Opeth - Heritage

I have not come across another album that has received more mixed views than Opeth's latest release - Heritage. It seems that people either adore it or completely hate it.

True, that compared to Opeth's previous albums, Heritage is very different. For starters, it has no growls or heavy dark repeating riffs. The entire album sounds like it was made in the 70's and hidden away in a time capsule only to be found 40 years later.

The slow songs, acoustic sections, flute and organ, brush drumming and vintage distortion patches gives a beautiful mixture of folk music and progressive rock. The King Crimson influence is almost palpable.
Mikael Åkerfeldt, the only constant member of the band since it's formation, has always been experimental with his music. But, Heritage is none like any others before it; very un-opeth-like. Much like jazz improvisations, the entire album has many extended interludes and solos.

Lyrically, the entire album is very dark and very often melancholic. Strangely, to me, the album would be the perfect soundtrack to a dark middle ages fantasy story of sorts. The album has many elements that repeat themselves through the songs. With the exception of Slither (which is dedicated to Dio), all other songs have long slow acoustic sections as well as very beautifully pieced solo's. The song Devil's Orchard starts off with a moderately fast tempo and slows down two minutes into the song. The intermediate section like many interludes throughout the album is very psychedelic. The song quickens towards the end finishes off with a solo.
Opeth - Devil's Orchard

The next song on the album is I Feel The Dark which starts off with slow acoustic riff as flutes, strings and soft drums played with brushes add on to give an eerie atmospheric feel.
Opeth - I Feel The Dark

The next song is the fastest song of the album - Slither which also is the least experimental song of the album. The album then moves into slightly more psychedelic and experimental set of songs - Nepenthe, Haxprocess, Famine, The Lines In My Hand and Folklore. All three songs are well over 6 minutes and have very long interludes. Nepenthe is mostly a soft slow songs with abruptly sharp and fast paced interludes and solos. Famine starts off with a very interesting flute and percussion intro. On first listen, these songs can sound quite random especially if you haven't listened to a lot of experimental music. The Line In My Hand has a quicker tempo and some very intricate drumming. Folklore starts off with a beautiful guitar piece and smoothly transitions into an 8 minute piece of pure brilliance.
Opeth - Folklore

The albums ends with one of the best instrumental pieces by Opeth - Marrow Of The Earth. It's a shame they didn't play this live when I saw them. I'd rather let the song speak for itself:
Opeth - Marrow Of The Earth

The album certainly is slower, more melodious and more experimental than Opeth's previous works. Listening to Heritage live is a completely different experience altogether. The atmosphere they create with their music is incredible. To me its perhaps one of the best psychedelic progressive rock album in a few decades. If you have listened to the album and you didn't like it, then you definitely need to listen to it again and this time keep your ears open!

Atreyu - Congregation of the Damned

For a long time, I refused to listen to Atreyu. I didn’t really know why, but since I had full faith in my reasoning abilities (but not so much in my memory), I naturally concluded that I must have had a real good reason for my bias, which had since been washed away by the er.. tides of time.

But one fine day – scratch that – one utterly miserable day, in a fit of pique born of months and months of using a slow Internet connection and Grooveshark streaming worse than a tube of toothpaste, I decided to abandon the hunt for new music and browse instead through some old music I already had but never really listened to. Enter Atreyu.

I listened to their ‘A Death-Grip On Yesterday’ first, and while I really like the album, it had nowhere near the effect on me that ‘Congregation of the Damned’ did, so the latter’s what I’ll talk about.

Congregation of the Damned starts off with a very good, if conventional metalcore song called ‘Stop! Before It’s Too Late And We’ve Destroyed It All’. The lyrics aren’t conventional metalcore though – they’re misanthropic in an eco-warrior sort of way that I thoroughly loved. In fact, the chorus with its gang chants of ‘Kill! Kill! Multiply! Till the skies are black and the rivers dry!’ is one sticky little refrain that I simply can’t get out of my environmentalist head. However, while ‘Stop! Before…’ is a great song, it’s unlikely to become anybody’s favourite from this album.

Lyrics Video: Stop! Before It's...

This album is hard to classify because it tries so hard to be eclectic. Halfway through a song you’re ready to dismiss as meh metalcore, a blazing fast solo appears out of nowhere just to disconcert you. Halfway through a song you’re ready to dismiss as another love song, an ear-splitting scream appears to throw your pigeonholing right out of the window.

‘Gallows’ is a great, great song. Brian Saller, the drummer, is the one singing during the chorus, and once you start to become familiar with his delivery, you realize that most, if not all, the songs on this album have him singing the choruses. Alex Varkatzas, the ‘lead’ vocalist, the chief lyricist and frontman, takes up the verse singing and screaming duties.

This combination works. ‘Gallows’ has an almost power metal feel to its soaring vocals, clean chording and simple, fast beats. Brian Saller’s voice is strongly reminiscent of Edguy and if you go further back, even has shades of Bruce Dickinson with its tremulous high notes. When combined with Varkatzas’s more typical ‘modern’ metalcore voice, it works a tangy treat. Atreyu knows this because pretty much every song on this album uses the dual vocalist formula.

Video: Gallows

‘Storm to Pass’ is almost an identical twin of ‘Gallows’ with a slightly less catchy chorus, and with some additional - spectacular - soloing to fill up the bridge. Which one of the two do I like better? I’m leaning towards ‘Gallows’ at the time of writing this review, but that wasn’t always the case, and I’ll let you decide which one wins.

Video: Storm To Pass

My favourite song on this album is probably ‘So Wrong’ and - interestingly - it’s almost fully Varkatzas. His smooth transitions from whispery verses to rising, pleading shouts to agonized screams and back make for one mesmerizing song. There’s even a quirky little solo in there, and also a bit of Saller in the choruses, but nothing ever feels out of place.

Lyrics Video: So Wrong

‘Black Days Begin’ is almost hard rock with its slow, punchy beats, chugging guitars, and a catchy, catchy chorus. I seem to be repeating myself, eh? Well, Atreyu, even in their otherwise most generic, ‘filler’ songs on this album, have hit on catchy choruses. ‘Black Days Begin’ has a bit of screaming (that spoils my ‘hard rock’ tag a bit, but well, I did call their music ‘eclectic’ earlier), and a solo that’s eerily similar to Megadeth’s ‘Sweating Bullets’ (let’s call it a ‘tribute’, shall we?), but the parts fit together without too much creaking.

