Gloryhammer - Tales From The Kingdom Of Fife

Symphonic Power Metal
Napalm Records

2013

1. Anstruther's Dark Prophecy
2. The Unicorn Invasion Of Dundee
3. Angus McFife
4. Quest For The Hammer Of Glory
5. Magic Dragon
6. Silent Tears Of The Frozen Princess
7. Amulet Of Justice
8. Hail To Crail
9. Beneath Cowdenbeath
10. The Epic Rage Of Furious Thunder

Gloryhammer's debut is one I've been looking forward to since I heard it was coming around. Christopher Bowes of Alestorm starting an over the top symphonic power metal band seemed like a natural fit. Going from pirates and folk to symphonics, dragons, and wizards seemed just about right somehow. The guy knows how to make things epic and fun. Hearing the single Angus McFife only got me more excited for the album.

After listening to this I can say Tales From The Kingdom Of Fife is pretty much just what I expected. That is to say cheesy and fantastic. Gloryhammer basically just indulges in fully nerding out on D&D metal and it completely works. Calling this a spoof would be a mistake though as it's more like a tribute that takes stereotypes and revels in them. Gloryhammer does not shy away from what they are. The band just has total fun with all the things that are in fact really fun about this kind of power metal. This sounds epic and glorious as hell and the songs stick with you. It's hard not to like something with this much energy and catchiness. Soundwise this is an album powered by keyboards and symphonics in a way that only tends to come around when a keyboardist starts a band. As far as the vocals go, Thomas Winkler has a voice that soars with just enough muscle to have that perfect "warrior" sound. Think of this band as somewhere between Rhapsody and Manowar with a bit of Tad Morose/Urban Breed vocally and the fun of Alestorm.

Fun is the key word here so think of the whimsical yet powerful take that Alestorm brings to the table and apply the same sort of results to Gloryhammer. I just love what the band is doing here really. I would completely recommend this to those who love epic power metal like I do. This is one nicely done debut with a vision for the band.

Highlights: Angus McFife, Magic Dragon, Quest For The Hammer Of Glory, Hail To Crail

Rating - 4.0/5

Geoff Tate's Queensryche - Frequency Unknown

Alternative Rock/Metal
Deadline
2013

1. Cold
2. Dare
3. Give It To You
4. Slave
5. in The Hands Of God
6. Running Backwards
7. Life Without You
8. Everything
9. Fallen
10. The Weight Of The World

I'm gonna come right out and say I went into listening to this album with basically no hope for anything good. There's no use in denying it. I absolutely hate Geoff Tate and every time he opens his mouth for an interview I wish I was there to punch him in the face. If there has ever been a frontman who was a cancer to a band than it is this guy. From the classic "I'm really not a metal guy, I like jazz." quotes to the direction he led the band and the way he treated the other members to cabaret shows this guy is a disease. I really try my best to give every album it's fair listen(s) and I did that here, but it would be a lie to say I didn't go into this expecting crap. Perhaps the only reason I listened to Frequency Unknown is because of all the drama and hilarity surrounding the two camps using the Queensryche name. That has been some quality entertainment and I had to hear the end result from Geoff. Note that I will not be basing this review on the bonus tracks that are redos of old material. Frankly, I don't think an album should be weighed on any past glories.

I guess the first thing that struck me as soon as the music started was the terrible sound. The mix on this just sounds muffled and amateur. I know there are plans to remix this and re-release this, which was demanded by fans in hilarious fashion, but for now I'm going off of what I hear and it sounds pretty bad. Then again as I got deeper into the album I really didn't see what good polishing a turd would do anyways.

Musically, this pretty much reminds me of Geoff Tate's solo stuff because that is what it is. This is his vision of the band and most Queensryche fans know what that means... Alternative rock terribleness. On Frequency Unknown any metal influence the other band members kept in the band despite the douche in chief is pretty much gone and replaced by hired gun yes men. While this influence being gone from the rest of Queensryche is certainly a good thing, letting this dog off it's leash completely has lead to this musical horror that is even worse than even I could have expected. This seriously might even be bad in terms of his solo offerings though at that point it's like comparing diarrhea from different spoiled foods. If you can listen to the alternative/funk nonsense in Dare and not vomit than you sir are a stronger man than I. By the time I hit this, the second track, I was questioning why I do things like this to myself. And it only gets worse.

