Archive for August, 2022

Album of the Week 34-2022: Megadeth – The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!


Dave Mustaine is the only musician from thrash metal’s heyday who can occasionally still write material that is just as good as his classic work. And given the strength of the first two singles of ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’, Megadeth’s new album instantly became my most anticipated release of the year. While the album isn’t quite as thrashy as those two tracks may have suggested, ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’ is easily my favorite Megadeth album since ‘The System Has Failed’ eighteen years ago. It might even be more consistently good than some of the albums from their classic era.

Overall, ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’ sounds slightly more traditional than the modern bite of its predecessor ‘Dystopia’. Stylistically, it sits somewhere between the clever speed metal of ‘Rust In Peace’ and the surprsingly successful marriage of vicious, intricate riffs and relatively laid-back rhythms of the heaviest moments on ‘Countdown To Extinction’, leaning closer to the former compositionally. Production-wise, the album also feels pleasantly old-school; the guitars have lost nothing of their sharp edge, but they sound less compressed and more like a band playing together in a room rather than a studio-constructed project this time around.

Where ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’ really shines, however, is in its songwriting. Every song on the album has its own character. Sure, a lot of mileage is pulled out of palm-muting the lowest string in various rhythmic variations, but what happens between those notes makes every song instantly recognizable. And despite many contributions from guitarist Kiko Loureiro and drummer Dirk Verbeuren, both relative newcomers, it all sounds like Megadeth. Prime Megadeth even. Except it doesn’t run out of steam near the end, which most Megadeth albums appear to do. But that cannot be anything else than an improvement.

Singles ‘We’ll Be Back’ and ‘Night Stalkers’ are standout tracks, but fortunately not the only ones. ‘Life In Hell’ is full of classic Megadeth riffs and cool solos, while ‘Dogs Of Chernobyl’ and the opening title track are somewhat epic heavy metal tracks, albeit with that typical Mustaine riffing. ‘Soldier On’ is a bit more upbeat and taditional, while ‘Célebutante’ will probably turn out to be one of the hidden gems here. Its placement in the tracklisting might make it easy to miss, but its early NWOBHM-inspired thrash riffs are too cool to skip and its surprisingly melodic middle section opens the track up very nicely.

Most thrash metal bands that still release good records these days often have their albums labelled “best since”. ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’, however, largely sounds exactly like fans of classic Megadeth would want the band to sound. There might be a few more traditional heavy metal influences than usual, but if anything, that is an asset for the album. Although the first two singles made me expect something good, ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead’ surpasses my expectations. I’d be extremely surprised if any better metal albums are released this year.

Recommended tracks: ‘Night Stalkers’, ‘Célebutante’, ‘We’ll Be Back’, ‘Life In Hell’

2022
08/28
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Album of the Week 33-2022: Living Colour – Stain


Back when Living Colour’s third studio album ‘Stain’ was released, critical reception was generally lukewarm. Stylistically, the band’s characteristic blend of hardrock, heavy metal, funk, alternative rock and hiphop-inspired rhythms is still going strong on the album. In hindsight, however, it seems like the album’s darker, more cynical tone failed to strike a chord with mainstream audiences. Personally, I happen to like the darker approach and in my opinion, ‘Stain’ improves upon its awesome, but horribly uneven predecessor ‘Time’s Up’. ‘Stain’ is probably the heaviest album Living Colour released so far and while it can’t live up to the band’s incredible debut ‘Vivid’, it is still one of my favorites.

People who became familiar with Living Colour through quirky, humorous songs like ‘Glamour Boys’ and ‘Elvis Is Dead’ may in deed have been unpleasantly surprised by the rather aggressive approach on ‘Stain’. But the transition is nowhere near as sudden as contemporary reviews may want you to believe. Anger about social injustice was always a prominent feature in Living Colour’s music, they just take a somewhat more pessimistic direction this time around. The band’s humor is still there as well. Most notably in ‘Bi’, but in many other songs, levity was pushed aside to make room for biting sarcasm. And it works.

