Tuesday, April 21, 2015

#28 - Beyond Twilight


Denmark's Beyond Twilight debuted in 2001 with a terrific prog metal album called The Devil's Hall of Fame, and followed it up with 2005's Section X and 2006's For the Love of Art and the Making, each of the three featuring a different vocalist, although their styles are similar, and all three are strong singers, coming out of the late 70's / early 80's hard rock style pioneered by the Deep Purple family tree.  Musically, Beyond Twilight showcases keyboards heavily, as the principal composer and songwriter is keyboardist Finn Zierler.  It's heavily orchestrated, and leans toward a film soundtrack kind of sound, with a bit of an insane carnival kind of mood, but super heavy (in a traditional metal kind of way) with a rock solid groove.  The third album is interesting in that it is a single piece of music comprised of 43 short tracks that the listener is invited to listen to in any order.


The first album featured one of my favorite vocalists, Norwegian singer Jørn Lande, in one of his two best performances that I've heard to date, and was released only four months after the other one, Ark's brilliant Burn the Sun.  Here's the first track from The Devil's Hall of Fame, entitled "Hellfire".  It's got a cheesy sci-fi intro that could have been done worse, and I dig the little gasp at the end of it that leads into the song.  You'll get a taste of the cinematic compositional approach, Jørn's unbelievable vocal performance, plus a tasty solo at the six minute mark by guitarist Anders Ericson Kragh and some equally tasty rhythm section playing throughout.  It's a great track, but the rest of the album is just as good.  If you like this one, check out the rest.


Saturday, April 18, 2015

#29 - Primus


I distinctly remember first hearing Primus in 1991.  That summer, I bought a cassette tape of the soundtrack from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, partly because I liked the movie, but mostly because it had songs by Slaughter, Winger, Kiss, Richie Kotzen, Steve Vai, Faith No More, Megadeth and King's X, all acts I liked to varying degrees at the time.  It also had a couple of bands I hadn't heard before, among them a relatively unknown San Francisco trio who actually appeared in the film as one of the entries in the climactic Battle of the Bands.  The song, "Tommy the Cat", was buried somewhere in the middle of the album, and when I heard it, I was blown away.  I had never heard such virtuosic rock bass playing in my young life, and the band's unique, paradoxical sound of heavy and playful, tightly grooved and loosely sung, dry, humorous, soulful and of bizarre tonality.  It was easily the best song on the soundtrack, and I immediately picked up their album, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, from which "Tommy the Cat" was taken.  The album was great beginning to end, and I soon got its predecessor, Frizzle Fry and their debut, a live album called Suck on This.  I was completely hooked and throughout the 90s, I picked up each album as soon as it was released and witnessed them live twice, once in 1991 in Irvine as an opener for Public Enemy and Anthrax, and again in 1999 in Atlanta on the Ozzfest tour.  I can say from first-hand experience that bassist/vocalist Les Claypool is as mind-bogglingly proficient live as he is in the studio.


Primus got their start in the San Francisco bay area at a time when underground metal, particularly in that area, was starting to appear above the surface.  Metallica and Exodus were on the rise and with them, the young thrash metal movement.  In fact, believe it or not, both Claypool and guitarist Larry LaLonde flipflopped between the fledgling Primus and a local thrash band called Blind Illusion, and both appear on that band's 1988 album The Sane Asylum.  LaLonde was even a member of Possessed, often regarded as the first death metal band, and appears on their first three records between 1985 and 1987.  And Claypool auditioned to replace the late Cliff Burton in Metallica in 1986.  With all this foundation in extreme metal, you might expect a different sound than what you get in Primus.  Then again, no one sounds like Primus, and while they're difficult to label, I'd give them credit as an early influence in the experimental-, alternative- and funk-metal subgenres.

Since "Tommy the Cat" was my introduction to Primus, and because it had such an effect on me, I'm including that here for your listening pleasure.  Following that is a live recording from 2010 of my daughter Megan's favorite, "Harold of the Rocks", off of their studio debut of 20 years earlier.  It goes a bit "free form jazz odyssey" in the middle, but also gives you a chance to hear Ler LaLonde's unique melodic approach and the band's storytelling approach to songwriting, and anyway it's one of my favorites too (although I could probably say that about a good dozen or so).



