It's likely expected an '80s release or the coveted Painkiller might make this list but, nope, Priest's '70s output is the best, everything else paling in comparison. It's a tough choice because their records from the 1970s are the most passionate pieces of music the band has to their name, and similarly the most metal. From here on out, it's a toss up between Stained Class and Sad Wings of Destiny, but the latter ultimately prevails because it features "Tyrant," my favorite Priest song. Of course, you can't go wrong with either release, and I highly recommend you add them both to your listening list.

3. Oh man, with Maiden and Priest out of the way, what could possibly be left? Plenty, that's for sure. The next album on the list comes from a Dane who calls America his home. Any guesses? No? King Diamond, that's who. The man has a string of excellent albums to his name, making the decision brutal, and my pick might seem a bit cliché to those who know his discography well, but Abigail comes out on top because it encapsulates what heavy metal is and should mean. Over the top falsetto vocals, zesty guitar riffs, melodious lead work, and stampeding double bass? Yes please with an order of classic King Diamond horror on the side. 

4. Two slots left. Three classics out of the way. I'll go with a favorite here. Queensrÿche's self-titled EP, though a little on the short side, is essential listening for any metalhead. I actually thought about including The Warning instead, but the self-titled's rawness and additional charisma is perfect for this list, something the former lacks because it's a bit more polished. Queensrÿche features a young band in search of their trademark sound; much of the record is Iron Maiden worship (same with The Warning), but it is a fantastic collection of music in its own right. Queensrÿche wouldn't find their proto-progressive sound until Rage for Order.


5. Uno más... Throwin' a curveball with this one: Savatage's Hall of the Mountain King. I'm in total agreement that the production sounds extremely dated, but it isn't the music, so you can get over it. Hall of the Mountain King is home base for such classics "Beyond the Doors of the Dark," the self-titled track, and "White Witch." But really, the whole album is perfect, arguably the climax of the band's career. The Oliva bros and co. are in prime form on this one. Nab on next record shopping spree. You'll thank me.



 
That's a wrap; this will get you started with traditional heavy metal. Explore past this list because there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of albums you'll want to supplement these with.

Happy listening,
The Metal Advisor

TMA Random Playlist Mash Ups

Remember that playlist I was gonna throw together, but never got around to? Sorry about that.

I'm headed to France in t-minus six days, so the plan was/is to have a little fun this weekend, and then take the rest of my time easy. I'm spending a reasonably quiet Saturday night relaxing, sipping green tea (my favorite), and listening to my favorite tunes. Now is as good a time as any to throw some mash ups together. My goal is to divide the playlists into sections by genre or subgenre, 10 songs in each, and then you can mix and match them as you please. I figure it will be something fun, and you might get introduced to new music in the process. Most everything is on a whim, a random choice from the melting pot of music.

I should probably post some good stuff before I'm out of commission for a week partying in Europe anyway. I'll do heavy/trad., thrash, and death metal this round. Others will appear in the future.

-TMA

Heavy / Traditional Metal

Iron Maiden - "Powerslave"

Judas Priest - "White Heat, Red Hot"

Bible of the Devil - "Ol' Girl"

Hell - "On Earth as it is in Hell"

Riot - "Swords and Tequila"

Matakopas - "Thoughts"

Aftershok - "Against the Rage"

Victim - "Sinderella"

Torch - "Beauty and the Beast"

Leatherwolf - "The Hook"

Thrash Metal
Demolition Hammer - "Aborticide"
Dark Angel - "Time Does Not Heal"
Sadus - "In Your Face"
Artillery - "By Inheritance"
Deliverance - "Greetings of Death"
Phantom Witch - "Necromancer's Curse"
Overkill - "Time to Kill"
Kreator - "World Beyond"
Morbid Saint - "Damien"
Coroner - "Masked Jackal"

Death Metal
Gorguts - Bodily Corrupted"
Morbid Angel - "Maze of Torment"
Hooded Menace - "Terror Castle"
Novembers Doom - "The Dark Host"
Evocation - "Tomorrow has No Sunrise" 
Blood Red Throne - "The Light, the Hate"
God Dethroned - "Passiondale"
Malevolent Creation - "Coronation of Our Domain"
Pestilence - "Stigmatized"
Bolt Thrower - "Return from Chaos"

Metal Classic: Iron Maiden "Aces High"

As you know, school can be killer. It was last week. And this week. Hopefully it's kinder in the coming days.

For now, give this classic metal anthem a listen. You can't go wrong with it.