Living Colour has abandoned none of the styles in their eclectic musical stew, but it has been seasoned with a little more punk and metal than usual. ‘This Little Pig’ and the fantastic ‘Ausländer’ even border on thrash metal, with Vernon Reid churning out aggressive riffs and dissonant chords over Will Calhoun’s pounding drums. But even during the heaviest moments, the soulful vocals of Corey Glover add melody and memorabilty to the proceedings. It’s his voice that turns the likes of ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’ and ‘Never Satisfied’ into catchy rockers. Likewise, the loud bass of then-newcomer Doug Wimbish takes care of the funk element.

‘Stain’ is far from a barrage of heavy riffs, however. The biggest departure is probably ‘Nothingness’, which is a dreamy, synth-laden semi-ballad with an incredible subdued vocal performance by Glover. It breaks up the pace quite nicely. The aforementioned ‘Bi’ also serves its purpose in preventing the tone of the album from getting too bleak. Wimbish makes his compositional presence felt through the awesome bass line that carries the amazing closer ‘Wall’, which starts out somewhat reminiscent reminiscent of Alice In Chains’ ‘Would?’, but quickly evovles into a powerful anthem for tolerance and acceptance.

Not too long after ‘Stain’ was released, Living Colour would fall apart. Officially because of disagreements over the musical direction to follow, but it is difficult to imagine ‘Stain’ not getting the attention it deserved having no influence on it at all. Now that the album is nearly three decades old and unhindered by the need to answer to trends, ‘Stain’ would be my recommendation for people who enjoy Living Colour, but crave a little more stylistic consistency from them. Once again: like any other Living Colour album, it cannot hold a candle to ‘Vivid’, but it is an incredible work that deserves to be heard.

Recommended tracks: ‘Wall’, ‘Ausländer’, ‘Nothingness’, ‘Never Satisfied’

2022
08/21
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Album of the Week 32-2022: Arch Enemy – Deceivers


Arch Enemy was the first band with harsh vocals I listened to voluntarily. The excellent riff work and strong melodic themes of ‘The Immortal’ made me think of them as a heavy metal band with that type of vocals rather than a melodic death metal band. ‘Deceivers’ is the first Arch Enemy album in a long time that I unequivocally like, however. While the band has a clearly defined style, they frequently crossed the line towards the stale and formulaic over the last two decades. ‘Deceivers’ remedies that by mixing up the song structures and dynamics. Slight, but very notable changes.

Not all recent Arch Enemy releases were quite as bland as ‘Khaos Legions’, but they got increasingly predictable. Especially the ‘Nemesis’ formula – vicious opening, anticlimactic chorus with trite lyrics – was repeated too much for my liking, while anyone could predict which type of song would be where in the tracklisting. While nobody would mistake ‘Deceivers’ for any other band, song structures in particular are less predictable than usual. The most melodic part of the songs isn’t always the chorus. In fact, the raging ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’ doesn’t even have an overtly melodic part, despite it being where the ‘Nemesis’ knockoff would usually be.

‘Handshake With Hell’ is quite a daring opener. It ostensibly is the uptempo, but not too fast kind of opener Arch Enemy usually goes for, but with Alissa White-Gluz putting her fantastic alto to good use in the pre-chorus and then again in the surprisingly calm middle section, it is enough of a twist to keep me interested. Another welcome improvement on ‘Deceivers’ is the return of actual thrashing riffs. ‘The Watcher’, the aforementioned ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’ and ‘Sunset Over The Empire’ have an amount of speedy momentum that the band’s post-‘Wages Of Sin’ albums were lacking, except for maybe parts of ‘War Eternal’.

One advantage of the approach on ‘Deceivers’ is that the variation makes the more typical Arch Enemy songs are easier to get through. The mid-tempo hardrock-inspired ‘In The Eye Of The Storm’ might have made many Arch Enemy albums drag, but it’s actually a nice change of pace here. Likewise, ‘Poisoned Arrow’ would have been just another one of their tracks on any other album, but actually works quite well in this context. ‘House Of Mirrors’, with its melodic progressions reminiscent of Dark Tranquillity, is another excellent melodeath track, while I really like the subdued darkness in the atmosphere of closing track ‘Exiled From Earth’.

