Lillian Axe – XI: THE DAYS BEFORE TOMORROW

30 Monday Jan 2012

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Lillian Axe
XI: THE DAYS BEFORE TOMORROW

To say the least, Lillian Axe continuing on must just be the mission of guitarist Steve Blaze. Certainly, even he would have to admit that the band has suffered it’s share of setbacks over the last few years. With five years of seemingly a new vocalist fronting the band for each release, it’s just been tough to get continuity as a band for Blaze and company. For THE DAYS BEFORE TOMORROW, they even had to switch albums mid-cycle when former Metal Church vocalist Ronnie Munroe left the band. Still, they have carried on.

XI: THE DAYS BEFORE TOMORROW is a solid effort from Lillian Axe. It’s not an effort that’s going to win the band a lot of new fans, but it won’t scare anyone away either. In short, THE DAYS BEFORE TOMORROW is a fairly standard release from “The Axe”. With the focus once again on a new singer, Brian C. Jones steps in and does an admirable job here. He shines brightest on “Death Comes Tomorrow”; a ballad built to showcase the smooth, strong voice that Jones possesses. Throughout the entire disc, Jones is solid. He’s not an overly dynamic singer by any means, but the music on THE DAYS BEFORE TOMORROW do not call for that.

One thing that’s highly noticable on THE DAYS BEFORE TOMORROW is the fairly standard, unflashy performance from Steve Blaze. While Lillian Axe has never been a virtuoso guitar band, they have always been a heavily guitar oriented band with a very dynamic sound coming from Blaze’s six strings. For whatever reason, that’s not really happening here. Sure, Blaze plays well, but the riffs and leads are just not as sharp and ripping on past efforts. Songs like “Gather Up The Snow” are a prime example. There’s a nice solo and a good crunchy riff throughout the song, but it’s just not powerful and dynamic. This may be a production thing and not a playing thing, but it just feels flat here. That’s far from the normal with Blaze. Faster numbers, like “Caged In”, suffer from this same quality, although this song is somewhat more biting with the leads that are tossed into the mix.

PITRIFF RATING – 70/100 - Being honest, I expected a bit more from Lillian Axe because I’m a big fan of Steve Blaze. This release is solid enough, but far from memorable the way even recent albums like WATERS RISING were. You won’t hate this, but you certainly won’t keep this in heavy rotation in your IPod either.

Chris Akin

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Venom – FALLEN ANGELS

27 Friday Jan 2012

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Venom
FALLEN ANGELS

Unlike most metalheads, I think I’m somewhat sacrilegious when it comes to my non-appreciation of Venom. They are one of two acts that I know are just worshipped in the metal community, but I simply do not get the appeal at all (the other being King Diamond). That being said, I had very little expectation for a new Venom release, and yet, they came though with what is a fairly solid effort.

Is this great, no. But it is Venom doing what they do and yet being a touch stronger than normal for them in my eyes. First and foremost, kudos to them for finally figuring out how to capture their sound in the studio. They have a career of bad recordings behind them, so it’s good to hear them recorded well. Secondly, these songs on FALLEN ANGELS are not the typical Venom dirges of anger and hatred surrounded by lacking musicianship. In short, these songs sound like songs played by professional musicians. Sure, listening to a song like “Beggarman” are still raw and raucous, but they are much tighter than this band usually sounds. The overall sound is a shade different than in the past too, as it sounds like there’s just a touch of a modern flair to the songs found on FALLEN ANGELS. It’s a good quality for them.

Individually – well, it’s Venom. Cronos is still a bad singer/ranter, but his dirges are expected and meet expectations throughout. He croaks it out with vengeance on songs like “Lap Of The Gods”. He also lays down a much more solid, less distorted bassline than ever before on this release. He and drummer Dante create a thick, yet somewhat raw and flattened foundation on songs like “Hail Satanas”. On guitar, La Rage is full of that early punk meets Metal sound that has defined Venom’s career. To listen to him play on songs like “Hammerhead”, it’s clear that he’s not the best player on the planet but knows how to craft his music to what is needed from song to song. Overall, these guys come together and create a decent enough effort from start to finish.

