My Top 10 Albums of 2012

Hey guys! I hope your Christmas was filled with good food, good people, and good presents.  If you don't celebrate Christmas, then I hoped you enjoyed your movie and Chinese food or whatever other traditions you may have.  As I promised in a previous blog I am going to do my top 10 albums for 2012.

I have been doing a top 10 since 2006, if first started for my own fun, then in the last couple of years my friend and I would exchange our top 10 and now I am going to be doing my top 10 on the blog.  Since 2006 my top albums of the year have been as follows:
2006: Trivium- The Crusade
2007: As I Lay Dying- An Ocean Between Us
2008: Metallica- Death Magnetic
2009: The Black Dahlia Murder: Deflorate
2010: Cradle of Filth- Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa
2011: The Black Dahlia Murder- Ritual

Now that you know my previous albums of the year, lets jump right into this years top 10.

First off I would like to say that out of all the years I have done this top 10, 2012 has got to be the hardest year to form a list for.  Out of the 60 plus albums I listened to this year it was like all the bands decided to release great albums.  There were countless times when I would listen to two albums again just to see which one I thought was better and there were many albums I wanted to include but couldn't just because there were albums I thought were better.  In the end though I feel like, in my opinion I have the right list.  I would first like to list the 5 honorable mentions, these are the albums that were great, but either just not good enough to be in the top 10, or there were albums that were simply better then them and if I extended the list to a top 15 they would be the first 5 to be included, they are (in no particular order):
Korpiklaani: Manala
Dying Fetus: Reign Supreme
Veil of Maya: Eclipse
Signal the Firing Squad: Abnegate
Goatwhore: Blood for the Master
Alright without further delay, lets get on with the countdown.

10. Kontrust- Second Hand Wonderland (Napalm) 

 The best band you've never heard of but seriously need to check out released one of the best albums you've never heard, but seriously need to go listen to.  The songs are catchy, energetic, and have the right combination of poppiness and heavieness to appeal to fans of many music genres.  Sure some of the songs may get a little weird sometimes, but after the crazy Kontrust ride is over, you quickly get back in line to experience the fun again.

Click to listen to Sock 'n' Doll







9. Sabaton- Carolus Rex (Nuclear Blast)

 Before 2012 I did not know who Sabaton was or if I did, I didn't know many of their songs.  It wasn't until the lyric video for the title track of this CD appeared on my youtube feed that I became a little obsessed with the band and after I bought this album I bought a couple of previous albums that they did.  Carolus Rex is jammed pack with epic power metal anthems that begged to be listened to at very loud volume and will get stuck in your head.  If you never listened to Sabaton before, give this album a listen and I guarantee you it will hook you like it hooked me.

Click to listen to Carolus Rex 




8. Meshuggah- Koloss (Nuclear Blast) 

The four years Meshuggah fans had to wait between the release of 2008's Obzen and 2012's Koloss was well worth the wait.  Even though the songs are slower to an extent, they still pack that same Meshuggah punch that has been keeping fans around all these years.  The musicianship in this band is just down right outstanding, every one in the band could be classified as a metal virtuoso on their respective instrument. 

Click to listen to The Demon's Name is Surveillance






7. Abiotic- Symbiosis (Metal Blade)

I blogged about these crazy Florida deathcore guys earlier in the year (check that out for a more in depth review of the band and this album) and I said that I am excited to see where these guys go in the future because I believe they can be a great band.  Symbiosis is a great first release in what I hope to be a long career of great albums.  Abiotic has a sound that is unlike most of the deathcore bands you hear today.  It has the right amount of death metal and hardcore elements to appeal to the fans of both death metal and hardcore.  Their breakdowns are like a wall of bricks slamming into you every time not to mention all the musicians in the band, including the vocalist, are at the top of their game in their playing and they can only get better.

Click to listen to Vermosapien

6. Thy Art Is Murder- Hate (Halfcut)

Anyone who thinks that America is the leader when it comes to producing great deathcore bands will have their mind changed when they get a listen to Australia's Thy Art is Murder.  Don't get me wrong, I'm American and America does have great deathcore bands, but bands like Thy Art is Murder blows them all out of the water.  Hate is an all out brutal assault on the ear drums.  The lyrics are full of, well hate, and the break downs feel like a cannon ball is hitting you in the gut every time. If you like deathcore and want I new band to add to your library, do yourself a favor and buy this album.

Click to listen to Reign of Darkness




5. Cannibal Corpse- Torture (Metal Blade) 

Like a new Slayer album, Cannibal Corpse fans know what to expect when they buy a new album from the band, but if you've got a formula that has been working for 25 years, why try anything different.Cannibal Corpse's Torture is anything but torture to listen to (see what I did there?).  The death metal veterans of now 25 years (in 2013) still prove that they can still write some of the best death metal in existence today.  Torture does carry the sound of their last release Evisceration Plague but in my opinion is an all around better release.   Torture may not be Cannibal Corpse's best release of their career, but it is definitely near the top.   

