Obituary -- 'Xecutioner's Return' [review]

Obituary - Xecutioner's Return
Candlelight Records (8/28/07)
Death metal



Obituary has once again proved its place among the metal and death metal elite.

Let's be honest, 2005's Frozen in Time was a stellar comeback album, but its sole purpose was to show that the band still had what it took to make killer metal. With that established, Obituary set out to craft what will ultimately rank up amongst its best efforts (did anyone think it was possible to even approach Cause of Death-era work?).

The shift in home label (the band had been on Roadrunner for its entire career) and loss of longtime lead guitarist Allen West did little to slow the band down. Newcomer Ralph Santolla's addition appears seamless. In fact, it may have offered up an added creative spark as Santolla does have a more deliberate approach to his playing and things seem to be a little more thought-out at times.

The classic Obituary sound -- the slow, sludgy guitar -- is back in full effect. Tracks like "Feel the Pain" and "Bloodshot" crawl out of the speakers like a corpse. But the band still manages to incorporate a faster thrash feel to songs like "Drop Dead", or the guitar solos on "Seal Your Fate" and "Face Your God", creating an absolute avalanche of seething metal.

Obituary is one of death metal's best outfits for a reason; John Tardy's guttural and growled vocals are always clean and easy to decipher, as the band's song structures are pretty simple and straightforward, yet they still manage to make them sound elaborate. While a lot of their contemporaries seem to overstay their welcome or become overly repetitive, Obituary still sound fresh and imaginative (perhaps due to their extended hiatus a few years ago). Whatever the case, Obituary is a band that inspired and continues to inspire many metal bands out there today.

With Xecutioner's Return, Obituary manages to release an album no one thought it was still capable of creating. From the classic-sounding "Evil Ways" to the haunting "In Your Head", to the seven-minute opus "Contrast the Dead", Obituary proves it has a lot more to offer fans.

Obituary is one of those bands that will never be in the mainstream. While longtime fans already know how good the music is -- it's time for a new generation of fans to discover this band.

Atreyu -- 'Lead Sails Paper Anchors' [review]

Atreyu - Lead Sails Paper Anchor
Hollywood Records (8/28/07)
Rock / Metalcore / Post-Hardcore



This is the album that Atreyu needed as a follow-up to The Curse. While 2006's A Death-Grip on Yesterday wasn't a terrible release, the band seemed like it was still searching for an identity. On Lead Sails, it sounds quite comfortable and very explosive.

Atreyu do a great job of updating an '80s hard-rock groove with a modern metal sensibility, while sprinkling in the slightest amount of hardcore growls (a nod to the genre that got them to the dance, so to speak). The band is turning into a less aggressive Trivium. And while last year's release was light on the hooks, this album is chock-full of them.

Exploding out of the gate with "Doomsday", the band unleashes a barrage of thick riffs and assaulting rhythm that continues throughout the album. Recalling a bygone era, songs like "Honor", "Becoming the Bull" and "Slow Burn" would sound perfect pouring out of the PA at a huge stadium. Add to that the progression of the band's sound, most notably the killer guitar solos that litter the album, most notably on "Falling Down", "Can't Happen Here" and "When Two Are One". And if the band wasn't wearing its influences on its sleeves enough for you, throw in a sick cover of Faith No More's "Epic" (which closes out the album as a hidden track) for good measure.

And that's not even the best Atreyu has to offer. Check out "Blow", with Josh Todd (of Buckcherry) on guest vocals. Apart from Velvet Revolver on rare occasions, or perhaps Buckcherry, no band has better captured that gritty L.A.-scene, sleazy rock sound reminiscent of Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction.

Even when the band manages to slow things down a few times -- on the title-track or on "Lose It" -- there's still an air of urgency to the sound.

What a great release. The shift to Hollywood Records from Victory did little to slow down or shift the band's progression. It instead focused the group into creating probably the best album of its short career. It's fun, it's unbelievably catchy and it's raw and turgid with everything there is to love about the rock and metal genres. A fantastic album for fans of metal or rock. A top-five release of the year, easily.

Within Temptation -- 'The Heart of Everything' [review]

Within Temptation - The Heart of Everything
Roadrunner Records (7/24/07)
Metal/goth


Within Temptation's fourth full-length album, The Heart of Everything, is supposed to be the band's big North American coming-out party. At least, I'm sure that's what Roadrunner Records would have liked. The truth is, there's not a big North American market for this specific brand of metal.


