Queen "Queen" (1973)

Arriving at their debut release, my expectations had been lowered by the underwhelming Symphonic Rock of Queen II. Surprisingly, this is an easier to digest record. Full of the eclectic diversity and variety that Queen are known for however its yet to find distinction. The production is clunky and dated, the musical influences obvious, worn on the sleeve, yet the songs it births at this point in the bands infancy are much more distinguished and fun than the following record. Brian May also kicks the record into gear with burst of Heavy Metal eruption on Doing All Right very akin to some of his best moments. He quite often finds stirs of Heavy Metal energy to inject.

The song swings between polarizing styles in a playful manor and whats encapsulated in that one track can be heard throughout as the band sway from soft and folksy Progressive Rock into bursts of Heavy Metal and Classic American Rock. The song Son & Daughter even goes into Doom Metal territory as the slow, sludgy guitar grooves carry their texture into the light, very Black Sabbath. Much of the record plays with these obvious familiarities but they always come with a spice of instrumental playfulness as keys and guitar leads add colorful upheavals in practically every song.

Some of the lyrics take on a biblical tone, the track Jesus being a prime example. I am unsure if its a song of praise or a mockery but the tone is a shambles, making an ugly appraisal out of layered voicings which had been used beforehand so effectively as burst of immediacy on songs like Liar. Overall its far better than its predecessor but not exactly its own animal yet. All the markings of what make this band so fantastic are here, ready to be developed. From here onward we only have the 80s and 90s albums left to explore!

Favorite Tracks: Doing All Right, Seven Seas Of Rhye

Rating: 6/10

Sabaton "The Great War" (2019)

And now for the mighty symphonic gleam of the one and only War inspired Power Metal outfit Sabaton! This album has been an absolute U-turn for me. I checked out Heros a few years back and despite always trying to open my heart to music, I was not swayed. It took my favorite war historian Indy Neidell teaming up with the band to win me over. The united to create a documentary Youtube channel that dives into the historical inspiration behind each song and It really brewed a connection. These guys are history nerds too and now the thematic nature of their music felt very genuine.

It took but two or three listens to engulf me. No longer did these cheesy lyrics act as a deterrent, I now understood that each song had a slice of the past inspiring it and that I could get behind! The wording does get somewhat literal and plain in places but I now find myself enjoying that aspect. "Lead the charge, our leader has entered the battlefield". There are plenty of un-poetic, descriptive wordings at play like this but when its lined with dates, names and locations you have to admire the dedication to keeping it accurate. Ive ended up singing along on many an occasion!

Joakim Broden's mighty and anthemic charge as a frontman is fantastic if not flawed. His deep voice in spoken sections can sound a fraction goofy but he knows how to deliver the energy. With power and conviction in his gruffly sung voice he constantly elevates alongside the music to create ear worm hooks that you just can't shake! Behind him the music is especially energetic and beaming with a triumphant might. Its Power Metal that leans on thicker guitar tones, classic Heavy Metal shredding and a delightful weight of symphonic keys that back with choral voicings and synths.

With the driving percussive force of Dahl, many of these songs move forward with a rocking tempo, cramming in a lot of sound. The rumble of textured bass lines creates a sturday foundation for tandem guitars to interchange colorful licks and variations over the top of power chord chugging riffs that batter in time with the drums. Its a big and bold sound always lined with a symphonic glow from the keys and just about every song encounters exciting breaks from the verse chorus structure.

Its mostly in the form of solos that shred classic wailing 80s Heavy Metal styling to give one goosebumps if your a fan of classic solos from the likes of Ozzy's guitarists. They are bright and beaming, colorful and played flawlessly. I also hear echos of Judas Priest in the solo's but I'm sure that's probably whats to be heard in a lot of Power Metal considering it developed from that sound. I also hear a now toned down Dimmu Borgir on the albums last Metal song. Its lavished in hysterical singing, horns and trumpets, the ramped up energy has some similarities to their Eonian.