Click to listen to Demented Agression



4. Eluveitie- Helvetios (Nuclear Blast) 

Now some could say that I liked as much as I did this album because when I preordered it I got the bundle that came with a t-shirt and an autographed poster.  That is just simply not true, while I did like getting a t-shit and autographed poster, the album was only going to make it to the top 10 if I thought it deserved it.  Boy did it deserve it.  The first two singles from the album "Rose for Epona" and "Havoc" while they may not be the best songs from the album, really got me excited for it.  Helvetios lived up to any high expectation I had put on it.  To put it very simply, it is a 17 track album that never lost my interest and there aren't too many albums that long that I can say that about.

Click to listen to Helvetios


3. As I Lay Dying- Awakened (Metal Blade) 

As I Lay Dying has always been one of my favorite band.  They were one of the first metal bands I listened to and I have stuck with them ever since.  I will be honest I liked The Powerless Rise, but it still felt like it was missing something, and it is hard to follow a masterpiece like An Ocean Between Us.  Whatever gaps were left open from Powerless, Awakened helped fill them and then proceeded to overflow into other gaps that I might have had.  While Awakened maybe a dark album, the songs are still amazing.  All the musicians have only gotten better, and Tim's vocals are becoming clearer and clearer (even though he is using growls) to understand as the band gets older.  Not to mention, as always, the song writing is superb.  Awakened is sure to please As I Lay Dying fans old and new.

                                                                                    Click to listen to A Greater Foundation

2. Cattle Decapitation- Monolith of Inhumanity (Metal Blade)

This album is a prime example of why I wait until after Christmas to do the top 10.  Now I did not get it for Christmas, but I did get it the night or two before.  I had heard all the rave reviews about it and finally decided to check it out for my self.  Monolith is nothing short of a technical death metal masterpiece.  If you don't know anything about Cattle Decapitation but like tech- death, buy this album.  It is a non stop assault from beginning to end.  I was not a fan of Cattle Decapitation before this album, but Monolith has gotten me hooked and has led me to discover the crazy brutalness that is Cattle Decapitation.

Click to listen to Dead Set on Suicide  




1.  Between The Buried and Me- The Parallax II: Future Sequence (Metal Blade)

If there was one band I was obsessed with this year, it was Between the Buried and Me, and this album is a big part of the reason.  I will be honest when I first bought it, I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, but upon listening to it a second time I was hooked on this album and on this band.  In my opinion this album is just as good if not better than Colors and after a few listens and comparisons to other albums, I decided that it was the most technical, crazy, enjoyable and, best album that was released in 2012.

Click to listen to Lay Your Ghosts to Rest





Well there you go! My top 10 albums of the year.  I hope you enjoyed and I want to know if you agree or disagree.  Were there albums you think were better than the ones I put here? What was your album of the year? Let me know by leaving me a comment or tweeting me @zachktheanimal.  I am interested to hear what you guys think.

Also this will probably be the last blog post of 2012.  I am currently on break and will be going on a brief choir tour and will be back on January 12th so I will start blogging again around that time.  I would like to thank everyone who reads the blog, even though it is only a few months old.  I am excited to do the blog for a full year and see what happens.  I wish you guys a great and safe new year and I'll see you in 2013.

Thanks guys!
-Zach

Remember if there is an album you want me to review or a band you want me to talk about, leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal.        

  

Whispered: Scalpal Sharp Ninja Metal

Now if you are well versed in heavy metal, you know that there is a large sub genre of metal that involves writing metal songs about the vikings.  Bands like Amon Amarth and King of Asgard will write superb melodic death metal with lyrics about viking myths and culture.  Other bands like Turisas, Enisferum, and Adorned Brood take that one step further and add traditional Celtic sounds to accompany their viking themed metal.  There has also been a small rise of pirate themed metal.  Led by the band Alestorm, bands such as them, Blackguard, and Swashbuckle write metal with pirate themed lyrics.  Although out of those three bands, Alestorm really provides the musical accompaniment that makes you feel as if you're sailing around with Captain Jack Sparrow while they serenade you with their music.

So we have Vikings, Pirates, Egyptians (Nile), and Romans (Ex Deo), all accounted for in metal music.  That lead me to question "Where are the Ninja metal bands?" Surely the ninja is worthy a place at the metal roundtable?  Now to my credit I did not go searching for a ninja themed metal band, like any good blogger might have, I waited for it to find me.  I saw a tweet from one of Turisas' members that they were going to be touring Europe this year with a band from Finland called Whispered who write none other than ninja themed heavy metal.  I jumped up from my chair and quickly ran over to my computer to check them out.

