Slipknot -- 'All Hope is Gone' [review]

Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
Roadrunner Records (8/26/08)
Metal

With each release, Slipknot seems content to push the limits of its cacophonous, metallic assault with moments of blistering rage juxtaposed against haunting melody. The band (vocalist Corey Taylor, guitarists Mick Thompson and James Root, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Gray, percussionists Shawn Crahan and Chris Fehn along with Sid Wilson on turntables and sampler Craig Jones) continues to establish itself as a hard-hitting, anger-seething musical monstrosity with a thick, multi-layered sound courtesy of a nine-piece roster of talent.

Not quite as brutal as Iowa, not nearly as melodic as Vol. 3, with All Hope Is Gone the band still manages to push the envelope even further. There’s the pounding metal (“Gematria” with its chilling refrain of “what if God doesn’t care?”, “Sulfur” and “This Cold Black); there’s the haunting melodic (the epic “Gehenna” that chokes with melancholy … in a good way); there’s the threatening dirge (“Wherein Lies Continue” that incorporates more melody in the choruses); and the tracks that combine multiple elements (“Psychosocial” or the groove-laden “Dead Memories”). Even the album's slowest track, “Snuff,” manages to quietly unfold with this subtle urgency that lulls the listener in with acoustic guitar and Taylor’s vocals before it gradually expands as each member begins to add elements as the song progresses into this full-bore explosion of sound.

Much has been made of Taylor’s style in Stone Sour and how this has influenced Slipknot’s overall sound. As a singer, there’s not much you can do to change your voice except in style. Having Taylor doing clean melodies and softer material to mix in with the screams only adds to the overall Slipknot sound. Apart from the voice (only at times), this is by no means a Stone Sour album. Not only would the eight other members of the group never allow that, but the thick sound and various layers to every song … well, just scream Slipknot. From the meaty riffs to the thunderous drumming and accentuating added percussion, the turntable scratching to the gang vocals … just put the title track on and crank the volume to 10 to see all these various elements seamlessly merge together into something no other band on the metal scene has done.

All Hope Is Gone isn’t the best metal album of the year, but is easily one of Slipknot’s strongest outings. The band continues to grow and modify its sound with each album without completely turning into a new monster. It’s not clear how much longer the band will last, but it certainly manages to continuously surprise.

Dragonforce -- 'Ultra Beatdown' [review]

DragonForce - Ultra Beatdown
Roadrunner Records (8/26/08)
Metal

If melodic, melodramatic power metal is what you crave, these days it seems no band is quite as over-the-top as DragonForce. Ultra Beatdown is a worthy follow-up to the goliath that was Inhuman Rampage, but while the band continues to put its technical prowess on full display, the songwriting this time around is a little too pedestrian.

Given the title and album art (including a pixelated group shot on the back of the case), one might look for some sort of overriding theme on the album, but apart from the keyboards being much better incorporated on most of the songs, and a slight electronic edge to a couple of moments, this is vintage DragonForce. Every song is completely epic—turgid with riffs and solos and manic drumming and glorious, overblown instrumentation. And every song clocks in around seven or eight minutes in length, apart from the token (albeit fairly forced on this outing) ballad “A Flame for Freedom” (at a little over five-minutes) and the bludgeoning six-minute “Reasons to Live”, which features some fantastically cheesy, inspirational group-sings and a nice keyboard solo.

That aforementioned electronic tinge rears its head on “The Fire Still Burns”, which features plenty of mind-bending guitar solos dancing around some impressive machine-gun drumming that somehow manages to never let up.

There’s no point to go through every track, as the basic DragonForce formula is to put together dramatic, epic power metal tracks with an overabundance of intricate guitar play. Add to that a wealth of drum work and top it all off with soaring, saccharine lyrics. What the band does manage to do better on this album is make total songs. For some reason a fair portion of Inhuman felt like three-minute songs with four-minutes of instrumentation tacked on for good measure. It’s still metal, but not so loud as to alienate fans of good music, either. In fact, if anything, it’s the length of the songs that will push non-metal fans away.

Sure, in the end it’s all cheesy as hell, and you’ll either love it or hate it, but if you like an epic scope to your metal and enjoy listening to musicians show-off their skills, then DragonForce is for you. Ultra Beatdown isn’t the band’s best, but you can’t go wrong with any of the catalogue.

Byzantine -- 'Oblivion Beckons' [review]

Byzantine - Oblivion Beckons
Prosthetic Records (01/22/08)
Metal

In a bittersweet turn of events, up-and-coming potential metal legends Byzantine greeted 2008 with probably the best album of their short career, and then abruptly broke up before the thing even hit the shelves.

