Review: Six Feet Under- Unborn

Hey guys! I'm blogging from my flight back to school.  Stage one is a flight from Miami to Los Angeles and I had to check a homework assignment online but had to pay for an hour of wifi so I figured I'd review another CD.  I am typing this while scrunched in my seat because the guy in front of me decided to lean his seat back and to make matters worse my seat won't lean back.  But I promise my seating situation will not interfere with my review for Six Feet Under's latest release Unborn.

Once again the phrase "better late than never" applies to this review as well.

I will say I am a new fan to Six Feet Under.  I had not listened to them a whole lot before I saw them on Summer Slaughter in 2011.  Their aggressive live show got me hooked, not to mention I almost broke my neck when they played their version of "Hammer Smash Face" so when they released Undead  I went out and bought it.  Undead in all respects was a decent album.  Lead singer Chris Barnes' voice created the perfect haunting atmosphere to accompany the infectious death metal that Six Feet Under cranked out.  But when I saw on twitter that the group was working on a new album my ears perked up. 

On rare occasions do I see artists release albums in back to back years.  I know Korpiklaani did it last year with Manala, but other than that most artists will release an album every two years.  I think the biggest risk with releasing albums in back to back years is will the new album be as good as the one that came before it, or will the album feel rushed and therefore the product will not be as good?

Barnes insured all of his twitter followers that this album would be #Betterthanundead and when the first single "Zombie Blood Curse" was released, it seemed that the new material was living up to Barnes' prediction.  "Zombie Blood Curse" is faster than some of Six Feet Under's more recent songs, but that doesn't make it any less haunting or brutal.  The opening riff is as heavy as it is catchy and will immediately have any listener headbanging along as Barnes takes you on a journey through his sick and twisted mind.  The song does have a slower section in the middle that is signature to the Six Feet Under sound but the song picks right up again.

Unborn starts with the song "Neuro Osmosis" where the listener is lured in by a haunting guitar line, which crescendo's until Barnes leaps from his black abyss and drags you down to the depths of hell.  The song is classic Six Feet Under, its slow, groovy, and as on Undead, Barnes' voice fits the atmosphere of the song perfectly.  But the journey through this dark world has only just begun.

From there the album thunders along, as Barnes leads you through his world of dark fantasy.  All the songs on Unborn have an unmistakable groove.  Its a groove that is very catchy and easy to headbang along to.  The songs are all about mid tempo, which is good for the listener as their necks will be able to last them the whole album. 

As for Barnes' vocal performance, he has never sounded better.  I know his vocal style is not as digestible as some other death metal vocalists.  But on Unborn Barnes has managed to walk the line between how brutal his voice sounds and how easy it is to understand his lyrics with great ease.  Out of all the Six Feet Under I have listened to, Unborn is definitely the easiest to understand him on. 

Overall, Barnes was right when he said that Unborn would be better than Undead.  The songs sound bigger and more intense with out loosing the sound that made Six Feet Under unique in the death metal scene and Barnes' vocals may be easier to understand, but they are just as dark and haunting as ever.  Unborn will please all death metal fans and if you are a death metal fan who is new to Six Feet Under start with Unborn, it is Six Feet Under at their finest. 

Overall Rating: 8/10
Thanks guys!
-Zach

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

Review: Heavatar- Opus 1: All My Kingdoms

Hey guys! I know I have been away from the blog for a while, I just haven't had as much free time as I had hoped this semester and school work has priority over the blog.  But I am on my spring break and going to be doing some much needed blog posts.  I've got three reviews (including this one) and a new artist I want to talk about. 

There is a saying "better late than never" and with that in mind I present my review of Heavatar's debut album Opus 1: All My Kingdoms, enjoy!

 

I have come to learn that whenever I see a video from Napalm Records on my YouTube feed to immediately click on it because chances are its going to be an artist playing some very creative and original music (case and point the video for Russkaja's new song Energia).  Heavatar was no exception.  Born from the mind of Van Canto's Stefan Schmidt, Heavatar proposes a unique concept, writing epic power metal anthems with influences from famous classical compositions. 

