What I Can't Stop Listening To: March 2009

now playing: Coheed & Cambria - Feathers (Glitch Mob Remix)

Now that this blog is finally starting to pick up steam, I've decided to include a new offering in this monthly article. It's an offering that requires its very own disclaimer, no less! I've decided to start providing a direct download of the songs mentioned in this article, to be found at the end of the article. Disclaimer: I have no vested interest, monetary or otherwise, in providing these links outside of exposing the readers of this blog to new music. I have acquired everything I provide legally and encourage others to do the same. With that said, here are the five songs I can't stop listening to for March 2009.

05) Coheed & Cambria - No World For Tomorrow (Live at Neverender)

When I first heard about Coheed's four-night epic telling of their story, "No World for Tomorrow" was the song I was most looking forward to hearing. Long-time readers should know I'm a sucker for crowd callback sections, and with the first line of the chorus as "Raise your hands high!", well. I might be a pretty bad Coheed fan, since I've only really gotten into their later stuff, but good or bad doesn't matter when you can get together with 14,999 other fans and, simply put, rock the hell out. I just wish I could have been one of the lucky few to see it live. But now that the CD/DVD set is out, I can be (sort of), and so can you. Pick up Neverender: Children of the Fence Edition on Amazon or just go for the DVD set if you don't feel like dropping $100.

04) Falconer - Lord of the Blacksmiths

I wrote a little about this song in my 100-Word Review of the album, but not as much as I would have liked. This song starts with a meaty riff that turns into high-speed guitar work, adds a fantastic bass hook in the chorus, and uses the double bass drums to accentuate the story of Hephaestus, godly armorer and lord of the blacksmiths. "But wait!" I hear you say. "That's not enough!" All right, how about a hammer striking an anvil in the last chorus? Does that drive the point home? I hate using this word because the internet has ruined its original meaning, but this song is positively epic. Enjoy it with me, won't you? Then check out Falconer's debut album on iTunes or Amazon.

03) Pat Benatar - Heartbreaker

I pose to you a question, dear readers. Pat Benatar: Great female singer of the 80s or greatest female singer of the 80s? There is a right answer, and it is of course the latter. Some might say "Love is a Battlefield" or possibly even "Hell is for Children" is her best song, but to those people, I say YOU'RE THE RIGHT KIND OF SINNER TO RELEASE MY INNER FANTASY! THE INVINCIBLE WINNER AND YOU KNOW THAT YOU WERE BORN TO PLEASE! As it should be obvious at this point that I have very little of substance to say about this song, let's just do the Amazon and iTunes plugs for In the Heat of the Night and move on, shall we?

02) van Canto - Fear of the Dark

With van Canto, I have possibly too much to say. Let's start with the obvious. Yes, this is a cover of Iron Maiden's "Fear of the Dark" as it first appeared on the 1992 album of the same name. What makes it special? van Canto is a band whose lineup comprises five vocalists and a drummer; that is to say, it's a cappella metal. I know, I barely thought it was possible, too, but these guys have filled a very selective niche very well. They have a few covers like this, including Metallica's "Battery" and "Wishmaster" by Nightwish, but most of their material is original. You can hear covers of Manowar, Blind Guardian, and Deep Purple alongside their original songs on Hero, available as an import on Amazon.

01) That 1 Guy - Buttmachine

This song by That 1 Guy apparently appeared on Weeds recently, but I don't watch that show, so I wouldn't know. I do know that he played a club in Boston recently and I am kicking myself for having missed it. That 1 Guy is a one-man band featuring Mike Silverman as That 1 Guy playing an enigmatic instrument known only as The Magic Pipe. Silverman constructs his songs as bizarrely as his instrument, and it works; "Buttmachine" is largely nonsensical, but still the greatest anthem to the gluteus since Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk". His albums follow the same pattern: Songs in the Key of Beotch is one of the best titles I've heard, but The Moon is Disgusting is where you'll be able to find "Buttmachine" and ten other songs. Pick it up on Amazon or iTunes.