PITRIFF RATING – 68/100 - I’m well aware that this is more of a Cronos solo album than a true Venom album featuring the original guys. To be honest, I don’t care, as I’m not really a fan nor do I have any intention of ever seeing these guys live. That said, if you are into the spirit of Venom or just respect them for their contributions to the history of Metal, then you will probably appreciate this. It’s not great, but it doesn’t suck either. It’s Venom – based on that sentence alone you should be able to judge if you want to purchase it or not.

Chris Akin

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Freedom Call – LAND OF THE CRIMSON DAWN

26 Thursday Jan 2012

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Freedom Call
LAND OF THE CRIMSON DAWN

One of the most difficult things there is to do when reviewing power metal bands is to find the slight variations in the sound from band to band. While I’m definitely a fan of the genre, it is the most defined sound of all the subgenres of metal. Let’s face it – each and every song has a fast drum beat that rides underneath fast riffs which create a galloping sound to the music. In short, if you can listen to a power metal album from start to finish and you never tap out the “da da dum da da dum” beat on the table in front of you, then the music is probably not very good.

Freedom Call is what I’d call a typical power metal band. Their album, LAND OF THE CRIMSON DAWN, is pretty much what you’d expect from any German power metal band out there. Their music features big, sweeping gang style choruses, galloping paces on every song, a pretty clean vocal and music that’s pretty well within the framework of this musical style. In short, LAND OF THE CRIMSON DAWN is a pretty typical power metal album.

That said, I hope you don’t read it as a bad album at all. It’s not. Songs like “Rockstars” are as solid as anything Primal Fear or Blind Guardian have put out in years. Vocalist Chris Bay is not the greatest singer in that his voice is pretty indistinguishable, but he’s solid throughout. In a way, Bay reminds a lot of Joacim Cans of Hammerfall, particularly in his phrasing on songs. Listening to him on material like “Crimson Dawn”, it’s hard to be sure that it’s not Cans singing the song as a guest appearance.

Musically, LAND OF THE CRIMSON DAWN is pretty much typical. They fall right into my main criticism of power metal; each and every song being based on “the fight”, “the struggle”, “marching on” and “winning the great battle”. Sure, this kind of music has etched it’s place in the minds and souls of Dungeons & Dragons fans and annual Renaissance Fair participants, but the ever repeating message is somewhat of a downer in this genre. There’s no shortage of it here. Song like “66 Warriors”, “Valley Of Kingdom” and most others just emphasize this fairly typical storyline from which they write from.

PITRIFF RATING – 70/100 - Not bad, not great. Definitely not something that stands out much, but at the same time not something you would turn off if it popped on your radio or IPod. This is a solid effort from Freedom Call, although my bet is that if you aren’t a follower of them as a band you wouldn’t distinguish it from any of the other zillion just like them out there.

Chris Akin

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Biohazard – REBORN IN DEFIANCE

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

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Biohazard
REBORN IN DEFIANCE

Sure, the 20 years later thing brought some interest to this release. Yes, the reunion of that classic lineup made you look up and think, “man, can they really bring it back the way it used to be?” Well, what’s forgotten in those initial thought are those 20 years; 20 long years where this lineup wasn’t together. Twenty years where the guys didn’t continue their growth together as a band. Two decades that saw this lineup go on very different paths as individuals. The long and the short of it – REBORN IN DEFIANCE is a decent release from an older and less angst filled version of a legendary hardcore superband.

Even with later albums from the band, the one thing you could count on was that aggression that never quit. There’s just too many times when it’s not fully there. Take a song like “Reborn”. It has it’s typical Biohazard moments, but then has other points where it almost sounds radio ready and dull. This is followed by “Killing Me”, which might be the worst Biohazard song ever. This song just lays there and lumbers along. Vocalist Evan Seinfeld seems to either have a flat effect on his voice for this song, or he’s just particularly uninspired as he croaks out the lyrics. Even when Evan teams with Billy Graziadei in the chorus, it’s just not working. Graziadei also doesn’t have the voice that he once did, so a good amount of his screams are broken up and lacking.

