Category Archives: Music reviews

Metal Hammer presents HIM Tears on Tape Limited Edition Collector’s Pack: Was it worth it?

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YES!!!!!

You know I said I’d stop fangirling? Well, I lied. I’m back with another post.

I pre-ordered the fan pack as soon as it was available (if I’d waited I wouldn’t have had the money to pay for it). It arrived the on Monday, the official release date and came packaged in a sturdy cardboard container.

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It contains

  • ·         a comprehensive magazine edited by Ville Valo and covering everything to do with the new album,

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  • ·         two double-sided posters (although one of them might be for pre-orders only – it has the names of everyone who ordered before the 2nd of April printed on it), one A1 sized and the other full door length

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  • a drawstring bag (again pre-orders only?),

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  • ·         for 1000 lucky people, signed cards (I didn’t get one of those *sigh*),
  • ·         a code to download five bonus tracks from DXX records.’

     At £14.99 I’d say that was a bargain. Even if you take out the stuff that’s for pre-orders only that still leaves a thick magazine, an album, several bonus songs to download, and a very large double-sided poster. At a quick estimate, let’s say the album costs £10 on its own, the poster, 3 or 4 quid, the magazine is at least £4, plus the downloadable tracks? £2 or £3? So about £20 in total? If you could get any of the extras on their own, which I don’t think you can, that’s good value for money. Now the only decision is, do I hang the posters up, or keep them safe in the packaging?

      So, purely from a monetary viewpoint, the fan-pack/collector’s pack is worth it. From a fan’s point of view, the insights into the band, the album and everything that goes with it, the magazine is a treasure house of information. So yes, definitely worth the money if you like HIM.

 

Bye,

 

Rose

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Review: HIM ‘Tears on Tape’

Firstly let me declare my biases.

  •      I’m very fond of HIM, they’re probably the only band I fan-girl over
  •       There’s a good chance I’d love this album anyway because it’s the first album of new music      they’ve released since I first heard their music

Now that’s out of the way I’ll get on with the actual review. Bearing in mind what I’ve just said, and my major fan-girling on Twitter on the morning I received my copy of ‘Tears on Tape’ (29/04/2013), it actually took me a while to get in to the album. It was only on my third listen that it started to grow on me; I really liked ‘Love without tears’ the first time through, and then ‘Into the night’ replaced it as my favourite song on the album. The opening riff on ‘Hearts at war’ is very reminiscent of ‘Love Metal’ era HIM.

Ville Valo’s voice has definitely changed in the last few years; it’s not as strong as it once was although he still manages to carry the songs well, and reprises of old hits ‘Buried alive by love’ and ‘Kiss of dawn’ – live from Finnvox, show that he can still sing their older material. Linde’s riffs are great, Mige’s bass sits quietly in the background holding things together, Burton is still a virtuoso on the keys and Gas is still hitting those drums way too hard. I really like the intro ‘Unleash the red’; it sets the tone for the whole album right from the start. More bands should have instrumental intro’s on their albums.

The more I listen to this album the more I love it. It definitely requires listening to several times to really get in to it and hear all the different aspects and, since the lyrics aren’t in the album, to understand precisely what is being sung, but it repays the time in the quality of the work and the pleasure I get from hearing these gents again. HIM have managed to produce another album of melodic, dark and heavy tracks that reference in their sound all their influences. I like the ‘dirty’ effect they’ve managed to get, like you would hear on a real cassette tape as it warps and changes with being played.

 

The album artwork, by Daniel P Carter, is rather gorgeously gothic; the new evolution in the

heartagram as a sigil, the skulls, bleeding hearts and beautiful geometric work is so very representative of HIM, yet so different from their previous album sleeve artwork. I love the cover; it reminds me of the sea under storm clouds. It also reminds me of the afternoon just after the cover art was first released that I spent with my nephew trying to decipher the lyrics written in the world snake. We had fun, and managed to translate the writing (my nephew was very proud of himself). I’m a sentimental git, the music appeals to me, what can I say?

The thing that made me laugh most was the way the album credits were concluded with ‘Ta & Ta Ta’ – thank you and goodbye in Midland’s English (someone’s been hanging around in England for too long methinks).

Right, I’m going to stop verbally fan-girling now and try to sum up.

This album is HIM; it references so many of their influences and yet is different from all of them, it’s a bit heavier than some of their earlier stuff, being closer to Love Metal than Screamworks, and it needs a few listens to really get in to, but it grew on me. A great addition and evolution to the band’s body of work.

Yours, in sonic insanity,

Rose


Aviator Shades

Twitter: @AviatorShades1

Facebook: aviatorshadesband

 

This band were surprisingly easy to find out about; their Facebook page has a comprehensive history of the band and lists all their social media URL’s, as well as influences, genre, and most usefully, who is actually in the band.