‘Ravenous’ is rollicking fast and even more reminiscent of a power metal anthem than the other songs on this album. It’s not a song I would often skip on a full album listen, but it’s not a song that’d make stop what I’m doing just to listen.

‘Coffin Nails’ has some neat riffs and yet another soaring, clean sung Saller chorus. It quickly dropped off my favourites list though, for some reason I haven’t figured out. Having said that, this is a song you’ll definitely enjoy on your first listen.

‘Wait For You’ is the obligatory love song with the keyboards, the soft angsty crooning and the gradual rise to an uplifting crescendo. For something that’s another example of a much abused formula, it’s not a bad song at all.

Or maybe I’m just a sucker for a cliché because there’s something about this album that strikes you as startlingly familiar, even on your first listen. Atreyu, perhaps in their hunt for radio success, have simplified their music. When there’s conflict between catchy but repetitive versus creative but possibly dissonant, Atreyu have always gone for the former. The chording is simple in most of the songs, but you can see that it’s not because the guitarists ain’t got it – there’s enough of soloing on the album to put that doubt to bed. The drumming is occasionally fast, but always simple. The choruses are always catchy, and always simple.

If Atreyu haven’t really experimented with song structures, where does the ‘eclectic’ bit come in? The styles they play – they do a great job mixing the punk vocals with the metalcore vocals with the power metal vocals with the pop vocals; the alternative rock guitaring with the speed metal soloing, with the hard rock riffing - that’s where they’ve really mixed things up.

If you’re an alternative rock fan who likes a bit of screaming, you’ll love this album. If you’re a metalcore fan, so little screaming may be disappointing at first, but you’ll grow to love this album. Lastly, and here’s where I’ll put my neck on the line, if you fancy a bit of Maiden or good ol’ heavy metal, I suspect you’ll enjoy quite a few songs on this album.

Escape The Fate - Dying Is Your Latest Fashion

Hello again, folks. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have time to write any reviews in a year and half, but procrastination has a way of its own, you see. In light of failed promises in the past, I cannot guarantee that this blog will be dusted off and hung up on the wall again, but I’ll try. Couple of things I want to do from now on: share songs of the week/ bands of the week, albums of the week. Share weekly playlists on grooveshark and/or youtube, and even occasional one song/one video reviews from time to time to slightly ease up the pressure of trying to write full fledged reviews all the time.

Alright then, without further ado, on we go to… Escape the Fate. But wait, a little more ado, as I discuss their genre a bit. While I never acknowledged it out aloud, I have disliked post-hardcore as a genre in the past. Hardcore’s great. Why would anyone want to go post hardcore? As I listened to more and more post-hardcore though, stuff by Alexisonfire and Escape The Fate especially, my opinion was slowly, forcibly revised until it crawled over the positive side of the fence and stayed there. Today, I can say that I enjoy post-hardcore; it won’t be my favourite genre of music, but it’s not bad at all.

(Before jumping into the review, a quick summary of what post-hardcore is, for the uninitiated. Post-hardcore, despite its name, is just punk-rock with some screaming. Historically, hardcore bands that got tired of doing hardcore, decided to soften up a bit and went a little way back to their punk and hard rock roots, and became post-hardcore bands. So, if you find yourself listening to songs with fast punk-like tempos, painfully sweet pop-punk vocals, but often interspersed with screaming, fast chuggy punk-like riffing, but with solos even, breakdowns, or not, sometimes in the same songs, sometimes not, you know you’re hovering somewhere near post-hardcore.)

‘Dying Is Your Latest Fashion’ wasn’t the first ETF album I listened to. That was actually ‘This War Is Ours’, which is a pretty great album by itself but by no means as diverse or influential as its predecessor. As often happens, my current order of favourites on this album is nothing like my order after my first listen, so I’ll go over the songs in approximately the order I listened to them.

‘Situations’ is nothing special. It is a good song, rather conventional in structure with a punk/alternative style catchy chorus, a fair bridge section and no hint of dissonance, and certainly no screaming. It’s a song made for radio and is probably a song every listener will like on the first listen. I think this song comes up first on ‘Dying Is Your Latest Fashion’ search results, so that’s probably why I hit this song first. It certainly made me interested enough in the album to listen to the rest of the songs. A slight clarification though: I have no intention of saying this about ‘Situations’: ‘OK Song. Can be skipped.’ – if I even gave off a hint of that, it’s only because this album has so many other great songs. Considered in isolation, this song is well above the average alternative/punk song you may listen to.

Video: Situations

‘The Guillotine’ is next. Screamed verses, clean choruses, clean rhythms and a lead guitar playing a little something on top makes for a great 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and then it gets really interesting. Out of nowhere you get a short, surprisingly moving, surprisingly fitting solo, and then comes the best bit. The Breakdown. OK, before you snigger, let me defend myself by saying I’ve listened to hundreds and hundreds of breakdowns, but this one takes the cake for sheer contrast. The song slows from a fast punk chorus to the snail’s pace of a breakdown in an instant, and Ronnie Radke’s vocals – I had no idea he had this in him – change in the blink of an eye from sugary sweet, finger-in-your-ear clean to death growls Cannibal Corpse would be proud of. Cracking song, this.

Video: The Guillotine

‘Reverse This Curse’ and ‘Cellar Door’ always go together in my mind, for some reason, although they aren’t too alike. ‘Reverse This Curse’ is again a typical punk rock song with a catchy chorus, catchy verses, fast punk riffing and no screaming. ‘Situations’ clone? Not at all. Every song with a catchy chorus isn’t the same, and the fact that ETF pack so many great punk songs into one album is a credit to them. It’s easy to say something is ‘catchy’ but infinitely harder to make a catchy song that doesn’t sound like something else. ‘Reverse This Curse’ has a great bridge section too. ‘Cellar Door’ on the other hand, is just as catchy, but with its breathy vocals, slow tempo and leisurely riffing not at all punk-like, wouldn’t be out of place on any alternative rock album. Again, calling something ‘catchy’ may come across as unintentionally pejorative, I don’t mean it that way. Catchy songs are great. And Ronnie Radke does slow, breathy vocals pretty well too.