North America's response to European prog-metal masters Opeth, the band just seemed to be gaining momentum. With Oblivion Beckons, every aspect of Byzantine's sound has been ratcheted up a notch (or ten)—the riffs are thicker and more complex, the drumming more frenetic, the bass meatier and the vocals either grittier, more horrific or melodically haunting.

Opening with "Absolute Horizon", the band just tears into fifth gear from the get-go. Starting off with some Morse code, the beeps build like a sense of paranoia before a couple of guitar chords break the hypnotic tone. And then a guttural howl from OJ Ojeda explodes the track into a metallic juggernaut, with machine-gun drumming and breakneck riffs.

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.

Byzantine -- 'And They Shall Take Up Serpents' [classic review]

Byzantine
"And They Shall Take Up Serpents "
(Prosthetic Records)


"We are late 80's early 90's Heavy Metal. I think we are a throwback band. Seriously, our influences are predominantly from that time i.e. Carcass, Forbidden, and Testament. We love to have melody juxtaposed with abrasive rhythms, without sounding too fancy or glossed over. Some people have said we are 'tech-metal' and some have said 'hardcore' but I don't hear that at all."

-- Byzantine guitarist/vocalist Chris "OJ" Ojeda

The beauty of "And They Shall Take Up Serpents" is that each track is chock-full of tempo-shifts and epic guitar interplay. And the lead vocals act almost as a homage to older work by Phil Anselmo -- there's an abrasive, aggressive full-on metal delivery but with the ability to shift into soaring melody at the drop of a hat within the same song.

The tight, yet expansive sound comes from the fact that this is simply a three-piece. With Rohrbough handling the bass and part of the rhythm and lead guitars, Ojeda the other rhythm and leads in addition to piano tracking and vocals and Wolfe handling the percussion but also delving into some acoustic guitar interludes, Byzantine offers up a tight-knit collection of fast-paced mayhem, albeit organized mayhem

From the Ministry-influenced machine gun opening of "Justica," Byzantine immediately sets out to prove there's no screwing around on "... Serpents." It's almost impossible to imagine all this sound coming from a three-piece: the blistering trade-off drumming and bass fills; the breakneck dual guitar riffing -- and that's all in the first minute of the album. Once OJ kicks in with the scratchy vocals and the final piece of the puzzle falls into place, one need only wait for the album to unfold minute by masterful minute.

On the title track, the band seamlessly pulls influence from various corners of the genre: the death metal drumming and bass work, the thrash guitar riffing and early-90s, in-your-face, metal vocals. The crunch of "Ancestry of the Antichrist" is tempered with various tempo changes and even a Soulfly-worthy acoustic breakdown of sorts -- when the vocals eventually kick back in during the later half of the song, the band's groove-laiden soul is on full display -- with everything pulled together by one sole, simple, repetitive riff. The Byzantine assault comes on full bore on "Temporary Temples," the high-speed tempo never letting up as solo after solo is strung together to form a wall of sound.

Indeed, there's a little nuance in every song that pushes each just that little but further to create something special: the sick groove of "Five Faces of Madness," the desperation vocals on "Red Neck War," the down-tuned crunch on "The Rat Eaters" and the explosive vocals and expansive nature the band's best song, "Jeremiad."

The band is able to take pieces from the broad metal spectrum, crush it all together with a liberal helping of groove and excess and bleed the mix until it coagulates around a solid core of talent. I've tried to sample a hefty range of new metal acts to hit the scene in the past couple of years, but none seem to come close to presenting such an epic, progressive sound. Shadows Fall come close but don't seem to have as expansive a well to pull from; Trivium's sound feels more crisp; Mastodon is more muddy.

"And They Shall Take Up Serpents" seemed to be a fairly overlooked release in 2005. It's fresh, exciting and no matter how much you listen to the album, it never seems to get boring.

Lacuna Coil -- 'Karmacode' [review]

Lacuna Coil
"Karmacode"
(Century Media Records)


Fans of Italy's Lacuna Coil have waited almost four years to see what the band was going to come up with when it came to topping 2002's "Comalies."

And here's your cliched question: Was "Karmacode" worth the wait?

Upon first release, "Comalies" wasn't the big hit it was to become. Apart from diehard fans, the album stalled on the shelf until Evanescence exploded onto the scene. People were suddenly interested in any hard rock/metal act out there and latched onto Lacuna Coil in the process making the band the best selling act in Century Media history.

