Mood Swings

Archive for the ‘3 stars’ Category

Sometimes you just want some noise. Enter Private Angel. They play melodic traditional metal and fit the bill nicely.

When I put in the words "traditional metal" you probably guessed that they guys aren’t trying to push the boundaries, but are content doing what they do well. They certainly have plenty of experience under their belt as the band has been around for quite a while. These guys have known each other for 25 years and on this, their third album, they are all comfortable with each other and indeed with the music they are creating.

The opening track, "Human Wreck", is an up-tempo one which does what it needs to. Accept are the obvious reference point for this track. I guess they are useful overall. I heard plenty of other influences throughout the album all put into the mix with the underlying Accept sound. "Nailed" mixes in Manowar, "Last Chance" Led Zep (mainly the drums), "Shine On" UFO/Scorpions, "Tramp Stamp Boogie" GnR, "My Haunt" & "Valiant Song" Bon Jovi and Blackfoot on "Private Shelter". On "Kush" the band fuse Eastern sounds on this slow chugging track where the call to bring the troops back home is the obvious modern theme amidst all the retro rocking.

This album is all about friends getting together to play the sort of music that they love. It is straightforward, maybe a bit basic in places, but when your ears want a bit of trad metal they fit the bill perfectly.

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Abba are the universal music source in our house. When my wife and I, plus the two girls are in the car and we have all had enough of listening to the girls choice of Bruno Mars or JLS, inevitably Abba gets put on. I have seen the movie and I have been to see the stage play of Mamma Mia, so it fair to say that maybe I’m a bit of a closet Abba fan.

With a few exceptions, the family generally ignore the music I’m reviewing. My eldest daughter, who has just discovered the art of instant opinions declared this album waste of time - why not listen to Abba instead of some blokes messing up the songs. My wife’s initial interest waned when she realised that the title of the album’s title was Swedish Hitz and not Abba’s. Hitz. More about the other famous Swedish people later, for now let’s discuss Abba.

I have to admit that I haven’t heard the Black Sweden album, against which some of you might be judging this. For me, metalised versions of Abba songs seem like a good idea and this album does a good job of creating symphonic metal versions. I would have preferred a version of S.O.S rather than a power ballad version of "The Winner Takes It All", but I guess Abba’s back catalogue is big enough for there always to arguments about the song choices.

Of course, it is not all about Abba. Not quite in the same league are Ace of Base. The covers of these tracks don’t seem to work quite as well as the Abba ones. I think the problem is the that the song structure, with the constant repeating of a chorus over and over, just doesn’t sit well in the metal  format. Still, it is interesting hear their couple of hits rocked up.

The third band whose material gets the metal treatment is Roxette. Roxette’s tracks are sort of melodic rock friendly already. Often when listening to their albums, I wish that the band would rock out a little more. Tommy ReinXeed has made my wish come true. These tracks work well and the only problem I have is that I think some of these are a little too close to the originals and I just wish the band rocked out a little more.

This is one of those albums where rock fans are going to be divided. For some it is a bit of fun and they will enjoy it. For others, it will be pointless and just a really bad idea. You have will have to make up your own mind, but I’m in the ‘enjoy the fun’ camp.

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Sarah Fimm is a new name to me, but she has been releasing albums since 2001, with "Near Infinite Possibility" being her 7th. It seems that her history might not be that important as she is a bit of a chameleon who changes her style subtlety between albums.

Sometimes it is refreshing to review material that is a little bit different to the AOR/Melodic Rock usually featured at Mood Swings. Sarah’s album has afforded me that opportunity. There is a mixtures of styles on offer here including singer/songwriter, alternative rock, folk and pop-rock. Not at fusion that would seems to meet my personal preferences and yet I come away with a positive view of the album.

There is an air of melancholy that infuses the album. Opener, "Soul Let Swim", has an alt rock feel that made me think Nirvana, but then I started to hear Patty Smith and Stevie Nicks. On this track, and also on "Flames" towards the end of the album, the guitar parts remind me of Neil Young. I also wrote down Nirvana for another track called "Yellow".

Maybe it is the name of the song, "Closer", but it made me think of Joy Division and their track "Transmission". I mentioned folk earlier as it crops up on tracks such as "Say No More" where it is not so much folk-rock but folk-alt-rock. And talking of folk-rock, there is an early Heart feel to closing track "Morning Time". What else have we got going on here? Well, there is pop-rock on "Up From Dust" and "Forgive".

As you can tell there are quite a few variations going on here, but the overall feel of the album is lightweight alt rock with a melancholy mood. I enjoyed this as a diversion from my usual listening habits.

