Fair enough.
I only have a Cream compilation.
Fair enough.
I only have a Cream compilation.
Well, honestly, Cream has more albums than they have songs. So a compilation will suffice (I have that compilation to, as well as they're studio albums)
House of the Caesars | Under the Patronage of Comrade Trance Crusader. Proud Patron of Comrades Shadow_Imperator, Zenith Darksea, Final Frontier and Plutarch | Second Generation| ex-Eagle Standard Editor| Consilium de Civitate | Album Reviews
Because I haven't written a review in a while I wanted to just do a quick not-too-serious overview of a short demo before bothering to write another review for an entire album, but it turned out to be the nearly same length of a full review anyway. Oh well.
Demos are usually pretty pointless to own, often containing poor low budget versions of songs with horrific sound quality that can easily be found in a much more polished form in the next album or amateurish songs that aren’t even good enough to get that far. Just look at Ulver: their first demo was a horrific mess of riffs indistinguishable from each other due to the terrible recording quality and substandard songwriting ability, but by the first album, Bergtatt (review) they had found their sound and created an undisputed masterpiece in the black metal genre that has influenced countless bands since.
Psychotic Waltz’s (then known as Aslan) first self-titled demo also shows only the very first developments of the styles that the band would later be known for - the technical complexity of the first few albums and the laid-back psychedelia of their later albums.
While these styles are hinted at here, most of the music is in a much more traditional ‘80s metal style just about comparable to bands such as Queensryche, Iron Maiden and Mercyful Fate. It is still progressive and complex, but not nearly as much as their debut album A Social Grace, making it a far more accessable listen. The music never gets that heavy, focusing more on melody, especially in the best song, ‘No Glory’, which opens with a fantastic catchy riff before settling into a calm dreamy passage. ‘To Chase the Stars’ too mixes metal with dreamy melodies, and includes a fantastic soaring guitar solo. Although the chorus sounds slightly dated now it is not nearly enough to spoil the song.
The second half of the demo isn’t quite as strong though. ‘Spiral Tower’, which would later appear on A Social Grace focuses more on heaviness than the melodic side of their sound and it doesn’t work quite as well, though is still an excellent song. ‘The Fry Tape’ foreshadows the more experimental music Psychotic Waltz would later create, a trippy atmospheric instrumental piece built on bizarre swirling psychedelic noises. Unfortunately, this sounds much more dated than the rest of the music, with some of the noises now sounding a bit cheesy.
The highlight of the demo is Buddy Lackey’s singing. While in the later Waltz albums he would sing in a much more subdued style, here he’s showing his full vocal range, from haunting high pitched wails to harsh shouts and everything in between, often swinging from one extreme to the other in seconds like a demented version of Robert Plant. Lackey easily manages to fit his voice to whatever mood the music is trying to create. His lyrics aren’t as bizarre and complex as they would later become but are still excellent.
Because of the now slightly dated ‘80s heavy metal style this probably won’t appeal to anyone not already into metal, but any fans of other ’80s metal bands such as Iron Maiden would probably like this a lot and it is quite a good accessable introduction to Psychotic Waltz’s music.
Put an obscure first demo of a young new band next to a critically acclaimed and highly influential album by ‘Gods’ of the genre and you’re bound to see a huge difference in quality. The same of course happens here. I played Psychotic Waltz’s ‘No Glory’ and then straight after that Metallica’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. Metallica’s song felt totally dull, lifeless and bland in comparison.
5 stars for the first half, 4 for the second, bringing the total to:
1/2 / 5
Because it's only a demo and I'm having trouble uploading videos to youtube I decided to upload the whole thing for download so you can all see how much I've overhyped it:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JAYC1XR6
Last edited by God; March 31, 2009 at 12:13 PM.
Good review been a while since I've done some too. So what are you doing next? I'm going to be brave and attempt to review "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" its going to be difficult but once I get the entire album on my MP3 I'll do it.
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Bomberboy's reviews
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=175306
Great album that!
I'm not sure what I'm doing next. Perhaps Prince Paul's 'A Prince Among Thieves' (hip-hop) or Zu's 'Carboniferous' (experimental metal I think... I've not listened to it yet). There was something else I wanted to do as well, but I've forgotten what. Maybe a Current 93 (neo-folk) album sometime too...