After listening to them on youtube and liking what I heard, I decided to search for them on iTunes, to my excitement they had released one CD, Thousand Swords, back in 2010 and I wasted no time downloading it.  I only just got around to listening it today on a drive to and from a local drum store and I really liked what I heard.  The first song that stood out in my mind is the title track "Thousand Swords".  This song was also the first one I heard on youtube and when I listened to it in the car, I forgotten how good it was.  The quick tempo, ripping guitars, and choir chants in the beginning immediately pull you into the song and the motives played by the keyboards that impersonate what I can only guess are traditional Asian instruments, keep you seated as you get transported through the world of the ninja.  My first opinion of the band was that they reminded me of Ensiferum, except writing songs about ninjas instead of vikings.  Then I listened to it more and thought that the keyboards and choir chants reminded me of Dimmu Borgir's epic orchestral arrangements that can be found on almost all of their songs.  "This was cool" I thought "A band that sounds like Ensiferum writing about ninjas, with a hint of Dimmu Borgir orchestral backgrounds, I could get used to this."  As I found out later though my opinion of who this band sounded like would change.

Here is an audio video of "Thousand Swords" 

The second song I listened to on youtube is the one that really made me realize who Whispered reminded me of.  At first I thought it was Ensiferum singing about ninjas, but as I listened to more and more songs something just was not right.  I kept thinking "Where have I heard that style of keyboards before?" then when the song "Blindfold" came on my iPod, the ninja star hit me, "Bodom! They sound like Children of Bodom!"  Don't get me wrong I like Children of Bodom and its cool to see a band writing music similar to that of Bodom, because up until now I had not heard a band that sounded quite like Bodom.  Whispered accomplishes that feat.  The style of guitars, keyboards, and vocals are very similar to the formula that Bodom has been rolling with for their entire existence of a band.  

Here is the official video for "Blindfold"

I'm not trying to say that Whispered are a carbon copy of Children of Bodom, because they are not.  Sure Whispered's sound, sounds like the Bodom sound, but there are no songs off Thousand Swords that I thought sounded like copies of Bodom's songs.  Whispered has simply taken Bodom's blue prints, added lyrics about ninjas, found out that there was more than one setting on their keyboard to use to replicate the sound of the traditional Asian instruments, and added a hint of Dimmu Borgir style orchestral effects to top it all off. 

What Whispered has created is a great foundation for a new sub genre of heavy metal.  I really liked what I heard on Thousand Swords and I am excited to see where this band goes in the future.  I feel like there is big possibility to incorporate more of the Asian sounding instruments into their songs, instead of using them for little motives at the beginning or end of the songs (I can see ninja metal turn in to something like folk metal, although instead of Celtic instrument accompaniment, its accompanied by traditional Asian instruments).  As Whispered progresses through their career, I can see them start to establish the blue print for ninja metal (which they kind of already done).  It will be a blue print that many bands may try to impersonate, but Whispered would have already have taken that blue print, created something truly unique and original, and leave all other future ninja bands in the dust.  

I will say one last thing, if you like Children of Bodom, you will like this band.  If you like ninjas, you will like this band, and if you like both, then you should pick up their debut CD Thousand Swords because I just found your new favorite band in Whispered.  

Thanks guys!
-Zach

Remember if there is a band you want me to talk about, or an album you want me to review leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal.

 

In Legend: Who Needs Two Guitars When You've Got Two Pianos?

Hey guys! So the other day on my Van Canto post a user by the name of immortalsoul (killer name!) left a comment saying that because I was a big fan of Bastian (the drummer of Van Canto) if I had ever heard of his side project called In Legend and he wanted to know my opinion of the group.  I looked them up and knew immediately that I wanted to blog about these guys.  Immortalsoul, as well as everyone else, I hope you enjoy my post about In Legend. 

When immortalsoul first mentioned In Legend, that name rung a bell somewhere in the depths of my mind.  I do remember seeing an add about them in a revolver, or youtube, someplace like that, but I hadn't really kept up with them since then.  So when I looked them up again I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. 

For those of you who don't know In Legend, they are the side project of Bastian, the drummer of Van Canto, where he... "oh Zach I know! I bet he plays drums!" no you're wrong, please sit down.  This time around Bastian leaves the drumming to someone else and demonstrates just how talented of a musician he is by playing piano and singing in his new group.  Now you're probably thinking, "Lots of bands use piano thats nothing new", well In Legend does something a little different.  The band is a quartet.  They have a drummer, a bass player, a guy to play electric keyboard, and Bastian who sings and plays lead piano, I guess you could call it.  That's it, no guitars or special effects or anything else you would find in your typical rock band.  In Legend proves that you don't need ripping guitars to make rock music that is powerful and beautiful.

The first song I heard from In Legend was "Pandemonium" from their debut Ballads 'n' Bullets.  The song stars with piano chords being played on the low end of the piano, they are accompanied by low notes on the bass and low tom hits on the drums.  This is where In Legend gets their power.  The use of the lower register of the piano, along with the bass guitar and the thunderous roar of the drums, provides the heavy bass feel that fans of rock are used to hearing in their songs.  From their the song moves along at a pretty nice pace, the low chords on the piano are aided by constant 16th notes from the bass drum, while Bastian provides a melody with the upper end of the piano and his voice.  Bastian's voice is another thing that helps this band.  I will be the first to say it, Bastian has a pretty good voice.  Its not like your typical rock voices that you hear now a days (I'm looking at you Theory of a Deadman, Nickleback, and Hinder (are they still playing?)), sure it has some raspiness to it, but the majority of the time he sings in a very nice, smooth voice and the raspiness only adds more texture to the song.