‘My Apocalypse’ is probably my favourite song on this album. It’s stylistically as far from ‘Cellar Door’ as you can get while staying on the same album. Where ‘Cellar Door’ is soft and breathy, ‘My Apocalypse’ is sharp as a knife and unapologetically loud. I don’t often go into lyrics (as you may have seen), but this song has great lyrics; lyrics that leave the usual ‘you and me’, and relationships far behind. I don’t think it’s a formula, but up to 2:30, again, this song is great – loud rhythm guitars tightly woven with solos on the lead to start it off, followed by a mesmerizing duet between clean vocals in the verse and screaming vocals in the chorus, and then it becomes spectacular. A solo, surely one of the greatest post-hardcore has seen, starts off slowly and builds up to a stupendous crescendo, only to accompany another duet between clean and unclean vocals that’ll leave you gasping, and reaching for the replay button. Who would have thought there could be such beauty in dissonance? Just as how the Sun makes the brightest of bulbs appear dim in comparison, you could be forgiven for listening to the song over and over again only from 2:30 onwards. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the first half of the song; it’s just that it pales beside the spectacular finale. Sorry for the gushing, but this song is that good.

Video: My Apocalypse

‘There’s No Sympathy For The Dead’ is almost pure metalcore, with its fast, high, melodic chugs, and screams. It has another great solo, fast and relentless, but what’s really the best part of this song is the bridge-to-verse section that follows the solo. Mindblowing. So much so that I listened to this song over and over again just so I could listen to that 10 second bit. The rest of the song isn’t bad though, the choruses are loud but tuneful and the guitars would appeal to any metalcore fan.

‘The Webs We Weave’ is, if you are to pick one song off this album, the song that typifies post-hardcore. Fast, loud, catchy choruses, mostly clean vocals but with timely bits of screaming and a great bridge/solo section make this a great choice for track #1.

‘Not Good Enough For Truth In Cliché’ was the first song ETF released off the album. While not a song I would loop over and over, it’s not one I would skip on a playlist either. Classic punk rock again, sweeter and even more sugary than ‘Situations’ if that’s possible.

‘The Day I Left The Womb’ is all acoustic and not half bad. That just leaves two songs I think which I’ll skip, not because they are terrible, but because this review is already four times as long as I intended.

In conclusion, if there’s only one post-hardcore album you’ll get to listen all your life, pick this. In any case, this is not an album anybody, whether a post-hardcore fan, a punk rock fan, a metalcore fan or even an alternative rock fan should miss.

The Devil Wears Prada - With Roots Above And Branches Below

It’s high time I reviewed ‘With Roots Above and Branches Below’ by The Devil Wears Prada, seeing as it’s been my metalcore band of choice for the past month or so. If you haven’t heard of these guys, let me pre-empt your thoughts here: ‘That was a mouthful, wasn’t it?’ Indeed, there’s a joke which goes something like this.

‘Think of a phrase, any phrase. Just make sure it isn’t too short. Now do a google search, and I’m sure you’ll hit upon a metalcore band with that name.’

If you read that Wikipedia article through, you’ll notice something surprising. Apparently, the band is not named after the movie: it’s just them making a statement against petty consumerism. They’ve often been called a Christian band, and I have to admit that nothing in their lyrics disproves that observation. I have half a disclaimer to produce here: if you strongly, strongly get irritated/offended by Christian lyrics, then don’t listen to them. It’s only half a disclaimer because any religious references in their songs are highly tangential/metaphorical at best, so your distaste better be severe if you are not even going to give them a shot. Before I launch into the review, I have another (full) disclaimer to make. As always, if you dislike metalcore (you don’t like unclean vocals/you think all metalcore bands are untalented/ it’s cool to not like the genre), then don’t bother with this band.

It took me quite a while to start liking this band, and retrospective analysis threw up a couple of reasons.

1) All their songs sound the same.

2) They use weird, inappropriate instruments in weird, inappropriate places.

As for the first point, I can’t really give an explanation how I got over that. Perhaps it was just altruism: I just wanted to give these guys a shot. Perhaps I got bored of all the other metalcore bands that I had in my collection. Whatever it was, I urge you guys to ignore your first impression (if it’s a negative one), and give the album three, four, five listens before making the judgment. The point about the strange instruments: I’ll get to that in a bit.

Usually, bands pick up the most popular song off a record to make the first video. And usually, this choice matches my choice of favourite. Not in this case, however. ‘Dez Moines’ (and not ‘Danger: Wildman’ which has a video) instantly worked for me. In hindsight, it’s not easy to see why this is the case, as the song is not significantly different in composition from the rest. However, ‘Dez Moines’ perfectly illustrates several features that identify a TDWP composition. The clean vocals by Jeremy DePoyster, for a start. They have an almost robotic feel to them – mechanical in a way reminiscent of As I Lay Dying’s clean vocals, but with a pop-punk voice instead. 'Dez Moines' starts off with them, and that is slightly uncharacteristic, but their presence is not. Almost every song has a significant proportion of clean vocals. But that’s not makes 'Dez Moines' tick. It’s the brutally simple chorus riff, more than adequately backed up by Mike Hranica’s searing screams that hits you hard. A word about the screaming, and it’s really only one word. Brutal. I could literally feel the agony coursing through Mike Hranica’s lungs with each enunciated syllable. 

Video: Dez Moines

‘Danger: Wildman’ is a pretty decent song too. This is one song off the record where it’s the clean vocals that work. Perhaps the first thing that’ll hit you about this song is the breakdown. ‘Wait, these guys haven’t done away with the stripped down chugging yet? With all that bad press going about, I thought everyone’d done away with that.’ Well, not quite. TDWP still love their breakdowns, and there are a lot of them in this album. Do they work? Erm, kind of. The breakdowns by themselves are not works of art: they are usually nothing more than vaguely melodic chugs on the open E. But they are good foil for what follow. Breakdowns on the lead, as I like to call them. Dainty little tunes that up the tempo, and stick. ‘Lord Xenu’ is a great song, and a great example of this. So is ‘Wakakalypse’ and to some extent, ‘Ben Has A Kid’.

Video: Danger: Wildman

I’ll come back to ‘Danger: Wildman’ because this song has many more features that mark TDWP as a band. There are violins! Aye, weird instruments, like I said. Extremely disconcerting in the beginning, but I’ve grown to like them. And there’s synth. No, don’t turn away your head in disgust. I actually think synth can be used very productively in a metalcore setting (look at Bring Me The Horizon, Enter Shikari). ‘Big Wiggly Style’ starts off with a hilarious violin mediated breakdown, but it’s a pretty good song as it turns out. There’s another thing about TDWP’s music that sets them apart from the stereotypical metalcore band: they actually go easy on the chugging. There’s a lot of clean chording on this record, and it works for me. It goes quite well with the clean vocals.

