BLIND GUARDIAN: At the Edge of Time

Produced by Blind Guardian and Charlie Bauerfeind
Released: July 2010

In scaling back some of the overt histrionics that were threatening to turn them into a parody of themselves, Blind Guardian's vision on At the Edge of Time has somewhat crystalised. The folk and orchestral elements are still present but they're not overdone to the point where they become the whole focus of the music. The same can be said for Hansi Kürsch, who has reined in his overbearing vocals so they work with the band and not against it, as we were beginning to witness on A Night at the Opera. The result is a solid and enjoyable album of catchy power metal that is perhaps their most consistent since the end of the 90s, almost attaining the heights they enjoyed on Imaginations From the Other Side or Nightfall on Middle Earth.


Using the science fiction and fantasy works of people like Jordan and the peerless Moorcock as inspiration, Blind Guardian don't exactly take their listeners anywhere they haven't been before. That's true about the music itself also: At the Edge of Time isn't exactly full of surprises. What it does have though, as noted above, is focus. They've kept what works and ditched the rest. Coupling Kürsch's Freddie Mercury-inspired vocal arrangements with a real orchestra gives their more elaborate, epic numbers a true sense of depth and the songs that bookend this collection, "Sacred Worlds" and the magnificent "Wheel of Time", perfectly embody Blind Guardian's creative ethic. In between is a series of cuts like "A Voice in the Dark" and "Ride Into Obsession" that combine speed, hooks and heaviness in perfect proportions, and the balladic "Curse My Name" incorporates strong Celtic folk elements. Then right in the middle is "Valkyries", a multi-layered, melodic progressive metal mini-saga that could be among the best songs the band has ever done, and there's barely any real cringe-worthy moments to be had.

Perhaps realising that they were getting a little bit too clever and self-indulgent for their own good, on At the Edge of Time Blind Guardian appears to have finally got the balance right once again. It's a victory for substance over style that other bands should note.

1. Sacred Worlds
2. Tanelorn (Into the Void)
3. Road of No Release
4. Ride into Obsession
5. Curse My Name
6. Valkyries
7. Control the Divine
8. War of the Thrones
9. A Voice in the Dark
10. Wheel of Time

Rating: 85%

THE POOR: Round 2

Produced by The Poor & Greg Clarke

Released: October 15, 2010

The Poor's comeback album out of last year was a rather disappointing collection of somewhat bland older songs they'd never got around to releasing the first time they were around. While there were traces of the old rock n'roll brawlers on it, it didn't live up to expectations.

On Round 2, they come out swinging much more convincingly, punching out a short, sharp album of no-nonsense hard rock that doesn't over stay its welcome or try to be anything more than it is. The Poor has got their mojo back and they quickly prove it with "Black n Blue", "Blood" and "Trouble" lashing out a 1,2,3 of solid rock heavy hitting with tasty riffs, catchy hooks and Skenie's mean n' clean vocal stylings. When they do take the foot off, it's for a bluesy acoustic ramble through "Rock N' Roll Survivor" that's every bit as road-weary as it sounds. "Jesus" brings back the rock immediately and shows that even a song that seems to have absolutely nothing to say can be fun if it's catchy enough. Refreshingly, the back half of Round 2 rocks out just as well as the first, closing with the totally rollicking "Which Part of No Don't You Understand".

A much better statement of intent than the patchy comeback, Round 2 shows that this time The Poor means business.

1. Black N Blue
2. Blood
3. Trouble
4. Bad Taste
5. Anna's Old Man
6. Rock n Roll Survivor
7. Jesus
8. Kiss My Arse
9. Nothin to Say
10. Grave
11. Which Part of No Don't You Understand

Rating: 75%

METALLICA: Six Feet Down Under

Released: September 20, 2010

Tonight, Metallica kicks off the second leg of their sold out Australian tour with a show in Brisbane. So what does an old, ardent fan do when one has no ticket to any of these events, other than cry into one's beer? This so-called "EP" does provide the opportunity for a trip down memory lane to the band's previous Down Under tours, so one could start there.

