Lots of great stuff that will need some proper listening. I watched some Cellar Darling stuff a few weeks ago when I found out Anna and the guitarist/drummer had left Eluviete.
I wonder what Eluviete will do without her, she had a very distinct voice that i kinda regarded as essential to their sound.
I thought so about Nightwish too, but they’ve survived, and even released some very good albums, in Tarja’s absence. Much better than Tarja has done without them, that’s for sure.
But it could be more like when After Forever folded when the male half of the vocals, and guitarist, was not going to be returning to the band.
I liked Anna’s vocal imperfections as much as anything, she isn’t technically brilliant by any means. Anyway, we’ll soon find out how Fabienne sounds, Evocation II:Pantheon is due on August 18th.
Wolves in the Throne Room, with a welcome return to a more black metal style, released a track from the upcoming new album due mid September. Drool. :)
July 2017 Albums of the Month
Metal Sovereign:
Honor Guard:
Foot Soldiers
I’ve been really enjoying that Temple of Void album and I don’t normally like death metal vocals or even I think this style of metal, mostly my taste is at the stoner / psych / doom end of things.
also on heavy rotation here, psychedelic metal from The Well
this storming album from Summoner - Beyond The Realm of Light
and finally while I’m not sure it qualifies for this thread I’m loving the journey that this album from Sun Blood Stories takes me on, alternating between beautiful quiet moments and some fairly filthy noise
Hell yeah!
hopefully this hasn’t been posted yet… it’s pretty epic.
So my obsession with j-metal continues, although its clear I’m just scraping the surface here.
I was checking out a couple of guitarists in the last few days,
Syu from Galneryus - One of the bigger names from the power metal scene, his stuff is very neoclassical, albeit a bit samey, so Ive mainly picked out some singles to listen to rather than albums.
and Hizaki from Versailles and Jupiter.
These are the aforementioned visual kei bands and more of the overindulgent neoclassical shredtastic guitarwankery I do so like. Hizaki had a side project called the Hizaki Grace Project which spawned some pretty good instrumentals.
That sorta cross eyed non-focused stare of his is odd eh. its present throughout the Versailles and Jupiter stuff from both him and the other guitarist, Teru, although i love those pick in the air raised arm flourishes he uses.
Which came first then, Final Fantasy haircuts or Visual Kei?
This is from the last Jupiter album which i picked up over the weekend. This is one of the better songs tbh, the album was not the best of purchases. It’s a corker though, although I’m sure someone really liked Welcome To The Black Parade.
and yes, let’s drool over the Japanese ESP artists range whilst we are at it.
http://espguitars.co.jp/artist/
Got $25,000 spare? This monstrosity could be yours. It doubles up as the Soul Edge if you want to hit someone with it.
Yōsei Teikoku are rooted in anime, the lead is a voice actress and they soundtrack lots of stuff. Listening to them though I find everything somewhat recognisable, and then I realised I was probably thinking of Japanese vidya like Vendetta and Devil May Cry, which have that sort of gothicky operatic thing going on too.
I like the relentless chug of some of their stuff
In general, buying Japanese music is pretty hard, CDs are astronomically expensive, (the Hizaki solo album is 85 quid on Amazon) and the catalogues seem heavily based around EPs and singles with videos with full albums not being so common. Not everything is available on itunes/Amazon and I guess the other big name content providers too. I guess the visual element of the bands sees a lot of content trending towards videos.
Edit: since found http://www.cdjapan.co.jp which at least reduces things to expensive rather than “astronomically expensive”
Love the sound on this!
Poison Blood. Fuzzy 70s-ish black metal, if I had to compare it would be kind of like Inquisition I guess.
Unfortunately quite short though.
August 2017 Albums of the Month
Lots of good stuff this month.
AotM
Runners-Up
Noteworthy
New Mastodon song from an upcoming EP they’re releasing called Cold Dark Place. The EP tracks were recorded at the same time as Once More Round the sun, but were cut because the band felt they didn’t match the vibe of that album.
Beautiful new Ghost video
Thanks for posting. I had not seen it yet, nor was I even aware of it.
Directed by Zev Deans (interview), the same guy that did their retro-style videos for From The Pinnacle To The Pit and Square Hammer. He also did the Portal Curtain video (Disney’s feel-good film of the year ;) ).
This “He Is” video is very different for him, but still interesting. And I love the actual song. Always interested to see what he comes up with next.
Also, I must not allow my gf to see this. She’s already got some kind of a weird crush on Papa that I don’t understand, and now they’ve got him all decked out in a natty white suit with a lot of not-so-subtle sexual references.
Also, did I just see a reference to Michael Jackson in that video?!?
Need to watch it again. There’s a lot going on in this one.
That’s a great video. Thanks for posting it @Wallapuctus
Also, Threshold had somehow passed under my radar before their new album, Legend of the Shires, but it’s too good not to share right away. Lush, lyrical prog that should be right in the wheelhouse of the Ayreon fans around these parts.
I am a huge Threshold fan, however I am more lukewarm on this new one. This is mostly because, after the death of Mac, they brought back Damian Wilson. And while I wasn’t a fan of Wilson’s original tenure works (they were good, but generally my least favorite thresh albums), his new tenure was electric. March of Progress was, IMO, their best album to date.
It seems in the 15 years between Damian found another gear. Of course in the interim he had worked with Arjen on a few Ayreon albums. He also formed a band with the son of famous Rick Wakeman keyboardist, Adam Wakeman. That band, named headspace, released I Am Anonymous, which would compete for a spot as one of the 10 best albums of the decade for me.
Anyhow, basically Damian came back from being one of my least favorite metal singers, to one of my favorite, and Threshold was on fire. Then they kicked him to the curb for another old singer, Glynn Morgan. I am less than thrilled. So I am having a hard time judging the new songs. Is it just I want more Damian, or are they legitimately not as good as the last few albums?
Ask me again in like 5 years.
I’ll definitely make a point of checking out the older stuff then, because this is fantastic.
I really loved McDermott, the vocalist who passed away, and was pretty worried when Wilson came back onboard, as I hadn’t much liked his old material, but the songwriting was strong enough that I still enjoyed the last couple of records with him, and honestly, I think his voice had matured nicely by that point.
I hadn’t really heard much of Morgan’s material with the band, and can’t say I’m loving his voice, but the new album’s still really good.
I’ve been to a few shows here recently. Specifically HAKEN and Dark Tranquility in the last week or so, with Insomnium coming up in about 2 weeks (and then VNV Nation after that, but they’re not metal). I’m on track to hit about ~25-28 concerts this year, which is great :-D
Both HAKEN and Dark Tranquility put on pretty amazing sets, honestly, covering lots of both their discographies. I got pretty beat up standing guard for my very diminutive concert buddy Briony in the pit during Warbringer at the DT show, but it was super worth it. That show had SIX bands total on the ticket–DT, Warbringer, Striker (Canadian), Datura, Kairos., and The Day of Night. It was seriously like a 6-hour-long show :-D
Dark Tranquility show = the night Armando realizes that Sports Mode would probably produce decent concert photography
I love DT