You can download all five of these songs here (39MB). I'd apologize for sendspace, but it's my only means right now. I'll be sure to maintain the link if it goes down.

That's all for March. April will bring reviews of Coheed's Neverender and The Ghost Hounds' Vintage Trouble; if we're lucky, we'll also see Drist's The Science of Misuse. Until next time, keep your eyes on the skies.

Album Review: Give Me Back My Metaphors

now playing: The Sterns - Who Stole Your Drugs?

Okay, this one's probably cheating a little, since The Sterns' Give Me Back My Metaphors is a three-song EP, but I've been waiting for this release ever since I saw The Sterns live last October. Like I mentioned in my very first post, this quintet recently turned into a trio featuring the namesake Alex Stern on guitar and vocals, Emeen Zarookian on bass and vocals, and Zak Kahn on drums. I've talked with Emeen and Zak (the former is an employee at Harmonix Studios in Cambridge) and both of them seemed really excited to get this EP together. It doesn't take long to see why.

The title track opens with a killer bass line that moves seamlessly into the same kind of songwriting I've grown to love in this band. It's a sarcastic little song about a relationship, and it manages to rhyme "sympathetic" with "anesthetic". Track two, "Total Fitness", talks about a three-year affair between lovers who met at the gym and shows off some harmonies between Stern and Zarookian that remind me of the Police. And "Who Stole Your Drugs?" seems to be directed towards a couple different people who have done terrible things and blamed it on drugs. And how curious that those drugs are missing now.

Basically, what listeners can expect from this EP is more of a stripped-down sound, since their keyboardist is no longer there. But it's still the same Sterns from Sinners Stick Together; all the songwriting is in place (and has in fact improved), and the band seems just as psyched about these new songs as I am, so that's always a plus. I look forward to hearing the metaphors they've been holding back. A

Give Me Back My Metaphors is available on The Sterns' MySpace.

Album Review: American Soldier

now playing: Queensrÿche - Suite Sister Mary

I know this isn't Coheed & Cambria's Neverender as I said I would do, but thanks once again to my good friend Jordan "Hawk" Munson, Queensrÿche's latest album, American Soldier, was brought to my attention. I had to stop the Coheed review and do this instead. After all, I love prog, I love metal, and I love the 'Ryche. We'll return you to your regularly scheduled Neverender review sometime soon.

The biggest issue I have with any Queensrÿche release after 1990's Empire is that I will inevitably end up comparing it to the group's first concept album, Operation: Mindcrime, released in 1988. Mindcrime is my favorite of all the metal albums I own and I have said on more than one occasion that it is the greatest metal album ever made. I might be unfairly setting the bar way too high, but so far, I haven't heard a Queensrÿche album better than Mindcrime. Mindcrime II fell flat, and the less said about Q2K, the better.

And that brings us to Geoff Tate's latest brainchild. American Soldier is another stab at a concept album, this time with all the songs inspired by stories told to Tate by veterans. Sound clips of these stories are interspersed throughout the album in an attempt to evoke emotion. Unfortunately, it fails to do anything but bore me, quite honestly. Perhaps I'm not the intended audience for this album; perhaps I'm just too jaded at this point to care as much as I should. So the spoken word excerpts aren't for me. It's not like they're all the album is. Let's focus on the rest of the album.

It almost pains me to say this, but from the first couple songs, I could have sworn I was listening to a nu-metal album. If I took Tate's voice out of the mix, I could have heard any single one of these songs on top 40 radio five years ago alongside Disturbed and Slipknot. "Sliver", the opening track, even has channel-panning gang vocals, a mixed-down solo, and a breakdown. This, obviously, does not bode well for a band in the progressive metal genre. The first time I heard a song that could have stood up to the top 40 and shoved it down in an uncaring act of defiance, I was more than halfway through the album. Track 9, "Man Down!", has a powerful and bass-heavy leading riff that, unfortunately, disappears pretty quickly once the song gets going.

