INVERACITY - Extermination Of Millions (Unique Leader Recs, 2007)

Here comes the second LP of the Greek brutal death metallers INVERACITY, following the excellent “Circle Of Perversion” one. The new album steps on the well-known American brutal death metal style of the band, in the path of SUFFOCATION, but not so mush influenced from that monster band, as the previous album was.

We can hear the band's progress on all levels, associated with changing new members. That gave new prospect to the band and maturity to the songwriting. This fact has as a result to say that "Extermination Of Millions" is one of the best death Metal releases of the year, on the globe!

The album contains not only ultra fast songs, but also some really sick mid tempo parts, that can be heard with total ecstasy from all the Metal fans. The heavy riffs along with the constant, but not annoying, drumming, have created an atmosphere that made the dragon voice of George to cause absolute terror! Only death lives here and you can smell it.

P.S. For further information for things about R.C. visit :

http://www.myspace.com/inveracity

INVERACITY DISCOGRAPHY :

Inveracity - Defeated Human Raped Demo 2000
Inveracity - Insision Split, Revenge Productions 2001
Inveracity - Circle Of Perversion Full-length,
(Unmatched Brutality Records2003)
Inveracity - Extermination of Millions Full-length
(Unique Leader Records 2007)

BLASTING YOUR SPEAKERS!!! (playlists for month October)

1) DODHEIMSGARD - Supervillain Outcast (2007)
2) HELLOWEEN - Gambling With The Devil (2007)
3) HELLOWEEN - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt I (1987)
4) AT THE GATES - Slaughter Of The Soul (1995)
5) ARCH ENEMY - Rise Of The Tyrant (2007)

LIVE REVIEW: DODHEIMSGARD - Naer Mataron (21/10/2007 - Gagarin 2005, Athens, Greece)

When I heard, about two months ago, that Dødheimsgard are gonna visit Greece for 2 live shows, the first thing that I did was to “be launched” from my chair and to jump around my room like a crazy. Dødheimsgard except from being one of my favorite bands, I believe that they are pioneers to the Black Metal genre. Their composer and mastermind Vicotnik (or Mr. Fixit) is one of the two, most gifted musicians in the Norwegian scene (the other is Carl-Michael Eide, ex-DHG drummer) and in parallel that the whole band consists of top musicians, was a guarantee for a magic evening. Finally, I think that my initial estimation confirmed, but let’s take the whole thing from the beginning.

The doors opened at 20.00, as stated to the ticket, but the show didn’t start at 20.30 as it was arranged. Naer Mataron was the support band and they started at 21.04. The Greek blacksters appeared on stage with their typical corpsepainting and some stage scenery, such as two big inverted crosses and a big textile on right of the drumset. The Greek band was unlucky, since their guitarist had an accident and they were forced to play with one guitar on the show. The sound, at the whole duration of the live, wasn’t an ally to the group since the bass was too loud and as a result the guitar wasn’t easy to be heard properly. Despite this, Naer Mataron proved why is a big band, since they performed very well their songs, which were a selection from all their albums, and some of them were “Faethon”, “Steppe” and “Skotos Aenaon”. They also performed a song from their forthcoming album and they left the stage after one hour, with a warm applause of the crowd.

After a long wait of about an hour, the time was right for the first appearance of the “Norwegian Innovators of Black Metal Anarchy”, in front of the Greek audience. The band entered the stage after the sound of “The Dushman” song, and when this ends, the dream, or better…, the “nightmare” begins. The band starts the show with “The Crystal Specter” song and the venue is on fire. The sound is very good from the beginning and it is very clear that the band is in great shape and ready to offer us great moments. They were painted in different colors, with a highlight the new frontman of the band, Kvohst, who was painted with red color and he was dressed with a, like from the winds, torn cloak and a hood to cover his head. Kvohst hails the crowd and he states that DHG came to their "spiritual home", Greece. The audience goes crazy and DHG performs “Vendetta Assassin” and “The Snuff Dreams Are Made Of” songs from their latest album, "Supervillain Outcast". It’s pretty clear that the band doesn’t use on their live shows all the electronic elements, included to their two last albums, with a result the songs to sound heavier and nearer to their black metal basis. Continuing to that motive, they performed the “Starcave, Depths and Chained” song, from their first album. “Apocalypticism” was next, before the time for the “Final Conquest” came right and for us to understand that Khvost is a worthy substitute of the talented Aldrahn, ex-singer of the band. Except from his unbelievable vocal virtues, he had an imposing appearance on the stage and with his movements and expressions, he gave another dimension to the show. Back to the first days of the band and “En Krig å Seire” song, before the “Oneiroscope” intro and the following “Traces Of Reality” song, which was dedicated to Aldrahn. “Monumental Possession” and “21^st Century Devil” were next in line, until the final song of the show which was the “Supervillain Serum”. The band finishes the show thanking the audience for coming and leaves the stage. The lights are kept turned off and in the middle of the screams of the crown, asking for more, DHG retuned to the stage in order to satisfy our demand. The band plays two songs as an encore, with “Ion Storm” to be the last one. It is worthy to say that despite the high level of the sound, during the show, it was very hard to discriminate the lead melodies from the guitar at the last song (also in “Traces Of Reality”), since the guitars seemed to sound somewhere in the back, comparing with the other instruments. Anyway, the show comes to the end after 80 minutes in the about, and the audience applauded the band for the magic show they offered us.