Well I'm listening to the album now while its first CD has just been copyed.
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Bomberboy's reviews
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=175306
80's metal sound is not dated.
It can be slightly dated.
I think sounds like that are a hell of a lot fresher than the more metalcore sounds they are slowly letting leach into the music.
I think the dated sound comes more from recording quality and technology than anything. Like old Black Metal that sounds like it was recorded in a dumpster.
Meh, it doesn't matter. The point is 'Aslan' has a distinctive 80's metal style that isn't found on any later Waltz albums, and still manages to be better than 90% of 80's metal even though it's only a demo.
2007’s Witchcult Today is Electric Wizard’s sixth album overall, and second album with their second line-up after two of the three founding members left to form a new band, Ramesses, leaving just guitarist and vocalist Jus Oborn. With the new line-up, including Oborn’s wife Liz Buckingham on second guitar, Electric Wizard moved towards a cleaner, tighter sound. While this style was started on 2004’s slightly inconsistent We Live, it was perfected on Witchcult Today
While this could be seen as a step back for Electric Wizard who gained popularity for their crushingly heavy monolithic riffs drenched in feedback and distortion, the change in sound works surprisingly well. The sound here is much more focused and less droning and monotonous. The doomy down-tuned riffs are still the same excellent quality of those of older Electric Wizard. The riffs are still relentlessly heavy and gripping with plenty of groove, but the cleaner sound and tighter structure helps to make them easier to listen to. The songs are still quite long, giving plenty of time to get lost in the album’s gloomy and spacey atmosphere.
While the song structures are simplified here, usually with more clearly defined verse-chorus arrangements than before, the addition of a second guitarist gives the band ability to add complexity to the music, though it usually stays quite simple. All of the music was recorded using vintage 70’s equipment, adding to the rough sound.
The final two tracks are slightly more similar to earlier Electric Wizard, with a more droning sound and longer song lengths, especially ‘Black Magic Rituals & Perversions’ with it’s doomy riff surrounded by crashing drums (which throughout the rest of the album are very low in the mix) and buried indecipherable vocals. This change helps keep the album gripping throughout, preventing it from becoming at all stale.
To fit with the new style, Oborn’s vocals are distorted less and placed further up in the mix. However, they still sound distant and hazy, buried under the crushing guitars and bass. He is still clearer than before though, making his vocal melodies easier to hear, especially on songs like Saturnine with it’s fantastic chorus, and his lyrics more decipherable. While the lyrics aren’t particularly impressive, they aren’t really important to the album and they fit the drugged-out atmosphere fine. Topics covered there are the same as in any Electric Wizard album - homages to weed and often quite cheesy horror films, most notably ‘Satanic Rites of Drugula’, which, as the title suggests, is about both the film ‘Satanic Rites of Dracula’ and weed at the same time, with quite humorous lyrics.
While Electric Wizard may have hit their peak at 1997’s Come My Fanatics or 2000’s Dopethrone, the line-up change added new life to the band. Witchcult Today retains the heaviness and groove but is much more easily accessable. The album is gripping throughout, despite it’s quite long running length, and is filled with quality riffs. Highly recommended, and a good introduction to the band.
/ 5
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Last edited by God; March 31, 2009 at 12:12 PM.
Are they releasing a new album? Its been a while since I heard of them.
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Bomberboy's reviews
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=175306
Hehe, I found "Into the Unknown" in a head shop about a year ago on vinyl for 10 dollars. Even though it's odd, not punk, and maybe cheesy... I love it.
Anyways, the reason I posted here.
I messaged Jay (Bentley) on Myspace about a year ago, asking him basically why the album has been condemned to 10,000 copies, and hardly any mention. This is his "official" reply:
"It's not necessarily the album as much as it is all the garbage that goes along with it, break ups and hate mail, drug abuse and control issues, not to mention the ego crushing blow of having the record so soundly bashed because for the most part, it's a poor prog rock record. there are some brilliant songs, but they are quickly nullified by that ridiculous monophonic keyboard. i would tend to put this record in the category of the seeing eye gods or american lesion. they just happened to work together instead of solo on this one. it is most certainly no bad religion record. we can all agree to that.
the bottom line is that it is a work of art, and all art is subjective. "
jay
Interesting. I've never heard any of their thoughts on it, it's like they usually cover their ears and shout 'lalalala' when asked about it. Anyway, first review in aaaages:
Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is Rain Parade’s debut album. As part of the neo-psychedelia Paisley Underground scene along with bands such as Dream Syndicate, while it was released in 1983, it sounds much more like a late 60’s album, strongly influenced by bands such as The Velvet Underground, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd.
