Those that are shocked by the stylistic decisions that create
Edguy's latest, "
Tinnitus Sanctus", obviously have not been paying attention to their last few releases. "Rocket Ride" could be summed up as a hard rock album with some minor power metal tweakings. And while their catalogue has been scattered with silly, "pervy" pieces such as "Lavatory Love Machine", the title track of "Rocket Ride" and the
*nudge nudge giggle giggle* "Rise of the Morning Glory", then this should really come as no surprise. Just dismiss any preliminary garbage that Tobias spouted prior to its release,
"Tinnitus" is not all that "metal" nor will it give you an ear disease as the title may suggest.
"Ministry of Saints" is a bolt to the battlefield, an opening volley that starts the album out on an electrifying note. Based in the world of that straight up metal than proudly sporting power trappings, it shoves ahead in a Judas Priest-like manner. In your face and raised tempo, lean guitars that snap at the leash and grunting six string aggressive prowess. The chorus is its most memorable factor, an upbeat catchy thing that rises above the axe's grit and grime.
"Sex Fire Religion" deploys a sharp bass line and squawling guitars. Tobias' voice is swirling, dark and dangerous as quicksand, and just as eager to suck you down into the void with him. The song is sparse and powerful, relying on sheer muscle and a few effects to add a glimmer of interest. The chorus is popping and catchy as hell, twisted wickedly by Sammet's ever changing whims. Reminds one of curretnt day "modern"
Dio with the slinkiness of Robert Mason voiced Lynch Mob from the early 90s.
"Pride of Creation" is a pale, truncated and less lively version of the
Edguy epic. It has a flat chorus, failure at achieving that glorified epic status proportions and is bluntly tedious, with lacklustre pacing. There are moments where things seem to come together but they fall apart just as quickly. It seems like a song that was tacked together and did not get thought fully through before recording commenced.
"Nine Lives" is a streamlined midtempo hard rock piece dappled with synthesizer and bursting with a melodic chorus. Some unusual musical embellishments and the aggravated guitar rhythms transform the mundane areas into a rather prettily striking solo. Sharper and edgier than the typical hard rock track but not quite teetering over to the metal edge that it flirts so outrageously with.
"Wake Up Dreaming Black" is tedium galore. Dying angels and dark hued dreams (nightmares?) provide tame goth lyrical fodder for this rather typical metal device. As compelling as the words
"dying angels" can be, its beaten into monotonous death (and then some) before the song comes to its close. Those two words must have been pure fascination for Tobi because they are the crutch the song leans on and ultimately ends up breaking under. It's power pompy undercurrents and a reasonable running time might rescue it for some that are less enthused over the other less-metallic entries on the album. However there's not enough angst to make it honest, nor has the true darkness to make it strange and compelling.
"Dreaming" is just pretty flat, like old soda that's been left out in the heat and lost its fizz.
"Dragonfly" also has its repetitive achilles heels but these are easily covered up by the deliciously melodic verses, enrapturing bridge and the ridiculously pompous chorus. This one has a bit of 90s Malmsteen flitting around behind the curtains. There's also something rather captivating about Sammet's command of
"Calling you". The rhythm patterns of the verses are a bit cheesy however.
"Thorn Without a Rose" has none of the desperate sense of "Scarlet Rose", or the wasteland wounded of "Roses for No One". The wistful weariness of inevitability that characterizes "Another Time" is not here either. In fact, this is rather dreary in comparison to those crackling, heart stripping tracks from
Edguy releases of years past. Being a shadow creature of these older and superior ballads, it still struggles to carve a name for itself as the only true "light" moment of the album and it succeeds mostly due to the fact that Tobias has the ability to melt his voice into a mushy mess of longing. He perfectly emotes his pent up passions in a powerful, soul poisoning manner. All silliness has been set aside, and when his mind is focused into a serious frame, good things tend to happen, as this song's saving grace represents.
"9-2-9" refreshes with sizzling guitars and Tobi's voice picks up and then whisks ou away into a lush rock landscape. Another hard rock track that has the rippling epic sense of power scotting its edges but is grounded solidly by the earthy guitars and restrained drums. A luscious chorus and halting sweetly bubbling guitars make this one a nice listen of AOR-ish proportions.
"Speedhoven" has that
Edguy excess and gleefully skips into speedy power metal territory with wild abandon. The chorus has that fleet pacing, echoing synth and pounding drums. For all of that its still not even close to being even in the same room as other
Edguy epics. Perhaps a little too inflated for its own good, and too self important to be effective. They are just trying too hard here, with not enough pieces to complete a decent puzzle. It's all missing spots here and there, leaving it lopsided, boring and ill composed.
"Dead Or Rock"... is that even a question? Or is it a statement? Thundering forward like some kind of vision of the 80s rock scene, all wrapped up in this errr...burrito of influences (Rainbow/Twisted Sister/AC/DC/Saxon...etc). It's enough to either give you great gastronomical distress (if you are dreaming of "Theatre of Salvation part II") or to make you delirious in delight (if "Holy Shadows" and "Rocket Ride" are your life theme songs). Sammet proves most satisfactorily that he can just plain rock out with the best of them. A cliched song with equally cheesy lyrics, but with his joyful carefree "rock star" attitude and deft manner of flipping the song over on its head when you least expect it - it is more endearing than it is anything else. So
Brother Firetribe are not the only act in
Europe that can lay down the authentic sounding arena rock in the 2000s. Quite fun and nicely done... too bad the album doesn't end there...
but instead continues on for a final embarrassing fling...
"Are You A Little Pervert Too?" is insulting, ridiculous and strange. Being a hokey, ho-down, country fried type track (the kind of parody mockery from those that don't truly understand or have likely ever listened to any real country and western music) that just pushes buttons for the sake of it. There are a few cute lines here, such as "There's a million ways to get off and I've seen them all on TV (in Tokyo)". Still it is simply a horrid little throwaway track, that lacks enough humor to make it truly amusing.
"Tinnitus Sanctus" (that I guess translates to "an ear ringing hymn of praise".
Tinnitus - ringing in the ears and
Sanctus being a hymn of praise sung at the end of the Preface in many Eucharistic liturgies) - is not an
Edguy masterpiece. Period. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The good songs outweigh the trash, but just. It's a very thin margin and the songs that are indeed memorable are also those that are far beyond the norm of what fans have come to desire from the band.
The meat of the disc should have been
"Speedhoven" and
"Pride of Creation" but instead its a straight forward 80s rock revival
("Dead or Rock") and an old Malmsteen-ish piece
("Dragonfly") that garners the most deserved attention. The album is far better than it really should be, but not even close to something like the brilliance of "Theatre of Salvation" (the benchmark for all things
Edguy).
It is apparent the band had alot of fun making this album (also true with past "Rocket Ride") and some of that enthusiasm leaks over into the music. Yet you are still left in the cold to pine over the loss of their more intricate days. A decent enough diversion but who knows if they can keep up the level of quirk interspersed with half hearted power bits without losing too big a chunk of their fan base.
Written by
Alanna Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Show all reviews by AlannaRatingsAlanna: 6.5/10Members: 6.5/10 - Average of 1 ratings.
Member ratings
 | Steen (Staff)
Rating: 6.5/10
A positive surprise from the first listen since I never really got into Rocket Ride and st... · Read more · |
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