Jester's Funeral "Labyrinth" Review

So, you might remember me mentioning in a previous post that I was wanting to do a review of all of Death Angel's albums after their reunion and that it'd not take me long to get the review done?

Well, I'd reckoned without my own ability to get curious about stuff. However, this one has a valid reason behind it! See, I was bored and decided to look up the history of Van Canto and these guys happened to appear in the previous bands of the members of Van Canto (specifically, of Stefan Schmidt). Being curious, I looked them up and I happened to notice you could get their fourth (and last) album for free on bandcamp. So I went there and, upon noticing that all of their albums were available for whatever you wanted to pay for them, I opted to get all of them for free (partially because I have no spare cash). And I'm going to review all four of them to see whether they're worth checking out or whether it wasn't worth getting them, even for free! Also, considering how unknown these guys are compared to Death Angel, I figured it would be worth giving these guys some publicity. Do I think they'd reunite after these reviews? Considering Schmidt is now doing his Heavatar project in between his work with Van Canto and I'm very much a small voice on the Internet who does this in his free time, I highly doubt it, but that's not going to stop me from giving these guys a review! If this gets a particularly positive reaction, then I might just dig into the other bands with connections to Van Canto, like Deadly Sin and Fading Starlight, and maybe even dig into Van Canto themselves after I've done that!

Anyway, Jester's Funeral were a German power metal band who formed in 1996, were signed before 1999 (at the very least, that's when their first album came out) and disbanded in 2006, having released four albums. Stefan Schmidt was the band's vocalist and guitarist, and another face that you might recognise if you're a Van Canto fan is their drummer, Bastian Emig. For this album, the band's line up was completed by keyboardist Nic Kobold (who played on the rest of their albums as well), bassist Holger Wies (who played on the follow up album QuickSilverLight as well) and guitarist Heiko Höhn (who also played on QuickSilverLight). None of these guys, to my knowledge, have played with any other bands since they left Jester's Funeral, but Kobold was one of the guitarists of Solitude (not the more famous metalcore band that were formed in 2006) between 2001 and 2005 and possibly played on their 2005 album Alteration (nothing I've seen says whether he did play on it or not).

The album artwork for their 1999 debut album, Labyrinth, is...interesting, to say the least. The jesters look like they want to kill you, which is actually a bit of a terrifying thought if you have a fear of clowns, and they remind me a little bit of the artwork for Tank's album Filth Hounds Of Hades. The colour combinations are interesting, but I have to comment that the colour combination reminds me more than a bit of the artwork of Felipe Machado, who seems to have this thing for blue and orange that is starting to wear thin on me today. I don't know whether he did this artwork or not, but the popularity of this colour combination has really started to bug me, as it's being used everywhere and it's stopped feeling exciting or new now to me. However, since the artwork is from before this trend really took off, I can't really complain too much about it.

Also, the jesters on it reminds me of Fergus from the second Pandemonium game, for some reason.

Fun fact: this game came out in 1997.

Anyway, I've chatted about the artwork long enough. Let's start reviewing this album!

First up, we have a somewhat atmospheric intro track, with the title of "Intro" (how imaginative...). If you've heard a power metal album before now, you know what to expect here. I will say that there's some nice keyboards on it, though. Nothing especially technically demanding, but it fits the atmospheric sound that you'd expect from an intro and is also quite a nice build up to the next track on the album.

The first actual track on the album is called "The One Worth Dying For". I know it's the first actual song on the album, but I'm already getting the impression that these guys are basically Edguy without the humour, a less theatrical vocalist and generally weaker songwriting. That's not completely a bad thing, but it doesn't really leave me with much to say beyond maybe "Eh, it's OK" if you pushed me for something. They also don't have quite the same catchy hooks that Edguy do, but I can let that slide for this album, as it's only their debut and the band would have been still finding their feet on it. I do like the keyboard riff at the beginning and the replaying of it on the guitar sounds pretty nice, but the rest seems like it doesn't translate very well on the record. I can imagine this going down very well live, but, on record, it's nothing special. I also think Schmidt's voice could have done with being a bit higher in the mix, but that's probably nitpicking, as he's still understandable. The song just seems to be one that goes in one ear and out of the other, with the only thing that really sticks in your head being the chorus of the song, which doesn't even last that long!

Next up is "Shadowtaker". While it does have a solid main riff that is quite enjoyable, I'm sorry to have to say that the song mostly feels like "The One Worth Dying For" all over again, only the chorus isn't even that catchy. While some artists can come up with hooks that you'll be singing from your first listen and some artists can come up with hooks that, once you let them sink in, will never leave your head, it seems that Jester's Funeral don't have either gift, at least at this point. They just plod along, hoping to stumble upon a catchy hook to give the song a great chorus. Which, unfortunately, leaves me wondering whether to break out the coffee...

Next up is "Fear Of Fear" (which does NOT have any connection to the third Harry Potter book: I just checked their release dates and the album came out a few months before the book did). Again, this has a solid riff, but the rest just doesn't really come together to make a great song. There's some solid drumming on this, though!

...Sorry, I'm taking a coffee break before I continue. I've been listening for over twelve minutes of the album's run time for over forty minutes (all of the songs on repeat a few times on the off chance I've misjudged them and to check whether my original opinions of them still stands...) and I'm bored stiff already. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves or put on this bit of music while I'm gone.

...OK, I'm back. For some bizarre reason, I'm now wondering when there's going to be a millennium item in the shape of a coffee mug...OK, enough digressions, back to the album!