But that's where the comparisons to Evanescence end. Lacuna Coil has been together for 10 years at this point. The band's sound, to some extent, is etched in stone. You have the growling male backing vocals, the beautiful female lead, the dueling guitar solos, thunderous drumming and groovy bass-play. Mixed together and infused with a worldly attitude (some synth for Euro-metal flavor and some native groove) and you have Lacuna Coil.

The band had to be feeling the pressure to follow-up its most successful album to date. Would it have the guts to try some new things or simply trot out "Comalies Part 2?"

Lacuna Coil pretty much picks up where it left off with "Comalies." There was talk of the band adding a more "American" feel to the album, which essentially boils down to the group keeping an eye on making songs more "radio-friendly" (the songs didn't really get any shorter or simpler). There's a handful of interesting hooks sprinkled throughout the album, most notably Cristina Scabbia's awesome melodies in "Our Truth." The band adds a few moments of string-orchestration on a few songs (a welcome change-of-pace from the gritty guitar interplay) and even tries its hand at a cover (Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence"). And, overall, the disc has a far more upbeat "sound" than the band's previous efforts (which had an almost goth feel to them at times). Ultimately, there's enough new elements (in very small doses) to make this a solid follow-up.

But it's not all good. For some reason, upon first listen most of the songs come across, for lack of a better term, two-dimensional. "Fragile" and "To the Edge," the first two songs, feel like they go on for ages and seem completely and unnecessarily repetitive. However, after a few listens the songs grow on you and actually start to sound a little better. The biggest problem with "Karmacode" is that there doesn't really seem to be any breakout hits on the album, it sort of just feels "there." "Comalies was a huge commercial success and the band had a four year lull in recording, so you'd imagine there might be something more to offer.

As bad as those negatives sound, the truth of the matter is that Lacuna Coil really isn't the big "one-hit," explosive band one might think, given the hype. The truth is, the band is perfect at making these subtle albums that continue to grow on the listener with each repeated visit. Nothing may jump out at you, but you'll start to find it impossible to turn the album off. While I think the band could have done more, the truth is that Lacuna Coil made a great Lacuna Coil album. "Karmacode" will start off as a blimp and end up being one of the best albums of the year.

Fear Factory -- 'Obsolete' [classic review]

Fear Factory
"Obsolete"
(Roadrunner Records)


"The concept of this record is that man is obsolete. The idea is still man versus machine. Demanufacture told a story, Remanufacture was another chapter in the story and Obsolete is another part of the Fear Factory concept. We're up to the point in the story where man is obsolete. Man has created these machines to make his life easier but in the long run it made him obsolete. The machines he created are now destroying him. Man is not the primary citizen on Earth."

-- Burton Bell on "Obsolete"

If you ever asked me to point out a killer concept album, my list would be pretty short. and I'm pretty sure this album would be right on top. A continuation of a theme that Fear Factory had been working on practically its whole career, "Obsolete" tells the story of a world of the future, where man has let machines take over the world and has, in turn, become obsolete. It's pretty much "Terminator 4" set to music.

From the opening bombast of "Shock," Fear Factory grabs you by the throat and rams the metal down your throat. The drumming is frantic, the bass is HUGE, the riffs are unforgiving and Bell's vocals are as attacking and haunting as ever. Think of Pantera's one-two punch opening on "Vulgar Display of Power" -- Fear Factory does the same thing here with "Shock" and "Edgecrusher," only, to be honest with you, I think it's done better here. The two tracks build into one another and almost act as a two part opener for the album, paving the way for what's to come, whereas, Pantera almost seemed to front-load "Vulgar" with two killer tracks. (Of course, the flip side there is that every song on "Vulgar" was an absolute killer.)

Throughout the album, Fear Factory melds its vision of metal mixed with industrial mixed with thrash and tempered with melody and ambience to perfection. For every gut-wrentching, balls-to-the-walls metal anthem, there's a break with melody or ambient transition that heightens the experience (like adding just the right amount of salt to a cooking recipe to intensify the flavor).

Given the direction the band was headed toward, it had honed the technological metal aspect of its sound to a T. But, on top of that, never before had Bell's melodies soared so high. These two aspects, along with the perfect production value (and here I'm talking the addition of a string section, the ambient effects and overall mood of the album) combine to form a nearly perfect album.