You'd think since Geoff is basically just trying to make money off the Queensryche name at this point this would at least keep a pretense of metal, but then again I'm not sure Geoff has ever really known anything about metal. I also don't think Tate would ever back off his ego enough to realize the direction he was taking Queensryche in was not working with the fans who actually buy/have bought his music. I guess Slave is about what someone like Mr. Leather-Vest-Hipster thinks metal is though. It's sorta heavy I guess in a modern and discordant way, but really it resembles awful grunge more than anything metal. That's basically what this is... someone who's a self professed metal outsider trying to figure out what metal is. And for help the guy has writing input from Jason Slater, a producer and musician involved with such awesome music as Snake River Conspiracy, Earshot, and Slaves On Dope. He did produce some of the Queensryche stuff as well, but that just goes further to show Geoff Tate left the band and took everything terrible associated with later Queensryche with him. Let me not forget to mention that Lukas Rossi, the guy who won the reality tv nonsense of Rockstar Supernova, also contributed to the songwriting. Are you scared yet? You should be.

I feel like I've already spent more time writing about this album than it deserves so I'm not going to indulge in total track by track or any of that. I'll basically just say that it gets no better. Geoff Tate mewls lifelessly over poorly constructed, poorly mixed, mid to low tempo, alt rock garbage for what seems like forever and then you get some bonus tracks to remind you of what Queensryche really is/was. Don't expect any big epic screams, emotional power, or anything of that sort and certainly don't think for a second you're going to get the progressive metal of Queensryche's glory days. This album can only be loosely connected to metal in the way that Geoff once fronted a big name metal band. He has never been the soul of Queensryche though. Really his only use to Queesryche was his voice and that has faded with time. All you're left with here is the terrible influence Geoff had on Queensryche unfiltered.

There really is no reason to waste your time with this barring curiosity Remember though that curiosity killed the cat and killing a cat is exactly what this album sounds like. I had to suffer through this, but maybe you can still be saved. An F U right back at ya Geoff Tate. I know I've probably spent a bunch of this review just ripping into Geoff Tate but he deserves it. He deserves it ever so much.

Highlights: Just no

Rating - 0/5

Amorphis - Circle

Gothic/Melodic/Folk Metal
Nuclear Blast

2013

1. Shades Of Gray
2. Mission
3. The Wanderer
4. Narrow Path
5. Hopeless Days
6. Nightbird's Song
7. Into The Abyss
8. Enchanted By The Moon
9. A New Day

Going into this new Amorphis album I was fully expecting good things, but wondered if I'd be getting great ones. To this point, since the vocalist change to Tomi Joutsen, everything has been at least good and that is not a small accomplishment. Losing a vocalist and recovering is always a challenge and the band has done a good job in moving forward. Credit where credit is due. That being said, I did not like The Beginning Of Times as much as Skyforger and it hasn't really stuck with me. I guess it just didn't have those big highlights like Skyforger or Eclipse that made me want to go back again and again. That being said, Silent Waters was similar so the band has alternated between good and great albums since the change.

Well, after listening to Circle I'd say this falls just a little short of what the band is capable of again. Maybe things have just gotten a bit static and predictable for a band who basically based their identity on being shapeshifting. What Circle brings to the table is a somewhat familiar formula at this point of melodic, gothic music and deep vocals mixed with earlier death metal vocals and influences  The songs are competent, flowing, and enjoyable, but don't really break the established molds to stand out strongly on their own. I don't want this review to come across as all negative because the band sounds good and there's never a time I don't like this album. I just feel like the songs could be a bit more adventurous and like this is lacking those songs that Really grab your attention with something unique.

The best tracks of this album comes when the folk influence the band has incorporated at times takes center stage. Narrow Path and Mission are good examples of this and they do have nice energy and melodies. Even these are relatively predictable though and blend together just a little too much. Certainly, the folk melodies they bring in are nothing new to metal. Basically, this album just lacks a Two Moons, House of Sleep, Silver Bride, Sky Is Mine, or even a Silent Waters to get me really excited.

Overall, I like this and the band does well with their sound. I'm looking for the next level though and Circle doesn't quite give it to me. This is just a little too safe to get me really excited and put this in the running among the top albums of the year.

Highlights: Narrow Path, Mission, The Wanderer

Rating - 3.5/5

Circle II Circle - Seasons Will Fall

Power/Prog
earMUSIC

2013

1. Diamond Blade
2. Without A Sound
3. Killing Death
4. Epiphany
5. End Of Emotion
6. Dreams That Never Die
7. Seasons Will Fall
8. Never Gonna Stop
9. Isolation
10. Sweet Despair
11. Downshot
12. Only Yesterday

It's been awhile since I've listened to a Circle II Circle album so you can't really count me as much of a fan. The last album I reviewed from them was Middle Of Nowhere in 2005. I remember thinking they were OK, but I was never very interested. The band just didn't have that certain extra something to me. Competent, but the songs never quite grabbed me. Really, the main draw/claim to fame this band has is Zak Stevens and I was never much of a fan of later Savatage either. This is more the sort of album I go into hoping to be pleasently surprised by than one I was expecting a lot of.

