Pantera: Vulgar Display Of Power

Year released: 1992

Label: Atco Records

Official Website: www.pantera.com

Tracks:

1. Mouth For War [3:57]

2. A New Level [3:58]

3. Walk [5:15]

4. Fucking Hostile [2:49]

5. This Love [6:33]

6. Rise [4:36]

7. No Good (Attack The Radical) [4:50]

8. Live In A Hole [5:00]

9. Regular People (Conceit) [5:27]

10. By Demons Be Driven [4:41]

11. Hollow [5:49]

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RAWRRR!! LET'S GO OUT THERE AND HAVE A BRAWL!!! ... ... is probably what you would be thinking once you are through with this awesome classic of an album.

Yes, Pantera may have already disbanded, and have had experienced a tragedy or two, but luckily for them (and us), their music still lives on. This is one of those records that ruled then, and when you happen to stumble across it sometime in the future in your CD library or at a local CD store, you would pop it into the player and go, “Wow, their music still rules!”.

Vulgar Display Of Power was this American groove metal band's 2^nd studio album, and it sure is heavy as f**k. (Sorry, that was the only word I could find to describe it :-)

Take a listen!: The heavy, yet melodic style of Pantera

Starting off by exploding into your face with the angsty “Mouth For War”, Vulgar Display Of Power grips you throughout the entire album with thorned, sonic tendrils that just refuse to allow you to pop the CD out of your player. With Pantera's signature whining guitar melodies, rap-roars of vocalist Phil Anselmo, and the heavy yet dissonantly melodic guitar riffs that punctuate every minute of their songs, this album (and largely due to Pantera's own comments) was said to have spawned the sub-genre known as groove metal. This amazing piece of work even recently attained double platinum status in 2004, and although that might in part be contributed to the band unfortunately disbanding in that same year (Tsk tsk, the practicality of CD collectors), one cannot deny that this is indeed a good album. Taking your first stroll through this angsty album, one quickly realises that this is not a walk in the park. To pop and rock fans, it would most probably be like walking fearfully through a noisy and anarchic complex teeming with sweaty, uncouth people. To metalheads however, it would be like being one of those sweaty, uncouth people. On your second stroll, it no longer becomes a stroll, it turns into a brisk walk edging close towards a fast run. The album just simple hooks you onto it from the 2^nd listen onwards. On your third stroll, it has irrevocably turned into a full sprint. Switch off the computer! Throw that textbook to one side! It's time to stay in bed the whole day and rock out to a Vulgar Display Of Power!

The legendary indie quartet: From left to right – Vinnie Paul (Drums), Phil Anselmo (Vocals), Rex “Rexx Rocker” Brown (Bass Guitar), Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott (Guitar)

Surprisingly though, the album ends off with a track that is rather toned down and mellow, in comparison with the first track that is. “Hollow” showcases how the band can be musically profound people, as it is a track that simply do not bear any resemblance to the other earlier tracks. Similar to “Cemetary Gates” from Pantera's largely successful debut album, Cowboys From Hell, the track sighs incessantly in the world-weary voice of the guitar for a large part of the song, and even Phil's voice has a tinge of sadness and regret to it, which is hardly imaginable to anyone who are still on the previous tracks.

Hm, I would like to think of this as an example of how American metal bands are actually made up of thinking and feeling people too, for they are most definitely not the mindless, violent, occultic baffoons standard stereotypes make them out to be.

Oh yes, one last thing.

Fans of Japanese animations who are new to Pantera, the band, might find the name familiar. Yes, although this band shares the same name with a particular character from a particularly popular Japanese animation series, I would dare say this album of theirs is so oppugnant that they would easily win a fight with that character.

Long live metal!

(P.S. And get this album too!)

Verdict: 8.4 / 10

Iron Maiden: A Matter Of Life And Death

Genre: Heavy Metal
Year released: 2006
Label: EMI
Official Website: www.ironmaiden.com

Tracks:

1. Different World [4:19]

2. These Colours Don't Run [6:52]

3. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns [8:46]

4. The Pilgrim [5:08]

5. The Longest Day [7:48]

6. Out Of The Shadows [5:37]

7. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg [7:22]

8. For The Greater Good Of God [9:25]

9. Lord Of Light [7:25]

10. The Legacy [9:23]

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One of the biggest metal giants on Earth, Iron Maiden, may perhaps remain the spiritual leader of NWOBHM (Short for New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) for as long as they shall roam the planet. Specifically looking at their influence on the mainstream metal scene however, this metal beast's days may be numbered.

