Okay, so I'm gonna come right out and say it: I totally failed in this category this year. I only reviewed one, ONE (!!!) 2012 album, High on Fire'sDe Vermis Mysteriis. An album I gave a whopping C minus grade...so not exactly Album of the Year material.
There were plenty of other great looking 2012 metal albums that I should have listened to, but never got around to checking out. My focus definitely wasn't on checking out new music this year. In fact, when I did find myself listening to music, I found myself gravitating towards music that I've loved for years, and steering clear of the new stuff. When pondering this very post, that fact dawned on me and I instantly started worrying that I was turning into an old fogey who only listens to old music.
A scary thought.
I've been combating my old fogey-ness, and trying to remind myself that my glory days are ahead of me, the past few days by gearing my Pandora stations towards new music that I've been wanting to check out. That's not enough though. I need to bite the bullet and listen to full albums. Here's a few I'm looking to listen to a lot more in the coming months:
Baroness: Yellow and Green- I've heard bits and pieces of this double album, and everything I've heard so far has been fantastic. I love their two previous albums, so I'm looking forward to getting to know this double disc release much better.
Yellow and Green ranks as possibly the most glaring oversight in my metal listening this year.
Huntress: Spell Eater- The dudes in Huntress were once in a barely known hard rockin' band called Trigger Renegade. They were awesome, yet never achieved the success they deserved. They recently got a major facelift by adding a new vocalist, the scarily talented banshee screamer Jill Janus.
With a name change, and change in approach from hard rock to metal they created Huntress and have been hell bent on metal stardom ever since. I'm long overdue for giving their debut album a few solid listens.
The Sword: Apocryphon- Well, I got to see these guys live, which is something, but I haven't yet had the chance to give their latest album a full listen. If their new material is as good as it sounded at their show, I have a feeling that Apocryphon will be The Sword's best album yet.
Definitely an album I'm looking forward to hearing more of.
So, yeah, a bit of a shitty start to my year-end awards, but I'll be sure to bring the thunder with the remaining categories. I know I dropped the ball on the metal music front this year, and even though I singled out a few albums I want to check out more, I'm sure I missed mentioning a few good ones.
What music did you folks listen to that was amazing? What metal music, or non-metal music am I missing out on?
Yesterday, after the longest hair cut of my life, a two hour ordeal at a training salon where I'm pretty sure the trainee cut each individual stand of hair on my head one at a time, I met with my good friend, and fellow metal head, Justin. Justin and I had tickets for The Sword a metal band that has been covered around here once or twice.
Prior to the show we walked over to the Pine Box, a funeral home turned bar with a great selection of beers on tap. They also have a nice selection of wood fired pizza on the menu, so we did a little bit of pre-show beer and pizza indulgence. We were joined for the beer and pizza portion of the night by my lady, and later by Mike, the third person in our concert going party. The Sword show would be Mike's first metal concert, which was exciting.
Having little interest in either of the opening bands, we hung out at the Pine Box sipping beers until about 9:30, and then walked over to the venue to see when The Sword would hit the stage. It turned out we had about another hour to kill, so we walked to another nearby bar which you can see in this awesome video. After more beers for Justin and Mike (none for me...I'm a total light weight!) we made to into the venue just as the second opening act was finishing up their set.
We scored a decent spot on the floor about 20 feet back from the stage and held firm as bodies jostled for position while the roadies set up for The Sword. The dudes came on just a few minutes shy of 11pm and proceeded to shred steadily for an hour, often launching directly into the next song immediately after finishing up the previous one. They provided a nice mix of songs from their new album Apocryphonwith songs from past albums. What impressed me the most with The Sword was that all their material translates amazingly well to the live show. Their music inspired a lot of headbanging and even a fairly large mosh-pit for a Seattle crowd.
With a solid hour of playing under their belt, The Sword left the stage only to return a couple minutes later for a three-song encore. All told, it was a very impressive performance from The Sword and I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to see them live with a good crew of friends to share the experience. If you haven't yet experienced The Sword they are definitely worth a listen, and if you are a fan, then I strongly suggest seeing them live. They rocked.
The Sword, a band that I've been enjoying for a few years, just got a whole lot cooler by choosing one of my favorite comic artists to handle all the design and album artwork for their new album, Apocryphon. That's right, JH Williams III, of Batwomanfame did all the art for the band's fourth studio album, which hits stores October 22nd.
In the past, The Sword has featured songs like Winters Wolves, and To Take the Black which are inspired by GRRM and his A Song of Ice and Fire series. They also have a sci-fi space odyssey concept album, so the guys are clearly into nerd culture. Now they go and get JH Williams III to design all the art for their new album. Yeah, I think I could hang out with these guys.
Warp Riders is The Sword's third studio album, and their first concept album. While their first two albums, Age of Winters and Gods of the Earth had more of an epic fantasy bend, Warp Riders is decidedly a Sci-fi album. The album is broken up into two parts, The Archer and the Orb, and The Android and the Sword. The album tells the story of Ereth, an archer who has been banished from the planet of Acheron. Acheron is a planet that is stuck, and while one side gets cooked by the three suns, the other side is shrouded in permanent darkness. While Banished, Ereth discovers an orb, and meets the Chronomancer, a magical dude who wants to help Ereth restore balance to his planet.
Ok, on to the music!
Part One: The Archer and the Orb.
Track 1: Acheron/Unearthing the Orb: This one is strictly a bad-ass crunchy guitar laden intro, and it is great. When I hear an opening track like this, I always think it is a sign of good things to come for the album.
Track 2: Tres Brujas: After my first few listens of this song, I wasn't a fan. It just feels really generic and follows a rather dull, yet time tested pattern of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, verse, chorus, outro. That's not a really bad thing, but mainstream metal bands milked this format to death in the 80's and 90's and I guess I'm a little sick of it. However, once I was able to get past my own little peeves, I realized this is a fucking sweet song, and I should just shut the hell up. Fantastic, though somewhat restrained, guitar work on this song.
Track 3: Arrows in the Dark: This is the first song that made me think, "Hey, these guys are heading in a slightly different direction here." This one is a bit more proggy at the start, but then, I'll be damned if they don't start sounding like the same old The Sword from their previous endeavors. There are some great elements to this song though. The drumming is improved from previous albums, where some have complained that there are too much cymbals...too bad the drummer quit just before they started touring for this album.
Track 4: The Chronomancer I: Hubris: Pretty great opening riff to this seven minute voyage. The whole two minute intro is fucking amazing. There's no use fighting it, this song will make you play air guitar. The Sword is pretty much sticking to their strengths on this track. Heavy, crunchy guitars, and riffs that make me thank the Gods of the Earth for Black Sabbath, and their influence on this band. If you love listening to fantastic, soaring guitars then this is pretty much your song.
Track 5: Lawless Lands: Lawless Lands sounds like a space-western. Somehow the guitars evoke images of both dust, and space. J.D. Cronise's vocals seem to fit this style of song quite well. Sometimes his voice seems a bit over-matched by all the instrumental power they create, but they seem to have found the sweet spot here. So far, the best song.
Part 2: The Android and the Sword.
Track 6: Astraea's Dream: Another instrumental track. Not a bad way to kick off the second half of the album. The previous instrumental was very reminiscent of the band's earlier material, but this track feels right at home here on their sci-fi concept album. Not sure how they do it, but the instruments sound spacey.
Track 7: The Warp Riders: I've always felt that the title track should be one of the strongest songs on an album, and this song is no slouch. The thing is, it isn't as special as it should be. For what this band is capable of, and for some of the greatness they've shown on this album, this song is just a bit too generic for me. For a song that is about traveling at warp speed and covering great distances, the pieces of the song don't really add up to its theme.
Track 8: Night City: The first thing that I thought of when I saw this song title is Gangland by Iron Maiden. Gangland. Night City. Somewhat similar. Which is funny that this song made me think of Maiden, because The Sword sort of channels Iron Maiden here. The lyrical content sort of hearkens back to some of Maiden's glory days. The bass doesn't rumble along at the speed of Steve Harris, but I don't think its too much of a stretch to say that this song could easily be a bit of an ode to Iron Maiden's musical styling.
Track 9: The Chronomancer II: Nemesis: A great Black Sabbath-esque gallop dominates the early proceedings of this guitar heavy, riff filled song. The lyrics are sung in two-part harmony, the second voice, (I'm not sure who it is) gives a raspy quality to the lyrics that makes for a pretty cool layering effect. This song also possesses the best solo of the album. This one is a great set up for the ending of the story.
Track 10: (The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire: I wont comment on the bad poetry that is the title of this track. Instead I will focus on the straight up amazingness that is this song. The two guitars work really well together on this final track. One lays down the thunderous riff, while the other adds little accents and flares that give the song a great sound. I really like how the first solo just sort of soars in from the ether and ushers in a great instrumental stretch. Musically this is the most unique track on the album. They sound less thrashy as they move towards more intricate and layered sound that makes this the hands down best song on the album.
All in all, this is a solid metal album. There a few stretches where I feel like they haven't evolved one bit as a band since their first album, but then there are songs like Lawless Lands and (The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire that seem to be ushering in a new era of The Sword. One that is technically intricate and multi-layered. It will be interesting to see what direction they take in the future now that they are in need of a new drummer.