"Obsolete" is a perfect concept album, probably the best when you're pulling from the metal genre (edging out Queensryche's "Operation: Mindcrime"). When Roadrunner double-dipped to make some money, the "concept" was essentially ruined. While a huge hit for the band, I was never really impressed with Fear Factory's cover of "Cars" which was tacked on to the end. The other additions were solid tracks, especially "O-O," but these were songs perfectly fit for a "Hatefiles" collection of rarities or b-sides.

From the thunderous opening of "Shock," to the spine-tingling closer of "Timelessness" (with special mention to the final proper track, "Resurrection") Fear Factory really created a masterpiece. While "Demanufacture" is a metal classic, hands down, "Obsolete" is a true Fear Factory classic. The group has created a sound uniquely its own. The band has influenced countless emulators (most notably Spineshank which trashed an entire "sound" to follow in Fear Factory's footsteps), but none have come close to the originators.

Today, the band seems to be moving in a more melodic, experimental direction (a la Slipknot). However, even if the group called it a day (again) tomorrow, there's no denying it left one hell of a legacy in its wake.

The Project Hate MCMXCIX -- 'Armageddon March Eternal' [review]

The Project Hate MCMXCIX
"Armageddon March Eternal"
(Threeman Recordings)


The Project Hate MCMXCIX is a metal band out of Scandinavia. The group is a brutal mix of European death metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir only much tighter and more advanced from a music (and talent) standpoint. All this brutality is tempered with delicate (albeit operatic) female vocals. The band is largely known only in the underground metal circuit and that's a real shame. The music is much more complex and the band deserves to break moreso than the similar-sounding Nightwish.

***

This album can appeal to so many metal genre fans. There's a hint of industrial grind; there's the epic feel permeating each track; the European groove oozes out of each minute of the disc; the death metal vocals are clean enough to actually mean something. In fact, I applaud the vocal work on both ends of the vocal spectrum as it all sounds clean and it's clear a lot of work went into the recording process.

***

The theatrics of the female vocals sometimes seem wedged into the tracks. There's a way to make the switches work (and when they do, the juxtaposition is amazing) ... Project Hate knows how to do it smoothly, but too often prefer to simply ram the breaks in with little rhyme or reason.

***

Take Nightwish (or Lacuna Coil if you're unfamiliar with the former) and mix it with symphonic European metal. Each track feels like an epic with plenty of operatic filler.

***

If you are a fan of metal/rock bands that trade female and male vocals but wished there was more of a death metal edge, this band is for you.

Mudvayne -- 'Lost and Found' [review]

Mudvayne
"Lost and Found"
(Epic Records)


Mudvayne exploded onto the national scene in 2000 with the release of "L.D. 50." Despite having an EP under its belt (1997's "Kill I Oughta"), this was the first taste most fans had to the band that mixed vocals delivered with a psychotic edge and heavy, groove-laden riffs with start-stop tempos. Add into the mix a helping of ethereal "mood" music and interludes and you have Mudvayne's debut album.

But as good as "L.D. 50" was, it was also a little too eclectic for it's own good. The thread holding some of the songs together was just too fine and the interludes were, at times, simply forgettable.

Then, in addition to the musical problems, the band was type-cast as face-painted madmen, with the image (every member was painted up) soon overtaking the message of the music.

2002's "The End of All Things to Come" was an image overhaul of sorts. The music became more focused, albeit less intense. The band lost the facepaint but replaced it with an alien theme.

With two (or three if you want to include the re-release "The Beginning of All Things to End") full-length albums under its belt, Mudvayne was still looking for the album to make or break the band.

"Lost and Found" is that album. Simply put, it's nothing short of a homerun.

"Lost and Found" pulls in the best elements from the band's entire career and strings them together as a metal masterpiece. There's the tempo-changes, but they make more sense now and come across as less experimental. The vocals drift from the growls seething anger to the melodic delivery Chad Gray is more than capable of pulling off. The groove from the band's debut EP is utilized. Truthfully, this album is the culmination of all the band's previous work. And it doesn't hurt that the band finally put away the image and the members are presented simply as themselves.

"Determined" is the perfect opening track for the album, an exclamation point and mission statement all at the same time. Featuring the trademark growled, scratchy vocals and fantastic rhythm section, the song is probably one of the hardest-hitting tracks the band has recorded.

"Happy?" is almost the perfect juxtaposition to such a track, more melodic and gentle in delivery (similar to "Not Falling" off the band's second album). There's the stutter-step tempo but (again) it seems to actually drive the song instead of pull attention away from it.