I’ve always been a sucker for the slow, soft, lilting melody. No, I wouldn’t listen to a record full of those, but just one, on a metalcore album, is always welcome. A Day To Remember never fail to do this, and apparently neither do TDWP. ‘Louder Than Thunder’ is a decent listen, and highlights the keyboard work and Jeremy DePoyster’s clean vocals.

Video: Louder Than Thunder

Other good songs on this album include ‘Assistant to The Reginal Manager’ (more oral gymnastics) and ‘Gimme Half’. And the bad? There aren’t too many songs on this album I would call coincidental stowaways, but ‘Sassafras’ and ‘I Hate Buffering’ definitely are. Incidentally, they are the first two songs on the album (I don’t know who did the ordering, but I sincerely hope it was just a lottery.)

To sum up all my observations, I think WRAABB is a good album by a good band. It’s unlikely that TDWP will become the most popular metal band ever, or the most critically acclaimed, but within their limitations they do a fair job, sewing together a coherent and distinct record. 

Rating: 8/10

Suggested songs: 'Dez Moines', 'Lord Xenu', 'Danger: Wildman', 'Louder Than Thunder', 'Wakakalypse'

A Day To Remember - Homesick

’s been a while folks, and I have nothing to offer by way of apology except for a sheepish defence of the powers of procrastination. Now this band I’m going to review today, I have wanted to for a long time – these guys practically created their own genre, which they still dominate with aplomb. If you are wondering if the statement “they have their own genre” is getting a wee bit stale, you have got the situation almost exactly wrong. With reviewers’ penchant for creating a handful of genres every week, it is very impressive that these guys have defied classification even after three full length albums.

The band I’m talking about, A Day To Remember, is an American band. The album I’ll be talking about is called ‘Homesick’ and is their third offering to be released into the wild. Having whetted your appetites about the kind of music they play, it might seem appropriate that I start off with a description of their playing style. Every one of their songs has two markedly different sections – a pop punk (usually chorus ) section where the painfully sweet vocals of lead singer Jeremy McKinnon serve up simple pop melodies, and a metalcore/deathcore section where the song is completely amped up to the point where death growls, harsh screams and breakdowns wipe away any semblance of the pop. Until of course the pop returns during the next chorus; and goes away again. You might think that the two genres don’t mix, and such an experiment will inevitably sound ridiculous, but the opposite seems to be true. I’ve always felt that hardcore has punk roots, and this band just proves my point.‘Homesick’ has been unfavourably compared to their earlier albums, and perhaps justifiably so. Some reviewers have pointed out that the novelty associated with the fusion of genres is fast wearing off, and I would have agreed a couple of months previously, but not today. This album has grown on me slowly, moving from a state of complete disdain to a regular playlist slot. On the other hand, if you are starting off your ‘popcore’ (one genre suggestion for this band) journey with this album, I think even the slowness won’t be an issue. ‘Downfall of us All’ was the first song I listened to, or rather watched, as it’s the only song off the album that has an associated video. It starts off with a bunch of gang chants, that soon fuse with a breakdown typical of the band. Combined with a fairly melodic chorus, this song makes for a good listen. ‘I’m Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?’ was the only song that I really enjoyed on my first listen, to be honest. Again typical of the band, this song has a catchy chorus, nicely complemented by the screaming and the breakdowns.

Video: The Downfall Of Us All
Video: I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What're You Made Of?

‘Welcome To The Family’ and ‘Mr. Highway’s Thinking About The End’ almost perfectly capture the musical essence of this band. Both start off with heavy deathcore growls and amp down into clean vocals for the chorus portions. First timers might find the genre switches disconcerting, but both songs are excellent listens once you get used to them. ‘NJ Legion Iced Tea’ was the first single released by the band – it was an interesting choice because this song is almost totally pop punk/alternative with hardly any hardcore portions. However, it might have been the right choice because it hints at the trend towards more ‘punkness’ in this album. Most other songs, including ‘Homesick’ and ‘Have Faith in Me’ are stylistically similar, mostly punk, with hints of hardcore. One song that deserves a special mention is ‘If It Means A Lot To You’ featuring guest vocals by Sierra Kusterbeck. Nearly three quarters of the song is acoustic. This song might have only been mediocre on an album full of acoustic recordings; but on this album, it nicely complements the other, heavier songs.

Video: Welcome To The Family

Will you like this album? If you like metalcore, and can tolerate punk, there’s a good chance you’ll like this album. Or flipping that statement around, if you like punk, and can tolerate metalcore, you’ll love this album. Also, if you are a fan of alternative rock, A Day To Remember, is probably the most palatable introduction to the world of metalcore you can get. If you absolutely detest nasal punk crooning (or metalcore screaming for that matter), I think you’d rather stay away. There’s one more thing: having defended this album against criticism, I have to admit that it still comes off worse in a song to song comparison with its predecessor ‘For Those Who Have Heart’. If you want to start off listening to this band, that album might be a better choice.

(Vocals 8/10, Guitaring 7/10, Lyrics 7/10, Originality 9.5/10, Overall: 7.9/10)

Saosin - In Search of Solid Ground

Saosin is an American alternative rock band. My first impression, and it’s not going anywhere, is that they sound a lot like 30 Seconds to Mars. Now the kind of music 30 Seconds to Mars play belongs to a genre they more or less own, unlike something like say metalcore. There’s still some space for a handful of bands to coexist. You don’t need to go around calling bands like Saosin clones just yet. Alternative rock is an easy label to apply, but I’ll try to describe in better detail the tone of their songs, from the album 'In Search of Solid Ground'.

Most songs have a fairly slow tempo. The bass lines are very pronounced and together with the slow pace and some of the chord progressions, lend most songs an air of despondency that I've grown to love with 30 Seconds to Mars. ‘The Alarming Sound of a Small Still Voice’ epitomizes all these things, and is my personal favourite from this album. It starts slowly, but picks up quick for a sensational chorus.

Video: The Alarming Sound Of A Small, Still Voice

On first listen, you get the impression that Saosin hit the sweet spot of alternative rock with their chorus and bridge sections. Most songs have melodic, catchy choruses and often stunning bridge sections. They seem very aware of this and that is their weakness. Some songs are rushed into the chorus without adequate development; this may serve to make a song appealing to first time listeners but the impact will fade soon. The guitaring is typical of alternative rock, with the addition of a fast picked, high pitched layer on top, again very reminiscent of 30 Seconds to Mars. There are no solos, and for most part Saosin shun palm muting of any kind at all. ‘Changing’, which was their first single off the album, is an excellent song. It has a brilliant chorus, a nice sounding stripped down bridge and ironically, some quiet palm muting providing a good lead up to the chorus.