Coldspell set out a heavy metal/hard rock path with opener ‘Heroes, which reminds of European power metal. There are lots of guitars going on and when the organ kicks in it looks like the guys are covering all the bases early on.

The band keep the pedal to metal pretty much for the next few songs. There is plenty of energy on display and an apt description might be Europe on Red Bull. On ‘Time’ the paced is slowed slightly and the mood is more melodic, making this a song more in tune with my personal preferences. ‘Save Our Souls’ keeps up the good work, reminding me of Winger.

The band then power their way to the end of the album, with only ‘The King’ dropping the pace and the trio of ‘Seven Wonders’, ‘Angel Eyes’ and ‘Heading for Tomorrow’ tipping the balance more towards melody and creating a really strong second half to the album.

The title of this album gives it away - it is a tribute to Carlos Santana. It is an instrumental tribute which concentrates on the jazz fusion side of Santana’s music.

Listening to the album transports you back to a period in time when The Old Grey Whistle Test was on the TV featuring blokes with long hair, sweaters and flares, mostly sitting around jamming. This predates my musical journey and I have to say that subsequent attempts to get into jazz fusion have been hit and miss affairs. Quite surprising then that I did ‘get’ this album. Some of the tracks have a real laid back feel that means they serve perfectly as chilli out music. Some of the more jazz elements I do have to in the right frame of mind for, but that happens more often than I would have anticipated.

If you are a Santana fan, or if you fancy a bit of music that would fit into a Starsky & Hutch or Miami Vice soundtrack, then this is one well worth checking out.

Images of Eden was born in 1999 when main man Gordon Tittsworth went into the studio to record the debut album.

The band play a mixture of progressive metal and traditional heavy metal. Early on in the CD, for example, when listening to the opening track, ‘Crosses In The Sand’, especially when the vocals kick in all I could think of was Iron Maiden, as on the faster tracks Gordon sounds a lot like Bruce Dickenson. However, later on I noted other influences such as Rush, Dream Theater, Queensryche and Fates Warning.

As expected with this style of music, there are plenty of twists and turns. And talking of twists, one twist to my usual listening habits when reviewing this album was the fact that I became really interested in listening to the lyrics, particularly on tracks like ‘My Stigmata’. I’m not sure if they are Christian, but they certainly do have a spiritual vibe to them. Checking back on the bio at their website I note that there has been a consistent lyrical theme to their albums focused on isolation from the negative aspects of the world.

Given what I have said already it isn’t surprising that the band work themselves up to closing the album with a melodic progressive metal 12 min epic called ‘Sunlight of the Spirit part iv: Images Of Eden’. This turns out to be the track that I think is the strongest on the album. It is a fitting end to an interesting album.

This is the third album from this Swedish band. I haven’t come across these guys before and given that they are Swedish, it is a bit of surprise when the opening track, ‘Idiot’, comes across like a punk version of Molly Hatchet - maybe Molly Hatchet meets Motörhead would be a better description.  Going back and checking on their earlier albums I see that Southern Metal that been the description given.

As the album progresses, I note down descriptions such a blues, blues boogie,  southern rock, but these guys combine a mixtures of styles that makes it quite hard to pin a definite label on them.

Getting the negative out of the way to start with, I found the duo of ‘Stand’ and ‘No Love’, verging on the annoying. Not sure what it is that irks me about them, but in the case of ‘No Love’, it is a uptempo track that never really goes anywhere.

These are followed by ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ which has the band taking things easier and hitting a groove not dissimilar to ZZ Top. Later on ‘The King of Diesel’ is a good uptempo track that reminds me again of Molly Hatchet, or maybe even Nazareth or Gillan doing ‘New Orleans’. Keeping up the momentum, the band close the album with a mixture of blues, funk and Southern Rock on ‘Out Of Here’, finishing on a high note.

The Citadel are new name to me, but it turns out the band was formed in 2002 and released their debut album, ‘Brothers in Grief’, in 2007. This 5 track mini-album is the follow up.

‘A Voice Within’ kicks off the album in a Doom laden fashion and melodic rock fans might begin to wonder what there is here for them. In fact, they need to stick with it, as by the time the chorus kicks it is clear these guys have sense of melody. On ‘Demon’s Eye’ the vocals do have a bit of a death growl going on at times, but do manage to keep a sense of melody as well. It was while listening to 3rd track, ‘Heaven’, that it hit me who these guys reminded me of. Maybe it is just because I’ve also been reviewed their new album, but I detect hints of Ten going on here. Imagine if Ten were mixed with a Doom outfit such a Candlemass (a random name pulled from my somewhat limited knowledge of the genre), then the result might sound like this. ‘The Storm Begins’ and ‘7′ complete the album maintaining the standard of the previous progressive power metal tracks. Maybe it is just my imagination, but I think the chorus’s get stronger as the album progresses.