Until tomorrow,
The Metal Advisor

Take a Break with Immolation

I actually have a few minutes to take a little study respite, so I'll pass along the newest Immolation video for "Illumination" off their newest EP Providence. Check it out. It ain't too bad despite being somewhat cheesy.

-TMA

Review: LIL - Lips in Lush

*GASP!* Yeah, I know. You weren't expecting me to include something that isn't metal or hard rock in my blog. Well, you should probably get used to it because traces of other genres pop up every now and then in my posting history.

The fact of the matter is, my obsession with electronic music is at an all time high, showing little to no signs of fading any time soon. At the moment, various types of house are reining champs beacuse they offer a complete listening addiction, a congenial flavor I can't exactly pinpoint, but I'm a-okay with that because I love the music's sound. I've always liked house - the heavy kick drum, intoxicating melodies, and sweeping vocal lines, but it's taken me three years to get up off my butt to finally explore the scene. I blame the electronic music class I took in high school because it piqued my interest in computer-generated sounds, and how actual music could be crafted from it. It really is a fascinating phenomenon because it's almost as if the computer is making the music for you, but you're the brains behind the operation, telling it what to do. ...oh wait, that's how it works. And three years later I have FL Studio 10 in my hands attempting to create my own house tracks. This is madness.

But I digress. You're probably wondering exactly who LIL are. To you, I'm probably just some crazy hipster hiding behind a computer screen. I mean, geez, who the heck is LIL anyway? You'll find out. You're just going to have to wait beacuse I want to outline my recent "ELECTRO MADNESS," and how it brought me to LIL.

LIL = electro hipsters?

As I've said before, summer break resulted in an awakening of sorts in regards to music. On the reg, I would listen to numerous subgenres of metal, various types of rock, and a select few other genres, but I wasn't really open-minded toward nearly every type of music as I am now. I suppose you could say I was diverse, but only within the personal boundaries I had created for myself. One of my hobbies is to surf the net for new music, and one night, as I usually set aside some time to do, I did just that. Whatever the heck I did to discover a Korean pop group composed of nine women is beyond me, but I did, and I found myself particularly drawn to the electronic soundtrack, which was the basis for many of their songs. 소녀시대 (or Girls' Generation for you plebeian English readers) was my addiction for a few months, but ultimately something had to give, and I upped my game and moved on to real electronic music because I wanted to play with the big boys. Girls' Generation was certainly a good gateway, as I was reminded of how much I love the soothing, yet sometimes freaky sounds of modern electronic music.

The train's next stop was Japan at the mind of Yasutaka Nakata (who happens to be my favorite producer) with his project called capsule, who he "runs" with a long time friend. The duo creates some of most enthralling pieces of house music I've had the chance to hear, in part because the majority of their material doesn't ever feel tedious, no needless repetition a chunk of contemporary electronic music is guilty of. Nakata's melodies run circles around many other artists, embedding themselves in your brain for days, in my case months on end. As you probably expect, I was addicted to capsule for an illogical amount of time, but I ended up stumbling across LIL while messing around on Last.fm, resulting in the write up you're reading right now. Past LIL, I've gotten into even more artists and genres of music I wouldn't have even considered a few years ago (jazz-hop, anyone?). I'll admit the journey has been a peculiar one.

(What a bizarre clip. Too bad the song is cut down for the video, many of the good parts left out. The full version is much better.)

LIL's Lips in Lush isn't the kind of record you can waltz into Best Buy and purchase because the duo has never released their music in the US. Searching online yields few results unless you know where to look. Imports are fun.That's not why I enjoy it though, so stop calling me a hipster, alright?

Good. Now that that's past us, I can get to the real meat of the record. Musically, Lips in Lush might appear to be some sort of generic dance music, but once you've thoroughly dug past its somewhat stereotypical exterior, you find it isn't quite what you expected. The album happens to be the duo's debut, an impressive one at that because TSUGE is positively brilliant at lacing an addicting melody line together. If I didn't know any better, I'd believe it if someone told me he's been making music for years. The influence of acid house, electro house, and house rule supreme for the record's 44 minute duration, but time comes and goes in the blink of the eye because there's no unnecessary repetition, over usage of melodies, or boring moments. All sorts of odd, unsettling noises manifest themselves throughout the compositions, though depending on your tastes and/or experience with the subgenre, this won't be a problem at all. Personally, I found acid house, or at least elements of it easy to digest, jumping onto the LIL bandwagon with no issues.

