I have not... in a sense, been a good reviewer this past month. I have a few promos that need to be listened to BUT.. I haven't managed to get to them yet. I know, its sad... its a direct neglection of duty but alas, I have been unable to tear myself away from the following albums. Afterall, there are only so many hours in the day to listen and these have kept me up day and night and then some..... now that I have officially shaken some of these addictions, its back to work of course. I am really looking forward to the newie stuff from Vindictiv (GORAN!), Brother Firetribe, the rerelease of Monro, Michael Schenker's "In the Midst of Beauty", and that new Starship. Only avaliable on Itunes though, whats up with that?
NORTHERN KINGS - REBORN
Yes, yes, it all comes back to Northern Kings. I listen to several tracks off of this a couple of times daily. My favorites being "Creep" (who would have thought I would like a Radiohead song... gasp!), "Hello" and "We Don't Need Another Hero". Of course all this Northern King stuff made me curious about the two singers I didn't know much about so therefore I hunted down JP's other material (he is the lead on "Creep" here).
CHARON - SONGS FOR THE SINNERS
While I'm not sure what other people thought of this... since I haven't bothered to read any reviews yet on it, I have definitely enjoyed it. There a couple of real killer songs here if you listen closely. "Colder" being the one that gripped me from the start and made me think "damn...that's awesome".
POISONBLACK - EXCAPEXTACY
Now as much as I listened to "Lust Stained Despair", I don't know why I didn't pursue this further other than a quick glance over. Maybe it was the cover art. Anyway, there are a few good songs here too. Everyone seems to like "Love Infernal", and why not? Its dark, brooding and pretty goth. If you were to ask me.
LEVERAGE - BLIND FIRE
Since I am counting the days til the new Brother Firetribe release, it was decided that perhaps a bit of Leverage would ease my wait. A review of this is coming soon, if not already posted at the time of this writing, so I'll just mark a few of my fav songs for your persual. "Heart of Darkness", "Don't Touch the Sun", "Sentenced". Enough said.
SONATA ARCTICA - UNIA
Back to the Northern Kings link, although this is a band that I have followed since their quaint debut (which I loved, like crazymad back in the day). They sure have grown up from being a gleefully happy Stratovarius influenced band...to this. I must say that this is a pivotal point of their progression and while I miss those giddy songs that burst with a chilly joy, this new Sonata makes me think. And I like that too. "For the Sake of Revenge", "Good Enough is Good Enough"... both amazing, in vastly different ways.
NIGHTWISH - DARK PASSION PLAY
For a band I was ready to dismiss out of hand and not even bother with their latest release. "A Nightwish without Tarja... BAH! It WILL be crap!" Hmmm not crap. But it is indeed different, something that alot of people were probably not ready for. And while not every song is A+ material, there are a few that are keeping their grip tight on being quite listenable. Let me present: "Bye Bye Beautiful", "7 Days to the Wolves" for some of that Hietala love and "Cadence of Her Last Breath", "Amarath" and "Sahara" for everything else. "Meadows of Heaven" is particularly gorgeous as well.
TWO OF A KIND - TWO OF A KIND
I broke down, bought this since a promo didn't come my way and am very pleased with the result. Its a bit "too" over the top but the dual female voices and some great catchy melodic songs make it a nice breather inbetween all the heavy stuff and doomy stuff and gloomy stuff and plain power metally stuff. That's alot of stuff. You gotta have a break in there somewhere.
DREAM THEATER - SYSTEMATIC CHAOS
Let's be honest, the main song here right now is "Forsaken" and it has a video that's fully animated and created by Japanese anime studio GONZO. It looks fantastic and the song fits the visuals perfectly. It's one of my favorite DT songs from the last few years. Nothing has topped the magic of the album "Awake" yet, and likely never will (yes, skeptical here) but this is a step in the right direction. If you haven't seen the video yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. There's this one particular scene where the "metal dude" is sitting with the "wispy robot girl" and he looks up at her.... and yes, that's my favorite scene. Cos I'm a romantic sometimes and think that animated guy is pretty hot. Yes, I'm a sad individual but he reminds me of someone I once knew... oh so much.
SARAH BRIGHTMAN - SYMPHONY
I've always liked Brightman, and if you need a breather, this is a good cd to pick up and give a listen. She has a duet with Paul Stanley in here too. Anyone know where I can get a hold of a copy of her duet with Eric Adams? It's called Fly With the Eagles or something like that and supposedly was never released but its gotta be on a collection or a B Side of a EP or something out there...
BROTHER FIRETRIBE - FALSE METAL
In preparation for the new Firetribe release, it's time to revisit the old one. And ah, how glorious it still is! "Love Goes Down", "One Single Breath", "Lover Tonite", so many killer songs, and Pekka's vocals are just fantastic. He goes so over the top and just slams every song out with bliss. If you don't own this - and if you EVER liked 80s flavored metal in the first place - you NEED this in your collection.
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