The album bows out on an emotional note as a choir sings the memorial poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae. The singing is simply gorgeous and ends the whole experience on a very humbling note. I absolutely love this record! I have had so much fun with it and will continue to spin it for weeks to come! I now feel rather incentivized to back track over Sabaton's discography. This album ticked so many boxes for me on things I like about Metal music, it seems almost mad I had dismissed them as not being for me. Its the same old lesson, gotta open up and learn to love cause hate and negativity means you miss out on fantastic records like this one.

Favorite Tracks: Seven Pillars Of Wisdom, 82nd All The Way, Great War, A Ghost In The Trenches, Fields Of Verdun, The End Of The War To End All Wars, In Flanders Fields
Rating: 8/10

Jinjer "King Of Everything" (2016)

I initially found the Ukraine Metal outfit Jinjer to be a rather reasonable band. As they continue to gain eardrums in the Metal community, it seemed the hype had alluded me. Cloud Factory was a satisfactory listen, a merging of influences that didn't yield anything particularity unique. King Of Everything however has that same blueprint of obvious inspirations but throughout this record its riffs and songs culminate to a serving with its own spice. With every spin I get sucked further into the energy they forge as a band. Tho it is no masterclass, this album certainly offers up some characterized extreme music that can separate itself from the generic and played out.

With a competent and pounding rhythm section the array of lively guitar work and singer Tatiana Shmailyuk stand aloud. Her deep and burly shouts are ferocious and forceful, cutting through the barrage of metallic might. She pivots into the clean singing and it works well, always with an edge of force but on I Speak Astronomy and Pisces we hear a gentle side to her that is both charming and dynamic as the moody acoustics that accompany her break up the flow of djenty Metalcore brutality.

As the record ebbs and flows between its arsenal of grooving aggressive guitar work, a steady roll out of chemistry emerges as the elements converge and birth fantastic, memorable moments. They don't tend to diverge to far from the baseline temperament but impressive lead guitar licks played by Roman Ibramkhalilov injects bursts of color into the often monochromatic, rhythm oriented low end riffs. They frequent the on off bursts of tonal noise the Djent style is known for and shape up some grand acoustics and other progressive musical ideas around that key guitar component.

The forty two minutes spanned over ten tracks never really falter. Its consistent and engaging, the final track, Beggars Dance, bows out on a comical note as the opening song is replayed in a Jazz Rock context with a lively baseline and softly plucked guitars. When the solo hits around the mid section it sparkles, a different tone to go out on but it wraps up a solid record. Impressive, Looking forward to their new release.

Favorite Tracks: Captain Clock, Words Of Wisdom, Just Another, Under The Dome, Dip A Sail

Rating: 7/10

Obituary "Frozen In Time" (2005)

When thinking of Obituary its always this album cover that comes to mind. Putting things into perspective, I most likely listened to this record when it first came out however I had shelved them based on their earlier Death Metal records which I was never that keen on. Hailing from Tampa Florida, they share a location and linage alongside other pioneering acts of the extreme sound that emerged from Thrash Metal in the 80s. This record however comes over twenty years after their formation and at the time an eight year hiatus following Back From The Dead. Frozen In Time caught my ear on shuffle the other day and Ive since indulged with it.

With a grisly, crunchy warm distortion tone the guitar work has a hybrid approach, crossing the axe grinding and darkness of tremolo Death Metal shredding with an obvious helping of slamming Hardcore groove. Led almost entirely by its guitar riffs the album cruises at mid-tempo, through a dense churning of thick guitar led arrangements. Guided by competent drum patterns that don't go all in with blast beats and extremities, it makes for easy listening approachable in a relative sense.

Its charm emerges when the plethora of mediocre riffs find a pacing for the equivalent of a breakdown. A percussive element goes half time and the guitars resonate with a measure of bounce and groove in the power chord dynamics. Its quite toned down but that tends to aid its deployment. The whole record has a steady tone and its atmosphere lulls you and unexpectedly jumps into lunges of movement with this two-step akin "breakdowns". Without them it would drone on and on.

