Carl Begai

By Carl Begai

The long awaited Nightwish follow-up to Dark Passion Play from 2007, Imaginaerum, is a masterpiece. The greatest thing since the creation of fire. Grander the invention of the wheel. A tour de force that has pushed the power metal and classical music scenes to learn French and admit they have no clue what “bombastic” really means. A showcase of musical genius that has composer John Williams considering changing his last name to Holopainen. Better than half-drunk pre-marital sex. So awesome they had to make a movie about/for/with it. Blah blah fucking blah add nausea…

Yes indeed, the media hack hype machine has been puckering up and kissing ass ever since the album was made accessible to the press, likely upping the sales of Chapstick by 200%. Only thing is, Imaginaerum is a bloody masterpiece, particularly if you’re a Nightwish fan that’s been able to see beyond Tarja Turunen’s cleavage.

If not for potential accusations of plagiarism, Nightwish could have gotten away with calling the album Tuomas In Wonderland. Spawned and nurtured by keyboardist / songwriter / founder Tuomas Holopainen, Imaginaerum is his full blown journey into the depths of fairytales and fantasy, something that’s been a here-and-there part of the Nightwish formula from album to album since the band’s inception. It earns the title “epic” before things are even a third done, the majority of the songs being a clear cut and necessary step up and away from Dark Passion Play on almost every count. Just how far one is willing to be yanked down Holopainen’s personal rabbit hole depends on how much time you’re willing to invest in a new, insanely ambitious, and occasionally bizarre take on a traditional soundtrack. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

When a band releases an album for free, the knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss it as a collection of odds and bits that aren’t worthy of an official “real world” physical release. A Southern Revelation is available at no cost to friend and foe alike (details below), featuring brand new material written and recorded in the wake of a label-instigated shitsorm that would have ripped a lesser band to shreds. Call it nine shots of venom capped off with a chaser celebrating the good old days, served up as a middle finger dedicated to Tiefdruck Musik boss Daniel Heerdman following the botched release of My Ruin’s previous record, Ghosts And Good Stories.

A bloodletting rather than an exorcism, vocalist Tairrie B. Murphy tears down Heerdmann, false promises, industry politics and the posers it spawns, ever the elegant wordsmith whether she’s a raging scream or calculated spoken word. Always a treat to listen to – “listen” being the operative word – lyrical violence abounds, with Tairrie venting in her trademark no-bull fashion on ‘Walk Of Shame’, ‘Middle Finger’, ‘Seventh Sacrament’, ‘Deconsecrated’, and the killing blow, ‘The Soulless Beast’. And while certain folks may feel that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, being compared in song to the devil and stamped as “The Great Pretender” by name should be food for change of thought. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

It’s been a long, long, long time since Iced Earth has done anything for me, with Something Wicked This Way Comes from 1998 standing as the last knock-down no-holds-barred skull basher in guitarist / founder Jon Schaffer’s catalogue. There have been some noteworthy moments since then – ‘The Phantom Opera Ghost’ from Horror Show and ‘The Reckoning’ from The Glorious Burden being the mindblowing faves – but nothing that dug its hooks in down to the bone for the space of a full album. With that in mind, the usual industry hype that preceded the release of Dystopia sounded like smoke-blow for the hopeless fanboy, automatically setting my expectations on the low side as a failsafe against disappointment.

The first spin through Dystopia yanked jaw to floor. Repeated listens since then – again and again… and again – have convinced me that Iced Earth is back in the game and capable of surpassing the brightest moments of The Dark Saga / Something Wicked… breakthrough era from over a decade past.

Dystopia’s charm and staying power stem from the fact that Schaffer has dialled back his penchant of the past five years for delivering music in epic and sometimes too-big-to-be digested portions. By no means is this a sign he’s lacking in ambition these days; it’s just being channelled in a new (old) way. And, Schaffer should be applauded for stripping things down and keeping focus on the bloody point. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Kittie threw down the gauntlet in 2007 with Funeral For Yesterday, an album that earned them a truckload of credibility amongst the metal masses for nailing the coffin shut on the alterna-nu-metalcore sound that yanked the spotlight in their direction in the late ‘90s. The highly anticipated 2009 follow-up, In The Black, cemented Kittie’s place at the table occupied by old school metal purists and a younger generation with its collective head in the right place. No surprise, then, that I’ve Failed You stomps even deeper into the realms of metal, crushing any lingering thoughts of the foursome as nothing more than an all-female novelty act. The level of musicianship and song dynamics on the album, on the other hand, is a bloody revelation.