On that note, there are parts of songs that do stick out to me. "Man Down!" has the riff. There's a brief saxophone solo at the end of "Middle of Hell" that did surprise me, and the group chorus vocals on that same track definitely reminded me of the Empire era. By and large, though, the album is just bland. It's neither particularly good nor particularly bad, but it's certainly not the Queensrÿche I've come to know and love. If they really pulled all the good parts together, they might have enough for one song of their earlier caliber; two if they stretched it. If these guys plan to do another concept album, I'd like to hear a little less speaking and a little more "Speak". C-

American Soldier hits record stores on March 31st. You can pre-order it on Amazon or pick it up at Queensrÿche's official store. The American Soldier Tour kicks off on April 16th in Seattle; head here for tour dates and more information.

100-Word Reviews: Falconer

now playing: Falconer - The Past Still Lives On

200 pixels does not do the album art justice for Swedish power/folk metal band Falconer's 2001 self-titled debut. This would be a great album to experience live just to sing along with the band in songs like "The Lord of the Blacksmiths" and "Heresy in Disguise". The Swedish bonus track, "Per Tyrssons Döttrar I Vänge", brings the folk elements to the forefront. While not every song on this album shines, its hard-hitting riffs and booming double bass, coupled with the use of an anvil as an instrument, make for an incredibly strong example of what power metal can really be.

100-Word Reviews: Vampires

now playing: Coheed & Cambria - Welcome Home (Live at Neverender)

One thing before today's 100-Word Review: There's a review proper in the pipelines. You see, Coheed & Cambria's live magnum opus, Neverender, dropped today. And I've been waiting for it for quite some time. So keep your eyes open for that.

Switzerland's DJ Bobo is a unique person, probably most famous for his song "Chihuahua", used in a modified form for the trailer to Beverly Hills Chihuahua. This album is a dance-pop concept album about a vampire in love with a human, or maybe an angel; I'm not quite clear on that. "Vampires Are Alive" was his entry in 2007's Eurovision; he got a lot of ridicule for that, but I disagree. This album is a fun little distraction. I still spin it up whenever I want to dance or just goof off. Musically, it's not much. But it's definitely fun.

100-Word Reviews: Orchids and Ammunition

now playing: Depeche Mode - Stripped

Most of us know San Francisco's Drist from Guitar Hero; "Decontrol" and "Arterial Black" were featured as bonus songs. Both songs come from Orchids and Ammunition, which is sadly a middle-of-the-road album. Most of the strong tracks come in the first half. The rest of the album, helped by 13 minutes of guitar feedback at the end, spoils the experience for me. I do like their cover of Depeche Mode's "Stripped" (possibly better than the original), and the prominence of guitar solos is a plus. I hope Science of Misuse, due out in the next couple months, impresses me more.

100-Word Reviews: Voxtrot

now playing: Styx - Renegade

In an effort to get me off my ass and start posting some more, I'm pleased to announce a new feature of Ombrophilia: 100-Word Reviews. I hope to post a couple of these each week. Albums reviewed in this fashion will be those that I enjoy, but they're a bit too far in the "old news" file to devote a full review to. (Cut me some slack; I'm still working on climbing to the cusp of new music.) But anyway. The first 100-Word Review coming at you is Austin, TX indie band Voxtrot's 2007 self-titled album.

A lot of the songs on this album are cute, and that is really the best word for it. The album is infectiously poppy ("Stephen") while retaining the indie aesthetic ("Every Day"). A sprinkling of piano, tom-heavy drumbeats, and strong bass lines blend with electronic sound effects and skillfully simplistic guitar to create a solid bunch of songs that should honestly be more popular than they are. It’s like the Sounds and the Sterns got together and had a kid that only got the best genes. Voxtrot is playing two reunion shows at SXSW this week if you're interested.

