Interesting Question

I was doing an online quiz at 2 A.M. (don't ask, it's a summer week-end...) titled "Which metal sub-genre are you?" which I found a link to from an Iron Maiden forum. The quiz was surprisingly good, realistic, and to the point, but equally surprising was that my result was doom metal. This is strange because I've never listened to that particular sub-genre of metal; my only venture in that direction has been early Black Sabbath, which heavily influenced the sub-genre (it is even said that the name for it came from Black Sabbath's "Hand of Doom"). Maybe I should give it a try some day.

However, that was not the point of my post, and as you can see, I haven't presented an interesting question yet as my title promises. The question in question (pun not intended) was a question in the quiz, "What quality do you value most in a band?" A hard question in itself, but the options presented (especially options in such an online quiz where usually one option is the definite answer and the rest are rubbish) should help you answer that, right? Apparently not in this case:

• Artistic integrity, insulation from trend.
• Technicality, the proficiency of the musicians.
• Atmosphere, where the music takes you.
• Energy, killer live shows, music which invigorates or empowers you. The intensity of the music.
• Depth of lyrical content, and what emotions the music evokes.

The first two are perhaps less important for me, though they matter too, as I discussed a few weeks ago. The last three, however, are for me, completely impossible to choose from. Even in the most neutral conditions, it would be hard for me to choose, and on top of this, it can depend on my mood a lot.
Sometimes I'm all for the underground, "insulated" (as the quiz puts it) feel of metal, and this is truest with those less-known (to the mainstream) bands. It is sometimes great to talk with another metalhead and the other people around you have no idea of what you're talking about. Artistic integrity is also important, which is one of the reasons I still don't consider myself a Metallica fan; I can't accept what they did in the 90s and 2000s.

I'm not a huge fan of progressive metal and all the skill and proficiency that's needed for those hour-long solos. Or to clarify, I don't think that sheer skill and uniqueness alone makes a good band. It's when mixed with other good characteristics that skill plays a role. Just look at Hangar 18 by Megadeth. The song has 11 solos, most of them very short (the song is only 5 minutes long), but they are excellent solos and performed with great skill. Especially the final two minutes, the epic guitar duel between Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman (or other guitarists later on) shows another side of metal that is rarely even associated with the whole genre: skill.

Atmosphere is a huge factor in my music, though the term is quite abstract. But in the end, metal is all about atmosphere to me. Even the hard rockers have atmosphere, it's just of a very different kind. However, the best songs in terms of atmosphere are usually long, mid-tempo, and progressive. It's those songs that really take you away, but they're also the hardest to define. I am generally of the opinion though that the best songs are the most atmospheric.

If atmosphere shows the deep, meaningful side of metal, then the energy and killer live shows show the other side. If going to church is the highest form of worship for religious people, then a live metal concert is the highest form of music for a metalhead. And yes, I just compared music to religion, please don't flame me just for that; I personally value music above religion, but that's a topic for another day. But back on the topic, it was the energy, heaviness, and intensity of metal which first drew me in, and only then I discovered the deeper side. And it's still the heaviness and energy which makes live shows so good.

The final one, lyrics and emotion, are quite hard to separate from atmosphere. Lyrics can greatly contribute to atmosphere, whereas emotion and atmosphere are very hard to separate. But I like emotion on all levels in metal; a song doesn't have to have amazing emotion (most metal doesn't) but it's a definite bonus when it's there.

That question sort of helped me on my quest of discovering why I really love metal so much. I can't properly single out any of those options; they're all reasons why I like metal. There is no one reason and even those five probably aren't enough. But they did help to quantify and rationalise some of those reasons and put them to words, which I myself couldn't have done.

I Walk Among You - Review

I haven't written any CD reviews yet on my blog, so I thought I'd copy here a review I wrote for Encyclopedia Metallum today on Iced Earth's new EP "I Walk Among You:"

For Iced Earth fans who think any record without Matt Barlow on it is not worth hearing, this EP is probably worth its weight in gold. For people who enjoyed Tim "Ripper" Owens' work more, it's probably not worth buying. People who enjoy both eras of Iced Earth migh want to check this out, but with caution. I belong in the last group, and I have mixed emotions about it.