Not that Kittie didn’t have the chops before, but if “maturity” is a dirty word the ladies have been mud-bathing for the last year and come out all guns blazing. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Maybe it was a full moon, the previous evening’s entertainment, or a case of pre-flight jitters, but my first run through Kicking & Screaming left me cold and underwhelmed. Bach’s voice was shot full of holes, the songs were toothless, and there were too many damn ballads to be take the album title seriously. The 21-year-old fanboy rattling inside my brain was having none of it, however, and for the next month at home in Toronto the album received regular airplay on a set of cheap-ass portable iPod speakers (due to a bizarre gardening accident involving the car stereo). Slowly but surely, Kicking & Screaming revealed its true self. By the time it hit the big metalhead approved junk-in-the-trunk office sound system, there was no choice but to drown those first impressions.

Putting the bottom line before wiseguy prose, this is the album Skid Row wishes they could cough up. Call it shades and reflections of the Skids’ classic first two albums (the self-titled debut and Slave To The Grind). And while there’s no ‘Youth Gone Wild’, ’18 & Life’ or ‘Monkey Business’ to be had after a dozen listens, it far surpasses anything Baz’ former bandmates have done since Johnny Sollinger was tapped to try and follow the Bacharoo Banzai Show.

The jury is still out on whether it overpowers Bach’s previous ton of bricks, Angel Down, as Kicking & Screaming is a grower that has to be absorbed over time rather than pounded back like a free Jäger shot. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Five albums old, Japanese melodic cyber-death metal outfit Blood Stain Child have made a habit of overhauling their sound from record to record. The symphonic Euro-metal mess of their 2002 debut, Silence Of Northern Hell, evolved into various forms of Scandinavian worship in the years that followed, chanelling a grittier and altogether fugly Children Of Bodom on Mystic Your Heart in 2003. The band officially hit their stride two years later with Idolator and a trance-laced take on melding classic and new age In Flames, which continued on Mozaiq in 2007, albeit with more focus on electronic elements, female backing vocals, and a new singer in the driver’s seat. Blood Stain Child’s fanbase has grown with them in spite of these changes, but nothing could have prepared folks for the metamorphosis that has resulted in arguably the strongest album of their career.

Epsilon sees bassist / original vocalist Ryo back up front, replacing his one-album replacement Sadew, only he now shares duties with Greek female singer Sophia, who has effectively changed the way Blood Stain Child does business. Between the melodic and oft-times pop elements of her voice and pushing mad scientist Aki’s electronica up front, evil genius / guitarist Ryu’s vision of creating something unique have been realized. Call it perplexing and bloody impressive, because Epsilon is one of those albums where steel-chewing metalheads should be screaming bloody murder when confronted with anime inspired techno-pop in the mix, yet it works. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

I was recently taken to task by a couple diehard Stephen King fans for this blog offering my compliments for Under The Dome, given the brush off for “damning him with faint praise” because my tongue didn’t take up residence in King’s ass. With that in mind I’ve decided to weigh in on his “little” epic, which turned out to be a satisfying read despite the widespread slamming he’s received for it.

Yes, I know I’m a bit late considering the book was published in 2009, but if you don’t like it there’s the door ————————>

The basic premise of the story (click here here for a synopsis that ruins the end for you) is classic science fiction:

– small town Somewheresville (in this case, Chester’s Mill) is cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field, dubbed The Dome.

– things go from peculiar to bad to worse for the folks on the inside.

– you’re in a Stephen King story; karma’s a bitch.