The next track is "Jester's Funeral". And, I have to say, this one starts out very nicely! The riff is, again, very solid and the drumming is solid. I think the big issue that drags this song down is, again, the fact that this doesn't really have a strong enough hook to keep you interested in this song. However, they do manage to capture the mournful tone you'd expect from a song title like that and the nice bit of blues influence in the bass playing can keep you going for a bit if you like that kind of thing. It could have done with a MUCH stronger hook for the chorus, though! I also find that Stefan Schmidt's voice is still not holding my interest much at this point. Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad vocalist, but the guy just isn't keeping me engaged in the music, which is not good news when you consider that power metal is pretty much known for incredibly good vocalists (see Michael Kiske, Khan, Matt Barlow, Russell Allen, Jorn Lande, Tony Kakko and...actually, that's a long enough list to start you off with!) and it kind of shows that the guy isn't capable of standing up to those guys by any measure. Heck, I'd say that Tobias Sammet of Edguy and Avantastia is still in a bigger league than Schmidt, as he can at least be entertaining to listen to because of how over the top he can get!

So, we finally reach the halfway point of the album with "Devil Die". And, to be honest, the only thing that really stops this song from being the best song on the album at this point is the chorus. It's probably the worst chorus the band have come up with yet, as it's just a repetition of one phrase and a lower, harsher voice saying the song's title. Which seems a bit lacking in terms of creativity and is also not especially memorable. Apart from that? It's got solid riffing, enjoyable bass (by power metal standards), great drums and the vocals even start to sound interesting (indeed, as much as the harsher vocals are poorly used in the song, their appearance is welcomed at this point, as it's something new!), so that's a huge improvement from the previous songs. Still not enough to really recommend it, but it's certainly been the best song up to now.

Track seven, "Hands Of Time", suffers from the same problems that "Shadowmaker" did, only it goes on for an extra minute and a half. It's got a great riff, but, if you've got so little to keep your interest going up to this point, it stops feeling like you're listening to something and like you're taking part in a marathon just to get to the end: at the beginning, it doesn't feel so bad, but then it all starts to hit you and all you can do is keep going, hoping that something is going to happen to make you go "Wow, this is looking up!"

"The Assassin" follows up. Surprisingly, this track is not too bad! It doesn't need to stretch to the near five minutes run time it has, but it's mostly a very solid track that, had it been cut down by at least a minute, I'd have called the highlight of the album so far. Sadly, the amount of time it runs on for means that you've usually got bored before it ends. I also think the chorus could have done with a bit of shortening, but that's probably just me. So yeah...overly long, but there was the potential for a great song in here!

The follow up is also the longest track on the album, "Pilgrim's Path". No matter how much I listen to this track, most of it just stubbornly refuses to remain stuck in my head beyond one tiny section of vocals in the chorus. So yeah, not an especially memorable song.

The tenth track is "Graveyard". At this point, you can probably guess what I'm going to say...and you'd be right. It's got a good riff and some strong drumming, but the rest of it is just...there. You could really just sum this album up with that phrase: it's just there. Not bad enough to get any real dislike for it, but not good enough that you could really grow to like the album for the material on it.

Next up is "Mirror". And oh, how I wish that it was as good as Blind Guardian's song "Mirror Mirror". But nope! Same complaints again. Really, do you need me at this point?

And, to finally close on this marathon of boredom, we have "A New Moonrise". Surprisingly, this one DOES have an enjoyable chorus! Not as strong as power metal demands, but it's not too bad. Throw in  a strong riff and, well, you get a passable song. Nothing revolutionary and certainly too little too late for me to recommend this album, but enough to at least say that I found something on this worth a listen.

Well...at this point, there's nothing more I really need to say about the music. I've said it all already. However, I really can't carry on without commenting on the musicians. Well, they're certainly capable of playing their instruments, but it seems like they don't really have the songwriting ability (at least on this album) to take them to the next level. Like I mentioned earlier, they're basically Edguy without the strong songwriting and the humour. And with a guy who seems to have a fondness for early Metallica on vocals instead of Tobias Sammet.

In terms of production, I think it could have done with some slightly louder mixing for the vocals and the bass is a bit too quiet overall, but it's all pretty well done. No real complaints there. Unfortunate that the material wasn't up to a particularly high standard...

So, at the end of the day, as much as I would love to say that these guys are a highly under appreciated band who you really deserve to check out, the sad truth is that this just isn't strong enough to really justify purchasing. If you want to get the album off of bandcamp, then you'd probably be best advised to only pay for it if you have listened to it somewhere else and found the album to be worth putting money down. If you are wondering whether to purchase this album...I wouldn't advise it unless you're a HUGE power metal fan, truth be told. There's nothing here that you won't hear done a lot better by a lot of other power metal bands. Maybe you'll find something I didn't in this album, but, for me, it boils down to two BIG issues: as a debut, it fails to deliver strong enough material to really make me want to pay attention to these guys and, as a listening experience, it's far too dull to really recommend. If you're a Van Canto fan, then it's an interesting listen, but not one that I reckon you'll be spinning for more than a few weeks.

Final rating: 4 out of 10

Not a bad album, but a very dull one. Unless you have a lot of patience and determination, I would recommend skipping this one.

(Behind the scenes note: over the course of writing this review (and not just in the actual review itself, although that was actually the point where I gave up in search of coffee for a bit...), I kept getting sidetracked by literally everything else I could get sidetracked by. Master procrastinator at work or so bored that I needed to keep getting something else to keep me going? You make the call!)

Promotions Of Friends Works (You Know, If You're Curious...)

Yeah, you can kind of guess this isn't going to be one of my usual things. However, I figured it might be nice to share what some of my friends are doing on the internet and give you guys a chance to go check them out. If you like their stuff, then give them a subscribe. If not...well, at least you gave them a go!

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzjHNU-wUG6QTwO8u8ZGv-w (who I am currently involved in doing part of the Skyrim LP with, along with the other two guys who run the channels I'm about to link you to: I'm the low voice git quoting "I Am The Walrus" in the test)

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQoEJsTft9M_fHhxyWFgFSg (who helped proofread some of my first articles for my blog and who I may be helping out with some on his reviews in the future, although that's not confirmed yet...watch that channel and I'll confirm what I did with it in the future!)

