I write stuff. Rants, articles, bits of random stuff that might be interesting, that kind of stuff. I like heavy metal music, but I do like other music as well.
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:
Heaven On Earth (Passable: could have been better if Michael Sweet had still sung it)
Didn't Mean To Fall In Love (Pointless addition to the album and a poor song)
Last Day of School (Has it's moments, but not a great instrumental overall)
Sail Away (BURN! *cough* Sorry, I hate this track...)
Life Love & Hope (Decent chorus, but nothing else is memorable about it)
If You Were In Love (Passable)
Someday (Good chorus and enjoyable verses)
Love Got Away (Skippable)
Someone (2.0) (Passable chorus, but not worth wasting your time on)
You Gave Up On Love (2.0) (Pointless addition to the album, but an enjoyable listen)
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
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.
I hate to have to do this again, but, due to a change in the date of the performance to April instead of late March, I have to make another change to my previous schedule change. This time, however, it's good news (hopefully), as I expect to be providing more reviews in March than I thought I would be! See, I was looking back over some of the albums that are coming out this year and some of them are particularly interesting!
Not only have Sabaton confirmed their return with a new album in May, but Edguy expect to return in April, along with Iron Savior and Freedom Call in late February, Gamma Ray on the same day as Sonata Arctica, Stormwarrior and Primal Fear on January 27th (in the UK)! And, bear in mind, that's not all of the bands I'm excited about: I think a few glam metal acts from Europe are due to return as well before June this year (although, sadly, Reckless Love and Crashdiet are not among them), as well as Overkill (who mentioned a 7th of March release for their 17th album a while back, but no news about it has appeared yet, from what I can see) and Epica (although I don't have any details about that beyond spring of 2014, so that's not a pressing concern at the minute). So, it's fair to say that I've got a fair bit of stuff to look forward to this year, and that's ignoring some of the stuff I forgot to pick up from last year (the ones that spring to mind first are Masterplan's fifth album, Silent Force's new album and Hell's second album) and the possibility of new albums by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kamelot, Queensryche, Metallica and Megadeth before the end of the year!
Needless to say, my wallet is going to hate me before 2015 kicks in. But the most immediate bits of news that you'll want to hear is how the change to the performance date will affect my schedule. Well, the show is now on the 7th of April (and only the 7th of April) and I'm not needed for a lot of rehearsals (I have a pretty minor part in it: I basically portray a security guard who only appears on stage once), so my previous fear of having my free time cut into is not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be (not that I would have been complaining if it had: I have too much of it anyway!). This means I'm probably going to have more album reviews up until the week before the show starts. I should be able to find the time to get the new Sonata Arctica reviewed before the show (one of the advantages of a long bus travel to get to rehearsals), but that really depends on what I decide to do on the bus: I often use it to work on short stories or to read a book if I don't feel up to writing!
So, that's the situation as things move forward. I should have some more stuff cropping up on the blog than I originally said would be on the blog (possibly including reviews of albums by a few underground bands from the UK: I'm currently preparing to give a listen to New Device's album from last year and have been meaning to pick up albums by King Lizard and The Mourning After for a bit) and I should have more free time that you'd think I would. Hope you like the reviews that are coming up and I'll try not to keep providing updates to my updates!
OK, I said I'd get back to everyone on this, so here I am!
Details of the new Sonata Arctica album have been revealed and, from the sound of things, the album (titled Pariah's Child) should be released on the 28th of March (which is likely to mean the 31st where I live: the UK gets new albums on Mondays, while the 28th is a Friday). Since this isn't really enough time to sit and analyse the record properly, I shall be doing the review of it in early April. Since I still want to review Sonata's other stuff (as I had to order Unia and The Days Of Greys in the mail in preparation for it), I'll be reviewing them over the course of March.
Let's hope it's a good one! I'm currently blasting the new Iced Earth album and, at least to my ears, 2014 has got off to a pretty good start, both personally (the read through for the play yesterday was a lot of fun, although I think me getting picked to read out the stage directions resulted in it sounding more like an audiobook than an actual play...) and musically!