Aviator Shades are:

Dave Gorman                                    Singer/Bassist

Jesse Waldron                                   Drums

George Baker                                    Guitar

Shaun Michael Thackeray             Guitar

They are based in Vancouver, although at least one of them isn’t originally from Canada, and they list their influences as ‘Thin Lizzy, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Queen, Iron Maiden, Rush, AC/DC, Whitesnake and ZZ Top’ and their genre as ‘Classic rock, blues and a dash of metal’. I could hear the first two in their tracks but not the ‘metal’ elements. As to social media they have Facebook, Twitter, bandcamp, myspace, reverbnation, youtube and soundcloud accounts, so I suppose you can take your pick of how you consume their music. I personally prefer Sound Cloud because they have a mobile site and my phone likes it better than the reverbnation site or youtube. They plan to have an EP out this year.

Opinion?

I quite liked them; they definitely fit in to their genre declaration of ‘classic rock’. Their songs have catchy hooks and are quite anthemic; the singer’s voice is good. I was trying to work out who he reminded me of. The closest I could get was Meat Loaf, and even that’s not quite right. There’s also something very bluesy about them, almost shading in to folk-music-esque at times, especially on ‘Papa taught me how to sing (the blues)’.

A Second Reflection

Twitter: @ASRband_UK

Facebook: A Second Reflection

 

 

A Second Reflection is currently a solo project by Tim Merrick. Currently he has a few demos available on soundcloud – the links are on the ‘A Second Reflection’ Facebook page. He apparently hopes to have more songs written and recorded ‘soon’

I’ve listened to some of the tracks, they are ‘nowhere near complete’ according to their composer. I found them a little repetitive, although competent, and it will definitely be interesting to see what he does with them.

Black Sabbath: God’s existence might be in question but Sabbath’s supremacy is not

Ah, Black Sabbath are back(!) with their new single from the album ’13’ due to be released in June. I can’t stop listening to their new song ‘God is Dead?’; Ozzy Osbourne still has a truly unique voice, Mr Iommi’s riffs are perfection, Geezer Butler is as good a bass player as ever and Tommy Clufetos makes an excellent addition to Black Sabbath as their drummer.

The lyrics question the existence of a God, because of all the religious wars in the world, but in the end Ozzy maintains that he believes that God is not dead. If this song is an example of what the new album will be like then I can’t wait to hear it. This song is a great addition to the Sabbath canon and shows that time has not diminished the ability of Black Sabbath to create great music.

Rose

Review: Reckless Love ‘Night on Fire’

I was just checking my Facebook page and the guitarist for Reckless Love posted the video for their new single ‘Night on Fire’ on his page, which of course came up on my timeline. I have a soft spot for this group of Finns; they’re cheerful, I can’t help but sing along to ‘Coconuts’ and ‘Born to rock’. They write catchy, happy metal – they’re Merry Metalheads and I like their first two albums very much. Since that’s the case I thought I’d watch the video.

This is another catchy song that reminds me a lot of their second album, ‘Animal Attraction’ sonically if not lyrically. I like the video too, even better on the second viewing.

I really am going to get on with listening to those new albums now, promise.

Rose

Strip no Alter

And here is the second band that followed me today:

Strip no Alter

A Brazilian band that describes their sound as ‘a straight and powerful cross-over between heavy metal, hardcore, rock ‘n’ roll and old school punk rock’ that is ‘ironic, immoral and politically incorrect’. This three-piece formed in 2008 and immediately produced an EP.

Members

  • Plinio Scambora – vocals/guitar
  • Erick Johnsons – bass
  • Hud Souza – drums

Music

  • EP Voner (2008)
  •  Album The Hell Soundtrack (2011)
  • Digital EP (iTunes only) The Heaven Soundtrack (2011)
  • Album Vertical Smile (2012)

All but the EP, Voner, are available on the band’s website as free downloads.

Websites etc

Opinion?

They’re not bad, ‘Vertical Smile’ is better than ‘The Hell Soundtrack’. I can’t understand what they’re singing about, but the songs grew on me. I can see the innuendo in the album title, and most of the song titles, so I’ll assume that they live up to their boast of being ‘ironic, immoral and politically incorrect’. I might have to listen to the songs a few times to understand what they are about. The band definitely show their metal and punk influences throughout the album ‘Vertical Smile’, getting heavier towards the later tracks.Might be an interesting band to listen to if that’s the sort of music you like.

Now that I’ve finished listening to the bands I have following my Twitter, I’m going to get on with listening to BMTH’s ‘Sempiternal’, since everyone’s been saying how great it is, Sacred Mother Tongue’s ‘Out of Darkness’ since I’ve been wittering for it for days that I want to hear it and I finally got it on Spotify last night, and finally Black Sabbath’s new single ‘God is Dead?’. Ah, Spotify, how I adore thee? Let me count the ways.

