Who Decides: Mid-Albums of the Year 2011

This will probably be the hardest year for me putting together a Top 10 list.  If this list isn't already packed, I have Trivium, In Flames, Sepultura, Dead by April, Blood Stain Child, Unearth, Anthrax and who knows what else.  It's an awesome year for metal music, so let's get started;

1(tie).  Mercenary - Metamorphosis: I talked about this album HERE already.  And there isn't much I can add.  It's near perfection. Each song is heavy & catchy with killer vocals.  I'm not sure what else you could ask for in a metal album.

1(tie).  Times of Grace - Times of Grace: Reviewed HERE.  This isn't a more "metal" album than Mercenary, but it is a more complete album.  You have some acoustic tracks, some doom-like tracks, and some classic metal tracks.  It's a great album.  The worst part for both of these albums is that they might not end up number 1 at the end of the year.

3.  Cavalera Conspiracy - Blunt Force Trauma:  I was not a fan of Infliked or the last two Soulfly albums, but this one hits the spot for me.  It is very light on the whole "tribal metal", but Marc Rizzo definitely makes up for it with his guitar work.  For some reason I feel like I am listening to some NWOBHM with harsh vocals thrown on top of it.  Right now, this is my surprise album of the year.

From here on out, these albums can change from day to day.  It's not like they aren't good, they are so good it's difficult to put them in order.

4.  Before the Fall - Antibody: brutal modern industrial style metal.  I have always had a soft spot for bands like Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad, and Divine Hersey, and Before the Fall are in that same vein.  Don't hold your breath waiting for that clean chorus...cause it ain't coming.

5.  Lazarus A.D. - Black Rivers Flow: a more mature Lazarus A.D. shows up this time around.  Still thrash-oriented, but they aren't afraid to slow it down and push the envelope.  Some real solid metal here for classic metal fans.

6.  Sylosis - Edge of the Earth: this one reminds me a little of Machine Head's The Blackening.  It is a long album and takes some time to digest.  Musically it sounds a lot like Metallica's classic albums of MoP, RtL, and AJFA.  Vocally, mainly harsh screams.  It works, but I think the lack of variety hurts this just a bit.

7.  Deadlock - Bizzaro World:  I talked about it HERE.  It's solid, nothing new, but nothing bad if you liked their last 3 albums.  I said they were going into that KsE path of writing the same music over and over again.  I'm not sure another album like this will work.

8.  Soul Cycle - Soul Cycle: Soul Cycle play instrumental classic thrash metal.  It's good.  I talked about the high amount of solid instrumental albums HERE earlier.  If you like thrash and don't need vocals to enjoy the music...this is a must.

9.  Amaranthe - Amaranthe: I talked about them last year and finally the album is here.  This is pop metal at its best.  Female, clean male, and harsh male vocals really works well here.  If you don't mind keyboards playing a big part of the music, then try this.

10. Tyrant of Death - Dark Space: another instrumental album.  Think SYL meets Fear Factory without the vocals.  It's great heavy metal...the guitars and drumming are insane.

This can change any day because bands like DevilDriver, The Haunted, Protest the Hero, The Human Abstract, Inside It Grows, Titans Eve, Degradead, Arch Enemy, Izegrim, Artas, Circles, and Mygrain have all released solid albums.  Each one of the bands mentioned could easily end up in the top 10.

But just do some quick math, there are 10 above, plus the 12 that barely missed out, and the 7 known albums that haven't been released.  That's 29 albums I am looking at trying to narrow to 10.  good luck to me.

Music Non Stop: New Dead by April

This has been a fun year for music. It started off pretty strong and slowed down a bit the last month or so, but it looks like it will pick up the next few months again. Anthrax, Trivium, In Flames, Nightrage, and more are set to release albums still. And speaking of Nightrage, their former lead vocalist's band Dead by April will be releasing their album this summer too. I have heard some demos of the new album and another song, Within My Heart, was just released and it seems a little heavier than More Than Yesterday.

These guys are pretty good at making metal that has a super catchy chorus. I would have liked to seen the keys moved to the back a bit more and the guitars up more, but I guess that didn't happen.  Another album to look forward to.

It's going to be tough to do a Top 10 mid albums of the year this year...easily the toughest list so far.

Music Non Stop: Dead by April new song

This year is quickly becoming one of the best years for music in quite some time. I have about 4 - 5 really good albums already and still more to come including Dead by April's new one.

They released a demo of a new song that should be on their new album later this year, More Than Yesterday.

Sounds pretty solid. A little more screaming than some of their songs off their debut which is a plus for me. I thought their debut had some potential, but they went a little softer than they should have with the keyboards moving to the front of the mixes.

The vocalist, Jimmie Strimmel, is amazing. He only did one album with Nightrage, but that album is fantastic. I wish they would move a bit more towards that style with some of the techno/trance elements, like the intro here. This intro is pretty damn impressive. I hope that this isn't the only "heavy" song on the album and is more of the norm, rather than the exception.

Almost forgot, they released a minute sample before Christmas, which sounds pretty good as well. The two songs I have heard seem to feature more screams. This should be a great album...fingers crossed.

Music Non Stop: 2011 already?

Is it too early to look ahead at some albums for 2011? After all, 2010 hasn't been stellar as I am still trying to round out my Top 10.

Well here are some albums I am already looking forward to.
Deadlock - Bizarro World. With a title like that, I know I can expect some good things. Deadlock is all over the place at times. Sometimes they are At the Gates with females vocals on the top and other times they throw in techno, jazz, and rap. Whatever they might be this time, this should be good.

Dead by April They have a EP coming out in January and then an LP later the same year. The EP will have a couple of new songs and some "heavier" versions of some songs off the debut album. If you recall my review of the band, I said they needed to be a little heavier for me, so this has definitely peaked my interest.

Lazarus A.D. - Black River Flows. About time. This band released their debut in 2007, then re-released it 2008 or 2009 after some remixing by James Murphy (I really hope Arcania does something similar). The song they released for the teaser isn't a total thrasher like pretty much anything off of their debut, but it is still good. Lazarus A.D. has potential and for me a lot is riding on this album.


Times of Grace Jesse Leach and Mike D. from Killswitch Engage are back together. Now I love Alive or Just Breathing...love it. When these guys got back together they said not to expect AoJB2, that it would be more rock. Well listening to the samples it sounds amazing. It isn't AoJB2, it is something that has evolved from that. This is the one I can't wait for.


So there you go, four albums that probably would have made my top 10 this year. I really can't wait for these albums. Oh well, let's wrap up 2010 already.

Tirades of Truth: Dead By April - Dead by April

So I don't hide the fact just how big of fan I am of Nightrage's 3rd album A New Disease is Born. In fact, I would probably rank it #2 behind Descent Into Chaos. And there is one big reason for it, Jimmie Strimmell. His vocals were a lot more diverse than Tompa's (which is big considering put Tompa as one of my all time favorite vocalists). His screams were almost dead on to Tompa's, but his cleans were simply amazing and had to be heard.

So I was disappointed to learn he left the band. I soon realized that the real driving force behind Nightrage was/is Mario Iliopoulos. But I read Jimmie was doing a metal/pop fusion band, Dead by April. I am a sucker for good pop and I love his vocals so I was pretty excited for this. That excitement didn't last long.

The album starts off with something that sounds like Linkin Park, yes Jimmie now sounds like Chester Bennington. WTF?!? On a quick side note, funny how this sounds like Chester Bennington and he started a new band called Dead by Sunrise...coincidence? I will play the first track (Trapped) below, but it is a far cry from metal. The song starts off with some generic keyboard playing and goes down from there. This isn't metal, maybe mainstream rock, but the one thing that pissed me off more than the keyboards was that the screams I really liked were gone.

Despite the crapfest that comes out of the first track there are glimmering moments of potential on this album. They do let lose a bit more on the second track Angels of Clarity. This was released as a single and it really shows that potential. The keyboards aren't put in the foreground as much, but are still there. The song really reminds me of something that could have come off of In Flames' Soundtrack to Your Escape.

I could go track by track, but instead I will hit some of the few highlights. Losing You is not too bad. It is a slow mid-paced song with some classic screams, but the clean vocals come off as too whiny. Once again the keyboards play too big of a role. This is a good choice for a single and I actually think it was. Stronger is also a pretty good song. The downside is the keyboards again. The vocals are really strong on this song. He does a nice job of going from the harsh screams to a melodic chorus. But the keys are used a little too much. But you know how those Swedes love the keyboards.

Most of the songs tend to just start to sound alike after awhile. Mid-paced with keyboards. One thing that jumped out at me right away is the lack of solos. Don't call yourself a metal/pop band and don't have solos. When Jimmie does his screaming vocals they sound great. If Killswitch Engage ever needed another lead singer I would recommend him. He reminds me a lot of Jesse Leach.

I will give this band another chance. In fact, it's not a total piece of crap. It is what it is...a pop band with some screams, solid riffs, and a ton of keyboards. There is a lot of potential in this band. If they can go with a little more metal and less keyboards it's a winner.