(As a random question: anyone reckon Sonata Arctica and Iced Earth should do a tour together if they haven't already? Or even a supergroup should be formed with Tim Schaffer and Tony Kakko? Seriously, Kakko on keyboards and backing vocals and Schaffer on rhythm guitars and backing vocals sounds like a solid start to a good supergroup to me! Don't know who I'd put in the other positions if I had to pick, though...if you have any ideas of who you'd like to see in that hypothetical supergroup, feel free to suggest in the comments!)
(Also, the review of Jackson C. Frank's album should be out before this time next week. That said, judging from my previous comments based on a schedule, I seem to be operating on Valve time, so I can only apologise if I turn out to be wrong!)
Well, 2014 is going to be hitting the world in less than 48 hours. So, here we go with the rejected reviews I promised, along with a detailed explanation of why I cancelled them.
Aborted Operation: Mindcrime Review:
Ah, Queensryche...
Ever since I've started writing this blog, I've been wanting to write something about Queensryche. Before I wrote my review of Iced Earth's DVD, I wanted to do a post on all the stuff Tate had been up to since he'd been fired from the band which I ended up not posting due to losing the internet and, while we didn't have it, my anger had boiled itself away into a general apathy regarding him. Back during my month of silence, I considered doing a review of their self-titled EP to start off a month of reviewing some of my favourite albums which I ended up dropping because I felt it wasn't worth taking on (which, if you're curious, was NOT the spark which lead to my upcoming Judas Priest reviews: I literally only decided it was worth taking that on the night before I posted the schedule). Back in July, I wanted to do a review of their self-titled album from this year which I did actually write, but ended up not posting it because my opinion changed so much regarding it that I felt I couldn't stand behind my own review (although I still like the album, so rest assured that a review of that album may still be posted on the blog some time in the future). And, even a fortnight ago, I was planning on reviewing Journey's most recent studio album "Eclipse" which featured a section regarding my views on replacement singers that ended up descending into a rant about Tate recently getting an extension in the band's court case because he basically hadn't done anything for ten months despite being the plaintiff.
Suffice to say, I've got words regarding Geoff Tate's antics after he was fired, very little of which is particularly polite. But I'm not going to go into that today (as much as I want to). Today, I'm going to be talking about one of Queensrche's most beloved albums, Operation: Mindcrime. This album means a lot to me, because it was the first Queensryche album I ever purchased (and, if I remember correctly, is also the second prog metal album I ever purchased: the first was Dream Theater's Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory, which I didn't like much at the time, but am slowly starting to warm up to it), setting into motion a fondness for their pre-Hear in the Now Frontier albums that I attribute to two things: hearing the song "Redemption" that the Todd La Torre version of the band released back in March and hearing Seventh Wonder's album Mercy Falls (which I did consider reviewing for this month, but opted to save it for a special occasion: I attribute that album to me giving prog metal as a whole a second chance, so I can't really do a standard review of it just to fill up a schedule). And yet, funnily enough, I didn't like it when I first heard it! To me on my first listen, it fell apart after the title track and didn't really recover, since I fell asleep before I even made it to "I Don't Believe In Love". I gave it two or three more listens, but it didn't click with me at all. So I thought it simply wasn't for me and left it on my shelf gathering dust, although I never sold my copy for some reason.
And then the two factors I mentioned happened.
Mercy Falls originally got the same fate as Operation: Mindcrime and was ignored, but, for some reason, I ended up rotating it onto and off of my iPod, which is odd in itself as most stuff I take off my iPod goes off because I can't stand listening to it any more and I want to put something else on. There was just something about the album I couldn't ignore and, after a while, it all clicked. But I still didn't think much of Queensryche until I heard "Redemption". Two days later, after having listened to "Redemption" pretty much non-stop, I decided to drag Opation Mindcrime out of the pile of albums I had and give it another listen, feeling I'd been too harsh on it the first time. It definitely clicked then! It's now just over six months later and I now have copies of all of the stuff with the classic line up of Queensryche, Operation: Mindcrime 2 (which I have no intention of ever reviewing. Too many curses...) and their recent self-titled album and, with the exception of Hear in the Now Frontier (which I found boring, although I'm not a big alternative rock fan to begin with) and Operation: Mindcrime 2 (which I really don't like: I only got it because I found it alongside the original Operation: Mindcrime and didn't bother to listen to it until I found myself liking the original. I only needed one listen to know it wasn't worth the money I paid for it...), enjoy all of them. But Operation: Mindcrime has always seemed to me to be their greatest album and is an album that I would comfortably claim to be one of my favourite albums.
