Tirades of Truth: Bullet for My Valentine - Fever

I've already done reviews of Arcania, Blaze Bayley, and Charred Walls of the Damned, so here is the next in line.

Back in May I talked a little about the new Bullet for My Valentine album, Fever. It was mainly because their lead track, Your Betrayal. But as the year comes to a close it's obvious to me that this is a great metal album.

Their last album Scream, Aim, Fire was great as well. In fact, when they started talking about the follow up they said it wouldn't be as "thrashy" as Scream, Aim, Fire. I believe they said it would be more rock oriented. Well, Fever is far from rock.

The one place you see a difference is the vocals. There aren't as many screams or growls, but BfMV was never known for the screams. There are still plenty of thrash moments in Your Betrayal and The Last Fight. I would say the material is a lot catchier than anything they have ever done. Every song is memorable from the get go. Every song has that hook that you look for, that sing along chorus (Your Betrayal), that memorable riff (Alone), or memorable drum pattern (Begging for Mercy). The music goes from thrash to groove/mid paced metal to ballads.

The title track is pretty good as well. The song has that sort of dirty 80's glam rock feel to it. Seriously, I could have easily have seen Poison doing this song because of the lyrics. The difference between Poison and BfMV is that BfMV has a heavier guitar sound.


The one thing that left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth was the song, Bittersweet Memories. Not that it's a ballad, I have no problem that. It's just that it reminds me so much of Forever and Always off of Scream, Aim, Fire.

There is absolutely no filler on this album. There was always a couple of songs I would skip off their last one, but this one is a play straight through album. Add onto it that every song is memorable, you have a winner.

From start to finish this is one of the most complete albums of the year and will place very high on my Top 10 list this year.

Music Non Stop: Top 10 ...8 down 2 to go.

A few weeks ago, I thought I had a solid Top 10 list done. But as I listened to some of the albums, I realized they were good, but nothing great. So I took a hard look and narrowed it down. Unfortunately, doing so left me with only 8 albums. The top 8 are great albums. In fact, right now I have 3 albums that could easily be number 1. After that...who knows.

What has the year been like for me? Well, half of the 8 albums have never been on the top 10 list and were basically debuts or sophomore albums. It was fun to discover new bands this year. I am going to try and do a review for those top 8 bands before I give my list, so I can link the review to the list instead of doing a mini review on the Top 10 list.

I don't know if I will get a solid Top 10, but I won't put on albums unless they belong there. Remember I did have a Top 11 one year because there were so many good albums.

Music Non Stop: Arcania - Sweet Angel Dust

2010 is quickly coming to a close and I thought that my Top 10 was pretty much set, then Arcania had to come in a through the proverbial wrench into it.

First off I gotta say one of my new favorite sites for metal reviews is The NewReview. Without this site I wouldn't have found Arcania and Eye of the Enemy. Great site and is probably my first go to site now for metal reviews.

So onto Arcania. What is their style? I would say modern thrash with a touch of progressive metal thrown in for good measure. The album starts off with the title track and you are treated to a classic Metallica intro ala Fight Fire with Fire before the magic starts. The music is completely break neck speed, but it has that perfect groove.



I won't go song by song because I might do that for the Top 10...just kidding. For a debut they did a nice job of making the music and songs so memorable. The title track, No End, Against My Fear are all great examples of the music being instantaneously being remembered. Something that is hard to say about a lot of other albums these days. There are plenty of thrash out aggressive moments through out the album and tons of progressive elements added to enhance the material. I really liked how they didn't just try to copy the thrash style of the 80's, but rather took a lot of that influence and added their own style to it. Top it off with a 10+ minute song to finish the album and you have yourself one heck of debut album.

Vocally the guy is good. A lot of people compare him to James Hetfield and I can hear the similarities, but he does his own distinguished style. Obviously, if there are similarities to Hetfield, I'm not going to complain. If anything I hear a little more Sully from Godsmack, which is fine too because I actually like Sully's style.

This is a great debut and I hope to hear more from them. I hope to see Arcania be more a DevilDriver, Trivium, or All That Remains instead of a Beyond the Embrace and Blistered Earth. If you don't know the last two bands, check them out they were awesome!>

I expect to see Arcania grace the Top 10 list this year and hopefully years to come. By the way, go to iTunes to buy the album, it's only $4. If you can't spend $4 to support a new band, then there is something wrong.

