2007

Another year; 365 days of pure metal carnage that’s what I would define my 2007 to be. With bands like the Metallica, Megadeth, Red Hot Chili Peppers etc considering India as an important stop for their tours coupled with the return of the N.W.O.B.H.M Gods Iron Maiden, India is finally getting its share of metal/rock action. This brings us to the very heart of all this, the music it self. Looking back on some of the best and the worst metal albums of 2007 it makes me wonder what the coming years holds in store for us.
The very first few months saw the release of albums by some of the best out there but whether their new albums were up to the expectations of the fans is a completely different story altogether.
Leaders of the melodic side of the most extreme genre Death Metal Arch Enemy released ‘Rise of the tyrant’ fall February followed by a release by one of the Big Four of thrash metal genre Exodus’s ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’.
April saw the release of ‘Systematic Chaos’ by the Gods of progressive metal Dream Theatre with a total running time of 78.3 min this was probably the best release of 2007 and ranks right up there in Dream Theatre’s arsenal.
Next up was the most awaited and the most hyped about return of Megadeth with United Abominations which not surprisingly again featured a completely new line except for Mustaine. The album was considered as one of the biggest failures of 2007 as were the previous two albums none of which won any certification i.e. platinum, gold, etc.
The year also saw releases in the power metal genre with the pioneers of the genre Symphony-X and Helloween releasing ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Gambling with the devil’ respectively.
2007 also saw the return of two of the most famous and controversial Black Metal bands in Dimmu Borgir’s-‘in sorte diaboli’ and Mayhem’s-‘ordo ad chaos’ both of which were received quite well with the fans.
Some of the other releases worth noting were Dillinger Escape plan’s-“Ire Works”, Pig destroyer’s- “Phantom Limb”, Behemoth’s- “The Apostasy”, Dark Tranquillity’s-“Fiction”, Chimaira’s-“Resurrection”, Marduk’s –“Rom 5:12” Amorphis’s- “Silent waters”, Machine head’s-The Blackening, Korpiklaani’s-“Tervaskanto”, Nightwish’s-“Dark passion play”, Iced Earth-Framing Armageddon.
Well, that about sums up 2007.With the music industry booming and expanding by leaps and bounds unaffected by rampant piracy in India as well as abroad we can only wait in watch what 2008 has in store for us.

Metal-A Headanger's Journey

Long hair, Goatee, lots of leather and metal. Connect?
Metalheads, you don’t see them often but go to any rock concert in your city and you’ll find them in plenty. They come in many flavours the moshers, the head bangers, the ones who stand in a corner with folded arms alternately waving their heads and of course the wannabes.
But what’s common between all of them is their love for heavy metal, the most extreme of all genres of music.
Call them weirdoes, wasted fags anything you want but they are the biggest sub-culture in the world transcending the boundaries of race, religion and region;a huge family in the words of James Dio.
Ever wondered why they are the way they are?
Metal-A HeadBanger’s journey tell you exactly that.
Metal follows the journey of narrator and director Sam Dunn a Canadian anthropologist as he travels across the world. His mission-to try and figure out why metal is consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned, even while the people who love it stubbornly hold there grounds-spreading the word, keeping the faith and adopting the styles and attitudes that go way beyond the music. Part social document, part celebration of a misunderstood art form,this documentary is the first of its kind;a chance for metal fans to speak out and a window into the culture that’s far more complex than it appears.
The documentary is made considering both sides the power chord hungry die hard fan as well as the horn-saluting neophyte. Its lay enough even for the ‘pop’ers to enjoy at the same time is inside enough to the devil-horns salute from the most die hard fans.
The film is strong enough to make believers out of non-believers. I’d like to quote the review by CTV-"After taking the Headbanger’s journey; the unitiated will know that there’s more than evil at work. There is a lot of sex, history and music too.”
And ofcourse as expected it features a kickass soundtrack including the giants of metal such as Black Sabbath,Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Sepultura, Arch Enemy etc.
It also features exclusive interviews from the likes of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, Tom Morello of Audioslave, Rage Against the machine, Kerry King and Tom Araya of Slayer, Korn, Slipknot to name some.
My verdict-By the end of the film I realized that I just saw the best music documentary ever and the most definite on heavy metal. It’s a major step in clearing some of the most long standing and controversial questions in the history of music let alone heavy metal.
Metal is a way of life, a religion you either love it or you don’t, if the music doesn’t make the hair stand behind your back or give you that exhilarating surge of energy you never will enjoy or appreciate it. So, all you metalheads out there next time you feel like headbanging to the your favourite song in the most awkward of places never mind the people around, there are a million just like you having the same urge.