So, now you know why I hold Operation: Mindcrime so close to my heart, let's start with the actual review. I'm going to skip the usual long winded description of Queensryche's history for this review, since most people who are interested in the band likely have been reading the court documents involving their split (if you haven't been and want to read them, can be found and downloaded for free from this link: http://www.anybodylistening.net/breakdownroom/index.php?PHPSESSID=2730906a589a9d0626b361117dec82a4&topic=2906.0), so it's not worth me boring everyone with details of their history when most people are likely to be more than familiar with it due to the high profile nature of the split. If you do want to receive the usual long winded history of Queensryche, let me know and I'll post another blog entry in November detailing everything.
We start off this album with "I Remember Now", which sounds like something right out of a radio programme, as a nurse goes to see Nikki and provide him with a shot. It also includes a monologue from Nikki saying that he remembers every little thing as if it happened only...wait, that's Meat Loaf. Ah well, he finishes by saying he only remembers doing that they told him, leading into the second instrumental, "Anarchy-X". I've heard that this was written as part of a title track for Queensryche's previous album, Rage For Order, and, honestly, I could believe that, as it has that sound which made that album such an interesting listen. Scott Rockenfield demonstrates some pretty cool drumming here, but all of this build up might seem overly dramatic on first listen. Trust me, by the time it's finished building up to the first actual song on the album, "Revolution Calling", you'll be ready for it to kick into action. And boy, does it kick into action! After the slight atmospheric moment, the guitars truly kick into gear, with a nice little solo before Tate himself finally sings the first lines on the album:
For a price, I'd do about anything
Except pull the trigger
For that I'd need a pretty good cause
Sorry, I just love that build up to the opening of the album! Critical mindset back on. Well, Tate's voice in his prime could be summed up as sounding very similar to Bruce Dickinson, but it's an actual operatic voice instead. While he can reach noticeably lower than Bruce can (although he doesn't reach to his extreme lows: for a display of that, I recommend "Silent Lucidity" off of Empire), he can't really reach that much higher than Bruce (and, when he does, it's more out of the Rob Halford school of screams than anything else), so you can expect him to sound slightly similar to Bruce a good amount of the time. Musically, it's...well, Maiden influenced, but with a Priest touch to it (which makes sense: Queensryche originally started out doing Iron Maiden and Judas Priest covers under the name The Mob). There's a more original element in the music on this album that quite hard to place as well, as they seem to have taken on some of the sounds that they toyed about with on Rage For Order, but in such a way that it downplays the Maiden/Priest sound as opposed to sounding like Maiden/Priest with odd sounds attached to it. That pretty much sums up the instruments in general across the whole album: Iron Maiden and Judas Priest influenced, with a few other influences that flavour it enough that you can miss them if you're not looking for them. After a good guitar solo from Chris DeGarmo, we get a repeat of the first bridge:
I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
Still love those lyrics! Sorry, keep forgetting I'm supposed to be a critic here. Well, the chorus isn't that complex (most of it is made up of the title of the song), but it's very catchy and, I'm not gonna lie, it does make me want to start a revolution! Or was that The Beatles...sorry, keeping focused! Yeah, this is a really strong start to the album and pretty much holds you in thrall to the album from the start.
After that track, we start "Operation: Mindcrime" by hearing a phone ringing as Nikki picks it up and hears the word "mindcrime" whispered to him. The song itself is a somewhat darker song compared to "Revolution Calling", although don't worry: Queensryche don't go thrash on us! It's more that there's a darker, more sinister tone to the song. In the song, Dr. X (oh yeah, he was mentioned in "Revolution Calling", being described as "the man with the cure") is recruiting Nikkin into Operation: Mindcrime, who are "an underground revolution working overtime" (I used to think that line was "working on the ground, revolution working overtime" until I finally looked up the lyrics. I actually prefer my mishearing, as it sounds more like a recruiting tool to encourage people to join up than the actual lyrics, but hey, the actual lyrics are the actual lyrics, so I can't complain) before finally encouraging Nikki to let him. This is another highlight of the album, as the sinister nature of the song is a great contrast to "Revolution Calling".
