Overkill - Feel The Fire (1985)

Overkill's debut album is nothing short of genius. Primitive, raw, agressive and youthful thrash metal album that turned this small club band from New Jersey into an internationally respected thrash band (that is still around by the way). The shrieky vocals of Bobby Blitz combined with the galloping bass of DD Verni, adequate leads by Gustafson and skin pounding of Overkill founder Rat Skates gives this album a unique character, slightly different and more punk influenced than their bay area peers (testament, metallica). The songwriting is well thought out and at times a bit more complex than their later albums, yet it still retains the balls out anthems such as Rotten to the Core and Raise The Dead. I think the thing I like about this album is that Overkill seems so innocent and I'm not talking about the lyrics (alcohol, evil, destruction etc...) but about belonging to a certain scene - I can't explain it but Feel the Fire seems detached from everyone else, definitley drawing influences from Maiden, priest as well as various punk bands. While the production belongs in the early 80's before a bunch of thrash bands started the high end thin production, which sadly ruined a lot of albums. Overkill has gone on to produce several albums, but this is the first, purest and one of the best examples of Overkill as a band and thrash metal in general.

Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987)

Now considered a classic in the gothic genre, Dead Can Dance's "within the Realm of A Dying Sun" catapulted DCD from their gothic/post punk roots into something entirely unique and different. Medieveal atmosphere and an overwhelming layer of melancholy blankets the album. For those unfamiliar with the band, they hail from Australia and play a unique style of music. This album is dark and gloomy. This album, Dead Can Dance's third offering doesn't feature many influences from the gothic rock genre yet has more in common with their later albums where traditional/world music had been explored. The trademark vocals of both Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard carry the album to new heights with Lisa's powerful voice (she is actually not singing a foreign language, it's gibberish)on tracks like the tribal-esque Cantara and Brendan's gloomy croon (in my opinion one of the best male voices ever). The music weaves it's way through a peaceful and desolate journey, mostly comprised of layers of synths with lots o reverb - see "summoning of the muse" for a very minimal medieval chant later to be a direct influence the whole darkwave/dark ambient scene. The lyrics on Brendan's song are as mysterious as the music, "Xavier" has a fantasy like quility to it where as Lisa's songs provide vocals/lyrics that mean nothing. Never has the band sounded so dark and yet so Beautiful - and this is why this is my favorite by the band.

a fan made video

Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade (2009)

Wolves in The Throne room - quite a ominous name methinks and a reflection of the musical intensity. Black Metal that sounds that it was created in Norway, or sweden but no...WiTTR are from the good ol united states. Oregon to be specific, and if you think of it what better placd to make grim music then the rainy, pacific coast. The problem to is that the band are of quite the environmental friendly crowed, which I've heard referred as Eco-terrorists and not quite the traditional misanthropic image of their european counterparts, but misanthropy all the same (when you really think about it)the music is icy cold - this is wolves third full length and perhaps their most ambitious record, although not varying stylistically from the previous albums. Hypnotic like Drudkh, but faster and more intense - still spurring very catchy melodies inside their stormful music that make them accessible for people into and not into black metal. The production is also welcoming, which is quite a relief for many. I can't say enough good things about wolves in the throne room.

Amorphis - Eclipse (2005)

I've already reviewed a magnificent album from Amorphis, but that album is ancient now - a masterpiece, but not what the band represents today. This is what I consider the third stage of Amorphis in which the band aquired their thrid vocalist. Stylistically there's not too drastic of a change between their previous album, Far From the Sun, but although that was a decent (if somewhat bland) album Eclipse is totally destroys it with it's classic songs. I'm not going to deny these songs aren't very accessable but they are just so good. Tomi (new vocalist) really breathes fresh life into a band that was seen at the time to be going by the wayside. Musically this is heavy rock - sure it's heavy metal, but Amorphis jams are obviously influenced by classic sabbath and 70's prog bands. But the sound is melodic with good synths (not overdone this time around) and a really inspired attitude. Although death growling is present (and at time seem out of place) they are merely an example of the many surprises that this album gives you. Tight smooth, well written songs is what you'll get with eclipse - this is one of Amorphis's best.