Singer John Tardy is howling away throughout with his one of a kind harsh and throaty shouts. They never do however shift temperament or offer variety. The consistency of all elements makes for an album that is quick to get to grips with. Its production is well composed, the dense guitar eat up a lot of space but reverberated snare drum and punchy kick drum warp around it. The bass guitar must be mirroring as it barely makes a distinction. Overall its a very straightforward set of tracks with simple song structures however these subtle emerges of Hardcore influence are a lot of fun and that's what checking out this record has been... Fun!

Favorite Track: Redneck Stomp

Rating: 6/10

Slowthai "Runt" (2018)

Majorly impressed by the young Northampton Grime rapper's debut Nothing Great About Britain, I naturally tracked back to this five track EP released a year beforehand. With mention to the album by name, It seems unlikely this is the release that got him signed, which I was curious to learn about. With that in mind the maturity and development as an artist between the two is rather substantial. Slowthai has his bite, grit and mean attitude intact, the exaggerated articulation of his dialect is simply natural and subtle at this point tho.

On two fronts the record steadily dissipates. Slow Down kicks it off with a banging beat vaguely reminiscent of Inglorious. The rhymes are firm, flow energized by anger. He vents his frustrations telling the tale of a childhood Christmas ruined by the cold. With Drug Dealer he articulates his venture into criminality with both tracks having emotional weight and finding moments of clever lyricism too. After these tracks the topicality drops off, a lack of narrative or purpose lulls the mood and the Instrumentals follow suit.

Disneyland sounds like a train of conscious thought that doesn't land anywhere. The spacious, zoned out instrumental plays disorienting, zany samples that lead into a off-kilt de synced drum groove that has no anchoring point. Its a clear experiment, built for purpose, trying to conjure a zonked atmosphere but its executed poorly. There is a couple of tracks of interest here but fails to come close to the albums level of quality.

Favorite Tracks: Slow Down, Drug Dealer

Rating: 4/10

3TEETH "Shutdown.exe" (2017)

Aesthetically speaking this band are absolutely my cup of tea. On this record we step back a fraction from the metallic element with a tonal shift towards the Electro-Industrial hilt. Distortion guitars are dialed back in presence from the meaty Metawar. A stronger emphasis is placed on the sonic pallet of busying robotic noises. Font man Mincolla sounds no less of his own, although the Manson mimicry is minimal, his voice is drenched in distortions and dystopian effects that have him drift into the middle of attention, like another layer of detail in the web of machine like constructs.

These songs are dense and textural, a tapestry of whirling mechanical, electronic and alien sounds that coheres into a cyber punk world of neon lights and endless smog. Its slightly uneasy, unsettled and futuristic, capturing a detachment from the natural world as one could imagine it the soundtrack to a dystopian vision of the future. With a plethora of sounds they decorate the blood pumping baselines and smashing thuds of kick and snare grooves that propel the songs forward. Softly screeching synths play rattled melodies and potent power chords inject force through the guitar element. It holds together a firm atmosphere that reminds me fondly of my favorite Industrial acts but doesn't go to far in defining itself.

As mentioned, Mincolla finds himself in the middle ground with all the other instruments that never seem to leap out at the listener. They all work on the same temperament and thus the album is short on attention grabbing tracks. It is most notably apparent with a lack of sing along hooks as his garbled voice often blends into the wall of sound. Atrophy manages to pull off a killer number as its elements are laid bare, chopping in and out. It gives the guitar a real kick when it drops in and the lyrics to seem to ride that wave. The rest of the songs make up a passing experience that comes in various degrees but under closer inspection it doesn't bite quite as hard.

Rating: 6/10

Favorite Tracks: Atrophy, Tower Of Disease

Bæst "Danse Macabre" (2018)

What does one do when your favorite Swedish Death Metal "super group" loses their way? You pray for this record! Its been seven years since Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth left Bloodbath and they haven't sounded the same. Not only did they loose the visceral edge of his gutteral demonic roar, the band pivoted stylistically with Grand Morbid Funeral. That's where Bæst come in! This Danish band have flown under the radar, not gaining much reputation yet dropping in with an absolutly infatuated debut album that simply picks up from where The Fathomless Mastery left off.