Here is the video clip for "Pandemonium".  I know there are only three members in the video, but trust me they use four.  

The next In Legend song I heard is probably my favorite song they do and one of the few songs I could listen to over and over again and never get tired of it.  I am talking about the ballad "At Her Side".  I saw on iTunes that "At Her Side" was the most downloaded song off the album so I had to see what all the fuss is about.  This song shows just how beautiful and powerful In Legend can be.  The beginning starts like your average rock ballad, a catchy melody played on a piano while the singer sings over it.  But then it gets different around 00:55, when the rest of the band comes in, instead of the cheesy sound of an 80's hair metal band, you get the effect of the bass, drums, and the low end of the piano.  This makes the song more powerful than any 80's ballad could have ever hoped to be.  I think that the fact that there are no guitars allows the song to stay beautiful and powerful, because if you were to add guitars to this song it would loose all the effect it had.  I will also say that "At Her Side" sounds like a song that I could hear a top 40's artist doing, its catchy, the end of the chorus line is "Sing with me, sing along!" and it will get stuck in your head, and its also (dare I say) sweet.  Except the difference is, if a top 40's artist were to do it, they would certainly ruin it with crappy electronics and autotune and everyone would get sick of it within a month.  Bastian and In Legend do it the right way giving the song incredible staying power.  

Here is the clip for "At Her Side"

Now some people may say "How can you call it rock if it doesn't have guitars?" To which I would say, listen to the songs, they everything they need.  The songs don't feel like their missing guitars, in fact if they did have guitars it would only take away from the strength of the songs.  And guess what you still find yourself banging your head and singing along to everything In Legend serves up. 

I'll say something similar to what I said about Van Canto, you don't have to be a fan of metal or rock to like In Legend.  If you like good music you will really enjoy what In Legend has to offer.  The musicality and songwriting are great and the songs are powerful, beautiful have the catchiness of pop songs and the power of metal songs.  If nothing more you have to appreciate the talent that Bastian has.  To go from being the incredible drummer that he is in Van Canto, to a great piano player, singer, and songwriter in In Legend is something that I am incredibly jealous of.  He's like the German version of Dave Grohl.  I highly recommend picking up In Legend's debut album Ballads 'n' Bullets, its a great album and is sure to please a fan of any music. 

Thanks guys!
-Zach

Remember if there is a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal. 

Van Canto: A Capella Metal Masterminds

Hey guys! I just finished all my exams for this semester so I'd figure I'd celebrate by talking about one of my favorite bands that I discovered in the last couple of years, Germany's Van Canto.

A Capella groups usually confined to performing covers and mash ups of pop songs and occasionally doing some original songs here and there.  No one told Germany's Van Canto that.  The German tribe of force has been crafting their own unique brand of metal since 2006.  One that uses no instruments, except drums, but will keep your head banging and fists pumping while you are hypnotized in by the craziness that is a capella metal.

Now some people who know a capella music will be quick to jump up and protest "Zach you can't call them a capella because they use a real drummer instead of a beatboxer."  To which I respond "yes but calling it 'vocal ensemble metal' doesn't have the same ring to it."  Plus the band has stated that they know a capella doesn't use any drums, but when you have a drummer as talented as Bastian, their drummer, is you would want to use him too.  Let me just first say that he is good.  Each hit of his drums is brilliantly precise, his feet rumble at break neck speeds, his drums sound like thunderclaps and only enhance the Van Canto musical experience.

Van Canto is a sextet; Sly and Inga handle the lead vocals.  Ross and Stefan handle the rakka takka style vocals.  Ross handles the high rakka takka vocals and Stefan handles the low rakka takka vocals as well as the guitar like solos.  Ike handles the bass vocals and the aforementioned Bastian on drums.  The 'rakka takka' vocals are their own unique style of vocals that imitate the sounds a guitar would make.  It has also become a catch phrase for the band, during shows they will chant "rakka takka!" and the crowd responds "mother fucker!" They also have t-shirts that say "rakka takka mother fucker!" on the back and I really want to get one of those.