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChi7AnG4KwHU1JlTXW5uMdA

And yes, I'm well aware that those guys mostly do gaming related stuff and I mostly talk about music. To be honest, it's more because I listen to a lot more music than I play games that this blog is mostly related to music reviews and rants involving it: I'd love to do some gaming news in the future, but I just don't keep up to date with it, as I'm not a hardcore gamer these days! Heck, the most recently released game that I've purchased, as far as I can recall, was AC3, which I found to be pretty enjoyable, for the most part...hmm, maybe I'll do a video review of that one some time in the future, assuming I can figure out how to record gameplay footage off of my PS3 and get a decent sound recording software! Anyone with any tips on that one, feel free to comment!

Oh, and you didn't get those links from me...*wink* *wink*

If you don't want to follow those links and think I need to stick with what I usually do, then expect normal service to be resumed before the end of the week. I've got a few articles I want to get done, including one that is going to review all of Death Angel's albums after their reunion in 2001...might get that one done for next week, actually, as I think it's one that'll not take me a huge amount of time to finish off once I get the actual review parts done. I'm not promising anything regarding that one in case I don't get it done, though!

(Also, as a note in advance, I might be doing a few video reviews in the future. I'm currently working on a script for a review of the Yu-Gi-Oh 10th anniversary film in a style somewhat similar to a typical Nostalgia Critic episode, which I'm hoping to do with the other three guys. While I have the "wonderful" ability to not get something finished once I start it (the words "Judas Priest" are probably going to be etched upon my tombstone at this rate...), I will do my best to get this particular project completely written before 2015 and aim to film it all sometime before the summer of 2015. If you're interested in the project, for some reason, I'd be happy to give updates on it! If you're not...well, at least you know that I'm working on something and it's hopefully going to be a lot of fun to get it done!)

Anthrax "Aftershock: The Island Years 1985-1990" Box Set Review

A lot of people will know who Anthrax are. Who could you not, considering they're one of the Big 4 of thrash metal? Yet it would be true to say that they're somewhat trapped in the shadows cast by the other members of the Big 4 (Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer), for Anthrax never really tends to win arguments whenever you get people asking "Who is the best member of the Big 4?" If anything, they'll usually get placed at the bottom of the list, often with many remarks about why some other band should have been in the Big 4 instead of them (which I've already ranted about on this blog, but, for the benefit of those who don't want to read it, I'll say only this: it was never intended as a term to indicate that they were the four BEST thrash metal bands, it was intended as a term to indicate that they were the four MOST POPULAR thrash metal bands. Note the difference between the two...). And...well, I'll admit, I never really got why Anthrax got so big. Yeah, they had a more light hearted (pre-Persistance Of Time) take on thrash and strong melodic vocals rather than the more typical yells you get in thrash, but I never felt that they had the strong music to back them up. However, I did enjoy Worship Music when it came out and I still enjoy giving it a spin every now and then, so I figured it would be a good idea to pick this up, especially since I lost my original copy of Among The Living. Was it worth the purchase? For me, yes, as it made me realise that I'd misjudged the band. For someone else, though? Well...it's gonna really depend on whether you're already approaching this box set as an already established fan or not.

In terms of the set itself (so, focusing on the way the set is arranged and whatnot, not focusing on the actual musical contents), I have to admit that I come away from this feeling a bit unimpressed. The artwork on the front is not really that interesting and doesn't really scream "Anthrax!" at you...unless you count the band name on the cover, of course! I'm probably nitpicking, but I would have expected artwork that was more typical of what you'd expect from the band, not the blue background you get with this. The albums are not in slipcases, which will probably please more than a few people, but...well, the best way to describe it would be to say that, if you've seen the inside of Queen's Platinum Collection, you know what to expect on the inside of the box set. If you haven't, you basically have the discs placed in your usual disc holder thing in CD cases, but you have them inside the case. It's a rather neat idea, but, if one of the disc holder things falls apart, you're doing to have no way to safely store the disc. The liner notes have some grammar issues (some spaces missing and a few letters missing from words) and, annoyingly, do not provide the lyrics to the albums! This is definitely nitpicking, but I hate it when lyrics are left out of liner notes, as it makes me feel like no effort was put into the liner notes! Apart from those issues, you've got everything you could ask for from the liner notes and the casing, while arguably a little bit disappointing, is perfectly fine to store the albums.

We next move to the contents on the albums themselves. Well, you do get the albums as they were originally released (including the Japanese bonus track for Persistence Of Time, which is nice), which is definitely a good start! My issue is with the bonus materials on the album. For Spreading The Disease, you get nothing extra on the disc, just the original album. Erm...why? If there wasn't enough space on the other albums for some of the stuff (there's some missing stuff from that time, apparently), why not shuffle some of it onto this disc? And, if there wasn't anything else that could go onto the disc (which is a lie), then why keep this disc completely free of extras? It seems to be a waste of good disc space to me. You also don't get either of Anthrax's rap metal songs, which is really odd when you consider just how well known those songs are! You do get instrumental versions of them, but why not give us the actual songs? Regarding the sound quality of the albums, they haven't been remastered for this set. Which is a bit disappointing on some levels, but is a bit of a blessing in disguise on others, as they don't have the brick-walling problem that ruins a lot of albums today. They stand up fairly well next to modern metal albums (at the very least, I don't notice a particularly huge difference in volume when I go from Persistence Of Time to Worship Music), but I don't find them uncomfortable to listen to.

So, you probably get the idea from this that the box set is not going to appeal to any Anthrax die hards, as it probably won't contain any material you don't already have and doesn't have the potential advantage of a remaster. For the casual fan who just wants to get the albums and doesn't necessarily care about getting everything? This is worth picking up. I've looked quite a few times on amazon to see how cheaply I can get Anthrax's classic line up albums and, well, this is genuinely the cheapest option. It's also a bit of a steal on some levels if you think about it: you can get this for about £12 at the minute on amazon, which works out to about £3 an album, along with some extra stuff that you might want thrown in. It's not a lot cheaper than ordering the albums separately if you look at their cheapest prices (and factor in postage costs, before people say I can't do maths), so it's great if you don't have the albums already! If you do, then there's unfortunately no reason to pick this up, as the bonus tracks aren't really strong enough to justify a repurchase.