This album hits with a thud musically as well. The return of the team of Graziadei and Bobby Hambel should have been able to produce more of that catchy guitar that powered albums like STATE OF THE WORLD ADDRESS. Instead, they provide a fairly murky, downtuned mesh of sound that doesn’t stand out at all or add that razor sharp quality to songs like “Countdown Doom”; a song that could otherwise have been a really good, familiar Biohazard song. It’s just disappointing, and seems as if the guys were trying to sound like Biohazard instead of actually just getting together and being Biohazard. I have no idea if that makes sense to many people, but to me, REBORN IN DEFIANCE is a parody of a band that I once saw destroy the stage night after night with Sepultura and Pantera. This is far from that band.

PITRIFF RATING – 52/100 - A major disappointment to open 2012…big time. I have always, always loved hardcore, and specifically these guys unique blend of hardcore and straight up metal. This just sounds, for the most part, like middle of the road downtuned modern metal with the occasional throwback to a band that no longer exists. Definitely far from great.

Chris Akin

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Lacuna Coil – DARK ADRENALINE

23 Monday Jan 2012

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Lacuna Coil
DARK ADRENALINE

Being a fan of this band, it’s not easy to watch them disintegrate from a band that once had an edge and offered something very different from everything else to a middle of the road pop rock band. That’s exactly what’s going on here. By no means is this a bad album, but it’s just another album that proves the creativity that came up with “Heaven’s A Lie” and “Our Truth” does not exist anymore.

Again, DARK ADRENALINE is not a bad effort by any stretch. Every aspect of this release is polished to a bright, shiny gleam – maybe too polished. With all the edge of an orb, DARK ADRENALINE puts forth 12 tracks that are hardly memorable and really don’t do much for the listener.

As always, the focal point of the band is vocalist and primary lyricist Cristina Scabbia. She sounds as good as she’s ever sounded here. Her haunting, clean vocals are solid as always and set the mood for most songs. On songs like “End Of Time”, she croons with her flowing voice overtop of the song and in stark contrast to the band’s other vocalist; the more growly Andrea Ferro. She sounds fine, but a bit too polished and just lacking any emotion at all. While she’s never been one to really spew emotion into songs, most of the songs here are very paint by the numbers for Scabbia. For Ferro, he’s also tuned it back a bit, taking away the jagged opposite edge of the vocals that dominated early albums. Having given this 10 or 11 listens, it’s clear that something is missing here vocally, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. That said, songs like “I Don’t Believe In Tomorrow” are fairly tepid in their vocal mix.

To be fair, the band sounds really good here; specifically guitarists Cristiano Migliore and Marcos Biazzi. Unlike anything since COMALIES, the guitars are a lot more vibrant and loud in the mix. At times, like on the aforementioned “I Don’t Believe In Tomorrow”, they seem to have reached back a decade and channeled Korn for their tone and direction, but for the most part the guitars have a big, thick Drop-D sound that carries the bulk of the songs. Their sound on “Intoxicated” is remarkably similar to something Disturbed has done in the past, but don’t read that as a bad thing. It mimmicks Disturbed in that it sticks in your head a bit. They play well overtop the thick foundation laid down by drummer Cristiano Mozzati and bassist Marco Zelati.

As I stated before, the problem really isn’t the band for the most part. It’s the lack of edge to the sound itself. That’s a twofold problem. First, it really appears as if they are writing material with much less bite than they did on previous albums. There’s the occasional song with some energy (“The Army Inside”), but for the most part, the songs are all similar, all hard rock/pop metal instead of darker Gothic like they used to do, and seemingly written to give program directors a lot of choice on what to play. The other problem is that producer Don Gilmore has rubbed the edges of this band until it’s as sharp as a marble. Their unique cover of REM’s “Losing My Religion” is a great example of this. The arrangement was great, and the pattern between Scabbia and Ferro was well thought out. Yet, when you listen to it, it’s dull and more like a hard edged Madonna song than anything a metal band would have ever done. In short, song after song just comes off way too slick and polished.

PITRIFF RATING – 64/100 - Over the last two albums, Lacuna Coil has transformed themselves from the better, edgier femaled fronted goth metal band to the “other band like Evanescence”. For some, that may be a good thing. For me, it just doesn’t feel right. If you were happy with SHALLOW LIFE last time, you will probably enjoy DARK ADRENALINE as well. If you were disappointed with it, don’t expect much of a rebound. It’s technically decent, but far from great.