Wednesday, April 8, 2015

#30 - Deep Purple


English legends, Deep Purple, formed in 1968 and quickly gained a following on the merits of their debut, Shades of Deep Purple, and its hit single, a cover of the Joe South song "Hush".  Back then, they were a psych-infused pop rock band in sound, but with a bold classical music references.  Their obvious chops and musical self-indulgence along with the psych and eventual hard rock leaning of their sound in that first incarnation are reminiscent of a band they toured with early on: Cream.  Purple really began to hit their stride when they recruited replacement bassist Roger Glover and vocalist Ian Gillan from the band Episode Six in 1969, and took a turn toward the heavy.  The "Mark II" lineup released four fantastic studio albums, one of the best live albums of all time, and the fascinating Concerto for Group and Orchestra over the four years that followed, cementing themselves as one of the greatest hard rock bands of their fertile time.  In the years after Gillan and Glover split again in 1973, Purple has produced some interesting music here and there, introducing vocalist David Coverdale to the world, reuniting the Mark II lineup in the mid 80's for a couple of decent prog/hard rock albums, and recruiting the amazing Steve Morse on lead guitar for the past 20 years, but their output during those four years in the early 70's was something special.


As I've been doing lately, I'm going to include two examples of their work below.  First is a live TV performance from 1970 of the progressive and heavy "Child in Time".  It illustrates the afore-mentioned self-indulgence, classical music influence, the cutting edge chops of keyboardist Jon Lord and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and the inimitable vocal stylings of the great Ian Gillan.


And a classic from their biggest record:


Monday, April 6, 2015

10 Best Progressive Metal Albums of 2014


For the past couple of months, I've been catching up on albums released last year, and I'm finally ready to give you a list of the best 10.

2014 was a good year for metal, with album releases by a number of long-time heavyweights and some of progressive favorites as well.  In the former category, Arch Enemy, At the Gates, Behemoth, Black Label Society, Blut Aus Nord, Body Count, Crowbar, Down, Exodus, Eyehategod, Godflesh, Judas PriestLacuna Coil, Machine Head, Overkill, Slipknot, Triptykon and Vader all had releases last year.  There was even a Grammy favorite tribute album to the late great Ronnie James Dio.  And some fantastic and well-established progressive metal bands also had 2014 releases: Agalloch, Animals as Leaders, Cynic, Mastodon, Opeth, Threshold, Devin Townsend and Vanden Plas.

Despite the albums put out by all of those excellent bands, my list of the 10 best come from relatively new, varied and underexposed acts.  I'm putting them in alphabetical order because they're too difficult to rank, but these 10 definitely stood out to me as the top of a great class.

Beyond Creation - Earthborn Evolution


This Canadian quartet achieves great balance between melodic and technical, brutal and progressive on this fantastic tech-death album.


Conquering Dystopia - Conquering Dystopia


Okay, so maybe it's not completely fair to call this a new or unknown act. I mean it is but guitarist Jeff Loomis has had a pretty full career playing with Nevermore among others. And bassist Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse is no hidden talent either. This album of instrumental metal features blistering neo-classical shredding atop tight, heavy and fast riff-oriented death metal. If instrumental music is your thing, check this out.  It's one of the best of that type I've ever heard.


Dimesland - Psychogenic Atrophy


This is zany, left-handed death metal a la Canadian greats Gorguts and Martyr, but originating from California's bay area.  There's plenty of jazz and thrash thrown in there too.  In fact the only thing you won't find is the kitchen sink... and the melody can be hard to find too.  Highly recommended for anyone who likes twisty, experimental music.


Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails


Another San Francisco band.  And another great technical death metal album, this one and Beyond Creation's (above) are the two most similar on this list.  This one is perhaps a bit more polished and not as overtly jazzy.

Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel


Interesting and enjoyable mix of metal styles from Down Under with unusual prominence of the violin reminds me of a modernized and more varied Tristania.

Soen - Tellurian



Another "supergroup" like Conquering Dystopia, this excellent release features a rhythm section of drummer Martin Lopez (of Opeth) and bassist Steve DiGiorgio (of Death, Testament and Sadus) and sits solidly between legendary proggers Tool and Opeth.

Spires - The Whisperer


Grandiose extreme progressive metal from England features long compositions, strong playing, choral and string orchestrations and varied tone.  I'm not a fan of the clean vocals, which populate much of the album, but it's such a strong effort otherwise that they're more than made up for.

Troldhaugen - Obzkure Anekdotez for Maniakal Massez


Another Australian band, these guys are obviously having a bit of a laugh.  But besides being quirky and irreverent, it's interesting and well-played folk metal with some old-school video game influence thrown in.

Verse Vica - Endeavor


Unfortunately, this awesome band from North Carolina is probably the least-discovered here (along with the equally amazing Dimesland).  Their very proggy release is reminiscent of newer and highly successful bands, fellow NC'ers Between the Buried and Me and instrumental act Animals as Leaders.  I hope these guys can break out in terms of exposure.

Xerath - III


Another English band, this expansive, symphonic metal reminds me of a more interesting Devin Townsend, both compositionally and vocally.  As popular as Devin is, if you like him, check this out.  I think it's better.