This is an album that is better than the sum if it’s part. There aren’t any really stunning tracks here, but somehow they all seem to gel together in a neat little package. The result is a bit of surprise for me, as despite the doom elements in the background, I ended up quite enjoying this album.

Rating: 3 stars

I remember when Ten first starred out, it was exciting having a UK band flying the flag for melodic rock. The debut album was lightweight AOR, whereas the second album, ‘The Name Of The Rose’, helped to define the Ten style which is a mixture of Magnum and Whitesnake. However, at some point along the way, my interest in Ten waned and I stopped buying their albums, mainly because the albums all started to sound very similar and later albums didn’t add anything new to the mix. I think many other people must have felt the same way because the band never really achieved the success that the initial vibe about the band would have suggested. Eventually the band called in quits.

However, in the grand tradition that is melodic rock, Ten have reformed and released ‘Stormwarning’. And so ‘Endless Symphony’ slowly emerges from a long intro and we have Ten back. It is a grandiose, yet retrained, start to the album which feels like it lasts 7min, not because it needs  to, but simply because it can. The next couple of tracks, ‘Centre of my Universe’ and ‘Kingdom Come’, are solid Ten fare, with ‘Kingdom Come’ holding my interest from a lyrical viewpoint rather than a musical one.

‘Book of Secrets’ is just plain weird as Ten attempt sleaze rock! Lyrically and musically a low point for the album that I hope Ten avoid in future. The title track and ‘Invisible’ see the band return to more familiar, but hardly inspiring, Ten territory.

Just when I think Ten are a spent force, ‘Love Song’ seems to recapture the AOR magic that made the debut album so appealing. Next track, ‘The Hourglass and The Landslide’, continues the revival with a slice of catchy melodic rock. Now that I’m in a more positive frame of mind, ‘Destiny’, also seems to hit a sweet spot before ‘The Wave’ closes the album with a syrupy ballad.

It is good to have Ten back again and fans will appreciate this album, but the band are going to have to work harder if they are to come up with an album to rival gems like ‘The Name of the Rose’.

Rating: 3 stars

I have to admit that I didn’t know that much about Benedictum going into this review, apart from what was written in the press release.

The band formed in 2005 and after getting noticed by Craig Goldy released ‘Uncreation’ in 2006. ‘Seasons of Tragedy’ followed in 2008. Jeff Pilson and Craig Goldy, who made appearances on the first two albums, also appear here, along with Rudy Sarzo for guest musician duties. Along with guitarist Pete Wells and vocalist Veronica Freeman, the other members are Chris Shrum on bass, Mike Ramone on drums and Tony Diaz on keyboards.

If like me you were expecting some sort of goth opera metal sound when the first song kicks in then you’re in for a shock. I actually had to go back and check that the band had female vocals because the sound I was hearing was more male. Instead of airy fairy vocals floating around on top of the music, Veronica’s vocals are right in there in the thick of it with the other instruments and she’s holding her own. This girl can do melody as proved on bonus track ‘Sanctuary’, but a more metal approach in the lower registers is the normal style.

I’ve got to say that I hadn’t listened to the album that much before starting to write this review and the trad/power metal of the album didn’t really do much for me on initial listens. It isn’t until half way through the album and the melodic guitar of ‘Beautiful Pain’ that I tend to start paying attention. It fits in well with the following track, ‘Dark Heart’, which somehow seems more accessible that earlier tracks. This is followed by the funky metal of ‘Bang’, which is verging on catchy!

For me the band reach their peak on the final normal track, ‘Epsilon’, which is a 9 minute epic where a few progressive elements sit very well with the band.

The first bonus track is the aforementioned ‘Sanctuary’ and the second a cover of Rush’s ‘Overture/Temple of Syrinx’. Having covered Accept’s ‘Balls to the Wall’ and Sabbath’s ‘Heaven & Hell’ on previous albums, it is clear that the band don’t fight shy of a challenge. As with their previous endeavours, the band emerge after their encounter with Rush, with their reputation intact.

So after a negative start to the review, the last few songs have convinced me that Benedictum do have something too offer, especially if you are a bit of a metal head.

Rating: 3 stars