As Stephen King books go, Under The Dome has moments reminiscent of Needful Things and It, but it isn’t and will never be considered one of his best works by his legion of Constant Readers. Everything from the sheer bulk of it (1,000+ pages), to lack of character depth, to King’s in-your-face views on religion and the Obama administration have been cited as reasons why Under The Dome fails to live up to expected high quality King-ship. Then there’s the end of the story, which has left some folks screaming “foul” for being too empty, too quick, too Hollywood…

Bah. Getting there was half the fun. (continue reading…)

With their comeback only two albums young – the decent enough Reborn (2005) and the superior Murder By Pride (2009) – news that Stryper were gearing up for a cover album seemed like a step backwards. A tracklist of done-to-death classic metal staples from the likes of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Scorpions and Deep Purple made the band’s lack of inspiration all the more apparent, and tacking on a title that sounds like a 2-for-1 Wal-Mart housewares sale item did nothing to raise dangerously low expectations. A mere two songs in, however, and vocalist / guitarist Michael Sweet’s claims that they are paying tribute to the bands that molded and shaped the Stryper sound ring true. On 10. In fact, with the exception of a painfully dull rendition of Judas Priest’s ‘Breakin’ The Law’ – which falls as flat as the original studio version – The Covering is a romp that breathes new life into a metal history many of us take for granted.

Lead off scorcher ‘Set Me Free’, originally done by Sweet (the band, not the man), makes the Vince Neil / Steve Stevens version from Neil’s Exposed solo record (1993) pale in comparison – no easy task – served up fully loaded with guitar shred. The Scorpions’ ‘Blackout ‘ is delivered vocal warts and all, the arrangements for Black Sabbath’s ‘Heaven And Hell’ and Iron Maiden’s ‘The Trooper’ are eyebrow-raising surprises in that they’re played straight yet loaded with elements (guitar leads, vocal harmonies) that are distinctly Stryper. (continue reading…)

Quite possibly the ultimate hit and miss band, My Ruin have been slugging it out for over a decade, gaining a small but loyal following while leaving most of the distortion-loving masses scratching their heads over who and what My Ruin is all about. The former can be blamed on crap international distribution, the latter on the band’s stunning penchant for crossing between the old school and nu-skool without breaking a sweat. Ghosts And Good Stories – My Ruin’s sixth official full length album – is their strongest outing since A Prayer Under Pressure Of Violent Anguish from 2000, with vocalist / wordsmith Tairrie B. and guitarist-turned-multi-intrumentalist Mick Murphy having locked into and refined a definitive sound. The record is bookended by two shots of doom, ‘Diggin’ For Ghosts’ and ‘Deathknell’, contrasting Tairrie’s now-trademark spoken word elegance against a Black Sabbath-painted canvas. Second tune in, ‘Long Dark Night’, sets a death punk tone for the album that persists even when the songs drop to a half speed groove, and regardless of tempo Ms. B’s performance is always in your face. Her full-on screech was second to none before Pro-Tools screwed up the industry, and her performance on Ghosts And Good Stories (‘Excommunicated’, ‘Suicide Tuesday’, ‘Abusing The Muse’) serves notice to lovelies like Maria Brink (In This Moment) and Candace Kucsulain (Walls Of Jericho) that delivery is everything. And in this case, brutally effective. (continue reading…)

Bummer. The screech is back.

Call that a knee-jerk reaction to lead-off track ‘The Gun Show’, which features the lovely Maria Brink back to the banshee razorblade wail she made her trademark on In This Moment’s debut; something she all but abandoned on follow-up The Dream in favour of a gorgeous clean voice. Kind of off-putting actually, coming off as a painfully desperate one-dimensional stab at making it up to the fans who bitched about her missing edge last time out. Aggression for aggression’s sake. As the album progresses, however, things open up and it comes clear that In This Moment are far from stupid and their well of creativity is a long way from running dry. A Star-Crossed Wasteland is the next logical step in the band’s career – diehard followers should have seen this coming – taking elements from the first two records and bringing them together for a sonic orgy of epic proportions. Brink’s clean voice is unique, captivating and rich regardless of whether she’s belting out ‘A Star-Crossed Wasteland’, the choruses of ‘Standing Alone’ and ‘Just Drive’, or doing up closing ballad ‘World In Flames’. She’s also finds some remarkable middle-ground between clean and over-the-top screaming – and there’s loads of the latter all over the record – on ‘Blazin”, a track that sounds like it was yanked from Ozzy’s recording sessions for Scream. Added to all this are occasional male vocals (‘Iron Army’, ‘The Promise’) that work well alongside Brink, never coming off as Rogers / Parton cheesy or a cheap feminized twist on Soilwork. Neat trick, hinting at what Lacuna Coil with an identity crisis might sound like.
(continue reading…)