Next up is "Speak". To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the song is suppose to represent, but I like to think that it's what is going through Nikki's head whenever he's under Dr. X's control. With a fairly interesting riff to open the song
This review got cancelled in part because of being so close to the deadline that I knew I couldn't get it finished in time, although I also thought that the review was really immaturely written and, as such, not worth going back over to redo it.
Aborted American Idiot Review:
Ah, Green Day...
This is one of the few albums I'm ever going to review that actually pre-dates my fondness for metal. Most of my album collection comes from after I became a metalhead, including some choices that will be really bizarre to most people, like Belinda Carlisle's second album, Heaven On Earth. I am not making that up, here's a picture of the CD for proof:
It's a guilty pleasure, I swear...
Now that everyone in the metal community who reads this blog has a good reason not to trust my opinion ever again, I can comfortably get back to talking about Green Day. I heard about the band thanks to a friend who was very fond of this album, who played me a few tracks off of it. I liked it, but I never got myself a copy of the album until sometime in 2007, alongside Paramore's second album, Riot. Both albums were really enjoyable, but I always found them interesting to listen to for different reasons: Paramore's album was a fun album that contained a lot of good songs. Green Day's album demanded focused listens, but was made up of so many good songs that it wasn't a chore to sit through. I'd probably say I listened to both of them equally up until I got into metal, but, of the two, Green Day's album stands out to me more these days than Paramore's does.
This review got aborted because I simply couldn't think of a way to continue the review from here. Also, after revealing I own a Belinda Carlisle album, there was no way I could possibly recover this review, but I felt I had to reveal it, so there was really no way I could make this review work.
I've also just discovered that I actually deleted my previous two attempts to start up reviews, so I can't provide them for you to read. The reviews were going to be reviews of "The Horn" by The Darkness and "Badaboom" by Van Canto, but, in both cases, I found that I was getting ridiculously critical at them for reasons that I knew were being horribly unfair to the bands (as in, "This song is generic, but that's nothing new from these guys, as they're generic incarnate" levels of unfair. That's not a direct quote, but it should give you an idea of what the reviews ended up looking like...), so I get the feeling I wasn't in the best state of mind when I was writing them.
So, now that I've provided you with the aborted reviews and probably provided a odd look or two, where can I go in 2014?
...Well, the pub wouldn't be a bad start...OK, I'm joking! Yes, much to my own surprise, I actually have something vaguely resembling a plan for 2014's reviews! Champagne for everyone!
Well, I figured that I might as well get the Priest reviews done, as I did promise them for before the end of 2013 before my personal life got in the way of getting them done, so expect to see that before the end of January. However, I shall make two detours before I get that done. For the first, I have one album that I feel is THE MOST UNDERRATED ALBUM OF ALL TIME (he said in a ridiculously deep voice...so, he just said it normally) that I really want to talk about: Jackson C. Frank's debut album from 1965. Who is he, you may ask? Well, let's put it this way: he was an influence on Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel), Sandy Denny (of Fairport Convention) and Nick Drake, to name the biggest names you might recognise, yet I would honestly say that he was a better singer-songwriter than all of them. The second is my previously promised article examining why critics and fans of bands seem to end up at war with each other when they disagree with each other. Now, this one was started a fair while ago, but it's been lying untouched for a good while now, so this might need some rewriting before I can say it's ready to be posted.
After that, things will really depend on how hectic my life is (probably not very, but I thought that nothing would happen for the rest of 2013 back in November and...well, I was very wrong indeed!), but I do want to talk about Iced Earth's upcoming album (since it's out in about a week where I live and, for once, I'll be able to get a copy on release day, as I'm in Newcastle on that day anyway: doing a read through of the script for the play I mentioned last time on the 6th of January), so I might use February to talk about Iced Earth's whole career and ultimately decide where to place the album in their discography, although I might just settle for a review of just the album if I find my free time isn't sufficient to review all eleven of their albums. I'm not expecting to place it on the same level as Night Of The Stormrider, but, as long as it's above the Something Wicked duo of albums and The Glorious Burden, I'll be really happy! What I've heard from it sounds fairly promising, though, so expect me to be gushing about the album when I finally get to review it!