The real meat of this EP is of course the new track, I Walk Alone. That's where Matt's voice really shines through. Ripper could have sung the song pretty well, but it's so suited to Matt's voice that I have a suspicion Schaffer altered it after Matt rejoined the band. The songs were originally written for Ripper, after all. But regardless of who's singing, it's still an excellent song and a worthy successor to Framing Armageddon; I just hope it accurately shows what the next album will be like.

The next three tracks are re-recordings of some of the best songs on Framing Armageddon with Matt on vocals (though the instrumentation isn't changed at all, save in production). The first one is Setian Massacre, and with Matt, the song lives up to its name. Sadly, Matt really massacres the song, and it was definitely better with Ripper. Matt just doesn't have quite the high range that Ripper did and it's these songs with high notes where Ripper beats Matt hands down. Matt doesn't even properly hit the highest notes in the three opening screams. So 1-0 for Ripper, I'm afraid. Good thing Matt didn't try to do Ten Thousand Strong or Framing Armageddon, though.

I bought the physical CD as well as the extra track from iTunes, A Charge to Keep. This one I have more mixed feelings for. Matt puts more emotion into the verses, but Ripper again beats Matt in the chorus. It's again a matter of Matt's emotion and lower range versus Ripper's high notes. And Matt's voice doesn't fit layered vocals nearly as well as Ripper's. I'm gonna call this one a tie.

The last one, The Clouding, is the longest track, and fortunately, it is also the one where Matt's voice shines. Slow, emotional songs à la "A Question of Heaven" are where Matt excels, and this is one of those songs. Even in the last four minutes, which is the part with the heavy riffing, Matt beats Ripper, but only when he sings alone. His voice, again, doesn't suit the layered vocals. However, this song is definitely the best of the remixes, and the change of singer turns a good song to a great song.

Overall, this EP really isn't worth it for the re-recordings alone, unlike the last EP, "Overture of the Wicked", where the re-recordings of the Something Wicked trilogy was really an interesting change. There, the whole songs were replayed and re-recorded, and even the whole vocal textures were changed, which meant that the songs sounded natural for Tim, instead of just Ripper trying to sing Matt's notes. That is not the case on "I Walk Among You", where Matt is just trying to sing the same notes as Ripper and fails miserably in most cases. It was still interesting to hear how Barlow fared, however.

However, the new song is definitely strong, just like Ten Thousand Strong was on the last EP. It's the real content of the EP, and the re-recordings are just bonus. And ultimately, it did what it was supposed to do: made me anticipate The Crucible of Man even more.

Judas Priest Live at Jäähalli 3/6/2008

I just got back from Judas Priest's concert in Jäähalli, which was the first gig of their tour. The opening band was Kiuas, but I missed them due to only ending work at the same time that they started playing. However, Judas Priest more than made up for this.


Judas Priest are definitely a very good live band and sound both heavier and better live than on record. However, Rob Halford is sadly not a very good frontman, and was probably the worst frontman of the headlining bands I have seen (which are Kai Hansen, Andi Deris, Dave Mustaine, and Mikael Stanne). The band's playing was also a bit sloppy, and especially the guitar solos were sadly butchered on more than one occasion. This seemed more common with KK than with Glen, but this may be a biased observation as I saw KK better than Glen from my spot and so paid more attention to his solos.
However, Priest made up for this with something that they have more of than almost any other band: attitude. Judas Priest are one of the oldest heavy metal bands around, and they've learnt a trick or two along the way. They also had a great stage. The drums were mounted on a very high stand, and under this was an actual elevator. They used this elevator to bring an actual motorbike on stage during the encore; Helloween might have had their puppet show and Dark Tranquillity may have ruled by Stanne's charisma, but they didn't have motorbikes. And Halford was wearing more leather than anyone in the audience, which I guess is fitting since they have a song named Hell Bent for Leather.

