Typical heavy, power metal, which stinks of the 80s.
Grave Digger have extreme longevity, this being their 13th Album. Quite impressive and considering that I haven’t heard a single track of any of the others is quite an impressive feat. And the have impressive feet.
This album is reasonably enjoyable and they have all of the templates in place and create a nice Spirograph of musical swirly content, but, like the Spirograph, the hand and template often slip, leaving a nasty line across the page, which spoils the whole image. This is how this album is.
Nasty warbling vocals streak across the quite amiable guitar lead power metal leaving me more annoyed than musically satisfied.
The riffs are punchy and the singing is catchy, which is a recipe for success in my books, but as I say, it’s kind of spoiled by the stupid warbling which occurs throughout.
After St. Anger, a lot of people lost faith in Metallica.
We all know what happened, we all got very annoyed at the way they blamed us for their less than adequate album selling precisely -1 copy (I stole it from the shop and then returned it) and this has really damaged the reputation of Metallica, and still people feel very bitter about it, and so it’s very hard not to have this at the back of my mind while listening to this album. They need to do a lot to make people forgive them.
One thing that helped my forgive them was seeing them live on their Master of Puppet’s 20th Anniversary tour where they were amazing, simply one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. This was a help to me to listen to this with a completely open mind.
Fist off, this album is not going to be a classic, although, after half a dozen listens, I am enjoying it more each time.
I’ve seen a lot of poor reviews claiming the death of Metallica and saying that this album is poor, but I think that it’s hard for a band with such legacy to bring out an album that ends up being critically acclaimed, somebody name me one band where people say that their 20th album is their best.
So lets take it from the start.
We start with a slow intro into That Was Just Your Life, the guitar plucking your ear hairs as you wait expectedly to hear what’s in store. Blaw Blaw, some nice heavy riffage comes in and drum, blam, drum, blam and we’re off with a nice fast number that reaks of olden day Metallical. I find myself nodding and tapping.
We continue on through some nice tempos and rhythms, breaks and some nice singing from James Hetfield.
At times the songs sound very similar to other Tallica songs of old, but these similarities are at the edge of hearing that twang some memory. Like when you see something that reminds you of the dream you had last night and you go ‘hmmm, oh well.’
The album is mainly heavy with a few flecks of soft music in there, with only one purely soft song ‘The Unforgiven III’. I’d say they succeeded in capturing the style of old; sometimes bands say that their next album is going to back to the style of their old material and when you listen to the album, there’s nothing about it that resembles their original material. I refer you to Korn’s more recent albums.
This album will be hated by many Metallica purists, but no matter what they did, those people would hate this album no matter what it sounded like, but with an open mind, and having forgotten all about St. Anger (what album?) I find this a very wholesome and rewarding album that on it’s own merit, is very servicable.
Listen to this album: While riding a horse, wearing armour.
78%
Extracts from ‘It was just your life’, ‘All nightmare long’, ‘The Unforgiven’ and ‘My Apocolypse’
While this album is quite superb, it seems like the band aren’t even trying that hard and it feels like they still have 50% left in the tank and that they could release this at any point. But they don’t.
This album complete’s all it’s objectives and can claim success with every element of this album, but it feels like just another day at the office, and this stirs up a sense of unease about this album. Why didn’t they give me 100%?
So, is this album great, or not? Well, I don’t know. I’m in completely two minds about it. Maybe it’s the fault of the producer that it feels as though there’s something missing.
Surely, if you are a big heavy metal fan, you will like a lot in this album, and believe me, there is a lot to enjoy from this album, but I believe that the enjoyment is going to be short lived.
Listen to this album: While climbing a really really tall ladder.
Rating: 79%
Extracts from ‘The man who would not die’, ‘Samurai’, ‘Robot’ and ‘Voices from the past’
http://bumchickens.googlepages.com/BlazeBayley.mp3
Disturbed’s first two albums were big metal balls with spikes protruding from all angles. These spikes were incredibly sharp and stuck into you, ripping your flesh from the bone, but as with any sharp metal object, with use, it gets blunt. Ten Thousand Fists was slightly blunt, the sharpness had gone, and so Disturbed went to the grinding block and began to sharpen themselves back up.
Indestructible is nearly as blunt as Ten Thousand Fists. It’s really smooth, flows around you, rather than sticking in to you and causing tissue damage. David Draiman’s vocals, seem quite effortless and not nearly as rugged as they have been previously. We all remember where we were when we first heard the infamous ‘ough agh agh agh agh’ in Down with the sickness, that punch, the aggression, the passion, the humanity has been lost and all we’re left with is ball bearings that roll around and the only way they would injur you is if you stood on one with bear feet, or slipped over them in a Hannah Barbara fashion.
There are a couple of tracks that capture the original vibes of the band. these are the more simple tracks on the album, the ones that are what they are and don’t try to be too clever or complex. Perfect Insanity and Criminal are the main tracks that achieve this. These are the more shouty, punchy tracks, so maybe it’s that which I like more and it’s the singing in the others that I feel is lacking, I certiately feel that they lack punch.
Another thing that slightly saves this album is the live bonus tracks, which I believe are only included on the online download version. These are live versions of a select number of great Disturbed songs…says it all really.
Sorry Disturbed, but you have failed me again.
Listen to this album: While feeling mildly annoyed with the world.
Rating: 70%
Extracts from ‘Perfect Insanity’, ‘Enough’, ‘Criminal’ and ‘Façade’