March is probably going to be a quiet month for me, as I can't think of anything I particularly want to review and I've got the play on, so I'm likely to be busy for a fair bit of that month. I may use this time to discuss Boston's discography, as it's tough to ignore their sixth album was such a disappointment that I think it's worth examining just what doesn't work about it, from the perspective of a person familiar with their stuff, but not necessarily a fan of it. After all, I didn't have to wait eleven years for the disappointment to hit me: I had to wait about a year and a half for it.
April will be when Sonata Arctica will be releasing their eighth album, so expect to see a review of their discography and where their new album falls in it. It is likely that this is going to be done at the end of the month, as I've no idea when the album will actually be released, but I'll update you guys on this one when I know more.
For now, that's all I have planned. There are a few other bands releasing albums I'm interested in reviewing, but I can't plan for them yet, as I don't know when they're going to be out.
To finish off, I'll give you a list of some of my favourite albums of 2013. Now, I've not listened to a huge amount of albums that came out this year and I have skipped a few albums that I did want to listen to, so this should not be taken to mean "These are the best albums of the year": these are just the albums that I enjoyed the most this year that I purchased. In no particular order:
1) Volbeat - Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies
2) Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time
3) Heaven's Basement - Filthy Empire
4) Queensryche - Queensryche
5) Black Star Riders - All Hell Breaks Loose
6) Timo Tolkki's Avalon - The Land Of New Hope
7) Battle Beast - Battle Beast
8) Reckless Love - Spirit
9) Stryper - No More Hell To Pay
Honourable mentions go to Dream Theater (who really surprised me with their album (I have a huge dislike of Dream Theater in general, although it's wearing down now) and only missed the list because of "Illumination Theory" being unnecessarily long), Fates Warning (who produced a rather addictive listen that only missed the list because the music just wasn't up to the level of the other guys I mentioned), Hardcore Superstar (who produced a really strong sleaze metal album that only missed the list because it falters a bit at the end) and James LaBrie (who proved to me that he can sing stuff that isn't especially technical incredibly well and only missed the list because the album had too many skippable tracks). Consider these guys fighting for the equivalent of tenth place, as their albums were really good, but I put the albums I did on the list because, to me, they had no tracks I disliked, while the other ones did have at least one track I didn't like.
So, at this point, I have only one more thing to say: have a happy remainder of 2013 (if it's still 2013 when you're reading this) and may 2014 be a great year for everyone.
So, some of you are probably wondering when I'm going to be back to writing stuff on the blog. Well, I have some good news, some bad news and some news that would only be bad if I was sticking to a schedule.
The good news is that I have been working on some stuff for the blog! However, the bad news is that, possibly as a result of the news I got (which I will not share, as it's something I'm doing my best not to think about at the minute), whenever I've been writing, I've noticed my writing has been incredibly negative, even for stuff which I've started with the intention of being fairly light hearted, so I'm still taking time off from writing until I feel I can get back to writing without suddenly going into territory that is far more critical than I feel is my usual standard (since I was being horribly unfair to the bands I was writing about, which is not how I try to be when writing stuff: after all, to get signed in the first place does require some luck at the least and recording an album can be a tough process. I did it once when I was part of a folk music band and, let me tell you, if you think you can just go in, play and then walk out, you're horribly mistaken: even if a producer just wants the best take and doesn't demand a perfect performance, you still have to do multiple takes and be doing your best throughout the whole recording!).
So, what is the other bit of news? Well, I mentioned back in my semi-review of Day Of The Doctor (which I honestly wish I hadn't published now, as I didn't really go into the level of detail a review of any level required, but that's another matter entirely) that I have some acting training. Well, on Wednesday, I went to an audition for a piece of theatre being done by a friend of mine and I've just discovered that I have got a part (a small one, it must be admitted) in it! While I don't know the exact schedule for it yet (I'm guessing I'm getting that sometime after Christmas), it does mean that some of my normally bounteous (overly bounteous, truth be told...) free time is going to be cut down while I'm learning lines and attending rehearsals, so I may be posting less than I would like to. Still, considering I originally started this blog to give myself something to do in my free time (and barely used it...), it's good that I'm finally doing something. Plus, who knows? If I do a good job, I might well find I have a chance to start an acting career, which I'd been considering giving up the possibility of doing due to limited contacts and preferring to write (and sing) instead...
