Some of you may already know that I’ve been pretty big on Týr, they are a rarity in metal —- a band with a sound that is truly all their own. I once overheard a conversation on the floor of a Nightwish/Kamelot show where someone was trying to describe Týr to his friend by comparing them to other bands. If I recall correctly, he name dropped Korpiklanni somewhere in the conversation. No… just, no. There are your bog standard, numerous, often copycat folk and “Viking” metal bands, and then there are artists like Týr who elevate the entire subgenre to a level of literary and musical excellence. Even their cover art is goddamned jaw dropping (look at that picture over there and tell me you don’t want a framed poster of that on your wall). In a way the artwork is a microcosm for the band’s sound; punishing yet harmonious, epic yet understated in the most elegant way.
Týr have a commitment to their aesthetic that is not only admirable, it is their greatest strength. There’s nothing ironic or wry about what these guys do, and in a genre that’s been increasingly maligned by terrible tropes and often times plain goofy caricatures (I’m looking at you for both counts Alestorm), Týr’s stoicism and resolve to the underpinnings of their art garners my respect. Like their past few albums, the band’s newest effort, Valkyrja, is a loosely interwoven thematic album about the spiritual, emotional, and yes visceral connection between Viking warriors and women (in the broadest sense of the term). As expected, they treat this subject with care and deference, something that in the hands of lesser bands would likely be turned into a crude amalgam. We already have a Manowar thanks.
This is a spectacular album, continuing a winning streak of great records that began in earnest with 2006’s Ragnarok. Above all Týr seem to value strong, effective songwriting with an emphasis on keeping the verses as memorable as the spectacular choruses they bookend. The musicianship as also immaculate, buoyed by a crisp, clear, and upfront production that keeps guitars sounding fresh and alive, gives the percussion context and depth (you know, when double kick actually kicks and soft cymbal hits sound full and round) —- and then there’s the handling of Týr’s trademark vocal melodies, a layered symphony of vocalist/guitarist Heri Joensen’s multi-tracked vocals along with backing vocalist contributions from both longtime bassist Gunnar Thomsen, and lead guitarist Terji Skibenæs. I’ve seen these guys play live —- they nail the group vocals perfectly, that’s something rare in pure power metal circles, much less the genre-blurring area where Týr exist. You get all that plus a couple of nice surprises on Valkyrja.
My favorite of these surprises came in the form of Týr’s first collaboration with a well known metal vocalist, namely Leaves Eyes’ own Liv Kristine, who shines on the stormy power (and I mean POWER) ballad “The Lay of our Love”. This will make the best songs of the year list without a doubt, its one of those rare songs that made me stop what I was doing while listening and really pay attention, and when it was over, I replayed it again and again. Týr hit me right in my metal guilty pleasure wheel house here, a delicate ballad with an acoustic intro, set to tempo by distantly thundering bass lines with a guitar solo might rank among the most memorable the band has ever composed. Kristine’s vocals are well renowned for her ability to match ethereal tone with sheer vocal heft and power, and when she begins to soar in the chorus alongside Joensen’s rough hewn voice, the theme of the album comes alive. They made a great choice selecting Kristine to handle the guest spot, and it makes me wish I could enjoy her main band more.
Then there’s the short, punchy stomper “Into the Sky”, where Joensen’s vocals do an alternating run with punctuated rhythm guitar riffs and clever percussion during the song’s refrain: “Come my Valkyrie take me into the sky / Up where heroes of the north go when they die”. Its a deceptively simple song —- there’s a lot of complexity going on with the guitar work underneath those gorgeous vocal melodies. And of course it wouldn’t feel like a latter day Týr album without a few well selected covers, this time we’re treated to Iron Maiden’s “Where Eagles Dare” and Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates”. They both work really well, particularly the latter, where you’d think that Phil Anselmo’s vocals would be a odd fit for a guy like Joensen, but he really makes the song his own in a surprising way. Mind you, I still think they’ll have a hard time ever topping their cover of Dio-led Sabbath’s “I”.
Týr don’t set out to reinvent themselves with every album, and that suits me fine. They don’t need to. They belong to a pantheon of metal bands that have the distinction of sounding truly unique. I suppose my only hope for them in the future is that they continue to push themselves to try more experiments like “The Lay of our Love”, not necessarily with female vocalists mind you, but more in terms of attempting songs that morph the expected convention of their sound. They don’t need to press the issue, just keep writing great songs as they have been but every now and then do something to expand upon the formula, while preserving their identity. Valkyrja is a bold step forward to that potential being a reality.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaFMODV9tTU&w=560&h=315]
I’m increasingly more aware of how rare it is to stumble upon a band that can utterly transfix my wandering attention span the way Serenity did about a month ago with the release of their spectacular fourth album, War of Ages. The band hails from Austria, a country far more regarded in metal circles as a purveyor of death and black metal bands, most notably Belphegor. Serenity then must be the black sheep of their countrymen, as they specialize in a style of progressive power metal informed by the obvious influences of Kamelot, Sonata Arctica, and maybe even a touch of Avantasia’s latter day hard rock epic strut. This is not to say they are merely the sum of their parts, as Serenity have an identity all their own within the fundamentals of songwriting styles and lyrical concepts — but their influences are a good touchstone and filter for prospective listeners.