For many years, European metal bands with an operatic tinge have thrived overseas (Nightwish, Within Temptation, Leaves Eyes), as these bands are earning huge numbers with each new album. But mainstream North America has been slow on the upswing.


Make no mistake, these bands are doing something very unique on the metal scene. The operatic nature of the vocals gives the bands' sound a whole new dimension, with the voice being used as another instrument as opposed to the main attraction with the instruments backing.

Perhaps the biggest misstep with The Heart of Everything was using "What Have You Done" as the lead-off single. Sure, it's probably the strongest track on the album, with front woman Sharon Den Adel trading vocals with guest vocalist Keith Caputo (he of Life of Agony fame). But this track is far from the norm for the album. Anyone expecting the next Evanescence would be sorely mistaken (not that that's a bad thing). Rather, check out "Hand of Sorrow", a track that opens with a full orchestra before the drums and guitar kick in. Adel's vocals sound like they belong in Phantom of the Opera instead of fronting a metal band. But that's the point.

So what does the band do right? The orchestration is lush, the riffs are weighty and intense and Adel can really wail. On the title-track, she really carries the procession, soaring above the metallic interplay between guitarists Robert Westerholt and Ruud Jolie (with some solid soloing from Westerholt). And the demonic muttering adds a nice subtle touch, too. Or a song like "Howling", with assaulting riffs that groove around the rhythm section with authority, is a perfectly acceptable metal anthem. The band can even add an edge to slower tracks. "Frozen" would come across as a typical power ballad, if not for the thunderous bridges around the chorus and the chunky guitar-play.

The negatives are few. "Our Solemn Hour" has enough of a hook, but the Latin chanting seems to hinder any full development on the song. Unless you're really into the subgenre, the latter songs really start to blend together, with Adel relying too much on the beautiful singing part of her performance. And then, just to rub it in, a second version of "What Have You Done" (and extended version, no less) closes the album. The first version was obviously mixed to be a rocking single, while the later is more in-step with what the band does (on a side note, this might not be the perfect Within Temptation song, but it is a killer track, and Caputo sounds fantastic mixing it up with the band).

The Heart of Everything is a great album for what it is, and few bands pull off the mix of metal and orchestration this well. This is definitely the band's best offering to date, but it still remains to be seen whether this brand of metal can find a larger audience outside of Europe. For anyone that likes beauty in their metal, Within Temptation will fail to disappoint. Even for those not of the metal persuasion, there's something to like.

Kiss -- 'Kissology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection Vol. 2 - 1978-1991' [DVD review]

Kiss - Kissology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection Vol. 2 - 1978-1991 [4-DVD set]
VH1 Classic Records (7/14/07)
Unrated
407 minutes



Kiss's second Kissology DVD collection takes a look at what most people consider to be the band's most turbulent years. It acts as an almost-documentary of the band, but instead of interviews (though there are a couple on here), it tells a story though clips of TV appearances, news items, concerts and music videos. Through the three-disc set is told a story of a band on the edge. The trials that plagued Kiss from the late '70s through the early '90s -- multiple shifts in the line-up, career missteps and an image makeover -- would be enough to cripple any other band, but if this set shows nothing else, it shows a band that prides itself on consistency and professionalism, at least when it came to "the show."

By 1978, Kiss was on top of the world as the biggest and most recognizable rock band on the planet. It's doubtful anyone could have imaged what the next few years would bring. Disc one offers a set of interview excerpts: one from the Land of Hype and Glory in 1978, which featured a band at the top of its game; the other, from The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder in 1979, a band on the brink of collapse. The Snyder interview offered the first glimpse of the inner turmoil of the band, with guitarist Ace Frehley clearly inebriated and monopolizing the conversation, while Gene Simmons stewed in the corner and Paul Stanley attempted to take control (drummer Peter Criss seemed content to ride it out and have a good time).

These two interviews sandwich the meatiest portion of the whole set -- a cleaned up, widescreen version of Kiss in Attack of the Phantoms. The movie featured Kiss as superheroes holed up at an amusement park for the summer. Pitched to the band as a mix of The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night and Star Wars, well ... it's hard to imagine how anyone believed it would be a career booster. It does show the band at its hokey best, and is a must-have for any die-hard fan.