www.myspace.com/amorphis

Blackmore's Night - Ghost of a Rose (2003)

Quick lesson on Blackmore’s Night – Richie Blackmore, known for his work in classic bands Deep Purple and Rainbow, met a very beautiful woman known as Candice Night. They both had a love of medieval and Renaissance music – they married and formed a band called Blackmore’s Night. As I mentioned, this is Renaissance music but fused with a good sense of folk rock and also a bit of pop for commercial appeal. I would be lying if I said that a lot of this is not cheesy but you really have to feel the music to appreciate it – it’s all really fun. Songs such as Lorelei (after the German Siren) and Way to Mandalay will have you stamping your foot and calling for some good Ale. But for the slower ballad people, the mesmerizing vocals of Candice spellbinds on the beautiful Queen for a day and the awesome title track. Many old folk instruments along with modern guitars and synths are utilized on this release, giving it a very diverse and genuine feel yet with a modern twist. This is a gem of an album – I would suggest anyone into folk rock find this album and all albums from this band ASAP.

Paradise Lost - Icon (1993)

A classic album by one of the best doom metal bands, Icon sees Paradise Lost forging ahead with a new sound – leaving all traces of their death metal past at the door and adopting a subtle underlying gothic rock approach, most notably Sisters of Mercy. However, Icon is an album at a crossroads and the heavy crunch and sludgy doom are still dominant and still 100% metal. Gregor’s leads are nothing short of impressive – dynamic and memorable, utilizing the wah-wah pedal in ways that other doom bands never have attempted. As for Nick Holmes’ voice – it sounds a lot like James Hetfield from Metallica, but Nick has more pain in his vocals – a vocal style that has been dismissed not long after this release. The overall sound is just fucking heavy, unlike their British peers, the guitars override their music and in ways they have more in common with the traditional Black Sabbath form of doom then the gothic doom of My Dying Bride and such. The production is gritty and the flow of the album is smooth – every song has some distinct melody that gets stuck in the head. In my opinion Icon might be Paradise Lost at their most creative and definitely most catchy. The following album “Draconian Times” was amazing, but the clean gothic rock took too much precedence and the preceding album “Shades of God” was too complex for what the band would turn into. The band has since experimented with non metal stuff and the recent albums have been sort of a return to a heavier form, but they just will never get the magical “Icon” sound back.

Slayer - Show no Mercy

I don't review enough classic metal, one of the reasons is that everyone knows that stuff already, but man when I listened to Show No Mercy for the first time in a couple years I just had to review it. This is where it all began for Slayer - starting out as a Judas Priest cover band, they decided to join the thrash scene and write some good really good songs - I'm talking thrash classics. One friend once told me that this album sounds like it was recorded in hell and he would have been right - the sort of early eighties hollow classic metal sound is presented here fittingly alongside lyrics dealing with satanism, black magic and general occult themes. Music wise the album sounds surprisngly fresh - not as fast as Slayers next couple of albums (Hell Awaits and the ungodly hyper Reign In Blood)it's still partially a product of the NWOBHM bands that they were probably listening to at the time (Venom, Priest, Etc...)but this album is way darker than priest and less cheesy than Venom. The Hanneman/King dual guitar solos just shred the life out of you and to think these dudes were so young. Songwriting is another A+ creating classics such as Die by the Sword and Black Magic - riffs that get stuck in your head long after the album stops. Not every song is a classic though, but for all intent there's never a dull moment on Show No Mercy. Unfortunatly Slayer is a tired band nowadays, not very interesting but no worries cause they created some classics and it all started with this phenomenal album.

Drudkh - Blood in our Wells

Black Metal has long been a favorite style of mine - some bands play fast and grim, other bands like Drudkh tend to slow it down in favor of pure atmosphere. Drudkh hails from the Ukraine and while describing them as black metal one has to keep in mind these guys aren't the usual satanic themed evil black metal, rather they dip deep into the atmosphere of what I imagine of when I think of the Ukraine - cold and atmospheric, snowy and surrounded by nature. It's not surprising that you hear traditional ukrainian folk melodies and acoustic breaks throughout Blood in our wells. The songs are rather long and that's exactly how it should be, they need time to develop and breathe. One of my absolute favorite songs on the album is "Solitude" a beautiful song that seems to exemplify all that is Drudkh, witha rather dramatic ending - a must for all lovers of atmospheric metal. the vocals are throaty and in a definite black metal tone but done so in a way that seems to blend in with the music and the production is definetly the best Drudkh has attempted managing to sound warm and clear without losing any of the atmosphere of a black metal record. It goes without saying that Drudkh remain one of the most unique bands in the scene today and their somewhat mysterious status makes them all the more attractive.

Katatonia - Viva Emptiness (2003)

Katatonia is my all time favorite band. They started out as a doom/death band and changed styles along the way - experiementing with doom, gothic, shoegaze, alterative-esque and a new style which is hard to describe. I like to call Viva Emptiness the third phase in Katatonia's sound

Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (1996)

When Katatonia released Brave Murder Day, they blew the roof off the doom metal genre, creating something unique - depressing and heavy but in an uptempo way, something generally not heard of in Doom. Unlike their debut album Brave Murder Day's compositions are of a rock nature - there exists many a driving rhythm and crunchy guitar sound but with a lot of effects given to clean guitar stuff. The vocals are wonderfully performed By Mikeal A. from the legendary Opeth and features all of his grunting goodness but back then his voice was a bit raspier and less refined as today. The clean vocals are only heard on Day, a lush hypnotic number giving us insight to progressing sounds where Katatonia was heading towards. The rest of the songs follow a similiar rock pattern, the short and simple Murder being the most accessible on the album and 12 and rainroom showing us the complexities that lay hidden beneath a rather simplistic style of metal. Katatonia has continued to reinvent themselves time and time again but I feel his is the album that broke them into a consistant and progressive style. It has class and charm - feeling both cold and comforting.




www.myspace.com/katatonia

Atmospheric Metal - my video

I made this video of atmospheric metal, a loose genre incorporating gothic metal, doom metal and doom/death metal...labels aren't important, the bands are

Bert and Ernie grindcore

Nothing is sacred on youtube, especially when it comes to Sesame Street. This is Bert and Ernie playing grindcore which is probably the most extreme music ever...the editing is brilliant

Muppets play Death Metal

I thought I would break from the usual reviews to inject some humour here - This is the muppets playing death metal (its a song by cryptopsy) Naturally my love for both the muppets and death metal meant that I had to share this

Amorphis - Tales fom the Thosand Lakes

Do you know what the Kelevala is? It's a collection of finnish folk tales compiled into poetry and also Finlands proud national epic. Amorphis was a young metal band from Finland releasing only one death metal album - this is their second album released back in 1994 and can best described as Doom metal with lots of finnish folk melodies (transcribed through metal guitars and keyboards). Sections from the Kelevala are presented here (in english form) often verbatim from the text and are growled with death grunts - but rather being imposing and harsh, these are quite atmospheric, almost whispered. Like the Kelevala itself, Tales from the Thousand lakes contains a sense of mystery and magic that you can easily get lost in. The progressive parts are highly present in the synths showing a 1970's atmosphere but the guitars are downtuned enough to impress even the hardcore death metal freaks. Amongst the Metal crowd this is considered a true classic, and while their newer stuff is much more accessible and polished, Tales remains Amorphis's best and most creative endevour.

check out the cool video for black winter day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLCHDw9vOk

my space
http://www.myspace.com/amorphis

Morgana Lefay - The Secret Doctrine (1993)