They started the set with a song from their upcoming album, Nostradamus. I thought this was a bad choice as an opener, since the audience didn't know it at all and therefore the beginning was a bit lame on the audience's part. Halford's entrance was great, though; there was another elevator to the right and when the rest of the band started playing he suddenly shot through the floor onto the highest platform. He was also dressed in a silver (yes, silver as in shiny silver) robe and carried a staff with the Judas Priest cross. I thought it was pretty cool, but some of the audience didn't agree with me.

The setlist was, approximately in this order (about 70% accuracy I'd guess):
Nostradamus song
Metal Gods
Eat Me Alive
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Devil's Child
Breaking the Law
Hell Patrol
Nostradamus song
Dissident Aggressor
Angel
The Hellion/Electric Eye
Rock Hard, Ride Free
Sinner
Painkiller
---
Hell Bent for Leather
The Green Manalishi
You Got Another Thing Coming

The crowd gave a mixed reception, though I generally shared their mood. The Nostradamus songs weren't that amazing, and the second one was downright boring. However, they went absolutely crazy during Breaking the Law and the like. I screamed my voice hoarse and probably many others did too.

Highlights of the setlist were pretty much everything except the Nostradamus songs. My only complaint is that they DID NOT PLAY UNITED! Angel is a good ballad, but United would have been a better one.

Megadeth

Continuing my somewhat irregular series of introducing my favourite bands, here I am writing about Megadeth. I never meant this as a series when I wrote about Iced Earth, but after I wrote the one about Judas Priest I had a sneaking suspicion this might develop into a series. So here it is.

Since I've started each post in this series with a video, I might as well do it now and make it a habit. Here is a video from Megadeth's Helsinki concert in February, which I attended.



Megadeth is a very special band for me for a multitude of reasons. The primary reason is that they are probably the only band which I loved completely at first hearing. I got Megadeth's Greatest Hits: Back to the Start as a birthday present a year ago in April. I plugged it in straight away, quite curious since I had never listened to Megadeth before. Fortunately, I played it in the big living room stereos instead of my computer's speakers, since what came out first was Holy Wars... The Punishment due for you. That opening riff was so amazing that it spread a crazy grin across my face, and I probably started headbanging straight away (though I'm not sure). It was that opening riff of Holy Wars that literally made me a Megadeth fan in ten seconds, and the song is still my favourite from the band.

After this initial phase of Megadeth love, when I listened to the album time and time again, Megadeth fell into oblivion for some time. They only remained a casual band for me, and I attribute this partly due to the poor song selection of the greatest hits album. The average quality of the songs wasn't so great. I did want to get some more Megadeth stuff but never really did. During the subsequent summer and fall they got considerably little play time on my iPod. I never stopped liking them, but my initial love had died out. Megadeth was threatening to go the Black Sabbath route for me; kept, liked, but little listened.

Fortunately, fate intervened as I got Megadeth's compilation box set, Warchest, as a Christmas present, more surprisingly from my uncle who is as far from a metalhead as you can realistically get. This boxed set gave me access to a great amount of Megadeth songs and again caused me to listen to the band a lot. However, even then Megadeth could have drifted into obscurity, as usually I have little patience for greatest hits compilations; I like listening to the original albums. However, apparently I was destined to be a Megadeth fan, as a third turn of events happened: Megadeth was starting a new tour, including a gig in Finland. At first, I was hesitant; I was not yet a huge fan of Megadeth, and I wondered whether it was worth the money. Then the field tickets (and good seating tickets) were all sold out, and because of this, I resolved to not go.
However, I think some cancellations happened, because I later found some good seats. I was still hesitant, but since I was having a hard time in school then, I thought that a concert would definitely cheer me up and help with stress. So I bought a ticket for my second-ever concert, with full awareness that I would be going alone and would not even be in the field.

I regret not buying that ticket earlier, since then I could have been in the field and had even a better time. However, the concert was still amazing, and it was that which sealed my love for Megadeth. It was almost like fate; I got all my Megadeth records as presents, and a perfectly-timed gig consolidated this. In a different time and a different place, I might not have become a Megadeth fan, but now they are in my absolute top 5 bands. And that's not an easy place for a band to get to.