Album Review: Lullabies for the Dormant Mind

now playing: The Agonist - Void of Sympathy

It may not come as a surprise that I am not the biggest fan of genres that end in "death" or "core". Why, then, am I reviewing Canadian melodeath/metalcore band The Agonist's sophomore album, Lullabies for the Dormant Mind? Patience. I first saw The Agonist in 2007 as they were opening for Sonata Arctica. I didn't entirely understand why a thrash band would be opening for a power/prog band, but now that I've actually listened to The Agonist as they sound in the studio, I understand it a lot better. Everything sounded like noise during the live shows (and I'm sure the venues were at least partially responsible for this), including the melodic aspects that I didn't even know were there. The only thing that really stuck out was vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, and even then, it was because I thought she was trying much too hard to sound like Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy.

Still, they weren't terrible live, so I bought a little poster, hung it on my wall, and proceeded to forget about them almost entirely. Until, that is, a couple weeks ago, when my good friend Jordan "Hawk" Munson hooked me up with a prerelease copy of Lullabies. In preparation for this review, I took a listen to their first album, Once Only Imagined. I knew I had heard several of the songs on the album before, but none of them sounded the least bit familiar. I found myself actually enjoying what I was hearing, now that I was finally able to decipher melodies and hear White-Gluz's skillful growling and singing both. So many nuances are lost in a live performance.

And this brings me to the album in question. Lullabies for the Dormant Mind is positively riddled with such nuances that would be lost without an amazing stage setup. But let's start with the obvious, shall we? Just from looking at the album artwork, I guessed that bands like Nightwish provided at least some influence for the way The Agonist would sound on this album. It only took one track to prove me right; almost immediately, I noticed White-Gluz creating a delicate balance between Angela Gossow's rip-your-throat-out growling and highly melodic, occasionally operatic vocals that err more on the Anette Olzon side of Nightwish. The shifts between the two styles kept my attention and built some excellent tension; by the end of "...and Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep", I wanted to go out and break some faces -- and that's only the second track. But of course, White-Gluz can't do it alone; she's aided by bass-heavy drumming from Simon McKay, guitar that is at once both thick and melodious courtesy of Danny Marino (not to be confused with the equally thick but slightly less melodious football player), and nigh-virtuosic bass lines from Chris Kells. The lineup seems perfectly balanced.

But what's this? The subtle addition of piano and strings for flavor? No, that isn't quite enough. After all, the last album had that, too. What makes this album even more special? Refined? Dare I say... classical? Exactly that, of course. In the midst of ten other hard-hitting tracks that show off the instruments, we take a calming break for an a cappella rendition of Act 2, #10 from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Op. 20. This bold and frankly unusual choice showcases White-Gluz and White-Gluz alone as she harmonizes with herself and lets us know just how operatic she can get. The experimentation barely stops there, though. The bridge of "Waiting Out the Winter" is written in 5/4; "Martyr Art" opens in 6/4; "The Sentient" dabbles with 7/8 in places. In fact, with the exception of the opening track, every song on this album uses at least two time signatures. And the final track, "Chlorpromazine", contains a lengthy violin solo. The band isn't afraid to branch out in the slightest, and that ambition works out for the best. Technically, this album excels.

The last comment I'd like to make is with regards to the production. When compared with its predecessor, Lullabies is a sonic masterpiece. I'm actually frightened of blowing out my headphones if I listen to it too loudly. Every note comes through clearly. Not a single nuance is lost. But the most impressive feat I think this album has accomplished is getting me to listen to it. Normally, I can't stand to listen to songs with too much growling in them. What can I say? I like being able to sing along with what I'm listening to. Lullabies has found a fantastic way to bridge the gap and is an astoundingly accessible album. I'm almost worried of hearing how songs from it sound live; if there's the same degree of loss, I won't even enjoy hearing the songs I like performed ten feet in front of me. That's the main thing keeping this album from getting a solid A. Still, I'm impressed by this offering and I would definitely recommend it to a number of people, even if they don't enjoy this kind of music. I didn't at first, and now look at me. A-

Lullabies for the Dormant Mind is hitting shelves March 10th. You can pre-order the album from Century Media now. While you're at it, check out The Agonist's MySpace for a sample of what they can do. If you like what you hear, they're going to be kicking off a tour through Canada and the United States on March 13th. Dates are on their MySpace.