So, that's the situation as things stand. I'm working on writing stuff for the blog, but most of it feels like it's being too harsh for me to feel comfortable that I've truly got over the news I got last week. I'm sorry to say this (and I really didn't want to do this), but this does mean that the Judas Priest review I was wanting to do is going to have to be pushed back to sometime in 2014. As a consolation, I shall post the unfinished reviews I was doing for "Operation: Mindcrime", "American Idiot" and the two singles reviews I started on the last day of 2013, completely unedited from their current state (including a picture that I took for the "American Idiot" review that you might as well have a laugh at). It's not really making up for everything, but it should give you an idea of why I pulled the plug on the first two reviews and why I'm not confident in returning to writing before 2014.
Hopefully, I should be back to writing stuff in January. I do want to do a review of Ed Sheeran's song for The Hobbit soundtrack, as I've loved listening to it, so you might find that that's what I'll be returning with! As with last time, I wish everyone reading this a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, as well as offer a thank you to anyone who has read this. I might not have been particularly good at getting stuff out, but I do my best to put stuff up that I feel I can stand behind. And knowing there are people who read it (whether it's because people find it genuinely interesting or because it's a good time killer is something I've not been able to determine. Probably a bit of both...) does at least make me feel that it's been worth all the time I've put into it (which isn't just how much time I've sat behind the laptop writing it: I often spend a good period of time before I start writing considering the issue I'm going to discuss). I hope I can get something resembling a schedule sorted for 2014, but, either way, I do have some stuff planned which I'd like to do, including a review of Boston's recent album to explain just why it doesn't stand up to the level of their debut...although I'll need to actually buy a copy of it first, so that might not happen until February!
Unless I somehow die between now and the 31st (which is not especially likely, but you never know, I might get abducted by killer potato men or something like that before then...), I'll be back in 2014.
Apologies for the second detour from my mini-schedule (next one will be the Critics VS Fans article: I'm part of the way through it as I type this), but this is an issue that I felt was somewhat more interesting to talk about, as it is generally something I tend to spot getting used as a reason to dislike a band, even among people who normally would give a band a fair chance. In part, this is motived by an argument I happened to read on a forum which I visit (which I will not name) and by a review of an album, both of which involve the A Cappella power metal band (I swear I didn't make that up) Van Canto. Basically, these guys perform power metal music, but they do it pretty much completely A Cappella (they do have a normal drummer, but that's only because they couldn't find someone capable of beatboxing double bass without passing out). And quite a few people seem to believe that it's a gimmick which they only use because they can't perform their music in the "tradition" way you hear in metal. And this got me thinking: is a band that uses a gimmick necessarily a worse band than one who doesn't? After all, death metal and black metal bands tend to have rather limited ranges of topics to cover in their songs, so could it be argued that they use a gimmick by singing about stuff in this limited range of topics? And is metal being too limited by having the required typical set up we have come to associate with metal? That is what I aim to look at and, hopefully, provide some answers to those questions.
So, first of all, let's look at what can be considered a gimmick in music. And, surprisingly, it covers a wide range of things. Some bands generally write about certain topics and don't touch anything else, but are otherwise completely serious (for example, you could consider Running Wild to be a gimmick band because they are mostly known for writing about pirates, although it should be noted that their early albums didn't actually cover pirates and they have covered other topics over the course of their career) while some go far enough as to wear costumes on stage (such as Alestorm, although their keyboardist's side project, Gloryhammer, go slightly further than this). So, obviously, the line between what can be fairly considered "gimmicky" is very much down to how much fun you want to have with music: if it's something which has to be serious at all times, then everything I've just listed should be a gimmick to you (key word being "should": there are a depressingly large number of extreme metal fans who don't appreciate the irony of saying a band is gimmicky, yet have no issue with extreme metal bands covering a rather narrow range of topics...but, then again, a depressingly large number of extreme metal fans consider anything with clean vocals to be close to mainstream, so their opinion there could probably be taken with a pinch of salt), while, if you don't mind bands doing stuff if it's all just for fun, everything else should be fine with a lot of people. Many people like to use the fact the band does have a gimmick as a reason just to dislike the band without stopping to consider the actual quality of their material, but it's very rare that you'll find someone who DOES like an act with a gimmick commenting on it, which leads me to suspect that a