Video: Changing

Vocalist Cove Reber is undoubtedly the life and blood of this band. He is a very good vocalist; and he does not try to overdo it with the unnecessary vocal flourishes that blight the efforts of others similarly gifted. His high pitched voice lends a couple of songs, notably ‘It’s All Over Now’ a distinctly punk feel. In the chorus sections, he seems to nearly, but not quite scream. That’s quite an enjoyable effect that I’ve grown to like with 30 Seconds to Mars.

‘Fireflies (Light Messengers)’, the last song on the album (and also the longest at over eight minutes) is a breathtakingly beautiful song. Starting off with soft keyboards, the song builds layer by layer and transports you into a little personal world where you will be all alone with your pensiveness. I can’t really put the idea across in words; it has to be listened to be grasped. ‘Nothing is What It Seems (Without You)’ and ‘Say Goodbye’ are two other great songs. They too, like ‘Fireflies…’ stick to a very slow tempo and do very well for it.

Video: Fireflies

‘Deep Down’, ‘Is This Real’ and ‘On My Own’ are faster and consequently begin to develop slight punk overtones. Nonetheless they are good in their own way, and I suspect, to another listener may even become the favourite tracks off this album. I must temper all the praise with a slight bit of criticism – the lyrics are quite clichéd and adequate at best.

Saosin do come across as an unpretentious sort of band. They know what they are good at, and they know what they want to do, with the unpretentious aspect being that the two ideals match closely. They are definitely influenced by 30 Seconds to Mars, and herein I must insert a few words of caution. If you do not like 30 Seconds to Mars, it is highly unlikely that you will enjoy Saosin. I do, and I think Saosin is a great alternative rock band.

(Vocals: 9/10, Guitaring: 9/10, Lyrics: 7/10, Overall: 8.3/10)

Lamb of God - Wrath

Lamb of God is an American groove metal band. Do not be overly alarmed if you have no idea what that means. Neither did I for a considerable period of time, before I eventually came to the conclusion that groove metal is at best a filler genre – it straddles metalcore and thrash metal. Besides, it also satisfies our very human urge to label everything in sight. One heavy metal band epitomizes the definition of groove metal. That’s Pantera. For many, groove metal begins and ends with Pantera. If you are a fan, forget everything else you’ve heard about syncopation (Wikipedia) and filler genres (me); you’ve already got a pretty good idea what this genre is all about.

‘Wrath’ is Lamb of God’s sixth studio album. Let me first explain why this band cannot easily be classified as metalcore. The overall sound is darker, and completely lacks the melodic overtones that many metalcore songs have. The reason for this simple – a firm insistence on down-tuned guitars, and low frequency riffing. Lamb of God also refrain from too much thrashiness, by giving equal importance to unmuted chords. Even the picked (as opposed to strummed) riffs are longer than the usual metalcore’s. The guitarists bring in four, five, six notes before falling back to palm muting or chording. In fact I think this technique, backed by the guitarists’ undoubted technical ability, is Lamb of God’s greatest strength. With their usual searing pace, they almost always manage to hit the sweet spot with their riffing. ‘Grace’, the first song I listened to off this album is an excellent example of this. Interestingly, this song highlights another aspect of this band’s music – the occasional acoustic preludes. Perhaps this feature is an attempt to brush off the criticism of monotony that has often been directed towards them. In any case, it works. ‘Grace’ is an excellent song. ‘Everything to Nothing’ is my personal favourite though. It sticks to the same tried and tested formula, does nothing new, and packs one hell of a punch.

Video: Grace
Video: Everything To Nothing

I have spoken of how Lamb of God move away from traditional metalcore, while still identifying with it. Where does thrash metal come in? The usual screaming by vocalist Randy Blythe is interspersed with bouts of very thrash metal like shouting. Actually, the vocals are reminiscent of an excellent, if underappreciated thrash metal band called Overkill. For any metalcore based music to not inevitably fizzle out, the vocals have to bleed raw energy. Blythe delivers, and with aplomb. The chorus of ‘Fake Messiah’ (another excellent song) highlights his considerable vocal skill in the higher end of the decibel scale. Lamb of God move even closer to thrash metal with their solos: nearly all songs accommodate one. The solos keep up the high tempo and manage to blend seamlessly in. Breakdowns, the staple food of metalcore, are there too. In fact some songs have both breakdowns and solos. While the breakdowns are not totally stripped down to zero speed, they do their job – you’ll find yourself nodding your head in rhythm, if not quite jumping up and down.

‘Dead Seeds’ has some delightful bends in the opening riff. ‘Contractor’ has an Iron Maiden-esque galloping riff that I can’t seem to get tired of, no matter how many bands I hear it from. ‘Choke Sermon’ is fast, groovy and an excellent listen. ‘Reclamation’, and the two bonus tracks, ‘Shoulder to your God’ and ‘We Die Alone’ break away slightly from convention: they are slower and correspondingly longer, with mixed results. ‘We Die Alone’ and ‘Shoulder to your God’ evoke favourable comparisons to As I Lay Dying’s music, but ‘Reclamation’, the longest song on the album at just over 7 minutes, disappoints. On the whole, this album blows you away with its frenetic pace and groovy riffs. If there’s anything negative to speak of, it’s that my first impression was to doubt the lasting power of this album. However it’s been a month and I am not bored one bit; that should go some way in dispelling any doubts.

Video: Dead Seeds (live)

Rating: (Vocals: 9/10, Riffs: 9/10, Overall: 9/10)

Chevelle - Sci- Fi Crimes

After 2007's Vena Sera, the Illinois hard rock band is back with their latest offering, Sci-Fi Crimes. Apart from the cringes of the SF fans over the name (I know you hate the term Sci-Fi), this is an album with a lot of expectations attached to it; Chevelle have gone from strength to strength since 2002's Wonder What's Next, and I for one was really curious to see what the band has brought to the table.

The album opener really raises expectations; Sleep Apnea begins with a refreshingly interesting piece of riffage, which promises to trump anything that Vena Sera had to offer in terms of punch-your-face riffs. As Pete Loeffler steps up to the plate to deliver the vocal side of the deal, you realise he's gone back to the vocal styles of This Type of Thinking(Could Do Us In); which is an extremely good thing. The same abstract form of vocals, the same inflections of voice perfectly complement the heavy riffs that the song provides.