Listening to Seasons Will Fall, nothing really surprised me much. This sounds like melodic rock with a bit more heaviness and the song structures are pretty familiar. Nothing here sounds bad and the band's sound isn't bad, but there's not a lot to distinguish Circle II Circle from the pack of bands who draw on melodic rock/AOR influences. I can't help but also think the vocals are a bit overly melodramatic as Zak Stevens trys to pump more feeling into the songs than they actually have/warrant. That really about sums up this album and band for me. Melodic and easy to listen to (maybe a little too easy/unchallenging) with a pretty good, but sometimes flamboyant vocal presence.

Seasons Will Fall feels like the sort of album I could listen to and not feel like I have to turn it off, but it's also the sort of album I couldn't see myself choosing out of all the metal out there. Not exactly a rave review, but basically they don't suck. This might be worth it for fans of melodic rock/metal and probably worth it for Zak Stevens fans, but in the grand scheme? Barely a blip on the metal radar for me. My opinion of Circle II circle remains more or less unchanged.

Highlights: End Of Emotion, Epiphany

Rating - 2.5/5

Cathedral - The Last Spire

Doom Metal
Rise Above

2013

1. Entrance To Hell
2. Pallbearer
3. Cathedral Of The Damned
4. Tower Of Silence
5. Infestation Of Grey Death
6. An Observation
7. The Last Laugh
8. This Body, Thy Tomb

Well, here it is, Cathedral's last album. It's always sad to see a band I've liked over the years coming to an end, but I had some mixed feelings going into this one. I really did not like their last double album, The Guessing Game at all and it left me with serious questions about if the band had another album in them. Sometimes bands decide to hang it up a wee bit too late and this seemed like it could be the case here. I guess all good things must come to an end. It's just a matter of if it would be on Cathedral's terms or if the decision was kind of made for them.

I think the best I can say after listening to The Last Spire is I can see what they were going for and it's better than The Guessing Game. What The Last Spire seems to try to do is get back to the band's more doomy roots. This is an album loaded with long tracks and moves along at a funeral doom sort of pace. I get it and the sound/atmosphere of the album isn't bad.

The trudging nature of this album is so total though that often The Last Spire seems like it would make better background/soundtrack material than an album. All the tracks seem sort of subdued and perhaps too mired in their own atmosphere. Things just try too hard to be Dooooooom and the band seems to kinda forget who they are and have been since like their second album.

I just don't hear a lot of good grooves or creativity in these songs. The thing that made songs from their early catalogue like Ride or Enter The Worms good for me is the driving groove behind the songs that worshiped at the altar of Sabbath and the like. That is the kind of material I would have liked Cathedral to get back to and go out on. This simply put doesn't have it and pretty much all the songs drag on for what seems like forever. Songs fail to distinguish themselves from each other for me and I feel like these tracks are bloated just for the sake of appearing more traditional. Add in an intro that just keeps saying "bring out your dead" over and over and over again and a random bit of laughing on track 7 and you just have a whole lot of time that feels wasted.

Basically, what you end up with here is competent, slow and long doom songs that sound pretty good, but overstay their welcome and never have that riff that hits it home or that sort of evil creeping feel that a song like Enter The Worms brought to the table. I know I've mentioned that song already, but really if the band wanted to get back to a more doomy, not quite as stoner-ish sound than The Ethereal Mirror would be the bar to measure this album against for me. This simply put doesn't reach that sort of quality. This is an ok album overall, but one lacking in Great highlights and these tracks all feel bloated/flawed. Decent by funeral doom standards, not great by early Cathedral ones. I'll always have a place in my listening for Cathedral and they've made some great albums, but the band is done and it's probably good they agree. I'd say they probably should've went out on a high note with The Garden Of Unearthly Delights.

Highlights: There are good moments in the tracks, but all of them seem a bit flawed. Mostly in their length.