Morgana Lefay is a band from Sweden playing mostly traditional metal style, high vocals (yes, he's actually singing) thrash riffs. This would probably be the closest thing to Metallica that I've reviewed so far, but that's just because I rarely listen to this type of metal. This could be termed Power Metal, but it's a lot darker and way more textured than all the helloween clones. The music shifts from mid paced groovy numbers (see the opener "rooms of sleep") to creepy keyboard driven songs to thrash anthems such as "dying evolution" What can I say about singer Charles rytkonen? The guy is a genious, having a vocal style similiar to Jon Oliva (savatage) buy way more varied and ranged - the vocals can be powerful or ominious, agressive or heartfelt. The guitar solos of Tommi Karppanen and Tony Erikkson are nothing sort of amazing as is evident in songs such as "nowhere island." The Drums are thundering blasts of fury, a sound that's sadly missed from metal nowadays. The thing that I love most about this album is that the songs weren't written in a few days, these were well thought out ideas pieced together to form an ambitious record. Morgana Lefay is still around, but the last few albums seem tired to me and since they started borrowing sounds from groove metal bands, they just seem a shadow of their former selves. They were also once, one of the best ballad bands in the genre - forget I said ballad, the songs like "The Mirror" and "Last Rites" are songs about magic and death, certauinly not songs about love. But have no fear if you want fantasy look to "Alley of oaks" and my favorite "Lord of the Rings" (with the original Tolkien ring verse + added lyrics). What we have ladies and Gents is a true metal album of the highest quality and perfect for people into bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Helloween and Candlemass.

Check out "The Mirror"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGVc9Krs84M&feature=related

http://www.myspace.com/morganalefay

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1997)

In terms of popularity, Emperor is perhaps the biggest known real black metal band (although on later albums that can be debated) maybe because of their involvement with the church arsons that took place in Norway in the early 90's. This was seen as the big return of Emperor- their acclaimed debut, In The Nightside Eclipse, had already been released several years earlier. Anthems... is a grandiose slab of extreme black metal. I've always said that this album is like controlled chaos - the guitars are a wall of noise and above them lies the sickly sweet sounds of symphonic synths, both soothing and creepy at the same time. Unlike their peers using raw trebly production, Emperor incorperates polished and sonically superior sounds to relay their self proclaimed "sophisticated black metal art" and it works because the chaotic riffs, drums and synths all do their part to create a hypnotic effect, conquering both the evil and mysterious elements that should be essential to any true black metal album. To describe this album in full detail would be like analyzing every piece of a puzzle - pointless, You need to hear this with your own ears to appreciate the rich complexity and the atmosphere being conveyed. Although, Anthems is very complex and extreme yet at moments when the album slows down it gets quite quite dark and beautiful - the balance is just perfect. There will never be an album like Anthems ever again - This is Black metal at it's finest.

Check out the video for "Loss and Curse of Reverence"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BI4_NMxPb8

myspace
http://www.myspace.com/emperorhorde

Tiamat - Wildhoney

There was this point in the mid nineties where a seperate movement of heavy metal occured. Bands started trying new things, and thanks to the century media label, we were graced with the outcomes of these seperatists. Tiamat was one of these bands, up until this album they were trying to find their sound as a death, black and then doom band, never really establising a unique identity or a masterpiece. Wildhoney really transformed things for the band, as incredible as it seems Tiamat took thier atmospheres, throaty vocals and heavy doom guitars and combined them with the textured atmospheres, clean vocals and guitar solos of Pink Floyd. What reults is something hard to describe, but it's a magical journey. It's a short album, but one that stays consistant throughout and is rather connected. My absolute favorite song on here (and one of the best songs ever imo) is Gaia, a song about the end of the world, but its floydish memorable guitar solos and delicate atmosphere is indeed something unique. The heavier side of the album, lies in "the ar" and "whatever that hurts" both incorperating whirling synths into their sound along with tribal-like drumming. There's alot going on in the album, and the more you hear it, the more you find out. The only reason for most people to not give this a chance is because of the throaty vocals of Johan Edlund (the mastermind behind Tiamat) but if you can get past that point, you'll find a wonderous album full of magic, ideas and beauty.