Despite the fact that DHG were absent from live shows for over seven years and being a completely different band from then, they proved that can offer special moments to their fans and not only. Their music can be supported excellent from their special stage appearance and they are able to perform their music on the stage, precisely as it can be heard on their albums, which is a difficult matter. Ending, I wish DHG to visit Greece again, since their live show is a monumental experience for the fans of extreme music. All hails!!!

INTERVIEW: DEATHMASTER (DoomSword)

Interview by Thanasis Mpogris.

Doomsword formed in Italy and for 10 years now, they offer us thrilling
moments with their songs, which are shine for their quality, passion
and emotion. With the release of their new album “My Name Will Live
On”, we had the chance to interrogate Doomsword’s vocalist, mainman
and composer, Deathmaster. Let’s see what shared with us.

Thanasis: Hails to you Deathmaster. First of all I would like to
give you my congratulations for your new album "My Name Will
Live On". Would you like to give us some information about the
creation of the album and the comments that you have received,
so far?

Deathmaster: The album was created in unusual circumstances, as
we don't all live next to each other and we don't have the possibility
to rehearse on a regular basis like most bands do, but we soon
adapted to these circumstances, even because we didn't have much
of a choice, and established new routines and way to exchange ideas
that worked out great in the end. Now DoomSword have picked up
the pace and will be able to produce albums with a normal rhythm of
once every year and a half / two years. The comments so far were
great. People started to get that DoomSword have a unique sound
which is always evolving, which makes comparisons between albums
difficult and not very meaningful anyway. As a result, instead of
concentrating on the old "I prefer the previous albums..." dispute,
DoomSword fans simply enjoy the next boulder of epic metal which
has been dumped on their heads. 

Th: I noticed some changes to your sound, such as higher
speeds, less doom parts and some catchy melodies, mainly
at the refrains. Did you want to experiment embodying these
elements to your songs, or it was a natural process?


Dth: It was a completely natural process, there has been
experimenting going on, but none of it was planned sitting at a table
and discussing strategies. The real drive has been the will to give
DoomSword fans something that would sound classically DoomSword
without repeating ourselves and without creating a “Resound the Horn
II” or something like that. To be honest, I don't even think all these
elements can be considered so much as "new", most of them were
already in our songs, just scattered across different albums.

Th: Despite these changes to your sound, your identity remains
unimpaired to the path of Bathory and early Manowar. Would
you like to name us some of your influences?


Dth: The spectrum of our influences for this album was very broad.
We still take most of our inspiration from classic US metal from the
80s, Cirith Ungol, Warlord, Omen, Manilla Road etc., though we
took inspiration by bands such as Rainbow and Rush, and a lot of
underground metal. Manowar of course are a major influence for us,
whereas I would say that “My Name Will Live On” is the least
Bathory sounding album since the times of the “Resound The Horn”.

Th: I think that your new album, stands into the best metal
albums of the running year. Do you believe that the album
is able to introduce Doomsword into a bigger audience,
and outside the boundaries of the epic sound?

Dth: No. I don't mean that I don't believe the music contained in
the album isn't capable of that, but breaking into a bigger
audience is a whole other story, made of promotion, distribution
and accessibility. If you want my genuine opinion, DoomSword
have melodic elements but we don't sound commercial enough
to be appreciated by the masses.

Th: You are a permanent habitant of Ireland, anymore.
This fact, in connection with the changes to your line up,
do you believe that can affect your function as a group?
Technology, for sure is a helping hand, but not having
a base to a common place, is an obstacle?

Dth: This has been quite a common question in this round of
interviews. The answer is that by living in Ireland we've
increased our level of determination and commitment towards
the band, and we work now at a much faster pace than when
I was living in Italy with the rest of the guys. I know it might
sound strange but this is the reality, and we're pretty happy
with our situation. The only aspect of DoomSword suffering
from this distance is the number of nights out drinking.