So, once again, I'm going to have to split up the ratings for this box set. It's not something I would normally want to do, but it seems like this might become a thing if I'm reviewing something as a fan of something!

Rating (established fans): 5 out of 10
Rating (non-established fans): 8.5 out of 10

For the die hard fan, there is little reason to purchase this. Nothing really new here to justify purchasing it, but it might be worth it if you want to trade old copies up to CD, as it's fairly comfortably mastered compared to modern standards. If you're not familiar with the band (for some bizarre reason...what rock have you been living under to miss these guys, anyway?) and want to pick up their classic line up stuff in one fell swoop, then get this. It doesn't contain everything the band has done with the line up on the label, but it contains their studio albums, which is arguably the point of the set. Would have preferred the inclusion of the rap metal songs (as much as I'm not a fan of rap in general), as the missing stuff does make it less of an essential purchase, but it's not enough to stop me from saying that a person who wants to explore Anthrax in more detail should pick this up.

As for my thoughts on the individual albums (since I figured that there's not a lot of point of talking about the actual albums and scoring them as part of the review of the box set), I would say that Spreading The Disease and Among The Living are the two that you're probably going to be listening to the most (partially because they are both pretty much the two albums that most thrash fans will say are Anthrax's classic albums and partially because they have Anthrax's strongest material), although I do enjoy Persistence Of Time from my listens to it. State Of Euphoria is a bit dull to me, but I know quite a few Anthrax fans find it a very underrated record, so that might just be me being a grumpy git on that one. If you've never listened to Anthrax before (and you don't want to pick this up, for some reason), I'd recommend you go for either Spreading The Disease or Among The Living. Among The Living is the more better known, due to how much of the material is on Anthrax's live setlists, but Spreading The Disease has the more underrated classics, such as "The Enemy". Persistence Of Time would be good to follow up with if you don't like the more light hearted tone (for thrash standards) of ATL and STD, although I do recommend some patience with the first half of it, as it's all made up of songs over the six minute mark (which is something that normally bores me, since it makes the first half of the album a chore to listen to unless it's very well done...). State Of Euphoria is not an album I'd really recommend to be your first Anthrax album, but you could do far worse than start there with them. So yeah...hope this helps people who aren't familiar with Anthrax's stuff to know where to approach the band from!

Boston "Life, Love & Hope" Review: "Heaven On Earth? Couldn't We Talk About It..."

...Jesus christ, what a train-wreck.

OK, let me be fair before I give this the flaming I'm going to give it: this is not the worst album I've ever heard. Indeed, if this was a debut album by a band who had nobody with any history in it, I'd have said that it was a passable album that indicated the band would have a great future if they restricted themselves to one vocalist (or got all of them to work together to deliver the vocals a la Amaranthe), got much better production values, focused on writing stronger hooks for their music and focused a bit more on finding their sound. The problems start mounting up when you consider this is the band who released one of the highest selling debut albums of all time and took eleven years to release this album. And that's really the problem: after eleven years, the worst possible thing Boston could have done is release a passable album. And that's really what this is: passable. It's not so bad that you could theoretically get some entertainment value by hearing just how bad it is, but it falls very far short of what you'd have expected when you consider those factors.

OK, now I've been fair, I'm going to tear this apart. I really don't want to do this, as I love Boston's debut album and I wanted this to be an improvement after Corporate America (which I do have a physical copy of). But what Boston have presented is simply unacceptable for a band of their stature and I think that tearing this apart is the best way to explain what the band need to do if they want to recover from the hole they are in now. Assuming they are capable of ever doing that...

First of all, I'm going to have to mention the artwork. I know it's not part of the actual album and doesn't have any bearing on the quality of the material itself, but seriously, Frontiers Records think this is acceptable artwork? This isn't the worst artwork I've ever seen, but it's not exactly the thing that sets up high expectations, is it?

This is brighter than the actual artwork on the album.

Moving to the album itself, you come to the second issue: the production. It's been done by Tom Scholz (who has at least co-produced all of their albums: their debut was co-produced alongside John Boylan and Corporate America was co-produced by Gary Pihl, Fran Cosmo and Anthony Cosmo), so you'd expect it to sound amazing, right? Well...no. It doesn't. While I will give credit for the fact this isn't overly compressed, as is a popular trend in metal and rock music today, this has no punch to it. Some metal fans complain that metal sounds neutered due to modern (read: clean) production, but I think this might be more deserving of that complaint. As much as I don't want to drag Nickelback into this, I'm going to say that their albums, while arguably overproduced and too loudly produced, at least have some punch to them, which can help you want to rock out to them. This doesn't have that. Heck, Van Canto (an A Cappella power metal band...with an actual drummer) have more punch than this album does! That's not the worst of it: it's also been mixed fairly poorly. The guitars can be heard through everything, which is fine when it's not dominating everything else, but a huge problem when it is. Judging from my tone, you can probably guess which of the two it is. The vocals can be tough to make out at points, the bass can be about as audible as your typical metal bassist is on metal albums and the drums (which are electronic) are generally in need of a bit more punch to them. I've heard some people say that they've heard better demos than this album and...well, they're not too far from the truth. With the ability today to record demos to a high quality sound standard, you have no excuse these days to record something that sounds like this. At this point, I think saying Tom Scholz is a perfectionist is something that should be doubted, as a perfectionist wouldn't release something that sounds like this. They'd release something that sounds...well, perfect!

But, bad production and bad artwork do not necessarily mean the album is going to be bad: there may well be a hidden gem hidden under those layers that merely tarnish the beauty of the gem, not destroy it. Is there? Well...yes and no. There are some enjoyable songs on here, but none of them really reach the heights that you'd expect after an eleven years wait. There isn't anything on the level of "Peace Of Mind" on here. However, there are some songs on here that I see going down well in a live setting and which are at least worth a listen.