Rating - 3.0/5

Avantasia - The Mystery Of Time

Symphonic Power Metal
Nuclear Blast

2013

1. Spectres
2. The Watchmaker's Dream
3. Black Orchid
4. Where Clock Hands Freeze
5. Sleepwalking
6. Savior in The Clockwork
7. Invoke The Machine
8. What's Left Of Me
9. Dweller In A Dream
10. The Great Mystery

I'll be honest, I have no idea what to make of Avantasia or Tobias Sammet at this point. Certainly, I've enjoyed Tobias in the past as the frontman of both Avantasia and Edguy, but the recent output of both bands has been anything but consistent. Avantasia's The Scarecrow turned the band away from symphonic power and had some downright shitty pop songs on it. Then you have Edguy who has been putting out mediocre albums ever since Rocket Ride in this reviewer's opinion. It's true that as recent as The Wicked Symphony and Angel Of Babylon that Avantasia has been very good, but I'm just not ready to forget that a large part of Tobias' recent output has been mediocre to bad. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me like 5 times (Rocket Ride, Tinnitus Sanctus, Age Of The Joker, The Scarecrow) and well... shame on me. I've gotta go in with some skepticism here.

Listening to The Mystery Of Time it is better than I could bring myself to hope it could be. This is more symphonic album for sure and the orchestral instrumentation lets itself be known immediatly, not content to just be a background element. I find it to be a really nice touch and I like that the album is willing to revisit the roots of the project a bit. This isn't as straight up speedy symphonic power as the first couple releases, but it is powerful in a more melodic and subtle way. Basically, this album tends to sound more dramatic than bombastic. Not a bad approach at all, and I find the sound here totally enjoyable. Really, this seems like a good approach to both make something that sounds fresh and to deliver some storytelling through music. I wouldn't go into this expecting something totally heavy, but if you like that sort of broadway theatrical feel than this has a very cool sound and there is enough heaviness to satisfy me. Basically, this manages to have a lot of feeling and some softer moments without sounding as poppy as some of the tracks on The Scarecrow. All around the approach is just way better.

It's true the lead single Sleepwalking is kind of poppy and Tobias has said as much himself, but I'd consider it more of a ballad and not really that much poppier than some other power ballads. I question the wisdom in making it the lead single, but it's not a bad song. Some ballad moments are acceptable to me in the right context and if they have some power to them. That one does and so do the other ballad moments like in What's Left Of Me.

All in all, on The Mystery Of Time Tobias seems to really be onto something in terms of the sound/style. This album seems to have found a good delivery method for Tobias and I like that this feels happy and majestic. It actually takes me back to what I liked about early Edguy though this is not exactly the same sound. What The Mystery Of Time is is some very engaging music that keeps my attention with good melodies.

Also worth noting is that the vocal performances are better than I necessarily expected them to be. I don't think The Mystery Of Time has quite the vocal power of amazing talents like David Defeis and Sharon Den Adel for instance, but Kiske and Joe Lynn Turner do a pretty admirable job here and they suit the music this album delivers. I also totally dig the inclusion of Biff Byford on anything. He's an unusual choice and maybe not the most dynamic singer the band has ever seen, but he does bring a lot of personality and presence to the songs hes a part of. Ronnie Atkins' contribution on Invoke The Machine is also nice as his slightly rougher voice adds an element of heaviness to that track.

In conclusion, there is a lot to like about this memorable and powerful album. Easily digested, but not easily forgotten. I'd certainly recommend this to Avantasia fans and really any power metal fan. The Mystery Of Time is a unique and well put together album that I think will have a good deal of staying power. There are a lot of great songs here and picking highlights was extremely difficult. I just like the album more every time I listen to it. Credit where credit is due... Tobias can really make some great music when he has a vision and that's what this is. An epic one. This is a very good year for happy power metal already.

Highlights: Black Orchid, Invoke The Machine, The Watchmaker's Dream, Savior In The Clockwork, Dweller In A Dream

Rating - 4.5/5

State o the blog

Hey folks,

Just thought I'd drop a quick note here. I know the site has been a wee bit slow. Honestly, I haven't heard that many new releases that have interested me enough to write anything about it. Not a lot of names I'm interested or good sounding new bands have been coming my way lately. Pretty slow beginning of the year. If anyone has any particular interest in hearing a review on something new, let me know. I know the Circle II Circle was mentioned and that will be in the next update. I just usually do them in batches and right now I have nothing else of interest. Feel free to comment.

I will likely be doing an update this weekend updating the featured band and poll. If there's anything particular you'd like to see on the poll, let me know. A band has already requested the featured spot. Been a little stretched on time as well so I've been lagging a bit on that. Oh well. I pretty much made a deal with myself this new site would be on my time and it is a spare time activity. Hope you enjoy reading at any rate. Look for an update soon.