Chris Akin

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Earth – ANGELS OF DARKNESS, DEMONS OF LIGHT I

19 Thursday Jan 2012

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Earth
ANGELS OF DARKNESS, DEMONS OF LIGHT I

Here’s a fun fact for you. Earth is a band that, at it’s core, features the ideas of one Dylan Carlson. What exactly is Dylan Carlson’s claim to fame? Well, he’s best known as the guy that purchased the gun Kurt Cobain used to kill himself with. I’ll bet you didn’t hear that one on your wacky morning show just prior to playing “Come As You Are” for the 10 millionth time.

Sadly, Carlson is forever linked to Nirvana because of that fact instead of appreciated for the music he’s created over the years with Earth. This nearly instrumental, slow moving music is what I would call aura-setting music. In many ways, it’s kind of like a modern day Pink Floyd without the vocals. It’s total soundscape for exploring one’s inner soul, and it’s magnificent through and through. With ANGELS OF DARKNESS, DEMONS OF LIGHT I, Carlson and company do what they’ve been doing on and off for 20 years now – creating dark, slow, rhythmic tones for exploring one’s inner demons in your mind.

Unlike previous releases, ANGELS OF DARKNESSS, DEMONS OF LIGHT 1 has a feeling that you would expect behind a Rob Zombie horror film, or even behind the action that was going on in Kevin Smith’s RED STATE. At any given moment, you can explore your own inner fears, habits or demons while stretching out mentally with a track like “Father Midnight”. The guitar work is so much like that of David Gilmour in an ambient setting sort of way. The basslines follow the guitars because of their lack of any speed, and the drumming is barely more than tapping out a very slow 4/4 time for Carlson to keep pace with. Still, it’s terrific.

PITRIFF RATING – 90/100 – I haven’t done acid in a really long time now, but should the urge to go back ever come over me, you’d better believe I’ll be pulling this release out as it’s backdrop. If you close your eyes while listening, you can visualize big, slow moving lava in a lava lamp that every once in awhile forms the face of Satan to simply scare the shit out of you. In essence, I think that might be EXACTLY what Earth is going for.

Chris Akin

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Black Veil Brides – REBELS

18 Wednesday Jan 2012

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Black Veil Brides
REBELS

I guess it’s just not a good thing to adapt your sound from your heroes of the past and fuse it with the sounds of modern day.  Apparently, that’s a bad thing to do, depending on which message board you read.  To read it from Blabbermouth, you’d think that the Black Veil Brides were the the spawn of everything evil because they a. stole their look from Motley Crue, b. are a bunch of homos, and c. are just a bunch of poser nu-metal faggots that should be extinguished from the Earth.  Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band take more shit for doing what they do for no other reason than to be ENTERTAINERS.  Still, it seems that for every hater there is out there, they won an award for being great in 2011, as they won at least 20 awards last year from everyone from Kerrang to Rock Sounds to Alternative Press.  Apparently SOMEONE is digging what they do.

As far as their most recent three song EP REBELS is concerned, it’s not likely to move you one way or the other on the band, but it is a nice tip of the cap in tribute to music that helped the band develop into what they are.  The songs are all three solid, with the covers taking center stage.  Their cover of Kiss’ “Unholy” from REVENGE is the perfect song choice for these guys; specifically vocalist Andy Biersack.  While his voice is not as raspy as Gene Simmons’, Biersack’s sound fits perfectly on the track.  The same can be said about their much ballyhooed cover of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell”; a track that is perfectly fitted for BVB’s musical style of modern meets 80s metal.  It is interesting that Zakk Wylde decided to lend his immense guitar sound to these guys.  To be blunt about it, the Black Veil Brides just doesn’t seem to be the kind of band that you’d expect Wylde to perform with.

As for the lone new track, “Coffin”, it would have fit just fine on SET THE WORLD ON FIRE, which if I had to guess was where it was slated to go but didn’t quite make the cut the first time around.

PITRIFF RATING – 84/100 - The haters will hate, and the worshippers will worship.  I don’t think I’m either to be honest.  I’m not enamored with Black Veil Brides, but given the choice of them or their contemporaries like Asking Alexandria or most of the screamo bitchcore bands out there, I’ll take what these guys are serving.  REBELS is a nice holdover release until another album can be recorded and put out there.  It’s probably also the last release we’ll get from these guys before they are a very big band.

Chris Akin

Walking With Kings – WALKING WITH KINGS

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

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Walking With Kings
WALKING WITH KINGS

I’m a big Rich Ward fan – huge, actually. I think he is the one guitarist out there that’s never been given his just due. Stuck Mojo was a tremendous band that never got the credit they deserved while lesser bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn rose to dominance for a decade. Ward has a large body of work with Stuck Mojo, as well as other bands like Sick Speed, The Duke and Adrenaline Mob. Whiiel he’s teetered in and out of Christian-like themes for years, Ward has now put together and recorded a full Christian Rock album with Walking With Kings. Past Stuck Mojo, this may be his best project to date.

Let’s look at the positives here. First, at least for now it’s free! That’s right, if you want to sample this but the “C” word (Christian) is scaring you into thinking this will be some uncool, Stryper wannabe album, you can at least find out for yourself without spending more than 5 seconds to click the download link over at www.walkingwithkings.com.

Second, singer and primary lyricist Terry Chism. Chism is indeed devout in his worship of the Lord, but more importantly to me as a music fan is that he’s a damn good singer. In a lot of ways, Chism reminds of Alter Bridge’s Miles Kennedy. Listening to him sing on songs like “Change The World”, you hear a real sense of vocal excellence coming from him. Further, Chism’s phrasing of lyrics is that of a 20 year professional. It’s not sing songy, six syllable garbage where the last word rhymes from line to line. To the contrary, Chism shares his spiritual feelings like a masterful storyteller on songs like “Home”. Finally, guitarist Rich Ward is on the record, which automatically makes it a lot better. As I stated, he’s never gotten his due as a player. While his playing is not as over the top metal as he’s shown in Stuck Mojo as recently as on SOUTHERN BORN KILLERS, his modern rock riffs that he lays down on songs like “Friends” are juicy and fun; easily leading the listener through a fun experience of the songs.

Now, the negative. While I get that Sick Speed and the Stuck Mojo album THE GREAT REVIVAL were not successful, massively received projects, they do exist and were heard by hardcore Stuck Mojo fans like…well…like me. Further, it’s hard to complain about anything that’s given to you free, as again THE GREAT REVIVAL and now WALKING WITH KINGS has been, but free or not, it’s a bit lazy to use the same songs from multiple releases here with virtually no rearrangement other than different vocals. “Friends” was by far my favorite song on THE GREAT REVIVAL, so hearing what seems like the same musical tracks with different vocals thrown in just doesn’t feel right to me. The same with Autumn Brings, which also was better when it was a Sick Speed track than here. These criticisms are not a huge deal mind you, but these tracks just don’t feel good compared to other songs like “Leap Of Faith” or “Here I Stand”.

PITRIFF RATING – 88/100 - There’s some great riffs on this album; some great songs, great performances and honestly a great message. It’s definitely a harder Christian rock than I might otherwise look to listen to, but the music itself and the fact that it’s more telling a story than beating the listener up for not walking His path makes it OK with me. Walking With Kings is a seriously solid band, and this effort is a fun listen to say the least. It’s got it’s flaws, but it’s far from easily dismissed. If more Christian Rock bands did this, the message would be easier to get out there to the modern aged kids.

Chris Akin

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Corrosion Of Conformity – CORROSION OF CONFORMITY

16 Monday Jan 2012

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Corrosion Of Conformity
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY

Is it just me, or is the first album you actually hear from a band the measuring stick by which you compare everything else from that band? When I look at my musical collection, it’s like that. I look at a band like Testament, where the first album I heard from them is SOULS OF BLACK. Everything they’ve done since is measured against that in my head, and everything before that in some way seems to be not quite up to that release in my mind. I’m not sure why that is, but I find that my first taste of a band is where I ground myself. While some releases can be better than that first release (THE GATHERING for me is far superior, as is FORMATION OF DAMNATION), I just don’t see PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH in the same light. Maybe because it was old before I ever heard it. Dumb, I know.