Marty Friedman

Marty Friedman, the first thing that would hit any metal head is the golden era of Megadeth; the R.I.P era.
Along with Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson and Nick menza he had created one of the biggest hits in the history of thrash metal and tops the “must listen” list of any noob (Mr. Y) of metal and has achieved a cult status among regular metal heads (Mr. X).

Dragon’s kiss(1988) was the name of the first album by Friedman before joining Megadeth.
Based On Friedman's playing on this album, Dave Mustaine decided to recruit himto Megadeth as a second guitarist before the recordings of Rust In Peace (1990)started.
The album is a complete metal instrumental.
The album just proves the level of maturity musicians can achieve at the height of their careers. The greatest thing about this album is that its so far ahead of its time, and although it was released in the 80’s,it still sounds a lot fresher than what Yngwie and Vai have been doing in recent years.
Another highlight is the untouchable drumming by the ever-so humble Deen Castronovo.
Deen’s change in style is a huge jump, from playing bad English to high speed shred.

There comes a time in every musicians life when he thinks he can handle more than he can take, Scenes(1992) was one such project by Friedman.
A black mark on his then current band(Megadeth) it was, a completely new but shitty sound , totally experimental ,having some weird stuff like Japanese verses(Duh!!) etc. but he did get away with it.
Say Mr.Y came across this album, it would completely change his view on metal and would move to discover uncharted territories I would like to call of popish.
The album completely lacks any element of metal and encompasses a sound you could call wannabe ‘Floyd’.

Then he went on to make albums like True Obsessions (1996),it was the first album which he gave vocals for.
A purely commercial ‘pop’ album.

He moved to involve himself with trance (??) in coalition with Japanese musician Takeomi Matsura and has released an album named Zeta which includes remixes from by other trance musicians.
In short a total waste of one of fathers of thrash.

Opeth

It’s been almost 5 months since I became a die hard fan of Opeth and I still can’t get over them, each of their songs is like a masterpiece of creation.
Opeth is a extreme progressive metal band from Sweden that draws its influence from jazz,1970s progressive rock, blues and folk.
Their exact style of music is debated,it seems to be a mixture of melodic death and prog. rock with a larger contribution from the latter.
Many elements of prog rock can be seen in their style of music,their songs are uniquely crafted with variant verses, changing time signatures and other elements unique to progressive metal, like other progressive metal acts (Dream Theater, etc.) their songs seem to be built centrally around the guitar lead and the vocals “gently” mould into it, another element of progressive metal that can be seen in their music is the length of their tracks they vary from as small as 2 min to tracks of the order of 15 min. or more.

Many of their tracks titles as well as lyrics have some or the other reference to the moon.
Their name 'Opeth' has been taken from the book 'Sunbird' by Wilbur Smith,the creator of the famous characters such as Taita,Lostris,etc. from the cult book 'River God'.
Trivia time-
"Opeth' was originally 'Opet' in the book,guess what it means?

One thing that sets this band apart is their vocalist. Mikael Akerfeldt does both clean as well as growling vocals and varies it with extreme ease in their music. Check out his vocals on tracks such as Bleak, Black rose immortal, The Leper affinity,Beneath the mire etc.
They do both soft as well as heavy stuff equal brilliance, the songs such as- To bid you farewell,Atonement etc. have a phsychedelic touch it (Listen to it when you are high,it'll sound even better that Floyd) .
And the tracks Black rose immortal, The leper affinity etc. will surely make you head bang till you crack your neck.

The album ‘Damnation’ is an extreme variation from any of their previous stuff, the complete album has only clean vocals and is devoid of any element of heavy music, the only thing that is still opethian is the lyrics which still talks about relationships, depression, nature, death,etc.,the brilliant guitarist Martin,drums by ‘Axe’ and of course the bassist Lopez.
But the change doesn’t seem to affect the quality of music set by their previous albums, according to me it could be one of their best albums till date.

All their stuff is absolutely brilliant, but for people who want to a taste of opethian music listen to-
- Beyond good and evil(The cult cover)
-The Leper affinity(Blackwater park)
-Blackwater park(Blackwater Park)
-Death whispered a lullaby(Damnation)
-Windowpane(Damnation)
-In my time of need(Damnation)
-Black rose immortal(Morningrise)
-To bid you farewell(Morningrise)
-Serenity painted death(Still Life)
-Face of Melinda(Still Life)
-Deliverance(Deliverance)
-Atonement(Ghost Reveries)
-Baying of the hounds(Ghost Reveries)
-Ghost of perdition(Ghost Reveries)
They’ll give you the best of both worlds of soft and heavy opeth, and as for all you metal heads out there who want to listen to some good kick ass music,buy all their albums.