But I digress.  I first heard about Van Canto when I saw an add for their cd Tribe of Force (pictured above) in a Napalm Records add (again further reenforcing my statement that Napalm has a knack of finding the most unique metal bands out there).  I was intrigued by the idea of a capella metal and decided to look them up on youtube.  The first video I saw was a cover of Metallica's "Battery" off their album A Storm to Come.  The video starts off slow and quiet just like the original song.  Sly and Inga being singing "Battery" in order to imitate the guitar sounds, which may sound silly at first, but then you try thinking of a better way to imitate a guitar sound rather than just saying "doo" or "la" on the correct pitches.  To me singing "battery" makes more sense.  The sound continues to build until about 1:08 and if you're a Metallica fan like I am you know what the intro builds to.  Once 1:08 hit at the song picks up tempo, my jaw hit the floor.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing, they were executing "Battery" with the same sense of ferociousness that Metallica does.  This was not your average a capella cover, but then again Van Canto is not your average a capella band.  Its in this song (as well as all of Van Canto's songs) that you can say this is why they need a drummer like Bastian.  If they had a beat-boxer trying to mimic what Lars Ulrich originally did on the song it would sound incredibly silly.  Bastian mimics Lars with incredible accuracy and instead of making the song sound silly, he makes the song sound, well, metal!  Then there is the 'guitar' solo, I put 'guitar' in quotes because obviously they don't have a real guitar player, but they do have Stefan.  Stefan has the ability, and I think surprisingly with out the aid of any affects pedals but I can't say that with any fact, to imitate a guitar sound as if they were soloing.  What does Stefan do with these amazing powers? Why he sings Kirk Hammet's solo on the song.  Any Metallica will easily recognize it as Kirk's solo and would have to applaud Stefan for doing an amazing job making his voice sound exactly like Kirk's guitar.  Needless to say once I heard this first taste of Van Canto, I only wanted more and they quickly became one of my favorite bands.

Here is the video of their 'Battery' cover 

A quick note before I continue, Van Canto is one of the few bands that I like that my mom likes.  Its one thing to get my sister to like a metal band because she has a pretty eclectic music taste, but when my mom likes a metal band its pretty monumental, and Van Canto successfully claimed the title as the one metal band my mom likes.  

Now Van Canto doesn't only do covers, on average their albums may feature two or three covers, the rest are original songs.  When they are not covering metal masterpieces of the past (look up their covers of "Fear of the Dark" and "Master of Puppets") they are writing their own awesome power metal songs.  It is pretty easy to say that while Van Canto may be in their own category of a capella metal, in the grand scheme of all things metal the German sextet definitely falls under the sub genre of Power Metal.  They write about fantastic adventures that involve epic heroes conquering evil and songs that pertain to the power of metal and how it unites every one of their listeners.  Each song of theirs could easily be covered by bands like Hammerfall or Sabaton, but I don't want to see that happen, at least not yet.  

Take their song "Lost Forever" off of their album Tribe of Force (my favorite album of theirs).  The song begins with a catchy melody line that you could easily picture two guitars playing, yet for some reason it sounds better when Ross, Stefan, and Ike sing it.  The song quickly goes from there to galloping along at a pretty quick tempo that would make anyone start headbanging.  I can picture them singing this song to a big crowd at Waken Open Air Festival and seeing the whole crowd jump up in down or headbang in unison to the beat of the song.  Once the chorus hits the listener is hit with an amazing chorus of sound that could accompany a man riding a horse as he treks along the country side looking for his next adventure.  Then you've got Stefan taking another crazy vocal guitar solo, that to the unfamiliar ear would just sound like a real guitar, but is really just Stefan's voice.  What I am trying to say with all of this is that Van Canto does not stand up on their covers alone.  Their original songs are just as good if not better then some of their covers.  These guys are more than just a cover band, they are their own power/a capella metal entity.  

Here is the video for 'Lost Forever'

Now being an a capella band they do perform songs that are a capella in the true sense.  Bastian doesn't play drums but he may jump on the mic and help the band by doing some singing (talk about a double threat!).  The two best examples of this are "The Bard's Song" (my sister's favorite song of theirs) and "Last Night of the Kings".  "The Bard's Song" is a cover, but I am blanking on who originally wrote the song I think it might have been Blind Guardian but I don't know for sure.  "Last Night of the Kings" is an original but the two songs are equally beautiful and equally awesome.  I will admit I did not like "The Bard's Song" at first, but the more I listened to it the more I realized just how beautiful it is.  The group vocals on the chorus sends chills down my spine every time I hear it.  For being only a sextet Van Canto has the ability to produce a huge sound that I haven't heard from a capella groups that are larger in size than they are.  "Last Night of the Kings" is a sinister song about a group of rebels planning to take over a castle (there is the power metal element), but still just as beautiful as "The Bard's Song".  Like "Lost Forever", "Last Night of the Kings" has a catchy intro melody that can easily get stuck in your head and like "The Bard's Song", it has the epic group vocals that give me chills.  

Here is a clip for "The Bard's Song"

Here is the video for "Last Night of the Kings" 

Overall, if you like a capella, metal, good music, or anything really, you will like Van Canto.  They don't use harsh vocals (something I know turns a lot of people off with metal) and produce some of the best and most unique music that exists today.  Also, even though they are German, they sing in English so no need for translating (they have one song they do in German but that's it).  For anyone who wants to get into metal, I would highly recommend listening to Van Canto.  Out of all the metal bands I listen to, Van Canto, along with Nightwish maybe, are some of the best bands to listen to if you are a new comer to the metal genre.  Their last album Break the Silence (Napalm) was released last year and is an awesome album! 

Thanks guys! 

-Zach 

PS- Van Canto its time for you to tour the states! I really want you to come to my school, Willamette University, and give a concert.  Please find a way to make a US tour happen! 

Remember if you have a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal.      