Through capsule and by association LIL, I've discovered I favor a female vocalist in the majority of my electronic music because of their extended vocal range and lighter, lusher (see what I did there?) voices. ucio's voice is anything but that; her vocal delivery is quite mesmerizing, a rich, deep tonality to it I totally wasn't expecting, so LIL feels fairly fresh among other female-fronted groups. Her accent is rather charming because if you weren't listening closely you might mistake her for a native English speaker. Nevertheless, she has her fair share of odd pronunciations, but, on the whole, she does a very good job of wading her way through the language barrier, especially on a record largely written in English (though she demonstrates unmatched English writing skills on her Twitter!). She might be a tad lacking in the higher register as well, but she easily makes up for any deficiencies through charisma and personality, setting her apart from other female vocalists who generally have have a higher edge to their vocals. Part of LIL's allure can be attributed to the uniqueness of her delivery, and without her, the music runs the risk of being written off as nothing more than Western-inspired electro, no matter how good it is.

Lips in Lush is literally a fillerless listen, although "Flashback Love" is the weakest song on the album because it lacks the spark and drive of the other tracks. The record opens strongly with the self-titled instrumental which serves as a lead in to the single from the album "Me, Too." Apparently "Me, Too" and "Lesson One" charted on iTunes upon the record's release, though I imagine that was limited to Japan because the average fan of electronic music has no idea who LIL is. Heck, I can't even pick a favorite song from the album - it's that dang good. It's too bad they really toned it down on their second release, Synchronize, which seems to focus on pop, rather than electronic.

Hipster jokes aside, I think I've rambled enough on this release. If you couldn't tell by how much I wrote, I'm pretty damn passionate for Lips in Lush because it's one of those records that comes around once in a blue moon and sweeps you off your feet. It doesn't just have a handful of good songs - it has a plethora of enjoyable tracks, every composition painstakingly written with thought to melody, no ounce of filler or any minute wasted on second rate material. I was going to tell you to head on over to iTunes so you could give the record a try, but, sadly, the American iTunes doesn't have Lips in Lush for purchase. You'll have to actively search the record out then. I mean, it can't be too expensive, right? If it is, it's worth it. Trust me.

Houston, we have a problem. Even my metal reviews aren't this lengthy.
The Metal Advisor

Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I (1987)

I love the cover art.

Despite positive reviews all around the net for Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I, I can't say I've ever found any fondness in my heart for the album, especially when the band's earlier and later works are much more aggressive and have the punch the first part of trio lacks. That's not to say the record doesn't have its fair share of distinguished tracks because it sure does; I suppose my main beef with the record lies with the memorability factor, the one thing that keeps me coming back to albums over and over. When I'm listening to Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I, I can undoubtedly find something to enjoy about it, but only when I'm actually spinning the music--once the songs come and go, I can't remember what I've heard. Let's just say it brings the itch, but leaves nothing to scratch it with, so I look elsewhere to fulfill my needs. I realize this was/is a groundbreaking and influential album, but it leaves something to be desired, especially when other power metal bands like the highly speed and thrash-influenced movement in the United States presented themselves as force to be reckoned with (They brought the destructive, addictive goods!). But that's just it. Helloween was developing the Euro power metal sound, which was much different than the USPM movement of the United States.

I suspect I'm definitely biased toward the more aggressive side of power metal, but there should still be something to enjoy about Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I. And there is, but I'm torn between too many downfalls of the album. For starters, the production is weak and doesn't accurately represent the power the music has behind it. A bit more potency would go a long way with the record, in part due to the heavy guitar riffs and the occasional battering ram drumming that should theoretically be up in a listener's face. All the right ingredients are there, but they don't get a chance to come out from under the cloak thrown over them. Obviously, one never gets this sense of power either beacuse it's black-holed into oblivion. Although I generally find most of the song writing very good, the occasional section will drag on and on and on, only beckoning me to proclaim it as filler. Arguably a Helloween classic, "A Little Time" is a great track up until the midsection with the ticking clock, and in a similar vein, segments of "Halloween" come off as tedious and boring, forcing me to switch the track or press the button for a little FF action until I'm back to a section that doesn't make me want to put my head down and sleep.

The production and drudgy song writing combined with a total lack of aggression to make me come back to Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I easily push it off the contender list for best Helloween album. While the record was indeed my introduction to the band, I can't remember exactly liking it at the time or playing it repeatedly as any good newbie fan to a band should. I neglected to purchase any more albums from the act for the longest time too: thank god I decided to check out their earlier and later work because a good chunk of it is utterly fantastic and are something most metal fans do not want to miss out on. However, I must say the overall opinion toward Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I is normally very optimistic. You'll likely find something to enjoy about it.

Favorite tracks include "I'm Alive" and "Twilight of the Gods."

-TMA