Singer Simon Olsen has an uncanny resembles to the dense and deep, throaty roars of Anderfeldt, one of the best voice in this territory. That textural shout was an instant draw, giving me goosebumps. The rest of the music follows suit. Ripping guitar tones, the varying temperaments of ferocious Death Metal. Aesthetically and musically these compositions really do mirror Bloodbath in the best of ways. You could label them a rip off but their music is so good it just doesn't matter. The key distinction is melody, a couple of the songs have a colorful lead they return to, bringing a little tune alongside the onslaught but its mostly that sound defined by another band, a pleasure for a fan.

The album is a tight Thirty Four minute affair deploying an assault of punishing music that only has respite with a couple of classical guitar interludes. They are vanilla but have a mysterious tone, perhaps lacking in layering or depth, they could of birthed a little more atmosphere. As just a lone instrument it fails to dazzle. The musics composition is fairly narrow, utilizing typical arrangements of blast beats, aggressive drum grooves and menacing guitar riffs that tend to sound best at their most brutal, with the added enjoyment of demented guitar solos and lead melodies waging in on occasion. Its a lot of fun and has really scratched an itch. Will be interesting to see where they go from here. A sophomore record looms later in the year!

Favorite Tracks: Crosswhore, Hecatomb, Ego To Absolvo

Rating: 7/10

Queen "News Of The World" (1977)

It may be home to two of Queen's defining Arena Rock anthems known the world over but News Of The World is a haphazard record of eclectic directions lacking any cohesion. On their own these songs ain't so bad but they tend to fumble over one another. After opening anthems We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, the rest of the run time seems stitched on with nothing resembling the amped up, cheer along style of these two numbers. Named after Sheer Heart Attack, track three blares into Punk influenced guitar tones thrashing at a monotone Industrial pacing. It deploys some rather bizarre feedback noise towards the end and the whole production sounds rather uninspired. Not a bad song but its coloring is drab. The record as a whole feels a step backwards.

From here the energy dissipates as ballads lull the flow and switch gears. Fight From The Inside makes it mark with Roger Taylor putting his stamp on the vocals. In general the tracks keep shifting in tone and the mediocrity of these songs has the bands diversity feel at odds with itself. It hits a low with Who Needs You. Exotic Spanish guitar makes for a sunny sandy song that lays its intentions bare. Its wildly out of place and lacks any subtly as even the percussion shakes it up with Maracas. You'd expect it to become something more that a simple mirroring of worldly musics.

Without fluidity and subtlety these lesser inspired songs just drift all over the place. They may be well written songs but the strands of these musicians influences tend to imitate rather than birth something new. Even the more typically Queen and theatrical songs lack the spark heard before. Freddie's voice may be a charm throughout but with Brian May being quiet on his guitar its lacking. I suspect with two smash songs under their belt the label may of pressured the group into releasing what feels like a set of B-Sides to bolster a record to sell alongside these cultural anthems.

Favorite Tracks: We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions

Rating: 5/10

Batushka "Hospodi" (2019)

Yesterday I covered Panihida by a different artist, the founder, under the same Batushka moniker. The situation is somewhat rotten and this record, backed by Metal Blade records, will probably end up with the legal rights to the name however its very obvious these musicians can't quite do it the same way. With a bigger production budget a cushy aesthetic makes for a clearer separation of the elements. Rather than the extreme clattering barrage of its counterpart the instuments stand tall with clarity, making it easier to hear where this album steers from its originators vision.

The first few songs hold over a tone steeped in dark religion. Ritual bells plays between songs that brood the Orthodoxy atmosphere with the choral clean vocals lingering a fraction behind Drabikowski's original. The guitars have a space to breathe and boldly they occupy as a focal point above soft symphonics. By the third track a diversion unfolds, big chunky riffs unleash mosh grooves akin to Khold, a fusion of grim distortion and bombastic riffs in tune with Nu Metal and Groove Metal. Its the albums most stark brake in stride as other directions feel much closer to the darkened core. Its always the guitars that step outside expectations and expand the horizon. It would be a niche touch for the band to progress if under different circumstances.