Megadeth-United Abominations

Finally the day approaches when the unglorified gods of heavymetal MEGADETH release their next album....May 15 is the fateful day when Mustaine unleashes his mind numbing solos upon this world.

Well some may say;
"Ya right....that jackass of a Mustaine may come up with something as unmetal as pop as filthy as RISK"
Think again;

Mustaine confirmed in a recent press conference that Megadeth are going old school.

"O, yes the May 8th date is finally confirmed now that the mix is nearly done. I hate saying when release dates are, because sometimes they change, and you have to deal with naysayers who behave like the ultimate inch of colon, but I would rather this record was finished to my standards, and above (which it is . . . about time, I know) then put out a soft record.Metal needs a really good oldschool record again. I believe I have delivered. It ain't RIP2, but it could be the record that makes me forget about everything in-between" As told in an official press release.

Some may even go to extent to say that it’s just a stint to get better of Metallica who after their disastrous album (St. Anger) claim to be going old school with their unnamed new album which is expected early this year.
As told by drummer Lars Ulrich "James (Hetfield) and I are sorting through our cds of riffs to put together stuff as we did back in the days. The new stuff is much more organic, more old school. It certainly doesn't feel like St. Anger Part two! St. Anger was fun but we don’t need to make it again".{courtesy rave magazine}

It’s just a matter of time before we know who gets the better of the other this time around.......
As said by Mustaine"Every thing you guys(Metallica) do, touch turn to gold and everything I do fuckin' backfires and I’m sure there are lots of people who would consider my backfire complete success, and I happen to be band number two..NO!"

{As told to Ulrich }

Let’s hope for the best of thrash metal and that we get the best of both for some kick ass music.....

Now back to the album.......[1]United Abominations is the title of their 11th studio album. The album art features a new incarnation of Vic Rattlehead chosen from a deviantart contest, the entry which finished in 11th place.The album title is a play on United Nations and the album cover features the United Nations building being destroyed. It is possible to see the album cover as a reference to the” Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?” cover, which depicts the United Nations building after a nuclear war.The album was scheduled for release on October 31, 2006. In August 2006, frontman Dave Mustaine recently told Billboard.com that the album has been pushed back to early 2007. "We're putting the finishing touches on it," Mustaine told Billboard.com. "We've got a little more work before it's finished, but it should be out some time next year." It was later confirmed for May 8, 20[1].

{[1]...[1]Courtesy wikipedia.net}

The playlist includes-

"United Abominations"

"Washington is Next"

"Gears of War" (This song was named after (though not inspired by) the Xbox 360 game of the same name. Dave Mustaine dedicated the song to the makers of the game after Microsoft and Gears of War sponsored Gigantour 2. Megadeth debuted the song at a Gears of war event in Six Flags New England.)

"Out on the Tiles" (Led Zeppelin cover)

"Amerikhastan"

"Blessed Are The Dead"

"Never Walk Alone"

"Sleepwalker"

"Burnt Ice"

{courtesy wikipedia.net}
\/ :)

Audioslave-Revelations

Audioslave-Revelations

Whoa!!...first time I heard the album I was damn sure that this can't be Audioslave....

The riffs and the solos are a far cry from their previous stuff...but when i heard for a few times Cornell’s brilliant vocals did stand out (that’s the only thing that’s old...the same 'soundgarden'voice of this guy).
The solos are a bit longer and the riffs are a lot stronger and have a much stronger variation in each of their songs,seems they are going the old' grunge'soundgarden' way , but that about sums up the differences the lyrics still revolve around the same thing of love, life angst, wars and on how youth take sides on matters that don’t concern them.

The album cover does look a lot like the earth covered with muck..you know what i mean.

The album sounds a lot better than their previous album 'out of exile' but the sales shows something else,as compared to their first album the revelations is a bit on the heavy side instrumentally but the vocals haven't changed a bit.

Guitarist Tom Morello described the sound as "Earth, Wind and Fire meets Led Zeppelin." [1]

Revelations entered the Billboard 200 at the #2 spot with 150,631 copies. [2]
The album has been certified Gold: USA for shipments of 500,000, Canada for shipments of 50,000, Australia for shipments of 35,000 (first week), New Zealand for shipments of 7,500 (first week),
Revelations is considered a downfall in sales after "Out Of Exile" bowed at #1 with sales of 266,000 opening week. [3]
The album has sold nearly 1 million albums worldwide[4]

{[1],[2],[3],[4] courtesy wikipedia.net.}

Playlist includes-

Revelations*****
One and the same***
Sound of the gun****
Until we fall***
Original fire****
Broken city****
Somedays****
Shape of things to come*****

Jewel of the summer time***
Wide awake***
Nothing left but to say goodbye***
Moth*****

******-personal ratings.