Yes of course I emphasized songwriting, because while the musicianship Serenity display is of the excellent proficiency you’d expect from a European power metal band, the Buchberger/Neuhauser songwriting partnership is the critical heart of Serenity’s success. For anyone who felt/feels that something could potentially be permanently lost from the brilliance that was the Khan/Youngblood songwriting legacy — I’m telling you that the Buchberger/Neuhauser combo strikes right to the heart of the style of music that you and I both love, crave, and sadly can’t seem to find enough of. I’m talking about crisp, melodic, melancholy, triumphant, elegant, and yes actually HEAVY power metal that is written with a head for ambition, an ear for tunefulness, and a writer’s heart for great lyrics. And even though War of Ages is the album that sucked me in as a new fan of the band, I’ve become addicted to the other three albums in their discography as well. And one of the more brilliant examples of all of these aforementioned attributes combining to supreme effect can be found on the bonus track (!) of their 2011 Death & Legacy album, “To India’s Shores”.
For the War of Ages album, the band made what I can only refer to as a savvy game changer of a decision. Enter into the Serenity lineup one Clémentine Delauney from Lyon, France, as the co-lead vocalist to pair alongside Neuhauser’s powerful voice. This isn’t a gimmick, as they have experimented with a handful of female guest vocalists for select tracks on previous albums — and while the songs and performances have been good (particularly a duet with the always excellent Amanda Somerville on Death and Legacy’s “Changing Fate”), the types of female voices they’ve attempted to pair with Neuhauser never seemed to measure up or alternatively, contrast well with his rich, distinctive tone. I know these women have their fans, but I’ve never been overly impressed with Charlotte Wessels, nor Ailyn from Sirenia, and while Somerville’s duet was excellent, her voice is as strong and full of character as Neuhauser’s and to me it seemed that when they would join together both voices would be fighting for space with no one winning out.
I’ve been checking out the tour dates for the band and they’re disappointingly slim, even for Europe… (I have no delusions about the band getting to launch a full tour in the States — I’ll post a very grateful retraction if that ever happens). I’m not sure what the problem is, but I could venture to guess that these guys have day jobs, and that they try to fit Serenity in whenever they can. That’s understandable and to be expected given the state of things in the industry, but I hope they can do more then just a ten date headliner tour of clubs in Europe. But if that doesn’t, or can’t happen then I’d just have one word of advice for the band if they ever happened to read this: Write more songs, record more albums, document your art with a sense of urgency and ambition. You know its an uphill battle if you’re hoping to headline arenas or chart singles, there are very few Nightwish success stories in your chosen genre. So instead, strike while the creative irons are hot and get this stuff on tape. Build your artistic legacy.
Since I’m going to be talking about Tobias Sammet and Avantasia, I’ll point out that this isn’t a conventional review in the sense that I’m trying to help you decide whether or not to check this album out — because of course you should. Sammet possesses a nearly peerless songwriting ability within the power metal/hard rock spectrum, and with said ability has delivered a career’s worth of superb work through Edguy and of course his solo/all-star project Avantasia. Every Sammet penned album can be guaranteed to contain a small to large handful of gems, and for that fact alone I believe he is worthy of respect and yes even gratitude. Speaking as a power metal fan, that level of consistency is a rare beast in a genre too often full of talented musicians who can’t write a decent tune. I became a fan of the man back in 2000 with Edguy’s seminal classic Mandrake, and both retrospectively and with each new release, Sammet continued to fill the soundtrack of my life with thundering, grandiose power metal epics and emotive, stirring ballads. Few others in power metal deliver the goods as well as he does. So as expected, there’s a lot on my mind regarding this record, and to better help myself keep all my thoughts in order I’ll be breaking this down into categorized, bite-sized chunks:
Some really great songs
Eric Martin / No lame interludes!: 
I’ve always admired great lyricists in metal and elsewhere, and I feel that I’ve been rather patient and forgiving for the typicality of mediocre lyrics that permeate so much of metal. Power metal is unfortunately guilty of harboring some horrendous lyrical massacres, and my love of the overwhelming enjoyability of the genre has forced me to simply accept it as the norm. Sammet isn’t the worst lyricist in power metal — far, far from it — he often writes about interesting subject matter and has a particular English as a second language way with a phrase that is endearing. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to call him a good lyricist either; he overuses words, phrases, and imagery often, he relies on abstraction to a fault, and his tendency to use malapropisms is simply maddening. I let a lot of that go… especially when it comes to lyricists who aren’t writing in their native tongue, but sometimes I wish they’d make use of a proofreader every once in awhile.
I include Kiske because his vocals only work if he’s getting exceptional songs, as he has on past efforts. And while I loved “Sleepwalking”, surely Amanda Somerville would have been a far better choice than Yang — who while not bad, suffers from awkward phrasing, spotty enunciation, and an all around weird approach to vocals… is she trying to be R&B, pop, rock, or none of the above? Hell if I know! As for Byford — I’ve never been a big fan and I can’t help but think when listening to his feature track here, “Black Orchid”, how much better it’d sound if Jorn was on vocals instead.
Its obvious to myself and other Sammet devotees that Avantasia has gotten most of his attention for the past half a decade now; consider that all of a sudden Avantasia’s total album count tallies at six, only three behind Edguy’s nine. In fact, since 2006, Sammet has delivered four full length Avantasia albums plus two EPs, while Edguy has only released three albums. If Avantasia has gotten the better half of Sammet’s songwriting for the past few years, its reasonable to say that Edguy has diminished in turn. Slowly, gradually, Avantasia has become Sammet’s main priority and Edguy is increasingly an afterthought.
There will be many — so so many reviews, opinions, forum rants, and of course YouTube comments that will take some pretty sharp, barbed digs with the metal pitchfork to this band and their new album The Nexus. Amaranthe offend many with a combination of sounds that hands tallied most metal fans would agree should not have ever been attempted. I’ve seen the old “just because something can be done, does not mean it should be done” line more than a few times in the past couple days. Conversely, this is a band with a surprisingly large contingent of often quite vocal supporters, many of them writing reviews for well known print and digital publications, and of course, they’ll be out there in full force online, equalizing the rebukes and jeers with various expressions of high praise — some of which will be ludicrously exaggerated. So here’s where I’ll step in, to offer a perspective from a fairly neutral middle ground.
When you see the term “supergroup” applied to Amaranthe, its a total misnomer. While Mörck is fairly central to the Dragonland project, their music never attracted much notice beyond hardcore power metal devotees, and those of us who were enthralled with their take on Limahl’s “The Neverending Story” (yes THAT song) from 2002’s Holy War album. Mörck’s time in Nightrage has been limited to their post-2006 era, being the replacement for founding member Gus G. and arriving well after the acclaimed Tomas Lindberg era. Jake E. meanwhile is often noted as being a former member of Dream Evil, yet his time in the band yielded no recorded output, being only a brief stint as the band’s vocalist for six months. His tenure with the now-on-hiatus melodic power metal band Dreamland attracted little notice apart from being associated with Hammerfall’s Joacim Cans early in their development. I’ll avoid getting into the blips of time that the remaining Amaranthe members have been in their oft-cited past bands.
On The Nexus, they seem to be following the don’t fix it if it isn’t broken blueprint, which is shrewd and smart, yet subject to a touch of the sophomore slump. And before I delve into that let me just state that this album isn’t a mind changer by any means. Whatever you felt after listening to that first album is likely what you’re going to feel if you decide to listen to this one. As I mentioned before, I completely understand why so many find this stuff distasteful, and if you’re one of those people, you’d do yourself no favors subjecting your ears to this album. For those of us who did find some enjoyment in their debut, new songs like “Invincible”, “Future on Hold”, “Stardust”, and “Infinity” with its dual lead vocal harmonies offer similarly pleasing melodic ear candy. I’m usually pretty big on quality lyrics, and they’re only serviceable at best here. Sometimes its hard to tell what some of these songs are going on about; but it doesn’t factor into the enjoyment level one way or another.
I understand all bands have to end sometime, but you’d rather the end come through a natural course of progression such as key band members leaving, artistic changes of heart, or feeling like they’ve said all they can say. The gut feeling with Power Quest is that Williams was on to something fresh with 2011’s Blood Alliance and its increased blend of 80’s AOR with traditional power metal, and that they’re leaving with their career’s work unfinished. It really does feel as if these guys had a few more albums left on the table, and that they’re having to walk away now is a shame.
1. Queensrÿche – TBA:
2. Avantasia – The Mystery of Time:
3. Darkthrone – The Underground Resistance:
4. Satyricon – TBA:
5. Omnium Gatherum – Beyond:
But here’s what I’ve been really wanting to talk about, namely, what makes Silverthorn shine, the true gems of the album. There’s a handful here that start off with the hauntingly perfect “Song for Jolee”, which turned out to be the first song that Karevik and the band collaborated on, as well as being the driving force that led to his invitation to join to the band. This might sit right alongside Kamelot’s Khan-era ballad masterpieces, its that great. Delicate keys tinkle out the fragments of a melody over a bed of orchestration, and Karevik’s emotive vocals usher the song along in a sparse, elegant fashion, with deft, nimble melodies that are built upon the melodic twists and turns provided by the lyrics themselves — in other words, nothing sounds forced. Honestly I don’t know if Khan could do it any better, and while I hesitate to have to compare the two vocally, this is the first moment on the album where Karevik’s vocals sound completely his own. This isn’t to say that he’s ripping off Khan, but there are moments throughout the entirety of the album where he does sound strikingly similar in terms of phrasing. I’ll give him some leeway because for starters their voices are relatively similar, and secondly because the nature of Kamelot’s songwriting is going to naturally bring about memories of Khan. On “Song For Jolee”, Karevik establishes his voice as its own, and fans of Seventh Wonder will recall touches of his work in that band’s ballads.
One final note about Karevik, as I’m sure that most of the reviews online and in various media will focus on his vocals, and perhaps not so much on what he brings to the table as a songwriter in terms of vocal melodies and the quality of his lyrics. Those were the aspects of Roy Khan that really solidified my love of the band and were the things that I feared Kamelot would suffer from the most. Having been a recent convert to the great work Karevik has done in Seventh Wonder, in particular through their latest album, The Great Escape, I found that I was relatively pleased with his contributions to Silverthorn, albeit more for his choices in vocal melodies rather than sheer lyrical poetry. Don’t get me wrong, he delivers good lyrics overall, and in addition to the great lines of “Solitaire”, there’s a really excellent couplet in the chorus for “Song for Jolee” worth mentioning: “One look in the mirror to see / Whats real and fake, Jolee”. That’s Khan-esque in its simple, elegant, and evocative nature. But he does hit and miss throughout the album, for instance I didn’t find the lyrics of “Sacrimony” to be the best they could have been, and perhaps it was the rushed way that song was put together that resulted in that (it was reportedly the final song written for the album). All said, it was a fine effort by Karevik for the first time around, and knowing what he has done in Seventh Wonder gives me confidence that he will be even better on the next album. He might never replace Khan in that regard, the void is too great, but he seems to understand the level of quality that Kamelot fans demand, and maybe that’s all we should be asking of him as a lyricist, and as a vocalist.
I’m not going to get into a history lesson here on the maddeningly long span of time (don’t… just, don’t) and events that marked this album’s journey to this one day, when it has finally met its release date. I will however take a moment to put the release of Time I in perspective, in order to illustrate just why the near Chinese Democracy-like series of delays and pratfalls surrounding the album’s creation are such a big deal. Wintersun’s only other album, their self-titled debut, was released on September 13th of 2004, and for those of you too young to remember, here’s a short list of stuff that’s worth mentioning: In 2004, there was no YouTube; MySpace was the height of social media; Facebook had not yet been opened to the general public; the first I-Phone was still years away; Twitter had not yet been dreamed of; the term “App” had not yet entered our popular vocabulary; the world had not heard of Barack Obama; George W. Bush was still serving his first term, and Dimebag Darrell (R.I.P.) was still alive and rocking.
Everyone knows the story of Nightwish’s firing of original vocalist Tarja Turunen, and whether one agreed with the decision or not, it was undoubtedly one of the more brutal, ice-cold dismissals of a band member in rock and metal history (for those that forget, she got handed a pink slip type letter mere minutes after finishing a homecoming tour finale in Helsinki — a letter which was pointedly made public online for all to read). Now I felt that the band was justified in their aggressive action towards Turunen, as their reasons were sound and encompassed everything from attempted power grabs, threats of blackmail, interfering business manager/husband, canceling North American tours because the venues were small, and most egregiously, getting the band thrown off a tour with Iron Maiden. I’m thinking that kind of behavior would get you fired from most jobs, or in keeping with the spirit of the NFL football season, you don’t put yourself above or ahead of the team. That’s what Turunen did, and its what newly ex-vocalist Anette Olzon eventually did as well.
Okay, so with the facts laid out, here’s two immediate things to take away from this: One — That getting a European based vocalist such as Floor Jansen to come in to rather suddenly be the Nightwish touring vocalist for the October 1st show in Seattle, WA is no mere twenty-four hour task. This must have been in the works for at the very least many days to possibly weeks now — because think on it, you’re counting on time for work visas, travel arrangements, travel time, and obviously, enough time for Jansen to be familiar with at sixteen to seventeen songs in the setlist. Things like that do not happen overnight. Olzon’s last show was on September 29th — so the fact that they’re apparently going to pull this off is either incredibly impressive or downright miraculous. Two — That after what they’ve been through with Turunen, Nightwish don’t play around — if you’re not a team player, you’re out. And you know what? I completely understand and support their mentality.