With its cleaner production and expansive set of songs Hospodi offers a derivative experience, drifting from the Eastern Orthodoxy template that made this band so unique. It holds on to Clergy chants but it feels like dressing around a set of songs that have an anchor in a similar strain of darkness. Its more exciting given the diversity but you can hear the different minds behind it. Yesterday I wrote that Panihida was the better but only as a Batushka record. This one is has more dynamism and swells of intensity. Both are worth your time and different is my conclusion I guess!

Rating: 6/10

Batushka "Panihida" (2019)

This post will be the first of two covering a pair albums born from an odd and unfavorable situation. The mysterious Batushka, a Polish Black Metal band inspired by Eastern Orthodoxy, is now split in a strange legal situation where the original artist has be shunned and seemingly screwed over legally as his hired band mates leveraged ownership of the band itself. Panihida is the record released by original artist Krzysztof Drabikowski, its a notch lower on production value as he does not have the resources a record label like Metal Blade does. They have also been dead silent on the situation, no response to Drabikowski's claims have been made.

I will kick it off by saying the tone and temperament of this follow up record holds true to Litourgiya. It lacks the impact the Gregorian clean vocals initially wooed fans with but that is to be expected. This time around another listed set of eight tracks go through the typical motions of extreme music, blasting drums rattle the cage and meaty rhythm guitars chime in duality with shrill tremolo picking that scales tarnished melodies. Soft choral synths and theologian singing softly line the crevasses but the best moments always seem born of their uprising to the forefront.

There isn't much in the barraging of evil metallic onslaught that feels special. Its well performed but tends to go through the motions sustaining the evil orthodoxy atmosphere. All the best moments are birthed through breaks from intensity. On occasion softy guitar leads bring melodic uplift but they are scarce. In the right mood it can be very enjoyable but it lacks that ability to suck you in regardless. The impact of the first record had that but this follow up is simply more of the same. I will write on the other record tomorrow and say now this is the better of the two but not by much.

Rating: 6/10

Queen "Queen II" (1974)

The iconic cover art of the British Rock legendss second full length is an infamous one but that is mostly thanks to its revival within the Bohemian Rhapsody music video. This record may have otherwise fallen peril to the sands of time if Queen had ended the road here. That is just speculation of course, its a reasonable collection of songs that seem to relish in experimentation and the freedoms of Progressive song writing but little of it goes above and beyond. For me the genius of their sound is closer to an embryonic form, the tones Progressive Rock and a strong shimmer of Glam Rock overwhelm and restrain the diversity that would unfold in albums to come. I could be alone in this though as it seems critics adore this record. Is that retroactive or of the time? Either way I think hearing whats to come has dulled the spark in this second chapter as the styles of Rock and Metal of the era dominate the overall tone at play.

Queen II has a very strong vocal element with many layers of over dubbing creating a sense of grandiose and theater which would be done tastefully later on. In this instance its use is a little excessive and interjects the music like a synth instrument. There are times when it works and others not so much but it is certainly a showcase for Freddie's voice who gets to deploy a fair range of styles in the second half of the album. The whole thing however plays like an aimless journey, each song meanders through its motions with hardly any stand out moments. Its got a consistent tone that pivots with sudden music shifts and Roger Taylor puts his stamp in the middle of the record with The Loser In The End deploying his unique sound.

The records production is a little murky. Mustering roars of Heavy Metal energy from Brian May's guitar often end up in a clatter of collisions compromising clarity. They are often some of the best moments but with a lot going on musically it escapes the recording fidelity. Its clear Queen where being ambitious however many of the compositions and musical stunts pulled off may have been fresh and exciting at the time, it now sounds a little less grounded by the impressive song writing they would develop. Queen were young and youthful and its no surprise they would go on to do great things but at this point they are short. Its a strong, solid record but one that feels like its fallen to time, living in the shadow of sounds outgrown.

Rating: 5/10