Posts tagged Metal
Albums of 2010: 10-1
Dec 30th
It’s time to complete the countdown of DoesItRock.nets favourite albums of 2010…
10) Volbeat – Beyond Hell/Above Heaven
Volbeat are absolutely adept at churning out those huge chorus’s you wished all stadium rock bands could write. They could easily out Jovi the Bon, take the Iron to the Maiden, and shoot down the Foo’s with such a polished set of outstanding soaring rock tracks as collated on Beyond Hell/Above Heaven. If Metallica were born in, started life as a rockabilly band who decided to write an album full of Enter Sandman’s you’ll get close to the latest offering from Volbeat. A stunning set of exuberant heavy metal tunes destined for huge crowds!
9) Danko Jones – Below The Belt
This hardworking, hard rocking trio from Canada have been plying their big guitar fuelled, booze soaked punk leaning, classic rock inspired party for many years now. This is their X release and it is a barnstorming riot of riffs, big dumb rock ‘n’ roll lyrics and glorious melodies. Although they have veered closer to the mainstream before with many tunes being unfound rock radio classics, this is no bad thing for a band who have yet to accept they are damn good at writing them. When they channel their unhinged love for rock and metal into a killer melody, there really isn’t a better band on the planet right now. If you don’t mind big macho lyrics, bigger guitars and huge rock soul, Below The Belt is for you!
8) The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster – Blood & Fire
“The sound of a blues nightmare running wild, waking up the neighbourhood using a Marshall powered megaphone”, is how best to describe 80′s Matchbox B-Line Disasters sound on their latest album. Being away for a while has clearly put fire in their bellies as they come romping straight at the jugular from the very start of Blood & Fire. The pace very rarely relents and their blues rock factory, churns out fuzzed up riffs with Chinese manufacturing efficiency. A blazing album from start to finish!
7) Kvelertak – Kvelertak
Norwegian Black Metal anyone? Given this tagline I was very tentative about listening to this but I’m so glad I did. Sung in their native tongue none of the lyrics make sense, but neither does most metal sung in English! The sound is more akin to Motorhead than Mayhem with the driving speed of hardcore punk with some technically stunning guitars and emphasis on melodic hooks big enough to land Moby Dick. There are so many riffs packed into each song it is a blizzard of high intensity Scandinavian power coming straight through the speakers. Definitely the hardest hitting album on our countdown. So if you fancy getting knocked over by a thrilling lesson in all out rock and roll, check out the blazing Kvelertak.
6) Fang Island – Fang Island
This self titled album from this arty indie band is a work of unrelenting happiness, exquisite harmonies and storming guitars. Fang Island have managed to fuse so many different influences and still come out with a coherent and ecstatic album packed with mainly instrumental works of genius. Their sound is the most eclectic on the countdown by far, which collates such intensity of exuberant melodies and gang vocals that it’s hard not to love. Sure the lack of vocals could be off-putting, but with a heavily effect driven triple guitar attack tutored at the Thin Lizzy school of soloing, it is as good and different an indie rock guitar album you are ever likely to hear!
5) Birds of Tokyo – Birds of Tokyo
Birds of Tokyo are alternative rock heavyweights from Australia who were formed in collaboration with Prog giants Karnivool. Their latest self titled album is their most poppy but also is the most consistent. Loaded with great lyrics and a progressive rock feel to many pop tracks, grandeur and awe is never far away. Vocals are just perfect, never overbearing but soulful and beautiful throughout. It is hard not to enjoy such a sweepingly brilliant album which flows from soaring piano melodies to big rock chords with ease. A superb album from one of Australia’s best bands.
4) Superchunk – Majesty Shredding
Superchunk’s hugely overlooked comeback album after a 9 year hiatus was one of the most fun, playful and enjoyable albums of the year. Despite the bands years, this album still sounds youthful and full of wide eyed adolescent energy. Lyrics on Majesty Shredding are equally as jovial as their bouncable up-tempo tunes which are weighed down by innumerable cracking vocal harmonies, guitars are never overbearing but always fit the mood perfectly. A consistently great record full of many high points, a welcome return from Superchunk.
3) Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
A token entry for an indie-pop album in a rock/metal list, The Suburbs swayed wistfully into contention with it’s fancy lyrics and breezy pace set by the yellow jackets of Modern Man, Rococo, City With No Children, Suburban War, Wasted Hours, while occasionally sprinting off with punk-song Month of May when some of the other songs weren’t looking. In a year they headlined the main stage at Reading and Leeds Festivals, surely they can’t carry on fooling people into thinking they are an indie band anymore and not the full-blown pop monster we know they really are. To be honest, you’ve probably spat your coffee out and are trying to clean up your keyboard after seeing Arcade Fire appear in the same list as Volbeat and Kvelertak, so it’s probably best you just move along and pretend this didn’t happen – MF.