What does any of this have to do with Corrosion Of Conformity? Well, with them, I discovered their music after Pepper Keenan was in the band. I’m a huge, huge fan, but for me the pre-Pepper COC never really grabbed me because it was so drastically different in sound from where I entered fandom with them. My first reaction to Pepper-less COC putting out a new album this year was, “eh”, to be honest about it. But now I’ve heard it, and I have to say that this is a seriously triumphant release from the returning trio. CORROSION OF CONFORMITY packs a wallop musically as it does far more than those old releases like ANIMOSITY ever did. The return of COC 1.0 may be heralded as a return to the more punk style of early releases, but it’s much more of a fusion of both eras of music these guys have done for 30 years.

Listening to this album, the punk influences are definitely there. You can’t listen to a song like “Psychic Vampire” and not realize that these guys were heavily influenced by the heavier punk scenes from three decades ago. That said though, their stoner heritage of the Pepper era is on display throughout as well. “Come Not Here” might be the best mood-enhanced song of the band’s career. They shine brighest though on songs like “What We Become”, where the amalgamation of their two distinct styles merge.

For their part, the guys in the band sound great. It’s clear their touring prior to recording this release helped them out greatly. Their sound, while not the lush soundscape they’ve done on previous efforts, has a really organic feel to it that would lend me to believe that there’s not a lot of studio magic here. These songs have that live power” to them, specifically on guitar where Woody Weatherman is once again an underrated beast with his instrument.

PITRIFF RATING – 96/100 - CORROSION OF CONFORMITY is a seething return for this trio. I think their press people may be going overboard by selling the whole ANIMOSITY lineup return, because this release stands on it’s own merits away from past glory from the band. This organic ass kicker may not be the most polished release of the band’s career, but it’s one of the best. Moody, arrogant at times, and constantly spitting in the face of their perceived sound, it’s clear that this band will be just fine as a trio should “the other guy” never find his way back. This is a seriously awesome release.

Chris Akin

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Mollo Martin – THE THIRD CAGE

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

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Mollo Martin
THE THIRD CAGE

I get the math. When a major band changes singers, the next guy never gets the respect of the first. If they change again, that guy always gets disrespected greatly. Look no further than the once again popular Van Halen for proof. Anyone want to argue that Gary Cherone was ever given respect in that band? I thought not. In my eyes though, the single most disrespected singer in rock history has to be vocalist Tony Martin. Martin had the distinction of being the guy who replaced Dio in Black Sabbath. You remember – Dio replaced Ozzy, and then Martin replaced Dio. As third guy on the totem pole of Black Sabbath, I would argue that his catalog from start to finish was stronger than the Ozzy era (the whole Ozzy era, not just the first 4 albums). I personally will always reach for an album like HEADLESS CROSS long before something like TECHNICAL ECSTACY. Maybe it’s just me, but I have long respected and sung the praises of the Martin era of Sabbath.

For THE THIRD CAGE, Tony Martin continues his decade long relationship with Italian guitarist Dario Mollo to create some cool, albeit friendlier, hard rock that is enjoyable to listen to. Martin sounds as good as ever vocally, even if the music isn’t the intense type that many remember him doing with Black Sabbath or even on his solo work like SCREAM. The music is much more Journey / Foreigner / Night Ranger like than you might expect. Still, Martin’s powerful pipes power the material here. Songs like “One Of The Few” prove just how strong a singer Martin truly is. This song, which sounds like a cross between the late era pop-rock Scorpions and something Jeff Scott Soto might record, if full of Martin’s flowing vocals and some virtuoso like solo fills and riffs provided by Mollo. For his part, Mollo is a tremendous guitarist. There are times when he heavies things up a bit, like on the thick rocker “Still In Love With You”. Simply, Mollo can play, and showcases a lot of different styles on THE THIRD CAGE.

The lone drawback to this project is that it doesn’t feel hugely organic at all. While I have no idea if this is a project or a band, it definitely feels like a project. It would not surprise me at all if this project was put together via MP3 trading. Again, I have no way to know that as true, but there’s just something lacking here. It just doesn’t feel like they were in the same room, where the energy would have flowed between Mollo and Martin.

PITRIFF RATING – 73/100 – A solid effort from one of the most underrated singers in the business. My hunch is this would sound a lot better performed live as there would be a new vibe to it, but it’s still not too bad.

Chris Akin

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