Watch the official video for Gaia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozQZZAhwYn0

more songs at myspace (they are now more goth metal)
http://www.myspace.com/tiamat

Lycia - Cold

This is my favorite album by Lycia. Lycia were a one of a kind project, the brainchild of Mike Vanportfleet, and later Tara Vanflower. The style of music is darkwave, an extremely moody and melencholy ambient form of goth music. Think if the Cure OD'd on downers, and you might come up with Lycia. It's dark and bleak, but in the album lies a sense of beauty. The compositions on Cold are amazing and hypnotic, letting the listener feel a sense of security in the dark music. Reverby guitars, ghostly whispered vocals, ethereal female vocals. Music is eerily slow and catchy with outstanding unique songwriting. Like the cover, This is a very bare and honest music - not intent on anything but relaying pure emotions.

check out the video for drifting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpqMnDNOWAM
for more songs
http://www.myspace.com/lycia

Antimatter - Leaving Eden (2007)

Antimatter play dark folk music that is quite hard to describe. In the past this was duncan patterson (ex anathema) and Mick moss along with guest musicians. Duncan ledt and antimatter became mick's own project. On leaving eden he recruited Danny Cavenaugh (of anathema) who plays electric guitar on some of the songs. This release is also different because they now have a drummer, who plays on most of the albums tracks.

please check out the video for Leaving Eden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8s5uBpG0mU

Summoning - Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame (2001)

Tolkien has inspired a countless number of people from writers and artists to musicians. Rather unknown is a small metal band from Austria called Summoning. Summoning consists of two guys, heavy metal guitars, keyboards, a drum machine and an obsession with J.R.R. Tolkien.. Epic might be the best word to describe this band - black metal guitars buried beneath layers of keyboards in a simplistic yet refined style that gives them a sound all their own. The vocals are a rough, a typical black metal rasp although a bit subdued and distant giving way for a more pleasent feel (especially for those not into extreme metal.) The clean vocals, like in massive encore "Farewell" are in a operatic style and carry the song in what can only dub the most horoic piece of music I've ever heard. Guitar is present here but pushed to the back letting the keyboards with their beautiful melodies shine through. The Drums are programmed which might throw some people off, but it's a staple in their music as it gives their compositions unique militant feel. The key to Summoning's magic lies not just with their Tolkien lyrics or their amazing songwriting but with their repetition, the ability to hypnotize and transfer the listener into a fantasy world. Many people might find this element very tedious to sit through - but the point of Summoning is not to simply make songs but paint fantastic pictures, create epic images - like the ones you imagine while reading Tolkien's works. In my opinion Summoning is the only band that perfectly capture the magic of Lord of the Rings, especially the darker side of the man's works.

Check out this video for Farewell (maybe the best song ever!), off you go to Middle Earth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFbBKiSC2MY

Sentenced - Down (1996)

Sentenced's fourth album and perhaps their best, if not most consistant - Down bridges the gap between their death metal past and their accessible goth rock tinged later albums. With a new singer, ville, replacing the old (Jarva) we have a slightly new sound - sounding awefully like later James Hetfield, Ville's vocals are rather fitting for the type of music that is presented here. The complexities of their past albums are replaced here buy more straightforward riffing - this stuff was made to be catchy. Saying that, the songs presented here still have a layer of sadness to them that compliment the lyrics (suicide, depression) and the guitar sound is still chunky and heavy (which was not the case on later albums). This is still one of the best metal albums to come out in the 90's that was both accessible, dark and heavy.


Check out the video for Noose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzWhK9aBSbE

Enslaved - Vertabrae

Starting out as a strictly viking/black metal band, Enslaved found that half way through their career they needed to change their style and progress into something more. The last several Enslaved albums have been dedicated to this style and it's something I really cannot describe to people. They still have elements of their black metal roots (mainly vocal style) but are also very influenced by progressive rock, mainly Pink Floyd but I can hear some King Crimson floating in their sound. Vertabrae to me is like traveling to another dimension - it's not an easy listen to the average ear, especially if you find prog rock boring, but it's a rewarding listen. Lulling clean chanting vocals, a ton of spacy and atmospheric synths, a clean guitar sound that is actually not very heavy distortion wise (making a very unique sound when the music becomes quite agressive)and alot of melody amounts to an epic journey stripped free from conventional contraints of music. In my opinion, together with Opeth, Enslaved are doing something all their own and are one of the most important bands in metal today. My suggestion is to check out the (really awesome) video below and judge the music for yourselves.


