This one might just be another case of "brilliant albums you may have never heard of". Released in 1997, so just over 20 years ago, Komödia was the first full length album of the Dreams of Sanity, after having recorded a couple of demos before, and you wouldn't know it from just listening to it.
Komödia is a beautiful and complex album, with a refinement that is just remarkable. Especially for a debut. And on top of it all it's subject matter is nothing less than one of the greatest works of world literature: Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedia from 1320. An epic poem describing the journey of a wanderer, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, through hell, purgatory and eventually heaven on the search for his lost love, Beatrice.
Clearly, you can't blame Dreams of Sanity for a lack of ambition and, of course, when you aim that high, the chances of failure are quite substantial too. The band however masters their set task brilliantly, with confidence and excellent ideas. A really classy performance, especially by the vocalists, who contribute a lot with their expressive, nuanced performances.
To me Komödia has as much in common with a classical symphony, or opera as it is a metal album. And quite extraordinary in how it brings both together. It is rich and complex, without being too academic, features nuanced and stunningly beautiful songs without drifting off into kitsch-regions, is technically impressive, but never forgets to play for the song, not over the song - its no coincidence really that I still find this album so appealing and interesting after all those years.
Dreams of Sanity would release two more albums, Masquerade and The Game, before they split in 2002 after several line-up changes. A pity they never got the recognition they deserved.
When I showed the record a friend once, who had no idea about the band, he remarked that "this looks like classical music", I think this spontaneous, and not really qualified, assessment is actually quite suiting. This is miles away from mainstream rock and metal. In fact, it is not a trivial question where to put The Gathering really. A fact, which I find actually quite delightful. Is it gothic? symphonic? prog? All of the above? Does it matter?
Anyway, I discovered the band while everyone else was into stuff like Nightwish (once again I dutifully did exactly what everyone else wasn't doing). Goes without saying that I was appealed by the more edgy and experimental sound of The Gathering, despite being quite "symphonic" in their own way. They music is without a doubt quite heavy and dark, almost wagnerian at times, while it also shows some (for the genre) unusual instrumentation and airy colourfulness, creating an interesting and appealing mix.
I find it always fascinating to see the development some bands go through and The Gathering are a good example for a band that changed quite a lot over the years. They started in the late 80's as a doom and death metal band, yet as of Anneke van Giersbergen's arrival in the band for Mandylion, their sound has distinctively and lastingly changed and dramatically expanded its scope.
And certainly, her expressive voice fits ideally to their music. Not as sweet and angelic as so many other female symphonic metal singers, but with an edginess that happily deviates from the norm and works well with the band's overall experimental-attitude.
Still, certain elements still hint to their past. Especially the guitar work: heavy riffing with long held power chords and melodylines is certainly doom-influenced. Interestingly the result is actually quite Pink Floydian as well. Just think Dogs of War and Sorrow.
In later albums, starting with How to Measure A Planet, they began to abandon their metal roots more and more and moved towards a experimental, sometimes ambient-like direction. Something the band itself described as trip-rock - undeniably a quite suiting term.
Mandylion is a colourful, highly enjoyable album. Beautifully composed and executed. It shows a band able of writing songs that are complex and varied on the one hand, but at the same time catchy and beautiful.
The Gathering might not be everyone's taste, but in a genre like metal, with so many conventions and stylistic uniformity, an album like Mandylion is a more than welcome departure from the norm. It's actually quite needed.
Regular readers might have noticed that, besides metal and hard/heavy rock, I also have a soft spot for music from the 70s, psychedelic in particular. And it seems like Jess and the Ancient Ones did their best to push my buttons in that regard.
The album is quite a remarkable experience. Stylisticly somewhere between The Doors and retro-occult-rock like Blood Ceremony, The Horse and Other Weird Tales is colourful, organic and beautifully arranged, with some truly captivating songwriting.