On the enjoyable (or, at least, positive) side, we have album opener "Heaven On Earth". While it does lack any real punch, it is also the ONLY song which has David Victor on it, and the guy does a fairly good job. Sadly, when you know that this song was originally going to have Michael Sweet of Stryper on vocals before he left, it does leave a whole lot of speculations open on what could have been, as I think Sweet would have done an amazing job on this song. I also find "If You Were In Love" fairly enjoyable, as Kimberley Dahme (who is apparently no longer in Boston now, although it's not very clear how true this is) manages to make this song a fairly enjoyable listen, although I will admit that it doesn't extend to any real heights. "Someday" has Tommy DeCarlo trading vocals with Tom Scholz (who, surprisingly, spends a large amount of this album doing vocals and, unsurprisingly, doesn't really stand out that much) and has a nice chorus. The closer of the standard edition of the album, "The Way You Look Tonight", doesn't really stand out, but I can't help enjoying the chorus. Go Tommy! I also like the remake of "You Gave Up On Love" (oh yeah, did I mention that three songs on this album were originally released on Corporate America?), although I'll admit that I liked the original version anyway, so that's not saying too much. So, that's five songs on the album that I'd say are at least worth a listen. But what about the others? Oh boy...

The second track is "Didn't Mean To Fall In Love". Some of you will be going "Wasn't that on Corporate America?" Yes, it was. And this is just a remastered version of the original track. No changes to the song whatsoever. I wasn't too fond of it the first time around, so, unsurprisingly, this struck me as only being included to pad out the album, and I don't care if Scholz says it was done to give it a second chance! If someone wanted to hear the song, they could find it on the internet. "Last Day Of School" has a few cool moments, but you can't exactly say it's a great instrumental. Luckily, it's only two minutes long, so it passes you by very quickly. Next up is "Sail Away". Dear Lord, "Sail Away". If you think Megadeth today are far too politically charged, this song will have you appreciate that Dave at least can back it with some solid music and can have some subtlety. This song, however, is dead in the water from a musical front and a political front (it was about Hurricane Katrina, FROM 2005! Bit late to put this out, guys!). Kimberley does her best with the bridges (which get eerily close to a poor attempt at rapping) and Brad doesn't do too badly on the verses and chorus, but this song should have remained unreleased just to how weak a track it is. Save yourself a lot of anger and don't bother with this song. Anyway, next up is the title track. And, I'll be honest, this one does have a good chorus. The problem is that the rest of the song is just so unmemorable that you'll never remember which song has the chorus until you stumble across it. Seriously, I've listened to this song multiple times and I can barely remember anything outside of the chorus! Moving past the next two tracks, as I've already discussed them in the positive section, we get to "Love Got Away", which has Tom Scholz on lead vocals. While he isn't completely bad, it's fair to say that there's a reason he didn't take up lead vocals for Boston in the first place, as he's not a strong vocalist by any measure. Credit for trying, but I'd recommend he stick to backing vocals in the future if he wants to continue Boston. The rest of the song is generally pretty dull, so you're not missing much if you don't hear it. Next up is "Someone". Apparently, this is a rerecorded and rearranged version, but I don't remember the original very well, so I can't tell how much reworking it got. Either way, it's got a passable chorus, but nothing really that great to it. Skip it. The next track is the rerecorded and rearranged version of "You Gave Up On Love". I know I've praised this as a highlight, but I still have to put it into the bad section, as it's still a pointless addition to the album.

So, let's recap the tracklist. In order of the tracklist and, with my thoughts attached to refresh your memory, the album goes like this:

1. Heaven On Earth (Passable: could have been better if Michael Sweet had still sung it)
2. Didn't Mean To Fall In Love (Pointless addition to the album and a poor song)
3. Last Day of School (Has it's moments, but not a great instrumental overall)
4. Sail Away (BURN! *cough* Sorry, I hate this track...)
5. Life Love & Hope (Decent chorus, but nothing else is memorable about it)
6. If You Were In Love (Passable)
7. Someday (Good chorus and enjoyable verses)
8. Love Got Away (Skippable)
9. Someone (2.0) (Passable chorus, but not worth wasting your time on)
10. You Gave Up On Love (2.0) (Pointless addition to the album, but an enjoyable listen)
11. The Way You Look Tonight (Nothing special, but I love the chorus)

Not a great album, is it? Well, these are my thought when I ignore how long it took for the album to be released. At that point, those five songs I enjoy might as well become zero, as they simply don't justify waiting for eleven years to hear them. Then you factor in the legacy of the band and, well, you'd be forgiven for being very angry with this album. Then you remember that three of the songs were on the previous album, which basically cuts the amount of original material down to about 29 minutes, and that those are not the worst tracks on the album and, well, it all piles up to make this album almost pointless to everyone who is familiar with Boston and too weak to justify purchasing if you aren't familiar with the band. And then you remember how poor the production is and...then this album flat out becomes bad. In it's own right, it's passable, but there's nobody it can appeal to when you consider all of those factors.

Also, I have to comment on the number of vocalists singing on this album. I don't mind guest appearances by vocalists and some of my favourite metal albums had a lot of vocalists appearing on them (granted, those are rock operas), but I don't think having six (technically: Delp's dead, so it's five, but he's still on here, so I'm counting him) full time vocalists in the band is a good idea, as it makes it hard to feel like this is the efforts of a band. If you're not doing a rock opera or anything where the vocalists are not part of the band (for example, a guitar wizard doing a solo album), you do not need more than three lead vocalists singing as part of a band (and I'd only accept the third if they're doing something like death growls or the like, a la Amaranthe). Thankfully, this can be easily fixed: Scholz and Victor can stick to backing vocals. If Dahme isn't part of the band any more (it's not entirely clear at the minute), then I wouldn't object to only Scholz sticking with backing vocals, as he doesn't have a strong enough voice to sing lead for the band.