  

Review: Green Day-Tre!

Hey guys! I know its been a while since I last posted.  Its finals week at my school so I've been doing nothing but studying and preparing final projects and I have had no time to blog.  But I will be blogging over my Christmas break (and perhaps a bit before that), I've got a couple of artists I want to talk about as well as my Top 10 albums of the year that will come out after Christmas (I like to get CDs for Christmas so I listen to them that day and then finalize my top 10), so get excited for that.  Without further delay here is my review of Green Day's new album Tre!

Tre! is the third and final installment of Green Day's three album release thing they were doing this year.  Now I did some research, something I should have done before I reviewed Dos!, about this trio of albums.  Billy Joe said that they each portrayed a different mood, Uno! is the power pop album, Dos!  is the garage rock album, and Tre! is supposed to be the epic sounding one.  He also said that the three albums are like a party; Uno!  is when you're getting ready for the party, Dos! is the party, and Tre! is the clean up afterwords.

Knowing all of this I went back and listened to the previous two albums and could see where the connections were being made.  I mean Dos! starts off with "Fuck time" something you could expect from being at a party and not necessarily when you are preparing for it or after the fact.

I feel that Tre! portrays the clean up aspect of the party pretty accurately.  The album starts off with the ballad "Brutal Love" that sounds like the song I would hear waking up from a crazy party to find my house a mess and my head feeling I headbutted a bunch of hammers.  The overall tempo of the album, for the most part, "99 Revolutions" being the exception, is slower than the other two.  This makes sense because fast in your face punk songs is not the first thing I want to be hearing after waking up from a party.  If I ever had the pleasure (or displeasure) to host a wild party, Dos! would be the album I would certainly want playing in the background, and Tre! would be the background music to the clean up.

Tre! also accomplishes the roll of the epic sounding album.  Uno! was said to be Green Day harking back to their early albums like Dookie and Nimrod.  Dos! also accomplishes this feet.  But Tre! for the most part has the epic sound that Green Day had on American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.  I'm not saying its a bad thing, because its not, I like to see that Green Day was able to put some variety into their three albums.  I was worried that all three were going to sound the same, and that is simply not the case.  All the songs on Tre! are bigger and fuller sounding then the songs on Uno! and Dos! and I think that was supposed to be the idea.  If you want good proof about Tre! being like American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown listen to the song "Dirty Rotten Bastards".  Its the longest song on Tre! and I believe the longest song out of the three albums.  It clocks in just over 6 minutes and is very reminiscent of, "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" the two 9 minute epics American Idiot had.  Although "Dirty Rotten Bastards" is not nearly as long, it switches moods and tempos about 3 times over the course of the song and could have easily fit on American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.  

All in all Tre! is a great album.  The trio of albums is a must own for any Green Day fan regardless of what era you like, or if you like them all.  I feel all three albums do a good job of living up to the descriptions that Billy Joe gave them.  Tre! is icing on the cake to an already catalog of great music that one could listen to and never get tired of.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Thanks guys!
-Zach

P.S. Tre! was supposed to be released around Tre Cool's birthday who turned 40 this year! Kind of crazy to hear that.  

Remember if there is an album you want me to review or an artist you would like me to talk about leave a comment below, or tweet me @zachktheanimal.     

Review: Adorned Brood: Kuningaz

Now to all Adorned Brood fans who may be reading this, before you put on your viking helmets and grab your swords and shields to attack me for the fact that Kuningaz came out like three weeks ago, I would ask you to kindly remove your armor and go back to enjoying your mead.  Yes I do realize it was released on November 23rd and I meant to buy it on that day but I totally forgot about that until yesterday so I felt like I would review it now.  That being said, lets begin the review.

For those of you who don't know Adorned Brood they are a 6 piece folk/black metal band from Germany and if you are fans of folk metal in any way, do your self a favor and look these guys up.  I will admit that I only found out about these guys shortly before I went on my Thanksgiving break, but I really liked what I heard on their previous albums and made it a priority to buy this album when it finally came out. 

Adorned Brood's brand of folk metal can be compared to that of Finland's Ensiferum, epic sounding viking themed folk metal with harsh vocals to top it all off, however unlike Ensiferum, Adorned Brood attacks with more ferociousness than their Finland counterparts.  What I mean is that although they have both a flute player and a keyboard player to provide the proper background to the songs, the music created by the guitars, bass, drums, and vocals make up the bulk of the Adorned Brood cake (so to speak) and the flute and keys are like the frosting and cherry on top.  Instead of being combined with the rest of the band, the keys and flute come in at the most opportune moments to help complete the song.  I would like to say that there is nothing wrong with the way that Ensiferum has concocted their metal cake (figured I had to roll with this analogy).  Ensiferum is one of my favorite bands and given the choice between a slice from their cake or a slice of Adorned Brood cake, I would stab the server with my viking sword and steal a piece of each.