Music Non Stop: 2010 surprises

As the year comes to a close I will go ahead and share with you two bands that almost came out of nowhere with great albums that will most likely be in the Top 10 and one of these looks like it will end up #1.

First up is Charred Walls of the Damned, what a mouthful right? Anyway, this has been labeled a "super-group" by some. Richard Christy left Iced Earth to be a side kick for Howard Stern, cool and weird at the same time I guess. So he decided to go ahead and make an album after about 6 - 7 years. So you put Richard on drums (known for work in Death and Iced Earth), Steve DiGiorio on bass (from such bands as Death, Iced Earth, Sadus, and Testament among others), Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals (from Iced Earth, Judas Priest, and his solo band), and you round it off with Jason Suecof on guitar. Who? you might ask. Jason is more known for his producing skills Trivium, DevilDriver, God Forbid, The Autumn Offering) than his guitar playing, but he is a fine musician. In fact it's his solo on The Autumn Offering's Embrace the Gutter that made me pick up the album.

Ok so onto the album. What can I say... this is the album that Iced Earth should have released after The Glorious Burden. I don't mind the continuing of the Something Wicked Trilogy, but in terms of music, this is what Iced Earth could/should have sounded like. I mean it shouldn't surprise anyone, look at that line-up, 3/4 of them played in Iced Earth. The music is crisp and beautifully played. Ripper does a great job here. Let me say this, I am by no means a fan of Ripper. He's good. His best album for me was TGB because he showed some variety and wasn't trying to copy Halford (not his fault either). His solo stuff was average. But here he shines again. It's enough of the mid-range and enough of the high stuff for me. I love this album. And it came as a welcomed surprise when most bands are starting to sound alike, these guys stand out. Check out their Myspace, HERE.

Next up is Blaze Bayley. He of course came from Wolfsbane and more known Iron Maiden. He got screwed in Maiden and was forced out after two albums. So when I heard stuff from his solo debut I was shocked. I was so much better than Maiden, it was up there with Bruce Dickinson's solo material. Here is the lead track from the debut;

awesome. Anyway, the follow-up was good as well, but their 3rd album was pretty bad. I gave up on the band when everyone left. So when they released The Man Who Would Not Die, I didn't look at it (big mistake). This year came Promise and Terror. I caught the lead track and video and was instantly hooked. I sounded like it was right off the earlier albums.

The album is full of great tracks. God of Speed has one of the best riffs I have ever heard in a song and Comfortable in Darkness sounds like it was off of Iron Maiden's X-Factor, dark and brooding. This is a great album and it's great to see Blaze get some credit for it. Check out his Myspace, HERE.

Just a couple of surprise albums this year and there is one more, but not as good as these. Top 10 is just around the corner.

Music Non Stop: New All That Remains samples

Disclaimer: this is a pretty bad year for music. Nothing has gotten my attention and I'm not sure anything will. I can only name at most 5 above average albums. I have been doing my top 10 lists for a few years and this is going to be a tough year to fill up 10 spots. With that said...

The new All That Remains album, For We Are Many, will definitely be in the top 10. Heck, I should just give it the number one spot now. Overcome messed with the vocals a little bit and this one sounds like it is more in line with The Fall of Ideals, their best album. I know you can't tell much from samples, but compared to everything else I have heard this year, this is promising.



Like I said, it's just samples, Nevermore's samples were great and the album was so-so. Oh well. Wait and see.

Music Non Stop: new All That Remains & the Autumn Offering

Ok so musically speaking, this has been a "ho-hum" type year for music. Nothing has really grabbed my attention for very long. There have been a few, Bullet for My Valentine & As I Lay Dying, but even those aren't as good as their previous albums.

So today we got a new song from All That Remains. Now their last one, Overcome, wasn't bad. It was different than the great The Fall of Ideals. I think the main thing that stuck out for me was the delivery of the vocals, but it was still a solid album.

The title track from their new album, For We Are Many, really sounds like a left over song from The Fall of Ideals...in a good way. The vocals are reminiscent of TFOI and musically it is in the same vein. This could be the year that All That Remains tops my top 10 list.