Please check out the video for "The Watcher"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGOHk2J4jV4

Desultory - Bitterness

Desultory’s Bitterness was released amongst the second wave of Swedish Death Metal, back in 1993. A departure, although not entirely, from their debut Into Eternity, Bitterness sees the band embracing a new very dense sound, darker, more melodic and even incorporating some doom metal elements into their sound. Lyrically speaking, the album is very depressed – concerned with matters of emotional distraught (hey their name isn’t Desultory for nothing) musically though, most of the album is mid to up-tempo and not typical death metal (although a few songs are still 100% death metal “Among Mortals” stands out) as most of the songs feature a verse-chorus-verse structure. The vocals are something totally different – the typical rasp or death grunt is replaced with a surprisingly distinguishable vocal style, it’s a very painful growling moan yet still understandable, reflective of the bleak content of Bitterness. Like a lot of Swedish Death Metal bands of the time, the band chose to produce this masterpiece at Sunlight Studios – So you have “that” typical production sound - the low-fi dense fuzzy guitar sound only adds an extra density to an already dark-souled album. Some of my favorites include the perfect mid tempo opener “Life Shatters,” “The Closing Eye” for its remarkable melodies and the painfully catchy “Bleeding” This is a unique and different spin on Death Metal – more accessible perhaps, but definitely more reflective and probably one of the most overlooked metal albums ever recorded.

please watch the video for Winter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvRNV6gbNmA

Portishead - Third

Did Portishead actually break up? I'm not quite sure but they haven't released anything since the excellent "PNYC" live album but that was ten years ago! Third is actually Portishead's third attempt and while reunion albums are usually quite disappointing, this one is actually amazingly good! I can't say every Portishead fan would be pleased with this because it represents a new direction for the band. Unlike the trip-hop sultryness of Dummy and Portishead, Third is actually quite dark - darker than anything the band has done before. More emphasis is based on the electronic elements and soundscapes. If previous albums showcased Beth Gibbon's crooning voice, On Third the music takes over to deliver an equal footing. Of course Beth sounds great on this, her voice darker and more tragic than ever before and all the pain and emotion really gives life to the album. There are facinating songs to be found, it's too bad the albums first couple of songs represent the weaker aspect of Third, but when the album reaches the lullaby-esque ballad "The Rip" things really take off. "We carry on" and "Machine Gun" represents the harsher side of the album , "Small" is somewhat experimental and the beautifully dark "Threads", a number reminiscent of their older stuff, closes out the album on a high note. I just can't recommend this album enough.

Check out the video for Machinegun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm-OkHj-VM

and The Rip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPJJSCFdVd0

Korpiklaani - Tales Along This Road

I’m usually not a fan of happy music - usually I don’t listen to anything that insists that I dance to it. Of course when I discovered the Finnish Korpiklaani, a band that fuses Metal and Hummpa (Finnish Polka) I had to reconsider. Korpiklaani is like nothing you’ve heard before, what are accordions doing in metal? What’s all that fiddle playing? Why am I dancing like a drunken fool? Oh it’s so fun and catchy these songs subtly suggests that you need some beer to enhance the Korpiklaani experience. “Happy Little Boozer” is a song about a small guy who likes to drink and then there are several songs about nature “Midsummer Night” being a good example. Some of the slower songs even include some shamanistic Saami chanting. This is uplifting and proudly Finnish, with maybe half the lyrics in the national language, which is very respectable (in recent albums the Finnish lyrics have taken precedence) There is nothing too extreme about Korpiklaani, music is kinda similar to the vibe of The Pogues or Flogging Molly, only Finnish Polka Folk Metal instead of Irish folk rock - everyone can enjoy it - sing laugh, dance, mosh, drink!