Now any experienced metal head (or any who watched the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, and if you haven't seen that movie find a way to watch it right after you finish reading this post!) will know that metal takes influences from classical music.  To name a couple of examples; guitarist Randy Rhodes was said to be a huge fan of classical music, and the famous introduction to the Black Sabbath song "Black Sabbath" is taken right from the Mars movement of Holsts' The Planets.  There is also the example of bands such as The Human Abstract who decided to take Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and do a metal cover of it (all three movements not just the first) and the band Pergamum who's song "Classical Metal X" is a medley of famous classical compositions.

Heavatar takes this one step further and has presented the listener a full album where 8 of the 9 songs on it are influence by classical compositions one way or another.  What was even more helpful was the booklet that came with the album tells you what classical composition the Heavatar song is taking its influence from.

Opus 1: All My Kingdoms starts off with the lead single "Replica" and it was a great song to start off the album with because not only is it an extremely catchy song, but it is the song that best showcases the band's mission.  "Replica" takes its influence from the Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (probably my favorite classical composition).  Heavatar not only takes the main melody as their own, but Stefan wrote lyrics and melody to go along with Bach's original melody.  Now even though the song may borrow Bach's melody at certain times, the song is not entirely Bach's composition played on guitars and with original lyrics sung over it, Heavatar takes Bach's composition and combines it with their own original lyrics and melodies to create power metal that is unlike anything currently slaying dragons in the power metal scene today. 

Not all the songs on All My Kingdoms are as obvious as "Replica" with their classical influences.  The second song, "Abracadabra" takes its guitar solo from one of Paganini's compositions, I would not have known this if it wasn't for a video of Stefan explaining all the tracks on the album.  The fact that Abracadabra's influence is not as obvious as "Replica" (to be fair none of them are as obvious as "Replica") does not take away from the song.  Every time I listen to "Abracadabra" I imagine a huge crowd of people at some big open air festival (Waken maybe?) jumping in unison to the catchy chorus.

Another example of songs not being obvious with their influences is "Elysium at Dawn".  The booklet says that it takes its influence from Beethoven's Fur Elise and I was expecting to hear the familiar melody clearly in the song.  But Heavatar is a kind group and doesn't bludgeon you over the head with the melody, instead they hid it in a melodic passage between verse and chorus.  It took my 5th listen to (I think) to finally find there they had hid it and when I did I felt like the smartest human being alive.  The fact that Heavatar did not make it so obvious adds to the overall character of the song and shows just how original Heavatar is as a band.    

My favorite song on the album though has to be "Long Way Home", although it is one of the slower songs on the album, it is by far the catchiest and the most epic song on All My Kingdoms.  After I had listened to the album a few times I went back and watched Stefan talking about the album again.  He said that on this song he enlisted the help of some of his fellow Van Cantians (?) to sing the chorus.  The result is amazing and inspirational.  The huge choir sound Heavatar creates invokes the image of a soldier on a long journey eagerly wanting to return home as he ventures through the dense wilderness of the Heavatar fantasy land (it is also a great song to listen to on a long plane ride if you are coming home for a break).  After one play through of "Long Way Home" the listener will immediately hit replay again and start singing along with the chorus every time it comes around.

The only song on All My Kingdoms that does not take influence from a classical piece is the last one "To the Metal".  In his video description, Stefan did not say anything about this song because he wanted it to be a suprise but in essence what it is is a song about being a metal head and it pays tribute to all the bands who have influenced Stefan as a musician.  I will admit this song did take me a while to get used to, but after a few listens I can honestly say that I really like this song.  Anyone who is a metal head can identify with some of the things Stefan is singing about.  For me it was when he talked about people telling him to stop listening to metal because it may be childish or immature, but Stefan didn't care, he likes the metal and nothing was going to stop him from listening to it.  That is the way I feel about metal music as well, it will be with me for as long as I live.

Overall Opus 1: All My Kingdoms is a treat.  The songs are as catchy and epic as the one that came before it and I can honestly say that there is not a bad song on the album.  Although some of the songs are not as obvious as to their classical influences, the songs are all unique and will satisfy listeners to no end.  All My Kingdoms will have listeners constantly hitting the replay button or queuing up their favorite tracks from the album to listen to again and again.  Its an album that has staying power and one that fans will be coming back to for a long time.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Thanks guys!
-Zach

Don't forget if there is an album you want me to review or an artist you want me to talk about leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal.