Gig Review: Shinedown + Heaven's Basement @ Camden Electric Ballroom

Heaven's Basement kicked things off in impressive style with a selection of hard rock tracks that felt right at home amongst the Shinedown fans. Despite the somewhat ecclectic look of the band? (everything from indie to punk got a look in) there sound was as straight balls-to-the-walls hard rock as you can get, and i picked up a signed ep and i would whoever's reading this checkes them out, as they put on a solid performance of unknown material, and it's always good to support unsigned bands that are a cut above the usual nme crap. 7/10

Shinedown rocked onto the stage, opening with "Cry for Help" and fortunatly facing none of the technical difficultys that plagued there performance the last time i saw them. There was also the notable absence of second guitarist Nick Perri, who i disovered, has left the band, leaving them as a 4-piece. Shinedown continued with a short but punchy setlist. There set lasted about an hour, not including an extended jam session in the middle. There was a great crowd reactions decent amount of jumping/moshing, most notable during final song "Devour".

Overall Shinedown put on a solid performance, on what is there 1st headlining uk tour, and i can see there popularity increasing almost as fast as Brent Smith's waistline. 8/10

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So... after a long delay while i sorted out my exams and such, i'm back! and this blog is active again. now hang arond while i upload a review of yesterdays celebratory gig :D

Album of the week - Come What(ever) May - Stone Sour (2006)

Background: Stone Sour, for those of you that don't know them, are the side project of Slipknot's Corey Taylor and Jim Root. The band formed in 1992 but went on hiatus in 1995, before recording their first album, so corey and jim could focus on Slipknot. They reformed in 2002 to release their critically aclaimed first album, and this follow-up.

Tracklist: This is one of my all time favourite albums, largely because of the variety of it. You have some proper heavy metal tracks, like "30/30 - 150" and "Come What(ever) May", but you also have the clean ballards such as "Sillyworld", "Through Glass" and "Zzyxz Rd.", and then you have uncatograisable songs like "Socio" which sounds like Heavy Metal meets dick dale surfer rock, and "Cardiff" which sounds totally like nothing else at all. You never know what's coming in this album the next track could start with an acoustic gutiar chord just as much as it could start with a blast beat and scream. 

Vocals and Lyrics: Corey Taylor shows a totally different side of himself in Stone Sour when compaired to Slipknot. The vocals are almost totally clean with barely a scream to be found. The lyrics are definatly a high-point of the album, especially when compaired to the majority of Slipknot songs (some exceptions though). The subject of the lyrics vary widely, including political lyrics: (the title track "Come What(ever) May" is about the bush administration, "Sillyworld" is about corporate America and the degrading of ideals). Taylor's personal life ("Made of Scars", "Zzyxz Rd.") The music industry, and the generation gap ("30/30 - 150", "Through Glass"). 

Instumentation: Like the rest of the album, this is very varied. from heavy blast beat drumming in "30/30-150" to the piano and acoustic guitars of "Zzyxz rd." The rhythms remain solid throughout. Many of the guitars beats stick to unconventional scales, which helps lend the album an "unusual" sound. The album lacks any truely stand-out solos, but it never falters in it's effective rhythm, and decent solos.

Conclusion: This album is truely exceptional and incrediably under-rated. The real strength of this album is that the truely angry emotional songs are not the agressive ones, but the soft acoustic ones. "Through glass" is a furious rant at pop culture, but delivered with soft style and suvtelty. "Zzyxz rd." is about Corey Taylors alcoholism, and i guarentee more moving than anything you will hear on the radio. In short, if you don't have it, you need to hear this album, it's original, it's different, and it's very good.

Gig Review: Priest Feast: Judas Priest/Megadeth, Support:Testament

so, last Saturday i was at Wembley arena for Priest Feast, an arena tour being run by Judas Priest with Megadeth and Testament. I'm not sure whether it was intended to be a joint headline with Megadeth or whether they were supporting with Testament, Megadeths set was about 15mins shorter than Priests, but they both recieved encores. IT was clear from the crowds reaction, that certainly amongst the standing audiance, at least 1/2 of the people there were there for Megadeth or Testament, rather than or as well as Priest. 

Testament Opened up With a ripping set, condensing there back catalogue into 30/40 minutes of pure thrash.  The band launches onstage and soon have everyone headbanging and moshing away. Frountman Chuck Billy's stage presence was very impressive for an opening act, even one as experienced as testament, he was constantly on his toes, getting the audiance to chant, clap, and organising a wall of death. One of my favourite touches was Chuck swirling the end of his microphone stand (which he uses to play air guitar during solos) to "stir" a circle pit just in frount of the stage. There playing was high quality, and the setlist varied, including the classics ("Over the Wall", "Souls of Black") with some newer songs from there critically acclaimed new album ("More than meets the eye" "Formation of Damnation"). Testament were hard to fault. 8/10

Megadeth followed up later with a setlist of approximatly an hour. If the immediate presence of a huge wall of Marshall amps, wasn't intimidating enough, Dave and the guys burst onto the stage with hair flailing as wildly as there hands as the marshalls blast wave after wave of thrashy metal riffs across the hall.

The Playing is top notch and the crowd definatly appreciated the greatest hits setlist. There was alot of variety in megadeth's performance, from the aggressive thrash of "Hanger 18" and "Take No Prisoners" to the clean melody of "A tout le monde". The setlist was rounded off with a raucously chanted "Peace Sells" before Megadeth returned for the usual "Holy wars ... the punishment due" encore. The playing was top notch thoughout, Dave and Chris violently ripping solos without even a glance at there hands, whilst Chris thrashed like a caged animal behind Megadeth's enormous drum kit. Very enjoyable top quality metal. 9/10

Judas Priest entrance was signified by "Dawn of Creation", the intro track to there new album "Nostradamus", which featured bass drum beats so loud the entire arena shook. Which is a good start. As Priest launched into "Prophecy", Rob Halford ascended a lift, built into one of the giant red towers erected on the stage, he was wearing what can onl be described as a "gay space monk" robe. indeed Halford procceeded to put on an acting performance along with his top quality vocals. 

Indeed Priests performance was as much west-end show as it was metal gig, from the rediculous number of costume and instrument changes, to the huge stage props and the prolific use of coloured lights and smoke machines. The whole stage construction was certainly extravagant, with two sets of huge red stairs leading to three large towers, the middle one with the drum kit on. All this together made for a very visual show that was quite different to the two other acts on the bill. However, the downside of this is that it did seem to distance the band, Halford in perticular seemed from the audiance, when compaired to the ballsy up-frount approach of the two earlier frountmen.

Infact Priest suffered from following two heavier bands, which made there music seem somewhat slow by comparison. the frequent costume and instrument changes also seemed to break up the setlist somewhat. Having said that, the playing was top notch as one would expect form such a hihg-profile band. Halford's voice was on good form, missing only a couple of the very highest notes from "Painkiller" (which sound frankly inhuman). Glenn and K.K's guitar playing was also top notch, although i didn't care for Downing's extended solo in the middle of "Sinner" which amounted to little more than Whammy bar abuse. The real highlight of the instrumentation came in the form of Scott Travis' superb drum playing. Thrashing beats in all directions, his excessively fast, but also complex and appealing playing was truely wonderfull.

Ultimatly, Priest were good, great even, but not spectacular. Which is dissapointing from the "Metal Gods". There highly visual approach, whilst very impressive from a techincal standpoint, just did not seem to connect to the audiance, to the same degree as a much plainer balls-to-the wall approach, (or balls over the wall in Testaments case \m/). Given there pedigree, they were never going to put on a bad show, but whilst enjoyable, there show just felt as thow they were showing there age a little (hard not to after 35 years of playing)most of the band spent most of the show looking at there feet, or there instruments, and i didn't get the sense that they were enjoying themselves as much as some other bands. Nevertheless, this is all nitpicking at what was a solid show, i just felt that Priest had the potential for so much more.  7.5/10

overall gig 8.5/10

Album of the week: Painkiller – Judas Priest (1990)

Genre: Heavy Metal/Speed Metal/Power Metal

 

Background: So I thought I’d start my metal album of the week with the classic “Painkiller” album, I’ve been listening to a lot of Priest in anticipation of Priest Feast this weekend \m/. This album marks Priest’s return to form after the sub-par efforts that were “Ram It Down” and “Turbo”. This album is heavily influenced by the thrash artists such as Megadeth and Slayer that emerged in the 80s, that were ironically themselves influenced by earlier Priest.

 

Tracklist: This album is Priest at there finest, the title track is a legendary metal masterpiece, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest metal tracks ever. The tracklist remains strong throughout, “Hell Patrol” is a fan favourite often played live. “Leather Rebel” and “Metal Meltdown” are both notable for there blistering speed and thrash tendencies. “Between the Hammer & the Anvil” is a personal favourite of mine, after a lacklustre series of chords, it explodes into Priest at there finest, with a catchy chorus and some great riffage. In my opinion the weakest point of the album is the final track, the power metal-esque ballad “one shot at glory” and it’s intro “Battle Hymn”, it lacks the speed and ferocity of the rest of the album, and generally is a bit of an anticlimax for the album. It’s one redeeming feature is a superb guitar solo.

 

Vocals and lyrics: Little needs to be said about Rob Halford’s vocal ability, his enormous vocal range is fully explored in this album which showcases his abilities perfectly. From crunching lows to the scary highs of the title track, every note is perfect. The lyrics on the other hand are very cheesy and stereotypical. However Judas Priest invented the stereotypes, so it’s hardly fair to criticize them for this.

 

Instrumentation: This was Priest’s first album with drummer Scott Travis, and wow can you tell the difference, perhaps because the Album kicks off with a legendary drum solo? This high quality drumming continues through out with extensive use of the double bass pedal and some fairly complex beats in songs such as “Hell Patrol”. The guitars are exactly what you would expect from the Priest duo of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. Heavy riffing throughout, with extensive use of many small fills, in the middle of songs, as well as incredible solo’s.

 

Conclusion: Overall this album is a true metal classic. It’s one of Priest’s heaviest albums and also one of there best. It’s is very close to musical perfection, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could have more impressive vocal ability than Rob Halford, and the rest of the band put in superb performances too. Very difficult to fault.