On top of it all vocalist Jess, who is transporting so much pure energy with her dynamic and engaging singing without sacrificing melody. Was her performance on their first record often quite shouty, on The Horse and Other Weird Tales she sounds so much more refined and in command and in the best sense of the word haunting. Dramatic changes in mood, tempo and rhythms - her performance is really outstanding.
If there is one thing to complain about, and I am happy to say there is only one thing actually, then that it just feels too short. The overall runtime is only 34 minutes and most of the songs are just between two and three and a half minutes long, leaving you craving for more. I certainly would not blame a lack of ideas here. To the contrary. The songs are so rich that most of them could easily be twice as long and still entertain me splendidly.
But maybe its better this way. Maybe they want their listeners to stay hungry for more than having a profound lack of ideas dragged out over 20 tracks and 70 minutes, as it happens too often.
All in all a brilliant piece of psychedelic rock with an outstanding singer. A bit too short, but then again - that doesn't takes anything away from all the goodness that's there!
Some albums, I admit, didn't quite got my approval on first listening. Live in Midgard is probably the best example for this. I bought it around its release back in 2002 or '03, put it into my CD player, and didn't touch it again for years.
I can't tell for sure why, maybe I was just looking for something else around that time, or the music did simply overwhelm me (more about that later). Fact is that I discovered the song Wine of Aluqah on a gothic metal compilation, instantly liked it, recognized the name of the band, got the album - and wasn't impressed.
Anyway, what ever led to my initial rejection, I can't relate to it anymore and today Live in Midgard is amongst my favourites of the genre.
The album was recorded in 2001 during their Secret of the Runes-Tour and features a variety of different concert venues in Colombia, Germany and Hungary. While this could have resulted in a bit of a disjointed experience, the opposite is the case really. The whole album is a coherent and organic thunderstorm of sound that is just spectacular. Such power and dynamic! It combines the rawness of metal perfectly with the sensibility of classical instruments and vocals. I can't really name any other recording that deserves the term symphonic metal more than this.
Ironically though, compared to other bands of the genre, Therion remains at the same time probably the least accessible. Their songs are not really written for the charts, like say Nightwish does and therefore usually don't have singles-quality. And maybe that's just the reason why I value them so highly. Its so easy in the genre to fall into the trap of kitsch, Isn't it?
As much as I like their songwriting, I find Therion's studio-albums often a bit sterile and overproduced. Everything sounds pitch perfect and tidy, but the spirit of the moment just refuses to show itself. Not this record though. It is very well produced, but also keeps the dirt and the immediate dynamic of a live performance alive and definitely kicking.
Despite the norse-mythology-related title (and the title of the tour), Live in Midgard doesn't features overwhelmingly many songs from their 2001 album Secret of the Runes, but a healthy mixture of tracks from their past as well. The setlist reaches as back as their earliest, death/doom metal material, like A Black Rose, Beauty in Black, Wings of the Hydra and ("the fucking") Riders of Theli and includes the song Seawinds, a relatively obscure title from Accept. There is even some ABBA thrown in with the song Summer Night City. Believe it or not!
This said, the album isn't the most diverse, Therion stays Therion - and that means epic, relatively complex metal. And plenty of that. It is very much an all-out attack on the senses, with just a few breathers in between. Maybe it was this intensity, that kept me away from it initially. You certainly have to be in the right mood to enjoy this album in its entirety.
All in all, Live in Midgard is truly an experience. A dense and compelling tour de force. A operatic thunderstorm that leaves the listener saturated with sound. Not an easy listen for sure and probably not really recommendable for newbies, but highly enjoyable if you like epic symphonic metal that is maybe a bit edgier than what you usually get.
Deep Purple was never free of conflicts. At least not for long. Strong egos, touring stress, diverging creative ideas and their rocketing success in the early 70s with all its consequences (as in drugs, more touring stress and ever bigger egos) - that's all not really de-escalating factors. Ironically, their most creative (and successful) line-up is at the same time the one which probably was the most tense. Of course we are talking about what is known as Deep Purple Mk.II. Originators of masterful albums like In Rock (1970), Fireball (1971) and Machine Head (1972).