2) Pulled Apart By Horses – Pulled Apart By Horses
A debut album reached #2 on the countdown with this offering from Leeds Alt-Metal saviours PABH. They play loud and hard, fast and tight, shouty and noisy, each element combining to form superb rock and roll. While they have gathered their reputation from their blistering live shows (one of which blew us away at Camden Crawl), their debut LP is almost as intense an experience full of energy and potency from the first spin. Yet despite their raging noise rock, they are surprisingly accessible (I even spotted a track on Radio 1). Vocals have a clean nature to them despite veering into venomous howls on occasion and the barrage of guitars are slow and big enough for the Sabbath fans. The quality here is impeccable and with barely a dud in there this makes PABH our runner-up of 2010.
1) Foxy Shazam – Foxy Shazam
It was a suprise selection at number 1 this year, but put simply Foxy Shazam’s third album is a totally unique and uplifting pop record which swings from glamtastic Darkness-esque guitar genius to queen-like pop magnificence with bundles of catchy melodies, rousing chorus’ and alternative rock eclectic-ness. The strength of the album is in its consistency. It really is packed with great pop tunes which collectively flow like the soundtrack to the greatest party you haven’t been to. Seriously underrated and overlooked, Foxy Shazam’s screwball tunes are always infectious, never dull and retain the ability to showcase the crazier side of life…one which their explosive live shows exhibits perfectly. I have returned to this time and time again, it hasn’t yet failed to raise the spirits!
Roll on 2011!
Honerable Metions: Voodoo Johnson – 10,000 Days, Wolf Parade – Expo 86, FACT – In The Blink of an Eye,
Click here for the top 25 as a Spotify Paylist >> DoesItRock Albums of 2010
Albums of 2010: 25-11
Dec 29th
It really doesn’t feel like a year since I started writing the Best of lists for 2009, but that time has arrived. There have been plenty of good albums but in our hearts, very few have been elevated to classic status. Instead of the usual critic’s lists who are each trying to out scene each other, I have tried to reflect the DiR.net’s team listening habits, detailing what we like to listen to, rather than what’s cool to listen to. Free from any prejudices, it is now time to run down the albums which have rocked our collective socks in 2010…let the countdown begin!
25) Airbourne – No Guts? No Glory!
AcDc were busy touring this year, so winners of Australian Hard Rock album of 2010 goes to their sound-a-like’s Airbourne for their hit packed sophomore album.
24) Voodoo Six – Fluke?
London based hard rockers live up to the expectation and deliver a fiery collection of stratospheric rock, thumping guitars and killer hooks.
23) Joe Satriani – Wormhole Wizards
The king of guitar returns with a more relaxed feel to his latest LP. It is crowded with inventive guitar brilliance with his distinctive melody first approach, and incredible emotive string bends. A high standard throughout makes this a vast improvement on his last LP.
22) Paul Gilbert – Fuzz Universe
Guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert shows off his melodic side on his latest release which is packed with instrumental glory, super shredding and genius composition.
21) Slash – Slash
The worlds most recognised guitarist enlisted his friends and came up with a great collection of singles, but collectively the album varies to wildly to enter into our top 20.
20) Far – At Night We Live
On one hand the Deftones are breaking new ground taking alt-metal noise to massive critical acclaim, while lying low on the other is Far, a more pop-centric, accessible offering who have crafted a thumping album of big emotion and thudding alt-rock. Far’s return is triumphant and damn impressive as warped guitar effects plough a hugely melodic shaped hole into their truly huge bass licks, all backed with Jonah Matrangah‘s slickly produced vocals provide the lyrical clout. The mood is generally a dark cloud, but when the thunder strikes it’s when they are at their best. Slow building atmospheric guitars and skyward floating vocals are mixed in with more riff hungry tracks create a superbly balanced record.
19) Weezer – Hurley
This album has split the doesitrock.net crew down the middle (review), but it has still made the top albums list by the skin of its teeth. The high points on the album are undeniably catchy if somewhat idiosyncratic, but then this is what Weezer do best of late. Plenty of cracking pop tunes and songs about little or nothing, line the somewhat oddly titled Hurley. With their 2nd B-Sides collection release this year (Death To False Metal) also being a corking album, far greater than the sum of its parts, Weezer have clearly turned a corner and are running back with Linford like speed!