The Autumn Offering has another new song out as well. About a month ago, they released a teaser of the album and I was really impressed with the direction of the band. They used to be a metalcore/thrash band, then they went to a more pop/metalcore approach. Now it seems as if they have embraced (pun intended?) a sort of melodic death metal/metalcore sound. I don't hear too many clean vocals on the two songs they have released. Oh yeah, I said two because they released another new song, Synapse, on their Myspace page. Here is the video for the first song, Born Dead;

Who Decides: mid albums of the year

Well it's that time again to look at some of the better albums of the past 6 months. Some will make it on the final list I am sure, but others...not so lucky.

1. As I Lay Dying - This Powerless Rise: not as good as An Ocean Between Us, but still the best album I have heard this year from start to finish. More death vocals than before, but that's ok. I don't know if it will end up number one though. I have been listening to some newer albums that might take that spot.

2. Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy: Definitely not on par with This Godless Endeavor, but still it's Nevermore, they really don't release anything that is bad. It is average. I don't know where I would put this album if I ranked their discography. It has everything you would want in a Nevermore album though, solid riffs, great solos from Jeff Loomis, and killer drumming. Warrel Dane does another great job on vocals. It isn't as thrashy as TGE, more of the mid tempo stuff like on Dead Heart in a Dead World.

3. Bullet for My Valentine - Fever: I talked about this album a few weeks ago and it isn't going anywhere. First off most of the screams are gone. They show up, but very sporadically. The music though is as catchy as ever. Betrayal is probably my favorite song of the year.

4. Blaze Bayley - Promise and Terror: For those who don't know Blaze, he was in Iron Maiden for a couple albums when Bruce Dickinson left the band. People bash those albums constantly, but after he left Iron Maiden he started making solo albums and they kick ass. Starting with Silicon Messiah til now, they have been classic heavy metal albums. Promise and Terror is no different. The musicians have all changed since the first album, but this is probably their best since Silicon Messiah. If you liked X-Factor, check out Comfortable in Darkness it could have easily been on that album...dark, slower, and the vocals fit in perfectly.

5. Periphery - Periphery: Now I never heard of this band, but then I kept seeing it pop up on metal boards, so I checked it out. Basically it is Meshuggah mixed with Animals as Leaders...with more Meshuggah. It is interesting because they also released an instrumental version of the album like Protest the Hero did with Fortress. I don't know which I like better, but this is definitely one of the albums I just got wind of a couple of weeks ago and it is groing on me.

6. Levi/Werstler - Avalanche of Worms: another instrumental album. This one is from the guys from Daath. It is a great album for metal fans. This probably has more in common with Animal as Leaders in terms of the guitar tone and soloing than Periphery. If Daath could put out an album like this...wow.

7. Silent Civilian - Ghost Stories: second album from these guys. It's better than their first and if I were to describe it I would say it is a cross of Chimaira and Trivium-type bands. It's solid, but will it be here in 6 months? Probably not.

8. Solution .45 - For Aeons Past: Former lead vocalist of Scar Symmetry's new band. Sounds pretty much just like them as well. I would love this album a lot more if the keyboards weren't pushed to the front so much. I mean keyboards are ok, but not when they take away from the guitars.

9. War of Ages - Eternal: this was the album that I was listening to heavily before AILD released their album...why? Produced by the vocalist from AILD and some guest spots from the guys as well. How does it sound? Like As I Lay Dying. More of the metalcore sound though with the breakdowns. This album might make another return in 6 months because everytime I put it on, I end up listening to most of it.

10. ReVamp - ReVamp: "chick/gothic/symphonic" metal. Former lead singer of After Forever's debut. It's pretty solid. Nothing special to be honest. Catchy at times, but forgetable at other times.


Honorable Mention
God of War III Soundtrack: This thing is really good, but only 6 songs. Trivium, Killswitch Engage, Dream Theater, Opeth, Taking Dawn, and Mutiny Within all have great songs on this album. Obviously, my favorite is Trivium's, but Opeth's song is probably the most shocking as they go back to their days of Damnation with their track. It works nicely in this album where the other songs are pretty fast and brutal.

It will be interesting to revisit this list in December.

Music Non Stop: Mid-Albums of the year this week

Not a long post, but just a heads up that I will be releasing my picks for mid-albums of the year. In the past, some have been keepers (like Testament's Formation of Damnation & Mercenary's Architect of Lies or all of 2007, what a year!). While others have been less than memorable (all of last year, seriously none of the mid-year albums made the top 10).