This album is just a trainwreck. It's not on the level of St Anger, as there are some tracks which are worth listening to, but there's nobody this album can appeal to and be successful. I recommend saving your money instead of picking up this album and spending it on something more worthwhile. If you're a Boston fan, then I recommend hunting down some AOR that you've not picked up yet (because there's bound to be something you've not heard) and enjoying that, while those who aren't Boston fans might want to pick up Boston's debut and second album instead of this. If you look on the internet, you could probably get the two of them for less than this and both albums will give you much more enjoyment than this album will. I don't think this is ever going to become a cult classic in the future that was much maligned because of how long it took to come out because the songs just don't stand up to the level a cult classic album would require. Basically, this is an album that nobody is going to remember even a few years into the future, except to be mentioned in reviews of the next Boston album if it comes out as a poor album that indicated Boston were in trouble (if people weren't already saying that after Corporate America).

I'm going to split up my final rating, as I think I need to give it different ratings depending on who is reading this review. For Boston fans, you've waited eleven years and basically been given a turd for all your long years of waiting. For non-Boston fans who just want to pick up this album and don't have any expectations, then this is an average album that will maybe last a few weeks before gathering dust in your shelf. Give it a listen on the internet first and see if you think it's worth picking it up. When it finally wears out, go pick up Boston's debut. You can thank me later...

Final rating (Boston fans): 2 out of 10
Final rating (non-Boston fans): 5 out of 10

Machine Head "Unto The Locust" Review: "Music My Savior"

So, older readers may see this and go "What happened to the Judas Priest and Jackson C. Frank reviews?" Well, I've decided to cancel them for the meantime, as I just was finding I couldn't encourage myself to write them. Sorry to have to do this, but I figured that it would be better to do them when I felt like doing them, rather than forcing myself to review something when I didn't feel up to doing it.

Rather than leave everyone on that, I figured it was time to talk about the album by Machine Head that got me into them. Hold on to your hats, people, you've got a nostalgia trip all the way back...to September 2011.

So, I'd just arrived at where I would be living while I was at college. I was a naive 18 year old, with terrible hair, an inability to grow a decent looking beard and glasses strong enough to be able to start a fire. And, on one of my quiet days before college was due to start, when my metal knowledge mostly extended to the Big 4 of thrash metal and bits of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, I decided to pick up a copy of Anthrax's then just released album Worship Music and Alice Cooper's then just released sequel to Welcome To My Nightmare, Welcome 2 My Nightmare. While glancing through the store, I happened to spot a fan pack for Machine Head's album "Unto The Locust". Vaguely curious (and disappointed that the albums I was looking for had not arrived in store yet), I went back to my flat, booted up the internet and looked up the band. Liking what I heard about them, I returned a little later in the week to the store and picked up a copy of "Unto The Locust". It was with some concern that I placed the album into my (sadly now non-functioning) CD player and, laying on my bed in the darkness of my room (I'd forgotten to open my curtains), heard the opening of "I Am Hell".

And it blew my mind.

Fast forward to today. I'm a slightly less naive 20 year old, with terrible hair, an inability to grow a decent looking beard and glasses strong enough to be able to start a fire. I have listened to over two hundred albums (most of which are sitting on my desk, ordered by genre), sampled just about type of metal music out there and found what I like and don't like from them, rediscovered my folk roots after having ignored them for at least two years and yet I still love this album. Even in Machine Head's complete discography, I would place this at the top, over both The Blackening and Burn My Eyes in quality (with bottom place being a fight between The Burning Red and Supercharger...although I do think they have a few interesting tracks on them, so I can't say that I think they're completely terrible).

Now, most will look at that statement and laugh. But I'm being completely serious. Must be the nostalgia kicking in? Well, let's see...

Machine Head, formed in 1991 by ex-Vio-lence guitarist Robb Flynn and now ex-bassist Adam Duce, are a band who manage to sit in the odd position of being a band who get panned to a ridiculous extent by their detractors, yet also get an extreme amount of praise by their fans. It's very hard to find someone with an opinion on them that isn't extreme love or hatred. Well, now you've found one. With the exception of this album, I'm mostly indifferent to the band: The Blackening struck me as a poor attempt to add prog elements to the band's sound (tip for songwriters: writing long songs does not make you a prog band, technical ability does) while Burn My Eyes has always seemed to be a bit overrated to me, although I'd be lying if I said I was a fan of groove metal by any real measure. The Burning Red and Supercharger had me lost before I even heard them, as I cannot stand nu metal at the best of times. The More Things Change is an album I rarely listen to and The Ashes Of Empires, while possessing one of my favourite Machine Head tracks ("Days Turn Blue To Grey"), never really did anything for me. However, the key point is that, with the exception of The Burning Red and Supercharger, none of the albums did anything that I outright disliked: there was always something that was interesting about them that stopped me from becoming angry with them. While I do consider their nu metal era to be a bad idea, I wouldn't say that they're outright terrible albums, as they do have some interesting moments if you can stomach the fact that it's nu metal. So, you would have been right to have assumed that, had I not heard Unto the Locust first, Machine Head would simply not have been a band I would have found worth paying a huge amount of attention to: they never did anything amazing, but they never did anything terrible either. So what did they do here that brings out my inner fanboy? Quite a lot, actually!

