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Amorphis – Circle

AMORPHIS Circle Nuclear Blast In their quest to melancholize everybody’s lives and institutionalize sorrow as a beauteous condition, these Finnish metal legends have produced yet another record that is the perfect companion to a night of stargazing. As their eleventh studio album, Circle is an apt sonic reflection of the pensiveness that accompanies old age. Angst and gloom take turns to induce emotional roller-coaster rides (“Shades Of Gray”, “Hopeless Days” and “Enchanted By The Moon”) while the keyboard plays the role of a calm voice amidst electric guitar maelstroms (“Mission”, “The Wanderer” and “Into The Abyss”). Once again, Tomi Joutsen’s signature mix of powerful, guttural growling and deep, emotive clean singing does a splendid job of nailing catchy choruses. Folkish woodwind tunes (“Narrowpath”, “Nightbird’s Song” and “A New Day”) and a brief saxophone motif (towards the end of “A New Day”) give the music a soothing touch too. Alas, as ...

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Mar 15, 2013 Posted by In Reviews Tagged , , , Comments 2

Heaven Shall Burn – Veto

HEAVEN SHALL BURN Veto Century Media These German metalcore veterans seem to be getting more melancholic with age—which can only be a good thing in the typically angry-for-life metalcore realm. Veto is the band’s seventh studio album and it explores an emotional depth unachievable by most metalcore bands. Of course, the HevyDevy-heavy guitar passages and breakdowns and Marcus Bischoff’s usual throat-rending screams are present to gratify that angsty teen within (“Fallen”, “You Will Be Godless”, “Antagonized” and “Nations”). However, synthesizer-tinged, mournful introductions (“Godiva”, “Hunters Will Be Hunted” and “Beyond Redemption”) and weeping guitars (“Die Stürme Rufen Dich” and “Like Gods Among Mortals”) frequently counteract this all-out aggressiveness, echoing the wisened-up adult’s longing for the meaning of life. There is even a little oddity in the form of a cover of Blind Guardian’s “Valhalla”, which sounds heavier, more shredtastic and—gasp!—powerful than the original. Also a medieval-themed album, Veto uses the legend ...

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Mar 15, 2013 Posted by In Reviews Tagged , , , Comments 0

Interview w/ Soilwork by Dane Prokofiev

SOILWORK Interview with Dirk Verbeuren (drums) By Dane Prokofiev Soilwork have never done a double album release before. Why this special treatment for the ninth studio outing, The Living Infinite? Doing a double album was an idea Speed had been throwing around for a while. When we got to writing new music somewhere early last year, we went into it with a mindset of “let’s just try and see what happens.” We ended up with no less than 27 songs. Two of those didn’t make the final cut but the rest was strong enough to be album-worthy. It was a challenge to complete The Living Infinite and I think that’s exactly what we needed to keep our flame burning. We’ve dealt with too many line-up changes for the past years, and in part because of that, we couldn’t tour enough for our previous album The Panic Broadcast which built up ...

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Mar 6, 2013 Posted by In Interviews, Uncategorized Tagged , , , Comments 1

“The Reviewer-Basher Syndrome” by Dane Prokofiev

The Reviewer-Basher Syndrome. Love or hate us, all music reviewers are at least fans of certain artistes. By Dane Prokofiev What do musicians really think of their fans? Do they love them to bits? Or do they secretly think that they are nothing more than cash cows whose views should not be respected? Now, a fan is not necessarily a music reviewer; on the other hand, a music reviewer is necessarily a fan of certain artistes. Hence, a certain fraction of any artiste’s fans most probably consists of music reviewers. Now, I don’t know how many of you reading this article have actually encountered musicians with the tendency to bash reviewers who give them negative reviews, but I have personally come across such people on my side of the world. The general gripe these musicians have with music reviewers is that they are supposedly insensitive and uninformed idiots. While music ...

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Feb 21, 2013 Posted by In Columns Tagged , Comments 1

“The Anachronism of Metal Cred” by Dane Prokofiev

The Anachronism of Metal Cred. Move with the times, conservatives. By Dane Prokofiev   Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. Mention these three bands in the presence of a typical angry metal elitist, and one is most certain to be subjected to a scornful look followed by newfound disrespect. In their heyday, during the transition period from the late ‘90s to the early 2000’s, these three American bands were arguably heavy metal’s so-called mainstream poster boys; and at the same time, they probably had porcupined voodoo doll versions of themselves nailed to sinister altars in the homes of said angry metal elitists. Taking into consideration the era during which all three bands shot to tremendous fame, it is not hard to see why the angry metal elitists needed them as punching bags so badly. For the more disconnected mainstream metal fan, it will be interesting to know that there were ...

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Feb 21, 2013 Posted by In Columns Tagged , Comments 0