So what does this year have in store? Well, I only have 5 or 6 strong contenders. I will talk about why Exodus' latest isn't on the list. And musically, it is probably the best album I have heard the whole year.

That's it. Back again later.

Music Non Stop: Bullet for My Valentine...they did it again

I have talked before about how I didn't want to like this band because I thought they were just another emo band. Their last release Scream, Aim, Fire was a solid album with tons of catchy songs and great musicianship.

Their latest, Fever, is really good. Is it as good as Scream, Aim, Fire? Probably not, but it is still a really good album. They cut back on the amount of screaming vocals in favor of the clean singing. But it's not as bad as Trivium's The Crusade .

I also mentioned their first single, The Last Fight, and how it definitely wasn't a rock song. It caught my attention in a big way. Here is the video;

So that isn't the best song for me. Right now it is Your Betrayal. This song is very catchy. The intro, the chorus, everything. I had a student who heard about 15 seconds of this song proclaim it was "a great song". Here is the video for this one;

So does that put this album #1? I don't think so, but I wouldn't be surprised if it made it into the top 5 again.

Music Non Stop: new Limp Bizkit

I know this is about a week late and I really don't know why I didn't post it the day I heard it, but better late than never I guess. So here is the first released song from Limp Bizkit's new album Gold Cobra, Why Try.

Initial thoughts:

• back to old Limp Bizkit sound, gone is the "mature" LB that put out The Unquestionable Truth Part 1
• catchy hook and chorus. It's always been their strength minus Results May Vary
• same can be said about the lyrics. With TUT part 1, there was some depth and some touchy subjects like priest abuse. You aren't finding it here...

Imma rock it like some TNT
blow it up like a G with a dollar bill 3
all the G's on your fleas don't lie
f*ck with me and you'll fry

The song has peaked my interest a bit more. I can't believe I am waiting for a Limp Bizkit album. The new Soulfly was a let down, maybe this will pick up some of the slack.

Music Non Stop: new albums & misc.

So what does 3 weeks of listening to Metallica during passing periods look like? How about 83 songs...with one week to go. It's funny to watch their reactions to certain songs. Enter Sandman, One, and Master of Puppets always get them going. It's also funny to watch their reaction during the days we listen to Load & Re-Load or Tuesday's Gone from Garage Inc. They always have this look of "This is Metallica?" We are listening to Megadeth's Mechanix and Metallica's The Four Horsemen the next 2 days...I have had a couple of people notice the similarities.

As far as the new year of albums is coming along...well it's not. Bullet for My Valentine released their new one, Fever, and it's not as heavy as Scream, Aim, Fire. It has more mid-paced songs and there are little screams. Is it as bad as The Crusade? No, but it's not as good as their last one. The good news is that it is going to be in the top 10, and that's always a good sign for metal bands.

Soulfly also released Omen and it isn't as good as their last one either (and Conquer wasn't as good as Dark Ages). Omen is more of a punk metal type album. The thing that is missing is the tribal influences. All but gone on this album...shame.

War of Ages came out with their latest, Eternal. War of Ages is an above average metalcore band. Arise and Conquer barely missed my top 10 and this album (which was produced by Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying) picks up from the last one. There are definite influences from AILD and that's ok. Will it make my top 10 this year? Who knows?

Speaking of As I Lay Dying, their latest, The Powerless Rise, is due out soon. I have heard bits and pieces, but I can't tell if it will top An Ocean Between Us, that album was a classic.

Music Non Stop: Nevermore & As I Lay Dying new audio samples

I think by now everyone knows how excited I am for the new Nevermore. They released another teaser trailer featuring every song on the album.

Sounds pretty solid. I am loving the title track right now and really can't wait for this one.

If that wasn't good enough news, I read that 30 sec clips of the new As I Lay Dying album, The Powerless Rise, was online. I actually had a chance to listen to them before they were taken down. They have one song up on their site for the new album HERE.

They were both just 30 second clips of the songs, but they sound good. The As I Lay Dying tracks sounded just like their last album. I wasn't too worried they would change their sound, but now my expectation are high for this one again.