Right off the bat, one of the things most people will notice on their first listen through is that all of the guys are doing more complicated stuff in their music. Apparently, all of the guys took lessons on their instruments before going into the studio to record the album, and I'd be lying if I said I couldn't see it. You can hear that Robb has more of a range to his vocals on this album, as his main vocals have an edge to them that wasn't completely there on The Blackening, and he does some incredibly good death growls at a few points in the album. His clean vocals seem a bit more confident as well, but I can't help thinking they were under-utilised across the album. I know that his clean vocals aren't a huge part of the band's sound, but the only track on which he really demonstrates them to their full strength is the acoustic version of "Darkness Within" (only available on the special edition of the album). Admittedly, the guy's clean vocals are not brilliant by any measure (there's no real power behind his clean vocals and they can come across as a bit whiny if you look at them from some angles), so maybe that's not as good an idea as I'm making it out to be. Anyway, the drumming has also stepped up a level. Dave McClain never struck me as a brilliant drummer of their previous albums (although definitely not a bad one: I just never felt he did anything that special with the kit), but he is a hell of a lot better here, almost to the point that I'd say you can hear him tapping into thrash drumming here (which makes sense: the guy did used to drum for Sacred Reich before he joined Machine Head). The guitar playing of both Robb and Phil Demmel is just fantastic, easily some of the best guitar playing I've heard on any thrash (admittedly, it's fairly groovy thrash, but I find this has more in common with thrash than with groove metal, so I'm counting it as thrash) album released in the 2000's. While Phil's solos don't get to the same level of technicality that you'd expect from Testament's Alex Skolnick or Annihilator's Jeff Waters, they're definitely not to be sniffed at, with more than a hint of melody underpinning his solos. I don't think you could whistle his solos in the shower after your first listen to them, but they're certainly memorable if that's the kind of thing you enjoy. Now ex-bassist Adam Duce doesn't really get an opportunity to shine, but he does his job nicely, which is to provide a solid low end. He does suffer from the curse of being a metal bassist in that his actual playing is rather tough to hear on low volumes, which is a pet peeve of mine, as a learning bassist and a guy who doesn't think playing a record at deafening volumes is a good idea. Say what you will about prog metal, but at least the bassist is perfectly audible on the studio albums of most prog metal bands without needing to deafen yourself in an attempt to hear it!

So, from that, you'd think that I'm deliberately avoiding talking about the songwriting, right? Am I deliberately doing it because the actual songs are bad? Of course not! The only song I'd say could have done with some extra work is "Pearls Before The Swine", as it doesn't really do anything to launch itself into your memory. Other than that? It's all good, my friends.

First up is a metal sonata entitled "I Am Hell". Now, I don't know a lot about classical music, so I don't know how closely to typical sonatas Machine Head stick, but it's clearly divided into three parts and all three parts are distinctive in their own right, so I'm going to assume they followed it pretty closely. The intro bit is suitably atmospheric, with Robb sounding almost possessed at points (just listen to those death growls underneath his normal vocals) and, after an admittedly metalcore sounding riff in the build up, hits with a powerful riff that should have all but the most extreme metal fans wowed. The clean vocals aren't brilliant in this section, but they do help build up the atmosphere of the track, so I can't really complain too much. The second bit of the sonata kicks off with some very technical thrashy riffing that still has a base in Machine Head's groovy sound before continuing with a riff that makes me think a little bit of something you'd expect to come out of the death metal scene. Robb's vocals are strong in the verses, but I think they lack something in terms of being memorable up until the pre-chorus starts. Once that does and the chorus hits, you'll probably be singing along all day, and all tied together withs some cool guitar soloing. If I had one complaint, I think Robb's vocals in one little part of the song could have done with some extra work (namely, the first time he sings "In the ashes of your immolation"), although that's not a major complaint considering how strong the rest of the section is. The little section between what I'm assuming is the start of the last part of the track and the end of this one (which I'm assuming is the acoustic guitar section) has a rather dark riff that again harkens back to a vaguely metalcore sound, but I think it works nicely here. The last section starts with an acoustic guitar playing and then following with a electric guitar solo over a small bit of music before fading out. Normally, I'm not fond of this kind of thing, but it's pretty nicely connected to the previous section. It also avoids doing what Metallica did on "The Day That Never Comes", as it doesn't feel like a jam session that was left on to pad out the song. All told, it's a very cool song that is a strong opener to the album. A few minor flaws stop me from saying it's a classic song, but it's definitely not a weak track by any measure!

Next up is "Be Still And Know", which also opens with a fairly complicated riff (if you think Machine Head can't write a complicated riff, try this one on for size) along with some somewhat atmospheric drumming. That's a word I'm going to be using a fair bit on this album for a reason: this album has an actual atmosphere compared to The Blackening. I would say that the best comparison is Ride The Lightning compared to Master Of Puppets: while the latter is the album that has a huge amount of respect from the bands fans and is commonly held to be one of their best, the more atmospheric sound on the former makes me love it more than the other album. It's the same kind of thing here: while The Blackening is considered one of the best metal albums released in the 2000's (rather unjustly, in my opinion), this album has an edge to it that The Blackening doesn't thanks to the use of atmospherics that just win me over very quickly. Anyway, the main riff is nothing really special, but it's very cool. Robb does write a pretty cool verse here, but the pre-chorus and chorus really help kick this song up a notch. As much as most people will despise me for saying this, a good song (note the word "song", not "tune": instrumentals run on different rules) needs a hook to build up to for the chorus: if you don't have anything to build up to, then you're likely to not be producing a good song. There are exceptions ("Bohemian Rhapsody" springs to mind at the minute), but the point is that being able to write a good hook for your song isn't unique to pop musicians: a song without a hook is likely to sail past you, no matter how many times you listen to it and what genre of music it is. The guitar solo is very neat and, by comparison to "I Am Hell", this track is almost simple. There is a section between the guitar solo and the final verse that has more than a few prog leanings, but, for the most part, this song doesn't have that many twists and turns. Whether you'll like that or not will depend on your thoughts on "Locust": if you found that too simple, this is probably not going to do much for you, but, if you liked it, you'll probably love this. Speaking of which...

The third track, and first single, is "Locust". This is about the closest we get to a title track for this album, so you can expect this to be the least complicated track on the album (since, apparently, you're meant to release the song that's most likely to get airplay or is most like the typical sound of the album as a single for an album, which often means the song that is the most simple and/or immediately catchy, which is quite funny when you realise this is the second longest song of the album...). And, well, this is actually pretty accurate! The song opens with some rather atmospheric guitar. At this point, you will probably notice a bit of a formula: atmospheric intro, heavy verses, catchy chorus, great solo. That's honestly pretty accurate for a fair bit of the album, but hey, do you see people disliking Slayer for basically trying to rewrite Seasons In The Abyss for the last three albums? If a formula works, not a lot of point in knocking it, is there? Anyway, you've pretty much got what I've said happening with this track, and it doesn't even have any real prog twists to throw you off guard a bit (although the clean vocals before the guitar solo are a nice touch). Since prog isn't normally my kind of thing, it probably won't surprise anyone to know that this is probably my favourite track on the album, although I do really like all of the tracks apart from "Pearls Before The Swine" (don't worry, I'll get to that). This is probably the best track to introduce yourself to the album, so here's the video if you want to check it out.