The second disc features a wealth of concert footage and TV performances starting with the 1980 video for "Shandi" and ending with an overexposed live performance of "I Love it Loud" from Top Pop in 1982. In this short span of time, the band would lose original drummer Criss, replace him with Eric Carr, drift further away from Frehley and record The Elder, widely considered the worst of the band's catalogue. It's not all a downer, as they also enjoyed a wildly successful tour of Australia. Of note on this disc is a snippet from a CNN interview with Criss right after he left the band, and a live set from the TV show Fridays featuring "The Oath", "A World Without Heroes" and "I", all off of the aforementioned Elder album.

By disc three, Frehley had left the band, replaced by Vinnie Vincent. The disc opens with a pretty impressive set off the '83 Creatures of the Night tour, followed by the notorious unmasking interview off MTV (the first time anyone in the band was seen without his makeup). After a couple of songs from a Portugal concert later that year, the set jumps all the way to '87 and the Crazy Crazy Nights tour, with Bruce Kullick now on guitar. There's an almost complete concert from the Forever tour, and things close out with an MTV news bulletin announcing the death of Carr and the music video for "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll to You II", Carr's last performance with the band.

This is far from a perfect collection. While all the back story is presented in this review, the details surrounding the departing band members are never addressed throughly in the actual DVDs (though the accompanying booklet, which features quotes from the band members to flush out the story, is helpful). So, rather than a documentary, this is more of a snapshot of a band from a certain window of time. There were a bunch of music videos from the Crazy Nights and Hot in the Shade albums, that could have made it on here, or at least some stuff from the Animalize release so the jump from '83 to '87 wasn't so drastic.

Still, for what it is, there are some great gems on here -- the various live versions of "Creatures of the Night", some stellar Carr drum solos, a particularly nasty Frehley solo and the "God Gave Rock ‘N' Roll To You" video in particular. The interview snippets are interesting, and the Australia tour footage is great, too.

Apart from the movie, everything is presented in full screen with a normal stereo sound. However, the concert footage is clear and the sound, while muffled at times, is more than adequate. In fact, the Top Pop performance is the only one that's difficult to watch.


If you're a huge Kiss fan, you already own this. If you're interested in getting your hands on some pretty decent live footage from the time period, this is for you. I'm not sure what this has to offer the casual fan, unless you really wanted that Kiss movie in your collection. For what it is, which seems to be an emptying of the vaults of sorts, this is a solid collection. It just lacks some of the later material (music videos, band interviews from the late '80s, etc.) to make it perfect.

Various Artists -- 'Resident Evil: Extinction' soundtrack [review]

Resident Evil: Extinction Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Lakeshore Records (9/18/07)

Metal/Electronic


After two soundtracks under the Roadrunner umbrella, the Resident Evil franchise releases its third offering on Lakeshore Records. Lakeshore handled the two Underworld soundtracks, and anyone familiar with those releases has a pretty good idea of what to expect here.

Gone are the big-name artists Roadrunner was springing for (Fear Factory, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and on and on), but even without the name value, Extinction presents a cutting, little raw collection of music. It's not all unknowns -- Poison the Well offers up a steamroller of a track, "Wrecking Itself Taking You With Me", while It Dies Today tears it up with "Sixth of June", which sees the band abandon the screaming vocals of its earlier material. And perhaps the soundtrack's best song, Shadows Fall's "Stupid Crazy", further shows why the group is at metal's forefront these days with its chunky rhythm and blistering solos.

There's a pair of remixes from up-and-comers Flyleaf ("I'm So Sick") and Aiden ("One Love"), both by The Legion of Doom. The Flyleaf track is a little too electronic, sounding waterlogged at times, but the Aiden song receives a nice edge. Chimaira continues its slide into death metal with "Paralyzed", which is by far the heaviest track on the album. And Collide offer up a remake of "White Rabbit", a melancholic electronic number that showcases the flipside of what Extinction has to offer.

The rest is a hodgepodge of bands -- Throwdown, The Bled, Emanuel, Searchlight and City Sleeps. There's a handful of instrumentals from Charlie Clouser, which is most probably mood music from the upcoming movie, but far too short to do anything but add atmosphere to the album. It's nice, but sound clips from the movie would almost do the job better (see the past two releases from Rob Zombie's movies).

Overall, this is a good collection of music in the vein of the movie, but it lacks that must-have feel. With no huge "gets" on the album, it's hard to completely recommend this release. But if you're a fan of any of the bands on here, you might find a couple more you'd never heard of before to add to your library.