This is the video for "Happy little Boozer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFBYIT4fvcY

Agalloch - The Mantle

Agalloch – The Mantle

How can I put a description upon musical perfection? These words came to me before sitting down to write about Agalloch’s music. Agalloch isn't just about music, they are about atmosphere and emotions – deep, beautiful, melancholy emotions – similar to the essence you feel while walking through natural landscapes. Not surprisingly Agalloch’s hometown is Portland, Oregon where nature is right at their doorstep - This nature themed, pagan theme is found throughout their masterpiece called “The Mantle.” Their songs are long and epic, like taking a long journey across the forested mountains – Sure this is in part Metal, but it’s often lulling, hypnotic riffs refuse to alienate the people who are attracted to the Folk side of Agalloch - and in my opinion Agalloch is as much of a folk band as a metal one. I love the charm; the acoustic leads elegantly laid across the metal riffs - something rarely found in this type of music, I love the various folk instruments as well as piano and clean guitar interspersed with thundering drums and heavy distortion. It’s often hard to detect where songs begin and end because they are all connected in a massive epic known as “The Mantle” Darkly expressive, melancholic, rustic and beautiful wrapped in a metal exterior while painting a portrait of a paganism and nature - can music get any more pure?

Please watch the video for "I am the Wooden Doors"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1BBI072etY

Lush - Split

Lush's Split is perhaps one of the best albums ever recorded. I first heard Split's ethereal opener "Light From a Dead Star" over a decade ago, and I remember the strong impression on me - and even today the album still startles me with it's sheer honesty and timeless beauty. For those unfamiliar with Lush, they came from the early 90's shoegazer rock scene (a style which contained very brit-like hypnotic and reverby guitars) along with bands like Ride and My Bloody Valentine. The heavenly vocals of guitar stylings of Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson were way underrated, the songwriting catchy and varied and to this this day they've never been never duplicated. This 1994 album proves them to be at the top of their game, breaking away from the pigeonholed shoegazer rock scene and producing something more.

The twelve tracks are represented on Split range in variety and musical styles from deep moving rockers like "Kiss Chase" to the almost-electronica "Undertow" to the the dark and moody "Never Never" The lyrical content of this album seem to be as wide ranged as the songs themselves - often poetic and abstract they allow the listener to piece together the message that Lush is expressing. To me it sounds mostly about relationship problems, loss, death and childhood trauma. A lot of songs contain messages of personal detachment - some of my favorites are to be found on the song "When I Die" a quite level-headed and bright song about dying which makes it even the more disturbing.

Ethereal, introspective, beautiful, moody with some bright spots here and there is how I describe Split to the average listener. Lush released one more album which delved more in the britpop scene, which contained some decent songs but it was more commercial and not nearly as brilliant as Split. After Lush's drummer Chris Acland committed suicide the band fell into oblivion. Lush should always be remembered for this amazing album, producing an outstanding gem in a scene that never really aspired to do just that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9PME96c7F4

About me and this blog

The main purpose of this blog is to review music. Since this is the first post I will introduce myself - my name is Bill and i'm an avid fan of music. Ironically, I believe that music is something I can't, and maybe shouldn't, describe since it's obviously a very subjective form of art. Saying that, I believe in the power of music and the impact it has on listeners and I feel it's my right to express my feelings and more importantly I believe that there are many bands/artists that I have encountered that many people have not. This leads me to another main gripe with the music industry - it is exposure. I'm not trying to sound like an elitist in any way, but being an obsessed fan of certain types of music, I can safely say that there is a lot of garbage out in the music world, but since we're so obsessed with things like image and other sorts of media propoganda, a lot do not realize they're being taken for a ride or, to put it in a very negative way, brainwashed. And it's not our fault! do we really have extra time to research music? things are getting better though, the decline of record companies, emergence of digital music and promotion tools such as Myspace, allows us to connect with anyone from a major group such as radiohead to some random musician in pittsburgh.

even though I describe my love of music, I must admit that I do not like or do not follow a lot of styles. I am mainly into metal but also love and will post about Folk, goth, celtic, alt-country, prog rock and anything else that moves me.

some of my favorite bands include Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Tiamat, My Dying Bride, Anthema, Dead Can Dance, Loreena Mckennitt, Satyricon and more - I tend to lean towards stuff Moody, Dark and expressive

I hope everyone enjoys my reviews