Much as yours Truly revere non-mainstream metal over mainstream metal, I have no choice but to put up with such unimpressive mainstream albums once in a while, don't I? (Ah, the practicality of unknown music reviewers). Now, I've really got to get this out of my system: Just what's up with this hype over long and draggy albums?! For over the past half year, I have been seeing looooooooong mainstream metal albums frequently, and 99% of the time, they are from a well-known band hailing from the antediluvian '70s and '80s. Not that this album belongs to that category, I mean it was released 2 years ago! But still, it is one of the more recent metal albums by a famed metal artiste, out there sitting in stacks at mainstream CD stores. In fact, this is the first Iron Maiden album to clock over one hour of album track time.

Alright, I shall continue my complaints in the later part of review. For now, the good news first. (If I don't do this, none of you valuable readers would probably even bother to read this in the first place :-) )

Now, Iron Maiden makes music that is very friendly on the casual listener's ear, and for those of you who want to convert your rockish and poppish friends over to the Metal Side, they would be the perfect metal band to start with (Though better don't try this on Grandpa or Grandma, ABBA will forever be in their hearts). As usual, this most recent album by them has that trademark high-pitched voice of Bruce Dickinson, the polymath of a vocalist of Iron Maiden since the '80s. There is not much musical intricacy as usual on their songs, they are one of those bands who put more focus on the vocals and the draggy guitar solos. However, being an album with a theme on war, it is a rather appropriate tone to adopt I presume. The songs crawl by with a calmness not really befitting of metal, and occasionally ignites musical interest with a few catchy guitar melodies in some songs, one of which being “These Colours Don't Run” which also happens to be my personal favourite track from A Matter Of Life And Death. If you are one of those metalheads looking for energy everytime you listen to metal, this is not the album for you, or in fact, the artiste for you for that matter as well. A Matter Of Life And Death is the kind of metal album that is surprisingly soothing and pleasing to hear, unlike the aggressive, dark, and raunchy metal albums that dominate the American metal scene today. Maybe it is because Iron Maiden tries to spread a new message with every new album released, but if you are someone who likes to find meaning in songs, this might be the album for you.

Iron Men: From left to right – Adrian Smith (Guitar), Janick Gers (Guitar), Nicko McBrain (Drums), Bruce Dickinson (Vocalist), Steve Harris (Bassist), Dave Murray (Lead Guitar)

With that, I shall move on to the bad news. Now, going back to the point about the draggy guitar solos, they are nothing short of old and boring. Iron Maiden should take a leaf out of the book of younger metal bands such as Children Of Bodom and Between The Buried And Me; include more musically profound and fresh instrumentals dammit! Of course, they would have to do that while retaining their original flavour so as to ensure a stable fan base of course. Not only is this album extremely long, it is frustrating to plod through the typically 6 minutes-and-over songs that seems to recycle guitar riffs and solos from the previous tracks. In fact, if you happen to listen to this album in a rather bad and picky mood, don't blame yourself if you give in to temptation and recycle the songs themselves in the Pit 'O Fire for songs. [Read: Recycle Bin]

In the early part of this album, it sounded good. It was engaging up until the 4th track, “The Pilgrim”. Starting from the 5th track onwards, it went downhill, and the initiating track for this downslope ride was aptly named as well, being “The Longest Day”. As mentioned in one of my earlier reviews on this site, no one is complaining about long albums. Let's face it, us poor folks want value for our money! But, like I have said before, if you want listeners to listen beyond the 3-minute mark, you have to give them incentive to want to continue listening to your songs. Maybe it is because I was not born early enough to appreciate the style of old metal bands, and maybe it is because I am more of a non-mainstream metal fan, but even then, it is an undeniable fact that musicians want to be heard. Therefore Iron Maiden, if you want to continue expanding your fan base, especially with new-age non-mainstream advocates such as yours Truly, I strongly and humbly advise you to move with the times and make more fresh, inspiring, and truly breath-taking metal songs that will capture an audience on the second or third listen, or in the best-case scenario, perhaps even during the first listen.

Iron Maiden - These Colours Don't Run (the only song that caught my attention)


Iron Maiden - Different World

Even as I am speaking [or typing] now, A Matter Of Life And Death is still on the last few minutes of “Lord Of Light”. I am someone who typically takes great care in sculpting a good read, and needless to say, I take a significant amount of time to accomplish that. Rather than trying to describe the extent of the lengthiness in lengthy sentences, I have decided to let you be the judge and decide from that example, whether or not it is really good for an album to be that lengthy while not being very engaging.

All in all, if you are a hardcore Iron Maiden fan, you should not pass up on this album. If you are someone constantly looking for fresh metal music however, this is a mediocre album that should only be worth your attention when you have exhausted all possible alternative metal options and have spare cash left.

Metal music may be timeless, but the musicians associated with them are not. There is definitely a clear line between having had made classics and making classics.


Verdict: 6.5 / 10

AC/DC: Black Ice

Year released: 2008
Label: Columbia
Official Website: www.acdc.com

Tracks:

1. Rock 'N Roll Train [4:22]

2. Skies On Fire [3:34]

3. Big Jack [3:57]

4. Anything Goes [3:22]

5. War Machine [3:10]

6. Smash 'N Grab [4:06]

7. Spoilin' For A Fight [3:17]

8. Wheels [3:29]

9. Decibel [3:34]

10. Stormy May Day [3:10]

11. She Likes Rock 'N Roll [3:53]

12. Money Made [4:16]

13. Rock 'N Roll Dream [4:41]

14. Rocking All The Way [3:23]

15. Black Ice [3:25]

_________________________________________________________________________

Everyone's favourite Aussie Hard Rock/Heavy Metal (whichever one you please, really) is back in Black Ice, and this time, they seem to be following the latest trend among bands hailing from the '70s and '80s; that of having a rather lengthy album track time. Not that anyone is complaining about that (*grins*).

First impressions: They are as classic as ever, sticking to their old style faithfully. As old fans might have already noticed by looking at the track names, they are still as obsessed as ever with rock 'n roll. Notice how many times that ubiquitous music term appeared up there in that track list? Yeah, rest assured, that is how much these guys love their style, and they ain't changing their sound just yet. This is a plus point for them actually, because the only way for most old bands to survive now is to stick to their original sound (P.S. Look at Death Magnetic). Speaking of sound, AC/DC strikes me as a hard rock variation of Rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, and pop punk band Hawthorne Heights. All three of them have something in common, and whether this is good or not, I leave it up to you. Notice how all of them have songs that sound so similar to one another, apart from a few exceptions, that you cannot tell whether the CD has gone on to the next track? Yeah, that is their kind of sound, and I mean every alphabet of it.

Whenever you hear a Red Hot Chili Peppers song, you know it is a Red Hot Chili Peppers song; you just can't seem to name it. Similarly, whenever you hear an AC/DC song, you know it is an AC/DC song, but you have trouble naming it as well. It is thanks to that trademark whiny-and-high-pitched-yet-rock-n-rollish vocals, that we have yet another decent rock 'n roll album today. Seriously speaking, if there were three words to describe this album, it would just be “rock 'n roll”. After immersing myself in Black Ice, I cannot help but resemble the band members themselves when they were naming the songs.

If there was anything good about aging, this is probably it. AC/DC shows us that having an expanding sea of white hair, flabby forearms, and an exponential jump in the number of wrinkles caressing the aged skin are no obstacles in their tenacious quest to continue reminding the world of the existence of their unique brand of hard rock. Rocked their way to dizzying heights of stardom back then, still rocking their way to even dizzier heights of stardom today. Black Ice certainly entombs the undying passion and earnestness of AC/DC's music, for it is stellar but slowly dying with the times.

Take a listen!: A potential single that isn't a single yet, and was also the theme song for the Marvel comic superhero "War Machine" from the 2010 film, "Iron Man 2".

You have probably heard that AC/DC was the epitome of “old school rock”, and with this fifteenth album of theirs, they are still “old school rock” even though we are already well into the 21st century. There are many other newer rock 'n roll bands out there today, ala the Finnish hybrid band, Lordi, and others with a unique brand of rock 'n roll themselves such as Bon Jovi. However, AC/DC will still dominate the old school rock 'n roll scene, for their music just strikes a nostalgic chord deep within those who have lived through the 1980's, and tugs at the heartstrings of new listeners with a déjà vu-like feel. Being the longest AC/DC album to date, Black Ice is definitely worth every dollar if you are a hardcore “old school rock” fan, or a rock 'n roll fan looking to turn back music time by a few decades. With lively & upbeat guitar riffs, coupled with rhythmically-simple & thudding drum beats, what is best about this album is that AC/DC does not lose their rock 'n roll energy along the way. Many a times, bands who write many songs at one go tend to lose themselves along the way, and they always end up having a lackluster closure to a potentially great album. Being a rock 'n roll band, starting and ending rock 'n roll style is perfect for any AC/DC album, as the genre is certainly only worthy of being defined by none other than itself.

Electrifying old geezers: From left to right - Brian Johnson (Vocalist), Malcolm Young (Rhythm Guitar), Cliff Williams (Bass Guitar), Angus Young (Lead Guitar), Phil Rudd (Drums)


Overall, Black Ice is a firm, down-to-earth retro album that will certainly appeal to the masses belonging to the young and middle-aged working class group. Teenage Hard Rock fans would generally like it as well, as every AC/DC album more or less oozes the band's signature style, albeit in a nuanced way as each year flies by. C'mon, even legends of rock 'n roll are not impervious to the cruel stream of time that marches ever onwards without batting an eyelid over the glorious past. It is however, amazing how older music tend to outlast their younger counterparts of the 21st century. AC/DC can certainly be a band you can trust on to fall back to should you get tired of ephemeral modern rock hits.

As their name implies, AC/DC never fails to electrify.


Above: A train's ticket that is worth dying for, and the very first single off "Black Ice".


Verdict: 8.8 / 10

Song of The Week: the GazettE - Reila

Though the GazettE has been labeled as nu metal or alternative metal occasionally, you can probably recognise straight off that its a japanese visual kei band. In any case, zetalambmary is a metal (and rock) music review blog so it works anyway.

A song from their maxi-single released in 2005, the first impression Reila gives, especially in the first 35 seconds or so before the vocalist begins to sing, is most probably derived from the simple yet beautiful piano part as well as the interesting combination of using an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar in tandem. This pretty much shows the level of musicianship this band is capable of. Aoi is my favourite member of the band (lets face it, us metalheads always eyeball the guitarists more, and this guy just sways like a grass caught in a hurricane during his guitar-playing XD) and the fact that his acoustic playing can strike up a good rhythm with Uruha throughout the song comes to me as a pleasant surprise. There's no 'boardist in the line-up, and I reckon keyboards are rarely used in the GazettE's songs, but while whoever tickled the ivories ain't no Janne Wirman, its inclusion is a really good idea and totally helps add to the atmosphere of the song.

Ruki's vocals shows little power in this song, but expresses truckloads of emotion, and there's this slight tremolo to his voice that just makes you fondly catch onto his words. Nothing else in this song, save the mournfully slow guitar solo at 3.15, can possibly express the whole feeling of melancholy and strong emotion more than his singing.

This song is amazingly clear, every individual instrument, even Reita's bass guitar, can be distinguished. In fact the weakest link seems to be Kai's drumming, which seems rather soft than most, but its not exactly a bad thing. Gawdknows a sad song like this doesn't need a million decibels worth of blast beats tearing it up.

Listen to Reila, the 7 plus minutes pretty much flies by. Get sad. Cry. Or you can just sway with Aoi. Watch the youtube vid below and you'll see what I mean =P. Its english subbed as well, in case you feel like knowing what Ruki's singing and don't happen to know a shred of japanese.

<

I know this site's not meant to be personal, but this is dedicated to the one who sent me this song. Because I don't know what to leave her before my imminent departure. I don't know if she'll approve of this, there are a lot of things I don't know. But I'm leaving, and now I just wish to know that she knows I want her to live well.

Dark Tranquility: Fiction

April 24 2007
Century Media

Tracks:

1. Nothing to No One [4:10]

2. The Lesser Faith [4:37]

3. Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive) [4:24]

4. Blind at Heart [4:21]

5. Icipher [4:39]

6. Inside the Particle Storm [5:29]

7. Empty Me [4:59]

8. Misery's Crown [4:14]

9. Focus Shift [3:36]

10. The Mundane and the Magic [5:17]

Pioneers of melodic death metal from the legendary Swedish Gothenburg metal scene, Dark Tranquility has had an illustrious 18 year career thus far. Throughout the years, they hold a mark of high musical integrity, producing music of consistent high proficiency and with a few line-up changes. Their latest album released in 2007, Fiction, does not deviate much from their established pathos. Production remains excellent, Mikael Stanne still manages to growl in a powerful and yet emotional manner, the lyrics continue to be versatile and artistically tasteful and the album generally abides by the formula of Gothenburg melodic death accompanied by lots of keyboard melodies. In fact, the only points of contention lies in what might or might not be the over-use of keyboards, as well as Stanne's decision to include clean vocals for the first time since Projector in 1999.

Unlike some people, I personally have no problems with the use of keyboards. They add a more melodic element and can improve the atmosphere of a song. Moreover, Dark Tranquility's 'electronics' man Martin Brändström can really pull it off, songs like Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive) and Empty Me have hauntingly beautiful parts. The problem thus to me, doesn't seem to be that keyboards are too prevalent, but the lack of presence in the guitars section. A comparative absence of frequent solos caused the keyboards to be pushed to the forefront, where it appears to take up melodic duties while Niklas Sundin and Martin Henriksson starts covering the background tones instead and only coming into the spotlight with occasional riffs which were mostly too short to give the listener much pleasure. Had more focus been placed on the guitars, the album would have been vastly better and more befitting of its genre.

As to the clean singing, Stanne sings pretty nicely in a rugged forlorn way and I have no objection to including some of that here and there. In fact, I rather enjoyed Misery's Crown for his singing out soulful lyrics for a change. Strange as it is for female clean vocals (in this case Nell Sigland from Theatre of Tragedy) to be included in a Dark Tranquility album, I felt the Mundane and the Magic wasn't all that bad either, albeit a little slow and simplistic on its melody.

Overall, despite the criticism, Fiction is a solid album with good quality, just perhaps not up to the standard of the longest standing band in the Gothenburg metal scene. New listeners of Dark Tranquility might do better with some of their previous albums, such as Damage Done and Character and understand with greater clarity the contributions made to melodic death metal by this band.

Verdict: 3.5/5

(photos from darktranquility.com)

Genre Seeker: Introducing... Mathcore.

Protest The Hero: Sequioa Throne


Between The Buried And Me: Alaska


Mathcore, is a variation of metalcore, which is itself, also a variation of metal. This genre's music is typically rhythmically complex, with no set time signatures at all for even a few mere seconds. In fact, it really makes one wonder if the musicians behind the music are mathematical genii whom so ingeniously incorporated mathematically-inspired tempo and rhythm, or simply rambunctious music rebels who need to release their pent up frustration through lightning-fast playing on their instruments. The music is generally fast-paced, driving, and melodically appealing in a grinding kind of way. The guitar parts are usually extremely fast, and play solos that have complex guitar riffs squeezed into them. Even the vocals are usually fast, but harsh or not, it varies from band to band.

For example, BTBAM (Between The Buried And Me) typically has harsh vocals on their songs, such as the death growls heard throughout 'Alaska'. On the other hand, bands like Protest The Hero has a vocalist that actually sings [check out their songs in the playlist above].

Well, Mathcore may not be the casual metalhead's cuppa tea, but it is worth giving it a try. Metalcore fans especially, might soon just find themselves calculating infinity while rocking out to songs that sound more like diffused mathematics.

                        North Carolina Progressive Metal/Mathcore band, BTBAM

                                Canadian Mathcore band, Protest The Hero

Featured Musician: ICS Vortex

Shagrath may be the iconic voice, Silenoz the creative shredder who comes up with most of their work and Hellhammer, as his name suggests, is one helluva hammering drummer. But when it comes down to it, what sets Dimmu Borgir apart most from their fellow black metal peers all comes down to this guy.

Simen Hestnæs aka ICS Vortex, apart from being the bassist and clean vocalist for Dimmu Borgir, is also the vocalist for Code and Lamented Souls. He has also lent his voice to Borknagar and the avant-garde metal band Arcturus, playing a pivotal role in the latter's last album, Sideshow Symphonies, which gained much critical acclaim and is arguably one of the best metal albums of 2005.

Vortex plays the bass guitar very competently, but his singing is just.. woah. Its hardly what you'd expect from someone in the metal scene I'd say. 8 minute-ers like Dimmu Borgir's Kings of the Carnival Creation get turned into epic gems just by that 30 odd seconds of his singing at the 4.30 second mark, its how his singing can just define a song. Looking just at his 198cm hulking frame, with that long wild blonde hair of his, who would expect a soulful voice from such a man huh?

According to wikipedia, Hestnæs gave himself the name ICS Vortex as a kinda joke on Garm, whom he replaced as vocalist in a band twice, as one of Garm's aliases was Fiery G. Maelstrom, and Icy S. Vortex is like a complete opposite of that: fiery and icy, maelstrom and vortex. That's not a really cool reason for an alias, but I'm personally partial to the word vortex so I think its a pretty awesome name either way =D.

Anyway, a video tribute to this guy from youtube is below, encompassing vocals from several of his songs from the various different bands he is/has been in, including the part for Kings of the Carnival Creation. A bit disgruntled there weren't really any from his Borknagar days but ah well Allehelgens Dod I Hellveds Rike kinda makes up for it I guess. Its a rather cool video as well, showing him in some performances, and also in some personal moments.

(Photos from photopit.com)