Bye,

Rose

Message to Venus

Since bands keep following me on Twitter, and I really need to do some writing right now (I find it therapeutic), I have decided to give in and write about them instead of complaining about it. Two bands followed me today: Message to Venus, from Puerto Rico/Florida and Strip no Alter, from Brazil. This post will be about Message to Venus. Shall we get started?

Message to Venus

Formed in 2009 by Puerto Ricans

  • Jandre Nadal
  • John Feliciano
  • Edgar Ramos
  • JuanMa Font

in Florida.

Contact Details:

  • http://messagetovenus.com
  • Twitter: @MessageToVenus
  • Facebook: Message to Venus
  • noisetrade.com/messagetovenus
  • ‘The Envelope’ is on Spotify

Releases

  • Single ‘Cold & Grey’ March 2010
  • EP ‘The Envelope’ February 2011
  • Album ‘Victims & Villains’ – soon

Opinion?

I actually quite liked their EP; it sounds a lot like 30 Seconds to Mars’ s second album ‘A beautiful lie’. I would recommend it if you like them. Actually, it’s a good EP whether you like Mars or not. Go and have a listen.

Rose

 

I knew it was a mistake…

…writing about the bands that follow my Twitter because now I have even more following me.

Three more so far this week, all within a day of each other. Here’s what my nosing around the web found.

Art of Dying

Twitter: @ArtOfDying

www.artofdyingmusic.com

Jonny Hetherington – vocals

Greg Bradley – guiar

Tanis Stanley – guitar/vocals

Cale Gontier – bass/vocals

Jeff Brown – drums

This five-piece are from Canada and formed in 2004. They ‘made a conscious effort to be as sonically dynamic as their influences’, alternative rock bands, ‘but approach their songs with a greater sense of optimism.’

Honestly, from reading their comprehensive website, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I wasn’t impressed by what I read. I’m happy to say I was wrong. They have two albums available on Spotify, ‘Art of Dying’ and the acoustic ‘Let the fire burn’. They’re actually not as bad as I thought they would be. I’m not overfond of the acoustic album but I’ve no objections to it staying on my Spotify. Can’t say that I’d ever buy tickets to go see them but if they happened to be at a festival I was at or were supporting another band then I would probably make the effort to go and listen to them.

 

Gone2morrow

Twitter:@gone2morrowfans

http://reverbnation.com/gone2morrow

Facebook: gone2morrowband

YouTube: gone2morrowband

Formed in 2011 by Geo Garcia and Chris Mason, this band describe themselves in their Twitter bio as an ‘established Las Vegas hard rock band’ and list their influences as Sevendust, Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Black Sabbath etc

Three tracks available on reverbnation – ‘Lies’, ‘Dead Now’, and ‘Maybe2morrow’.

I watched the video for ‘Dead Now’ on their YouTube channel. Hmm, well I suppose they’re not terrible but I’m not a fan. They’re not as good as their influences but I can definitely hear A7X in there. Meh, not too fussed by this band.

And finally…

Nightland

Twitter: @Nightland_Metal

Facebook: Nightland

YouTube: NightlandOfficial

Soundcloud: nightland (it’s useless – no tracks and no info about the band)

Ludovico Cioffi – vocals/guitar

Filippo Scrima – guitar

Andrea Sangervasi – bass

Francesco Ambrogiani – keyboards

Filippo Cicoria – drums

Their 2012 EP ‘In Solemn Rise’ is on Spotify

More Italian death metal; I thought I’d made it obvious that I’m not a fan of death metal? Oh well, I’m going to be nice and have a look at their stuff on YouTube and listen to the EP on Spotify anyway, just to be fair. Although it’s really not my thing and I can’t tell good death metal from terrible death metal.

Their Twitter bio is very succinct: ‘Epic death metal band from Italy’. Yep, that’s really helpful lads; it’s a good job I found your YouTube channel. The music is definitely epic, almost symphonic – a bit like Nightwish but with no violins and shouting instead of operatic singing. And it was definitely the vocals that I didn’t like, although there were bits that weren’t too bad, positively catchy in places. The video for ‘Diamond Siren’ was actually quite amusing; I have no idea what Mr Cioffi was singing about but random knights appearing and the keyboardist trying to eat his instrument made me giggle inappropriately – pretty certain the audience wasn’t meant to be laughing at that point. I listened to some of the EP; it was okay, I could listen to it for a bit. For the music if not the vocals.

And that’s that for this week.

Coming Soon

Review: Iron Man 3

Review: HIM ‘Tears on Tape’ + the Metal Hammer fanpack – was it worth the price?

Review: The Science of Discworld 4 (waiting for the library to get back to me on this one)