The next track is "This Is The End", which seems a bit odd to be placed in the middle of the album: with a title like that, why not place it at the end of the record, especially considering this isn't a rock opera or a concept album where it might make sense to do that? I know I'm nitpicking, but seriously, it just seems like a strange decision! Anyway, the formula I mentioned for "Locust" is definitely noticeable here as well, so this is another track worth checking out if you liked "Locust". It does have another section before the guitar solo that does seem slightly out of place, but the transition is nicely handled, not to mention it's cool to hear Robb doing his death growls here. The intro is really cool as well: a bit of acoustic guitar playing that has a slight lean towards classical guitar playing (which is basically like a more complex version of what you'd expect from folk singer-songwriters like Nick Drake). If I did have one complaint regarding the song, I do think it ends a bit prematurely, but that's probably deliberate when you consider what the next track is...

The fifth track on the album, "Darkness Within", throws us a bit of a curveball in that it has Robb singing cleanly for the first verse and chorus, not his typical roar. While I wouldn't say Robb is a great clean singer, he delivers the first verse and chorus pretty well, all things considered. The rest of the song definitely goes back into the formula a little bit, which honestly annoys me a bit, having heard the acoustic version. I'm not going to say that the electric version is completely worse than the acoustic version, but the more emotional aspect of the song is lost when Robb returns to his usual vocal style in the song and the electric guitars kick in. A tip to remember for songwriters reading this review: a ballad is not automatically made better by adding electric guitars to it. If the song doesn't call for them, don't add them! Anyway, rant aside, it's a cool song that you'll probably like if you don't mind metal ballads and enjoyed "Locust", but I'd recommend sticking with the acoustic version if you're listening to it online, as you'll probably enjoy it more than the actual album version. I'll provide links to both the music video version of the song and the acoustic version of the track under here, so give both a listen and see whether you think I'm right or far from the mark.

(Album Version)

(Acoustic Version)

The sixth track is the oddity on the album, "Pearls Before The Swine". Now, if I remember what I read in the fan pack correctly, this song felt to the band like two songs put together and even they weren't sure whether it was going to be a good song or not, as they didn't think it was a weak song, but it felt very weird to them due to how it was structured. Which has me wondering why they didn't make it a b-side to their single instead of putting it on the album, but I guess releasing a six track album, no matter how long the songs are, would have been seen as lazy. This honestly has a pretty powerful opening riff and the main riff of the song is very strong, but I have to say that this song is a bit of a mess compared to everything else on the album. This is very much a case of attempting to do a progressive-influenced song for the sake of doing a progressive-influenced song: the song doesn't flow especially well and it feels like the band didn't completely think the song through, as it's very hard to really see why some of the sections match up to each other. There are some good moments that would have produced a good song if they'd been thought up in separate tracks and the chorus is very strong, but I can't really say this is a song that's worth checking out if you haven't listened to this album before now. It's not a bad track if you can accept the fact it's not got a great flow, but, when you compare it to the rest of the tracks on the album, you can hear that it's just not on the same level as the other tracks. Interesting fact: according to setlist.fm, this song has only been performed live twice (and both times in June 2012) so it's officially the least played track from the album. You may draw your own conclusions...

The final track is "Who We Are". I have to be honest, I do know that the children singing in the introduction are the kids of the band, but I think that their addition to the song is completely unnecessary. It might have been intended to be creepy or cute, but I just don't think it works in either case, especially when Robb starts singing in his usual voice and blows any real build up that could have come from that out of the window. You could reasonably have cut them singing and had the section where they sung as a quiet build up, or done what Robb did later and have him sung the intro in his clean vocals, and I'd have said it would have been better. However, the rest of the song is still very good, although definitely still following the formula you've probably noticed from "Locust". If you don't mind the children singing, this song should still appeal to you if you enjoyed "Locust".

Since I've mentioned the formula several times, I will say this now: if you don't like music that has a formula, then this album can still appeal to you. I point it out not because it's so formulaic that it will bug you, but because you do realise it's there when you really stop and look at it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, however: some bands (like Motorhead and AC/DC) have pretty much released the same album throughout their career and it's hard to deny that there is clearly a formula to their music, yet they still write some fantastic songs that, if you like their formula, will have you love them. Also, I'll admit that I've ignored some of the slightly more prog influenced sections of the album because I've spotted the formula. So, even if you don't like music with a formula, I still recommend giving "Locust" a listen to at least give yourself an idea of whether you'd like this album or not. If you do like it and want to hear four slightly more prog influenced versions of the song, then you should pick it up. If not...well, at least you gave "Locust" a listen and fairly judged whether you could enjoy the album or not from that.

I'm not going to review the bonus tracks, as the version of the album I've got doesn't have them. However, I can mention that I have checked out their cover of Judas Priest's "The Sentinel" and the acoustic version of "Darkness Within" (which I mentioned earlier is better than the album version). The cover of "The Sentinel" is nothing special, if I'm honest, but I will say that Robb did a very good job on the vocals when you consider he mostly does the song in his typical vocal style. It's otherwise a faithful cover of the original song. It's pretty much what you'd expect a cover of "The Sentinel" by Machine Head to sound like, nothing more and nothing less. Whether you like that or not will ultimately come down to your thoughts on Robb's vocals, which are a downgrade compared to Halford's...but, really, just about every vocalist out there is a downgrade compared to Halford in his prime, so that probably won't surprise anyone.

Unto The Locust is, overall, a very solid listen if you don't mind a bit of formula and aren't opposed to some groove metal influence. It's hardly flawless, but there's a lot to enjoy about this album. If you've not checked it out before now, give a listen to "Locust" and see what you make of it.

Overall rating: 8.5 out of 10