Th: I noticed that you choose again as a cover artwork,
a piece of paint, and more specific a painting of
L. Royer. Can a suitable, to the album,  artwork give
another dynamic to the songs of an album, when the
listener has it on his hands?

Dth: Absolutely! Or at least, it counts for me. Take Cirith
Ungol, for example. Their cover certainly shaped the
emotions in the mind of the listener, especially those
who knew Moorcock and Elric. Same goes for
DoomSword. I believe part of our success and the
status we gained is due to the imagery we chose,
scenes representing something epic and dramatic,
like DoomSword's music.


Th: Except from your 1st album, the title of each
new Doomsword album is relevant to something
taken from the last album. It's too early for this,
but on our review for your new album, we made
an attempt to guess the title of your next album,
and this was "Once Glorious". I would like to talk
about this habit and for our estimation.

Dth: You are correct; the title of our albums is taken
by a sentence in the lyrics of the previous one. Your
guess is a plausible one. It's good to see that people
figured this aspect out and started to guess the title
of our next album! The real reason for this kind of
choice is that we want to always make clear to
DoomSword fans that we will stay true to ourselves
and that our sound might evolve, but the core of Epic
Metal will always be there, and that DoomSword will
always offer the same emotions in all the years
to come...

Th: Which are your plans for the future? You have
a solid core of fans here in Greece, would you
visit us again for a live show?

Dth: We will come to Greece again, no doubt about that.
It might not be in the near future, it might take us some
time before we can work that one out, but don't worry,
we realize how important the Greek scene is and the
support we received from it throughout the years, so we
will come again.

Th: Ending, I would like to thank you for the time
that you spent with us and to wish you good luck
in every attempt that you make. Raise the horns!

Dth: Thank you! 

Steel at side, horns up high, you are the Riders of Doom...

BLASTING YOUR SPEAKERS!!! (playlists for month September)

After a long break we are back here, hoping to be more frequently with you. Unfortunately this is a free time activity and sometimes the lack of free time, does not permit us to write articles as often as we wish. Anyway, in one way or another, what we do here includes our true love and devotion for this kind of music. Stay heavy and take care.

1) ARCH ENEMY - Rise Of The Tyrant (2007)
2) DOOMSWORD - My Name Will Live On (2007)
3) AMORPHIS - Silent Waters (2007)
4) GAMMA RAY - Somewhere Out In Space (1997)
5) CANDLEMASS - King Of The Grey Islands (2007)

DOOMSWORD - MY NAME WILL LIVE ON [2007] (album review)

Four years of silence have passed since the release of 2003’s “Let Battle Commence” album, and the Italian epic metallers Doomsword, return with their 4^th full-length album, “My Name Will Live On”. The year 2007, found Doomsword with two changes in line-up, in the positions of lead guitarist and bassist.

After listening the new album, someone who has heard the past releases of the group, can easily notice a little bit different direction to their sound. In many songs, the speeds are higher than the past, with a less doom vibe on the mood and many staccato riffs. Despite that these changes are very clear, the basic components of the identity of the group are still here. The well-known early Manowar-meets-Bathory, style of the group is the dominant element of the songs. Both riffs and lead parts are perfect and full with epic feeling. All the songs are in the same level of quality, with result the listener’s interest to be maintained unimpaired, from the first, until the last moment of the album. We can hear majestic and “marching” themes, which in combination with some battle samples, are transferring the listener straight to the battlefield and it’s not an exaggeration to say that sometimes this fact is giving an intense war soundtrack character to the music of the group. Another element that is effective for the music is the plenty of catchy melodies and refrains, which helps the assimilation of the songs from the very first hearing of the album.

Concluding, Doomsword created an excellent album, which according the opinion of this article’s writer, stands into the 10 best albums of this year so far. This is an album that offers many moments of thrilling to the listeners and I hope and wish, to become the vehicle for a breakthrough into a bigger audience, for a band that composes music with the heart and following some values that have eclipsed in many metal groups of our days.

“OUR FATE IS WRITTEN, SWORD AND SHIELD: BORN TO DIE ON THE BATTLEFIELD”.

P.S.: The band has the rule to use as a title of every new album, a song-title from their last album. So, the new album’s title, “My Name Will Live On”, is the title of the 7^th song of their last album. Following this habit of the group, despite that it’s too early for such a prediction, “Hall Of Music” wants to predict the title of Doomsword’s forthcoming album. Our choice is the new album’s 8^th song-title, “Once Glorious”.