Songs to follow largely maintain the same trend; they either have the punch of a song like Another Know It All or Emotional Drought; or the ballad-ish feel attached to songs like Well Enough Alone or Paint the Seconds. A special mention of the track Highland's Apparition; Chevelle have now added a full acoustic track to their repertoire. The lyrics are also classic Chevelle; poetry and rhyme, on odd timings and meters, juxtaposing a plethora of lyrical topics and themes. The result is that there is something in here for everyone.

The overall sound of the album is a new high point on the band's discography; they have successfully improved on all previous efforts, and have produced a sound which is both charachteristic Chevelle and completely unique at the same time. If you asked me to pick my favourite tracks from the album, I would be hard-pressed to do so; there really wasn't anything bad on the album. I shall however, pick a few: Sleep Apnea, Mexican Suns, Fell into your shoes, Letters from a Thief, The Circus and Highland's Apparition. Although I do recommend that you listen to the whole album.

Reception from the who's who of the music world have been lukewarm, to positive in some cases. Considering thats never stopped anyone from trying to corroborate the viewpoint, you will want to hear this album for yourself. I doubt you'd be disappointed.

Lyrics: 8/10 Riffs: 9/10 Overall: 8.5/10

Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God

A few days back, I thought of browsing through my music collection to check for updates of some bands. In the course of this pursuit, I found that there's been a new Amon Amarth album, Twilight of the Thunder God. Its been out for a while now (Sept. 2008 release) which means that this is piece is woefully out of date; however, its whats been in my WMP for the last 24 hours, so I thought it deserves a mention here.

First off, something about the band. Amon Amarth are a Death Metal band, whose lyrics are derived from Norse mythology. Twilight of the Thunder God is their seventh studio album. For those of us not familiar with Norse Mythology, the album title speaks of the battle between the Thunder God Thor and the World Serpent, Jormugandr, as is shown in the album artwork below:


Music wise, Id say this is the among the best Amon Amarth. My personal favourite albums were 2002's Versus The World, 2004's Fate of Norns and 2007's With Oden on Our Side. Twilight of the Thunder God features a lot of new things for the band: A slew of high-profile guest performances (Children of Bodom guitarist Roope Latvala performs a shred solo on the title track, Entombed vocalist Lars Goran Petrov on Guardians of Asgaard and Apocalyptica on the track Live for the Kill). Another new addition to this album is that the overall tempo of most songs is quicker, giving the album a more mainstream sound. On the first hearing, its definitely more palatable to the Amon Amarth newbie than say, Versus The World, and songs like Free Will Sacrifice, No Fear for the Setting Sun and even the title track, Twilight of the Thunder God, have a distinctly In Flames ring to them.

Video: Twilight Of The Thunder God

That's not to say that it doesnt stay true to the band's trademark sound; far from it. The riffage and drumming on the other songs is classic Amon Amarth; Power Chord riffs and heavy bass drumming once more feature on the album, in addition to faster solos. Songs in this package to watch out for are Guardians of Asgaard (This song practically got me high out of headbanging... It deserves to be heard on a sound system with a good bass setup) No Fear for the Setting Sun and a special mention for the song Where is your God, which sounds like a fusion of Nevermore and Amon Amarth, definitely a good thing.

A noteworthy point about this album is the production and track listing. The production of the album is definitely better than previous albums, with each track sounding very clean. To get an idea, place Guardians of Asgaard opposite Death in Fire, and you'll get what I'm talking about. Track listing has been done in a way that will get a newbie hooked immediately, while priming him/her properly for the Amon Amarth "sound". This is sure to get a lot of people attracted to the band, and I do expect it to do very well commercially.

Video: Guardians Of Asgaard

Rating:
Lyrics: 8/10, Riffs: 9/10, Solos: 9/10. Overall : 8.67/10
Its a good album, up there with the best of Amon Amarth, like I've already said. I wouldn't call it their best effort though; it is however a unique effort. From a critical point of view, one could accuse the band of having gone for a more mainstream death metal sound. Then again, mainstream death metal is an oxymoron, so there shouldn't be anything to complain about.

Megadeth - Endgame

Statutory Warning : Listening to the album might result in Brain Freeze, Loss of Motor muscle control , Blindness etc. due to pure awesomeness!

Megadeth, one of the great four thrash metal bands, released its 12th studio album - Endgame.
The band saw its peak earlier with the albums Rust In Peace
and Countdown To Extinction
after which was a period of decline, multiple changes in the band line-up and injury. After Dave Mustaine's recovery the band has brought out three albums so far - The System Has Failed, United Abominations and Endgame. In times when other thrash metal acts like Metallica are going from bad to worse, Megadeth and its music has been on the rise.

Megadeth has reached a new peak with the album Endgame. It is easily the best thrash metal album in over a decade!

The band's current line up is:
Dave Mustaine
Chris Broderick
Shawn Drover
James LoMenzo
Broderick has been a perfect find for Mustaine. Drover has done a fine job with drums and LoMenzo is a good fit with the bass. All songs in the album have multiple solos. Both the lead guitarists complement each other very well. Dialectic Chaos, the instrumental intro song, is just mind blowing and sets the tone for the album. Songs like 1320, This Day We Fight and Head Crusher have high tempo riffs and fearless solos. How The Story Ends, Bodies and 44 Minutes are more groovy and have elements similar to the older albums Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction. The lyrics, like older Megadeth albums, have political themes; the song Endgame paints a very morbid picture of a future world. The only odd song is The Hardest Part of Letting Go...Sealed With a Kiss which is more like some of the songs in Cryptic Writing and Risk. The songs in Endgame have speed and power metal elements in them like United Abominations.


Ratings: (Lyrics - 9, Riffs - 10, Solos - 10) - 9.67/10.

On the whole one can expect a power packed, intense album that would definitely blow your mind. I cannot say with certainty now, that Rust In Peace is the best of Megadeth. Endgame comes really close. It is definitely a must listen to all metal fans. Ryan Ogle of the Blabbermouth says, "Regardless of whether you're a newbie retro-thrasher or a veteran who has recently released your own comeback album, grab a pencil because Professor Mustaine is taking us all to school. Glaring down from his pulpit made of bone, the wild-eyed, fire-breathing Dave of old snarls out a sermon consisting of some of the most ferocious MEGADETH songs to assail the world in some time now." Bottom line is:
Mustaine has still got what Metallica lost long ago....