Enough of this talk about cake, on to the album! On Kuningaz, Adorned Brood's 8th album, these German vikings continue with their own unique form of folk metal.  One that combines fierce black/death metal instrumentals and vocals, a la Amon Amarth and King of Asgard, and adds flutes, key boards and group vocals to create a sound that fans have come to love over the years.  Kuningaz starts off with a very pretty instrumental entitled "Einkehr" which is perfect for transporting the listener to Adorned Brood's far off viking land.  The combination of acoustic guitars, flutes and keys make me feel as if I am flying over a viking village and getting a tour of the whole town.  Flying over the market, the castle, graveyard etc.  In the roughly 3 minute intro I see the whole landscape that the rest of Kuningaz takes me through.  After the intro, the title track starts in.  Like the track that came before it its starts with a nice flute intro until about 0:26 in when the rest of the band starts doing their thing.  Unlike most songs that may start with a verse, "Kuningaz" starts with the chorus that could be compared to a chorus of an Ensiferum song.  Around 1:28 the Adorned Brood we know and love emerges with their special breed of harsh vocals shouting the line "Kuningaz!" that just begs to be chanted loudly at one of their shows.  There were lots of times during this song when the vocals reminded me of those of Dani from Cradle of Filth, that definitely was a new style of vocals I had never heard from a folk metal band before.  "Kuningaz" is one of the better tracks on the album and left we waiting with anticipation to see what the band would do next.

One of my other favorite songs on the album is the hilariously titled "Men!" (yes the exclamation point is in the title).  At first I thought it was just a silly and great song about how awesome it is to be a man (and at the same time I thought what the girl in the band thinks about this song).  Then on a second listen, I pictured a bunch of guys sitting in an old bar during the time of the vikings singing this song, and the song became that much better! (not that it wasn't great before) I suggest thinking about that when you listen to "Men!" because I can not only seeing vikings drinking and singing this song, but also guys in a sports bar drinking and singing this song. 

In conclusion, Kuningaz is a great and welcomed addition to my ever growing collection of folk/viking/pagan (still haven't come up with an analogy for that yet) metal.  It will please any Adorned Brood fan, and will also rope in any new fans (such as my self) and make them want to explore everything that this band has to offer.  Because when you look at Adorned Brood they are just as good, and in some cases better, than some of the bigger folk/viking/pagan metal bands and they need to be recognized for all the amazing stuff they've done in the past and present, as well as all the music they will make in the future. 

Overall Rating: 8/10

Thanks guys!
-Zach

Remember if you have a band you want me to talk about leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal. 

Beyond All Recognition: The Rise of Dubcore?

If you keep up with modern music then you would have noticed a rise in an electronic genre called dubstep (although I am hoping that it is on its way out).  This "music" is created by recording the sound of two robots having sex, the sound AOL dial up made, an alien distress signal, or any combination of all of that and playing it back on your Mac Book.  As you may have noticed in the preceding sentence that I am not the biggest dubstep fan, its fun to drum to but not my cup of tea, mainly because I prefer to see people actually playing instruments rather than one dude pressing play on his computer.  Ok I'm done with the genre bashing I promise.  Slowly dubstep has been moving into the main stream by itself, or by collaborating with pop stars of the time.  Up until recently it stayed away from hard rock and heavy metal.  That was until Korn decided to make a whole album of them collaborating with dubstep DJs and thus their album The Path of Totality was born.  While I enjoyed one of the songs (Get Up! featuring Skrillex) I couldn't help but think during that song that there was just too much dubstep for my taste, I mean they gave Skrillex a sort of breakdown in the song, not something I really enjoyed.  What needed to happen was someone needed to take dubstep and fuse just the right amount of it with heavy metal, much like Asking Alexandria and Attack Attack do with their fusion of metal and dance.

Enter Sweden's Beyond All Recognition, who just released their debut album Drop=Dead on Napalm Records.  This band has taken what Asking Alexandria does best but instead they have taken out normal dance beats and inserted dubstep elements into their song, thus starting the genre 'dubcore'.  The first song I heard by them was "Characters" when the video for the song came on my Youtube feed.  I will admit at first listen I was not entirely blown away, I do remember thinking they looked like Bring Me the Horizon, but I found my self slowly coming back and watching their video and the song started to grow on me.

"Characters" starts off with a quiet, but crescendoing, drum fill that leads to a bass drop when the song finally kicks in.  Throughout the song the dubstep element of the band takes a back seat to the hardcore/heavy metal element of the band.  Which is the way I think it aught to be.  The song thunders along like you would expect a metalcore song to.  Going through mosh pit educing break down after mosh pit educing break down, with some dubstep elements peaking their head through going "Hey if you were looking for dubstep here I am!"  I guess what I'm trying to say is that Beyond All Recognition treats the dubstep as if they had a 6th member of the band who was a DJ, much like a nu metal band, the dubstep becomes another instrument.  Sure every once in a while it may have a brief solo, but for the most part it accompanies and enhances the brutal metalcore these Swedes throw at the listener.