18) Against Me! – White Crosses
The backlash against this release was swift and rather unfair in my opinion. Sure Against Me! may have sold out to the majors and gone all pop leaving their trail of destruction sniggering at what they have become. But taken on its merits (that’s pop-rock), this is a heavyweight ready to take on all comers and most probably win! Writing anthemic rock songs more akin to Springsteen than the Dropkicks, are their staple, and they do this incredibly well. Always full of heart and sung with conviction though road worn vocal chords White Crosses is jammed with superb, quality upbeat rock and roll songs with a (somewhat diluted) punk heart.
17) Taking Dawn – Time To Burn
These Las Vegas, roadrunner backed heavy metal rockers have managed to create an 80′s influenced set of hard rock packed with immense riffs and towering melodies. Each track kick starts with a blistering guitar lick which takes hold and doesn’t let go. Vocals are stadium sized and perfectly compliment each athemic chorus. If you appreciate glammed up metal, a good guitar workout and a rock and roll swagger, Time To Burn is your answer.
16) Carpark North – Lost
Somehow this album has missed the mainstream, the radio and seemingly everyone’s attention which is absolutely criminal. Lost is a superbly crafted album which showcases what can be achieved if euro-electro pop is done properly. With driving guitars and spiralling electro beats providing the atmospheric backdrop it’s the synths hooks and warm vocals which take centre stage. Literally littered with cracking little pop tunes to rival the big guns, it’s time a little light was shone on this underappreciated band.
15) The Pineapple Thief – Someone Here Is Missing
Prog is so often seen as the joys of the middle aged man, or those with long beards who re=un the local war re-enactment society. The Pineapple Thief’s latest album is out to change this, as they seamlessly meld electro beats, cruising guitars and haunting vocals into a brilliantly flowing album. With few overindulgent guitar solo’s and extended jams, most songs are highly catchy and full of understated beauty. Variety is key here, with tracks featuring dreamy acoustics, bold electro-rock explosions, fleeting ambient melodies, melancholic vocals and noisy guitars outbursts. This is one to listen end-to-end in a world dominated by the shuffle button.
14) The Sword – Warp Riders
Hard Rock has seen a good year with plenty of great releases. The Sword sit atop of this tree proudly with Warp Riders, a sci-fi epic of stellar proportions. This album is about as riff hungry as they come with wall to wall guitars and pounding bass. The adept classic rock soloing shows outstanding ability and a raft of ingenious melodies. It sways to the borders of Prog rock but before tipping over, a thundering power chord is on hand to rescue it. A thumping collection of Hard Rock, played by southern rock’s shining light of 2010.
13) Jim Jones Revue – Burning Down Your House
Listening to Burning Down Your House, transports you back to the 50′s and the bar room blues of Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. The Jim Jones Revue have rolled back the clocks and ignored the past 60 years of musical development, playing fully cranked, high octane, scuzzed up blues bonanza. There really isn’t that much here in terms of musicality, but when music sounds this fun it’s hard to ignore. Big bluesy shuffles and bolstered piano tinkling sung by a crazed MC is instantly alluring, addictive and rock n’ rolling!
12) Blood Command – Ghostclocks
Scandinavia’s Blood Command are a breath of fresh air. Never did we realise that we needed a female fronted frenzied alt-metal behemoth with a slice of pop sweetness…but clearly on this form, we most definitely do. Taking a a lightly watered down Blood Brothers formula and adding immensely catchy melodies in amongst their rapid-fire spiky riffing, not forgetting a side order of Norwegian dance-pop Blood Command have melded a superb sound. Flailing from all out metal guitar assaults to mid-tempo riff rock Ghostclocks is never boring and totally essential for 2010!
11) Motion City Soundtrack – My Dinosaur Life
Welcome return from the pick of the US Pop Punk bands who stand head and shoulders above their peers. My Dinosaur Life showcases once again great song writing, jubilant chorus’s and incessant melodies. This album harks back more closely to their guitar driven debut album which can only be a good thing, plus with plenty of corking singles lining the playlist, It strolled effortlessly into the end-of year list despite being released almost a year ago.
Stay tuned for the top 10 tomorrow!
Paul Gilbert @ Islington Academy
Nov 29th
5th November 2010
After a last minute venue downgrade from KoKo, we found ourselves in an epic queue streaking through an Upper street shopping complex. The fact that 90% of sold tickets were box office collection provided this early stumbling block. After finally gaining entry we ascended to the main arena. I was impressed with its compact size, balcony area, aesthetics, cleanliness and ample stage size. It made for a very likeable venue which is on the firmly in the mid-sized venue market in London, holding approx 800 people.
Not having been to a gig on a Friday night for ages, I had forgotten proceedings run mega eaarly as tonight’s show kicked out at 10pm! No sooner then we had settled into a nice cozy spot in prime viewing position, Paul Gilbert emerged with his band and wasted no time in proving why he is held in such high regard amongst guitar aficionados.
Gilbert & Band
After donning his trademark headphones Paul began to showcase the skills he is recognised for. Shredding his way up and down the fretboard, his hands were merely a bur of high octane speed and accuracy on songs from his latest album Fuzz Universe. This was just incredible stuff to behold, especially as he made it look sooo incredibly easy. He effortlessly glided through some astonishingly technical pieces of superbly composed instrumental guitar music in a wide range of styles ranging from jazz to classical and hard rock to metal. Gilbert himself was an instantly lovable character and his modesty was clear to see. The wide eyed look of jubilation and joy on his face when the crowd applauded was one of true honesty and appreciation.
Paul Gilbert
Tonight was mainly focused on his playing, but there was so much more to this show than just sheer guitar virtuosity. It was surprising for an act of this nature to have another great guitar player sharing the spotlight, but that’s exactly what happened. Paul and auxiliary guitarist Tony Spinner played many a blues jam over the night as they traded riff for riff in epic guitar battles, showing off many skills including speedy sweep picking, harmonics, double tapping and soloing picking with their teeth.
Teeth Soloing
The choice of set was also a master stroke. Instead of focusing solely on himself, Paul picked songs with/without vocals and those which were transcribed onto 2 guitars. With he and Stringer playing superb duelling solos and brilliant combined harmonies they were reminiscent of a top form Thin Lizzy. Also there were plenty of cover versions thrown into the mix ranging from blues masters Muddy Waters I Want To Be Loved, BB King’s Rock Me Baby, Blue Oyster Cult’s Don’t Fear The Reaper, Light My Fire from the Doors and Ac/Dc’s Go Down. Now when I say cover, Paul doesn’t just repeat a song note for note. He adds a sprinkling of his special genius, feeding in some truly stunning guitar hooks and melodies throughout as well as placing his own spin on electrifying guitar soloing.
Gilbert & Spinner
I was personally delighted when he played I’m Not Addicted the absolute highlight from his collaborative album America with singer Freddie Nelson. This blasting punk does speed metal tune has bundles of melody and a cracking simple vocal hook that’s mega-catchy. Other infectious material was aired as Paul turned back the clocks to perform some of tracks from his numerous 80′s bands,Mr Big’s Green Tinted Sixties Mind, Racer X’s Scarified & Technical Difficulties, Despite their cheesy nature it was both fun and really hard not to enjoy.
A simply stunning showcase from one of the worlds top exponents of guitar virtuosity!
Apocalyptica @ The Forum
Nov 13th
2nd November 2010
It was clear tonight was going to be special as we trundled our way to the back of the huge queue snaking down side streets and back alleys behind The Kentish Town Forum. Finally in from the cold damn air, we were just in time for the sole support act of the night Pain of Salvation.
We were immediately stuck by a wave of crushingly heavy guitars and epic bass loud enough to jolt the earth off its orbit. Now I wasn’t even down the front, but I was having issues with the sound levels (not something that has ever bothered me before)! Even their equipment seemed not to like it as they kept shorting out during the first half of their set.
Thankfully they toned things down enough for me to discern what was being played, which was a series of epically struck guitar chords which made for a atmospheric noise prog backdrop of monstrous proportions. There was plenty of noise and not a lot of action sadly, but they excelled when they incorporated different instruments like keyboards and strings to form wondrous environments of rock sound. To match their meandering musical aspirations, their image was distinctly Prog rock too as they didn’t have a decent haircut between them. We had a Pocahontas ponytail from the vocalist, long blonde dreadlocks from the rhythm guitarist and a Chard Kroeger mullet from the bassist, not a great showing! They seemed to go down well worth the crowd, but left e very underwhelmed & slightly deaf.
Thankfully my hearing had recovered in time for tonight’s headline act, the classical metallers Apocalyptica. Immediately upon first glance you can easily tell that they are from Scandinavian, with such long and pristine hair. They stood to rapturous applause before they even got started as their armed themselves with their bows and began to play. Apocalyptica are a truly remarkable band as they play some seriously heavy metal, on three cellos’!
The sound of their instruments was astounding and utterly beautiful as the unusually sedate crowd sat back and admired the talent on display. They kicked off with some tracks from their latest album 7th Symphony which were loaded with melody and drive. With each Cellist playing a three part harmony on each track it’s easy to understand just how beautiful this was to hear. I’m not undermining their rock credentials either, as when they rock out they do so in style!
Playing a cover of Metallica’s Master of Puppets while bounding about stage was not only sounded truly spectacular but a technically impressive feat to pull off. They are masters of their instruments who just happen to love heavy metal, which is fine by us! Witnessing a room full of long haired heavy metal fans stare and admire classical musicians was a priceless sight.
For the occasional song during the set they were joined by a vocalist, who despite being in-tune was under powering. He was up against it tonight, as the cello firmly took centre stage tonight. During each song break, band leader Eicca Toppinen would talk with the crowd keeping a tight bond with his audience. Halfway through he said in his heavy Finnish accent…
Would it be alright If we played you song beautiful Cello music
To which a resounding roar replied in agreement. They each took seats and played out a few of their instrumental tunes which were astoundingly brilliant, playing some (what I’m told were) supremely technically difficult pieces with apparent ease. Of the 3 Cellist it was Perttu Kivilaakso who seemed to get the good harmony lines and his maestro looks matched his abilities.
They soon rocked it up again with some more covers, this time Sepultura’s and another Metallica tune Seek & Destroy which each had the crowd singing their hearts out before dashing off for a well earned break. They returned to play a brief encore which included sing-along hit I Don’t Care and an inspired, heavy speed metal version of the classical masterpiece Hall of The Mountain King. After nearly 2 hours they departed with monumentous applause echoing round the venue!
Such a show cannot be judged alongside any others I’ve seen before. It was simply unique and stunningly great. It was brilliant to see musical genius’s melding 2 genres which seem to co-exist with such grace. Lovers of both classical and metal will find something to love about one of the most enigmatic bands I’ve ever seen! Sheer Virtuosity!
Dinosaur Pile-Up @ Kings College Student Union, Temple
Nov 6th
19 October 2010
It was like I had never been away. Oh, the instantly recognisable feel of a student union club! It could have been in any town up and down the country. Only difference is this one can attract rising bands to play in their ample sized venue while most importantly retaining as close to student beer prices as you’re likely to find in London. The venue was surprisingly spacious, plus the sound & lights was more than satisfactory. Quite amusingly though the stage had a band riser in true 80′s arena rocker style. Still its all character hey!
TurboWolf
I was excited about the prospect of seeing TurboWolf, a band I’ve been meaning to catch for a while. It didn’t take long for them to warrant my attention. Scuzzy metal riffing over an electro backdrop and a small factory of distortion pedals drive the ultra-heavy but always melodic backdrop. Their riffs have a real spark which ignites the primeval nature to neck your beer, push aside the girls and rock the f**k out!
Irresistibly bold statements of noise were backed with impassioned vocals from gypsy punk Eugene Hutz, look-a-likie who flew across stage with a an almost rabid air of reckless endangerment. Leaping from the drum kits (the drum riser used to optimal effect) at every opportunity he was almost the perfect front man. He was missing one thing though…a voice! His screech howls were massively overwhelmed by the band and pretty much inaudible. A shame really, but with some live rig adjustments these guys could go the way of tonight headliners..up, up, up!
Dinosaur Pile-Up
Almost a year ago, we first witnessed the power of the grunge revivalists Dinosaur Pile-Up who massively impressed with their “we’re not quite Nirvana vibe and their cracking optimistic rock tunes. Tonight they build upon that initial footing and have crafted a very solid set of tracks taken from their debut album Growing Pains (review). Looking more and more like a Cobain-a-like lead singer/guitarist was expertly trading grungy riffs with up-tempo power chord blasts of down tuned glory.
Matt Bigland
Some will instantly call them grunge, but their optimistic sing-a-long tunes and energetic delivery defies the tag, yet Matt Bigland’s vocals have shifted towards Kurt-mania somewhat since I last saw them. This is especially true on their slower tunes which make up for their lack of pace with a brooding slow burning sense that something is on the verge of exploding. It usually does as the band kicks back in, mixing up their soft and loud’s with expert precision! However there were far too many songs of this variety on show tonight, which slightly soured the performance! But as soon as they explode back into another hard rocking classic like Birds & Planes, Traynor or My Rock and Roll…all is forgiven!
A very high standard was on display from two of the UK’s finest young rock and rollers!