Video: 1320

Evergrey - The Inner Circle

I have always wondered why do progressive metal bands suffer from very non-male high pitched vocals. Symphony X, Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Spheric Universe Experience, Angra, Ark, etc. all have similar vocals. Many times I have seen people dislike progressive metal because of the vocals. Amongst a small set of bands which do not follow the trend is Evergrey.

This Swedish progressive power metal band formed in 1996 is 8 albums old. I will review their fifth studio album The Inner Circle. This album received a very positive review by the Metal Observer and rightly so. The lyrical themes of Evergrey in general are of despair. Unlike some bands which may tend to over do the 'man in pain' ideology, Evergrey's lyrics are quite poetic well within acceptable bounds of anguish. The Inner Circle is a concept album like most other Evergrey albums dealing with child abuse, cults and religion. Though the choros now and then is shrill (the chorus has female backup vocals as well) does resemble other progressive metal bands, the lead vocals definitely has a grunge feel to it and is a welcome respite for people who love the progressive metal music without the vocals.

The music involves brilliant harmonized solos and symphonic keys. The keyboard compositions have many similarities with melodic death metal bands like norther and children of bodom. In that sense the genre of this band should actually have been melodic progressive grunge metal or the likes. The album offers something for everyone, A touch of blessing and More than ever are have stronger elements of power metal and, songs like Ambassador and The essence of conviction are more progressive while Harmless wishes and Faith restored are beautiful ballads. Throughout the album, there are many portions where words are spoken, which the front man Tom Englund says are of an actual person.

Video: A Touch Of Blessing
Video: More Than Ever

On the whole, it is a must for all progressive metal fans and a good starting point for power/grunge metal fans exploring progressive metal.

Ratings: (Lyrics - 10, Riffs - 8.5, Novelty - 9) - 9.17/10.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Lonely Road

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is an American punk/post-hardcore band. Post-hardcore is an interesting new genre; it’s not quite punk, not quite metalcore and not quite heavy metal. It’s a mixture of all three. The vocalist of such a band is most likely to have a pop-punk kind of voice, which he would temper with modulation, screaming and whispering. The guitars’ tone is punk-like, but post-hardcore bands go beyond punk constraints to even put in the odd solo. RJA’s latest offering, ‘Lonely Road’, however moves away from post-hardcore and towards a more generic punk/alternative rock sound. I say this because the screaming’s mostly done away with, and there are a couple of acoustic songs too.

‘You Better Pray’ was the first single released from this album, and it was the first song I listened to. The vocalist’s electronically touched singing in the verse parts, and the characteristic nasal crooning during the chorus parts are catchy, but not what make the song great. It’s the stop-start discordance of the rhythm guitars, coupled with a nicely overlaid solo that top it off. ‘Pen and paper’, the second single off the album, is a decent song; it tends to get sickeningly sweet, but a nice bridge section halts the process. It is probably the most punk-like song on the album, but that works in its favour.

Video: You Better Pray

RJA make a conscious effort to stay clear of pure punk rock. They sometimes overdo it however, with vocalist Ronnie Winter particularly guilty; he sometimes over-modulates and appends an irritating gasp to his words. ‘Believe’, which would have otherwise been an outstanding romantic/acoustic piece, is only great because of precisely this. Nevertheless, it has excellent lyrics and when Winter’s voice steps up through the frequency spectrum during the chorus, it really is quite delightful. One technique that I’ve already talked about is the stop –start guitaring, and RJA use it to great effect. ‘Step Right Up’ is a really nice example of this, and is my pick for the second best song on this album. ‘Pull Me Back’ has a nice solo section, and a catchy chorus. The title track ‘Lonely Road’ is another great song. Again, RJA introduce just the right amount of discordance, a chord here and a voice modulation there, that transform decent punk rock into good punk rock. Watch out for the musical exhibition RJA put on towards the end of this song. ‘Represent’ and ‘Godspeed’ are slower, softer and more melodic, but there’s nothing particularly distinctive about them; consequently they don’t get the promotion from good to great in my book. ‘Senioritis’ and ‘No spell’ are disappointing; here RJA fail in their quest for uniqueness, they sound trite and in all likelihood will be skipped from the playlist after one listen.

Video: Believe
Video: Step Right Up

On the whole, ‘Lonely Road’ is a nice album. I’ve read reviews where’s it’s been unfavourably compared to their earlier album. I’ve also seen accusations of selling out: apparently because RJA have traded their heavier post-hardcore sound for a softer, more punk-like approach. I haven’t listened to their older album yet, and if you haven’t either, this is quite a good album. A word of warning however: if you detest punk rock and high pitched, nasal vocals, I fear even RJA’s attempts at challenging convention will not make you like this album.

Rating: (Vocals: 8/10, Guitaring: 7.5/10, Lyrics: 7.5/10, Overall: 7.8/10)

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band, and considerably more mainstream than the other bands we’ve discussed here. Calling their music alternative rock is about as useful as identifying them as a rock band, and also not completely fair to them. After all, they have managed to evolve a musical style of their own, which cannot be fully described by that label. Incidentally FF have always been Grammy favourites, with all their six albums being nominated, and three winning it. ‘Echoes, Patience, Silence & Grace’ is rock music at its palatable best. A couple of songs stick to the tried and tested FF formula: an extended acoustic opening section, followed by a quick amp-up into harder rock. ‘Let It Die’, and ‘But, honestly’ are perfect examples. Both songs are excellent listens, with the acoustic portions making you long for the electrics and when they do arrive, leaving you satisfied.

Video: Let It Die

‘The Pretender’ is the first single they released from this album, and is probably the only traditional alternative rock song in the entire album. Dave Grohl, the vocalist and former drummer for Nirvana, is good but not awesome. He knows he doesn’t possess a stupendous vocal range, but also knows that his harsh acoustic-backed vocals nicely complement his whining screams in the harder portions. The guitaring is again not too complex, but quite creative, and the simplicity is their greatest strength. This band doesn’t punch above its weight.

Video: The Pretender
Video: But, Honestly

Many hard rock bands make acoustic songs, and with a decent melody and standard chords, manage to make them sound good. But you realize what a really good acoustic song is supposed to sound like when you listen to ‘Stranger things have happened’. The tune is mesmerizing, and the sweet little solo towards the end of the song is spot on. Keyboard backed soft songs ‘Statues’, and ‘Home’ take some growing into, but you eventually will. ‘Ballad Of the Beaconsfield Miners’, an instrumental acoustic piece, is bound to appeal with its fast, almost quirky guitaring. There is a problem with this album, however, and it is that some of the songs give the impression that they are only there to make up the numbers. If you dislike a particular song, then it is quite likely that there will be another person who will absolutely love it. It’s much more worrying if there’s a song that makes no impression at all. And that is what detracts from an otherwise fine album. I mentioned earlier that FF is rock music at its most palatable, and I reiterate the point. If you are a ‘pop person’ moving into rock, listen to this album. If you a ‘rock person’, take some time to appreciate the best of alternative rock today.