With the (involuntarily) departure of Ian Gillan and Roger Glover on the peak of the band's success in 1973 and Blackmore leaving two years later (frustrated, but voluntarily), Deep Purple went into a steady decline and eventually - in 1976 hit rock bottom and fell apart unceremoniously.
In the years afterwards, each member went on to boldly pursue his own projects he never had time for while being in Deep Purple. Well... not really. Jon Lord and Ian Paice found themselves playing several years together in Whitesnake, the band of Gillan's replacement, David Coverdale, which - at least in Lord's case - was more a vacational arrangement than anything else. Roger Glover eventually joined Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in its commercial successful radio-rock, post-Dio-phase. Only Ian Gillan was really doing solo-projects (amongst with losing a lot of money in bad investments).
Anyway, at least in retrospect it seems they couldn't really stay away from each other for too long, doesn't it? So in 1984 their reunion eventually happened. Having big cheques waved at them by their record company certainly helped a bit as well.
But enough of the foreplay. How well does the record actually hold up, I hear you ask? Ok, since you ask me so directly: Its amazing!
The album starts off subtly with a sneaky keyboard-intro before building up to the groovy and relaxed rocker Knocking at Your Back Door. Already at this point you know, this is going to be good. All the ingredients which make Deep Purple what it is are back together in perfect harmony. Those typical Blackmore guitar-riffs and melodies, the unmistakable and elegant keyboard by Jon Lord, always there when you need it, but never pushing itself into the spotlight for the sake of it, the powerful Glover/Paice rhythm engine and those sleazy Gillan vocals (really, listen to those lyrics!) that fit to the sound of the rest of the ensemble so brilliantly that it's hard to imagine anybody else doing the job (well, certainly not Coverdale/Hughes).
For the second track, Under the Gun, the band is shifting up a couple gears. A tense and energetic song that wipes away all remaining doubts whether they still had their fire. With its simple, but superbly effective intro riff (in great symbiosis once again with the keys-section) it storms over you and takes you with it before you figured out what happened. Great song. One of my all-time favourites.
Nobody's Home and Mean Streak are similarly energetic and fast rockers and certainly excellent songs in their own right, but the monumental Perfect Strangers following them just steals the show here. What a song! Heavy and almost gothic in its dark and cold mood. Probably the archetypical Deep Purple song of the 80s and always a highlight played live.
After the moderately-paced epic named Perfect Strangers, A Gypsy's Kiss is picking up the tempo again and rushes through its classical-inspired melodies with breakneck-speed. I always associate it with rushing along a nightly road or through a tunnel. It just has this rushing, tunnel-vision-feel to it. Really captivating.
Wasted Sunsets, on the other hand, is musically the complete opposite. Slow-paced and melancholicly meandering, with some of the most beautiful guitar soloing you might encounter in a long while. So lyrical, so intense and heartbreakingly played. An absolutely brilliant song.
The album finishes (in the LP version) on a bit of a sentimental note with Hungry Daze. A restless rushing through scenes of their busy tour life - the aforementioned hungry days, when they were almost constantly either on the road or recording a new album. A good song with some blistering guitar-work once again.
The final final track is Not Responsible, which stomps along quite nicely but doesn't really goes anywhere. Not a bad song. Certainly not, but in company with all the greats on this record, it falls off a bit. At least it give you some additional four minutes to enjoy this brilliant, perfectly attuned band, before it fades out.
Sound-wise Perfect Strangers picks up on their album Machine Head and does a modernised interpretation on the crisp, cold and almost biting feel it had. This modernisation works really well and at no time like an artificial ahem... "enhancement", of albums like Yes' 90125 with its silly, seemingly randomly thrown in samples. Blackmore allegedly told his band mates to listen to it carefully for inspiration. Good job they paid attention to the right parts. Because you can doesn't means you should do certain things!