"IMN" is the best of "L.D. 50" wrapped into one almost-six minute track: there's the frantic tempo-changes, the sick bass work, the full array of vocal styles and, while Ryan Martinie's bass-work is subtle at times, at others it takes center stage to amazing effect.

Even when the band goes out on a limb this time, everything seems to blend together perfectly. The album's longest track, "Choices," which runs just over eight minutes in length, drifts back and forth between melody and driving force. And the distorted "inny, meeny, miny, mo" that breaks up the verses during the opening verses sounds crazy at first, but soon fits in so well you hardly notice it. Gray's singing has never sounded better during the track's driving bridges and choruses. The song unfolds to an epic as Greg Tribbett is let loose on the guitar and Gray punctuates his guitar bridges with scratchy exclamations.

When listening to the album, it's impossible not to note how grounded everything sounds thanks to Matt Mcdonough's solid drumming. He can lay down a brutal wall of sound like the album's opener, or offer up a more subtle back-beat in songs like "Forget to Remember" (thought he still comes across explosive during the choruses).

Overall, "Lost and Found" is a glimpse at a band at its absolute best. This is the album Mudvayne's fans knew the band was capable of, and an album that will convert countless others to the fan base.

Definitely one of the band's best, "Lost and Found" is also a contender for album of the year. A great metal release ... a great album in general.

Nightwish -- 'Once' [review]

Nightwish
\"Once\"
Roadrunner Records


Though Nightwish's latest offering, "Once," has been available for months overseas, it is finally seeing release stateside via Roadrunner Records.

The follow-up to the band's successful 2002 release "Century Child," is already a hit in Europe -- "Once" has been certified platinum in Germany (sales in excess of 200,000 copies) and double-platinum in the group\'s native Finland (sales in excess of 60,000). The group\'s latest single off "Once," "Wish I Had an Angel," entered the Finnish charts at number one, and the group headlining hometown performance at the Helsinki Icehall sold out in one day (all 6,000 tickets).

Not bad for a little band out of Finland.

But, can the success translate into the American market?

The band was snatched up by Roadrunner Records, no doubt, due in part to the wildly successful Lacuna Coil (on Century Media). Though some may argue, the success of Lacuna Coil was probably due to the success of Evanescence last year (it should be pointed out, Lacuna Coil and Nightwish each have a solid catalogue and had been making music for years prior to Evanescence's inception). Times are good for rock/metal outfits headed by female singers.

But, while Evanesence is readily accessible to fans of rock and pop, and Lacuna Coil can be enjoyed by fans of metal and rock, Nightwish is a little harder to place. The band fuses a solid offering of European metal (read: heavily orchestrated, elaborate, epic in scope and usually catchy) fused with orchestral vocals courtesy of frontwoman Tarja Turunen (who is trained in classical singing).

The group is rounded out by Tuomas Holopainen (who wrote all the songs on the album) on keys and piano, drummer Jukka Nevalainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and bassist Marco Hietala (who also trades vocals on some of the tracks with Turunen a la Lacuna Coil).

The vocals range from straightforward singing to operatic offering. When Turunen's voice is more muted there is a definite "accent" to the sound (usually it's rare to notice something like that when musicians sing in English). Hietala's offerings, while few, do nicely offset Turunen's sometimes overblown vocals.

The songs have a hint of metal to them, but the band overall sounds more like a soundtrack to a medieval novel.

Most of the tracks on "Once" are tight, metal offerings with a twist. There are a few exceptions: the lengthy "Creek Mary's Blood" (clocking in just under nine minutes), the epic "Ghost Love Score" (nearly 10 minutes in length) and the haunting "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" (translated roughly to "a death creates an artist") sung in the band's native language. Listening to "Ghost Love Score" feels like watching something like "Lord of the Rings," there's an air of medieval magic to the song. Heavily orchestrated, the song flies by and hardly sounds as long as it is.

"Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" sounds like something taken out of a Broadway musical or movie soundtrack -- very different for a metal band to be offering up.

"White Night Fantasy" and "Live to Tell the Tale" are bonus tracks for the U.S. release of "Once." The disc also features the video for "Wish I Had an Angel." Turunen recently spent time in Finland recording two traditional Finnish Christmas songs for her first-ever solo CD single, due in Finland in December, so I\'m not sure how much longer the singer plans to stay with Nightwish.

So, who would have thought there was a way to mesh metal and opera? Normally such an undertaking would fall flat, but Nightwish pull it off nicely. It may not be album of the year, but "Once" is worth the purchase.