DOOMSWORD discography:

(1999) Doomsword
(2002) Resound The Horn
(2003) Let Battle Commence
(2007) My Name Will Live On

for more info: i) www.doomsword.it
ii) http://www.myspace.com/officialdoomsword

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Hello out there. I know that the most of you are scheduling your summer vacations, if you aren't already done it. So, you have my best wishes for having a really good time, all of you.
For month July we have the photo of Slayer's guitarist Kerry King. The "King" is "enthroned", he is wearing his crown, and he enjoys all these luxuries that suits to his "majesty", while the crowd yells : "Long live the king".

GOOD SUMMERTIME!!!

MUSIC GIANTS: JAMES HETFIELD

James Alan Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963, in Los Angeles of California. He was been brought up into a very strict, religious family, were his parents strongly disapproved the medicine. His parents died by cancer, refusing any medical help. This entire situation inspired James Hetfield writing “The God That Failed”, “Dyers Eve”, “Mama Said” and “Until It Sleeps”, Metallica songs.

James began piano lessons at the age of nine. After his brother encouragement, he started play drums and at the age of fourteen he turned to play guitar. As he said, Aerosmith was the main reason of starting playing the guitar. Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Queen, Misfits and Led Zeppelin were some of his influences. After forming and playing to some bands, on 15^th October 1981, Hetfield formed Metallica, with Lars Ulrich, after reading in the journal an advertisement, posted by Lars, who was searching for musicians in order to form a band. In the first years of Metallica, James wasn’t confident enough to sing the vocals, except from playing the guitar on the group, and was asked from some singers to join Metallica. Armored Saint’s singer, John Bush was one of them, but he kindly refused, as he was fully given to his band. Thank God, Jaymz (the way he signs his autographs) changed his mind and continued to do the vocal staff.

For over a decade, after the Metallica’s debut on 1983, “Kill ‘Em All” album, James was creating some of the best heavy metal songs and albums ever, which turned Metallica into one of the most influential and successful bands of heavy metal music, and not only (in the U.S. only, Metallica has over 58 millions sales). Despite the death of his best friend, and Metallica’s bassist, Cliff Burton (even today James wears Cliff’s skull ring, on his right hand), several accidents and other misadventures he continues to create music in high level and touring unstoppably all around the world.

On his personal life, James has married in 1997, with Francesca and he is a happy parent of three children: Cali, Castor, and Marcella. On his free time he enjoys several outdoor activities, such as hunting, skateboarding, water and jet-skiing, watching football and working on his garage, customizing cars and motorcycles. Some years ago, he put his 1967 Chevrolet Camaro up for sale on eBay, with the proceeds going to a Music for Schools program. The car was used in the video for “I Disappear” and was given to him as a gift upon the video's completion.

BLASTING YOUR SPEAKERS!!! (playlists for month July)

BLASTING YOUR SPEAKERS!!! (playlists for month June)

From now, you can leave as a comment your playlist for every month. Choose up to 5 albums that have been loaded to your player the most times, the running month.

INTERVIEW: GREGOR MACKINTOSH (Paradise Lost)

Interview by Thanasis Mpogris.

Paradise Lost is one of the 3 most influential bands of the last decade, for the heavy metal sound, with Dream Theater and Pantera. Shortly after the release of their new masterpiece “In Requiem”, we had the honor to talk with the lead guitarist and music composer of the band, Greg Mackintosh.

Thanasis: Greetings from Greece, Gregor. I'm Thanasis from Hall of music blog/zine. Please accept my congratulations for your new masterpiece. It's gone short time since the release of "In Requiem" album. How do you feel about it?

Gregor: Very happy with it. It turned out exactly how we wanted. The record label seems to be doing a good job too.

Th: The new material, sounds to my ear as a return to the 1992-1994 era of the group. Heavy/doom riffs, dark atmosphere and melancholic mood. Was that return, a decision or something that came natural?

Gr: I can draw comparisons with older albums like Gothic, Shades of God, and Icon, but I think that's because the same people played on all these albums. With In Requiem we wanted a more raw sound. We have done a lot of experimenting
and it just feels fresh for us to do an album like this right now.

Th: I believe that the new album is the best that you released since "Draconian Times". Do you agree with that?

Gr: I think it depends on your perspective. A lot of our records are quite different and i believe they are all strong in different ways. In Requiem is the heaviest and most organic album we have done for quite some time though.Th: The sound of the new album is incredible. How it was to work with Rhys Fulber and Mike Frazer? Does Rhys tend to be what Simon Efemey was for the band, in mid '90s?

Gr: Rhys is involved like an outside view of the songs. He honestly tells us his opinions on things and we trust that opinion, even though sometimes we don't agree. We approached the production of this album very differently. There is a big trend in music to completely edit your music within programs like pro tools, to achieve a perfect sounding album. We deliberately did the opposite. We wanted an album that was not perfect, but retained the energy and life that happened when the songs were first written. The drums were recorded in a day and a half and not edited. Same with the bass and so on. I think Mike Frazer, who mixed the album has done an amazing job. We wanted a big symphonic sound, but also a very live, organic sound. Not an easy thing to achieve but I think he did it.

Th: From the beginning, Paradise Lost made a progress from album to album and every time you appeared a new face, without losing your identity. What kind of progress do you feel that you made on the new album?

Gr: On In Requiem we took the more movie score approach, and less poppy less commercial song structures. This makes it probably less immediate than our last 2 albums, but hopefully it makes it more interesting to listen to.

Th: Some days ago i watched the "The Enemy" videoclip. Amazing work. Very "doomy", in many ways.

Gr: Thanks

Th: I would like to made you a question not so relevant with the new album. Which is your opinion about the music downloads from internet? Do you believe that the whole thing, can work for a band of against?

Gr: Great for exposure, terrible for sales.

Th: On July 8, you gonna be headliners for the Gagarin Open Air Festival, here in Greece. Which is your memories from past live shows in our country, and which are your expectations for that day?

Gr: We have always loved our visits to Greece. We have lots of friends there and the shows have always been great, thanks to the fans. If the next show there is anywhere near as good as previous shows we have done there, it will be great.

Th: I wanna thank you Gregor for the interview. It was such an honor for me and "Hall Of Music" to talk with you. I wish you the best for the future. Take care.

Gr: Thanks.

10 KILLER METAL CONCEPT ALBUMS, Pt 2

1. BLIND GUARDIAN – NIGHTFALL IN MIDDLE EARTH (1999)

J.J.R. Tolkien is one of the most influential writers for several heavy metal bands. Blind Guardian’s 6^th studio album is based exclusively on Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion” book, a book with a large collection of tales from the First Age of Middle-Earth. This album is probably the most mature of the band, with many fresh elements inserted into the band’s music, without at the same time, the band to lose its identity. All the band’s members are giving a recital, each one on their own position. The folk character of the songs helps at the maximum the listener to create pictures at his mind and functions for a poetic, romantic and medieval atmosphere.

2. NEVERMORE – DREAMING NEON BLACK (1999)

The story behind the concept of this album is based on a loss of a beloved person of Warrel Dane, who is the vocalist of the band. Dane's old girlfriend left him when she joined a religious cult and was never heard from her again, and he began having nightmares of her crying out to him as she drowned. This has been confirmed by Warrel himself in an older interview. Here we have to do with the tale of a man’s slow plunge into insanity, after his girlfriend’s death. The pain, the sorrow, the rage, the desperation and the fear are sung through the lyrics of the songs. The heavy, the thrash, the death, the power and the speed metal are all combined to a very successful way, with an amazing outcome.

3. PAIN OF SALVATION – BE (2004)

Daniel Gildenlow (vocals/guitar) is the mastermind of the band. Almost whatever that someone can find on Pain Of Salvation’s albums, all are his creations. He is a genius of our days and it’s dead sure that after some decades he will be praised for this reason. “Be” is the 5^th album of P.O.S. and also their most ambitious album, both musically and lyrically. The concept of the album is a story that is a collage of several theories around the creation of the humans by God. God created people feeling the need to understand better his own nature. Continuing, we, the people, are creating several small things trying to explore our nature, and a circle is going on. We have to do with a philosophical concept with many extensions. The main idea behind all this is a big WHY, and not HOW, we have been created by God. If someone wants to find out some more things about the concept, can visit this link. Musically the album is a church, were the folk, the avant-garde, the progressive, the soundtracks and the rock elements are married, with every single moment to make the listener to hold his breath.

4. EVERGREY – THE INNER CIRCLE (2004)

This is the band’s 5^th album and maybe their most mature one. The concept has to do with a man who decides to follow a heretic cult, with the hope to change some things to his life. Slowly, after entering the cult, some problems are appearing to his family, and as he is trying to explain his wife and his child about his decision, finally he falls out with them. He tries to understand if he has chosen the right way and sometime the people who are leading this cult, are trying to persuade our hero to bring also his child to this cult, in order to proselytize him from young age. Then he realizes the dark side of all these and tries to escape from the cult, but its leader don’t let him go away and encourages him to commit suicide. On the music section of the album, we have to do with very emotional songs, which are following the mood of each moment of the concept and enhance the cinematographic character of this dramatic story.

5. BRUCE DICKINSON – THE CHEMICAL WEDDING (1998)

The big return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, to the metal music has been made a year ago, with the “Accident Of Birth” album. But on 1998 they created an amazing concept album. The lyrics of the album are all inspired from texts and poems of the famous English poet, visionary and painter, William Blake. The lyrics are containing stories of alchemy and mystery, that lead the listener to think about different subjects, all dressed by heavy and atmospheric music. The final result is monumental and the “Chemical Wedding” is more than a classic heavy metal album.

SONG OF THE DAY

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

A new column is now reality and its name is "Photo of the Month". The chosen photo will have to do with music, but it will be seen from a humorous aspect.

This Month in the photo we can see, his holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, trying to make a breakthrough to the rock audience, in order to preach the speech of Lord. Horns up Ben!!!

SONG OF THE DAY

10 KILLER METAL CONCEPT ALBUMS, Pt 1

1. QUEENSRYCHE – OPERATION: MINDCRIME (1988)

This is the best concept album in the history of heavy metal. Through its concept the band makes a very strict critique to a system that fails. The television makes its propaganda, the money can buy almost everything, governments are simple puppets of thirds, people without will who watch what happens around and can’t react. It appears the decay of our society in its majesty. We have to do with a concept that, despite the fact that created almost 20 years ago, is to the point still today. It’s needless to speak about the music. Whoever who listen to it has only things to win.

2. IRON MAIDEN – SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON (1988)

This album is the last of the great classic albums of this band. It's also Iron Maiden's seventh studio album, which makes a neat tie-in with the album's title and the subject. The album is based on the fantasy novel “Seventh Son” by Orson Scott Card, that tells the tale of a child that possesses occult abilities and from it’s moment of birth is subject to manipulation by the forces of good and evil, and must come to terms with his powers and how to use them. For many people, including the man who drops these lines, this masterpiece is the best album that the band ever created. Apart from its lyrical depth, the music is flawless with much experimentation in band’s sound and composing course.

3. W.A.S.P. – THE CRIMSON IDOL (1992)

The story of the album talks about a teenager named Jonathon. He is a complete failure to his parents eyes, and after his brother’s death, to a car accident, he runs away from home. In a music store he sees a guitar and he wants to become a rock star. After much work Jonathon manages to find a contract for a record and to become a rock star. He finds out that the life isn’t as glamorous as it seemed to be. Jonathon has fame and fortune, but not the one thing he always wanted, the love and acceptance of his parents. One night before a concert, Jonathon calls his parents in an attempt to reconcile their differences and heal the emotional wounds between them. Jonathon realizes that he will never be accepted by his parents and decides to commit suicide. During the aforementioned concert, Jonathon removes the strings from his guitar, shapes them into a noose and hangs himself. This album is the peak moment of W.A.S.P. and it is a well of emotions. The music is genial created as the mood matches perfect with lyrics’ each moment.

4. DREAM THEATER – METROPOLIS PT II: SCENES FROM A MEMORY (1999)

The biggest progressive metal band here presents a concept album that has as a main character Nicholas. Nicholas discovers, with the help of an hypnotist, that in his previous life he was a woman, Victoria Page who was part of an erotic triangle between two brothers. In the meantime, a dramatic story of love lust in the end of the decade of ‘20s, takes place. The music of the album is a travel to different kinds of music, such as metal, prog-rock, oriental, Charleston, and the catalogue has no ending. If “Operation: Mindcrime” was the best concept album of ‘80s, then for dead sure “Scenes From A Memory” is the same for the ‘90s.

5. AMORPHIS – TALES FROM THE THOUSAND LAKES (1994)

From their first release, Amorphis showed that they were able for big things. This is their second full-length album and they created a concept album, with the lyrics to be based on the Finnish national epic, Kalevala. In the lyrics, we can find tales from the Finnish mythology that illuminates the happiness, the grief, the conflicts and other folds of the every day lives of Finnish ancestors’. A new dimension reveals into band’s music, as it is more melodic than their debut, with a further use of keyboards and clean vocals on the songs. This album is often hailed as one of the better Amorphis records, and as a very influential and historically significant, in the development of the Melodic Death Metal and Doom Metal genres, album.

SONG OF THE DAY

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SONG OF THE DAY

IN MEMORY OF : CHUCK SCHULDINER (05/13/1967 - 12/13/2001)

He was born on May 13, of 1967, on Long Island of New York. He was the youngest of three children. He started to play guitar at his 9 and on his teen age he formed his first band, Mantas, with Kam Lee (drums/vocals) and Rick Rozz (guitars). The band recorded their first demo “Death By Metal” on 1984 and shortly after this, they changed their name to “Death”. After several changes to the line-up of the band and the recording of some more demos, they recorded the 1987’s “Mutilation” demo, which makes Combat Records to sign a contract with the band. It was on 1987 that the band released their debut album “Scream Bloody Gore”. A year later and after a complete change to band’s line-up, Death released one of the most influential albums for death metal genre, 1988’s “Leprosy”. On 1990, Death released their 3^rd full-length album, “Spiritual Healing”, and a new face of Chuck Schuldiner appeared. The gore lyrical theme was abandoned and a new social theme appeared. The music turned to be more progressive and complicated to structure, with many technical parts and many melodic too.

On 1990, and after some disputes into the band, Chuck expelled Terry Butler (bass) and Bill Andrews (drums) and decided to continue Death as his band with session musicians to come and go. It was then that Chuck earned the reputation of a “perfectionist” person, besides metal community. On 1991 “Human” album released, which was the breakthrough for the band, and the song “Lack Of Comprehension” was the first videoclip that they filmed. Until 1995 Chuck released (1993) “Individual Thought Patterns” and (1995) “Symbolic” albums and the parade of session musicians continued, with Gene Hoglan (drums), Sean Reinert (drums) and Andy La Rocque (guitars) to be some of them. Shortly after “Symbolic”, Chuck dissolved the band and begun to compose material for his new project Control Denied. Finally Chuck left aside for a while, the idea of Control Denied and he released another Death album on 1998, the “The Sound Of Perseverance” album. Some of the songs of the album was initially intended to be into Control’s Denied debut, but finally appeared to Death’s “swan song”. Finally Control Denied made their debut on 1999 with “The Fragile Art Of Existence”.

In May 1999, Schuldiner experienced pain in his upper neck, which he initially thought was a pinched nerve. On his birthday, May 13, 1999, Schuldiner was diagnosed a type of brain cancer that invades the brain stem and immediately underwent radiation therapy. In October 1999, Schuldiner’s family announced that the tumor had necrotized and that he was on the way to recovery. In January 2000, Schuldiner underwent surgery to remove what remained of his tumor. The operation was a success, however, the Schuldiner family was struggling financially. The total costs of the operations would come to $70,000, a price the Schuldiner family could not afford. Many fundraisers, auctions, and benefit concerts took place to help cover the costs. The money began to come in as the metal community, in total shock, realized that Schuldiner's life was in danger. The metal community and the Schuldiner family showed deep concern because Schuldiner could lose his life due to lack of funds.

Schuldiner continued to work on his music, continuing his work with Control Denied. About two years after his original diagnosis, in May 2001, the cancer returned and Schuldiner fell ill again. He was originally denied surgery (which he needed immediately) due to lack of funds. A press release called for support from everyone, including fellow artists. Jane Schuldiner, his mother, urged all who read the statements about Schuldiner and his illness to go out and get insurance, showing her frustration in the American system. Schuldiner had gotten medical insurance after his first surgery, but the insurer had refused to pay because the tumor existed before he had gotten the insurance. Schuldiner received a chemotherapy drug, to help with his therapy. Like most drugs used in the treatment of cancer, the side effects were harsh and weakened Chuck greatly. Undaunted, Schuldiner fought on. In late October/early November, Schuldiner became ill with pneumonia. He died on December 13, 2001 at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

His mother, Jane Schuldiner, handles his legacy. She frequently interacts with Schuldiner's fans and has stated many times that she enjoys his music. Schuldiner's sister Beth seems to keep track of his recordings. Beth has a son named Christopher, who also plays guitar and has all of Schuldiner's guitars except his first one, which his mother keeps. Chuck with his departure, left behind a big treasure, his music, which will be eternally influential for everybody who will play death metal. Death metal as a genre is his spiritual child. The void of Chuck’s absence is huge, six years after his death. He paid homage to death, calling his band at the same name, but death took him next to him very early. Rest in peace, Chuck.

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SONG OF THE DAY

PARADISE LOST - IN REQUIEM [2007] (album review)

Here we go. The band from Yorkshire is back with a new album. This new album will surprise many people and of course many fans of the band. This situation is always, more or less, predictable every time that Paradise Lost release a new album, because everyone is curious to listen to the new songs of the band and depending to each listener likings, to love or hate them. The fact of making so many argument and dissent around their music and their name, is an element that makes Paradise Lost a huge band (except the quality of their music, of course).

This time Paradise Lost decided to make a big return to their roots. They composed new killer songs with heavy/doom riffs, which could excellent, be into “Icon”, “Shades of God” and “Draconian Times” albums. Attention, the order that I referred the albums isn’t randomly. It reflects excellent the mood of the album. Even the double-pedal playing on drums is present on many songs. The new album starts from there, where their last one, “Paradise Lost” album, stopped and continues in a heavier, darker and sadder motive. Elements from the rest albums, are also present here and there. The high quality of the songs must be taken as granted, and the sound of the album is unbelievable, as Rhys Fulber, on the production, and Mike Frazer (Ac/Dc, Aerosmith, Metallica) on the mixing, made amazing work. If I had to mention some songs, as my favorites, these will be: “Ash & Debris”, “Praise Lamented Shade”, “Requiem”, “Prelude To Descent” and “Fallen Children”, without this means that the rest songs aren’t good.

Concluding, the shadowkings are ascending again there where they deserve to be, at their throne. They managed to eliminate all these 12 years, since the releasing of “Draconian Times” and to present us an album which to some years will be mentioned as classic. I kneel humbly before their majesty. The kings are alive, long live the kings.

PARADISE LOST discography:

(1990) Lost Paradise
(1991) Gothic
(1992) Shades Of God
(1993) Icon
(1995) Draconian Times
(1997) One Second
(1999) Host
(2001) Believe In Nothing
(2002) Symbol Of Life
(2005) Paradise Lost
(2007) In Requiem

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MUSIC GIANTS: TONY IOMMI

His full name is Anthony Frank Iommi and he was borned on February 19, 1948, in Birmingham of England. He began to play guitar as a teenager after being inspired by the likes of "Hank Marvin" and "The Shadows". At the age of 18 he was working on a sheet metal factory and at his last day to work, on an accident, he cut off the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand. The tragic of the story is that, he had decided to quit his job for having more time to play music. After this, and being left-handed, he tried with his right hand to play in the fret board of his guitar, but he couldn’t play well. A friend of his, encouraged him to follow the example of a gypsy guitarist, Django Reinhardt, who had lost two fingers at a fire, and he played his guitar like nothing to have be going wrong. So, Tony decided to wear plastic covers, that were made from melted dish soap bottle, over those two fingers (which he covered with leather, so he could grip the strings properly) in order to play properly. He tuned his guitar 3 semitones lower and he played slow and stable, for not to strain his prosthetics. And the miracle was done. A heavy, solid and dirty noise came out of his guitar.

After playing in several bands, among them Jethro Tull, he forms his own band, “Earth Blues Band”. They renamed to “Earth” and they had a minor success to England. One day as they watched a Boris Karloff film, they decided to use two words taken from there, to rename again the band. These two words was “BLACK SABBATH”. Black Sabbath debuted with the “Black Sabbath” album on February 13, 1970, when Tony was 22 years old. The release of the album was a thunder stroke to music scene. Never before a band sounded the way Black Sabbath did. Iommi combined at his songs, blues-like guitar solos and dark, minor-key riffing with a revolutionary high-gain, heavily distorted tone with his use of a modified treble-boosting effect-pedal and a Gibson SG, as well as plugging his guitar into his amp's bass socket.

From then Tony has released almost 30 albums, both with Black Sabbath and as a solo musician, and he keeps composing beautiful music. He had participated in many other albums as a guest and also to albums with charitable character, such as “Rock Aid Armenia”. He keeps touring the earth with Black Sabbath and his solo band. Tony is also a fan of Aston Villa F.C. in English Premier League. Ending, Tony Iommi is a living legend of music, as he had made his name as a synonym of heavy rock music.

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SONG OF THE DAY

GREAT WORKS: AMORPHIS - TUONELA

Amorphis comes from Helsinki of Finland and formed in 1990. They have released 7 full albums and 3 EPs, and they are ready to release their 8^th album on August. In the beginning they performed death metal, with many traditional and melodic riffs on their songs, with keyboards to follow the guitars. Slowly, they inserted psychedelic influences from the ‘70s and bands such as Pink Floyd and Hawkwind.

Their 4^th full length album is 1999’s “Tuonela” and it is their best album up to date. On this album, Amorphis have diminished to the minimum the death metal elements, and the ‘70s influences are evident more than any other album. Despite this fact, that leaded the band to pass from a kind of audience to another, due to the change to music, Amorphis create an incredible album. In musical level the band combines guitar parts, which have a traditional Finnish touch, with space/psychedelic keyboard parts. The whole music matches perfectly with the very special voice of the band’s singer, Pasi Koskinen and the final result takes off the ground. All the songs have coherence and a travel mood which makes the listening of the album very pleasant, almost to every listener, independently his music background. The lyrics of the album are about personal moments of the writter and all the talking is done by traditional Finnish tales.

Not to forget to mention that, “Tuonela” is the name of underworld in “Kalevala”, and the name of the plant on album’s cover, is Pihlaja and grows only in Finland.

AMORPHIS discography:

(1992) Karelian Isthmus
(1994) Tales From The Thousand Lakes
(1996) Elegy
(1999) Tuonela
(2001) Am Universum
(2003) Far From The Sun
(2006) Eclipse
(2007) Silent Waters