Labels like to have some product for a band to promote while they're on tour, but when the band is Metallica, the album's two years old and they won't allow permission for a special "tour edition", what can you do? You grab a bunch of bootlegged live tracks recorded on previous "Trans-Tasman" tours (as the booklet is at pains to point out, although no NZ shows made the cut) and turn them into the world's longest EP. Metallica are old hands at this "official bootleg" caper of course, but the results on this occasion turn out to be perhaps the rawest-sounding live takes officially released by any band ever. The first three are especially rough. "Through the Never" sounds like it was recorded on a mobile phone (which I'd almost believe if it wasn't from '93) and the recording quality of the first two is also very bad, to the degree where Metallica is almost entirely drowned out by people talking nearby a couple of times. The off-key harmonies in "...And Justice for All" are also very jarring. If this were a DVD or an actual concert, you probably wouldn't even notice. But because it's not, it's very, very obvious.

Things get better later on. Both "The Unforgiven" and the remarkable acoustic version of "Low Man's Lyric" complete with hurdy-gurdy are perfectly acceptable and it's great to hear them tear out "Fight Fire with Fire". But in all seriousness, there isn't really any reason for this to exist. Most of the tracks have probably been on YouTube now for years and despite the plea from the band in the booklet to "please don't take this too seriously", it's a bit cynical to expect people to fork out for a collection of (mostly) terribly recorded live tracks. On the plus side, this is being marketed as an EP (despite being five minutes longer than Ride the Lightning), so it only costs about $15. And that's fine, until you discover that it's only part one, meaning you're up for more cash in another month or so, when the second one comes out.

1. Eye of the Beholder
2. ...And Justice for All
3. Through the Never
4. The Unforgiven
5. Low Man's Lyric
6. Devil's Dance
7. Frantic
8. Fight Fire With Fire

Rating: 55%

DIMMU BORGIR: Abrahadabra

Produced by Dimmu Borgir
Released: September 29, 2010

Dimmu Borgir have thrown absolutely everything at their latest opus: inordinate amounts of orchestration, a full choir, Lovecraft-inspired artwork, lyrics evoking dark mysticism. It makes for a very elaborate and impressive package, but in the wash-up, Abrahadabra sounds less like Dimmu Borgir and more like the orchestral metal of Therion. To this end, this doesn't turn out to be quite as innovative and original as Dimmu probably intended it to be, and not quite the triumph it was lauded to be either.


Abrahadabra is the pinnacle of symphonic metal toward which this band has been steering now for many years, perhaps even from the moment they started, although they couldn't have known that then. The only problem is they've climbed so high up the symphonic summit they've almost left behind the key element that made them such a great metal band in the first place, namely the "metal" part. A friend of mine suggested this sounded like the sountrack to a Tim Burton film, and she's not far off. Abrahadabra would slot right into one of Burton's darker, psychological dramas. But as an extreme metal album, it leaves something to be desired. The orchestral and choral sections simply swamp the band itself to the degree where it's almost as bad as Rhapsody in places. Musically, Silenoz and Galder bring virtually nothing to the table. It's like Shagrath went into the studio with the orchestra by himself and the others turned up later to see how he was going, then quickly laid some stuff down to go along with it. For the time and apparent effort Dimmu Borgir spent on this album, it should have been one of the most amazing releases of the year so far, and up there with Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and Death Cult Armageddon as their greatest work. Instead it's a let down without any of the spectacular highlights that one would expect from a symphonic exploration of Aleister Crowley by a band like Dimmu Borgir.

Abrahadabra is by no means a terrible album, but in a lot of ways it sounds like Dimmu Borgir adding a bunch of strings and choirs to cover up their lack of new ideas. Liber AL vel Legis deserves better treatment than this.

1. Xibir
2. Born Treacherous
3. Gateways
4.Chess With the Abyss
5. Dimmu Borgir
6. Ritualist
7. The Demiurge Molecule
8. A Jewel Traced Through Coal
9. Renewal
10. Endings and Continuations

Rating: 68%

THE RED SHORE: The Avarice of Man

Produced by Roman Koester

Released: September 2010

It's hard to imagine a band that's been through more in the last few years than The Red Shore. Yet if ever there has been an example of getting stronger through tragedy and turmoil, then this band is it, and here is proof. If extreme metal is any kind of catharsis, The Avarice of Man is the ultimate therapy for the pain some of these guys have suffered.