Music Non Stop: Nevermore

Ok, I have already talked about Nevermore's new album, The Obsidian Conspiracy, coming out. Yesterday, they released a teaser trailer for it. All I can say is that this is definitely looking like it will be my first big album of the year. Enjoy.

Music Non Stop: Nevermore, Limp Bizkit samples online

Title pretty much says it all. Some samples came out this week of 2 albums I am interested in hearing. First up Nevermore.

Sounds very promising. I am a huge fan of Nevermore. I really don't think they have one bad album in their entire discography. This Godless Endeavor was a great album, but I was worried about the loss of Steve Smyth on guitars, but this sets my mind at ease a lot. I would have to put The Obsidian Conspiracy at the top of my looking forward to albums.

Next up Limp Bizkit. I have talked about Limp Bizkit before so I won't rehash much of it. They are who they are. Their last album, The Unquestionable Truth part 1 was pretty good. Sure Fred tried to sound like Rage Against the Machine, but for me it worked. It was better than some of their other albums, I'm looking at you Results May Vary, and there wasn't much filler on it.

So this brings us to Gold Cobra. Fred decided to post 3 quick samples of some songs. It sounds very promising. Musically, it's Limp Bizkit. Lyrically...well that's where opinions come in. Either you like Fred Durst or you don't. Personally, these samples have me looking forward to this album too. Check them out.





Not bad...not bad at all. I just want some albums to come out that are going to make me stop listening to older albums. Something that "grabs" me.

Music Non Stop: 2010 slow start...

I know that the year isn't even a quarter of the way done yet, but I should have found one good album by now. Fear Factory's new album is better than Transgression, but still not that memorable. I found Threat Signal's last album a lot better. I'm not sure if Arkaea's debut is as good as Fear Factory. By the way, why am I comparing those bands? They are all very closely related. Read about it here.

Arsis' new album is a drastic change in direction for them. They have gone with a more lite-hearted approach to their brand of death metal. Just watch the video above for Forced to Rock...pink lined guitar? Musically, though, it's pretty good. I can always thrown on an Arsis album and enjoy it for awhile. They still haven't topped their debut, but I'm not going to hold it against them. In case you are interested, this is a video from their last album, We are the Nightmare.


Mnemic's latest Sons of the System is better than Passenger, but is nowhere near Audio Injected Soul. I still don't understand the switch in vocalists. To me, they haven't recovered. It's a step in the right direction, but...

In Mourning, Living Sacrifice, and Mutiny Within grabbed my attention with some pretty good albums in a down year.

I am still hoping for something good to come out. I highlighted a couple in the beginning of the year, so hopefully things will still pan out. Remember, it wasn't until June/July last year that some high quality albums started coming out.

Futureal: 2010 albums

New year...new tag. Futureal tags will be for predicting things, like upcoming albums, shows, or whatever hasn't happened yet.

So with 2009 closing and 2010 just starting, what am I looking forward to? Well here is a quick "wish list" if you will.

Anthrax: they were supposed to release Worship Music in October, but dumped there lead singer, Dan Nelson. From the videos I saw, the new album was a lot heavier than anything they had done before... think Testament's Low through The Gathering (yes include Demonic). Supposedly they are back with John Bush, which is great, but I hope they don't sacrifice the music.

As I Lay Dying: their albums have gotten better with each release. An Ocean Between Us was great. No filler at all. I don't want to have too high of hopes, but I already do. I really want this one to be great. It is one of those things you try to avoid, but like I said this one is way up there for me.

Fear Factory: Dino is back and from what I have heard it is classic FF. I thought the last album was too much of a metal rocker type album instead of industrial metal.

Beyond the Embrace: maybe? Their first two albums are great, but then nothing. On their Myspace page, there was a hint of a new album this year. Crossing my fingers here.

Trivium: no brainer here. Shogun was great and I hope the follow up is a lot better than The Crusade was to Ascendancy.

Into Eternity: haven't heard anything, but I am hoping for a new one from these guys.

All That Remains: see above.

In Flames: A Sense of Purpose was ok. That's it. Come Clarity was great. Maybe they rushed with A Sense of Purpose who knows. I am hoping for something like CC or even Reroute to Remain.

That's about it. I think this should be a good year. Last year was so slow until June or July then it got crazy. Hopefully, I won't have to wait until June to hear something great.

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Now playing: Brides of Destruction - Life
via FoxyTunes