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