lot of people will only complain about a gimmick when it comes to bands they do not like. If you will, when they are looking for a reason to dislike a band, the gimmick is the big neon sign they can easily point out. Personally, I actually find that the more gimmicky bands are what I prefer whenever a band has a gimmick, as the more serious bands tend to be far more arrogant. Take Manowar, for example: you could fairly argue that they have a gimmick of basically singing about vikings and being ridiculously over the top, yet they take it incredibly seriously (a shining example being a comment they made early in their career about only Black Sabbath being a true metal band, possibly also including Judas Priest). This means that it's hard for me to look at them and not consider them (or, at least, their bassist) to be arrogant bastards. I could excuse this if I actually liked their music, but...well, I generally don't! By contrast, Alestorm are generally disliked for basically taking pirate metal a bit too far, but I find them to be a lot of fun because they do that and aren't arrogant about it. This is where you can see the dividing line kicking in for me: if a band is very serious about their gimmick, I tend to not be impressed with them, but, if a band is clearly just having fun with it, I can get behind them because they're not taking themselves too seriously. I guess Van Canto (to return back to the band I first mentioned) could fall somewhere between the two extremes, as it's rather hard to not be serious about being able to perform metal A Cappella, but they include a lot of covers of metal songs that are a lot of fun to listen to and they're not arrogant about their ability to do with only voices (and a drummer) what most bands need instruments to do.
Which leads me to the second question I want to answer: is metal being too limited because of the typical expectations regarding instruments? Now, before I start this, I'm well aware that folk metal and symphonic metal generally include instruments that aren't typically seen in a metal band, but you can still find at least one guitarist, one bassist and one drummer in the band: what I'm talking about is metal being made without at least one of those instruments. And this is a somewhat tricky topic to cover: after all, it's the downtuned and distorted riffs of the guitar and bass that help place a band in the metal genre, so what happens when you take them out of the song? Can you still say that a band is a metal band just because it doesn't use them? Well, I'm going to have to side with the people who say that a band is less metal because it doesn't use guitar and bass, if only because it does make it harder to fairly place them into the metal genre of music. If, however, the material they produce would sound like metal if it were played on typical instruments, I think they should still be placed in the metal genre. It is this that, I think, more metal fans need to bear in mind when they listen to a band who plays metal music on different instruments: at the end of the day, it's not the instruments the music is performed on that is important, but the music itself. Does this mean metal is being too limited because of this reliance on those instruments? Possibly, but I think that the boundaries are starting to break down a bit thanks to symphonic and folk metal, so I don't think these limits are going to be a huge issue twenty years from now (although I rather doubt metal will go through a synth period on the same level as pop did during the 80's...mind you, not having a huge issue with 80's pop, I wouldn't object to a band trying this!)
So this brings to my final point: is a band with a gimmick necessarily worse than a band without one? I would say it depends on how strong their music is if you view it purely on it's own merits: if it's not great music, it's not gonna become great music if you perform it while a one legged dwarf is dancing the tango to it. If it's a great song, then it's a great song and nothing more needs to be said. I know this is a bit of an anticlimax, but, really, what more can I say?
So I guess the best way to view bands with a gimmick is not to evaluate the band's gimmick, but to evaluate the band itself the same way you would evaluate a band without a gimmick: judge the skills of the members and the quality of their music. A gimmick might impact your initial opinion of a band, but it shouldn't be your only reason to dislike them, just as you shouldn't hate a band only because they are popular.
(...As a side note relating to remaining posts over the course of 2013, I will be taking a small break from working on posts over the next few days, as I have a lot I need to do on Monday (and possibly Tuesday, if I don't finish the work on Monday) relating to a bunch of short stories I'm working on and, based on a bit of news I got while finishing this off, I'm likely to be receiving some pretty serious news on Wednesday. As such, it's possible that I might not feel up to writing stuff for a while. If this happens, I can only apologise if this means the posts I said I'd be doing get pushed back to 2014. I don't like failing to do stuff, but...well, this is likely to be news that is going to put me in a pretty bad emotional state for a bit of time, so I'll not be in the frame of mind I prefer to be in while writing these posts. Thank you for your patience and, on the off chance I don't return to the blog this year, I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!)
On a completely unrelated note, here's a song by a band I've recently started listening to. Genuinely no reason for posting this, just really like it and want to share it with more people!