The production by Roger Glover on the other hand, who did a lot of Deep Purple-albums over time, is solid, but a bit too muddy. Other albums from around this time are clearer, punchier, so no chance of blaming 80s studio-technology there.
So despite the slight niggle here and there, which is like complaining that in the Himalaya not all mountains are the same, height, my verdict remains. Perfect Strangers is amazing. A spectacular reunion-album with sparks flying left and right and the good old Deep Purple motor firing happily from all its cylinders. As usual with this line-up, the peace didn't last forever (or longer than a couple of months!), but at least we got this wonderful album out of it.
My first contact with Black Sabbath was through a German TV ad in the 90s, which used the song Paranoid for a quite silly recreation of that famous scene in Wayne's World. It wasn't even the original song but a pretty close cover version, which - in retrospect - seems quite fitting: play the pastiche of a cult song in a pastiche of a scene from a cult movie.
Anyway, I started my enquiries (luckily rock and metal is strong in my family) and after I learned song title and artists name, I went to a local record store, bravely ignored the rather stupid cover motive, bought the CD and well, music wasn't the same again after listening through this album for the first time.
While their first album is generally seen as the birth of heavy metal, thanks to their trademark sound* and gloomy subject matter, things really took off with their second album, Paranoid.
Released just months after their debut, you would maybe expect this record being an afterthought, but to the contrary: the amount of power and doom the band unleashes here is just spectacular and literally unheard of. With Paranoid the band definitely found their groove and cranked up the dials to elven!
Lyrically the album moved away from the supernatural/satanic imagery of songs like Black Sabbath or NIB towards a more gritty, real-life perspective, with the danger of the nuclear apocalypse (War Pigs, Electric Funeral), insanity (Paranoid, obviously) and drug addiction (Hand of Doom) being the overarching themes. And the album clearly benefits from this shift. It's songs still speak to us and possess a timeless, intimate quality.
The atmosphere of its lyrics resonates in the music itself: The bluesy-jazzy vibe of its predecessor is almost gone; exposing the bare bones of the bands heavy riffing and drumming. In fact, only the screaming, psycho-esque (you know, that shower scene) high notes in Iommi's soloing are a descendant of his jazz-influences. The result is a more condensed and focused record with no frills. And a pretty bleak one. The perfect soundtrack for the apocalypse and a how-to-guide for generations of upcoming doom bands.
*And lets be fair: neither of the other two big heavy rock bands of the early 70s, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, had that an uncompromising sound. So kudos to Sabbath for changing the game.
Ok, this one didn't made it easy for me, but in the end it was quite enjoyable to write this review.
Uli Jon Roth, former lead guitarist with the Scorpions (long ago, back in the day when they were quite progressive and actually cool) has quite the reputation as guitar virtuoso and eccentric (which is quite an achievement for itself in the rock/metal genre), so its wise to expect the unexpected.
I like the basic idea of Under A Dark Sky: A concept album as a commentary on mankind's self-destructive ways, which eventually could lead into a catastrophe. That's always a winner for me.
The result though is a mixed bag. Between the highs of real greatness and the lows of utter kitsch.
To give you an impression: The album begins quite strongly with the track S.O.S., and - true to its subject matter - the sound of air sirens, morse-code and several voices declaring red alert building up a dramatic, film-score-like atmosphere. The voices are getting answered by a choir demanding "save our souls", underlined by a dramatically ascending electric guitar solo, before it falls into a shy, bittersweet melody.
All in all a very captivating start, but sadly a lot of the following material can't keep up and meanders somewhere in the acoustic no-man's land between operatic/musical orchestration and kitschy new-age tunes. With a good measure of virtuoso electric guitar solos thrown into the mix.
The tragedy is that there is certainly no doubt about Roth's skills as a musician. It is all wonderfully arranged and played, with some blisteringly beautiful solos. Same applies to his guest musicians.
It's more that, with all his theatrics, his taste fails him. His musical language is quite specific and the line between effective theatrics and simply kitsch is very thin - too thin for him. It's something I noticed in his other solo-works before: They are always displays of blistering playing technique, but when it comes to making use of it in a dramatic sense, it too often becomes comical instead of captivating.
Lyrically its a similar picture: The mix of English lyrics with German bits and pieces thrown in just feels quite artificial and over the top. It could have worked better if he had used them in more moderate doses. Which brings us back to the main problem of him as a musician: Uli Jon Roth wants too much. He is releasing all stops, puts everything into his music, shoots the moon and - misses.
I think its fair to say that Uli Jon Roth isn't quite on the same page as most of the rock and metal world. That's in theory not a bad thing at all, since most is pretty formulaic and uninspired, but sadly the alternative he brings up can't fully convince either.
This doesn't means the album doesn't has its good sides. It certainly has. In parts it is truly outstanding. It's absolute peak is the last track, Tanz in die Dämmerung (dance into the dusk), a monumental, almost 20 minutes long, epic. Dark and tense, starting slowly with some uneasy intervals played on Spanish guitar, and escalating into a wild frenzy. Mankind's dance into the catastrophe.
It end in sudden silence just when you would expect a resolution. Like a plug being pulled. In fact the songs ends so abruptly that some people thought their CD was damaged. A perfect metaphor of Roth's songwriting: instead of serving the expectations of his listeners, he surprises you with something unexpected. And here, instead of ending in a typical thunderstorm of noise, as so many bands would have done - there is nothing. Just as nothing would be left from us, if the big nuclear catastrophe strikes. A dance on the volcano - and then dead silence.
So despite its obvious weaknesses, I can't really condemn the album. It certainly has its highlights and grows on you with repeated listening. Keep in mind though that, if you expect anything like the Scorpions, get ready for a disappointment. Roth left the band in the late 70's and the music he made since certainly doesn't sounds like them at all. So better go into listening this record without any expectations or preconceptions. Its not going to be an easy, straightforward experience.
This one is in a way special to me. I even had a poster of this cover around the year 2000 - and a T-Shirt as well. And it still remains one of the most beautiful, touching - and sensual - record covers I know.
Fortunately the music itself fits just perfectly. Its a dark and sensual record. With its heavy, abrasive (yet in the context of the songs very fitting) guitar, the slow and atmospheric songs and Peter Steele's deep and tender voice whispering in your ear.
Despite its overarching doomy nature, Bloody Kisses is quite diverse actually. The album takes you on a journey of different moods, yet the individual tracks seem very coherent with each other. A bit like in a dream, where one scene transmutes into another, keeping the listener moving in a flow of different feelings and stories to tell.
The album achieves this with absolute spot-on tempo changes and instrumentation. Everything just fits seamlessly into each other. Purely masterful.
Its hard to point out certain songs. Despite its runtime of about 73 minutes there aren't really any filler on this record. The songs all have depth and their very own unique character.
There is the obvious Black No. 1 of course with its sarcastic look on one of Peter Steele's ex-girlfriends and the goth-scene in general.
Or the Seals & Crofts cover Summer Breeze, which got a completely new and different life in this incarnation. I was actually quite shocked to hear the original for the first time. The Type O Negative-version just feels so natural - and right - to me.
Naming some of the other highlights of the record, like Set Me On Fire, Kill All The White People, Christian Woman, Bloody Kisses, and we are already almost through the whole tracklist. It's indeed hard to find a weak song on Bloody Kisses.
To make a long story short: Bloody Kisses is a masterpiece of a record and (at least to me) one of the definite albums of the 90s. A brilliant, intimate soundtrack for your own private melancholia. Light some candles, open a bottle of red wine and press play. To paraphrase the band itself: This album will hit you slow, deep and hard.
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