This band is virtually unrecognisable as the group that unleashed "Salvaging What's Left" and even Unconsecrated. With Chase Butler taking over the vocal reins from the tormented Jamie Hope, all remnants of their deathcore past have been finally stripped away and in its place is a fearsome, brutal and ugly technical death metal monster which now edges close to some kind of unrelenting cross between Morbid Angel and Decapitated. The mix (courtesy of Jacob from Textures) evokes a horrible sense of unease as, quite apart from many of their contemporaries, The Red Shore has gone for a distinctly murky sound on The Avarice of Man. It might take a couple of listens for some ears to penetrate the sludgy guitars and Butler's concrete larynx, but when they do they will discover a crushing album with some inventive tech-death riffs and occasional Morbid Angel-like moments where the guitars are like slabs rising from some rank and primordial ooze. Butler's cerebral lyrics might be lost through his dense, somewhat monotonous growl but the claustrophobic atmosphere is perfect for the apocalyptic concept of humanity's violent destruction that is weaved throughout.

True hooks are few and far between, as this is not an album that sweeps you along with catchy groove after groove. Instead, it is a raging torrent of blast beats and ever-changing technical riffs, broken up now and again by old-school Suffocation-style breakdowns that have taken the place of the hardcore slam sections from earlier work. "The Approaching Tempest" is appropriately named, exploding with a hailstorm of ferocity that leads to the twisted complexity and savagery of the title track. Indeed, the five tracks preceding the grinding interlude "The Union" are tableaux of epic death metal violence that are second to none. The others are nothing to be sneezed at either because with The Avarice of Man, The Red Shore has delivered a masterful slab of extreme technical brutality that stands alongside the best on the world stage.
 
1. Creation
2. The Seed of Annihilation
3. Human, All too Human
4.The Approaching Tempest
5. The Avarice of Man
6. Of First and Last Things
7. Armies of Damnation
8. Inflict De-creation
9. The Union
10. And It’s Own
11. Awakening
12. Reduced to Ruin
13. The Relapse of Humanity

Rating: 95%

OPETH: In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Released: October 2010
There was a point about halfway through the first disc of this immense DVD when I suddenly realised that the flag draped over the barrier at the front of the stage wasn't the Swedish flag but the Norwegian one. Either some Norwegian wanted to show the world he was there or some well-meaning British fan had brought the wrong flag to the gig. It's only a minor thing really, but rather distracting. And it may be a telling point about this near-three hour long live performance from one of the world's best bands that I could get distracted from it so easily. Because unlike groups like Tool and Pink Floyd who adorn their shows with visuals, lightshows and other effects to draw attention away from the fact that the band itself is pretty much just standing there, Opeth use only a big screen with some static images on it.

As magnificent a band Opeth is, and as flawless as this live version of Blackwater Park is also, the fact is that if you removed the visual part of this DVD you would miss nothing. Mikael Åkerfeldt doesn't speak a word to the sold-out Albert Hall crowd for the entire 71 minutes of the first disc, and barely acknowledges them at all. As a live act, Opeth really isn't the most dynamically interactive band. On the flipside, they are, as mentioned, brilliant and more capable of allowing the music to speak for itself than almost any other.

This special 20th anniversary performance was filmed and recorded at London's iconic Royal Albert Hall and features not only a meticulous live recreation of the Blackwater Park album but a second, even longer set that includes a song from each of their other albums, presented in chronological order. Unsurprisingly, every single track is spot-on, perfectly recreated in the live forum as it would be in the studio, so in essence this is virtually a best-of collection. Åkerfeldt becomes rather gregarious on this second disc, talking the crowd through the history of the band and even the genesis of some of the tracks, and Frederik Akesson finally gets some screen time, unlike on the first disc where the camera cuts away from him every time he starts soloing. As a visual spectacle however, it's no different from the first, and at an hour and three quarters it is probably a bit of a long haul even for the most rabid Opeth nut.

If anything though, In Live Concert... is the supreme example of how great Opeth is and how they got to be that way. The playing time above doesn't include the 40 minute interview and 45 minute tour documentary, only the actual concert itself. It might be tough to sit through all in one sitting, but it's certainly something that needs to be seen.

Disc One:

1. The Leper Affinity
2.Bleak
3.Harvest
4.The Drapery Falls
5.Dirge for November
6.The Funeral Portrait
7.Patterns in the Ivy
8.Blackwater Park
9.Interview with Mikael Åkerfeldt

Disc Two:

1.Forest of October

2.Advent

3.April Ethereal

4.The Moor

5.Wreath

6.Hope Leaves

7.Harlequin Forest

8.The Lotus Eater

9.Documentary: On tour with Opeth

 
Rating: 95%