Video: Stranger Things Have Happened

Rating: (Vocals: 8/10, Guitaring: 7.5/10, Originality: 9/10, Overall: 8.2/10)

Parkway Drive - Horizons

You’ve been forewarned that the author of the following post is likely to descend into an incomprehensible rant, drooling over the delightful excellence of the band being described.

Parkway Drive is an Australian metalcore band. I was introduced to this band thanks to a question asked on Yahoo! Answers, which was something about naming the ‘Top Ten metal bands’. Of course a whole bunch of people contributed their two paise’s worth, and I randomly picked up several from the intimidatingly large groups of ten. Parkway Drive was one of them. There’s a problem with listening to unheralded bands: it usually, and I stress the word ‘usually’, happens that these bands are unheralded because they aren’t all that great. But of course, all great bands start small, and once in a while you get lucky. Parkway Drive is an excellent band, and their recent success should deservedly lift them out of obscurity into the mainstream metal scene.

Here I’ll cover their latest album ‘Horizons’, although their previous album ‘Killing With a Smile’ is also brilliant, if only a wee tetchy bit less so. In ‘Horizons’ Parkway Drive experiment a bit more with their music, making some slightly less metalcore-like songs, while keeping their identity intact and managing to make the album sound more complete. What is it about them that I find appealing? The brutal riffs are a very good start. One reviewer, while giving ‘Horizons’ a ten on ten rating, asked rhetorically, ‘Who said metal’s dead?’ The riffing is almost vintage thrash, but the screamed out vocals means that it’s unlikely that that label will ever be applied to this band. Sometimes, with metalcore bands, you wonder if they would be better served if they cut out the vocals all together and stuck to guitaring. Not so with Parkway Drive. The vocalist is far from monotonous: he effortlessly switches from standard metalcore screaming to more emo-like whining, and death metal like monster growls. The breakdowns in most of the songs are brilliantly timed; the solos are sweet with plenty of legato and finger tapping. Chugging thrash riffs are great, but can get repetitive and melt into a background drone; Parkway Drive almost unconsciously vary the tempo of the songs, repeatedly demanding your full attention. Listening to Parkway Drive makes you want to use up that energy you never knew you had; it makes you want to headbang viciously, no matter how bald you are. It makes you want to jump up and down and listen to the songs at full volume, no matter how many neighbours you offend. Surprisingly, for a band of this genre, the lyrics are often profound, if you manage to figure them out.

‘Boneyards’ was the first track I listened to, and in many ways exemplifies all things good about this band. Stunningly brutal breakdowns, thrashy riffs and mind numbing vocals are a part of this song. ‘Carrion’ is another sensational track; if metalcore can ever be melodic, this is it. ‘Idols and Anchors’ is excellent too, and marks a successful experiment for Parkway Drive in expanding the scope of their music. Again, picking out individual songs is more of an academic exercise with this album. No metal fan would want to miss out on 'Horizons'.


Video: Boneyards
Video: Carrion
Video: Horizons

Rating: (Vocals -9/10, Riffs-10/10, Overall-9.5/10)

Bring Me The Horizon - Suicide Season

Bring Me The Horizon is a British band that takes it name from a line in the POTC movies. When I listened to 'Suicide Season' the first time, my reaction was, 'These guys are pretty good!' And it hasn't changed much despite a couple of hundred listens during cycling sessions. What genre do they belong to? Difficult to say, but the closest would be metalcore. If you don't know what that is, here goes. Metalcore is simply metal where the vocalist screams out the lyrics most of the time. And vocals are BMTH's strongest suit. The singing style has an almost pleading tone to it, which, combined with the added layer of techno-like jingles gives a haunting aspect to some of the songs. 'Suicide Season', the title track is outstandingly good and a perfect example of this. Despite its length (at 8:19 minutes), or perhaps because of it, this is one song that will refuse to budge from your skull.The guitaring is heavy, and coupled with the drumming is rhythmic enough to be almost melodic. Watch out for the softer portions of the songs where the guitars take a break; the alternating of sounds is delightful. The subtle British accent helps too. All the songs are pretty good, but if I were forced to choose, I would recommend 'Chelsea Smile', 'The Comedown' and 'Diamonds aren't forever', apart from 'Suicide Season' of course.

Video: Diamonds Aren't Forever
Video: Chelsea Smile
Video: Suicide Season

RATING: 8.5/10

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

Opeth is a swedish metal band which is can be best described as a wholesome union between Dream Theater's progressive style and Arch Enemy's heavy, harmonic riffs. Formed in 1990, My Arms, Your Hearse is their 3rd studio album.

Now if you're listening to this album, you've either heard songs from previous albums, or you've not. If you've heard the previous albums, what will strike you first is the lack of dual harmonic guitars, which made Orchid and Morningrise hauntingly beautiful, yet powerful death metal albums. Opeth decided to go with more progressive and heavy riffs, and Åkerfeldt (lead guitarist and vocalist) has taken his screaming vocals to a whole new level, while maintaing his clean and whispered vocals. All this meant that it took me a while to get used to the new style the band was playing in this album (read: listening to it start to front about 3 times), but its wonderful to listen to once you get over the fact that this album is not as melancholy as the previous albums, but definitely more eerie in its themes, scales, chords and timing. Its one of the many paradigm shifts the band has undergone during its life.

One way or the other, this is arguably Opeth's heaviest and most progressive album to date. I started listening to Opeth only after hearing Ghost Reveries, which was progressive, yet had death metal influences in it. My Arms... is twice as heavy, twice as complex, twice as fast... Pretty much twice as much in everything. Its an outstanding piece of music, and considering this was made in 1996, I can't help but appreciate the musical genius of Åkerfeldt, because this album is still good and fresh, 13 years down the line.

Oh and lest I forget, most songs in this album are less than 10 mins long, which is short, by Opeth's standards; Most of the bands songs are in the 9 - 16 min bracket. Fluid, elegant, yet hard hitting compositions.

Overall Ratuing: 8.7 /10
PS - You'll agree with the rating if you allow the music to sink in over a period of time; this stuff most probably wont endear itself to you immediately.