Here is the video for "Characters" 

Throughout the entirity of their album Drop=Dead, Beyond All Recognition continues with this formula they present in "Characters" (Characters just happens to be the first song on the album).  Sure there are songs where the dubstep is a little more prominent, and the last song "End of Recognition" as well as the bonus remix of the song "Smoke and Mirrors" are straight up dubstep songs, but it doesn't take away from the overall intensity that these Swedes dish out over the course of the album.  

Overall if you're a fan of bands like Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack or any other band that combines heavy metal elements with electronic accompaniment, do yourself a favor and get Drop=Dead.  You will not be disappointed and if you don't like it at first listen, give it some time and it will grow on you just as it grew on me.  Beyond All Recognition is a young band and I am interested to see if what these Swedes still have tucked up the sleeves of their matching letterman's jackets in the years to come.  

Thanks guys!
-Zach

PS I know dubstep people like to talk about the bass drop but we must remember the wise words of Darth Vader:

 

Remember if there is a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review, leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal. 

Vintersorg: Folk Metal's Dynamic Duo (Artist Spotlight)

When you look at how many people tend to make up an average folk metal band, you most likely will find a number between 4, 5, or 6.  Usually bands will have a vocalist, guitar player (sometimes two), bass, drums, and in most cases a keyboard player to provide the Celtic instruments in the background.  You do see bands like Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, and Turisas, who have band members playing other instruments.  Korpiklaani and Turisas have violin and accordion players and Eluveitie have violin, hurdy gurdy, and flute players (Other band members may double up other various Celtic instruments on their records).  Then you have Sweden's Vintersorg ("Winter Sorrow" in English), who make some of the best and catchiest folk metal I've ever heard and the crazy part? There are only two guys in the band!

I first heard about Vintersorg in a post by the site metalsucks.net on a post titled "Shit that comes out today."  They listed Vintersorg's new album Orkan (Hurricane in English) as one album that came out today.  Now if my memory serves me correctly they said you would find these guys on a playlist that also included bands like Fintroll and Enisferum, so I went and checked them out.  After one listen I kind of turned into the "All the things" meme guy and wanted to DOWNLOAD ALL THE VINTERSORG ALBUMS! With the help of Orkan, Vintersorg quickly became one of my favorite new bands that I discovered this year. 

Now I don't mean new as in "they released their debut album this year", because believe it or not the Vintersorg guys have been making music since 1994 and they released their first album Hedniskhjartad (Paganhead in English) in 1998.  But as in "I had never heard of these guys until this year" kind of new. 

Now you may be wondering what these guys have been doing since 1994? Well they've been busy producing their own unique blend of folk metal and black metal, much like some of the recent Fintroll releases.  Most of the time Vintersorg sings their songs in their native Swedish language, but a few of their albums released in the 2000s, Cosmic Genesis, Visions from the Spiral Generator, and The Focusing Blur, found the band shifting from singing in Swedish about pagan topics, to now singing in English and focusing the topics towards astronomy and cosmology.  In 2007 the band went back to what they do best, which is release their brand of Swedish folk metal with their album Solens Rotter (Roots of the Sun in English) and that is the formula they have stuck with since. 

The two masterminds behind Vintersorg are Andreas Hedlund, aka Mr. Vintersorg, who handles the songwriting process as well as the vocals, some guitars, and keyboards, as well as programming in other instruments they don't play (like drums although they do use session drummers for their live shows, and being a drummer I am ok with this especially because the music is so good!), and Mattias Marklund who also does some guitar work.  These two have crafted some of the catchiest music I have ever heard and their 8th release Orkan is a perfect example of that.  Each song is just as catchy as the one that came before it, with the catchiest being the title track "Orkan."  The songs starts with a majestic piano tune that puts the listener on a ship sailing a vast ocean, and makes them ask the question "what just came on my iPod?" then around 0:27 the rest of the band comes in accompanied by a fierce growl by Hedlund and the listener suddenly answers their own question "Ahh yes, some epic Swedish folk metal", or if you are new to the band the question becomes "ok what the heck just came on my iPod?!"  The song continues with the band alternating between clean and growled vocals accompanied by crunchy guitars and a fitting orchestral background.  Not to mention the hook, which comes in around 1:18, is one of the catchiest hooks I've heard in a song, and I can't understand what they're saying! After one listen it had me chanting the lyrics in Swedish (even though I wasn't sure how to pronounce it, but I did my best).  Its one of those songs that after first listen you sit there for a few seconds, collect yourself, and immediately play it again!

Here is a video for "Orkan" 

Like I said before, the whole album is like this, each song is just as catchy as the one that came before it.  The band alternates between singing clean and using growl vocals as the listener is transported to an epic world accompanied by crunchy guitars and orchestral backgrounds.  

Overall if you are a fan of folk metal and don't mind not being able to understand what the singer is saying (unless of course you speak Swedish).  Then you need to give Vintersorg a listen, their catchy hooks and impressive musicianship and songwriting can appeal to even the casual metal listener.  I highly recommend starting with their new release Orkan.  It's definitely my favorite CD of theirs and is a must have for any fan of folk metal.  

Thanks guys! 

-Zach 

Remember if there is a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review, leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal.