| CD REVIEW Still Screaming |
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TSM/SLW Promotions special, January 2010: Area51 – Naked – Orpheus – Shoot The Breeze The first TSM/SLW special for 2010 includes demos & albums we already had in our possession for a while (check Naked & Orpheus) but also stuff that had just come tumblin’ down the post shute at out editor-in-chief’s home. In stead of numbering the specials, this year I’m goin’ for another approach in differentiating them from each other. Hope it agrees with you. ----------------------------------------------------------------- For once, we got a nice biography along with a promo copy of an album, so I didn’t bother to check for more details at first. This project of guitarist/ multi-instrumentalist Yoichiro Ishino (guitar instructor at Japan’s Music Institute) was started in 2003, and using the delightful Kate Cain as singer, saw a first recorded product released in August 2005 in the form of full-lenth album Ankh. Not only did the album get a rave review in Japan’s most respected Rock & Metal magazine Burrn, it was also elected as one of 6 best products in the Japanese Neo-Classical Metal category. Evidently, domestic sales were quite noteworthy. Also, tracks were culled from the album for a March 2008 release of a limited edition mini-album in Brazilia. On the side-line, the project’s also been getting attention through Kate’s specifically stylistic clothing and singing style. Sophomore album Daemonicus…which was mastered at the world-famous Finnvox Studios in Finland (still thé place to be for all things Symphonical and Neo-Classical)…was unleashed on home soil in March of 2008, and rose to #66 on the Yahoo! Japan Music Ranking charts, an overall site including àll existing artists and based on CD sales, plus iTune and Ringtone downloads. Soon after all of Area51’s discography was made available through iTunes download, and in June 2009 the band struck a deal with CDBaby for the worldwide distribution of the album through their medium. Right, so that’s when I got busy and started surfing the Internet. First thing I did, was check out the photo galleries available, and I have to say Kate indeed has quite a way of covering up her nudity. Ooh, I’m nasty…I meant to say she dresses up quite extra-ordinarily. One of the things I immediatelly found out, is that apparently the projet also does occasional live appearances, but since neither their page at MySpace. At the band’s own website (area51-web.com) I learned that the band’s keyboard and bass players left in early 2009, and apparently Kate and Yoichiro have been scurving the globe in search of people to help ‘em out in the recordings of a third album, alongside studio drummer You Yamauchi (not that no live drummer is mentioned…most probably the band plays their gigs with hired help). Even before I’d gone out Internet-way, I’d listened to the album a couple of times, discovering that Kate has this typical Japanese girlie voice, which is however not devoid oof some power. Far from sounding like an Opera diva, she brings an unique identity to the overall sound which is quite refreshing. On top, the world outside Japan will find she keeps up a big part of the Oriental mysticism by singing most of her lyrics in her native language in stead of the internationally more “acceptable” English (except for a spoken word passage in excellent English during 4th song “Venus (Croix Eternelle)”, and a duet passage in the more than 16 minute-long album closing “Lord Knows”, which sees guest vocals done by Rob Rock (known from releases with Impellitteri, solo work, and more). This song is the perfect showcase for Kate and Yoichiro’s songwriting capacities, as it doesn’t bore one second! The song starts off with a (Japanese) solo for Kate, ensues with a solo (in English, evidently) for Rock, and continues with a (Japanese) solo for Kate before the two start on their duet. There’s even a certain moment where Rock’s vocals are so intelligible that it suggests he also does a part of the duet in Japanese. Musically, the Neo-Classical thing is mainly incorporated by the keyboards, the guitarist only occasionally goin’ off his somewhat melodic…shredding (?)…towards a Malmsteen mode. Another special moment on the album, is the short instrumental “Requiem”, a piece for piano keyboard and soft-whaling guitar in Neo-Classical mode. At myspace.com/area51, there’s plenty of material off this album for you to sample (the track with Rock only as a sample, though), and you’ll find out the band has indeed already moved on towards the release of their 3rd album. Prior to having the album’s material mixed by Jens Bogren (known from his work with the likes of Opeth, Paradise Lost, Saint Daemon, Symphony X, and more) the band already released a couple of singles off the album through iTunes. As the band was experiencing some (technical?) difficulties in getting the new songs downloadable outside Japan at first, they posted those new tracks on their MySpace page as well. Earlier in 2009, Ishiro was invited to collaborate with Anthem and Animetal singer Eizo Sakamoto on the latter’s solo album (with two other guitarists taking care of the rest, Ishiro took care of the composition of half of the 14 songs). The new album is expected to be released in March 2010, and both it and its predecessors are musts for lovers of Neo-Classical Metal with an mystical touch! 90/100 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Before starting this review, an ernest apology is to be made by the head office of this websire to this Swedish band for taking such a delay in getting this review out. In recent times (we’re talking since halfway last year) our editor-in-chief has made it an habit to download j-peg files of album covers for use on the website, but when Naked’s album came, he simply couldn’t find a downloadable cover image, and therefore the internal distribution of Get Naked was postponed time and time again, the album being put in an away corner of the to-do box in question. Eventually he was forced to revert to the old method of scanning album covers himself, when he and I had arranged to work on the “Upcoming” files of the website, and he had apparently forgotten his memory stick at work (meaning we had quite a bit of album covers to scan anyway). So, in his name, I hereby offer Naked our sincerest apologies. I have to say, from the very first time I had seen the album’s cover (and I guess that must’ve been some 2 ½ months ago – really, a delay like that was unprecedented, let’s hope it never happens again) I had certain expectations about the band’s music…which were not disappointed. You see, I was somehow reminded of art-work by late ‘70s, early ‘80s bands such as RPM, and 707, and that those expectatiosn at least partially came through. Now as the album was delivered to us without any info, I have some trouble giving you the usual background on this band, as their own website (naked.se) is currently under construction. A search on Myspace only gave me info relating to an Helsinki based Finish band by the same name (a Glam Rock/ Cock Rock act which, after several albums, is apparently throwing in the towel somewhere in February). Via Last.fm I was informed of the fact that besides these two Naked bands, there’s at least 6 more (two others from Sweden…an Indie Rock act which achieved a certain level of fame in the mid ‘90s before dissolving…the other an Indie Rock band which achieved some fame during the ‘90s thanks to a hit song, they only released a self-titled album; three…was an Anarcho-Punk band from the UK in the early ‘80s which left us an EP and a compilation track; four was a local Singapore band from the late ‘90s playing ballads and scoring a one-time hit; five then, was the New Jersey based American “Sedimentary Rock” act which formed in 1991 and split in 1995 leaving two demos as their legacy; the Danish Indie Rock band from Copenhaven was among the first to release an album with influences from Pixies, Sebadoh, and Sonic Youth on their country’s Crunchy Frog label during the ‘90s; eventually, seven, a still existing Funk/ Jazz/ Jam orchestra from Belgrade, Serbia consisting of 6 members whom released an album titled NOYZ through the Multikultivator label. Things I dó know about this Naked include: band members on the album were singer Petri Vehviläinen (described as a perfect stand-in for Baltimoore’s Björn Lodin, he is occasionally remeniscent of Bruce Dickingson), guitarists Mats Stattin (whom founded the band as a studio project and then saw it turn into a gigging one) and Ronny Zander (whom also plays the bass on the album), and drummer Mike Roos. They recorded the Get Naked album somewhere in 2007 with Alien’s Tony Borg as producer. Borg also co-wrote two songs with Stattin, and contributes lead guitar to the track “Possession Obsession”. One Mats Sandborg played additional keyboards (mostly atmospheric backgrounds for the guitarists, often drowned out by the occasional heavier guitars, but here and there you get some very nice keyboard passages indeed…especially in the intros), and the album is embellished in many songs with the additional female backing vocals of Kasja Borg (definitely a family member of the producer?), Josefine Löngrenn-Eriksson, and Denise Persson. Guest musicians include trumpetist Patrik Erikkson (surely yet again a family tie?) and sax player Torbjörn Nilsson, both on the album’s musically deviating “Doctor Doctor” (more like a Bluesey ballad with Sandborg performing piano). Otherwize, what you get is good ‘80s-style keyboard-driven Hard Rock, with an occasional heavier touch a fair amount of the songs (back in the late ‘80s those tracks would’ve gotten the “Heavy Rock” tag). I’m guessing Mats took quite some time to get the album out, the only reviews I could find (in one of the few sections on the band’s website that are not under construction) being from recent date. At any rate, in September the band scored a couple of minor successes, getting their song “You Stole My Heart” (a very nice and catchy ‘80s up-tempo Melodic Rock track) to the #1 position on their national radio P4 program Kalmar, and seeing the album opening track “Guardian Angel” (one of the heavier tracks, in a Nostradamus/ Malmsteen mood) being played at American online radio station KRXX.com. Somehow however, I would’ve though Naked’s less heavy tracks to have the bigger attraction for the US market! Oh well, how things change, eh…maybe someone ought to get the people at Frontiers wizeon these Norwegians! As mentioned above, the studio project eventually evolved in a gigging one, the line-up including Petri, Mats, Daniel Nellänge on lead guitar, Anders Nyberg on the bass, and Anton Klaesen on the drums. No idea what they’re up to at this moment, as the website is under construction. Luckily, the “Music” section isn’t, and that is where you can listen to 1-minute samples of all 11 songs on this album! 90/100 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Somehow, I misplaced the biography this Trondheim based Norwegian Heavy Metal band sent us along with their album, and of course neither their MySpace page or own website contains any info. So, here’s from memory. Orpheus was actually formed as a highschool band, and when the two guitarists went to music school afterwards, they befriended a third axeman and decided to resurrect their band with a 3-way guitar attack. Fast forward to 2005, and only guitarist Kristian Drivenes remains, and the line-up of that moment (including already a female singer, and drummer/ backing singer Torgeir Nilsen) records a mini-album which does pretty well, but not good enough to hold the line-up together. Fast forward again, this time to 2009, and the band line-up, besides Drivenes and Nilsen, is comprised of singer Ingrid Galadriel, second guitarist Sivert Skaaren, and bassist Amund Stokke (meanwhile already replaced by new man Rune “Rickenbacker” Engesteter). Early that year, the band starts recording its self-titled debut full-length album. With mixing (in March) followed by mastering and art-work stuff, the album is released in mid June and presented to a public on July 7. And early September, the band joined the worldwide net of TSM/SLW, which eventually brought ‘em on our trail. In Greek mythology, Orpheus was taken along on the Argonauts’ travels, in order to be able to pass by the Sirens thanks to the man’s enchanting lyre playing. Of course, the Norwegian band goin’ by his name use modern instruments, but that’s not the only way they differ from the ancient enchanter. You see, there’s a nice Progressive touch in this band’s Heavy Metal, but there’s also a rough edge to the guitars’ sounnd. Not to the point of becoming Thrashy, be enough to bring a disharmonizing effect in the enchantment of having a female singer. Of course, Ingrid occasionally lays a bit oof roughness in her voice as well. Somehow enough people will like their music anyway, as proven by the fact that since the album’s release (and increasingly so since working with TSM/SLW) radio stations across Europe (including their own country’s leading Rock show PWRO on national channel P3 and Bruce Dinckinson’s Friday Rock Radio on BBC6) have been airing Orpheus songs.Check it out at myspace.com/orphmo, where the band posted 4 of the 8 songs on the album. In spite of the relative low number of songs, the album still lasts over 40 minutes thanks to longer tracks “Fuck Me Over” (album opener) and “Peepin’ Tom” (if I’ve understood right, this song is about a woman who’s developed a Stockholm syndrome for her rather active stalker; this songs also starts as an instrumental ballad, before actually bursting loose). 81/100 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Founded in the small Norwegian town of Hokksund during 2004, the band that would grow to be Shoot The Breeze started off as the trio of singer/ guitarist Mats Nedberg, bassist Steffen “Lucky” Kjölstadt, and drummer Andreas “Andy” Baklid. Soon enough, guitarist Tor Erik “Vinnie” Fredheim would join ‘em, and the band started composing their oown songs and playing its first gigs. A few years and (what they call “minor”) releases (including the band’s inaugural self-titled 5-track demo of 2004, the 2005 7-track promo Rock Out With Your Cock Out, their 2006 With Some Attitude EP – originally a 5-track affair; which was apparently re-issued with 3 previously unreleased bonus tracks), plus the replacement of Kjölstadt by Mats “Fowlie” Faugli later, and STB started to get noticed for their performances and recorded material, resulting in a few supports for bigger Norwegian bands, a gig in connection to Norwegian festival Öya, and some airplay on British radio. Full of enthousiasm, the band continued to play gigs in Norway, and released their first full-length effort, the 2007 album Ministers Of Mind (a big thumbs up for the band’s courage in re-visiting only 2 of their older songs on this platter – most probably, they were hoping to get a a record deal on the local market, and wanted to give their fans a couple of their favourite live songs…recognition factor, you know…as well as new material). In January 2008 a nice surprise comes for the band in the form of Ronnie le Tekrö’s making contact with them, telling STB how much he likes their music and booking two weeks’ time for them in his own recording facility Studio Studio, with himself as producer, during August that same year…the result of which became this 5-track demo. Talking music stylistically, the band sees itself as having their rots in the Classic Rock of the ’60s and ‘70s, and representative of the guitar based (Hard) Rock bands with focus on riffs and strong melodies. With their melodic material still tru to their roots, they feel the modern sound on their newest EP takes the band a step up the international Rock scene’s ladder…see themselves as the Future of Rock, embracing both the traditions of the past, and the innovations of the future. Well, I don’t know how you’ll feel about that bold statement after listening to the band’s new songs for a while (they’re all, all five of ‘em, available for listening at myspace.com/shootthebreeze, alongside the track “Sword Don’t Fit” – off the Ministers Of Mind album…by the way, the EP’s songs “What Have We Done” and “Higher Ground” both appear on the With Some Attitude EP – while you’re there anyway, also check out the band’s videos; for more audio, I guess you could find some in the “Diskografi” section of the band’s own website shootthebreeze.no), but personally I have my doubts about this band ever making it big outside Scandinavia. Granted, the vocals are real nice (lead singer’s got a clean voice which never even goes aggressive, but the backing singer’s occasionally does, bringing Emo-like screams in 2 tracks), and the guitar melodies are catchy. One even likes having to listen to the demo for a couple of times in a row, without getting a bored feeling…but in the end just about every country on earth must have a band like this, I suppose, and without the proper backing by an international major label (and we all know how théy feel about investing in anything other than those bands which have already proven themselves), nationwide success is about all a band like this can hope for! Still a very nice EP to listen to, you know! And since allying themselves to TSM/SLW, the band’s been getting airplay on radio programs throughout Europe (well, mostly in the UK), including Bruce Dickinson’s Friday Rock Show on BBC6. 85/100 Tony. |