Rain Parade could quite easily be criticised for being unoriginal and doing nothing new, but they manage to create a dreamy psychedelic feel to the music so perfectly that the unoriginality is instantly forgettable. As an homage to the original psychedelic bands, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip works brilliantly, and is even better than some of the albums it is so obviously inspired by.
Emergency Third Rail Power Trip focuses on creating haunting psychedelic pop similar to Pink Floyd’s earlier songs such as ‘See Emily Play’, avoiding the heavier side of psychedelic rock such as that played by The Jimi Hendrix Experience or Blue Cheer. The Pink Floyd influence is especially evident in the 3 singers (both guitarists and the bass player), all of whom sing in a style very similar to that of Syd Barrett. The lyrics are also very similar to Barrett’s, with lots of trippy psychedelic imagery that fits the music perfectly.
A nostalgic and dreamlike atmosphere is created mainly by the two guitars, with fluid riffs and simple yet sometimes genuinely beautiful melodies, while the drums, bass and vocals are buried lower down in the mix. Despite this, there are plenty of great basslines and while the drumming is light there are still inventive drum fills, and they are still clear enough to hear easily. A keyboard is also used, but does nothing too flashy, instead mainly just used to build on the atmosphere and add melodies where needed. Other instruments such as violin, organ and sitar are also added in certain songs, adding variety to the album and keeping it interesting.
The music is slow and far from complex, but technicality would probably take away from the atmosphere. With the layers of various instruments and vocal harmonies the music is definitely complex enough to stay interesting throughout.
Being made in the 1980’s works in Rain Parade’s favour in many ways. The album avoids many of the dated aspects of the original psychedelic bands such as cheesy or gimmicky synthesiser effects, modernising the sound. Luckily it also manages to avoid the over-production and excess that plagued many other bands in the 1980’s. While it is still drenched in effects such as reverb and echo, this only helps the dreamy atmosphere and never goes over the top. The music is always subdued and calm.
The album’s biggest problem is that because it is so laid-back and not particularly catchy it can be hard to pick up the melodies at first and may sound a bit samey, despite having quite a lot of variety. It may take a few listens to get into, but it’s definitely worthy listening to, and is accessable enough for non-psychedelia fans as well.
/ 5
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Last edited by God; June 23, 2009 at 12:50 PM.
Speaking of which, I promised myself that I would finally get around to writing a review today.
House of the Caesars | Under the Patronage of Comrade Trance Crusader. Proud Patron of Comrades Shadow_Imperator, Zenith Darksea, Final Frontier and Plutarch | Second Generation| ex-Eagle Standard Editor| Consilium de Civitate | Album Reviews
Well review away!
I have no idea what to think of God's band he reviewed. I don't mind some psychedelia...but it's hard for me to get into that genre. I do not mind bands that use elements of psychedelia to supplement their music...
I don't know about these guys...
@therussian: You should definitely give these a listen, I think you'd like them. I'm looking for more neo-psychedelia now. I'm downloading The Dukes of Stratosphear's 25 O'Clock right now, which on rateyourmusic has a score of 4.18 and is the 18th highest rated EP of all time.
@Unorthodoxt, if you don't like psychedelia then you probably won't like these much (yes, I know I contradicted my review's last sentence ) but why would anyone not like psychedelia? It makes no sense!
Last edited by God; June 23, 2009 at 02:33 PM.
I don't mind it. It's not something that I can get into all the time. And you said the big fault was they were laid back and not particularly catchy...
Edit: I just listened to the first video for about a minute 30...did not justify turning Tom Waits off...so I switched back.
Last edited by vizi; June 23, 2009 at 02:36 PM.
I said it was accessable enough for non-psychedelia fans, then I said if you don't like psychedelia you won't like it.
Er.. I mean it's quite accessable for an intro to the genre, but whatever. And no, it's not good enough to justify turning Tom Waits off, but not a lot is.