‘Deceivers’ isn’t perfect. Jeff Loomis is still severely underutilized. In terms of playing, I understand, with him being in Seattle and the rest of the band in Sweden. But for god’s sake, the man was part of arguably the best songwriting duo in modern metal, at least let him contribute more. Also, I think White-Gluz could add even more variation to her vocal approach without the results sounding too unlike the band’s other work. But as it stands, ‘Deceivers’ is easily my favorite Arch Enemy album since ‘Wages Of Sin’. The songwriting and production tropes that bored me senseless have not disappeared entirely, but experimenting with the way they are structured is a massive improvement.

Recommended tracks: ‘House Of Mirrors’, ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’, ‘The Watcher’, ‘Handshake With Hell’

2022
08/14
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Album of the Week 31-2022: Pokolgép – Metálbomba


Pokolgép was one of Hungary’s first heavy metal bands, having started in 1980 and still roughly playing the same style of music these days. Sure, there is a contemporary power metal edge to Pokolgép these days, but that probably would have happened anyway, as the first seeds of it could already be heard on their earliest releases, while most of the Priest worship and Accept-isms left the band with József Kalapács and László Nagyfi when they formed Omen. Their most recent album ‘Metálbomba’ is so full of energy and inspired songwriting that it’s easy to forget we are dealing with a bunch of seasoned veterans here.

‘Metálbomba’ features a completely revamped line-up. Most notably, it is the first album with current singer Attila Tóth, though he was in the band for more than half a decade at the time. While Tóth lacks the character of his predecessor – and my favorite Pokolgép singer – Joe Rudán, his cleaner, higher voice arguably fits the modern European power metal sound better, since Rudán was a bluesy hardrock singer at heart. Having a young drummer – Márk Kleineisel was only 22 years old when ‘Metálbomba’ was recorded – might have been the shot of energy the band needed as well.

Not that ‘Metálbomba’ sounds like a band well into the third decade of their career. The rhythms just sound a bit tighter than on its 2007 predecessor ‘Pokoli Mesék’ and there is an exciting bombast to the guitar arrangements. This much is clear from the moment the fantastically energetic opener ‘Az Álarc Lehull’ burts out of the gates. Thunderously rolling double bass drums, guitar riffs that are both traditional and timeless, Pokolgép’s trademark bombastic backing vocals in he chorus: it is simply the type of song that puts its listeners in the type of euphoria needed to get motivated to hear the rest of the album.

Fortunately, there is plenty more good stuff to hear. ‘Ringben’ starts out sounding like it will be the album’s first power ballad, but turns into a theatrical heavy metal track that despite its relatively short length has an epic feel. The title track is a monster of a track that cleverly plays around with time feel changes, while ‘Véssétek Fel’ is probably the most traditional-sounding heavy metal track on here. It could easily have fit on one of the band’s early albums. ‘Szemtől Szembe’ is a brilliant composition which starts out like it will give the average German Priest clone a run for its money, only to open up with a beautifully melancholic vocal melody over crunchy guitar riffs.

When heavy metal bands that have been around for a while release something good, it does often end up sounding like a watered down version of what once made them great. Pokolgép has no such issues. If anything, they are a more consistently good band today than in their early days, with just about every track on ‘Metálbomba’ being deeply impressive. Instead of toning down the guitars, founding member Gábor Kukovecz and relative newcomer Zalán Z. Kiss are all over the album and seemingly excited about it. Anyone tired of European power metal clichés should give ‘Metálbomba’ a chance. It feels remarkably fresh and inspired.

Recommended tracks: ‘Az Álarc Lehull’, ‘Ringben’, ‘Szemtől Szembe’

2022
08/07
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